All Saint's Night 2010

The All Saint's service started in the dark at the fishpond up on the mountain. From there we walked with candles lit, under the arched entrance gate of the Tao Fung Shan cemetery, up, then down the uneven stone steps, until we assembled around an outdoor altar, scratchy cypress trees at our backs.

We read out the names of those who had died, Chinese names, and American, Norwegian, Japanese and Danish, while looking at the flickering faces of the wondering children and somber adults. 

We ate bread, dipped in wine, we squinted up at the few stars which managed to pierce the Hong Kong gloom, and we remembered the question the two men in gleaming clothes asked the terrified women at Jesus' graveside.

"Why do you look for the living among the dead?"  [Luke 24:5]

This All Saint's Day, 2010, we are the living.  We dare to believe that those who have entered the mystery of eternity are, through Christ, awake, alive, and love us even better than they were able, on earth, to do.  They are the saints!  And we, we are in the process of becoming.
 
O blessed communion, fellowship divine! 
We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
Yet all are one in Thee for all are Thine.
Alleluia! Alleluia!  -- [Hymn: For All the Saints, 4th stanza]

Count it all joy!

A huge thanks to visual preacher Amber Bergeson for this shot of Wayne & me and our neighbor, a visiting pastor/scholar from Germany, Dr. Wolfhart Schlichting.  We had all gone to church together  and we always walk past this fountain on our way home from Union Church on Sunday mornings. So this time, with our friend Wolfhart (whom Wayne likes to call "Braveheart" because he keeps on taking vast new challenges in his life, such as coming to Hong Kong to teach at the age of 70),  we clambered into the spray!

Yesterday Youngest Son (who has a week off from school) and I took the cable car to visit the Big Buddha, on Lantau Island. 

It's a challenge to do a day trip with a 17 year old, even a relatively nice 17 year old. He absolutely forbade me from posting any of the pictures I took of him... but if you look very very carefully you can see him in the red shirt, walking way ahead of me as if he doesn't know me, at the bottom of the walkway to the Big Buddha.

At today's chapel service at LTS, the international students led us in worship and one of them told us that, "one sentence of praise is worth an hour of prayer."  I'm not sure how authoritative that statement is.... but I like it!  How often we dwell on the negative and what all we need help with, side-stepping the beauties and joys God strews on our path.

May we never become what St. Teresa of Avila referred to when she said, "Lord preserve us from sour, vinegary Christians!"

May we not be the kind of religious communities that paste this kind of sign over all our hearts and minds

but instead, cultivate a sense of joy & praise in the midst of all things.

(I've been waiting for a while to use THIS particular photo of my beloved husband!)

"Count it all joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds... "
      -- St. James, brother of Jesus


"Be joyful always" -- St. Paul, messenger of Jesus

Worship Wars, St. Francis and me... in Hong Kong

  The wise man built his house upon the rock, house upon the rock, house upon the rock... the wise man built his house upon the rock, and the rain came tumbling down!

I  found out last night that one of the professors at the seminary (a fellow Westerner) was furious that I used a children's song (with gestures yet) at the seminary chapel service last week.

What a shame.  I know at least some of the students loved it.  There was a direct Biblical link -- St. Paul telling us not to be ashamed of giving your all in service of the Gospel. I used the song as a way to tell about the children of Hong Kong and China who are awaiting the pastors and church leaders and families trained and strengthened through this seminary, to share the ROCK of Jesus' life and teachings with them...   And I had a pretty good illustration in St. Francis of Assisi who consistently got in trouble with the church hierarchy for his choice in happy music, spontaneous handstands, and jokes, to the point of the early Franciscans being nicknamed the "jugglers of God." 

 "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."  -- Jesus, quoted in Matthew 18:3-4

 

  

Multi-media Worship

We got to worship with the Nepalese Church again on Sunday.  Wayne preached, one of his students translated, and the singing and praying transported us to another world.  Since we don't understand the Nepalese language, we didn't know if they were praying "in tongues" or just praying, but there was a distinct whoooosh of the Spirit.   

Singing and praying and preaching was followed by dancing and jamming (the congregation includes a number of recovering drug addicts who are pretty great musicians, too bad yours truly didn't recharge my camera battery)... and delicious Nepalese food which even the kid (yes, our 17 year old was along for the occasion) enjoyed immensely.

May God be gracious to us and bless us
and make his face shine on us
so that your ways may be known on earth,
your salvation among all nations.
May the peoples praise you, God;
may all the peoples praise you.
                                                       -- Psalm 67:1-3

Teacher, Preacher, Cook

She preaches, she translates between Chinese and English, she cleans the candle wax off the altar... and she makes a mean red bean cake for after-church dessert.  What's not to like about this woman?

