Cogitating over Kanji

Came across some interesting etymology about the radical “示” (113), which is simplified to “礻” when used as part of a compound (as in 神).  Apparently, it originally came from the image of an altar in ancient Chinese oracular bone inscriptions.

I've always loved delving into the history of words, but mainly in English or the Indo-European family.  With Japanese, obviously I'm way out of my element, but since it's pictorial in nature, it's pretty interesting to check out even for illiterates like me.  I must have gotten bored in some writing practice/doodling and ended up combining it with the early oracle character form (with some drops of blood added for effect).  Picasa offered some cool effects, so I thought I'd share.  T-shirt designs perhaps?

And then after a bit more doodling, I present to you my masterpiece... ta-da!

Next time I'll have to play around with 義, like Hudson Taylor is using there.

“And What Do You Do?”: Self-Introductions (自己紹介) and Relating the Missionary Vision in Japan

If you’re a missionary or hang out with any very long, especially those in industrialized countries, you’re sure to hear the idea of “platforms” discussed.  This refers to a kind of service that acts as an entryway to gain an audience, or to legitimize one’s presence with a user-friendly category. 

For the record, I don’t think it is too difficult with God’s leading to find a basis and opportunity for being able to share the gospel, and it’s not my desire to make excuses for being a missionary. It is the second situation of being more easily understood that I’m focusing on here.  See, if they don’t have an accurate understanding of the label ‘Christianity’, ‘missionary’ sure ain’t gonna get too much traction without some fleshing it out.

In Japan, titles on business cards are especially important so people can know each other’s place in the hierarchy and therefore what register (linguistically, as in politeness level) to use with each other.  Also, the prestige of one’s group, that is, company affiliation, usually overshadows the particular job description.  Form over function, style over substance, and all that.

Of course, with this trump card you can easily outrank everyone in the room.

Unless we’re talking about relief work or straight-up street preaching (yee-haw), just introducing oneself with “I’m a missionary” can often seen as somewhat haughty or at least off-settling to the listener.  Even I often kind of distrust people working as church professionals.

If you’re not too sure, try it sometime and see what reaction you get, either from indigenous people or your own post-colonial countrymen.  Unless they are fellow believers, it tends to quickly shut down the conversation with a sledgehammer of awkward silence.  You might as well title yourself “Bringer of the Flame of Enlightenment and Civilization.”  Feel free to go ahead and add “apostolic” before it as well.  And “Great White.”

As little as I remember from Communications class in college, one of the central precepts was that communication is not about talking, but about being understood.  In the Perspectives on the World Missions Movement course, somewhere I think in the midst of the chapters on emic/etic ethnography, there was a lesson on how the missionary role can be perceived connotatively by different peoples.  It could simply be as stranger or foreigner or curiosity.  Or perhaps “Two-Faced Burner Down of Our Culture.”

In missiology as in daily life, what message is received depends entirely on the perceptions and categories the listener has about such terms.  It would be wonderful if we could set aside our worldview or lenses and, let’s be real, entire cultural upbringing for a moment in order to be more objective about things, but who does that? As David Hesselgrave, missiologist and missionary to Japan, phrased it, “It is as though their glasses have become a part of their eyes” (210).

Even in our own culture we feel the need for fancy names these days.  When I worked at the library, I wasn’t a librarian or even reference librarian, but a Library Service Specialist.  Doing data entry, I was an Indexing Specialist, brimming with clerical expertise.  We see such self-important titles in abundance today as we become more status-conscious.  Often we are ashamed or embarrassed of what we really do, either because it falls short of our personal dreams or doesn’t match up with the expectations of societal norms. 

In your adopted culture, what are their traditional vocational categories?  Of course, being involved with orphanages, prisons, refugees, non-profit advocacy, and other such direct charity-type work hardly needs any further label or explanation.  And generally speaking, missionaries with ‘tent-making’ credentials can bypass the awkwardness of such conversations: “Oh, you work for a church?  So… you’re getting paid to tell me about God and the Bible?  Interesting… and is that commission-based?”  (Get it?  Commission-based!  Matthew 28?  Anyway…)

But what if you don’t fit into a neat, secular category in society like teacher, businessman/salaryman, entrepreneur (hardly less pretentious-sounding than missionary), writer, musician, student, or metaphysician?


Sick People Don’t Need Doctors

One’s role is best understood in relation to what service or product – basically the solution – one provides.  Let me suggest we look more closely at just exactly what kind the missionary job description entails in the discipleship process and how to reformulate the title in light of that.

Japan has the second or third largest economy in the world.  Anyway, it’s rather affluent.  It doesn’t need our American monetary aid or clothing and food packages, thank-you-very-much.  Though they do have a tendency to buy advanced aircraft and anti-ballistic missile systems and such from us.

The popular image usually presented of Japan is one of serene perfection, a utopia of nature and technology in harmony, albeit with some extremely disturbing cartoons.  Most Americans have that sort of fuzzy picture in their heads, with Godzilla and sushi and cherry blossoms figuring prominently in the foreground.  Of course, scratching the surface, reality is far different and the effects of sin are far-reaching, distorting relationships away from love and acceptance to that of distrust, bitterness, and resentment.

I’ve written about some of this in greater context in other articles, but from a missional point of view let’s take a glance at the issues facing Japanese society and families today, many of which are familiar to Westerners in our own culture:

-Fatherlessness (or ‘Father-emptiness’ as one of my students phrased it).  Even though many families stay married (at least until the kids are out of the house), most fathers are either pressured to work long hours for the sake of appearances or simply because they don’t know how to relate to their family.
-Severe emotional and communication barriers in marriage.
-Lack of conflict resolution skills, inverted hierarchy, discipline, fear of confrontation, etc. in parenting.
-Aimlessness, ennui (existential apathy), and anomie (alienation, purposelessness from breakdown of norms) among youth; a growing lack of civility, propriety, etc. in what has been a traditionally a very conservative Confucian culture.  Young men especially grow up with very little sense of masculinity, spurring labels like “herbivores.”

On top of those family problems there are more general symptoms:

-Epidemic levels of suicide; consistently over 30,000 a year, or once every fifteen minutes. (Interestingly, South Korea recently surpassed that).  Suicide is the leading cause of death among youth men and women.  Most people have been impacted in some way by a friend or family member who has committed suicide.
-General depression and hopelessness; few seek to discover meaning in life in the midst of a materialist society.
-Phenomena like hikikomori (acute social withdrawal), where people shut themselves in isolation often for years or decades; some estimates number over a million young people are afflicted with this condition.
-A growing “school phobia” (toko kyohi) kind of withdrawal.
-Japan is the number one provider in child pornography.  Teen prostitution, abortion, etc. are also prevalent.
-Christian terms like “God”, “sin”, or “eternal life” have completely different meanings in Japanese making it problematic to communicate effectively.
-Idol worship is ubiquitous, making for deeply-embedded demonic strongholds.
-Japan is less than 1% Christian, one of - if not the - largest unreached people groups in the world.

The government and traditional agencies cannot provide solutions to these kind of sociological issues because at their root these problems are spiritual in origin and therefore require a spiritual solution.  A material worldview has no adequate category for understanding and responding to moral issues.  They have no context to recognize these as ramifications of sin, let alone to perceive the salty application of the gospel. 

Expressing the kind of needed ministry envisioned by the missionary must take into account these spiritual issues.  When social norms are in disarray, to properly diagnose them in the context of a gospel-informed, Jesus-centered lifestyle, we have to examine the underlying worldview factors, unraveling the implications of a materialist/karmic worldview, exposing these false belief systems to the light of the gospel, addressing questions of identity and community, self-perception, a sense of security and belonging.


Be Sure to Pack a Hefty Theological Tool Kit/Medicine Bag

Now that we have a more refined sense of the job description, we can proceed to find a fitting title.  One could call this community/campus outreach or apartment ministry something, but those vague-sounding categories only make sense to other Christians.  In the process of facilitating community, assessing needs, networking churches and ministries, however, it does make sense to see our work to some extent in respect to traditional neighborhood associations (隣組 or 町内会). 

