Understanding the Reformation of Martin Luther

Martin Luther altered the face of Western Christianity more than anyone before or after him. The reaction to his work led to a split in the west between the traditional believers and the adherents of reformation. Yet it would be a distortion of the facts to charge Luther with the greatest Church schism of all time because the exclusion of the reformers from the Church was instigated by the Romans. In addition, the framework of Western Christianity had been experiencing tremors for some time before Luther. Since the work of John Wycliffe (1320-1384) in England and John Huss (1368-1415) in Bohemia, frequent criticism had been brewing against the centralizing efforts of Rome. In the century of Reformation, the struggle to regionalize the church reached new heights. Yet a regional church had always been presupposed in the Eastern Christendom. One could nevertheless accuse the Luther of destroying the doctrinal unity of the Church. But much more important was the positive influence of Luther. On one hand he noticed the similarity of his teaching with that of John Huss, while on the other hand he exchanged position statements with King Henry VIII, who aspired to create in England a Church which was independent from Rome. Also not to be overlooked in Luther’s considerable influence on the reformed wing of Reformation led in Switzerland by Huldreich Zwingli and John Calvin. Both of these reformers made great effort to come as close as possible to his teachings. Even his impact on the Roman Catholic Church is profound as at the Council of Trent there was ample of time given to the doctrine of justification.  So we understand at the outset the importance and centrality of Luther for Theology.[1]

1. The Dawn of Reformation at Wittenberg

Our analysis concerns the intellectual and spiritual development of Martin Luther (1483–1546) during the years 1509–1519 – particularly 1512–1519, which many regard as being a decisive phase in this process. During these critical years, Luther began to inch his way toward his own distinctive understanding of how sinners are able to enter into the presence of a righteous God, classically expressed in the doctrine of justification by faith. While the relationship between the emergence of Luther’s theological distinctives and the historical origins of the Reformation as a whole is somewhat more complex than some popular accounts suggest, there is little doubt that Luther’s theological breakthrough was one of a number of factors that proved to be of decisive importance in catalyzing the massive social, economic, political, and religious transformations of the Protestant Reformation.

This study sets out to analyze the emergence of Luther’s understanding of the question of how humanity is justified in the sight of God, focusing especially on his shifting views concerning what it means to speak of God as “righteous.” How can a sinner hope to find acceptance in the sight of a righteous God?  Luther’s changing answers to that central question set the scene for the great upheavals of the Reformation. Yet a second distinctive feature of Luther’s early thought emerges alongside these reflections on the nature of divine righteousness, and how a righteous God could accept and love sinful humanity. Luther’s celebrated “theology of the cross” is the outcome of the same process of reflection that led Luther to his doctrine of justification. The two themes are intertwined in his early writings, and can in some ways be seen as two sides of a single, related question – namely, how humanity is to live by faith in the shadowlands of sin and doubt. [2] But theological reflection never takes place in a social or cultural vacuum. To tell the story of the development of Luther’s ideas, we must explore the situation within which they emerged. We therefore turn immediately to consider the state of late medieval Europe on the eve of the Reformation – especially in Germany, which played a particularly significant role in shaping the contours of late medieval Christianity, as well as laying the foundations for the Protestant Reformation.

1. The Context and History of Martin Luther.

To understand the rapid spread of Luther’s ideas, a brief account of the role that the Church played in Medieval society is necessary. In the wake of the fall of the Roman Empire, the Catholic Church filled the power vacuum it had left behind and went on to enjoy nearly a millennium of institutional dominion throughout Europe. While its authority was at times imperiled, as in the Western schism of the fourteenth century), its teachings and rituals gradually embedded themselves in the daily lives of the faithful. Much like the Roman Empire before it, however, the Church’s overextension of both territorial domain and bureaucratic machinery ultimately proved a corrupting force. One such instance of corruption—and the principal target of Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses—was the doctrine of indulgences, a practice predicated upon the belief that one’s journey to eternal salvation could be expedited by means of worldly works. In the hands of Church functionaries eager to pad their own coffers, these “works” all too often assumed the form of monetary payouts rather than pious acts. 

Enter Luther. Indignant at such abuses, he modestly aimed to reform the Church from within. Little did he know, however, that his criticism would ignite a conflagration of religious animus that was to engulf all of Europe. In retrospect it is not difficult to see why this happened, since ultimately at stake in this dispute was nothing less than the authority to determine legitimate interpretations of scripture and rituals of worship. Hence the crux of Luther’s thought is frequently summed up in two Latin phrases—Sola Fide (“by faith alone”) and Sola Scriptura (“by scripture alone”). In short, Luther argued that the relationship between man and God is a fundamentally personal one, nurtured by individual faith and subject to no greater authority than the Bible itself. Thus Luther’s critique led logically to the rejection of any intermediary authority that might stand between man and God. Moreover, no longer would mere affirmation of dogma or participation in ritual suffice to vouchsafe one’s spiritual health—rather, the individual took center stage, called upon to actively and directly participate in his faith.5 Solas were pervasive in Luther’s Reformation

• Sola Fide, by faith alone.
• Sola Scriptura, by Scripture alone.
• Solus Christus, through Christ alone.
• Sola Gratia, by grace alone.
• Soli Deo Gloria, glory to God alone.[3]

• Analysis of the Theology of Martin Luther .

The major criteria in analyzing the Theology of Luther is its struggle and refutation of the Scholastic Epistemology which will help us to clearly place the location and importance of Theology of Luther.

2.1)  Doctrine of God-

Martin Luther believed in the Trinity and incarnation. He consistently taught that Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three distinct persons in one divine essence and nature, is one God who created heaven and earth. Neither the father or the Holy Spirit, but the Son became a Human Being, and that the Father’s only begotten Son is one person with two natures, divine and human, that are not confused or separated. Till here, he is in continuity with the Catholic doctrine of God.[4] But the breakthrough came as God is not understood statically from God’s being as perpetuated by Scholastic theology, but rather God is understood dynamically from the perspective of God’s will. Luther sees in God the supreme will that can have no equal. God sets the standard by which his own will is measured. This emphasis on will makes God dynamic and action oriented where God is always at work. God is an engaging God who participates actively, decisively, and creatively in the events of this world.  [5]

2.1.1) Christology– Luther Shares a lot of traditional Christology. But to work towards his theological grounds of Justification, he developed what is known as communicatio idiomatum. The idiomata, i.e. the attributes by which the human and the divine nature can be described, are to some degree interchangeable in the person of Christ. For instance, God can be everywhere. A Human can be at one place at a time. In so far as Christ is God, he can be everywhere. But even in the human nature of Christ, even his body as seen and touched by the disciples after the Resurrection, shares the quality of the divine nature and now can be everywhere. Luther ascribes the communicatio idiomatum and omnipresence of the body of Christ even to the time before His Resurrection and Ascension. This doctrine on the omnipresence of Christ of both natures helps Luther shatter the medieval theology of heaven as a place somewhere above. This presence of Christ as real presence helped him destroy the magical powers of sacraments of turning the Bread and Wine into Body and Blood to prove that it was specially not turned at that point of time, but it was actually present as Christ is always present everywhere.[6] But it does not end there. This concept also says that the general attributes or idiomatum of human beings take part in divine nature in the concrete person of Jesus Christ and the reverse is true as well: in Christ, the human being, God suffered, died, and was victorious over death. In Christ, who is God, human being has become omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent.[7] This again shattered the concept of Transubstantiation based on Aristotlean metaphysics of the medieval theology. Luther in his Christology, discards the metaphysics of Non-Communication of substance where two substance cannot remain the same with others co-existing. I.e. The bread and the wine does not remain the bread and the wine but becomes body and blood of Christ, as the form and matter cannot co-exist in the same substance.[8] Luther abandons this whole schema for the biblical understanding of God. The God of the Bible is a self-communicating and relational God. God’s righteousness is his right relationship with himself and with human beings (the actual meaning of the Hebrew word “Tzedek” is right relationship). Hence, it is intrinsically covenantal and relational. Righteousness is not a quality, but a relationship. God is righteous in that he fulfills his covenant promises both to enforce death on those who violate the law, and to give life and save through the gospel (i.e., the content of the Abrahamic and Sinaitic covenants!). And because righteousness is a relationship, and not a quality, it can be shared. A relationship can be shared, a quality can adhere in two subjects, but it cannot be shared. Luther puts it in Freedom of a Christian, in God’s supreme act of loyalty to his promises, he shares his own righteousness with human beings (i.e., “the righteousness of/from God”, Romans 1:17) and in exchange receives their real unrighteousness into himself (i.e., the “happy exchange”). Christ does this by taking on and sharing the wrong relationship that unbelieving and fallen human beings have with the Father, and giving them his own right relationship to him.  And justification as the happy exchange is rooted in a real and not merely notional concept of the communicatio idiomatum. The divine person in becoming human incorporates within itself the death and suffering the human nature through the communication of actions. The human nature receives within itself the self-communication of all the divine glory, so that by the divine power present within it, it may by its redeeming and creative actions work salvation. Therefore, just as there can be a real exchange of realities in the Incarnation, there can be a real exchange of sin and righteousness in the happy exchange.[9] This helped Luther to discard the Aristotelian metaphysics in favour of the Biblical to root his theology.

2.1.2) Theology of Justification– There are two aspects in understanding the God and the above logical progression will help us. 1) The Justifying God 2) ‘I, the sinner’. In the first, Luther asserted that God is not a Goal, but is most active God, who never ceases to justify. The Justifying God reversed the normal pattern of considering God as one and three under the category of God as the greatest Good (Summum Bonum), to which humans are attracted as their final goal. God became for Luther, first and finally the One Who Gives, the subject of justification. What He gives is not an effect of a cause, but himself and the preached word is the way he bestows this gift upon creatures. The second part of the doctrine, ‘I, the sinner’, names the one to whom God gives himself. God’s active justification is given freely while sinners are yet ungodly-the passive righteousness of receiving rather than achieving.  For Luther, a human person is justified wholly for the sake of Christ (Propter Christum), which means that God does impute sin on him/her but forgives sin (Psalms 32:1). This means that the righteousness of Christ is imputed to the sinner, which is alien to human possession  and she/he is considered righteous on account of Christ alone.[10] How? When a human being believes in Christ, Christ is present, in the very fullness of his divine and human nature, in that faith itself. Luther understands the presence of Christ in such a concrete way that, Christ and Christian become ‘one person.’ In this ‘happy exchange’ the human being becomes partaker of God’s attributes.[11] Luther categorizes righteousness into two kinds, active and passive and not just as one as tradition which had presumed on an active one. The active righteousness made scope for work and doing works to gain merit. In his exegesis of Paul and Psalms, he seems to have discovered passive righteousness, salvation through trusting God’s word of promise of forgiveness, imparting a new status, a new nature, a ‘clean heart’ for the believer.

This led to another break with the Scholastic Theology. Distinction between Law and Gospel. Law is not a manual that presents the steps to travel to eternal life, but is a tormentor attacking any self-righteousness one seeks to bring before God. Therefore the gospel is not ‘new law’. It is a gift-word of promise that assures terrified consciences of God’s mercy given only to sinners, a word which quickens the dead to new life.[12] Therefore the distinction between law and gospel is that Law places human beings under the wrath of God, but Gospel brings Grace and life, the law convicts the sinner to death, but the Gospel proclaims eternal life through the power of Christ’s redemption. But still Luther does not say Law and Gospel are in conflict. When we proclaim Christ as redeemer, it is also the proclamation of the Law, because redemption presupposes the existence of sin, which is based on the principle that whatever shows us what we ought and ought not to do and whatever tells us, we remain in sin is always Law. Faith moves from the Law to the Gospel, which is irreversible because the Gospel is the Word of comfort and promise for the guilty. Therefore the Gospel transcends the Law, and Law never transcends the Gospel. Faith means placing the Gospel above the Law and holding on to Gospel as God’s promise of accepting the unacceptable. Thus, in its deepest sense, such faith in the Gospel fulfills the Law because it is a Gospel of promise, which closely follows Luther’s Theology of the Cross and Justification. Therefore people are set free from the condemnation and demands of the law, transferring them from domain of law to the Kingdom of Christ.[13] Therefore the being of the human at the core is Faith as we who are killed by the law, which accuses sinners to death, are raised by the gospel promise, which grants forgiveness, life and salvation. For Luther, God became human so that we through faith might ourselves become human, in opposition to self-deification that one achieves through self-righteousness.[14]

2.1.3) Theology of Glory and Theology of the Cross.

Luther distinguished the “revealed God”(Deus Revelatus) from the “hidden God”(Deus Absconditus),by which he meant, in different contexts, either God as he actually exists beyond the grasp of human conceptualization—particularly when the human mind is darkened by sin—or God as sinners fashion him in their own image, to their own likings. In addition, it must be noted that the revealed God hides himself in order to show himself to his human creatures. Luther observed that God is to be found precisely where theologians of glory are horrified to find him: as a kid in a crib, as a criminal on a cross, as a corpse in a crypt. God reveals himself by hiding himself right in the middle of human existence as it has been bent out of shape by the human fall. Thus, Luther’s theology of the cross is a departure from the fuzziness of human attempts to focus on God apart from God’s pointing out where he is to be found and who he really is.

