October 6, 2008

Solemn Assembly

Dear Friends,

This is the story of my own three solemn assemblies this fall of 2008 at the China Pharmaceutical University in Nanjing China.

I am teaching oral English to three classes of about 20 students here who are majoring in English. Sometimes I am frustrated because I cannot begin class with prayer and when a student comes to seek my advice I cannot pray with that student. But I have discovered that God has given me a three-point parish in Nanjing; this will be expanded to a seven-point parish in two weeks, as I take on four new classes.

Three times a week when I begin my classes by saying, “Good morning class!” or “Good afternoon class!” I am filled with the awareness that God has given me a microcosm of a congregation with each of these classrooms filled with students. While I cannot pray as we begin our experience of solemn assembly, I can be filled with gratitude that God has found a way for me to engage in the ministry that gives me passion within that of the Word and Sacrament—I have young people to work with on a college campus. I have a congregation. Since I have three congregations, two hours each, I have 60 young people to love as God works through me in shaping them and molding them and forming them.

Some of the students in Debbie Blane's oral English class.

The classroom is really quite a lot like a worship service. There are those who have a deep thirst for learning—sometimes I am filled with that Hebrew gut feeling of pity and passion for them, how hard it must be to desire to learn in a class with so many others who simply are not as fully engaged. There are some who I can’t figure out why they are in college—I know that their parents are making huge financial sacrifices for them to be at this university, and they are just playing. Playing you say?  Yes, they talk to one another and they try to hide their cell phones under their desks—this is hilarious to me actually. Clearly they do not realize that they have a mother in charge of the class. God called me from being the mother of two to being the mother of 60. I have eyes in the back of my head. I have ears like a hawk. I can see the almost imperceptible movement of their eyes darting between me and the cell phone that they think is safely hidden under the cover of their desks. And, like a hawk, I swoop down on them unawares and claim the cell phone as my own for the rest of our hour together. Massive protestations of innocence, and massive apologies inevitably follow. And then the very same thing, with the very same students, happens the next week.

More of Debbie Blane's students enjoying a conversation.

The little children. Jesus was so patient. I as pastor, mother and foreigner am not always as patient. In the solemn assembly of church there is ritual, order that reigns over the chaos for an hour, music, preaching. Well, I do have my rituals with the students—we have a “class plan,” a certain structure each week so that things are familiar and comforting. Hah! At least to me! I preach when I make my presentations, God can work through anything! The order that reigns over the chaos often consists of lights flashing on and off to get the attention of the students who have found their voices in small groups and are now roaring like lions in hilarity; or the students who really want to learn are shushing the other students.

My three-point parish is filled with wonderful, irritating, precious children of God who deserve the best pastoral care that I can give them. Perhaps the classes can be likened to the Book of Esther. God was present, God was actively at work, and God’s name was never mentioned.

Yesterday I went to Purple Mountain with a student I knew from last year. Purple Mountain is where Dr. Sun Yat Sen is buried in a 600-year-old mausoleum. We had a wonderful time and good conversation. She asked me if I believe in love at first sight. I told her that I used to think that notion was based on physical attraction. But lately I’ve begun to think that it has to do with someone seeing something in another person. I told her that I believe God brings two people together, and sometimes when two people look at each other they recognize that this is the person God has brought into their lives—and they love each other at first sight. My former student agreed with me. In wisdom far beyond her years she said that she thinks it is seeing through the surface to something deeper. This conversation was a moment of such joy for me. She is a Buddhist and yet we were able to connect at a spiritual level in a conversation that was about God’s work in the world and in our lives on a personal basis. This too is Solemn Assembly.

The 2008 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 99