2.2

The First Fruits in Asia*

At the first National Conferece of Christian Youth held on the on the campus of Doshisha University in Kyoto in Japan, in 1980, the delegates, responding to the message coming from the Student Volunteer Movement of North America under the leadership of John R. Mott, decided to send a simple cable which contained only three words, but expressed the deep concern existing among the young Christins gathered there. The cable said: "MAKE JESUS KING". This lectureship is founded after the honourable name of John R Mott who led students and young people throughout the world to the new pioneering task of witnessing to the Kingship of Christ over the world.

As early as 1904, in his address given at the Student Volunteer Missionary Union Conference in Edinburgh, John R. Mott explained a deeper meaning of the watchword the evangelization of the World in this generation, in terms of the Understanding of the Lordship of Christ over the worl4, he said:

"This watchword sends the Student Volunteer out to the front with the whole world in view in his prayers, and in his sympathies. The idea that the field is the world, that Christ is the Lord of all, that His Kingdom is to be co-existent with the earth, are daily thoughts of such a watchword."

"We recognise quite generally the Saviourship of Jesus Christ, but are we not prone to put into the background in practice too much the Lordship of Jesus Christ? The watchword, which would enthrone him as Lord of all: He has the mastership of our lives, and of all that is involved in them. The watchword constantly reminds the Christian that he must be a missionary here and now; that he is called to be a missionary from the moment that he heard God’s voice."[1]

Following this spirit of our pioneer, I would like to consider in this lecture the implications of the ministry of Christ for the life and mission of God’s people in the changing Asia of today.

I. The ministry of Christ and our ministry

Our starting point of discussion on ministry is the Ministry of Christ -no more and no less than this foundation. Although we may have various forms of ministries according to different traditions and interpretations, nevertheless we all have the one original portrayal, namely the ministry of Jesus Christ. Among the various understandings and images of the Ministry of Christ in recent ecumenical discussion, it has been ajoy and challenge to see that there has been a growing recognition of the Servant- Lord image as the central image to express the unique ministry of Christ. Three traditional images, namely, King, Priest and Prophet, are seen now in the light of this image. As Professor Torrance writes: "It is indeed in terms of the Suffering Servant ministry that we are to see the basic unity in the Church’s prophetic, priestly and kingly functions."

Fulfilling the prophecy of Second Isaiah, Jesus Christ stated of his ministry that "the Son of man also came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mk. 10:45). The term "ministry" derives from the Greek word diakonia, which originally was related to diakonos, "waiter"; i.e. servant. The meaning of this word is concretely manifested in the world throughout his life from Bethlehem through Gethsemane to Golgotha. We find an astonishing symbolical demonstration of the meaning of the Servant-Lord image in his act of washing the feet of the disciples. Here he, the Lord, became a servant, took the form of a slave, for the redemption of people in the world. Thus the original portrayal of Christ’s ministry clearly indicates the serving dimension and intention of his ministry to the world for the redemption of all people. Here we find the irreducible uniqueness of the Christian message, namely, the Lordship of Christ, so concretely manifested through the Servant-Lord in and to the world.

From this original portrayal of Christ’s ministry, we can point to several directions in the ministry of the Church.

First of all, in regard to the root of the Church’s ministry, it is clear that the task of the Church as the visible body of Christ is to participate in ministry in response to Christ’s ministry. Through the organic analogy of the relationship between the head of the Church, our ministry is to be obedient to the Ministry of Christ in and to the world.

Secondly, we acknowledge that the Church’s ministry has a comprehensive scope, that takes in all the body of Christ; not only those who are set apart, but the People of God as a whole are called to take a part in his ministry. It is not that some of those who are especially called to religious office have a ministry, but that the Church as a whole is ministry in its existence, in its being manifesting and testifying to the ministry of Christ. We reaffirm today the ministry of the laity as the privilege of God’s people to share the ministry of Christ. We recognise that every Christian is diakonos, a minister called to a ministry. We appreciate the existence of charismata, the gifts of grace among God’s people. The Church is charismatic community recognising the unique and diversified gifts which God has granted in this community, to equip them for service to the world.

Thirdly, the direction of Christ’s ministry is always towards the world. To be sure, the Church is certainly called from the world. But at the same time it is sent towards the world. Bishop Gustaf Aulėn describes the ministry of the Church by using the image of a ‘contending’ Church. He writes:

"The Church of Christ is not of this world, but it has its existence in this world. The Church belongs to the new age, but it lives at the same time in the old. This means that the Church is a contending Church, an ecclesia militans."

