We think about time in a very interesting way; it begins at one particular point and ends somewhere but imagine it to be linked like a line or a thread from one point to another. We describe our life using it by saying that there was a beginning and there will be an end—that is, right now we are on that linear progression to somewhere. In this sense, when a person dies unexpectedly we say that her life was cut short in the same way we would talk about a thread being cut short instead of being given the full length.
We think of each year as a short segment of that long line, called life. In this spirit we ask each other what New Year’s resolutions are. Many take the countdown to the New Year seriously in hope that something better will await them in the coming year. In this way we think that January 1 offers us a new beginning.
Lives of people are thought much the same way. That is, at birth, we celebrate the beginning of life filled with hope and future. Each liturgical year begins by reciting the story of Jesus birth on Christmas and followed by his ritual at the Temple as we heard from Luke’s passage today. Next week, we will be celebrating Epiphany—traditional celebration of Jesus’ baptism. Birth, circumcision and Baptism were symbols of new life. In Christianity Baptism is accepted as the beginning of new life in Christ.
However, what we understand might not always be the only way of understanding. Let me explain.
Life is not a linear progression of events nicely arranged like a necklace made of pearls of same sizes and colors. They are more like collection of events which collide into our lives. Life resembles more like random collisions forcing us off into new directions than following a neatly drawn line. It does not travel in one direction nicely plotted out like a spaceship following its trajectory. It gets off track as it encounters a new event big or small and forced about by random events that hit it.
Even the story of God’s chosen people is all about how they kept on going in a different direction than God intended them. Like a comet hurtling in space, they continually were pulled closer into those gigantic stars and planets than following a nice path that was laid out for them.
Scientists are good and figuring out patterns in our world. They bring out with amazing accuracies the laws of nature. They might find a pattern that explains a mystery after many hours of efforts only to be confounded by many exceptions and deeper mysteries. It is never ending chase of an answer that always eludes to be the final answer that they have been seeking.
Here we are; we read the Bible as if it is confined within the beginning and ending. Yet, Jesus is declared not as the content that fills the space between the beginning and end, but as the very alpha and omega at the same time—the beginning and end as well as the source of life for what fills the in-between. We want to read this morning story as something that begins at the very beginning of Jesus’ physical life. What we end up reading is not only that he was the beginning, end, but also that which is the way, the life and the truth.
Life is dotted with new beginnings. Sometimes, new beginnings rush in all at once from all directions. They are everywhere and nowhere. The wise sees and works through them; the fools try to make manage them on their own terms. The loving ones know where to find them; the selfish ones search with little success. These new beginnings attract, force, take us off in to directions that we do not wish to go.
Trying to make sense out of life that constantly follows different path (each new beginning that is followed) offers no clarity. Scientific explanation talking about evolution and progression of patterns do offer a sense of order, yet, they too are nothing more than human attempts to understand things linearly in the random and mysterious world.
Unlike science, what Christian's focus on faith, hope and love offer is a way to find, establish and give meanings to this life that does not follow the linear progression. Christ is the counteract to all our attempts to put things in order. Christ recreates our worldview of seeing and managing the world and life according to our understanding into the way of hope and love. Faith, hope and love are not well ordered and linear way of managing. Indeed if one sees life through faith, hope and love, we see life everywhere ready to burst in and surprise us as new beginnings.
Everything that Jesus was from his birth even just to his presence in the Temple on the eighth day signified new beginnings for those who waited, received and saw in faith and nothing for those who had their own worldview and refused to trust and rely on God.
Everything we read from Luke 2 about what Simeon and Anna said about Jesus means nothing if we do not read it in faith, hope and love of God and neighbour. Simeon’s and Anna’s praise mean nothing to those who cannot see not only God’s offer of new beginning, but also the new beginning for the creation. In this new beginning, love became the prime source for all that is life and living. All experiences and encounters to love others in ways that God loved us in Christ have become ways to new beginnings for those who offer and those who accept.
That is, those who love see how life begins again anew; experience how life takes hold even in places of death; become part of life that rises above despair; and give one’s own life to bring about life of faith, hope and love. Love that was received and gave each of us new beginning releases us to life of loving God and neighbours. In this way, even the life that seems to have arrived at end or have been wasted is facing new beginnings, not death.
