In Jin Moon
Washington DC
1. Good morning Washington DC! Happy, happy Mother's Day to all of you. To the special woman seated next to you in the audience. I'm surely delighted to be with all of you here this morning.
Rev. Mark Tengan giving the Lovin' Life unday sermon May 20, 2012
2. You know we have two more district pastors to go (to give sermons for Lovin' Life Ministries), Rev. Tengan and Rev Francis. I asked Rev. Francis if he could allow me to speak this morning, because it would be a wonderful opportunity to really congratulate all the mothers in the audience and to wish all women, all across the country, a happy Mother's Day. So, Rev. Francis graciously allowed me to take the pulpit this morning.
3. Whenever I am getting ready to come up on stage, and I am listening to the wonderful music by the Lovin' Life Band. Today in particular we had a little taste of the Ballroom Dance Ministry – Ariana, my daughter, has really been investing her heart and soul into. She said to me, "Mommy, I am so nervous." I said, "Why are you so nervous, you're not dancing." "Yes, but I have never been so nervous, because those are my babies out there!" So I said, "wow, you haven't found the one yet that you are going to go to the Blessing with, and you have yet to embark on the next level of your life as a blessed couple and hopefully build a beautiful ideal family so that mommy can be a grandma real soon, but for her to express to me how much she loves her babies – she is just every ounce, every cell in her body, and every prayer in her soul is out there with her children on stage. I said, "You know, someday you are going to make a very lucky man really happy and you are going to be an awesome mom someday."
4. But you know, for those of us who've had children, that is exactly how we feel. When I think about this and when I think about our Heavenly Parent up in heaven I realize that this is how much our Heavenly Father and our Heavenly Mother truly love us. Because, each and every one of us, is like this precious and unique and divine creation of their love. And so all of us have infinite value, and all of us have divine value, and truly this life, this gift of life that we've been given is an opportunity to really make something beautiful out of it – and to, in a way, give back to our wonderful Heavenly Parent, thanking them in an attitude of gratitude for a life well lived.
5. When I think about what a fantastic community we have, and you know, as the senior pastor, as the mother figure for the country, nothing makes me more proud than to see my team, or my children, doing so well. I was so tickled pink when GPA came back from the choir competition after four months of practicing, thanks to Mrs. Tombo, and also the investment that Mitsuro and also the Lovin' Life band made, the kids came back with the number one gold medal. It's amazing!
6. And I know that there were moments of difficulty, there were moments of great rumblings, because we had to practice and persevere, and really work towards the goal, but once these kids decided that they are representing America, they are representing all of you, and they as the representatives are going to put up a really good fight to the different choirs that have been doing this for a very, very long time – I thought that they really went with the right spirit. My philosophy when it comes to the arts is that technique is the bare minimum. So a lot of the other choirs had great technique, and perhaps better technique. But the thing about music and the arts is that it's a medium through which we channel the Divine, we channel the spirit, so that we can feel imbued with what God wants to share, or partake with all of us.
7. And so they had, not the best technique, but the best attitude and a great spirit. They knocked the socks off of a really, really tough Korean audience, and came back with a gold medal. This is truly the case of things to come in America. If we can truly inspire the younger generation to excel, to be that externally excellent and internally excellent human being, then, once they have been bitten by their passions and their desire to really make life worthwhile, there is no limit to what our children can accomplish. Therefore, there is no limit to what we can expect for the future of this great movement and this great community.
8. I was so delighted, when we got together after the district pastors meeting at the beginning of the year and the Lovin' Life Ministries that we have every Sunday, that we share every Sunday, was truly a work in progress for the last three years. And when I first unveiled the vision I think a lot of people were not too happy, were not too excited, or did not quite understand what we wanted to accomplish, together with our membership here in the United States. But, the beginning of this year was truly an inspiring month for me, because this year was the first time that all the District Pastors said, "I get it now, I get what you're trying to do, and we are all in."