"The reconciliation demands a ministry. This is not because the atonement needs to be completed or repeated. It has been done once and for all. It remains for all times and generations. But the reconciliation demands a ministry because it addresses itself to every new age and every new generation. The victorious act of reconciliation must be carried out in new struggles. The victory of self-giving love does not mean that struggle has ceased. The ministry of reconciliation is a ministry of struggle and conflict. As God’s act of reconciliation in Christ was carried out in a struggle against the destructive powers, so the messengers of reconciliation are called upon to participate in this struggle."

Fourthly, the object of Christ’s ministry is the reconciliation of the world unto himself and the bringing of humanity into its right relationship with God. His ministry is not a ministry of condemnation, nor in a narrow sense, of ‘spiritualisation’, but the ministry of reconciliation and restoration of humanity as a whole. Redemption means, as Professor Kraemer states, "liberation from slavery (douleia), the liberation from the slavery of sin". This means also liberation from those ‘powers’ which try to suppress God’s place of Lordship, the ‘powers’ by which man in his individual and collective, social, political, economic and cultural life is enslaved. "The Church being Ministry, being diakonia in correlation to Christ’s diakonia, has the imperative calling to show in her own life signs and evidence of this redemptive divine order which is in Christ an operative fact." [2]

Thus we are coming more and more to take worldly affairs seriously not because of our sociological interest, nor because we have a ready-made blueprint for the ideal world, but precisely because we believe the redemptive power of God is at work in the concrete social reality of our changing world, for the restoration of true humanity in Jesus Christ.

These are only brief and inadequate expressions, but nevertheless I believe they reflect some of the basic emphasis on the reaffirmation of the nature of Christ’s ministry and our ministries in the light of recent ecumenical conversations. In Kuala Lumpur at the time of the Inaugural Assembly of the EACC, the same concern was expressed in part of the Message of the Assembly, in the following way:

"Each congregation must know it is put into the world by the Lord as his representative, and that it must therefore be chiefly concerned not with itself, but with the world, concerned to send its members out as witnesses, and to invite all men into the family of God. Its minister should be one who is seeking to train every member for this ministry in the world."[3]

Now having this basic perspective, we must move one step further to raise a very realistic question: namely, if we recognise the ministry of the Church as the total response to Christ’s ministry in and to the world, what does this mean for the concrete situation of our churches here in Asia? If we affirm the ministry of the laity as the spearhead of God’s people in witness and service in the world, how can this be manifested concretely in our regional, national and local situations here in Asia? These are certainly difficult questions. But I believe unless we tackle them realistically we may become very idealistic or abstract.

  1. The urgent need for the creation of a new Christian style of living

In spite of the divergent varieties of different problems we have in Asia, nevertheless there are some common issues in our situation which need specific clarification and investigation for the fulfilment of the ministry of the Church today in Asia. In this lecture I would like to concentrate on one particular issue which requires special attention if we take seriously and concretely the fulfilment of the ministry of God’s people in Asia. The pressing issue to which I would like to call your attention is the urgent need for the creation of a new Christian style of living in Asia today. Today not only in Asia but also in the West and in Africa and elsewhere, we acknowledge that there is ambiguity and uncertainty as to the pattern of Christian living in the changing world. Professor Jacques Ellul in his stimulating book, The Presence of the Kingdom, states the issue in the following way:

"In order that Christianity today may have a point of contact with the world, it is less important to have theories about economic and political questions, or even to take up a deflnite political and economic position, than it is to create a new style of life, it is evident that the first thing to do is to be faithful to revelation, but this fidelity can only become a reality in daily life through the creation of this new way of life."[4]

In each period of Christian history we find a unique Christian way of living, fitting into the concrete situation of the period. In the early Church, contending against the persecution of the Roman Empire, we findaspecific manifestation of the Christian style of life in that period. There was a style peculiar to the Middle Ages. In the sixteenth century there came a newstyle of life, carried out by the Reformers. Then there was the bourgeois style which has been losing its distinctive quality and becoming increasingly a worn-out tradition. One of the strengths of the Marxist movement is that it is strongly supported by a way of life imposed on men by economic and social conditions.