These two differ in their subject matter, for one is concerned with God in His glory, whereas the other sees God in his sufferings.[15] A theology of glory calls evil good and good evil. A Theology of Cross calls the things what it actually is. He who does not know Christ does not know God hidden in suffering. Therefore he prefers works to suffering, glory to the cross, strength to weakness, wisdom to folly and good to evil.[16] Now let us historically place it. Theologies of glory presume something about God’s glory, and something about the glory of being human. Medieval systems of theology all sought to present a God whose glory consisted in fulfilling what in fact are fallen human standards for divine success.[17] A God worthy of the name, according to the standards of the emperors and kings, whose glory and power defined how glory and power were supposed to look. Medieval theologians and preachers wanted a tough, no-nonsense kind of God to demand that they come up to their own standards for themselves and to judge their enemies.  Second, out of his experience as a student of theology at the University of Erfurt, Luther suggested that these medieval systems of biblical exposition taught a human glory, the glory of human success: first, the success of human reason that can capture who and what God is, for human purposes. Gerhard Forde observes that this glory claims the mastery of the human mind in its investigations regarding both earthly matters and God’s revelation of himself.  The theology of the cross aims at bestowing a new identity upon sinners, setting aside the old identity, by killing it, so that good human performance can flow out of this new identity that is comprehended in trust toward God.[18] Therefore “the theology of the cross is an offensive theology because it attacks what we usually consider the best in our religion,” human performance of pious deeds. A theology of glory lets human words set the tone for God’s Word, forces his Word into human logic. A theology of glory lets human deeds determine God’s deeds, for his demonstration of mercy is determined by the actions of human beings.   Luther’s understanding of the cross as the iconic and symbolic center of Christian theology, worship, and spirituality clearly fits into this pattern. .  “Theology of the cross” mounts a full-scale assault on human preconceptions of God and the conditions under which humanity finds acceptance in the sight of God. . Luther understands the cross as far more than an instrument of theological illumination, linking it with the deep existential anxieties of humanity in the face of suffering, the radical ambiguity of a shadowy world, and above all the fear of death and damnation. The cross breaks down our inadequate and misleading prejudices and presuppositions, so that a “true theology” can emerge in their place. For Luther, the cross must be allowed to determine its own conceptual framework. Theology begins at the foot of the cross of the crucified Christ; it does not begin somewhere else, and then proceed to assimilate the cross into its predetermined categories. More   importantly, a “theology of glory” proceeds by prioritizing the rational – what the human mind can cope with. Where a theology of the glory depends upon the human capacity to understand, the theology of the cross depends on the human capacity to perceive – to observe what is happening, and reflect on its deeper significance, even when this cannot be fully grasped. A “theology of the cross” thus gives priority to what is experienced. As Luther famously put it, “only experience makes a theologian.[19] .  

2.1.4) Ecclesiology– This section is important as we need to recognize that Luther did not intend to develop a well-developed ecclesiology. His ecclesiological concerns were made manifest in works occasioned by specific controversies or practical pastoral concerns that he found in his exegetical works, sermons and correspondences. His reflecting upon the Church was shaped by his reflecting upon the nature and function of the gospel which broadened his theological horizons. Luther’s ecclesiology is not institutional or structural but soteriological and kerygmatic. It is a Christological community, created, preserved and united in Christ.[20] In his formulation of ecclesiology we need to be aware of two fundamental shifts. i) His central theological principle of distinction and integration or ‘unity of the opposites’ that gave him a dialectical lens to view reality which lead him to concepts such as “Sinner and a Saint at the same time” opposed to the medieval theology that used “Then sinner and now saint” which is opposition in unity. ii) His understanding of the Church as ‘the people of God’ or communion of saints over against the Roman perception of the Church as an objective order established by God on Earth to do God’s work. The basic difference between Roman Catholic understanding and Reformer’s doctrine of Church is that according to Roman Catholicism Church has its base on the authority Christ had vested with apostles and successively transmitted from Peter to the Bishop of Rome or Pope, who assumed the mantle of the sole legitimate head of the Church universal. But Luther based his Church on the proclamation of the Gospel, which creates faith in the believers and they in return form the Church.[21]

2.1.4.1) Church Visible and Invisible

The separation of the visible and invisible spheres is clear enough in his writings. It first appears in his Treatise on the Papacy of 1520. He says: “The primary reality which is essentially, fundamentally, truly the Church we call the spiritual, inner Christendom. The other, which is a human creation, we call the bodily, exterior Christendom.” One must not take offense at this distinction; it is not meant to disparage that which is called the exterior, visible Church. Luther’s point is that this aspect of the Church is accidental to the true nature of the Body of Christ.[22] The Church in its true essence is an object of faith. As Luther said, it is “hidden in spirit.” When one sees the actual working of the Church, the buildings, the ministers, the administration, devotions, liturgy etc., then you know that in this visible church, with all its shortcomings, the invisible Church is hidden.[23] External structure may vary with the various historical settings in which the word of God confronts the needs of men in a particular age. It is precisely this element of flexibility that makes possible the positive nature of Protestantism-the spirit of renewal. What it did was challenge the Visible Church concept according to Medieval Theology that gave Pope legitimacy, and standing. The invisible Church defined so based on the Scriptures that effectively took away the authority of Pope and rested the authority on the Scriptures which helped the Luther to not just rebel against the Church but gave theological foundations for His Ecclesiology. [24]

2.1.4.2) Church:  the Body of Christ– By stressing the word Christ, it means: Christ: the head of the Body, moves and rules His members by the Spirit. By stressing the word “Body” it means,: The Church is the Body formed of those who believe, who have faith. They form the Communion of saints.[25] The Church as Communion of saints means evangelical priesthood that is service that begins from the gospel. Luther is able to describe his understanding of Church as communion of saints in such a way that he can characterize priesthood as a law of life of the Church. When Christ bears our burdens and intercedes for us with his righteousness, that is a priestly sign from which the mutual upholding and acting on behalf of one another. The foundation of the Church is the priestly office of Christ, and its inner constitution is the mutual and the common priesthood Christians. Through baptism all Christians receive the portion of the priestly office.[26] This leads to the priesthood of all believers.

2.1.4.3) Priesthood of All Believers. The hierarchical, sacramental, and sacerdotal character of the medieval church was seriously threatened by Luther’s doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. In his tract ‘To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation’, the first of the three papal walls which Luther attacks is the theory that the clergy (pope, bishops, priests, and monks) comprise the spiritual estate while princes, lords, artisans, and farmers comprise the temporal estate. Luther’s answer to this theory is as follows:

All Christians are truly of the spiritual estate, and there is no difference among them except that of office. Paul says in I Corinthians 12:12-13 that we are all are one body, yet every member has its own work by which it serves the others. This is because we all have one baptism, one gospel, one faith, and are all Christians alike; for baptism, gospel, and faith alone make us spiritual and a Christian people.[27]

Participation in the priesthood of believers entails connection with Christ and the Church, not autonomous individuality on a personal, spiritual quest.  Rather, the community of God is where the Word is found and the Word is where the community of God is found.

This distinction between salvation that comes from God through the Gospel and a cheap imitation offered by man establishes a dichotomy between the true and the false Church.  The priesthood of believers was only those that participated in the life of the true Church.  Scripture became the cornerstone upon which to judge what truly constituted the living Church.  Moreover, the validity of “tradition” (i.e., the councils, the papacy, etc.) was contingent upon its coherence with the Scriptural witness.

This debate intricately shapes and forms Luther’s conception of the priesthood of believers.  Deposing the papacy’s self-proclaimed infallibility led to a stronger emphasis on the communio sanctorum.  No longer could the pope, or any other ecclesial official, be allowed to operate beyond or outside of the community of believers.  After all, Christ alone was the Head of the Church.

In fact, Luther went so far as to deny ordination as a sacrament.  Of course, this was a radical equalization between clergy and laity.  This did not so much deny the important role of clergy, as much as, it promoted God’s call to all believers.  Sharing in that equilateral call suggested that everyone, including clergy, stood as equals before God.  If all believers have received this gift of priesthood, then what significance, if any, remains for clergy?

Luther posits both a general and specific call for all believers.  The general call consists of individual believers being initiated into the Body by faith through Christ.  Thus, everyone that comes to faith in Christ is a priest.  This is the general call to which all are invited to partake.  Luther asserts, “Faith alone is the true priestly office.  It permits no one else to take its place.  Therefore all Christian men are priests, all women priestesses, be they young or old, master or servant, mistress or maid, learned or unlearned  Here there is no difference, unless faith be unequal.”[28]

2.1.5) Sacraments:

Church was of non-sacramental nature as conceived by Luther. By “non-sacramental” is not meant the abolition of all sacraments, although Luther did reduce them to two (Baptism and Eucharist) or three (including the sacrament of penance). Sacramentalism refers to the use of the sacraments as the means of grace. Luther saw the sacraments as aids to faith and evidences of faith, but in no sense substitutes of faith. The Sola Fide doctrine recognizes faith as valid for grace and salvation quite apart from any works, whether sacramental or secular.[29]

2.1.5.1) Baptism– Baptism is an important area where Luther attacked the medieval theology. Luther believed that the whole medieval system of good works, vows, pilgrimages and an ascetic life were attempts to save by other means people whose baptism had become wrecked and meaningless. The idea of wrecking of Baptism was attributed to St. Jerome. But Luther contested that Baptism can never be wrecked. It stands on God’s promise, and our unworthiness can never destroy that promise. The ship of our baptism can never sink as it must arrive at the port of Heaven. Baptism is the basic sacrament that we need to return to it again and again to be reminded of it.[30] God makes a covenant with human beings in Baptism and agrees to forgive all their sins. The symbolic action in Baptism, being immersed or washed with water, is to be sure a one-time occurrence, but one which should be continuously actualized.[31] Luther underlined Baptism as an Act of God through human hands to undercut the power of clericalism existent in the Medieval Church. The acts of immersion in water and being raised again from water in the baptismal rite are identified with death of the old being and renewal of the new being. Under the cover of water God bestows power upon the believer and creates him/her anew by sanctifying, purifying, and vivifying both his/her body and soul. By this act, God intends to use the human creatures as effective instruments to fulfill God’s work on Earth. By elaborating here he challenged ritualism and moralism associated with Medieval piety. Duns Scotus had maintained that there was a magical power in Baptismal water to which Luther affirmed that in Baptism- purification from sin, deliverance from death, and new birth was wrought through the power of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and not the element of water. [32] Luther supported Infant Baptism in opposition to Anabaptists but that is beyond the scope of this paper. Three important principles can be deduced about Baptism.

1. Its close interrelation to the cross of Christ
2. Its efficacy on all human beings irrespective of their age.
3. Its work of gathering the believers as a communion or body of Christ.[33]

2.1.5.2) The Lord’s Supper– Luther to relocate the Lord’s Supper, rooted it in the scriptures. He starts from the Word “This is the New Testament in My Blood.” A testament pre-supposes three things. a) a Testator knows he has to die. b) He enumerates his possessions; c) he authorizes the receivers of his heritage. God makes a testament which shows God wants to die, but God cannot as only man can die. “The New Testament in my Blood” briefly indicates that God having become man, wishes to die for the benefit of others. The heritage he left is “Forgiveness of sins, life and salvation…” This heritage is the possession of those who receive the sacrament and believe God’s promise attached to it.[34] He refuted the concept of transubstantiation of the medieval church with that of consubstantiation which affirms the body and blood of Christ are present in unchanged bread and wine by displacing the Aristotelian metaphysics that we saw above. Important for Luther was that eating and drinking of bread and wine, union with Christ and all the Saints took place. As against the other reformers he maintained the “Real Presence of body and blood of Christ as it was a sign of Christ’s sacrificial death, it assures us of the forgiveness of sins.[35] He works out consubstantiation by saying that the sacrament is held by two rudiments- the promise of forgiveness and faith. In every promise of God, two essential factors are offered to us- the word and the sign- in order that we may grasp the Word to be the promise (testament) and the sign to be the sacrament. One of the major shifts Luther brings as against the Medieval Church is that Medieval Church understood Eucharist as individualistic, while Luther argues that the individual or egocentric gains are out of the purview of the Lord’s Supper because the basis as well as the fruit of the Eucharist is love.[36]

2.1.6) Two Kingdom-

The two-kingdom doctrine, which began with Martin Luther, was developed because of confusion in his day about the roles of church and state. Both the Catholic Church and the Anabaptist movement were confusing this distinction of church and state. In the Catholic church of Luther’s day, some theologians were insisting that the Roman church had temporal powers, while some political leaders were assuming ecclesiastical responsibilities. The separation between church and state was very blurred. In particular, Duke George of Saxony forbade the printing and reading of Luther’s works in his territory of ducal Saxony, and a few other German princes were taking the same line. This was a clear infringement on the rights of the church and the Christian believer. Meanwhile, some of the Anabaptists were trying to set up a temporal kingdom on earth, while others were completely rejecting the temporal government, teaching that the only legitimate government in the world was that of the church. It is in this context that Luther developed the two-kingdom doctrine.[37]

