We are born and grow up in this world. We breathe and drink worldly cultures made and produced by people. Our physical being is used to the material conditions in the world, and our heart-minds have adapted to the world’s various trends. This pattern seems as natural to us as water is to a fish because we have always lived in the midst of the world’s patterns.
Even though we grow up and live in this world, we as Christians fundamentally rebuild our lives in new conditions distinct from worldly trends. This is Christian faith. For this, Christians sometimes radically resist worldly patterns, negatively calling this world “sinful” or “dark,” as in the New Testament. In this, Christian history has stories of conflicts with worldly patterns. Because of this, Christians basically live with tension between worldly cultures and Jesus’s direction. This tension is natural to walking with, working with and following Jesus in the world.
When following sinful trends instead of Jesus, Christians need to repent and rebuild new patterns of life according to Jesus’s teaching. In this, Christian life can be dynamic and vital. Today’s Christians are too comfortable in worldly trends. I would like to show an example. It is the market pattern (1) in Christian life within the church. Churches tend to follow religious business patterns, and Christians tend to follow as religious consumers. Christianity is treated like a religious product or religious entertainment. These patterns have the power to accelerate the secularization of Christian faith and lifestyles. When most of Christian life and church life follows the market’s power instead of the power of the Spirit, we lose the original source of Christian spirituality.
We begin the second year of rebuilding St. Mark’s. To rebuild, we need to give up the worldly patterns and find and accept the original and pure source for our spirituality. What is the original source for your vital and dynamic spiritual life? I pray that you will find the answer to rebuild St. Mark’s. You are St. Mark’s!
– Rev. Yong Sub Sim
(1) The market pattern means to follow one’s personal and emotional satisfaction according to the trend of prioritizing what is pleasing to oneself. Consumers choose and buy for their individual satisfaction. This is a worldly trend that appears with markets and consumers.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay.
