Lent Day 42: A God who weeps

Our biggest friends and biggest family are those who stand by us in difficult situations. We think that we have to provide solutions at every juncture and moment, but sometimes just standing with someone is enough. In a funeral home, our presence and touch are more valuable than anything we say. God need not always be the solution giver but can also be the one who stands by us in our most difficult moment.

Leaders are usually not expected to cry. Boys and men are also not expected to cry in our culture. This reflects mental toughness and strength. But what is the need of this façade and show? When we feel for someone or something, it is but natural to cry. There is also the fake crying by leaders whereby crying is for some gain, marketing and advantage. This is rehearsed crying and is not from the heart but from the head. It also makes people emotional but one can eventually see through it.

Weeping and crying is a disruption and sometimes even a disturbance for others. But for those who are sincere, it is a faithful expression of the heart and the mind. Even praying for those who are sick and undergoing problems, can bring tears to our eyes. There are others who have wept so much that their tears have dried up. These can also be those who then decide that they don’t want to cry anymore because others have hurt them and made them cry.

Jesus wept and he wept with the family that he was close with. Lazarus is dead and he reaches only to see a weeping Martha and Mary. Both say that the death could have been avoided if Jesus was there. Jesus goes near the tomb and weeps. The Messiah, the son of God, the liberator, weeps in front of everyone. St. John 11: 35 says, “Jesus wept.” It is another thing that Jesus tells Martha in verse 23 that her brother will rise again and in verse 43 he cries with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” But the most significant thing in this narrative is that Jesus wept along with the family he loved. Our tears are as powerful as our prayers and actions. This passion week, may we join hands with our Lord and weep as he wept for the poor and suffering. Amen.

Lent Day 38: The immorality in seeking whatever we want

Prayers these days are becoming a want based asking to God. There are many who claim that they can bring God down, can get whatever someone wants and God is at their beck and call. The decency of prayer has been lost and aggressive prayers are being marketed as normal. Anything goes for prayer and right from childhood, children are taught to ask whatever they want. God has been reduced to a provider who provides whatever.

During lent, as we think about morals and values and what can be seen as morality, it would be good to audit and review our prayers and ways of praying. Have we crossed all limits and have we used our freedom with Jesus to ask whatever we want? Do we instead have the understanding to spend time in silence, conversing with God and letting God know of our pains and problems instead of asking for unrealistic and immoral things? Is it possible to go back to community-based prayers whereby a negotiation and dialogue happens, in which, the community uses its maturity to put forth prayers of needs instead of wants.  

In St. Mark10, verse 35, the brothers James and John put forward an unrealistic prayer to Jesus. They say, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” In a group of twelve, which again extended to a very big group of disciples from all walks of life, these two come up with a strange request. When thought about, it is an immoral request which reeks of individualism in the midst of the community of disciples. Upon further probing by Jesus, they make clear what they really want.

In the midst of poverty, hunger, sickness and injustice, the two disciples are thinking of power and glory. They ask for a strange request in verse 37, when they say, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” This is what is happening in today’s world too. In the midst of suffering, we are interested in power and positions. In no way are our requests going to help those who are suffering but we are obsessed with such immoral thoughts.

This lent, we should identify such immoral thoughts and prayer requests. Our quest for wealth, buildings, fame, money and success are a slap on the face of the poor and the hungry. It is so very important that we relook what immorality is. Are they individual bad habits or are they prayers which negate the health of the community and seek individual growth and wealth? As we close in on passion week, may this make us think, repent and change. Amen.

Lent Day 20: Knowing God enough to not ask

How easy is it to ask something to a loved one? Even though many think it is easy, that is not the case. We will be reluctant on two counts. One, we won’t ask because we don’t want to trouble them. Two, we won’t ask because we know that they are not in a position to give. Contrary to what we think, the more we love a person, the less we would want to ask. We also care a lot about the person close to us that we always want the best for them and we also wouldn’t want them being troubled by anyone else as well.

