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.)
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