“No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” (1 John 4: 12)

The grace, mercy, and peace of Christ Jesus be upon each and every one of you on this day.

An anthropologist who was studying a tribe in South Africa put down a basket full of fresh sweet strawberries and promised to give all the fruit to the first child who got to the basket. That was translated and told to the kids. However the kids held hands and started running together. They were happy to arrive at the basket and share the fruit together. It’s a very touching story.

The anthropologist was curious so he asked the kids, "I told you all that I was going to give one first place person all the fruit so why did you all hold hands and run together?" Then from one little child's lips shot out the word, "Ubuntu." If all others are sad how can one person be happy?

“Ubuntu” means I am because you are. If I get rid of you how can I live by myself?

Many people ask, "Where is God?" "How can we see God?"

Today the passage we see in 1 John says:

If we call God father and we sincerely love Him, God will work within us and His love will be realized fully. You believe this right?

Some people say I believe in God's existence but I hate people who believe in Jesus so I believe in God alone. Some people attend church but they hate loving other people. As long as I receive blessings and salvation it's okay, they say.

But this is not right. God loves us and wants that love to be realized within us. Today, “Ubuntu” is our faith confession. We are because of Jesus and because of Jesus our neighbors are here and we believe in Jesus together.

I hope that we love this nature that God made and hold hands with our neighbors.

Faith is not something that we do alone. It is something that we do together. We all are gathered here today by our love in Jesus. By this heart we love each other and in the middle of this gathering I believe that God is present.

This is a copy of a Sunday sermon preached by Rev. Jin O. Jeong. Reverend and Doctor Jin O. Jeong is an assistant pastor for Korean congregation at Zion Lutheran Church, Belleville, IL. He graduated from Luther University and received a Ph.D from Yonsei University. He was also a Research Fellow at Hebrew University and Visiting Scholar at Yale Divinity School. Tel: 618-920-9311 Email: jjeong@zionbelleville.org