I have to tell you from the get go that
“Imlek” has no meaning whatsoever to Christian faith. Thus to Christians, “Imlek” carries no
spiritual meaning or any meaning related to our faith to the Triune God. “Imlek” also does not relate to our salvation
in Christ Jesus. It also does not carry
any moral bearing on the way Christians must live. “Imlek” is the New Year celebration that
ethnic Chinese celebrate, just like the modern people celebrate the new year
every January 1. Therefore, I do not
wish to spiritualize “Imlek” into Christianity.
However, as a Chinese myself, I could find a thing or two that is
universally good in “Imlek” which we can also find in our Christian faith. In this particular sermon, I want to focus on
the value of honoring our parents. I do
hope that through this sermon you may remember about the 5th
commandment of God whenever you celebrate “Imlek.” Therefore, please turn with me to Deuteronomy
5:16:
16 “ ‘Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you, that
your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
Deuteronomy
5:16
This
commandment was retold by Moses prior to Israel entering the Promised
Land. The first time the commandment was
told was in Exodus 20:12, which basically says the same thing: “12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days
may be long in the land that the Lord
your God is giving you.”
The parallel verse can also be found in the first law of holiness that
is written in Leviticus 19:3:
3 Every one of you
shall revere his mother and his father, and you shall keep my Sabbaths: I
am the Lord your God.
Jeffrey
Tigay of the Jewish Publication Society Torah Commentary on Deuteronomy
elaborated the meaning of honoring here:
One aspect
of this duty is respect, which includes obedience to parents and adherence to
their teachings and forbids hitting, insulting, and behaving disrespectfully
toward them and misappropriating their property. Another aspect is caring for
parents when they require it.[1]
Tigay
added further elaboration on the meaning of caring:
This aspect
of the commandment is recognized in the Talmud: “What is honoring? Providing
them food and drink, clothing and covers, and taking them in and out.” Care of
one’s aged parents is one of the fundamental duties spelled out in adoption
contracts and other documents of the ancient Near East.[2]
Why
is this commandment so important that it must be mentioned in the big 10? Gary Hall of the College Press NIV Commentary
on Deuteronomy explained:
This
commandment was important because the family was the basic social, economic,
and spiritual unit in Israel. A threat to the family meant a threat to the
covenant relationship and national survival. Therefore, rebellious children
were punished with death (Deut 21:18–21; 22:20–21).[3]
The
apostle Paul instructed the children in the Ephesian church by quoting this
commandment:
6 Children,
obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor
your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), 3 “that it may go well
with you and that you may live long in the land.” (Ephesians 6:1-3)
There
is no excuse for children not to respect their parents, and thus not to obey
them who are in the Lord. And moreover,
as the children of our parents, we are to take care of them when they need it.
Here, as Chinese, we can relate to
Israel, for we too value honoring parents so highly. One of the most important teachings of
Confucius is called “Filial Piety” (孝
– xiào), which means “a virtue of respect for one's parents, elders, and
ancestors.” Here is some further
elaboration of xiào:
Filial piety means to be good to one's parents; to
take care of one's parents; to engage in good conduct not just towards parents
but also outside the home so as to bring a good name to one's parents and
ancestors; to show love, respect and support; display courtesy; to ensure male
heirs, uphold fraternity among brothers; wisely advise one's parents, including
dissuading them from moral unrighteousness; display sorrow for their sickness
and death; to bury them and carry out sacrifices after their death.
I
need to caution you that there are some areas in the meaning of xiào that
Christians can’t observe, which is the worship of the dead. Other than that, Christians share very
similar values in respect to honoring one’s parents.
In fact, every culture in this world
upholds honoring one’s parents. I have
yet to find a culture that teaches the people to disrespect their parents. I’m pretty sure there is none. Now, why do I exhort you on this matter of
honoring our parents in “Imlek” celebration?
Because in “Imlek” our greatest joy is found in family gathering. And during family gathering, we pay special
honor to our parents. We do it by
visiting our parents, and honoring them as we should. We celebrate the New Year together by wishing
each other’s happiness, health, fortune, and long life. We dine together as family in order to
strengthen the family bond, to share our love and care for one another. In “Imlek” we Chinese are to make our parents
happy and at the same time the parents are to make the children happy. Symbolically, Parents give out gifts to their
children in the form of valuable things put inside a red envelope. This giving of the red envelope symbolizes
the prosperity that is handed down by the parents to the children, much like a
blessing. This part of “Imlek” is
beautiful, and is not against the Scripture at all. Moreover, the value of honoring of one’s parents
is actually in tune with God’s fifth commandment.
Yet, we also hear of disobedient and
rebellious children, who sadden their parents, because by being disobedient and
rebellious they have dishonored their parents.
