김한요 목사
모임은 연기되었지만, 부활절 축제는 진행형입니다. 오늘, 영상 앞에 모여있는 우리 가정은 일당백 일당천 입니다. 베델의 가정들은 영광스러운 하나님의 군대를 이루어 말씀과 기도로 무장하여 코로나 바이러스 사태를 극복하고, “넉넉히 이기는 자(more than conquerors)”로 일어설 것입니다. TV는 매일, 시시각각으로 코로나 바이러스로 인한 사망자의 숫자를 기록 경신하듯 올리는 이 우울한 시기에, 부활의 소망이 더욱 빛이 나도록 다시 사는 생명의 메시지를 나눕시다. 그 어느 때 보다 사랑과 격려로 연결된 부활절로 기억되도록, 주일 영상뿐 아니라 매일 나가는 아침 영상 메시지 및 자녀들을 위한 공동기도문, 교회를 위해 함께 기도하는 <두드림>, 자녀들을 위해 제작, 공급되는 영상 메시지 등에 서로 긍정 댓글을 열심히 달아주며 마음을 같이 하고 있음을 보여줍시다. 오늘, 이 부활절이 우리 가정과 교회의 영적 부흥으로 이어지는 최대의 명절로 기억되도록 합시다. 사랑하는 베델 성도님들께 Happy Easter! 진심으로 부활의 영광과 소망을 나눕니다.
Postponing Easter
Rev. Bryan Kim
This announcement was posted on website of a church in Korea. While everyone is worshiping online and we cannot gather together, the announcement was that this Easter, the biggest Christian holiday, will be postponed. Even our church, since moving to online worship at the beginning of March, had a small expectation of being together on Easter. However, it is frustrating to see the situation worsening. Being together makes holidays special. The laughter of being together, markets with sale signs and people coming in droves to buy gifts, families coming together to cook and share meals, and streets filled with music and excitement of people is what holiday is. But, it doesn’t feel like a holiday when our streets are empty, store lights turned off, no sign of people except for an occasional trash tumbling in the wind like a ghost town. I also thought about postponing Easter as we are at a time when all Californians are warned not to go to market for the next two weeks. The thought of what if it does not end in one week, as it continues to worsen without end in sight, has made our holiday colorless. I will remember this day for the rest of my life. The sadness of not being able to gather to worship God with our hearts and celebrate our hope, the resurrected Jesus, will never be forgotten. Therefore, we will bind together even more so via online. Each family will praise and shout loud enough to hear on the streets. Even if online connection gets parallelized, we will do our best to express our love for God like explosion that embroiders the sky even more beautiful than fireworks.
Our physical gathering may have been postponed, but the Easter celebration will continue. May the power of our families gathered in front of online worship today be a hundred, a thousand-fold. Our Bethel family is like God’s glorious army, equipped in Word and Prayer to overcome Coronavirus, and will rise as “more than conquerors”. In this depressing time as the death toll is announced on TV every hour, let’s share the message of life that our hope of resurrection will shine even brighter. Let’s show our hearts of solidarity and remember this Easter for love and encouragement like no other times through not only Sunday video messages but also through daily morning messages, prayers for our children, prayers for our church