Others like Hesselgrave have made the same observations about the relatively stagnant communication/relational model of a top-down corporate-style church compared to the free-flowing cooperative, participatory model of the traditional neighborhood associations.  Then there’s the discussion meetings (座談会) and group counseling sessions (法座) that Soka Gakkai and other burgeoning cult groups employ in addressing the need of potential converts to belong to a dependable group with a strong leader.  Who could argue that such values as camaraderie, kojo (close fellowship), jitafuji no kyo (no distinction between people), sogo-shinai (mutual love), shinrai (confidence), kyodo (collaboration), rentaisekininkan (sharing of responsibility), are not needed in today’s society (502, 608-609)?

The clouds of suspicion by the receptor audience are only dispelled when they see us with a clear and credible identity/purpose in the professional world so that trust can begin to be established.  The more concrete, the better.  Like, “I’m studying people’s opinions on spiritual beliefs, like the effect different beliefs have on youth people and families” or “I’m working with a church to understand more about the impact and implications of the New Religions on Japanese society.” 

One could also consider it along the lines of holistic (transcendental? existential?) counseling.  Or perhaps intervention, preventive, or relational counseling.  Not that that will necessarily make a lot of sense to your friends and supporters back home in the States.  If psychiatry sounds too daunting, perhaps “advocacy work” works?  Much of missionary work is about highlighting the outstanding needs of segments of society. 

There is much overlap to be found in the area of counseling and applied or even pastoral theology (I find the term ‘practical theology’ redundant).  Hayao Kawai, president of Association of Japanese Clinical Psychology, which I assume is as thoroughly secular-humanist as American psychological associations, sees mental health and a realized identity with a spiritual backdrop:

“ ‘In your country, individualism is at first really based on Christianity.  Even though you do what you like, you never forget about your God.  God is looking down, like an ego, judging you.  But in Japan, there is no God but the ie,’ and no one to judge but the group. ‘Westerners have a long history of becoming individuals, and you have established how to create relations with others. But we don’t share that experience in Japan … I often think that our challenge now as Japanese is to come up with a new way to become individuals without relying on Christianity’ ” (Zielenziger 69-70).

Interesting, Dr. Kawai’s choice of words.  To rely on Christianity (as one would a crutch) strikes him as out of the question from the get-go.  He seems to take it for granted that such a belief system may work fine for the rest of the world, but is incompatible with Japanese culture.  Or, more specifically with ie (家), which is sort of like household.  It’s the extended family system including ancestors, not unlike the Roman household cult with its accompanying religious rites (sacra familiae).  Well, to some extent it is true that the ie and Christian worldview are mutually exclusive, since the gospel does repudiate the Buddhist-Confucian system of ancestral rites.  I discussed this a good deal in the Halloween article on O-Bon.

Though Dr. Kawai might be over-generalizing about an outdated 1950s view of America as a “Christian” nation, that’s neither here nor there.  He might also think the same theological backdrop applies for Europe and therefore lump the West together as a culture of individualism derived from a Judeo-Christian worldview.  I won’t argue with that, but if so, what does that say for the East?  Is he implying that the East has never had a tradition of individuated identity?  (It’s certainly not to be found in Sankhya Hinduism or Buddhism.)  If so, it sounds like he’s got an uphill battle to try to discover individuality in the East if it hasn’t yet sprung up in the past few thousand years.

Which is not to say that it isn’t true that Asians feel more constrained by modesty and their peers, making them reluctant to put forth their view or ability in public.  As Hesselgrave points out, the Japanese don’t even have a standard word for the first person due to the overarching important of hierarchy of status in the Japanese language.  Even the word for an “individual” is subsumed by notions of relationship (in the case of jinkan, kanjin, and aidagara).  And then there’s the constant stamping down on individual dissenting opinion by the powers that be in Japanese society; maintaining harmony often just means to bow to whatever the boss wants. 

On the other hand, the individualism of the West and of evangelicalism has certainly run amok. As a corrective, Hesselgrave suggests a welcome approach for Asian converts dealing with their wary families.  Instead of bracing for inevitable rejection as a pioneer-cum-martyr, one could first explain the ideal of the Christian family at harmony with God and one another, apologize for not having been a dutiful son or daughter, etc., and then commit to being a better son or daughter, etc. with God’s help (606).  After all, new converts are the main point of Christian contact (missionary) to their families.

Getting back to the tangent, it just goes to reiterate that there is a significant cultural and conceptual gap for the missionary to bridge in helping to familiarize people to unconventional concepts like, say, monotheism or missionaries or, apparently, “I.” 

Of course, a firm grasp of the target language, indigenous religions, and worldview are essential prerequisites in learning to be incarnational.  But showing up as an ambassador or representative has plenty of nonverbal elements.  Much of our cross-cultural explaining is best done through action.  Loving service, for example, speaks for itself.  What would it be like to answer a question about one’s church with “We provide prayer and spiritual blessings for our families and neighborhoods and community.  We sing protection over our city.  Ultimately, we seek to transform communities through lifting up the light and life of God’s Word”?  If that seems like a priestly or shamanic function, that’s because it is.

I probably would not identify myself as a shaman as such, tempting though it might be to dress up like Dr. Strange.  But neither would I hesitate to assert that Christians have assess to vastly higher power than shamans, as we are called to fulfill our function as priests of the new covenant, interceding for the lost. 


Like Name, Like Status

It’s a shame we can’t go back to the colorful epithets, sobriquets, and naming conventions of yesteryear, like, say, “Jack Shepherd”, “Edward Longshanks”, and “Beren One-Hand.”  With names like “Ivan the Terrible”, “Crazy Horse”, “Ethelred the Unready” or “Joe the Plumber”, you kind of know what you’re getting. 

I think “Daniel the Rhymer” has a nice ring to it, something of the old raconteur or perhaps rakugoka (落語家).  Unfortunately, in spite of my background in acting, accents, and general wordsmithery, we don’t really have a place in our society today for the minstrel bard (invoking the Holy Spirit as muse), unless it’s at the Renaissance Festival.  Although, in some parts of the world we still have pirates around, so who knows. 

Storytelling guilds and folk societies are quite popular these days.  I think of Garrison Keillor.  I think of my college professor who sat on his desk and wove narratives that inspired me to change one of my majors to history.  In other words, I would commit myself to listening to Garrison for hours on end because of his consummate skill and artistry.  I obviously trusted my history professor enough to shift the course of my studies.  What could be more cathartic and compelling and persuasive than Jesus with his parables? What is the gospel but an incarnational life-giving proposition within story form? 

We must be careful in our storying to always relate the narrative back to the larger story that encompasses God’s plan in salvation history.  Needless to say, the task of communicating the gospel is not so simple as to present five quick steps to heaven – a gross distortion and mishandling of culture, worldview, the reasoning of the carnal mind, and the gospel itself. 

But take heart.  Our authority is in the timeless book we carry.  God has purified His Word seven times (Psalm 12:6) and magnified it even above His Name (Psalm 138:2).  It is a fire and a hammer and a sword (Jeremiah 23:29; Hebrews 4:12).  As long as we don’t get in the way too much (like with our overly Westernized systematic theologies), it’s pretty effective all by itself (Isaiah 55:10-11).  The Word of God was not meant to be studied academically or exegeted in a classroom, but rather to be fruitfully sown forth in the day-to-day intersecting paths of our work and needs and relationships (Deuteronomy 6:6-9).

It would serve us well to speak half as much as we listen and listen half as much as we pray.  Before telling your own anecdote or parable or biblical story, survey your friend for her favorite folktale.  Whether in Japanese or in English as a second language, the tone, gestures, nonverbal cues of method acting, and a dialogue loop of feedback are great in helping along the listener’s understanding of unfamiliar words and concepts.  If you can do it to the beat of a drum around a campfire, even better.

This all implies a diligence in mastering your craft.  If you want to hit a target, you can surely run up and throw your arrow at it.  Much more effective is to first string it to the bow and let fly.  Our goal is to penetrate the tablet of people’s hearts with words of spiritual life.  To be a shaman in one respect literally meant to enact ritual dances.  To be the oral interpretative bridge that is the missionary means to share and enact the gospel as a story-teller. 

