Now that the festivities are winding down and the actual day has passed, I thought I’d make the point that although my school boy theology is nearly 30-years rusty, but its most likely that the person we know as Jesus of Nazareth was not born on December 25. I’ve heard several reasons for this, ranging from the change of the calendar by the Emperor Constantine (the first Christian Emperor of the Roman Empire) to the fact this date was associated with Saturnalia, an old pagan fertility festival that the early church founders found easier to adapt than abolish.
That little snippet of trivia should in no way
distract from the significance of the festival. The birth of Christ is the
central theme of Western and by many extents, global civilization as we know it
and if the date of December 25 is a “set-up” it was a pretty clever one in as
much as the day after is St Stephen’s Day or Boxing Day as its better known. Stephen
was the first martyr of the Christian faith. He was, a man who refused to bow
down to the version of God as expressed by the Sanhedrin and penalty for Jews
who p*** of the Sanhedrin back in those days was stoning.
So, why would the early church leaders choose to commemorate
very brutal death of the first Christian martyr straight after it celebrated the
birth of Jesus, or the reason for the church’s very existence?
As a matter of disclosure, I did take Christian
theology up to A-levels and my teacher expected me to read theology at
university. However, I realized that I didn’t have the patience for detailed
study and the thought of learning ancient Greek (the compulsory element as you
have to read the New Testament in the original language) and used the national
service period as a reason to abandon the dreams of those who had great hope in
me. I place this disclaimer so as to clarify that I am merely giving an opinion
based on my personal beliefs and observations.
I believe the significance of having St Stephen’s day
after Christmas sends a clear message about faith and just about everything
else in life, which is the fact that you cannot have glory and joy without
being prepared to suffer for it. The point is easier to explain at Easter where
we commemorate the pain of Good Friday before the glory of the resurrection of
Easter Sunday. However, the point should not be lessened at Christmas. Think of
St Stephen’s day as the fine print of the divine contract. Everyone gets
excited by the “birth of the savior” on Christmas day because it’s a promise of
all sorts of wonderful things. However, there’s the fine print, which says that
in order to reach the promised land of heavenly glory by following the
proverbial “savior,” you got to be prepared to lose everything, including your
life.
This is important because much of the modern
capitalistic system is based on instant gratification without the painful bits.
Lotteries are the prime example. The odds of winning the lottery defy logic.
According to Forbes, you have a 292.1 million to one chance of hitting the big
power ball jackpot. By contrast you have a 300,000 to one chance of being
struck by lightning. You’d think that with such poor odds, no logical person would
by a lottery ticket. Yet, despite these odds, lotteries throughout the world continue
to thrive? Why? Everyone is attracted by the prospect of being wildly rich without
having to slog and save towards wealth. Being rich is attractive – working to
the extent of having to pay a personal price is not.
Another extreme example is “miracle diets” which
promise you a beautiful body is you just buy them. I would love to be as lean and
trim as Bruce Lee in his prime. Training for six hours a day and 365 days a
week like Bruce Lee is a different story:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dklsnzXT8yQ
These are extreme examples but the point remains, most
of us want the glory without having to struggle for it and there’s a twist to it
in Singapore where an “easy life” is seen as an “entitlement.” Too many of
Singapore’s leaders forget that one of the key elements of our success came
from having to do the ground work. Lee Kuan Yew wasn’t born Prime Minister. He
had to struggle to know his electorate. The English-speaking Mr. Lee had to
force himself out of his comfort zone to communicate in Mandarin and Hokkien to
get people to vote for him.
However, this isn’t the case today. How many of the
ruling party’s potential candidates for parliament have had to leave their comfort
zones to know the electorate? The only criteria for parliament seem to be checking
the right boxes set by an all-knowing party executive and before you know it,
you have a cushy side gig paying an allowance that is five times the national
average wage.
At least politicians have to face some form of
competition every five-years. Lower down
the line you have senior civil servants being appointed CEO of big companies in
businesses that are unrelated to their previous work experiences. It’s called “Sharing
talent” with the private sector and everyone is supposed to believe this will
benefit the rest of us. Doesn’t work like this in 2021/2022. Bosses are
expected to understand the ground and know how their organisations work. Yet,
nobody expects the former civil servants to know the businesses they have been
parachuted to run. Why are we surprised when the companies run by former civil
servants end up with floundering share prices and un-balanced sheets despite
having a national monopoly on essential services and products?
The leaders of the media industry once claimed that
the market was “too small for competition.” The reality is that it is “too controlled”
to punish managerial incompetence. Too many of our leaders across all sectors fall
in love with being the boss without understanding that bosses need to do work.
Hence, they rush out of their way to lavish luxuries and opportunities on hedge
fund owners but struggle to pay what is due to movers and stationary providers
without understanding that their business needs the support of partners. Yet,
the system shields them from incompetence.
This has to change if Singapore Inc is to have a
future. Market forces must be allowed to punish leaders who fail to do the work
of leaders. In religious terms we all want the divine glory that Jesus brings
but are we prepared to put the work that Stephen died for? Unless we are
willing to answer in the affirmative, we shouldn’t get the divine glory.
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