Nagoya Mission

"Lord of the Sabbath" - June 21, 2009

Mark 2: 23-28

    Professor Stanley Fish, of Florida International University posed this hypothetical situation to his students: “Suppose you were … an executive in a corporation and you skipped meetings or came late, blew off assignments or altered them according to your whims, abused your colleagues and were habitually rude to clients.  What would happen to you?”  Professor Fish said that students immediately commented: “I’d be fired.”
     He then continued, “Now, imagine the same scenario and the same set of behaviors, but this time you’re a tenured professor in a North American university.  What then?”  Before the students could answer, Professor Fish answered his own question: “You’d be celebrated as a brave nonconformist, a tilter against orthodoxies, a pedagogical visionary and an exemplar of academic freedom.”1 
     For those who have not kept up on the issue to which Professor Fish is referring, this hypothetical question revolves around a real issue; the very public dismissal of Dr. Denis Rancourt from his faculty position at the University of Ottawa, Canada.  From what I understand, Professor Rancourt, was a tenured professor of physics for 23 years and also a proponent of what is called “critical pedagogy,” a method of teaching resulting from the hypothesis --- these are Rancourt’s words--- “that our societal structures . . . represent the most formidable instrument of oppression and exploitation ever to occupy the planet.”2.
     What does this mean?  For example, Professor Rancourt informed his students on the first day of class that “he had already decided their marks: Everybody was getting an A+.”  Of course that is only a small part of it, because Rancourt was an academic anarchist based on his theory of education.
     Before finally being dismissed in March of this year, Professor Rancourt argued that a tenured professor should be entitled to and could not be dismissed because of … academic freedom.  Meaning that in an academic environment he should be free to teach and his students learn without any external censorship or restrictive interference.3
     That event is an introduction in how we can misconstrue today’s Gospel on the same battle lines; perhaps not of anarchy versus rules, but personal freedom versus law.  We may hear the verse "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” and think Jesus is supporting individual freedom.  Certainly, there are many places where Jesus speaks against religious legalism but we need to be careful that we do not assume that Jesus is sanctioning personal freedom over the obedience of faith; human liberty against ritual and tradition.
     To fully understand our gospel we need to see it in context.  First, we are in the midst of five stories in these early chapters of Mark that share a common theme: conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders.4
     Knowing that, let us look more closely at the lesson itself.  It begins peacefully with Jesus either wandering through or beside a grain field on a Sabbath day.  As they are walking the disciples possibly from boredom, but more than likely from hunger, start to pluck off heads of grain and chew or eat them.  Pharisees appear literally out of nowhere to accuse the disciples of breaking the law in the Old Testament of harvesting grain on the Sabbath.5  Harvesting, quantity being beside the point, is work.
     As you may have noticed, Jesus is not doing the “harvesting,” if we can call it that, but the disciples are.  So, it is the disciples' behaviour and not Jesus' conduct or even a teaching that is under examination here.  Yet, Jesus, as their leader, is implicated by the accusation, since it was understood in that culture that the teacher is responsible for the behaviour of the disciples.
     Jesus offers a defence in behalf of his followers.  Jesus cites scriptural precedent pointing to an event in the Old Testament.  David and his companions were hungry.  David and his companions entered the temple in Jerusalem and ate the bread of presence --- twelve loaves of bread symbolically representing the 12 tribes of Israel baked and set aside daily.  It is a case in the Bible, where the urgency of human need, in this case hunger, took precedence over symbolic religious tradition.6
     Now many Christians often assume that Jesus was the first and only Jewish teacher to argue that religious law is secondary to humanitarian concerns.  That is not true!  Human need and law was an issue in which even the religious leaders of Jesus day discussed.  In this case, Jesus is clearly on the side that human need takes priority over observance of religious ritual.
     But that is not the only or the major point of the lesson.  We can at times ignore the second half: “So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”7  What can be overlooked is that Jesus himself is more than the receiver of the Sabbath, meaning he lives under the same rules as you and I.  Jesus is also its Lord, and therefore he has the authority to allow his disciples to break the Sabbath.  This episode in the field of grain is not simply a formula of human freedom; it is about the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
     Former US President Bill Clinton was interviewed shortly after his biography, My Life, had been recently published.  He was asked why he engaged in actions that violated his marriage vows and ultimately led to an effort to impeach him as president.  Mr. Clinton answered, “Because I could.” 
     The breaking of the Sabbath was an acknowledgement of Jesus' Lordship over the Sabbath.  It was not because Jesus was saying, “because I can and so too can my disciples.” 
     Jesus is Lord over the Sabbath and Lord over his disciples.  That is more significant than a snack when hungry.  The life, death and resurrection of Jesus have ushered in a new age in which the promised salvation of God is realized.  The gospel of Jesus Christ therefore, offers a rest which is more than physical and earthly but, in, with and through Jesus Christ, is also spiritual and eternal.
     After this episode the disciples are not free to do what they want … when they want.  Our appropriate response to this lesson is not to insist on the right and freedom to do something because somehow “I am free in Jesus.”  Christians are not anarchists, insisting that obedience or even ritual and tradition for that matter should be dispensed of, but rather we are all about living wholly under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  That means in this case, we are not called to be Lord of the Sabbath or any day, that role is reserved exclusively for God.
     Instead, as disciples of Jesus we perhaps best honour Jesus' Lordship over the Sabbath, neither by celebrating our freedom against ritual or tradition, nor for example, by ignoring why and what it means to rest on the Sabbath.  Rather, as disciples of Jesus Christ we are challenged to see all of our life under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  To see all that we do under God because it is only under that lordship that we are free.  Amen.

