2024-03-01 15:04:17
The series ‘Kim Hyeon-ji’s Devotional Listening’ is a corner where church musician Kim Hyun-ji (Zelkova Forest Church of Justice), who majored in church music and worship, introduces music that helps believers’ meditation and spiritual life in line with the church calendar’s ‘Common Lectionary (RCL)’. . The series is published every Friday. – Editor’s note
*Common Bible text and text for the second Sunday of Lent, February 25, 2024 (click) Psalm 22:23-31 / Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16 / Romans 4:13-25 / Mark 8:31-38
The moment I first passed by you, all time suddenly stopped.
Ted Chiang (1967~)’s 2016 short story Story of Your Life alternates between the encounter between an alien life form called a ‘heptapod’ and linguist Lewis, and the story with Lewis’ daughter. It has a unique structure. In order to understand the Heptapods, others who speak a different language, Lewis studies the Heptapods’ language. To communicate, we first approach humankind’s familiar method, spoken language. Or, they show the text and try to communicate through behavioral language and the relationship between the text. Physicist Gary also wants to know the existence of heptapods through his scientific mindset. Since thinking is related to the language each person has, Lewis ultimately comes to the conclusion that in order to truly communicate, one must acquire the Heptapod language to be able to think new thoughts.
Eventually you find out. The language of the universe is not causal or sequential like human language, but simultaneous and purposeful. This is a fact that Lewis learned through Fermat’s principle through Gary. The path of light always moves along a path that allows it to arrive in the minimum amount of time. But there are two perspectives on this. The first perspective is to look at the refraction of light only from a causal aspect. So, the schema shows that the cause of light reaching the water surface is the result, and the change in direction due to refraction is the result. And the second point of view is that the light has already decided on its final destination and proceeds with all calculations, which is similar to the language of the heptapods. Therefore, we learn that heptapod language is a state in which the past, present, and future are experienced simultaneously, and purpose is fundamentally perceived. This was different from the human way of thinking, which has a causal and linear thinking system. From the human perspective, it is explained that light changed direction due to differences in refractive index.1) By studying differences in language, Lewis learned the language of the heptapods. And he experiences the experience of perceiving all of time simultaneously. The language system has changed the logic of thinking. He has the ability to ‘remember’ the future.
“A ray of light must know its final destination before it can choose which direction to move.”2)
The moment we meet for the first time in hundreds of millions of years, my body becomes lighter.
The covenant lies in relationships. The moment existence meets another, it is a different time from the previous time and enters a different orbit. Jehovah ‘appeared’ to Abram and gave him a new name, Abraham, along with the promise that he would become the father of many nations (Genesis 17:5). Abraham’s descendants are multiplying exceedingly in his word. His covenant is said to be eternal, but his descendants are so distant that they cannot be counted. Kings are born in descendants. The feast of words that unfolds in front of ‘childless Abram’ cannot be counted in numbers or recorded in words. Because ‘eternity’ is like that. How should Abraham, who had no children, imagine his countless descendants?
I wake up once more in a place without sound in the endless darkness.
However, Jehovah is looking at Abraham and Sarah as a being with a new name. Just as light already knows all the paths and directions toward its final destination. This path of light can only be realized and recognized following a certain period of time, and this can be said to be the process of becoming Abraham from Abram. And the countless incidents encountered in the process would have required faith in the covenant. An event that looks towards an unseen future and remembers an unheard future. Apostle Paul writes to Rome that ‘righteousness’ refers to the confidence that God is able to fulfill what He has promised (Romans 4:18-22). And they say it’s not just for Abraham. The covenant believed in unseen extends from Abraham to countless descendants, and ‘we who are counted as righteousness’ gain a new identity based on Paul’s words.
