The header at the top of all my blog posts contains the words “Reflections about Life, Love, Light, and Liberty.” Those are the 4-Ls that I have emphasized for years and about which I am finally explaining in this blog post.
Some
of you may have wondered why more of my blog articles are not more
“religious” or more explicitly “Christian.” Many of you know that I was
ordained as a Christian minister at the age of 18 and that I served for 38
years as a missionary in Japan.
True,
some of my blog posts are clearly Christian and/or religious. But many could,
conceivably, have been written by one who is neither Christian nor religious as
that word is generally understood.
But
with a few exceptions, most of my blog posts are directly related to life, love, light, and liberty,
the 4-Ls, and those words are basic concepts of the Christian faith and at the
core of my life and work.
In
1995 after I had been elected as Chancellor of Seinan Gakuin, the large
educational institution in Japan where I had been a university faculty member
since 1968, a local newspaper reporter asked me what I would be emphasizing as
the head of what was widely known as a “Christian school.”
Beginning
at least in a 1994 Christmas sermon in a school Chapel service, I talked about
four words that began with the letter L in English. (Those words are known by any
Japanese person with a high school education.) So that is what I told the
reporter I would be emphasizing.
Not long after I was installed as chancellor, Nakamura Kunie-san, one of my supporting staff members, presented me with the following wall hanging that I kept in my office during the eight years I served as chancellor—and have had hanging above my desk here in the States ever since retirement in 2004.
On
the back, Nakamura-san pasted an explanation of the simple image, saying
they were the four Ls: Life (生命), Love (聖愛), Light (公明), Liberty (自由). (The Japanese words do not begin with an L sound; they are
pronounced seimei, seiai, kōmei, and jiyū.*)
Most
of my Japanese students were not interested in religion when I began
teaching Christian Studies at Seinan Gakuin University (SGU) in 1968—and that
remained so during my three decades teaching required courses in what was
founded as, and continued as, a Christian school.
Not
long after starting my teaching career at SGU, I came across a book titled ABC’s
of Christian Faith (1968) by Union Theological Seminary professor James D.
Smart (1906~82). I was impressed by that book and its unifying theme: “Life in
God.”
After
reading Smart’s book which emphasized that Christianity at its core was not
about religion but about life, I decided that since I was teaching an
introductory course on Christian beliefs, I would relate my lectures to how
Jesus came not to start a new religion but to help people live a meaningful
life.
The
foundation of that emphasis was Jesus’ words as recorded in the tenth chapter
of the Gospel of John: “I came that they may have life and have
it abundantly” (v. 10, NRSV).**
Later,
love became a central theme in the
new course on Christian ethics that I developed. While there continued to be
considerable disinterest in religion, students were generally interested in learning
about people who lived lives exhibiting Christian love.
Then
through the years, I also began to emphasize the Christian emphasis on light as well as liberty,
so by the mid-1990s, the 4-Ls were prominent enough in my mind to make them the
focal point of my work as head of Seinan Gakuin, the educational institution
with around 10,000 students and pupils.
I
wanted then to speak meaningfully to the mostly non-Christian students, staff,
and faculty at Seinan Gakuin in Japan. And now I want to write these blog
articles so that those who are not, or no longer, active Christians will also find
them thought-provoking and relevant for the living of these days.
_____
* The image at the top of this post is
the center of a large hanging scroll which I received as a gift at the end of
my term as Chancellor. The Japanese words for the 4-Ls are written by stylized
brush strokes and are read from top to bottom and from right to left.
**
I
plan to write more about Life in my March 30 blog post and about Love, Light, and Liberty
over the next several weeks.
Here are comments local Thinking Friend Marilyn Peot sent by email, and I am gratified by her warm and affirming words:
ReplyDelete"Leroy, you amaze me. Those 4 words are simply LIfe among us...as we are called to Love and realize we emanate Light when living into peace and joy and freedom.
"Your Life emanates your Love and Light. I treasure the fact that I met you and feel so affirmed by what you share with us.