St. Mark 11: 24 reveals a difficult verse for us. It says, “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” The problem with this verse is the problem of expectation. Since there is a promise in the prayer, when someone prays and still does not get an answer, it can be felt and argued that the priest or person praying does not have the gift to pray, ask and receive. Since Jesus’ words are very assuring the prayer is as good as being answered.   

There are two kinds of children. The ones who will keep asking even though they know that their parents either do not want to buy them something or have other pressing concerns and the ones who understand the situation their parents are in and are therefore very empathetic and understanding in their approach. Lent is a time for developing this understanding. Being a child of God does not just mean that all our prayers will be answered. A child should have the maturity to know what and when to ask. Some children gain this maturity at a young age and take up the responsibility of the house along with this.

We can ask for something and relentless asking will also lead to God accepting. But during lent, if we consider ourselves part of God’s plan for the kingdom of God, we will become part of God’s solution for the world. We will brainstorm along with God, provide food for the hungry on behalf of God and worry about the world along side God. Lent is a time to develop a spiritual maturity which will take us to higher heights of renunciation which will mean being closer to God than we ever were. Amen.

 

 

Lent Day 7: ‘Go’ as a word of assurance

Covid was a hard time for all of us. The vaccine and the boosters and the booking online and then the big wait. What was first available in private hospitals were then only available in government hospitals and primary health centers. This then brought about huge queues and uncertainties. Every day became a lottery and people were on their toes. I remember going for my first booster. The first vaccine went well but the second was not so. Searching in vain online and then going to various centers from morning did not give much dividend.

One Saturday the usual search ended in a center a few kilometers from home. But on arrival I figured that there were so many people that getting a vaccine was next to impossible. That was when a friend called and informed that there were vaccines in a place nearby. But we had to rush and there was no assurance that we would get vaccinated. Nevertheless, we rushed to the place but realized that many others had also come. I didn’t want to be rude to the others and so told my wife that we would try our luck another day.

This was when a person standing there held my arm and said, “go!” I was like “that is exactly what I am doing. You don’t have to shout at me.” But I didn’t tell him that. This was when he again held my arm and pointed to a hall and said “go.” I didn’t exactly know what he meant and yet I took my wife and went to the hall he was pointing to. Upon reaching there I realized that they were giving vaccinations there but the other guy could not make a general announcement as he wanted to avoid a rush and the confusion which follows. I also realized that my friend had called him and said that I was coming. He kind of recognized me.

One moment I was thinking that the vaccination would remain a dream and not only did I lose valuable time but I also wasted the time of my wife and we also had to get food for my mother and daughter. The disappointment of having to hear ‘go’, which almost sounded like a ‘get out of here’ immediately turned into relief and joy when I understood what it really meant. In St. John 4: 46-49 we read of an official who begs Jesus to come and heal his son who was at the point of death. In verse 50, Jesus says, “Go; your son will live.” Even though it is written that the man believed Jesus and went his way, he asks his servants when the fever left his son and then he realizes that it was the same time that Jesus told him so. Then it says that he and his household believed, which means, believed in Jesus.

The “Go; your son will live”, must have sounded as a death bell for his son and yet that is not what happens. Jesus sends him on his way, knowing that the son is healed and saved. This lent, we have to first of all believe the “go your way” voice of God. And secondly, we have to offer the assuring voice of go, go in peace, go your way, and go in belief to others. This is not a sending away to nothing but a sending on to everything.  

This season of lent should give us this assurance. That God will not send us away empty handed, disappointed and without hope but that God will bless us immensely and fulfil our needs and fill us with hope. Amen. 

The difference between faith and superstition in a time like this

It is important to sift through and differentiate between the grain and the husk at this critical time. More than ever we are faced with false prophets and prophecies which seek to benefit a particular speaker and is not the word of God. It is easy to get confused and misled and life can become very gloomy in the process. Without realising it, we tend to misunderstand many superstitions as faith. One has to talk of one's faith and there is no need to be ashamed by it. But there is no need to defend superstition, because it is not about faith but a corruption that has come in at some point of time. Below is a list of differences between faith and superstition.

