Japanese worldview: a lot to learn
Last night I met with my pastor and his wife and children. I forgot to take a photograph as planned. But we had some very interesting chats. I started to understand the difference in worldview between my own (English one) and the Japanese one. As a new worker in only the second month of my first Japanese church placement, this is just what I need!
Like for example, can you imagine that the Japanese find Jesus’ death for them quite an annoyance? (For those that know of it and stop to consider it, that is.) Simon my boyfriend has written some useful stuff about giri, the concept in Japan where you must not be indebted to anyone, so must always repay gift for gift. (For example, at a wedding, guests give the bride and groom money as a gift. But the bride and groom return this favour by buying gifts for everyone who attends!) You therefore have to be careful when buying presents for someone, that you don’t get something too extravagant that they then have to live up to in their return gift. So can you imagine their feeling to hear that someone has died for them? What an imposition! How on earth are they ever going to repay this?! No doubt the Jehovah’s Witnesses are trying hard. Of course we can’t repay Jesus’ gift of life to us – that is the point. But it’s a pretty hard one for Japanese people to take – they’d prefer not to be involved in this interaction with Christ Jesus at all!
Another difference in my understanding and that of my Japanese pastor was over the word ‘sacrifice’. In my understanding, if I go and live in a poor country for the sake of Christian mission there, I am making certain 'sacrifices' – of the wealth of my life back home, possibly of the variety or amount of food I can eat, of a certain living standard at least. Likewise by living in Japan as a Christian worker, I am sacrificing a career back home, I am making the sacrifice of not seeing my nieces grow up day-by-day, etc etc etc. But the main word here is ‘I’, and the theme is ‘going without’ myself to achieve something which is unconnected with what I am sacrificing. In Japanese that is not a sacrifice. A ‘’gisei’’ (=sacrifice in Japanese) is when you don’t use something for yourself but instead use it for others. Therefore what you achieve is directly linked to your switching of the same resources to someone else. For example if my pastor sacrifices going on foreign holidays in order to invest that same money into his children’s education, that is sacrifice. If I go without food in order to give food to someone else, that is sacrifice. But it is not something to be admired exactly, as it is in British culture - it invokes the listener to feel sorry for you:, 'ah, poor you!'.
This is why WEC’s pillar of ‘Sacrifice’ is still one that the Japanese pastors apparently debate over how they can teach, and integrate, into their group of churches. Apparently they had long discussions over which Japanese word to use when translating the four pillars of WEC for use in their own group of churches. In the end they did settle on the regular word, “gisei”, with all the connotations as outlined above. But it still does not sit easily with some of them. Jesus sacrifice itself is not a problem – he sacrificed his life to give us life. He took our punishment for sin to save us being punished for sin. That is “gisei”. But it’s when I try and translate my understanding of the sacrifices I’ve made for the gospel into Japanese, as an illustration of what God sometimes calls us to in order to achieve his higher purposes, that the problems start!
The other thing I found out is that nearly everyone in my church is divorced. I hadn’t expected that – I had guessed one person was, but I had no idea that about five others were, including one mum of four young children, (I now see I have put my foot in it with her a few times). Most were already divorced before becoming Christians, and it was shortly after this happened in their lives that they sought out the church - and thankfully found what they were looking for. But not everyone; and the church decided that two of the elders who parted company last year should be able to stay on as separate elders, so it wasn’t like a punishment. Quite an unusual decision. All these people are obviously finding a lot of forgiveness and acceptance and fellowship in the church – now I can understand why people want to arrive at church at 10.30 Sunday morning and not leave until 6pm! And that is what church is for after all. I had my mind kinda transformed, realising I am part of a community of believers practicing the new life and forgiveness that Jesus offers. I also realized I have been trying to live up to a perfect Christian standard when actually I should just live to God’s plans for me and be honest along the route. But I also realized that teaching about getting on with your spouse is so important in the church.
The pastors are so kind to me – spending hours last night correcting my sermon/testimony for Sunday, having these kind and long conversations, giving me lovely food and even coming up with a menu for next time I visit as well! (I had presumed this might be a one-off visit!) I really trusted that they had enjoyed it when they said that.