1 The Two Languages of Academic Freedom, Stanley Fish Blog, www.nytimes.com. February 8, 2009.

2 Activist Teacher.blogspot.com, April 13, 2007
3 http://rancourt.academicfreedom.ca/component/content/article/25.html
4 I am in debt to: Mark 2:23-28, Mikeal C. Parsons, Interpretation, January, 2005.
5 For example, Exodus 34:21
6 1 Samuel 21:1-6
7 Mark 2: 28

Letter of Recommendation - June 14, 2009

      The British novelist G. K. Chesterton once wrote that “A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.”1  The Bible is not a novel, yet it is great literature.  The Bible has many books, yet it tells us the truth of the great author of life --- God.  Moreover, the Bible is not shy about the complexities of its heroes of faith.
     Just do a periphery examination of the Bible and we see multifaceted, faithful individuals who although in many ways are “heroic,” are less than perfect.  For example, think of the Old Testament individual: King David.  Among many things, David established Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish nation and built the First Temple to house the Holy of Holies, the Ark of the Covenant.  Yet, he has the husband of a woman killed for his pleasure.
     The Bible is full of examples of very interesting people, some are with us for only brief moments, some we could see as heroic, nevertheless all teach us.  That is also one of the Bible’s truths, people of faith are complex, but out of that complexity we receive gifts for faithful living.  Just look at one’s of the Bible’s hero’s, particularly for us Protestants, that comes to us in the person and ministry of Paul.
     According to his own description, Paul was born Saul of the tribe of Benjamin, meaning he was a reputable Jew.  He was born in Tarsus a Roman colony --- in present day Turkey --- and was a citizen in the Roman Empire.  He studied to be Pharisee, a Jewish religious lawyer and came to be an early and energetic persecutor of the emerging Christian community.  Then on the way to Damascus to carry on the persecution of the budding Christian fellowship, Paul has a conversion experience which elevates him --- in his words --- to the order of the apostles, equal to the disciples who had been with Jesus through his ministry, death, resurrection and ascension.
     This conversion propels Paul into the ministry specifically as a missionary to Gentiles --- non-Jews.  Then as a missionary, Paul faces jail, beatings and shipwrecks just to name a few events.
     However, to simply place Paul on the plateau of hero and thus for example, to view his life or read all his letters to various Christian groups without a critical eye is to ignore the complex issues that can rise from following Jesus Christ.  Just look at our lesson from Paul’s second letter to the Christian fellowship in Corinth; an interesting snippet of scripture but a good one for us to hear.
     You see, as Paul traveled from Corinth to Galatia all in present day Greece and back again, complaints about him piled up from other Christian missionaries --- typically other Jewish-Christians insisting that Gentiles converting to Christianity should also follow Jewish ritual practices; in other words follow the covenant, in professing Jesus as Lord.  These missionaries seemed to monitor Paul with great enthusiasm.
     At issue was not Paul's conversion, nor his call to share the good news to gentiles, nor were the issues personal like Paul rudeness -- even though he always could stand a refresher course in humility.  The over arching problem was Paul's basic posture.  The word on the street from his opponents was that Paul just did not conduct himself like a true-enough Jewish Christian apostle.  To begin with, Paul was too lenient with the Gentile converts -- he insisted that professing Jesus as Lord alone was sufficient to be welcomed into the body of Christ.
     Now for many of us particularly those of us who are Protestant, this does not seem like a big issue, rather it is wonderful!  But, the difficulty that Jewish-Christians had then and the issue that troubles Christians to this day, is obedience --- good works.
     In other words, his critics where saying to and about Paul, “You may be ok in getting people the door of the church, but once in the door, you let anything go.”  Even more irksome was how Paul's talk about the new covenant was making obsolete traditional checklists for faithfulness and righteousness.  For Paul seemed to be using different standards.  
