Wednesday, 20th October 2010, 00:21 hrs
Three interesting things happened on Monday afternoon. The first is a lunch conversation with a 'friend', who had planned to have lunch with me two weeks ago but, owing to the last-minute visit of an official guest, the originally planned lunch had to be cancelled. We then re-scheduled another day, which took place last Monday.
The conversation, on the face of it, appeared rather superficial and mild. We exchanged a little information of our activities the past couple of years, for me it was the past two years. The reason is that this was in fact our first lunch. The conversation had begun with a focus on my 'church life', that is, what church I was attending and what sort of tradition it was and the like. With that beginning, the focus shifted to our preference for sacred music. This led to a mutual exchange of, first, our views and then our ideas. It was impressed upon me that people, particularly the young of today looked at sacred music and its lyrics rather differently, and that the repetitive singing in many of the praise songs today was in fact calculated to ensure that the songs and their words would penetrate into the deeper levels of the worshippers.
I thought to myself. Perhaps, there remains a struggle between what N. T. Wright says 'a system of piped water' versus 'a bursting forth of the under-the-concrete-pavement water'. The former refers to the traditional philosophy that kept people and belief separate from everyday life, whereas the latter speaks of the longing, thirsting, and the consequent gushing forth of 'spiritualities' seen today in many different and varied forms, and in various religious garbs and unconventional apparatuses. While Wright has his own convictions re the many things Christian and secular, it is of fundamental importance that we consider the reformers' dictum of 'the reformation is always reforming'. It is true we need to adapt to the ever changing world and circumstances; but it is equally true of the never-changing foundation of the apostolic faith, which has given rise to the many traditions today, not least of which is the theologically founded and content-filled singing at formal worship. It must be mentioned though, that Wright is not to be misunderstood as opposing tradition. In fact, what he argues for in his Simply Christian (London: SPCK, 2006) is a call to a more biblical, more robust, much more solid faith.
The conversation has spurred me on to further reflections on some of my own recent struggles, in terms of cultural, theological and spiritual values. I have been rather vocal over several issues. However, I have been seen as possessing a different set of cultural values owing to the fact of my differing cultural background. Never mind the oft-repeated call for the celebration of diversity! I have now better understood the implications as well as ramifications of some of what I have raised, and the general discomfort of others resulting from it. The well nuanced conversation calls to mind Proverbs 19.20, which says, 'Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom for the future'. I particularly love the next verse: 'The human mind may devise many plans, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will be established'. The Proverbs here does not advise against planning or discussion. In fact, it encourages planning, only that the planner should be sensitive to the fact that whatever one plans it is the Lord's purposes that are to be established. Thus every human's plan should rightly fit into God's purposes. What these purposes are is another question altogether.
I must say I would be a fool, indeed, not to heed the advice resulting from the lunch conversation.
The other interesting thing I happened to witness was how a wasp attacked a dragon-fly double its size. First the wasp flew on top of the dragon-fly and struggled and finally snipped off the latter's wings. It then drove its sting into the head of the dragon-fly and, with all its legs properly and firmly holding the dragon-fly, hoisted the latter and flew off, presumably to its lodging to feed its young.
I watched with amazement and felt a sense of wonder, though at the same time a sense of the seemingly animal-insect world in which we humans sometimes (or oftentimes?) live. It speaks of strategy, self-interest, annihilation of the other, and such like. But I do not wish to sound too despondent. The truth of the matter is that we live in a fallen world, in which most of the times our minds and thoughts are warped and crooked. Today, we are in such urgent need of justice. Yet, oftentimes what we regard as injustice in far away lands happens right in our midst and, sometimes, we even perpetuate such injustices as racism, discrimination against the poor and women, the ever widening divide between the rich and the poor, the use of authority in the name of religion to dominate and exercise hegemony over those under us, and the like. How can we as Christians reflect the justice of God, even as God has demonstrated his justice in the incarnation?
There is a third experience, that of discrimination I personally experienced at Wellcome. At the check-out counter, after picking up my groceries, I realised the counter staff spoke a brand of Cantonese that was simply too colloquial for me. Upon learning that I could not speak Cantonese, the staff immediately expressed her irritation and impatience, with explicit facial expressions. We tried to communicate in putonghua but, to my dismay, she simply could not understand my putonghua, nor I hers! She grew more impatient and turned to her colleague for help, who simply could not be bothered when she realised it was a putonghua speaker (assuming I came from the mainland). Behind me was another patron, a man about 1.8 metre in height, who looked at me with equal amount of unfriendliness. He then tried to help, as he would be held up if he didn't. But as he spoke, he gave me a look of utter contempt and in a tone that, though not raised, was sufficiently unfriendly for me to sense a certain animosity and dislike. At that very moment, the first in my almost half a century of my life on earth, I felt absolutely and totally discriminated against. I spoke so softly, as I had become so intimidated and, with trepidation, thanked the staff and the man and walked away shaken and in tremour. While on the light rail I felt, for the first time in my life, no anger but instead, almost driven to tears... I have thought to myself that from now on, I shall speak only English...but then was immediately reminded that earlier in the evening when I made a call to the Bank of China, the person answering the phone, upon hearing me speak English, banged the phone down.
What do I do in such unjust circumstances? I do not know. Perhaps, it tells me that this is but part and parcel of living in a broken and fallen world. While I may hope people will eventually grow and become mature, I cannot hold out much, or expect too much.
I thought to myself that every human person is a creature of the divine, wherever he/she comes from, whatever he/she may be (race, job, sex, health), whatever age he/she may be, I cannot and must not discriminate against him or her. It dawns on me that, as Christians, I would need to regard myself as a citizen of heaven, and therefore while I am on earth I will always be a traveller, and therefore I must embrace every other fellow traveller, ensuring therefore the exclusion of injustice.
