+ Lucian Tapiedi, 1921-1942 A.D.
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"Pursue peace with everyone, and holiness — without it no one will see the Lord." + Hebrews 12:14
Here are some recent highlights:
When we handed these books out to our congregation, this is part of the note we included inside each one:
This might seem at first to be a peculiar Advent devotional. But saints often are peculiar people who stand out in a particular time and place. In fact, the times when saints shine the most are times of darkness. They give glimpses of Jesus’ Light, which darkness cannot overcome.
And we, as part of Jesus’ Church, are called to live as Advent people who anticipate Jesus’ coming into our darkness today to overcome it. Ultimately, our hope rests in the God of Advent who drew near to us in Jesus’ first coming and will come again to take away the darkness forever and be our eternal Light.That hope is what saints have embodied as our sisters and brothers across time, ethnicities, Christian traditions, nationalities, and more.
As we step into this next year, our prayer is that we will shine all the more with the holy light of Christ in us and through us. And we pray that we “being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love.” After all, “the Father has enabled us to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light. He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of the Son He loves.”
This post features an excerpt from Our Church Speaks so that you might also walk some of this journey with us with reflection, prayer, and anticipation for how the Light of the world might shine in your life during this season.
Lucian Tapiedi Martyr of Papua New Guinea
Lucian Tapiedi was among a group of clergy, teachers, and medical missionaries ministering in Papua New Guinea in the 1930s and 1940s. The son of a Papuan sorcerer, Tapiedi came to faith in Christ at an Anglican mission school. He studied at St. Aidan's Teacher Training College and served as a teacher and evangelist. Tapiedi was known for his joyful spirit and love for learning, physical recreation, and music.
On January 4, 1942, the Japanese Empire launched an invasion of New Guinea as part of their offensive campaign across the Pacific. Philip Strong, Anglican bishop of New Guinea, instructed missionaries, evangelists, and clergy to remain at their posts, despite the extreme risks. "If we all left, it would take years for the local church to recover from our betrayal of our trust. If we remain — the local church would not perish, for there would have been no breach of trust in its walls, but its foundations and structure would have received added strength for the future building by our faithfulness unto death." Tapiedi and all of the bishop's staff chose to stay at their posts and suffer death, if necessary. With the Japanese invasion imminent, Tapiedi instructed his married colleagues, "Take your wives and families to the bush and hide. I am single. I'll stay with the fathers and sisters; it doesn't matter if the Japanese get me." Tapiedi was among 333 Christians who were murdered during the Japanese invasion and occupation of New Guinea. Bishop Strong suffered bombings and machine-gunning and only narrowly escaped death himself. The fruit of the martyrs' sacrifices resulted in a renewal of the New Guinea church after the war.
Scripture
"Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches ... So, brothers and sisters, in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God." + 1 Corinthians 7:17, 24
Meditation: The Power of Staying Put
So many of us experience fruitlessness in our Christian life because we keep replanting the tree, so to speak, as we move from neighborhood to neighborhood, city to city, in search for a better life. What we often do not realize is the affect that our leaving has on the people in the rearview mirror. How does our leaving affect those who are left? How does it affect the communities we leave behind?
To be fair, sometimes the leaving is good and necessary — a departure to care for a sick relative, or to serve an urgent need, or to proclaim the Gospel to an unreached people. Then we commission our best to go forth with the Lord's blessing.
However, most leaving is of a different sort. We tend to leave because the grass is greener, the taxes lower, the housing cheaper, the jobs better, the people kinder. When Christians leave their neighborhood and city for a better life elsewhere, we tell a lie to the people we leave behind. We tell them that we were only there for what we could get out of it. We tell them that the Christian life is the same as any other life. When Christians leave, our absence speaks a word to our former cities, and it is a word of rejection.
If Christians are to embody the love of Jesus to our neighbors and city, then it must begin with and
We might not make formal monastic-style vows, but we ought to be very resistant to uprooting. It is a profoundly Christian thing to
What would it take to uproot you from your place?
How redemptively stubborn are you? when going is so much easier?
Lucian Tapiedi knew Even when staying became perilous, he did not budge. His refusal to abandon his place was the greatest testimony to the Gospel that he could speak. He knew this because he knew that
God is wonderfully stubborn in that way. Jesus just won't budge. Come hell or high water,
Prayer
O eternal Lord God, You hold all souls in life: Shed forth upon your whole Church in Paradise and on earth the bright beams of Your light and heavenly comfort; and grant that we, encouraged by the good example of Your holy martyr Lucian Tapiedi and all of those who have loved and served You, may enter with them into the fullness of Your unending joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
pgs. 148-150
Additional Advent Resources:
Many blessings of peace and presence,
Rev. Mike “Sully” Sullivan
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