Fix Your Eyes On Jesus

Text: Hebrews 12:2

Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Message

As a  child whenever we went out as a family to visit relatives I feasted upon the snacks served to the embarrassment of my mother. I saw to it that not even a trace of mixture or sweets remains. Seeing this continuing she took me to task. “The snacks served are not for you to sweep it clean as if you don’t get anything at home. Take only as much as you need.” But when was obedience part of childhood. Next time when we went for our family visit my mom gave me the ‘Statutory Warning’. The snacks were served. And I pounced as instincts dictated me. Had one hand full. Then the next and suddenly conscience pricked and like Peter looked at Jesus after  denying him, I looked at my mom and those eyes that did Kathakalli instructed me to put those snack back. I looked into her eyes and my hands involuntarily became loose. Down went the snack. Power of a look I say.  Next terrain was the church. My friends and I played cross and knots, gossiped endlessly and displayed our art on our sunday school books when the Priest gave sermon in full gusto. This annoyed my mother. And whenever we played or spoke I just gave a glance to see if she is looking and to my disappointment always she was busy rolling her eyes. When I look back in retrospect, looking at my mother’s eye helped me understand what it means to fix your eyes on Jesus. This fixing of my eye on my mother instructed me, disciplined me and it also exuded comfort and assurance. I remember when I was in standard 8 I had failed in the subject of Marathi and when I went home when I broke this news I looked into her eyes. But her eyes said "it is ok." Try again. How comforting.

The author of Hebrews uses the  imagery of race. The church is made aware of the great cloud of witnesses that would inspire them to run the race by countering all the hurdles that come in the way. The Epistle is addressed to a church that is facing immense persecution and trouble.  Therefore the imagery of race becomes meaningful when the Icon of Jesus as the perfecter and pioneer of faith is used. In vs 2 the author asks the people to fix their eyes on Jesus. The participle aphorontes in Greek which means fixing the eye makes sense in a Greek Olympics where the athlete had to fix the eye on the image of the Greek God that was fixed at the end of the race. This helped the athletes to run so as to become like the God and imbibe divinity through their running. The icon of the Greek god propelled the athletes to overcome the cruelties of the terrain and the competitive attitude of the opponents. In this context the author uses the imagery of the crucified Jesus for them to continue their race and withstand the persecution of the context in order to transcend it.  In such a context the author formulates a response that shows them the possibility of a faith and presents to them a Christ who has taken the shame of the cross and endured it through absolute faith. The hostility and the shedding of the blood of Christ are emphasized for the people to relate to their everyday experiences. In the context of persecution the people had submissive attitudes that made them think low of themselves. Since Christ is what made the community possible, the author makes a self formation possible by presenting Christ as crucified and humiliated. This makes their experiences real and bearable. An imagery that helped them accept the reality of suffering.

My dear friends fixing our eyes on Jesus has two dimensions. One it comforts us to carry on in life when every situation militates against us. It gives us hope to carry on when everything seems lost. Recently one of my friend Abraham George cleared his C.A. examinations. He has been doing it for past 7 years. I really admire him for his tenacity and perseverance. There might have been so many voices that deterred him, there may be millions of self doubts as to the possibility of clearing the exams. When I spoke to him he said in a very emotional tone. “Every single day in the last 7 years I was living and dying. By God’s grace I have made it.” Abraham had fixed his eyes on Jesus to get to his goal. I know many friends who are pursuing some goal at this point of time. Please don’t give up on it. Fix your eyes on Jesus. Slowly but surely by the will of God you will reach there.

The second dimension  of Fixing the eyes is that of responsibility. This eyes disciplines us, helps us to correct our track in life. It helps us to accept our failures to move on. Nobody knew this more than Peter. Let us turn our Bibles to Luke 22: 60- 62

 Peter replied, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.”  And he went outside and wept bitterly.

It says after Peter denied Jesus, Jesus looked straight at Peter. And then Peter went out and wept bitterly. Anthony DeMello in his book Song Of the Bird says that He wondered why did Peter cry after Jesus looked at Peter. What did Peter see in Jesus’ eyes? Anthony continued “While I was praying I started practicing the Early Church style of prayer where they raised their arms and looked to the sky as if looking into Jesus’ eye. I started it but after a month my heart was filled with guilt. I did not have the strength in me to lift my eyes and fix it on Jesus as I felt in his eye I would find him condemning me for the sins that I have done. I feared his judgment. So for 3 months I continued to pray this way. My soul was restless. I had no peace. And I told myself that tomorrow when I pray I will look into Jesus eye and face the consequences. I can’t live like this. I have to fix my eye on him. The next day when I raised my eye and looked into the Eye of Jesus, I saw in his eyes abundant love for me. I was expecting judgment and I would handle that. But in spite of everything the love was too much for me. I went out and wept bitterly. Then I realized what Peter that day saw in Jesus’ eye. That look restored the denying disciple to become the rock on which the church was to be built.”

Every time when we come to the Lord ’s Table we should be aware of the abundant love that has made us whole. It is a comfort to see love for us in Jesus eye. But let us not stop at that. We have a responsibility to measure up to that love. It calls to be like Jesus. Christian life is not just about being intoxicated by the Grace of God. It is also a life of responsibility where we are called to be healers, comforters, story tellers and beacon of hope in a world that is groaning with pain. My fellow pilgrims let us fix your eyes on Jesus. Amen

Rev Merin Mathew

Mar Thoma Syrian Church

Guwahati

Dear God, I Am Angry- Yours Truly, Jonah

Text: Jonah 4: 1-11

But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?” Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant[a] and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”“It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”

Message:

One of the top selling video game applications created for Apple’s Iphone is called “Pocket God.” Listen to the description given on Itunes: “What kind of god would you be? Benevolent or vengeful? Play Pocket God and discover the answer within yourself. On a remote island, you are the all-powerful god that rules over the primitive islanders. You can bring new life, and then take it away just as quickly.”[1] Well the option is to be either benevolent god or to be the vengeful god. The benevolent act included giving the islanders a fishing rod. However, there are a plethora of things you can do as a vengeful God including “throwing islanders into volcanoes, using islanders as shark bait, bowling for islanders with a large rock, or creating earthquakes to destroy the islanders' villages.”

