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Janet Blair is the pastor of Zion Lutheran Church and Vice Pastor of Zion Church in Ridgefield and Garfield, New Jersey. She is also an ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) mission developer of Morning Star Fellowship, a Korean and Korean American ministry in northern New Jersey. Blair is completing her Doctor of Ministry degree at the Lutheran Seminary in Philadelphia on Cross-Cultural Ministry.

Living in the “Now”; ESL Ministry in the Korean Community in Northern New Jersey

March 1, 2017 – 9:23 pm | Comments Off

by Janet E. Blair

The foundation of the ESL ministry of the Morning Star Fellowship in the Korean immigrant community in northern New Jersey is not English language teaching with a lopsided power differential, but mutual teaching and learning, sharing of Biblical insights and cultural experience, and brotherly and sisterly love. This new faith community is living out the peaceable kingdom as the body of Christ now rather than passively awaiting the not yet.

Piety Choi, “Fish on Fire”

This month’s Cover Art: Fish on Fire
by Piety Choi.

Title: Fish on Fire
Artist: Piety Choi
Size: 40"x40"
Mixed Media on Wooden Panel

This painting is based on the story at the end of the gospel of John in which the risen Christ came to his disciples on the morning of his resurrection and broiled the fish for them. To the wooden panel I attached the actual pieces of burnt burlap fabric and used acryl paint to reproduce a scene of broiling. While the Johannine passage is commonly understood as the risen Christ telling the world that he has risen and has returned to provide hope as well as hope-filled nourishment, I remember that fire also has the cleansing power of the fire of the Holy Spirit. According to other gospel traditions, Peter had denied Jesus three times. Jesus’ feeding of his disciples with the fish by the sea of Tiberias, however, has no trace of condemnation. In this scene, Jesus said to Peter, “Do you love me?” Jesus then asked Peter to tend his sheep. Divine justice might call to mind fire as punishment, but I cherish the power of the Lord’s fire that cleanses our soul from the stains of sin. There I see the path to renewal and new life.

—Piety Choi

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Piety Choi, “Fish on Fire”

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