Advent to Christmas: Waiting
By Peter Menkin
December 13, 2009

How the season turns in the day, in the continued
And continuing holiday--for the birth
Of our Saviour. What to do, but wait on the Lord.
Awaken.

No tree yet, for Advent three is tomorrow
Sunday.
Tomorrow, a tree—but not real,
Facsimile, model green foot high
Christmas tree.

Reminder of the season,
Season of kindness, hope,
Thanks be to God.

A small sculpture in angles
This tree. Symbol of evergreen,
It is a pleasure to see you again.
Awaken.

Waiting for the newness in the winter,
In the dark as days turn more towards the light,
And the California cold with rain
Tells of the weatherman’s prediction:
Grey sky, clouds--let the brightness
Of the season with its cheer leave us
In joy and remembrance
As we think of others.

Let us remember the hope
The birth of Christ means,
Renewal and New Testament of
Gospel pleasures and comfort.

Tree, slim and modern of the 21st century
Likeness of the living reality, we know
Christ will come. Awaken.

Poem or prayer, this journey of Christmas,
This series of still words in the calm of the
Night
Brings serene knowledge of quiet
Expectation. Awaken.

Celebration in patience is the hallmark this
Year, in the cold late night awakening
Of the truth remarkable, the new Christmas,
Again, this time of the year, hallowed days
Of the expectant waiting on the Saviour

This is a work in progress.

Report and commentary on Pew Forum interview with Pastor Rick Warren
by Peter Menkin


Rick Warren, the pastor of Saddleback Church in Orange County, California is an evangelist. He is a one of a kind superpower in the evangelical Church world, and sought after for his thoughts, observations and comments by a host of prominent members of the press in the United States. In an interview conducted under the auspices of the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life a published transcript of an interview with Pastor Rick appeared in mid November. Speaker: Rick Warren, Pastor, Saddleback Church, Lake Forest, California. Moderator: Michael Cromartie, Vice President, Ethics and Public Policy Center.

This news report and commentary on the interview takes a section of that lengthy interview, focusing on Pastor Rick’s comments on religion in the United States and world itself today. These are some of his thoughts as presented in the interview.
Pastor Rick says:

The last 50 years has seen the greatest redistribution of a religion ever in the history of the world. There is nothing even to compare to it. For instance, at the beginning of the 20th century, in 1900, 71 percent of all, quote, "Christians" lived in Europe - 71 percent. By 2000 that percentage had declined to 28 percent. Only 28 percent claimed to be Christian, and I'm sure it's far smaller than that who actually even go to a church.

This well known commentator and clergyman makes many large remarks of informed interest. As an author, and as a Pastor, his fame is known. Moderator Michael Cromartie of the Pew Forum introduces him this way in the interview: “So my introduction will be short because you're here because you know of Rick's work and reputation. Some of you may not know that Rick's book, The Purpose Driven Life, is the best-selling nonfiction book in American history - I think over 30 million copies.”

An indication of the size of the scope of Pastor Rick’s ministery is offered when he says of a future “stopover” outside the United States:

I'm on a stopover to a couple of different places. We're going into Paris. Many of you know that we have a network. I've trained over 400,000 pastors in 162 countries. I've been doing that for 30 years. Most of those years nobody knew I was doing it, but we were in 162 countries, 400,000 pastors, and then not including business leaders, government leaders.

A spokesman, as it were, for evangelicals, he offers this broad observation of the world of Christendom in the 21st Century:

…Christianity was exploding in Africa, Asia and Latin America. If you want to know the future of evangelicalism, it is in those continents. To give you an example, in 1900 there were only 10 million Christians in all of Africa - 10 percent of the population. Today there are 360 million Christians in Africa, over half the population. That is a complete turnaround on a continent that's never, ever been seen or done in history.

You may be surprised to know that there are more Christians in China than there are in America, by far - by far. There are more Presbyterians in Ghana than there are in Scotland, where they came out of with John Knox. There are more Baptists in Nagaland, a state in India, than there are in the South here in America. There are more Anglicans in either Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Nigeria - any of these - than in England. There are 2 million Anglicans in England. There are 17 million Anglicans in Nigeria.

Big thinking, mega church leader, Pastor Rick knows who he is and is glad to be the leader of his own Church, Saddleback, about which he offers:

Today Saddleback is a 120-acre campus. It looks like a college. We typically will have 25,000 people on the weekend. I have over 100,000 names on a church roll. You need to understand I grew up in a little town in Northern California during Haight-Ashbury, and in the town I was in we had 500 people, so my church is like 1,000 times bigger than the town I grew up in. I could be a mayor.

I actually know my valley far more than any politician will ever know them because I've spent 30 years there. This will be my 30th anniversary year. I've been listening to them, talking to them, praying with them, walking through the weddings and the funerals and the proms and all those different divorces and different things like that.

As we go about excerpting this remarkable interview that includes discussion by a number of noted journalists who talk with the Pastor, there is little doubt that Pastor Rick is larger than life. One of my favorite quotes shows how the evangelical work he does is on the world stage, and apparently it is for he tells the Pew Forum:
I'm actually taking Tony Blair down there with me to check on our P.E.A.C.E. plan progress in a number of different places, in Rwanda and others.

