Happy Easter! Easter omedetou!
Yesterday was a double or triple treat. It was Easter, 'nuff said (much dancing). It was also the first baptism I have gotten to see in Japan. It was a woman maybe in her late 20s. She's been attending Christian schools, with the exception of kindergarten, since she was in preschool. She's played the organ at Hongo for awhile.
She had her hair very neatly up back in a bun, and she knelt very seriously and calmly by the baptismal bowl. Yasui Sensei was kind to her. I don't think there was enough water in his hands even to drip and he wiped it across her head three times in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The enthusiast in me was slightly disappointed by the lack of water everywhere...after all, God doesn't just come and get our hair a little wet, He pours all over us and leaves our hair a mess and our skirts dripping wherever we go. It was so lovely to see, though.
Apparently at Hongo, it is a custom for the person being baptized to give their testimony. I was particularly excited for this part, and made one of my bilingual friends translate the whole thing. Adult decisions for baptism are always somewhat puzzling to me. There is often a quiet miracle behind them all. Some people can point to some dramatic, concrete moment when they knew God was real and that He loved them. But the woman baptized yesterday fits a theme I have heard from many of them...they have gradually come to believe, and finally knew it was time to be baptized.
Our spring break is wrapping up now, and starting today, we hit the streets! That's right, it's pamphlet time of the year again!
For the next three weeks, Aaron (the long term missionary who runs the English Center at Hongo) and I will be handing out pamphlets at train stations and university gates. We'll start registering students for the new school year, which begins April 8th, next week.
Please pray:
1) For us to have minds that are praising God and praying as we hand out pamphlets so that His light can shine through us the most brightly
2) For our pamphlets to find their way into the hands of those who are hungry for God or who are at a time in their life when "seeds" can be planted.
3) Pray for our ministry, that God would always be molding us into a ministry where He can send those who need Him and they will get what they need
Monday, March 24, 2008
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
An Afternoon at Kabuki
My parents have been visiting these past few weeks, which has given me lots of different opportunities to run around and do things I don't usually do. We went to a kabuki play this afternoon and evening. Kabuki is a kind of traditional Japanese theater. All of the actors are men, and the story lines are often complex and confusing--even to Japanese people. The point of Kabuki is less about the story and more about intricate costumes, sets, and beauty in general.
Nevertheless, I always find myself quite drawn into the story. What can I say? I enjoy confusing complexity.
The second act was Kyokanoko Musume Dojoji (The Maiden at Dojoji Temple). It opens with a line of monks who are lamenting that they will have to perform some very long rites that day because they are dedicating a new temple bell. But they are a little comforted by the fact that one of them has a bottle of sake they can pass around and another has an octopus they can eat while performing the laborious rites.
Then they are distracted by the arrival of a lovely woman. Bravely, one of the monks approaches her and inquires whether she is a local dancer or an innocent maiden. Learning that she is a dancer, the monks break temple rules and allow her inside to worship, but present her with a dancing hat, hoping that she will perform for them.
The next section of the play is her dance. A beautiful, slow sequence. Attendants occasionally get on stage, pull a few cords off "her" costume, and in one jerk are able to completely change it from one kimono to another underneath it.
In the final transformation, the woman uses magic to cause the new temple bell to fall, and we learn that she is truly a jealous serpent spirit who hates the bell and has come to destroy it. The bell comes down on top of her, and the monks must take action.
The monks suddenly become very pious. They pull our their best prayers, hoping to lift the bell, but it does not move. They confess all their sins and lament their worldliness, merry living, and how their actions have not prepared them for the afterlife. The bell stays firm. Then, they pull out their prayer beads for extra strength, but this also fails. They hear the approach of others, and the monks run away.
The new arrivals are a group of strong men. They use all their strength to pull on the rope to lift the bell, but they also fail. Finally, the bell shakes of its own accord and lifts. The demon serpent spirit is revealed and makes the strong men's weakness known.
At that moment, a lone warrior comes and confronts the serpent. He gives the serpent a choice, be gone immediately, or to end up turned to dust "under his feet". There is a brief fight, and the serpent gives up, acknowledging that it cannot win.
I am always interested to see ways that God reaches to different cultures, and Japan in particular. (I'm just a *little* particular to Japan ;-) ) And from that perspective, I found this play fascinating.
The monks and strong men are powerless against the demon. They need another to fight for them. I was especially fascinated by the expression "turn to dust under his feet" because of the image of Satan being placed under Christ's feet on the cross that is in the Bible. In Ephesians 1:18-23, for example, it talks about the power that we have as Christians and the connection to Christ's resurrection, in which "God placed all things under [Christ's] feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church", the part just before that is a little bit more specific about the "everything" that Christ has been given authority over, including "all rule and authority, power and dominion".