1. Faith tells us that God’s mysterious intervention makes the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. This body and blood will offer eternal life. It cannot be totally understood. Yet it should not blind us but should show us light. Superstition makes us think that when we can’t offer or be part of Holy Communion on a particular day, it is inauspicious, unlucky and will be a curse for us. Services have been cancelled in several parts of the world. There are many who believe that this is not good and one should worship in the church at any cost, because otherwise it would not bode well for the community. 

2. Faith makes us visit the sick, pray for them and give them strength and hope. We see doctors as instruments of God. What is around us and for us is seen as good and not as a challenge to God. God is above everything and everyone is placed by God. We do not see a doctor as God but as a person used by God to reveal God's mercy. Superstition forces us to stay away from the doctor’s advice or even from the doctor himself/herself saying that God will heal us and there is no need for doctors or their prescriptions. Here doctors are placed on the same measuring balance with God and this is not fair to the doctors. We must respect them but do not need to worship them and whenever we do that, it becomes a superstition. But ignoring them and not going to them does not make us more religious. 

3. Faith makes us kneel and pray wherever we are. We are the same everywhere and don’t have different characters in different places. We all see the church building as a place which is special, holy and filled with memories. But we don't have two characters or behaviour, one inside the church and another outside it.  

Superstition gives us a special character when we are in a church and a totally different and negative character when we are outside it. This makes us different people at church and at home. The unavailability of a church is an unavailability of a chance to be good. But associating goodness with a place is a superstition. 

4. Faith does not make us test God and we will be like Christ who tells the devil that we should never test/ tempt the Lord our God. God is always there for us. God's love for us is unconditional. Faith makes us believe this one hundred percent. So there is no question of wanting God to do something to prove God's love for us. Superstition makes us test God to see if God truly cares about us. We want to be convinced time and again that God is with us. So much, that we don’t mind ‘forcing’ God to perform miracles. 

5. Faith is not trying to prove God’s prominence over anything but rather saying that God is everything for us. It does not mean that we refuse or disobey worldly authorities. Jesus’ advise is to give to God what is God’s and to Caesar what is Caesar’s. When a government says something for our good, people of faith don't feel challenged, because their faith is not wavering. Superstition questions worldly authority to the extend that it is made fun of, openly challenged, sneered at and disobeyed. Disobeying rules which are supposed to be good for people, is seen as a prerogative and something done to show off our pride of being religious.

 

6. Faith encourages hope and a better future no matter what the present condition. Even in the worst of times, those with faith will never give up and will continue turning every obstacle into an opportunity. People of faith are a blessing to society, because we see a glow on their faces, which radiates onto us as well. Superstition concentrates on “I told you so” prophesies which tries to tell people that we saw it coming and foresaw this much earlier. Instead of hope, fear is spread and is used as a way to get followers and supporters. These followers then spread the messages of hate and fear which will further divide communities instead of uniting them.

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7. Faith walks on water without talking about it. We meet people but don’t necessarily mention what struggles we went through to reach there. Every action and word is faith for such people but faith is never marketed. Faith is a matter of fact thing. Superstition creates miracles because it thrives on them. Miracles have to be talked about, blown out of proportion and packaged well when one is superstitious. So it is not whether one can walk on water but to make others believe that we can walk on water.

 

8. Faith is not overly ritualistic. It does not matter how many times you have knelt, prostrated and prayed but with what sincerity and truthfulness one has prayed. Fasting then should be a joyful exercise where no one gets to know that we are fasting. We are all ritualistic, but rituals cannot replace faith and belief. Superstition is overly ritualistic. Number of times and when and where matters rather than sincerity and truthfulness. Prayers can be rushed and mumbled as long as it is ‘completed’. The ritual then gets more importance than the act of faith.

