What Believers Must Do During Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving Holiday)
What Believers Must Do During Chuseok
(Korean Thanksgiving Holiday)
Galatians 4:8-11 However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rath- er to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.
1 Thessalonians 5:18 in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
Since the fall of humankind through Adam and Eve, and after the judgment in Noah’s time, God said in Genesis 8:22, “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.” Autumn is a season rich with the abundance of grains and fruits. It is a season when people grow plump from plenty, a season for reading, and a season that deepens and purifies the soul. Through the Word that God has given us about this autumn season, I hope we can partake in the fruitful harvest that God has provided and share in His grace together.
When our people celebrate the bountiful Chuseok holiday, which we have celebrated for generations, they feel that they owe their blessings to their ancestors rather than to God. So they give thanks to their deceased ancestors, offer ancestral rites, and bow before the dead. But according to the Bible, bowing down to lifeless idols is a sin of distrusting and betraying God. When God spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, He said, “I am a jealous God. To those who love Me and keep My commandments, I will show steadfast love to a thousand generations.”
The Silla kingdom has a thousand-year history. To be precise, it was 992 years from Park Hyeokgeose to King Gyeongsun. After 56 generations, it fell. Therefore, we can consider the profound significance behind God’s promise to bless to a thousand generations those who love Him.
Before we believed in Jesus and knew God, we were, by nature, children of wrath. Today’s passage asks, “Now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again?” Some people misunderstand the Word and think that if they bow to lifeless idols during Chuseok or offer money before idols, their children will be blessed and they will have long, healthy lives. But the only true God who created the heavens and the earth is a personal God, the living God, the God who speaks. He comes near to help in times of trouble, and raises us up when we fall. Yet humans, who were made in the image of God, go and bow before mute spirits. There are many who wrap rice in straw, place plain white rice without side dishes on the roadside, addressing the spirits as they offer money and bow down.
We are the children of the living God. We are believers with the hope of the Lord’s resurrection. We are sons and daughters of God. In the Bible, the Israelites also celebrated holidays similar to ours, but the way they observed them were different. They sincerely gave thanks before the living God, shedding tears over the grace they had received, repenting of the sins they had committed, and observing their festivals with sincere gratitude even if they had nothing but a single chestnut.
Our holidays, however, seem to end with just eating and drinking. If one’s children brings a lot of things, we call them good sons or daughters, but if someone comes with only a little because they are struggling or their business failed, parents say things like, “Raising children is useless,” causing their children to fall into sin. But if parents have faith, no matter the circumstances, they should be able to say, “You’ve grown so much by God’s grace. It seems like you’re living by grace. Seeing your face uplifts my heart.” The Israelites didn’t just eat and drink half-heartedly out of social obligation or to save face during their festivals. They sincerely gave thanks before God. They rejoiced in salvation, gave thanks that the blessings of Ebenezer led them to live up to that day, and they never betrayed the grace of God.
Believers should worship God with thanksgiving during Chuseok.
So how should we, as believers, spend Chuseok? If we are people who believe in God, then during the Chuseok holiday we must not follow the customs of this world or live just like unbelievers. We must live as people who are set apart. I am not saying you must never go to your parents’ graves to trim the grass and take care of them. Christianity is a living faith. But preparing ancestral rites, pouring out liquor, and bowing to the dead is something God sees as offensive. While our grandparents, parents, and elders are alive, we can bow to them and show them honor. That is the way to live as people who are set apart.
Believers must worship God with thanksgiving during Chuseok. Worship is what pleases God the most. When we worship, grace pours out like a waterfall. Even things we did not ask for—regarding ourselves, our spouses, our parents, and our children—God takes care of them all. Believers have the duty and responsibility to worship. In Genesis 12:4–8 we see that the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob built altars and worshiped wherever they went. When they worshiped, God gave them revelation, allowed them to converse with Him, and guided them on the way they should go. Worship is what pleases God the most. Worship includes meditation, prayer, and praise. God already knows all our hearts. In John 2:24–25 it says that Jesus did not entrust Himself to people or depend on them because knew what was in the hearts of men.
