"What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?"(Lk24:17)

Two disciples were "talking and discussing." Greek word translated here "to discuss" is "suzeteo," which means "seek together." They were examining their experience together.

Then, a stranger showed up and asked "What are you discussing with each other?" Cleopas answered him, "Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?" He explained the details.

When two disciples talked enough, the stranger started to explain what is written in the Bible. They had a supper together in an inn. The stranger disappeared. Then two disciples noticed who the stranger was, saying "Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?"

Through the stranger who heard their sorrow, sharing the time and space, two disciples met Christ in resurrection. As a stranger, Christ is walking with us, inviting us to a new way.

(Summary of the sermon on 1 May 2011, at Sado Church, United Church of Christ in Japan)

"Why are you looking among the dead for one who is alive?"(Lk 24:5)

As of 13 of April, the number of missing people became 15,148, after the massive earthquake on 11 of March. Today's scripture, Luke tells us the event that Jesus became one of the missing people.

Are there any words which can console the people whose family members are missing? A grief care specialist TAKAKI Yoshiko says "What is necessary is neither words nor deeds, but to share the time and space, and to be with them."

Luke tells us that there were two men who shared the time and space with the women who were puzzled.

The women remembered the words and deeds of Jesus. They stood up to succeed the ministry which was started by Jesus. This is a miracle! Christ is alive, among the people, empowered by the words and deeds of Jesus.

(Summary of the sermon on 24 April 2011, at Sado Church, United Church of Christ in Japan)

"The master needs it"(Lk 19:34)

Today is Palm Sunday. In Luke, the story started from the point where Jesus couldn't see the city of Jerusalem.

"I will go! Send me!” were the words of Isaiah (6:8). It might be also a prayer of the colt in the village near the Mount of Olives.

While the disciples went down the Mount of Olives, they sang the song of the Psalm 118:26 and also the song of the Angels on Christmas (Lk2:14). Luke depicted the King of the universe marching on the back of the colt.

Jesus came close the city and when he saw it, he wept over it. Luke said it was because Jerusalem did not recognize the time when God came. On the other hand, the colt must have known the time. Then, do we know the time? Say "yes" when we hear the words "the master needs it."



(Summary of the sermon on 17 April 2011, at Sado Church, United Church of Christ in Japan)

How fortunate that we are here (Lk 9:33)

It is painful to see the people who lost their houses by Tsunami looking for their photo albums in the heap of the rubble. A Japanese poet, KIDO Shuri, whose home town is in the affected aria wrote, "our daily life after '3.11' can never be the same as it was. However, it's impossible to take everything away from us. Tsunami destroyed the streets and houses of the towns along the coast, still it cannot erase my memory of the day when I went swimming at the Jodogahama beach with my family."(Asahi Shimbun 2 April, 2011)


Luke wrote the story of Jesus using Mark and other resources. What he had done is something like a restoration of an old album whose pages and pictures were lost and scattered.

Peter said, "Master how fortunate that we are here." This might be the happiest moment for the disciples and Jesus. Luke added his own touch of shadow in this beautiful picture. Jesus, Moses, and Elijah were talking about the departure --- the way to the cross.

The starting point to the cross is at the same time the highlight of the happy days. God allowed the disciples to have this joyful moment. Let us pray to God, so that God gives us the happiest moment, which disciples had with Jesus.

(Summary of the sermon on 3 April 2011, at Sado Church, United Church of Christ in Japan)

"If anyone wants to come with me, he must forget himself, take up his cross every day."(Lk 9:23)

Every summer, a group of campers about twenty people comes to Sado Church from Keiwa High School, which is a Christian high school in Niigata.　I have a chance to see the education of Keiwa High closely.　One of the good points is that the teachers give importance to the sense of achievements.　They arrange the program so that every student can feel that they really have done something.


When we accomplish something, no matter how small it is, there is a joy.　This joy becomes energy for a next step.

Some people are good at making this positive cycle. Some are not. I feel I’m not good at making this cycle. When I look back, unfortunately, I don't have so much experience that I really carried out something. Maybe, my aim was too high and big.

I often see in the camp, that when a teacher finds a big task, they divide it into small tasks. The teachers know very well about each student. So, they distribute small tasks to their students according to their own skill.

Today, Jesus said, "If anyone wants to come with me, he must forget himself, take up his cross every day." We can interpret the cross as something like homework from God. God gives us homework. There is a variety of homework, at different levels. Natural disasters which we face now might be a very huge homework. To write a letter to someone could become a small homework.

We know God is a good teacher. God divides big homework into small pieces and distributes it to everyone according to each talent. If we just leave the homework, we would never enjoy the feeling of achievements. Let's start doing our homework from God, step by step.

(Summary of the sermon on 27 March 2011, at Sado Church, United Church of Christ in Japan)

When an evil spirit goes out of a person, it travels over dry country looking for a place to rest (Lk 11:24)

After the big disasters of Tsunami, Earthquakes, and the explosions of the Nuclear power plants, we were　very　much　confused. I believe that　God is listening to the voices of the people in the sufferings.
There was a news that the injection of water to the　nuclear power plant unit 3 was successful, and the project to connect electricity from outside to start the cooling system　of the power plants was also proceeded. One of the members of this team is a Christian, who is a member of the Fukushima First Baptist Church. The operation in dangerous places is continuing, so we must keep praying.

"Anpanman March" is a Japanese children's song, which sings that "our hero Anpanman struggle against the enemy, no matter who s/he is. What Jesus wanted to say today is that "never confuse opponents with friends, friends with opponents." We are living in a system which victimizes someone, while nobody is taking responsibility. This is the reality of our civilization, which is obsessed by the evil spirit.

The operation in the dangerous place is continuing. Let's take this incidence as a chance to change our civilization, so that the evil spirit would never come back. The words of Jesus are inviting us to become adults, our society to grow, and to create a new society in which everybody acts and behave responsibly, and nobody is victimized.

(Summary of the sermon on 20 March, at Sado Church, United Church of Christ in Japan)



Agnes Chan

Agnes Chan, a famous pop singer in Japan, lectured on the 8th of October to the audience of more than 800 people at one of the biggest city halls on Sado. She was born in Hong Kong and came to Japan as a singer when she was seventeen. Now as a UNICEF ambassador, she is making a great contribution to the children who are forced to live in difficult situations in war, poverty, etc.

When she was a junior high student, she was involved in a volunteer activity to visit handicapped children, and experienced that she was warmly welcomed by them. She said she had a kind of inferiority complex, but this experience changed her.

She wanted to give food to them who are hungry. During the lunch time at her school, she started to sing, asking other students to give her a leftover of their lunch. In this way she obtained the food to bring to the handicapped children. It was the beginning of her career that she sang not for her self-satisfaction, but for the joy of the abandoned children.

She also talked about some children whom she met in Ethiopia, Thai, Cambodia, Iraq, etc. who were in extremely difficult situations to survive. What struck me was that she remembered the names and stories of them, and was continuingly working for them.

While I was listening to her story, I remembered that I also received a lot from the children who were living in particularly difficult conditions, in Bangladesh, the Philippines, Pakistan, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. I asked myself, "What have I done for them?"

Agnes Chan said, "When I was just thinking about myself I felt life was difficult. When I thought on my own, I felt life was beautiful." She noticed that she received a lot. So she is giving a lot. This balance seems to make her full of life. I think I received a lot, but haven't given enough. That might be the reason that I don't have enough energy. For me to write this web log is a kind of exercise to give, to take a balance, and to make a good circle.