Pastor’s Corner – August 11, 2024
John 6:35, 41-51
Growing up as a pastor’s kid, my dad would often take me to one of his regular church members’ home visitations. It’s customary in these visits that as soon as you walk into their home, you immediately sit quietly and pray in silence for a minute or two with eyes closed and head bowed (same thing when you walk into a sanctuary). Then fruit or drinks or meals would be offered, depending on the time of arrival. I remember on one occasion when we sat around the table before a meal, dad prayed giving thanks and blessings. While everyone had their eyes closed, heads bowed, I had my eyes wide open looking around observing the adults in prayer. Then I noticed a fly buzzing around the table and landed on a bowl of rice. After everyone said “Amen,” the fly flew off. Soon after, one of the adults reached out the very spot where the fly landed and took a spoon full of rice out and threw it away. I said to myself, “wow how did she see with her eyes closed?”
It’s hard for me to shake this memory off my childhood experience! The habit of praying over meals whether in private or public was ingrained in me, and yes, I learned to pray with one eye closed and the other open, just in case. Not always of course. Since I left the Korean American church, or I should say was no longer welcomed because of my theological evolution as a pastor, serving non-immigrant congregations over time, my habit and what was expected in the Korean immigrant church weaned off. This doesn’t mean we don’t pray over meals. We do say grace and pray together when we gather. We would rather keep it more private alway from public eyes. We are not here to show off our piety. I often felt awkward complying to expectations of when and how one should pray. There are times when we are compelled to pray, because our heart demands it to commune with God. Jesus also taught his disciples to pray in private, though there are times of public prayer in worship. It’s all about one’s disposition of the heart. In the end Jesus was concerned with where our heart was and whether our prayer was genuinely directed to God, not as a display of self-righteousness.
This coming Sunday we continue the Jesus Bread story in the gospel, expounding last Sunday’s reading, “I am the bread of life” to “you must eat my flesh to have eternal life.” In the end what concerned Jesus was whether his followers believed him or not as a messenger of God who embodied life giving manna. “The Word became flesh and dwelled among us!” The followers’ heart to be receptive to the message of the gospel is at the center of the story. It’s not cannibalism as some took offense with literal meaning. However, it’s also more than a symbolic message because his life, death and resurrection is lived experience as the truth of God’s love and mercy.
See you all Sunday morning and let us gather around the Lord’s table and pray together. A lot has happened this past week, and indeed we need to pray together. Amen.
Pastor Dae