Only those who do not forget the grace of thanksgiving can truly worship God. A person who has no thankfulness cannot even worship. People tend to take credit for things that go well and slander or blame others when it fails. But the Bible continually teaches us to give thanks to God the Father in all things (Eph 5:20).
Without gratitude, we become irritated and even resentful of the time spent in church. We enjoy the world and invest in it while thinking it’s a waste to come to church to worship, serve, sing hymns, and pray. That is because we lack gratitude. The entire Bible is a confession of thanksgiving. I once counted, and confessions of thanksgiving appear 184 times throughout the Bible. In the Psalms alone, from Psalm 1 to Psalm 150, there are 76 psalms of thanksgiving. And throughout the Old and New Testaments, the command “Give thanks” appears 35 times.
Believers must especially give thanks in all things (1 Cor 14). “In all things” means to give thanks even when life feels stifling, sorrowful, or painful, and also when life is overflowing with joy and blessings. Christian thanksgiving is like a weighted doll that pops back up no matter how many times it is knocked down. Even when you feel like you are about to fall, you get back up. No matter how many times you fall, you rise again. This is true thanksgiving. Whether in success or in failure, thanksgiving must never be absent.
Thanksgiving is God’s will for us (1 Thess 5:18). A person without thankfulness tramples on God’s will and throws it aside—that is sin. Just as the number one national treasure of Korea is Namdaemun Gate, if a Christian family were to have a treasure, the number one treasure should be thanksgiving. If you forget to be thankful, you will also forget obedience and eventually forget God’s Word. Thanksgiving is like a wrapping cloth that covers everything. Do not give thanks only with your words. The body moves according to the command of the heart, and where the Word goes, grace is sure to be found. Where there is grace, there is always thanksgiving and worship.
The highest form of thanksgiving God receives is worship.
The highest form of thanksgiving that God receives is worship. When we fervently love God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with a fearful heart, we should pray like this: “God, I do not know how many days I have left on this earth, but they are in Your hands. You sent me to this earth in Your providence, with a purpose and a plan. May I never lose this heart of thanksgiving, so that I may obey Your will.” When such a confession of thanksgiving comes from the heart, we will never forget the grace we have received. How wonderful this is! How pleased God is with thanksgiving! If we give thanks, there is no one who cannot be saved. God shows His salvation to the one who gives thanks (Ps 50:23). God uses a thankful nation and a thankful individual. God treasures the thankful person like a precious jewel. Even the United States, the most prosperous nation in the world, observes Thanksgiving Day as a national holiday on the fourth Thursday of November every year.
When we look at the great figures of the Bible, there is not a single one who did not give thanks. Even Joseph, who went through hardships, gave thanks, and so did Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Daniel, in particular, gave praise, thanks, and prayed to God three times a day even though he knew he might be thrown to the lions. Daniel’s three friends also gave thanks, knowing that refusing to bow before the king’s image meant being cast into a furnace heated seven times hotter, yet even amid threats and intimidation they gave thanks. When the three were thrown into the fiery furnace, the king looked closely and saw not three but four figures walking unharmed. And when they were brought out, not a hair on their heads was singed and their clothes didn’t even smell of smoke. The king was astonished and issued a decree commanding everyone to worship the God of Daniel’s friends, and those who would not were thrown into the furnace instead.
David, though he faced death hundreds of times and was constantly on the run, also gave thanks. Mary, the mother of Jesus, gave thanks that the Savior of the world would be born from a lowly woman like her. The apostle Paul was whipped with 39 lashes five times, stoned, and imprisoned countless times. As he wrote in 2 Corinthians 11:22 and on, he endured threats from his own people, dangers in the wilderness, cold, hunger, nakedness, sleeplessness, and starvation all because of Jesus. Yet God sustained him by grace through it all. Please believe that this Chuseok, when every family and every individual gives thanks before God, it will return to you as God’s immense grace. We must never let go of God or forget Him. God must always be present in our lives.
Have you ever given thanks so deeply that even your heart and very bones felt like they were burn- ing up?
If there is a tragedy in this era, it is that we have forgotten to be thankful. Have you ever thanked God with such fire and sincerity that your bones seemed to burn? Too often our thanks are merely formal, insincere, and perfunctory before God. Forgetting gratitude is more dangerous than a world filled with murderers, robbers, and every kind of wickedness.
