RamTam – Blessed Family Sanctuary

On Why We Must Do Home Church

RamTam — Sun, 14 Dec 2014 12:00:28 +0000

[Readings: 1) Father’s Autobiography “As a Peace-Loving Global Citizen,”: Chapter 8.2: “Embrace the World.” 2) Divine Principle, Part II, Restoration 2.2.5(iv) ; and Part I, Creation 5.2.2, 5.2.3 “The Realm of Indirect Dominion/Direct Dominion” ]

As we read Father’s autobiography, we see that he is encouraging us to dream big, to set our sights on a life of high dimension, not to settle for a good salary, safe life and comfortable retirement, but to go beyond this, and solve real problems in the real world. Father cites many examples of problems of distribution, where one region of the world has an abundance of some resource, while another region suffers from a severe shortage of the same resource. Electrical generation, raw materials, water, arable land, are all unevenly distributed. Other problems include religious conflicts, poverty, lack of education, etc. Can we set our goals high enough to reach this level?

What makes a hero? Sometimes, it is simply being in the right place at the right time. While we may not consider ourselves heroes, if we see an accident and someone is hurt, we are likely to try and help, even going beyond an ordinary level of effort or heart. So Father would challenge us to place ourselves in circumstances which might more easily lend themselves to such a risk – to living an adventurous life.

Then what is my adventure, my risk, my life of high dimension? To answer this question, let’s look at the Divine Principle section on the division of the ages according to the portion of responsibility, in Restoration 2.2.5(iv). It says there that after God took the first responsibility to make Satan surrender in the age before Jesus, and after Jesus and the Holy Spirit took the second responsibility in the New Testament Age to make Satan surrender, the believers must take the third and final responsibility to make Satan surrender in the age after the Second Advent of the Messiah. That’s us. After all, we human beings gave over our freedom to Satan at the Fall, so it is finally up to us to claim it back. We must bring Satan to surrender; we must subjugate Satan. Only then can we stand unencumbered in the presence of God and dwell with God in the Kingdom of Heaven, or Chun Il Guk. We must stand as fully restored men and women in front of God – high noon, no shadow.

But did True Father give us the tools to do this – do we have enough power to do this? In other words, did True Father fulfill his mission as the Messiah?

If we hire a plumber to come in and fix our sink, and then the sink is still broken after he leaves, we can say that the plumber failed his responsibility, that he is a bad plumber. Is True Father a bad messiah? Did he fix what he came to fix? Did True Father, as the Savior, save fallen man? Are we saved, or do we still need the Messiah? Do we still need True Father?

As shocking as it may be to some believers, the answer is “no”, we do not need True Father now. If we say we do need him, we are in essence saying that he failed his mission as the Messiah, that he still has more to fix before we can truly stand as divine sons and daughters in front of God. We cannot have it both ways: we cannot say that we still need True Father, but that he fulfilled his mission as the Messiah, and there is nothing more for him to fix. Ironically, True Father himself said this many times: “You don’t need me anymore! You have everything you need to be successful now! Do you still want me to hang around, or can I take a rest?” Of course, when confronted like this by Father, we members would say: “No, no, Father! Take a rest!” but when push came to shove, we are still depending on Father, clinging to him, saying: “Don’t go! Speak longer! We still need you!” Doesn’t it sound arrogant and heretical for me to say: “I don’t need True Father anymore. He has given me everything I need to do my mission…?” And yet, that is exactly what both True Father and the Principle say, that we don’t need True Father anymore.

Especially now, in the “Age after the Coming of Heaven” or “Chun Il Guk,” as we have left the Completed Testament Age, we are no longer in the Age of Attendance, no longer in the indirect dominion. Providentially, we have entered the direct dominion. Are we ready to claim it? Are we ready to say: “I don’t need True Father anymore. I can stand as God’s son or daughter, with God dwelling in my heart as my Heavenly Parent. I report to God in my own name now. Thank you, Father, now you can rest. You did a great job. Now it’s up to me. Now it’s the age of the believer’s responsibility.” Are you ready? Are we ready?