Like for example, can you imagine that the Japanese find Jesus’ death for them quite an annoyance? (For those that know of it and stop to consider it, that is.) Simon my boyfriend has written some useful stuff about giri, the concept in Japan where you must not be indebted to anyone, so must always repay gift for gift. (For example, at a wedding, guests give the bride and groom money as a gift. But the bride and groom return this favour by buying gifts for everyone who attends!) You therefore have to be careful when buying presents for someone, that you don’t get something too extravagant that they then have to live up to in their return gift. So can you imagine their feeling to hear that someone has died for them? What an imposition! How on earth are they ever going to repay this?! No doubt the Jehovah’s Witnesses are trying hard. Of course we can’t repay Jesus’ gift of life to us – that is the point. But it’s a pretty hard one for Japanese people to take – they’d prefer not to be involved in this interaction with Christ Jesus at all!
Another difference in my understanding and that of my Japanese pastor was over the word ‘sacrifice’. In my understanding, if I go and live in a poor country for the sake of Christian mission there, I am making certain 'sacrifices' – of the wealth of my life back home, possibly of the variety or amount of food I can eat, of a certain living standard at least. Likewise by living in Japan as a Christian worker, I am sacrificing a career back home, I am making the sacrifice of not seeing my nieces grow up day-by-day, etc etc etc. But the main word here is ‘I’, and the theme is ‘going without’ myself to achieve something which is unconnected with what I am sacrificing. In Japanese that is not a sacrifice. A ‘’gisei’’ (=sacrifice in Japanese) is when you don’t use something for yourself but instead use it for others. Therefore what you achieve is directly linked to your switching of the same resources to someone else. For example if my pastor sacrifices going on foreign holidays in order to invest that same money into his children’s education, that is sacrifice. If I go without food in order to give food to someone else, that is sacrifice. But it is not something to be admired exactly, as it is in British culture - it invokes the listener to feel sorry for you:, 'ah, poor you!'.
This is why WEC’s pillar of ‘Sacrifice’ is still one that the Japanese pastors apparently debate over how they can teach, and integrate, into their group of churches. Apparently they had long discussions over which Japanese word to use when translating the four pillars of WEC for use in their own group of churches. In the end they did settle on the regular word, “gisei”, with all the connotations as outlined above. But it still does not sit easily with some of them. Jesus sacrifice itself is not a problem – he sacrificed his life to give us life. He took our punishment for sin to save us being punished for sin. That is “gisei”. But it’s when I try and translate my understanding of the sacrifices I’ve made for the gospel into Japanese, as an illustration of what God sometimes calls us to in order to achieve his higher purposes, that the problems start!
The other thing I found out is that nearly everyone in my church is divorced. I hadn’t expected that – I had guessed one person was, but I had no idea that about five others were, including one mum of four young children, (I now see I have put my foot in it with her a few times). Most were already divorced before becoming Christians, and it was shortly after this happened in their lives that they sought out the church - and thankfully found what they were looking for. But not everyone; and the church decided that two of the elders who parted company last year should be able to stay on as separate elders, so it wasn’t like a punishment. Quite an unusual decision. All these people are obviously finding a lot of forgiveness and acceptance and fellowship in the church – now I can understand why people want to arrive at church at 10.30 Sunday morning and not leave until 6pm! And that is what church is for after all. I had my mind kinda transformed, realising I am part of a community of believers practicing the new life and forgiveness that Jesus offers. I also realized I have been trying to live up to a perfect Christian standard when actually I should just live to God’s plans for me and be honest along the route. But I also realized that teaching about getting on with your spouse is so important in the church.
The pastors are so kind to me – spending hours last night correcting my sermon/testimony for Sunday, having these kind and long conversations, giving me lovely food and even coming up with a menu for next time I visit as well! (I had presumed this might be a one-off visit!) I really trusted that they had enjoyed it when they said that.
posted by Henrietta at
8:35 am
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