Meet Josephine, one of the students at the Lutheran Theological Seminary of Hong Kong, who has also graciously agreed to tutor me in Cantonese.  

She was  the preacher at tonight's worship service at Tao Fung Shan. As a woman personally acquainted with the chasm between academic Christianity and people of the local church communities, the chasm between the rich and the poor, she aptly pointed out that the poor man hoping for crumbs under the table of the rich man in Jesus' famous parable (Luke chapter 16) would never have had even that chance here in Hong Kong... the rich man's guards would surely have escorted the poor man away well before he got so close.

We don't usually even SEE each other, we rich and we poor of the world. 

But Josephine opened up that story for us tonight, and we were convicted... and given great hope that we can live lives differently, in Jesus Christ, who is both the poorest of the poor and the richest of the rich.

It's cool having a Cantonese tutor who's also a preacher.  And who feeds me red bean cake from time to time, too!

There was once a rich man who wore expensive clothes and every day ate the best food. ²⁰But a poor beggar named Lazarus was brought to the gate of the rich man's house. ²¹He was happy just to eat the scraps that fell from the rich man's table. His body was covered with sores, and dogs kept coming up to lick them.                       -- read the rest of this story in Luke 16:19ff

3 Worship Services + 2/3 Blessing + 6 Continents = 1 Family of God

After practicing, practicing, practicing my Cantonese for Sunday's liturgy, I was ready to lead worship with gusto on Sunday.... only to stumble and stutter who knows what language into the microphone.  For a grand finale, I stood up to give the closing blessing... and promptly forgot one whole person of the Holy Trinity (All were blessed in the name of the Father and the Spirit only... so, my good theologian friends... did the congregation  receive a whole blessing or only two thirds of a blessing?) It reminded me painfully of my earliest days as a seminarian, when I would garble the invocation and forget whole parts of the liturgy.

Afterwards, instead of giving me their usual lovingly exaggerated compliments, "Oh your Chinese is getting so good!",  my kind Chinese parish members instead said, " Oh, you are working so hard on your Chinese!"

Indeed.

But here's an amazing thing I realized on Sunday night... this weekend I worshiped with people from all six (inhabited) continents!  At the prison worship on Saturday we had prisoners from South America and Africa, on Sunday morning we had lots of folks from Asia and one from North America (yours truly) and on Sunday night (at Amazing Grace in Kowloon Tong) a couple of Germans and an Australian couple joined in with the mostly Filipina congregation, to make the intercontinental worship complete.


In God's house we need not be segregated by our language abilities, or lack thereof.

⁷Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. ⁸The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: "All nations will be blessed through you." ⁹So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.   -- Paul writing to the Galatians, chapter 3

New semester begins at LTS - Hong Kong

This is how the semester begins at the Lutheran Theological Seminary of Hong Kong. With Word. With the Sacrament of the Altar.  With the Communion of Saints including students and professors from Hong Kong, Mainland China, Myanmar (Burma), Laos, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Germany, the USA, Sweden, and more...

The semester begins with  radical trust & hope: we are here for a purpose. We will be given what we need to succeed.

The sermon is punctuated by a real live illustration:  We are not like monkeys!  the preacher says.  In the animal kingdom the fittest survive, the strongest get ahead, those with power are the first to eat and only then do they let the subordinates get to the leftovers.  But those who walk with Jesus are learning to be strong servants who serve the weakest ones first, and well.

Just then a monkey comes tumbling off the wall next to the seminary chapel windows.  He was pushed off the wall by a bigger monkey.  He shrieks, and everybody smiles.  It is as if he has said, Listen! This is important!

We move forward with open hands, needing this bread given for those who are weak.

"I am the Bread—living Bread!—who came down out of heaven. Anyone who eats this Bread will live—and forever! The Bread that I present to the world so that it can eat and live is myself, this flesh-and-blood self."   -- Jesus  (as translated by The Message version of the Bible, John 6:51)

More new beginnings in Hong Kong

A butterfly in church! on stilts!

I think this big guy looks puzzled.  As do I, since I'm not 100% sure what exactly I'm going to be doing this semester in my several teachingjobs.

On the promenade in Tsim ShaTsui, looking towards Victoria Harbour

Lotus Pond Gardens at the Chi Lin (Buddhist) nunnery.

Here's a collage of pictures, all taken just in the past few days.  Seminary classes start up later this week, as do Lutheran Primary school classes and church activities, so stay tuned... join us in praying for direction & focus for ourselves and the schools and churches, and especially the people with whom we will be serving.

Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
                                                                           -- Galatians 5:25

It's good to come back to church!

This morning I read an interview with the author Anne Rice about why she has left the church.  Again. Maybe permanently.  She says there's just too much hypocrisy and conservative politics in the church. Christians have made a bad name for themselves and she doesn't want to be associated with "them".  Ms. Rice has a point, doesn't she? When people hear the word "Christian", their first thought is usually NOT good news! or grace!, much to our shame.


Just minutes later I read a blog post by my good friend David Couper, an Episcopalian priest.  He told about being on the way to church this Sunday, when he  received a message on his phone, telling him that recent test results showed that his wife's cancer had returned. With a vengeance, it appears.

At church, David was surrounded by love.  More than that, he was given God's Word with the promise of God's utterly dependable faithfulness in all circumstances.  (You owe it to yourself to read his blogpost.  Go ahead, click on the link above)

So which is it?  Is the Christian Church a good thing or a bad thing for those of us who want to be friends & family with Jesus Christ?

Ok, so here's how my weekend at church was: at both the morning service (at Union Church on Hong Kong Island) and at evening church (up the hill from my house at Tao Fung Shan) I saw light, and laughter, human kindness, and a divine perspective that we human beings really and truly are created by, loved and washed up by, and meant for, the Eternal One.

If only we could all look & feel like this when coming out of church!

I think Anne Rice has an important point, and one we "church-goers" can't ignore. But this Sunday, back in Hong Kong, I must say, it's good to come back to church!

¹⁸ Even when I am old and gray,
       do not forsake me, my God,
       till I declare your power to the next generation,
       your mighty acts to all who are to come.

    ¹⁹ Your righteousness, God, reaches to the skies,
       you who have done great things.
       Who is like you, God? 

                                       Psalm 71: 18-19

Nepalese Worship with Verve: An Acts 2 Church

Verve is  the word that came to mind about worship today among a Nepalese congregation here in Hong Kong.

When we first arrived, up three flights of narrow stairs into a small apartment-sized worship space, there were only a handful of people.  Soon after the worship began:
 
The praise band started jamming,  the drummer (playing these incredible drums called tabla) started drumming, the guest preacher (Wayne) started preaching, and all the people started praying... (don't worry, not all of this took place at the same time)

Note the
shoes that are removed before stepping up to the altar... This is holy ground.

Kinda cool that it's a pastoral couple (Raju & Gita) leading this astonishing little church. (They are both LTS alumni)

We look forward to being invited back again, and watching this little church grow.  From what we saw today, it definitely will.  (Check out a video from a recent Nepalese Union Church Baptism festival here)
 
The Psalm for today was Psalm 148, and it was followed by a short burst of ... speaking in tongues?  (Hard for us English speakers to tell when the language switched from Nepalese language to a heavenly language, but later on the pastors told us, yes, that's exactly what was happening, a festive burst of speaking in tongues.) 

Let them praise the name of the LORD,
for his name alone is exalted; his splendor is above the earth and the heavens.
And he has raised up for his people a horn, the praise of all his faithful servants of Israel, the people close to his hearts.  Praise the LORD.

Empty Nest, Red Eggs, Truth Church

On Sunday after sending our youngest son off to the airport for his trip back to the USA, I went, for the first time, to the Hong Kong church I have been asked to help serve. After the service, there were red eggs for all! What is this about?

A symbol of joy and blessing in Chinese culture, red dyed eggs are handed out one month after a baby is born.

So as our own nest empties out (well, for two weeks,anyway) I was blessed with this symbol of new life and joy.

Ma On Shan Truth Lutheran Church and School... I'm so excited about the new life and discoveries ahead of us here.

"Go, stand
in the temple courts,"
[the angel] said,
"and tell the people
all about
this new life." -- Acts 5:20

Pentecost & the languages of love

Hong Kong Languages of Love Pentecost 2009

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Other Creative Writing languages of love hong kong worship

Acts 2:6 Each one heard them speaking in his own language...

Acts 2:7-8 Utterly amazed, they asked, "How is it that each of us hears...in his own native language?"
Acts 2: 11 " -- we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!"

+++

On Pentecost Sunday I preached for the first time since arriving in Hong Kong.

I spoke on the languages of love, and the many different languages the Spirit uses to speak first to us, then through us, the many members of the Church of Jesus Christ...

