Yesterday, in my Friday morning study time with my pastor, I went through the sermon I'm going to preach tomorrow. Takahashi-sensei is always surprisingly supportive of what I'm going to say, even though it's from quite a different theological place to himself.
My third-Sunday Japanese sermons are going in a series through the Gospel of Luke, which should already set liberationist alarm bells going off. As I mentioned in my previous post, the evangelical church in Japan does very little about the least of society, and I honestly believe that nothing will happen until it does. As Gordon so brilliantly put it, "as a Christian, I think we have reached a time where the Church must prove her love for people." So I've been talking about how Jesus' ministry was focussed towards the poor, the blind and the outcasts. And, incidentally, against the narrow-minded, loveless and persnickety religious establishment.
So I was quite surprised when he corrected me saying that "the Church must be downwardly mobile". (If you haven't read that essay, you must.) He gave me this brilliant piece of preaching advice:
"If you say 'the Church must...' then people will assume that it refers to the pastors, the elders, the missionaries, the building - anyone other than themselves. If you say 'Christians must...' then you make it clear that if they want to continue to be called a Christian, it has to involve them."
Again I realise how lucky I am to be training under someone this wise.
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