Wow, isn’t it interesting that there is a game where you can be your own god? Actually that’s how most people live anyway isn’t it? You can create God in your own image and live as you please. It is also interesting that the developers figure that the only roles people would want to play is the one of a vengeful god.*(From the blog of Robin Koshy) So If Jonah was around he would have loved to play this game than face a God who is graceful. Even we become like Jonah when we make blanket statements like “Even God will not forgive him/her.” Well what exactly is the problem with Jonah? I was fascinated to this little book in the Old Testament thanks to my Old Testament Professor at the Seminary, Rev Dr M.C. Thomas. Honestly I would have loved it if the book would have ended at Chapter 3 where Jonah preaches, the people of Nineveh repent, God changes his mind. The sermon of Jonah is so powerful that it saved an entire city. But we have the chapter 4 and this racist, zealous prophet has a problem with God. God was angry with the Ninevites and so he sent Jonah. But when God’s anger ended Jonah becomes angry with God. Really? For what? Listen to the prayer from vs 2-3. “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.” Well he thanked God for delivering him from the belly of the Whale. And now he wants to die because God is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in Love. Jonah here represents the mentality of privatizing grace. God has been graceful with him and he is thankful for that. But in the days of Jonah, Assyria was the enemy of the Israelites (Judah to be more accurate). So the utter destruction of Nineveh was the dream and aspiration of an Israelite. His hate was what defined him. So when God called him to preach to Nineveh, he feared “what if” the people repented and God changed his mind. So he ran to Tarshish. Jonah is like the elder son in the Parable of the “Lost Son” who has grievance with the Father for accepting the wayward younger brother.

I see Jonah at work in me a lot of times. Like Jonah, I too am judgmental. Like Jonah I too wish I can accommodate God in the boxes of my thoughts. Like Jonah I too wish that God hates those I hate. Rev Fr Jerry Kurian so beautifully sums up that Jonah is the story of people who think they are good. Jonah is also the story of a preacher where the people listening to his sermons change, but Jonah like many of us does not change. (There is a research that states teachers and preachers are the most rigid people who refuse to change.) I feel the Sacrament of Confession is to counter the Jonah in us. The more we confess our sins, the more we are open to the grace of God. The sacrament of Confession exposes us to the scandal called the “Grace of God”. In Public Confession, God does not assure a private forgiveness, but he also assures forgiveness to those we cannot stand the sight of.

I remember Rev Dr K A Abraham narrating an incident to us in the class of theology. There was a man in a church who had serious problems with the parish priests and therefore refused to receive the Holy Communion from the priest. He wrote to the then Metropolitan of the Mar Thoma Church Most Rev Dr Juhanon Mar Thoma. “Dear Thirumeni, Our parish Priest is not a man of Grace. He is a very flawed man. Therefore I refuse to receive Holy Communion from his hand. I request you to come to our church so that finally I can receive Holy Communion after 7 months from a very worthy person like you.” Metropolitan replied, “I am pleased to know that such a holy person is part of my Church. But I feel unworthy to give you the Holy Communion. Please see to it that when you come to Thiruvalla you see me so that I can receive Holy Communion from you.”

According to the Lectionary, the Church is observing the 3 days lent (21st - 23rd Jan) that depicts Jonah being in the belly of the Whale for 3 days. The life of Jonah challenges us to overcome our self-righteousness. Let us stop creating God in our own image. Amen. 

Rev Merin Mathew

Mar Thoma Syrian Church

Guwahati

How to Respond to the Fall of Lance Armstrong???

Text: 1 Corinthians 10: 1-13

For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food  and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.  Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.

Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.” We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. We should not test Christ, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes. And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel. These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come. So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

Message:

Today this text was the passage when we read the “Our Daily Bread”. And it was titled ‘When Someone Falls’. And I told Soji how apt this passage is when the world is waking up to the fall of grace of Iconic Cyclist Lance Armstrong after his candid confessions to Oprah Winfrey. I read a tweet that said “He is a disgrace. He polluted the cleanest mode of travelling (cycling)’. There were many people who had seen him as an icon especially after his battle with cancer and ultimate survival. His foundation “Livestrong” and his autobiography “It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life” were a legacy that transcended sports to the realm of a symbol of hope and survival. For us in India he was more personal as he was an inspiration for our own cricket star “Yuvraj Singh” in battling cancer. We always get jolted when the people we idolize fall from grace. As I have said in an earlier meditation that these heroes help us to live a vicarious life which we aspire to but cant live. That is why when an icon falls, the fall is very very personal. I remember when I had finished my standard 12 in the year 2000, the news of the fall from grace of my personal icon came to the fore. The news of Hansie Cronje caught in match fixing was a very personal jolt for me. He was one person I admired both as a cricketer and a human being. I had a taken a vow that I will never follow cricket again. Obviously I did not live up to my oath. But it did hamper me in more ways than one.

So what does the text above tell us? Paul is reminding the Church of Corinth of the fallings in the history of Israel. They were people journeying with Moses; God gave them the hope of a Promised Land and nourished them with Manna. But the people who began the journey fell midway in the desert. But this recounting of history had a purpose clearly stated in vs 6. “Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.” Paul is orienting us to the purpose and journey of our lives. In the Journey, God is not only interested in where we reach but who we become. He urges us that the heroes who fall are an example to us. It reminds us of our fallibility too. We are in a culture of competition where everyone believes winning is all that matters. Lance Armstrong epitomized that. In our daily lives let us stop for a while. Look at our lives. Don’t we too subscribe to the notion of “end justifies the means. Win at all costs. Nobody remembers who came second”.

The common response to Public failings is a head shaking in disbelief asking “How could he do that?” As David McCasland says “More helpful response would be the head that nods, ‘Yes, even I am capable of doing such a thing’, then bows in prayer for the one who has fallen.”