Catherine Booth, wife of William Booth founder of the Salvation Army
9. And once that foundation has been laid, we came back from Korea with our Father's motto for this year, basically asking all of us to take ownership of our faith, to take ownership of our lives. So I said, "One of the things, one of my favorite quotes, is by this lady called Catherine Booth. She is the founder of the Salvation Army and she has done so many great works all across, not just her own country where she started, but she has touched numerous people all around the world. And one of the things that she used to say is that, "in order to better the world we must disturb the present." In fact, we must make people uncomfortable, we must challenge them, we must provoke them – we must provoke them to respond in order to better the world.
Sun Myung Moon and Hak Ja Han – April 6, 2012
10. This has been one of my favorite quotes. And so, when my father as the Messiah, as the anointed one, as the Lord of lords – and the beautiful thing about our True Father is that he doesn't come alone. He comes together with our True Mother as the True Parents of all mankind. The Messiah comes, not to make us comfortable in our own skins, not to make us comfortable with familiar things, but he comes with the breaking news. He comes to, in a way, challenge us to do better, challenge us to win the gold medal in each part of our lives, to provoke us to think, to provoke us to re-imagine a world where we can live as one family under God.
11. Messiah, comes to disturb our preconceived notions of how, for instance, a man and a woman should relate to each other. So, in a sense, when our Father asked us to take ownership in this year of the Black Dragon, this is the year in the East when all great enterprises can come to great fruition and great success. There is tremendous fortune that comes with this year. And the great thing about our True Parents is they're seizing upon this heavenly fortune saying, "Here take it, own it, make it yours, be all that you can be, be that empowered individual, that empowered couple, that inspired family that is going to connect the world and contribute something to the world that will make lives for all of humanity that much better."
12. When you look at our True Father he really has a finger on the pulse of providential history. He knows what's going to happen. And when Father asked us to take ownership, then it is time for the district pastors to not just be familiar in their seats, not just have the senior pastor do the job, and actually own up, and not just say that they are all in but to act upon, so that we are not one pastor administering to the flock, but we are a family, we are a team, we are one family under God working together in the process of building a better world and a better future for our community, for our children, and for the sake of the world.
Ariana Moon giving the Lovin' Life Sunday Sermon December 11, 2011
13. And I say, for those of us who thought that love and life Ministry is all about building the pulpit, or is all about building just one mega-church, I say nay. We have to disturb our preconceived notions of what a ministry is. This is not the building up of one charismatic figure, or one senior pastor, but Lovin' Life Ministries is about building the future. It's about building a family. A mother's job is not to always be the mother for the rest of her life, but for her to raise her young children, just like the way Ariana has done, to make them better then she is. That's the mother's heart, and to have them go forward and represent their community and their faith better than she did. That's the mother's job.
14. And so we must disturb our notion of what the ministry of our senior pastor is. In a way it's making a lot of people uncomfortable. But at the same time this is the way we make a better community, a better team, and a better family – and I want to thank all of you for supporting the district pastors as they have come and taken the pulpit and have experienced the burden of the pulpit at the Manhattan Center. And I feel that once they have come across the Manhattan Center pulpit, they can even understand it that much better as to how much work goes in to building a ministry, to putting together a worship like this. There is a whole group of people that we must thank each and every day for their hard work, behind the scenes. It's a family effort. And that's the most important thing in our lives, our family, our community, our movement, and our humanity.
15. I think, in a way, the foundation that we are laying at the beginning of the year, with all the district pastors being all in and all of you being so supportive – and it's a wonderful opportunity for a lot of the second gen who have never really gone through the conversion experience in their own lives – to hear about how these different district pastors came into their faith, or found God, or found our True Parents.
Michael Lamson giving the Lovin' Life Sunday Sermon on May 6, 2012
16. I want to thank all the district pastors that have spoken, but the last three that I would like to mention – Rev. Takami, Rev Krishnek, and also Rev Lamson. You know, I didn't know that Rev. Takami had this wonderful story about an oversized sweater. I had no idea that he was so inspired by his wife knitting him an oversized sweater, that he was so overcome with the spirit that he wanted to immediately start family life – which resulted in five kids much later. But it's those kinds of stories that tell you a little bit about the man. So, whenever I think about Rev. Takami, I'm thinking, maybe perhaps other wives in the audience might think about knitting their husband an oversized sweater.