 

9. Faith does not crumble when a church place or land is lost or becomes unavailable. It is in the heart and soul of a person. It cannot be taken away. Jesus said that one cannot destroy another's soul. Only the body can be destroyed. Faith is inside a person and cannot be snatched away no matter what. Superstition melts easily. When a physical space which is seen as important or a person who is seen as a powerful leader is lost, the superstitious crumble to pieces. It is like they have lost their way.

10. Faith does not automatically get handed over. Not everyone can get it because it is also an individual commitment to God. Just because a parent has faith, a child cannot automatically get it. One has to work hard for one's faith and it cannot be handed on a platter. Superstition passes on to the next generation very easily. It does not matter whether it is understood or not or whether it serves a good purpose. Continuity is wrongly associated with superstition and the acceptance and embracing of superstitions.

In a time like this, we need faith and have to sift through properly to find the grains we seek. Our faith is like the grain while superstition is the husk which has to be blown away and thrown in the fire.

Picture from www.mainthingradio.com

Prayer to unleash the power of God inside us

Help us God to identify the power of the image of God that we are created in. May we not step back thinking that we are ordinary and simple people who can't make a difference in this world. Instead, allow us to connect with our soul so that we can see the sufferings in life and react accordingly to them. Today, make us think that we don't need the usual things of the world to succeed but only need to uncover the image of God inside us. Lord, may this understanding inspire people from ordinary backgrounds, bereft of flashy degrees and societal success to come out and do their best by believing profoundly and deeply in God. Jesus, may we not hide in the comfort of the weekend but explore the power of our mind which is fed by unending faith in God. Someone is waiting for us to speak and act, to make a difference and to change something. May we use the power Peter had to say that "Silver and gold I have none, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk." May our prayer this weekend trigger healing, fight injustice and bring happiness. Today we hold on to you Holy Spirit and believe that indeed we can change the world for the good. In your name triune God we pray. Amen.

Prayer for those buying land

God, you are the owner of all that we see. You have created us to be care takers of your creation. At this time we submit to you the land which we wish to buy. Show us if it is apt and good for us. Reveal to us how we should buy and when we should make use of it. Holy Spirit, go before us and bless the land, that when we take possession we will be faithful stewards of what you have graciously given us.

Educate us Jesus as to how we should make use of the land. Guide your light to the land and inform us what to do. Help us God to make a commitment of giving this land to you and for your purpose. May we get lots of happiness from this and may wonderful memories rise from this land. We pray that finances may fall in place, commitments are met and ownership is transferred quickly.

Dear Lord, give us clear thoughts and ideas so that this land becomes special for us and our family and friends. May it lead to you blessing us thirty, sixty and hundred fold. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

EAT well this lent

Lent is a time when we follow a 40 day or 50 day fast or diet restriction depending on the denomination we belong to. For some, lent is a time of renunciation, for others it is reflection and for some it is a reminder. Not everyone fasts and not everyone has a diet control or goes vegetarian, but everyone observes lent. It is a mind to offer ourselves as help to someone, to lend something we have to someone or just trying to relate with who we are and what we are doing. Whatever it is, we are all part of lent. 

Prior to the council of Nicea in the fourth century, it is not sure how lent was observed and whether there was such a lent as we follow now. Some even go on to say that lent was a forty hour fast! But with the inception of an official state backed Christianity, lent became part of the spiritual life of Christians. First as a preparation for baptism and then as a reminder of Christ Jesus’ 40 day fast. The fashion of the lent has also undergone change with time. People fasted completely, they gave up all forms of meat and meat products and sometimes fish too and now people in the West give up chocolate, sugar, carbonated drinks and do a carbon fast during lent. One cannot make a direct connection between a carbon fast during lent and Indian culture. But it is something which is becoming more popular now.