Today, if we look for a style of life among the Christian community, we find a style determined, by and large, by individualistic and pietistic virtue, such as being a good son, a good mother, a good father, a good neighbour, etc., without adequate relationships within the structure of modern society. It is a style applicable to the situation of personal relationships in a pre-industrial society, but not relevant to the complex reality of modern society. As a result, the Christian tends to live as a Christian in his individual and spiritual realm of life, but to be determined by sociological conditions in his secular and social activities in the changing world.

So Professor Ellul concludes that "this problem of the creation of the style of life is absolutely essential, because it is at this point that the question of the participation or presence of Christians in the world as a creative power will be fiercely tested."[5]

III. The passing and broken images of man in Asia

In our Asian setting, not only in the Christian community but also in the general situation, there is today confusion and a broken — down situation as to the image of man in Asia. The old image of Asian man tended to be that of a man under domination- feudalistic domination or foreign domination. This was man in a situation of enslavement. Following this old image of man under domination we had, and in some parts still have, an image of man which is in extreme reaction to the old image, namely, a narrow and rigid sense of antagonistic man. He is fighting against any foreigner and against any sense of authority from above. Here we have an image of man as narrow, exclusive, and in some sense ‘hating’ or ‘in hatred’.

But in this post-colonial era the common image of man in Asia in increasingly that of a man who is indifferent to life outside his own shell, interested only in the fulfilment of his own individual desires, I would like to call it the image of an ‘indifferent secularist’.

In this situation we recognise that there are various forms and forces of dehumanisation and impersonalisation affecting contemporary man in Asia. I would like to classify these into four categories: Naturalisation of man, Mechanisat ion of Man, Animalisation of Man and Angelisation or Deification of Man. Please excuse these long and clumsy names, but I think they characterise the diversified phases of the dehumanisation of man in Asia today.

(1) First, Naturalisation of Man. The basis of Asian life and religion is nature. Despite the accelerated process of industrialisation, the impact of nature is still strong in forming the attitude and style of living among Asian men.

In some parts of Asia where fruits and crops are naturally abundant, man tends to adjust to natural life without making the effort to work with self-devotion and commitment. Karl Barth in his Kirchliche Dogntatik referred to this point when he humorously discussed the laziness of man. He says there are two kinds of laziness: one is classical and Eastern laziness, just sitting around doing nothing, while the other is modern and Western laziness, where one runs all over the place doing many things, but neglecting the real things.

One of the characteristic ways of the Japanese is to adapt ourselves to the process of nature. Surrounded by ocean and blessed by nature in its beauty and variety, we have become accustomed to adjust ourselves harmoniously to the process on nature. This spirit of adaptation is also carried into the social realm and into the realm of ideology and style of life, It is not strange to see the same Japanese having a Buddhist priest for the funeral of his mother, going to a Shinto shrine for his wedding and singing "HolyNight" with his children on Christmas Eve. This indicates that in Asia there is a wide basis for feudalism and an oppressive authoritarian way of life, as long as Asian men do not come out from the naturalistic life of adjustment. It increases an attitude of conformity rather than finding one’s own selfhood in one’s thinking and action as a responsible man. For a man to become a part of nature means that he loses his freedom and sense of responsibility. It developed in him an attitude of indifference and captivity within natural and social determinism. This is one of the reasons why an attitude of resignation and conformity prevails among Asian men today.

(ii) Mechanisation of Man. We recognise, due to the rapid development of industrialisation, the strong impact of technology upon the ordinary life of people in Asia. To be sure, we should welcome the trend of industrialisation. In the former period, men and women working on rural farms could work in a personal relationship within the community. It was not difficult for them to see what was the outcome of their labour. But in modern industry there is a radical change of the total picture. Many workers are leaving the rural community into the urban city to work in industry. They are uprooted people, often lonely and uncertain, and seeking a sense of belonging. Industry on the one hand, tends to consider the workers as tools to increase productivityand efficiency rather than as persons. Like a part of mechanical routine work, the worker is considered as a means rather than an end himself. In the complex industrial situation, it is hard to see precisely what is the meaning of one’s work, except for earning one’s wage. On Thanksgiving Day, a Christian steelworker might find it difficult to know whether he should bring as an offering in worship a tank or an unidentifiable part of a metal product which he knows only by number. In industry he is considered as a tool for production, as a means to expand the massive structure of modern business organisation. Individual workers, isolated from one another, have little hope of decreasing this process of dehumanisation. In this sense we must frankly acknowledge the value of the development of labour union movements to protect the rights and personality of individual workers through organised work. Our question is not whether we need labour unions or not, but in what way we may be able to help the development of a healthy and responsible labour union movement in Asia today.