When gratitude is forgotten, we commit a sin even more fearful than murder and robbery. If we forget to give thanks, our hearts become filled with jealousy, envy, resentment, despair, and hatred. We begin to grumble everywhere we go, bringing chaos to our families, society, and church. But when we give thanks, demons and illness flee. When we give thanks, we can recover what was lost. When we are thankful, even if Satan attacks from one direction, he will flee in seven (Deut 28:7). How wonderful and amazing is God’s promise that darkness cannot invade a people who give thanks! In the homes of thankful believers and in a faith life filled with thanksgiving, the forces of darkness have no foothold.
We must realize that thanksgiving is a blessing to the soul.
How, then, should we spend this Chuseok holiday? Even if we have nothing at all, if we have even a single jujube, we should give thanks. Thanksgiving is a blessing of the soul, and if gratitude dies, everything dies. But if gratitude revives, I come alive, and when I come alive, my family comes alive. A person who has a name but lacks gratitude will lose the light from their face and be filled with sorrow. A life of gratitude in all things not only receives blessings from God but also leads to prosperity in everything you do. The Bible says that if you are grateful even when you eat food and drink water, God will remove all diseases. King Nebuchadnezzar failed to thank God and instead claimed that he had built Babylon by his own power and might. At that very moment, his royal glory departed from him, and he was cast down into a pitiful and miserable life even lower than the beasts (Dan 4:29–31). The moment a person thinks, “I graduated from an elite university, I studied abroad, and I succeeded by my own strength,” the grace of God will depart. So never depart from a life of thanksgiving before the living God.
I once spent an unforgettable Chuseok at Seoul Station.If you went from Seoul Station toward Seodaemun, there was a bridge where they served American military leftovers, which we called “slop.” A five-cent bowl of rice from the Namdaemun Market theater would leave you hungry again in less than a day, but the slop, which even contained cigarettes and toothpicks, kept me full for three days. So I bought some slop and went to Namsan, where I ate it while listening to the beautiful sounds of nature, and I was truly thankful to God at that moment. So this Chuseok, do not bow to dead idols, but spend it sincerely giving thanks before God. Thanksgiving will keep your faith from growing cold and your grace from running dry. Thanksgiving also gives patience, and as you endure, hope arises. This hope, the Bible says, is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, and kept in heaven for us (1 Pet 1:3-4).
During Chuseok, we must also re- pay the grace we have received.
During Chuseok, we must also repay the grace we have received. How much grace have you received up to this point? If you have received grace, you must repay that grace (Ps 116:12). King Hezekiah was surrounded by nations waiting to pounce on any weakness, yet he defeated the Assyrian army of 185,000. In every crisis, he thanked and prayed to God, and as a result, his nation grew stronger and more prosperous, and his land was healed. However, when King Hezekiah became prosperous and his fame spread to other nations, everyone came to him and bowed, and he instantly became arrogant. At that moment, he forgot God’s grace and failed to repay the grace he had received. And from that moment, sickness struck him and his nation fell into chaos. But in 2 Chronicles 32:25 we see that when he finally realized his sin, repented, and gave thanks, God made the nation strong again. So this Chuseok, may your thanksgiving become an offering to God – not a holiday spent only seeking physical pleasures, but one overflowing with joy and grace in both body and spirit. I bless you in the name of the Lord to have such a faith-filled Chuseok.
Chuseok is a feast that God has provided by His grace. Sighing, complaining, and grumbling about what we lack will not bring abundance. In fact, it only destroys your own life. The Bible says that worry is like “piercing yourself with many sorrows,” and tells us to entrust everything to God. Judas Iscariot’s worry ended in him tragically hanging himself. When you see the golden waves of ripened fields in the fall, even though they may not be yours, try giving thanks for the rich harvest of grains and fruits that God has made. God will not stay silent. He will say, “You gave thanks even in hardship. I saw that.” And you will slowly find that things are beginning to go well for you, and your next Chuseok will be one without tears.