Whenever there are such fallings of heroes and icons I remember what my parents taught me as a child. “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12: 2. I live by that. There are examples that still give us hope. I have a friend Biren Subba who is a commando in the Indian Army. He is from Sikkim. He was my batchmate when I was doing my under graduation studies. Biren was a National Kickboxing Champion for two consecutive years (1999, 2000). He trained hard to defend his title in the year 2001. He was involved in 8 hours of rigorous practice for 6 months. As friends we wished him luck to go for a hat-trick. The competition was in Mumbai. It was supposed to be on for 2 weeks. But Biren returned to Pune within two days. My friends concluded that he had an early exit from the tourney. When we asked him about the proceedings of the tournament he replied “Every year the registration fee is Rs 1,500. But this year they made it Rs 5,000. There was a boy who had come to the tournament from my village in Sikkim. I had not seen him before. But he did not have the money to register. I know my place. When somebody goes for such a big tournament they have a lot of hopes.I did not want him to return home disappointed just because he did not have money. So I gave my money to him, as that was all that I had. I wished him luck.” He gave his chance to the boy from his land. A National Champion who had the magnanimity to let go his chance to win the glory for the third time is a story that has been part of my personal journey. I ask myself “Am I capable of that?” I need to grow to become somebody like that. That too is an example. Such stories point to the divinity in humanity and the potential we can achieve as humans. I fix my eyes on Jesus. Amen. 

Rev Merin Mathew

Mar Thoma Syrian Church

Guwahati

Family? Why Bother?

Recently one of my friends posted an update on facebook that went like this. “Bachelors know more about women than married men... if they didn’t they would be married too.” This update had a riotous response with many youths agreeing and liking it. If one does a small research, the domain of internet is flooded with jokes on marriages and family. In a small opinion poll done in one of the private channels in India, 93% youths believed that marriage and family are outdated institutions that have no contemporary relevance. This research is not representative of a trend but it definitely shows a growing disillusionment among the youths about family and marriage.

Today we live in an age of media explosion where we have a culture that believes what is spectacular, fast and furious, profitable and instant is the best. And so the concept of family seems ‘uncool’ and something that one wishes was extinct as the dinosaurs. Today we have much more profitable ideas like ‘live-ins’ and ‘open relationships’ that seems so profitable that the entire idea of family is tedious and constricting. Today it has become a cliché that this generation is ‘commitment phobic.’ But this is not without rationale. Mike Zagger, a family counsellor says that today’s generation gets its ideas about love and relationships from movies, novels, sitcoms and pornography. Love is about being perfect, looking attractive, being trendy, spectacular, and successful and being great and magical in the bed. Such expectations have only led to further disillusionment. One of my friends, who is a lawyer spoke something profound. He told me “You know today the divorce reasons are insane. 75% of divorce reasons these days explicitly or implicitly are sexual. I don’t know if marriage is made in heaven or not, but what I see, I am forced to believe that this generation believes that marriages are made in bed.” This may be a very crass observation but we cannot deny it. Media today has succeeded in making us sexualized objects and made us believe that we are worth it. Gratification of desires is more important than fellowship, sacrifice and companionship. The words of the bible about love look alien and archaic. Let’s look at it closely.  1 Corinthians 13: 4-8 says “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;  it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.  It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.” Why have we travelled so far as to become so muddled up and confused? Why has Love become such a used and abused and hollow word?

Text: Matthew 4: 1-11

Let us look at a very unusual passage to reflect on this. I would like to use Matthew 4: 1-11, that has the Temptations of Jesus. I would like to use the offers set by the devil to illustrate our trouble with relationships.

a)      “…tell these stones to become bread.” (Matthew 4:3b) this is the offer we have in our lives that has become central to how we approach family and relationships. The central line is, Devil is saying, “Jesus, you are hungry, tell these stones to become bread and satisfy your hunger.”  ‘Gratify your desires’ is the greatest Mantra we live by. ‘Everything that you desire can be fulfilled’ is the promise we love the most. The market throws up so many commodities in this direction, that human relations too have become commodified. One gets into a relation to gratify his or her desires. It is “I” who is important and so to satisfy my desires I need someone. This utilitarian principle of relationship wrecks the idea of relationship. I met a teenager who told me “I have had 18 girlfriends”. I looked at him in disbelief. He further said “I believe in the ‘Use and throw’ policy.” Sacrifice, companionship, growing together, sound ridiculous and outdated. If the basis of any relationship is gratification, then that relationship sure comes with a manufacturing date along with the expiry date. It is hardly shocking that the reasons for divorce are as trivial as “she used my toothbrush to brush.”

b)      “If you are the Son of God, jump off.......” (Matthew 4:6a) The grave desire that one needs to prove himself or herself. We live in times where proving yourself is mandatory. Doing something spectacular is compulsory. “Prove your love for me” is explicit and implicit in a relationship. I had a friend who came to college having shaved his head. Asking him the reason for this unfortunate spectacle he said “My Girlfriend wanted me to prove my love by doing this.” This may seem a very poor example but what I am trying to highlight is, repeated demands of proving oneself has become a key to our way of life. Doing the mundane has no joy. It is boring. Only things that are spectacular and catch the eye is worth it. a youth in Goa waved a banner “Michelle, I Love you, will you marry me?”, while doing bungee jumping and his girl was all teary eyed and told the local youth channel, ever ready to catch such trivias, “I am sure he loves me. I am so touched and he has proven his love for me.” I am not generalizing but there is a temptation to make your love a display. I have heard friends say that “My girl is a trophy, wherever we go, we turn heads.” Relationships have been reduced to become a display, so much so that values like nurturing a relationship, being patient, encouraging each other have become irrelevant.

c)      “……..if you will only kneel down and worship me.” Matthew 4:9b. Today God has vanished from the vocabulary and reality of youths. Seeking the Will of God in a relationship sounds queer. When elders advice “Pray that God gives u a good partner”, it sounds like a voice from the Stone-Age. The visible world today has become our object of worship. The offers of the market are tangible and we trust it to redeem us. We worship role models who are perfect and sculpted. Brangelina (I am sure that I do not need to explain it is a lingo for Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie) is the dream life one could lead. We are today sold the Dream of a “Perfect life.” We worship this dream and all that the world has to offer. But we realize that “Perfect life” is a just a lie, an advertisement that has cheated too many. As G.K. Chesterton said very well “The Problem of God going away from the centre of our life is not we do not believe. The problem is that we believe in anything and everything.” This statement could not be truer. Today, youths are sold anything and they believe it and worship it. As the Devil promised Jesus that “I will give it all to you… if you will only kneel down and worship me”, today the media, the movies, the ads, the novels are selling you the same offer about relationship. Beauty, sex, cars, mansions and a good life is offered only “……if you will only kneel down and worship me.”