Larry Krishnek giving the Lovin' Life Sunday Sermon on April 29,, 2012
17. Or Rev. Krishnek – he had a wonderful show and tell about Alaska, pictures that he shared with our community, and Rev. Lamson really making a plea to our community to really be that Lovin' Life community, really opening up ourselves to not being judgmental, allowing the prodigals to come back to the family, to the fold – reaching out and bringing a friend to church. It was a wonderful, wonderful message, and I must say that I am incredibly, incredibly proud of all of them and I want to thank all of them thus far.
18. So when I think about the job that I have here at headquarters, I really feel so lucky to be part of this American team. And so lucky to be living at this time with our True Parents. And when I think about all the men and women of history, that have gone before and will come after, I really feel that all of us seated here are lottery winners in that we get to live, and walk and breathe together with our True Parents doing the good work that we are doing.
19. Our True Parents are incredibly important to our lives and to the world, because they come bearing the breaking news. It is the teachings of our Father, Dr Rev Sun Myung Moon that have taught us that Jesus did not come to die on the cross. You know Jesus dying on the cross is just half the story. In a way, Jesus was supposed to live and find that beautiful wife so that he could be the True Parents of all mankind and help the children of God graft on to the heavenly lineage through the process of the Blessing. In essence what Jesus Christ should have done 2000 years ago is exactly what our True Parents are very well known for all across the world, and that is mass weddings. It is the portal through which the sinful children of the world can become divine, holy, purified children of the world. This is the gift that our True Parents bring.
20. When you think about it, the fact that we have a True Mother in place – for me as a woman is an incredibly inspiring fact for me, each and every day. When I was a student of theology at the Divinity school I often thought and I often looked at our movement, "you know our movement started in the East, in Korea, and a lot of the cultural baggage, the good and the bad, remain with us in our community, so when will women finally find equal footing in terms of their internal value and when will mother's be recognized as that crucial ingredient that makes a parent? And when will woman be supported and nurtured to be the incredible leaders that they can be?" These are the questions I often thought about.
21. But the great thing about indemnity and restoration and the work of providential history is that Father is taking, together with our True Mother, the providential history forward. Father started as the Messiah coming to deliver the breaking news, coming to find that wife, to find that beautiful daughter of God that he can stand together with as the True Parents of all mankind. But once they started working together, in a way our True Mother, our beautiful True Mother, also started the work of restoration. Her suffering and her determination to really see victory in her lifetime has truly resulted in her ability to stand as that victorious Eve, next to that victorious Adam, our True Father.
22. And so in a way, she has cleansed the way for all of us women to, in a way, break away from the burdens of sin, from the burdens of misunderstanding, the burdens of being regulated as second-class citizens – in our lives and in our world. Because she can stand so victoriously as that original, and that divine daughter of God, together with our True Father – women can find renewed value in themselves. We can lift our heads up high as that divine daughter of God. And in a way we can be propelled, be supported, and nurtured to do many many great works – an active work in the life of faith together with our fathers, our brothers, and our sons.
23. This is the amazing thing about our True Parents. In a way, they have come to tell us that the story, the half story of Jesus' crucifixion – and the paradigm of piety being that life of sacrifice, that life of denial – was not the true intention of our Heavenly Parent when He created Adam and Eve, His son and daughter. The true intention, the true wish that our Heavenly Parent had for all of us – is not to live our lives in denial, all alone like Jesus Christ, but what they really intended, what they had hoped for, what they had wished for – was for Jesus to be married, to have the blessing, to build an ideal family, to be that parent so that he could fully experience exactly the feeling that our Heavenly Parent felt when he created all of us. That's what God had wanted for Jesus and that's what God had wanted for all of us.
