Modern Religious Experience: Reflection #9: The Incarnation of God

Modern Religious Experience: Reflection #9: The Incarnation of God: "After viewing 'The Nativity Story', analyzing your chosen Christmas carol, and reading Philippians 2:1-7, reflect on the meaning of Christma..."

Joy to the World

Verse 1:

Joy to the world! the Lord is come;Let earth receive her King;Let every heart prepare him room,And heaven and nature sing,And heaven and nature sing,And heaven, and heaven, and nature sing.

Jesus is described as the savior in this world according to the song called, “Joy to the World!”. The part that emphasizes Jesus’ birth is line 1-3. It said to glorify the coming of the real king who will save this sinful world. From heaven and earth, they glorify the new born King. Interestingly, according the passage, Jesus is also described as the Savior to this world. That it is him who’s capable of washing our sins by dying on the cross because he’s the son of God. The Scriptures, songs, and stories say that Jesus Christ is the new born king who’s the Savior to this world. He will save us, people, by dying on the cross for our sins. This way, we don’t have to kill any animals to sacrifice for washing our sins away. Then, we could go to heaven. To talk about the characters in this story, first of all, Mary is necessary to this story because obviously she’s the mother of the new born king, Jesus Christ, the son of God. Joseph is necessary because he’s the husband of Mary and took the long journey to Bethlehem. He led the journey and he’s the father of the Jesus Christ. The shepherds are important because they were the first one to see Jesus Christ. Their social class is low however, but contributes significantly to the birth of Jesus Christ. Lastly, the 3 Persian astrologers are important to the story because they were the ones who found the location where Jesus was born by discovering a special star. They told the king and the news spread. Also, they gave Jesus three gifts which were perfume (frankincense), gold, and myrrh. I think the type of God that comes to earth as a baby will be the one who’s humble to be in the baby form. Our God, Jesus Christ, is definitely humble and lowers himself by being born in the manger. So, I think God chose this method of coming to his creation. He doesn’t want to show off that he’s the “God”, but tells that he’s humble and knows how to lower himself. He maybe wanted to show equality between people.

Reflection #8 Islam: Two Perspectives

Western News Source Perspective: “Plan Koran Burning Drew International Scorn”

Page 1: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/10/world/10react.html?pagewanted=1

Page 2: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/10/world/10react.html?pagewanted=2

Summary: Protestants from Muslim countries such as Pakistan and Afghanistan outraged with revolt by burning the American flags and showing violent actions in the street when they heard a Florida pastor tried to burn copies of the Koran. President Obama with his American officials said that burning the Koran would put American troops into danger. In addition, many other countries disagreed on this “burning Koran plan” because it may establish a very serious war from the Muslims and would eventually cause many major problems.

Islamic Country’s Perspective: “Yudhoyono asks Obama to Stop Planned Koran Burning”

http://www.nu.or.id/page.php?lang=en&menu=news_view&news_id=2471

Summary: President of Indonesia, Susilo Bambang Yodhoyono sent a letter to President Barack Obama asking the church in Florida to stop the action of burning the Koran. President Susilo Bambang Yodhoyono said the action of burning the Koran would be a threat to world peace. People such as the Indonesian religious leaders and the President Susilo Bambang Yodhoyono, shows disapproval about the Florida’s church’s plan to burn the Koran.

Compare & Contrast:

1.      Muslims from both articles strongly disagree about Florida church’s plan to burn the Koran. They think it’s disrespectful and can lead to serious major problems such as war.

2.      The Islamic Country’s perspective was more serious and even presidents were involved to condemn the act. The Western news source perspective was also strong, but not so strong as much as the Muslims.

3.      Islamic countries may show terrorism or attacks such as establishing a war, but the countries and the people in the Western news source article won’t establish war, but to just trying to stop the action.

4.      Islamic countries may want to stop the Florida church’s plan to burn the Koran because they don’t their word of God to be burned. On the other hand, the countries and the people involved in the Western news source oppose the Florida church’s action because doesn’t want wars to erupt or other offense attacks.

Personal Commemoration - Reflection #7

This event will happen in the future. It happens in heaven after Jesus came down to earth. All of the true believers of Jesus Christ will go up to heaven including me. This will happen during my lifetime. In heaven, the people such as Abraham, David, Moses, and etc will be attending. So, this event is very important because it celebrates true Christians coming into heaven and having an eternal life with God. This commemoration will last for about an hour and after my speech, angels and the people will praise and dance. At the commemoration, I will perform a speech saying, “I am truly thankful to Jesus Christ for this awesome day. Satan had been defeated and only peace with joy remains here in heaven. We will praise the Lord and dance forever. Again, I give thanks to the Lord, our God our king! Hallelujah!” To remember and celebrate this event, some physical (tangible) actions would be dancing to the praise songs and angels will play the trumpet. No one will envy or boast, but only love exists along with happiness forever. Everyone wears gold for clothing and shines so beautiful. The foods are healthy such as bread, wine, and etc. Bread will represent Jesus Christ’s body and wine would be his blood. Then, we will fly across the cloud and head to God. God will greet us with a very big loving hug and a smile. Every single word God says will be touched into our hearts. I truly believe this event is going to happen someday.

