For 평화 in Korea A Service of Word and Table Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church Wednesday, June 6, 2018 12:00 PM EST Atlanta, Georgia (USA) WELCOME Thomas Kemper General Secretary, Global Ministries OPENING SONG For the Healing of the Nations UMH #428 For the healing of the nations, Lord, we pray with one accord; for a just and equal sharing of the things that earth affords; to a life of love in action help us rise and pledge our word, help us rise and pledge our word. Lead us forward into freedom; from despair your world release, that, redeemed from war and hatred, all may come and go in peace. Show us how through care and goodness fear will die and hope increase, fear will die and hope increase. All that kills abundant living, let it from the earth be banned; pride of status, race or schooling, dogmas that obscure your plan. In our common quest for justice may we hallow brief life's span, may we hallow brief life's span. SCRIPTURE READING Micah 4:1-4 (NRSV) 1 In days to come the mountain of the Lord s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised up above the hills. Peoples shall stream to it, 2 and many nations shall come and say: Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 3 He shall judge between many peoples, and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away; they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more; 4 but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid; for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken. PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE Gracious and Loving God, we give you thanks for the gift of your son Jesus Christ, who showed us what is means to live in harmony with you and with our fellow human begins. In his short time among us, Jesus told us that the peacemakers will be blessed, that we must love our enemies, and that we are called to forgive those who do wrong.
On this day we remember Jesus teachings as we join our voices with Christians from North and South Korea and throughout the entire world, praying for the peaceful reunification of the Korean peninsula. Together, we commit ourselves to working for the healing and restoration of Korea and all its people. God of Peace The prophet Micah dreamed of a day when our instruments of violence would be transformed into tools for harvesting food. Yet we continue to devote precious resources to the development and deployment of nuclear weapons. God, we pray for the immediate and complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, so that its people will no longer have to live in fear. God of Peace God, our leaders have too often put their desire for power and prestige ahead of your call for peace. We pray that a potential summit between the Democratic People s Republic of Korea and the United States will lead not to more fighting and posturing, but to finding just resolutions for the conflict in Korea. God of Peace As our leaders have quarreled, so many common people have had to endure the poverty, starvation, and lack of opportunity derived from economic sanctions which countries have levied against each other. We pray that every person in Korea would have the opportunity to flourish, and that humanitarian assistance would quickly reach those who need it most. God of Peace For so long, we have dedicated ourselves to building walls which separate instead of bridges which unite. We ask that the 38 th Parallel would one day be known throughout the world not as a dividing line between two peoples, but instead as the place where peace took root and your children learned to love one another. God of Peace God, finally we recognize that there are so many places in need of your shalom to take root. So help us to work for peace in all places, including our own communities, our workplaces, our families and friendships, and our own hearts. God of Peace SCRIPTURE READING Matthew 18:15-22 (NRSV) 15 If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. 16 But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax-collector. 18 Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. 19 Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them. 21 Then Peter came and said to him, Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times? 22 Jesus said to him, Not seven times, but I tell you, seventy-seven times. The Word of the LORD ALL: Thanks be to God HOMILY Of Gardens, Fig Trees, Swords, and Talks Rev. Jack Amick Director of Sustainable Development, UMCOR CONFESSION, PARDON, & PASSING OF THE PEACE
Gracious and Loving God, we come to you today recognizing our complicity in the violence and division gripping the Korean peninsula. We confess our sin of giving in to the powers and principalities of this world, of tolerating those who use their military and economic strength to subjugate the one Korean people. Even when we have had good intentions, we have been too meek in challenging the status quo and working for reunification. Set our minds only on your desire for justice, reconciliation, and peace. Let us no longer be distracted. Let us no longer be divided. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray, AMEN. Sisters and brothers, hear the good news: we worship a God of restoration and new life, who wills for all of creation to live in peace with one another and with God. In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven! ALL: In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven. Glory to God! Amen! In response to this new life we receive through Jesus Christ, let us stand and greet one another with signs of peace. GREAT THANKSGIVING At a Moment of Peace, Reconciliation, & Possibility on the Korean Peninsula The Lord be with you. ALL: And also with you. Lift up your hearts. ALL: We lift them to our God. Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. ALL: It is right to give our thanks and praise. Reconciling God, it is indeed right to give you thanks and praise, for you brought it all together and made everything out of nothing. You formed all that is and made it all good. You made the red-crowned crane and the white-naped crane. You made the Amur leopard, and the Siberian tiger; the musk deer and the pungan dog. You planted Korean pines and Siberian firs, larches and yews, camelias and camphors. You made trees and plants of all varieties. You made us all, uniquely different, but very much the same in our need for your love. You made all this and called it all good. You created a garden of goodness into which you planted us, with the idea that we would live in harmony with each other and all living things. Your dream for us, about which you sent the prophets to call us to put down our weapons and farm, was in a garden of fruit and fig. It was a garden of plenty and enough. And so, with all who have ever sought the fullness and wholeness of your dream of shalom, we praise your name and join their unending hymn, saying: ALL: Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of power and might Heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. We shouted hosannas, but we mistook your unfailing presence with us as favor over and against our enemies; as if your love would choose between people who stood stubbornly planted on different sides of lines we ourselves had drawn. We converted your dream of shalom and wholeness into a nightmare of a pietistic preference and separation. We distanced ourselves from things and people that we felt were impure or different or with whom we were conflicted. We guarded ourselves fiercely and built barriers and fences and walls against people we decided were too different. And so you sent us Jesus, to show us how to live in the garden again; to teach us how to love our neighbors, and even our enemies. As he reconciled us to himself, he also reconciled us to each other, in real and tangible ways. With his life, death, and resurrection, Jesus taught us to love one another.
On the night in which Jesus taught us about eternal love, he took bread, blessed it, broke it and gave it to those he loved, saying This is my body, which I give for you. Take and eat. Do this in remembrance of me. After supper, he took a cup of wine, blessed it and gave it to them, saying, This is my cup of the new covenant, given for you and for many for your salvation. Remember me with your lives. And so, in remembrance of these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ, we offer ourselves in service and praise and thanksgiving as a holy and living sacrifice, in union with Christ s offering for us as we proclaim the mystery of faith: ALL: Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. Blow your Holy Spirit on us gathered here and on this bread and this juice. Make them be for us the real presence of Christ that we might be the body of Christ for the world. By your Spirit, grant us the courage to be peacemakers. Teach us to forgive instead of keeping score. Teach us to do justice, embrace faithful love, and walk humbly with God. Give us the courage to turn our swords into plowshares. Make us brave and bold enough to quietly listen and talk with our enemies. Help us to set aside pride of self and nation, so that we allow space for your Spirit to work in us and through us and between us. May your peace rest on the Korean peninsula and around the world in places where reconciliation is long overdue. Grant us miracles in peacemaking, not only in grand gestures on the global stage between prominent world leaders, but also in persistent private conversations between inconspicuous individuals. Grant us the patience to make peace in our hearts and in our world. By your Spirit make us one with Christ, one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world, until Christ comes to be with us and we feast at his heavenly banquet. Through your Son Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit, in your holy Church, all honor and glory is yours, almighty God, now and forever. ALL: AMEN. Great Thanksgiving Liturgy by Rev. Jack Amick Based on Lectionary Readings: Micah 4:1-4, Micah 6:8, and Matthew 18:15-22 SONG Ososŏ ( Come Now, O Prince of Peace ) TFWS #2232 Come now, O Prince of peace, make us on body, come, O Lord Jesus, reconcile your people. CLOSING PRAYER/BENEDICTION Ososo, ososo, pyonghwa eui imgum uriga hanmom iruge hasoso. Come now, O God of love, make us on body, come, O Lord Jesus, reconcile your people. Ososo, ososo, sarang eui imgum uriga hanmom iruge hasoso. God of Creation, God of Reconciliation, help us this day to live together as your beloved children. Remind us that Your gift of breath is only for us to
speak a word of hope, that Your gift of hearing is only for us to know the cry of the oppressed, that Your gift of hands is only for us to build Your Peaceable Kin-dom, that Your gift of feet is only for us to march against the powers of violence and war. Make us, this day and every day, instruments of your Peace. In the name of the Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer we pray, AMEN. *Prayers of the People, Confession, and Benediction based upon documents from the National Council of Churches in Korea and the 2012 Unity Statement of the World Council of Churches from Busan, South Korea.