December 2, 2004

Dear Friends,

I walked into the dining hall at our seminary and saw two long serving tables. One was marked vegetarian and one was marked non-vegetarian. The tables were heavy with all kinds of different Taiwanese delicacies. But even more special than the food were the people gathered in the dining hall.

There were Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, Taoists, Jews, representatives of various folk religions, Catholics and Protestants. And they came from all over the world. They were part of a conference of the Congress of World Religions. They visited a number of temples and mosques during their week in Taiwan and it was our seminary’s privilege to host them to share about Christianity.

At dinner I spoke with a young Taiwanese man who is a software engineer. He was volunteering for the week to help the international guests who were attending the conference. He asked me if I would be speaking later in the evening. I told him that I would be speaking. He said, “I hope you will teach us to pray.” Although prayer was not the topic assigned to me, I gave him my phone number and told him that I would be glad to talk about prayer over tea sometime.

The topic intrigued me as I prepared for this talk. I gathered some Asian Christian art. We have bread and a Communion goblet on the Communion table as a symbol of God’s grace. Students made banners depicting the “I Am” saying of Jesus using photographs which they took on our campus.

I talked about the beauty of the incarnation, a God who was willing to become flesh. I shared the simple beauty of God’s gifts of bread and wine, the water of baptism, the beauty of Christian fellowship, which transcends race and country, the beauty of music and the mountains, which remind of God’s unchanging love. I spoke of the beauty of the cross, beauty through suffering. I told of the beauty of the risen Christ appearing on the Emmaus road, invisible until the breaking of the bread.

After we shared, people stood up and responded. A Muslim professor from Turkey stood and affirmed the need to hear and learn from others. A nun from Jerusalem shared the beauty of working for peace in that beautiful, painful city. The lama from Tibet in his flowing robes stood and thanked us for hosting them.

It was a rare opportunity to share the beauty of our faith with people of other faiths. It was a privilege as guest in this country to welcome guests from other countries.

In that moment I tasted the grace of Christ, the host who becomes guest, the guest who becomes host.

In a world sorely needing space to understand. I was grateful for the space of that evening.

Grace and peace,

John McCall

The 2004 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 96