2025 Dedication: Sanctum to Feel Holiness of God

Sanctum to feel holiness of God to be officially dedicated April 2025 in South Korea

Part 1 of extracts from a sermon titled “In Our Parent’s House”, that Dr. Michael Balcomb, the President of the Europe and the Middle East Region of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, gave at the Sunday service in North London on 15th September 2024. Slightly edited. 

See part 2, part 3

We spent a lot of time overseas this summer, first in the United States, and then we went to Korea to celebrate True Father‘s Seonghwa anniversary. And this year was a particularly meaningful celebration for me because we conducted the pledge service and the prayer service right there at True Father‘s gravesite. It was a beautiful, sunny day, and I really felt the peace of that place and True Father‘s presence.

But going to Korea is really quite tough. It’s far away, especially when you’ve flown right around the world from America. So we decided afterwards, “Let’s take a few days and go to Japan and just unwind. We had a beautiful time on the island of Shikoku. Apart from the fact that a typhoon was bearing down on us, and we had to keep moving, it was great.

It was on the way back, while we were changing plane in Shanghai, that I got the message to come back to Korea. […]

We turned around in 20 hours, and went back to Korea. “Why?” you may ask. Well, that’s what I want to share with you this morning.

I was called by True Mother in person, “Come back to Korea! I want your opinion. I want your insight.” Not from me personally, perhaps, but the insight of someone from the UK or Europe, on the Cheonwon Temple, the peace temple (palace) that True Mother has been building these past few years in Korea and help her make a plan so that when we finally dedicate it and enter it next April, it will be a ceremony that the whole world can enjoy.

So she asked me, “So, what do you think? Is this better than the palaces of Europe?”

You have to think quick in a moment like that. The first answer is, “Yes.” But why is it better?

And suddenly it occurred to me, no, I’ve been to many palaces and castles in Europe and I’m sure that all of us have. But one thing I’ve noticed is that on the whole, they have a shadowed history, right? They’ve been used for purposes that are not particularly holy. And in some of them, you can still feel an atmosphere of fear, because the castle, the palace, represented the rule of force.

But here at Cheonwon Temple, I felt something very different. And I told Mother,

“I feel a different spirit here. This place has been created as a home for God and his family, or her family. It’s just a place of love.”

And Mother said,

“Yes, you’re absolutely right. And moreover, once it has been fully dedicated and offered to God, it’s yours. It’s not mine; it’s yours. And you, my children, are the ones who have to make it work and help the building to represent the vision behind it, which is a world of peace and justice.”

So I’d like to say that I was completely united with this and sort of floated down the stairs and thought, “Wow, wonderful! At last, the house of God is ready.”

But I didn’t, because, honestly speaking, I’ve been brought up or have thought,

“Well, God doesn’t really need a house, does he? I mean the whole of heaven and earth is the house of God. The whole creation is the house of God. Buildings are not that important.”

But then I thought to myself,

“Yes, but would you really feel that way if you felt that God is your Father, your Mother?”

My mom is 94 years old, and about a year ago she had a stroke and for a while she had to be in hospital and then in a rehabilitation centre. But finally the day came when she could come back to her own house.

However, she couldn’t manage to live by herself as she did before. And so each one weekend a month, me and my three sisters, more or less got up there to help her. At the other time, she has carers, but for her, it’s so important to be in her own home and not in an institution where maybe physically everything would be more comfortable, but spiritually and mentally it would be so sad.

Maybe it’s stretching the point. But I began to think along these lines,

“What about our Heavenly Parent who’s longing to be with his, with her children all the time?”

But at the moment, could it be that the churches, mosques, synagogues, and temples of the world are a little bit like institutions, like putting God into an institution? It’s comfortable; people come to worship, but actually it’s not the same as being home with your own family. Maybe something to think about there?

The first reading we had […], comes from the time when King Solomon dedicated the temple in Jerusalem 3,000 years ago:

“But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!

Yet give attention to your servant’s prayer and his plea for mercy, Lord my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence this day. May your eyes be open toward this temple night and day, this place of which you said, ‘My Name shall be there,’ so that you will hear the prayer your servant prays toward this place.

Hear the supplication of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive.” (1 Kings 8:23-27)

And if you look into it a bit deeper, you’ll see that it was a long project. It took seven to ten years, with enormous expenditure, and forced labour as well.

So finally it was done. And you could imagine it would have been possible for Solomon to feel,

“I’ve done it, I’m great. I’ve built the temple of God that my father promised to.”

But it’s clear from the scriptures that even at that moment, he was really thinking,

“Will, in fact, God live in this temple?”

And it says, “You who are bigger than all of heaven and earth.”

But the interesting point is what God says in reply, […]

“Yes, I will be in this temple, and I will hear your prayers. And not just your prayers. I’ll hear the prayers of anyone who turns their face towards this temple, including and especially the foreigner, the people who are not even from the people of Israel. So, yes, you can count on it.”

But there’s a condition:

“If you keep my statutes, if you keep my law, if you keep close to me, I will definitely hear your prayers, and I’ll answer them. If you forget and you start to drift away, then I will leave this place and it will become just a pile of rubble. And people who pass by will be appalled.”

That’s the word in the Bible: “appalled”. They were thinking,

“What happened here? How could it be that this great temple, dedicated at such expense and with such a heart, now lies ruined?”

And of course, that’s actually what happened. Before too long, the people did lose sight of the promises they’d made. The nation was divided, the temple was destroyed, and God didn’t have a home anymore.

Continued in part 2, part 3.

Featured image above: Dr. Michael Balcomb giving his sermon in North London 15th September 2024. Photo: FFWPU

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