Healthy Habits (Personal Health - Week 1)

KNU International English Church

Josh Broward

September 27, 2009

Personal Health Series: Week 1

Healthy Habits: Living Wisdom

Genesis 2:4b-8, 15

1 Corinthians 6:12-13, 19-20

Proverbs 3:7-8, 13-18

It was generally not a good idea to get sick in ancient times. Doctors had some pretty crazy ideas about how to cure diseases.

For example, in cultures around the world, one of the most common methods of treating insanity has been trepanation. The basic theory is that people go insane because there are demons or evil spirits trapped in their heads. How do you get the demons out? Well, you drill a nice little hole as an escape route. Unfortunately, the people tend to loose a lot of blood and maybe some brains along with the “demons.”[1]

And, you all know Charles Darwin, the guy who made the theory of evolution famous. Well, his grandfather believed that sleep could cure all kinds of diseases. Not able to get to sleep? No problem, the cure for insomnia is simple: spinning, lots of spinning. Apparently, Grandpa Darwin would put people on a chair on wheels or something and just spin them round and round until they passed out. Unfortunately, it didn’t cure any diseases, but on the upside, it might have given birth to some great carnival rides.[2]

One of the oldest medical remedies is bloodletting. The theory was that, sometimes, we just have too much blood or too much blood in the wrong places. For the body to regain balance, we have to let that blood get out. So the doctor would cut you and let you bleed out all that bad blood. It turns out that we actually need our blood, so letting it bleed out is generally a bad thing.[3]

Here’s my favorite. 3-4,000 years ago Egypt had the best medicine of anyone around. They really knew their stuff, but even they came up with some crazy ideas. Here is their cure for skin sores or lesions: “After the scab has fallen off, put on it scribe’s excrement, mix in fresh milk and apply as a poultice.”[4] Let’s see: scribe poo + milk = skin cream. Any takers? Maybe we could sell the idea to Skin Food or Bath and Body. It makes you soft as a baby’s bottom!

So the old doctors didn’t always know how to help us get better if we got sick. However, they did know how to stay healthy.

In the 13^th century, a group of doctors in West Wales recorded the best medical wisdom in their tradition. Here is what they said about the basics of health:

Whosoever shall eat or drink more or less than he should, or shall sleep more or less, or shall labour more or less from idleness or from hardship … without a doubt he will not escape sickness.

An ancient Chinese proverb advises:

He who takes medicine and neglects to diet wastes the skill of his doctors.

Hippocrates, the famous Greek doctor from the 5^th century BC, the guy from the Hippocratic Oath, said:

If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health.

There is even an old English nursery rhyme which puts it into cute little phrases a 5 year old can remember:

The best six doctors anywhere
And no one can deny it
Are sunshine, water, rest, and air
Exercise and diet.
These six will gladly you attend
If only you are willing
Your mind they'll ease
Your will they'll mend
And charge you not a shilling.

If we summarize all of this ancient wisdom, here’s what we get: balanced food + regular exercise + regular sleep à health.

Today, we are beginning a 5 week series on personal health. We are starting with the basics: healthy habits. Almost everyone almost everywhere has agreed on this for thousands of years. Three basic habits tend to lead to healthy people: good food, good exercise, and good sleep. It’s not a guarantee. Random accidents, diseases, and hereditary issues still cause problems. But we all know that if we put these three basics into our lives, we will tend to be healthier people.

One of the core points of our vision as a church is being renewed by God’s love. In 2008, when our Planning Team was thinking about what this would mean for us as a church, we talked a lot about becoming healthy people and having healthy families. If we come in here and talk about God every week, but then we go out of here and live unhealthy, stressed out lives, we aren’t being made new. We are being made old and worn out and less healthy. Being part of a church ought to help us live better, not make living harder. Here at KNU International English Church, we are committed to your health. We want you to have healthy bodies, healthy minds, healthy hearts, and healthy spirits.

But why? Why are we talking about this kind of stuff? We’re a church not a health club. Shouldn’t we be teaching you how to pray or how to read your Bible or tell people about Jesus? Well, yes. And we do that, too. But Christianity is not separated from physical life. It’s not like spiritual life and physical life are two separate things. We are whole beings. We are interconnected. What we are talking about today will help you pray. What we are talking about today is teaching you how to read ALL of your Bible, not just the spiritual parts. Talking about healthy habits will help you tell people about Jesus because you will be living a more abundant, beautiful life, and you will have more energy and joy and peace to share.