24. Had Jesus married 2000 years ago all the good Christians, all those good pious people, would not have had to waste away in an aesthetic lifestyle, or in a life of denial, many times self flagellating themselves because they were seen as sinful, they were seen as worthless, they were seen as creatures crawling on the earth not worthy to lift up their heads to the Lord. But that we were meant to be much much greater, we were meant to be that empowered and inspired son and daughter of God.
25. Had Jesus married we would have seen families instead of these single men and women who have given their lives for the faith, forgoing the true intention that God desired for all of them, which is marriage and family and the ability to experience parental love through having children of their own.
26. In a way, had Jesus married, our world would be a very, very different place. We would have understood that it's not really a life of denial that our Heavenly Parent is wanting for all of us, but what our Heavenly Parent is wanting for all of us is truly a life of fulfillment, being fulfilled in our lives, being fulfilled in our life of faith, being fulfilled building this ideal family.
27. And so, our True Father comes and says, "Jesus was not supposed to be crucified, he was supposed to have a family. The Messiah comes with an incredible gift of the blessing."
28. And whenever I think of the gift of the blessing, I often like to think back about this cartoon that I saw quite a few months ago. It was a cartoon about these pious brothers working deep, deep, deep in the earth in a dark and desolate cave, many many miles below the surface. And these brothers, under the light of a flickering candle were all huddled together on a wooden table constantly transcribing and translating these manuscripts, words from our Heavenly Father and from our dear brother Jesus Christ. And this is how they lived their lives, all crouched over, all wrinkled, they looked miserable. They looked like they had not eaten a decent meal for weeks. Their eyes are googly and bloodshot. They are so tired. They are so absolutely determined that they are going to translate and transcribe these precious words.
29. And these pious brothers are writing down the word celibate. God is asking us, all of us, to live a life of celibacy. And they are writing these words and these letters as if it's the most precious thing.
30. Then, in the midst of this solemn occasion, a young upstart brother, who doesn't quite have the right haircut, comes running down into the cave and says, "Brothers! Brothers! We have been wrong!" And the brothers look up in the cartoon and they say, "What are you talking about?" And all these older men are solemn and serious, these half starved miserable men, "What are you talking about?" And this young upstart is saying, "Brothers! Brothers! We are transcribing and translating it wrong." And these old brothers go, "What are you talking about, we've been here at work for decades. We are doing this good and great work. What are you talking?" And this young upstart says, "Brothers, you have translated and transcribed the word celibate wrong. It's not celibate, but God is commanding us to celebrate!"
31. So the young upstart says, "we forgot the 'R'" and so all of human history has been stressing the importance of celibacy, a life of denial, an ascetic lifestyle, a life in which we forgo the most precious gift in our lives, the blessing. But God, the word that he spoke, is not for us to be celibate but for us to celebrate.
32. So we forgot the 'R'. The 'R' that stands for relationship, brothers and sisters. And the reason why we need True Parents in our lives is that they bring us the breaking news, to tell us, "Look, the greatest gift that God is giving to all of us is the Blessing."
33. And Blessing means, not to just waste away as a single person, miles and miles down in some dark cave for decades, but to celebrate our lives by taking that step forward, to find that beautiful wife, or that handsome husband, and to take that step forward into actually building something beautiful and awesome, not just wishing for it in our dreams. I often think, I wonder how many of these solemn and starved brothers, miles and miles down into the earth, have often dreamed about a beautiful dance like the one we saw with the (young couples – who danced before the sermon) up here. I am sure, even if they are transcribing these solemn words, their innate desire is to experience love – something as beautiful and glorious as those two dancers whirling around on stage, truly expressing the beauty of being alive with every cell in their body. I'm sure, just like you and me, those brothers often dreamed about these things.
34. Now, with our True Parents we actually have the chance to turn it into reality and to experience it in our own lives. And the beauty of the Divine Principle is that, when you pick up a magazine anywhere – airport, at the mall, at the bookstore, and you kind of peruse through the different magazines that exist – and one of the favorite topics that they always come back to is how to make a relationship better, how to improve a relationship, "these are the tools to make your relationship work."