I used an old Dave Watry mission story, from when he and Jude lived in Russia for a year. Their first week there, they went to the market to buy some eggs for breakfast. Not knowing the word for "egg" in Russian, Dave acted out what he thought was a pretty fine imitation of a chicken laying an egg. The lady in the market stall nodded earnestly, turned to rummage through the boxes in the back of her market stall, and turned around again to hand Dave... a roll of toilet paper.

Ah yes, the languages we use.

The languages of love include these classic five: Time, Gifts, Words, Practical Help, Touch, to which I would add a few more such as color, art, food, music... you probably can think of more. Anyway, check out the short slide show (above) for the languages I've heard lately.

Buddha's Birthday

In honor of Buddha's Birthday coming up (our son can't believe his good fortune - he gets the day off from school!) I thought this would be a good occasion to post a few of my pictures of "the largest outdoor sitting Buddha in the world" on Lantau Island (turns out there are larger Buddha's, but they are either not outdoors or not sitting haha).

So, I just loved the expression on this girl's face as she sits on the bottom of the steps leading up to the Buddha-- (and yes, shame on you earthly minded people, she was wearing a full set of clothes even though you can't see it in the photo!)

Second picture has some of the largest incense sticks I've ever seen, in the gardens and devotional places surrounding the Buddha. The air was perfumed by it, and I couldn't help but think of David's Psalm:


Let my prayer rise up as incense before you,
the lifting up of my hands
as an evening sacrifice. --Psalm 141:2

Third picture is of a guy paying homage in front of one of the gorgeous Bodhisattva statues which surround the big Buddha.

My conclusion? The human desire and creativity in searching out a connectedness to the divine is something which transcends age, culture, gender. I believe that God honors that desire as something beautiful, in fact has created it, and is very near to all of us who reach out in hope of that "something more" to life.

At the same time, St. Paul 's words also echo in my mind:

What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you... Since we are God's children, we ought not think that the Divine Being is like gold or silver or stone -- an image made by human design and skill. While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. (see Acts 17:16-34)

No Camera at Easter

Happy Easter!!!
He is risen, Alleluia!

Much to our 15 year old's delight (!) we got up at 4 to climb the hill to Tao Fung Shan for the 5 o' clock Easter sunrise service.

While it was still dark, we heard again the ancient reading of the witness who said that Jesus of Nazareth was raised, he is not in the tomb. Close as we are on this mountainside, to massive stone tombs and graves, it was not hard to imagine the tiredness of the women that first Easter morning, the mixture of hope and amazement and fear that accompanied the message of the resurrection.
"With this announcement, everything changed," our preacher, John LeMond, reminded us.

Then we set out on the short rocky trail (a bit treacherous in the dark) to the Tao Fung Shan cross, a huge stark white cross set on a cliff overlooking the many towering buildings that form the Shatin city center.

As the sun rose and as the birds contributed some very loud morning choruses, we celebrated Holy Communion, serving each other in a circle: "the body of Christ broken for you," I got to say to my son. "The blood of Christ shed for you", our son got to say to his father.

I had forgotten my camera and was really ticked off about that until I got to thinking, well, there were no cameras at that first Easter either, now were there? Maybe there are some things better told with words that can evoke and bend and echo, rather than be confined to a camera's fixed eye.

Maundy Thursday Foot Washing

A small Chinese man, with a noticeable limp, walks across the room, then bends down to wash twelve pairs of feet. The man is Bishop Tai, a remarkable person, who has a Ph.D. from one of the German universities (yes, I'm of German ancestry so I'm impressed by that). The twelve pairs of feet belong to assorted pastors and leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hong Kong. Middle-aged feet mostly, with calloused heels from the endless walking one does here in Hong Kong. A pair of bony, elderly feet. The feet of the previous bishop, a woman. Very few if any really nice feet, but then how many people do you know with really nice feet?

I'm not usually a fan of these "let's have the pastor play Jesus" ritualized Maundy Thursday foot washings. For one thing, it's usually seemed presumptuous to me... why should the pastor play the part of Jesus? Isn't it better that we should take turns washing each other's feet? For years that's what we did with our confirmation students & adult guides, out in the fellowship hall, with big bowls of warm sudsy water, laughing. And year after year, it was amazing how these turned into memorable and moving events. One year I got to wash one of my own teen aged sons' feet, and if memory serves me correctly, he then did mine. Another time I watched members of the varsity hockey team drying off each other's toes. So that's how I've done it all these years, informally, with splashing and laughing.

But this year it was good to sit in the background and watch, the gentleness and humility of a Bishop of the Church.