(iii) Animalisation of Man. Partly due to the impact of Western secularisation, but also due to the universal nature of corrupted man, there is an increasing tendency to egocentric secularism in contemporary industrial society in Asia. The introduction of a money economy, the pressure of the "hidden persuader" for further consumption, and a drive for competition to climb higher up the ladder of society, make men concerned mainly with the secular, in a narrow sense, and with the material pursuit of happiness. To be sure, we should not criticise secularism nor even materialism. In considering the widespread poverty and hunger still existing in a large part of Asia we need to remember the meaning of the Lord’s prayer which includes a sincere petition, "Give us this day our daily bread". Moreover we must see in the light of the Christian doctrine of the incarnation, that God has become man, that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, revealing that God’s concern for humanity is for humanity as a whole, including freedom from poverty and sickness. Having said this, we must see also the danger of materialism and secularism by which man tends to take the material aspect of life as the ultimate goal or to consider the fulfilment of individual desires as the end of one’s life. Recently I saw a Japanese movie called "Blue Beast", which depicted a man working restlessly, with egocentric drive, in the modern city ‘jungle’, without having any real friendship or assurance for the future. Uprooted from the old way of life, he does not find a new style of life in the community which will give him hope and a sense of purpose. The movies described the process of men becoming a ‘blue beast’, like an animal that wears a blue coat.

(iv) Angelisation or Deification of Man. Asian traditional religions and Christianity also in general have tended to answer these questions of dehumanisation, namely, angelisation or deification of man. That is to say, the traditional religions have tried to spiritualise man, to elevate him to a super-human existence like an angel or to make man as God by his own efforts. This certainty has not helped to check the tendency to dehumanisation; rather it has accelerated the process.

IV. Christian ethics as formation of the new man

Here l believe we find a profound meaning in the writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who stressed the meaning of humanity in the person of Jesus Christ. He wrote in his letters from prison:

"During the last year or so I have come to appreciate the ‘worldliness’ of Christianity as never before. The Christian man is not a homo religiosus, but a man, pure and simple, compared with John the Baptist... it is only by living completely in this world that one learns to believe ... This is what I mean by worldliness - taking life in one’s stride, with all its duties and problems, its successes and failures, its experiences and helplessness. It is in such a life that we throw ourselves utterly into the arms of God and participate in his sufferings in the world and watch with Christ in Gethsemane."[6]

This is very fragmental, but in this Ethnik, although it is not systematic writing because it too was written in days of hardship, he formulates his thinking in a positive way:

"Behold the God who has become man, the unfathomable mystery of the love of God for the world. God loves man. God loves the world. It is not an ideal man that he loves, but man as he is; not an ideal world, but the real world."

"... God becomes man, real man, while we are trying to grow out beyond our manhood, to leave the man behind us; God becomes man and we have to recognise that God wishes us men too, to be real men. This is the assertion that in the conception and birth of Jesus Christ, God took on manhood in the flesh. He himself enters into the life of man as man and takes upon himself and carries in the flesh, the nature, the character and the guilt and suffering of man. Out of love for man God becomes man."[7]

In this way he defines Christian ethics as Ethik als Gestalt (Ethics as Formation). This means that Christian ethics is the ethics of the restoration of the true humanity, not by the efforts of man, but on the basis of God’s grace, namely, that man becomes real man, because God became man. This is not the effort of man to become God, but to become real man in the full sense of the word in the eyes of God. In Christ we find not a narrow sense of religious man but real man free from all bondage, being open to a new relation with God and with his fellow men in concrete existence in the world.

V. The church as the new community of the first fruits of the new humanity

In this sense, there is a profound meaning in recognising the Church as the community of the first fruits of the new humanity. Among the various images of the Church described in the New Testament, this concept of the first fruits has a striking significance for the creation of a new Christian style of living in Asia today. It somehow transcends the numerical limitation of Asian Christians and gives a Christocentric representation of the church’s existence in the world. In the New Testament, Paul states clearly the fact that "Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep". (I Cor 15:20) He is the first fruits of the new creation, the new Adam and the new humanity. A small minority of Christians in Asia are called also the first fruits, representing the new humanity in their particular place of living. It somehow transcends the notion of a majority or minority situation. It gives a real qualitative representation rather than one determined by quantitative number. A Christian layman in industrial society, no matter how insignificant he appears to be, is a first fruit in that particular and concrete place. He is a pledge of the Holy Spirit that the great harvest is to come. I believe this concept of the first fruits given real strength and support to Christian presence and involvement in a concrete place of work and living in our Asian setting. Formerly, in describing the need of the Church to break its conformity, we sometimes used to say that we must identify ourselves with the world. But the more I have participated in the world, the more I have come to see the meaning of the image of the first fruits not in terms of Christian identification with the world, but in terms of Christian presence and involvement in the concrete place of work and ordinary life, as a symbolical representation of the new humanity in Jesus Christ. It is a dangerous mistake to think of Christian identification. We believe every Christian, as the first fruits, is placed in a concrete social context as a sign of the new humanity in Jesus Christ.

VI. The way of life in solidarity - in Jesus Christ

Having this basic perspective of Christian presence as the first fruits of the new humanity in each place of work and community, I would like to proceed one step further and consider a particular quality of life which is relevant, and should be strengthened at this time in the creation of the Christian style of life today in Asia. We recognise the reality of the Christian as the first fruits of the new humanity which is rooted in the formation of the new man manifested in Jesus Christ. The formation of this new man was not manifested automatically as a natural event in time. It is a concrete form of costly love, taking part in the agony, misery and anxiety of man in the concrete social context. Through the suffering ministry of Christ in the world, the old man was transformed into the new man, as Christ stated: "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." (John 12:24) If the task of Christian ministry is to respond to the suffering and victorious ministry of Christ, how will this be reflected more concretely in the Christian style of living today in Asia? In facing the enormous scale of rapid social change and the complex reality of social, political and economic life in Asia, one is tempted to accept two kinds of easy solution. One is to find a simple or highly idealistic answer. For example, a person may be critical of, or even very negative to the existing social system, but when he comes to the positive constructive alternative, he is very idealistic or even abstract. We find this tendency among some peace movements and student movements in Japan. The other temptation is a much greater one. This is the temptation to retire from worldly affairs and to limit one’s concern to one’s own sphere of personal interest, this is a life of resignation and withdrawal, and it is very strong in contemporary Asia.

Now in such a situation the image of Christian presence as the first fruits in the concrete place of suffering and conflict, as a signpost for the coming Kingdom, has an immense meaning. It means that the Christian life is always carried with a costly love which is the life of agony, wrestling together with Christ for the restoration of humanity. The outlook of this life of agony is freedom. As we live between the two times, Christ’s ascension and his final coming, we constantly experience his judgment and forgiveness at the same time. Professor Jacques Ellul states this point in the following way:

"The heart of this ethic may be expressed thus: it is based upon an ‘agnostic’ way of life; that is to say, the Christian life is always an ‘agony’, that is, a final, decisive conflict; thus it means that constant and actual presence in our hearts of the two elements of judgment and of grace. But it is this very fact which ensures our liberty. We are free, because at every moment in our lives we are both judged and pardoned, and are consequently placed in a new situation, free from fatalism, and from the bondage of sinful habits."[8]

We need today in Asia Christians who have a wrestling participation and presence in the concrete place of work and life as the first fruits, as the new man who is free and contagiously human within the concrete structure and organisation of society, because he is rooted in the humanity of Jesus Christ. Wherever there is injustice in society the Christian has a wrestling participation in the process of the restoration of humanity in the concrete social context.

It is certainly not easy to have such ‘presence and participation’, especially in this organised and complex society. Many of the decisions we make are not absolute decisions in terms of black and white, but are various shades of grey. Many times we must work through the complex organisation of our worldly political machinery in order to protect the rights of man and to assure the grounds of freedom. As salt functions when put into soup, as the first fruits are brought from the field, so the Christian can bear witness through his wrestling presence in the concrete social context. This is his invitation to participate in Christ’s costly ministry.

Here I would like to draw an analogy from the missionary movement. In the early days of the missionary movement, persecutions, danger, physical sickness and economic sacrifice were involved in the task of making a missionary ‘presence’ abroad. In the old days, when some of the pioneer missionaries said goodbye too their relatives and friends at Boston Harbour, it was the last time they would do so. But by and large, except in some parts of the world, we do not have severe persecution, and there is not so great a problem of economic or physical sacrifice compared with the old days. But there is another hardship required of those who are called to make a missionary ‘presence’ abroad, namely, to be involved and to participate in the ordinary processes of the life of the Church where they are called to work. No matter how dull and tiresome is the business of the national church, no matter how much the difference of language and thought patterns irritate him, no matter how little his national colleague understands a Western sense of humour, it is a costly and wrestling participation required of missionaries in the present day, namely to participate in the ordinary life of the Church with extraordinary interest.

The same thing can be said of the Christian in secular life. He may not be persecuted today for being Christian. But he is required to make a struggling participation in the concrete social setting in which he is placed as the first fruits of the new humanity. It is not an easy task today to be a Christian manager, or a technician designing an automation scheme, or a labour union leader protecting the rights of working people. But in such a concrete reality of life, God’s people are called to make a wrestling or agnostic presence as the first fruits of the new humanity in Jesus Christ.

Secondly, I would like to stress this word solidarity. Not only in the past, but also in the present, in our Asian setting we have two extreme types of human relationship. One is a collective pattern of relationship which was very strong in the feudalistic period and in the totalitarian system, where self is subordinated to authority from above. It is the notion based on a collective self, or a ‘mass-self’. On the other hand, in the modern development of Protestant churches, we have the notion of an extremely individualistic self. This is an isolated self, isolated like a lonely atom without having real solidarity and community with others. We need to express the notion of the organic and communal self, as each unit is fitted and joined together organically in the body of Christ. In the Protestant churches, even if we have social concern, it tends often to operate on a highly individualistic basis without having the support and backing of the community where it belongs. Recently, at one of the inter-religious conferences on social justice there were Roman Catholic priests, Jewish rabbis, and Protestant pastors. Whenever a Catholic priest had a chance to speak, he said, "This is what the Pope’s Encyclicals say". The Jewish rabbi could say, "Thus says the Law", to indicate the basis of his authority on social justice. But the Protestant minister spoke often with a lonely and hesitant voice, saying, "It seems to me." Certainly we must respect what the individual conscience has to say in our wrestling with our common problems. If we may use Paul Tillich’s term, "courage to be oneself" is as important as "courage to be a part".[9] We need to maintain the I-Thou, Ich-und-Du relationship. But at the same time we must develop much more courageously the We-Thou, Wir-und-Du relationship as members of the corporate body of Christ making a corporate witness and action in the process of wrestling with our common problems.[10] Here we need to develop a new type of teamwork in the ministry of God’s people in the world.

As an example of the need of corporate discipline and action in the witness in industrial society, may I quote a sentence from the Abbe G. Michonneau’s work, Revolution in a City Parish:

"Under conditions like these a man can work, and work without fear of being considered foolhardy, or of having his ideas discarded peremptorily. The responsibility and errors are everyone’s, just as the success is. Failures or mistakes are met with honest but friendly and fraternal correction, and there is no stigma accompanying the errors or the advice. You can see how this makes for peace of soul and strength of effort. Unlike most priests we do not have to face discouragement alone, because we are now bound together in mind and heart and will, in the work of Jesus Christ. difficulties and criticism are faced together, and ‘my work’ has become ‘our work’."[11]

VII. ‘Open’ Man

1. Man open to the calling of Christ - rooted in Christ

This new man in Christ is not a ‘closed’ man but an ‘open’ man. He was a closed man in enslavement to the forces of evil. But Christ himself took the form of a slave and gave his freedom to enslaved man. Man can now open his inner door to Christ, who says, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me." (Revelation 3:20) This means he constantly opens his inner door and listens to what Christ says. We accept the acceptance of Christ who accepted us in spite of our unworthiness for acceptance.

2. Man open to secular engagement - rooted in Asian soil

We do not have secular engagement based on our own ability or intention. But we participate in worldly affairs because we open our hearts to the Word of God which directs us to service and witness in the world. In our total ministry of the Body of Christ, there is a rhythmic movement between listening to the Word of God and going out into the concrete place of response in the world. This means that the new image of man in Asia should be rooted in Christ, and rooted in Asian soil at the same time, as the image of the first fruits indicates. Where can you expect to have the first fruits except in the actual soil where the plant is planted and rooted? There has been much talk about the creation of indigenous Christian art, liturgy, music, architecture and indigenous theology. All this is a good sign in the younger churches. But sometimes it worries me a little, because so much of the indigenous Christian art or architecture is artificial and not very powerful - rather like seeingaJapanese bridge in a garden in California. Real indigenous art should not be a sort of nostalgia for the ancient art form or an object of curiosity for Western people. Here again we are at the beginning of a whole new development. But I am inclined to think that the starting point of the indigenisation of Christian faith is not so much in the field of architecture or music or art, not even in theology, but in the field of the Christian style of living in contemporary Asia. Unless we Asian Christian men and women in our ordinary church life take seriously the responsibility to wrestle with common problems in the ordinary life of Asian society, there will be no spontaneous expression of indigenous Christian faith. If a man is deeply rooted in Christ and deeply rooted in Asian soil, no matter how insignificant and small he be, he magnifies a radiating example of the indigenisation of Christianity, simply by being what he is. Through the searching questions coming out of the struggling experiences in secular participation, theologians will develop deeper and more penetrating theological formulations in the Asian situation. From the struggling of this rhythmic life rooted both in Christ and in Asian soil there will come a spontaneous expression in songs and art forms expressing joy and thankfulness for his suffering yet victorious ministry. Indigenisation will arise from within, in this sense, from the process of the wrestling participation of God’s people in the present concrete reality of Asian society.

3. Openness for ecumenical encounter - rooted in the whole world

Thirdly, speaking of openness in the new image of man in Asia, I would like to touch briefly on the aspect of openness for ecumenical encounter. This means we must open ourselves for encounter with the whole world. Christ who is the first fruits is the representative of the new humanity not only for a particular group of people in a particular region, but also for all people in the whole world. Therefore this new man in Christ is not nationalist in a narrow sense. To be sure, we must take our nation seriously as the concrete place of our involvement. But this does not mean the Christian should become an extreme type of exclusive nationalist. He sees the higher power and the ultimate authoritybeyond and above the principalities and powers of this world. He believes in the Lordship of Christ over the world.

This means that he knows his responsibility and concern are not limited only in a narrow geographical area. He sees his responsibility towards his nearest neighbour but also towards a faraway neighbour. In this one, interrelated and organic society in whichwe live, our ethics must transcend geographical boundaries.

One of the most penetrating Christian secular engagements going on in the United States is the Christian witness in regard to integration. Professor Robert McAfee Brown of Union Theological Seminary, New York, writes in the following way:

"Whether we are aware of ior not, we are in the midst of a worldwide revolution in which the colored peoples are finally rising up and demanding the rights they have been too long denied. In face of this, the question is not "Will there be further integration?". The question is simply, "Will integration come peacefully or by violence?"

"I usedtobelieve that the question of Northern ‘meddling’ in the South was a valid one. But I have come to see that it is a false one. For the presumption behind the question is that ethics are determined by geography: that what a Christian can do to help his fellow men depends on where he lives or does not live. On these terms there would have never~been a Christian missionary movement, let alone the development of a Christian conscience."

"Segregation is not a Southern problem. It is not a Northern problem. It is a human problem. And no human being can exempt himself from responsibility concerning it because of the address that he happens to sign after his name."[12]

Friedrich Nietzsche, one of the most powerful atheist critics of Christianity, criticised the naive sentimental aspect of individualistic ‘love’ prevailing among Christians at that time, and said bluntly, "You go to your neighbour to seek refuge from yourselves and then you try to make a virtue of it...Do I advise you to love your neighbour? I advise you rather to shun your neighbour and to love whoever is farthest from you!"

Especially in this one interrelated world where we are sharing one human destiny and where also the influence of social, political and economic forces affect the life of people across great distances, we must see our responsibility in a world perspective. This is also true within the household of God. One of the contributions which the Asian churchesshould make is to provide constantly a spontaneous spirit and devotion that is responding to the ministry of Christ through its unity, its witness, and its service as a part of the worldwide Christian commumty.

Karl Barth has a rather extensive chapter on the diakonia of the Church in his Kirchliche Dogmatik. After showing the Christian Church as a community for the world, he discusses the inseparable calling of the Church to serve. Then he has a footnote which I could not skip since he expresses there his expectation for Asian churches in the work of service. He says,

"We don’t need to spend very many words to point out how seldom the service of the Church is rightly understood and enacted among the churches in our part of the world. Now we hope the churches in the west may gain a deeper and newunderstandingof the service of the Church through the existence and example of the so-called younger churches in Asia and Africa, provided those churches do not take as quickly an inner-directed attitude or so easily adopt the pattern of the older churches which occasionally serve to the outside of themselves." [13]

I believe what the worldwide Church expects as the contribution from Asian soil is a spirit of men and women rooted in Asian soil and wholly dependent upon God and dedicating themselves to the work of the ministry in the world. It may not be judged necessarily by the numerical quantity of gifts but by the quality of singleminded devotion and the spontaneous spirit of witness, service and unity of the Church.

