Dancing a Prayer of Sadness

We received word of a terrible, tragic  death of the 24 year old friend of one of our sons.
Our world will not be the same.
This is the kid who lived down the street. Who slept over at our house in a pile of boys in the basement. Who had a world class science project. Who got up in the dark winter mornings to get to 6 a.m. team wrestling practices at the school. An athlete and a scholar.

Whose Mom & Dad took him to church, showed up at every school event, whose Mom & Dad loved him madly. Who was our son's good friend, and fun. A law school student.

Who was a Christian. Who, yes, messed with drugs and alcohol, which everyone expected was a passing thing. Maybe it was or wasn't, but somehow this bright young man lost sight of all light, and got desperate. And took his own life.

Our son called us, facetime, across the continents and ocean. This is when it's hard to be so far away. There are times when to see your kid on a little phone screen is not enough.

In Christian tradition, it's Lent, and at the LTS chapel we entered into the season of dust and ashes with (of all things) dancing.

Southeast Asian dancing is expressive, from the arch of the foot to the plane of the outstretched hand.
Just so, our spirits try to express sadness, and anger, and confession, and more sadness, in prayer.

It is for just a death like this,  that we Christians insistently cling to hope beyond all hope: That there will, in fact, be full redemption, a rising up, of this particular and beloved life, the good friend of our son.

In Romans 8:26, St. Paul writes:  the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.

Seminary Olympics... for the sport of it

The opening ceremonies

Seminary Olympics held in the yard of our home in Hong Kong with inter-Asian and inter-national students. .... something we first experienced at LSTChicago many years ago. The Hong Kong version included the 1) cardboard slalom doubles event, 2) edible medals, and 3) fastest recitation of the books of the Bible (in one's own language). Below are some of the top contenders, can you recognize the languages? Can you guess who won?

Notice the fancy footwear for the "slalom doubles"

Alas, the edible medals did not last the night...

Sometimes it's good just to have fun together!

You've all been to the stadium and seen the athletes race. Everyone runs; one wins. Run to win. 

All good athletes train hard. They do it for a gold medal that tarnishes and fades. 

You're after one that's gold eternally.

-- St. Paul writing in I Corinthians 9:24-25  THE MESSAGE BIBLE

Memorial for a Mom... Lao angels... Easter continues!

The phone calls came on Good Friday. One of the Lao student's Mom had been ill. Now she had asked her daughter (oldest of twelve children!) to  please return home to see her one last time. This is easier said then done. Student scholarship monies do not normally cover extra trips home. But after much conferring, a gift from fellow students who shared from their small monthly stipend, and the hope that the scholarship provider would agree it's a good cause, we gave the student, Chinda,  permission to book a ticket... and she caught practically the next flight out from Hong Kong to Vientiane, the capital of Laos. They were able to talk together, pray together, and Chinda was able to hold her Mom  as she passed away the into the Savior's arms on Holy Saturday, the day in which Christians remember that full day in which Jesus was lying dead in the tomb.

She returned back to LTS Hong Kong ten days later. The students conferred again, when could we hold a memorial service for Chinda's Mom?

Yours truly had the privilege of arranging the service:  Her English teacher preached, the international choir sang, the chaplain led the Eucharist, another professor led the benediction, and then Chinda's fellow Laos students sang a final hymn of hope in the Lao language.  

After the service, Chinda (left) with the preacher (center) and photo of her  Mom,
who loved the color pink!

Two weeks later the whole LTS choir led a packed church in a festive Easter Season worship with dance,

and coloured streamers

 celebrating an empty tomb. We believe it, our community celebrates it for a whole week of Sundays, and it's the reason the Lutheran Theological Seminary exists at all, to tell it and to tell it well:

The angel spoke to the women: “There is nothing to fear here. I know you’re looking for Jesus, the One they nailed to the cross. He is not here. He was raised, just as he said. Come and look at the place where he was placed.

 “Now, get on your way quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He is risen from the dead...'  

-- The Message, Matthew 28:5-7a

The season of Easter continues!

Affirmation of Baptism Behind Razor Wire

The Stanley Prison volunteers - a pretty eclectic group, almost as eclectic as the prisoners themselves (who we're not allowed to photograph)

I've been back in Hong Kong over a week and I'm still jet-lagging...or maybe it's the bouts of sadness about my sister, Karin. It hits me in all kinds of places and all kinds of ways. People have been kind. Several have reminded me it takes time. Lots of it.

Well, it was a packed week, my first full week back.  The highlight was last Saturday, when we had four "Affirmation of Baptisms" in Stanley Prison. That was pretty amazing, these guys were really serious about this re-commitment to following the way of Jesus. The guys are from Africa, South America, and Asia, so in my little homily I related it to how they were baptized long ago in a place far away and how God is present in different times and different places and different kinds of churches, but He's also here in these prison walls... well I guess you had to have been there to hear how good it all was :) but I did want to share this quote which we used:

"For too long, we've called unbelievers to 'invite Jesus into your life.' Jesus doesn't want to be in your life. Your life's a wreck. Jesus calls you into his life." - Russell D. Moore

We followed the Baptism affirmation with a powerful laying on of hands. I keep being blown away by how these guys can pray, these prisoners. And sing! Being stuck behind prison razor wire seems to bring out the latent larks and warblers among the guys. I hope you don't think I'm being facetious, because I'm truly in awe. In fact I've told Wayne several times I think I've never experienced such pure, focused, authentic worship as I do in that cement closet we have to use for our chapel. All of this was then followed by Holy Communion, with large chunks of home-made bread and big cups of grape juice for each one. Truly a foretaste of that "feast to come"... which I do hope to share one day with a big circle including these prisoners, and that sister of mine who has left this world for good. I think she would enjoy the company of these guys, she would, and our crazy Christian baptismal hope is that she still will.

"We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, 

we too may live a new life.

If we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his." --Romans 6:4-5

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

 

  

No climbing

I'm feeling a little bit like this little boy at the Chi Lin (Buddhist) Nunnery... can you see the "no climbing" sign?

I was ready to "climb" into teaching a new course at the seminary... a class on Christian Saints... only to discover that not enough students have signed up for this particular class.

Is it because the class is scheduled for 8 a.m.? Is it because it's a course that doesn't meet any graduation requirements? Is it because Protestant students have already been trained to be utterly skeptical of "saints"?

Or is it because everybody in my last semester's course passed the word, "Whatever you do, do NOT take a course from this teacher..."  :)     :/
(pathetic smile, or grimace)

Did you know the Bible spends a whole chapter telling us to think about the lives of those who have gone before us as part of the great "cloud of witnesses" who surround us, and (I would say) cheer us on, like the support teams who stand along the side of the road, cheering on marathon runners?

Christian Saints include Mary, Peter, the Desert Fathers & Mothers, Augustine, Francis, and one of my personal favorites Teresa of Avila -- she who is famous for praying to God with such intimacy that she crisply told Him one day: "If this is the way you treat your friends, it's no wonder you have so few!"

Ok, thanks for indulging me in a posting of self-pity.  I'll report a bit about Wayne's classes soon (yes he has some amazing classes he's starting today, in pastoral care, and everybody is flocking to take those classes.  I'm very happy for him, I really am,  (more pathetic smiles and grimaces)  :)  :/

I, meanwhile, re-started my paying job at the Hoppy Palace Phonics Center yesterday (yes, my little students were thrilled to see me which did my pathetic ego some good) AND I get to start with the Lutheran school kids in two weeks, so I'm looking forward to that, too.

Blessings to YOU in your work and callings, with all of the ups and downs, and "no climbing" signs we all seem to endure.

  Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.   --  Hebrews 12:1