2 Timothy 4:1-5 The Duty of Ministry /Power of Godliness Feb. 21, 2,010
The word “McDonaldization” is quite strange to us. However, at the same time, the word “McDonaldization” is familiar to us. This fast food restaurant is everywhere. “McDonaldization” speaks to the phenomenon of the symbol of McDonald influences all social matters including education, labor, medical, travel, politics, family, and etc.
What makes the model of McDonald so known or absolute? Four interesting characteristics make McDonald a huge success in our business world today including efficiency, calculability, predictability, and the absolute control of the customers, employees, and managers. Let’s zoom in on two of the four characteristics: predictability and control.
First, predictability gives trust and comfort to customers. Most customers believe that they will receive the same quality and service wherever and whenever they go. Big Mac is the same in Philadelphia, New York, and Washington D.C. The Big Mac that we eat today and tomorrow are of the same quality. We don’t expect anything major to change, and this gives us some comfort in predictability. This quality drives McDonald to great success.
Second, the customers of McDonald are absolutely controlled. Customers in the fast food restaurants are controlled by something, whether they are conscious or not. They need to line up, only have a limited menu, and are inconvenienced by uncomfortable chairs. However, at the same time all these qualities allow the fast rotation of customers. McDonald does not have any frills or excess qualities, only the bare necessities. Customers in McDonald are controlled by the systematic pattern to eat fast and leave early. Employees on the other hand are more controlled than the customers. They simply do what they are told, following the menu directly with no deviations. There is limited technical training, and no individual characteristics; only the system which controls the process and the people in it.
Nobody wants to eat a hamburger in a fast food restaurant. No parent wants their children to eat junk food. However, most of life is fixed and rigid by this type of processing. Society tends to accept social and educational structures without thinking or forming their own predictions. Society plans their lives by matching their lives to these standard social and educational structures. People rarely recognize this trend.
Do parents favor the goal of freedom? No, of course not. Most parents’ hopes are not for “freedom” for their child, but for success. Our society is so pressed and programmed to leap for the phrase “for freedom,” when in truth children are raised to achieve victory of the competitive world that exist. Parents are pushing the whole theory of “freedom of education” because they want their children to succeed. However, in fields of creativity, such as the fields of arts and drama, it is harder to succeed. So in truth, parents are pushing for just full-on success… nothing more. In this type of world where you need to adapt to the system to succeed, it is hard to live as a Christian and contain your identity. The dreams of our forefathers and our ancestors have been corrupted by secularism. The hamburger acts as a symbol for success. McDonald has controlled the original, home-grilled hamburger into a processed, yet quick and profitable hamburger. In the same way, our world has changed to strive to be fast, lean and mean. However, our goal in life is not be to become a world renowned medical doctor, a famous lawyer, a talented entertainer, or a merited professor. Our goal in life is to become human. Humanity itself is our life’s goal.
We are not a hamburger. Our dream is also not a hamburger. Our freedom is not the freedom of a hamburger. We are man and woman. Our goal of freedom is human freedom. It is not the type of freedom that we can simply tag as right or wrong. Human freedom is totally different than freedom in the context of a hamburger. Creating a fast-food chain like McDonald needs to extract all freedom in order to succeed. However, we are not like that. In order to succeed in being a hamburger business chain, you need to be lean and automatic. Although now, most people strive to be just this, we should rather strive to be like the first hamburger ever created… the one with time, dedication and true quality. Humans need to develop as people with the smell of Good News, be like the first French fries of the original twelve disciples. They may be called insignificant and unpopular, but we must be renewed by the Good News of being born again. It is valuable that children be raised creatively with freedom, and grow to win public recognition for being humane. However, it is sorrowful that children are mostly likely raised to be selfish without knowing the difference between right and wrong. This is our world.
