Giving Birth
6.8.25 Mars Hill UMC
Pentecost &
Children’s Sunday
<Award
Ceremony>
It's the end of the school year and church
year. There are lots of celebrations: last meetings, graduations, and awards
ceremonies. Today we celebrate Children’s Sunday. I'm sure that you have been
attending family and friends' ceremonies recently. Our church's small groups
celebrated their last meetings of this year. Personally, I had the last meeting
of the Women’s Group after 11 years of spiritual fellowship. When I saw all the
memories through pictures, I couldn’t stop thanking God. There were ups and downs.
There were small and big gatherings. There were painful and joyful moments. My
children also had awards ceremonies at school and at their gymnastics last
week. It was hard to sit for over two hours each time, but we acknowledged
students, teachers, and staff in these moments. We look back on their year or
several years, and their hard work is revealed to many people. I am so proud of
Elizabeth, who finished school two weeks earlier than others, since she didn’t
need to take a final due to being on the honor roll.
When
I saw the award ceremony, I thought of a spiritual graduation day. When we
finish God's school through our lives, we will have a funeral ceremony.
Yesterday, Donna’s funeral was impressive. Even though I couldn’t join her
funeral in person due to a time conflict, I could see her life through Pastor
Sue, Victor, and her son. We remembered her life and acknowledged how she was a
faithful Christian. Pastor Sue made us laugh all the time. I agreed with her
that Donna knew everybody and all kinds of news, more than the Mayor. She
invited so many people to the church through her funeral. Until the end, she
did her job very well as God’s daughter and a faithful Christian.
Along
with our funerals and on Judgment Day, we will have our award ceremony in
front of God. We will look back on our lives, and God will give us an award.
What kind of award will you get? What would God say to you?
<Giving
Birth Awards>
As
we studied Jonah, there was a great awakening in the Old Testament. No matter
what Jonah did, God used him for the great awakening. Jonah ran away,
prophesied without enthusiasm (walking Nineveh in one day, not three), and he
got angry when he saw God forgive his enemy. He was not perfect at all, and he
was immature. However, there was no record of converting 120,000 people at
once.
There
was another great awakening in the New Testament. Today's scriptures say God
used Peter to convert 3,000 people at once. If we celebrate Peter’s award
ceremony at the end of time, I think he could get a "Giving Birth
Award." It was not Peter’s power or his efforts, but God allowed us to see
a great spiritual awakening on Pentecost Day. There were only 120 people when
they gathered in Mark’s attic, but after Peter’s preaching, there were 3,000
first converts—what we call the early church!
As a
witness, Peter told them what he saw. Jesus, the Master and Messiah, died for
them and rose again. Peter confronted them boldly: they had killed Jesus, who
was Lord and Messiah (Acts 2:36). They were ready for change like the Nineveh
people, and the Bible says, "they were cut to the heart." They were
deeply moved and felt sorry about what they had been doing. "It was the
point of new birth. The Spirit of God brought conviction to their hearts."
[1] They asked, "What shall we do?" Peter asked them two things,
phrased in two different ways. "Repent and be baptized." He asked
them to turn to the Lord and to be united with Him by baptism. Also, he asked
them to "be forgiven of sins" and to "receive the Holy
Spirit." By repentance, we can be forgiven, and by baptism (of water and
the Holy Spirit), we can receive the free gift. As the children’s message
emphasizes, there is no "Pente Cost." We don’t need to pay to get the
greatest gift. It’s free.
After
they received this amazing, priceless gift—the Holy Spirit—they became one body
and one family. They devoted themselves to the Lord. They learned the Apostles’
teaching (doctrine), and they had fellowship, meeting each other in private homes
instead of synagogues. These first Christians, who were also Jews, rejected the
Jewish religion. They broke bread and prayed. There were many wonders and signs
performed by the Apostles. They were together and had all things in common.
They sold their possessions and goods and distributed the proceeds to all,
without government force like communism. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, they
spent much time together in the temple, praising God and helping others. Acts
2:47 says, "And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were
being saved." This is the early church. This is the church all reformers
in church history proclaimed and called others to return to—the original and
first church.
The
Gospel is simple: "Repent of our sins" and "receive the Holy
Spirit by baptism." Through this process, we can see a lot of "giving
birth." The Church gives birth to churches every time.
<Matryoshka,
Russian Dolls>
Have
you ever seen Russian dolls called "Matryoshka"? These stacking and
nesting dolls are a set of wooden dolls of decreasing size placed one inside
another. It means "The Little Mom." They symbolize fertility and
richness. I can see a spiritual matryoshka in our church history. Church gives
birth to churches.
Today is the Church’s birthday. On Pentecost Day, the church was born. The early church gave birth to another church, and that church gave birth to another, spreading throughout the whole world. This year marks a meaningful anniversary for the Korean church. We celebrated the 140th anniversary of the Korean Mission. There were 1,529 missionaries from America and England between 1885 and 1945. There were 1,114 women missionaries. I have introduced the first missionaries, Appenzeller (Methodist) and Underwood (Presbyterian), several times. Today I'm introducing another wonderful woman: Mary Scranton. She was born in MA in a pastor's family. Her father, brother, and uncles were pastors. She lost her husband in her early 40s. She raised her son, William. He graduated from Yale University and became a doctor in Cleveland, OH. When she was 53 years old, she asked her son and daughter-in-law to go to Korea for the mission. United Methodist Women sent her to be a missionary. They came to a wilderness.
Korean people said that they were ghosts with blue eyes. There were
rumors that American missionaries ate children. Even though Korean people
didn’t welcome them, they built churches, schools, and hospitals. She started school with four children in the beginning. She adopted one girl, Yeomyele
(여메레),
her doorkeeper’s daughter. She became another church. She preached the Gospel,
and 1,000 people were converted by her. When Mary was 65 years old, she got
sick. She returned to America, but five years later, she and her whole family
came back to Korea. She said, "Korea is my country. I will die in my
country." She worked several more years, and she died and was buried in
Korea, as was her wish. Her son died as well, serving others through healing.
Nowadays, Ewha Womans University, the school Mary started, has become the
number one women's university in Korea.
Through
all the missionaries’ sacrifices, we are now here. Victor and I graduated from the mission schools they built. Many Korean pastors in the UMC came here to give back the grace they received from God and all missionaries. My best friend and her
husband worked in a Cleveland hospital that Mary and William helped build. The
Church gives birth to churches.
<We
are the church>
Today
is the Church’s birthday and also our Children’s Sunday. We gave birth to our
children and the next generation, physically and spiritually. As we sing,
"We are the church, I am the church, you are the church, and we are the
church." As a church, we have given birth to other churches—our children.
I am a member of this church. I am a member of our family. I believe that our
children will give birth to another church.
I
got some plants from others, like spider plants, prayer plants, cactus, and
aloe. They multiply very well. I replant them and give them to others. Andy and
Bonnie’s are better than mine. I see plants make other plants, just as the
church gives birth to other churches. May God allow us to keep giving birth to
His churches until we have our award ceremony at the end of days. Amen.
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