우리의 한 달 살이는 여행자로서 지내는 것이 아닙니다. 오히려 주일이 되면 비바체 교회의 강단을 섬기는 사역을 중심으로 동경에서 날들을 보내다보니 휴가라고 볼 수도 있습니다. 우리의 일상을 궁금해 하며 더위를 조심하라고 염려하는 분에게 하루의 일상을 요약해서 보냈습니다. “아침 밥 먹고는 예배당에 가서 기도를 하고 낮에는 선교사님 사택에서 에어컨과 함께 사이좋게 지냅니다.^^ 그리고 저녁에는 우에노공원까지 걷습니다 왕복 약 6000보 일일 총 만이천보 정도로 하루를 보냅니다.~~” 그랬더니 “너무 낭만적, 일본인이 부러워하는 삶을 사십니다~~한적한 동경 상상이 안가요^^”라고 평하시네요.
동경에 와서도 늘 하듯이 새벽 5시면 대개 일어납니다. 하지만 동경의 일출은 경기도 고양보다 더 빠릅니다. 그래서 일출을 보려면 적어도 4시 반에는 일어나야 할 듯 싶습니다. 5시에 인슐린을 투여하고 5시 반에 아침을 먹고 6시 반이면 비바체 교회당으로 향합니다. 하지만 집을 나서서 5분도 안되는 거리에서 만나는 신사(神社)는 특별해 보입니다. 교회당을 향하는 골목길에서 처음 만나는 이 신사(神社)는 활기찬(?) 모습을 매일 아침 보여줍니다. 신사(神社)의 담장 기둥마다 새겨진 봉헌자들의 이름뿐 아니라 이른 아침에 일이십 명의 동네 사람들이 모여 골목길을 메우고 서서 체조를 합니다. 물론 우에노 공원에도 아침 7시에는 사람들이 삼삼오오로 모여서 체조를 하지만, 공원에서 체조을 하는 풍경은 익숙하지만 그 이른 시간에 동네사람들이 신사(神社)마당을 중심으로 모여서 체조를 하는 풍경은 특별합니다.
그래서 일본인의 종교는 이들의 일상속에 스며들어 일본인의 삶의 태도를 관장할 수도 있겠다는 생각조차 들었습니다. 이들의 검소함, 성실함, 정직함, 치밀함에 상당한 영향을 끼쳤으리라 막연한 추측을 해 봅니다. 본래 문화와 종교는 서로 밀접한 관련을 가지고 있기 때문입니다. 그렇다면 한국의 기독교는 어떤 영향을 한국사회에 끼쳤을까요? 물론 수천년 동안 남자가 지배하던 세상이 단숨에 남녀평등의 세상으로 바뀌게 된것은기독교의 영향이 아닐 수없습니다. (물론 지금은 또 다른 극단으로 치닫고 있지만). 뿐만 아니라 오백년 유교의 사농공상의 제도를 타파하고, 양반과 상놈으로 구분하는 세상에서 모든 사람을 사람으로 대하고, 한문이 지배하던 세상이 순식간에 한글이 주도하는 세상으로 바뀌었다는 것은 아무도 부인할 수 없을 것입니다. 신앙의 선배들은 값을 치루고 새로운 삶을 살아내었습니다. 진리는 세상을 바꾸는 힘이 있습니다.
문제는 오늘 우리 그리스도인에게 있습니다. 신사(神社)의 나라에도 자리잡은 검소함, 성실함, 정직함, 치밀함이 없는 조국 대한민국이라는 나라가 문제가 아니라, 교회 공동체, 우리 신앙인들 사이에도 그런 품격이 없다는 것이 비극이고 재앙입니다. 곧 다가오는 9월 총회를 준비하는 각 교단의 지도부들의 모습을 살펴보시면 아무도 부인하지 못할 것입니다. 차라리 일반 성도들은 그나마 나은 편인데 집사, 권사가 되고 장로, 목사가 되고, 노회 총회를 주도하는 소위 지도자들의 모습은 한 때 신사참배(神社參拜)를 거부한 이들의 후손이 맞는지를 묻고 싶습니다. 상식과 양심이 부인되는 곳에서는 믿음을 논할 필요가 없습니다. “깨끗한 양심에 믿음의 비밀”(딤전 3:9)이 자리하기 때문입니다. 교회를 교회되게 섬기도록 위임받은 권한을 자신의 목회 기한을 더 늘리는데 사용한다면, 어떤 총대도 여의도를 향해서 돌을 던질 처지가 되지 못합니다. 먼저는 교회가 교회다워질 때 세상의 소금, 세상의 빛이 될 것입니다. 그 때 기독교가, 한 때 그랬던 것처럼, 다시 한 번 우리나라의 축복이 될 것입니다.