"Those special "L" words say it all, and challenge us to be "gospel people." The life of Jesus is our model and those words help me to understand his reason for coming to share who we are meant to be. Surely he is our Life, Love, Light and his words that reassure us he came to free us....
"Once I realized years ago that those "L" words said it all I have tried to live into their call to know the depth of Jesus call to all of us. I believe to live by those meaningful words is to live into the meaning of William Blake's simple words that "We are put on earth for a little space that we may learn to bear the beams of love."
"You indeed give us the call to live fully, love deeply, so as to bring light into our days...and know we can be assured of inner liberty.
"Your blog holds the meaning of Jesus' Presence among us."
Thanks so much, Marilyn, for sharing these comments that help me and readers of this blog think more deeply about the meaning of the 4-Ls.
DeleteA few minutes later, I received the following brief comment from Jan Buerge, another local Thinking Friend:
ReplyDelete"I look forward to your writing more about the 4 L’s and love this back story as an introduction."
Thanks, Jan, for your comments--and realizing that today's post is an introduction to what I hope will be four meaningful and thought-provoking blog posts in the weeks ahead.
DeleteAnd then these comments are from Eric Dollard in Chicago, who for several years was another local Thinking Friend:
ReplyDelete"Thanks, Leroy, for a great blog. I was particularly struck to read that you had decided that 'Jesus came not to start a new religion but to help people live a meaningful life.' Exactly, and that is a conclusion to which I had come some time ago. There is a strong connection between Life, Love, and Light on the one hand, and Liberty on the other. When one accepts every human life (and the dignity that goes with it) as sacred, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, physical and mental capabilities, or religious or political beliefs, it is indeed liberating. (I will admit, though, that the political beliefs part can be challenging.)"
Thanks, Eric, for your comments, and especially for highlighting Liberty, the fourth of the 4-Ls. The first three Ls are mentioned in Seinan Gakuin's school song, and some wondered why I added Liberty to those three august concepts. but I am convinced that the liberating message of Christianity has often been overlooked and that Liberty is an important aspect of the Gospel. It will probably be the end of May before I post the blog article on Liberty, but I am already making notes of ideas I want to include in that post.
DeleteFascinating to hear how these 4-Ls became prominent in your outreach, Leroy. I can’t think of four better words to encourage students toward a meaningful life, or better words to express the work that Jesus sends us all out to convey. I too look forward to hearing more about them in coming weeks!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Fred, for posting your comments, and I look forward to hearing your response to the blog posts I will be making over the next several weeks about the 4-Ls, one at a time.
DeleteDear Leroy Seat,
ReplyDeleteHello. Happy Easter season!
I am delighted that you’ve taken up blogging! In your recent post about the 4-Ls and serving as Chancellor at SGU, you also founded Fukuoka International Church (FIC). There you served the community along with Nakamura-san until your retirement. It was a blessing for not only the Japanese community but also, and especially the foreign community (initially for your wife, June). The notion of the 4-L’s was like a new religion in Japan; hence, FIC might be closing the red doors in the not so distant future.
I am inspired by you always, though you live afar, I aspire to continue to live a Christian life but not under Fundamentalists that are deeply rooted in Japan. I believe that a door will open for me to worship with fellow Christians; however, it may will be a distant door.
Peace and Love,
S.K.K.
Thank you, S.K.K. (and I know who you are), for your kind comments. I didn't realize you didn't know about my blog, which I started in 2009.
DeleteIt was a blessing to know you for such a long time in Fukuoka and to have you as a part of FIC, but I am greatly saddened (but not so surprised) that "FIC might be closing the red doors in the not so distant future." But if or when that happens, I will seek to give thanks for what was rather than grieve over what will be no more--and this year marks the 45th year for FIC!
I was surprised that you mentioned that Fundamentalists are deeply rooted in Japan. I of course know that there are Fundamentalists there, and there were some at FIC, but it seems to me that they are a far smaller percentage of the Christians in Japan than in the U.S. I don't know how things have changed in recent years, but almost all of the Japan Baptist Convention churches in the Fukuoka area that I knew well before our retirement in 2004 were all more progressive than fundamentalist.