Reflection
As the only Chinese festival set by solar calendar, the timing of Ching Ming coincides with Easter celebration each year. It provides a unique opportunity for the church to seize on the symbolism of death and new resurrection life. However, it would only have a social impact of demonstrating Christian filial piety and refuting criticisms of disloyalty if a large segment of the church collectively took up the challenge. At the cemeteries, we could help with the repair and cleaning work while making a firm stance to refrain from participation in questionable practices like burning ‘hell’ money. We could seek to redeem the festival by meaningful retelling of the lives and contributions of our ancestors to the next generation, the singing of hymns anticipating the resurrection life and strengthening relational ties with non-Christian family members. Ultimately, the only effective apologetic is our honor and filial care for the elderly while they are still alive and remembrance of their deeds.
The apostle Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 15 reminds us of our participation and solidarity in a new humanity in Christ. In Adam, our first ancestor, we have shared not only in his biological life but also in his spiritual estrangement from God the Father. The 18 detailed descriptions of judgment serve as confirmation that there will be retribution for the sins committed in life. In the last Adam, however, we have been set free for He has died for our sins and rose again to give us Spirit-renewed life. By His sacrifice and resurrection, Christ’s righteous merits were imputed to us and our wrongdoings were pardoned such that we do not partake in ritualistic ceremonies to escape judgment. Our incorporation in a new humanity and community of faith does not put asunder family ties. Rather, the eschatological people of God embrace and transcend them to go beyond merely biological relations to welcoming even strangers and “Samaritans”. Death does not end our cherished relationships for the grave would not have the last laugh.
The parallel themes of death-new life in the Ching Ming-Easter events also focused our attention on the issue of pain, sorrow and suffering. The Christian hope does not lie in a form of escapism from this world in order to achieve eternal bliss in an abstract, disembodied existence elsewhere. Isn’t this otherworldly pie-in-the-sky dream the subject of much Marxist critique for dulling people’s pains to real oppressions? The bodily resurrection of Christ is a radically contrasting solution as an open, historical event that happened in space-time continuum. As such, it is open to public scrutiny and rational investigation of its claims. What God has done in Christ, He would do on a cosmic scale for our fundamentally good but sin-corrupted creation. The world will be ultimately transformed into new heaven and new earth, not abandoned like a prison. Our physical bodies of suffering will be resurrected with glory, honor and incorruptibility. Having seen the ravages of sin, we would not desire to sin any longer in a material existence that is empowered by the Spirit. There will be no more sickness, decay or violence for God will wipe away every tear and restore all that is beautiful, noble and true. Similar to C.S. Lewis’ vision of heaven in The Great Divorce, the future renewed world will be more substantial, more tangible and more solid than the world as we know it. If the present creation will not be abandoned but transformed, then the resurrection of Christ promises and calls the church to be heralds and agents of that new creation. In the meantime, we are to work in the here-and-now in anticipation of the eschatological vision such that we could have a foretaste of its future glory.
However, exceedingly more than the peace and joys of everlasting life, reunion with beloved ones, the splendor of the new creation and the wondrous adventures and fulfilling work in which it is possible, and perfected bodies which never experience pain, we look forward to an unveiled fellowship with the infinitely glorious and supremely personal Triune God. Greater than all the gifts of resurrected life is the ever-loving Giver Himself, who even gave Himself so that we may indeed behold and savor and worship Him forever.
Footnotes
1 Chae Woon Na, “Filial Piety in Confucian Thought,” North East Asia Journal of Theology 28/9 (1982):28. Quoted in Reverend Daniel Chua Meng Wah, Feeding On Ashes: A Biblical Evaluation of Chinese Ancestral Worship, (Kairos Research Center: Damansara, 1998), page 13
2 The Five Cardinal Relations refer to those of ruler-subject, between friends, father-son, elder brother-sibling, and husband-wife relationships.
3 Daniel Tong, A Biblical Approach To Chinese Traditions And Beliefs, (Genesis Books: Singapore, 2003), page 36
4 Lin Chi-Ping, Ancestor Worship: Reactions of Chinese Churches, Christian Alternatives to Ancestor Practices, (Asia Theological Association: Taiwan, 1985), pages 149 - 157
5 Daniel Tong, A Biblical Approach To Chinese Traditions And Beliefs, page 71
6 N.T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son Of God, Christian Origins And The Question of God, Volume 3, (Fortress Press: Minneapolis, 2003), page 32 onwards. In Part 2 of this book, Bishop Wright provided a most detailed treatment of Greco-Roman concepts of the afterlife.
