Mormons in Japan

An update at LDS.org says that "approximately 95% of the Latter-day Saints in the affected areas have been contacted, and initial reports indicate there are no confirmed deaths." I have to say that while my own experience of the church's record-keeping, member-monitoring machine has been decisively negative, this is certainly a time when the church's ability to contact, and account for, and provide support for individuals is a good thing. The church can become a safety net for people at times like this.

(I also have to say, though, that I wonder exactly what it means when the church says it's accounted for 95% of its members in these areas. I'm inclined to assume that this means 95% of currently active members. I think about the branch I served in as a missionary in the Dominican Republic, where our membership rosters showed 200+ members, of whom maybe a couple dozen were active. If a disaster had struck, and we'd had to account for "our members," I imagine that we would have gone accounting for the two dozen members we thought of as active. What I guess I'm saying is, I'm glad the church safety net is there, but I'm also wondering how many people are falling through holes in that net. It could be a lot.)

I looked up some data on Latter-day Saints in Japan. While my prayers are with all those affected, of course, my prayers are especially with Latter-day Saints because that's the closest I come to having a personal connection with Japan. These data help to make that concrete for me. I'd like to have more data about the Sendai region particularly, but this is the best I have. Sources are a combination of the LDS online newsroom and the 2007 Church Almanac.

125,000 Latter-day Saints in Japan
29 stakes, including a Sendai stake
7 missions, including a Sendai mission
2 temples, one in Tokyo and one in Fukuoka (which is at opposite end of Japan from Sendai)

Boyd K. Packer was a soldier in Japan, where he performed at least one of the first baptisms since the church had abandoned missionary work in Japan during the 1920s. I assume that because of that connection, he feels particularly troubled by this disaster. Thinking that humanizes for me somewhat a man I'm generally inclined to despise.

Damaged nuclear reactors

O God—

You have made the earth tremble; you have broken it.
Heal the breaches thereof, for it shakes.

You have shown your people hard things;
you have made us drink the wine of astonishment.

That your beloved may be delivered,
save with your right hand!

Give us help from trouble,
for human help alone is vain.

In Christ's name, amen.

(Psalm 60)

Earthquake in Japan

God of restoration—

Provide comfort where now there is grief.
Restore beauty where now there are ashes.

To those who mourn, give reason for joy.
To those with a spirit of heaviness, give reason for praise.

May they rebuild what has been left in ruins.
May they raise back up what has been felled.
May they repair the desolate cities.

In Christ's name, amen.

(Isaiah 61:3-4)

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I, the Lord your God,
have created all people,
and I remember those who live
on the isles of the sea.

(2 Nephi 29:7)

Peter King and Wisconsin Republicans

For Peter King:

Have mercy, O Lord, upon the rulers of our land.
May their prejudices give way before the truth.
(D&C 109:54, 56)

For Wisconsin Republicans:

I will come near to you to judgment;
I will be a swift witness against those
who oppress the hireling in his wages,
says the Lord of Hosts.
(3 Ne. 24:5)

Ash Wednesday

Attended an Ash Wednesday service—I'm sitting at the computer with the little ash cross still marked on my forehead. Until this year, the church we attend had always had the custom of wiping the cross off when you went up to commune, because the Gospel reading for the service is the passage from the Sermon on the Mount about not showing off your piety to be seen of others. This year, they announced that we could wipe the cross off or keep it, according to our own discernment; they put out towels by the basin of holy water for people to use if they wanted. It looked to me like most people left after the service with their crosses still on their foreheads.

During the Eucharistic prayer that they like to use for Lent (there's a variety to choose from), there's a passage about "God of our fathers, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." These days, I usually hear that read as "God of our fathers and mothers," or "God of our forebears," and then sometimes the priest will start plugging in the names of wives: "God of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and..." And then things get tricky. "Jacob, Leah, and Rachel," is how I seem to remember hearing it done. (One year I heard a priest take an entirely different tack: "God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; God of Deborah, Ruth, and Mary.")

