Do we recognize our Heavenly Father’s loving guidance? Part 12

I would like to tell you a story: Once upon a time people who lived far apart from one another longed to have a common place where they could meet in order to share their hearts. They prayed for such a wonderful place to take shape. Knowing of their desire one rich man decided to build a house for them where they could come together and exchange their news and spend a good time, showing to others the fruits of their work, or to simply talk about what moved their hearts,… so that they could become closer to one another and feel like family.

The house was finally built and as the people came together, they realized how much they appreciated being together and to share their hearts and accomplishments. Soon more and more people heard about this community center and decided to go there to meet new faces, get to know more people, make new friends and to share with them whenever they felt a need or simply listen to what was being said at that special place. For some it felt like a communion of sorts and sometimes even like a fellowship meeting at a church because they spoke about their religious beliefs and about how they felt about God.

The man who had built this house did his best to make it a comfortable home, where visitors could easily get involved in community life, and so he decided to put up a big board where the news of the day and of the week were easily seen to everyone who came through the door; so that the important things that were happening could be seen at a glance… Because this meeting place became very popular, then the builder was very pleased. He felt well respected and appreciated by the community members, who would meet there from time to time, enjoying the fruit of his labor.

There was one man who had visited this meeting place often but didn’t speak much; he just observed people, listened to them in order to getting to know them well, praying that he would be able to see them with God’s eyes. After awhile, he began to share about his experiences and his convictions in life; and because he understood peoples’ hearts, they were drawn to him and so he soon became the center of attention and many people responded favorably to what he was saying. In no time at all this man had become a focal point of attention in the community house and his name was prominently posted on the central board. Soon he became more popular than any other member and people looked to him with respect.

Now this new situation caused the one who had so far stood at the center of attention some struggles, feeling a certain lack of love: How come that now this person get all the attention when it was me who had worked so hard to build this meeting place? For quite a while the builder could hide his emotions - he did not want the community members to know about his struggles - but at the same time deep down inside he had been wondering how to get rid of the man who seemed to be the cause for his frustration, taking away his popularity and peace of mind.

Then, one day another unhappy person began to attack this “newcomer” and together they felt confident that they could block out the one whom they could not love. In no time at all, this ungodly deed was accomplished, but one person who noticed what the master of that house had done began to speak up. But this was not tolerated for long; soon afterwards, this person was also thrown out and found herself in front of locked doors when she next returned, to see a sign that read: “Mr. X and Mrs. Y are prohibited from entering this place.”

Other visitors of that meeting place found out about what had been happening and they asked one another: “Should we do something about this injustice or keep our mouths shut?” Because after all, it is the master of the house who did this and we’d better not get ourselves into trouble…

The builder of that place realized that he did not make the wisest decision, when some people began inquiring about what he had done. Soon it was inevitable that the sign would be torn down by those who felt uncomfortable about it. So the builder prepared for the time that the ones whom he had kicked out would return, by changing the furniture of the living room, removing the big board; then people would not see who had become the most popular person in “his” community center.

The man and the women, who had been forbidden from entering that meeting place were allowed back; but the question remained: “Should the one who built the house be reprimanded for what he has done and does he need to apologize or should the incident be silently swept under the carpet and forgotten?”

Jesus told the people stories, parables, in order to make them think and reflect about what is right and which behaviour is wrong. Many things he could not say directly as there was no foundation for him to do so. But we live in a different era where we stand on the victorious foundation of the victory of love achieved by the True Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind. We do not need to remain in the realm of symbol and image but we are in a position to resolve issues substantially. Are we ready for it?

Does anybody need an explanation as to which situation the above narrated story refers? I suppose not. The situation is very clear and obvious, but not so the moral or the lessons to be learnt because so far it seems we do not agree in the core point of what would be the right behaviour by the community in this situation.

One suggestion is to go to the master of that house to explain to him that he went beyond his realm of what is permissible and he has to apologize to the community for what he had done to some of its members. The other is to put the mantel of silence over the whole issue as to not disturb any souls…

After having studied the Divine Principe and Father’s speeches thoroughly it is clear for me that we need to resolve any issue completely. For this reason I am bringing up what is not right in our midst, an attitude which is surely not easy to carry through from beginning to end because many prefer to stick to the “status quo” – to how things have been done…

One fellow national messiah commented in response to part (3) of the present series, to which many comments appeared in the iUnificationist Meeting House: “Nikolaus, Thanks for your

heartfelt sharing. The problems among members in UC, and the problems between leaders and members… I’m reminded that every single thing needs to be restored, every single thing.

So don’t get discouraged. Little petty things are going on in our local UC as well. If we keep speaking the truth and don’t give up, truth will out in the end. We have to push and pull each other into the KoHoE.”