Of course, that often carries with it the expectation that people might still look at you funny, no matter what public identity you end up with.  (Like the neighbor association’s priestly, story-telling, ethnographic relational counselor.)

Which reminds me of one time when I was helping out at one of those ubiquitous “International Cafés” that Japanese churches put on for outreach.  English conversation and coffee being the draw (read: bait-and-switch) to get people to come into the church for a gospel message.

As people entered, they would first get name tags.  I would usually do a little drawing and add some colorful effects to mine.  Yes, that made me stand out a bit in a culture that idolizes conformity, but what you see is what you get. 

Next to me, a Japanese guy I knew asked if I could decorate some graphics on his too.  Sitting at the name card table, however, was a more straight-laced Japanese church girl.  She frowned at this practice, probably making some remark about my profaning of the honorable name tag.

“You don’t like it?” I asked.
“It’s weird.  Why do you have to be different?”
“I don’t know,” I shrugged, and thought for a moment.  “Maybe God made me that way?”
She sniffed.  “I don’t think so...”

Honestly, if I had been wearing a pirate costume, I don’t think it would have changed her opinion of me.



References:
Hesselgrave, David. Communicating Christ Cross-Culturally.
Zielenziger , Michael. Shutting Out the Sun: How Japan Created Its Own Lost Generation.

Some Recommended Reading:
John Piper, Don’t Waste Your Life.
Ralph Winters, ed. Perspectives on the World Christian Movement: A Reader.
Roland Allen, Honor and Shame.
Ruth Benedict, The Chrysanthemum and the Sword.
http://www.simon-cozens.org/content/making-friends-teaching-english-and-post-colonialism
http://www.simon-cozens.org/content/counter-contextualization-keeping-our-saltiness

敷居はどのくらい高いのでしょうか？ (“How High is the Threshold?”)

That’s the phrase I have printed on my name card.  It’s meant to be thought-provoking, like an ice-breaker.  Based on feedback from Japanese friends, I assume I got the grammar right.  It comes from a lesser known Japanese idiom, 敷居が高い (“The threshold is high”), referring to how a person might feel bad in visiting someone that they haven’t kept in touch with for a while.  In order words, it describes the hesitancy someone feels in such a situation. 

It also applies to how Japanese typically view visiting a church or becoming a Christian to be a daunting proposition.  Their perception is that the entrance requirements are too high to come in, like the image they might have of being burdened with a lot of church duties on top of their already loaded work schedule, etc.  But I’d like to focus a little more closely at some of our assumptions about religion and what the threshold (or ‘entrance requirements’, if you will) to Christianity is really like.


At Ease on the Broad Path

When thinking of religion, Japanese might naturally consider themselves to be in the “no religion” category (無宗教), as they say, simply because they don’t have to commit to any kind of active beliefs in being a part of the cultural Buddhism, Shinto, and Confucianism that surrounds their daily lives.  For them, there is no threshold at all for these religions because by birth they are automatically logged in the family register at the local temple, etc.  No creed or membership covenant or tithe or some other measurable act by which to determine their being included in those religious systems.  By contrast, the idea of Christianity to their popular imagination looms ominously foreboding, like the massive stairs and portal to some Gothic cathedral: one actually has to believe in something. 

The Buddhist monk and poet Saigyō Hōshi (1118-1190), dwelling on the spiritual center of Shinto devotion at Ise Shrine, composed: 何事のおわしますをば知らねどもかたじけなさに涙 こぼるる。

What is enshrined I do not know,
But the awe of a sense of gratitude
Brings tears to my eyes.

Quite lovely.  I realize it’s rather succinct in the simple poetic style, but the natural question is: for what or to whom is the gratitude directed?  Was there any content or knowledge to his devotion or was it just a vague feeling?

Imagine if you saw me in the park crying tears of joy and asked me, “Hey, are you okay?  What are you crying about?” and I replied, “Oh, I don’t know really.  I’m so grateful.”  “Grateful for what?”  “I’m not really sure.  Just grateful for something, I guess…”

It sounds touching and sublime at first hearing, but under closer examination the feeling becomes not just ineffable, but incoherent.

To the Asian mind, Buddhism is pretty wide open, a tolerant wonderland of come-as-you-please.  Consider the Pure Land sect of Buddhism.  Originally from India, after a few hundred years the Pure Land teaching spread to China.  Shan-Tao (613-681) wrote in the Hanju Panegyric*, “The sharp-edged sword is another name for Amitābha.  An invocation of the name absolves one from all sin” (Nakamura 495).  Wow, talk about your get-out-of-jail-free cards.  Again, on first hearing, it sounds pretty easy.  Sounds a lot like Christianity, in fact...

Centuries later in Japan, Hōnen (1133-1212) took up this theme, which his disciple Shinran (1173-1262) further developed into the present day form of the doctrine in Jōdo Shinshū or “True Pure Land Buddhism” (as opposed to False Pure Land?).  Simply reciting the invocation of Amida Buddha’s name (the namu-Amida-butsu or nembutsu) just once, like an abbreviated Sinner’s Prayer or the gohonzon of Nichiren, is sufficient for one to be reborn into the Pure Land. 

It’s not quite as tolerant as it sounds though.  The Shinshū sect of the Honganji (Original Vow) order were known as the “followers of the gate” (monto) for their “closed door policy” (Nakamura 482).  Both Buddhist orders and Shinto sects are known for their “characteristically sectarian exclusiveness” (Nakamura 486, 487) – each of them apparently sure that they alone possess the one, true key for unlocking the secret of knowing how to get rid of sin and be allowed into heaven.

Nichiren, for example, founder of another extremely influential Buddhism sect in Japan, thought that the nembutsu was of no effect in getting rid of sin, and opposed other sects quite violently.  “Those who practice invocation to Amitābha,” he famously declared, “are due to suffer continuous punishment in hell; the Zen sect is the devil; the Shingon sect is the ruiner of the country; the Ritsu sect is the enemy of the country.”  He even believed himself to be a reincarnation of a bodhisattva (Buddhist savior).

So the question is, how did Shinran know that nembutsu was true and using this fetishist formula would work?  According to his own words, he didn’t! 

In his Tannishō (“Tracts Deploring Heterodoxies”), Shinran confessed, “I do not know whether the nembutsu is actually the means to rebirth in the Pure Land, or whether perhaps it is the road to Hell.  Even though I were cajoled by Saint Hōnen that I should go to Hell through the nembutsu, I should do so and not regret it” (Nakamura 450).

To this I would say, and please excuse my French, what the hell?  It sounds more like a teenage lover’s suicide pact than something a rational person would consider.  Instead of rigorously examining the object of his faith, he relies solely on the authority of his master, trusting that Hōnen was right about matters of eternal salvation, who in turn trusted in Shan-Tao...


What to do with a Broken Compass?

Here’s what I don’t understand about Pure Land Buddhism.  Are sins so inconsequential and easy to be wiped away?  Is Amida so powerful that he can just wave his hand and – poof – goodbye sins?  How does he erase the stain of our evil thoughts and actions and words?  I presume these Pure Land guys (as well as Muslims believing in the blanket forgiveness of Allah) have given due consideration to these questions somewhere in their voluminous works and commentaries on the sutras, but so far I haven’t read it.

How do we understand the deep stain of sin?  Emperor Daigo (885-930) once composed, “At the bottom of Hell there is no real difference whatsoever between the members of the Imperial family and slaves.”

In the same vein, Shinran is perspicuous enough to have stated about himself, “There is no end of evil nature, Man’s mind is as abominable as a viper” (Nakamura 515).

How reminiscent of Jeremiah’s word, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (17:9).

Also, Paul’s language in Romans 3:10-20, quoting various passages from the Old Testament:

As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one;
there is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God.
All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”
“Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.”
“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”
“Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”
“Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know.”“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.

It is therefore indeed remarkable that Shinran had the insight that he did in understanding his sinful condition.  Self-reflection begins with honesty or sincerity, honesty begins with humility, and humility with brokenness.

Admittedly, these are not typical traits of the Japanese.  Dr. Hajime Nakamura, noted scholar of Hinduism and Buddhism, writes, “It may be rightly asserted that, generally speaking, the Japanese are not at all very sin-conscious and that this fact is tied up with the this-worldly tendency of the Japanese” (518).  He goes on to talk about shame-consciousness centered around one’s particular social nexus. 