In 2002, a Typhoon Rusa struck Korea during Chuseok. According to the news, the damage cost was estimated to be nearly 10 trillion won. The devastation was so great that it was hard to imagine how anyone could celebrate the holiday. The places hit by Typhoon Rusa looked like war zones. I personally visited an area about an hour and a half from Gimcheon in North Gyeongsang Province. The river and land had become indistinguishable. The rice paddies, fields, pears, and apples that our ancestors had cultivated for hundreds of years were all buried under the ground. Not a single house remained intact. The village hall had collapsed, and even concrete bridges were destroyed. Residents sat in despair, exhausted from weeping. But look at the good and upright hearts of the Korean people. Everyone, without hesitation, donated their precious belongings. Volunteers, members of the Saemaul Movement, a Marine unit from Pohang, and an entire airborne brigade came to help. Piles of garbage lined the roads, making them impassable, but people cleared the debris, restored what was broken, and distributed relief goods. And the victims received them as if they were Chuseok gifts. One person called and said, “We didn’t even have a single blanket, but Pyungkang Cheil Church sent us new blankets and pillows. Thank you so much. I will never forget this for the rest of my life, and I will always pray for your church.”
Don’t settle for empty, superficial grace— receive the rich fruit of grace, the grace of gratitude. During Chuseok, do not just take care of your own family. You must have a warm heart to take in the poor, the widows, and the orphans, or at least treat them to a warm meal. Believe that when God sees that heart, He will not remain still. Proverbs 11:24–25 says that those who are excessively frugal, not eating yourself or giving to others, and living a miserly life, will end up with nothing. However, those who give to others will never lack. Apostle Paul also confessed that he loved the Corinthians with a burning love in Jesus Christ.
I once read a story about an antique collector in New York. One day, he saw a newspaper article about an antique that had belonged to old British royalty. He dropped everything and rushed to England. When he got there, he discovered that the item had been sold seven years ago. He hadn’t bothered to read the entire article. He was determined to “track it down and buy it for more money, no matter who had it.” He searched everywhere and finally learned that an American had bought the item. He couldn’t find the person no matter how hard he tried, only to realize that the American was himself. The precious antique was something he had bought seven years ago and completely forgotten about.
Grace is so great that we fail to rec- ognize it, and in the end, we forget all about it.
We, too, have received the most precious, one-of-a-kind grace from God. But because this grace is so great, we often fail to recognize it and eventually forget it. We have received the most precious grace and love of God, yet instead of realizing it, we wander outside searching for it. We worry endlessly about what to eat, what to wear.
But what we already possess is Jesus, the Treasure of all nations. Where are you wandering off to, forgetting this precious Treasure? Paul said, “I possess nothing, yet I have everything.” In the same way, if we have Jesus, we have all the riches of the universe.
When we recognize grace as grace, and give thanks for that grace, God will make us remember all the grace we have received until now, and He will restore to us what we had forgotten and lost. So this Chuseok, may you gather up all the great graces you have received until now, lay them out like offerings on the altar of grace like a table of offerings, and celebrate before God with tears, gratitude, prayer, and praise in a holy feast, a spiritual communion. I bless this upon you in the name of the Lord.
Let us pray. Lord, we have realized that only when we recognize grace as grace, and when we believe and acknowledge it as our own, will thanksgiving, praise, and prayer overflow from our hearts, enabling us to offer a living sacrifice of worship with all our heart, mind, and devotion before You. This Chuseok, please bless all the members of Pyungkang Cheil Church so that none will be saddened or distressed for not being able to prepare an abundant holiday table, but instead may we all rediscover every bit of the gracious feast You have given us until today, and be able to offer worship full of thanksgiving before You. May we never bow to lifeless idols, but pray and worship before God, remembering the days of old, and may our worship be an offering of thanksgiving, praise, and prayer before You.
Please be with each household this Chuseok so that they may not fall into trials, and as they remember the grace they have received, let them make a renewed commitment to loyalty, service, and dedication in their life of faith. For all the times we have failed to give You our wholehearted devotion and thanksgiving until now, please bless us so that this Chuseok may become a true altar of gratitude through sincere repentance before You. Please also bless this whole day of worship so that this holy Lord’s Day will not be broken or scattered, but may it become a day that brings You joy. We offer this prayer of thanks, asking and pleading for all these things in the holy name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Main Sunday Sermon by Pastor Abraham Park
September 15, 2002
- 25년 9월호