He is a man of vision sought by other men:

I've been given this subject of the future of evangelicals, and I'll tell you - here it is in a sentence: I don't know. Nobody can predict the future. In fact, vision is not the ability to predict the future vision; it's the ability to see the opportunity in the current situation and jump on it. That's vision.

In his hopefulness, in his optimism, in his American vision of a world and his own country, Pastor Rick exemplifies the maxim that the universe is a place of progressive movement forward in light of God, that we have a promise of contemporary progress that appears to be without hitches or delays of any kind of length. Is this hyperbole and unfair to the man and his vision. Perhaps not, for though he may consider such delays in man’s future, the overwhelming vision and message he offers seems to smack of a kind of prosperity. It is prosperity of faith, prosperity of promise, and prosperity of attention to this dynamic and charismatic individual. So the interview reveals, and the Pew Forum interview is a good one on faith as it is played out in Religion & Public Life.

This long quote from the interview ends this article, for it better illustrates how positive this man is about religion in the world and Christianity as it plays its part in the Public Life. For he paints a formidable figure of a face of overwhelming numbers and influence by religion:

In a way, an evident way, he says the new world of America and the Old World of Europe are fading away:

The Church of England is a misnomer. It is now the Church of Africa. I have been involved in the ordination of many of those Anglican leaders. They have spread all over. Last Sunday there were more Christians who went to church in China than all of Europe combined. That is a fundamental shift. If you want to know the future of Christianity, it is the developing world. It's Africa, it's Latin America, and it's Asia.

In fact, there are about 15,000 missionaries now working in England from Brazil, China, Korea, other countries that you used to think, well, those would receive missionaries. In fact, Brazil sends out far more missionaries than either Great Britain or Canada combined. So that's a fundamental shift.

That's all I'm going to say about the future of evangelicalism. It ain't here. Okay? It isn't Europe. Now, I will say this: The world is becoming more religious. There are 600 million Buddhists. There are 800 million Hindus. There are 1.[57] billion Muslims. And there are 2.3 billion Christians.

That means the actual number of secularists outside of Europe and Manhattan is quite small. It really is quite small, and we don't understand it. We're in this little bubble that we think most people don't have a faith. Well, you need to get a life and get around the world because most people have some kind of faith.

There is the unmistakable sense that the world and mankind itself is a purpose driven combination. He makes clear where he as evangelist stands when he says with apparent passion, “…[Y]ou need to get a life and get around the world because most people have some kind of faith.”

A remarkable man, Pastor Rick Warren is interesting and newsworthy, bigger than life.

Towards the end of the interview, he tells the others, “Thank you, guys. (Applause.) Thank you. If you ever come out to Orange County, give me a ring. I know every place to eat under five bucks. I'll treat you to a real gourmet meal.”

The Awakening Spirit...(2001)
By Peter Menkin
________________________________________

The vision on awakening
during morningtime, blue sky
white flower sky
painting tree
with creation reality.

This great experience
of the spirit;
the new life of incarnate
God -- the Christ.

"I in them and they in me,
that they may be perfectly one."
Advent days; come Lord.
Winter light hours beckon.
The poinsettias red leaves.

Audio reading of poem by poet here:

November Season
By Peter Menkin

Mary was a lovely girl, serene; so given to an open heart,
Friend of God like Abraham, seminal archetype welcoming

The Holy Ghost. What comes here November time? Pentecost
Days of spirits and united souls, saints in heaven and memories
Of the dead. “Where sorrow and pain are no more.”
Mystical Holy Ghost.

Steadfast, “mystical body of thy son,” what is the light that shines
Perpetual, for You do support us all the day long.

In mercy we wait, we pray, we believe Holy Ghost:
Mary was a lovely girl, devout and promising woman of sorrows
And joys.

Pentecost, how the Spirit did lead her to obedience
By invitation of an angel of God. Mystical Holy Ghost.

What Spirit is this that leads her to “…the glorious company of apostles…”
we pray in glory everlasting for all souls bask in that light,
Renewing even the spirit of our minds, the Prayer book says.

Mary was a lovely girl, serene, so we turn to her life of joyful service--
Pentecost. In the heavens and on earth, just a phrase that speaks
Of memory where lives eternal lives the wonderfully created, renewed dignity of human nature.

Is this not a cross? The Dead, gone. Remembered this November
Season of reflection and changing season. Follow Him.

Mary was a lovely girl,
And in her joy she has done so, follow him,
now in the company of all the Saints and Apostles.

Audio reading by poet is here:

Missionary: Evangelist and Herald
Channing Moore Williams
A homily,
Peter Menkin, Obl Cam OSB
Church of Our Saviour (Episcopal)
Mill Valley, CA USA
Wednesday Eucharist, December 2, 2009
Lesser Feasts and Fasts, 1994

Acts 1: 1-9
Luke 10: 1-9
Psalm 96: 1-7

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

The prayer today offers, “…that your Church may proclaim the unsearchable riches of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.”