John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, said most people’s prayer lives would be greatly improved by a 20 minute walk every day. We are whole beings. We cannot separate our spirits from our bodies. We cannot separate our mission of loving others from our care for our own personal health. How are we going to love others if we are dying inside? How are we going to change the world if we’re just trying to stay awake?

O.K. Let’s pause for a few minutes and look more closely at some of our Biblical texts.

Genesis 2:4b-8, 15

When the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, neither wild plants nor grains were growing on the earth. For the Lord God had not yet sent rain to water the earth, and there were no people to cultivate the soil. Instead, springs came up from the ground and watered all the land. Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person. Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made…. The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it.

The creation story tells a few basic things about health. First of all, God made us as body-spirits. God formed the first human body from the dirt and breathed his life into it making a living person. A “living person” is both body and spirit. We are made “in the image of God” (Genesis 1:27) as both body and spirit. I’m not saying that God has a body or that our bodies look like God. --- Well, maybe mine does. ;-) --- What I am saying is that it’s not just our spirits that are holy or God-like. Our bodies are holy and God-like too. God made us body and spirit. If we want to honor God, we will care for our bodies and spirits.

Second, God put the first humans in a garden and gave them work. We are designed for work. One of the great health problems of the modern world is that we no longer work. Sure, we sit at computers and stand in classrooms, but we don’t do real work with our bodies. Exercise is not a natural part of our lives. The farther we get from that garden with healthy food and healthy exercise, the more unhealthy we get.

1 Corinthians 6:12-13, 19-20

You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is good for you. And even though “I am allowed to do anything,” I must not become a slave to anything. You say, “Food was made for the stomach, and the stomach for food.” (This is true, though someday God will do away with both of them.) But you can’t say that our bodies were made for sexual immorality. They were made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies. …

Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.

Our bodies matter to God. Within the whole context, this passage is mostly talking about sex. We’ll talk about that next month, but, for now, we just need to see that our bodies really do matter.

Sometimes, Christians talk like only our spirits matter – like it doesn’t really matter what we do with our bodies. This is actually a heresy called Gnosticism. This is what some people in the church in Corinth thought. So they said, “It doesn’t matter if I have sex with a prostitute. It’s just my body. My body doesn’t matter. Only my spirit matters to God.”

Paul says, “Whoa. Hold it there. Your bodies really do matter.” Our bodies “were made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies.” Our bodies are “the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in” us. Our bodies are God’s display cases for the world. God lives in us, and the only way the world is going to see God is through us. God has purchased us – body, mind, and spirit – to be his own. We belong to him. So let’s honor God and represent God with our whole beings – body, mind, and spirit.

Proverbs 3:7-8, 13-18

Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom. Instead, fear the Lord and turn away from evil. Then you will have healing for your body and strength for your bones. …

Joyful is the person who finds wisdom, the one who gains understanding. For wisdom is more profitable than silver, and her wages are better than gold. Wisdom is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her. She offers you long life in her right hand, and riches and honor in her left. She will guide you down delightful paths; all her ways are satisfying. Wisdom is a tree of life to those who embrace her; happy are those who hold her tightly.

In the end this discussion about health is all about wisdom. Are we going to be wise or foolish? Are we going to think about long term success or short term pleasure or profit? Will we focus on today or prepare for tomorrow? Wise or foolish?

Wisdom will give “healing for your body and strength for your bones.” Wisdom is better than silver or gold or rubies. “She offers you long life in her right hand, and riches and honor in her left. She will guide you down delightful paths … Wisdom is a tree of life to those who embrace her; happy are those who hold to her tightly” (Prov. 16-18).

Be wise, church. Hold tightly to wisdom. Wise living will make you happier, healthier, and more effective in God’s mission. Don’t be foolish. Be wise. If you live wisely and healthily, you will help us all to be a loving community that changes our world.

Do you want to be healthy? If you want to SEE health, start with the three basics.

