"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)