The Bible speaks of Creator God as Lord of Heaven and Earth.  Sin is only rightly understood as sin when seen as a personal offense against our Maker.  All of us have come under the universal curse of sin and shame and the condemnation of God, no matter how much we may try to ignore it with apathy (無関心) or suppress such knowledge with our unrighteous lifestyle.

In the Dhammapada we read of the need to wake up, to pay attention to spiritual matters: “Earnestness is the path of Nirvana; thoughtlessness the path of death.  Those who are in earnest do not die; those who are thoughtless are as if dead already” (9, 4).  When we find that our compass is broken, self-reflection and soul-searching is a good beginning.


Seeking the Right Road Sign

So as Shinran and his fellow Shinshū “followers of the gate” were excommunicating those who had different beliefs, the idea was clear that truth, by definition, is exclusive. Either Amida Buddha is the way to find forgiveness of sins or he isn’t.  Every religion makes claims as to knowing the truth about reality and the human condition, and therefore denying the opposing claims of other religions. 

Islam therefore inevitably posits, “And whoever desires other than Islam as religion - never will it be accepted from him, and he, in the Hereafter, will be among the losers” (Qu’ran, Sura 3:85).  Buddha similarly states, “Now in this doctrine and discipline, Subhadda, is found the noble eightfold path, and in it alone, Subhadda, is the man of true saintliness.  Void are the systems of other teachers – void of true saints” (Mahaparinibbana Sutta 5,62).  Moreover, even within Buddhism, the claims of the Theravada sect and Mahayana sect are fundamentally in opposition to each other, not to mention all the sub-sects. 

If one person claims to have found the key to a lock, obviously that means that other keys don’t work.  Contrary to Wumen’s Zen idea of the “Gateless Gate” (無門関), thresholds are inevitable.  To put it another way, if you were to invite me to a party and offer me a map with directions, it would ignorant and silly for me to wave it away, “Oh please, those directions might be fine for you, but I don’t need that.  I’m sure if I’m really sincere and just keep driving I’ll eventually find the place.”

The Pure Land Followers of the Gate at least got one thing right.  They knew the gate to truth would have to be narrow, but they had no confidence that they had chosen the right gate. 

Jesus’ admonition then would have made perfect sense to them: “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Matthew 7:13-14).  狭い門からはいりなさい。滅びに至る門は大きく、その道は広いからです。そして、そこからはいって行く者が多いのです。いのちに至る門は小さく、その道は狭く、それを見いだす者はまれです。

I would claim that Amida, in fact, is not the way to be forgiven and go to heaven.  Buddha himself would not have believed in such categories, much less that he as a man could do what is required to offer anything like salvation.

“The Lord Buddha continued: "What think you, Subhuti? Do you imagine that the Tathagata reflects within himself, 'I will bring salvation to all beings'? Entertain no such delusive thought. And why? Because, in reality, there is no such dharma as 'salvation' for any one; and there is no such thing as a living being to whom 'salvation' can be brought. What is referred to as an entity, a being, a living being, a personality, is not so in reality--it is only so understood by ignorant and uneducated people” (Diamond Sutra 25).

Contrary to the claims of the Pure Land sect, Buddha himself was straightforward in explaining that he was not to be depended on for salvation.  In another place in the Dhammapada, we have, “By oneself the evil is done, by oneself one suffers; by oneself evil is left undone, by oneself one is purified. The pure and the impure (stand and fall) by themselves, no one can purify another.” (6,5).

From Buddha’s final speech in Mahaparinibbana Suttanta: “Rely on yourselves and do not seek any external help” (2, 33) and again, “Those who, relying upon themselves only, shall not look for assistance to any one besides themselves, it is they who shall reach the topmost height.” (2, 35)  “Buddhas do but point the way – work out your salvation with diligence.” (Humphreys 120).

Jesus, on the other hand, has provided sufficient and compelling evidence of his identity as not only the way to truth, but truth itself.  He evidences that he is indeed the one true God.  And as the living God, he demonstrates his ability to forgive our sins against him and give us new hearts (Luke 5:17-26; John 10:37-38; 14:11). 

Some people prefer to mock and ask dismissively, “What is truth?” (John 18:38).  It is far easier to scoff away the notion than to face up to the convicting realization that my life falls short of how I ought to have been living.

Author and pastor, Dr. Curt Daniel puts it well:

“Jesus is the answer.  He is the truth.  And He alone is ultimate truth.  Furthermore, He is the truth, not one truth among many.  These powerful words stand in stark contrast to the silly idea, ‘That’s true for you, but something else is true for me.’  Jesus is the ultimate truth for all mankind.  One more thing: Jesus tells us that ultimate truth is personal, not abstract.  Truth is a person, not a principle.  So, then, the answer to the search for the meaning in life in not merely in right doctrine, but in the right person – Jesus.”1

Truth then is not just some man’s opinion, differing according to each person, or merely something that is to be abstracted and theorized about.  In Jesus, truth is ultimate and unique. 


Entering the Narrow Gate (狭い門)

We can read of Jesus interacting with a wide variety of people, knowing their thoughts, healing them, speaking words of kindness and compassion, teaching great spiritual truths, casting out evil spirits with a word.  He had firsthand knowledge of heaven, since that was his throne.  When he was about to return to heaven, one of his disciples asked him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” 

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

It is because of this that the early Christians were first known as Followers of the Way (as in 基督道 or just 道).  See Acts 9:2; 16:17; 18:25-26; Acts 19:9, 23; esp. Acts 24:14, 22. 

And again Jesus said:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them.  I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. […] The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:7-10).

“We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).
 
Jesus alone provided up his own perfect life to be sacrificed on the cross in place of our lives so that the righteous standards and perfect justice of God would be satisfied (Hebrews 10:10, 14, 18-22).  In doing so, he made the way open for us to be reconciled to God if we would repent of our sin and trust him.

This is verified in the historicity of Jesus’ death and resurrection.  The fulfilled prophecies, the empty tomb, and the eyewitnesses whose testimony was sealed by their martyrdom all compel us to discover the fact of the resurrection trustworthy.  Not that I need any such proof; I know personally that he is the way because of how he confronted me, and has forgiven me of my terrible and shameful sins against him and how he has experientially changed my life. 

The threshold of being separated by our sin from relationship with God is very high indeed.  Jesus was kind enough to lay down his life as a bridge for us so that we could be reconciled to God.  Now the main barrier remaining is simply our stubborn pride that would keep us from repenting of our sins and accepting his gracious gift of new life.


Selected References:
Humphreys, Christmas. Buddhism. Harmondsworth, England: Pelican Books, 1951.
Nakamura, Hajime. Ways of Thinking of Eastern Peoples.  Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1964.

1. http://faithbibleonline.net/MiscDoctrine/IsJesusChristTheOnlyWayToGod.htm

*“Hymns praising Birth in the Pure Land based on Samadhi”.  Also called Ekangyo Tomyo Hanju Zanmai Gyodo Ojosan, or simply Hanju-san.

Hungry Ghosts and Hollow Tombs: What Halloween, O-Bon, and the Bible Have to Say About Death, Ancestors, and the After-Life

Well, the harvest is past, and the summer has ended, as they say.  Walking through the neighborhood in the evening, with a mug of hot apple cider or a well-tamped pipe, we’re embraced by the rustling and susurrus of leaves.  Now and then comes the heady smell of loam and wood fires in the brisk, autumn air.  Eldritch rings of smoke through the trees.  And we’re reminded reluctantly of the waning of the year. 

It is the one time when the old, seasonal rites of pagan circles emerge, reminding us in the West of what we’d prefer to forget.  Of the looming presence of things in the shadows, of wandering spirits and dark gods.  Little do we know how they’re watching us from the edge of the greenwood, restlessly awaiting their yearly offerings.  One hesitates to speak too loudly of the “kindly ones” or look too closely for what creatures move about amongst the trick-or-treaters on the night of Halloween.

