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A CALL OUT OF THE COMFORTABLE LIFE INTO THE STRUGGLE

Lee In-Ha

Biblical Text: Exodus 3: 1-12.

One day while Moses was taking care of the sheep and goats of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, he led the flock across the desert and came to Sinai, the holy mountain. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him as a flame coming from the middle of a bush. Moses saw that the bush was on fire but that it was not burning up.

"This is strange," he thought. "Why isn't the bush burning up? I will go closer and see. "

When the Lord saw that Moses was coming closer, he called to him from the middle of the bush and said, "Moses! Moses!" He answered, "Yes, here I am."

God said, "Do not come any closer. Take off your sandals, because you are standing on holy ground. I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." So Moses covered his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

Then the Lord said. "I have seen how cruelly my people are being treated in Egypt; I have heard them cry out to be rescued from their slave-masters I know all about their sufferings, and so I have come down to rescue them from the Egyptians and to bring them out of Egypt to a spacious land, one which is rich and fertile and in which the Canaanites. the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites now live. I have indeed heard the cry of my people, and I see how the Egyptians are oppressing them. Now I am sending you to the king of Egypt so that you can lead my people out of his country."

But Moses said to God, "I am nobody. How can I go to the king and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"

God answered, "I will be with you, and when you bring the people out of Egypt, you will worship me on this mountain. That will be the proof that I have sent you."

Before I go into the reflections on these verses from the Book of Exodus, I would like to share with you an interesting episode that happened during the second World War. The Japanese authorities asked the Korean pastors to remove the Book of Exodus from the Bible because it was a threat to them. They knew that the Koreans in Japan liked this passage very much. In fact, the Koreans used to read these lines very often and drew inspiration to continue their struggle against the unsurmountable power oppressing them.

In the very first verse of this passage is a very simple statement: "One day Moses was taking care of the sheep and goats of his father-in-law, Jethro, in Midian." And therein lies a tale. Who was this shepherd of Midian leading a peaceful and pastoral life? He was none other than Moses who was dramatically saved by the Pharaoh's daughter when he was a baby. His background was indeed peculiar. He was born a Jew but brought up in the palace of the Pharaoh, well educated and well trained. But he never lost his love for his own people.

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When he saw his people, suffering as slaves of the Egyptians, his heart was moved and finally he could stand it no longer and he intervened. He even killed an Egyptian. It became known and he had to run away. He lived the life of a hunted animal until he found peace in the house of Jethro in Midian. His attempt to help his people ended in a complete failure, so he found a job, and settled down comfortably with his wife. He settled down to a peaceful and uneventful life.

When we look at this story and apply it to the younger generations of today, we find parallels. Today, the young people discover a lot of injustice in the society, particularly when they are in the universities. They get angry and attack the establishment. They soon discover that the society cannot be changed easily, and gives up in despair. They get jobs in the society they used to criticise once, and earn very good salaries. They meet their partners in life and decide to settle down.

This also applies to us Koreans in Japan who are considered to be the oppressed minority. We sometimes think that we are the ones who can fight against any social evil that is responsible for putting us into this situation of oppression. But that is not the case. We are also very much influenced by the value judgments of the modern times. Therefore, we have the desire for upward mobility and we also like to settle down. The other day I asked the high school students in my church about their future. Without exception, they said immediately that they would like to graduate from one of the best universities and get good jobs. And they are aware of the discrimination they face in employment and in other social spheres of life, yet they desire for this upward mobility. Maybe a few can get good jobs and acquire considerable wealth even though they are Koreans. But these people will settle into routine life and will never see the suffering of their fellow countrymen. They would say that there is no such thing as discrimination in society and that people are too lazy, and eventually they become the elite of the society. In a sense all Koreans in Japan are not discriminated. But these elite become part of the system that oppress the minority. I think this phenomenon is seen all over the world. But I believe that if life goes on like this we become dissatisfied rather than being satisfied. A life of material abundance and leisure does not mean a life worth living. Such a life soon loses its flavour. This is the temptation that younger generations of Koreans face today.

