스크랩 메시지 What must I do to be saved?

[파랑새 지서니]

토끼가 죽고나서 쓴 이번주 설교

In the book of Acts, the 16th chapter, the 30th verse:

…and (the jailer) brought them out and said,
“Men, what must I do to be saved?”

Do you want to be saved?

A question as old as religion, old as prayer,
as old as the human consciousness of the self and all that it comprises.
Do you want to be saved?

This is also a question that does not come to us unburdened or uncompromised in our age.

As you know, Lydia had a bunny rabbit, named, Snow-hopper, in our back yard. He died of his age yesterday.
It was sad…
When we got Snow-hopper about 7 years ago from one of our friends, we did not have the fence around our back yard. So, John Young, our former member built a nice mansion for Snow-hopper. He lived in there for 7 years. He did not know any other world out of the cage. Sometimes, I felt bad for him that he had to stay in that small cage without knowing freedom which all those wild animals would enjoy out in the field, although those freedom requires all kinds of dangers.
One day, there was a storm all through the night. The wind blew my garbage can away far from the parsonage, the branches of trees were broken down. It was a horrible storm. Next morning, I worried about the bunny cage, so went out to check. I was frightened to see that the door of the bunny cage was widely opened. For a moment, I felt so bad about the fact that I lost a precious bunny rabbit. But then, I was happy to find out that he was free at last. He, such a young energetic bunny like him, did not need to be captured in the small cage just like that for the rest of his life not knowing what adventure and fun he would encounter out in the real world!
Hurray! Bravo! Snow-hopper! You made it! Good luck!

You know what?
When I went closer to the cage to close the opened door, I was surprised to see that our young supposed to be energetic adventurous Snow-hopper was snipping his food in the cage.
What a joy that I did not loose him!
What a disappointment, too!

Do you want to be saved?

What about that jailer in Philippi long ago - his prison torn apart, his job, home, family, future all destroyed, his own life surely forfeit to the authorities in exchange for those who had escaped - that jailer on the brink of suicide, about to end his miserable existence,
surely he meant something more than the above when he asked, “What must I do to be saved?”
Surely he meant something that involved his entire life, for him the very possibility of survival.

For most of us, however, most of the time, it’s not that simple, just not that clear-cut.
Our lives are not on the line - not yet at least.

We see the church,
we come to worship Sunday mornings,
more for maintenance than for transformation;
more for confirmation, the weekly reassurance that, apart from the occasional lapse, the odd peccadillo here and there, we are basically on track, headed in the right direction, on at least distant speaking terms with the Divine.

We don’t need to be saved –
let’s not get dramatic about all this –

we just need a little. . . a little encouragement.

But then, how different was it, really, in the gospel times?


Do you remember that crowd scene, with Jesus on his way to heal the synagogue ruler Jairus’ daughter, and as he makes his way across that crushing throng one hand stretches out to grasp the hem of his garment?
Immediately the Master senses it.
“Someone touched me!” he announces.
The disciples are incredulous,
“Lord, in all this mob, of course someone touched you. There are people pressing, jostling against us every step of the way! What are you talking about?”

But Jesus knew; he stopped and spoke to the one person in that crowd who actually WANTED to be
healed and told her,

“Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.”

Don’t you see?
At least a hundred people must have touched Jesus that day;
but only one grasped hold of salvation,
the salvation that was in him.

The rest were far too curious, too busy,
too pre-occupied, far too basically satisfied with
where they were right then
to claim the healing,
grasp the transformation,
to seek the full salvation,
yes the wholeness Jesus offered.

Daughter... your faith has made you whole; go in peace.


Do WE want to be saved?

Do we WANT to have our lives shaken up,
our priorities re-ordered,
our goals, values radically redrawn around his vision of the kingdom, around the need of fellow human beings?

No!
The honest answer is, no; of course we don’t.

It’s tough enough in this world just taking care of yourself, without worrying about others - for God’s sake.

Yet we keep coming back, don’t we?
We keep hearing that call again and again;
realizing, somewhere inside, that we need to pay attention to it;
even perhaps, (I hope and pray), doing a little more, giving, sharing, loving just a bit more, seeking - might it even be? -
seeking to be saved on the installment plan, so much a week, a month, a year.

Do you ever wonder, as I do in my more despairing moments, if our moderate, main-stream religion acts like an inoculation whereby in receiving regular, heavily-diluted doses we effectively ensure that we will never catch the real thing and be transformed?

Many of us fear less the evil in ourselves than the good; we are terrified that one day we might take the gospel seriously, let our Christianity get out of control
and actually make a difference to the suffering of others.


And the jailer asked, “What must I do to be saved?”

