Enlarge Them Siu with grandson, Junny Ksor. Photo: Lee Howard

Posted: February 20th, 2012 Lee Howard

It’s hard to know how much of Sunday’s sermon at First Christian Church Them Siu was able to absorb. A native of Vietnam, Siu doesn’t speak much English. But God was in His house, and that was good enough for Siu.

First Christian played host Sunday, Feb. 19, to The Rev. Nicole Massie Martin in a sermon exchange. Massie Martin’s home church is off Beatties Ford Road. She led the congregation in place of the church’s pastor, Jolin Wilks McElroy, who also attended as part of Crossroads Charlotte's Xchange Sermons program.

Massie Martin’s message was an exploration of Mary of Bethany, also known as Mary Magdalene, sister of Lazarus. In her gratitude for Jesus’ raising her brother from the dead, Mary bathed Jesus’ feet in an expensive and aromatic oil. She then swabbed his feet with her hair. It was an act of supplication demonstrated before a household of guests that included Judas.

Judas, the rough equivalent of Jesus’ accountant, perceived Mary’s act as wasteful. The cost of the oil in those days would have been the equivalent of a year’s wages. Judas decried that the oil should have been sold to help provide for the poor. When Jesus and his followers ever did collect money, Judas also was inclined to help himself to the till.

Martin Massie offered the congregation her interpretation of Mary’s purpose: “She poured this expensive oil on Jesus’ feet in front of everybody,” Massie Martin said. “When God has been good to us, we don’t care how much it costs. We worship Him with everything we’ve got.”

Siu and his family listened, sitting in the pews among a group of almost 80 Montagnards who regularly attend the East Boulevard church. There, they may freely worship. It’s a gift, a certain aromatic oil of its own, so taken for granted in this country. But Christian worship in Vietnam can mean imprisonment, torture and death.

Before the service began, Siu held in his arms his wriggling grandson, Junny. Siu smiled with the joy that only a grandfather may know. The Montagnards are an indigenous Vietnamese Christian minority from the country’s Central Highlands region. There, to this day, if a Montagnard acknowledges a belief in Christ, the government of Vietnam will “treat you like Christ,” said Jeff Norville, First Christian’s minister of music. And that, he said, means they will nail you to a cross.

Siu, whose daughter Ngoan Ksor interpreted, said her father is very happy that he may now worship as he chooses. Many of Siu’s friends back home have been beaten and sent to prison for years, all for their love of Jesus. “We come here every Sunday to worship God,” Siu said through Ksor. “God takes care of us.”

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