Where is Your Homeland? 你的家國在哪裏？

During their history, both parts of the divided nation of Israel were taken captive by stronger nations around them. First of all, it was the ten tribes of the northern kingdom (Israel) that were humiliated by Assyria, and finally, the two tribes (Judah) were defeated by Babylon and deported from their homeland to live amongst a strange and foreign dynasty and culture. This once proud and defiant nation of God’s people, who understood that they were God’s chosen people and who stood apart from all the others because of their distinctive calling to worship the one true God, now had to live in exile separated from all the familiar landmarks of their religious rituals and cultural distinctiveness of their homeland. Would their dedication to Yahweh survive the pressure? Would they still keep the faith and believe the old promises or would they gradually be drawn into the culture and ways of the new surroundings forced on them by the strength and expectations of their political masters?

This week’s revelations from China about where Hong Kong stands in relation to its political masters (see the previous blog ‘Who do you serve?’) leave us in no doubt that we are now entering a period of exile in our own land. It’s the same place with the same buildings and the same people (well, at least some of the old faces!), but the political landscape has undergone a dramatic change. All that we expected might happen is happening, and it has become quite clear that we are expected to comply with this new political order. However, like Israel, we do have a choice as Christians in how we will respond. Yes, we know who our God is but where is our homeland? Many of us are mourning the loss of our old ‘homeland’ in Hong Kong; some are urging us to forget the past and embrace our new motherland; others are seeking a new homeland elsewhere; and, everyone is asking where our God is in all this.

Now is the time that we are forced to take stock of our situation and understand as Christians where our homeland is. Yes, it does seem rather clichéd to say that our home is in heaven, but for many of us, this just means our final homeland after we have left the one we spend all our time and energy in now. But Jesus and the early church didn’t see it like that. They lived in another homeland that was much more real and vital than Judah or Galilee or Palestine or Rome. They were citizens of God’s kingdom first and then citizens of ‘wherever’, second. For them, there was no artificial separation between the spiritual and the material. The kingdom of God was their ‘here-and-now’ homeland intersecting in real-time with the chaos and confusion of national conflict around them. Let's be the church of Hong Kong that lives out of this reality. Yes, God is in control up there in the heavenly planning room in ways that we are not entitled to second-guess but it's our responsibility to bring him into the messiness and changing political landscapes that we inhabit.

在以色列的歷史裏，南北兩國都敗給了附近的強國、經歷過被擄。首先是北國（以色列國）的十個支派被亞述羞辱，後來是另外的兩個支派（猶大國）也被巴比倫擊敗。他們被逐出家國，被迫在一個陌生的王朝和文化中生活。這羣神的子民，曾經盛極一時，他們知道自己是神的選民，並以此為傲。他們是分別出來的，要回應那獨特的呼召，敬拜獨一的真神；如今，他們卻只能流亡異地，遠離他們的家國，以及一切熟悉的宗教禮儀和文化。他們對耶和華的委身，能否經受得住這樣的壓力？他們能堅守信心，仰望應許，還是會漸漸適應著政治主人的權力和期望，而被新環境的文化和生活方式所同化？

上一篇網誌(你所服事的是誰？)提到，中國在本週披露了香港與其政治主人的關係，毫無疑問，我們已經進入了一個流亡時期，流亡於自己的土地上。我們身於同一個地方，四周仍是一樣的建築物、一樣的人（至少還有一些舊面孔！），但其中的政治格局已經產生了戲劇性的變化。我們預期會發生的一切，已經正在發生，而且目前我們都很清楚地知道，我們需要遵守這新的政治秩序。然而，就像以色列人一樣，我們作為基督徒，可以選擇怎樣回應。是的，我們知道我們的上帝是誰，但我們的家國在哪裏呢？我們很多人在哀悼香港這個舊「家」的消亡，有人鼓勵我們忘記過去，擁抱祖國，也有人去別處尋找新的家園⋯⋯而人人都在求問上帝，在這一切事情發生之時，祂在哪裏。

如今正是一個這樣的時機：我們一定要評估自己的處境，並理解作為基督徒的家國在哪裏。的確，人人都知道「我們的家在天上」，但對很多人而言，這「家」只是我們終極的家鄉，當我們要離開目前投放許多時間精力在其中的家國時，才會去到那裏。然而，耶穌跟早期教會並不是這樣想的。他們所在的家國，比起猶大，或加利利，或巴勒斯坦，或羅馬，還要真實，還要重要。他們首先是上帝國的公民，然後才是「某個地方」的公民。他們不會將屬靈屬世二分。上帝國是他們「此時此地」的家國，實時地與國家的混亂衝突共存。讓我們都成為這樣的香港教會。是的，上帝在天上的控制室裏掌管一切，我們無法測度祂的作為，但我們卻有責任將祂帶進我們所經歷著的混亂和不斷變化的政治環境中。