We need to realize it is the purpose of God that creation discerns and worships its Creator, not in Isolation, but in relationships. As Genesis 1:27 says “So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” And Genesis 2:18 says ‘Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.” Family is the microcosm of God’s purpose of salvation, and history is the macrocosm, and if family collapses, history collapses. We today are witnessing a dramatic collapse of family which is shocking. Marriage is very central to the vision of the Bible. Jesus is portrayed as a Bridegroom and the Church as the Bride. Even in the Mar Thoma marriage liturgy the over-riding metaphor is the metaphor stated above.

Let me explain with three passages that counters the temptations stated above.

a)      If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. Luke 9:23. When the World urges you to gratify your desires, Jesus is asking you to deny yourself. What does he mean by that? If we delude ourselves that we are the most important people and all our desires have to be fulfilled, we accept that we do not need a relationship. We are self sufficient and only our desires have to be fulfilled. Jesus is aware of this temptation of believing that the World means “I, me and Myself.” That is why he says if one wants to do the will of God he has to deny himself, go beyond his desires, and be ready for companionship and in a relationship of nurturing each other. Only if we deny ourselves would we look at a life beyond fulfilling desires and strive for something long lasting. God asked the first family not to be successful but “Be fruitful and multiply…..” (Gen 1:28). The key word here is fruitful life, where the tree itself never gets to taste its fruit but endures the weather so that people and birds enjoy the fruit. We are called to be in relationships so that we can be fruitful where we have to sacrifice our desires and ambitions, but the fruits of this relationship will be a blessing and witness to many.  Abraham and Sarah were called out of their comfort zones of a settled life of Ur to go out where God was leading them. Through them as a family God promised a great nation. Out of the barrenness of Sarah, got brought about a great nation. Family is very important to God’s plan and that is why in our churches we do not have individual membership, but we have family membership.

b)      “The Lord will fight for you, you need only to be still” (Exodus 14: 14). God asks us to be still. To be quiet, to be peaceful. In a world that asks us to prove ourselves, to display our worth, relationships that need extraordinary acts as a testimony to prove fidelity and love, God asks us to be Still. He is the one who ‘Out of the silence of Chaos, created the Music of creation.’ Prayer is integral to relationships and family life. This stillness is not about being passive, but waiting upon the Lord, being still. The moments of stillness in prayer prepares a family to be ready for the challenges of a society that has forgotten what is peace and harmony. In a world that says “Seeing is believing”, we need to affirm what Paul says to the Church of Corinth “because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:18). This is a central biblical truth. We are chasing the wind after the ‘seen’, which is transient and temporary. Beauty, sex, social status and displays are the ‘seen’ that we chase after. Love, companionship, sacrifice, commitment, dedication are the ‘unseen’, that is eternal that needs the stillness of prayers, the willingness to wait upon the Will of God. As Rev Sam Koshy T. says “We, in the midst of noise and sound, need to expand our capacity for silence and stillness. Only our relation with God can help us to strive for the unseen and the eternal. Family and relationship is our journey towards Eternity.

c)      So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh, and he said to them, “Go, worship the Lord your God! But which ones are to go?”  Moses said, “We will go with our young and our old; we will go with our sons and daughters and with our flocks and herds, because we have the Lord’s festival to celebrate.” (Exodus 10: 8,9). This statement of Moses is an answer to the offer of the World “……..if you will only kneel down and worship me.” Worship induces wonder and awe in our Life and this has to be done with the family. We may ask what do we get if we worship, why should we go to church? God is worthy of worship and worship induces wonder and awe in our lives that gives us perspective and a proper orientation to view relationships and life. A family is formed when everyone, young and old, sons and daughters go and Worship the Lord. The relationship with the Church is very integral to a family. As infants are Baptised in Mar Thoma Church, it believes that faith is not private and individual. Faith is formed in a community where family is the nucleus. So Worship has to be done in a community where the family is the nucleus. Family that compromises on worship risks in dealing with only the ‘seen’ and transient. Worship gives us the hope of waiting for the ‘Unseen and eternal.’ A family that worships will see life beyond just living pragmatically. In a world that fears to see a tomorrow, worship prepares us for eternity.

In a time when everybody around has started to celebrate the ‘Death of the family’, we have to rise and as youths challenge the values promoted by globalization and media. Are we ready to think beyond ourselves, to deny, building relations and family that God ordained as the nucleus of creation? In a restless world of displays and spectacles are we ready to be still, to pray, to wait for the ‘unseen’? In a world of demigods and self proclaimed saviours, a market that offers everything that we need if we worship it, are we ready to worship the Creator, with the young and old, with  sons and daughters, with devotion, and dedication? May the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit enable you to answer the questions life throws at you with reverence, awe, wonder and submission. May God Bless us all.

Bible Study for Onam

CELEBRATION OF SOIL AND FRUITION OF VISION

BIBLE STUDY

TEXT- GENESIS 4: 1-16

Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten[a] a man with the help of the Lord.” 2 And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. 3 In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, 4 and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, 5 but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. 6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted?[b] And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for[c] you, but you must rule over it.”8 Cain spoke to Abel his brother.[d] And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. 9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?” 10 And the Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground. 11 And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. 12 When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.” 13 Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear.[e] 14 Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” 15 Then the Lord said to him, “Not so! If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him. 16 Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod,[f] east of Eden.