SLEEP: Scientists and doctors have studied how much sleep the average person needs. Adults need 7-8 hours of sleep every day. Students need between 9 and 11 hours of sleep every night.[5] Not sleeping enough makes us irritable, bad students, and – get this – hungry!! If we don’t sleep enough, it upsets our body’s hormone balance, so we eat more to compensate for sleep.[6] Want to lose weight? Get a full night of sleep! Also, as a bonus, getting enough sleep increases your energy and decreases your stress.

EATING: There are two basic rules about eating – hunger and balance. Eat when you are hungry – only when you are hungry, only as much as it takes to be full. (This is hard to do, but a real key to healthy eating.)[7]

Second, balance. I’m going to call in some outside help to explain this one. Emma told me even Cookie Monster is getting healthy. (View “Color Me Hungry” game on www.pbskids.org.)

If you eat well, you will have more energy and be sick less. It just works.

EXERCISE: Remember, we were made for a garden with lots of body-building work to do. Nowadays, we don’t live in gardens. We live in 15 story apartments, and most of us don’t have any physical work to do. But we need to simulate that garden lifestyle with some regular exercise. We need about 30 minutes of exercise every day. It’s great if you get it all at one time. That will help your heart. But if you don’t have time to do a real work out, then fit it in bit by bit. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Get off the bus one stop early. Park in the farthest part of the parking lot. Do a little bit here and there to get a little more exercise. Use your body as much as you can all day long.

If you do these basics (Sleep, Eating, Exercise), then you will probably SEE better health. It just works. Our bodies were made for sleeping well, eating well, and exercising well. When we work with this natural biological wisdom, we are healthier, happier, and holier.

But this kind of a sermon can lead many of us to feelings of judgment or shame. We walked into this room today with all different types of bodies and all different types of histories. We all have the bodies we have today due to a wide variety of factors. Some of those are within our control, and some aren’t. We need to finish up today with little bit of science and a lot of grace.

First, the science. There really is an “obesity” gene. It’s called the FTO gene. People with one FTO gene are a little more likely to be overweight. People with two FTO genes are 60% more likely to be overweight. Also, a host of other factors beyond our control influence our weight levels, such as: our eating style as children, our stress levels (partly in our control), our parents’ eating habits, our spouse’s eating habits, our natural metabolism, or – get this – biologically less sensitive taste buds (so that we need more sugar or fat to really taste it).[8]

So you know how some people can eat anything and still not get fat? Don’t you hate that! Well, some other people’s bodies actually work against them in the weight category. It’s not a life-sentence to obesity, but it does mean that some people really have to work harder to lose weight – sometimes a lot harder.

Now, the grace. Wherever you are right now is O.K. We all got to the sizes and shapes we are now through a variety of blessings, curses, and choices. The key issue is not where we are but where we are going. God loves us just as we are. God wants us all to become healthier, and we all have room to grow here.

As a community, we have the beautiful opportunity to journey toward health together. We can work on it together. Instead of going out for ice cream, maybe we’ll go for a walk. Instead of bringing a bag of chips to the party, maybe we’ll bring some fruit. Instead of going to that midnight movie or working super late, maybe we’ll encourage each other to be a bit more boring and get a good night of sleep.

God is calling us to health, to wisdom, to abundant living. How will you answer?

---

[1] “10 Mind-Boggling Psychiatric Treatments,” posted June 12, 2007: http://www.neatorama.com/2007/06/12/10-mind-boggling-psychiatric-treatments/. Downloaded 9.17.2009.

[2] Ibid.

[3] “Bloodletting,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloodletting. Downloaded 9.22.2009.

[4] Angela Porter, “Curious Cures from History,” http://www.null-hypothesis.co.uk/science/strange-but-true/item/medicinal_plants_ancient_knowledge_discoveries. Downloaded 9.17.2009.

[5] “Sleep,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep.

[6] This is based on a report from the University of Chicago. Joanne Chen, “13 Things You Never Knew about Your Weight,” Readers Digest, January 2009, 90.

[7] For more on listening to our bodies’ hunger signs, read Judy and Arthur Halliday, Thin Within: A Grace-Oriented Approach to Lasting Weight Loss, (Nashville: W, 2002).

[8] Ibid, 88-92.

