This is my approximate sermon for this morning. There may be some troubles with it, I'm really still jet lagged.

Worship at the Cost of Freedom

Prayer: Father, may your Spirit bless the words now delivered unto waiting ears. May you dwell in the hearts of all who hear this message, this message which is your Gospel, given freely to your people this day.

This morning I would like to tell you about my recent adventures in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. It was thanks in large part to the generosity of this church both in allowing me leave from my responsibilities for 2 weeks and in donating a significant portion of the cost of the trip. I now offer you only a small return on your gracious investment.

I’d also like to say that the trip would not have been possible without the team of students who traveled with me. These nine Christians are, to me, heroes of the faith whose lives are living testimonies to the fullness of the Spirit who dwells within them. Don Dawson, the director of the New Wilmington Mission Conference and the World Mission Initiative was our able leader and there was Dan the musician, Tim the theologian, Eleanor the mother of the team, Helen the camerawoman and feline-lookout, Keith the lion-hearted Methodist, Brenda the servant-leader, Cynthia who would never let an hour pass without a prayer, and Lexi the entertainment.

Our trip began in Ho Chi Minh City, the second largest city in the nation. Most of you know it by another name: it was Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, before it was sacked and renamed by the communist North in 1975. If this were a history lecture there would be much to discuss about Ho Chi Minh himself, how he prized patriotism and national unity over all else and made deals with Russia and China to fund his struggle against France and America because he felt the communist ideology was less imperialistic than western democracy. That is to say he seemed to believe that communism is freer than capitalism.

But because this isn’t a history lecture, and I’m not qualified to give one anyway, I’ll stick to telling you about my time in Vietnam.

Our first task in Saigon to was to load a bus and head to Dalat, a mountain city 6 hours north and east. Dalat would be the place I got sick for 3 days so I don’t remember much about it other than that we spent a good deal of time as wandering tourists and I slept whenever and wherever possible.

From Dalat we chartered a smaller bus that would take our group down the mountain and east to the coast and a city called Phang Rang. Here we stayed at a beautiful hotel with ocean-side villas and a full moon over our dinner table as we dined beside the South China Sea on a perfect 76 degree night. I can only imagine how long the lines would be to sign up for long-term foreign mission work if they put this scene on the cover of the newsletter. But even then, pictures don’t do it justice.

We spent those days in Phang Rang visiting the people of the eastern Cham. My school, Pittsburgh Seminary, via the World Mission Initiative and the work that Don Dawson is doing has set a goal to reach out to the eastern Cham people. This work is accomplished in large part during these two-week trips made by groups of students.

The Cham are one of the most ancient remaining people groups in Southeast Asia. They have their own language and their own lands, which have been delineated for them by the national government. They are primarily laborers who farm rice and some animals but they are also famous for weaving beautiful silk and making it into table clothes, scarves, ties, and even shirts like this one. Though their rights are limited compared to Vietnamese citizens there are a growing number of Cham people who are enjoining themselves to the culture around them by attending universities and developing trades that are competitive with the bustling local economy. For the most part though they seem to live in slums. None of Vietnam is wonderfully sanitary to the extent an American would expect in her own country but the areas left for the Cham are particularly degenerate having the appearance of only two modern comforts: electricity and the television.

The Cham are historically a maternalistic culture. The elder women of a family are considered to be the head. This is a very foreign idea for westerners. A second history lecture could focus on the rise of paternalism in the world and perhaps its ill effects, but as a sermon that is quite a different subject. For the purposes of mission maternalism means that the religion of the mother (or the aunt or the grandmother) is the religion of the family. You may have heard that for orthodox Jews a person who is born to a mixed-faith home it is only Jewish if his or her mother is. In Christianity, well, say what you will about a person’s necessity to make their own decision for Christ, it would be nearly impossible for them to do that if it was contrary to the will of their senior female family members.

So wherever we went women greeted us most energetically and we often saw men hanging back, not interested in approaching or being approached. This made it difficult to distinguish the men who were detached and disinterested from the men who were spying on us with the hope of gaining some useful knowledge to pass on to the police. They were watching to see if we distributed any gifts or religious documents. At one point during a house visit while some of our team members were comparing a Cham-language copy of the gospel of John to the NIV version the guide suddenly said “put those away quickly!” then Don, the old pro of mission trips switched his line of questioning in mid-sentence from “How did you come to be a Christian?” to “Where did you get these lovely dishes?” Moments later we were moving casually back to the bus trying our best to look like dumb tourists with no agenda but to take a few pictures of local folks.