Message

The narrative of Cain and Abel is placed after the narrative of the breach in communion between God and Man where man and woman were driven out of the Garden of Eden. Even after being driven out , man was to till the Soil(adamah). So even after the break in communion man still was a co-participant in creation as he carried forward his divine vocation of tilling and keeping the soil as seen in Gen. 2:15. Gen. 4:1 starts with the scene of human procreation where Eve after giving birth to Cain says “I have created man with the help of the Lord.” The word “Qanah” in Hebrew is translated as created and the noun form of “Qanah” is Cain. So here we see that Cain embodies creation in his name and also he is the seed of the man, formed out of soil( adamah). Cain becomes the tiller of the soil like his father. So he is called to carry forward the divine commission given to man in Gen. 2: 15 to till and keep the soil. In Gen. 4.3f we see that in the context of Yahweh worship, Abel’s offering as a shepherd is accepted but the produce of the ground of Cain is rejected. The narrative does not explain the ground of rejection but focuses on Cain’s envy caused by God’s favour towards Abel. This envy drives Cain to murder his brother with whom he shared the womb. As seen earlier he was the tiller ( obed) and keeper( shomer) of the soil( adamah), so that means he is the keeper of all that is a product of the soil. Abel, the seed of Adam, is a product of the soil and therefore protecting and keeping Abel was the divine vocation of Cain. So the question ‘Am I my brother’s keeper” is a denial of this divine vocation. Cain whose name and vocation embodies creation and life paradoxically symbolizes death and destruction. In denial of his Divine vocation, God’s punishment is a sense of poetic justice. Cain is alienated from the soil that defined his being. If he is not the keeper of his brother, a product of the soil, then he is not the keeper of the soil too. He is cursed that his tilling of the ground will bring no yields. Later narratives and genealogy portray the descendants of Cain as city dwellers who represented a culture alienated from soil, promoting violence and evil. This alienation from the soil and embodiment of violence furthers the narrative logic of Yahweh repenting about his creation that He willed and saw “It was good”. This links this narrative to the flood narratives. Gen. 4:16 says that “Cain went from the presence of the Lord.” While in Gen. 6:9 says “Noah walked with God”. Here we see the portrayal of Noah as the anti-type of Cain as intentional. The name Noah means “Out of the soil that the lord has cursed, this one will bring us relief from our work and toil of our hands.” (Gen. 5:29) after Cain was alienated from the soil the next man who established a relationship with soil and celebrated it is Noah, as it is said “Noah, a man of the soil, was first to plant a vineyard” (Gen. 9:20). Noah, whose ark became the symbol of continuity of creation after the destructive flood, was the keeper of every species of bird and animal. He also became the keeper of soil as seen, and he can be seen as an Ecological ideal with whom God makes a covenant, promising the sustenance of life and creation. This celebration of soil and life lead to the fruition of vision of the creative purpose of God and the furtherance of life.

Baptism and Eucharist: Initiation or Graduation?

I Corinthians10:1-6

 I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, and they were struck down in the wilderness.

Now these things occurred as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil as they did.

Message

Many of us live in doubt whether our Baptism is valid as we do not proclaim our faith. This gives us the impression that maybe our church practice is wrong. How can an infant affirm his or her faith? He or she is not aware of what he is getting into, so the baptism is a meaningless ritual is the common argument. This is a common rationale to persuade many believers in adult baptism as the first baptism is neither biblical nor true. Historically this argument comes to the fore, thanks to the 16th century radical group called ‘Anabaptists’ which means ones who had rebaptised. Their argument was that one has to affirm his faith before baptism. This strand of argument is adopted by many Pentecostal and Neo-Pentecostal Churches. I am not questioning their position. But I debate that their argument is not tenable. We need to analyse the given text and understand its symbols and significance. This section is called “ Warnings from Israel’s History”. According to Rev. Dr. Abraham Kuruvilla, the Principal of Mar Thoma Theological Seminary, Kottayam, Baptism is not a graduation of faith as is presupposed in the arguments of Believers’ (Adult) Baptism. He contends that Baptism is the initiation into the ‘Salvation History’ and Eucharist is the edification in the journey of Salvation History. He elucidates this with the support of the above text. Here we see Paul’s Hermeneutics at work which is allegorical. He symbolizes the cloud that guided the Israelites in the wilderness and the Reed sea that they walked through as a process of Baptism. They were being initiated and guided into the journey towards ‘The Promised Land’. Spiritual food here is alluded to be the manna that Yahweh fed his people with. The drinking from the rock that is Christologically alluded reminds of the incident of Moses striking the rock with the rod from which people in their Journey drank water from. The manna and the water symbolize the Eucharist which edifies us in our journey as being part of ‘The Salvation History’. Verse 5 strikes the ultimate warning that even though the Israelites were initiated into the journey towards ‘The Promised Land’, “God was not pleased with most of them, and they were struck down in the wilderness.” Though many started their journey very few made it to the promises land. Verse 6 explicitly states that this occurred as a warning for us that we may not fall into the trap of being assured of completing our journey. Baptism initiates us into the faith community where faith is not an individual or personal matter but is formed in the context of a community. During our first communion we own our Baptism and faith and are edified with the salvific memory of the death and resurrection of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Abraham Kuruvilla illustrates that being initiated in the education system at the nursery level is not a graduation but an initiation. One is not guaranteed to finish his education process. One needs to review and work at it. So let us be clear that Baptism and Eucharist are important landmarks in our faith journey, but it has to be regarded as Initiation and edification respectively.

Note- the above are reflections of our Principal, Rev. Dr. Abraham Kuruvilla, and it is brought to flesh with my limited comprehension about the subject.

On the basis of the above thesis let us look into the biblical and theological basis of infant baptism.

Biblical And Theological Grounds For Infant Baptism-

The major confusion of the Mar Thoma Christians is directly related to the validity of Infant Baptism. The lack of clarity on this subject and the illusion that it is not biblically based has caused major concerns for the Mar Thomites who are succumbed to believe that this particular practice is not biblical. This is a challenge and an opportunity to clear certain misconceptions regarding this topic. We will first consider this historically. In the time of the Apostles we have direct evidence that 3 distinct families or households received Baptism; that is the household of Stephanas, Lydia and the Phillipian Jailor. The term household signifies infants and children included as well. Even in Acts 2: 38-39, it signifies clearly Child Baptism. Origen mentions that the “ Church has an order from the Apostles to give baptism to the infants.” At the Council of Cathage, A.D. 251, the question was asked that whether it was not necessary to postpone baptism of infants until the fourth day , when it was decided that “no person should be hindered from receiving baptism, especially infants and those newly born.” The fourth Century Archbishop of Milan, Ambrose, wrote on the subject of “ Infant Baptism in the time of the Apostles.” This also shows that infant Baptism was uniformly practiced by the Early Church. W.F. Flemington in The New Testament Doctrine of Baptism argues that baptism of infants is a thoroughly legitimate development of New Testament teaching, a practice in full accord with the mind of Christ. J. Jeremias , the New Testament scholar says that Colossians 2: 11,12 shows that Paul considered Baptism equivalent to Circumcision that opened the way for Christian parents to baptize their children. The Old Testament says that circumcision was practiced on the 8th Day, which admitted the child into the Jewish Church. Nowhere in the Bible are children treated outside the scope of blessing. As we have seen that Baptism is the seal of faith. Romans 4:2 says, ‘ And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of faith, which he had yet being uncircumcised.’ So there is a connection of circumcision to be ‘ seal of faith’ and baptism that is called a seal of faith which are tied to respective covenants. As in Gen 17: 11,12 that says “Circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and that shall be the mark of the covenant between you and me. Throughout the ages, every male among you, when he is eight days old, shall be circumcised…”. So this is a ‘seal of faith’ and ‘token of covenant’. Circumcision then like baptism now fulfilled a double purpose. It is the seal of the believer’s faith and also the sign of God’s covenant.