Our month-long stay here is not that of mere tourists. In fact, centered on serving the pulpit of Vivace Church on Sundays, our days in Tokyo might well be seen as a vacation. To someone who inquired warmly about our daily routine and worried about the heat, I sent a brief summary of a typical day: “After having breakfast, we head to the chapel to pray; during the day, we keep sweet company with the air conditioner at the missionary's residence.^^ In the evening, we take a walk toward Ueno Park—about 6,000 steps round-trip, reaching a total of roughly 12,000 steps a day.~~” To this, they replied: “How delightfully romantic! You are living the kind of life even the Japanese would envy~~ I can hardly imagine a quiet, leisurely Tokyo.^^”
Even after arriving in Tokyo, I usually wake up around 5:00 a.m. as I have always done. However, the sunrise here in Tokyo is earlier than in Goyang, Gyeonggi-do. If one truly wishes to see the sunrise, it seems necessary to get up by at least 4:30 a.m. I administer my insulin at 5:00, eat breakfast at 5:30, and by 6:30 I set out for Vivace Church. Yet, less than five minutes after leaving the residence, I encounter a Shinto shrine that catches my eye. This shrine, which greets me first along the alleyway leading toward the church, displays a lively(?) scene every single morning. Not only are the names of donors engraved on each pillar of the shrine fence, but also ten to twenty neighborhood residents gather in the early morning light, filling the alleyway to perform calisthenics together. Of course, people also gather in small groups at Ueno Park at 7:00 a.m. for morning exercises; yet while seeing people exercise in a public park is a familiar sight, watching neighbors gather in the early dawn around a shrine courtyard to stretch and exercise is truly unique.
Seeing this, the thought crossed my mind that Japanese religion may have deeply permeated their everyday routines, quietly governing their approach to life. I ventured a gentle guess that it must have had a profound influence on their frugality, diligence, honesty, and meticulousness. Culture and religion, by their very nature, are intimately intertwined. If that is so, what kind of impact has Christianity had on Korean society? Without question, Christianity played an undeniable role in transforming a world where men had ruled for thousands of years into one of gender equality in virtually a single stroke (though nowadays society may be rushing toward another extreme). Moreover, no one can deny that it dismantled the five-hundred-year-old Confucian caste system, treated all people with inherent human dignity in a society once sharply divided between nobles and commoners, and swiftly turned a realm ruled by Chinese classical script into one guided by the Korean alphabet (Hangul). Our forebears in faith paid the price and truly lived out this transformed life. Truth possesses the power to change the world.
The real problem today lies within us as Christians. The tragedy and disaster is not merely that our homeland, the Republic of Korea, lacks the frugality, diligence, honesty, and thoroughness found even in this land of Shinto shrines; rather, it is that such nobility of character is conspicuously absent within our church communities and among believers. Looking at the conduct of leaders in various denominations as they prepare for the upcoming September General Assemblies, no one could honestly deny this. Ordinary lay believers are comparatively better off; but when observing those who become deacons, deaconesses, elders, and pastors—the so-called leaders steering presbyteries and general assemblies—one is compelled to ask whether they are truly the spiritual descendants of those who once resisted Shinto shrine worship at the cost of their lives. Where common sense and conscience are denied, there is no need even to speak of faith. For “the mystery of faith” dwells only in “a clear conscience” (1 Tim. 3:9). If those entrusted with authority to help the church remain truly the church abuse it merely to extend their own tenures in ministry, no general assembly delegate has any moral ground to cast stones at secular politics. Only when the church becomes truly churchlike will it once again be the salt and light of the world. Then, just as it once was, Christianity will once more become a true blessing to our nation.