35. In a way the R word, relationship, is a loaded word. And nobody really knew how to go about having a great relationship in the context of a family or in the context of a relationship between a husband and wife, or in the context between siblings and colleagues and friends that we have. Nobody really knew how we need to treat each other, and be kind to each other, and be generous to each other.
36. But our True Parents come to really give us the tools on how to work these things out, by going through the experience of building ideal families of our own. Our True Father has often mentioned that the family is the textbook of love. That's where you learn about all the different relationships – the vertical and the horizontal, the relationship between husband and wife, the relationship between parent and child, the relationship between siblings. This is how we work on ourselves, by truly rubbing up against each other, by honing our skills to be that better human being. This is the gift our True Parents bring.
37. When we think about our lives, and when they realize that, for those of us who have lived with this understanding that we need to live for the sake of others, and have somehow misunderstood living for the sake of others as dying for the sake of others, we realize that God's intention, when he tells us to celebrate our lives, is not to be that shriveled up human being, the kind – like a lightbulb that is not plugged into the circuit on the wall – but what Heavenly Father wants us to do is to become that luminous light truly channeling that magical electric current that is coming through the circuit so that we can really share our light with the rest of the world. That is what our Heavenly Father wants us to do when he asks us to celebrate.
38. When you really think about it, the work of Lovin' Life has a couple things that we need to think about. Lovin' Life Ministries comes to really help us reposition our understanding of our lives as something that many of us, of the first generation, thought that it had to be a life of denial, had to be mission and nothing else, mission and no family, mission and no kids, mission above all else – and many of us were burned out along the way.
39. We need to reposition our thinking to understand that in order to celebrate our lives, in order to celebrate our faith in our community, we need to understand that God's original intention is for us, not to be living a life of denial to the extent that we can no longer function as healthy, normal, emotional, spiritual human beings – but that we need to live a life of fulfillment. We need to be alive. We need to be joyful. We need to be happy. We need to share laughter.
40. And you know when I was much younger and we had many, many Divine Principle workshops that all these second generation were asked to go to – many times the teachers looked at me and said, "That girl is truly hopeless, because she's too happy. She's not serious." In Korea, if you smile too much in a classroom setting you are seen as lightweight, you're seen as lacking gravitas, you're seen as somebody who is not serious about the matter at hand.
41. But you know, when I was younger I was truly happy. And I was happy to be alive, happy to be learning something new. But if you are not sitting there gravely, concentrating on the message at hand – your face had to be constricted, your body had to be scrunched over, you had to have clenched fists each time to show your faith, and if you didn't you were seen as someone that doesn't understand.
In Jin Moon and Jin Sung Pak with their first child Preston Shin Myung (a son born October 11, 1986)
42. But I realized that, when I became a mother, if you want to raise healthy competent children you cannot be a mother constantly looking with furrowed brows, constantly with clenched fists and constantly being serious all the time. We're going to scare our children away. I realized that in order to be an effective teacher, because I home-schooled my kids – in order to be an effective mother guiding and nurturing these kids, I had to be fun, I had to laugh, I had to attract them into the classroom to want to learn, and I had to make it interesting. I had to make it interactive. I could not just lecture, but I had to make it interactive – give them a chance to respond and a chance to contribute.
43. And I realized that the greatest learning took place when the kids were having fun. So, in a way, when we think about re-branding our church or repositioning our concepts from what it was, to what it needs to be, from that of denial to that of fulfillment – laughter and fun and excitement, interactive relationships, are crucial to the work that we need to do in terms of building healthy families, communities, and world. And Lovin' Life Ministries is here to help us re-think – a lot of the old concepts that were stifling, and to really help us liberate ourselves from the old concepts or the old models – "we cannot do this. We cannot have rock music as a part of our worship" – why not? "We cannot have people that don't look quite right on stage." Why not? Why? Does the rock band have to all be in three-piece suits brothers and sisters? "We can't have a church in a movie theater." Why not? Lovin' Life Ministries is a music ministry. In a movie theater you get Dolby surround sound, you get the best sound possible and the visuals are pretty good too. And there is a lobby there and there is an extra room for Lovin' Life kids. It's different and it's new, but why not?