The priests of the Kabuki play and even the strong men could not put the serpent under their feet. Their confessions and piety were not enough. Their combined physical force was as nothing.
Today around the world, many are still fighting evil with their own goodness and their own strength. Christians certainly believe in goodness, and as people get a hunger for God, they will necessarily begin to clean up their lives. But there are a plethora of religions out there to help people to be good and strong. If that were all Christianity was, it would have little to add to the religious spectrum. But Jesus has always stood for sinners. Christianity is about a promise of redemption between us weak sinners and the God of All. Christianity is not about good people, but about a Good God who insanely and beautifully lays down as a sacrifice His own self. What kind of God sacrifices the beautiful to save the ugly? How awesome He is!
Being in Japan, I talk to a lot of people who have a positive image of Christians. They see us as being kind, good people. In a way, we have to get past that. Kind, good people run the world over. But there is only one Jesus. And every single one of us needs Him to put the evil within us under His feet.
Nevertheless, I always find myself quite drawn into the story. What can I say? I enjoy confusing complexity.
The second act was Kyokanoko Musume Dojoji (The Maiden at Dojoji Temple). It opens with a line of monks who are lamenting that they will have to perform some very long rites that day because they are dedicating a new temple bell. But they are a little comforted by the fact that one of them has a bottle of sake they can pass around and another has an octopus they can eat while performing the laborious rites.
Then they are distracted by the arrival of a lovely woman. Bravely, one of the monks approaches her and inquires whether she is a local dancer or an innocent maiden. Learning that she is a dancer, the monks break temple rules and allow her inside to worship, but present her with a dancing hat, hoping that she will perform for them.
The next section of the play is her dance. A beautiful, slow sequence. Attendants occasionally get on stage, pull a few cords off "her" costume, and in one jerk are able to completely change it from one kimono to another underneath it.
In the final transformation, the woman uses magic to cause the new temple bell to fall, and we learn that she is truly a jealous serpent spirit who hates the bell and has come to destroy it. The bell comes down on top of her, and the monks must take action.
The monks suddenly become very pious. They pull our their best prayers, hoping to lift the bell, but it does not move. They confess all their sins and lament their worldliness, merry living, and how their actions have not prepared them for the afterlife. The bell stays firm. Then, they pull out their prayer beads for extra strength, but this also fails. They hear the approach of others, and the monks run away.
The new arrivals are a group of strong men. They use all their strength to pull on the rope to lift the bell, but they also fail. Finally, the bell shakes of its own accord and lifts. The demon serpent spirit is revealed and makes the strong men's weakness known.
At that moment, a lone warrior comes and confronts the serpent. He gives the serpent a choice, be gone immediately, or to end up turned to dust "under his feet". There is a brief fight, and the serpent gives up, acknowledging that it cannot win.
I am always interested to see ways that God reaches to different cultures, and Japan in particular. (I'm just a *little* particular to Japan ;-) ) And from that perspective, I found this play fascinating.
The monks and strong men are powerless against the demon. They need another to fight for them. I was especially fascinated by the expression "turn to dust under his feet" because of the image of Satan being placed under Christ's feet on the cross that is in the Bible. In Ephesians 1:18-23, for example, it talks about the power that we have as Christians and the connection to Christ's resurrection, in which "God placed all things under [Christ's] feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church", the part just before that is a little bit more specific about the "everything" that Christ has been given authority over, including "all rule and authority, power and dominion".
The priests of the Kabuki play and even the strong men could not put the serpent under their feet. Their confessions and piety were not enough. Their combined physical force was as nothing.
Today around the world, many are still fighting evil with their own goodness and their own strength. Christians certainly believe in goodness, and as people get a hunger for God, they will necessarily begin to clean up their lives. But there are a plethora of religions out there to help people to be good and strong. If that were all Christianity was, it would have little to add to the religious spectrum. But Jesus has always stood for sinners. Christianity is about a promise of redemption between us weak sinners and the God of All. Christianity is not about good people, but about a Good God who insanely and beautifully lays down as a sacrifice His own self. What kind of God sacrifices the beautiful to save the ugly? How awesome He is!
Being in Japan, I talk to a lot of people who have a positive image of Christians. They see us as being kind, good people. In a way, we have to get past that. Kind, good people run the world over. But there is only one Jesus. And every single one of us needs Him to put the evil within us under His feet.
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