Luther’s understanding of the relationship between Church and state is usually stated as the doctrine of the two kingdoms. It does not mean the separation of Church and State as understood today. It is related to the Luther’s distinction of Law and Gospel. Luther says that God has established two kingdoms and both are God’s creation, standing under his rule. But one is under the Law, or “Civil” function- and the other is under the gospel. The civil order has been established by God to restrain the wicked and curb the most extreme consequences of their sin. Its ruler does not have to be a Christian as he governs from natural reason. But the believers belong to a different kingdom. It is the kingdom of the gospel where one is no more subject to the law. .In this Kingdom, the Civil rulers have no authority, just as believers have no authority in the civil rule. Believer is at once justified but still a sinner. And therefore as sinner subject to the civil rule.[38] So these were not water tight compartments and he followed the method of unity of the opposites. Therefore Christian lives in two kingdoms simultaneously.[39] Luther’s theology of two kingdoms was informed by biblical principles. The New Testament makes a distinction between spiritual and temporal authorities without dichotomizing them, because ultimately God is in control of both the realms (John 19: 10-11). But scripture demands absolute loyalty to God when Christians are in a compelling situation to make a choice between their loyalty to Spiritual and Civil Authorities. Christians must be ultimately loyal to God over civil authorities which is a direct inference from Matthew 10: 28. But God is in control of both realms. The temporal authority and the spiritual authority are preserved in a dialectic tension without letting them to be dichotomized or homogenized. The Church and the State are the two realms of God’s activity for the benefit of God’s people. This distinction emerged with a definite purpose of Challenging and resisting the corruption of the Church, which had assumed political power and used the same for selfish ends. It helped him challenge the authority of Pope. In that logic, indulgences was to be condemned as forgiveness was divine grace and could not be traded. This doctrine helped him add strength to his critique of the ecclesiastical structure, which had given rise to manifestly concrete system of exploitation.[40]

• Conclusion:

The analysis of the theology of Martin Luther was a very interesting exercise. My major focus was his debate with the Scholastic Theology and how he broke the strangle hold of Aristotelian Metaphysics on the ensuing Theology and added fluidity to it. The way he treated Scripture made something impossible in any other faiths. It made Bible come under scrutiny which led to Historical Critical Method which had major impact on 20^th Century Theology. The Shift from the static understanding of God to Dynamic understanding in accordance to the Will, helped the category of History and God’s intervention in history something to grapple with which had tremendous impact on the 20^th Century Theology, especially Liberation Theology. The Theology of the Cross helped in the critique of the status quo which was impossible with the epistemology of Scholastic or Medieval Theology. The transformation of structures became vital and it had great impact on the ensuing development of theology. Ecclesiology of Luther had in it the potent power for the quest for equality which was largely denied in the Scholastic Scheme of hierarchy. This quest for equality snowballed in the development of ethics of equality and search for Church as an inclusive community which was the undercurrent theme of many 20^th Century Theologies. The theory of Two Kingdoms which was entirely different as Luther envisaged, also became instrumental in the formation of separation of Church and State leading to the realm of Secularism and Tolerance in the context of Thirty Years War and the Treaty of Westphalia. This study helped in realizing the far reaching breakthrough that Luther made which he too did not envisage. His Theology was an Epoch that gave the lens for the epoch of Enlightenment, followed by Liberalism and many other trends in Theology. The fluid nature of Luther’s Theology makes it relevant in every context. The methodology of ‘Unity of Opposites’ gave a new methodology for the theological landscape which was formerly caught up in the duality of either/or. The dialectical methods made it more relevant to the contradictions existent in reality. The Theology of Luther helps us realize how important Theology is in influencing Society and course of History.

Bibliography

Bayer, Oswald. Martin Luther’s Theology. Michigan: William B Eerdmann’s Publishing Company, 2003.

Daniel, Daniel P. “Luther on the Church”. The Oxford Handbook of Martin Luther’s Theology, Edited by Robert Kolb, Irene Dingel, L’Ubomir Batka. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014)

Gonzalez, Justo L.  History of Christian Thought: Volume III. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1975.

Kramm, ^.H.H. The Theology of Martin Luther. London: James Clarke and Co. Ltd., 1947.

Lohse, Bernhard. Martin Luther’s Theology: Its Historical and Systematic Development. Fortress Press Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1999.

McGrath, Alister. Luther’s Theology of the Cross: Martin Luther’s Theological Breakthrough. West Sussex: Wiley: Blackwell, 2011.

Nurnberger, ^.Klaus. Martin Luther’s Message For Us Today; Perspective from the South.  Pietermatizburg: Cluster Publications, 2005

Paulson Steven . “Luther’s Doctrine of God”. The Oxford handbook of Martin Luther’s Theology. Edited by Robert Kold, Irene Dingel, L’Ubomir Batka. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014)

Saarinen, ^.Risto. “Justification by Faith: The View of the Mannermaa School”. The Oxford Handbook of Martin Luther’s Theology. Edited by Robert Kolb, Irene Dingel, L’Ubomir Batka. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014)

Sahayadhas, R. Hindu Nationalism and the Indian Church: Towards an Ecclesiology in Conversation With Martin Luther. New Delhi: Christian World Imprints, 2013.

Schwarz, Hans. True Faith In The True God: An Introduction to Luther’s Life and Thoughts. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1996.

Tillich, Paul. History of Christian Thought: From Its Judaic and Hellenistic Origins To Existentialism. New York: Simon and Schutser, 1967.

Journals

Ebeling, Gerhard “Luther’s Understanding of Reality”.Lutheran Quarterly, Vol. XXVII, 2013

^.Kolb, Robert. “Theology of Glory, Theology of the Cross.  Lutheran Quarterly, Vol. XXVII, 2013

Webliography

Palmer, Timothy P. Two-Kingdom Doctrine: A Comparative Study of Martin Luther and Abraham Kuyper, in Pro-Rege, Volume 37, No.3 http://digitalcollections.dordt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1329&context=pro_rege

Duffy, Benedict Joseph. in “Lutheran Ecclesiology”, Dominicana Journal, Volume 50. No.3.https://www.dominicanajournal.org/wp-content/files/old-journalarchive/vol50/no3/dominicanav50n3lutheranecclesiology.pdf

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[1] Hans Schwarz, True Faith In The True God: An Introduction to Luther’s Life and Thoughts(Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1996), 8-9

[2] Alister McGrath, Luther’s Theology of the Cross: Martin Luther’s Theological Breakthrough, (West Sussex: Wiley: Blackwell, 2011), 9-10

[3] Klaus Nurnberger, Martin Luther’s Message For Us Today; Perspective from the South, (Pietermatizburg:: Cluster Publications, 2005), 2-3

[4] Steven Paulson “Luther’s Doctrine of God” in “The Oxford handbook of Martin Luther’s Theology” Edited by Robert Kold, Irene Dingel, L’Ubomir Batka. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 187-188.

[5] Hans Schwarz, True Faith in The True God: An Introduction to Luther’s Life and Thought, (Minneapolis: Augsburg Press, 1996), 60-61

[6] H.H. Kramm, The Theology of Martin Luther, (London: James Clarke and Co. Ltd., 1947), 44-46

[7] Oswald Bayer, Martin Luther’s Theology, (Michigan: William B Eerdmann’s Publishing Company

[8] http://jackkilcrease.blogspot.in/2013/04/how-aristotelianism-problematizes.html accessed on 19th August 2017

[9]  Gerhard Ebeling, “Luther’s Understanding of Reality”, Lutheran Quarterly, Vol. XXVII, 2013, 63-66

[10] R. Sahayadhas, Hindu Nationalism and the Indian Church: Towards an Ecclesiology in Conversation With Martin Luther, (New Delhi: Christian World Imprints, 2013), 186.

[11] Risto Saarinen, “Justification by Faith: The View of the Mannermaa School” in The Oxford Handbook of Martin Luther’s Theology, Edited by Robert Kolb, Irene Dingel, L’Ubomir Batka. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014),254-255

[12] Mark Mattes, “Luther on Justification as Forensic and Effective”, in The Oxford Handbook of Martin Luther’s Theology, Edited by Robert Kolb, Irene Dingel, L’Ubomir Batka. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 268-269.

[13] Sahayadhas., Op.Cit., 188-190

[14] Mark Mattes, Op.Cit., 270-271

[15] Justo L. Gonzalez, History of Christian Though: Volume III, (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1975), 35

[16] ibid

[17] Robert Kolb, Theology of Glory, Theology of the Cross, Lutheran Quaterly, pages 445-447

[18] Alister McGrath, Op.cit., 202-204

[19] Kolb., Op.cit., 447

[20] Daniel P. Daniel, “Luther on the Church” in The Oxford Handbook of Martin Luther’s Theology, Edited by Robert Kolb, Irene Dingel, L’Ubomir Batka. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 334-335.

[21] Sahayadhas, Op.cit., 190-191.

[22] Benedict Joseph Duffy, in “Lutheran Ecclesiology”, Dominicana Journal, Volume 50. No.3.https://www.dominicanajournal.org/wp-content/files/old-journalarchive/vol50/no3/dominicanav50n3lutheranecclesiology.pdf accessed on 21st August 2017

[23] Paul Tillich, History Of Christian Thought: From Its Judaic and Hellenistic Origins To Existentialism (New York: Simon and Schutser, 1967), 253

[24]Benedict, Op.Cit.,  https://www.dominicanajournal.org/wp-content/files/old-journalarchive/vol50/no3/dominicanav50n3lutheranecclesiology.pdf accessed on 21st August 2017

[25] Kramm, Op,cit., 68-69.

[26] Oswald Bayer, Op.Cit. 257-258

[27] https://www.dominicanajournal.org/wp-content/files/old-journalarchive/vol50/no3/dominicanav50n3lutheranecclesiology.pdf accessed on 22nd August 2017

[28]   Bernhard Lohse, Martin Luther’s Theology: Its Historical and Systematic Development (Fortress Press Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1999), 290.

[29] Ibid.

[30] Kramm, Op.cit., 56

[31] Hans Schwarz, Op.Cit., 119.

[32] Sahayadhas, opcit, 210-211.

[33] Ibid., 212.

[34] Kramm, Op.Cit., 58-59

[35] Schwarz., Op.Cit., 120-121

[36] Sahayadhas., Op.Cit., 213-216

[37] Timothy P Palmer, Two-Kingdom Doctrine: A Comparative Study of Martin Luther and Abraham Kuyper, in Pro Rege, in Volume 37, No.3 http://digitalcollections.dordt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1329&context=pro_rege accessed on 1^st September 2017

[38] Gonzalez., Op.Cit., 60-61

[39] Sahayadhas., Op.Cit., 224-225

[40] Ibid., 227-229

Bartimaeus? What is the Story?

From the Wayside to the Way of the Cross

Text : Mark 10: 46-52

It won’t be wrong to say that I have been preparing this sermon for 11 years. Let me explain. In November2010, when I was a BD final year student, I saw a book with my cousin Mathews George called the “Holy Ground.” I borrowed it from him and read in the Chapel. When I read it, I just could not contain my excitement. It was so wonderful. But I never got a chance to implement. Everytime I got the Text of Bartimaeus, I would always remember the insight, but was never confident to use in a sermon. There is a Book of Walter Brueggemann  which is “Text that linger and Words That Explode.” That is the feeling. The Text has lingered in me and will explode. So I hope I will be able to communicate the excitement that I first experienced 11 years ago. 

Recently on my whatsapp status I had put a very seemingly good post about the reasons to be polite to Waiters. There was a troll graph before that says “They are human beings therefore 50, and they can spit in your food and therefore 50 percent. So this post had a full graph as a response painted in blue with full circle graph saying I am polite to waiters because they are humans and not your servants. I put this and many liked the message. But two of my friends asked “Is it fine to be rude to your servants? I was dumbfounded. How I did not see that. I was exposed to my blindspot covered in my privilege. We all have a blindspot and we are blind metaphorically in many ways. Seeing is not just physical. There are many things that make us blind. Like our privilege, our bias, our prejudice and hatred.

Let us now turn to the text of Mark 10: 46-52 where we see a Blind Man. Let me title the sermon as “From the wayside to the Way of the Cross.” This is the second time in Mark that Jesus heals a blind man. Both healings come at pivotal points in the narrative. The first occurs at the midpoint of the gospel, just before the critical incident at Caesarea Philippi, where Jesus asks the disciples, “Who do you say that I am?”, and then reveals his messianic identity. So the first healing acts as a bridge between the two halves of the gospel. Mark is not a careless writer. He does everything for a reason. “Pay attention!” he is saying.