Moses was leading such a routine, meaningless existence when he was suddenly shaken out of it from the very roots by an encounter with God. Something strange happened there. Some say that people can be changed with self-reflection when facing death. But I don't think so. Rather, in order to be really shaken up and changed we must encounter death which is totally outside ourselves. The challenge should come from outside. In the case of Moses, he experienced the dramatic meeting with God in a strange natural setting – the burning bush – which shook the very foundations of his life. In the life of a Christian, this kind of encounter or an experience of being shaken up comes very unexpectedly. It maybe through reading a passage in the Scriptures or listening to a witness of what Christ has done for involving in the struggles for

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justice. We suddenly meet God in the event of Jesus Christ. There are three important lessons for us in Moses's encounter with God:

1. The first lesson appears in verse 5 of the text: "Take off your sandals. You are standing on holy ground."

You may know that in Korea and Japan we always take off our shoes as we enter homes. The home is the place where people live in but shoes bring in dirt. So we leave that dirt behind and enter cleanly into the home. It shows respect for the people we are visiting.

This verse has a lesson for us today. It means that there is a sacred place in which we stand in awe, and one that deserves our respect. In today's society that sense of awe has been lost. Today, we think we know it all! There is nothing left to wonder at. And there is no fear of anything. Some play with nuclear weapons as though they are toys, others pollute the environment without knowing the consequences. When people lose their fear of the fearful, then they begin to destroy themselves. When people stop fearing God, they make God as their tool for their own purposes. Look at South Africa where the white minority uses God to justify apartheid and injustice. We have to listen carefully to what God says at that time through the other side. That means everybody has to stand under God's judgment. We have to be afraid of that judgment.

When God told Moses to take his shoes off, He was teaching that He, God was in control. And He is teaching us the same thing. We cannot use God as we please. He is the One who deserves our awe and respect.

2. Secondly, let us note how God introduces Himself to Moses. He says: "I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob" (v.6). I always used to wonder why God says that so often. We read this repeatedly in the Old Testament and also find the genealogy traced in the New Testament.

Several years ago, I went to visit my aged father before he passed away. When I was about to leave, he showed me a big and thick yellow book. It was all written in Chinese brush strokes and it contained the genealogy of my family for 26 generations. My father said, "This is what I leave with you." Suddenly, I felt weak. The weight of history descended upon me and I felt my responsibility as a member of this family.

I began to think of the genealogy of Jesus found in the first chapter of the gospel according to Matthew. It took on a new meaning for me. All these people were part of history in which God had intervened. God is not a God of ideals! He is not an invention of man's imagination as Feurbach describes, but the God of history! He has closely allied Himself to the history of a particular people.

I am now thinking of Abraham's story in the Old Testament. A commentator says that Abraham's moving out of his own country was caused by a certain political change or economic necessity. But Abraham took this re-location not as an event taking place with the understanding of cause and

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effect but he took it as an act of God's providence. He took it as something related to his faith. He saw it as God's calling in the historical course; therefore, he ventured out without knowing where to go, and he tried to take a creative role in his minority situation in a foreign land. We, as the minority of the world, are also called to take part in a new history today. That history is God's history. But at the same time, in this ever-shrinking world, we cannot isolate ourselves from the history of the whole world. Events in America or Africa have strong influences on our lives. World history is our history, and we cannot be separated from it. God is the Lord of history who calls us take part in it.

3. And there is one more lesson that Moses learned from God that day on the mountain. In verse 7 we read, "I have seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cries against their slave masters." From this, Moses learned that God who works in history, works specially among the afflicted and the oppressed in the world.

God called Moses into such a situation. Moses was comfortable just as he was. He wanted to spend his life in peace and quiet. The last place he wanted to go back to was that place of failure. He had tried it once and that was enough! But God shook him out of that "comfortable life" into the struggle. We should take this suffering as an opportunity to create new history. By involving in that situation God is preparing us for a part of what He is creating. We are also called to participate, with God, in the creation of new history.

