2023 Annual Member's Meeting
Council For World Mission (CWM)
Changhua Taiwan, June 10, 2023
Huang Po Ho
Director of Academy for Contextual Theologies in Taiwan
For he is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility (Eph. 2.14)
Introduction
Rev. Dr. Jooseop Keum, General Secretary of Council for World Mission, Distinguished delegations of CWM member Churches, guests and my dear Taiwanese colleagues:
It is a great honor to be invited for this opportunity to talk to this annual member's meeting of CWM in my beloved home country of Taiwan. Many thanks to CWM family and general secretary Dr. Jooseop Keum for the invitation.The theme of this annual meeting is "Break Down the Walls of Division" which is taken from the Biblical passage in Paul's letter to the Ephesians (Eph. 2.14), where Paul had tried to convince the Ephesians that they were brought into the Christian community as equals and one with the Jews. And pointed out that this new status of the Gentiles was the fruit of the work of reconciliation through the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
The Wall to the Gentiles
A key phrase in this passage which draws our attention is "Break down the dividing wall", this dividing wall has been further described as a "wall of hostility". A dividing wall is created by hostility. We have to be reminded here that the audients of this passage were the Ephesians Gentiles, who were the recipients of the letter and were treated hostile by the Jews. In the former verses, Paul had counting the inferior status of the Gentiles, he said:
And you he made alive, when you were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air... Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called“uncircumcised" by those who call themselves "the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands) remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. (2.1-2a,11-12)
According to Paul's perception, gentile Ephesians status were inferior and contrast to that of the Jews:
1) The Gentiles were called the uncircumcised by those who had claim to that of circumcision. Here was the first of the great divisions.2) The Gentiles had no hope of a Messiah;3) The Gentiles were aliens from the society of Israel, and was not the holy people (ho hagios' laos).4) The Gentiles were strangers from the covenants on which the promises were based.5) The Gentiles were without hope and without God in the world.
It is to these downtrodden people of gentile Ephesians that Paul address on this topic of Break Down the Walls of Division. The gentile Ephesians were the one to be segregated by the wall of division, which was built by the self justified superior Jews. Ephesians did not have the ability and power to destroy barrier, yet they were granted the opportunity to cross over the wall to join the Messiah community. Paul was here to remind them the fact that their identity of being a Christian, was not attained through their human efforts or achievement by paying their own prices, nor by the grace from the oppressive Jewish party, But "have been brought near by the blood of Christ."
In another word, the message that Paul constructed in these sentences, are not a command nor an instruction for the Ephesians to take actions to break down the wall, instead, he points out that it is the intention of God, and reminded those who have being segregated outside the walls, that this has been realized through the graceful events of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The wall here that Paul pointed to was a symbolic expression of the curtain of the holy Temple, which was created by the Jewish community to segregate and preventing the Gentiles to approach closer to the holy sanctuary of the Temple. This curtain according to Paul was the dividing wall of hostility. he said:
by abolishing in his flesh the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,
Accordingly, for Paul to Break down the wall was not the final purpose, instead the genuine purpose was to overcome discrimination and make peace between the Gentiles and the Jews, and to reconcile both of them to God.
The wall that Paul has addressed to is essentially a spiritual one, which the self justified Jews demonstrated their superiority to discriminate the Gentiles. It was derived in invisible form of pride and eventually concretized in its Temple form of building and regulations. In the same way for example, the Berlin wall that symbolized cold war division, was built by two different ideologies and civilizations. The rival contest between the ideologies of Communism and Capitalism after second world war, to built such a wall was to resist and exclude differences. The South Africa apartheid oppression was another vivid instance.
It is thus, to talk of walls of division, we cannot but to look into the human spirit and their civilizations produced from it. Think of the United Nations, an international organization was established after second world war, to secure and safeguard peace and justice for the world community. In order to strengthen its organizational function and purpose, the United Nations has laid down the "Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)" as its foundation and working principle. The UDHR was adopted by the UN general assembly at 1948, that has accompanied UN for past 75 years. However, the debates on whether human rights has its universal validity has been continually questioned and resisted during past 75 years. China along with its vassal states claim that human rights can not violate nation sovereignty, and there is different concept of rights upheld from Eastern part of the world that is antithetic from that of western conception. China thus alleged that it has reached outstanding achievements on human rights and were supported by majority of UN member countries, only because it has fed the 1.4 billion people's stomachs. despite its torture and violation of Eastern Turkistan, Tibetan and Hong Kong people and frequently harass with military forces to Taiwan, Japan, India and Australia. Not to say its totalitarianism control of its own people domestically. 