     Let me give you an example.  Say you invite me over to lead a small group Bible study.  I arrive, give a brief lesson, we spend time thinking about God’s good news, we pray, and then we all leave.  The next week, however, your group receives a letter from me that says the following: "Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, I really enjoyed the time we had experiencing the Holy Spirit. I was especially amazed at the signs, wonder, and miracles God did through me, demonstrating Christ's awesome resurrection power in your very midst. I look forward to doing this again real soon."  If your group received that letter, I would lose all credibility because there were no signs, wonders, and miracles!
     Paul wrote to the Corinthians: "The things that mark an apostle --- signs, wonders and miracles --- were done among you with great perseverance.”2  As he tried to assert his God-given authority as an apostle to his critics, Paul reminded his readers what he did when he was with them.  Meaning that if Paul had done no signs, wonders, and miracles while he was in Corinth, he would have lost all credibility the moment the church read that claim.  Why … because they would have known better.  
     All that sounds well and good, however miraculous deeds and signs are not the issue, rather to his critics the nub of the issue was Paul was saying we have our own standards. 
     You see that clearly in today’s lesson.  Paul asked the Corinthians, "Surely we do not need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or from you, do we?"  Here Paul was at his robust best, making his point with the supreme confidence of posing a question that already contained the answer -- and strongly in his favor!
     In those days, you could not “Google” a person on the internet or call a church office, travelers in general and missionaries in particular carried letters of recommendation with them.  These were documents from friends and upstanding citizens and in the case of Christians during this time of persecution, letters from other Christians, vouching for the bearer’s good name and character.  Paul was saying “I do not need a letter from others.  Either you trust me or not.”
     We could discuss other criticism of Paul but yet get the point.  Paul was a complex hero of faith.
     What does that have to do with us?  Although criticized and for possibly good reasons that we cannot ignore, Paul nevertheless was fueled by the certain belief that he was commended by God through the power of the life-giving Spirit of Christ.  How was Paul living as far as he was concerned?  Just fine, thank you very much -- yet just fine precisely because of his confidence not in himself, but in the new covenant and the Spirit of the living God working in, with and through him.  Thus Paul was not overly anxious about what his opponents thought of him.  Although Paul wrote defending himself, and as we see in other places Paul certainly understood their arguments and points, but only God's recommendation concerned Paul.
     Paul reiterated to his good friends the Corinthians that the only recommendation that mattered came from God.  Paul's message to the Corinthians essentially was this: "Don't you realize that you also are the letters of recommendation?  The way you live according to the new covenant in the Spirit of the risen Christ is more telling than any ink, papyrus or paper, more telling that any checklist from critics." 
     Paul was criticized by other Christians who disliked his manner and his theology, but he plugged along to spread the gospel throughout the Roman Empire anyway, caring only what God thought about him.
     What about us?  What do we care about?  Certainly we have foibles.  Bu do we spend great effort collecting “letters of recommendation” not just positive reviews but the affection of those who can give us something in return?
     In other words, “How's our living?”  Look at Paul a complex hero of our Christian faith, a man through criticism, jail and ultimately martyrdom followed the path God had laid before him.
     As we seek balance in our lives and vie to perfect our resumes, as we perhaps generate sparkling references, as we try our best, as we set up lives that appear to be "just fine, thank you very much," Paul would be the first to remind us that there are some complaints which actually do warrant our attention.  For while the world at large may see what we want to be seen, God knows us completely, and knows the sinfulness that simmers in our souls, so Paul reminds us that God monitors us ... and his is the only monitoring that matters.
     God knows exactly how we are living.  And while this may seem burdensome --- to be monitored constantly by the living God who never sleeps --- Paul also reminds us that this same God rules with grace and reconciliation; this same God who through his son, his being, gave us forgiveness and new life.  This truth saved Paul, and it saved him through the ups and downs of life, criticism and accolades.  This truth saves us, heroes of the faith, living, walking “letters of recommendation.”  Amen.

