Glimpses of Hope

This morning I was invited to bring greetings, and to say a few words at Bangsar Lutheran Church in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I told the pastor and congregation that it was a very dangerous thing to ask a retired pastor, and a retired seminary professor to say a few words. Pastors and seminary professors do not know what a few words are. I did, however, try to keep what I had to say short. If there was a theme to what I said it was, "Glimpses of Hope."

Little did I know that my thoughts would be so appropriate, with songs sung which underscored the theme. One of the songs had in it the words,

Open our eyes, Lord, we want to see Jesus....
Open our hearts, Lord, that we might receive you.
Open our spirits, Lord, and teach us to worship.
Open our lips, Lord, and teach us to praise you.

Anglican Bishop N.T. Wright, in his book, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church, reminds Christians that we are a people of hope. Our hope is not for a heaven beyond the sunset, where we sit on clouds, and play our harps. Our hope, based on the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ, is that the reign, the rule, the kingdom of God which was ushered in in Jesus Christ will come to fulfillment in a new heaven and a new earth. In the meantime, Wright suggests, we are a people who both give glimpses of this future hope in our present life, we also look for glimpses of hope in the here and now.

I told the people at Bangsar Lutheran Church that I wanted to tell them of four glimpses of hope I have seen in the last three months that I have been in SE Asia. Two of the glimpses of hope have taken place in Malaysia. Two of the glimpses of hope have taken place outside of Malaysia. I then told them of the three Thai women who had become HIV/AIDS positive from their husbands, and how that they were not angry, and furious at their husbands. They harbored no animosity. I said that the women accepted their husbands and forgave them. I told the people gathered the fascinating thing was these women were not Christian. They were Buddhist. I went on to say that I did not know too many Christians who would have been as forgiving. The three Buddhist ladies were glimpses of God's forgiveness. I said the women reminded me of what is said in the scripture, "While we were yet sinners, Christ Jesus died for us."

The second glimpse of hope was the recent election of Barack Obama as President of the United States. I said that while I was an Obama supporter, the glimpse of hope came not as a result of his election, but because of something else. I said that as late as 1967, sixteen states in the United States of America said interracial marriage was illegal. Here, in the recent election a man was elected President of the United States, and whose parents' marriage would have been illegal in those same sixteen states. I went on to say that there was hope for me in that. I told the people that when we moved to South Carolina in 1996, my wife and I had been married for over twenty-nine years. Nonetheless, as late as 1996, our marriage was still illegal in the state of South Carolina. The law against interracial marriage was still on the books in South Carolina at the time of our moving there. While my wife is 100% German, maybe 200%+, my great grandmother was Native American. A glimpse of hope that things might be changing.

The third glimpse of hope, as well as the fourth glimpse of hope have happened here in Malaysia. I arrived here on the 22nd of August. In September some people were arrested under the ISA law for speaking against the government, destabilizing it. I reminded the people that the ISA law had its roots in the former British rule when under that law people of Chinese heritage were put into "new villages" (concentration camps) for fear that the Chinese were working with the communists to overthrow the British government. I said that while a few people had been arrested, at least there were not new villages being set up to put people into. A small, perhaps, but still a glimpse of hope.

The fourth and last glimpse of hope happened a couple of Sundays ago. The Lutheran Church in Malaysia and Singapore dedicated and opened a new congregation. What was unusual about this was this was the first ministry of the Lutheran Church in Malaysia and Singapore which was not started in a rural area. This new ministry is in the heart of the city, in the Golden Triangle, within sight of the Petronas Twin Towers.

Glimpses of hope and reassurance. God is active. God is alive. God is active and alive in and through the lives of God's people. What glimpses of hope have you seen, and where?

Open our eyes, Lord, we want to see Jesus....
Open our hearts, Lord, that we might receive you.
Open our spirits, Lord, and teach us to worship.
Open. our lips, Lord, and teach us to praise you.