Last year, I was teasing the priest here, who adds the names of the wives, by daring her to add the concubines as well. So she did, much to my surprise. All through Lent last year, she read, "God of Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, and Keturah; God of Isaac and Rebekah; God of Jacob, Leah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Bilhah." That's one name short of being able to constitute a new Quorum of the Twelve. She did it again tonight. Afterwards I told her, "You know, you don't need to keep doing the polygamous thing on my account." She laughed and said, "But it's so much fun—all those Hebrew women."

Tim DeChristopher

I've been hearing in the news about Tim DeChristopher. My prayers are with him. What he did was courageous or foolhardy or some combination of the two. But he was fighting the good fight. And now he's suffering the legal consequences, which is the risk you take on when you undertake civil disobedience.

Comparing him to Jesus sounds unbearably pretentious. But the comparison is perfectly valid, and not really all that aggrandizing, if it's understood that lots of people have performed this kind of Christlike action—disrupting the powers of this world in some small but dramatic way (you remember that incident with the moneychangers, yes?) and then being crushed by those same powers as the price of their witness.

Meanwhile, I'm still waiting to see people go to prison for criminal negligence in the Deepwater Horizon spill, or the housing crash, not to mention the architects of the last administration's policies on torture.

There are times when the conspiratorial populism of the Book of Mormon speaks to me, and this is one of them.

Those Gadianton robbers had filled the judgment seats,
having usurped the power and authority of the land,
condemning the righteous because of their righteousness,
letting the wicked go unpunished because of their money—
to be held in office at the head of government,
that they might get gain,
and do according to their own wills.
(Helaman 7:4-5)

Taize service: Christ the Living Water

I'm back from the first-Friday Taize service. I chose as the theme for this month's service "Christ, the Living Water." In addition to the usual icons and candles, the focus of meditation included a little fountain Hugo bought for me to have running near my desk as I work on my dissertation.

Here are the readings and intercessions I prepared.

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PSALM 63

O God, my God, how eagerly I watch for you!
My soul thirsts for you,
my body is weak for want of you,
as in a dry, barren land without water.

Your loving-kindness is better than life itself!
I will sing your praise.
I will bless you as long as I live.
I will call on your name with uplifted hands.

As I lie in my bed, you are the focus of my thoughts.
Late into the night, I lie awake thinking of you.
For you have been my help:
I rejoice under the shadow of your wings.

My soul clings to you.
Your strong hand holds me close.
Keep me safe! Let me live without fear
of those who would do me harm.

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ISAIAH 35: 4-7

Say to those whose hearts are sinking,
“Be strong! Do not be afraid!
Here is your God!
God is coming to administer justice.
God is coming to rescue you.”

Then darkened eyes will see.
Closed ears will hear.
Enfeebled legs will leap like the gazelle.
Muted tongues will sing for joy.

Fountains will gush forth in the wasteland.
Streams will flow in the desert.
The burning sands will be transformed into a pool;
the parched ground, into springs of water.
The arid habitat of jackals will become a marsh.
Desert grasses will give way to reeds and rushes.

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JOHN 4: 6-11, 13-14

As Jesus rested by the well,
a Samaritan woman came to draw water.
Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”

The woman replied,
“How is it that you, a Jew,
are asking me, a Samaritan, for a drink?”
(She said this because Jews would not use vessels
that Samaritans had used.)

Jesus answered,
“If you knew who I am,
you would have asked me for a drink,
and I would have given you living water.”

The woman said,
“You have no bucket, and the well is deep.
Where do you get this living water?”

Jesus said,
“Water from this well
will quench your thirst for a time.
But the water I give
will quench your thirst forever.”

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INTERCESSIONS

Jesus Christ—you are the source of living water.
You alone can satisfy our souls’ thirst.

Refresh all who are weary, sad, or suffering.
Immerse them in your loving-kindness.
Wipe away all tears.

Rain down gifts of grace on every person.
Nourish them in their needs.
Cultivate their possibilities.

Teach us to love others as you love us.
Make compassion well up in us like an overflowing fountain.

Make all that is barren, fruitful.
Make all that has been laid waste, flourish.

Make justice flow like a river.
Sweep away prejudice and oppression as with a flood.

Fill the earth with knowledge of your goodness
like water fills the seas.