New Year’s Day I was in Chiayi in south/central Taiwan and saw what I suppose is the giant lantern for this year’s National Lantern Festival, which rotates among locations in Taiwan every year. Too bad I won’t be in Taiwan for Chinese New Year’s this year. However, having visited the national celebration a few years in a row in in the late 90’s when I first moved to Taipei, I haven’t really had the urge to fight the crowd. 
Today over lunch at McD’s (yes, sometimes I stoop this low here in Taiwan) I was reading chapter 6 of Proper Confidence: Faith, Doubt, and Certainty in Christian Discipleship by the late Lesslie Newbigin. Suddenly, I happened upon the word “pilgrim”.
At this exact moment, in order to drown out the loud music in the fast food restaurant, I encountered for the very first time the song “Pilgrim” by the artist Enya stored in my mp3 player. The confluence of events caught my attention immediately. Here are the lyrics and a link to Enya’s lovely song:
Pilgrim, how you journey
On the road you chose
To find out why the winds die
And where the stories go.
All days come from one day
That much you must know,
You cannot change what's over
But only where you go.
One way leads to diamonds,
One way leads to gold,
Another leads you only
To everything you're told.
In your heart you wonder
Which of these is true;
The road that leads to nowhere,
The road that leads to you.
Will you find the answer
In all you say and do?
Will you find the answer
In you?
Each heart is a pilgrim,
Each one wants to know
The reason why the winds die
And where the stories go.
Pilgrim, in your journey
You may travel far,
For pilgrim it's a long way
To find out who you are...
Pilgrim, it's a long way
To find out who you are...
Pilgrim, it's a long way
To find out who you are...
A lovely song (I still like her theme from Lord of the Rings better), but I have to disagree with the lyrics stating that the answers lie in “the road that leads to you”. Here’s what Newbigin was saying in the very instant I simultaneously encountered the word pilgrim both in the mp3 and the book:
“If we allow the Bible to be that which we attend to above all else, we will be saved from two dangers: The first is the danger of the closed mind. The Bible leaves an enormous space open for exploration (ie. if you interpret it correctly—neither as fundamentalists nor as liberals do). If our central commitment is to Jesus, who is the Word of God incarnate in our history, we shall know that in following him we have the clue to the true understanding of all that is, seen and unseen, known and yet to be discovered. We shall therefore be confident explorers. The second is the danger of the mind open at both ends, the mind which is prepared to entertain anything but has a firm hold of nothing. We shall be saved from the clueless wandering which sometimes takes to itself the name of pilgrimage. A pilgrim is one who turns his back on some familiar things and sets his face in the direction of the desired goal. The Christian is called to be a pilgrim, a learner to the end of her days. But she knows the Way.” (p. 91-92)
May the biblical story continue to awaken my imagination and challenge and stimulate my thinking and acting (91). May I also, while seeking to be a lifelong learner encountering different fields beyond my ability to completely comprehend, trying to understand different kinds of books, etc. – continue to be a confident explorer yet humble, not arrogant), fighting the good fight, perservering in the quest.
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day we distributed a little over 600 bags of candy and literature as we caroled in our two communities. Santa Claus trailed closely behind us in the markets! We were happy to be accompanied by several members from Songshan church in Taipei. We couldn’t have done it without them!
Christmas Truck Announcement:
On Wednesday I had the truck announcing the birth of Jesus written up in previous posts drive routes in the northern portion of our neighboring township. Unfortunately, when I went looking for him, no one in the 4 villages I asked in the target area had seen or heard the announcement. Later, when I called the driver, I found out he had meandered off the
agreed-upon path! Soon thereafter, a worker at a tea stand as well as a friend in another village called to say he had passed by.
Christmas Eve and Day the truck drove back and forth in my township. In order to give people a chance to hear the message, he drove extremely slow. He passed through the majority of villages only one time as a result.
I received feedback from one acquaintance yesterday that the volume was not loud enough… if we choose to do this again, perhaps I should pay to have a more professional recording done.
Two weeks ago in our adult English class as we were reading a 
simplified version of a story about the birth of Jesus, I asked students how they would feel if an angel appeared to them. One of them replied “lucky”, while the other said, in all honesty, he would ask the angel for money. Slightly different from the fearful response of the shepherds! But these are probably typical responses as to how someone rooted in Taiwanese culture and religious practices might respond to their understanding of an angel.
Similarly, last night I was reading stories about Jesus from Luke with a friend. When I asked him what motivated Jesus to heal the sick and deliver the oppressed, he responded that Jesus was only doing those things in order to spread his fame. Again, honest answers from someone with a traditional Taiwanese cultural and religious background.
Yesterday I was reading form Lesslie Newbigin’s Proper Confidence: Faith, Doubt, and Certainty in Christian Discipleship. In the first chapter Newbigin delineates four principles which provided the foundation for the subsequent development of science in Europe, a science which far outstripped the brilliant thinking of India, China, and the Arab world. What set these principles apart is that they were based upon faith in biblical revelation: “Science developed in Europe in a way that far outstripped the work of ancient Greek, Egyptian, and Indian science because it was willing to take as its starting point affirmations rooted in the biblical revelation of God as creator and redeemer.” (p. 11)
Newbigin continues: a long long time ago, the medley of barbarian tribes and petty kingdoms which then constituted Europe began to be shaped and influenced by a network of monastic communities which eventually took over the whole of Western Europe. These communities had at their center the continual reading of the Bible, both in study and in the worship rituals of the community. The biblical story came to be the one story (emphasis added) that shaped the understanding of who they were, where they came from, and where they were going. … “It was this story that shaped those barbarian tribes in the cultural and spiritual entity that made Europe something other than simply a peninsula of Asia (p. 13). Though one might effectivly argue that Europe was never thoroughly “Christianized” – the veneer was superficial in many places – nevertheless, the development of science in Europe was directly influenced by the faithful telling and retelling from generation to generation of bible stories.
I find great hope in that. Evangelism, when you get right down to it, can be very simple: telling the story of the bible. 
As I introduce people like those mentioned at the beginning of this blog entry to the biblical stories of creation,the life of Jesus, as well as the other narratives, poetry, and biblical prophecies of God’s Word, they will- if they come with an open heart-- be influenced. I will be influenced. Indeed, over time, entire cultures will be transformed! As I was reminded again in my devotionals this morning:
“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” Isaiah 55:10-11
We’re in the final few days before our flurry of Christmas activities gets underway (well, not including the stories we’ve already been sharing the last few weeks of adult and children’s English classes). This evening, I went to check on the progress of our truck Christmas broadcast. The poster’s ready!
Unfortunately, prospects aren’t so bright for our first outdoor activity. Temperatures are expected to reach a new low for the winter Saturday night. Furthermore, construction has just begun in the area in front of the temple where the night market is usually held. Who knows where we’ll eventually set up our table with Santa Claus…
