Spring 2015 Mission Report: Part Four

If a hot shot TV preacher said it, I would reward him with a cynical grin, but it was Huldrych   Zwingli in the 1520’s. Zwingli, a German Swiss who was among the finest minds in the Protestant Reformation wrote, “dare to do something great for God”.  These words coming from this man provoked in me a rethink about ethics.  First when I read Zwingli’s dare I thought about it theologically but several months later by happenstance I thought about someone who took Zwingli’s dare. First here in this report I follow with a few reflections on Zwingli’s assertion then  I turn to a story about the transformation of an elephant corral that incarnated ‘Zwingli’s dare’.

In this statement “dare to do something great for God” I believe that Zwingli grasped the intersection between faith and ethics/service. When a person believes and acts from faith one does not view herself so close to God that she is a glove and God the hand and not so far away that its all about human free will and determination. In my reckoning, Zwingli, more than John Calvin, who came to dominate the Reformed branch of the Reformation, recognized the human ‘space’ and freedom that living by faith inserted into our service to God and others. When Ethics/service arise out of faith there is room for the human to be human and dare to do something for God and this daring to do something ‘great’ need not be the door to toxic independence, misguided visions of grandeur, pride, presumption, activism and willfulness but the space needed for a person to recognize and respond to a higher claim on herself to serve the Christ of God in the face of human need and suffering. The uncertainty and blindness that clings to faith (because faith by its very nature cannot exorcise uncertainty and blindness) protects and underwrites human ethical decision and action. In the end the person himself must transit from convictions and feelings of compassion, whether strong or weak and decide and act for a thing if help and change are to occur. This does not mean the hidden God is not before an endeavor preparing the way, in it and and following after it but ethics turns on driving a wedge of distinction between our and the subtle work of the invisible God.

Is it impossible, in some sense, for God to be delighted, even surprised? Is there room in the way of faith for us to irrupt in ecstatic gratitude and zeal and decide to give our best to serve God in the face of human need and suffering.The freedom of the woman befriended and liberated by Christ described in the Gospels comes to mind. In her heart she conceived a costly – great gift, one that mirrored her gratitude to Christ for his grace to her. Overflowing with thankfulness she went in search of very precious perfume and upon finding it she no doubt spent all she had to purchase it only to pour out every drop on Jesus anointing and washing his feet.  Touched by human need and suffering, often grasped, like this woman was, by the goodness  and gracious of God to her, humans time and again have gone beyond their inhibitions and limitations and beyond their instincts to make the primary focus of their lives taking care of themselves and prospering  and dared to do something great for God that cost them their all.

I stumbled on this Zwingli quote late in November (2014) whilst giving lectures on Christian Ethics in China but it wasn’t till this spring that it moved from the realm of idea into form. In May I went on a little trek to discover other mission projects in Thailand and without planning to I happened on Dr. McLean’s work. About the second day of four perusing the grounds where his mission occurred, reading placards and monuments and chatting with people Zwingli’s statement suddenly pushed itself back into my mind. With a rush of emotion I realized that I was seeing an incarnation of Zwingli’s spirited assertion.

Life is so short, for most people it is spent frantically trying to take care of themselves, secure, build and expand their nests on this earth. This of course is not a bad thing because from these settled abodes and livelihoods many sponsor indispensable help to humanitarian and Christian missions. But the following story of Dr. McKean stirs my blood because in a raw and real way, faced with human need he stood in the ethical gap where nothing is forced, required or necessary and dared to do something great for God in Christ’s service. Here follows a synopsis of his story.

It may not be exactly precise to state that Christianity came to Thailand first in Chiang Mai but the mission work that came to Chiang Mai in the 19th century laid an early decisive foundation for Christianity’s future in Thailand and it was holistic from the get go. Not only Gospel teaching and evangelism but education and health were in the mix. Around the turn of the century somewhere between the late 1890’s and 1900 a missionary doctor and a couple nurses working with what is now named The Church of Christ opened an outreach clinic near a bridge at the edge of the city where lepers congregated. From this meeting the great need and suffering of the lepers became vividly apparent. Leprosy was three diseases in one. It created social rejection and isolation because the nearest and dearest of the lepers’ kin cleaved from them. It ended one’s vocational and economic capacity creating desperate poverty and it cruelly deformed and severely handicapped bodies. Demonic loneliness, hopelessness and despair accompanied leprosy. Dr. McKean a Presbyterian doctor from the USA realized that their clinic response was a mere band-aid at best. But it cannot be said his work merely evolved. He faced a need and gave himself to it in a decisive and imaginative way. One moment in time facing this need he made a decision and dared to do something great for God.

Chiang Mai was a kingdom at this time and 16 Kilo out of town there was an island created by the Mae Ping River and a canal which the King owned, once a compound for training and keeping his elephants but now abandoned for fear of a rouge spirit of a great white elephant that reputedly inhabited this sanctum. Dr. McKean went to the king and petitioned him for this land requesting that it be given to his mission as a sanctuary for lepers, where they could live, be treated and rehabilitated and the king granted it to him. Because it was an island and created separation and because it was basically good land that could be built on and developed it was perfect for the mission  that Dr. McKean conceived.

In 1908 he commenced his mission “The Chiang Mai Leper Asylum”. From this beginning he began to treat leprosy with the herbs and compounds used at that time progressing with medical science as it unfolded all the while building living facilities, developing a gregarious working culture (leaving the asylum to beg was not allowed), creating enterprises that simultaneously provided vocational training and animal husbandry. Within this setting a lively culture was created that included not only work and treatment but recreational engagements and worship. Under all of Dr McKean’s endeavors the Christian faith was taught whereby hope, meaning, value and dignity could be restored and rebuilt on a new and better foundation.

In time McKean bought more land in out lying ares and organized 22 resettlement villages in Northern Thailand and staffed these with trained assistants once patients who could dispense medicine and maintain a healthy culture and order. In not a few of these settings former patients where returned to ownership of land and complete economic independence.

Albeit small in scale compared to the magnitude of human need and suffering around the world visiting and staying on this island for a few days I recognized that some one had dared to do something great for God with his life and over 100 years later, although change had come with the cure of leprosy, Dr McKean’s courage and labors continues to bear fruit. A fine small hospital thrives on this small island that treats many diseases including leprosy and a live-in center for the care of dementia patients has commenced. People deformed and handicapped from leprosy continue live and work there. Organic crops are grown and sold, fish farming for subsistence has been established and artistic painting and carvings are produced and sold.

I was moved by every facet of this mission project, its compassion and courage, its earthly wisdom, its holistic depth and its solid Christian base. The Christian foundation of Mckean’s work  among other things added to his material/physical rehabilitation the metaphysical glue needed for restoring and maintaining human dignity and hope as well as infusing self sacrificing love into all their societies and relations that developed in the asylum. Something great happened on this island and the shadow of it persists. Lepers came from as far away as Laos, Burma and China to live there. Not only bodies were treated but also broken and bruised excluded spirits where lifted to dignity, hope, spirited fellowship with each other and life!

Zwingli’s thought  “Dare to do something great for God,” stirred an ethical rethink in my mind but McKean’s work stirred in me the desire to deepen and build my own mission.