44. It helps us re-think all the no's that we've had in our lives. To say, why not? Perhaps three-piece suits might be great behind the pulpit, but perhaps jeans on stage on the singers might be more natural, might be more comfortable, might be more cutting edge. These are the things that Lovin' Life Ministries is wanting to share with all of you.
45. The thing that I am so grateful for is that, despite your reservations and despite your apprehensions, all of us and all of you have given it a go. And I think after three years we can see the difference, in that in our church community we have lots of young people. When you go to other churches you will realize that there aren't that many young people in other churches – and that's what we want. We want our future to be supported and nurtured in this beautiful thing called our community, so that the future can be that much brighter.
46. Lovin' Life Ministries is here to help us restructure our concepts of the wilderness mentality which was mere survival. We were merely trying to survive for the last four or five decades out in the wilderness. We were like these little platoons going out to combat, going out under strong male leadership, a sergeant, a colonel, or a general. Its command and control in the wilderness mentality.
47. But right now we are in the settlement age. The settlement mentality has to be different. The settlement age calls for more of a compassionate leadership. Instead of that male aggressive command and control leadership that we have become accustomed to, in this age of settlement we need a different kind of leadership, a compassionate kind of leadership that is nurturing, that is caring, that is supportive, that allows the people to be inspired and empowered, wanting to connect, wanting to contribute, wanting to inherit the true love of God.
48. In a way that compassionate leadership is more feminine. And so when we think about the advent of True Parents in our lives and in our time, you realize how incredibly important that we have the masculine and the feminine truly encapsulated in this beautiful partnership called Father and Mother. They worked together. Sometimes Father goes forward and sometimes Mother goes forward. They rely on each other. They are their best friends, the best confidents. And they work together because they have a common goal, they want to build a beautiful family, they want to build a beautiful family of God.
49. This male leadership that we've been so accustomed to, is something that our True Parents basically said, "you know, a lot of you loved those old CARP leaders that told you and commanded you and all you had to do is obey, all you had to do is obey." But leaders, our next spiritual leader that our True Parents have prepared for us, who is Dr. Hyung Jin Moon – he is truly a symbol of a passionate leader. His stand is very different from the old models of MFT captains or CARP leadership. It's not like a great aggressive revolution, but his leadership style is a compassionate one. He listens, he is not afraid to care, he is not afraid to go down onto his knees to lift his brothers and sisters up, and he is not afraid to be kind. He is not afraid to be a kind of inspiration that's like the Zephyr, like the calm soothing northern winds, the kind of wind that helps to lift, gives you the airlift so that we can extend our wings and truly soar.
50. That's the kind of leadership that is required at this time. When Father comes as the Messiah, and Father and Mother come as the True Parents, they are here to make the world better, they are here to disturb the present. So, what do they do with the old model of the church? Well, I don't think 40 or 50 years ago anyone ever dreamed that a woman would be standing at the pulpit or that a woman would be leading this country. But there you go, guess what? It disturbed a lot of us, including me. But, that's how they work. They come to provoke. They come to move us forward. They come to tell us, "Have no fear, because True Parents are here!"
51. The Bible says in 1 John 4:18 "there is no fear in love. Perfect love casts out fear." And if we really honestly ask ourselves, what are the greatest struggles in our life? I think, honestly, all of us would have to say, many times when we feel inhibited, many times when we feel there are obstacles we cannot overcome, it is because we are paralyzed by fear. Because we are paralyzed in thinking that we are worthless, were not good enough, we just can't do it. But the great thing about our True Parents is that they are here telling us, "You can absolutely do it! There is nothing you cannot accomplish, because you are a divine son and a daughter of God. It doesn't matter what you've done before. It's about here and now. It's about what you can do now, and what you will do later." They give us the hope to believe in ourselves.