So who is included in this covenant? The answer is found in Acts 2: 39 “ the promise is unto you and your children.” Let me quote from Dr. Wall’s “ History of Infant Baptism”( vol 1., p. 3) as follows ‘It is evident that the custom before Jesus’ time was to baptize as well as circumcise any proselyte that came over to them from nations. This was based on their belief that rest all were impure and not worthy to enter into a Covenant without a washing or baptism from their uncleanness and this was called baptizing unto Moses. If any such proselyte , who came over to the Jewish religion, and was baptized into it, had any infant children then born to him, they also were baptized and circumcised. The child’s inability to declare his faith was never looked on as a bar against his reception into the covenant.”

Bernard Manning in his book, “Why Not Abandon the Church”, summarizes beautifully about baptism. He says “In Baptism the main thing is not what men do, but what God has done. It is a sign that Christ claims all men as his own and He has redeemed them to a new way of life. That is why we baptize children and infants. The water of baptism declares that they are entitled to God’s mercies to men in the passion of Christ. Your own baptism ought then to mean much to you. It ought to mean all the more because it happened before you knew anything about it. Christ redeemed you on the Calvary without any thought or action on your part. He did not wait for any sign or confirmation on your part. Similarly we baptize a child and declare to the world in a solemn manner what God does for us without our merit and even without our knowledge. In Baptism, more plainly perhaps than anywhere else, God commends His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.”

We have to realize that the objection to infant Baptism needs to be rooted to the cult group called the Anabaptists who gave importance to the profession of faith as an imperative for Baptism. This logic is reductionist and places the onus of faith on an individual. No faith is individual but it is a formation of the community that fosters faith. Infant baptism sets apart a child and he becomes part of the Body of Christ to be formed by the faith practices of the community and the God Parent is the representative of the community to ensure that the child is formed in faith. The family is the nucleus of this faith formation. So the corporate formation of faith has been given emphasis in infant Baptism.

Conclusion

As we have surveyed the theological basis of baptism and the rationale for infant baptism, we the ministers in formation need to engage deeply with the liturgical practices of baptism. I personally feel we need to pay a lot of attention in teaching this to the youths, sevika sanghams and prayer meetings in our parish assignments. I have observed the lack of clarity on this topic has made many of our church members vulnerable. We personally need to learn more about it to be convinced about our baptism and to relive and reaffirm the faith that was symbolized at our day of baptism. May God guide us.

Merin Mathew

Mar Thoma Theological Seminary

Kottayam

Sermon- Christology that Constitues Holistic Self Formation

                               

Date: 25th January 2010

Text: Hebrew 12:1-13

            One of my friends Sangharsh Apte, a Dalit Activist has been of the opinion that one should always fight for the rights of the people. He one day asked me about the subjects I was studying and then remarked “How will the study of theology and Christology help you in your ministry? Don’t you think it is all a waste of time? You should plunge into action and work for the betterment of society. Studying only leads to contemplation and rationalization to legitimize inaction and apathy.” This statement  jolted me out and made me think of questions that I never dared to ask myself. Are these studies just a matter mental gymnastics? Haven’t we heard many achens and friends saying that there is no use of theology and Christology in the mission fields and churches? Haven’t we asked ourselves what is the point of studying Christology and its various debates and its consequences?  With such disturbing questions in mind I started to read about Christology. Classical and contextual christologies were formulated in a particular context in time and history and these were formulated with conviction and commitment that affected our lives. These are the discourses on Christ that leads to self formation. Christ as a discourse becomes instrumental in giving us a narrative that integrates our lives. These discourses help us to make new identities and subjectivities. There are many Discourses that form us and out of that Christology is a very potent formative factor. It shapes our attitudes, it influences our world views, and it helps us to make alternative realities possible. To some extent the formulation of Christology is a political act. It helps us to resist from being defined by the existing categories of reality. With this conviction I would like to title my sermon as “Christology that constitutes Holistic Self Formation.”

Let us briefly explore the background of the text. Hebrews probably originated in the last quarter of the first century. The identity of the writer of the epistle is a mystery. He belonged to the Pauline circle and scholars speculate that he could be Apollos, Silvanus, Aquilla, Prisca, Jude, etc.  It is clear that the author was a Hellenistic Jewish Christian. His writing is rhetorical in style and his greek was very sophisticated with rich vocabulary. His genius lies not in the accommodation of the Christian tradition to the Hellenistic models, but in transformation of the literary and conceptual structures of the world of the Roman Empire at the turn of the second century.

              Audience has to be taken into account. The particular church is obscure with an urban setting. The intended audience was certainly a house church. And the church the members were scattered throughout the district. These early Christians faced intense persecution. This persecution must have led to the depletion of the people as alluded in Hebrews 2:1-4. In Hebrews 12:1-13, the concern of people leaving the church due to persecution is addressed. There were a composite of people who were strong as well as weak in faith in the house church. Here the author engages in Christological formulations so as to engage in their self formation and help them to resolve the crisis that they were facing. We have to place this Christology in the larger framework of High Priest Christology of Hebrews.  Based on this I would like to share two thoughts with you.