To love God, we cease every moment as way of bringing new beginnings to all that God has created in ways that fulfills the creative intent for each life and thing. Loving neighbour is to receive each moment of encounter with my neighbour as sharing of and pointing to the life that fulfils one’s life’s purpose in a new way of faith, hope and love. Simeon and Anna pointed the way. They found their new beginnings in their encounter with the baby Jesus.
We in faith, hope and love came to our new beginnings in Christ. Now we clumsily, awkwardly and imperfectly offer and share the body of Christ that is tattered, broken, rejected and made up of us to our neighbours as sign and seal of that baby Jesus who was, is and shall be the new beginning for anyone who has courage to find the way, the truth and life.
On this New Year’s Day, may we humbly come to know that unlike our thoughts and understanding of what life and time ought to be, new beginnings God reveals to each and everyone are everywhere present at every turn of life as love, hope and faith. Amen.
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Christmas: the true story
Read first Luke 2:1-20
We are using King James Bible on the account of 400th Anniversary of its publication.
Jesus’ parents, Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem. They went from Nazareth to Bethlehem because their government wanted to make sure that they would pay tax. While they were in Bethlehem, Mary gave birth to Jesus, her first born son. In those days they did not have special baby clothes. They wrapped the baby in cloth bands and laid him in a manger. They had to stay in a barn because there was no place else for them to be.
Today parents get ready to receive new babies. They shop for baby’s clothes, toys, and furniture. Before mothers go to hospitals, they see doctors. To give births, they go to hospitals. There were no doctors and no hospitals in Jesus’ time. Babies were born at home. Instead of doctors women who had babies before would come to help. Fathers and family members were sent out. They were not allowed to see babies right away.
Two things were difficult for Mary that day. Firstly, she and Joseph were not in their own home. They were in another city. They had no friends or relations in Bethlehem. Also because there were so many people who came to register to pay tax, there was no room for them at any hotel. They were happy to stay in a barn to be warm and stay out of cold. Bethlehem would get cold at nights because they were very close to a desert. But a barn was not a good place to have a baby. Because they were traveled far from their home in Nazareth, they probably did not have any baby things.
Secondly Mary had to be helped by women in Bethlehem. She probably did not know them at all. Joseph would have been sent out. She would have been alone with strangers.
After Jesus was born, they wrapped Jesus in bands of cloth. There were no stores for baby clothes. There were no furniture store for babies in those days. Baby Jesus would not have his own bed. Often babies would sleep with mother. In a barn, however, Baby Jesus could not sleep with his mother because Mary did not have a bed there. It was likely that she had a mat on a ground to sleep. That may be the reason why Jesus was put in a manger.
After the baby was born, something else was happening out in the fields outside of the city of Bethlehem where shepherds were looking after their sheep. Why shepherds? Because they were not the powerful and rich. They were the lowly—the poor and the weak—for whom God came. Shepherds were out to make sure no one would steal and no animal would attack their sheep.
To them the angel came. Note that there was only one angel at the beginning. The angel spoke, “for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. 11For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. 12And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.” The angel said that the good news was for everyone, not just kings, priests and important people. The good news was, “to you (that was for everyone) Saviour—the Messiah the Lord—is born.” By saying that, the angel told them about Jesus.
Jesus was the Saviour; Jesus was different from all other babies; Jesus was going to grow and become the one who would save the world: he was not going to save few people and leave others; he was going to be the one who would save everyone in the entire world. He would save the world so that everyone would love God and love one’s neighbours.
He was the Messiah. People were waiting for the one who would come and rescue them from troubles and difficulties. Jesus was going to be the one who would lead his people to the world where God would reign. He was going to show how much God loved everyone.
He was the Lord. For those who would follow him, he would be like their king. He would be the one Christians all over the world would listen and follow. Christians would learn love and be more like him in loving and caring others.
After that, the angel told them that they would find this out when they saw the baby wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger. Why was he wrapped in bands of cloth? May be it was because King Solomon talked about somewhere that he was taken care with cloth bands at his birth.
