우리의 신앙이 가장 선명히 드러나야 하는 영역은 우리의 일상이며, 이는 몸의 영역이라고 할 수 있습니다. 이것은 의식주로 표현 가능합니다. 그런데 구약에서 하나님을 만나는 가장 거룩한 장소였던 성막은 의식주와 긴밀하게 연결되어 있습니다. 옷, 떡, 집. 거룩함이 일상과 닿아 있는 것입니다. 또한 예수님을 그 세 가지로 성경이 말하고 있다는 사실이 참 놀랍습니다. 예수님은 스스로 성전이라고 칭하셨고, 자신이 생명의 떡이라고 말씀하셨습니다. 또 성경은 예수 그리스도로 옷 입으라고 말합니다. 예수로 입고, 예수를 먹고, 예수 안에서 살라고 말하는 것입니다. 이건 얼마나 몸과 관련된 이야기인가요? 그런데 기독교 복음을 한마디로 요약한다면 “하나님이 몸이 되셨다”로 요약할 수 있지 않겠습니까? 그렇지만 이 몸의 영역이 외면받고 있음을 봅니다. 몸으로 하나님께 영광을 돌리라는 말조차 교회 봉사로만 국한하는 모습을 발견합니다. 우리에겐 몸의 영역인 일상의 구속이 필요합니다. 설거지하면서, 노동하며, 밥을 먹으며, 아이를 안아주며 우리는 하나님께 예배할 수 있어야 합니다. 루터는 아빠가 아이의 기저귀를 빨 때 하나님께서 미소를 지으신다고 이를 요약해서 표현했습니다. 날마다 펼쳐지는 일상의 영역에서 몸으로 예배하는 우리가 되면 좋겠습니다.
Gospel of Body: Daily Redemption
Rev. Abel Kang
Not too long ago, I had an opportunity to share and talk about ‘Gospel of Body’. As we are in an era of artificial intelligence, I think characteristics of humanness are in our body like touching, smelling, and feeling. Body is very important. In most cases, we respond more often with our body than with our head. Based on his own experience with miners, George Orwell expresses it this way: “The lower classes smell”. His intention was not to devastate the lower class of people by saying this. He was talking about realization from his own experiences that he needed to train himself. He knew in his head that he needed to embrace them but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Bible also emphasizes things that pertain to our body. From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible affirms and emphasizes the body. We were created in God’s image, and a married couple becomes one body. We must give our bodies as weapon of righteousness and living sacrifice. Not only does the Bible speak of our body but it also speaks of what it does such as sleeping, clothing, and eating. However, we don’t seem to be too concerned about what the Bible has to say about this. I once read a comparison of mealtime prayer between Celtic Christians and our prayer. I was challenged to think about this in that their prayer was truly focused on the meal itself, whereas our prayer was not on the meal itself but about being strengthened through the meal to serve and dedicate.
The area where our faith should be revealed clearly is in our daily life; thus, it is in the realm of our body. In another words, it could be in our will, food and drink. In the Old Testament, the will, food and drink have very close connection to God’s tabernacle, holiest of holies. As in clothing, bread and house, holiness touches our every day life. It is also surprising that the Bible speaks of Jesus in terms of these three things. Jesus referred to Himself as temple and as bread of life. We are also told in the Bible to clothe ourselves with Jesus Christ. That is to clothe with Jesus, to eat and live in Christ. How much is this about the body? If we were to summarize the gospel in a phrase, wouldn’t it be “God became body”? Nonetheless, we see this area of body being ignored in our daily lives. Even words that glorify God in the body are found only in the service of the church. We need the redemption of everyday life in the realm of the body. We must be able to worship God as we do dishes, as we labor, as we eat, and as we hold our children. Martin Luther briefly described it this way: when a Dad washes his child’s diapers, God smiles. It would be great if we could worship God with our body in the daily realm of everyday life.