Luke 6:37-39
Before I begin, let me first start by saying how excited I am to be here. I am very grateful for this opportunity to come to Okinawa and learn from your congregation and our hosts. There is a long history here and it’s important that young people learn from it and pass it on to future generations.
I arrived in Japan a little over a month ago. I am fourth generation Japanese-American (Yonsei). I grew up in Berkeley, California near San Francisco and I represent a Nikkei church: Sycamore Congregational Church UCC (Kyodon US). Sycamore was founded in 1904 and my great-grandparents were among its first members. During the war all of its members were relocated to Tanforan racetrack and then to Topaz, Utah. Sycamore has had a very long history and overcome many obstacles in its 100 years but today it has a growing congregation of both Japanese-Americans and recent emigrants from Japan. The church has always received young ministers from Japan to lead our Nichigo congregation but I am the first member of our church who has ever come to Japan. Because of this connection, this opportunity is especially meaningful to me to build these connections between Sycamore and Japan.
When I first arrived from the US one of the students at the Sendai Student Center told me that when he first heard that a missionary was coming from the U.S. he immediately pictured an older white man. So, since I am neither white nor male nor old he was pleasantly surprised. I am aware that I don’t fit the image that is normally associated with the word "missionary" and, as a young person, I often feel uncomfortable in leadership roles where people might actually listen to what I have to say. I had a lot of anxiety over what message I could share with you. So I hope you’ll forgive me if I’m a bit nervous.
There is a long complicated series of events that lead to my coming to Japan, a combination of good timing and fortunate coincidences. I’ve been blessed with many rich experiences and opportunities to travel and to meet people around the world. So maybe this opportunity to speak to you this morning is another blessing in disguise that I might share some of my experiences and learn from them in the process.
I graduated from college with a degree in plant biology 2 years ago. After graduation I found out about a study tour that introduced college students and recent graduates to issues in indigenous communities around the world. Over 4 months we traveled all over the world including the state of Jharkhand in central India where indigenous communities have sometimes been in life and death struggles over their homes for recognition by the Indian government.
We visited a Jesuit retreat center that was founded by a Belgian missionary. He told us about how he had saved the poor lazy Adivassi (a word used to describe the indigenous people of India) and made them more productive by educating them and giving them jobs. While we were there we also noticed that this same missionary lived in a mansion far removed from the dormitories where all the Adivassi students and workers lived. He was profitting from their labor and spoke as though it was his right to do so because he had "saved" them. The most heart-breaking moment was when some of the Adivassi community leaders themselves told us how they had been saved from their backward ways. It was a day that I began to question my faith and I wondered if this patriarchal attitude was inherent in the Christian faith or merely a reflection of the beliefs of this one individual.
When I returned to the US I was very confused and I felt isolated because, in my mind, there wasn’t anyone else who could understand what I was going through. I was the only student in that study tour that identifies as Christian and other students had already formed a very negative image of Christianity. I stopped going to church and whenever anyone asked me how my trip was I would say very little. It wasn’t until my friends and family started to probe a little deeper and ask more questions that I was able to begin to process what I had experienced. I think that for many young people today the word "missionary" carries a lot of negative connotations and before learning more about mission work I can’t say that I was any different.
Before going to India I knew very little about India or Adivassi people. Upon further reflection I began to examine my motives for wanting to go on that study tour in the first place. Although my family is not rich by American standards, we still live a relatively comfortable life as compared to most of the people in the world. In college, my parents were fully capable of supporting me so that I didn’t have to work in order to eat or buy books. Any money that I made from part-time jobs went directly into savings. I wanted to travel to India because some part of me wanted to help those less fortunate than me. I believed that I had studied hard in school and worked hard so that I could live what I considered a very simple life independent of my parents. In my mind, I was using my own life as the standard by which I measured those less fortunate than me. So in some ways, my motives weren’t that different from this missionary.
I realized that before I am able to "help" anyone else I have to be aware of my own motives and also learn more about what it is that the people that I’m helping are fighting for. I can’t expect that everyone wants to live like my family or achieve what I consider to be a good life. But, if I am able to find some part of their struggle that connects to my own then maybe we can share in that struggle together as friends.
Here in Okinawa, our group had the opportunity to visit Henoko and Camp Schwabb. Our guide, Ashitomi-san, told us about the history of their 4-year struggle to protect the homes of those living around Camp Schwabb. I was shocked to sea the US Marine base so close and separated from us only by a single coil of barbed wire. As Ashitomi-san spoke, some of the US Marines came jogging along the beach probably on a routine morning drill. They were about 50 yards away but they were close enough that we could almost see their faces. We learned that a lot of these soldiers were as young as 18-years-old; some of them joined the military to get green cards in order to become American citizens. Seeing them so close made me realize they were real people. They were young men, around my age, and they were far away from home. Maybe they were homesick and missed their friends and family. They have also been trained to be aggressive, to shoot guns, and to kill. Through this conditioning they’ve also been taught to believe that the US is the best in the world. While I don’t defend the actions of these soldiers I understand what it’s like to be away from friends and family in a foreign country. The combination of this homesickness and military conditioning can be very dangerous. I still don’t know how we can solve these problems since they are so complex and we’re all acting under our own pressures from all directions but I think that maybe the first step towards peace is understanding that there is complexity.
It’s sad that America has so much power in the world today and that the results of our next election, for example, can have so many ripple effects all over the world. What’s even sadder perhaps is that the results of the next election may be determined by which candidate can put on a better show. In America, young people have the lowest voter turn out rate. Young people have a reputation for being apathetic caring only about fashion or entertainment. But I think that young people have the strongest voices if they only had the words and the experience to use them.
Now I have a clearer view in my mind of what my mission is as a missionary, as a Christian, as an American, and as a young person. Part of that, I believe, is to redefine what these words mean through my words and actions. Young people do care about what’s going on in the world. Not all missionaries are out to convert the world and save souls. Most missionaries aren’t even ministers. So perhaps my mission is to contribute to a world where communities and people can live together in spite of (and perhaps because of) their differences by making connections between those who I come in contact with. It’s important for young people to be exposed to the history of places like Okinawa, especially as it relates to their lives as Japanese or as Americans. Through exposing young people to the history of places like Okinawa we are teaching them to look beyond what they read in the news or see on TV. It’s complicated and there are hardly ever clear black-and-white solutions but by first raising awareness of these issues we are involving a new generation and encouraging a fresh set of young minds to think about how to achieve peace in this world.
Shuri Church March 9, 2008