Yes, it is not easy to enter the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth and even more difficult to help others to become fit for God’s Kingdom, but this is our destiny and we should fulfil it well. I am writing about open issues for the sake of them being resolve thoroughly because all too many times problems have been swept under the carpet in our movement and such a way of dealing with things led to many members becoming resentful and leaving our church.

If we are serious about building Cheon Il Guk, we must be ready to face reality, not only in the outside world but also situations that have become a fact in our own ranks. One core issue is again and again the misuse of positions within our church (hierarchy). What we are talking about in the given cases of expelling subscribers from internet communities is a clear misuse of positions by list-owners, webmasters or moderators who are supposed to serve the respective e- groups but put themselves up as judge over others, deciding whether or not they are worthy of being a member of the various homes in the worldwide web.

In the story above the webmaster is portrayed as a rich person – referring in reality to the (rich) knowledge in the field of managing internet sites. This knowledge is used to dominate others who lack such expertise and make oneself a lord over them.

Imagine how you will feel when you get messages that you have been banned from the internet groups and stand in front of locked doors. And when you ask for the reason you wait in vain for an answer. You are just kicked out… Try imagining it, including the situation that the mail that you used to receive as subscriber to mailing lists are also blocked and do not reach you any more – how long can you endure being cut off completely? I had to go through such a situation for years.

If you try to put yourself in such a situation, then you will probably realize that it is not right to ban people just like this and you will hopefully begin to speak up for others who have been treated in this way. You may think that in the case of Nikolaus and Elise having been suspended from iUnificationist the issue is resolved because finally we were allowed back. But in reality nobody took responsibility for the grave mistake, no apology whatsoever was given, also not to Elise’s husband who was refused the permission to become a member of this e-group simply because he is blessed with Elise Lambert.

Unless we speak out against the misuse of positions that has been going on in our church for years on many levels we will not be fit to enter Cheon Il Guk no matter how much we may claim to be believing in the True Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind because in reality we do not really love neither them nor God or His children.

Of course Heaven is very concerned that we do our portion of responsibility well and prepares therefore many situations that can help us to go beyond our limitation and to get there where we should be, putting into practice what we proclaim with our words. For example, after brother Nikolaus and sister Elise were banned from iUnificationist one member offered a

message with the reference title “God and True Parents love the ex-members”. In this way the “moderators” were reminded of the heart True Parents have even for ex-members, in order to move them to reconsider what kind of attitude is shown when banning one’s brother and sister, cutting them off from the community.

As you know, Elise and Nikolaus were finally allowed to return to the iUnificationist Meeting House but what had changed in the meantime? I spoke about it shortly already before, the problem of not being able to love one’s brother and sister was not solved, but rather the “main room of the home” was changed in an effort to avoid having to face reality. Because some could not face that fact that brother Nikolaus was there on the homepage of this website with his name in the first ranks of those who offer Top Contributions, the design of the site was changed to remove the blogs from the first page when opening iUnificationist.

Now let us take a sober look: The homepage = first page one reaches when opening a website, shows how a particular place in the worldwide web is organized. In the given case one enters the living room (so to speak) of the iUnificationist Meeting House and looking around the question comes to mind: “Aha, here international Unificationists are meeting. There are the news, pictures and video galleries, etc. But aren’t the members of this home talking with one another as this is supposed to be their Meeting House?”

After searching thoroughly one finds at the left side a thin column with the latest activities of who became friends with whom and who commented on which article. But where is the main content of what is being shared in this meeting place? It was there at the center of this homepage for a long time until the day that some people could not stand the fact that their brother, whom they cannot love, was well appreciated in this community. So they tried to hide this reality by removing the bog posts and the section showing Top contributors from the home page of this site.

Of course it is not possible to do this but at least the members of this home will not see a glance that their brother Nikolaus offers articles which are well received, e.g. with my reflection about uniting and restoring the lost realm of brotherly/sisterly love ranging on the first place of the most popular blog posts until March 24, 2011. And today, as I write this reflection on the 26th of March, part three of the present series is presented as the Most Popular Article in the iUnification Meeting House while in the top ranking section my name appears on the second place in the Top Content section and on the third place in the section of the Top Members and Top Blog Posts - among the 2600 subscribers.

We must not allow that visitors of the iUnificationist Meeting House have to now “search” for new content that is being shared while it has always there visible with one glance at the homepage - only become some people are not able to love their brother. What is happening here is that the public good is sacrificed for individual preferences based on fallen nature. Self- centered emotions are put above the public purpose, which is completely unacceptable from God’s viewpoint.