We are passingly familiar, those of us in the West, with the three days of Halloween, the Day of the Dead, and All Soul’s Day, though we hardly know them, rooted as they are in traditions that are quite foreign to the secular, materialist mindset.  As a seasonal festival meant to pay homage or appease the spirits of the dead, it is no wonder that the old Celtic Samhain or our current Halloween triptych is celebrated all around the world by other names.  For what culture is free of the fear of death and the anger of evil spirits? 

If there were any holiday/holy-day in the West that is still tainted with pagan roots to the extent that it could pose the risk of syncretism for the Christ-follower, Halloween would be it.  If you’ll notice, I did not follow the same pattern in extolling the holiday in this post as I did with the previous introductions and appraisals to Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. 

Most of us in America would never even consider the actual existence or homage to false gods during Halloween, just as we would have to concern about the pagan names of the days of the week or months.  For us those gods were defeated and long since forgotten thousands of years ago by our ancestors in Europe, except perhaps for Mammon, the god of money, greed, and commercialism.  It is vastly different in other parts of the world where such gods are continually invoked and the demand to conform to the community is ever present. 

With the Celts, Samhain ("summer's end") was the last of the three harvests.  Harvest crops and agricultural abundance are attributed to the blessing of what is regarded as ancestors,

If he were a pro-nuclear Japanese character named Pluto-kun

or, more closely, as chthonic (earthy) or tutelary deities.  The realm of the dead is closely associated with the harvest.  Sacrifices to Ceres, the pagan goddess of grain and Honey Nut Cheerios® (from whom we get the word ‘cereal’), were common at Roman funerals. Even the name Pluto means “Giver of Wealth.”  Just think: where does one find gold and precious stones?  In the underworld.

Incidentally, Jesus was in the earthen tomb for three days.  When he arose as the “firstfruits” (1 Corinthians 15:20), he told his disciples to keep praying to the Father and wait for the power of the Holy Spirit, who then came on Pentecost, the harvest festival.  But more on this later.

The History of O-Bon

In Japan, closer to the peak of summer, they observe the O-Bon Festival, which is also a three-day period.  On the other end of the year, before the cold of winter is quite lifted, they celebrate Setsubun with various quaint exorcism rites.  In doing so, they’ve conveniently divided the offerings to ancestors with the former and the offerings to oni/demons with the latter and gotten two holidays out of one.

O-Bon (お盆, or 精霊会), short for Urabonne (于蘭盆會 or 盂蘭盆會), is the Japanese pronunciation of the Sanskrit word Ulambanna (अवलम्बन).  Ulambanna means – no lie –“hanging upside down.”  In common usage, O-Bon is usually rendered as “Ancestor Day” or “The Feast of Lanterns” – which sounds a lot more friendly than something like “Festival of the Ungrateful Hanging Dead” or, as it’s more accurately known in China, “Hungry Ghost Festival” (盂蘭盆/ 盂兰盆).  Since the food for the dead spirits is offered on a special tray, the word “bon” has also come to mean the tray as well.

Mah-Na Mah-Na!

A mix of Confucianism and a veneer of folk-Buddhism, the Ulambanna Sutra is actually a Chinese story masquerading as an Indian Mahayana Buddhist text on ancestor worship, starring Buddha and one of his disciples named Mahamaudgalyayana, or Maudgalyāyana… Mahāmoggallāna… er, something like that.  The Japanese were quick to dub him ‘Mokuren.’  Good call there. 

The story goes, Mokuren is progressing along in his Buddhism pretty well and gains some special powers whereby he can divine where his dead parents wound up.

Mokuren - artist's rendition

Wait, what?  Yeah, the text is really short and glosses over this point pretty quickly.  It’s kind of like he’s one of the X-Men, only they’re born with their powers.  Kind of a thin plot device, or at least an underused one, but there was no Steve Ditko around at that time to come up with the Eye of Agamotto. (Oddly enough, the Eye was based on an actual Nepali "Amulet of Snail Martyrs."  I swear, there is no making this stuff up!)  Due to the voluntary nature of Mokuren's visionary powers of "six spiritual penetrations" and being able to journey and meet his mother later on in the realm of the hungry ghost, I can only guess that they are quasi-shamanistic in origin, but I don't know enough at all about Buddhism to make any claims.


Anyway, Mokuren's dad apparently made it to Buddhist heaven okay, but his mom unfortunately ended up being re-born in the hungry ghost level of Buddhist hell due to her stinginess in not giving money to Buddhist monks.  As punishment, she is tormented and made to hang upside down forever, unable to feed herself since ‘hungry ghosts’ have thin necks.

So Mokuren asked Buddha what could be done to help alleviate her suffering somehow.  Buddha tells him to give a bunch of expensive gifts to some monks on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, and then she can be released and allowed to be re-born on a higher level.  Mokuren follows Buddha’s instructions and, according to one account, his mother was then reborn as a dog.  Seriously.  Later, he made more hugely expensive offerings and she was finally reborn in as a human again.  Although presumably her son must have been pretty old by that time.  The original version in the sutra promises that ghosts up to seven generations back (but no more?) that receive such offerings can “enter the celestial flower light and experience limitless bliss.”

These days, however, it would seem that the rites of O-Bon only offer three days of respite from the endless upside-down suffering of one’s deceased family.  Through the influence of Confucianism, the offerings that were originally meant for monks are now directed to one’s ancestors, cutting out the middleman.  When the ancestral spirits go back to the underworld, they are guided by traditional paper lanterns set up to float in the river.  (If you think about it, not too different really from jack o’lanterns at Halloween.)  Generally speaking, the three-day O-Bon holiday is meant to be lighter in tone, like a family reunion.  However, it’s also quite common to see the month as haunted.  With the portals to hell unlocked, so to speak, people avoid making big decisions like buying a car or getting married.  Or small things like swimming and going out after dark.  After all, who knows what vengeful spirits might follow you home?

May the Amulet of Snail Martyrs of Dr. Strange protect you on your way home.

So there you have it.  The Ulambanna Sutra was written to explain why people should be nice to their parents (filial piety or 五常五倫) and pay huge amounts of money Buddhist monks so as to help ameliorate the sufferings of the spirits of the dead.  Rather like the practice of indulgences to free souls from Purgatory in Catholicism based on the transfer of religious merit points (功徳). 

All in all, pretty spooky.  Good thing October 31st is also Protestant Reformation Day, eh?


A Closer Look at the Beliefs Behind Ancestral Rites and Customs

I know that some people, even a few scholars, try to explain ancestral rites away as simply harmless socio-cultural customs, curiosities devoid of any real religious overtones.  Sorry, but I call shenanigans.  One has to bend over backwards to filter out all the religious meaning in these rites.  If I seem to be overly flippant here, that’s because this is a really serious issue. To think that billions of people have been lied to and enslaved by the few paragraphs of this sutra about the true nature of death.  I normally soft-pedal these kind of cultural festivals and customs as I discuss the world-changing implications of the message of Christ, but in this case, I almost want to take people by the shoulders and shake them.  I want to warn them of the seriousness and terrible dangers posed by these beliefs that have shaped their worldview and identity. 

When I was younger, I myself used have an allure to the occult and esoterica, dappling in all kinds of arcane lore.  I know something of what lies in the shadows.  Now I never went so far as to do any spells or anything – it was mostly antiquarian and academic, mind you.  But when I read of Goethe’s Faust, I knew there was more than a little of myself in the story.  Thankfully, God was pleased to deliver me from such infernal meditations. 

Halloween is quite real and one must be careful about opening doorways to strange spirits.  I’ve never run into any ghosts or goblins, and I haven’t seen any demon possessions or visible manifestations like some of my friends have, but the one encounter I had with a demonic presence was more than enough.

Shinto is a typical polytheist, animist religion; having a shrine to the household gods is a natural part of ancestor worship (精霊崇拝 or 祖先崇拝).  In older times, the cult of the dead had more shades of shamanism (“cult” referring to the traditional anthropological definition of “a system of ritual practices”).  These days, the so-called New Religions of Japan, which are growing as a staggering rate, are basically spirit-possessed shamanistic cults. 

