Jeremy Lin the NBA Basketball player that was center of Linsanity nearly half a year ago. He was the poster boy of New York and is now in Houston. This sudden rallying effect of Asians is cultural phenomenon, catalyzed with his success and sudden rise to stardom.
This cultural trend has theological implications in the “corporate solidarity” surrounding Jeremy Lin and the Asian community. This can shed some truth about Christ’s representation of us.
Corporate Solidarity is the concept of a figure that is representative of a community or/of values in a people. Asian have strong pride in their heritage! When someone of Asian descent succeeds or fails there is pride and shame; For better or worse it represents the whole of the Asian community. With a world of so much interconnection, this concept of representation by one person is becoming more and more inevitable. NBA TV ratings in Asia went up nearly 400% during the 25 games he started for the Knicks (my parent’s didn’t have cable so they went to the YMCA to watch). China, Taiwan, the U.S. started saying that he was “their” product. Lin jerseys sold out in record numbers. He was the pride of Asia domestic and abroad! When we misses a layup it feels like we all do, when he hits a buzzer beater for the win, we literally rejoice and take ownership of him because He is our ambassador. His success is our success, his injury is ours.
Christ though is the “better” Jeremy Lin, Jesus is our hope and stay. He is our corporate solidarity in that He is our representative that acts on our behalf, He conquers sin and is our high priest with God the Father. And unlike Mr. Lin, He conquered His injury of death, thereby eradicating any chance of injury thereafter. Jesus chose to represent us, all of us. He chose to pour himself out and accomplish His mission for us, even when we “didn’t jump on the bandwagon” of success and of conquering victory, some of which is still yet to come.
Jeremy Lin does represents the Asian community but that’s not the end all point,
Jesus is the loving, caring, better, sacrificial, representative for us. That is good news and it’s bigger than Linsanity will ever be, or has yet to be.
Jeremy Lin would agree.
“The most mature Christian leaders want to absorb an additional share of sufferings so that their flocks may correspondingly be spared some suffering. In this, they imitate Christ… The more the leaders are afflicted with weakness, suffering, perplexity, and persecution, the more it is evident that their vitality is nothing other than the life of Jesus. This has enormously positive spiritual effects on the rest of the church. The leaders’ death means the church’s life. This is why the best Christian leadership cannot simply be appointed. It is forged by God himself in the fires of suffering, taught in the school of tears. There are no shortcuts.” — D.A. Carson, from “How Long, O Lord?”
(Source: kkevinhsu)
I am so blessed, I can just keep counting blessing after blessing, it’s deeply humbling.
I’m always hungry from 11pm-1am
Best tasting coffee icecream in the world.
Impressive.
(via dannyshin)
My highly motivational alarm(s).
Isn’t it strange that funerals are soberly awkward and awkwardly sober?
Don’t know what to say, it shouldn’t be this way!
Isn’t it weird that after years and years of existing that we are still surprised at the passage of time?
Wow, you’ve grown up so much. Wow, I’m getting old.
Isn’t it strange that we feel bound by space, that we often think about teleportation and conquering miles without yielding time in the same breadth?
I wish I could be make it! I miss you.
No naturalistic explanation alone can explain these questions.
It is similar to a fish being surprised that it is wet or the fluidity of water flowing; or to us humans being surprised by the dry direction of air. It’s as though we frustratingly marvel at the units of which we exist in, longing to breach them.
Mind you, often noticing these phenomena can be very time consuming and breed discontentment.
Why do we ask such questions to the frequency and with the cosmic impatience that we do?It’ s as though these needs are meant to be satisfied and for some reason they’re not.
Which begs the notion(s),
Perhaps we were not made to die.
Perhaps we were not supposed to bound by time or space. Perhaps the passage of time was not to be noticed unless there was a limit to our time in this realm. The passage of time would mean nothing if there was no curse of aging, decay, death, disease, flaws. Maybe this is why we grow discontent about the moral inconsistency in our world and the binding constraints of time and space to limit our ability to bridge this gulf of our hopes and duties.