Not only those rebellious children disrespect their parents in the way
they talk to them, but also in the way they treat them. As our parents grow older and weaker, it is
imperative that as children we care for them.
It is our duty. But in my 45
years of life I have heard many elderly parents being neglected by their
children. They were not given good
food. They were not clothed
properly. They were put away, far away,
so they won’t bother the children’s life.
They were never talked to anymore.
Yes, they might have lost their eyesight, or their sense of hearing, or
even much of their memory, yet they are still their parents. They might not smell as fragrant as they were
before. They definitely are not as
strong as they were before. And for sure
many are not going to budge from their habits.
But they still must be honored and respected. Not scorned, or scolded, or disrespected, or
gossiped about, or neglected.
The fifth commandment is the first
commandment with a promise, Paul said.
The promise of a long life. We
Chinese like to wish each other to have long life. Because long life is in a way seen by Chinese
as a sign of blessing. Ecclesiastes 3:11
says that God has put eternity in the human heart. Thus our desire to continue to live is within
us. And such desire fits very well the 5th
commandment. Now, Hall warned of the
implication of the promise: “But
the promise was also an implied threat of short life if not obeyed.[4]” It doesn’t mean, however, that a man that
lives a short life is always because he dishonored his parents. Jesus’ life was short, yet He honored his
parents perfectly. But if we are to live
a long and meaningful life, we must not ignore this commandment. Hall shed some light into understanding the
promise:
The promise
meant that those who cared for their parents would live long enough to
experience the same care by their children.[5]
I
hope you would start treating your parents with honor and care for them more,
especially as they grow older and weaker.
You know what is sad? It is when honoring parents is no longer in
one’s mind. It is when parent-children
relationships have gone sour and bitter, and so all is just formality and
utility. This strained relationship can
also be caused by the behavior of the parents that is negative. For this matter, Paul warns us in Ephesians
6:4 immediately after he quoted the 5th commandment:
4 Fathers,
do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and
instruction of the Lord.
Provoking
the children to anger is something that must not be done. Paul is not saying here about the regular and
normal relationships that include being angry at one another at times. Say, the father totally forgot to pick up the
child from school because of the load of work he had to do that day, so the
child had to wait for a long time in school.
Now, when the child was angry at the father it was a normal anger. But what Paul meant here is the kind of anger
that is purposefully provoked because the parent sees the child as his/her enemy
not as a child to be protected, cared, and loved.
I once met a Chinese lady who said
some surprising things. She gave me an
advice: “You know, when you are old, do not give a piece of property with your
child’s name on the title.” I asked her:
“Why?” She replied: “If your child has
already had on his/her hand his/her own property, he/she will forget you and
will not honor you anymore.” I said:
“Oh, really? Is that so?” She then concluded: “That is why, I am going
to hold the property in my name, so my children will continue to care for me
and honor me.” Brothers and sisters, I
was so stunned by her advice. She lives
a pitiful life. She is afraid that her
children will not honor her or care for her if she does not have anything anymore
that they desire from her. The
relationship is a sour and bitter one.
It is a mere formality and utility.
I do not know what’s going on with their family life. But certainly, it’s not good, be it from the
Chinese value, and how much more from the Christian value. I cannot imagine what normally happens in
their “Imlek” celebration. It could be
just a formal gathering with family without any joy, without any proper honor
to the parents. The mere preservation of
tradition.
I trust you all are going to do
better than that Chinese lady. In this
year’s “Imlek” I hope you may have a joy together with family. For children, honor your parents with the
proper respect they deserve being your parents, and care for them when they
need it. Only then you may truly wish one
another with happiness, health, fortune, and long life. For parents, love your children and teach
them the way of the Lord, so they may be mature and decide in their own hearts
to honor and care for you voluntarily without any coercion or secret desire of
wanting something from you, and thus be the true Christians God always wants
them to be.
And I surely hope, that through
learning to honor our parents, we may also learn to honor our God who is truly
worthy of our worship and praise. After
all, how can we honor the Lord who we can’t see, if we can’t honor our parents
whom we can see? With that I’m going to
close this sermon and let me say: May the Lord bless you all in this new year. And more than material wealth, I pray you
will be blessed with true joy in your family, and a truly long and meaningful
life as children of God. Xin Nian Kuai
Le!
[1]
Jeffrey H. Tigay, Deuteronomy,
The JPS Torah Commentary (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1996),
69–70.
[2]
Ibid., 70.
[3]
Gary Harlan Hall, Deuteronomy,
The College Press NIV Commentary (Joplin, MO: College Press Pub. Co., 2000),
121.
[4]
Ibid.
[5]
Ibid.
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