It's no surprise, this UDHR, the foundation of the UN's organizational value and vision, has regretfully become a running joke under UN management, whose Human Rights Council is now occupied by a majority of members with a bad record in the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. And its concept of "human rights" is now defined by the language of power based on money and military might.
Rights：Western and Eastern -A hermeneutic issue
Contrarily, The Chinese version of Human Rights was developed out from the traditional "people-oriented"(民本) politics of Confucianism. Confucius is primarily a political thinker, he concern more in people's virtue and benevolence than that of their dignity. His teaching is primary for the governors and rulers in order to achieve the goal to dominate the world. It is thus he advised the government and rulers to take seriously the needs and welfare of the people so that he can earn the respect and obedience from the people. The so-called "the voices of people is the voices of heaven" (天視自我民視，天聽自我民聽) is but an encouraging (warning) message to the rulers, and there is no absolute moral constraints nor legal mechanisms to control the government from denying or even rebelling the voice of God. Human Rights from this aspect is out of the grace and mercy of rulers and is part of ruling strategies.
Hermeneutically speaking, lack common ground of theological perception, the idea of universality of human rights is inevitably in altercation.
The Geopolitics Walls
Therefore, CWM chose to hold its annual members' meeting in Taiwan with this theme of "Breaking the Walls of Division", which has profound meaning and significance to the situation in East Asia, and is especially important to Taiwan. This is of course also relevant to today's global realities.
Today, as we meet on this beautiful island of Taiwan, you may not aware that even at this moment, there are more than a thousand missiles are targeting this island and its 23 million people, and hostile military aircraft are circling close to the island every day. And an international isolation in the form of apartheid was instituted to prevent Taiwan from engaging with the international community. Even the "Chinese-run " United Nations (this is not this writer's language, but a question raised by a French news reporter to UN news conference) has brutally banned Taiwanese passport holders from visiting its buildings. The people of Taiwan are experiencing a barrier, a hostile wall built by the rising empire of China and supported by most of the world, even the United Nations. In this case, therefore, the theme proposed by CWM for this conference can be seen as a prayerful message from this missionary family to the people of its member church.
However, the curtain in the Temple, which Paul called the "wall of division", is not only a barrier to isolate Gentiles, but more as a system of discrimination. Under the concept of the curtain, women, children, and anyone considered unclean are excluded. Likewise, China's brutal bullying of Taiwan cannot be considered an isolated incident. Taiwan is just one of the many fragile states vulnerable to empire-building geopolitical conflicts.
In November 1989, the fall of the Berlin Wall marked the culmination of a wave of change in the contemporary world's political landscape, symbolizing the fall of communist governments in Europe and the symbolic end of the Iron Curtain that divided Europe. Which was followed by dramatic protests and successive declarations of independence in the Baltic states (1990). Yet, the fall of this wave of divisive walls on the European continent has not come without a price. The policy of "alliance with China to contain Russia" adopted by the United States in order to defeat the Soviet Union during the Cold War fostered a new competitive empire for the single-axis imperial hegemony at that time, and attempted to replace the United States.
The rise of China was expected to be a strong and responsible international player in the post-Cold War era. When Deng Xiaoping adopted the "reform and opening" policy, the world was full of hope. Due to its large population and abundant resources, China is regarded as the factory of the world. However, with the waves of investment from the international community, China soon became the second largest economy in the world, and began to try to regulate the world with communist doctrines and ideology.
Xi Jinping, the current leadership of China, advocated "East rise and West fall", in an attempt to suppress Western democratic systems with the advantages of the so-called "whole nation institution". He is not only trying to control the world economic hub through the "one Belt and one Road" and "Made in China 2025", but also breaking his own system to pursue a personal lifelong power position. In order to achieve his ambition of dominating the world, he declared that he would "unify Taiwan" during his term of office and complete the goal of breaking through the first island chain in the free world. Taiwan thus became a small but crucial prey for the two super-empires to contend for.
The Ukrainian war that broke out in February 2022 started the restructuring of global geopolitics. The pro-Russia group headed by China and the democratic camp headed by the United States and NATO are all returning to their respective teams, trying to expand their partners. Shows of force and military exercises are being conducted and intensified on an almost daily basis. The pre-World War atmosphere dominates the globe. Or, if not, a new, tougher Cold War is escalating. The dividing wall built to block Taiwan is now manipulated by the two empires to become a wall of global division, and it has been built tall and long to become a global wall. The famous slogan of Shinzo Abe, the former prime minster of Japan: "what's happening to Taiwan is what's happening to Japan" (i.e. crisis of Taiwan is crisis of Japan台灣有事就是日本有事) , is now said by many other countries' politicians. Taiwan's experience of apartheid has been transformed into a Great Wall that divides the whole world.