1 http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/178.html
2 2 Corinthians 12: 12

Second Life - June 7, 2009

John 3: 1-12

     What do you think of in-laws?  What do you think about your in-laws?  Do you think in-laws in general are better or worse than in-laws from other countries and cultures?    
     I wonder about that question because of a recently published article.  According to a study published in December 2008, Japanese women are generally not at high risk for heart attacks --- unless they live with in-laws.
     The study conducted by researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health showed that Japanese women who live with their husbands and a set of parents --- and as the researchers pointed out, in Japan, that almost always means the husband’s parents --- were three times more likely to suffer a heart attack than those living just with their husbands.  “In the West, people tend to view family relations and social support as being protective of health,” said Dr. Ichiro Kawachi, an epidemiologist at the school and one of the study’s authors. “This is the first epidemiological study to show that these traditional living arrangements in Japan are rather harmful for women.”
     Interestingly enough, however, the living arrangements with in-laws do not affect men’s health.  “One of the overwhelming things that stands out is that it does not matter for Japanese men what the living arrangements are,” Dr. Kawachi said.  “They’re immune from the stresses in the home.”1 
     What do you think?  Do these results concur with your experience?  From my observation and anecdotal evidence, I do not think that in general, in-laws in Japan are any better or any worse than in-laws in other countries or cultures; rather the study points out to me an aspect of our lives that no matter what culture or country you are from there is an important issue underlying all of our lives --- roles and expectations.  I suspect that the reason husbands and wives have different stress levels based on the presence of in-laws in the home has everything to do with their respective roles and expectations.  But, as I am a novice observer of Japanese culture, you all can put into words much better than I what those roles and expectations are.
     What interests me, however, are not in-laws, or men or women, or husband or wives, instead I believe this study highlights how roles and expectations are deeply intrinsic parts of our lives.  These roles and expectations impact who we are and how we live.  That means that these roles and expectations impact how we live our lives as disciples of Jesus Christ.  For that reason, it is roles and expectations that Jesus is discussing in our gospel.  Because new life in Jesus Christ is not about a new role and new expectation made upon us, rather new life in Jesus Christ is all about what God does for us and the change that means on our lives.
     Let us look more closely at our gospel.  Nicodemus is an intriguing character who leads two lives.  On one hand, he’s a Pharisee and a leader of the Jews, meaning he has a critical eye on Jesus.2  Any Pharisee with Israel’s and the people’s best in mind would have been cautious toward Jesus at best, and would publicly oppose him at worst.  But as we see hear from the gospel, although Nicodemus is a Pharisee, he is privately curious about Jesus, recognizing that somehow his teachings and works stem from God.3
     In other words, Nicodemus is a person leading a kind of double life.  As a religious leader he is fulfilling his outward role and people’s expectations of what he is to be, so Nicodemus is cautious.  Yet on the other hand he pursues his more questionable ventures at night --- out of sight of the public audience. 
     What is also fascinating is that we know that over time, Nicodemus was changed by his relationship with Jesus Christ.  In John 7, Nicodemus is still leading his two lives.  He doesn’t publicly challenge the notion that a Pharisee could never believe in Jesus, but he does defend Jesus’ right to be heard.4  Then by the end of Jesus’ life, this same Nicodemus seems to have ended this double life.  Nicodemus takes responsibility for the body of Jesus when his family and disciples have abandoned him.  No longer coming to Jesus at night, he anoints and buries Jesus in the full light of day.5  Nicodemus left caution and uncertainty, and his secret identity behind as he came to believe in Jesus.  In the end, this second private life was no longer hidden and instead dictated his outward life. 