The Catholic Church and the CSI church and before that other churches as well have started giving calls for a green lent or carbon fasting. This is new and different . Nevertheless this is now catching on as one way of undergoing lent. The colour green also reminds us of nature and our connection with the soil. The spring time associated with lent is a season of green when the fallen leaves sprout again. But are we and the people in the church on the same boat when it comes to lent and a green lent with carbon fasting? Einstein was once travelling by train. The ticket collector came and asked him for his ticket and then said “I know you will have it with you.” Einstein nodded his head. The ticket collector came again and Einstein was checking his pockets. The ticket collector said “You are Einstein. You will definitely have the ticket with you. I know for sure.” Einstein nodded his head again. Then the ticket collector went to the next bogie and returned and faced Einstein again. This time Einstein was on his knees and was checking something under his seat. The ticket collector said “You are Einstein. I am sure you will have the ticket with you.” Einstein replied. “I know I am Einstein and that I bought a ticket. But I am trying to find the ticket so that I know where to get down!” Lent in church sometimes becomes like this. We are the ticket collectors and the congregation is in the role of Einstein.

But what should lent or a green lent be for us? We are trying to figure out where we are going and for that understanding a green lent or a carbon fast is helpful. A carbon fast for us is giving up cars and motor bikes and using public transport and cycling and walking to work and other places. This gives us a sense of triumphalism and happiness and we put ourselves on a pedestal saying lent has made us holy. But has it?

What should we do about it and how should we fast/lent and even undertake a green lent? We must look at the 40 day fast of Jesus and figure that out. What if I told you that Jesus tells us to EAT WELL during lent? You will stare at me and say “Why didn’t you say this earlier. We are already ten days into the lent. And you are saying this now?” What I mean by EAT WELL is

E- End

A- All

T- Tyranny

      and

W- Willingly

E- Elect      to

L- Live a life of

L- Love

Let us look at the passage for our meditation. In St. Matthew 4:1-10 Jesus fasts for 40 days and 40 nights. This is when the devil comes to tempt him. It is like that in our lives too. Whenever we do good things we immediately feel more tempted.  The tempter has 3 questions for Jesus. All the questions are with ifs, similar to what happened to Jesus on the cross when those who plotted against him said “If you are the son of God, come down from the cross.” Jesus has to prove something and the person asking him to prove it positions himself as the one who has all the answers. I would like to talk about three things which will help us to EAT WELL.

1. Lent as eating late and eating after everyone else eats.

If you are the son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread said the devil to Jesus. Jesus replies “One does not live by bread alone. But by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”  A green lent is a time when we can look for alternatives so that everyone in this earth can eat food equally. It is not to hoard food and make money out of it and become the king of food but to make food count. The most important of Jesus’ miracles was thus the feeding of the multitude. According to latest FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation) estimates in ‘The State of Food Insecurity in the World, 2015” report, 194.6 million people are undernourished in India. By this measure India is home to a quarter of the undernourished population in the world. Also 51% of women between 15 to 59 years of age are anaemic and 44% of children under 5 are underweight. On the other hand, it is estimated that nearly 40 percent of the fruits and vegetables, and 20 percent of the food grains that are produced are lost due to inefficient supply chain management and do not reach the consumer markets.

Lent for us  wrongly becomes a time to prove something. It is like going to a gym and comparing muscles. Who has more? You or me? The one with more, wins the show of muscles. It is sad that we have come to become a culture which compares one with the other. Whose lent is better?, whose fasting is better? We are trying to make the stones into bread so that we can win over Jesus. But we must rather concentrate on the hungry and the malnourished in our country and region. The devil taunts Jesus to make the stones into bread. But Jesus refuses to do so. We are also fasting and lenting so that we get something. Our fasts and lents should lead to food for all. A green fast in this sense is sharing an abundance and shortage of food or more so creating an abundance in an otherwise selfish world.