Is there, might there yet be a salvation we all are seeking, in any time and every walk of life?

Could there exist, beneath the passing pleasures, routine satisfactions, the general sense of average OKness that sustains us most of the time,
a fundamental void, a void that draws us down into itself and whispers,

“What is it all for?
Where is it all going?
Why are you spending your precious time, throwing it away like this?”


Is there still surviving, somewhere in each of us, that youthful dream that longs
not just to stumble on until we stumble to a halt,
but to make a difference;
in the words of our funeral service,
“to leave this world the richer for our being here;”
to achieve more than comfort,
to reach out beyond the gadgets, toys, trappings of success, and touch the hem of a garment that can heal, make us whole?

Might this be what keeps bringing us back here?

It doesn’t seem to happen all at once, this being saved.

Oh, maybe it did for that jailer;
though I suspect he still had a way to go after his baptism.

The transformation Jesus brings is,
at the minimum, a lifelong process;
not the instant affair so often presented on TV by those evangelists.

Paul himself reflects something of this process, this struggle, the winning and the losing,
when he writes in Second Corinthians:
For we are. . . among those who are being saved. . . among those being saved.
Can we hear across the centuries the question asked us by the jailer of Philippi?
Do we want to be saved?
Are we still seeking in worship, prayers, actions, thoughts and attitudes, to be transformed, gradually, perhaps, but nevertheless transformed into the creatures God created us to be in the first place,
the kind of men and women Jesus died to send forth on the earth?

Or have we settled for mediocrity?
Are we in a holding operation?
Have we given up on growing, on maturing in the spirit, the pilgrimage of faith, on the Lord Jesus and his gracious, loving challenge to open up our lives toward the prospects of eternity?
“Day-by-day,” wasn’t it, that lovely prayer of Julian of Norwich, a prayer many of us learned as it was echoed in the musical Godspell?

Day-by-day, day-by-day,
O dear Lord, three things I pray:
to see Thee more clearly; love Thee more dearly;
follow Thee more nearly - day-by-day.

It is to the renewal of that day-by-day salvation,
of that steady, faithful, persevering pilgrimage we call faith, that you and I are called THIS day,
called by this dramatic old story from the book of Acts.

And the jailer brought them out and said,

“…what must I do to be saved?”

[파랑새 지서니]

2002년에 7년을 기르던 토끼가 노년의 삶을 마감하였답니다. 그때 한 설교를 83 카페에 올렸었는데 응교오빠가 저보고 하아두 설교들좀 올리라구 난리 방구를 하셔서 부족한 글 올립니다. 목회 훌륭하게 하시는 선배님들도 안올리시는 설교를 엉터리로 쉽게 목회하는 제가 올리자니 부끄러운 글이라 솔직히 대따 꺼려집니다. 그래서 망설이다가 하나만 올립니다. 그리고 영어라 죄송... 번역은 안할랍니다. 구찮아서...

[무지개(김기범)]

좋은 설교인데 멀 망설여. 실제로 선포되는 말씀으로 들으면 운율이랑 디게 좋았겠다. 내용은 좀 생각케 하는, 도전적 내용이라 듣는 사람들 맘이 썩 편하지는 않았겠지만, 그렇게 생각할 거리를 주는것이 목회자의 역할이 아닌가?

[파랑새 지서니]

탱큐 오빠. 근데 칭찬하면 신나가지구 또 올리는 수가 이따아~~ 조심하라요~~

[무지개(김기범)]

더 올리라우. 내 설교하고 많이 틀려서 더 읽고 싶다고라.

[파랑새 지서니]

시로

[무지개(김기범)]

왜그랴. 칭찬이 부족한가? 칭찬 더 하께 올리라? 칭찬 칭찬 칭찬 (여기서는 카피 복사가 안된다) 칭찬 칭찬 칭찬 X 100. 히유..

[파랑새 지서니]

오빠꺼 올렷! 아~ 좋은 수가 이따~ 오빠 이번주 설교 하실꺼 올리시면 내가 그거 고대로 베껴서 하면 안되나??

[시냇물]

아니, 우리 지선이가 화가 났구나. 해석도 없이 이 어마어마한 꼬부랑 말을 올리다니, 잉잉. 형이 이 글 읽으려면 일주일은 걸리는데... 잉잉..... 고마워. 지선아. 우리 카페에 지선이 같은 아우가 있어서..... 지선이 꼬리말 한 줄 써도 미세하고 민감하지. 상담심리학 공부한 사람의 친절함과 섬세함이 느껴져요. 지선이에게 많이 배워요. 천천히 읽고 독후감 쓸께. (일주일은 기다려라. 잉잉.미국 갔다온 영범이 빨리 읽고 갈춰줘.잉잉)

[파랑새 지서니]

응교오빠가 안배우는 사람 어디 있데요? ^^

[시냇물]

사도행전 16장 30절 "저희들 데리고 나가 가로되 선생들아 내가 어떻게 하여야 구원을 얻으리이까 하거늘" 리다아가 누구야 ? 지선이 딸이야? 앞부분이 재미있구나. 보통 사람이라면 토끼 찌개 해 먹을텐데 목사님들은 토끼들이 달아나기를, 신학적으로 자유 찾기를 바라는구나. 역시, 으음.... 또 스크랩 못 하게 닫아 놓았네.....으그, 아우님.