     That means that there is something Jesus did that caused a skeptic on the sidelines to become a devoted mourner of his death.  What could Jesus have said that would so radically change a person?  We see the seed of that change in our gospel.  Anothen.
 Anothen appears three times in this chapter to refer to spiritual life change.  If you were to study this Greek word that Jesus used you will find that there are three basic meanings for anothen: 1) change from above; 2) change from the beginning, from the first; 3) change again, anew.
     Many Biblical scholars think these three meanings are being word-played in Nicodemus’ confusion over what Jesus’ is saying.  Jesus says, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is anothen.”6  Nicodemus wonders initially how you can be born again or a second time from his mother’s womb; a change from the beginning.  Jesus understands Nicodemus’ interpretation on anothen as part of his disbelief, so he answers him by emphasizing the keys to God’s kingdom ? anothen change as life transformation.7  Jesus is talking about an invisible anothen from above that creates a visibly changed life in the present.
     Nicodemus had some basis to understand what Jesus was talking about.8  For Jesus was referencing to any number of Old Testament references to water and spirit together, such as Ezekiel 36.  So, a Pharisee would have been familiar with them, but it took time for the meaning to work through Nicodemus.    
     Perhaps the difficulty lay in that Nicodemus is already leading a double life so needing a new life did not make sense.  Perhaps Nicodemus was thinking, “I do no need another life; nor do I need to get a life.”  Instead, Nicodemus needed to be born again by being born from above, Anothen.   
     For Jesus, being anothen would be as evident as the wind.9  You can not control it or see it, but you know it is at work.  It’s as obvious as bent branches and blowing leaves.  What does that mean?  A pastor in Denver, Colorado tells the story of a relationship with a friend named Anatole.  After discussing the gospel for hours with Anatole over tea, they had reached a philosophical impasse.  Anatole, a 50-year-old science teacher, was a naturalist and quite set in his ways.  He could believe only what he could see with his eyes and touch with his hands.  That is what kept him agnostic ? he couldn’t see God.
     Not knowing how to respond, the pastor looked out the window and prayed.  In the next moment, a huge wind kicked up, bending tree branches and rattling the glass windows of the coffee house.  Remembering Jesus’ metaphor from John, the pastor asked Anatole what he saw out the window.  “The wind,” he responded confidently.  “Do you,” the pastor asked, “or do you see the effects of the wind?”  Two minutes of silence passed.  Then Anatole spoke his second-life words: “That very much makes God a possibility.” 
     That is what anothen means.  A life born from above is a life changed.  It’s as invisible as the wind and as obvious as its impact.  Jesus wants to transform our lives.  Our “second” anothen life is not a way to escape real life, but the Second-Life-Christ offers us a deeper reality which governs one’s first life.  This second life is a changed life, an inward and invisible reality with dramatic and obvious “out workings” like the wind.
     That means that the roles and expectations that others may have of us, and that we have of ourselves, from taking care of others to our lives at work and at school have less of an impact than our deeper, anothen life in Jesus Christ.  Instead our deeper, anothen life affects our roles and expectations in life.
     Our God through Jesus Christ alive as the Holy Spirit in, with and through us has engineered a way for us to change and even overcome roles and expectations, … even sin and death, receive new birth, and live forever in a heavenly kingdom.  All God asks is that we have faith, this anothen; this deeper changed reality is changing us now.  Amen.
1 Living With In-Laws Linked to Heart Risks in Japanese Women, By Roni Caryn, The New York Times,  December 16, 2008