a) Christology that Constitutes Context-Transcending Self Formation: This text begins with the imagery of race. The church is made aware of the great cloud of witnesses that would inspire them to run the race by countering all the hurdles that come in the way. The text gives the community a history and relationality for the self formation of the Church in crisis. The Community is enabled to act and limit the scope of its actions by the legacy handed to them through the cloud of witnesses. The imagery of race becomes meaningful when the Icon of Jesus as the perfecter and pioneer of faith is used. In vs 2 the author asks the people to fix their eyes on Jesus. The participle aphorontes in Greek which means fixing the eye makes sense in a Greek Olympics where the athlete had to fix the eye on the image of the Greek God that was fixed at the end of the race. This helped the athletes to run so as to become like the God and imbibe divinity through their running. The icon of the Greek god propelled the athletes to overcome the cruelties of the terrain and the competitive attitude of the opponents. In this context the author uses the imagery of the crucified Jesus for them to continue their race and withstand the persecution of the context in order to transcend it.  In such a context the author formulates a Christology that shows them the possibility of a faith and presents to them a Christ who has taken the shame of the cross and endured it through absolute faith. The hostility and the shedding of the blood of Christ are emphasized for the people to relate to their everyday experiences. In the context of persecution the people had submissive subjectivities that made them think low of themselves. Since Christ is what made the community possible, the author makes a self formation possible by presenting Christ as crucified and humiliated. This makes their experiences real and bearable. A self formation that helped them accept the reality of suffering. The next step was to help the people transcend the context of suffering. The church used the Septuagint bible. Therefore the author used proverbs 3; 11, 12 to interpret it to them that they are Children of God. The self formation of Children of God had been constituted. With such a background of the text, the discourse on Discipline and Suffering in vs 5-11 becomes meaningful for the community in relation to the subjectivity of being the Children of God. The suffering endured by the Church is shown as a proof of God accepting them as their children and disciplining them in their path of faith. Christological affirmation that Jesus submitted to the will of God and endured the cross disregarding its shame and was later exalted at the right hand of God (vs 2) was making them aware of the possibility of overcoming the persecution. So the suffering of the Church is christologically linked and the resurrection of Christ was portrayed as the possibility and hope for the Church to transcend the limitations of the context of hostility and marginalization. This way of doing Christology helped them to imbibe the self formation that stresses on endurance in relationality with the faith community and was challenged to endure in faith with the hope of exalted Christ to transform the dehumanizing context so as to transcend it. 

                           Friends this text calls us to creatively engage with the Christology and to study the bible for a holistic Self Formation of our Church.  The author locates himself in the Greek epistemology but transforms it with his Christology. Today our church stands at the cross roads of multiple realities created by globalization and media culture. People in the urban and the rural settings are experiencing fragmented selves. Life is fragmented into a series of uncoordinated episodes in which there is no consistent or cohesive life strategy for the people to live. Zygmunt Bauman says that in the contemporary world our selves are like a jigsaw puzzle with no picture on the box to show what the end result should be. This increases hostility and alienation and can bring about untold sufferings. This fragmentation makes them feel that there is no connection between our Faith and our lifestyles. Either they adopt Christian consumer spirituality or then quit the church deeming it is irrelevant. In such context we are called to formulate a Christology that connects the jigsaw puzzles of the selves of the people. A narrative of Christ that links the uncoordinated episodes of their lives and an end result of the hope of transforming the context. We have mostly tried to negate the globalization and build illusions of alternatives in our discourses. But the Mar Thoma Church today needs serious engagements with the epistemology of Globalization and evolve a Christology that creates new meaning systems that helps people to have a holistic self formation.  Rev K.K. George in the debates of brethren Christology and Orthodox Christology tried to bring coherence for the people by formulating a Christology that was the basis for Sunday school education. Dr. M.M. Thomas challenged the church to make a presence in nation building by formulating a Christology in the context of Emergency and its excesses. We need to formulate a Christology in congruence with contemporary realities that will help people to endure the race and transform the disconnect between faith and witness.

2.  Christology that Constitutes an Inclusive Self Formation: till now we see that the stress was on endurance to transcend the context. But the author was aware that there were those who would be excluded because of the weakness of the faith and inability to endure. In such a context vs 12 and 13 speaks of lifting the drooping hands and strengthening weak knees. This is to include the ones who would get excluded. We see that from the verses 1-11 that the metaphors underlying the text were that of race, boxing and wrestling. These 3 metaphors symbolized the Hellenist culture that exclude the weak and label them as non-beings. The community had people who are weak and were on the periphery. The use of the texts of Isaiah 35:3 and proverbs 4:6 are important in this regard. This is to counter the logic of violence and exclusion. And also to constitute an inclusive self formation in congruence with his Christological formulations.  When the author talks of drooping hands and weak knees he is imagining the composite church as a Social Body. John O Neill says that the New Testament community used  the metaphor of body, to think about their community and world around. Such metaphors are used  to .relate to each other in community. He says that the ideal image of a body determines the nature of how you imagine your Social body. So the Greeks always imagined their community keeping the athletic body as the ideal. The athletic body is one that is perfect. Any perfect imagination excludes and marginalizes. This is what made them privilege some people and marginalize others as insignificant.

In contrast the metaphor of the broken body of Jesus that Sheds blood and bears shame is used to imagine the social Body that is the Church. Such a body is inclusive. The brokenness of the body of Jesus is used by the author to call upon the fellow church members to strengthen those who are the drooping hands and weak knees of the community. The Hebrews Christology is based on the imagery of Jesus as a High Priest. The role of the high priest in this Christology is to reconcile God and Man and at the same time reconcile relations among men.  In Hebrews 5:7-10 he is shown as  Son who learned obedience through suffering.  The author says in 5:2 that he can deal gently with ignorant, weak and the wayward, because he himself is beset with weakness. I feel this is a very radical formulation of Christology that shows Jesus had to face weakness and limitation. Such a Christology includes the ones with weak knees and drooping hands . Vs 13 urges “to make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame is not to be put out of joint but rather be healed. He challenges the members to focus on Christ in faith but the growth of the church should not nullify or demean the weak, the poor and the disabled. Church as the body of Christ and Christ as its head calls to not only include those who are marginalized but to transform them with new dignity so as to be lead to wholeness, to be healed. So the author was constituting an inclusive self formation to transform the persecuted community to a healing church.

                                 Mar Thoma church that has been a pioneer in missionary activities boasts of many mission fields. But in the growth and development of our Church there has been a pronounced   chasm between the main stream church and the mission fields. In 1980 according to the Kalpana of Late Alexander Mar Thoma Metropolitan these mission fields were given the status of edavaka. There are nearly two lakh Mar Thomites in the mission fields.Do the believers of Pollachi, Shadol, Ankola, Nandial, Lonavala feel part of the Mar Thoma church. How far are they represented in our theologizing especially in our Christological formulations? Are the Christological narrations including their life situations? Are Our Christological formulations leading to the exclusion of the narratives and experiences of the people of the mission fields?   Even the Image of the physical body of Jesus that we imagine in our Christology is important. Culturally we have an obsession with fair and good physical bodies constructed by the media. The dark skinned and the so called imperfect bodies of the people of the mission field get excluded and marginalized. Let the Broken and bleeding body of Jesus challenge our Christological suppositions. Let our songs, our prayers, our sermons, our stories project the image of Christ that embraces the people of the mission field. The challenge for us is to formulate a rainbow Christology that celebrates different bodies, narratives and experiences. The challenge is to redefine our boundaries for an inclusive self formation.

