KNU International English ChurchJosh Broward
September 6, 2009
Drama: Table is set at center stage with: large bowl (preferably glass); two large spoons; tongs; medium size glass bowl; pitcher of water; hand towel; 50,000 won bill; large variety of strange ingredients (mustard, kimchi, corn flakes, peanut butter, dirt, old bugs, chocolate syrup, fish, etc.). Next to table is a large trash can with liner.
Person A:
1)Pick up 50,000 won bill and slowly, carefully shows it to audience.
2)Put 50,000 won bill into large glass bowl.
3)Slowly and dramatically add all “ingredients” to large glass bowl.
4)Mix thoroughly.
5)Smell and attempt to taste.
6)Dump bowl into garbage can.
7)Exit stage.
Person B:
1)Enter with Person A. Sit in chair at stage left.
2)Watch A do everything; smile at 50,000 won bill; look disgusted as A adds and mixes ingredients.
3)When A goes to dump bowl into trash, B says: “NO!” [This is the only spoken word in the drama.]
4)Go to table. Get tongs. Remove 50,000 won bill from trash. Hold it up slowly to show audience.
5)Pour water into clean bowl.
6)Put 50,000 won bill into clean bowl. Clean 50,000 won bill.
7)Dry 50,000 won bill with towel.
8)Slowly and dramatically show 50,000 won bill to audience. Kiss it; hold it to your heart; and exit stage.
(This drama and it's application were taken from a story in the footnotes of Rob Bell's Sex God.)
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. …
“Then God said, 'Let us make human beings in our image, to be like ourselves. They will reign over the fish of the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.'
“So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female, he created them” (Genesis 1:1, 24-27).
We are created in the image of God. We are God's representatives on earth. We have something of the heart of God deep inside of us. We are infinitely and inherently valuable.
“Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ … God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family … and it gave him great pleasure” (Ephesians 1:4-5).
We are God-like – all of us, and God loves us deeply, unstoppably – all of us! This is the root of the gospel. This is the root of our faith. This is the root of our church. God loves us. God loves us all! No matter what your life is like, no matter what has been done to you, no matter what you have done, no matter how messy or stinky or dirty your life is, God loves you. God will always love you. God will never stop loving you.
God loves us. And this has changed our lives.
“Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
“God showed us how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love – not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
“Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. …
“We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect …
“We love each other because he loved us first” (1 John 4:7-12, 16-19).
We are able to love each other deeply because God loved us first. Love comes from God. God is love. If we have God, we have love. If we have love, we have God. When we love, God lives in us. When we love, people see God.
Love is the root of God. Love is the root of our church. Love is the root of our mission. Love is the root of our vision. Love is the root of who we are and who we are trying to become.
What does it mean to be be “renewed”? It means to learn to love. We are being made new; having the image of God restored in us (Colossians 3:10). Like an old antique that has lost its luster, God is restoring us, renewing us, reshaping us, so that we look like him again. And what does God look like? Love. It's all about love. We become like God by loving and being loved. We live the life of God by loving and being loved. This is why we are here.
But what is love? That's a basic question, right? What does it mean to love someone? How do we know real love when we see it? If God is love, how do we know when the life of God is living in someone?
Paul gives a beautiful definition of love in his letter to the church in Corinth: “Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7).
We can learn a lot from this passage. John said God is love, so that means: God is patient and kind. (God is not impatient with us. God doesn't get angry easily.) God is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. God does not demand his own way. (God wants us to live his way, but he'll let us go our own way. He'll let us.) God is not irritable, and God keeps no record of being wronged. (God's not like us. He doesn't have a long list of all the people who have offended him and all the things they've done wrong.) Are you angry about the injustice in the world? Well, so is God. God never gives up. God never loses faith in us. God is always hopeful for us. There is nothing we can do to make God turn away from us. There is nothing that can be done to us to make God turn away. God endures with us through every circumstance.
And you can give yourself kind of a self-test to see how loving you are. Just substitute your name for the words “love” and “it.” Let's try it together. I'll say my name, and you say your name.
______ is patient and kind.
______ is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude.
______ does not demand its own way.
______ is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.
______ does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.
______ never gives up.
______ never loses faith.
______ is always hopeful.
And ______ endures through every circumstance.
So how did you do? How did it feel to say those those sentences? Were they true? I think some of us stopped after “I am patient” – oh, ughh, hmmm, that hurts.
Jesus said, “'You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:37-39). Wow! That's pretty important, right? Everything depends on how we love.
But the two most neglected words of this passage are “as yourself.” “Love your neighbor as yourself.” How loving are you toward yourself?
Are you patient and kind with yourself, or are you impatient?
Are you more rude to yourself than you are to others? Do you cut yourself down: “Stupid, stupid, stupid, why did you say that?!!”
Do you keep a record of your wrongs? “Oh, Josh, remember that time when you did THAT! You are such a screw up! Oh, man, that was dumb!”
Do you ever give up on yourself? (I'll never be able to do this. Why am I trying?)
Do you lose faith in yourself? (I guess I get what I deserve. No one will ever really love me.)
Do you love yourself? Are you delighted that God made you? Do you know that God loves you deeply just as you are?
And what about loving God? Are you patient with God? Do you get angry with God easily? Do you keep a record of God's wrongs against you? “When I get to heaven, I'm going to ask God about that and that and that!” Do you give up on God? Do you lose faith in God? Do you stick with God through every circumstance, even when you don't understand, even when everything seems to be going wrong?