Vision Month (Week 4): Global Change Through Local Action

KNU International English Church
Josh Broward
September 20, 2009

Genesis 12:1-3; James 1:22-27; Matthew 25:31-40

According to Greek mythology, Sisyphus was the wisest and most cunning human who ever lived. Unfortunately for him, this all led to some conflict with the gods. He stuck his nose into a love triangle involving Jupiter, and he fooled the gods of death two separate times, adding years to his life.

Finally, however, the gods won out. They sentenced Sisyphus to one of the most famous punishments in the history of the world. Every day, he pushed a huge round stone to the top of a high hill. After struggling all day to reach the top, the stone rolled back down to the bottom of the hill. Sisyphus punishment was meaningless work, forever. He was cursed with an unsolvable problem that he just had to fix.

When we hear the statistics of global poverty, we can feel a lot like Sisyphus. 3 billion people living on less than 2,500 won a day. 25,000 children die every day because of poverty. 2.6 billion people lack decent toilets or clean water. 1.8 million children die every year diarrhea.

When we talk in millions and billions, the problem of global poverty seems like an impossible mountain. We look at the pictures of the starving children, and our heart knows that we must do something. But our brain reminds us that we can’t feed billions. If we give 1 or 1,000 or even 100,000 kids enough medicine to prevent diarrhea, there will still be 1.7 million who die from it this year.

After a while, it all feels like rolling that stone up the hill, day after day. We can work hard. We can give our lives to helping others. Yet, it can still feel meaningless because of the millions and billions we didn’t help. Sometimes, it seems as if the whole world has the curse of Sisyphus. Sometimes, it feels like we’re cursed with an unsolvable problem we just have to fix.

So what do we do? Well, some of us keep pushing that stone up the hill. But others of us, give up on that all together. We just quit trying. Some of us even quote Jesus as support for giving up on the fight against poverty, “The poor will always be among you.” We forget that he also said, “Whatever you do to the least of these you to do to me.” But when there are 1 billion “least of these” who need our help, the problem just seems too large.

But we have special powers that Sisyphus didn’t have. In fact, we have three special powers that completely change the game.

First, we have the power of blessing. Sisyphus was cursed by the gods, but we are blessed by the one true God. The gods were against Sisyphus, but God is for us. God is for solving the problems of global poverty.

Listen again to the words of Psalm 113: “Who can be compared with the LORD our God, who is enthroned on high? He stoops to look down on heaven and earth. He lifts the poor from the dust and the needy from the garbage dump. He sets them among princes, even the princes of his own people!” (v. 5-8)

God is at work redeeming and healing our world. When we work to end poverty, we are working with God, not against God. We are working in the flow of his blessing, not against it.

In fact, that is how blessing works. Remember God’s promise to Abraham: “I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and … All the families on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:2-3). God has blessed us with the power to bless others. We are not like Sisyphus. We can make a real difference in the world. We have the power of blessing.

Second, we have the power of innovation. Insanity is doing the same things over and over and expecting not to get the same results. In some ways, Sisyphus was cursed with insanity. It seems that every day, he actually thought that stone just might go over the top this time.

When we deal with poverty in the same old ways, we will get the same old results. But we are not insane. We have the power of innovation.

We have made major advances in medicine and science which have changed the world. We have discovered cures for polio and malaria. We have discovered vaccinations for the measles, hepatitis, and countless other diseases. Thanks to advances in farming technology, we can now produce enough food to feed every human in the world. As you’ll see in a video later, we can turn very dirty, deadly water into clean life-giving water. Science has worked wonders on the greatest problems facing our world. Now, we need to work on distribution.

The innovation of the internet is also changing our world. The internet has created a democratization of knowledge. Anyone with an internet connection can learn almost anything. And the internet is beginning to create a democratization of work. Almost anyone (with knowledge, skills, and the internet) can do almost any job from anywhere. This is radically changing the poverty scene. Good jobs are no longer defined by geographic boundaries. Now, instead of “teaching a man to fish,” we teach people to surf with a mouse, and we give them the tools to change their world.

Sisyphus was stuck doing the same things over and over and getting the same results every day. We are not stuck. In the book of Isaiah, God said, “See, I am doing a new thing!” (42:19). It’s time for us to do a new thing, too. We can change the world through the power of innovation.

