In the Dark
Song of the Week: Once in Royal David’s City, Cecil Frances Alexander (1848)
Book of the Week: A Few Words in the Dark, Thomas John Hastings
(Writings of Kagawa Toyohiko), 2015
It’s two days after Christmas and I would like to tell you this journal is the only “work” I have done, and will do, until January 2nd. Say what you want, but I realized a little bit ago that I have no plans for the next five days and I was not upset at all, actually couldn’t be happier. I would also like to report, again, as far as reading is concerned, I am still in my Japanese Christian author phase - this week’s person of interest: Kagawa Toyohiko.
The Saint of the Kobe Slum was a Japanese evangelist and social activist who seemed to spend most of his adulthood traveling the world trying to prevent war. He was nominated for two different Nobel Prizes both several times each and his name is written heavily into the history of Japanese Evangelicalism. I don’t know enough about his economic or political leanings (also very into trees at one point) to comment on them, and I can’t say I agree with his theology wholesale, but I am fascinated by a period of his life in 1926 when Kagawa was hospitalized briefly for temporary blindness that he contracted after moving into the slums in Kobe in order to minister to the people there. He, no doubt, loved people and loved God. During this temporary blindness he wrote (spoke) meditations that ran as a column in a Japanese newspaper, and some of those have been compiled into a book titled A Few Words in the Dark (Hastings, 2015) by Thomas John Hastings; here are some that stuck out to me.
On the Incarnation: Kagawa repeatedly throughout his medititations refers to Jesus as “the carpenter from Nazareth” - that alone is worth noting. The incarnation seemed to mean a lot to Kagawa. Yes, it should mean a lot to him as a Christian (it means a lot to all of us), but sometimes people do hone in on specific areas of Jesus’ life and ministry over others, as a matter of interest (not heresy…most of the time). At the risk of potential ignorance to a trend of Japanese Christians referring to Jesus as “the carpenter”, I would say that any time someone makes a concerted effort to call someone/something by an uncommon name, that typically denotes an emphasis, or at least an air of unique thoughtfulness. I just think it’s cool that he does this, and I don’t know what other words to use in order to communicate that. Anyway, titles aside, he writes about how powerful it is that Jesus was not only fully human, but walked in the mire: “he was a friend to sinners and a confidant to prostitutes, thoroughly stained by the dirt of everyday life” (Hastings, p. 43). I love that.
On Science: I will let Kagawa speak here: “To me, science is the perfect art. I have never thought science and religion are in conflict. I want to learn more and more of the depths of science. By doing so, I believe I will understand the cosmos more deeply. And the more deeply I understand the cosmos, the more deeply I will understand myself. And the more deeply I understand myself, the more deeply I will understand God. Those who claim religion and science are at odds are themselves at odds with science. Are not all things for us? (Hastings, 31).
On “the least of these”: When you grow up in the church, you run the risk of finding yourself in a bit of a vacuum, or echochamber. “The Bubble” as some would say - you know you’re in the bubble when all of your friends look, think, act, talk, walk, vote, etc., the same way you do. There are many ways this could happen, but one of them is by viewing the pursuit of God as puring academic. When God becomes theory, your neighbor becomes invisible. When we’re buried in academia, loving our the least of these becomes pure symbolism and religious rote, instead of a participation in the love of the trinity. The command to love our neighbors as ourselves isn’t just a rule God came up with to try and make us act right - it’s a reflection of his heart for us, his original intention with us. In loving our neighbors, we walk in the steps of what it means to be fully human. Further, when we fail to minister to the least of these in favor of our comfortable Christian bubbles, we fold on a large part of what it is to experience God in this world. “Those who want to meet God do well to first visit the prison before going to the temple. Going to the hospital before going to church. Helping the beggar at the gate before reading the Bible. Might we miss God if you put off the prison for the temple alone? (Hastings, 39).
Praying this week is restful for you.
Merry Christmas and in love,
Josh