The same customs are found the world over in the ancestral cults of ancient Egypt, Rome, etc.  Instead of Setsubun and O-Bon, the Romans styled their festivals with names like Feralia and Parentalia.  Instead of a butsudan or kamidana altar in their kyakuma room, the Romans had lararia altars in their atrium, along with sacella (or sacraria), and aediculae shrines.  The Japanese use memorial tablets (ihai) and sometimes pictures of their deceased, while Romans had pictures and masks called imagines. 

Roman cultural life revolved around the mos maiorum, or way of the elders, which informed and shaped all aspects of their life.  Culture is a mixed bag.  Essentially man-made, its language and customs shift around.  Sometimes they change for the better, sometimes not, but all of it is woven together in a tightly-knit matrix.  Some traditions are admirable, while others are misguided, or mere superstitions.

The holiday of Lemuria, for example, just like Setsubun in Japan, is about children throwing beans outside the house to wish away bad luck and evil spirits.  Of course, this light-hearted tradition, while perhaps entertaining, has no effect on protecting the family from evil spirits.  It’s like wiping one’s hands on a towel that says “Healthy” in the hopes that you won’t get the plague.  That’s a rather ridiculous example, but even so not far off from the reality of these customs.  Let me use a real-life example then.  Japanese kids will often cover their thumbs when funeral car rides by.  The word for thumb in Japanese is “oya-yubi” (親指) or parent-finger.  If they don’t cover their thumbs, then their parents will die soon.

Even if such actions as bean-tossing did have some magical protective power, the fact that the festival recurs every year belies the idea that it couldn’t be really effective.  If such an action must be done over and over each year, that would mean sometime between the festivals the bad luck/evil spirits are able to come into the house again.

The truth is, offering food, incense, and prayers, burning joss paper or “Hell Money”, or any other external act of bribery cannot erase the bad things people have done.  Not for others and not for ourselves. 

If one truly wishes to express filial piety, it must be done while one’s parents are still living.  Once they die, it is too late.  Buddha himself failed to show honor to his parents when he left them and his wife to see if he could figure out the meaning of life in a materialist universe.  He ought to have practiced what he preached.  One would do better imitating Aeneas than Buddha.  It’s ironic that Christianity is so misunderstood in East Asia; in reality, to be a Buddhist monk means to turn your back on your family.

Of course, the historical Buddha, Mr. Siddhārtha Gautama, didn’t really talk about ancestors and the after-life at all.  He was an atheist who denied the supernatural.  From dust to dust was his philosophy.  So why are Buddhist priests hired to perform Japanese funeral services?  Well, as Buddhism spread it also changed into a variety of different beliefs and practices.  It was not the more original or authentic branch of Theravada Buddhism that made its way to the shores of Japan with the Taika reform in A.D. 645, but the fuzzier mystical religion of Mahayana Buddhism.  And a diluted Japanese-version of Mahayana at that.  Japanese Jodo Shinshu (True Pure Land Buddhism), for example, might reluctantly tolerate ancestor worship, but it does not endorse such beliefs.

As missiologist Dr. Choon-Sup Bae points out, the butsudan (Buddhist altar) found is most Japanese homes today was originally set up, not for the worship of ancestral spirits (祖霊), but for buddhas and bodhisattvas.

In the "clean-unclean" principle of animistic Shinto, any contact with the dead was thought to contaminate the shrine precincts and the priests. So Shinto, the native religion, gave little attention to the dead. Already having accommodated ancestor worship in China, Buddhism was fast to shoulder services for the dead to gain a foothold in Japanese society (49).

In a way, in addition to the addressing the emotional needs of the family in showing gratitude to the deceased, one might think of the butsudan as functioning as a spiritual vending machine, the same way that fortunes, talismans, and amulets are sold at shrines and temples. 

Honoring one’s parents in Asian culture, especially from Confucianism, is a matter of propriety, what the Chinese call “li” (禮).  So too in the Bible, where the duty is enshrined in the Ten Commandments as the first and most fundamental of obligations man has to others.  The first four commandments address man’s obligations to God.

In Japan, as in much of the East, ancestor worship (精霊崇拝) is “the basic element of religious consciousness” and is “essentially a ritualized manifestation of filial piety” (Bae 10, 79).  Unfortunately, the customs involved in ancestral rites and, more importantly, the underlying beliefs to this practice take the idea of honoring one’s parents a few steps further, and in the process cross over into breaking the first two commandments against idolatry.

In Asia, the practice is blended evenly with folk religion, animism, Confucianism, Buddhism, and shamanism, depending on the country.  In the “Christendom” of the West, the dead were typically buried in the churchyard.  Under the Tokugawa regime, in an effort to stamp out Christianity, Buddhist temple registration and funeral rites were compulsory for Japanese.  Even though most Japanese I meet are avowedly non-religious, as a matter of course they still continue to practice Shinto or Buddhist religious customs, visiting shrines and temples, giving offerings, buying charms, doing pilgrimages, etc.  And, of course, ancestor worship at the family altar is a given, the foundation beneath it all. 

The various hoji/hoyo (法事) or butsuji (仏事) ceremonies along with Higan (彼岸), the festival at Spring Equinox, and various memorial services for transferring merit to ancestors (先祖供養, 追善,回向文) with much earnestness and pressing of the hands (合掌) and chanting are meant to help the deceased gradually transform from Buddhist purgatory (中陰) into a fully-fledged ancestor and eventually part of the collective mass of indiscriminate hotoke spirits in Buddhist heaven.

If we stop and think about it, part of the reasoning here is quite understandable.  In any such worldview which denies Creator God, there are gaps to fill.  Even if they believed in Him conceptually, He still could not be addressed or approached directly anymore than the Emperor would invite you or me before his throne or into his home.  Therefore, since there is no concept of any possible intimacy of relationship and an intimacy of language with a personal Creator God, there is a sense of the great gulf. 

The keenness of His absence in their lives is such that to dwell too long on this truth would be unbearably painful and so the wound must be numbed and suppressed.  Consequently, they need to fill the void with personal intermediaries that are more relatable, part human and part divine (Bae 28).  Ring any bells?  It should.  The book of Hebrews speaks of such a God who in His empathy shared in our humanity, facing all the pressures and temptations and weaknesses that we do, and, remaining pure, tasted death for us, and stands available to be our perfect intercessor (2:14-18; 4:14-16).

“Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them” (Hebrews 7:25).

  

Defining the Boundaries of Orthodoxy and Orthopraxis

Some people seem to have a hard time differentiating between having a memorial service for one’s ancestors and committing idolatry.  Remembering/honoring versus venerating/worshiping.  The line of syncretism, they say, seems rather blurry to them.  We need not stumble or dissimulate over words. 

Simply ask yourself: do you talk to your ancestors with the idea that they can hear or respond to you?  Are you seeking guidance, favors, blessings, protection, or some other form of intercession from them?  Do you kowtow or make noises in the hopes that they will hear you or wake up?  Do you offer food, drink, money, sacrifice, or some other kind of valuable commodity, wishing to help them to have a better time in the after-life? 

The Lord God, Creator of Heaven and Earth, has not left us ignorant of such things.  Nowhere in Scripture are we enjoined to pray for the dead.  Indeed, divination, necromancy, and any such contact with the dead or offerings to them is forbidden as an abomination (Leviticus 19:31; 20:6; Deuteronomy 26:13-15; Psalm 106:28-29).  Sacrifices could only be made in one location to the Lord (Leviticus 17:7-9).

"The secret things belong to the Lord our God but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law" (Deuteronomy 29:29).

“When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate the detestable things of those nations.  There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who casts a spell, or a medium or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead" (Deuteronomy 18:9-11).

Moreover, God has expressly spoken in His Word that such actions are idolatrous and a repudiation of His role as judge.  “It is appointed for a man once to die and after that to face the judgment.”  There is no changing of the Judge’s decision; it is irreversible.  I’m simplifying things a bit here for the sake of explanation, but the basic message of Scripture is that from the Judgment, the dead either enter into the Kingdom of Heaven or into Hell. Once there, they do not have any connection to those still living on earth, nor are they allowed to move from Heaven to Hell or from Hell to Heaven or to Earth or the Lower East Side of Manhattan or the Bronx or anywhere else.

