Blessed Advent 2022

Dear Friends and Faithful of the Missionary Diocese of East and Southeast Asia, 

In 2002, before I started “full-time ministry”, God laid this passage of Scripture on my heart, so strongly that I couldn’t escape it, and it seemed to echo in my mind for days on end… 

“Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not; But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.” (2 Corinthians 4:1-11 KJV) 

Eventually, this Scripture became a song, and I sang it through our hardest days in our early missionary work in our little village on the edge of a thousand rice paddies. I didn’t know what it was preparing me for, but looking back, I can see that this first Advent Hymn was meant to harden my resolve through the suffering that would come.

Advent has always been a special time for me. As I scroll back through pictures of the Missionary Diocese over the last few years, something occurs to me - The vast majority of God’s blessings have occurred during Advent, during our time of waiting! I was first ordained to the priesthood in Advent, and appointed as Archdeacon during the Christmas Season. After becoming an Anglican bishop, we ordained and consecrated the majority of the East Asian and North Asian clergy during this time. We enthroned Bp. Athanasius during this first week of Advent, five years ago, and we saw the formation of our school in Thailand, and the reception of our Southeast Asian brothers during this same period six years ago. It is as if this week is a polestar in our mission, and oddly enough, it is also the start of the Ecclesiastical Year. We celebrate the coming of our Lord and Savior by waiting! 

Waiting is one of the hardest lessons I’ve had to learn. I remember my Marine drill sergeant grandfather always saying, “The best thing you learn in the military is how to hurry up and wait!” This is true. There is a lot that you can do when you are waiting. You can train, prepare, clarify your vision, and work towards realizing God’s best by “blooming where you are planted.”

Hare: “It’s not about the destination, it’s the journey”

Tortoise: “No, it’s not the journey! It’s the company!”

To wait, in Chinese, is the character 等, a picture of a temple (寺) surrounded by bamboo (竹). To wait is literally to become a “temple in a forest”. I often remind myself of this, especially in light of Psalm 46:10’s admonition - “Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.” Waiting is an act of consecration, an act of sacrifice, and an act of preparation. No fruit can be born without first waiting. 

I had to wait for ten years, after I left the Protestant ministry, to re-start my life calling to the Apostolic priesthood. It was hard. It was filled with false starts, being misled by not-so-well-intentioned people, and difficult realizations about my own limitations and personal problems. Waiting brought out insecurity, and not having a job that I liked or for which I felt qualified made me feel hopeless. The myriad of little jibes from people around me, reminding me of my missteps and miscalculations, all accumulated into a huge weight on my shoulders as I waited. Releasing my expectations, becoming soft again to the Holy Spirit in the midst of suffering, and learning not to pity myself and do simple things for others, all were lessons that God wanted me to learn by making me tread water. Compliance could only be squeezed out of me by making me “hurry up and wait”. 

Over this three years, tried by the Coronavirus quarantines and isolation, canceled schedules and defeated dreams, we’ve seen good and bad examples of waiting unfold before our eyes. Many of the people who left our Diocese for “greener pastures” were tired of waiting. They wanted instant solutions and didn’t see relationships as more valuable than “results.” Some of the new clergy that we’ve been able to incorporate into our ministry are the best products of waiting and patience, learning to deal with the pain of uncertainty in positive ways, and valuing “the company” over the “destination.” It isn’t easy, but it is definitely worth the wait! 

I would never trade these years of uncertainty and preparation for anything. They were incredibly painful and heartbreaking, and I felt like they were torture sometimes. Now I see how God used them to plant good seeds, taught us to remove ourselves from the center of concern, and to love without expectation of return or reward. God isn’t finished with us, and He has begun to show us how these years we felt were the apex of our suffering were only an introduction to a life of the Cross. I pray God will yet give us grace to wait and pray, and to remain watchful and steadfast in the face of adversity, remembering Philippians 1:6 - “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” Amen.

May God give you all a blessed and fruitful Advent! 

Christ is born! Tell forth His fame!

Bp. Joseph

Ordinary of the Missionary Diocese of East and Southeast Asia 

The Ancient Church of the West