And what is that responsibility? Home Church – Tribal Messiahship. Through loving and saving 430 families, the way that True Father did for us, even to the extent of matching and blessing, I fulfill my responsibility; I bring Satan to voluntary surrender. After loving and living for so many people, Satan comes to me and says: “Can I join your church, too? You have shown that your love is like True Father’s love; you have shown that you are qualified to rule over me like True Father did, can I join?” And my wife and I will say: “Yes, we are happy to have you – please come in. Please stay here in our love, in your original position as the archangel of goodness. We are happy to have you.” And that is the end of restoration history.

That is why True Father left when he did. I think he knew that we would not stand up and fulfill our responsibility as long as he was here, and so he left. He doesn’t want us to follow him anymore. He wants us to become him. Are we ready? Are you ready? Scary, isn’t it? – becoming a messiah. But there is nothing to fear – listen to the still, small voice in your heart that is the sound of God’s heart, resonating within you. As the Divine Principle says: “In the realm of God’s direct dominion, people will intensely experience God’s Heart within themselves. Hence, they will know His Will and carry it out in their actions. Just as every part of the body spontaneously moves in response to the subtle directions of the mind, people will spontaneously carry out the Will of God in accord with the deeply felt intentions of His Heart. In this state of perfect resonance, the purpose of creation is realized.”

And that is my adventure, my life of high dimension, my risk. My wife and I must become a messiah, just as True Father and Mother did for us. We must reach out to and save 430 families; thus truly becoming a Blessed Central Family, a Tribal Messiah, and earning the right and privilege to report to God in our own names. In a way, we have so much more than True Father did: we have each other. Let’s do it together, side by side!

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The Creative Power of Suffering

RamTam — Sun, 09 Nov 2014 12:00:10 +0000

[After 3 Holy Songs and a prayer from Tamiko, SunMee and Akiko sang their rendition of “In Your Arms” by Kina Grannis, and we read the final section “100 million dollars” from Hyungjin-nim’s book “a bald head and a strawberry.”]

First let me say that I’m feeling that our Heavenly Parent is closer than ever. God is close. The barrier or distance between us is shrinking away. We can see this in the recent matching testimony by ***, where her father, and even her older brother and younger sister, had intuitions and premonitions about who True Father would choose for her one year before he actually matched her to her husband. This kind of thing is more and more possible now. We have to trust ourselves in our communication with our Heavenly Parent.

In our reading today, from “a bald head and a strawberry,” Hyungjin-nim revealed that he gained a deeper heart following the loss of his older brother, Youngjin-nim. Also *** and ***, a second-generation couple in our church, who have exceptionally deep and patient hearts, both suffered deep losses in their personal lives like Hyungjin-nim – one being crippled in a terrible accident that simultaneously took the lives of two friends, the other losing her elder brother in an accident when she was just a teenager.
In my life as well, the loss of a stable home following my parents’ divorce eventually led me to deepen my heart, through shedding many tears and healing the hurt I suffered.

Is it necessary to suffer the loss of someone you hold dear before you can deepen your heart? Must we suffer to have a deep heart? How will we deepen our hearts in the restored world, or how would Adam and Eve have deepened their hearts in the original world, if they had not fallen?

We can say that in the ideal world, strong and loving parents would ensure that their children not grow up to be shallow and immature, not by hurting them, but perhaps by scolding them to help them deepen their heart; and in the restored world, where the spirit world is close at hand, the ancestors would come down to help the parents in this task. Even in this world, good parents do this.

Then what of the original world, before the fall? How would Adam and Eve have deepened their hearts? What was God’s plan for educating Adam’s and Eve’s hearts? I believe the answer is found in the struggle with the archangel Lucifer.

Lucifer was allowed to stay in the Garden, even though our Heavenly Parent knew how dangerous he could potentially be, because Lucifer knew how much God loved Adam and Eve, even more than they did themselves. He had seen God create the entire universe. He had helped God create it. He had come to know that this whole universe was a gift for his children, Adam and Eve. This was the source of his resentment, jealousy and confusion. But it was also the source of the knowledge that Adam and Eve needed to become mature and sincere towards God. Thus, by being forced to solve the painful heart of Lucifer, to win his heart, they would have naturally discovered how much God loved them. They would have deepened their hearts. Without having to deal with Lucifer, Adam and Eve could have grown up shallow and heartless, never understanding how much God loved them.