Ons verblyf van ’n maand hier is nie dié van gewone toeriste nie. Trouens, omdat ons dae in Tokio wentel om die bediening van die kansel van Vivace Gemeente op Sondae, kan dit eweseer as ’n vakansie beskou word. Aan iemand wat nuuskierig was oor ons daaglikse lewe en besorg was oor die somerhitte, het ek ’n kort opsomming van ons dag gestuur: “Nadat ons ontbyt geëet het, gaan ons na die kapel om te bid; gedurende die dag bring ons rustig tyd saam met die lugversorger in die sendeling se ampswoning deur.^^ En saans stap ons tot by Ueno-park—’n heen-en-weer-roete van omtrent 6 000 treë, wat ’n daaglikse totaal van sowat 12 000 treë oplewer.~~” Waarop die antwoord was: “Hoe wonderlik romanties! U leef ’n lewe wat selfs die Japannese sou beny~~ Ek kan my skaars ’n stil en rustige Tokio voorstel.^^”
Selfs hier in Tokio staan ek gewoonlik teen 05:00 die oggend op, soos ek altyd gewoond is. Die sonsopkoms in Tokio is egter heelwat vroeër as in Goyang, Gyeonggi-do. As ’n mens werklik die sonsopkoms wil aanskou, moet jy sekerlik reeds teen 04:30 uit die vere wees. Ek spuit my insulien om 05:00, eet ontbyt om 05:30, en teen 06:30 stap ek na die Vivace-kerkgebou. Tog is daar ’n Sjinto-heiligdom minder as vyf minute van ons woning af wat my aandag dadelik trek. Hierdie heiligdom, wat my eerste begroet in die stegie op pad na die kerk, toon elke oggend ’n lewendige(?) toneel. Nie net is die name van skenkingsgewers op elke pilaar van die heining uitgekerf nie, maar tien tot twintig plaaslike inwoners kom vroegoggend bymekaar, vul die straatjie en doen saam oggendoefeninge. Natuurlik kom mense om 07:00 in Ueno-park ook in groepies bymekaar om te oefen; hoewel fiksheidsoefeninge in ’n openbare park ’n bekende gesig is, is dit werklik uitsonderlik om te sien hoe bure in die vroeë oggendglans om ’n Sjinto-heiligdom se binneplaas vergader om te strek en te oefen.
Dit het my laat dink dat die Japannese godsdiens dalk so diep in hul daaglikse lewe ingeweef is dat dit hul hele lewenshouding rig. Ek waag die versigtige aanname dat dit ’n aansienlike invloed moes gehad het op hul spaarsaamheid, pligsgetrouheid, eerlikheid en noukeurigheid. Kultuur en godsdiens is immers ten diepste met mekaar verweef. As dit so is, watter uitwerking het die Christendom dan op die Koreaanse samelewing gehad? Niemand kan ontken dat die Christendom ’n deurslaggewende rol gespeel het om ’n wêreld wat duisende jare lank deur mans oorheers is, byna oornag in ’n samelewing van gelykheid tussen man en vrou te omskep nie (al neig dinge vandag dalk weer na ’n ander uiterste). Daarbenewens kan niemand ontken dat dit die vyfhonderd jaar oue konfusiaanse kaste-stelsel afgebreek het, elke mens met inherente waardigheid behandel het in ’n samelewing wat skerp verdeel was tussen edellui en gewone mense, en ’n wêreld wat deur klassieke Chinese skrif oorheers is, vinnig laat verander het in een wat deur die Koreaanse alfabet (Hangul) gelei word nie. Ons geloofsvoorvaders het die prys betaal en ’n nuwe lewe daadwerklik uitgeleef. Waarheid beskik oor die krag om die wêreld te verander.
Die wesenlike probleem vandag lê by ons as Christene. Die ware tragedie en rampspoed is nie bloot dat ons vaderland, die Republiek van Korea, daardie spaarsaamheid, toewyding, eerlikheid en presisie ontbreek wat selfs in hierdie land van Sjinto-heiligdomme te vinde is nie; dit is eerder dat sulke edelheid en integriteit selfs binne ons kerkgemeenskappe en onder ons gelowiges ontbreek. As ’n mens kyk na die leierskappe van die verskillende kerkverbande terwyl hulle voorberei vir die komende Algemene Sinodes in September, sal niemand dit kan ontken nie. Gewone lidmate vaar darem nog redelik goed; maar as ’n mens kyk na diegene wat diakens, diakonesse, ouderlinge en predikante word—die sogenaamde leiers wat ringe en sinodes beheer—moet ’n mens wonder of hulle werklik die geestelike nageslag is van dié wat eens geweier het om voor die Sjinto-heiligdomme te buig. Waar gesonde verstand en gewete verloën word, het dit geen sin om oor geloof te praat nie. Want “die geheimenis van die geloof” vind immers net sy tuiste in “’n skoon gewete” (1 Tim. 3:9). As ampsdraers die gesag wat aan hulle toevertrou is om die kerk te dien, misbruik bloot om hul eie bedieningstermyn te verleng, het geen sinodeganger die reg om klippe na die sekulêre politiek van Yeouido te gooi nie. Eers wanneer die kerk werklik weer kerk word, sal sy die sout en lig van die wêreld wees. Dan sal die Christendom, net soos dit eens was, weer ’n ware seën vir ons land word.