"I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you." -- Jesus

Amazing Grace in Hong Kong

"They came to Philip...
with a request. "Sir," they said, "we would like to see Jesus." --John 12:21




The Fifth Sunday of Lent we went to Amazing Grace in Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong, which has an English - speaking outreach ministry to internationals, particularly Filipinas, women from the Philippines who are popular as domestic workers for affluent families in Hong Kong. These women practically raise the young children of many expatriate and Chinese households, cook & clean; they live right in the same apartment with their employers, and are often only given one day a week off... if that. Many of the women are quite young, a significant portion of them have left their own young children behind in the Philippines, where husbands and grandparents may or may not be taking good care of them. If they have kind employers, they may get two weeks off every other year to go and visit their families.

While many of them feel fortunate to have what are considered good paying jobs that can help pay school bills and raise the living standard of their families back home, these women can find themselves in a very vulnerable situation in the case of a dispute, miscommunication, or, sadly but realistically, physical, emotional, or sexual mistreatment by their employers.

The Christian Church is a refuge, a social gathering point, and an opportunity to hear the Good News of God's love for the poor, the lonely, the orphaned, and the foreigners of the land.

The preacher this Sunday was Joseph, one of Wayne's students; the liturgist was Letty, a pastoral leader who came from the Philippines many years ago herself, and so is uniquely prepared to minister in this international gathering. The choir, consisting of seven women and one male guitarist, filled up the small sanctuary so much that Wayne and I kept looking around to see where all the extra voices were coming from. Angels, maybe?

Wayne consecrated the sacraments (I'm still on my sabbatical you know :)and afterwards there was a fabulous supper for all.

While many Lutheran churches forgo flowers during Lent, I saw one of the most gorgeous arrangements I've ever seen, gracing the altar at Amazing Grace. What a good symbol of the vibrant, beautiful women who make up a large part of this worshipping community, and the joy they find in the all-embracing love of Jesus.

Lent 4

Sunday night at Christ Temple (up the mountain at Tao Fung Shan)

The preacher is Chinese, from Hong Kong. Her face radiates love as she tells about the circle of poor women she tutors, who struggle to learn... not to "get ahead" for themselves, but to be able to help their own children with their homework. So that their children might live a better life. "For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works," (Ephesians 2:10) we hear from St. Paul, and in Josephine's gentle sermon, we can see how this is true.

Next to me, a man who left his own family and his own country so that he can study to become a more effective pastor, counselor, community leader. In his home country the government claims that to follow Christ means disloyalty to your culture and nation. He doesn't know what awaits him when he returns, but he will return. He walks "by faith, not by sight." (2 Corinthians 5:7)

Next to him is the researcher from Mainland China, who seems to still be glistening from his baptism, here in this sanctuary, a few weeks ago. "There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope... one Lord, one faith, one baptism..." (Ephesians 4:4-5)

Across the room is a tiny Swedish woman, an impossibly young pastor, with intense eyes. She sings with gusto and beauty. Speaking with her afterwards, she has a way of peering up at you when you speak, you have the feeling she hangs on every word. She explains to me how she counsels Swedish expatriates living in Hong Kong, via conversations on Skype. "Surely you have heard about the administration of God's grace that was given to me for you." (Ephesians 3:2)

We sing without accompaniment, the sound is full-throated.

Tonight's Eucharistic bread is dark, fortified with either molasses or squid ink :)

I leave church well-fed.

Climbing up to meet God

photo: today's chapel flower arrangement: Epiphany of the Trinity



In order to get to ten o’clock chapel I should leave at nine thirty-five but once again it was more like nine forty-one before I slammed the crooked screen door at the bottom of the hill in order to hustle up Tao Fung Shan Road.

Twenty minutes later I’m a hot and humid mess, grabbing a hymn book, heart beating, listening, surprise, to a Chinese rendition of “How Great Thou Art”. This has never been one of my favorite hymns… maybe I’ve sung it about a hundred times too often at American funerals… but with at least half the congregation singing in Cantonese, the song takes on exotic new possibilities.

The Swedish professor who just arrived in Hong Kong is preaching on one of the stories of Jesus’ healings -- how Jesus’ shoes are too big for us to fill, yet by “keeping the mind of Christ Jesus” we get to be part of it, this God business of healing the world. The message goes straight to my heart.

Half an hour and the little service is over. My palms have left sweaty prints on the hymnbook, but my breath has calmed.

And I’m thinking, maybe those old Christians weren’t so wrong when they built churches on the top of hills, or at least on the top of tiers of steps There’s something about a thumping heart, damp clothes, deep breaths, that makes you aware of your need for the infinite, in a way that “accessible” gymnasium-shaped level floor buildings can never begin to achieve.