You see, there is no such thing as a protected right for the citizens of Vietnam. In a moment a person can be arrested, interrogated, charged, and jailed for the simple act of carrying religious tracts. It’s very likely that the homes we visited and the people we spoke to have since been visited by rather unfriendly agents of the state who are curious what terrible acts of sedition the Americans were returning to plan.
• Who were they?
• Where were they from?
• What did they give you?
• When are they coming back?
• Are you a Christian?
• Were they Christians?
• Did they speak Vietnamese?
• Who was their translator?

I can only imagine what it might be like to be interrogated by police based on the testimony of a neighbor who saw strange people entering my home.

This is a fact of faith for Vietnamese Christians. Just as you and I reorganize our schedules to be present in church for 90 minutes on Sunday morning and plan to attend charitable events and donate our money, so does a Vietnamese Christian leave his house every morning prepared for the moment when he will be swept away, held without trial for days, and asked to sign a statement renouncing his faith on the basis of patriotism and first-loyalty to his country.

Friends, I reached a breaking point in Vietnam and I prayed. I took Jesus aside just like Peter and said, “What are you doing? This isn’t the way a messiah should treat his people! Christians here need someone strong to come with the sword and fight off these disgusting overlords who have forced them to bow before idols and live lives ashamed of their faith. Millions of people here are deceived! Where are you in all this, Jesus?”

Jesus’ response is harsh and biting. He doesn’t say “Peter, I love you, but…” or “think about what you’re saying and try again…” he barks at him “Get behind me, Satan!” The NRSV uses weakened language “for you have set you mind…” it’s more like “Peter! You’re playing for the wrong team! Don’t you know who calls the shots! It doesn’t matter who you are, where you’re from, or what you think you know because you’re stuck within the limits of human wisdom and until you learn some real faith, you’re never getting out!”

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego knew just how radical true faith in God really is. They stood before the most powerful man on the planet, King Nebuchadnezzar, and refused to worship his gods. They knew torture and death awaited them yet the terror of the furnace paled in comparison to the mightiness of the God they served. But if not… the three men affirm that nothing in the power of their oppressor is nearly forceful enough to affect the kingdom of God. Yes, the phrase appeals to my sense of duty as I hope it does to everyone here. Whether you see the will of God done before your eyes or whether you see a the world becoming more and more lost, certainly you should always remember to maintain your faith and know that God is larger than the mountains put before us.
• Lord grant me a new job and a nicer house. But if not I will serve you just the same.
• Father cure me of this disease and let me walk again. But if not I will praise you from this bed.
• God let this woman love me. But if she never does I still will love You all the days of my life.

Christian duty often asks us to make the most extraordinary statements, our constant commitments to serve a God who doesn’t always give us the things we want most. But do not miss the most critical lesson of verse 18… don’t forget that the NT bleeds from every word in the old. Christ has conquered death! Even if I die today my faith in God is not dead! Though I lose my very life, I save it, and though you may live or die you have been delivered from the hands of your enemies. God is Good!


You would expect some culture shock when an American lands in a communist nation for the first time. The hammer and sickle, the gold stars, the bright red banners blazing in the sun, and the ubiquitous white head of Ho Chi Minh seen everywhere all make you feel as though you’ve stepped into a Tom Clancy novel and must now fight your way back out. But in time the red banner with the gold star that flies from every building just settles into the background like the living streams of motorbikes, the clusters of disorganized power lines, and the grotesque fish oil that seasons everything you eat. And not just the culture but the faith absorbs you an you feel as though you, too, are a covert Christian with a faith that stands before a giant saying “do your worst”

But the fact of culture shock is that it works both ways. Just as I’m surprised by how soft my bed is, how clean the water in my shower is, and how it can somehow be 70 degrees on Tuesday and snowing on Thursday, I’m just as shocked by my freedoms, and by my church that is bogged down in pluralistic confusion about everything from the saving grace of Christ to the very name by which we call our Lord and our Father.

It is my prayer for each of you that you come to know a faith stronger than your greatest enemies, that each day you thank a merciful God for your freedom and your protection, and that every day you can earnestly confess your abuses of that freedom and your hope to discern a more faithful way to live as a disciple of Jesus Christ.

I saw in Vietnam a world where God is active in the lives of a small number of people, yet by the power of his Spirit has led them to do great things. It is a world where prayer is unquestioned as the best and ONLY means of gaining advantage in the spiritual war over the future of the nation.

Benediction:
On behalf of 2,000,000 Christians in the nation of Vietnam and the thousands of American Christians who pray for them: go forth from this place to love and serve the Lord. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.