Which brings us to today’s text, the Bartimaeus incident, the second healing of a blind man – and the last healing miracle in the gospel. Not at Bethsaida – via Caesarea Philippi Jesus has moved on toward Jerusalem, and now he is at Jericho, a suburb fifteens miles from the capital. But this healing too happens at a pivotal point in the narrative: it’s the last event before the Triumphal Entry on Palm Sunday. Again, Mark is saying, “Pay attention!” Indeed, pay particular attention: the blind man has a name, and Mark rarely tells us the names of the characters in his gospel. And the name Bartimaeus. [1]How is it that no other one has name? This one has name? Is there something more deep? Many say that Timaeus means unclean, which is a strange conjecture. So what is the story?

In a Colonized Palestine, there was Roman Administration and Greek culture also filled with Greek Cosmology. Cosmology means the inquiry about the social and personal sense of an ordered world which is an orientation that rules the public space and discourses which determines who is accepted and who is not, who is privileged and who is not.[2] Plato’s Timaeus is very influential in the discourse that had deep impact on the public spaces. Plato uses the character Timaeus who will talk about origins and it is divided into two halves. The First part considers the great , perfect pattern of all things (Plato’s ideas) and demiurge a lesser God translating these patterns into generated and visible.  In imitation of the great sphere, the human head was made, “being the most divine of us and the lord of all that is in us.”[3] And the rest of the body is the servant to the head. Therefore sense are important and the chief of the senses is the eyes or sight. The second part of Timaeus is more philosophical which talks about human senses.

So just at the juncture of two parts there is a speech that praises sight or seeing. “The sight in my opinion is the source of the greatest benefit to us, for had we never seen the starts and the sun and the heaven, none of the words which we have spoken about the universe would have never been uttered. …. God invented sight to the end that we might behold the courses of intelligence in the heaven, and apply course to our own inetelligence….”[4]

So everything depends on sight. Sight is praised as the basis of philosophy. Timaues says “Do not wail in vain about the ordinary man who does not have sight as it is in vain as the ordinary Greek man who is blind is incapable to follow the discourses of the sky. There s statement that says “There is no use even if the blind man wails. It is in vain.” So this cosmology has place for the able, the male and the privileged upper class. Those who do not fit, do not matter and are sidelined.  So why ramble on with the Markan text here?

Timaeus is introduced in Mark at an important juncture of Galillee and Jerusalem, in Jericho, between ministry narratives and passion story. He is the man with name. His name is hybrid with Aramaic and Greek mixture. So Bar is armaaic and Timaeus is Greek. So this is turning the head where Timaeus glorifies sight, the son of Timaeus is presented as blind. , lamenting . Lathrop says presentation of Mark could be a mimesis and reversal of Plato and an alternative cosmology that decenters the privileged is being constructed through broken myths and broken rituals.. This reversal is stark as it follows Jesus telling James and John in the preceding periscope about sharing his cup and baptism and exhortation not to be like gentiles in leadership. The Leadership propunded in Timaeus is abour creating domination by treating others as inferior.[5]

Mark is a counter Cosmology. If Timaeus is interested in Heaven, Mark too is interested in Heaven, Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.” (Mark 1: 10) There is hole in the Heaven and Son of David in this scene amongst us, sharing our death, becoming our life.

1. Dangerous Wailing that creates a Hole in the Heavens: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me” (Mark 10: 47). The people around were cold and did not care for a blind beggar. He was suppressed as he was disturbing the normalcy of a public domain, and protocol to adhere. But he refuses to be silent and cries loudly.  Son of Timaeus is shouting out to the  Son of David. First time the messianic lineage is portrayed here in Mark. But was He only a Son of David? We will hold on to that.  Apart from the Lord’s prayer, the oldest words of a prayer we can trace back to the time of Jesus are Bartimaeus’s (and one or two others in the gospels) – ‘have mercy’. In the Greek ‘eleison’. The Greek words were never translated into the Latin and Syriac liturgy as  ‘Kyrie eleison’, ‘Christe, eleison’.[6] A longer form of Bartimaeus’ prayer had the title of Jesus slightly expanded and some extra words added from the mouth of the tax collector in one of Jesus’s stories was taken into the desert by the Desert Fathers of the 3rd century and became what is known as the Jesus Prayer: ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’[7] Church in repeating the Bartimaeus prayer, is crying out a dangerous prayer against the Timaeus of our times that glorify the privileged and the perfect world of spectacles.
2. Giving up the Cloak: When he refused to be silenced, his wailing was heard by Jesus. He was asked to come where he threw the Cloak, which is an important reference conventionally used to understand security. It is seen as a cloak that held his worldview and taking of that cloak, he comes to Jesus. He is throwing and  forsaking labels ascribed and stamped on him by the society through the world view of Timaeus which privileges the able bodied and the male. This is Jesus. Heaven on Earth. There is hole in the heaven, and heaven invades the earth, “On Earth as it is in heaven.” Jesus asks “ what do you want me to do for you?” (vs 51) He asked the same question in Mark10: 36 to James and John who want seats of position to sit on the left and right. Bartimaeus is contrasted to the Rich man who held on to his possosion and the disciples who cried for position, a craving for the world promoted by Timaeus. But Bartimaeus, asks Jesus that he wants to see. This taking off the cloak and coming to Jesus has early Christian baptismal overtones.
3. A Seeing that leads to Walking on the Way. Bartimaeus can see and Jesus tells him to go. But vs 52 says “ He followed Jesus along the road. Here Bartimaeus following Jesus shows his participation in the passion narrative, the road of the Cross and discipleship. Where did Bartimeus disappear after that? Since it is said, he came along the Road? Did he go home?

Did he lose his way? After Jesus was arrested there is a curious young man in Mark 14: 51-52 “A young man, wearing nothing but a linen garment, was following Jesus. When they seized him, ⁵² he fled naked, leaving his garment behind.” After Resurrection we see a young man in Mark 16: 5-7 As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.

“Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’”

K Hanhart says that the young man could be Mark’s “Son of Timeus” He has been presented as fully stripped as seen in his forsaking of the cloak and clothed in the manner of ancient baptism. . The second stripping where he is stripped naked shows that he is ready to risk as a disciple, to be naked while the disciples were hiding or were at a distance. He participates in the way of the cross and finally he the man who is in the white robes, clothed in resurrection life, where he is “Seeing by beholding Jesus when no one else can see, a seeing where Jesus has not returned to the heavens, but is among us, in the Galillee, going ahead of us, calling us to a seeing, to find Jesus in Galilee, he is found under the form of disorder, loss and brokenness, and inviting us to walk on the dangerous road.[8]

 Is it not interesting Peter when asked Who Jesus is “Says “You are the Christ” and gives the right answer but errs in faith when he hears about the passion and suffering. Bartimaeus Calls Jesus “Son of David,” which is not his ultimate identity, got his answer wrong, but his action right. The one who could not see, who was suppressed by the people, is showing the way for people to see. “Wisdom is not found in “seeing” the perfect world.

Wisdom is the  foolishness to “See” the Crucified Jesus and to be a co-traveller with the Risen Christ”

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[1] https://www.faith-theology.com/2015/11/the-bartimaeus-incident.html

[2] Gordon Lathrop, “Holy Ground: A  Liturgical Cosmology”, Mineappolis: Fortress Press, 2009, 30

[3] Timaeus 44d Jowett translation in Hamilton and Cairns, Plato, 1173

[4] Timaeus 44d Jowett…1174

[5] Gordon Lathrop, “Holy Ground:…. 32.

[6] Jeffrey John, Meaning in the Miracle (Norwich: Canterbury Press, 2001), 79.

[7] https://www.standrews-chesterton.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Bartimaeus.pdf

[8] K. Hanhart, The Open Tomb, A New Approach: Mark’s Passover Haggadah (Collegeville, Minessota: Liturgical Press, 1995), 125-126.

P.S. Sermon Preached at Dharma Jyothi Chapel on 13th March 2021

“It is Finished? What is Finished?

I wish to address the most enigmatic statement on the Cross that Jesus uttered “It is Finished.”(John 19: 30). What is finished? Many times we have simply quoted this in a conversation implying “A task is over,” or a project is complete. It is important to see this in the Gospel of John which has a different understanding of human being (anthropology). Even the Cross is not seen as a satisfaction of blood done to save us. The death on the Cross is seen as an act of love. “The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.” (John 10: 17-18)

We normally wish to conjure the great pain that Jesus went through like the movie by Mel Gibson The Passion of Christ. But the gory details of the death on the Cross is not the focus of the 4 Gospels. But the movie focusing on “The gory pain inflicted on Jesus, elicits so much guilt in us, that we should be transformed.” If it was so, the writers of the Gospel would have focused on such details. But the death of Christ is important. Death on the Cross and the Resurrection brings a new life.

One of the most striking statements regarding what it is to be human, and certainly the most challenging, was penned by Ignatius of Antioch while being taken from Syria to Rome to be martyred there early in the second century. On route he wrote a letter to the Christians at Rome imploring them not to impede his martyrdom, telling them: ‘Birth pangs are upon me. Suffer me, my brethren; hinder me not from living, do not wish me to die. … Allow me to receive the pure light; when I shall have arrived there, I will be a human being—allow me to follow the example of the passion of my God’ (Letter to the Romans, 6). He is not yet born, not yet living, not yet human! Only through his martyrdom, he holds, will he be born into life as a human being.

Patristics scholar John Behr says that “John, in the very first chapter of his Gospel has Philip telling Nathanael, ‘we have found him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets wrote’, followed by a string of titles—Rabbi, Son of God, King of Israel—only to have Christ promise something more: ‘You will see the heavens opened and the angels ascending and descending upon the Son of Man’ (John 1:45-51).

This apocalyptic vision is finally granted when Christ is on the cross. In the Gospel according to John, Christ’s final words on the cross were ‘it is finished’ (19:30), meaning not that his life has come to an end, but rather that the work of God is completed and perfected. What is brought to perfection in this way is indicated, unwittingly, by Pilate a few verses earlier, ‘Behold the human being’ (John 19:5)

  It’s the word “tetelestai”. 

Let us look at some parallels between Genesis and the Gospel of John.

 John starts out with the words, “In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God…” (John 1:1) which of course takes us back to the very beginning of the Bible, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1.1).

            And the first thing that appeared in the world that God created was, of course, light.  “God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” (Genesis 1:3).  And John also talks about light in the first few verses.  He says, “The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.” (John 1:9).

            Genesis goes on to talk about God creating life – plant life, and then birds and fish, and then all the animals.  “And God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth living creatures.” (Genesis 1:24).  And the gospel of John is just filled with the life that Jesus brings.  The word “life” appears 43 times in the gospel of John.  For example, in John 6:33, “For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

            But, while the first few chapters of Genesis are focused on telling us about the creation of the world, John is more interested in telling us about the re-creation of the world.  Or, to put it another way, John is telling us about how God is re-creating things to be the way he meant for them to be to begin with.

            And so, in order to restore that relationship, Jesus came into this world.  John 1:14 tells us that “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us.”The living Word who was with God, and who is God, became a human. The author of creation and life came to live among us.  And that was Jesus.  He came to rescue us, to redeem us, to reconcile us, and to restore God’s creation to what he intended for it to be.  Jesus came so that he could make it very good again.

 But, in this re-creation story, Jesus is actually playing two parts.  Because he is not only God, the one doing the creating; he’s also man.  And so, in this new creation story, Jesus plays both roles.  He is the God who has finished his re-creation.  But he is also the man.

            Look back to John chapter 19.  Pilate had Jesus beaten, after the soldiers mocked Jesus and hailed him as king of the Jews, Pilate presented Jesus to the crowd.  And then, Pilate said, “Behold the man!” (John 19:5).

            The Greek word that Pilate used there is anthropos.  What is significant about that word is that it doesn’t just mean “man” as in, “Here is a male person.”  It means “human being.”  Pilate was saying, “Behold the human being.”  Which is one of the last things that happened before Jesus said, “It is finished.”

            It’s also one of the last things that happened in Genesis before God said, “It is finished.”  When God created human beings in Genesis 1, the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint)  used the exact same word that Pilate used to describe Jesus:

            “Then God said, ‘Let us make man [anthropos] in our image, according to our likeness’… God created man [anthropos] in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” (Genesis 1:26-27)

            So, just as God created man on the sixth day as the culmination of his creation, Pilate presents Jesus to the Jews as “the man”, the new Adam if you will.  It reminds us of what Paul described in I Corinthians 15, “Thus it is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living being’; the last Adam [Jesus] became a life-giving spirit.” (I Corinthians 15:45)

            And in Genesis, after the creation was finished, what did God do with the first Adam?  He put him in the garden.  The garden of Eden.  “And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.” (Genesis 2:7).

            After Jesus said, “It is finished”, where was he placed?  The apostle John is the only gospel writer to tell us this, but it seems to be important to him, because he mentions it several times.  “Now in the place where [Jesus] was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid.” (John 19:41).

