A letter from Thomas Goetz in Japan
March 2012
Greetings, everyone, from a still wintery Sapporo, Japan, where winter has decided to linger. This is not all bad since the big melt will not happen all at once—we did have some encouraging above-freezing weather last week, the rivers filled up, and the farmers looked at their fields, confident the water table will get a good replenishing and the top soil not run off. I even saw from the train a baseball infield that had been plowed clear, filled with high school boys practicing. I wonder how many balls were lost that day in the three feet of snow in the outfield.
Late winter in Japan is a time for changes. The school calendar is pegged to April. Lots of students graduate in March, and then immediately begin their next educational step in April. I tell my first year students at Hokusei Gakuen University that I am happy to see them while at the same time I am frustrated that they do not have any in-between time from high school to college. No time to travel, no time to read, go bowling with friends—maybe, but it is different from what I had and I never miss noticing it after all these years.
One thing happened that was more than interesting. It happened at one of Sapporo's finest wedding chapels where, on occasion, I preside at weddings for non-Christians. What was unusual was that the wedding was scheduled for a Friday and I was informed that the couple requested me in particular. How that happened, I am not sure. Promotional materials by the staff? Friend's recommendation? Bridal Fair? Who knows.
So, I show up on time, one hour ahead of the start. After a short meeting with the bride and the groom, it is clear that they are happy and more animated than most couples. During the meeting, we go over the Scripture selection, First Corinthians 13:1-8, and how that singles out the kind of love necessary for a long and lasting marriage.
Not everyone is happy. The wedding chapel staff are noticeably nervous. I asked why and was shown the planning sheet. It was filled with one special request after another. Most weddings may have one or two, but not a full page. Naturally the staff wants to meet all the demands, but the flip side is that the couple will likely magnify even the slightest miss and insist on a substantial discount.
Tension was thick in the air.
What were they requesting? I am not going to go through the entire list, but here are two examples. They wanted the sopranos to relocate from the chancel to the balcony above the narthex, thus separating them from the organ. Result, the hymns and the arias will be sung out of sync. And, at the request of the bride, she wanted a 13-year-old boy, a family relative, to sing a solo before the benediction in place of the second hymn.
The boy, as it turned out, was indeed very talented and had a beautiful voice. Such a treat. After the rehearsal, I congratulated him and suggested that to calm his nerves before he sings, he focus on the stained glass at first, and then get into his performance. But then he asked me my full name. This was odd. Most Japanese keep a polite distance from people outside of their immediate group. This caught the ears of the couple, their parents, the organist, the two bridal attendants, and whoever else was there.
"G O E T Z. My name is Thomas Goetz," I said with a confident smile and nod of the head.
The boy became ecstatic.
"Oh wow! Cool!" Now everyone is looking at me. "Is your wife Mrs. Goetz who teaches English at the Sapporo Teachers' College Middle School?"
"Yes."
"She is the best teacher I have ever had!"
"I shall tell her that this evening when I get home. . . . And your name is . . . ?"
This boy, Sho, likes her because he can tell that she goes the extra mile. Hideko, my wife of 22 years, a Christian, sets as her goal making her teaching transformational, not just exam-centered, rote-memory stuff.
And this boy knows the difference. Hideko makes up her own tests based on how the students have performed, rather than just giving the publisher's test. She wants to see what they can do, not what they can't. She has a small English club called "Write to the Stars." Students write letters in English to celebrities asking for autographs. Most get a personal reply. Sho got an autograph from Johnny Depp! What a bounce that was for him.
And now, I am connected with his favorite teacher.
Suddenly the chapel is filled with good feeling, with shalom, with connectedness where there had been a seething separateness. The couple is well impressed. Hideko teaches at the best middle school in Sapporo; this wedding is happening at the best wedding chapel in Sapporo. I am the only Christian there. So what has just happened among Japanese non-Christians is a sudden bolt of peace. Pride and posturing just lost. Any hint of complaining is now culturally inappropriate, unless for good reason.
The bridal attendants are beaming. Word is spreading among the staff like lightning. "Hey, get this! Pastor Tom's wife is the soloist's English teacher!" The main point is that the construct of confrontation has been whooshed away! We are all on the same side, united, together.
And we provided a perfect wedding service, as perfect as one can be with hymns and arias sort of out of sync with the organ. The photographers were next to unnoticeable! Sho sang perfectly, the bride beamed the entire time and dropped a few tears of joy as well.
Amen to that!
"Behold, I make all things new." Revelation 21:5.
Later that evening at home. "Sho, my student, sang at the wedding? I didn't know he could sing. Did you know he got an autograph from Johnny Depp?" "Yes, he said so." "Well, that's nice."
And so it went.
An appeal for prayer for children like Sho, who, as they grow, may hear remarks that Christians are either this or that—negative remarks, either way. Please pray that Sho will remember this day and that he will revisit it often in his memory. Christianity in Japan gains traction when non-Christians have not just a good impression of it, but when something wonderful happens. I am so thankful that I could be a part of this day. I wish every day were like this. Let us open our eyes more and be open to the movement of the Spirit.
"The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." John 3:8.
Thomas H. Goetz
The 2012 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 200
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