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..."

In Philippians 2:1-7, Jesus is described as the messiah, the deliverer of the Jews. He is the son of God, coming to redeem those who repent their sins.

O holy Child of Bethlehem
Descend to us, we pray
Cast out our sin and enter in
Be born to us today
We hear the Christmas angels
The great glad tidings tell
O come to us, abide with us
Our Lord Emmanuel

The christmas carol I chose was "O Little Town of Bethlehem". In this particular verse, Jesus is described to be of holy birth, worthy of praises to God and peace to earth. This description is same throughout the Nativity Story and in the passage of Philippians 2:1-7. They all describe him as the one who will cast their sins and abide with them. This verse emphasizes the importance of Jesus's birth, for he is the Messiah, and how he will cast all of their sins. It also says that he will bring joy to the world and great tidings to all.

Mary played an essential role in Jesus's birth. She gave up her dignity in order to conceive Jesus Christ, whilst being alienated and judged by almost everyone around her. Though still a virgin, she gave birth to the Messiah. Joseph, Mary's husband had to withstand all the gossip about his new wife. Though he was not the biological father of Jesus, being the good man he was, still took care of Mary and Jesus. He did anything to protect and care for them. The shepherds were necessary for their part in the story to show how Jesus was all-loving and humane, unlike the common misconception others had of the coming Messiah. They were poor and lower-class, and not people who would normally be the first to see the king of all kings. The Persian astrologers were necessary to depict the greatness and importance of Jesus. They also were the ones to give Jesus the three gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

I think that Jesus came down to earth in the form of a poor carpenter's newborn baby in order to show the humility of God and his servitude to all his children. Also, I think he came down as a baby in order to live among his people and befriend people personally and intimately.

Modern Religious Experience: Reflection #8 Islam: Two Perspectives

Modern Religious Experience: Reflection #8 Islam: Two Perspectives: "Find where Islamic religious beliefs intersect with current events. Research a Western news source on the story and summarize the article fr..."

http://articles.cnn.com/2010-07-29/us/florida.burn.quran.day_1_american-muslims-religion-cair-spokesman-ibrahim-hooper?_s=PM:US

This article is from a western perspective on the controversial issue of a planning of a Qu'ran burning. A Christian church in Florida, against the religion of Islam, planned to "take a stand" and commemorate those who died in the crash of 9/11 by encouraging fellow Christians to burn the Qu'ran. The church's pastor, Terry Jones, even goes on to say that Islam is the religion of the devil. Many people were outraged, some even forming protest groups do denounce the burning.

http://www.irna.ir/ENNewsShow.aspx?NID=267639

This article is from a Muslim country point of view on the Qu'ran burning. In this article, they say basically the same thing as the other article. They describe the plan, in which a US pastor plans to burn the Holy Qu'ran on the anniversary of 9/11. They also show the reaction of a Muslim politician, who says he is "deeply disturbed" by the event.

The difference between these two articles is that in the Muslim perspective article, they directly say "the burning is not only an insult to the Holy Quran, but a crime against humanity because Holy Quran is the verbal book of divine guidance and direction for mankind". On the other hand, the western perspective article just hints the wrongness of the planned event.

Modern Religious Experience: Personal Commemoration- Reflection #7

Modern Religious Experience: Personal Commemoration- Reflection #7: "Think of an event in your life- past, present or future. You are going to create a commemorative ritual for this event. First, describe the ..."

I’d like to commemorate my experience on top of Mount Shalom for the 12^th International Vida Nueva. Vida Nueva is a retreat where the candidates and workers worship God. Generally speaking, it is a Christian retreat, but does not exclude or prohibit non-Christians from attending. It is basically a wonderful time of fellowship, making new friends, and just being with people you love. Vida Nueva is important to me because some of the most joyful moments in my life were spent there. Also, it was the time where I first got to know God, not through my parent’s wishes, but through my own. The commemoration will last for a whole Sunday, preferably during a vacation to incorporate a sense of being on a retreat. During this commemoration, I’ll read out the following words: “I can do all things through Christ, who gives me strength.” (This is one of the verses I learnt at Vida). For this commemoration, I will turn off all means of communication, sing praise, worship, and give lots of hugs.

