I shall return

  

At first glance I share little in common with Ernest Hemmingway and General MacArthur; except we have all dined at the Manila Hotel! The latter is still remembered and loved in the Philippines because he kept an important promise. As the Philippines was being overrun by Japanese troops the Americans had to retreat but he promised to return and he did so and helped liberate the Islands from the tyranny of Japanese imperialism. A leader who keeps his promises is remembered. 

My wife and I were back at the Manila hotel yesterday for our 30^th Wedding Anniversary dinner. We were last there just before we got married. In the Champagne Room restaurant we were treated to a wonderful dinner complete with pianist who played ‘As time goes by’ the piece from the movie Casablanca. I restrained myself from repeating the immortal words ‘here’s looking at you kid’. 

The service was marvellous; very precise and elegant; some dishes prepared by chef’s at the table itself and it put me in mind of customs and practice in the time of Jesus. Often a household had servants and when the Master was having dinner there were certain non-verbal signs to indicate whether or not it was time to clear the table. If he crumpled up the napkin and left he was finished but if he folded it neatly and left it to one side and left the table it meant that he would return to complete his meal. 

We see this same signal given at the Resurrection where the witnesses to the empty tomb see the grave clothes strewn around but the napkin that covered his face folded up neatly by itself. The message was clear. I shall return. And so He will. Maranatha!

 

 

 

Death Spiral

Japan’s finance minister, Taro Aso made an astonishing statement recently, to the effect that Japan’s elderly, infirm and others financially dependent on the government, should ‘hurry up and die’.

This was prompted by the rising cost of care for the elderly, the ageing population, and a very low birth rate. With little or no immigration and having fully embraced the western contraceptive culture, many analysts say that Japan, as a nation, is in an irrecoverable ‘death spiral’ facing extinction. The average age is already in the mid-forties, compared to say Arab countries where it’s in the mid twenties.

This hostility to the old, weak and vulnerable members of society represents a massive shift in Japanese culture over only a few decades. Whilst it never embraced Christianity in the mainstream; the values of the Japanese were always transcendent.

Their code of honour (Bushido) was one of respect for their elderly parents and ancestors, a sense of duty to protect the weak and helpless, self-discipline and a focus on the higher values and virtues. In the pre-war and ancient times traders and merchants were the least regarded in society.

Post World War II, Western ideas were embraced and led by industrialists who enshrined profit, production, technological achievement and economic might as the new values. Now as one of the most developed, richest and advanced nations, it is coming to realise that it sowed the seeds of its own destruction in its choices. The contraceptive culture, contains within itself the subtle command to ‘empty the earth’ in opposition to God’s command to Adam and Eve to ‘fill the earth’.

Now in a panic to save itself, the nation turns in on itself all the more, willing to sacrifice its old and helpless on the altar of the Yen, to postpone their inevitable fall.

Truly, the only remnant of Bushido in Japan resides, paradoxically, in the hearts of the countries Christians; they alone will fight for life, for the weak and vulnerable, and hold fast to the integrity and honour that once made Japan the cradle of Eastern civilisation.