Sunday Sermon to Global Team and Japanese members
What the Global IOWC is doing in Japan has no historical precedent. What we are doing here is making history that has never existed before.
So I want to speak to you this morning on this topic, “We Are Making New History.”
As you know, according to the Divine Principle, history started from the very beginning on the wrong track, going in the wrong direction. God wanted to build His kingdom and His ideal through the first man and woman.
However, that first man and woman betrayed God.
Since then, all human history has been in rebellion. God cannot approve of it.
Therefore, God's will has been for restoration, to turn man's wrong history into the right history.
But, as you know, God is spirit. He does not have a body. He does not have arms.
Furthermore, he does not have legs. Besides, he does not have a mouth to be able to communicate directly with human beings.
So God needs somebody to do His job. And that somebody is the Messiah. The Messiah is in God's arms. Jesus came as the Messiah 2000 years ago.
However, the people did not recognize the Son of God. They betrayed the Son of God, just as Adam and Eve had betrayed God. Therefore, God's body—the Christ—could not fulfill the mission of building God's Kingdom on earth and fulfilling His ideal 2000 years ago.
Since that time, God has been working to create another opportunity. And you and I know that that opportunity is at hand. This world is running into despair because God must bring to an end the history of this wrong world.
To destroy the old history of evil and create a new history, He must bring about the end of the world. We are here to be the champions of God.
By himself, the Messiah cannot fulfill the entire will of God for this world. He is like a brain that needs many cells and different members of the body.
So when you go out in Tokyo and speak to the people, you are speaking for God. And I want you to know that never before in the history of Tokyo have God's people declared the Kingdom. Therefore, we are making history. We have no one from whom we can learn what to do.
We must create the path. And what is our most important responsibility, then? The most significant mission for all of us here is to set the right tradition.
What was wrong with Adam and Eve?
They distrusted God. They listened instead to the lies of Satan. Truth departed from them. That was the wrong tradition. So the first tradition we must set is to return to the truth. We must trust God.
How must we trust God?
Jesus said we must love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our mind, and all our soul. Suppose you have a lover.
If you gave your love with all your heart, all your mind, and all your soul, what would you have left after that?
There would be nothing left over. So we must set the tradition to give our entire selves—heart, mind, and soul—to God. There is another way of expressing this.
If you love a person with all your heart, mind, and soul, then you are literally crazy for that person. The word crazy is not a bad word. The important thing is what you are crazy about. That is what makes it good or bad.
If you are crazy about drugs, or crazy about evil sin, or crazy about all the material things, the result is bad. But when we are crazy about God, crazy about Christ, this is the life to live!
There are 23 different nationalities represented here at this gathering. I speak English, and he speaks Japanese.
However, some people may not understand either of these languages. I am sure you all are experiencing how difficult it is without a language to communicate in.
But it was reported to me this morning that the people of Tokyo are so impressed with the way we are working, even though we do not have the language to be able to communicate.
An international member and a Japanese member are going out as a pair into the city, and they cannot speak with each other very much because they do not have a common language. But we have one special language so that we can communicate regardless of nationality. That is the language of the heart.
Actually, I am not Korean. You are not Japanese. You do not come from Europe or America. We are all living in Father's home as children of God.
So we must set the tradition to be pious sons and daughters. Satan will never give up this world easily. We have to take it almost by force.
That is why Jesus said,
"I did not come to bring peace, but a sword."
Without winning this divine battle, the Kingdom of God cannot come to this earth. God and the Messiah need soldiers, brave soldiers.
And most importantly, these soldiers must be loyal and of unwavering faith. In other words, they must be pious sons and daughters who are willing to die for the Messiah.
And of all the peoples in the world, the Japanese people have been the most prepared in that spirit. Throughout Japan's history, the Japanese culture and way of life have always emphasized loyalty and piety. As with many other countries, Japan's history begins with a legend. That legend says that Japan is God's country.
That tradition has been brought down through the emperors, from generation to generation. The people have really been unified about that central point. They have been exemplary subjects, giving their last measure of devotion and loyalty to their emperor.
During World War II, America and the Allied Forces fought against the Japanese. During that time, the Americans especially had a hard time with Japan. Compared to giant America, Japan was like a peanut.
But that peanut was so strong that the American people could not figure out where its power came from. During that time, America was really trying to find the secret of the Japanese.
Well, they never found it, for it was the age-old tradition of Japan, the spirit of loyalty and piety. Even the Japanese PFCs, the very lowest soldiers, when they attacked an enemy camp, they always shouted mansei bonzai, and cheered for the Emperor. They knew that when they were hit by the enemy bullets, they would die.
They wanted to shout this bonzai as their last word before they died. That is an example of the Japanese spirit. God made these people ready for one great day.
When the Messiah, the True Parent, comes, he needs soldiers like that. Western countries need to learn from the culture in Japan. This is our challenge.
Now I have a word for the Japanese brothers and sisters. This is your opportunity as well.
What you have to learn is the idea that the world is bigger than Japan. We must learn that there are many ways of life in this world. We must learn to adopt, adjust to, and harmonize with different ways of life.
If Japan fails to learn to work with other people, then the Japanese can never be elevated into greatness.
So the Japanese brothers and sisters are faced with a new challenge and opportunity to learn that they can contribute not just to Asia or Japan, but to the whole world.
So we have a wonderful opportunity to live together and show a true example of the Kingdom of God here on earth. Japan is a small country, probably smaller than the American state of Minnesota.
But almost 100 million people are living in this small territory. That is almost half of the United States population. In America, we have to move around so much to meet people. Here, we do not have to move too much. All you have to do is just turn around.
When you go to the Ginza at night, it is entirely different from New York's Fifth Avenue or Washington's F Street. In Ginza, you don't have to walk, because people will move!
All you have to do is stand facing the right direction. That is Japan. So I want to ask you, people of the IOWC, to make a good impression on the Japanese people. That is our first mission, to let them feel heaven even before they hear our message.
When we leave Tokyo, we want the people to feel lonely without us. We want them to be excited for our return, anxious to see us again.
Finally, to set this good tradition, let us be willing to suffer. Let us be willing to go through the worst kinds of experiences. Let us be willing to shed our tears, our sweat, and our blood for the Messiah.
You and I must pledge, “I will not speak one word of complaint.”
I have one personal credo that I am always reciting in my heart. It is taken from the Bible, the words of Jesus.
He said, "He who finds his life will lose it, but he who loses his life for my sake will find it."
As long as you and I live by this credo, we will find our lives.