Sunday Sermon [9/27/09] - Pastor Edward Kim

For personal accountability/reminder and just to share with readers of this blog (which will hopefully be a blessing to you all), I've decided to blog/post my sermon notes after church. For background information, our head/senior pastor is stepping down and Pastor Edward, who spoke today, is our leading candidate to become our new head pastor. Here are a few things on his resume which was attached to our jubo (i was very impressed, not that works is important on its own but nevertheless, he has done quite a bit):

• Fuller Seminary - studying for a PhD in Historical Theology
• Princeton Seminary - M. Div Degree
• NYU Law School - JD Degree
• Pomona College - BA in Politics
• Church experience in Ambassadors Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), and Princeton Korean Community Church (KPCA)
• Worked in IJM

Today's text: Hebrews 12:1-3

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

For the introduction, Pastor Edward opened by making a reference to the highly successful self-improvement book, "Seven Effective Habits of Highly Successful People". From this book, he made a reference in regards to one of many effective habits to live by: the habit to live with the end in mind. With this said, he went into his three major points/questions.

1) WHY live with the end in mind?

By living with the end in mind, the ultimate form would be living with death in mind. By living with death in mind, this allows you to focus on what matters most. An extreme example would be the phone conversations those on the hijacked planes had with their loved ones on 9/11, just before perishing. Living in this way, with death in mind, constantly reveals to us what makes our lives meaningful and helps guide us. A common exercise that puts this into practice is imagining that it's your funeral and writing down what you would want people to say about you in their eulogy. By doing that, you're able to see what you're living for, what your goals are. By living with the end in mind, you are living towards a goal, by seeking and seeing the finish line. With this, he refers to the text by highlighting the call to endure and running and living with perseverance by seeing the end, by fixing our eyes on Jesus.

2) Why don't people begin with the end in mind?

There is the race that the scripture calls us to live by, but Pastor Edward pointed out that many of us do not run the race but rather, the rat race instead. By rat race, he means those wheels in mouse/hamster cages that they run- in-place on. So, why the rat wheel instead? For this point, he brought in external text from "The Denial of Death" by psychologist, Ernest Becker. In this book, Becker theorizes that in order to deny death, we pursue different "immortality projects" that distracts and delude us from death. The projects that distract us are things such as drugs, entertainment, and various addictions that help us escape from the harsh realities of life. Then there are the projects that delude us into thinking that everything is alright. So in the end, through these "immortality projects", people all cheat, lie, and hide in one way or the other to avoid the fact we are all manure. We pursue the rat race rather than THE RACE because we don't want to face reality and have our fears confirmed that indeed, we are worthless.

2.5) Fundamental Tension?

This comes from the fact that in living with the end in mind, death reveals to us what is precious, and yet threatens us by revealing to us our inequities, fickleness and worthlessness, this all presented throughout the first two points/questions. How then, does one resolve this tension? And even if death reveals what is precious, it's not automatic that the byproduct of this is a greater cherishing for God.

3) So, how to begin with God and the end in mind?

The scripture text has a parallel structure referring to not only our own, but Jesus' race as well. And from the text, it follows we endure as He endured. The term "author and perfector", in Greek, translates to mean a first place finish in a race. At this point, Pastor Edward brings up a personal example of how when his father found out his potentially fatal heart condition, he did not tell Pastor Edward, because in his FATHER'S living and approaching that end/death, what he saw as precious and joy was his son, Pastor Edward, along with his marriage, which had just occurred, and thus he did not tell anyone about his health condition. When Pastor Edward found out about this, instead of running away, he was drawn towards and took greater joy in loving and caring for his father. So, in context of the scripture text, we were the joy/end/goal/finish line that was set before Christ that HE takes great joy and pride in (Phil 4:1, Zep 3:17). We were the end He had in mind on the cross. So, as He thought of US in His death and crucifixion, (referring back to question/point 1) this shows that we were revealed to be most important and precious to Him. Just as Pastor Edward could not help but take greater joy and care in his father, we should realize that as the joy we are in Christ, we shouldn't help but take joy in Him more. The rat races of this world are nothing compared to the ONLY race we are called to strive after. Why seek after that true love when the one and first true love has already said YES first? The way to escape depression is not avoidance but rather focusing on the single death that shows Christ's joy and care for us. Indeed, if we are bored, depressed or paranoid, we are looking at the wrong finish line. We need to strive after the finish line, the end, the goal that is Christ. This change begins by realizing that Jesus began and died with us in mind and that we should take and live in joy in Him because of this.