Sermon: Nurturing Righteous Passion

1. Wednesday Chapel, September 4, 2019

2. Malssum

 a.  Your youth and passion will serve as a catalyst and as pillars in the construction of Cheon Il Guk. Our goal has now become clear. We must endeavor to complete this providence until we breathe our last, and achieve it at all costs. You have been established in the position of the first fruits of the work of

 constructing Cheon Il Guk. (2013.03.04, SunHak Universal Peace Academy)

 b.   I have been thinking a lot about our leaders these days, and I feel that a culture by which leaders can love and take pride in each other has not yet been established. You must be able to love and take care of each more than any other social group, because you are True Parents' children. You must be completely different. 2013.09.23, Cheon Jeong Gung)

c.   When making the kingdom of heaven on earth that can realize Heavenly Parent's dream and the hopes of all people, what should you do? You should have a dream, study hard, do your very best in the work you are

 responsible for, and contribute to the development of the Hyo Jeong Cheon Won complex. (2017.02.05, CheongShim International Youth Center)

3. Introduction

                   a. We gather together at the beginning of this semester

                   b. Each person has come here, bringing along a deep desire, which we can call righteous passion

                   c. Though on a rainy Wednesday, with lots of things to do, a person may not be feeling so passionate at the moment, the deep passion for life commitment is at the core of our life.

4. Nurturing

                   a. The organic nature of moral, spiritual growth

                   b. Feeding, attending to, inspiring

                   c. Do not neglect your moral, passionate character, but

                        also do not try to "help" it grow artificially.

                   d. It means that our spiritual life, our moral cultivation

                        is a continuous process.

5. Youth and Passion

                   a. True Parents' example of passion and dedication

                        i. "We must endeavor to complete this providence

                             until we breathe our last, and achieve it at all costs."

6. Fish story

a.        I'd like to tell you a fish story.

b.        When I was a graduate student at UTS, True Father showed us how to fish in the Hudson River.

c.        The first time, we went out on the river fishing expedition with about 100 of friends and classmates, brothers and sisters.

d.        We spent many hours setting a large net as a fish trap, to catch hundreds or thousands of fish when the tides receded.

e.        We all returned the next morning with great expectations, and closed in the giant trap. But we caught no fish. Why not?

f.         There was a breach in the trap, and one fish must have discovered it. Then, following that first one, all the fish found the way to swim out and escape.

g.        True Father's laugh          

h.        Of course, he did not give up, and we did not give up.

i.         The fish were all passionate about escaping...

j.         The next time, we were more passionate than the fish, and so we caught hundreds every time.

k.        Like that first fish who found the escape, Rev. Sun Myung Moon and Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon have labored to find an escape for all of us, from the world of conflict and degradation that we are caught up in. They have set a pattern and pathway out of the material, spiritual and relational trap that human beings are caught in.

7. Love, take care of and take pride in each other

                   a. Raise up those in leadership training to love and support one another.

8. How to develop our righteous passion

                   a. The stimulation of sincerely receiving testimonies and examples

                   b. edification

9. Jake's stories

                   a. Arriving in DR with nothing, because of issues at the

                        German airport in Frankfort

                   b. Changing a heart of complain to grateful heart (story of

                        travelling with leaders to workshop or meeting, 4 hours)

                   c. Finding a brother to help him set up the 21-day

                        workshop

                        i. From Haiti, a masters student

                        ii. had already heard extended DP workshop and wanted

                             to dedicate to work with Jake

                   d. hard-working, sacrificial, persistent

10. Have a dream, study hard, do your very best in the work you are responsible for