Perhaps we have to look at our churches and seminaries too. We have the infrastructure and the human resource. But we don’t seem to have the will to help the hungry. By forgoing a few things we can make money and resources for others. Jesus did not hallucinate after 40 days of fasting, rather he became stronger and gave a pointed answer to the devil. In churches we are comfortable with giving food to an orphanage but will never invite the orphanage to church!!

A Baptist moved into a neighborhood largely populated by Catholic families. While on the whole, they got along well, one habit he had was to fire up the grill on Fridays and cook steaks. After several weeks of enduring this torture, the Catholic men got together and decided the only way to end this problem was to convert the offending neighbor. So, they did. At the following Easter Vigil, he was accepted into the Church. The Catholics breathed a sigh of relief as he was baptized "You were born a Baptist, you were raised a Baptist, but now you are a Catholic." Fast forward to the following Lent. The message apparently didn't get through, because the new convert fired up his grill and cooked steaks on Friday anyway! The indignant Catholic men rushed over to see what was happening, and they found him pouring water over the meat and chanting, "You were born a buffalo, you were raised a buffalo, but now, you are a fish!" Our fasting should not be to prove something and to make people do what we are doing but to give food to the poor. We are all out to make our church members adhere to one form of fasting but it is not the fasting Jesus did because fasting rather than making him weak, made him stronger.

2. Lent as getting done the possible rather than going behind the impossible.

The devil takes Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple and tells him to throw himself down so that the angels will come and save him. Jesus replies that you should not put the Lord your God to test. Our lent has become a point of showing our spiritual strength and what we have gained through it whereas Jesus always saw his fast as a preparation to lose something.

The devil knew of the powers of Jesus but Jesus was not there to show off his powers. He had nothing to prove but to feed the hungry and fight those who were keeping the poor hungry. His fight against the state was because of the injustice unleased by the state and religious authorities on the poor. It is only in watching how Jesus lived that we get a sense of what living by the word of God meant for him. His teaching (e.g., the Sermon on the Mount) and his actions disclose his own understanding of that word, what it was calling him to be and do. The kingdom mission constituted a way of healing, of solidarity with the poor, of challenging the oppressive and unjust structures of social control operating in his day, of opposing social and religious conventions that generated exclusion of the weak and the outcast. In the end, this way would lead to the cross, that means of state execution for those deemed a threat to the status quo of political and economic power.

So the test in the wilderness invites Jesus, ever so reasonably, to actualize his power in the service of comfortable self -preservation, and to accept that invitation would inevitably lead him away from the cross. If Jesus, alone in the desert, employed his power to ensure his own personal well-being and personal comfort, if he made use of his privilege and status for the sake of meeting his own needs and wants above all else, then the way to the cross would have been short-circuited.

But we have already seen in Matthew’s account what political power under allegiance to the evil one looks like: Herod the Great orders the slaughter of children as a way of protecting his power from possible threat. And the brutality of the Roman empire, with its use of military violence, mass enslavement, economic exploitation, rampant corruption, etc. was well known. Control of the empire and enjoyment of its wealth would inevitably require the ruthless use of violence, deceit and abusive power. Jesus forgoes this when he negates the question of the devil.

According to an OXFAM report, 1 % of the richest in India own 58% of the wealth. There are 84 billionaires in India with a combined wealth of 284 billion dollars. In India, women form 60 per cent of the lowest paid wage labour, but only 15 per cent of the highest wage-earners. It means that in India women are not only poorly represented in the top bracket of wage-earners, but also experience wide gender pay gap at the bottom.

For Jesus a fast or a lent means questioning this widening disparity so a fast rather than weakening us must strengthen us to the core. The real measure of our wealth is how much we are worth when we lose everything. A lent and a green lent teaches us to lose so that we can see what we are worth. This is what Jesus did. He gave up everything by his fast. Jesus’ work starts after his fast. But for us, we are tired and famished after the fast. This is where a green fast helps. It is not going behind the impossible but very much the possible. We are fixated on what kind of food we can eat and can’t eat. That becomes a problem for us. So most of the time church members see each other in a restaurant, they look at each others plate and not face! Jesus fought injustice up till the cross but he was practical about it. The devil wanted him to bring his Godly powers to test. We should also observe lent to be practical like Jesus and help others. We should not follow the devil and his quest for immortality.