2 John 3: 1
3 v. 2
4 John 7: 49-51
5 John 19:39-42
6 John 3: 3
7 Vs 5-7
8 Vs.7-10
9 Vs. 8

Firefly Grave - May 31,2009

Acts: 2:1-21

        In the 1988 Japanese animated movie Grave of the Fireflies (火垂るの墓) based on a book by the same title by Akiyuki Nosaka, the main characters, Seita and Setsuko --- orphan brother and sister --- catch fireflies and use them to illuminate the bomb shelter in which they live.  The next day, Setsuko gathers them all and digs a grave for the dead insects, and asks "Why do fireflies die so soon?”  Setsuko’s action and words not only inspire the title of the book and move, but we come to find out, that incident is the symbolic and thematic event.1
         Fireflies!  For many of us fireflies are a memory of warm summer evenings.  Their glow in the darkness of nightfall drew our attention, and some of us even captured a few of these tiny creatures as children.  Whether we called them hotaru, lightning bugs or glowworms, we saw their tiny lights as one of the marks of summertime.
         Sadly, this summer Graves of the Fireflies may be truer than idyllic images of summer evenings of the past, because experts think that fireflies are dwindling, perhaps by as much as 70 percent in recent years.  Lots of anecdotal evidence supports that claim --- so much so that more than 100 scientists gathered in Thailand last summer for an international symposium on the “Diversity and Conservation of Fireflies.”2
         Researchers in places as diverse as Thailand, Switzerland and the United States have noted that something is happening to fireflies.  Researchers are suggesting that there is probably no single factor to blame.  Some have pointed to urban sprawl and industrial pollution and others, perhaps surprisingly, to the spread of artificial light.  The first two we may understand but the third may need to some explaining.  The glowing fireflies we do see are the males of the species, who use their lights to attract the observing females --- who are hidden from our view --- so some researchers suspect that artificial light is interfering with the mating ritual, and thus fireflies are not reproducing.3
         Whatever the reasons for the change in the number of fireflies --- if there is a change --- that image may be one for us to ponder in our lives as Christians.  Today is Pentecost; the anniversary of that first-century day when the Holy Spirit came in a mighty way upon the disciples of Jesus hunkered down in an upper room in Jerusalem.  Not only is Pentecost an anniversary, the birthday of the church, but a reminder of God’s presence with us in the Holy Spirit.  Famously, the Bible’s description of the sudden infilling of those disciples with the Spirit includes this: “They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.”4
         Ever since that event, fire, which, of course, is a source of light, has been a symbol of the Holy Spirit.  At the same time, that symbol of fire also connects to Jesus, who said, “I am the light of the world.”5  Therefore when the Holy Spirit fills us, we, too, radiate the light of God.  Spirit filled Christians are light-bearers.  Christians have “glowed” with the light as we have spread the gospel, shared the good news, gone about doing good, committed sacrificial acts of love for neighbor and even for enemies, and have sought to understand and do the will of God. 
         For example, after the English writer Malcolm Muggeridge spent some time observing Mother Teresa working in Calcutta, India, taking care of dying people she assisted off the streets, he wrote a book about her titled: Something Beautiful for God.  In it, he said, “God’s love has rubbed off on Mother Teresa, giving her features a noticeable luminosity, a shining quality.”6
         Although I am not going to use the metaphor that we are somehow little fireflies for Jesus, there is a way that the image of fireflies may help us understand our Christian life in the Holy Spirit.  It goes back to the possible change that is going on in the number of fireflies and one of the possible causes.  Just like artificial light may be a cause of the gradual disappearance of fireflies, I wonder how is the light of Christ through the Holy Spirit possibly threatened or diminished by other light.
         If you think about it in this world, there are lots of other lights, not just what lights our home.  Some lights are artificial, some that seem more glitzy or powerful or, in some fields, even more illuminating than --- the light of the Holy Spirit.  And just as fireflies are possibly finding their inner lights overpowered by bright but artificial lighting, so, too, we Spirit filled Christians sometimes may find the light of God within us --- especially if we don’t tend it --- growing dim.
         We have the light of education.  Some of us who first met Jesus as children or teenagers had a little spiritual light glowing inside us.  However, as we become older, we have encountered not only new information, but also new ways of thinking, all emanating from the lamp of scholastic inquiry and knowledge.  On balance education is a good lamp, a good light, one that has been helpful if not necessary to our world, but its nature is such that our spiritual light can look pale by comparison.  How many of us have been challenged by the light of knowledge, all the way from life experience to new insights into our natural world and struggled with what that means to our faith.