Finally, we have the power of small. … Say what? … We have the power of small. You didn’t know about the power of small?! Think about it. Every day, Sisyphus rolled that huge bolder up the hill. Every day, when he got to the top of the hill, he the whole bolder rolled back down. What if Sisyphus started small? What if he was able to get out a hammer and a chisel and cut that huge rock into little pieces? Then, every day, when he walked to the top of that hill, he could take those little pieces and throw them way over on the other side. It might take a while, but eventually, there wouldn’t be any rock left. Now, imagine if a bunch of Sisyphus’s friends came and helped him. It would take a lot less time, right? Behold, the power of small!!

“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed planted in a field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but it becomes the largest of garden plants; it grows into a tree, and birds come and make nests in its branches” (Matthew 13:31-2). The Kingdom of Heaven starts small, but it grows into something big that provides shelter and food for others.

This is how God usually works. When God wanted to create the human race, he made Adam and Eve. When God wanted to bless the world, he started by blessing Abraham. When God wanted to set Israel free, he called Moses. When God wanted to help people around the world understand him and live in his good ways, he worked on his relationship with one little, stubborn group of people called Israel.

And let’s just talk about Jesus for a minute. Jesus was God on earth. Jesus embodied all of Israel’s history and all of God’s love and power. Jesus was the fulfillment of all of God’s promises to Israel. Jesus was the Messiah, and the Messiah was supposed to make everything right. But when Jesus died and came back to life, he had only a few hundred followers. As far as we know, he didn’t write anything down – except for one time scribbling in the dirt. He healed some people, but not everyone. He fed some people, but not everyone. He convinced some people, but not most.

After Jesus was raised from the dead, he was talking with his disciples, and his disciples said, “Jesus, is it time to get big? Are you going to do big stuff now and heal the whole world and make everyone know you?” And Jesus looks at his twelve apostles and says, “Umm, no. You are my mustard seed. It’s time for you to grow and spread out and be witnesses of God’s healing presence that you experienced in me.” (See Acts 1:6-8.)

We want big. We want awesome. We want to change the whole world right now. Let’s end hunger and poverty tomorrow. I think we should do big things, and I ask my government to give the big money to do the big things. But God says to us today, “Behold, the power of small. Never discount the power of small. Never forget that one small group of people loving one small group of people can change the world.”

Sisyphus was stuck working with the big rock and watching that big rock roll back down to the bottom every day. We aren’t stuck. God has given us the power of blessing, the power of innovation, and the power of small. By sharing what God has given us, through creativity and innovation, by working on one problem in one community at a time, we can change the world!

1,000,000,000 people try to survive on less than 1,200 won a day. But 1,000,000,000 is a HUGE number. Instead of getting lost in 1,000,000,000 and giving up, start with a different number: 1. 1 is easy. We can understand 1. We can work with 1. We can change the world with the number 1. Here’s how it works. I offer you the 1 CHALLENGE.

1 COMMUNITY: We can’t change every community, but we can change 1. Part of our church plan is to partner with one community in a developing nation. We will work with the same community for several years. We will visit them on mission trips. We will help them build the buildings they need to care for their people. We will share our resources with them. We will think creatively with them about their problems. We will learn from them, and they will learn from us. We’ll start changing the world by changing 1 community. Next week, after the worship service, we will have a short all church meeting to tell you about our two finalists for this long-term partnership. I hope you’ll come. We are going to change the world by starting with 1.

1 CHILD: Mother Theresa said, “If you can’t feed 100 hungry children, then just feed 1.” This is where we are starting – with 1. I challenge everyone in this room to sponsor 1 child. Many of you already sponsor children. Maybe you can increase your number to 1 for every person in your home. If we will all give up a little bit of cash – about 30,000 won a month, we can change the world for hundreds of kids and families. And it all starts with 1. Sponsor 1 child. (Talk to Amanda to sponsor a child today.)

1 MEAL: We all eat, right? We all eat every day. Well, take that meal and make it meaningful. At least, once a week, share 1 meal with 1 person who needs some support. Maybe it will be a new person at church. Maybe it will be someone who is having a hard time. Maybe it will be a coworker. Maybe it will be one of your students or neighbors. Changing the world can begin right here in Cheonan with us sharing 1 meal with 1 person 1 day a week. It’s just 1!