7 Gordon Fee, Corinthians: A Study Guide, 3rd edition, page 120
8 While Thiselton recognizes the value of Witherington’s thesis that Paul is taking an aim at imperial Roman propaganda, he also favors a more comprehensive understanding of “every rule and every authority and power” (v28) as embodying any kind of structural opposition to God. Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, The New International Greek New Testament Commentary, (Eerdmans Publishing:Grand Rapids, 2000 ), page 1232
9 N. T. Wright, The Resurrection Of The Son Of God, page 350
10 Richard Gaffin, The Centrality of the Resurrection: A Study In Paul’s Soteriology, (Baker: Grand Rapids, 1978), page 83
11 F.F. Bruce, I & II Corinthians, The New Century Bible Commentary, (Eerdmans: Grand Rapids, 2001), page 152
12 Gordon Fee, First Epistle to the Corinthians, The New International Commentary on the New Testament, (Eerdmans: Grand Rapids, 1987), page 786
13 Flesh and blood here does not refer to “a corrupted human corpse, but to human nature as such in its frailty and in its sinfulness”. Jeremias, “Flesh and Blood Cannot Inherit the Kingdom of God,” page 151 – 159. Quoted in Antony Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians,,page 50
14 Dr Keith Hamilton of Singapore Bible College provided An example of how the Ching Ming festival can be contextualized by Christians. Reverend Daniel Chua Meng Wah, Feeding On Ashes, page 96
15 In the Great Divorce, Lewis contrasted imaginatively the denizens of hell as "phantoms" as opposed to the "bright solid people" from heaven.
As the only Chinese festival set by solar calendar, the timing of Ching Ming coincides with Easter celebration each year. It provides a unique opportunity for the church to seize on the symbolism of death and new resurrection life. However, it would only have a social impact of demonstrating Christian filial piety and refuting criticisms of disloyalty if a large segment of the church collectively took up the challenge. At the cemeteries, we could help with the repair and cleaning work while making a firm stance to refrain from participation in questionable practices like burning ‘hell’ money. We could seek to redeem the festival by meaningful retelling of the lives and contributions of our ancestors to the next generation, the singing of hymns anticipating the resurrection life and strengthening relational ties with non-Christian family members. Ultimately, the only effective apologetic is our honor and filial care for the elderly while they are still alive and remembrance of their deeds. 
The apostle Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 15 reminds us of our participation and solidarity in a new humanity in Christ. In Adam, our first ancestor, we have shared not only in his biological life but also in his spiritual estrangement from God the Father. The 18 detailed descriptions of judgment serve as confirmation that there will be retribution for the sins committed in life. In the last Adam, however, we have been set free for He has died for our sins and rose again to give us Spirit-renewed life. By His sacrifice and resurrection, Christ’s righteous merits were imputed to us and our wrongdoings were pardoned such that we do not partake in ritualistic ceremonies to escape judgment. Our incorporation in a new humanity and community of faith does not put asunder family ties. Rather, the eschatological people of God embrace and transcend them to go beyond merely biological relations to welcoming even strangers and “Samaritans”. Death does not end our cherished relationships for the grave would not have the last laugh. The parallel themes of death-new life in the Ching Ming-Easter events also focused our attention on the issue of pain, sorrow and suffering. The Christian hope does not lie in a form of escapism from this world in order to achieve eternal bliss in an abstract, disembodied existence elsewhere. Isn’t this otherworldly pie-in-the-sky dream the subject of much Marxist critique for dulling people’s pains to real oppressions? The bodily resurrection of Christ is a radically contrasting solution as an open, historical event that happened in space-time continuum. As such, it is open to public scrutiny and rational investigation of its claims. What God has done in Christ, He would do on a cosmic scale for our fundamentally good but sin-corrupted creation. The world will be ultimately transformed into new heaven and new earth, not abandoned like a prison. Our physical bodies of suffering will be resurrected with glory, honor and incorruptibility. Having seen the ravages of sin, we would not desire to sin any longer in a material existence that is empowered by the Spirit. There will be no more sickness, decay or violence for God will wipe away every tear and restore all that is beautiful, noble and true. Similar to C.S. Lewis’ vision of heaven in The Great Divorce, the future renewed world will be more substantial, more tangible and more solid than the world as we know it. If the present creation will not be abandoned but transformed, then the resurrection of Christ promises and calls the church to be heralds and agents of that new creation. In the meantime, we are to work in the here-and-now in anticipation of the eschatological vision such that we could have a foretaste of its future glory.