What about the immigrant Korean churches in America? We live in the world of McDonaldization. If we drew the shape of the Korean church in America, it would look like this. The ear and mouth would be abnormally big compared to the other parts of the body. The hands and legs would be so short compared to the other body parts. It would look like E. T.! This visual picture shows that many “church people” do not want to live as they should and truly be a Christian, but rather just continually hear and talk about the word of God. How many churches here truly keep their identity of salt and light in the world? Salt and light is the icon of the church. However, churches seldom keep this identity to the world. Who is responsible for this phenomenon? I think that the ministers have at least 80% of this blame. We have to consider ourselves in the McDonaldization world. Our belief must keep its identity in this overly processed, automated, success-driven world.
The subject of today’s Bible verse is to do the duties of the minister. What are the duties of minister? According to 2 Timothy 3:1-5, McDonaldization is the symbol of our world and in it, the church has a form of godliness but continually denies its power. Under these circumstances, Paul emphasized to Timothy that he must teach the right truth with power of godliness. 2 Timothy 3:12 states, ‘In face, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.’ Leading a Godly life is not easy. In fact, it’s one of the toughest things in the world. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of. Do not be swayed by the glimmer of the world. This is the duty of the minister: to teach truth and to continue to live in godliness. That is the alpha and omega of the duty of the minister.
Minister must be cleaned from sin before attempting to live a Godly life before God. Calvinism states that this is godliness: You cannot understand what it means to be godly, clean and holy, because of sin. Therefore, nobody can be godly, cleaned, and truthful in front of God. Setting the truth before God is not by saying that we have no sin, but by confessing our sin, asking forgive our sin, confessing our deficiency, and asking to fulfill our deficiency. We must confess our all of our foolishness, immorality, and ugliness. Then, after confessing our sins, we need to ask for forgiveness and ask God to fill us with holiness and spirituality. That is the true power of godliness. Sermons must be prepared and preached with this godliness.
Many Korean church members like and prefer sermons speakers who speak well which is understandable. However, the problem arises when people believe all that speak well in church, are filled with godliness. If there is a minister who speaks well but does not live as he speaks, this is a very dangerous minister. Ministers must live as they speak in their sermon. Practice what you preach. That is the power of godliness. You need to be able to distinguish between the word of God in a sermon and words arbitrarily added by the minister. Make sure that it is not just your mind being emotionally encouraged from a sermon. This ruins your soul. Say there is a famous minister’s sermon who distorted the world of God with their wrong approach of the Bible. These types of situations ruin the listeners. However, this is the real world. Being able to pick out and know what is the real truth of the world of God is the core of godliness which we must achieve.
The distorted sermon is as follows. 3 John 1:2 states, “Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.” Some denominations of the church in Korea teach this verse as the core of the Bible. They said that this is the greatest blessing which God gave us. They teach this verse over and over again up to the state of brainwashing. They believe that this verse carries 3 blessings. The first blessing is the hope that our soul is getting along well. The second blessing is that the body is getting along well. The third blessing is all circumstances in one’s life are going well. Although these three may be true, this message is distorted to the fact that some ministers preach that if in life you run into trouble, this is a sign that you are being unfaithful. They call these good circumstances of the body, soul and social relationship a triple blessing. However, the truth is, this verse is stated as a wish and hope toward someone. This verse uses the verb may. It is not an imperative or a command. The speaker is simply stating that he hopes that you are getting along with God and others around you. It is not stating that Christians will have this blessing every single moment in their lives. However, why do people have such an enthusiastic response to this distorted translation of this verse? It is because the truth is that we are driven by what the success advertised in the McDonald world. It does not matter if the Bible was translated correctly or incorrectly. It only matters that we hear what we want to hear in this earthly life.
The more serious problem is that this biased and distorted translation of the Bible is uncontrolled. The church leaders do not permit protest to the authorities in the church. They emphasize the importance of obedience to the ministers of church. Because of this programming, we do not question whether obedience to these ministers is the word of God or not. If obedience gives us that triple blessing, we tend to be happy and satisfied.