1 JOB: Most of us come here every week, and we enjoy the music, and maybe we enjoy the sermon (a bit too long perhaps), and then we go out and eat some snacks. But those snacks don’t just appear by magic. This room doesn’t become instantly clean when we walk out the doors. We don’t shove our kids in the Sunday School classroom and let them go wild. Everything about our community takes a little bit of work. For us to change the world, we have to start by nurturing this local community. We need you to have a job. Do something. Do anything! Just get involved. Find a way to help that fits you. 1 person, 1 job. Global revolution starts with a little bitty number called 1.

1 PIECE OF TRASH: We all walk places. Even if you have a car, you walk through the parking lot or through buildings or from one store to another. Everywhere we go, we see trash - sometimes a lot of trash. We can’t pick up every piece of trash we see, but we can pick up 1.

Just to show you what I mean, for the past week or so, I’ve been picking up 1 piece of trash every time I walk somewhere. And I’ve been saving it in this bag. I only picked up 1, just 1. But look at how much trash I collected throughout the week. Now, imagine what would happen if we all pick up 1 piece of trash everywhere we go, just 1. Imagine how KNU would look. Imagine how Cheonan would look. Imagine what would happen if other people started doing it, too. We can change our world in very practical and simple ways, and it all starts with a very simple number: 1.

We want to be a loving community that changes our world. We want to cause global change through local action. This vision starts with 1.

Here’s the 1 CHALLENGE:

• 1 COMMUNITY – Our church partners with 1 developing community.

• 1 CHILD – Each person sponsors 1 child.

• 1 MEAL – We share 1 meal every week with someone who needs extra support.

• 1 JOB – Every one of us finds 1 job to do to help out our community.

• 1 PIECE OF TRASH – We pick up 1 piece of trash when we are out walking.

Sisyphus had the most famous curse in history – endless labor with no results. When we think of the world’s problems, sometimes we feel like Sisyphus – like we just can’t do anything to make a real difference. But we have three things Sisyphus didn’t have: the power of blessing, the power of innovation, and the power of small. We can change the world, and it all starts with 1.

Vision Month (Week 3): Multicultural Community

KNU International English Church

Josh Broward

September 13, 2009

VISION MONTH: WEEK 3

MULTICULTURAL COMMUNITY

Embracing our Diversity as God Brings Us Together Through Christ

Ephesians 2:11-22; John 10:1-18; Jeremiah 29:1-11

Our world is fractured, separated, segregated, split, divided. And this cuts to the core of our hearts, for deep down our souls know our world and our hearts are designed for wholeness and harmony.

Globalization pushes us together and forces the essential fragmentation of humanity into eyes. We see this theme emerge again and again in our movies and stories. Consider just a few examples:

· Shakespeare's classic story of Romeo and Juliet. The tragic lovers from two divided families shine a light on the brokenness of their world.

· The Lord of the Rings series is asking the question of whether we can overcome our differences to make the world safe and whole.

· Remember the Titans tells the story of a championship football team when the black high school suddenly merges with the white high school. The fundamental question is whether we really can get along.

· Beauty and the Beast challenges the cultural fragmentation that happens when we place too high a value on external beauty.

· The Little Mermaid – amid all its cuteness and fun songs – deals with the serious theme of cross-cultural marriages.

In his book, Sex God, Rob Bell argues that our world is designed to be whole, one … diverse – yes! - but sharing a fundamental unity, soaked with loving relationships. But Bell says, “our world isn't [whole]. It isn't one. It's broken, shattered, fractured, with pieces laying all over the floor.”[1]

So when we see people who come together out of brokenness and find wholeness and peace, it touches something deep in our souls. It connects with our deepest longings and our deepest hopes. We need peace. We need wholeness. We need community amid our diversity. It is a deep, deep craving of our soul, and without it we will forever be malnourished.

Lately, globalization and multiculturalism have become major themes here in Korea. Korea is traditionally seen as one of the most homogeneous nations on earth. Sameness and group unity are very deep values here. However, this is changing very quickly.

Korea now has 1.1 million resident “foreigners.” That is a little more than 2% of the population. By the way, the largest groups are Chinese, Philippinos and Vietnamese.

Everyone agrees that Korea is bound to get more and more foreigners who live long-term in Korea. Conservative estimates are that foreigners will make up 5% of the Korean population by 2020 , 8% by 2030, and 10% by 2050.