What about the manger? In Isaiah (many many years before Jesus was born), people learned that ox would know its owner and a donkey the manger of its owner, but Israel did not know God. This was a deeply important understanding. You see, the reason Jesus was sent by God was to make sure that God’s people would come to know that God called them as God’s own and that God’s people would know God. The people, however, forgot about God and were not worshipping and serving God the way that God desired. Jesus was sent to be their Saviour, who was Christ the Lord because they did not know that they belonged to God in a very special relationship bound by the promise to Abraham. The leaders, kings and priests, were giving them lies. They were feeding them with false spiritual food.
Now, the shepherds were told to find Jesus in a manger. The manger was a place where animals would find their food. These shepherds who were like the lost people of God were being told to find Jesus, the hope of Israel—the Saviour—in the manger. Farmers would fill mangers with food when they wanted to feed their animals. This was symbolic way of saying that the shepherds or the lost people of God would find their true spiritual food in the manger where Jesus lay. (We could almost imagine a communion scene where Jesus told his disciples, “This is my body that is for you…this is the new covenant in my blood...”)
At that announcement, many angels appeared with the one and sang, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will to all.”
With that, shepherds talked to one another and decided to go to Bethlehem. They went in hurry and found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in the manger as the angel described. They shared with everyone what they heard. They found Mary, Joseph and the baby, but the passage also seemed to talk about other people who heard what shepherds had to say.
There were three reactions to the good news of the angel. The first one belonged to the shepherds. They hurried on and began talking to others about what they heard. When they found what they heard, they glorified and praised God. The second belonged to those who heard. They wondered just like the way people pondered about the birth of John the Baptist trying to think about how God would lead the child. The last one was Mary’s. She kept everything in her heart. She from the very beginning was obedient. She listened to the angel who brought the news that she was to become the mother of Jesus. She now kept everything in her heart cherishing. These three reactions would be very similar to how Christians would react today; some glorify and enjoy God in this Christmas time; some wonder and think about how God is leading us today; some cherish what God has done.
Today, we ask everyone to be like shepherds and share the story of how and why Jesus was born. At Christmas we remember this story.
We are using King James Bible on the account of 400th Anniversary of its publication.
Jesus’ parents, Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem. They went from Nazareth to Bethlehem because their government wanted to make sure that they would pay tax. While they were in Bethlehem, Mary gave birth to Jesus, her first born son. In those days they did not have special baby clothes. They wrapped the baby in cloth bands and laid him in a manger. They had to stay in a barn because there was no place else for them to be.
Today parents get ready to receive new babies. They shop for baby’s clothes, toys, and furniture. Before mothers go to hospitals, they see doctors. To give births, they go to hospitals. There were no doctors and no hospitals in Jesus’ time. Babies were born at home. Instead of doctors women who had babies before would come to help. Fathers and family members were sent out. They were not allowed to see babies right away.
Two things were difficult for Mary that day. Firstly, she and Joseph were not in their own home. They were in another city. They had no friends or relations in Bethlehem. Also because there were so many people who came to register to pay tax, there was no room for them at any hotel. They were happy to stay in a barn to be warm and stay out of cold. Bethlehem would get cold at nights because they were very close to a desert. But a barn was not a good place to have a baby. Because they were traveled far from their home in Nazareth, they probably did not have any baby things.
Secondly Mary had to be helped by women in Bethlehem. She probably did not know them at all. Joseph would have been sent out. She would have been alone with strangers.
After Jesus was born, they wrapped Jesus in bands of cloth. There were no stores for baby clothes. There were no furniture store for babies in those days. Baby Jesus would not have his own bed. Often babies would sleep with mother. In a barn, however, Baby Jesus could not sleep with his mother because Mary did not have a bed there. It was likely that she had a mat on a ground to sleep. That may be the reason why Jesus was put in a manger.
After the baby was born, something else was happening out in the fields outside of the city of Bethlehem where shepherds were looking after their sheep. Why shepherds? Because they were not the powerful and rich. They were the lowly—the poor and the weak—for whom God came. Shepherds were out to make sure no one would steal and no animal would attack their sheep.
To them the angel came. Note that there was only one angel at the beginning. The angel spoke, “for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. 11For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. 12And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.” The angel said that the good news was for everyone, not just kings, priests and important people. The good news was, “to you (that was for everyone) Saviour—the Messiah the Lord—is born.” By saying that, the angel told them about Jesus.
