Place is a sanctuary

Today is Sunday, October 9, 2016, but the following entry reflects events from Friday. It is hard to stay perfectly current considering our schedule and internet availability. 

This post is from Rev. Wongee Joh, First UMC, Brewster, NY

Can we identify other people’s sanctuary? 

How does that place offer sanctuary? 

How is that different from my sanctuary?

Coming back to Japan after 17 years again, a place that I found myself sojourning at after my response to my call with “Here I am Lord, Send me” is turning out to be a more emotional experience than I expected.  I have found myself tearing up at memories that well up and spill over with gratitude and awe.  Memories that had not been forgotten but where the emotions of those memories are feeling all so fresh and new again. My first thought as I rose this morning was why did l say I would write this? After a “Japan style” walking excursion of Kyoto and a 14 hour day, exhausted I collapsed into my first real 6 hours of sleep since arriving. I did not get this written in time for our first blog post. I was too drained on many levels, drained in the best sense of the word. A cathartic draining.  I woke up the next morning with tears of gratitude that saying “Yes” to God was the best response I made in my life and what amazing changes unfolded. 

I am feeling overwhelmed by so much “feasting” literally via Japanese food and spiritually (fed) this pilgrimage is becoming. The hospitality from our host Hikari (we all call her Hikari, but I’m aware in Japan how odd that must sound to the Japanese listening to us as she would be referred to properly as Hikari san) has been extravagant and I’m not sure that as those being immersed here for such a brief time possibly can understand/appreciate  the scale of Hikari's generosity. I have found her hosting us, navigating the itinerary, listening to people’s different needs, practicing her own physical mindfulness, offering her knowledge and self to be a sanctuary. As she guides us through so many experiences, I observe how much the customs of Japan which had felt so isolating and alienating

 17 years ago are things that now I can understand as customs that offer and is a source of sanctuary for the Japanese folks as well as myself on this journey today. 

Some of the challenges /experiences of immersing in a new and different context I heard from one person in our group helped me to see myself as I had been just like this person 17 years ago and refreshed me to understand that those same challenges were the experiences that had been transformed to become sanctuary for me today. 17 years later, I'm grateful for God's faithfulness and grace. 

 What offers sanctuary to others is my coming into the places understanding that I am a foreigner and interloper, not expecting hospitality on my terms is offering sanctuary. On my part, listening to people's experiences as separate from my own and accepting their expressions with respect is offering sanctuary. 

Many of the temples we visited are crowded and filled with tourists. Often I think we are like that with one another, tourists. We are these incredible beautiful temples and we encounter each other as tourists. How many of us actually worship each other? Each temple we visited were unique and yet also shared commonalities. 

As a group, we had the opportunity to be lead in a Zen meditation by a Zen priest. It was my first time practicing Zen meditation. We practiced silence and "emptying" for 15 minutes. He suggested  counting as we breathed to help us. I experienced a couple of things. First that 15 minutes goes very quickly and that I have a tendency to fall back on my Christian tradition of breathing prayers instead of "emptying" in the Zen way. It was my first time with Zen meditations so I think I'm OK if I didn't understand exactly how and what "emptying" really meant. Not sure what the priest would have said if I shared that all I kept breathing in and out was my morning devotional hymn of that day, 

Breathe in- I've got a river of life flowing out of me!

Breathe out-Makes the lame to walk, and the blind to see.

Breathe in-Opens prison doors, sets the captives free!

Breathe out-I've got a river of life flowing out of me!

Breathe in-Spring up, O well, within my soul!

Breathe out-Spring up, O well, and make me whole!

Breathe in-Spring up, O well, and give to me

Breathe out- That life abundantly.

The new experience with the Zen priest and our group meditation helped me to name sanctuary as not a noun but a verb. I remember becoming a new sanctuary together with my husband back 17 years ago when he seeing the difficulties I was having with adapting in Japan offered to join me in my practice of the traditional Korean Christian morning prayers. That practice allowed me to become a sanctuary with not just him, but also and for my then 4 year old who was adjusting as well. We as a family created a sanctuary which has been and continues to become an incredible blessing to us as we itinerant together as a Methodist family.

 I learned for myself that God was my sanctuary experienced in the practice of prayer which transformed me anew each day that I could be a living sanctuary in the midst of what I was experiencing as my sojourn at that time in the "wilderness/desert". 

I stand amazed today seeing God's presence as transforming of wilderness/deserts to become sanctuaries. Sanctuaries, whether it be people, places, ourselves, or as invitations/new experiences/seeking are created through relational exchanges of being present to that which is often both foreign/different/new/unknown and familiar/same/old/known and in the presence of God.