Hyung Jin Moon
March 25, 2012
Excerpt
Sermon at Cheon Bok Gung
Good morning. Today, our Bible quotations are from Galatians chapter five, verses one and six. One: "For freedom, Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery." And six: "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is of any avail, but faith working through love."
St. Paul is writing to Christians in Galatia' on the subject of the necessity of circumcision. Among Galatian Christians, one group was saying that circumcision was necessary; that in following Christ, they should still keep the Mosaic Law. Another group was saying, no, because we have received grace from God, we follow God based on faith and love. A dispute arose among the Galatians. At that time, St. Paul was saying to them that Christ had made them free= and that they should stand firm and not be enslaved.
Brothers and sisters, what does it mean to receive the holy blessing from True Parents? It's the change of lineage; the descendants, who were connected to Satan's lineage, are entering God's family. It's an astonishing blessing; not one that ordinary people can receive. Even if you say that you don't have much sin, when you assess your qualification, brothers and sisters, you'll see that a lot of sin has accumulated in your heart. Even if we say that we have lived a perfect life, we actually harbor disbelief and doubts and have complaints against God; we even curse Him. All these things in our hearts are sins. They bring pain to God. That's why, when we look at our qualifications, no one is qualified to receive the blessing. I too would not be able to receive it. We could not receive it. No one could.
One member spoke to me, saying, "Actually I'm not qualified to receive the blessing." She is actually very mature, because she recognizes that the blessing is precious. She understands that she has to grow. This member had spoken to another member, who had advised her that you wouldn't be qualified to receive the blessing from God even if you were to set conditions for thirty forty or fifty years.
When God gives grace, we have to understand God's heart in giving it to us. We should thank Him and be determined to live for Him. That's being responsible! Taking responsibility for love.
The course of living for God and True Parents isn't just something in the Principle; it's also a responsibility resulting from love. If we receive the blessing with this kind of mind-set, of course we are still unqualified to receive it, but if we are thankful for God's grace and we take responsibility out of love, and set our mind on living for God, that makes it possible to give God joy. If we keep all the laws, we may therefore think that God has to give us everything; that God has to listen to us. It may make us very arrogant, when in fact, none of us is able to follow all God's laws. Fundamentally, as we are unqualified to receive love and grace from God, if we do receive a big blessing and then we thank God and our heart returns glory to God, we won't be trapped by Satan. Satan tells us we are not qualified, which is correct. But Satan keeps on saying to us, "You're not qualified. You're not qualified. You're not qualified!" intending that we will never receive the blessing.
St. Paul points out in the first biblical quotation (Galatians 5:1) that when we receive God's love and grace and offer glory with gratitude and love, it is only when we take action that we will truly find freedom. If I think that because I kept all the laws I could receive the blessing, therefore I am worthy of receiving Father's grace, that is arrogance. In such a case, I will inevitably be distant from Father forever.
However, even if I kept all those laws, I am not qualified to receive this great blessing, or have a lovely wife and family. But, although I am not qualified, God gave these all to me. Therefore, I deeply thank God and must live for Him, taking responsibility based on love. I think that having a heart like that is very important. If we have such a heart, our relationship of heart with Father becomes closer.
When I was young, I liked martial arts very much. When I was a high school student, I concentrated on martial arts. As a result I wasn't affected by the party and drinking culture. From that point of view, at that time, martial arts saved me.
In a recent interview in Korea, one reporter asked me, "What kind of martial arts do you like?" I replied that I had done many kinds; that I had done Kendo, and so forth. However, if it came out that the Unification Church international president practiced full contact fighting style martial arts, or Jujitsu, with its choking techniques, some people might have disapproved. But I did those kinds of martial arts -- combat style, Muay Thai (kick boxing), boxing, Jujitsu, wrestling. As a religious person, I wondered if I should be doing such strong martial arts. While I was doing my church leader duties over three years, I didn't put on any demonstrations although I had plenty of opportunities. I was thinking, what if people misunderstand it?