[파랑새 지서니]

리디아(Lydia) 는 제 딸이구요 한글성경에서는 루디아에요.

[장효수]

기범이나 파랑새 지선이 미국교회에서 목회를 하는 것을 보면 참으로 대단하다는 생각을 해본다. 한국적인 정서가 가미된 두 사람의 목회가 UMC를 변화시키기를 바란다.

[파랑새 지서니]

한국교회 목회하시는 분들이 저는 너무 대단하다는 생각하는걸요... 진심으로!

[무지개(김기범)]

나도 그래. 진심으로.

[평화만]

Not the instant affair so often presented on TV by the evangelists...

[파랑새 지서니]

다 읽어써 벌써? (은근 슬쩍 반말...히히)

[가온(김종우)]

나도 응교처럼 잉잉...한참 봐야하넹..

[파랑새 지서니]

오빠! 틀린거 찾아내면 안되요! 내눈에 벌써 여러개 보이는데 수정할래도 수정이 안되서 걍 두거든요. 크?

[핵가이버형묵]

히야! 이거 무슨 시금석 같다. 대꾸를 안 하면 영어 못하는 사람이 되고, 대꾸를 하자니 한참을 눈을 깜박거려야 하니 말이야! 근데 중간에 좀 상스러운 말도 있네. "우이~씨, 교회!" ??? ㅎㅎㅎ

[파랑새 지서니]

어디? 지선인 뭔지도 모름서 웃음부터 나온다요...

[시냇물]

형묵이 영어 실력 대단하구나. 나도 찾았는데, "우이~씨, 교회!" ... 지선이가 미국인들이 못 알아 들을 말로 교회 조직을 방언으로 비판하다니....으음...고단수야.ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

[파랑새 지서니]

드뎌 찾아쓰~~ 우하하하 으이그.. 오빠덜땜시로 미쵸 내가...

[무지개(김기범)]

나도 찾으러 간다.

[무지개(김기범)]

마침내 나도 찾았다(3분이나 걸렸네). 묵아, 나도 미쵸.

[시냇물]

We see the Church 를 [우이-- 씨. 교회!]로 읽는다는 걸 핵무기에게 처음 알았다. 냉장고 안에 병에 Danger라고 써 있으면 [단 거]로 읽고 맛 있게 먹어야 한다는 걸 지선이에게 배웠다.

[파랑새 지서니]

응교오빠! 그렇다구 일어루 설교 올리시면 안되요... 까막눈...

[핵가이버형묵]

전에 일어와 한글로 동시에 올렸잖어? 난 다 읽었는데... 히히

[정혁현]

<투사부일체>에서는 조폭 두목이 DANGER이라 써있는 표지판 앞에서 "당거"(독일어 좀 했나부다)라고 읽으니까, 졸개가 "예 형님!" 하더니, 상대방을 요절을 내더라. *참고: 담그다: 조폭 용어로, 묻어버리다. 요절내다, 작살내다. 죽여버리다. 아작내다.

[oldbum]

앗, 외계인이다.......

[파랑새 지서니]

히히히

[정혁현]

왠지 욕을 바가지로 먹은 기분이다. 파랑새 앞으론 욕하지마!

[파랑새 지서니]

하하하 울 교인들이 나한테 하아도 욕을 먹어서 날 무서오하나아?

[정혁현]

아니 난 영어로 말하면 다 욕이라고 생각해.

[파랑새 지서니]

나 교회에서 맨날 영어쓰자나요~

[시냇물]

우리 카페 회원들 외개인 언어 공부 많이 한 거냐? 가방끈이 긴 거냐? 근데 어째 외개인 언어로 쓰여진 설교문은 안 읽고, 꼬리말만 읽는 거 같다? 아니면 지선이가 글 올리면 이리 인기 있는 거냐? 히히?

[파랑새 지서니]

원래 모두 꼬글러들이자나요... 꼬리에 목숨건... 히이...

[렉탱]

요즘에도 여기 들리나모르지만, 정말 어지럽다...ㅎ 니 말대로 연수라도.......ㅎ