Actually it was on the very same day which turned out to be the day when I was cut off from iUnificationist that I sent out a letter with the title “The True Tradition of Love is centered on the Higher Level” in line with what Father had told us in his speech “The Tribal Messiah”. In this reflection I quoted the national messiah who stood up for my being allowed back on the NM List writing, a couple of weeks earlier: “What rules of the NM List did he break that got him kicked off? Was he posting too much ‘ideological stuff’? Everybody deletes most emails these days

anyway. Was he antagonizing people like a prophet of old? Telling everybody to shape up? Maybe he just rubs some people the wrong way. He doesn’t say anything unprincipled…

So, to me, to shut out our fellow NM brother who is not unprincipled because we find what he says disagreeable is wrong and counterproductive. I believe we’re bigger than that, or at least we’re expected to be…” While hundreds of brothers and sisters were reminded that it is wrong to cut off one’s brother such a fallen behaviour was once again practiced some hours later on the very same day.

In that reflection I also reminded the readers of Father telling us: “If we live according to the heavenly destiny we are qualified to receive complete protection from God.” What became some hours later a reality for many brothers and sisters in Japan whose live was spared in a “miraculous way” as we have heard from testimonies when the earthquake/ tsunami hit the country. When I say this I do not state at the same time that those who died through this tragedy did so because of their own fault or mistake but they had become an offering (including two members of our church) in a situation where a collective debt had to be paid – where there was not enough foundation of protection for the people.

On March 18, 2011 Rabbi Richard Ben Eleazar sent a short article about parallels among the Jewish fest of Purim and the testimony of our True Parents, saying that on many occasions, Father’s enemies who sought to destroy him, locked him up in jail, but what was supposed to be the destruction of Sun Myung Moon turned out to be a victory momentum.

Rabbi Ben Eleazar noted that there is the song “Utzu aytzah…” that expresses this victory, “They [our enemies] have devised plans but have been frustrated, they have made statements [against us], but they will not be fulfilled, because God is with us! … this is fulfilled to the letter on the testimony of the True Father. God has demonstrated in many ways that He sent the True Parents and that They have all His support and blessing.” While it is clear for all Unificationists that this is true, it should be also clear for them that God’s blessing is with brother Nikolaus and sister Elise who had been banned and reinstated as members of the iUnificationist Meeting House.

Another message about the holiday of Purim was sent by one sisters who explained about the story of Queen Esther and her Uncle Mordechai who fought for their people whom the evil Haman (pronounced HAY-man) wanted to destroy. Parallel to this historic event it has become a reality today that there is sister Elise (her Hebrew name is Esther) and brother Nikolaus who are fighting for God’s people whom our Heavenly Father has called to work with the Lord of the Second Advent, while at the same time there are those who are working to stop them.

The parallels include the fact that Haman wanted to kill Mordechai (his name referring to “servant of God”) because he refused to bow down before him because it is a clear violation of Jewish law, while Nikolaus stands up against the false tradition of bowing to people disregarding God’s Will, what has most sadly become a reality in our midst, while there are those who have set out to eliminate brother Nikolaus from their communities, for which had become a reality also for iUnificationist from where I was banned by 3/11/2011.

We are here to restore history and this includes that even the name of the webmaster who should have overcome his desire to eliminate his brother refers to his task in front of Heaven. His name

means “King’s loyal subject” which he is destined to practice in front of God as the King and not in other fallen ways which resulted in now being a big white place on the homepage where before the new contributions of the subscribers were visible. (The h*** is now at the right bottom because other content was moved upwards to hide what was done…)

The sister who wrote about the Purim concluded: “For some reason, all of this puts me in mind of the situation our Japanese brothers and sisters face, being persecuted by the Japanese media, government, police, and university faculty and administrators, and so-called ‘Christian’ ministers. Like the wicked Haman, they abuse their power, their positions and their authority to persecute and attempt to annihilate innocent people out of prejudice, racism and bigotry. Those wicked, modern-day ‘Hamans’ also seek to turn those innocent victims’ families and neighbors against them, and spread many falsities about Unificationists, to garner the participation of society in assisting them in their barbaric crimes against others.

Unfortunately, the families and neighbors of Unificationists, unlike the ancient Persian authorities, are not giving support to the victims of undeserved persecution, nor are they questioning why they should be assaulting innocent people, instead they join in the assaults and tortures, whether by active commission, or by turning away from the desperate screams for help!”

These explanations have been offered in the Meeting House where parallel incidents were happening with two members being unjustly thrown out and not even allowing Elise’s husband to become a member of that meeting place for Unificationists, with Heaven hoping that the general majority of the subscribers of that home would stand up in defence of their brother and sister and to bring an end to the evil that was going on in their midst.

Please, my dear brothers and sisters, let us realize deeply that nothing comes about by coincidence because we are here to restore history, to overcome what central people could not manage to do in the past. We are called to lay a victorious foundation for the substantial realization of Cheon Il Guk, a world that is absolutely centered on True Love. Therefore we have to show such a standard in our own lives and must not allow that another standard is practiced in our church communities – in our own ranks.