VIII. Eschatological humour

The meaning of the first fruits has an eschatological significance. The harvest is near. The first fruit is there. It is shining in the eternal light. It is a pledge of the Holy Spirit that the great harvest is to come. In this sense a redemptive glory exists there in the first fruit which reflects the final victory and the final consummation. In this sense there is eschatological humour or laughter in the Christian style of living.

We laugh on many occasions.[14] Sometimes one laughs when one finds a weakness or failure in an opponent, and sees victory on one’s own part. There is laughter on the side of victory over against those who are defeated. This I would like to call the proud humour of the powerful, or the victorious laugh on the part of the strong.

But there is another occasion when we laugh. Real humour does not lie in human strength. Real humour exists at a deeper level. Real humour exists in a situation in which one finds peculiar contrast. Suppose in a crowded tram you see a very tall, thin man beside a very short, fat lady. The contrast of the two figures gives somehow a humorous picture.

According to the story of (Luke 19), Zacchaeus climbed up a sycamore tree. If a monkey climbs up a sycamore tree, that is natural. Ifa boy climbs up a tree, nobody laughs at him. But not Zacchaeus, the old, fat, short and hated head of the tax collectors of jericho. For him to climb up the sycamore tree is something humorous.

But I don’t mean just in the physical appearance. In the encounter between Jesus and Zacchaeus, there is a deep and peculiar contrast which can be called divine humour. Jesus was passing through Jericho. It would have been quite natural if he had passed by Zacchaeus. But he stopped by the tree. If he, the Son of God, is above and looking down on the sinful man; if Zacchaeus, tax collector, broken-hearted sinner, is looking up to the Son of Man, that is quite natural and nothing strange. But there Jesus stopped, looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, make haste and come down for I must stay at your home today." So he made haste and came down, and received him joyfully. This is really humorous. Something happened there. Something which was an incredible contrast, took place there.

The Son of Man entered into the sinner’s house.
In his life we see this eternal contrast
in our existential situation.
The Lord became a suffering servant.
The Master became a slave not to be served but to serve.
The King became a friend who revealed his love even at the cost of his life.
The Man who has everything gave all to restore lost humanity.

Here we find somehow a strange and unique contrast, a contrast between time and eternity, between sin and forgiveness, between darkness and light, between death and resurrection, between despair and hope.

Here we find not victorious humour based on human ability and power. We find eternal humour based on a divine humour of forgivenesswhich take place in the midst of the struggling and wrestling reality of the world, in presenting the contrast, and sustaining and forgiving us by his victorious grace. In the light of the divine humour we may continue to make a Christian presence as the first fruits of the new humanity in Asia today.

NOTES

1. John R. Mott, Addresses and Papers of John R. MoLt, Vol.1, pp. 319-320, 1946.

2. HendrikKraemer,A Theology of the Laity, p. 147

3. The Message of the Inaugural Assembly of the East Asian Christian Conference in the Ecumenical Review, 1959.

4. Jacques Ellul, The Presence of the Kingdom,

p.145

5. Ibid..

6. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Pars From Prison, pp.168-9

7. DietrichBonhoeffer,Ethics, pp.9-10.

8. Jacques Ellul, The Presence of the Kingdom, pp. 20-21.

9. Paul Tillich, The Courage to Be.

10. For further discussion of the We-Thou Relationship, see Richard Niebuhr, Christ and Culture, especially Chaps. V and VI. See also Jacques Ellul, Op.cit., p. 149 ff. and Alec Vidler, Christian Belief and this World, p77 ff.

11. Abbe Minchonneau, Revolution in a City Parish,p.169.

12. Christianity and Crisis, Vol. XXI, No. 14, August 7, 1961.

13. Karl Barth, Kirchliche Dogmatik, IV/3, 2,5955.

14. George A. Buttrick has delivered a sermon on God and Laughter, in which he classifies three kinds of laughter, the laughter of the child, the laughter of adult life, and the healing laughter of redemption; Sermons Preached in a University Church, pp.51-57


* Delivered at the John R.. Mottt Memorial Lectures, EACC, Bangalore, Part I, 1961