Jesus was the Saviour; Jesus was different from all other babies; Jesus was going to grow and become the one who would save the world: he was not going to save few people and leave others; he was going to be the one who would save everyone in the entire world. He would save the world so that everyone would love God and love one’s neighbours.
He was the Messiah. People were waiting for the one who would come and rescue them from troubles and difficulties. Jesus was going to be the one who would lead his people to the world where God would reign. He was going to show how much God loved everyone.
He was the Lord. For those who would follow him, he would be like their king. He would be the one Christians all over the world would listen and follow. Christians would learn love and be more like him in loving and caring others.
After that, the angel told them that they would find this out when they saw the baby wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger. Why was he wrapped in bands of cloth? May be it was because King Solomon talked about somewhere that he was taken care with cloth bands at his birth.
What about the manger? In Isaiah (many many years before Jesus was born), people learned that ox would know its owner and a donkey the manger of its owner, but Israel did not know God. This was a deeply important understanding. You see, the reason Jesus was sent by God was to make sure that God’s people would come to know that God called them as God’s own and that God’s people would know God. The people, however, forgot about God and were not worshipping and serving God the way that God desired. Jesus was sent to be their Saviour, who was Christ the Lord because they did not know that they belonged to God in a very special relationship bound by the promise to Abraham. The leaders, kings and priests, were giving them lies. They were feeding them with false spiritual food.
Now, the shepherds were told to find Jesus in a manger. The manger was a place where animals would find their food. These shepherds who were like the lost people of God were being told to find Jesus, the hope of Israel—the Saviour—in the manger. Farmers would fill mangers with food when they wanted to feed their animals. This was symbolic way of saying that the shepherds or the lost people of God would find their true spiritual food in the manger where Jesus lay. (We could almost imagine a communion scene where Jesus told his disciples, “This is my body that is for you…this is the new covenant in my blood...”)
At that announcement, many angels appeared with the one and sang, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will to all.”
With that, shepherds talked to one another and decided to go to Bethlehem. They went in hurry and found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in the manger as the angel described. They shared with everyone what they heard. They found Mary, Joseph and the baby, but the passage also seemed to talk about other people who heard what shepherds had to say.
There were three reactions to the good news of the angel. The first one belonged to the shepherds. They hurried on and began talking to others about what they heard. When they found what they heard, they glorified and praised God. The second belonged to those who heard. They wondered just like the way people pondered about the birth of John the Baptist trying to think about how God would lead the child. The last one was Mary’s. She kept everything in her heart. She from the very beginning was obedient. She listened to the angel who brought the news that she was to become the mother of Jesus. She now kept everything in her heart cherishing. These three reactions would be very similar to how Christians would react today; some glorify and enjoy God in this Christmas time; some wonder and think about how God is leading us today; some cherish what God has done.
Today, we ask everyone to be like shepherds and share the story of how and why Jesus was born. At Christmas we remember this story.
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Grace
A friend called and wanted to talk. She came into my office, sat with her backs to those big windows in ways I could only see her silhouette, she said that she did not care about anything anymore; she wanted to jump off the cliff and kill herself; for her there was nothing that would stop her and she was ready to get out of this horrible life. Another friend dropped by to say that she was hurting; she gave and gave, but no one loved her back; her trust was betrayed; people stepped on her like dirt. These are stories that our neighbours share with us. They are God’s grace, pains of suffering God, pointing us to life that is love.
How so? How could these broken people and their lives of pain and suffering be the very grace of God that we read about in our Holy Scriptures? Are they not living the consequences of their mismanaged lives? Are they not paying for wrong choices they made?
If we do not know anything about God’s grace, if we think that we live lives of our own making—that is, we believe that our comfortable life is due to our hard work—and that all that we have belongs to us for our own pleasure, then, we do not see in them the presence of one who loved us even unto death on the cross. Instead of seeing Christ in them we only see people deserving pain and suffering for their pathetic choices. In them we see nothing but missed opportunities to better themselves and therefore are nothing more than people who failed in life. Instead of loving, we pity them. They become objects of our charitable programs; we do not see them as partners in life journey.