We all have a lot of room to grow here. But as we live in God and in God's love, then we can begin to really love like this. God's love actually makes us new. It changes us. It restores us. It brings us back to our original purpose and begins to fulfill our potential. Remember, we were created in the image of God. We are like God. God's heart is stamped in our hearts. We are deeply valuable to God. God loves us so much, he died to be with us and to restore us.
A young Christian writer/speaker/activist named Shane Clairborne was going to his 10 year high school reunion, and he had to fill out a survey about his life now. The survey asked his profession. He didn't exactly know what to put. He doesn't have a regular job. He hangs out with people and writes stuff and helps people and just generally loves people with the love of God. So he wrote that. Lover. His 10-year high school reunion book announced him as a professional lover.
Really, that is what all of us are. That is our calling. That is our design. That is why God made us. God is love and “what God does most is love us” (Ephesians 5:2). We are made in his image, his likeness. Our deepest calling in life is to be professional lovers. Sure, you're a teacher, a scientist, a businessman, a mom, a student, but first of all, you are a lover. You are a person who loves and is loved. You are a person who loves God and loves people. You are a person who is so radically changed by the love of God so deep in your heart that in everything you do – whether teaching or researching or cooking – you love people. This is our design. This is God's intent for us. This is what we are about as a church, and this will change the world.
Let me finish with two little stories. One of my friends is learning to play the violin. One day, his violin teacher was walking down the road near his house, and he saw an old man pushing one of those recycle carts. But this guy didn't have cardboard or cans in his cart. He had a whole cart full of old violins. The violin teacher stopped to talk with the old man. He asked him where he got them. The haraboji said, “Agghh, these … they're just trash.”
The violin teacher started to look through the cart, and he found one violin that looked very old. All the strings were missing, and it was very dirty and scratched, but it was obviously old. “How much for this one?” he asked.
“Mmmhh … I'll give you that piece of junk for … man won” (10,000 won).
The violin teacher took his new prize home. He cleaned the violin and put new strings on it, and inside he saw some numbers 1 – 7 – 9 – 2 and something he could not read. So he decided to take the old violin to an antique music shop. The antique dealer held the violin very carefully and whistled. He looked at every part of the violin from every possible angle. When he saw the numbers on the inside, he said, “That is when this violin was made: 1792. And this scribbled word is the name of the maker – a famous violin craftsman from Germany. This violin – how much did you pay for it?”
“Man won.”
“Well, it's worth 750,000,000 won (칠억오백만원)! This is a rare treasure, and if you can find out it's story and how it came to be in Korea, it will be worth even more.”
This is a true story. Now that violin teacher plays beautiful music on that violin every Sunday in his church.
This violin was renewed by love. The tender love of the violin teacher restored it to its rightful purpose. Filled with his love, it was able to make beautiful music again!
I want to introduce you to David. David was born in Russia, and he spent the first years of his life in a Russian orphanage. But David is not ethnically Russian. It seems that either David's father was a worker from South Asia, maybe India. When David was born, his mother brought him to the orphanage.
David spent 4 ½ years in a rural orphanage far out in the Russian countryside. As the years went by, David showed a lot of intelligence and a joy for life. However, no one wanted to adopt him because of his dark skin. The doctors and nurses and orphanage workers became more and more concerned for David. They knew that with each passing year it would be harder for David to find an adoptive family. Most families want younger children.
But then, by chance, Ruzanna saw David's picture on an adoption website. She was not really looking for a child to adopt, but as soon as she saw the picture and his bright eyes, something clicked inside her heart. She knew instantly that she wanted to adopt David. She made the long journey by train to David's orphanage out in the countryside to visit him. Two weeks later, after completing the paper work, Ruzanna came back to the orphanage and took David home as her son.
Ruzanna says, “I am not prone to sentimental things. But I think that every child is in itself a miracle, so we should learn to love all children. David loved me with a crazy, intense love. I was just scared. I wasn't read for it, personally. I still have to learn love. That's what I'm doing.”
David's kindergarten teacher pulled Ruzanna aside and said David had special talents in music. So Ruzanna took David to a music school, and he began to play violin. David excelled so much with the violin that his teacher advised Ruzanna to find a master teacher to guide David in his music.
When his new teacher found out that David was adopted from a small orphanage in the countryside, he said, “Lord, this is simply a miracle, a holy deed, because this boy was rescued. Think about it! Do you understand? There would be nothing – none of this. Nothing like this could happen there. He's a great little guy. I'm so glad he's in my class. … When he starts to play music , he puts everything into it! Full concentration! There is no one and nothing else! He understands perfectly. That says a lot about it, of course, very talented. This ability to focus, and instantly – this is amazing!
David has become somewhat of a modern legend in Russia. He has won several musical awards and frequently participates in international competitions.1
David was unwanted and rejected. He was stuck, with nowhere to go, no way to fulfill his potential. But Ruzanna loved him, and David was renewed by her love. He flourished and grew and blossomed. Talents no one imagined bloomed in him. Value and character no one could see came shining out of him like a diamond in a black rock. He was made new by love.
An old beat up violin was really a treasure handmade by a master craftsman. A rejected orphan was really a violin prodigy waiting for the opportunity make music. They were renewed by love. What could God's love do for us? What could we become?
Here at KNU International English Church our vision is that we will all be renewed by God's love to love God, ourselves, and others. Take a risk. Love somebody. Let somebody love you. God can make us new. Take a risk. Love and be loved, and let's be made new together.
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