This is why God could not remove Lucifer from the Garden, and why he continues to tolerate his presence in our lives. It is also why Abel must go through Cain to restore Heaven. Cain represents Lucifer, while Abel represents Adam. True Father has said that Abel cannot go to Heaven without Cain, and vice-versa. Now we can understand why. Through the painful, resentful heart of our Cains (and we all have them) we can unlock the secrets of the love of God. Isn’t that miraculous? By loving Cain, we can understand the love of God. This is just one more reason why we must do Home Church.

So, there is no way to avoid suffering. Whether it comes by accident, or through parents’ love and scolding, or through unlocking the painful heart of another, we must all go through suffering in order to understand the love of God, our Heavenly Parent. And this is not to be feared or avoided, but welcomed. How else can we reach our fullest potential and maturity? How else can we live with God?

The important thing is not to fall into resentment and recrimination when we experience suffering, but to remember that it is the key to unlock the love of God. I would call this ability to heal suffering and recognize its potential “the Creative Power of Suffering.” Let us make an effort to discover and train this ability in our daily lives.

Let’s sing together “Suffering Heart” from the Holy Song Book. True Father wrote these words, and it is very deep. We can treat it as a prayer and reflection. This song is often neglected because of its length, but I think it could be a very appropriate way to end our sermon today.

Darkness gaining power within, tempting my soul to fall.
Weak is my heart, blurred are my thoughts, soon I am overcome.
Blind to the truth, losing the way, thinking of myself;
So I can see how sin began sprouting within my soul.
So I can see how sin began sprouting within my soul.

When my Lord came over to me, I would not hear His voice;
Blinded and deaf, closing my heart, I ran away from Him.
So I remained lost in desire only for myself.
Grieving the Lord suffered for me, going again to the cross.
Grieving the Lord suffered for me, going again to the cross.

To restore the black lonely night held by the power of sin,
Deserts He crossed, walking the way, climbing the rocky peaks.
Searching for us people of sin who deserve to die,
How then could I ever begin thanking the Lord for such grace?
How then could I ever begin thanking the Lord for such grace?

To defeat the power of death, fighting the realm of sin.
I sought the Lord, longing for Him, Bridegroom of my soul.
Tortured my heart, suffering alone, fighting deepest pain,
Finally today I greet the Lord, gaining all comfort from Him.
Finally today I greet the Lord, gaining all comfort from Him.

Joy eternal lifting my heart, swelling within my breast;
Now I behold, Heavenly life, glory and happiness.
Always before stung by my sin, I was doomed to die.
Finally today I am reborn, filled with abundant new life,
Finally today I am reborn, filled with abundant new life.

O my dearest Heavenly bride, now you’ve come home at last,
Deserts you crossed, searching for me, climbing the rocky peaks;
You persevered, faithful to me, longing for this day.
How you’ve become lovely to see through all your suffering and pain,
How you’ve become lovely to see through all your suffering and pain.

Come, O come, together we’ll sing songs of eternal praise.
Taste now my love, treasure so pure, Heaven’s gift for you;
All of my heart waited for you, yearning for this day.
All of my heart waited for you now I can give you my love.
All of my heart waited for you now I can give you my love.

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Why Sunday Service Should Be Moved Into Our Homes

RamTam — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 12:00:43 +0000

As the title suggests, this essay will argue the merits of moving our Unification Church Sunday service into our homes, that is, into the homes of the Blessed Central Families. The essay will examine arguments for and against it, and end with a proposal for church governance and liturgy which I believe will satisfy Heaven and help all of us to fulfill the heavenly mandate to bring the world to an understanding of, and relationship with, our Heavenly Parents and our True Parents.

First, allow me to sketch a brief outline of the idea itself: on Sunday morning, rather than all of us going to some central location in our respective regions and attending Sunday service, we should all stay home and conduct service in our home. We should invite friends and colleagues, family and co-workers – anyone who likes us enough to attend our church. I think any of our families could find 10 such people and families within a year. The format is open to each Blessed Couple’s sensibilities, although I think most couples would want to include song and prayer, reading and preaching. I call this “True Home Church.”

The second part of this new idea would include a Family and Fellowship Day, to be held every Saturday, which would allow our families and children time for re-birth and re-generation, as well as time for us to collectively develop and support our individual home-based Sunday service.

Why is this idea preferable to our current practice? Firstly, most people we meet would much rather come to our home than come to our church. If someone has already met the pastor (you!) and likes him or her, then it is quite natural to agree to come to their home church service. It is not threatening. It is actually interesting and attractive.