On the other hand if we are grateful for what we have been entrusted with, if we experience God’s grace daily in all that we do, and if we have been recipients of God’s generosity even when we have not been deserving of it, then, we can begin to see and witness how God comes to us and gives us grace.
When we come to a point of receiving encounters with those who are broken and are suffering terribly in our world as God’s grace being entrusted to us, we become fellow pilgrims in life more than willing to share where we find our food.
How so? How could these broken people and their lives of pain and suffering be the very grace of God that we read about in our Holy Scriptures? Are they not living the consequences of their mismanaged lives? Are they not paying for wrong choices they made?
If we do not know anything about God’s grace, if we think that we live lives of our own making—that is, we believe that our comfortable life is due to our hard work—and that all that we have belongs to us for our own pleasure, then, we do not see in them the presence of one who loved us even unto death on the cross. Instead of seeing Christ in them we only see people deserving pain and suffering for their pathetic choices. In them we see nothing but missed opportunities to better themselves and therefore are nothing more than people who failed in life. Instead of loving, we pity them. They become objects of our charitable programs; we do not see them as partners in life journey.
On the other hand if we are grateful for what we have been entrusted with, if we experience God’s grace daily in all that we do, and if we have been recipients of God’s generosity even when we have not been deserving of it, then, we can begin to see and witness how God comes to us and gives us grace.
When we come to a point of receiving encounters with those who are broken and are suffering terribly in our world as God’s grace being entrusted to us, we become fellow pilgrims in life more than willing to share where we find our food.
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Loving
To be in love, we wait for love. That's the way we think. That is, we expect others to love us the way we are without condition. We wait for someone to love us completely. Yet, we desire that those who will love us so would be the kind of people whom we have been dreaming about. That is, we hope that those who will love us so completely will be those who already are ones whom we can love without condition. Outward appearances ought to please us, the way they listen to us ought to be completely open and non-judgmental, the way they care for us ought to be always gentle etc. You get the picture. But this is the opposite of what really happens when we begin to love or fall in love.
One truth about love is that we choose to love someone first: we do not wait for that other person to love us and then we decide whether s/he deserves our love in return. Children show this behaviour the best. If they do not like someone or do not want to go near someone, no matter how much that someone loves them, they ignore or show very little interest. If they like someone and want to be liked by someone, they do all kinds of things to draw the attention of that person.
Let me say it again. To be in loving relationship, we have chosen someone to love first. Then, we wait for that person to love us in return. This is why loving can be so fragile and nerve racking. We have given of ourselves first. Now we wait in hope that my love will be returned in kind and that we are love completely without condition. As I begin to love someone, I find myself to be very sensitive about whether the other person will love me back or now. I pay great deal of attention to see how I am loved back. I get very upset if my love is ignored or not appreciated. Yet the fact that I chose to love that person does not change no matter how hurt I become over the lack of love from that person.
God chose to love us first. Like an ugly aunt whom we paid no attention because we want to find handsome or beautiful person who could fulfill me and could make me feel beautiful, likeable, popular and desirable instead, we ignore God. That is, getting a celebrity like a movie star or famous politician to count her as my friend is more satisfying to me than being recognized by a homeless person, we think.
The whole thing about faith is all about God choosing to love us and wait us to love God through Christ in return. In the same way we see someone we want to be loved by—that is, we choose someone to love—and love her/him secretly first in hope of receiving her/his love in return. We get embarrassed and upset when our love, which was in secret or in open, is rejected. God, like a secret love, waits patiently even when we ignore, belittle, and embarrass God in public and private.
Here is a way of seeing it more personally. Imagine me as that ugly and dirty person you see at a corner of your street every day and think of what might happen. I see that you are beautiful. I, therefore, choose to love you. I fully expect you to ignore and be upset when you find out that I love you. I know that my love for you will embarrass you because I am not your ideal type. You seek someone who is better looking, more caring, able in fulfilling you and completing you; You do not want to be seen with me, but I keep telling you that I love you by the way I smile, try to get attention and show up unexpectedly. You try to ignore, stay away, avoid, and hide from me. Yet, I am always around. Well, that is how God’s love for you is like.
