- Church as well as the nation, this meant escape from foreign domination, an opportunity to build an indigenous society. Despite the traditional Marxist distrust of religion as an instrument of colonial exploitation, several thousand missionaries continued to work in the People's Republic of China until our two countries came to the brink of declaring war on the Korean Peninsula. Meanwhile, economic and ideological pressures on the church gradually winnowed the wheat from the chaff. Rice Christians, those who had counted on financial or educational or political advantage from contacts with Westerners drifted or were frightened away. Rural churches closed for lack of funds and also because preachers were required to join the productive workforce instead of being, in Marxist terminology at least, parasites on society. City churches were often consolidated or merged, their educational and social services taken over by the government, their buildings converted to secular uses. In a sense, this did represent a form of freedom. What Christianity did survive was no longer dependent on foreign support or dominated by foreign missionaries. Hence it could no longer be branded a Western religion, a tool of cultural and political imperialism. In a sense too, this represented a courageous period of faith. Those who remained in the churches until all of them were closed by the cultural revolution in 1966 did so under suspicion, criticism and often persecution. It is sometimes said that Westerners are like an oak, firm and rigid in moral righteousness or dogmatic principle until the storm becomes too violent or the lightning strikes and the tree is shattered. A Chinese, on the other hand, is like a bamboo or a willow bending with the wind, bowing to necessity but springing back to healthy growth when the tempest is over. By yielding to political pressures and by declaring their proud and genuine patriotism, some Chinese Christians managed to retain a limited recognition from the government and an even more restricted amount of religious freedom. This was a nominal affirmation of faith. To some, especially critics in the West, a compromised confession. It said in effect, Jesus is the Christ of God but Mao Zedong is the custodian of daily life. It said in effet, there is no significant difference between Chairman Mao's powerful slogan, serve the people and Jesus' gentle appeal to love your neighbor. It said in effect, we affirm the truth of the gospel in answering ultimate questions about life's purpose and heavenly rewards after we have taken care of economic prosperity, political stability and national security. Does any of that sound familiar? The period since Mao's death offers somewhat different opportunities for formal faith. Chinese church leaders are embarked on a heroic attempt to build a new structure, a new institution, a new community for Christ in what they call the post-denominational era. Our Western labels derived from historical doctrinal issues in Europe and America have been cast aside, pastors and church buildings are occasionally identified as formerly Methodist or formerly Presbyterian but are today united in a cooperative parish simply called as in New Testament times, the Christian church in a given locality. Some communities hold Saturday services in deference to the Seventh Day Adventist heritage. Local units, a single congregation or a coalition of churches now set their own qualifications and their own rituals for ordination, for baptism and for holy communion. After 13 years of complete silence, the word of God is being proclaimed in public services in hundreds of places in China. It may be a circumscribed word, it may be as some Christians told me privately, a political word but it is being preached and it is being heard. That leads to another category of would-be disciples. Every Sunday in China, thousands of young people, men and women and youth, born since liberation in 1949 are hearing the good news that Jesus is indeed the Christ, the Son of God. It should be added parenthetically that public indoctrination of children is still forbidden. Pastoral testimony and parishional observation suggest that 1/4 to 1/3 of the congregations are made up of people under 30, people who have been taught for decades in school and society that religion is an opiate of the people, an obstacle to social revolution, an unscientific superstition. Today they are wanting to find out if that is true. Today they are asking questions not only about ultimate goals and values, but about the spiritual foundations of freedom and democracy. Jesus still asks, who do you say that I am? These Chinese youth reply, well, our grandparents tell us that you are Elijah or one of the prophets. Our pastors in church tell us that you are the Christ of God. We don't know. We don't even know what that means. There are some in China and some in America who do know what that means. They are the ones who have walked through the valley of the shadow. They are the ones who have taken up the cross to follow him. They are the ones who have lost their lives for his sake. During the cultural revolution of 1966 to 1976, most Chinese intellectuals suffered severely for their Western ideas, for their elitist education, for their reluctance to accept ideological conformity as a substitute for progress. Christians often endured even greater harassment, rejection, isolation and worse. They had foreign friends, they had alien ideas, they had a vision of humanity and of truth which transcended petty party policies. I asked one former colleague who spent several years in prison whether the guards identified their Christian prisoners. They knew who we were, he replied, by our attitude toward them, toward our fellow prisoners and toward our incarceration. Then he went on to tell me about one guard who had been particularly cruel and sadistic so that my friend dreamed often of someday getting even but when he was released, rehabilitated to an influential position, he could not do so. I knew, he told me, that if the gospel of Jesus Christ is ever to have an influence in this great land of ours, it will not be by hatred and revenge but by love and forgiveness. What will a man gain, the New English Bible asks, by winning the whole world at the cost of his true self? What about us, complacent American church goers? With numerous theological reservations or reformulations, we have made the intellectual and verbal assertion that Jesus is the Christ of God. For some this still means a reincarnation of Elijah or the prophets, a custodian of the law, a truant officer or a governess. For others, it is a recognition that something, no, someone has come into the world to transform it and us. But we are bound not Christ's admonition but by our own selfish blindness from entering into the full glory of that recognition. We have seen the hope that lies unfulfilled in the custody of the law. We have declared our faith that God has indeed come into this world. We have not yet translated that personal reality into everyday love. We are not yet ready to take up the cross daily, we are quite determined in fact to save our life in every way possible economically, militarily, psychologically, we are very certain that not only there are Jews and Greeks, slave and free, male and female, friends and enemies but also that we know which are best for us. We are not all one in Christ Jesus. But the promise is there, the possibility is there because the Christ is there. Amen. Let us pray. Show us, oh God, the importance and the inadequacy of law. Show us, oh God, the ineffectiveness of nominal and intellectual faith. Show us, oh God, the transforming power of total self-sacrificing commitment to your Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ who alone can make alive. Amen. (lively organ music) (congregation sings) 

