Sermon: All Successful Life
Scripture: The Good Samaritan
So, what can we control? Usually when we try to control something, when we try to keep something under control, we do that because we want a project’s success, or an activity’s success, or a successful life, for ourselves, for others, for a community. We want success, which is really a relative term, as its meaning depends on what each individual means by it. Today’s sermon is about “What can you control?” and “What’s success?”
Last summer, while my family visited Korea, we decided to go to another province, Kyung-sang Do (in purple, in the picture), not my home town province of Jeun-ra Do (in orange, in the picture). Through history and hundred-years old politics, Kyung-sang Do and Jeun-ra Do are like the Korean version of Jews and Samaritans. I am the descendant of Samaritans; in my whole life, and Korea is really a tiny peninsula compared to the size of Canada (even cut in half by the division of North Korea and South Korea), I had visited Kyung-sang province only twice. If I say, “All of the Korean dictators came from Kyung-sang province and the people there voted and supported them”, that could be risky, but as a descendant of Jeun-ra province, I can still say that’s quite true. Under the dictators’ orders, thousands of students in my home town, who rose up demanding democracy, were killed and crushed under military tanks. Decades later, Truth and Reconciliation started, and the humble democratic movement figure, Jeun-ra-province-born Dae-Joong Kim, was elected to be the next president. I vividly remember all of my province’s people crying and celebrating (like “Dance in the Spirit”, the Easter hymn) and whole schools abandoned textbook teaching that day; instead, all of a sudden, teachers started to teach their children about what this election meant for all of us, breaking their silence: the new beginning and hope for the country moving towards democracy. These two provinces also use starkly different dialects. How different? Different like a New Yorker talking to someone from small-town Mississippi. Can they make sense to each other?
So, in my family’s inaugural trip to Kyung-sang Do, Min-Goo’s friend welcomed us and took us on a tour; we were in a subway train. I started to talk to Min-Goo’s friend what impressions I had received, what I observed, what I saw in this province, with my loud excited voice and with my home province’s dialect. Min-Goo’s friend, then, said to me, humorously, “Ha Na ssi(Ms.), keep your voice down. You are SO BRAVE in this subway train to talk about these things in Jeun-ra dialect. LOL. People here are VERY sensitive.”
Later, I told this story to my father, who was born, grown, and still lives in my home province, and he said, “Ha Na. That really reminds me of what I experienced… People call it…what… a trauma? Your Dad had it, the trauma. When I was in my twenties, I went to Kyung-sang province, and just stepped onto a full bus. To pay the bus fare, I talked to the bus driver in my Jeu- ra dialect, and instantly everyone’s eyes, all the 20+ people, young and old, all laser-focused on me with suspicion and anger, almost telling me, ‘Why is that guy on this bus? He’s not supposed to be here.’ I was so shocked and frightened.”
In my family’s trip to Kyung-sang Do this summer, after the subway talk, I went to the bus station. Then, I really could see what it was like when Kyung-sang-Do really oppressed Jeun-ra-Do, when my father was in his twenties. The Jeun-ra-Do based company’s buses that connect between the two provinces are placed - even now - in the very farthest, the 20th, basically the last, boarding gate to not be seen. And those buses had a designated segregated parking lot a block away from the bus station itself.
I will soon get to the point of why I am sharing these stories – but I need just one more story to get there. What’s quite interesting was what my father continued to share with me: When the Jeon-ra born democratic movement pioneer Mr. Kim became president, the small population of Kyung-sang people living in Jeon-ra Do for their jobs got panicked. They got so scared of retaliation, they talked to each other, asking, ‘Should we leave here today?” But you see, there was no one in Jeun-ra who was thinking of retaliation. It was Kyung-sang people’s projection of their behaviour or fear onto Jeun-ra people that now Jeun-ra people were empowered, they would retaliate against the Kyung-sang people. We only celebrated the great step all Koreans could make with the election that day.
This conversation I had with my father in Korea during our trip gave me a lens to look at today’s reading: the Good Samaritan. Imagine you are beaten, neglected and rejected by two people already, and abandoned on the road for hours, and finally the third person comes and looks at you lying on the road, hurt and helpless. You barely open your eyes, or you just could hear the voice of this person talking to you in a particular dialect you can notice - Ouch. This is a Samaritan. And you are a Jewish person. At that moment, you may feel a fear or despair so intense that it feels like your blood is running in reverse. You could expect to be mocked, despised, or possibly retaliated against, and only wish that this person would just neglect you and pass by. But what was the Samaritan’s response in Jesus’ story? “When the Samaritan saw the wounded Jew, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.” The Samaritan was moved by pity and chose compassion. What I would like to submit as a possible scenario is this: Simply, this could really be what actually happened. The person in the centre, in this story, the Jewish person, could have projected what they fear based on their own past behaviour, to the other, the Samaritan. The Samaritan could return the way that the Samaritans were treated to the Jew: disgust, segregation, insults, fear, anger, even retribution. But, that could simply be the projection of the privileged when encountering those whom they have disadvantaged. The Samaritan has no obligation to fulfill the Jewish person’s fears; they could simply follow what they believe and practice in their daily life, just naturally, following their faith, tradition, culture, which is care, compassion, mercy, Treat others just as you would like to be treated.