‘For it is written, not for Abraham’s sake only, that righteousness was credited to him, but for us also, to whom righteousness will be credited, even if we believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. Jesus was delivered over for our trespasses and lived for our justification. ‘He was born.’ (Romans 4:23-25)
When you call me I am reborn
Jesus, with Peter and his disciples, is on the road to Caesarea Philippi. Jesus’ questions are from the outside inward. ‘Who do people say that I am?’ (Mark 8:27) The disciples say what they have heard people say regarding Jesus. They say they are John the Baptist and Elijah. The target of the question becomes a little narrower. ‘Then who do you say that I am?’ (Mark 8:29) When the relationship becomes ‘you and me’ instead of a faceless mass of people, the meaning of the relationship illuminates each other’s identity in more detail. As the questions and answers exchange between Peter and Jesus, everyone on the street turns into gray passers-by, and only the two people become clear. Peter responds without hesitation when Jesus looks at him. ‘You are the Christ.’
Christ, Christ, Christ. Peter mutters what he said once more. The current reality facing the Jewish land, the relationship with Rome, the savior, the king, the Messiah, the fulfillment of prophecy, the books of Moses that I had heard regarding since childhood, and the awareness of ‘Christ’ that rose from the experience of time were clearly present in Peter. But Jesus speaks of his future suffering and death. He also tells us that he will be raised once more on the third day. Light that clearly knows where to go never changes its path. The light appears to be refracted, but that is just human language, and in fact, we clearly know the direction and destination the light should go in according to the ‘principle of minimum time’ for the light to go. The protesting Peter understands Christ through causal and sequential thinking, just as Lewis did before learning the Heptapod language. Jesus, who perceives from the time of creation to the time of redemption simultaneously, rebukes Peter.
‘Get behind me, Satan, for you do not set your mind on the things of God, but on the things of men.’ (Mark 8:33)
It is read as something of you and becomes another you.
contact. Recognizing the meaning and identity of names when they touch each other, deciphering ‘you’, and converting ‘your language’. Peter’s protest would not have ended there. In the end, he became Jesus’ greatest disciple, denied himself, took up his cross, and followed Jesus. Jesus must have sensed all of that as he watched Peter protest. However, Peter, as the being in contact, needs time to decipher and convert all the signals.
“Physical properties that the heptapods intuitively accept, like ‘action’ or other things defined by integrals, only have meaning following a certain period of time has passed. And it leads to a teleological interpretation of events. Satisfaction by looking at events over a certain period of time. You become aware of the fact that there is a condition to be achieved and a goal of minimizing or maximizing. And in order to achieve that goal, you must know the very first and last state. Knowledge of the result is needed before the cause begins. It will.”3)
On the second Sunday of Lent, like last week, the Bible routine once more emphasizes the story of the covenant. The rainbow, which was a token of the covenant hidden in the cloud, was ‘graphic’, but this week it appeared as a covenant between Abraham and Jehovah. The eternal covenant, which can only be seen sequentially and linearly in human language, is viewed differently in front of Abraham, Peter, and Jesus as to ‘where the light should go’. This week’s devotional listening is Kim Dong-ryul’s song ‘Contact’. This song is included in the 2018 album ‘Reply’ and was written with inspiration from the movie Contact (Arrival, 2016). The movie Contact is Denis Villeneuve’s film based on Ted Chiang’s novel,
Contact-Kim Dong-ryul
The moment I passed by you for the first time, all time suddenly stopped, and the moment unknown stars spinning in different orbits met for the first time in hundreds of millions of years, my body became light, my toes suddenly rose, and in the endless darkness, in the soundless place, I woke up once more and a hand groped me. With just that one thing, I knew that I was alive. The back side of the moon shines on us floating like a dance. If it were all over like this, even if thousands of years have already passed in our world, I am no one and I am reborn at your fingertips, and when you touch me, I feel like I’m rushing at that small sound. The light may bounce far away and float endlessly in another space and burn out. Hold me so I don’t lose you. When you call me, I will be reborn, read as something of you, and become another you. Defying all the laws that pull us, we will become one. That’s how we disappear. going to be
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1) Ted Chang, ＜Story of Your Life＞ (Ellie, 2009), 212. 2) Ted Chang, ＜Story of Your Life＞ (Ellie, 2009), 207. 3) Ted Chang, ＜Story of Your Life＞ (Ellie, 2009), 217.
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