            How fitting it is that Jesus was placed in a garden just like Adam and Eve were placed in a garden.  And then, after Jesus was raised from the dead, John tells us about a conversation that Jesus had with Mary Magdalene where she mistook Jesus as the gardener.

So, what’s the point? The point is this – I think John wanted us to see that the Cross, as it is finished, “The process of the birth of a new human being, is complete.” Jesus on the Cross says the act of Creation is now complete which was fostered by Jesus saying “Not my will, but yours be done.” (Matt 26: 39)            

            Which is why Paul is able to say in 2 Corinthians 5, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5.17)

When Jesus told Nicodemus that he was to “Born from Above”, the image is the birth Jesus gives us through his Cross. It is Finished.

This needs to grow in us. This new possibility of Jesus the Christ revealed needs to be born and needs to grow in us. 

This is what Paul says in Galatians “My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.” (Galatians 4: 19)

Like a mother, Jesus births us to a new possibility of becoming a human being and also waits to be born in us. It is finished.

Prayer: God we thank you for your love that you sent your Son Jesus the Christ who birthed us on the Cross and who waits to be born in us through the Holy Spirit. Amen

The Sermon is adapted from John Behr’s Book “The Gospel of John” and some of his articles and YouTube podcasts.

Sermon Preached at Dharma Jyothi Vidya Peeth Chapel for Good Friday on 2nd April 2021

A Brief Overview of the Mar Thoma Order of Ordination

As these are the days of Ordination and times where Ordination services are live streamed, there are many questions asked about the Holy Ordination of Deacon and Kassessa (Priest). A detailed outline would not be possible. I would use some of the questions asked over chat to guide us through the Service of Ordination.

So let us start?

1) Is there s separate service for Ordination?

Historically there used to be, but mostly the sacrament is held in between the Holy Communion service. The second part of the service, after the sermon starts, with the candidates for Ordination kneeling behind the Bishop who celebrates at the Madhbaha (Altar).

2)When exactly do the proceedings for Ordination start proper?

It starts when the song “Deva Suthar Naam Aayiduvan” which is a call for the members to come and kneel for the communion. The special order of worship starts here with the candidates reading a prescribed oath in allegiance to the Mar Thoma Metropolitan and the faith that the Church espouses.

3)What about cutting of hair and what is its significance?

There is a text called “Homologia” which is a Greek word which means recitation of faith which the Bishop reads out to the candidates regarding

a) Integrity
b)Character
c) Prayerful life
d) Family lifeAs a mark of approval to faith, each candidate is asked to draw a cross in the register in front of his name and other details. This shows symbolically the idea of conducting yourself on the path of the cross as a disciple of Lord Jesus Christ.
After that the Bishop cuts the hair in the shape of the cross as hair is seen as symbol of pride, and cutting of hair is seen as the capacity to “let go.” The hair of the candidate is preserved and it is buried along when the Bishop who has ordained is promoted to eternal glory.

4) I have seen the candidates being covered with a white cloth like the one that covers the Sacred elements of bread and wind. What is that?

After the above steps the Bishops helps the candidate to kneel in front of the Madbaha facing the east where the prayer of the “Holy Spirit is calling you…” is the liturgical start of the Ordination. There are a set of prayers read like Kuklion (Cycle of Psalms) , Promeon (introductory prayer), Sedra (First half of this prayer is normally biblically derived work of salvation of Jesus Christ and the second half is about prayer to make the candidate a meaningful servant of the Lord. Two epistles are read before the reading of the Gospel.

Before the Bishop reads the gospel he covers the candidates or candidate with a white netted cloth with the sign of the cross on it which is called the “Sossappa.” Sosappa symbolizes the cloud or Presence of God revealed through Holy Spirit or mystery. Bishop after covering them keeps the Gospel (from where the Bishop reads) on their head symbolizing the centrality of gospel. The Gospel portion read is John 20: 19-23. Before reading vs 22, the Bishop symbolically blows on the candidates and then reads “Receive the Holy Spirit….”
After several prayers again covered with the Sossappa the Bishop beseeches the Holy Spirit on the candidate “O God the Paraclete (another name for Holy Spirit)… One has to know that the centrality of Holy Spirit in the Ordination service.

5)When is the vestment given?

The difference between service of Deacon Ordination and Kassessa Ordination is minor. The candidate going to be Deacon, wears a Kameez while entering the Service for ordination and after a prayer, the Bishop giving a new testament Bible holds the hand of the candidate and says “From the group of brothers ..Name.. is elevated to the order of Deacons” and helps him stand as he was kneeling. Before that the cassock, along with girdle will be prayed upon the head of the candidate to make the candidate worthy. The chants are chanted when the curtain will be closed. While the curtain is drawn, the candidate is helped to wear the Cassock along with the girdle for the first time. He is given a New Testament Bible as he holds it in his left hand, receives the Censer from the hands of the Bishop. The first act after the curtain is drawn open, is to swing the Censer, clasping the New Testament bible in the left hand. Once that is over. The Holy Communion service continues with the Deacon given a chance to serve the wine.

For the Kassessa Ordination, the Bishop covers the candidate with his vestment (kaapa) and his his hand on the head of the candidate.According to the prayer following are the responsibilities of the Priest
a) Witness to the gospel of the Kingdom of God.
b) To offer spiritual sacrifice and offerings at the Altar.
c) To baptize the people to a new light.
d) To guide the people with the light of Jesus Christ.
e) To become an instrument for the glorification of God through the Church
f) To await the Second coming of Jesus and to build an anticipating community of The Return.

The Bishop then gives the Bible (The full bible) and says “From the order of Deacons…name… is elevated to the Order of Kassessa. After that the vestment (kaapa) is prayed upon the head of the candiddate. Curtains are drawn. The candiddate is asked to remove his girdle and is helped to wear the Kaapa after which the Bishop hands him over the Censer and after the curtains are opened, he appears in the Kaapa, censing to the Congregation of believers. ” After that the Holy Communion service continues and the newly ordained Priest serves the wine.

Rev Merin Mathew

P.S. There maybe inconsistencies in what I have written, so please pardon my ignorance for the same. It is an attempt for those who are curious from the Mar Thoma Church to know the Order of Ordination, a little better. I am not an expert, but just curious to explore. I have based the write up on the Book “The Faith and Sacraments of the Mar Thoma Church by Rev Dr George Mathew Kuttiyil.

Ronaldo vs Messi?So What?

1 Corinthians 3: 21- 4:7

So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours,  and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.

This, then, is how you ought to regard us: as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed.  Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.  I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself.  My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me.  Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.

Now, brothers and sisters, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, “Do not go beyond what is written.” Then you will not be puffed up in being a follower of one of us over against the other.  For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?

 

Message

The social media across twitter, Facebook, whatsapp was abuzz with the debate of “Messi Vs Ronaldo”. Let me clarify that I am a Messi maniac. When I am truly low, I turn to youtube to see the videos of his best compilations of his goals. I just can’t get enough of it. 2010 when Germany literally humiliated Argentina in the World Cup quarter finals, I did not sleep that night. In 2014, I was sure the day of redemption is very bear as it was Argentina vs Germany in the finals and I would be alive to see Messi lift the coveted trophy. I was so confident about the victory that I decided to do a screening for all interested to come and see the match at the parsonage (place where a priest lives). But again I faced humiliation as Argentina lost. As a Barcelona fan, supporting Messi was awesome but not so with Argentina. But we all had one question that settled all equations “What has Ronaldo done for Portugal? How many World Cups or Euro has he won?” Things in the recent times got ‘messier’ when Argentina lost the Copa America 2016 to Chile which broke all the Messi fans’ hearts when in a fit of emotions the wizard of football declared his decision to retire from playing for Argentina. I honestly was shattered. My wife now has become used to such madness of mine and has made her peace with it. To make things worse, the jail term for tax evasion did nothing good for Messi or his fans. But we all had one solace. “What great did Ronaldo do for Portugal?” That too was snatched away from us on 10^th July 2016 when Portugal won the Euro 2016 and the inspiration of Ronaldo was instrumental for this victory, at least I cannot deny. Now I am just exploring this human phenomenon of just not being a fan, but also about denigrating the rival of the idol we admire. As a Rafa fan, I could not stand Federer. Because I loved Rahul Dravid, I neither liked Sachin nor Ganguly. Please bear with my rant on basis of the passage above.

During the times of Paul, is Appollos better or is it Peter or is it Paul, was a debate in the Market place. Therefore these apostles had their own fan clubs. If you are a follower of Appollos, you would detest Paul and Cephas (Peter). This rivalry was actually doing no good to the church and Paul addresses it in this passage. He exhorts them not to boast in human leaders. Vs 6 is very significant.  Now, brothers and sisters, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, “Do not go beyond what is written.” Then you will not be puffed up in being a follower of one of us over against the other.” Puffed up? Some translation says pride one over other. Normal word for pride in Greek should be hubris. But the word that Paul uses here is physioo.   It is an unusual word. Paul uses it here and another five times in this particular book and once in Colossians  You will not find it anywhere else in the Bible as it is used only by Paul.  By using this particular word, Paul is trying to teach these Corinthians something about the human ego. This word used here for pride literally means to be overinflated, swollen, distended beyond its proper size. It brings to mind the image of a balloon. There is a picture here. Imagine going to a shop. You ask for Balloons. You get a packet. You take one out of it. What is the size of the Balloon? Small and the texture of the balloon is opaque. Now blow air into it. It takes a larger size. It becomes transparent. It is full of air. Paul says that the pride we have in our lives is like the empty hot air in the balloon. So when we live a life of a fan to its extreme, we are living a borrowed life. We are not happy with the original size of the balloon. So we attach ourselves to heroes and derive self worth and self esteem. But this is still emptiness. It does not do any good. It gives an illusion that you are something with all the air. It is just that your ego is puffed up. An admirer of Messi will also admire the dedication of Ronaldo. If it becomes Messi Vs Ronaldo, it is an infantile ego game. Attaching ourselves to any human leader beyond a point is also similar. Why do you think that people troll each other so mercilessly over P.M. Narendra Modi. Some venerate him and some hate him. People derive their identity by associating with such human figures and their heroics. Paul reminds, it is like hot air inside the balloon. Now keep the balloon in your imagination. You have a filled balloon in your hand. Take a candle. Light the candle. Bring the balloon to the candle and there you go. The balloon will burst. Anybody knows that.

Paul in 1 Corinthians 3: 21 is trying to say, fill yourself with God in Christ. Keep the Balloon image intact. Pick another empty balloon. Do not fill air. Instead fill water into it. It is in your hand. Now take the candle next to you. Bring that balloon near the candle. Bring the water balloon even closer. It will burst, isn’t it? For a science ignorant like me, I was surprised when the balloon did not burst. It survives the heat. With God being the centre of our lives, we are like the water balloons, no matter how terrible the situation, we will not burst.

Paul gives us a timely reminder that humans and their heroics will fascinate us. We will enjoy it and venerate it. But in the end, it is just a borrowed life. Let us not be so fragile, so as to derive identity from such human icons. It is all hot air. Let the Holy Spirit fill you to live an authentic life where you take risks to be in the heat of the world and are driven to action to make this world a better place.

In the meanwhile enjoy the game. I have started to read up on Ronaldo and his inspirational rise. Similarly it teaches me, envy too is a game of pitching ourselves with our perceived competitor. In this, we trust that we deserve more than our competitor. We fill ourselves with hot air of pride to be burst by the circumstances of life. Let the Holy Spirit fill us to trust God and He will adequately fill us.

*If this is not enough, let me introduce you to Mummy Logic

She Says “They play, they earn, they win, they lose, they train, they live, why are you losing your sleep. Do what you can with your life.

Enough said. 

 

Daag Ache Hai- Stains Are Good: A Conversation About Church and Ministry

2 Corinthians 4: 6-7

 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.

Message:

These days there is one thing that I am bothered the most. Every morning the intensity of botheration increases manifolds when I look at my pillow. Sleeping on white bed sheets is a nightmare. Well I am talking about the rampant hair fall and the deforestation of my scalp at an alarming rate. I always try to camouflage my hair to hide my now evident baldness. Now this is a very evident tendency in us to hide our flaws and stains. We would like to portray a picture perfect scenario, with all creases ironed and all flaws brushed under the carpet praying that it never surfaces again. Long back there was an ad that fascinated me and let me take this time to jog your memory along by narrating the ad. A brother and a sister are returning from school and sister falls in a puddle of muck and starts crying and brother in a bid to pacify her, pretends to beat up the puddle of muck and gets dirty in the process. He yells “Say sorry say sorry” and in the end he declares “He has told sorry (Sorry bol raha hai)”. Seeing the brother too with stains of muck all over sister smiles. And there is this famous tag line in the background “Daag Ache Hote Hai (Stains are good)”. This was the classic tagline of Surf Excel.