Secondly, as the spiritual parent and pastor, it is quite easy and natural for us to tailor the message to our audience, to give each guest exactly what he or she needs. We have debated for years the purpose of Sunday service, whether it should be “guest-friendly” or deep and heartistic, with open reference to True Parents and the Divine Principle. The former satisfies our need to witness, but leaves the members dry. The latter feeds the members, but shocks and often turns away our guests. True Home Church solves the first half of this dilemma: guests are given exactly what they need and are nurtured through their period of growth by loving spiritual parents, who are themselves simultaneously growing and being nurtured by giving to others. All of us have had the experience of meeting God most deeply when we are able to share the Divine Principle and our love of True Parents with a new guest or spiritual child. As people who have sat at the feet of our True Parents for so many years, what do we hope to receive in Sunday service that we have not already received 1000 times over from them? We have matured to the point where we cannot be filled by simply receiving: to be satisfied now, we must give back some of what we have received. True Home Church is the ideal venue for that giving.

This is one reason for discontent in our church. Members feel that though True Father trained them for years, they are not trusted to lead a church. Of course, there are not enough church leadership positions for every member to have one, and none of us is truly qualified, but that doesn’t change the fact that each of us feels like a medical student who has gone through 10 years of university and medical school and internship, only to be asked to stay in the classroom and continue to learn for the rest of our lives, never to be trusted to have our own practice, to have our own patients. Of course, none of us is expert or beyond reproach, but we must start. Reverend Won Pil Kim once told us that to become a great surgeon, one must first lose a few patients. We each need that opportunity. True Home Church is the only structure that fully allows and embraces that reality.

Thirdly, as mentioned above, conducting our own church service on Sunday morning is the best way to grow, both in numbers as a church, and more importantly perhaps, individually as God’s children. We will see our spiritual reality plainly. If no one comes to our service, perhaps it is because we are not yet spiritually attractive. There is no one to blame then but myself, my own spiritual practice. If God does trust us enough to send us a guest, we must take care of them, bringing them to God and True Parents, even blessing them. This challenges us to do what we should have been doing all along: becoming True Parents’ second self. This is what True Father did, in the early days in Korea. He invited all mankind to his home and took care of them.

Let us look at some of the potential arguments against this idea. First, many members will argue that they are not capable, not ready, not willing to open their homes as a church on Sunday morning. This is true. None of us is really ready, willing or capable. A pastor needs to perfect his or her emotion, intellect and will to be truly effective. Our imperfections and deficiencies and fallen nature are real. But they are not going to improve by sitting on our backsides on Sunday morning and hearing someone else speak. We are comfortable with the present situation, as much as we complain against it. Maybe it is time for us to move out of our comfort zone and challenge ourselves to grow. Even if no guest comes for a while, we can give service to our own family and spouse. Eventually, God will send a guest who needs what we have. And if a couple truly feels unprepared, they can attend the Home Church of another couple, until they are ready.

And we don’t have to do it in a vacuum. Church structure, previously so centralized, can be used to support members, providing materials such as songbooks, CD’s with the instrumental form of all our songs, Power Point presentations on Divine Principle and various forms of internal guidance, centralized 2, 7 and 21 day workshops, etc. In short, nothing would change but the central focal point. Instead of focusing on bringing guests to a centralized Sunday service, our whole church would focus on supporting Blessed Couples to bring guests to their own Home Church service.

The second discussion naturally follows from the first: what do we do about church community, Sunday school, interaction between Blessed Couples? Where will our children meet each other? Won’t we be horribly isolated with this new structure? How do we connect to our vertical center, especially Hyung Jin Nim and his family?

To answer this, let us now introduce the second half of this new idea of bringing Sunday church service into our homes. Every Saturday, our church would essentially have a “Family and Fellowship Day”. We would start with sports and energetic activities for young people in the afternoon, followed by a pot-luck supper at around 6:00 p.m., culminating in an evening of sharing and fun, filled with testimonies, small-group meetings, children’s education, lectures or sermons, sharing of best practices, open mic time, entertainment and prayer; in short, everything and anything we need and want. We would be most delighted to welcome a video or live transmission from Hyung Jin Nim and Yeon Ah Nim, or any central figure that needs to speak. This is member’s time; new guests are welcome, but they must come with the understanding that there will be no filter on what is said and done, that the evening pre-supposes an understanding of True Parents’ life and mission, of Divine Principle. Spiritual parents would decide when to invite their spiritual children/home church members.