- As the people of God, let us affirm what we believe. 

- We believe in God who has created and is creating, who has come in the truly human Jesus to reconcile and make new, who works in us and others by the spirit. We trust God who calls us to be the church, to celebrate life and its fullness, to love and serve others, to seek justice and resist evil, to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen, our judge and our hope. In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us, we are not alone. Thanks be to God. 

- The Lord be with you. 

- And also with you. 

- Let us pray. Let us come in peace this day and pray to the Lord for the world in need of reconciliation and peace that a spirit of hope may grow among nations and peoples, we pray to you, oh Lord. For the church of Jesus Christ that it may be filled with truth and love and may be eager to serve as Christ's ambassadors, we pray to you, oh Lord. For the mission of the church that in faithful witness it may preach the gospel to the very ends of the Earth, we pray to you, oh Lord. For those who do not yet believe and for those who have lost their faith, that they may receive the light of the gospel, we pray to you, oh Lord. For the poor, the persecuted, the sick and all who suffer, for refugees, prisoners and all who are in danger, that they may be relieved and protected, we pray to you, oh Lord. For all those how have been in our hearts and in our private prayers, for our families, friends and neighbors that they may live in joy, in peace and health, we pray to you, oh Lord. For ourselves, for the forgiveness of sins and for the grace of the Holy Spirit to truly amend our lives, we pray to you, oh Lord. We thank you, Lord, our God, for all the blessings of this life and we will exalt you, oh God, our creator and praise your name forever and ever through Jesus Christ our Lord who taught us to pray saying. 

- Our Father who are in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, they will be done on Earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory forever. Amen. (tranquil organ music) (lively organ music) (congregation sings) ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ (congregation sings) ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ 

- Giving us all things, oh God, will you now receive these gifts of your people. Help us to render unto you all that we have and all that we are that we may praise you with our whole lives. In Christ's name we pray, amen. (lively organ music) (congregation sings) And now the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord and the blessing of God Almighty, creator, redeemer, sustainer be among you and remain with you always. Amen. (lively organ music)