I have shared with you 2 thoughts.

 a) ) Christology that Constitutes Context-Transcending Self Formation

b) Christology that Constitutes an Inclusive Self Formation.

                                    Let me conclude with the words of Jurgen Moltmann, whose words will challenge us. He speaks of his conversion event when he was a prisoner of war in Belgium, captured by the British Army during World War II. He says “In the camps in Belgium I experienced both the collapse of those things that had been certainties for me and a new hope to live by was provided by Christ.  I owe to this hope, not only my mental and moral but physical survival as well, for Christ was what saved me from despairing and giving up. I came back a Christian, with a new personal goal of studying theology, so that I may understand the power of Hope to which I owed my life.” Friends we are called on to study theology to understand the power of hope embraced in Christ Jesus to lead our community to a Holistic Self Formation.

(Sermon Delivered In Mar Thoma Seminary Chapel Kottayam on 25th january 2010, when I was doing my 2nd year B.D.)

Call to be a Shepherd- The Great Commission of Peter

Text- John 21: 15-19  

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” 16 He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” 17 He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. 18 Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” 19 (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”

Message

This text is a very challenging one and has always eluded me. I would interpret in a very simple way. The entire character study of Peter in the book of John is very interesting and is well elucidated in the book ‘Encountering Jesus’ by Cornelius Bennema. He observes that Peter is always subordinated to ‘The Beloved Disciple’. Scholars are of the opinion that John 21 does not fit the larger redaction of John but is a later addition. Leaving rest aside let us consider the characteristics of the text. This text is in the context of Post Resurrection at the Tiberias Sea. I am taking the license to assume that Peter after his tumultuous journey of discipleship returned back to his ways of fishing as seen in John 21:3.this could be due to his disillusionment with his efficacy in the mission entrusted to him.  Jesus encounters him in this very context of defection from mission. The scene of miracle of catching 153 fishes intensifies the plot. There are a lot of allusions to Luke 5: 1-11 which described the call of Peter at the Gennesaret Lake. He reveals his Lordship through this act of miracle and providence of feeding the disciples.

              This calls for the analysis of the mentioned text. Here Jesus begins the “Do you love me” questions to Peter in the context of his returning to his fishing ways. Bennema says that the conventional interpretation of Agape-Philio does not hold ground as Agape is equated to divine love and philio as earthly love. But in John 5:20 the love between Father and Son, the verb used is philio while in John 3:19 agape is used for man’s love for darkness. So the focus has to be shifted from the “Do you love me” questions of Jesus,  to the commissions of  “Feed my lambs”(21:15), “Tend my sheep”(21:16)and “Feed my sheep”(21:17). The reluctant Peter is affirmed to be a Shepherd through this commissioning. The verses 18 and 19 affirm the veracity of this claim. Vs18 is an allusion of the future of Peter and vs 19 explains that this indicates the death of Peter with which he would glorify God. This was in conjunction with the claims that he earlier made that he would lay down his life for Jesus(13:36-38; 18:15-17) but defected from it when it mattered. Then he said “Follow me”. Now this entire text should be read in conjunction with John 10:1-18 where Jesus speaks of the “Good Shepherd”. So his death would be that of a “Good Shepherd” as Jesus says “and I lay down my life for the sheep”(10:15b). So “Follow me” is a call to Peter to follow Jesus’ example. To be a Good Shepherd. To lay down his life for the sheep.  The fruition of his call can be seen in 1st Epistle of Peter 5:1-4. “Now as an elder myself and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as one who shares in the glory to be revealed, I exhort the elders among you 2 to tend the flock of God that is in your charge, exercising the oversight, not under compulsion but willingly, as God would have you do it—not for sordid gain but eagerly. 3 Do not lord it over those in your charge, but be examples to the flock. 4 And when the chief shepherd appears, you will win the crown of glory that never fades away.” Here we see Peter challenges his flock to be shepherds. And as we know that tradition says that Peter was crucified head upside down. This is the allusion we find in vs 18 and 19. He lived his call to discipleship. He followed his Good Shepherd who had defeated death by dying and giving us the hope of resurrection.  Uncompromising call is to be The Shepherd and to lay down one’s life for the mission and his flock.

            In an age where call and mission is seen in very comfortable terms, this text revises us. We, who are called, are like Peter, who keep going back to our comfort zones. Are we sincere in our vocation? Are we doing what we are called for? The Spirit of Jesus is calling us at the Sea of Tiberius to be Shepherds. He is commissioning us.  We are called to lay down our lives for His flock. So the call is costly and I ask myself am I ready for this. Do we even care for the flock? This text challenges us to revisit our call and mission mandate. Do we heed this voice? Let me close this deliberation with a story that is very dear and close to me. In today’s age if one takes a poll to know which is that one song that the youths make fun of, I am sure the honour would go to the song Ennod Ulla Nin Sarva Nanmagalkay which is song number 67 in our Kristiya Keertanangal. This is because we fail to comprehend the power and history of this beautiful song written by Sri P. V. Thommi. It is said that Thommi was a zealous and devout Christian who wrote classic songs like Enth Athisheyamme and Innu Pakal Muzhuvan. In 1946 his village was in the grips of a terrible cholera epidemic. He took it upon himself to serve the people in this time of crisis as a witness to God’s love. He also became a victim of it. Death was knocking at his doors. Looking at death in its eyes P.V. Thommi held his daughter by his side and sang this song “Ennod Ulla Nin Sarva Nanmagalkay”. Even at the brink of death he is thankful to God and asks what can he do in return for all the goodness he has seen in his life. He served so as to lay down his life for Christ and facing death he was hopeful and thankful because the Good Shepherd had Risen from the Dead.

Merin Mathew,

Mar Thoma Theological Seminary, Kottayam

Final Year Student.