This diversification of Korea is fueled by several trends.

· First and foremost, Korea's population is aging, and Korea's birthrate is declining. More older Koreans and less younger Koreans, means that Korea needs more people from other nations to do the harder work that keeps Korea running.

· Second, as Korea's economy and education system improves, more and more of Korean workers are moving to “white collar” jobs or desk jobs, leaving more and more openings for factories, farms, and other manual labor jobs.

· Third, English education and global commerce are bringing in more educators and business people.

· Fourth, Korea is becoming an educational hot-spot for Asia. More and more international students are studying in Korea.

· Fifth, nowadays, 1 in 7 marriages in Korea involve one person who is not ethnically Korean. In some rural provinces, that ratio is as high as 1 in 3.

These trends are not temporary. They are likely to increase in pace and magnitude. The population of foreigners in Korea has quadrupled in the past 10 years. If Korea's foreign population continues to grow anywhere near that pace, then Korea will diversify even faster than the experts are predicting. My unprofessional guess is that the foreign population will reach 5-10% by 2020 and 15-20% by 2030. If you add in the children born from those multicultural marriages, these numbers go even higher.

Let me stir the pot just a little more. Historically, whenever the demographics of a community or a nation change quickly, there is conflict. Every nation that has experienced mass immigration has experienced a variety of racial conflicts, sometimes exploding into mass riots. It happened in the USA in many places and times throughout our history. It happened in Paris a few years ago. It happened in Australia a few years ago and again just recently.

Some people are calling Korea's changing demographics a “time bomb.” Some cultural analysts expect a variety of explosive conflicts centered around the themes of ethnicity and cultural change. Think about the protests about Mad Cow Disease and the take over of the SsangYong auto-plant. Now imagine if huge numbers of Korean workers were loosing their jobs because Korean companies could pay half as much to workers from Southeast Asia. Imagine the kinds of riots and protests and conflict that might happen then.

Representative Chin Young has recently introduced the first ever “anti-racism” bill to the Korean parliament. So far, we don't know whether this bill will pass or not, but we do know that the best thinkers here are trying to make plans for how to make this transition in the most positive way.

Now, you might be thinking, “Josh, this is all interesting, but what does this have to do with us? We are in a church worship service, not a political rally or an anthropology class.”

Well, all of this is important for us as a church because we are right on the cutting edge of Korea's cultural change. Nearly every institution in Korea will become more and more diverse, but international churches in Korea are probably the most diverse communities that currently exist in Korea. We are early indicators of Korea's future. In very small ways, we are helping to establish the patterns for Korea's adaptation to a multicultural society.

As we think about our role as cultural trend setters, we need to think on two levels: theology and practices. We need to consider the foundational theology that guides us as Christians and as the Church. And we need to move on to consider how we can live out this theology in our daily practices.

Let's think about the theology first. Like any good preacher, I have three points here.

First, God has made us one in Christ. The work is already done. When we talk about being or becoming a multicultural community, we often talk like we have to do the work. But really, that's not how it is.

We read in Ephesians today that we have already “been united with Christ … For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us” (2:13-14). “Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death” (2:16). It is already done.

It happens like this in wars sometimes. The leaders meet together and make peace, but the soldiers are scattered around the country or around the world, and it takes time for the soldiers to get the good news that peace has been made. In the meantime, they keep fighting.

The good news is that God has made peace for us all. When we we embrace our diversity, we are only trying to actualize what God has already done. We are one people. We share a common humanity. We are all equally loved by God, so let's BE one in our day to day life.

Here's the second theological point: Diversity is fundamental to humanity and to theology. We understand ourselves in our experience of the other, and we understand God in our experience of the other. We have all had the experience of learning about our home culture as we compare it to other cultures. This is just the beginning. That is just a surface comparison.

When we open our hearts and our lives to others, that changes us on a deeper level. When the “other” has a genuine place in our hearts, our hearts expand and grow. When the “other” is part of our genuine heartfelt pursuit of God and longing for transformation, we learn more about God and more about ourselves. We desperately need multicultural community so that we can be genuinely Christian, genuinely human, and genuinely us.