Why am I telling all this? Where am I heading towards? As a priest of the Mar Thoma Church, I have been extremely proud of my faith, my church and its positions. I am very clear about the flaws of my church and my role as a priest. But with all my pretense of being welcome to criticism, my wife very well knows that it is just hogwash. Her experience in critiquing my sermons have not been very pleasant to say the least. Being defensive is my birthright and pouting thereafter is my spiritual gift. I have heard a lot of youths in youth conferences critiquing the church and asking very uncomfortable questions. I always thought I would be very gracious to such criticism and open to a dialogue thereafter. But more I hear criticisms, I have been compelled to portray a very romantic picture of faith, the church and its practices. I wax eloquent about many things which I critique in private. Why do I do this? Well my faith and Church is an extension of who I am, and I cannot tolerate any flaws and I try to cover it up. As a priest, we are kept on a pedestal, not because of who we are, but what relation we have in congruence with the church. It at times becomes very intoxicating to see people stand up when you enter a room. To know that line at a food counter starts from where you stand. It is fascinating to know that no matter how boring a speaker you are, people listen and latch on to your words, because you are a priest. In vote of thanks and welcome speech you hear eulogies about you, qualities that you never knew you had and as my wife says “Only I know who you are” and I pretend to not have heard that. No matter how shallow your personal faith is, people believe in your prayers and are convinced about your ‘rock solid faith’. With all these so called cultural ‘perks’ attached, one tends to get an ‘entitlement syndrome’ and therefore any criticism regarding church, priest and its role becomes very sensitive. As a parish priest I have become more and more authoritarian to run the show. All those who do not come to church or do not subscribe to my views are not committed to faith I conclude.

With such a background let us come to our bible portion for today. ‘Treasures in Jars of Clay’ is a wonderful metaphor that sums up the ministry that God has called us as humble servants. We are Jars of Clay that may be unattractive, flawed, cracked or out of symmetry. But what matters is the treasure of the gospel that we carry. But it is this vulnerability and brokenness that truly shows us what this church is, and what is the ministry that we are called to minister. Henri Nouwen, a Dutch Catholic Priest very poignantly says “The church is holy and sinful, spotless and tainted. The Church is the bride of Christ, who washed her with cleansing water. But the Church too is a group of sinful, confused, anguished people constantly tempted by the powers of lust and greed and always entangled in rivalry and competition.” And then he perfectly sums it up by saying “Church is a community of grace that celebrates the love of Christ. But Church needs to ask forgiveness for failing to be such a community.” Writer Donald Miller in his book ‘Blue Like Jazz’ narrates a story from his life. He and a group of Christians from his Church set up a confession booth in a raucous campus college festival at Oregon, USA. But in a twist of event, Miller and fellow Christians used the booth as a way of confessing their own sins to the skeptical students. They apologized for the mistakes of the church and the belief in which they preached but failed to practice. Miller who is the pastor summed up the confession to one of the confused students “Jesus said to feed the poor and heal the sick. I have not done very much about that. Jesus said to love those who persecute me. I tend to lash out and demonize all those who challenge me. I know a lot of people will not listen to Christ because of people like me who pretend to be his guardians. I am not guarding Christ. I am just covering up myself from being exposed. Please forgive me.”

I feel a similar soul searching needs to be done by all of us. I am sorry for judging those who do not fit-in my concept of faith. I am sorry for not answering difficult questions about Church. I am sorry for belittling your curiosity and sense of justice. I am sorry for pretending that everything is fine with the church and the only problem is with the people like you who ask such stupid questions. I know that it is not perfect, I know it is broken and it needs your forgiveness so that we engage together to make it “The Bride of Christ.” The people who are outcasts of the church, and I am important component in creating these outcasts, are the same people Jesus engaged with and shared lives and table with. I am sorry for the hypocrisy and double standards of faith. John Updike is right when he says “ ‘Church bears the same relation to God that billboards do to Coca- Cola: they promote thirst without quenching it.”

Daag Ache Hai. Stains are good. This is very evident in the logic of the 3rd Part of the Fourth Blessing of the Mar Thoma Qurbana. . Before ending the Qurbana, the priest says “ Belahaneenanum Paabiyum aayi njaan…..” “Pray for me my brethren, weak and sinful as I am……..” There is no need to hide the stains. There is no need to hide your brokenness. This brokenness shows that we priests and the church we represent are weak and sinful, and we need your forgiveness and prayers. There was a research done about the most loved sentences that one loves to hear and first one on the list is “I Love You.” Most of the people voted for this magical word. The second on the list was “I forgive you”. People long for forgiveness no matter how much they long to pretend an “I care a damn.” And third on the list is very surprising. It is “Supper is ready.” The hunger for that word is a reality. In short that is the Gospel where God says “I Love You”, “I Forgive You” and “Feast is ready- I offer my body as bread and blood as wine.” This is what Church is supposed to yell from the rooftops. If the Church does not broadcast this great news- the Jar of clay needs to be broken to be remolded.

 So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. Then the word of the Lord came to me. He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel.” Jeremiah 18: 3- 6

Rev Merin Mathew

Bethel Mar Thoma Church,

Kolar Road, Bhopal

(This is less of a note and more of a dialogue with myself and the ones who will read this. Please feel free to add, contradict, critique (though I don’t take that too well, so do it on your own risk)

 

Keep Calm! Jesus is in the Boat

Mark 4: 35- 41

On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.”  And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him.  A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped.  But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”  He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

Message:

Let me ask you a question. What is it that has helped you the most to draw closer to God. You may answer Sunday school teachers, priests, missionaries, parents and all of this is correct. As a child I remember that there was one thing over all else that drew me closer to God. Nothing else succeeded as much as it did. It is Mathematics. You read that right. The dread it instilled in me, the storm it created in my whole body is unparalleled. The prayers that Math exam elicited from me, I am sure heavens shook in awe of such honest prayers of despair. I can still feel the fear of Maths class. I was very consistent. I never ever knew the answer. But my teacher had a very bad habit. He always asked students to solve the problems on the board. Twice he picked me up and both counts, I wrote some fiction and prayed that the storm to pass but it never happened. I got some solid character certificates about my abilities from my esteemed teacher.  Now I had a friend who gave me a brilliant idea. He said “Sir always calls students who he is sure does not know the answer. When he asks ‘Who will solve the sum on the board?’ there are very few who raise their hand and he will never ask them. He will ask them who do not lift the hand. So next time buddy, even if you do not know the answer, raise your hand and do yourself a favor of being saved from the teacher’s fury.” It was a Eureka moment for me. The formula to calm the storm is now here. The next day comes and teacher walks in, takes the text book and writes a question on the board and boom is the question “Who will solve the problem?” And with full enthusiasm I lifted my hand and with glee I was sure ‘Salvation is here’. But then there was silence. As I was the only one to lift the hand and as storm has its way to blow in unexpected ways despite the best planning, he acknowledged me and with great honour and dignity invited me to fix the problem. I stood up with trembling feet and looked at my genius friend and gave a look like Jesus gave to Peter after Peter denied him. There were storm of bad words in my mind for my friend and at the same time the question to God “Do you really care for me, please save me.” Let me not tell you what happened after that. I took a very important decision that day, “Lord I promise to give up maths after 10th, please accept my sacrifice, yours truly.”

Well to cut that out, this passage always elicited in me the teacher-student relation among Jesus and his disciples. The disciples luckily were very bad students like me and always got scolding. I feel one with them. Well the location of the passage is Sea of Galilee and the people who have seen it say it is a joke to call it a sea. It is more of a lake as it is quite small. So Jesus and his disciples are crossing from Galilee to the other side which is the gentile area. Galilee is the known area. But we know that from Mark 5 that they are going to Decapolis which is gentile area. So they travel from Known to the unknown at Jesus’ behest. And then all of a sudden there is a storm. Fishermen in Sea of Galilee know one thing “No matter how much you try, you seldom can predict a storm.” There are storms that hit our life. Life is very uncertain. As a pastor I have seen parishioners who were healthy, suddenly being succumbed to cancer. Family is engulfed in a storm of emotions. A beloved dies in a road accident. Your job is in jeopardy. Family life is in deep turmoil. Life has hit rock bottom. You cannot predict a storm. Even worse is people think that these storms are punishment of God for the sins we have done. We see that with Jesus in the boat there was a storm that really scared and scarred the disciples. A friend said to me “Our family has always been very prayerful and regular to church and I wonder why this crisis broke upon us.” When we examine the Bible, time after resurrection of Jesus was not some magical shield on believers from all troubles. If anything, resurrection made the life of disciples more dangerous and vulnerable. So be sure. Life is uncertain and storms will surely hit us. Life sure is uncertain but if you know people who think that this crisis is God’s punishment for their sins, please correct them that such a thing is not biblical.

So we have established storms will hit us. Now it is important to know what you do before the storms hit. We see that when disciples were squeaky and miserable in the storm, Jesus was like some of my sermon listeners. I maybe giving the most fire evoking, thunder storm sermon, but their spiritual gift is to sleep through it and I feel like asking them “Don’t you care that I lost my sleep last night preparing this sermon?” Well the point is Jesus slept through the storm. What made him calm in midst of the storm? His deep communion with the Father. His retreat for prayers. For us, prayer is to cry out in midst of need and storm “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” But prayer is like Noah building the Ark in sunshine. Prayer does not avoid a storm but helps us to stay calm in midst of the storm. Let me be honest, I still struggle to have a disciplined prayer time. I am erratic in my spiritual disciplines. There is a legend about Tiger Woods. He was asked by an interviewer if he prays. He paused and said “I am not much spiritual, but my mother taught me a prayer when I was 3 years old and to date whenever possible, I try to pray that prayer” When I first read this, I was like “Wow.” How simple prayer is. We also tend to romanticize such things. But “Does Tiger Woods talk today like he used to talk when he was 3 years old? Does he wear the clothes of a 3 year old? Does he think and solve problems like a 3 year old?” The answer is no. We too tend to be infants in our prayer life by being undisciplined in our Bible Meditations and prayer routines. We still follow the lottery system of reading Bible by reading whatever portion we open to and dash a fast and furious prayer. Fr John Bartunek says that as Christians we are supposed to grow and develop our prayer life. Disciples did not ask “Lord, teach us to heal” or Teach us to give sermons” or “Teach us to speak in tongues.” But they sure asked “Lord, Teach us to pray. (Luke 11:1) We have to strive at perfecting our prayer practices so that we too can be calm in midst of the storm.

Jesus gets up from his slumber and says to the storm “Peace. Be still.” Jesus does care. He is in control. He not only calmed the nature’s fury but also calmed the storm raging inside the minds of the disciples. It is difficult to see the control of God when there are so many tragedies happening. Faith is to see the unseen. Let me tell you I am on shaky grounds writing this. My faith has to grow more and Jesus would definitely admonish me by saying “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” Let me introduce you to Blessen Varughese who is the evangelist of Mumbai Diocese. Blessen was the VBS Director of Bethel Mar Thoma Church, Kolar Road, Bhopal. It was a privilege to see faith translated in action. Blessen who grew up in Vasai, Mumbai, as a child always harboured a dream to work in the villages. Many around thought this is just a phase. After doing B.Sc in Computer Science he joined Dhrama Jyothi VidyaPeet, Faridabad, seminary that is focused to equip evengelists in the context of North India. After his 4 years course in Bachelors in Divinity (that word does sound scary), it was time to make his dream come true. By God’s grace he was appointed as the Evangelist of Mumbai Diocese and incharge of Kharadi Mission which has 45 villages in its ambit. I remember Blessen posting on Fb “Dream is coming true”. Perfect story thus far. 2 months in the field and Dengue strikes. When he slowly recovered from it, Malaria comes knocking. There were voices all around saying “Don’t waste your life. Do something better.” When that was retreating to history typhoid makes its presence felt. And to top it all he had a very serious injury to his right eye which actually made well wishers more confident that this is the wrong choice. I was flabbergasted listening to the turmoil he faced in a matter of 6 monthsBut Blessen said “It was a very tough time.  It really raised a lot of questions in my life. But I felt the presence of God and I know God is in control.” I was dumbstruck.

Life is uncertain. Storms will hit us. How prepared are we for the storms? Are we growing in Christ? Christ is in our boat. He will still the storms. Our God is in control. Let us grow in our faith to believe “God will carry us through.”

Let me end this with the lyrics of my favorite sunday school action song. While you read it sing along and do the actions if you know.

With Jesus in my boat

I can Smile in the storm [3]

With Jesus in my boat I can

Smile in the storm when I’m sailing Home

When I’m sailing Home [2]

With Jesus in my boat I can Smile in the storm

when I’m sailing Home.

With Jesus in my boat I can Smile in the storm [3]

With Jesus in my boat I can Smile in the storm

when I’m sailing Home When I’m sailing Home [2]

With Jesus in my boat I can

Smile in the storm when I’m sailing Home.

Rev Merin Mathew

Bethel Mar Thoma Church

Kolar Road, Bhopal

Give Me Some Sunshine, Give Me Some Rain

 John 21: 15-19

When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”

“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”

 Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”

He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”

The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”

Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.  Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.”  Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!”