However, exceedingly more than the peace and joys of everlasting life, reunion with beloved ones, the splendor of the new creation and the wondrous adventures and fulfilling work in which it is possible, and perfected bodies which never experience pain, we look forward to an unveiled fellowship with the infinitely glorious and supremely personal Triune God. Greater than all the gifts of resurrected life is the ever-loving Giver Himself, who even gave Himself so that we may indeed behold and savor and worship Him forever.
Footnotes
1 Chae Woon Na, “Filial Piety in Confucian Thought,” North East Asia Journal of Theology 28/9 (1982):28. Quoted in Reverend Daniel Chua Meng Wah, Feeding On Ashes: A Biblical Evaluation of Chinese Ancestral Worship, (Kairos Research Center: Damansara, 1998), page 13
2 The Five Cardinal Relations refer to those of ruler-subject, between friends, father-son, elder brother-sibling, and husband-wife relationships.
3 Daniel Tong, A Biblical Approach To Chinese Traditions And Beliefs, (Genesis Books: Singapore, 2003), page 36
4 Lin Chi-Ping, Ancestor Worship: Reactions of Chinese Churches, Christian Alternatives to Ancestor Practices, (Asia Theological Association: Taiwan, 1985), pages 149 - 157
5 Daniel Tong, A Biblical Approach To Chinese Traditions And Beliefs, page 71
6 N.T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son Of God, Christian Origins And The Question of God, Volume 3, (Fortress Press: Minneapolis, 2003), page 32 onwards. In Part 2 of this book, Bishop Wright provided a most detailed treatment of Greco-Roman concepts of the afterlife.
7 Gordon Fee, Corinthians: A Study Guide, 3rd edition, page 120
8 While Thiselton recognizes the value of Witherington’s thesis that Paul is taking an aim at imperial Roman propaganda, he also favors a more comprehensive understanding of “every rule and every authority and power” (v28) as embodying any kind of structural opposition to God. Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, The New International Greek New Testament Commentary, (Eerdmans Publishing:Grand Rapids, 2000 ), page 1232
9 N. T. Wright, The Resurrection Of The Son Of God, page 350
10 Richard Gaffin, The Centrality of the Resurrection: A Study In Paul’s Soteriology, (Baker: Grand Rapids, 1978), page 83
11 F.F. Bruce, I & II Corinthians, The New Century Bible Commentary, (Eerdmans: Grand Rapids, 2001), page 152
12 Gordon Fee, First Epistle to the Corinthians, The New International Commentary on the New Testament, (Eerdmans: Grand Rapids, 1987), page 786
13 Flesh and blood here does not refer to “a corrupted human corpse, but to human nature as such in its frailty and in its sinfulness”. Jeremias, “Flesh and Blood Cannot Inherit the Kingdom of God,” page 151 – 159. Quoted in Antony Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians,,page 50
14 Dr Keith Hamilton of Singapore Bible College provided An example of how the Ching Ming festival can be contextualized by Christians. Reverend Daniel Chua Meng Wah, Feeding On Ashes, page 96
15 In the Great Divorce, Lewis contrasted imaginatively the denizens of hell as "phantoms" as opposed to the "bright solid people" from heaven.
Comments
i think there's still so much more to 'excavate' in the matters of the resurrectionn, esp. in the area of 'ethics' or radical social redemption...perhaps for too long the R has been used more as 'epistemic proof' (*confirming* the truth of christianity) than as impetus for the church to embrace/advance the kingdom and subvert everything else against it.
your thoughts on redeeminng 'ching ming', etc. are a good start...thanks for this post, ;)
http://hedonese1.blogspot.com/2006/01/blast-from-past.html
Had a short chat with an STM biblical scholar the other day and he said much of NT Wright's stuffs are actually not original, he has a way abt popularizing and repackaging what others have said.
Sorry to burst the bubble! :) But can't wait to see him in Malaysia in Sept
I walked through this as a teenager.