Reflections...

Over these 6 months I worked at a community centre under an NGO, to make some money of course, and also to learn and experience serving other people in a non-church setting. Today, I would like to share my reflections about church during this period of time, based on this experience. When I say church I do not only mean KUC, but church in general, or perhaps, church in my own experience specifically in the context of Hong Kong. But I hope this reflection would still give us some inspiration in thinking and rethinking what church means to us. Therefore, the sermon title today asks church or community centre? Is a reflection of my own experience, and it might also be a reflection for all of us to think about church life. 

During this period of time, I often recalled my pastor who used to say, “a church without Jesus is just a community centre”. In fact there are many similarities between church and community centre. Both have their social functions of gathering people and building social networks. Many churches also organise different activities for their members, just like what a community centre would do. Community centres also care a lot about membership and the number of members because they are accountable to the social welfare department, that they would keep track of, and strategically recruit new members from time to time. 

I do not mean to undermine the work of a community centre. Their significance in creating social bondings and caring for underprivileged people by providing physical space and services are indispensable. But what makes a church different from a community centre? My answer will be, a place without Jesus is a place without the Holy Spirit. And a place without the Holy Spirit will never be the church. 

 

Two stories motivated my reflections. 

In the first story, a homeless person came to our service counter, and asked our colleague if we could give him some biscuits. My colleague told him we got vending machines instead, and the person said, “But I don’t have any money. Can you just give me something to eat?” My colleague then introduced him to another floor in the building that provides short-term food assistance service. The homeless person then went away sad. 

The second story is about a kai fong, a person living in the neighbourhood, who spends most of their time in the community centre. This person has a sharp mind, but once he starts talking he cannot stop and that scares people off. A few colleagues including myself would actually listen to him, and he would share with us funny things like people arguing at a cha chan teng, or gossip at our community centre. One time, he shared about their experience of seeking help from other NGOs but all in vain. And there were people asking them what he needed, but walked away after he expressed his needs. So I asked him, what is your biggest need? And he said, to eat homemade food together with people. Since he has been living by themselves for a long time, and yet he enjoys being around people. All he wants is to be in a fellowship, sharing food and friendship. 

I thought of the work KUC has been doing. We share food every Sunday after worship, and we offer help in different kinds to people walking in our church from all parts of the world. These things could be unthinkable in other settings such as a community centre. So, are we doing a better ministry because we are exempted from the government’s regulation? Or are we better off because we do not need to keep up with any KPI? The passage in the book of Romans we’re reading today echoes my reflection. 

Verses 12-13 says, “So then, brothers and sisters, we are obligated, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— 13 for if you live according to the flesh, you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”

Here we see a dualistic contrast made by Paul, which occurs quite frequently in the first 8 chapters of the book of Romans. The contradiction between flesh and the spirit, life and death, flows from the previous contradiction he made between the works of the law and the law of faith. For the Jews believed that justification comes from their inherent Jewish identity, and the works of the law, which are actions performed to fulfil the Mosaic Law found in the first five books of the Old Testament, are in fact indicators of their social identity. Just like you are required to pay a membership fee at a community centre, in order to enjoy all the services provided to members. Once you stop paying the fee, you immediately lose all the rights associated with the membership, including using the facilities, or participating in activities organised for them. Now, Paul says, our justification, meaning, becoming God’s people, is not associated with such actions, and therefore irrelevant to our social identity, instead it’s through faith in Jesus Christ, that we become God’s people. 

Connecting with this comparison, is the comparison between life and death. In Romans 6:1-4, Paul says, “What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may increase? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.“ We mortals are destined to death. However, the question is, to what do we die? And to what do we live? If we are dead to sin, we shall live in God. But if we are not dead to sin, even though we are alive, we do not walk in newness of life. That’s the paradox posed by Paul.

And whether we are alive or dead seems to depend on how we use our bodies. For verses such as 7:14, we see that Paul is laying out the consequences of a body given to sin, and a body given to the spirit. And he is often misunderstood as demonising our physical bodies, but in fact Paul is suggesting that only when we live a life according to the spirit, then our bodies may be sanctified. Given the logical flow of the book of Romans, the dualistic comparisons are to bring about the subversive power of the gospel, which concerns faith rather than the works of the law; and the gospel is liberating and life-giving, transcending over flesh and eventually leading us to the spirit. 