As a Christian I have come to love you much the same way. (Well, I do not stalk you and embarrass you in public.) In a way it is like a father waiting for the return of his prodigal child. In many way, loving you meant that I had no choice but to love you—in actual fact, I was happy to choose to love you because you are a beautiful person in whom Christ is in you—and have loved you ever since I made that decision. I was so willing because I saw that God chose to love you long before you ever knew that you are lovable.
In this love, I wait in hope that you will see what love is and choose to love someone as God loves you and as I love you. That is, I hope that my love for you will remind you in a very small way how God loves you so that you may choose to love someone the same way steadfastly. Just remember, though, in this way of loving, you will wonder why the one whom you love do not love you back, why the person to whom you give everything does not even care to acknowledge you in any way, but considers you to be an embarrassment, and why you are the last to get any response. True love as shown to us by God in Christ is that it is without condition. It does not wait to be loved back in order to continue loving. It is given freely and steadfastly. It is always there in full power.
That is the thing about love. When the other person (people) rejects, hurts, betrays, or even embarrasses me (us) we continue to love them. That is how God loves us after all.
One truth about love is that we choose to love someone first: we do not wait for that other person to love us and then we decide whether s/he deserves our love in return. Children show this behaviour the best. If they do not like someone or do not want to go near someone, no matter how much that someone loves them, they ignore or show very little interest. If they like someone and want to be liked by someone, they do all kinds of things to draw the attention of that person.
Let me say it again. To be in loving relationship, we have chosen someone to love first. Then, we wait for that person to love us in return. This is why loving can be so fragile and nerve racking. We have given of ourselves first. Now we wait in hope that my love will be returned in kind and that we are love completely without condition. As I begin to love someone, I find myself to be very sensitive about whether the other person will love me back or now. I pay great deal of attention to see how I am loved back. I get very upset if my love is ignored or not appreciated. Yet the fact that I chose to love that person does not change no matter how hurt I become over the lack of love from that person.
God chose to love us first. Like an ugly aunt whom we paid no attention because we want to find handsome or beautiful person who could fulfill me and could make me feel beautiful, likeable, popular and desirable instead, we ignore God. That is, getting a celebrity like a movie star or famous politician to count her as my friend is more satisfying to me than being recognized by a homeless person, we think.
The whole thing about faith is all about God choosing to love us and wait us to love God through Christ in return. In the same way we see someone we want to be loved by—that is, we choose someone to love—and love her/him secretly first in hope of receiving her/his love in return. We get embarrassed and upset when our love, which was in secret or in open, is rejected. God, like a secret love, waits patiently even when we ignore, belittle, and embarrass God in public and private.
Here is a way of seeing it more personally. Imagine me as that ugly and dirty person you see at a corner of your street every day and think of what might happen. I see that you are beautiful. I, therefore, choose to love you. I fully expect you to ignore and be upset when you find out that I love you. I know that my love for you will embarrass you because I am not your ideal type. You seek someone who is better looking, more caring, able in fulfilling you and completing you; You do not want to be seen with me, but I keep telling you that I love you by the way I smile, try to get attention and show up unexpectedly. You try to ignore, stay away, avoid, and hide from me. Yet, I am always around. Well, that is how God’s love for you is like.
As a Christian I have come to love you much the same way. (Well, I do not stalk you and embarrass you in public.) In a way it is like a father waiting for the return of his prodigal child. In many way, loving you meant that I had no choice but to love you—in actual fact, I was happy to choose to love you because you are a beautiful person in whom Christ is in you—and have loved you ever since I made that decision. I was so willing because I saw that God chose to love you long before you ever knew that you are lovable.
In this love, I wait in hope that you will see what love is and choose to love someone as God loves you and as I love you. That is, I hope that my love for you will remind you in a very small way how God loves you so that you may choose to love someone the same way steadfastly. Just remember, though, in this way of loving, you will wonder why the one whom you love do not love you back, why the person to whom you give everything does not even care to acknowledge you in any way, but considers you to be an embarrassment, and why you are the last to get any response. True love as shown to us by God in Christ is that it is without condition. It does not wait to be loved back in order to continue loving. It is given freely and steadfastly. It is always there in full power.