Let us speak of Missionaries today, in specific Channing Moore Williams of the 19th Century. We celebrate this man today. Let us also celebrate missionaries.

Jesus instructed his apostles to make disciples. The Bishop of China and Japan, based in Yode (Tokyo) wanted just that in his work, to make disciples. Most of his effective work was done in Japan, where he ended with just less than 1,000 adherents. That is as many as were the original Christians in the earliest days of Christendom. That makes sense, for beginnings are often small, and it does not take numbers to build a Church.

Channing wrote this in his report of his activities as a missionary in 1889:

Our Church must settle what she is to take in the great work of bringing this people of this interesting country to the knowledge of and faith in the Lord Jesus; and what she determines to do must be done without delay. She cannot
think that she has, in any sense, come up to the measure of her responsibility. For the truth is the mission has been sadly undermanned from its commencement to the present; and the fact is especially apparent at this time when, by the new treaties, the whole country is to be thrown open to our missionaries to travel and reside where they may please, without restrictions of any kind.

--C.M. Williams, Missionary Bishop of Yedo (now Tokyo), Japan, August 8, 1889
From the book, “Documents of Witness”




Here are some biographical notes about Channing Moore Williams:

• He stayed in Japan for nearly twenty years, assisting his successor and helping to establish new congregations…resigned his jurisdiction in 1889 for health reasons.

• He believed in a slow and careful approach, waiting nine years before baptizing his first convert.

• That same year, Williams who began his missionary work in 1829, was consecrated Bishop for the church’s mission in China and Japan.

• He founded the divinity school which became Saint Paul’s (Rikkyo) University, still one of Japan’s best known colleges.

• In 1887, Williams helped bring together the English and American missions to form the Nippon Seikokai, the Holy Catholic Church in Japan.

This neat amount of information comes from a wonderful book I highly recommend—“Celebrating the Saints,” by Christopher L. Webber. It has a devotional reading for every Saints’ Days.



Let us pray a moment and take some silence for Channing Moore Williams on this the day we celebrate him:
Almighty and everliving God we thank you for your servant Channing Moore Williams.

(Moment of silence here.)



Missionary work has changed in 150 years in our Church. No longer is it colonialist, no longer does it attempt to change people to the supposed better ways of our own culture. The missionary takes the people who they are, where they are, and settles with them in their indigenous culture.

Yet much is unchanging in missionary work, for it is based in tradition and in the Bible.

Bishops and clergy today agree: “The challenge this church faces today is like that of the last 150 years - how to be faithful, poor in spirit, and righteous in a culture that doesn't always share those values.

“[The missionary’s] ability to transform the society around [him] toward that vision of the heavenly kingdom lies in [his] ability to speak to this context, to live into those three selves of the 19th century missionaries (who learned them from the apostle Paul). This indigenizing church needs to speak good news in pachinko parlors, in anime, in the anonymity of crowded cities.

“This church has the ability to do that in this generation, as it has in generations past. [His] witness can teach others as well -- particularly the churches of Western Europe and North America who also labor in secular and consumerist cultures. What will [he] teach us? How will [he] help to propagate the gospel from seeds grown in the good earth of Nippon?”

So says Presiding Bishop The Most Reverend Katherine Jefferts Shori of
the Episcopal Church.




Bishops and lay people, clergy bring fresh water, schools, medical help, and hope as they bring the message of Jesus Christ. They do this work because they believe as Christians it is an obligation of their faith and work to bring the Kingdom of God. As is said in Acts:

…when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth…

Remember how in Luke 10 the Lord sends out disciples. The words of the Bible read:

After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest…”

Channing Moore Williams did as Jesus Christ charged. He went out into the towns and places ahead of the Lord, into a foreign land where he followed the rest of the dictates.

Whatever house you enter, first say, “Peace be on this house!” And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person, but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you, cure the sick who are there, and say to them, “The kingdom of God has come near to you.”

As Christians, we believe in the good news of Jesus Christ. We believe in offering and spreading this good news to all the world. We believe in the good works of the missionary. We work with people in foreign lands, we bring them the good news of Jesus Christ. In so doing, we “…make a joyful noise to the Lord, all/the earth; / break forth into joyous song and sing praises…”

Each act of mission is a new act.

O sing to the Lord a new song,
For he has done marvelous things.
His right hand and his holy arm
Have gotten him the victory.
The Lord has made known his victory;
He has revealed his vindications in
The sight of the nations.

His servant Channing Moore Williams who we remember on this day met the world, and today we meet the world still. Perhaps in different ways, more to the bringing to indigenous peoples a gift than a change in their culture. We think this new way of approach brings the kingdom of God more effectively to the greater world, for the era of colonialism is gone.


In review as support of our modern vision of missionary work: A definition is this: "one who is sent to witness across cultures." to form a viable indigenous church-planting movement." Recognizing justice as being at the heart of the Gospels.

He has remember his steadfast love
And faithfulness
To the house of Israel.
All the ends of the earth have seen
The victory of our God.

Amen.



Image: Date: 1890 circa 5 years
Original Format: Carte de Visite
Photographer: G. W. Pach


Audio of Homily is here: