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Tuesday, May 6
Co-Suffering
by
Jack
on Tue 06 May 2008 01:40 AM MYT
If there is a common denominator of human experience, it must be the experience of pain and suffering.
I used to think alot about the "why" question when it comes to the issue of suffering. I think this is really a western philosophy-sort of thinking. Eastern traditions such as buddhism, taoism and confuciusism were concern with the more existential question of how to escape sufferings.
The problem of sufferings within the Western philosophy more often than not sought to ask the "why" question. And one of the most complex philosophical problem is the existence of a good god and the problem of evil and sufferings.
I believe even within the hebraic tradition, esp. in the book of Job, traditionally a book dealing with sufferings, there is a sense that the moral of the story is, "there's no point asking 'why'".
But that doesn't mean the bible refused to acknowledge the reality of sufferings.
One of the most profound theme about suffering in the Bible is "compassion", an oft-used word which sometimes lost the force of its meaning - "to suffer together" (co-passion, co-suffer, suffering together)
YHWH is not a god who is content with merely saying "i love you". He wants to get involved. And Isaiah painted a very powerful picture - To an agrarian society, Isaiah 52:10 immediately reminds of the farmer getting ready to go into the dirts of the earth, the mud of the field, to go down to business, with sleeves rolled up:
God has rolled up his sleeves.
All the nations can see his holy, muscled arm.
Everyone, from one end of the earth to the other,
sees him at work, doing his salvation work. (The Message)
And then in Isaiah 53:1-12, the author painted another picture, this time more bloody and more sensational. It was the picture of god's servant being abused, being tortured, being mocked, and finally brutally murdered. And we saw that in many different words, the author wanted us to believe that the servant was going through the experience of suffering for someone else, and at times almost as if it was for us.
The NT prophets and apostles believed that Jesus was the servant who suffered, but more than that, the ultimate shocking experience of the earliest disciples was that Jesus was YHWH himself who suffered. The servant who suffered with, and not only with, but who suffered for the suffering world was god himself. The god who rolled up his sleeves and got down to business - to be abused and bullied and killed.
But where should the Church be in all this?
Romans 8, yes, the world, the whole Creation is groaning (v 22). Suffering is a common denominator, the reality which all humanity experiences without exception. The Church, in her divinely ordained ministry of restoration, is called to be co-sufferers, to groan together with the Creation (v 23). This is the only way we can be healing agents. It is easy for us to give hope and healings from afar, yet such hope cannot be very hopeful to a suffering world. That's James for you, mere words of blessings and hope are not enough. Like the god of Isaiah who rolled up his sleeves and got into the dirts and mud, we must get involve, to be involve especially in the experience of suffering, to suffer together.
The thing about our groanings is we are not doing it merely to be a company with the suffers, but rather, we are identifying ourselves as part of the suffering humanity, as part of the groaning Creation. We too are in need of the complete redemption of the decaying material world we are in, and we of all people must realize this. Only with such enlightenment can we be a true co-sufferer, only with such awareness of our own frailty can we empathize with fellow human beings in their sufferings.
And we come back a full circle, where is god in all this?
God is "ever co-suffering" with the suffering world, through the saints who are co-sufferers with the world (v 26). That is the beauty of it all, god who is ever-involved dispenses his healing, that is, the true hope of emancipation through his Church when she suffers in hope together with the suffering world; in other words, when the Church has compassion for the suffering world.
Sunday, April 20
Sleeves Rolled Up
by
Jack
on Sun 20 Apr 2008 01:06 AM MYT
I wrote the below last year 2007 for FES's World Students' Day...
-----------------------------
“Sleeves Rolled Up”
Again and again, during my times in PKV (Persaudaraan Kristian Varsiti - UM's CF) we were challenged with these strong words: The Church is becoming irrelevant. It was as though the statement was hammered hard into my head, making me ask myself, that whatever I do, can I be part of the solution?
Isaiah is one of my best loved prophet. Not least because the meditation in the book were written during some of the most difficult times of Israel. It is one of those scriptures which seemed to tell us that, hey, "god understand lah...see, some have seen worst problems".
And of course not least because the theme of one of the most dramatic musicals ever produced by the Church, George Handel's Messiah were taken from Isaiah. Handel managed to embody in often tunes of risk and suspense the audacious expectation of hope even as the people of god were facing worst times.
Not least because Isaiah taught my what sort of a god I follow:
"YAHWEH has rolled up his sleeves and got down to work on his global rescue operation" (Isa 52:12)
What god is this! This is a vision of a god who was determined to get personal, who got down into the mud, who got his hands dirty, who insisted on doing it himself to right the wrongs, or to be part of the solution to the wrongs in the world.
And I think a lot of times, to follow the example of the god of Isaiah is precisely that, a determination to be part of the solution and going down all the way where this determination leads us to.
Going home was the first step of my journey. Leaving the promises of KL after my graduation seemed irrational to many people then, but I kept reminding myself, just do it. After all, a migration to seemly land of impossibility has got many biblical precedents, and as we can see, most of the time it works, probably for the fact that these places were not overcrowded with people who cared enough, if not because of god's gracious hand making it work.
Second phase, forgoing or postponing the desire to go to a seminary. I have come to believe, through very very long contemplations after graduation that theology on its own is meaningless.
I mean don't get me wrong, with due respect to many theologians and pastors and seminarians whom I honour and whom I personally know and fellowshipped with now and then, I believe that god did not meant for us "to do church". Instead we are called to "live life". And this involve interacting with all the complexity of human living, in all the areas of our experience, conveniently grouped into the science and the arts.
I believe the study of "pure theology", the study of apologetics, critical as they are, do not present to us the vital tools to engage in such complexity.
But I do not at all despise a good theological education, which I would encourage everyone who is able to embark on it. It's just that, I believe theology must not be seen as a complete field of its own, but rather, like the medieval church, the crown of man's life experience, to be embraced together, not independant of the other areas of our experience. In another word, we must realized the place of theology, including its value and limitations
For this reason, I would encourage Christians who consider taking up a theological degree to consider working on a non-theological degree first or later at a post graduate level.
Theological study on its own is meaningless.
Third, I experimented with "the things we said" in CF and in Church. We talked about being the salt and light. We talked about market place ministry. We talked about being relevant. All within the safe compound of the University. Although those of us in UM (and perhaps some of you elsewhere) knew for sure that even within the University, it was a challenge to live a counterculture Christian life.
I have come to learn since that making Jesus the company's CEO and having little christian meetings within the company (like an office cg or a company cg) are not exactly marketplace ministry.
In my present company, I have worked for two years now, in a junior level of management, heading a team of 5 executives from various departments in the factory.
It was here, I received the rude awakening of a "real world" promised to us beyond the walls of the University. What rat race and what dog-eats-dog world; I found that the sort of Christian living which we talked about - to float above the worldly stuff - can never be successfully embraced unless we become a schizophrenic person, our "real life" on one hand and our "church life" on the other. And this was to be the truth to many of the people we know. Church, with all that she represented on the pulpit become a sort of Sunday thereaputic escapade from the grudges of the grunt jobs throughout the week.
I realized that more than to convert my colleagues and friends at work, my main task is to declare with words and deeds the good news of the renewed Creation.
I chose to see my work as a vocation and realizing that in the newness of life, Jesus the Gardener of Mary (John 20:15) has healed the garden so that our labour is not like that on the old cursed ground. As I show enthusiasm and passion into my work, I am encouraging a sort of awe, "how come work is never toil?"
Step by step, I encourage a more humane management and dealings with the people I worked with - colleagues, clients, vendors. There are many times I came across as strict or uncompassionate by others, but again and again, when my group members came and tell me that it's refreshing working in our team and we are a unique team, I know that there is something different and commendable in what we have done together. It is obvious to everyone at the end of the day, even to the bosses, that our working manners and our team strength are revolutionary within a work environment which has been inculcated for more than a decade.
So you see, within our team, we managed to be as competitive within the industry as possible without negotiating on the real and important thing in life, life itself. I realized the importance to encourage and expand the quality of being a real human being, with a balance in work and play.
Everyone will have work related stress, two persons I know recently suffered from some sort of a work-related nervous breakdown. How then we create a balance one may ask? We did this by bringing in compassion and love and kindness and kinship into our team, making sure work although may be a grudge, no one is without a human support and affirmation and at the end of the day, life is what matters; it is never "the end of the world" at work. You see, I want to encourage the reality of life in the Kingdom of god, life where there is never "the end of the world".
I think in all these, Isaiah's vision of a "god who rolled up his sleeves and got down into the mud" became my vision to spur me on at handling all things with a personal passion. Passion is very important to our religion and I believe that is the force which fuel me, from my journeying back to my hometown to my work place to my whole life. And this Passion can never be more powerful than the passion shown by Jesus, who on the cross, his bleeding and bare naked arm (bare naked arm - that's Isaiah 52:10 isn't it?) stretched across the wood, demonstrated more than ever, the "god who rolled up his sleeves and got down into the mud".
My friends, receive the passion as you gaze on Jesus and receive his Spirit; and start your journey today.
Monday, March 31
The Gospel, Romans 13 and Oppositional Politics
by
Jack
on Mon 31 Mar 2008 10:54 AM MYT
It's easier to explain to non Christians than to Christians why I am in an Opposition party - but well, DAP is now the GOVERNMENT of Penang, how's that Church?
For one, there is always the cold, "apolitical-ness" approach which the Church in Malaysia adopted.
This is probably for most bred by the culture of fear inculcated by the BN government to maintain their hegemony beginning in the late 80s with ferocious attack of the Executive on the Judiciary which led to the sacking of the then top judge Tun Salleh Abbas (and five other judges of the highest Court) and the rape of our consitutional rights when the Executive gave orders for a "cleanup" operation which saw the silencing of idealogical and political dissents and religious minorities through the gravely unjust preemptive law, ISA.
And not least because of the fact that a majority of Christian views we receive are the loud voices of urbanite churches consisting mostly of middle class folks. Their economic and social position stiffened them to take any active part in national politics. Whatever risk they may take, it is either in secrecy under the pretext of being wise or kept minimal within a "religious" context. A number of Christians would profess readiness to suffer for the gospel, but that usually means proselytizing non believers.
And of course, in view of the above, our theology either became a reason or a coverup for our non-involvement.
I have written elsewhere about being Christian and being political, but how about being Christian and being Oppositional?
One passage which I often hear quoted against participating in oppositional acts against the ruling government is Romans 13.
Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed. (Roms 13:1-7)
To put things in perspective, Rome was the super power of the day, in the 1st century. She was the economic and political force which dominates that world, much like the Great Britain in the 18th century or the United States today. Rome's imperial propaganda was the Emperor, Caesar, is Lord and Saviour and only through him the world can have peace, Pax Romania - the peace of Rome.
Within the dominion of this superpower (or any superpowers for that matter), there can be only one Lord, any contender would be considered a threat.
It was in such a context that Paul penned (or rather dictated) his seemly innocent opening to the letter to the Romans. Here's my paraphrase:
Paul, in the service of King Jesus, called to be an emissary, given the task to proclaim the good news of god which he promised beforehand through his messangers in the holy book, concerning his Son, who is of the royal line of David according to the flesh, and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, King Jesus our Lord, through whom we have received grace and the appointment as emissaries to bring about faithful loyalty for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to King Jesus [in Rome] (Rom 1:1-6)
This was an blatant and outright challenge of Caesar, and therefore, Rome's power. Paul was in effect saying in the heart of the Empire, there were a group of people whose loyalty was not ultimately to the Lord of Rome who claimed to be the Lord of the World, but to Jesus, another king, of the Jewish royal Davidic house who is the true Lord.
Epistle to the Romans was not the demure-obedient-to-the-government sort of letter most Christians would like it to be. That was just too convenient for the gospel (the euangelion, a term which incidently Caesar adopted to proclaim the news of his ascension or victory). Paul's was not a dichotomize theology where the religion and politics are separated by a thick wall of indifference and where the church ought only concern herself with the thing called "religion" and leave politics to those outside.
To be sure, Paul was not a politician. And he never intended to be. But the tone of his message was clear. The gospel is confrontational in all sense of the word to the power-claims of the rulers of this world.
Two points to consider about the gospel in relation to authority, and in our context, political authority:
Firstly, the gospel is oppositional to the powers that be which make absolute claim of authority. There is always the tension of earthly (super) powers against that of Christ and the gospel made it clear that in his Resurrection, Christ was proclaimed the son of god in power, the Davidic king who will rule over all the world now in parts and one day completely. Any other claims of absolute kingship is in opposition to the claim of the gospel of "Jesus is Lord". The imperial ambitions of earthly powers must submit to the eschatological reality of the lorship of god's chosen Servant.
Secondly, the gospel is good news to the people, most especially good news to the downtrodden. The gospel is biased, politically not least, towards the mass. It is their gospel, given for their happiness. The target audience of the gospel is the "world" because god so loved the world he gave his only Son. Because the bad news was the mass being cut off from the love of god through one man, the good news was the reconciliation of the mass to god, also through one man, Jesus. Jesus' ministry, Luke told us, was opened with the reading of the portion of Isaiah which hinged on the proclaimation of blessedness and emancipation of the marginalized mass. The gospel sought to restore not only the imago dei (image of god) in the human person, but also the relationship between humanity and god. And therefore, the gospel is oppositional to the powers which sought to inflict sufferings on the mass, which sought to deface and degrade the value of the glory of god in the living humanity. All political powers and structures which reduced humanity from the beautiful and glorious image of god to mere political serf are in direct conflict with the gospel.
I am no party loyalist and I do not believe in the total transformation of humanity by political ideologies alone. But I am convinced that while the power of god works in the transformation of individuals, the gospel which I believed in and proclaim compels me to be biased in the above directions. And not least because, the transforming power of god through the gospel is also at the same time a challenge to the powers that be.
When the Church today calls for an apolitical stance, it is a self-abdication of her responsibility as agents of the gospel in the civil sphere. We have forgotten Moses who challenged the despotic rule of Pharaoh, we have forgotten Elijah the troubler of Ahab, we have forgotten the prophets through whom the wrathful words of god's displeasure often came to the rulers and kings of their times.
We have forgotten the earliest disciples who went against the good will of Rome who offered amnesty for the desert of their faith in Christ. We have forgotten Polycarp who at old age refused to bulge one step in his allegiance towards Christ, the true Lord over and against Caesar of Rome. We have forgotten Ambrose who stood against the Emperor and refused to administer the sacraments to him before the Emperor perform a penance for his cruel massacre. We have forgotten the Rt. Rev. Desmond Tutu who lived out the biased of the gospel for the marginalized mass and defied the powerful overlords of apartheid.
When today we call for a blind submission towards the government taking Romans 13 as prooftext, we reduced the gospel from a powerful force of public transformation into merely one of the private religions vying with other religions to proselytize non believers.
But what of Romans 13?
We must firstly understand that the types of government in biblical times, whether in OT or NT, are different from that of our own times. Even within our times, there are many different forms of government and political structures that we cannot afford to take Romans 13 or the Daniel account as a one-fit-for-all political stance without being awkward if not absurd.
I believe that Paul, after his subversive opening greetings in Romans and proclaiming the radical gospel of "Jesus is Lord" against "Caesar is Lord", was making a point that there are sub-authorities (or Kam Weng's sphere authorities) whose powers are derivative from god's. These earthly authorities, not least political ones, are here to maintain order and facilitate daily business. In other words, Paul was asserting that the gospel is not anarchy.
There is no power which can be the ruling authority forever and likewise no power can be the oppositional force forever. March 8th has taught us this lesson in Malaysia. But the contention of the gospel remains, Jesus is Lord, and if Jesus is Lord, all other claims to lordship are challenges which the Church must reckoned with. This does not mean that only Christians can rule or that a non Christian government is necessarily to be disposed of. But the Church is always called to play the role of the prophet in the wilderness inviting the people to welcome the Lord, the true and loving King of the world and as we make way for the righteous rule of the true King, we can anticipate a world of justice, peace and reconciliation.
Tuesday, February 5
A Church which is more than church
by
Jack
on Tue 05 Feb 2008 12:04 AM MYT
I love to say, we are not called to "do church" but to live life.
Yesterday, I bought a great book by Jurgen Moltmann, "Experiences in Theology". He say it better than I did:
What the church is about is something more than the church. The church is about life in proximity to the kingdom of God, and about the experience and praxis of the justice and righteousness of that kingdom. So Christian theology also has to do with more than Christian self preservation in public life. It has to do with the presentation of public life against the horizon of God's coming kingdom. Christian theology is theologia publica. It is public theology for the sake of the kingdom. So it must be aligned and think not just intra-textually, but always correlatively too. It has to be both 'in accordance with Scripture' and contextual.
Fuh...like my NT lecturer used to say, go grapple with it.
Monday, January 21
Christians and the election: What?
by
Jack
on Mon 21 Jan 2008 09:17 PM MYT
I will not fork out money to buy The Star, I told myself after the dissapppointing episodes of dishonest journalism top-down ever since BERSIH 10/11.
But last Sunday, I did - RM1.50 to the coffer of The People's-as-if Paper, because the small caption on the front page was too interesting to be passed: Christians and the elections > F25 & 26
I bought the paper in the morning, but it was until late evening when I read the section - I didn't even bother to look at the news.
After reading it and rereading it (and rereading for the third time here today), I begin to hit my head to remind myself that there was a reason I didn't want to buy The Star, it's crappy.
The whole interviews, it had a good representations from national leaders and politicians from various church traditions and political parties, lacked the substance so much promised by the title.
Rev Wong Kim Kong's repeated "the Church is apolitical", "the Church is spiritual" was such a dissappointment. To be sure, I understand that the Church ought not to be partisan, but I thought the issue was sort of settled in OHMSI's forum, Was Jesus Political? How can anything not be political when situated within the society of people? How can we say that we are biased towards truth, justice and righteousness AND be apolitical? Perhaps Rev. Wong meant "the Church ought NOT to be partisan in politics" or "Pastors should not get involved in party politics" but language is so crucial here. I am not nitpicking, but it reflects our mentality and sentiment. Apolitical is like an apathetic period to the whole issue. And I cannot bear with that, especially when an ordained minister who helm an umbrella Christian body claimed that the bible calls us to be apolitical and "not be involved directly in the political process".
Again and again, we hear the call to spirituality, and Teresa was on the spot when she asked, "Why are not many Christians involved in politics?" and she answered her own question: "they are involved in evangelical activities [whatever that means]...they don't want to dirty their hands". What a terrible indictment against us, no wonder people said, I don't want to have anything to do with religion.
If religion is about airy fairy kingdom with no concern for god's good earth and dear Creation, if religion is about what happens after death, about a closet relationship with some supreme being and does not give a heck about the rampant injustice, unrighteousness and evil that distort all the beauty of god's handiwork - Creation and human beings - who with a right and sensible mind would think religion is of much value?
My heart ached when Teresa said, "There are also Christians who ask me to leave politics and get involved in more spiritual work." Rip the last of the good folks from this dirty work, what are we thinking?
I refused to believe that spirituality is not about the material world. I believe god did not call us to do "church", but to live life, and that means relationship with one another, with the society around us, with Nature. And can we escape politics? Preaching spirituality without these elements is not the fullness of god's truth. Unless we say, Christian spirituality is like what the platonic or buddhist philosophers taught, a sort of soul-ish, immaterial afterlife and period. That our ultimate aim is to get rid of this prison body - that St. Paul called "god's temple" for goodness' sake - and go to heaven somewhere.
Our ultimate aim is to arrive at a point where the material becomes so much washed in god's redeeming truth that it will respond to god in worship at all time while we go on living. Our ultimate aim is the whole cosmos, the world, fully reconcilled to god and all human beings properly reflect his beauty, the beauty of his glory in worship and adoration - not by singing songs in immaterial existence, but by living a life, a resurrected life, in joyous and loving obedience to god's will. And while we await the day of redemption, it is our duty, the Church's duty to challenge the powers that sought to oppose the radical movement towards that day. The powers which distort human dignity by the oppressing acts of political hegemony, economics bullying and moral distortion. And when we speak the language of "the Church is to be apolitical", what we managed to do is to reduce the spirit of being counter culture to an indifference "waiting for things to happen".
I am not sure if the conversations are edited and if the articles really reflected the original interviews or even the full views of the participants, but I only say I was utterly dissappointed reading it.
Datuk Lee Hwa Beng, was surprisingly mature in his opinions and I respect him for that; making a stance about Malaysia not being a theocratic Islamic state (very careful though to reflect the PM and DPM's emphasis on the word "theocratic"), acknowledging the rights of Christian leaders to be be political and even partisan and attend rallies (although he added, "off the pulpit") and acknowledging the paramount of freedom of religion among the concerns of the people.
Wong Chun Wai's concluding remark was really nothing but some sort of a textbook-like safe statements:
"In conclusion, the Christians make up a substantial chunk of votes in the elections and these are issues of concern to them. In the battle for hearts and minds, their voices and their votes certainly matter."
Every votes matter, I do not think based on what we have read in the interviews, Christians have any so called "Christians voices", after all we are said to be "apolitical", whatever which was meant by that really confusing word (is it like "amoral"?). Without being aware and directly concerned about politics in the Country and even the political process, how can our voices matter. Any candidates can probably tipu their way into our "hearts and minds"
-----------
I am interested to hear the views of other Church leaders now. Especially one Pastor Jeffrey Kumin from Sabah who was rumoured to be fielded as one of the candidates for coming General Election. I am trying to get his contacts from YB Teresa, if anyone has Ps. Kumin's contacts, I would appreciate if you can email me - just drop a msg at the comment in this post.
Sunday, December 30
Dr. Khong's Sermon Today: Love and Change
by
Jack
on Sun 30 Dec 2007 11:04 PM MYT
One of my elders, Dr. Khong preached a real good sermon today, simply titled "Love and Change".
He challenged us to see that while God is eternal, the world is ... more »
Sunday, December 23
Timeless Truth v. A God who Deals
by
Jack
on Sun 23 Dec 2007 08:30 AM MYT
Necessary truth depends not on the actual occurence of particular events, but on whether a proposition is true by definition; on whether, for example, it is part of the very concept of triangularity that the sum of the angles of a triangle should amount to 180 degree [regardless of our experience and perspective]. By contrast, contingent truth depends on circumstances which may change from time to time, such as in the case of the statement "it is raining".
...in the Bible truth is contingent rather than necessary because it is related to historical events. It is "not the result of logical necessity...The truth of God must prove itself anew." The Greek dualism between true being and changing sense-appearance is superseded in the biblical understanding of truth. Here, true being is thought of not as timeless, but instead as historical and it proves its stability through a history whose future is always open."
Quoted from Anthony Thiselton, The Two Horizons: New Testament Hermeneutics and Philosphical Description
Quotation within text from Wolfhart Pannerberg, Basic Questions in Theology, 3 vol.
God's revelation consisted simply in God's letting men state God's own problems in their language - Ernst Fuchs
Christmas, if anything, demonstrated to us a passionate god who deals, rather than a disinterested aged big guy up there who never really age because history and time don't matter.
Friday, December 21
We Are Humans
by
Jack
on Fri 21 Dec 2007 11:59 PM MYT
We lived tru this dark terrifying Advent nights
Feasting on fear rained from the stormy clouds above;
'twas night for sure, but no stars in-sight,
cold from the rain, but no warmth from the stove.
We clutched a piece of freedom,
this little bread no one can steal;
No emperors nor princes nor rust nor worms,
Can take away our human will
to choose, in spite of the starless nights
and the cold cold rain;
The will to choose to do what is right,
and to choose what is right despite our pains.
We are humans and not slightly less,
Even for the deformity of our decaying bodies
Even for the hungry skin, our ailing vests
We're richly human e'en in all our poverties
We are humans and rightly so
Because many Advents ago, when nights were as dark as ours,
A Child was bornt to all human woes
and showed us the worth of human souls.
Deitrich Bonhoeffer of Blessed Memory
May Advent brings tsunami to the core of our beings and tremor to the foundation of our nationhood reminding us that peace and stability without the firm and obvious affirmation of justice and righteousness is a big fat scam.
To all my friends and readers, have a blessed Christmas. God bless you
Sunday, December 16
The Golden Compass - Okie To Watch
by
Jack
on Sun 16 Dec 2007 11:40 PM MYT
JR and I went to watch The Golden Compass recently...the verdict is, not very interesting and definitely no threat to the Christianity we profess.
I am however quite eager to find ... more »
Sunday, December 9
What Gifts Are You Giving This Christmas?
by
Jack
on Sun 09 Dec 2007 01:32 PM MYT
How many have not done your Christmas shopping yet? How many of you have decided not to do any Christmas shopping this year?
As I was reflecting on these questions, I read a news report yesterday:
Last Wednesday, in the early afternoon, in Omaha USA, when people were busying themselves in one of the shopping complexes. And you must know that those who are able to spend their Wednesday afternooon doing their shoppings are most probably those who can afford not to work on a Wednesday afternoon - perhaps slightly affluent folks. One can imagine the festivity, the eagerness and the happiness as the shoppers roamed the mall looking for gifts, for themselves and for others.
But on the contrast, there was a young man in their midst, Robert Hawkins. He was recently fired from McDonald's, I mean, a lot of us work in MNCs; Intel, Dell, Motorola, and it's a terrible thing to be laid off from your jobs, we know that. But we being fired from McDonald's? Imagine what would your friends think: loser. Imagine what it would be like getting fired from McDonald's, it is devastating. But how about being fired by McDonald's and being dumped by a girlfriend? Loser.
What would it be like then to Robert Hawkins who were fired by McDonald's AND was dumped by his girlfriend recently. There was no other way out from this stigma of being a loser in a society where many of us can afford not to work on a Wednesday afternoon and go for Christmas shoppings. He took a gun, went into the mall, killed 8 people randomly, injured a few others, and finally pulled the trigger on himself. "He wanted to go out like a star", commented one of his friends.
Someone wrote on the internet, and I paraphrase, why would we celebrate the birthday of a pelarian borned in a kandang lembu with buying gifts for one another?
And someone else asked, What would Jesus buy? Or rather in my mind, what would Jesus want us to buy this Christmas?
What would Jesus want us to buy this Christmas, admist our extreme consumerism, shopping therapy culture, radical consumptions of goods and a society which promotes individualism and caused cold cold loneliness - where we are not alone, but feeling lonely deep inside?
As I was thinking on the "buying", I recalled the word of god in my favourite OT prophet, Isaiah: Chapter 55 v1-3
1 "Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.
2 Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.
3 Give ear and come to me;
hear me, that your soul may live.
I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
my faithful love promised to David.
Three points here:
Firstly this strange admonishment to buy from him bread and milk and water and wine? Why these are all basic staple of our lives. And how much was it to buy from god himself? He said, no, I don't want your money.
What? We are living in a world where money, wealth, is the final the final determinant in life. What do we want and what do we need, they can be done, with money. Problems of all kinds are thought to be solved with more money - war against terror, billions and trillions of dollar pumped in this year, education, a higher budget allocation, inflation, a bigger paycheck, no time for the kids, more pocket money and toys to keep them busy to themselves.
But god wants us to buy from him, even the most basic necessity in life, without money and without cost. The reality of god is that the whole human financial system and our values break down into nothingness. All of us are alike, in god's businessman perpective, no one is too affluent who can afford to spend midweek afternoon shopping or no one is too poor who were fired from even McDonalds.
As if in disbelief of our absurdity, the prophet asked in god's stead: Why are you spending your money on rubbish? Why are you working your ass off for things which does not bring any fulfilment. Everyone, all and sundry, is invited, whether the rich or the poor, to come, come, come, come - yes, four times in v1 alone - to buy from god; and buy the real things which mattered. And don't be bothered about money and cost.
Phew...what would happened to the banking system.
Secondly, as I reflect on vv1-3, I saw the prophet admonishing, again on god's behalf: listen, listen (v2), give ear, hear me (v3).
When god asked us to listen, we'd better be.
I am sure within the bible, god spoke a lot of words for our listening ears (though again as the prophet lamented, we are like those who have ears but would not listen), but as I turned the pages for what god wanted to speak to me in this reflection, I saw in the very next chapter 56, the 1st verse:
1 This is what the LORD says:
"Maintain justice
and do what is right,
for my salvation is close at hand
and my righteousness will soon be revealed.
This was what god is saying, and the prophet is asking us to listen, listen, give ear and hear. Maintain justice and righteousness. These are undeniably the foundation of the prophets' teaching in the OT and in the NT. In fact, as I have written recently, KY was commenting that in the NT, the greek word dikasoone often translated as "righteousness" can as well be read as "justice". And I think, to put in simply, god wanted to right things which went wrong, yes, to right the skewered personhood in humanity, to right the corrupted political system of human society, to right the oppressive economic and financial system, to right the self serving and idolatrous religious system, to right the degradation of the whole cosmos.
This Christmas, as we are buying, god is asking us to buy from him the real thing, not the flimsy ephemeral stuff huge corporations, hypermarkets and toy stores wanted to sell us as "gifts of love and festive joy".
And then god asked us to right the wrongs of the world, just as he has done and is still doing.
How does the two points connect?
This is the third point of my reflection: god asked us to buy from him bread and wine and milk. Mystery, mystery, mystery.
But bread and wine (and milk? - think promised land, rest, god's restoration, temple) reminds us of the equally intriguing and mysterious sayings of Jesus in John chapter 6, well even the disciples and the rabbis were confounded. Jesus said, he is the bread of life coming from god. And he is asking us to eat him and drink his blood because they are the real thing.
Gulp.
No wonder the folks were offended.
I am confounded, intrigued, I cannot fathom, to this day the great depth of such saying and the great profoundity expressed in the Lord's Table every week. What does it mean to eat of his flesh and drink of his blood, to receive and eat the real food?
I am sure there are many things which can be said about such feast. But one thing for sure, and this were the words of Jesus: Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him (v56).
The real thing, the real food the real bread and drink from god is given so that we can share in god's nature, so that there is a union of our humanity with god's divinity; so that the profound can coexist with the profane. So that heaven once again meet with earth. Just like the days in the wilderness in the holiest of holy. Just like the days in the innermost chamber of Solomon's temple. Almost but not quite.
God has chosen off the whole wide earth, one single spot first in the holiest of holy of the tent of meeting and then in the magnificient temple to be a point where heaven meets with earth, where god's presence commune with the people.
But that was not god's real plan. The prophets had a vision, that someoday god's glory, god's presence would fill not one spot in the tent or in the temple, but the whole wide earth, just like water fills the sea. The whole world is to be the temple of god. And we all saw that picture in Revelation, the whole earth is now the temple because heaven came down to meet earth, fully and completely.
But before that happens, god is now building little temples, going about in every directions of the earth, us, Christians, the Church.
Too often the indwelling of the Holy Ghost become for us some sort of a hidden Ultraman superpower to be invoke to achieve great feat. Those are good and fine, but we should not forget as we often do, we are god's temple meant that we are the meeting place of heaven and earth, the key or portal to god's dimension. Think about that!
We are to be the place where god is present on earth, to the people, to one another, to non christians!
It can be clearer then to imagine that god wanted us to buy from him - btw no cost on us DOES NOT mean there's no real business transaction, god still used the word "come, buy", isn't that curious? - the real thing, so that the real thing becomes real food to us, so that we become god's presence on earth, embodying god's dream of making things right again on earth.
Dear friends, what are you going to buy this Christmas?
Think about the 60,000 graduates who were jobless (the figure may have increased now), most of them undertrained. Think about the cries of the people who were rallying on the streets to our government asking for their rights, think about our Oppositions members whose voice were often silenced by mindless bullying (see recordings of Parliamentary session in youtube), think about members of our government who were trying their very best within their means to be good leaders to the people. Think about Robert Hawkins, the 19 year old who was fired from McDonalds and dumped by his girlfriend.
What sort of gift can we buy for these people this Christmas? What do they need? Another job at another McDonalds? A new galfren?
Or will some CEO willing to take up the challenge to create on job re-training opportunities for the unemployed graduates of our country, most of them bumiputeras, willingly loosing some of their year end revenues?
Or will we give an ear to the poor estate worker who cannot even afford his next meal because his employer denied his already meagre pay? And then will we become their mouth to speak the words that they long to say to the powers but could not find a voice?
Or will we make a stance in politics, rather than keep giving our sometimes unneceessary comments, by joining a political party?
What sort of gift matters most? I think it is obvious, when we were exhorted to buy from god the real thing, we are expected to give back the real thing, not some flimsy ephemeral lead-infested toys.
I leave it to you guys to figure that out. But I must warn you, it's hard work though.
This is an expanded version of a sharing at BMGC on 9 Dec 07
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