If you find yourself having power over a certain person, or a group, who are traditionally your oppressors, what will you choose? The fact that we are able to make a choice shows that we are able to exert a certain level of control over what we will do next. This is my second submission to you in this sermon: You can choose; what you cannot control is the result of the behaviour or the action you choose. It is a very important thing to remember when you are in negotiation. It is not the result or how you will close the negotiation that you must put your effort into controlling. The best and most effective way to do a negotiation is, first of all, to respect the other’s ability to say No to what you propose. What you can control are your behavioural goals - how you will approach as the best version of yourself. What we can control is our behavioural goals. Of course, it’s not as if we can correct our behaviour immediately just because we want to, nor can we become a saint overnight. And yet, we can control our behavioural goals, such as choosing compassion.
The following is what I would like to suggest as our behavioural goals, living in such a time as ours:
Humility.
Compassion, maitri (Mother-like love, mercy).
Small is All. (“The fractals of resilience”)
To have a vision for the future as Green Earth
We need more and more of these behavioural goals every day. Everywhere. When you feel uncertain about how you should respond to a certain circumstance, or with and in front of a person, test the value of these behavioural goals: How would humility make changes. What kind of world would you like to envision for today and for the future?
What’s interesting is that people fear a thing called “reverse discrimination.” It’s the false belief that once the oppressed and those who traditionally have been less privileged become privileged and gain power, through equality or equity, they will treat their former oppressors the way they have been treated. For example, if the Samaritans meet the Jews, the Samaritans will return how they have been treated back to the Jews. Once Jeun-ra people become more equal and elect a president who was born in their province, a pioneer of the democratic movement, who was jailed several times, and almost put to death, they will retaliate against the Kyung-sang people. But what’s more likely to happen, more broadly, more profoundly, is the intersection of oppression; intersection of care; intersection of solidarity. Because these people have known what it is like to be oppressed, marginalized, hated and heartbroken, what’s more likely to happen than reverse discrimination is to take the others under their wings and offer hospitality, like the Samaritan in Jesus’ story. When my family moved to Winnipeg, those who welcomed us and took us under their wings were Lesbian and Gay ministers. I can only interpret it this way: Because they have understood what it is like to be a Samaritan in sexuality and gender, they wanted to understand more and offer hospitality to those who might have been in a similar situation due to race and culture. These ministers share the dream of an anti-racist world, because they have suffered, too. The opposite example is this: In Winnipeg, one of my dearest friends, a Korean male minister, told me the reason why he is hesitant to endorse feminism is because he believes that once females gain power, they will use that power to oppress males, (He said, “That’s just the human nature”), as a way to even the score. See?
In the midst of everything, those who choose to struggle alongside one another, especially in solidarity with the oppressed and the marginalized, and those who strive to work together regardless of social privilege and status, have what they can control. You have control. Your behavioural goals. What do you want for your behavioural goals that will guide your process of life-size negotiation with faith? Humility, compassion, maitri, having faith in the resilient power of “every small action”, and a vision for the future as Green, shared, Earth. You cannot control the result of your behaviours and actions - and this statement is actually liberating. You focus on what you can control. You can control your behavioural goals.
That’s the thing for Successful Life; it defines what success is, how a successful life functions… Humility, mother-like love, compassion, the right story for the right vision: abundance for all, Green Earth.
Octavia Butler’s classic, “The Parable of the Sower” has a protagonist, and she’s a Black girl, and in that book, Butler says, “All successful life is…
Adaptable
Opportunistic
Tenacious
Interconnected…
Fecund…
Understand this. Use it. Shape god.”
How do we do that? How do we shape God, regardless of who we are going to end up with in a situation? And in the future? How do we know how to be with whomever is also there? Struggle against, or struggle alongside? Strive against, or strive alongside? How do you shape God, how do you know what success is, how you are doing, how you are successful… It’s not material success. It’s not even listed results. Not money. Not power. Not revenge. Success is how you achieve your Behavioural Goals - and in today’s story Jesus actually summarizes it: You shall love your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself. With God’s adaptable, opportunistic, tenacious, interconnected and fecund love, - meaning, the love that generates life.
With God’s love, with God’s love, with God’s love, we shape God. That’s success.
Comments
Post a Comment