Loading...
Sermon May 21, 2023
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, MSW
The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen’s
Seventh Sunday of Easter, Year A
https://lectionarypage.net/YearA_RCL/Easter/AEaster7_RCL.html
Audio: /documents/Eucharist__May_21__2023
Video: https://youtu.be/WVmpwgvtmf4
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’ Acts 1:8
On Good Friday, Sue Beamer and I attended the service at Incarnation United Church of Christ. Pastor Michael Cromer told the story of Tokichi Ishii, which just fascinated me. I had to learn more about this Christian from Japan in the early 1900s.
I was able to find the book that Mr. Ishii wrote before his death, titled A Gentleman in Prison, the Story of Tokichi Ishii, Written in Tokyo Prison. The book was translated by Caroline MacDonald. The book was finished in August of 1918.
So why was Mr. Ishii in prison in Tokyo and condemned to death?
The story is amazing. Mr. Ishii started committing crimes at a young age. Mostly he robbed people. He was into gambling and had debts, so he’d steal to cover those debts. He’d open a bakery for awhile, but then it wouldn’t work out and he’d be back stealing.
He realized he needed to fool the police if they stopped him, thinking he might be a thief. He got a savings account, which he could do at the post office. He made sure there was money in there and carried the passbook with him at all times. If he’d be stopped or even suspected of a crime, he’d just show the passbook, showing he did indeed have some money and he’d be let go.
He ended up in jail sometimes, too.
It was just crime after crime after crime. He even broke out of prison a time or two.
But then he murdered a woman. Her name was Oharu. It was late at night and he saw this young woman walking and decided he wanted to attack her. She screamed and screamed, so to quiet her, he tied a scarf around her neck and ultimately strangled her to death. He took her money and fled.
The woman’s boyfriend was charged with the murder and initially confessed, but then recanted at the trial. But a jury still found the boyfriend guilty and sentenced him to death.
Awhile later Ishii, after plenty more crime, including assaults, was finally caught and put into jail. Some others told him about the death of Oharu and how her boyfriend was sentenced to death. Ishii immediately realized that this man condemned to death was innocent. Ishii confessed to the killing, but it took two trials before there was enough evidence to connect him to the crime and to convict him of this crime.
He was put in jail in Tokyo and condemned to death. This was the end of 1915. On New Year’s day, 1916, two Christian women missionaries, Miss West and Miss Macdonald sent him a special meal. He had never met them and almost rejected the meal. A couple of days later, they sent him a New Testament of the Bible and some other Christian books. He put them up on a shelf.
Then Miss West visited him. He was polite, but did not really listen. She was telling him about Jesus Christ. She continued to visit him every so often.
One day he started reading the New Testament. Some passages stuck out for him, but mostly he figured this was language and stories any preacher would tell. However, when he read the words of Jesus on the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” he said, “I was stabbed to the heart, as if pierced by a five-inch nail.” (p. 79) With that sentence, he believed in Jesus Christ.
He wrote: “This is how I thought it out – I suppose a man’s greatest enemy is the one who seeks to take his life from him. There is surely no greater enemy than this. Now at the very moment when Jesus’ life was being taken from him, he prayed for his enemies to the God of Heaven.” P. 79
Ishii saw that while most people would be bitter and angry, maybe like the one thief hanging with Jesus, Jesus prayed for his enemies. Ishii felt that these last words of Christ revealed the heart of Christ; that no human would have that reaction; that Jesus must be the son of God.
Ishii wrote about the many amazing gifts he received as a result of his new understanding about Jesus and how we are to live. He did not think he should not be punished for his crimes; however, he had a peace about dying. He knew and wrote about his horrid crimes and the terrible things he did and how awful he treated people. Yet, he knew he was forgiven. His angst about what would happen after his death was assuaged. He knew by confessing the exact nature of his terrible deeds, that he was forgiven. He knew he could be a new person and live the short time remaining in his life in a different way and with a new understanding.
His favorite hymn was “Just As I Am.” He also wrote poetry.
He said, “As I face the end of my life I have a word to say. At the very time when my soul was lost in darkness because of my crimes, and when the ceaseless tortures of Hell were about to come upon me, I came in touch with Jesus Christ through the leading of the two friends I have mentioned; and so entered into the City of God, where the soul cannot perish. My daily joy is indescribable. That I should receive such gracious leading from people I had never met before is something I can never forget. I want to express here my most sincere thanksgiving to them.” (p. 94)
In a poem he describes his fear and despair of his days before knowing Jesus Christ. But then ends with this:
“Then joy is revealed to me.
“Behold! Christ is here; be not afraid!
You shall see your father and your mother,
And you shall be with them
In the City of God.
You shall not die
But you shall live in glory,
And every day and all the days
You shall be glad.
You shall taste the joys
Your heart desires,
The pleasures that are beyond the world”
Today I have entered into the City
My name is defiled
Me body dies in prison,
But my soul purified
Today returns to the City of God.
He ends with this paragraph:
“I have written this poem here in prison to explain how I came to trust my fear and anguish to Christ and was rescued by His love. I ask you to be lenient with its faults.”
What a powerful story about how we who live life embodying the love and teachings of Jesus Christ help people to transform their lives. They see the world in such a different way. It is too bad Ishii did not see these things earlier, obviously; however, he was able to die in much peace and joy. He woke each day with gratitude for another day of life. He did not want to die, per se. He felt his punishment for his crimes was deserved. He knew while his body would perish, his soul would be with Christ and his family. He was joyful at the thought.
The prison chaplain, who was Buddhist, told this to Ms. MacDonald, who wrote it in her journal:
“Many who die on the scaffold face death with a firm resolution to win a good name for themselves at the end, and not to be a laughing stock to the world. But Ishii’s fortitude was far different from that. He had not the slightest appearance of desiring to win a good name or of merely enduring the inevitable. With humility and great earnestness, he seemed to see nothing but the glory of the heavenly world to which he was returning, when he had cast off the heavy load of his sins; just as one turns with great yearning to his own native home. Among the officials who stood by and saw the clear colour of his face and the courage with which he bore himself, there was no one but involuntarily paid him respect and honour. On the very scaffold, when in a moment his life was to disappear like a dewdrop, he uttered those last words of his: ‘My soul, purified, today returns to the City of God!’” (p. 163)
May we, who are fortunate to be free and who have lived good lives, remember how our example affects others and shows them the amazing love, mercy and forgiveness of Jesus and of God. May we rejoice with gratitude for each new day. May we have the peace that Ishii knew. May we also be able to say with joy when our time to leave this world comes, “My soul, purified, today returns to the City of God!”
Amen
A Gentleman in Prison, the Story of Tokichi Ishii, Written in Tokyo Prison https://amzn.to/3pUtvsT