Perhaps we long for a all powerful righteous King that knows all and judges rightly, that maybe we were made to pledge allegiance to country without borders or politicians, and place where time is not a constraint but a fluid veil that runs alongside us rather than against us.
Maybe your whole life you’ve been staring focused at your <90 years on earth that you have totally missed the point of all your longings and suffocating questions.
You were made for eternity.
“Practice does not make perfect, practice makes permanence.”
Chick-fil-A is amazing, it’s the champion of fast food restaurants; known for great chicken sandwiches, being closed on Sundays as the founder is a Christian and the chain and aligning itself with Christian values.
However, if you haven’t heard, Chick-fil-A CEO was criticized for his outspoken opposition to same-sex marriage. As a result, local mayors and politicians threatened to close and keep Chick-fil-A out of their cities (Edit: phrasing by Rev. David Lau). So, Mike Huckabee, former Arkansas governor recently proposed an August 1st “Appreciation Day” for the restaurant chain in response
As a result, the media kind of ran with the story, making this a Christian, American, Chick-fil-A customer versus Homosexuality. So this event has become a bit larger than anyone expected. There’s ill response on both sides.
Being Boaz Tang, I feel there are 3 major unintended (hopefully) consequences of such an event. Again, this is about the consequences, not every detail that happened in the store.
1. Chick-fil-A was linked with Christian values, but now it’s linked with being anti-homosexual. In so doing, indirectly Christians are linked (maybe further) to being disdaining of homosexuals, not in a “moral sense” but in a “we’ll put our money where our mouth is” sense. It says, “we don’t want to associate with you.” Though Chick-fil-A will never put on a sign saying “we don’t want to associate with you”, for all meaningful consequences, it came off that way.
2. It definitely isn’t hate, but it definitely isn’t love or an attitude of service. If you ask the average Christian if they hate gays, 99% would say “no!” However, yesterday’s appreciation day made it seem like Christian’s do lean that way, if I was homosexual why would I listen to a Christian? I would undoubtedly be pushed away from Christians and more importantly, their Christ.
3. Passionate people and passionate Christians, missed the point. I was rather disturbed, every Chick-fil-A in the US saw record sales and record lines. Some of my friends waited hours for their food, while uploading Facebook videos of Christians chanting “USA Chick-fil-A!!!” in their lines. However, it is sobering to say that; I’ve rarely seen this many Christians so excited about their faith. I’ve never seen this many Christians so willing to give their money to their local church or towards missions as they did yesterday for fast food. I’ve never seen this many passionate Christians at a soup kitchens or homeless shelters. If Christians put half the dedication of supporting Chick-fil-A into their dedication in living the Word of God and reaching the lost, we’d have a different country by next week.
This generation is obsessed with being a part of “causes” and “movements.” We join this fan page, subscribe or follow social accounts. As long as we’re beneficiaries of some paid product like a Chicken sandwich meal, t-shirt, bracelet or status like good Christian American, global humanitarian etc. We can rationalize away effectiveness and our fleeting emotionalism clouds our discernment. Don’t misunderstand me, it’s really cool to be a part of a movement, it’s exhilarating and amazing, but let us be wary of ineffectiveness and potential eternal consequences.
The homosexual movement is launching two response protests, a “kiss in” where people sit in Chick-fil-A and kiss someone else of the same gender and a boycott sit in. This event triggers responses that pushes the Gospel’s redeeming power further from the LGBTA community.
I love going to Chick-fil-A, I love the employees and the quality food. But, after this event, if going to Chick-fil-A limits my effectiveness to reach my homosexual friend with the Gospel, I will not go any longer. I cannot go.
Now I know there were a lot well meaning legitimate Christians that do love people and do give to Kingdom building, that participated in the day. For some attending would discourage non-believers, for others attending would be powerful and strengthen their testimony to stand up for God. In any case, please let’s be wise in our actions and how they enhance or constrain our ability in bringing Jesus to others. We represent Jesus, let’s remember that on Church this Sunday, Chick-fil-A is closed for a reason.
I’m actually a token introvert.
My God has never failed me, He never will.