Message

In the movie 3 Idiots, we come across a character whose name is Joy Lobo. Joy who is pursuing engineering has a passion for machines.  In the final year he attempts to make a project out of a helicopter with wireless camera for his Engineering project. The principal Viru Sahastrabudhe mocks his idea and does not give him another chance or extension and also tells him that he won’t graduate that year. He pleads to no avail. Having hit the rock bottom he sings the melancholic song.

Give me some sunshine

Give me some rain

Give me another chance

I wanna grow up once again

We wish it had a better ending but the guy writes “I quit” and commits suicide. The feeling of being a failure is a huge burden to live by. The feeling of inadequacy and not being good enough is a constant battle that we struggle with.

Now when we read about Peter, we understand he too lived with the burden of being a failure. Failure of living up to his own expectations. I believe that when Peter said in Matthew 26:33″Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.”, he truly believed that he will always stand by Jesus. But life keeps showing us that we just do not know ourselves enough. When Jesus said that Peter would deny Jesus, he was not predicting something unlikely. The point is, Jesus knew Peter more than Peter knew himself. That my friend is quite scary. Peter always portrayed himself way better than he actually was. This trait we share with him. If we look at our Facebook accounts and Instagram, we are out to portray the best version of ourselves. With funny posts, filtered photos and selfies, we too like Peter are trying to make ourselves believe in a version of ourselves that is too perfect. But the trouble is, we are not. We crack up and fail. Peter failed not once, not twice but thrice. Jesus knew this would happen. Peter more than denying Jesus, denied his own self-belief and confidence. Now before you walk with me to this passage, remember, this story is not just about Peter. There is a trace of  us in the story of Peter. Let us identify ourselves with the rockstar disciple, Peter.  Peter is swimming in his failure. And Jesus seeks him out. Now before anything let us ask, why did Peter deny Jesus? Is it that he did not love Jesus? He surely loved Jesus. But there was someone he loved more. It was himself. Peter denied Jesus out of fear of losing his life. It is love for self-preservation and the tendency of playing it safe that led Peter to deny Jesus. So here Jesus seeks our Peter. In the Middle Eastern culture and ethos, a thing you say three times you affirm it. Like in Islam, you say “Kabool hai” at wedding ceremony for 3 times and you have given your consent for marriage. In the Isaianic Vision, Angels say “Holy, Holy, Holy” affirming the holiness of God beyond doubt. The same logic applies when we affirm the Kauma “Daivame Nee Parishudhana Aagunnu”(Holy Art Thou O God) 3 times. It is an act of affirmation. By asking Peter “Do you love me more than these?” Jesus is giving Peter an opportunity to unbind himself from the 3 public denials. After every question he commanded to “Feed my lambs.” Take care of my sheep.” “Feed my sheep.” After every affirmation of Peter’s love, Jesus was commissioning him to look beyond himself. Love is shown not just in words, but in action. Get over your selfishness and live for others. Serve others. Take care of my sheep. It was a huge commissioning.

Now verse 18, 19 is an anticlimax to the story thus far. We like happy ending. And Jesus promised Peter a wonderful and prosperous life. But wait, Jesus gives a truly bad prediction. He is talking about Peter’s death. Thanks Jesus, you finally took your revenge, didn’t you? What exactly is he doing here? Now when Peter was just caught up with himself, being a master of his destiny, he set the agenda. He dressed and went wherever he wanted. Whenever Jesus tried to tell about his inevitable suffering and death, Peter tried to stop Jesus. It was not how he planned. Like Peter we wish to take Jesus where we want to go. And when Jesus refused to comply and was adamant to suffer and die, He denied Him. He did not want to lose control. You can continue to live like that and know what a miserable life that is. Jesus now in short says “Peter, you tried to save your life fearing death. But was that life worth living? Now let me tell you, you are going to die. Since that is sure, remember, I have conquered death through resurrection. So now live. You are not in control. I will take you to places you do not wish to go. You will dine with people you do not wish to dine with. You will do works that you would rather never do. You will offend people who you wish to please. “Follow me”. You will be like a candle that will give light, but in the process will die out by melting away. 

The underlying story of Peter is, you cannot live saving your skin. That is not living. Living is to think beyond ourselves and leading a meaningful life. I recently attended a Conference of National Council of Churches of India (NCCI) at Jabalpur. There I was really bored with the sessions as it was afternoon. And then the voice over the microphone said these words “Life of disability is one of tremendous possibilities.” Within a jiffy my sleep vanished and I looked up. What? Come again? Let me introduce you Mr George Abraham. Read on and I am sure you will jump out of your seats at the end of it all.

George Abraham was born on 31^st October 1958 to his parents Mr. M.G. Abraham and Mrs Susheela Abraham. George at the age of 10 months had meningitis which caused permanent damage to his optic nerve making him visually impaired. But his parents took a very bold decision regarding his schooling. They sent him to mainstream school. This had its share of challenges, but his parents read out text book to him and equipped him for the same. George says “My mother is a very prayerful person and her faith always helped me to overcome the many challenges and loneliness I felt in the growing stage. Her faith that God will equip my child against all odds gave me confidence. It is from my father that I inherited the love for Maths.” In 1972, when he wanted to do Maths, the combination of physics and chemistry with his visual impairment was a problem. But he persisted and graduated with Maths from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi.  He did his Masters in Operation Research and entered into the field of Advertisement. His academic pursuits along with his career in advertising was enough to make his story an extraordinary one.

In 1989, he along with his wife Rupa visited a School for the blind in New Delhi. He was deeply saddened by the condition of the life of the visually impaired children. Inferiority complex , poor body  language and low ambitions is what he saw in these children. This was a turning point in his life.  That is the time he realized the impact of the revolutionary decision taken by his parents to send him to mainstream school. Now he had an option to feel lucky and move on in life. George says “I felt the encounter of God to use resources for the visually impaired children. It became a passion and mission. Every Blind and Visually impaired person has a right to live a fulfilling life. I took a tough decision to quit my job and dedicated myself to improve the quality of living of people with blindness and low eye sight.

Sports is an integral part of a human being and people with disability are always kept away from it. George being a cricket enthusiast always wished even visually impaired could play cricket. Therefore in 1992, he organized the first National Cricket Tournament for the Blind where he wrote to 200 schools to participate and 20 responded with participation. George roped in Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev for the tournament to give visisbility and also called the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to give away prizes. A dream was shaping beautifully. In 1996 to give momentum to Cricket for the blind he founded the Association for Cricket for the Blind in India (ACBI). That very year he initiated the setting up the World Blind Cricket Council (WBCC). This led to the first World Cup for the Blind in New Delhi in 1998 where George played a stellar role in organizing and co-ordinating 7 countries that participated. This was a huge achievement which was unthinkable and now the World Cup is part of the Cricketing calendar.

The question still remained how to impact ordinary people who are visually impaired? It was during the run up to the cup, that George says he discovered that the “real problem was not the blindness but the mindset of the other people and the blind people themselves, to the disability. Everyone, including the blind, believed they just couldn’t lead normal lives. I wanted to change that,”. In 2002, George established the SCORE Foundation, a non-profit organization. The focus of SCORE was to be the information and mentoring centre for the visually impaired. Lack of information and good guidance is what makes blind people settle for mediocre lives believes George. Score launched Project Eyeway as a single- stop knowledge resource for people living with blindness and low vision. Today Eyeway comprises the website http://www.eyeway.org, a weekly radio programme ‘Yea Hai Roshni Ka Karwan’ which is broadcast from 30 cities in India, the Eyeway helpdesk, the Eyeway news SMS service, the Eyeway Talking Book service and the Eyeway training service programme. The impact of his endeavor can be gauged by just one case.

A few years ago, George received a call from a man who lived in Bhopal. He was in his late 20s and was losing his vision at an alarming speed. He had quit his job and returned to his parents, resigned to a life of darkness. “He had heard our radio show and wanted to know what he could do. We convinced him that he could take on home-based assignments to begin with, so that he felt useful. But after a few months, he called back to say while he was earning money, his social life was in doldrums. While his friends went out and partied, he sat at home. His parents refused to let him out alone, lest a car run him over. We spoke to them but they refused, saying they didn’t want to lose their son to a pothole, a ditch or a rash driver. Luckily a few weeks later, we did a radio show with a blind man who had overcome similar odds and was now working in a senior position in a bank. The young man was excited. He wanted us to talk to his parents again. This time, they agreed to let him venture out close by, with a cane in hand, provided they followed him at a distance. This continued for a while. When both the young man and his parents had gained enough confidence, we convinced him to apply for a job. He landed a really cool job at TCS and first moved to Kolkata and is now based in Bangalore. Recently we spoke again and he said now he hopes to fall in love soon and get married! It is stories like these that I live for,” says Abraham.

When George ended the conversation, he said “My faith in the Living God instilled by my parents has kept me strong. Support of my wife has been integral in all the aspects of my life. I believe that we are blessed and are called to be a blessing. That is biblical faith to me, where fear of the unknown is conquered by faith. Do pray that we can reach more and more people who yearn to be independent and want to live a fulfilling life.”

 

P.S. George is married to his wife Rupa and is blessed with two daughters, Neha and Tara. He is a fabulous orator and a motivational speaker. Please visit a module by SCORE where George wishes to equip blind children to have a winner attitude from young age. Check this out and support it. https://www.ketto.org/scorefoundation

Rev Merin Mathew

Bethel Mar Thoma Church

Kolar Road, Bhopal

 

Ship Is Safest at the Port But That Is Not What It Is Built For (Parable of Talents)

Matthew 25: 14- 30

“For it will be as when a man going on a journey called his servants and entrusted to them his property; to one he gave five talents,[a] to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them; and he made five talents more. So also, he who had the two talents made two talents more.  But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money. Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them.  And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more.’  His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much; enter into the joy of your master.’  And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here I have made two talents more.’  His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much; enter into the joy of your master.’  He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not winnow; so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’  But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sowed, and gather where I have not winnowed?  Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest.  So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has the ten talents.  For to every one who has will more be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth.’

Message

At the age of 6, my parents spotted that I was very interested in playing the drum on anything and everything that i got. I did not discriminate between a table, mother’s head, books, bible. So my optimistic parents thought they had discoverd a rare talent.  So when I was in class 4 my parents took me to be enrolled to learn Tabla. The teacher said I was too small and I had to wait for a year. I started with great gusto. My parents bought a tabla. I became a phenomenon as there were few who knew how to go about it. I appeared the first exam and got decent marks. And then I found that my friends who played guitar and how better it was than tabla. Within months I abandoned it to great dismay of my parents and it took me 5 years for my parents to recover from that set back and finally after my 10th, they bought a guitar. I enrolled for a guitar class. I started out with great promise. For 3 months or so, I was at it. But I was interested in short cuts. Impress my friends and I was also an adolescent, so guitar did impress girls. Now tabla and guitar feature in my resumes of failed ventures. I tried convincing my mom that my actual calling was the keyboard and if you know my mom well, you could have guessed what was her reply.  Today if you go to my home, The tabla and guitar is displayed with great honor which so well displays the squandered talent that I just did not invest enough. And my parents and my wife do not spare a moment to make me realize how silly I have been to squander it so. So this parable actually evokes a lot of guilt in me when I read it and therefore I keep avoiding it but as David said in Psalms 51 “My sin is always before me…”

Let us return to the text. One talent was equivalent to 15 years of a laborers salary. It was a huge amount and therefore the man in the parable is leaving a fortune with these servants of his. To one he gives 5. Another one gets 2 and the last one gets 1. Now we will concentrate on the servant who got 1 talent and how he responded to it. What are the 3 things that led to his attitude to maintain the status quo of 1 talent. He did not ACT upon it. Based on the word ACT, we will use it as an acronym for our meditation.

Appreciation– Now I am assuming that the first thing that made the servant to do nothing about the given talent is that he fell into the trap of comparison. He saw that others got 5 and 2 respectively and he just had to settle with 1. Mind you, that 1 itself is of much great value. We too live life like this comparing it with our siblings, friends, neighbours, never appreciating of what we have. We live in constant complain of the little that we have, the unattractive looks, the old fashioned mobile, the not so stylish bike. There is a story of a man who was very dissatisfied with his house and was looking out for better plots to build a far beeter house. He called his real estate agent or realtor and told him to put an advertisement for the house. The realtor prepared an ad for the local newspaper and before publishing it, read it out to the owner. It read as follows, “Beautiful house, scenic location, surrounded with trees, streams flowing by, birds chirping, peace and beauty intermingles. In short, your dream house.” The owner asked the ad to be read once again. He asked “Have you written this about my house?” He went out and looked around his house and came back and said “I have changed my mind. I will not sell as this is exactly the house that I was planning to buy.”

This is exactly how we live. We live in such deep sense of discontentment that we fail to appreciate or value what we have.