The Morality of Greek Myths- Reflection #6

Cupid and Psyche

Once upon a time, God Venus became very jealous about Psyche’s beauty and orders her son, Cupid to shoot his golden arrow to Psyche so Psyche will eventually fall in love with a very poor creature (a man). When Cupid went down to Earth, he couldn’t shoot his golden arrow to Psyche because of Psyche’s beauty. However, Cupid didn’t show himself to Psyche promising not to try to look, so one day; Psyche was convinced from her sisters to kill Cupid. As a result, Cupid ran away because of Psyche’s betrayal when Psyche was trying to kill Cupid but she didn’t’ because of Cupid’s beauty. This myth attempt to answer the morals people should learn. There were many morals I procured. I learned that love shouldn’t have curiosity, but trust. If curiosity exists, then it may lead to a failing love. For example, Psyche was curious how Cupid looked like; there was a lack of trust. It eventually led to a failure. Also, being jealous on someone like Venus is a negative thing to learn. Instead of being envious and jealous, you should show respect. So, the important virtue for the Greeks would be having trust in love. When you are in love with someone, they you shouldn’t betray, but to show trust and remain in love for the better. Also, when Venus hated Psyche, they were like enemies. But, you should always love your enemies and show respect one another.

Reflection Question #5: Bongwonsa Temple and Nature Walk

       After visiting the Zen Buddhist Temple, Bongwonsa and attempting to see nature as a Taoist, I think finding the true or meaningful life prompts humans to seek out religion. Because humans believe the facts that aren’t proven scientifically actually exist such as Gods. In Buddhism and Hinduism, people believe in reincarnation and in Christianity, people believe that Jesus Christ was the Messiah. Also there is no evidence how the universe was created. I think people spend their lives seeking out religious truth, nurturing faith or worshipping creation to go to heaven in Christianity or reincarnate to a higher status in Hinduism and Buddhism after their death. In order to be capable of doing this is reaching nirvana. In Christianity, people believe that present life on earth is just a dream because they can procure eternity after death in heaven. In addition, we should worship, praise, and live a meaningful life for God.

Modern Religious Experience: Reflection #4: Buddhist Meditation

During 20 minutes of silent meditation inside the bathroom, I was able to accomplish many things without being disturbed. I was able to empty my mind to seek life’s truths. The answer of life’s truth was focused on God. During my silent meditation, I had one trouble controlling my mind. The trouble was being disturbed by the thoughts of games and other thoughts that weren’t relative to the life’s truths. Instead of focusing only on my own life’s truths, I began to think about school work, games, and etc. Eventually, I was able to receive on inspiration. The inspiration was taking actions to help others and to myself. Since God gave me the spirit to live, I should use that special gift for God’s work. Silent meditation gave me new experiences with new significant thoughts to myself.

Reflection #3- Gandhi: Hindu and Activist

       In the movie, Gandhi’s idea of Hinduism was Indians showing non-violent actions to convert people’s heart and their mind while fighting against the British. Gandhi thought violence wouldn’t solve any conflicts, but to remain in revenge again. However, non-violent actions from the Indians must be performed first against the British. For example, the British soldiers were guarding the gate where Indians procured salt. The British thought it was their territory and the Indians didn’t have the right to use their resources. In order to fight off, the Indians stood in a row of men and marched towards the guard without any violent actions. The women prepared medical supplies to cure the men. The British kept hitting the Indian men with their weapons and this kept on continuing. Another example took place at Amritsar Massacre. Numerous Indians gathered together at the garden to protest about the arrest of two Indian leaders who were significant. The Indians were unarmed, but the British soldiers shot all of the Indians including babies, women, and men. Even though the Indians were getting shot, they didn’t show any violence. These two examples showed non-violence against the British in the movie.

       One of Gandhi’s quotes, he said, “A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks; he becomes.” The quote exemplifies the way Gandhi lived out his faith because in his thoughts and ideas, nonviolence took the first priority. He wanted to convert people’s thoughts and mind by showing in a way where violent actions don’t have to exist. Eventually, he became the greatest political/religious leader in India. He was even called as the father of India. People began to follow Gandhi’s idea and influenced a lot of people. The Indians for example, didn’t use any violence against the British and a journalist got inspired by that idea. So, nations around the world knew that the actions British took were unacceptable along with violence. As a result, India became independent through Gandhi’s idea of nonviolence. Gandhi’s thoughts and ideas later on gave a significant impact for the Indians and which the result became the way Gandhi expected to be.