Break Down the Walls
When a wall develops into its totalitarianism, it becomes a sacred wall that cannot be challenged and not suppose to be knocked down again. That's why Chinese communism has demonstrated itself as a pseudo religion, and will not tolerate any other religions and differences. Is not this like the curtain in the Temple of Jerusalem, out of an ideology of discrimination being developed to the absolute sanctity of a religion that should not be challenged, no one can tear it apart.
To tear down the curtain and pass through the curtain to enter the most sacred place of the Temple must have been the strong desire of many who have visited the Temple but were forbidden to enter. Gentiles, women, children and all those were declared unclean must have been looking for a way to be emancipated, to enjoy liberty and dignity without discrimination. But this must have been considered a hopeless wish and a useless attempt. Even though the Temple was destroyed (70 AD), this scene still exists in people's minds and affects people's lives. That is why Paul had to proclaim this unexpected message of grace to assure the Ephesians and all Gentiles that they were accepted and given a new identity, called God's people, on an equal footing with the Jews.
Paul's message of "breaking down the wall of division" here uses the past perfect tense, to indicate the fact that this has already been done. However, this was not done by the Ephesians or the Gentiles themselves, and certainly not by Paul or the Jews. This is what God declares and demonstrates through the event of His identification with the world, and with sinners, through the suffering, bloodshed and death of Jesus Christ on the cross.
In other words, Paul, as a missionary, considered himself an apostle to the Gentiles, and he was deeply committed to evangelizing the Gentiles. To this end, he inevitably confronts the reality of the inferior status of Gentiles in his contemporary religious, social, and cultural context created by the discriminatory religious roots of Judaism. And the Christian community of the early church used this discrimination to define Christian identity. As a vulnerable missionary, Paul was very weak at that time. He was persecuted everywhere and was even accused of desecrating the Temple, so he was surely no capacities to help the Gentiles to break down the curtain of the Temple. Yet, he reveals us his secrets of being united with Christ：
For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For it is the God who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For while we live we are always being given up to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
With these secrets of faith, Paul proclaimed his message with confidence by turning the present or future tense to the "past perfect tense". He announces : " For he is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility." (Eph. 2.14) Through declare that the dividing wall of hostility has been broken down, Paul prophetically condemned the injustice of the Jewish religious tradition, and the invalidity of the Temple Curtain, meanwhile he was also announcing the Divine Grace of God's liberation to reconcile the Gentiles to his covenant community.
Prophetic Ministries in Today's World
CWM family as a faith community, is by nature to be a steward to spread Gospel (good news) and advance peace and reconciliation, which is the core value and mission of the Jesus Movement and why the Church and its related organizations were founded. It was on this foundation that Paul's teaching and ministry took root.
The missionary model shaped by Paul has had a major impact on the history of Christian missions, especially missions in the gentile world. His advocacy on "Kenosis Christology" and his great teaching on "Justification by Faith" enabled him to live out his humiliated prophet model of witness, that incorporated with Jesus' prototype of mission through his humble incarnation, have turned the world upside down in human history. This was the genuine nature of Christian mission in early Church period, when the Church was regarded illegal and weak in power in a circumstance of colonial and hegemonic socio-political atmosphere. Yet the messages proclaimed and its ways of witness taken by the missionaries were tremendous challenging and ineluctable.
Our world (our planet) today has reached a tipping point, a critical edge of to be or not to be. Consider the current deadlocked rivalry between the two super-empires, the arms race between world powers, the endless shows of force and military exercises, adding the recurring nuclear deterrence of the recent Ukraine war. The dividing wall we are confronted is not only religious and cultural discrimination, not just racial and gender prejudice, nor just political and ideological exclusion, it is a worldwide geopolitical tension and conflict, that threatens to the extinction of all human beings and the planet.
"To save the world" using the popular Christian language of mission, is today become an urgent and concrete that everyone can empathize with. Christian church and its mission is thus obligated to answer the question of "how to save the world" instead of just stay in its rhetorical statements. When the arm conflicts in the world continues to escalate, nuclear threat is increasingly imminent, and the wall of destruction grows taller and stronger, yet the imperial powers seem helpless, Religions (particularly Christianity) that claim to save the world surely has its responsibility to give a prophetic answer for its hopeful exit.
The Wall will never come down unless justice is upheld and evil with injustice is identified and denied. I hope this CWM Annual conference encourages us to be more faithful to our prophetic calling, to make our faith more credible to the world, and to glorify our Creator God. (Thank you)
沒有留言:
張貼留言