         How about the light of psychology?  For example, perhaps you and I have struggled with some personal issues that interfere or have interfered with our ongoing life.  We may have prayed about it without finding the kind of help we needed or desired.  Perhaps we sought some professional counseling, and through it, found some relief and new perspectives that set us free from that old bondage.  Given those results, counseling certainly qualifies as light for our darkness, and therefore a good light.
         But it does not necessarily follow that counseling or education is a better light than the light of the Holy Spirit.  They are a singular light, and we may use their many gifts, a specific light for a specific need, but they are not a light for the root dilemma of every one of us: our need to get right with God and to open ourselves to the Savior who on the cross opens the way for forgiveness and reconciliation with God.
         And then of course, we have the light of culture.  For example, the culture of secular life itself has a glitter that sometimes seems to outshine the light of the Holy Spirit within us.  Not only the culture of secular life, but cultures that we have grown to appreciate and perhaps love remind us that many people are happy without Christian faith.  We may have wondered if we were mistaken to cling to the way of the Lord or made the mistake that Christianity is simply a subset of a culture, interchangeable to and adaptable with other cultures or even other religions.  And then of course as seen in the case of some western nations, culture and the Christian faith, has for some, become one and the same.
         The light of culture whether or own or others can appear powerfully bright at times.  The light of culture can illuminate certain pleasures, can even shed a benign glow or even teach us new ways of thinking.  Yet we need to be careful because culture has neither the heat of inspiration nor the inner-path-lighting ability of the Holy Spirit’s light through Jesus Christ.  
         To return to fireflies for a moment, the fact is, it may not be possible for fireflies to survive forever in a world whose nights are increasingly ablaze with artificial light.  We hope they can adapt.  
         We Christians also need to be careful.  Christians need to adapt and learn as well.  Whether they are the lights of medicine, technology or anything else, it’s important to understand that these lights do not require us to make an either-or choice; “either we will follow the light of Jesus or we will follow __________.”  You can fill in the blank.
         On the contrary, in many cases, it is quite possible --- quite important, even --- to allow more than one light to illuminate our lives.  But the main light, the most important light, the essential light always needs to be emanating from the fire of the Holy Spirit.  That’s because while some of what science, technology and other lights show us is important for our daily existence, our lives are always more than daily existence.  The light of the Holy Spirit is a light not only for day-to-day living, but also for eternity, and we make a mistake to let its light get washed out by the seemingly better or more powerful lights.  Theologian Richard J. Hauser asks, "Do [we] adequately acknowledge the Spirit's role in the good actions [we] perform every day, or do [we] attribute them only to [our] own initiative and hard work?"  It's a good question!  The Holy Spirit that fell upon Christ's disciples on that Pentecost is at work in and among us all the time regardless of education, psychology, or culture.
         The coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost lit the fire of the church and its people for all ages.  God’s Spirit is still and must always be the main source of light for Christians, not other illumination.  Individually and as the church, we trust and hold on to God’s grace as places for the Holy Spirit’s flames to burn hotly and the Holy Spirit’s light to shine brightly.
         Let’s be clear.  It’s not our job to put out or somehow extinguish lesser or artificial lights that shine for the benefit of humankind so that we are the only light in town; indeed, sometimes we should help their light, like education, be seen.  At the same time, however, we should never be so dazzled by other lights that we no longer shine for Jesus Christ.  Otherwise, the question asked by Setsuko will be asked of us, “Why do fireflies die so soon?”  Amen.

1 Grave of the Fireflies DVD, Central Park Media, 2001.
2 Thank you to www.Homiletics.com for illustration.
3 Casey, Michael. “Experts fear fireflies are dwindling.” ABCNews, August 30, 2008. http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=5691154.
4 Acts 2:3
5 John 8:12
6 Muggeridge, Malcolm. Something Beautiful for God. Harper & Row, 1971.