That is the thing about love. When the other person (people) rejects, hurts, betrays, or even embarrasses me (us) we continue to love them. That is how God loves us after all.
Friday, November 11, 2011
Danger Ahead!
In psychology, cognitive dissonance theory attempts to study how our minds try to reconcile radically different ideas to make sense of our world. For example, when the reality is so different from our beliefs, we find ways to make sense that are advantageous to our beliefs even if this means that we bend truth and facts.
About a year ago, a marketer did an experiment—a variation of this has been seen everywhere including the one that involved a famous perfume—in which a group of people were served frozen food in a somewhat dirty looking restaurant first. They were asked to rate their food. Then, they were taken to a fancy up-class looking restaurant where ambiance resembled the first class with well dressed waiters and waitresses serving the same food with finer china and cutleries with quiet pleasing music being played in the back ground. Again they were asked to rate their food. The same people rated the food they ate in a fancy restaurant better and tastier. Our own perception of our environment persuades us to put aside the facts.
Our minds play tricks on us. Cognitive dissonance experiments remind us that our belief plays very important role in how we see the world. The difficulty is that we are shaded by the very faith we have has been used to iron out many difficult realities we face. Our faith, if not instilled properly, will mislead us and makes us build the world that is not real. This is why some will insist on believing things even when every truth and fact point away from what they believe.
We forget that God we think of and refer to is an image shaped by what we learned from our parents, teachers and our communities. In this sense, more than often we believe not in God who is but God whom we can make sense of in our lives. A warning for us all, indeed!
About a year ago, a marketer did an experiment—a variation of this has been seen everywhere including the one that involved a famous perfume—in which a group of people were served frozen food in a somewhat dirty looking restaurant first. They were asked to rate their food. Then, they were taken to a fancy up-class looking restaurant where ambiance resembled the first class with well dressed waiters and waitresses serving the same food with finer china and cutleries with quiet pleasing music being played in the back ground. Again they were asked to rate their food. The same people rated the food they ate in a fancy restaurant better and tastier. Our own perception of our environment persuades us to put aside the facts.
Our minds play tricks on us. Cognitive dissonance experiments remind us that our belief plays very important role in how we see the world. The difficulty is that we are shaded by the very faith we have has been used to iron out many difficult realities we face. Our faith, if not instilled properly, will mislead us and makes us build the world that is not real. This is why some will insist on believing things even when every truth and fact point away from what they believe.
We forget that God we think of and refer to is an image shaped by what we learned from our parents, teachers and our communities. In this sense, more than often we believe not in God who is but God whom we can make sense of in our lives. A warning for us all, indeed!
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Waiting
Waiting
Waiting has become a difficult thing. I saw a young child fidgeting after less than 30 seconds waiting on a line at MacDonalds Restaurant. I saw a young woman getting upset at standing in line to buy her clothes at a mall. An adult driver who flipped me a bird for not going fast enough or getting out of her way when she approached behind me at a doubled the speed rate on a street. I see myself being impatient when a waiter takes more than three minutes after I am seated to get my order.
A friend finally sent me a reply to my e-mail—after three weeks. In that time, I felt ignored and not valued as a friend. Why? Because e-mail is supposed to be replied as quickly as possible—at least that is what we think, don’t we? If I am texting, I do want the other person to respond to me immediately instead of making me wait for five long minutes. If I e-mail someone, I would like to have a reply at least within 24 hours. Okay, I will wait 48 hours at the most. If not, I send another e-mail.
Waiting has become a difficult art. It requires patience and lots of practice for us to become good at it. This is sad because we, even those of us who are glued to our tech gadgets, used to be good at waiting. Remember how you waited for Christmas to come to open your gifts?
Now, we do not know how to wait. Waiting makes us feel ignored, stood-up, etc. Silence, therefore, has become a punishment rather than a joy. But the best part about getting a gift of friendship is waiting, no?
Waiting has become a difficult thing. I saw a young child fidgeting after less than 30 seconds waiting on a line at MacDonalds Restaurant. I saw a young woman getting upset at standing in line to buy her clothes at a mall. An adult driver who flipped me a bird for not going fast enough or getting out of her way when she approached behind me at a doubled the speed rate on a street. I see myself being impatient when a waiter takes more than three minutes after I am seated to get my order.