There is no such thing as accumulating merit before the holy Lord God Almighty anymore than there is such as thing as transferring merit from one person to another.  We are not to seek any but God alone for guidance or protection.  He is all the power and wisdom we would ever need.

In our ESL Bible class as few weeks ago, almost out of the blue, one guy from Taiwan asked me what I thought about the practice of ancestor worship.  It’s a big issue to address and there were only about three minutes left in class so I didn’t have much time to consider and explain things.  I basically listed off a few quick points to keep in mind, which I repeat here with some elaboration and examples under each bullet point.

-The Bible is deeply concerned with honoring one’s parents, obeying them and loving them and showing our appreciation for them (Leviticus 19:32).  God is interested in one’s whole family following Him (Acts 16:31), indeed this extends to all families in the whole earth (Genesis 12:1-2).  Customs of our ancestors ought to be honored unless they are against God’s word (Mark 7:8-13, Acts 28:17).  For, after all, no man can serve two masters (Matthew 6:24).  Therefore…

- Christ promised that there would be divisions, rejection, and ostracism for following him.  In other words, there is always a cost to take into consideration before one makes the decision to become a disciple. It might mean losing our job or being rejected by our family or friends or losing our life (Matthew 10:34-39).

“What’s the big deal?” one might contend.  “Why does it have to be all or nothing?  Surely, God is big enough that He doesn’t mind sharing some of His infinite glory?  Can’t the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of Hosts and man-made idols simply co-exist in the same dwelling?”

I’m being a bit facetious again here, but I hope it’s clear what is at stake here.  No, in spite of our modern age of relativism and pluralism, the Lord does not share His glory with others (Exodus 20:3; Isaiah 42:8; 48:11).  And no, He doesn’t much care for lifeless graven images and pagan statues.  Often in Scripture, the literal word for idol is a pejorative word, such as “little pellets of dung” (Jeremiah 50:2, Ezekiel 6:4-6, 9, 13, etc. Leviticus 26:30).  Actually, it’s used about 40 times in Ezekiel.  In the same manner, Elijah contested the gods of Baal and Asherah, and when there was no response from the gods, exclaimed, “Cry out louder to your god!  Maybe he’s napping or busy going to the bathroom!” (1 Kings 18:20-46).  Remember the case of Dagon (meaning either “fish” or “grain”)? I’ll let you read the story for yourself (1 Samuel 5:1-5), but the long and short of it is that in the end only one god will be able to demonstrate greater power over the other.

Elsewhere in the Bible, God’s people are faced with situations where they are forced to either compromise their allegiance to God or else face persecution.  The prophet Daniel chose not to defile himself by eating meat that had been sacrificed to idols (Daniel 1:8-9; see Acts 15:20, 1 Corinthians 8:17-13; 10:14-28; Revelation 2:14, 20).  Instead of merely outright refusing it, Daniel wisely offered an alternative to demonstrate the superiority of God’s ways.  Far from being seen as naïve or legalistic, God commends Daniel’s devotion and raises his status as far above all the magicians and sorcerers and wise men (1:17-20). 

Later, when Daniel is confronted with King Darius’ command to worship false gods and bow to idols, and his friends were confronted with King Nebuchadnezzar’s command to worship false gods and bow to idols, they meekly and respectfully, yet boldly, explained why they could not in do such a thing before the one true God (3:16-18; 6:1-16, 21-22).  God was pleased to rescue them from certain death and the king commended them (3:26-30; 6:25-28). 

When Paul spoke of his imprisonment and possible impending execution, his only concern was the fact that he would have enough courage to face death squarely, or else that he could remain and be of help in growing the believers (Philippians 1:20-30). 

Which overlaps with the next point: there was no question about where he would go after he died.  It was understood that at the moment of death he would immediately join Christ in heaven.  The entrance fee has already been paid, amen – Jesus provided that by suffering the shame and punishment of our sins as he hung there naked on the cross.  Christ chose to go and hang O-Bon-like from that tree and become a curse so that we would not have to (Galatians 3:13; 2 Corinthians 5:21).  Paul’s struggle then was that heaven is a one-way trip; once there he will not be able to do any more work in sharing the gospel and helping believers on earth. Thus, he had an urgency for the mission of the gospel in that small window of time (Ecclesiastes 9:4-10).

- It is clearly stated for us in Scripture that there is no concourse or communication between the living and the dead.  In the Old Testament, they knew that their loved ones would not return to them because of the finality of the grave, but only that they could go to meet their loved ones in heaven (2 Samuel 12:23; Job 7:7-10; 10:21; 16:22; Psalm 6:5).  Probably they are not even conscious of the vicissitudes what transpire on earth (Job 14:21), so consumed are they with the beatific vision of being in the presence of God (Job 19:26-27).  Jesus tells us a sutra of his own explaining that those in heaven cannot come down to help the suffering of those on earth or in hell (Luke 16:19-31) and he knows such knowledge firsthand. 

“When someone tells you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?” (Isaiah 8:19)

Neither should it be expected that we on earth can somehow give those in heaven a better time than they already enjoy in the eternal bliss of the presence of God.  “In Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11).  For those in Heaven, where there is no pain or sorrow, they would not want to return to earth even if they were permitted to.  For those in Hell, where it is only torment and suffering, they are not allowed to return to earth for a rest from their punishment.

I guess, you could even dress up as a flower.

- Ancestors can and should be shown respect in other ways besides prayer, incense, etc. We might speak of them often and of the influence of the legacy they left us.  We might visit graves and clean their tombstones and put flowers on the grave simply as a sign of our respect, not as a means to please them as if they were still near or could hear and respond to us.


To these brief reminders, I would add that Jesus explains to a woman of Samaria that he is greater than Jacob, who is the ancestor of both of them (John 4:12).  In fact, he is greater than Abraham, the founding father of the nation (John 8:58).  He redirects her spiritual focus away from those ancestors and traditions and back to himself, declaring, “You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.  But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:22-24; see 14:6).

His disciples returning, astonished to see him talking so with a woman, not to mention, she also happened to be a Samaritan and likely even a harlot, they nervously try to change the subject and have lunch.  But Jesus continues to unfold his teaching about the true nature of worshiping God, curiously speaking of the Samaritan village as a harvest field whose fruit is now ready to be reaped.


Showing Respect to Ancestors in a God-honoring Manner

Every single day Christians in Japan and China and countries around the world face similar crossroads during holidays and festivals or funerals or simply being in a house with pagan altars.  Concerning the Roman household gods, Tertullian in a letter to his wife advised of the dangers of Christians marrying pagans.  Surely, a Christian wife would be “tormented by the vapor of incense each time the demons are honored, each solemn festivity in honor of the emperors, each beginning of the year, each beginning of the month” (Ad Uxorem, 6.1.).

As a sacramental ritual, ancestral rites are to traditional folk religion and animistic cultures what the sacrifice of the Mass is to Catholic cultures.  In both cases, the use of intermediary spirits is used to help bridge the gap between them and the Most High God.  For Japanese, the emphasis is more on either propitiating or somehow seeing to the needs of deceased relatives.  The deceased in turn can provide protection, guidance, and such.  Even for self-professed atheists, the practice is cathartic and psychologically fulfilling.

Well, Christians have their own sacramental ritual that also involves mystical union or fellowship.  Two rather potent ones, in fact: Baptism and Holy Communion, or the Lord’s Supper.  Instead of celebrating the Lord’s Supper only a few times a year, in an individualist manner with all parties facing toward the podium or front, it could be done as it originally was, like the love feasts of old, with believers eating together with whole loaves of bread rather than just wafers, facing each other around tables.  Feet-washing optional.

“It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by eating ceremonial foods, which is of no benefit to those who do so. We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat” (Hebrews 13:9-10).

In addition to these regular celebrations of participating in the Lord’s Supper, Japanese Christians can have more memorial services or liturgies that provide opportunities for family get-togethers or reunions in order to focus especially on the deceased.  Furthermore, for them to visit graves for funerals or on their own to show respect is to be commended.  They can show their respects by cleaning the gravestones and bringing flowers, though food or drink or incense offerings, of course, would not be appropriate.  For attending family members that are not Christians, it would be good for them to see the Christians give a speech explaining their actions and sharing the hope of the gospel, or a prayer to the Lord expressing gratitude for the loved one.