52. And just as every successful child usually has a dedicated father or a mother behind them. We've all had children, for those of us who have families of our own, and when a child starts to walk – what is the single thing that a child always likes to do? When they are struggling trying to find their footing and they are putting one foot above the other and trying to take those first precious steps forward – the child is not looking down at their feet. They are not looking at how much progress or what they are going to trip over, they are looking into your eyes. They are looking into the eyes of the father or the mother or the parent or whoever happens to be there – and they know that as long as you are there watching them, they have no fear. They know that because you are there we can do it, they can do it. It is having you there that gives them the courage to have no fear. And even if they fall over, even if they tumbled, even if they nick their knees, they get up and do it again – because they're looking into your face and saying, "mommy and daddy are telling me I can walk, I can walk." And that is how a child learns to walk.
53. But if we are one of these, too scared parents, basically not giving the child the latitude or the room to maneuver and make their own mistakes, to give up on their own, knowing that we are always there – if we are to helpful, if we are too much there, if we are always holding their hand, the child will never learn to walk. So, in a way, what our True Parents are doing is saying, "America, True Parents will be spending more and more time in Asia and elsewhere – but you guys can learn how to walk, because we are here. We are here. Have no fear, because True Parents are here."
54. And as long as True Parents are here there is nothing that we cannot accomplish, there is nothing that we cannot do. The only thing is fear itself. So brothers and sisters the great thing about our community is that we are not just Korean, were not just Japanese. You go to a Korean church and everybody is Korean. You go to churches in Harlem and everybody is black. You go to church in Crystal City and everybody is white. But at Lovin' Life the great thing, and that beautiful thing about our community is that we have all races. We have all cultures represented here.
55. As we go through the process, together with Lovin' Life Ministries in each district around the country, more than 100 churches altogether, repositioning our thinking, re-thinking about the old concepts that we've had, that have kept us petrified over the years – to welcome in more creativity, innovative ways of doing things, and as we think about restructuring our mentality from that of survival under the wilderness mentality – to that of prosperity and growth in the settlement age, the settlement mentality that we need to adopt and we need to make our own.
56. We realize that in this community we have the added benefit of not just having all different races but also different generations. We have grandparents all the way down to grandchildren. You never know, you might be seated next to a beautiful, beautiful Japanese lady who might turn to you after service and say, "let's 'walk' hard."
57. And when a Japanese person says let's walk hard – my brain is thinking, "What did she mean? What does walk mean?" I'm sure she is trying to say "let's work hard." But I kind of like that. I kind of dig that, brothers and sisters. Because, what they are saying, if you really listen carefully, if you listen to her heart and you listen to what she's really saying – she is giving us three messages.
58. She's not just telling us to work hard – just work, work, work. She's saying, "Wok on." Maybe she is saying that she wants us to be beautiful vegetables sautéing in a beautiful wok somewhere. So that we can be creative with our cooking, creative with our ingredients. Let's wok hard, and feed our families, give them the nutrition they need so that they can do great things.
59. Or maybe she might be saying, "Let's walk hard." Maybe she's asking us, "don't forget to take that moment to enjoy the sunshine, to enjoy the blue sky, to have a moment when you have this special time with God – to say "Thank you God, thank you for this life, thank you for this ability to walk together hand-in-hand with all the beautiful children, your children of the world, that I can call my brothers and sisters." And if we have that kind of a heart, if we have that kind of mentality – then work becomes walk, and also becomes wok, altogether.
60. And that's what Lovin' Life Ministries is all about. We are here to do the good work. We are here to do the good work of sharing the breaking news. But we've got to do some walking don't we? And we have to wok every now and then to make sure we have the substance to go on.
61. Brothers and sisters, this is an incredible time and this is an incredible place – in that America has been specially prepared as one of the greatest superpowers of the world to really exercise its ability to influence.
62. So, as we go about our daily business we must not forget about our Japanese brothers and sisters in Japan who are still fighting to exercise their religious freedom under a constitution that guarantees religious freedom. We must continue to work the good fight. And work together as one family, all of our brothers and sisters from different nations and different countries so that we can truly, not just dream about it and talk about it, but actually do the hard work of building that one family under God.