I was informed that your theme for the meeting is taken from the Book of Nehemiah (Ch. 2). It says: "Come, let us rise up and build together." Nehemiah was also living as a servant in the palace of a Persian King in the capital city of Susa. He could enjoy his life even in the gentile palace. But he never lost his love for his own people. When he heard of the news that his people who escaped the Babylonian exile were in great trouble and shame, and that the wall of Jerusalem was broken down and its gate destroyed by fire, he returned to Jerusalem with a great passion. He challenged his people and uttered "Come, let us rise up and build together." He was not a priest, but a lay person. He was heavily involved not only in rebuilding his nation but also in the reformation of Israel's faith which went wrong during the time of their captivity in Babylon.

Today there are many situations similar to the ones in Egypt and in ruined Jerusalem of so long ago. In Africa there are millions of blacks dominated by the white Apartheid policy. In Japan there are 670,000 Koreans who are oppressed by the Japanese majority. They are afraid to use their own names because of discrimination. In Asia, we have the struggles for human rights — against violence and torture, destruction of peoples culture, marginalisation, etc. There are situations of injustice with no freedom and hope. People are crying out for justice, freedom and hope.

What Moses learned and what we must also learn is that God hears these cries. God is not neutral. He physically takes sides. He is on the side of the poor, the oppressed and the starving. How do we know this? We know it because God told

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Moses: "I have heard the cries of my people in bondage." We also know this through the life of Jesus who stood with the oppressed and the poor, the despised and the rejected. God is in the midst of the distressed people of the world. But God still needs instruments to declare His word and to become involved with the oppressed in their struggle for freedom and justice. Who will be His instruments today? We believe that God challenges us to venture out. Whenever he hear of the complicated issues in this world, we think that those are not our problems. God had a word for Moses and He has one for us too:

"I will be with you," He gives us the courage and the assurance so that we eventually will join the struggle for the realisation of His Kingdom.

I would like to conclude my talk with the importance of building an ecumenical network with all people and groups fighting against oppression and injustice throughout the world.

Network is important, or else we will become isolated from the rest the world. You will note a tragic instance at the time of the second World War. The Japanese Christians were cut off from the international Christian network. So, they accommodated to the dominating system of that time. Korean Christians are facing similar problems. If their network is cut off, then they would also have to accommodate to the powerful system. Whenever people are in prison, prayers are offered throughout the world together with other interventions expressing solidarity and demanding their release from the prisons.

Today, we are facing the evil monster called the Multi-National Corporations. They have a powerful multinational network, and we have to be aware of that. We should also build up our linkages to fight this monster. Yesterday, I spoke of Mr. Park's case against Hitachi. During that struggle we suggested a special Consultative Committee to be set up with representatives from Hitachi and the Korean residents. Hitachi refused to negotiate our request and the struggle continued. During that struggle the NCC of Japan and the WCC's Programme to Combat Racism intervened to exercise international pressure on Hitachi. One day we had a call from Hitachi and they said they would like to accept our proposal. What happened was five US church leaders including Black leaders visited the New York office of Hitachi and told them that they are interested in a particular Korean man - Mr. Park. This was the final blow. The chief of Hitachi's New York office flew to Japan to impress their head office of the magnitude of the problem. Hitachi feared a negative propaganda from the Americans if they did not settle this issue.

One voice from North America was very powerful and a great help to our cause. God was with us in our struggle through the ecumenical network. We cannot afford to be neutral and blind to the needs of the world. Jesus says:

"I tell you, whenever you did this for the least important brothers of mine, you did it for me" (Mathew 25:40).

The struggle for justice and freedom from bondage is our struggle. We can engage in the creation of a new history, not if we want to stay in Midian and keep sheep. Let us be ready to meet the God of history and obey His call to serve in the new creation and vision in Christ.