I continue practicing during my meditation time, even as I attend True Father directly these days. As you might have noticed, these are real martial arts and may look quite fearsome or merciless. However, I believe that everything depends on the purpose for which one uses these skills.... As you know,
I was doing church ministry for three years. I have always tried to be kind and caring and to behave as a gentleman, as a mature person. That all takes effort. If you do that, it doesn't mean you can't do martial arts, it simply means you don't show it off. A true martial artist practices to control not only his body but also his heart, mind-set and emotions.
That is why I think meditation practice is important for training the mind and heart. I always tell our Hoonsa nims that they are practicing the most difficult martial art -- offering Jeong Seong, fighting every day for mastery of the mind. That is the highest level.
Why would I say this now? Because even though I have benefited a lot not only from the exercise but also spiritually from this kind of training, I felt I could never speak to members or the public about my involvement with martial arts. I worried about how people in society would see me. After giving a demonstration of my skills in front of True Father, at his request, on Geomun Island, he asked me to repeat that demonstration every day.
I asked Father repeatedly not to make me do it. My point was that a true martial artist would never show off his skills. However, True Father's reply was "Don't say that!" He never changed his stance on that. He asked me to do a public demonstration in Korea. I had no choice but to follow Father's direction.
Yet, actually, Father liberated me. He said that in order to bring great blessing to the Wongu Peace Cup, I should give a martial arts demonstration. So we made a demonstration video and showed it to Father. Father was very happy and said we had done a great job.
Through this experience, I had a deep realization. Oh! If someone trusts and believes in True Father, he or she will be liberated! I never intended to show my skills to anyone. I thought I could not go public with my involvement with martial arts, but Father pushed me, and he challenged me as to whether I was going to have faith in him or not. Because Father pushed me and because I followed the direction he gave -- although at first it was difficult -- I found I was attaining new freedom for myself. I was able to reveal something I had been hiding, and I can do it now with a new sense of responsibility because True Father allowed me to make my skills public.
It is not for the sake of showing off or of learning something to oppress those weaker than yourself that you would train your body. It is with the objective of growing to maturity and in order to train the mind through meditation. It is for this reason that I realized that if one trusts and believes in True Parents, he will find freedom. True Parents know us better than we know ourselves.
All this is related to the themes of having a strong fatherland, a strong Abel UN and to the Pacific Rim era. True Father urges us to witness to our families and become tribal messiahs. In fact, not everyone is willing to do that, but if we think about establishing the Abel UN, we cannot make excuses just because it is difficult to do.
I feel very strongly that for us actually to be able to establish the Abel UN, we need to be strong, not in a sense that we should flex our muscles; we should be humble but strong at the same time. Only under those circumstances can Abel and Cain unite. As you know from Divine Principle, only on the foundation of unity between Cain and Abel can the Messiah establish a worldwide foundation.
The regaining of strong homelands that are not suppressed by anyone will be necessary for the establishment of the Abel UN, and this is going to be decisive in the realization of world peace. If we look back at the history of warfare, we see that Abel-type nations won because they were strong, not when they were weak. The United States, Great Britain and others were strong enough to confront the Soviet Union and that is why they won. It was not through being weak.
President Reagan was gentle but pursued strong policies. In order to win over the Soviet Union, which was manufacturing fearful weapons, the United States did not give up its own weapons. On the contrary, Pres. Reagan announced that the U.S. would make more dreadful weapons than those of the Soviet Union. Reagan proved historically that one does not obtain power in order to use it.
Abel needs to be strong not to be able to exercise this power or show it off, but because Abel needs this power to control Cain's bad character, which seeks to dominate weaker people. After gaining control over these things, Abel can open the way to the next stage of peace, which is achieved through communication. Power is not acquired just to be used. However, it can be used if one is being attacked; people can defend themselves. But it should never be used to oppress people.
Precisely for this reason we need to become strong Abels. Also, establishing the Abel UN is because Abel-type nations must realize world peace in the face of the rising power of strong Cain-type nations.
If we trust True Parents' great wisdom, as we create a strong homeland and establish the Abel UN, and work to realize world peace, we will see the dawning of True Parents' era of eternal peace and prosperity for all.