Randy Francis giving the Lovin' Life Sunday Sermon on May 27, 2012
63. So brothers and sisters please continue your ardent support for Rev. Francis who has been kind of nudged back. And last but not least Rev. Tengan, so that we can really have a great East-West unity, America unified under a united ministry where we share the same message.
64. So here in Washington, brothers and sisters, it's important to have a united ministry. Not just for ourselves. A united ministry is important for our kids. You can watch the service in the confines of your bedroom, in your jam-jams and in your slippers with a nice cup of cocoa, but if you really want to invest in the future, invest in your community and invest in your kids – you know, no successful family can be an island unto itself. If you want a successful family you need the help of a successful community. Community is a natural and essential ingredient for you and me to have healthy kids. Kids need to interact with each other to be inspired and empowered – and want to connect and want to contribute and want to inherit.
65. So, even if you have to trek a good hour or two to make it to Sunday service each and every Sunday, it's the least that we can do as mothers and fathers. When I was a mother taking care of classical pianists up in Boston, my two kids Rexton and Ariana, I did whatever was necessary to get them the best music lessons possible. We drove hours each and every day for their lessons, for their master classes. We drove down to New York City, six or seven hours of driving, for one or two hour lessons every other week – or whatever was required. This was the least that most mothers are willing to do for their classical music education.
66. Now think about, what about their moral, spiritual, emotional growth education. Don't you think we as parents can do much better than some of the parents who spend six, seven hours in the car every week to drive their child down from Boston to New York City, or from Boston to Philadelphia so that they can take master classes at Curtis, or master classes at Juilliard School. Don't you think the lessons learned in the context of a community and a context of worshiping together as a family is a much more valuable lesson, than just music lessons?
67. So this is the reason why in Washington I need your support, I need the support of you mothers out there and you fathers out there, to basically go the extra mile for the sake of your kids and for the sake of your community.
68. And so this is a Mother's Day when mothers can really kind of sit back and say, "Okay Dad, husband, serve me." But in the true Lovin' Life Ministries fashion, this is also the time when the mothers can be re-energized, and re-insentivized, empowered to say, "Hey, usually the backbone of every ministry are the sisters."
69. And so imagine if the mothers are inspired to go that extra mile for their child. Imagine what that child will be in the future. There is no reason why our children cannot be the president of the United States. There's no reason why our children should not be winning the Nobel Peace Prize in the future. There is no reason why our children cannot be Yo-Yo Ma, or give Bono a run for his money. There is nothing our children cannot do as long as we are here and as long as we are investing in them. That's the way we can assure the future of the world. That's the way we can leave the world in better hands than we found it.
Tom Cutts giving the Lovin' Life Sunday Sermon on April 22, 2012
70. For those of you who were awake for Rev. Cutts, you know, when he gave a couple of points remember, "Leave the plus" leave the world better than we found it.
71. So brothers and sisters I wish you once again a wonderful and a beautiful Mother's Day. Go inspired, go empowered. Please connect to your ministries, to your districts, work with your Lovin' Life Ministries youth pastors and your District Pastors to make magic happen. United ministry is just the backbone, it's just the core – but you are the flesh that makes it real, that makes it alive, that makes it inviting and invigorating!
72. So brothers and sisters as we continue the good work of building this ministry I wish you the greatest love from our True Parents. God bless!
Notes:
1 John, chapter 4
1: Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are of God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world.
2: By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God,
3: and every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not of God. This is the spirit of antichrist, of which you heard that it was coming, and now it is in the world already.
4: Little children, you are of God, and have overcome them; for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
5: They are of the world, therefore what they say is of the world, and the world listens to them.
6: We are of God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and he who is not of God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
7: Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God.
8: He who does not love does not know God; for God is love.
9: In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.
10: In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins.
11: Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
12: No man has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
13: By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his own Spirit.
14: And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world.
15: Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
16: So we know and believe the love God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
17: In this is love perfected with us, that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so are we in this world.
18: There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and he who fears is not perfected in love.
19: We love, because he first loved us.
20: If any one says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.
21: And this commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should love his brother