Japanese Christians should also remember how important genealogies are in the Bible.  Family histories are listed regularly, from Adam our first ancestor, to the genealogies of Christ.  It might be good for them to record their own family tree in a family Bible as an heirloom or to have available at funerals or in the place of a butsudan.  Often there is such a blank page already provided.

While I'm not specifically addressing the missiology of encountering pagan festivals here, I lately came upon Simon Cozens post "Beating the Bounds", and while I often don't whole-heartedly go for all such conclusions, his point about festivals that are "public, celebratory, inclusive, participatory, and bestowing blessings widely" is simply not to be missed.


To the Non-Believer: Is There any Real Hope that Lasts Beyond the Grave?

My take-away from Halloween is this.  It reminds us that evil spirits are very much real and dangerous, but at
the same time, the power of the Lord Jesus is far stronger.

 Indeed, strictly speaking, pagan gods are no gods at all, but merely evil spirits with masks (Isaiah 37:19; Jeremiah 2:11, 5:7; 1 Corinthians 8:4-6; 10:18-22; Galatians 4:8; 1 John 4:1).

 Jesus casts out demons all the time with but a word.  Yes, that includes Hindu Pretas, Roman Manes, and even Japanese Yomotsu-shikome (Matthew 11:4-6).


Jesus is the true Lord of the Harvest (Matthew 9:38) to whom all prayers must be directed.

He is the only one who was conquered the power of sin and death (Romans 6:8-10; Colossians 2:13-15; 2 Timothy 1:10; Hebrews 2:14-15).

The Greeks spoke of there being a judge who is the “holder of the keys” to the Underworld, the kleidouchos (κλειδοῦχος).  In Japan, they have statutes of an angry-faced Emma (閻魔), a borrowing of the Yama of Hinduism/Buddhism.  Lord Jesus lives forever and holds the keys of death and Hades. (Revelations 1:18).  He is the Lord and Judge of the Living and the Dead (Acts 10:34-43; Romans 14:9; 2 Timothy 4:1).  And thus He speaks lion-like with all the authority of a king in his royal imperatives (Luke 9:60; John 5:25).

We must all stand before him and give account of our life (Hebrews 4:13; Matthew 12:37; Luke 12:15-21; Romans 14:10-12; 2 Corinthians 5:10-11; 1 Peter 4:5). 

He is the only mediator between God and man (1 Timothy 2:5-6; Acts 4:12), whom we must turn to in repentance and put our trust in him.

We need not fear any demon when Christ has come and given “incomparably great power for us who believe.  That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked” (Ephesians 1:19-21).

Like Paul teaches, “Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:9-11)

If the name of Jesus is the highest there is, we would do well to heed him, to come to him for the life he offers and thereby escape the kind of judgment that Mokuren's mother suffered so much.  Let us bring all of family to hear his voice and live:   

“For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes. For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. 

Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.”                                                - John 5:21-29

Reference: "Ancestor Worship and the Challenges it poses to the Christian Mission and Ministry", Dissertation by Choon-Sup Bae, University of Pretoria, 2007.

Appendix:

If there’s one common refrain in the Old Testament about the people of Israel, it is that they were prone to syncretism, that is, to be unfaithful to God by prostituting themselves out to the worship of others gods.  In the days of the early church, Christ-followers living in the Roman world had the same kind of pagan atmosphere.  Sometimes the threat was overt and life-threatening and sometimes it meant disgrace in one’s family.  For example, Pliny the Younger wrote about how the Christians were made to offer a prayer with incense and wine to Emperor Trajan’s image and to curse Christ, or else be tortured and killed.  In Japan under the Tokugawa Shogunate, Christians were ordered to step on a stone image of Christ.  Would you do it?

Below are some relevant Scripture references.  There are far too many to list them all, so only some will be written out.  There's a pattern you might see.

Concerning food polluted by idols: Acts 15:20, 1 Corinthians 8:17-13; 10:14-28; Revelation 2:14, 20.

Concerning the abundance of shrines: Jeremiah 2:28; 11:12-13; 2 Kings 17:29-34; 2 Chronicles 28:24-25.

General verses on idolatry and serving the Lord God alone:

Genesis 31:30-35; 35:1-4
Leviticus 26:30
Numbers 25:1-9
Joshua 24:14-24

Deuteronomy 7:26
You shall not bring an abomination into your house, and like it come under the ban; you shall utterly detest it and you shall utterly abhor it, for it is something banned.

Other versions read:

Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it: but thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it; for it is a cursed thing. (KJB)

Never bring a disgusting idol into your house. If you do, you and the idol will be destroyed. Consider it detestable and disgusting. It must be destroyed. (God's Word® Translation (©1995)

Deuteronomy 12:3-4
You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and burn their Asherim with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and destroy their name out of that place. You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way.

Deuteronomy 12:29-31
 29"When the LORD your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, 30take care that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, 'How did these nations serve their gods?—that I also may do the same.' 31 You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the LORD hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.

Deuteronomy 18:10-14
*Deuteronomy 26:13-15

1 Samuel 12:21
And do not turn aside after empty things that cannot profit or deliver, for they are empty.

1 Kings 3:3
Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father, only he sacrificed and made offerings (or burned incense) at the high places.

1 Kings 22:43
He walked in all the way of Asa his father; he did not turn aside from it, doing right in the sight of the LORD. However, the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burnt incense on the high places.

2 Kings 12:3
Only the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.

2 Kings 14:4
Only the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.

2 Kings 15:4
Only the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.

2 Kings 15:35
Only the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.

2 Kings 16:4
He sacrificed and burned incense on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree.

2 Kings 17:11
And there they burned incense on all the high places as the nations did which the LORD had carried away to exile before them; and they did evil things provoking the LORD.

2 Kings 17:15
They despised his statutes and his covenant that he made with their fathers and the warnings that he gave them. They went after false idols and became false, and they followed the nations that were around them, concerning whom the LORD had commanded them that they should not do like them.

2 Kings 18:4
He removed the high places and broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherah. He also broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the sons of Israel burned incense to it; and it was called Nehushtan.

2 Kings 22:17
Because they have forsaken Me and have burned incense to other gods that they might provoke Me to anger with all the work of their hands, therefore My wrath burns against this place, and it shall not be quenched.

2 Kings 23:5
He did away with the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah and in the surrounding area of Jerusalem, also those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and to the moon and to the constellations and to all the host of heaven.

2 Chronicles 25:14-16

2 Chronicles 34:4

“The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply;
    their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out
    or take their names on my lips.
The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup;
    you hold my lot.
The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
    indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.
I bless the Lord who gives me counsel;
    in the night also my heart instructs me.
I have set the Lord always before me;
    because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.
Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices;
    my flesh also dwells secure.
For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,
    or let your holy one see corruption.
You make known to me the path of life;
    in your presence there is fullness of joy;
    at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. (Psalm 16:4-11)

*Psalm 106:28-29

Isaiah 65:3
A people who continually provoke Me to My face, Offering sacrifices in gardens and burning incense on bricks;

Isaiah 65:7
Both their own iniquities and the iniquities of their fathers together,” says the LORD. “Because they have burned incense on the mountains And scorned Me on the hills, Therefore I will measure their former work into their bosom.”

Jeremiah 11:12-13
Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry to the gods to whom they burn incense, but they surely will not save them in the time of their disaster.  For your gods are as many as your cities, O Judah; and as many as the streets of Jerusalem are the altars you have set up to the shameful thing, altars to burn incense to Baal.

Jeremiah 18:15
For My people have forgotten Me, They burn incense to worthless gods And they have stumbled from their ways, From the ancient paths, To walk in bypaths, Not on a highway,

Jeremiah 32:29
The Chaldeans who are fighting against this city will enter and set this city on fire and burn it, with the houses where people have offered incense to Baal on their roofs and poured out drink offerings to other gods to provoke Me to anger.

Ezekiel 6:4

Jonah 2:8
Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them.

Hosea 4:13

Hosea 11:2
But the more they were called, the more they went away from me.  They sacrificed to the Baals and they burned incense to images.