Some minister use the Bible as statements of their situations. Job 8:7 states, “Your beginning will seem humble, so prosperous will your future be.” This is not the word from God. Bildad, the Shuhite , a friend of Job, said this verse. However, even though this verse is not spoken by God, people really enjoy this verse for the contents are so desirable. In context however, Bildad was ridiculing Job for his miserable situations. He stated this remark as a hope and wish for Job. But, the sad thing is, most Christians believe this verse as the Word of God so many people misunderstand the blessing of God. They believe that their estate price increasing is a blessing. The high school senior believes that entrance to the college of his or her dreams is a blessing. If after graduating college they receive a job, that looks like a blessing also. Of course, I am not saying that this is not a blessing at all. This is a kind of blessing from God. However, the true blessing of God is underestimated. People state their needs in this earthly world and the fulfillment of them as their blessing of God. But in truth, the blessing of God is higher than that.
Another misuse of word is the phrase “a thousand burnt offerings.” In the Bible, King Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings after the inauguration of King. Some churches urge the people to meet the number thousand with morning or Sunday worship. Why? -Because of the money offerings, the tithes. They are teaching them to give a dollar a day in order to reach a thousand dollars in a thousand days. Others stretch it even further and teach to give ten dollars a day in order to reach a thousand dollars in one hundred days and so forth. These ministers are basically milking people of their money. However, the number thousand in this verse is not important. It is simply stating the King Solomon offered a burnt offering to the Lord. Ministers distort this fact into preaching a thousand dollars, and the sad truth is that many people are fooled and become proud of offering a thousand dollars to the church. This pride is the wrong sign of the McDonald world lifestyle.
Another example of distorted word of the Bible is wisdom. God gave wisdom to Solomon because Solomon asked for it. Some ministers misuse this word wisdom as a genius and brilliant brain. However, the Hebrew word of wisdom means “mind of hearing.” King Solomon in actuality asked for a wise and discern mind for judgment during his kingship. King Solomon asked for discernment in order to administer justice in the kingdom that God trusted with him. Therefore, God give Solomon this wise and discerning heart… and more. Solomon was not asking for a genius or brilliant brain for success in his earthly life. Yet, sorrowfully, most church members do not know this.
During the reign of Hitler, a German pastor taught the people by remolding the words Obedience and Heaven. They stated that obedience was not meant to be to God, but to Hitler’s government. They preached that Heaven is not the world of Jesus Christ, but the world that would be created if Hitler’s government took over. They stated, “Do not protest. Endure and at this heaven will be yours.” Pastors like Bon Wheper and other little pastors protested, but the mass obeyed. Other pastors started teaching and using the word of God to protect the government of Hitler.
Today, we do not live under the control of Hitler. However, we are not living for God, either. We are living for ourselves by and distorting the word of God to achieve this. This is the tragedy of the modern church. We erase the suffering of Jesus Christ, forgetting the power of godliness. We enjoy our success and do not recognize the judgment of Jesus Christ. This is our unfaithfulness. By acting like this, we are confessing every day that we do not believe the word of God.
You do not want your pastor to just speak a sermon well. A sermon should come from life. The power of a sermon comes from the power of godliness, which comes from God. As a good believer and follower of Christ, ministers build the word of God with its justification. The sermon and the life of the sermon-giver must be matched. They should not be different, but united. This is true godliness.
A minister works hard to follow God and to continue to try and fulfill the want of God. We sacrifice ourselves as tools of God. We do our best for God, and after that, we disappear back behind the curtain. Priests, a pastor, a prophet, a Christian… we all do the work of Jesus Christ. We confirm and state that we are the children of God. We must therefore seek and live with the wisdom of God, not with the knowledge of the world. Even we are not famous and rich, we need to look for the wisdom of God. We are not hamburgers or French fries. We are godly men and women. We are freed from the value and structure and automation of the world. The world attempts to confine our freedom through control and self-praise. But remember this: our goal is as a man is to be a man, and as a woman to be a woman. We must be born again with the Good News. Do not forget this goal. We are godly with the word of God.
