Being With Critically

How should the church, as a pilgrim community, face the situation in Hong Kong today? Should we continue to preach the gospel, or take part in the current activities? What do you think from the perspective of our faith?

Actually, I would say, continue with your life. Are you leading a Christian life? How is the church community living a life of the chosen? This is not a question just for individuals. Just now I mentioned the book of I Peter, which points out that the church is a chosen community, the whole of which is chosen by God. This is what happened in His story of salvation. “The chosen” is our identity, and we are being chosen out of God’s mercy. But what should the life of a chosen community be like? In what way should we live?

There are two sides to the way of life brought about by this identity. First, how do our brothers and sisters spend their lives together? How do we build up, encourage and remind one another? How should we love, receive and forgive one another? Have we put all these teachings into practice? Or have we done enough? This is a matter of interaction. Or, could it be that we are actually lifeless in our interaction or is it simply that we don’t have any life of interaction, except in ministries? This is a matter of community building. When our brothers and sisters come to church, do they find that they are members of this community? Do they feel that their lives can settle down in this place? Or, do they feel that their lives are being consumed at church? Doesn’t the church community intend to give people peace and rest? This is an internal question, which concerns the relationship among brothers and sisters, and how they can spend their lives together. Externally, the question concerns how this community gets involved in this world and deals with it. Should she enter the world in a way consistent with her own identity? Or, should she act according to the customs and rules of the game in the world, regardless of her identity, once she engages in the world? But by doing so, she would lose her identity as the chosen.

That’s not feasible, you may say. The way of life derived from the identity as the chosen could not bring us much result when we engage in the world and get along with others! When you use the word “result,” you are prone to fall into the trap set by the world, because the “result” defined by the world can only be achieved by leading our lives in the worldly manner. Do you want to have result? What do you think about the result of God’s salvation? Is it amazing?

I see what you mean. Internally, we need to worship God (a vertical relationship) and love one another (a horizontal relationship) and stay united. Externally, we should be aware of our identity as the chosen in this world and so our definition of “result” is different from that of others. However, others may say that this way of thinking is extremely impractical and they may query if we should continue to worship, pray and love one another as usual, because many of our youth in this world are striving for the beauty and goodness of our society and yearning for greater democracy and more human rights. Aren’t we pushing them aside in this way?

This concerns the horizontal relationship. You still have to love your neighbors. But how are you going to express your love? Lately, the phrase “being with” has been popular at our seminary. This is a pet phrase used by Samuel Wells. But what does it mean? Does it mean embracing you, or putting ourselves in your shoes so as to know and understand you? But being with others does not mean without critical thinking. When Jesus Christ became human and came to this world, wasn’t he being with us while remaining critical? Did He ever say, “Go on sinning!”? He didn’t, did He? He walks with you and yet He does point out your problems.

When we are with the young people, the first thing to do is to know what they are thinking and doing. Sometimes, we simply don’t understand them. They may have lots of values worthy of our support, but with regard to the ways they implement them, there may be room for discussion. In terms of beliefs, we may agree with them in many ways, but it may not be so in terms of practice.

Anyway, our “being with” them should also be “critical” in a sense. In no way are we embracing everything about them indiscriminately. After all, what is the greatest thing about Jesus Christ’s “being with” humans? It’s His death on the cross! So, dying on the cross is a most complete manifestation of His love for His enemies.

Even if a particular group of people don’t like us or don’t accept our views when we get in touch with them, we still have to follow the example of Jesus Christ and persist in being with them, instead of shrinking back, just as “incarnation” implies “God is with us.”

So does our being with the young critically mean keeping them company without reproaching them? Can’t we reprimand them for hurling bricks and setting MTR stations on fire? What does it really mean when we have to be with them while being critical?

Reprimanding is not the only way; you may express your opinions and discuss with them. This is not the proclamation of your stance; instead, we have to explain why we think what we think.

That means we don’t have to make any declaration to point out their mistakes in public but should do so in private. Is that right?

Let me put it this way. Are the young members of our church our primary concern? If there are youngsters taking to the streets and engaging in protests, do I know these guys? How much do I understand them? Why do they have such mindsets? They are the sheep we shepherd, and how much do we understand them? Or, vice versa. We can also ask, how much do these sheep understand us? Do they recognize the voice of the shepherd? Therefore, I would say, our solidarity with or being with them while remaining critical concerns whether we truly care about them, not caring just at this very moment but whether we have been caring about them all along; and whether these relationships have been existing amongst us, so that what I say today is not said out of nowhere and the care that I show today is not something that appears suddenly. Without long-term trust among one another, it will not be ideal when you express anything all of a sudden, no matter how well you present it.