A friend finally sent me a reply to my e-mail—after three weeks. In that time, I felt ignored and not valued as a friend. Why? Because e-mail is supposed to be replied as quickly as possible—at least that is what we think, don’t we? If I am texting, I do want the other person to respond to me immediately instead of making me wait for five long minutes. If I e-mail someone, I would like to have a reply at least within 24 hours. Okay, I will wait 48 hours at the most. If not, I send another e-mail.
Waiting has become a difficult art. It requires patience and lots of practice for us to become good at it. This is sad because we, even those of us who are glued to our tech gadgets, used to be good at waiting. Remember how you waited for Christmas to come to open your gifts?
Now, we do not know how to wait. Waiting makes us feel ignored, stood-up, etc. Silence, therefore, has become a punishment rather than a joy. But the best part about getting a gift of friendship is waiting, no?
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Killing of Gadhafi
Gadhafi’s Death
Why was I so disturbed when I saw the final moment of Gadhafi’s death? He was a hated dictator who killed many of his own people. He was as ruthless as those who caught him. Eye for an eye, as they say.
Yet, I have been struggling to figure out what I might have done if I were in that crowd who caught this horrible man. Why should I care? Why would I be concerned with an event that took place across the Atlantic?
Only way I am able to answer is, “Because I am a Christian!” Because I am a Christian who takes the Bible seriously I cannot escape from Matthew 5:43-48,
In a way I am wrestling with this passage because according to this passage, I have no escape when it comes to loving my enemies. Either I follow what Christ asks of me or I am not a follower. I cannot be a Christian and ignore some parts of Jesus’ teachings.
What would be a Christian response for me if I am in a situation where I have more power than my most dreaded enemy? What is an appropriate response to the most hated enemy who unleashed evil on so many including me when I have him trembling before me? What would it mean for me to love the mortal enemy when all my anger explodes into my brain at his sight?
Would God not excuse me or forgive me for killing the one whose death would bring relief to so many? Would God not bring justice through God’s own servants in this crooked world?
Yet, there comes the voice that calls my attention, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord” (Romans 12:9).
Christians throughout centuries died praying for those who were persecuting and killing them instead of calling all Christians to rise up in holy war against God's enemies. Should I do any less?
One thing that distinguishes Christians is our insistence of loving our enemies. Here we are talking about loving enemies actively, not passively. We are not to be doormats but those with Christ's love sharing life even with our mortal enemies.
So I ponder about killing of Gadhafi and what my sharing of love might have been if I were one of those who caught him.
Why was I so disturbed when I saw the final moment of Gadhafi’s death? He was a hated dictator who killed many of his own people. He was as ruthless as those who caught him. Eye for an eye, as they say.
Yet, I have been struggling to figure out what I might have done if I were in that crowd who caught this horrible man. Why should I care? Why would I be concerned with an event that took place across the Atlantic?
Only way I am able to answer is, “Because I am a Christian!” Because I am a Christian who takes the Bible seriously I cannot escape from Matthew 5:43-48,
- ‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
In a way I am wrestling with this passage because according to this passage, I have no escape when it comes to loving my enemies. Either I follow what Christ asks of me or I am not a follower. I cannot be a Christian and ignore some parts of Jesus’ teachings.
What would be a Christian response for me if I am in a situation where I have more power than my most dreaded enemy? What is an appropriate response to the most hated enemy who unleashed evil on so many including me when I have him trembling before me? What would it mean for me to love the mortal enemy when all my anger explodes into my brain at his sight?
Would God not excuse me or forgive me for killing the one whose death would bring relief to so many? Would God not bring justice through God’s own servants in this crooked world?
Yet, there comes the voice that calls my attention, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord” (Romans 12:9).
Christians throughout centuries died praying for those who were persecuting and killing them instead of calling all Christians to rise up in holy war against God's enemies. Should I do any less?
One thing that distinguishes Christians is our insistence of loving our enemies. Here we are talking about loving enemies actively, not passively. We are not to be doormats but those with Christ's love sharing life even with our mortal enemies.
So I ponder about killing of Gadhafi and what my sharing of love might have been if I were one of those who caught him.
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