Commitment- We see the 3rd servant hid the talent in the ground. In the rabbinic law, hiding money in the ground is lawful and if the money is lost, the owner cannot accuse nor have a case against the servant. So the servant here was playing it safe. He did not want to take any risk. More and more I see, I feel I too have fallen into this trap of playing it safe. There is no deep commitment. You just want to wade off trouble and therefore are safe in our own made bubble. Investing the talent needed commitment and risk. As illustrated before in my case, I was interested in the adulation that music would bring but I had no commitment to invest in it. No way that I would suffer for it because I had no commitment. We all search for short cuts but as Nietzsche of all the things said one thing right. “If you want to master something you need to take a long walk of obedience in the same direction.” As the saying goes “Ships is safest at the port. But that is not what the ship is built for.” There is risk involved. There is pain. There are hours of boredom and loneliness. But commitment will take us to the promised land.

Thankfulness– The appropriate word here would be gratitude, but then in the scheme of the acronym ACT, it would make no sense. Look at the view the 3rd servant had about his master. ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not winnow;so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ (Matthew 25: 24-25). We live in times where complaining and projecting our inadequacies onto others is a fad. The servant is projecting his shortcoming onto his master to have a reason for himself to wriggle out of the chance he squandered. We always are in search of a scapegoat. If anything goes wrong, the first thing we try to do is not to solve the problem, but to find whom to blame. Eugene Peterson says very well, “ As Christians we have a Saviour, we do not need scapegoats.” Gratitude is a way of seeing where other see impossible written all over, gratitude opens a small opportunity to look at things differently. Sometimes we view God as the servant. We feel he is unfair, does not care about us. But if we practice the art of gratitude, our attitude towards life will change.

Let me conclude. The man with one talent had an “I cannot attitude.” This affects a lot of us. Apart from my debacle in music there was another tragedy waiting to happen. I chose Arts as my field after 10th, not because I loved science less but because I hated maths more. My history teacher heard me speak in one of her class and asked me to join the debating team. So in 1999 I started to debate for my college. I kept going for one debate after another. In the beginning I was all sound and fury and no content. I thought public speaking is about shaking people up by top of the voice gestures. It took me 10 debates to realize, that this trick is a bad formula. I observed people, saw tv, invested my time. Kept going for one debate after the other, but to no avail. Every time I got over with one debate, the sheer disappointment of failing took a week to recover. I was like Ravindra Jadeja who was given chances without any merit. And also there were not many people vying for that spot. But honestly the story of Abraham Lincoln and his 29 losses played on my mind. I started becoming superstitious. I started wearing a shirt which I thought brought me luck. I used a particular illustration which I believed would help me get the awaited. People were charitable in letting me know that I was good. And once  we had a competition with only 4 teams. This was my chance as I thought, with such less participation, this is mine. I was praying aloud doing all things I believed that would fetch me the award. But when the result was announced, it was the same old story. I did not make it to the podium. To top it all I met a judge who said “You were phenomenal.” I wanted to ask him, “Why dint I win?” I did not ask. So when I was appearing for my 29th debate I thought, I am Abraham Lincoln, but after the debate I knew I did not need to wait for the result as I had badly stuttered through the speech. I honestly had nothing better to do and therefore I tried. On 1st February 2002 when I heard my name for the first prize for another debate I was sure, there was some other Merin Mathew along. I had accepted the fact that I was never going to win. But it took me 32 debates and 3 years of frustration to get there. My parents hardly bothered about the losing and they encouraged me to keep trying. Mrs Vimala Menon, had some high hopes and perseverance. I am glad at least here I did not quit. When I became a trainer for debates, all I told my friends who struggled, if I can, anybody can. Appreciate what you have. Be committed to God and the purpose he has set before you. Be thankful for all the little and small that you have in life. God who took 5 loaves and 2 fish to feed a multitude will use the little that you have for His glory.

PS: This was a Sermon delivered on 5th July 2015 at Bethel Mar Thoma Church, Bhopal for Students’ Dedication Day.

Rev Merin Mathew

Bethel Mar Thoma Church

Kolar Road, Bhopal

Are You Ready… To Be Pentecosted?

Acts 2: 1-21

 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome  (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!”  Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”

 Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”

 Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning!  No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:

“‘In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.
Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
and they will prophesy.
 I will show wonders in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below,
blood and fire and billows of smoke.
 The sun will be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood
before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
 And everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord will be saved.’

Message

Two boys join the army and are really looking forward to the challenging life of army men. But first day of the training drill broke all their illusion of what they thought would be a glamorous life. With the exercises and drills, the punishments and never ending runs made the two very very sad.  By now they were just surviving the days at the training camp. Matthew and Deepak are the boys in the story. Half dead with exhaustion, Mathew mourns to Deepak “What a horrible life this is. We are treated like machines. I want to go home.” Deepak says nothing but just agrees with a desperate sigh. And then Deepak tells Matt, “Let’s bunk the training session tomorrow. Let us go out and just have fun.”  Matthew was not sure of the idea but was too desperate for a break and therefore played along. Early in the morning the duo sneaked out of the camp with fabulous precision and both hi- fived each other for the accomplishment that they achieved. Initially after achieving temporary freedom, they now did not know what to do. New to the city, they just were clueless. After roaming around aimlessly they finally settled to enter into a beer bar. Along with the snacks they kept ordering their drinks trying to numb themselves from the daily routine of meaninglessness. After around they lost count of the drinks, it dawned to them that they had to sneak back to the camp. Matt after paying the bills, along with Deepak found it hard to stand on their feet. They helped each other from falling. And The Captain of the platoon who was strolling in the market area happened to recognize the drama outside the beer bar and spotted the two ruffians who had escaped from his camp. He in an intimidating pose stood in front of the duo. Matt thought not recognizing who stood in front of him blurted out “Hi mate, can you help us to get to the Army camp near cantonment?” The captain with an added baritone said “Do you know who I am?” Matt looks very perplexed and started crying and said “Oh dear God, we are in deep trouble, we do not know where to go and this man does not know who he is”

This may be a humorous illustration but it profoundly talks of the two problems that we face. The problem of identity and the problem of finding a purpose in life. We are not sure about our purpose in life and we keep struggling to figure out who we are. We need timely reminders and affirmations to help us align with our purpose and identity. When we examine the passage in front of us, we have 120 witnesses of Jesus’ resurrection. They have seen Jesus ascension to heaven and are asked to wait for the Holy Spirit that He would pour upon them. As they waited, the Holy Spirit came upon them like blowing wind and tongues of fire rested upon them. I am guessing that these 120 people were together to feel secure in each other’s company as they were  hiding themselves from the Roman officials and the Jews. In the meanwhile they elected Matthias as the 12^th disciple to feel more powerful, but we do not hear anything of what Matthias did in history. So they were a bunch of clueless people and it is here the Holy Spirit engulfs them. The wind signifies the breath that God breathed into Adam, signifying life(Gen 2:7). And tongues of fire are to set them ablaze on their mission to be witnesses of the resurrected Christ. The wind reminded the people who they are. They have life breathed in them By God and in God and his resurrection is their new identity brought about by the gift of the Holy Spirit. The fire reminds them what the purpose in life is and that is to be witnesses of the resurrection of Christ till the end of the earth.

The people just wanted to be confined in the comforts of the upper room and be safe. They are happy to know ‘Christ is Risen’ and remain quiet and calm. But the Holy Spirit does not heed to their plans. It overflows in other tongues. When they wished to keep the resurrection of Jesus a secret of their exclusive society, Holy Spirit enabled them to speak in tongues intelligible to the many Jews from different nations. When it was clear to the Jews what was being declared, they tried to suppress the voices of the 120 by dismissing them as drunk and stupid people. Jews certainly did not want to hear about the Resurrected Christ as it would mess up their lives and make it extremely uncomfortable. It is here Peter steps in and declares with the help of Holy Spirit that these voices are not to be dismissed. He gives a bold witness to the Life, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ and how by the promise of Scripture, Holy Spirit is at work. The verses 36 and 37 are the climax. “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”

When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

Peter boldly declares Jesus as Lord and Messiah and also convicts them that they crucified him. But the response of the hearers is what formed the new community. Holy Spirit made them vulnerable in heart  and they asked in desperation “Brothers, what shall we do?”

This is what opened up to the formation of a new community where people were ready to realize their mistakes and were ready to ask “What should we do?” Do we have those pricking of the heart and we ask “What should we do?” Pentecost reminds us that we are in the Grand story of the Life, Death, Resurrection and Coming again of Jesus Christ. Toughest part is to be witnesses to his resurrection which is denied in all quarters. Holy Spirit strengthens us to realize that our identity lies in the love of Jesus Christ and we should do what Jesus did. The New Community, the church is to do what Jesus did. What he said, we should say. If you look at the story of Jesus in Gospel of Luke and the Story of Church in Acts of Apostles, it is very similar. Just study the parallels of Birth of Jesus and Birth of Church. Luke tries to show that how Jesus lived (as depicted in Gospel of Luke), same way his followers tried to live in Acts of the Apostles. In Gospel of Luke, He fed, he loved, he cared , he preached. In Acts of Apostles, they fed, they loved, they cared, the preached. Was it easy? No. But the people found that their identity lies in who Jesus is. And what do they do? They  did what Jesus did. If you realize this and Holy Spirit takes hold of you, you are officially pentecosted. (Red Alarm, Sirens ringing)

Let me end this meditation by a story of a couple that really inspired me. When I called the protagonist of the story, he was very reluctant to share about his experiences as he felt he was not worthy enough to be written  about  “Achen, I have done nothing. Please do not embarrass me.” So with that warning in mind I venture to introduce you to the couple Mr .P.O. Mathew and his wife Annie.  Mr P.O. Mathew, who is the 5^th of the siblings hails from Pallipad. After his education he joined as a professor at Chengannur Christian College and he married his wife Annie who was teaching at Bishop’s Moore College in Mavelikara. In 1968 after being newly married, Mr P.O. Mathew got an opportunity to go to Nigeria as a teacher. He along with his wife worked as teachers in Nigeria for a period of 17 years. After they came back to India the couple joined the Mar Thoma Academy in Tiruvalla, where Mr Mathew was the Principal for 9 years and were well settled in Tiruvalla.  The story thus far is a normal one. Life is secure. Their children have settled. So one would not expect any twist or turn at this stage of the script. No, but the story is not over. In the year 2000 there was a strange request that came the couple’s way. Dr Johny, who was at Christian Hospital, Bisam Cuttack, Orissa, requested P.O. Mathew to help them out with a School of the Hospital as it was not in a good shape. Initially Mr Mathew dismissed it but Dr Johny was insistent. “I was scared to uproot from my settled life but there was a voice that wanted to give this a shot. Therefore on the insistence of Dr Johny I visited the hospital at Bissam Cuttack. The place I found was very backward but I was impressed by the work and witness of the Hospital. The hospital was the vision and labour of Dr Elizabeth Madson, who set up the hospital knowing about the death of women in the village due to the lack of medical facilities. It is the inspired witness of Late Dr Elizabeth Madson that evolved into a 200 bed Hospital called the Christian Hospital. After visiting, we did not have clarity and did not see the sense in uprooting our life but felt the prompting of the Spirit. So I thought of asking the then Metropolitan Most Rev Dr Philipose Mar Chrysostom who was the President of Mar Thoma Academy where I was the Principal. I was sure that the Metropolitan would not relieve me. After initial enquiry and after hearing about Dr Johny, Thirumeni said that the work is credible and gave me the permission to go. I honestly did not expect it. When Thirumeni gave the permission, I knew this was God’s plan and we reluctantly thought of giving it a shot. We decided to go for 2 years in the month of June in 2000. Slowly but surely we could put a system in the New Life English Medium School with 530 students from the village nearby, where Annie was the Head Mistress and I was the Principal. We went for 2 years but remained there for 15 years. We were away from our family, relatives, people and church but God used us. I truly believe I did nothing extraordinary, but realized God was leading us. Initially all the events made no sense to us and the people around. But God used us in ways that we could never imagine and to dear God we are grateful. We have nothing to boast or to put forward. I remember my brother telling me that when I was about to be born there were huge complications. They said we will save the mother and the child will die. After my birth, Doctor said, I will live for 7 days. Achen, today this man who was supposed to live for just 7 days is 72 years, you have called me on my birthday (12^th May 2016). Mysterious are God’s ways”

I truly believe Mr P.O. Mathew and his wife Annie were Pentecosted. The couple found their identity in Christ Jesus and the purpose in life was to be the witnesses of His resurrection, whether we like it or not. The Holy Spirit is not what we acquire. Holy Spirit takes hold of us and brings us out of our secure and calculated life. We do not find a purpose. The purpose finds us.  I am reminded that one day one of our member entered in an absent minded way with helmet on. I chuckled. But then I realized, church sure is a very dangerous place. You better sit with helmets  and seat belts on. Because God will not settle for your small plans. He will Pentecost you and that will mightily cost you. So are you ready to be pentecosted?

 

P.S. The Church celebrates the Feast of Pentecost, 50 days after Easter which signifies the Gift of Holy Spirit promised by Jesus Christ and also the Birth of the Church

 

Rev Merin Mathew

Bethel Mar Thoma Church

Kolar Road, Bhopal