Now we see that the previous dilemma is fully solved: whether to have guest-friendly or member-friendly services. We need both, just at different times. But which should be when? Why not do home church during the rest of the week, and leave Sunday service as is, at a central location for all the members?

There are several answers to this important question, all tied in with each other. First, our church culture exists in the context of Christian culture, where Sunday morning is respected as the time to meet with God and hear God’s word. Where are guests best served to hear the new Word of God, in our homes or in a central church? We answered that above: our homes provide a safer, less threatening, more tailor-made environment for spiritual children. Second, and perhaps more importantly, by giving our members the central responsibility for Sunday service, the most important weekly liturgy of our church, we send a clear and direct message to our guests and to our members: the center of our movement is the family, not the church. The family is where we are born and where we grow, both physically and spiritually. Welcome home!

We each need to be a leader. This desire comes from our original nature. We are all meant to be true parents, true teachers and true owners/leaders. There are not enough leadership positions right now in the church, within the current structure. Nothing less than the implementation of True Home Church will change this structure or solve this need. We must give Sunday service to our members. We must trust our Blessed Central Families with the central rite of our church, and support them to succeed.

If there is still fear or doubt among members about their ability or qualification to lead Sunday service, this can be addressed every Saturday, when we get together as families. Within a year, I believe, every Blessed Central Family can have a thriving church in their home, with at least three new members. Confidence is contagious, and there is nothing that builds confidence like tripling membership within a year!

Theologically, several things come to mind to support this initiative. First, at the Coronation Ceremony for the Kingship of God 12 years ago, True Father declared the end of the age of indemnity and the start of a new age, wherein as Blessed Central Families we have the authority to pray in our own names and match and bless our own children. We have an authority (and responsibility) now that we did not have before.

During the late 1970’s, when True Father introduced the idea of Home Church, and declared that “Home Church is Our Kingdom of Heaven,” most of us didn’t even have families, let alone homes, and the best we could do was to go out to our neighborhoods and help people, raking leaves or running errands. This was the formation stage. During the 1990’s, when True Father empowered us to pass on his Blessing through the giving out of the Holy Wine and Blessing Certificates with the four pledges on them, we moved closer to the central position, but still did not have the authority of True Parents. This was the growth stage. With the Coronation Ceremony, we now have all the elements in place for True Home Church: families with the authority of Heaven, experience in giving the Blessing, training and depth of heart. This is the final and completion stage of Home Church: actually moving the church into our homes and taking care of people there, from giving the introduction to the Principle, to guiding their eventual Blessing and family life. This fulfills our destiny as Tribal Messiahs at the same time.

Second, when we look at the Family Pledge, especially Pledge #6, we read:

천일국 주인 우리 가정은 참사랑을 중심하고 하나님과 참부모님의 대신가정으로서 천운을 음직이는 가정이 되어 하늘의 축복을 주변에 연결시키는 가정을 완성할 것을 맹세하나이다.

Translated: Our family, the owner of Cheon Il Guk, centering on True Love, pledges to perfect the family that moves Heavenly fortune and connects Heaven’s Blessing to our surroundings (neighborhood, community), as a family standing in the place of God and True Parents. (Emphasis added). This is nothing less than True Home Church, where a family becomes a central family in a community, bringing Heaven’s fortune and blessing to all families around us, by standing in God and True Parents’ stead, as they did for us for so many years. It is our turn now.

There are many important ramifications and implications that will have to be discussed: I think this structure ties in flawlessly with Kook Jin Nim’s ideas on the Freedom Society; also, the eventual tithing that comes in when a True Home Church is established could solve the financial dilemma that Blessed Central Families face in choosing between God’s work and supporting their families; and not least, we will have to clean up and prepare our homes for guests, and find possible venues and facilities for our Saturday fellowship. All of these point to positive and hopeful developments for the days and years ahead.

Dedicated to our beloved Heavenly Parent and True Parents.

Raman Montanaro
Bridgeport, Connecticut
January 1, 2013
Revised February 18, 2013
천일국 Cheon Il Guk 01/01/09

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