So what does it mean to live according to the spirit? Verse 14 continues to say, 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. 15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba![l] Father!” 16 it is that very Spirit bearing witness[m] with our spirit that we are children of God”

Following the dualistic theme, Paul here explains the subversive power of the spirit to alter the understanding of the very meaning to be a human being. Men used to receive a spirit of slavery, falling back into fear; but now we received a spirit of adoption, becoming the children of God. It is believed that the crying out of “Abba! Father!” imitates the cry of Jesus to God. And so Paul is suggesting that we are sharing in the sonship of Jesus, the loving relationship Jesus has with God. This again is a radical shift to the Jewish mindset. And it in fact resembles modern psychology in terms of the hierarchy of needs. Traditionally, Maslow’s theory of the hierarchy of needs suggests that the highest needs or motivation for human is self-actualisation. It is corrected by later scholars that Maslow himself did not suggest using the shape of a pyramid, so that all these human needs are equally important and require equal attention. Secondly, Maslow proposed in his later days that the ultimate human need or motivation is something other than self-actualisation, and this human need or motivation, is called self-transcendence. The difference between self-actualisation and self-transcendence is, the first one asks oneself what kind of person I want to become; and the latter one asks oneself, how can I do something good for others or for the world? 

Jesus himself is an example of the life of self-transcendence. His prayer in Gethsemane, telling God, “nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” is a prayer of self-negation, at the same time self-actualisation and self-transcendence. Because only by abandoning his own will can Jesus fulfil his mission as Christ, the son of God. 

Self-transcendence is the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Pannenberg thinks that Spirit is the name for the actual presence of divine reality in Christian experience and in the Christian community. Yet this reality is not to be identified by looking for elements that separate Christian experience and Christian community from all other human experience and community. And the way to experience the work of the Holy Spirit is through our spirits. “The experience of freedom, the capability for abstract cognition, the particular ecstasy of imaginative inspiration - all this seems closely related to the distinctive structure of the mind, to his reflective nature, to his ability to look at himself from a distance and therefore to take the position of something else in distinction from himself. This ecstatic element of the life of the mind I call “spirit”.” “The spirit is not the mind, but the human mind comes to life only when he is touched by the spirit.” That’s why verse 16 rightly says it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God. Only when our spirit participates in the work of the Holy Spirit, can we transcend ourselves and enter into the spiritual dimension, and so it is also right for Maslow to regard self-trascendence to be closely related to religious and mystical experiences. 

But when our spirits are not participating in the work of the Holy Spirit, as one can imagine, we have the capability for abstract cognition, for imagination and reflection, yet we are confined in ourselves, Paul is right to say we live like a slave and fall back into fear, because there will be no freedom, not self-actualisation nor self-transcendence for us. And it’s not that we are not Jewish and so we do not receive a spirit of slavery. There is  no choice for us in this case. But only when we participate in the work of the Holy Spirit will we break free from slavery and enjoy true freedom as children of God. 

Today as we commemorate the 9th Sunday after Pentecost, we remember that the church is built by the power of the Holy Spirit. In the books of Act, the Spirit is described as sounding like the rush of a violent wind, as divided tongues as of fire that rested on each of the early disciples. The power of the Holy Spirit is spontaneous, fluid and uncontrollable. And how does that change our understanding of church? Church should not be defined by this building, not even by the liturgy we use, or the doctrines we hold onto. The church is defined by the spirit of love. The two stories that happened at the community centre show that without love, there is limited work we can do. But our work should enable the flow of the spirit of love if we are truly participating in the work of the holy spirit. 

The final verse in our reading today points to the eschatological attribute of the Holy Spirit. In verse 17 it reads, “and if children, then heirs: heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if we in fact suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.” Believers are heirs who have not yet entered into our full inheritance, and we will enjoy the full inheritance in the future only if our identification with Christ goes all the way, not simply with his lifestyle on earth or in experience of his risen life already, but also in the sharing of his suffering and death. Here Paul is not attempting to glorify or rationalize suffering, but as the necessary corollary of the view that only Christ’s death has ended the old epoch and the rule of sin and death, so that only by participation in that death can the rule of sin and death be broken for others. The eschatological dimension in this verse reminds us that the process of sharing in Christ’s sufferings and death is a lifelong one, and it is a process of growing conformity to Christ’s death in our lives as a believer. And so the church, as an eschatological community, we are not the kingdom of God, but we are a sign pointing towards the kingdom of God, showing other people what humanity looks like in the future life. In this sense, there is nothing similar between a church and a community centre. 

I believe KUC represents a marginal but important voice in the Christian community in Hong Kong. Our practice of open communion, or open table, is actually not widely accepted by the Christian community in this place, yet it might be the most representative symbol of our motto: where all are one. Our relationship with OBIC, One Body In Christ, the church we share space with in this sanctuary, represents our solidarity with sexual minorities and people with mental health issues and disabilities. Both examples are signs of hospitality to people from different social and economic classes, to sexual minorities, and to people of different religious or theological backgrounds. This church is unique because of our participation in the work of the Holy Spirit. And in this moment as we are present in this unique space, I hope everyone of us is aware of the special position we stand in the life of the Christian community in this city, and could transcend beyond to ask, what more can we do to enable the work of the holy spirit? How do we show more solidarity with humanity? May this be a message of loving encouragement to this church, and may God continue to bless each of us in this community and all that we do, Amen.