Church #62. Edmonton Japanese Christian Church.

Hello and welcome back!

Today I met with the only Japanese congregation in Edmonton! Technically, the congregation are just renters in this space. The actual building belongs to Zion Baptist Church. They have their service later in the day after the Baptists are done theirs, roughly around 2pm which is nice for a semi-nocturnal human like myself.

I soon found myself in the basement kitchen talking with the church leader, as I watched him work hard preparing a large pot of Japanese curry for his congregation. "They are few, but they eat a lot!" he mentioned to me as he stirred the pot.

This is definitely what I would describe a "small and close-knit" group. It was explained to me that they normally have their services upstairs in the main body of the church, but they have one Sunday a month where they have to go downstairs for the service. This allows them to get a little closer and have a much more intimate experience. The actual demographics of this Church were much younger then normal overall. There were roughly 25 people in attendance. The majority of them were between 20-40, with a few children, teens, and seniors.

For the service itself, we set up chairs in U-shaped formation centering around a tile-finished wall with a fireplace (unlit) in the middle. The church leader sat in the middle with his guitar and led the service. Along with sermon and songs, the leader also asked that members contribute by leading prayers for certain people/groups. This included: their board members, organization, missionaries abroad, the Canadian military, and the Canadian government.

One statement that really stood out to me was "Thank-god for the freedom in Canada to be able to gather publicly."  Honestly I had totally forgotten about this. As a kid I remembered hearing about places like China, where people have church services in fear of solders breaking down doors and people being arrested. I seriously forget how good we have it in this country sometimes. But always being thankful for our liberties in the land of the true north, strong and free is difficult. Especially if you haven't lived anywhere else.

If you want to know know more, you can follow the link to learn about the top 50 countries in this world where Christians are suffering from persecution.
Link- Open Door Top 50 Countries. 

After this it was children's time. The four little ones that were in attendance came up to the front of the room and sat in front of the church leader. Today started with a question: "What makes you happy?" and "What makes you sad?" Maybe they were all a bit shy or simply to young, but regardless there was silence in the room. "Is the question too difficult?" The leader said with a chuckle. He then went on to explain that there are things that make God happy and sad. He told the children that God is the most happy when you trust him, and that it makes God very sad when you do not trust him.

The scripture lesson today was from Mark 11:12. The Church leader asked for a volunteer to read. When no one stepped forward, he said "If you decide to read, you get extra curry!".

Mark 11:12-25 (NIV)

Jesus Curses a Fig Tree and Clears the Temple Courts

¹² The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. ¹³ Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. ¹⁴ Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it.
¹⁵ On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, ¹⁶ and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. ¹⁷ And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’^[c]? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’^[d]”
¹⁸ The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.
¹⁹ When evening came, Jesus and his disciples^[e] went out of the city.
²⁰ In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. ²¹ Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!”
²² “Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. ²³ “Truly^[f] I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. ²⁴ Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. ²⁵ And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.” 

 
I am really appreciative that this piece of scripture was explained today. Mark 11:12 has what I feel to be the most strange and quite frankly, most awesome part of the gospel teachings of Christ. You can discern for yourself which one is which.

Going into the explanation, the church leader addressed a lot of the thoughts and feeling we all had around these verses. "I fell so bad for the fig tree! It was out of season!"  the church leader proclaimed! He also noted that Jesus was not himself that day. He was hungry and angry, and throwing over tables! "This is not the Jesus I know!"

Going into the explanation, the church leader explained that this was a message about faith, and the results of unfaithfulness. The tree looked good and healthy from a distance, full of bright thick leaves, but on closer inspection, it had no fruit. This tree represented the spiritual condition of the time. The temple was large and grand, filled with ornate decoration and strict ritual. But upon closer inspection, it was clear that the hearts of the people had no faith, and corruption ran rampant. "They were dead in spirit."

On a personal note, I also think there might be something said for Jesus's condition of being hungry and angry. Considering God was a part of Christ, I can imagine that it was God who was feeling hungry, because of the lack of faithful people, and also angry because of the evil that man was allowing to occur in his house.
 
For those of you that may not realize this, Jesus was an extremely political person. He also had a very strong distaste for financial corruption, specifically among the religious leaders. I suggest the book "The Politics of Jesus." by John Howard Yoder to help provide a fuller understanding of his teachings. 



Quotes of the day;

"Good deeds are not enough to reach heaven, we need Jesus". 
"Faith is about believing something impossible." 

I found it interesting that a lot of the members of the congregation were holding traditional hardback bibles. OK they were not that traditional.... they were smaller and more square then normal, some were written in Japanese and some even had plushy fabric covers on them! Maybe I should not be so quick to assume things, but I anticipated that everyone might be reading everything off their smartphones, because I have seen that to be the norm in other predominantly Asian churches.

Japan is the world center of odd things, at least to most western eyes. So as you can imagine there were a few interesting things I discovered while researching this. The major one which I thought to highlight was the fake churches and ministers of Japan. Japan has a population of roughly 126.5 million people but out of all that only about 1% are Christians. Yet interestingly enough three quarters of the weddings that are happening today in Japan are white, western-style christian weddings. That is a lot of non-Christians looking for a church and a pastor to marry them. So what do you do when the demand completely outweighs the supply? Build thousands of fake churches and fill them with fake pastors! 

Link-The Fake Christian Priests of Japan – A Booming Business

 
This is not to say that we don't have our share of fake Christian-ness in our own society. Crosses are worn by a lot of people for simply fashion statements. I know one guy I knew once and I asked him about the cross he was wearing after he took off his shirt to go swimming. He told me that he is not really Christian, but wears it to appease his strongly Catholic parents. That and bragging rights for wearing 24k Gold.

Rosaries are another big one. A lot of colorful small plastic rosaries are given out in the poor parts of this city, and it is not uncommon to see gang member's and repeat offending criminals wearing them around their necks. I am not entirely sure why. Maybe it just because they are given to them? Maybe it is gangster fashion? Or maybe they are trying to detract attention, and look more innocent before stealing *another* bottle of vodka. I literally remember a day in my store, when I saw one guy come in, who had collected all of the "free rosaries" in the 4 different colors they come in, and was wearing them all at the same time! He also had the neck tattoo's, baggy clothes and gang colors to match!

On a happier note, since it is the season for promoting local businesses (personally I always think it is the season for local business), let me introduce you to Ki-Fu-Ne Japan! 

 
This is a cute local shop that has a plethora of fun quality goods from Japan. It's address is 10046-167street NW Edmonton, and their phone number is 780-341-5424.

Over all, I really enjoyed this church, I felt very comfortable and welcome despite being being a minority in the room. This Church feels kind and genuine and I hope to visit again!

Have a good week everyone!