설교

우리 손을 잡아요 - 요한복음 17:20~23 [Feliciana 목사 / 음성]

작성자
살림교회
작성일
2018-03-18 14:29
조회
9381
2018년 3월 18일(일) 오전 11:00 천안살림교회
제목: 우리 손을 잡아요
본문: 요한복음 17:20~23
펠리시아나(Feliciana Polvos-Tenchavez) 목사 / 필리핀그리스도연합교회 서비사야스 교구 총무
통역: 이진경 교우




Title: “LET ME HOLD YOUR HAND”
Text: John 17:20-21, Phil. 1:3-5

Good morning brothers and sisters in Christ! It is an honor for me, to be part of this special worship service as part of our continuing effort and prayer for fruitful partnership as a church. And I’m so thankful to our partnership and the presence of our active PROK co-mission worker Rev. Tae Hwa Barng in the Philippines.
As I was thinking of what would be our reflection today, I thought of a metaphor to describe our relationship together as partners in mission. Thinking of many metaphors, I ended up looking at my hands. As I was looking on my hands, even it was injured a month ago due to vehicular accident, I was reminded of the symbols of unity and partnership.
Let me share to you a very interesting poem by an unknown author entitled
“IT DEPENDS WHOSE IT’S IN”

A basketball in my hands is worth about $19
A basketball in Michael Jordan’s hands is
worth about $33 million
It depends whose hands it’s in

A tennis racket is useless in my hands
A tennis racket in Sharapova’s hands
is a title for Championship
It depends whose hands it’s in

A rod in my hands will keep away a wild animal
A rod in Moses’ hands will part the mighty sea
It depends whose hands it’s in

A sling shot in my hands is a kid’s toy
A sling shot in David’s hand is a mighty weapon.
It depends whose hands it’s in

Two fish and 5 loaves of bread in my hands
is a couple of fish sandwiches.
But Two fish and 5 loaves of bread in God’s
hands will feed thousands of people
It depends whose hands it’s in

Nails in my hands might produce a house
Nails in Jesus Christ’s hands
Will produce salvation for the entire world.
It depends whose hands it’s in

As you see now, it depends whose hands it’s in.
So put your concerns, your worries, your fears,
your hopes, your dreams, your families and
your relationships in God’s hands because
It depends whose hands it’s in.
(Author Unknown)

Hands…hands… hands, these two hands of ours are very powerful.
How do we use our hands? We all know that we can use our hands in so many ways. We need hands in doing our different works at home, in our workplace and in our church. We could not even imagine to lose our hands, because we depend so much on it. Moreover we can identify many powerful usage of our hands. For example:
We use our hands as :
1. It is a sign of gratitude
2. It is a sign of appreciation
3. It is a sign of greetings
4. It is a language
Not only that! Hands are also signs of power or authority:
1. To lay the hands upon. When a pastor lays a hand, it means a blessing, symbolical in the act of healing, imposition of responsibility or blessings.
2. Lifting up the hand. A newly elected official must take an oath as a sign of commitment to serve.
3. To put the hands to the mouth. When we want to shut up or to signal our kids to be quiet, we use our hand as sign of silence.
4. We use it to make a living.
5. We use it when we pray, when we give, when we comfort, when heal, when we care.
6. We use to express our unity and solidarity.
We cannot also deny, that many of us use our hands in bad intentions, chaos, greediness, and many other things that harm other people, and creates wall and barrier and I think those defeat the purpose of having these two hands.
When we try to picture out the word “UNITY and PARTNERSHIP”, it is always like this. We use the image of hands to connect each other.
Our text in the gospel of John 17:20-23, summarizes our intention and purpose getting involved in partnership. During Jesus ministry, he did not only take time to work, to heal to teach, to feed, to have fellowship with his disciples and followers but also it took time to pause, taking time to pray. We may wonder what would be Jesus prayer after all. Well, I guess our text in John 17 tells us a part of it, and yet the most significant. It tells us what Jesus’ ultimate prayer is to unite everybody. This is the heart of his prayer. Here Jesus shares one of the most overlooked Christian value and characteristic, the spirit of unity. The desire to love, to support, to encourage, and acceptance no matter who and what we are, the desire to be in solidarity with others. Unity not in the sense we should be a like, but we treat each other with respect and love.
Now, if this is the heart of Jesus’ prayer, what then the church must do?

The word Unity has become over used by some people who profess to follow Christ. How can the church ever be the answer to Christ’s prayer?
There were many efforts and attempts to response to Christ’s prayer. Some will suggest unity through institutions, through church leaders. Some suggest unity through dialogue and declarations. Sit down with Christians and come to doctrinal agreements on as many things as we can. Or perhaps we should pursue unity through ecumenical services where we put “give and take” into action in our worship. That can be an expression of unity. Unity is about holding to something common to us/ not just our differences BUT that is our LOVE for Christ. The Love for Christ but binds us together in unity that bear fruits, fruit of action using our hands.
Mother Theresa once said,
“God has no hands but our hands to do his works today
God has no feet but our feet to lead others in his way
God has no voice but our voice to tell others how he died.”
St. Teresa of Avila
IF OUR HANDS CAN BE THE MEANS OF UNITY AND PATNERSHIP, HOW DO WE SEE OUR HANDS?
When we look at our hands? What do we see?
FIRST, we must see the hands that serve
I- The word Bear and SERVICE
Through God, our hands can serve according to what it means for us to do so base in our conviction and faith commitment. The works and services of Jesus Christ that leads to His sacrifices and even ended up into a crucifixion must be a model to all who wants to follow Him. A service that is not coated with “IF”, that is conditional… perhaps sometimes we say; I will help and serve you if you help me, I will help you if I get something from you… a service rendered that expects something in return. My dear brethren, our great God challenge us to serve willingly that is base on His unfathomed love and grace.
The imagery of a hand has deep meaning to us Christians, it means service. Serving God through serving others.

“Everybody can be great. Because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve.... You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve.
You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.

I believe that Jesus has a great purpose intention of calling for unity of all people. Why unity? I guess this implies a greater work to be done. When many of his follower come to be united and do his mission, there could be a collective effort, for making the impossible possible, for making difficult into easy one and for making God’s kingdom a reality here on earth. It is the hands that serve….

SECOND, we must see our hands that protect.
II-PROTECTION and HEALING
Through God, our hands can protect and heal. To protect is one of God’s call to his followers. Throughout the Bible, God did call his people to protect and uphold each other’s lives, not just for humanity but even for the creation. We can observe locally, nationally and globally the people’s struggles for rights and dignity. Human rights violation is a big issue in the Philippines for the presence of political and extra judicial killings, war on drugs initiated by the administration which is thousands of victims that leads the increase of orphans and widows. The voice of the church as the voice of God should be manifested not to remain silent and pious. Our faith must put into action that is to protect and uplift lives of the downtrodden and the masses.

We must see our hands that heal. Healing is one of the works of Jesus in His ministry. He heals physical infirmities and even broken relationships. God too calls his people to be healers to humankind and even to the rest of creation. Our hands must not be the reason to destroy others but instead for healing that mends pains and struggles. We cultivate relationships characterized by genuine affection, comfort, respect, honesty and trust and even increase our level of involvement in and outside the church.
THIRD, We must see our hands as
III- A Hand that promotes UNITY and PEACE
The gospel narrates to us the context of the story where Jesus prayed before his arrest. This must be the final moment that he can be with his disciples and before leaving them, he wanted to make sure that, even without him, his disciples could still continue the mission he has started through unity, helping each other and be with in another, be in solidarity with others as they may face many uncertainties along the way. The troubles and chaos around us is not something new hence people tend to neglect and bypass to avoid risk. But Jesus absorbs all uncertainties and takes all form of risks and even put Him to death to obtain peace and unity. He never gave up until His death and resurrected for giving us hope and courage to take up and bear God’s mission.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, Jesus’ call for unity is part of the mission that the church must take and uphold. Then, we must make efforts for this cause. We have our hands to do so. We must see our hands that create unity, build the bridge. And not the hands that creates wall and barrier.

Conclusion
“As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands;
one for helping yourself, the other for helping others”.
Audrey Hepburn
My dear brothers and sisters, God’s hand and our hands are connected. God use the hand to create the masterpiece in us. God gave us hands not to be served but to serve. God gave us hands to protect and not to hurt others or to harm others. God gave us hands to heal and blessed others. God gave us hand, so that we can lend one hand for our self and the other hand to help others. God gave us the hand to promote unity and solidarity. A hand that made unity possible. A hand that breaks down the barrier. The hands that serve without hesitation and limitation,. The hands that blessed and inspires. So, let God hold our hands and let us hold our hands for unity and partnership in God’s mission….. To God be the glory! Amen.
전체 0
천안살림교회