The final theological point is that the church is a picture of the finale, God's end goal for humanity. The church is a picture of the healing of the world. When John the prophet sees heaven, he sees: “a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb” (Revelation 7:9). And he sees a beautiful river with trees of life on each side, and “the leaves of the tree are used for medicine to heal the nations” (Revelation 22:2). In the end, God will heal all our conflict. In the end, we will be united in the worship and joy of God our healer and savior. In the end, we will be made whole and healthy, and the deep longing of our souls will be satisfied in the wholeness of God and a perfectly united multicultural community in heaven.

So now, before heaven, we, the church – especially here in our church – we are a sign, a prophetic display, of this future. When we embrace our diversity by embracing each other, when we hug, we become prophets. When we welcome an “other” into our home and into our hearts, we become time-travelers, bringing the future-reality of heaven into present reality here.

O.K. Now lets talk practics. How can we do this time travel? How can we live out the multicultural community that God has already created among us? We need to come together.

First, come out together. We must come out from the attitudes that divide us. We need to come out of our nationalistic identities. We are not first of all Americans or Koreans or Philippinos. We are first of all citizens of the world and people loved by God. Our home nationality will always be part of us, and that is good. That is part of our diversity, but it cannot take the priority for us.

· Westerners, you know those times when someone had a bad day at school or at the market, and they start telling their culture shock story. It can turn ugly really fast, with everyone ragging on Korea. We need to come out from that. We need to step in with a positive voice and remind people of our common humanity and the great privilege that we have in living in Korea.

· Koreans, there will be times when your friends or coworkers will be prejudiced against foreigners. There will be times when you are standing in a line and someone in front of you will start talking in Korean about the weigookin (외국인) in the same line. At those times, we need for you to speak up. We need for you to remind your peers that we know when you are talking about us. Every foreigner quickly learns the word weigookin. We may not know much else, but we learn that quickly! We need for you to be cultural leaders, guiding people in your sphere of influence toward a healthy multiculturalism.

We need to come out together.

Second, we need to come in together. We need to commit ourselves to each other and to this church. Remember the passage from Jeremiah. We are all like those exiles. We are living in a strange place or engaging in a strange church. Many of us need to hear God say to us: “Build homes, and plan to stay. Plant gardens … Marry and have children … [I know some of you are working on that!] … And work for the prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare” (Jeremiah 29:4-7).

Don't just be a stranger passing through. Put down roots. Commit yourself to this church and to this community. Become a member here. Our membership class is next week right after the service. If you want to come, it's not too late. Just talk to me. We need to come in together.

Finally, we need to come eat together. Years ago, I read part of a book called Where Resident Aliens Live by Will Willimon and Stanley Hauerwas. I don't even have the book anymore, but I still remember one of the stories.

There was a mostly white church in a medium sized town deep in the Southeast part of the USA. The old South is the most ethnically segregated part of the USA, and Sunday morning is the single most segregated time in all of America. Black people mostly go to all-black churches. White people mostly go to all-white churches. Latino people mostly go to Latino churches.

So this new pastor goes to a mostly white, middle class church in the deep South. And he starts preaching about racial reconciliation and multiculturalism. For years, he told people that we are all one in Jesus so we ought to be all one in church, too. Well, that didn't go over so well in his church. First, people started complaining. Then, they started leaving. Then, a lot of people left.

Years later, the pastor said, “Well, I preached that church down to three people before things started to change. … But once we we were all together committed to being one people along the lines that the Bible talks about, then we were able to start growing again.”

Willimon and Hauerwas visited that church and saw people of every shade of skin: brown people, white people, black people. It was like a human rainbow, and they were all laughing and singing and praising God. After the worship service, they interviewed some of the church members. They asked one of the church board members if this multicultural community was for real or if it was kind of just for show on Sunday mornings.

That deacon said, “Oh, no. I know it's for real because we eat together, and not just on Sunday neither. We are in each other's homes. We are in each other's lives. We go cheer for each other's kids. We bring soup when somebody's sick. This is deep, and it's real.”

Church, this is the most important thing I am going to say all day today: EAT TOGETHER. If you want to have a real multicultural community, eat together with people of other cultures. Eat together often. This will change our lives. This will change our church, and it will change our world.

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[1] Rob Bell, Sex God, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2007), 153.