The Morality of Greek Myths - Reflection #6

Due to a punishment from Juno, a nymph named Echo had her voice taken away and could only repeat the last words of others. She fell in love with vain Narcissus, but was rejected. Out of heartbreak, she eventually wasted away to nothing, only leaving behind her "echo" of others' words. Narcissus fell in love with his own reflection in the water, staring at it day after day, and gradually died, leaving behind a white flower.
I think the moral of this myth was to not have excessive pride or vanity. Echo was so vain and in love with her own voice, and when she really needs it, she's unable to use it. Narcissus, also, was so enamored with himself that he was cursed to love no one but himself. When he falls in love with his own reflection, he can't look away and gradually wastes away. Another moral of this story is to treat others the way you want to be treated. Narcissus treats everyone else around him so poorly that he pays a deathly price.
From this story, I think important virtues to the Greeks are humility and treating others well. From this story, one should learn not to only value yourself and to treat the people around them with respect and kindness.

Modern Religious Experience: Reflection #5: Bongwonsa Temple and Nature Walk

Modern Religious Experience: Reflection #5: Bongwonsa Temple and Nature Walk: "After visiting the Zen Buddhist Temple, Bongwonsa and attempting to see nature as a Taoist, answer this question: What is it about creation,..."

On my walk to Bongwonsa Temple, I took time to observe my surroundings and really appreciate the nature around me. Doing so, questions arose in my head. Who made all of this? How was such a beautiful thing created in such a materialistic world like ours? These kind of questions, I think, are what drives humans to seek out religion. We seek out religion to answer these questions and to grasp such immeasurable concepts that, to us normal people, seem ambiguous. We are so confounded by all the mysteries of life, which are unanswered by science, that we need a source of truth. This source of truth would be religion. Religion provides an explanation of life, death, the way things work, and why things happen. Hinduism, for example provides an answer to why things happen. They believe in karma, which is the concept in which your actions determine your destiny. "What comes around, goes around." Another example is Christianity. They provide the explanation that all things are predetermined by God for your personal path in life. That God has a reason for all things in life. Humans are prompted to seek out religion to simply understand and have their questions answered.

Modern Religious Experience: Reflection #4: Buddhist Meditation

Modern Religious Experience: Reflection #4: Buddhist Meditation: "Spend 20 mintues in a silent meditation; a place you won't be disturbed, your own 'fig tree' as was Buddha's inspiration. In those 20 mintue..."

For this assignment, I spent 20 minutes in silence to meditate. Personally, it was a very hard experience. It was hard because I couldn't rid my mind of all distractions, because I wasn't able to focus on keeping all disturbances. Even though I kept reciting the mantras in order to focus, I just really couldn't FULLY only focus on the one part of the eight fold path. After many trials of reciting the mantras and trying to focus, I finally received a little inspiration. I started to (kind of) clear my mind of unnecessary distractions. I kind of had revelations of each path. For example, when I was meditating about "right thoughts", the thoughts that entered by head were about that all things in life were not permanent.

Modern Religious Experience: Reflection #3- Gandhi: Hindu and Activist

Modern Religious Experience: Reflection #3- Gandhi: Hindu and Activist: "In class, your small groups went over movie questions about the content in Gandhi. You should know who each of the main characters are and t..."

Mohandas Gandhi was a believer in Hinduism, but he had much broader and accepting view on life than the other believers. Hinduism does call for tolerance and acceptance of other religions, but as we saw in the movie, that wasn't always the case for the followers. Gandhi had a very strong opinion, or idea, about Hinduism wars. Being a very strong proponent of the non-violence act, He was totally against having wars. Despite the harsh, sometimes violent and provocative actions of the British, he still did not fight back (physically) and just kept fighting for what he believed in, which was peace and equality for the most part. One example from the movie is when the Indians met together in a meeting place to discuss Gandhi's idea of non-violence, no matter how they were treated. The British army raided this meeting, ruthlessly killing everyone there, including women and children. Even as the British were shooting them to their death, the Indians did not fight back. The second example is the Salt protest. Many Indian gathered and marched forward against the British soldiers, getting beaten each time the stepped forward. Even as the soldiers were beating them in an inhumane fashion, they still didn't physically fight back.

"An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind." This quote exemplifies a way that Gandhi lived out his faith in a major way. An "eye for and eye" simply represents how people take revenge on others for doing the same to them. Many people were doing this in India. For example, a Hindi man had killed a Muslim child during the fighting between the Muslims and Hindus because his child had gotten killed. Gandhi, however, strongly opposed the idea of revenge. Even when the British were ruthlessly killing and mistreating the Indians, he never took revenge. Instead, he would push the idea of non-violence even more to the Indians.