3. Lent is joining God’s kingdom and saying no to other kingdoms.

A green lent is a reminder that we can pull it back. There are several people in church who want to live a life which is worthy of their calling. But they have too many EMI’s to pay. The priest wants to live a life true to his or her calling but there are too many leaders to obey. The churches want to live a life which is true to their calling but there are too many offering bowls to take care of. The tempter is at work through our lent and a green lent is an opportunity to say no like Jesus. We are saying no to bigger vehicles, trying to save fuel by driving differently and walking and cycling to show that we can live a different life for the benefit of others. We are also eating less and moderately so that others get to eat. Jesus says no to the devil and his offer of endless splendor. Instead Jesus declares his faith and says “Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.” The fast strengthens him to say no to all other norms and to focus on God.

We are tempted by endless things these days. In our church, young priests have their eyes set on a two wheeler, followed by a four wheeler, followed by a house and then jewellery and other things. We preach poverty but live in luxury. This is because we have ignored God and God’s kingdom and are holding on to other kingdoms. A priest who is rich is also seen as blessed by God. My mother always tells me “That priest built a house, this priest bought a car, the other priest got so much dowry. Didn’t you teach most of them?  Here we have a priest. He talks about the poor and feeding the poor. What will you live from?” I reply “I don’t know. I guess God has it figured out because honestly I haven’t.”

A green lent is an opportunity to say “I can manage because God is with me.” I can manage because God’s love is with me. End All Tyranny and Willingly Elect to Live a life of Love means that we must put a stop to all injustice in the world. But for that we must stop doing injustice ourselves. The Lenten season is not just a time to preach to others but to preach and reform ourselves.  Jesus sees everything and then says no. There are a lot of people in India working for free for the sake of those who do not have. We can try in our own creative ways to be available for others. All of us cannot be on the streets. But we can look at how we can help. The scope of a green lent is to not just reduce our carbon foot print but to see how we in small ways can be who Jesus was. It is not to be holier than others but to reach out to others and work for God’s kingdom. So, eat well. End all Tyranny and Willingly Elect to Live a life of Love. Lent is eating late and eating after everyone else eats, lent is doing the possible rather than going behind the impossible and lent is joining God’s kingdom and saying no to other kingdoms.

(Preached tonight for the evening Lenten meditation in the UTC chapel, Bengaluru.)

Lent is a great time to resolve the pressure of exams

It is exam time and starting from small classes to bigger classes with board exams to exams for professional courses and even assessments in the office, it is an exam season. You are either writing, or teaching to write or praying that the teacher and the student are on the same page while writing.  The most important prayer for any Christian in the form of the Lord’s prayer which mentions “Lead us not into temptation” can also be seen as lead us not into examinations! All said and done many families can’t handle the pressure of a lent and an exam together.

The Lenten season is a great time to write exams, finish a paper and be assessed by someone. It is because one should seize the opportunity of making it a time when one is relaxed, focused and praying more that God takes control of our lives. But unfortunately that is not the case in many homes. Some diet control apart, parents and children are tensed about writing exams and about doing better than the boy or girl next door. This should never be the case during lent as lent is a time to relax and just be what God wants us to be, and that is, very relaxed people.

Suicide rates in the age group of 15-29 are one of the highest in India. Each year, between 30 and 40 people per 100,000 Indians aged between 15 and 29 kill themselves. This accounts for about a third of all suicides in the country. “A common cause for concern is the pressure from parents to do well in the national board examinations, especially for Class XII, before finishing school. As scores in these exams often determine college admissions and subsequent employment opportunities, students aged 16-18 are often subjected to undue pressure at home to succeed. When they don't, suicide becomes a way out. In 2013 alone, 2,471 suicides were attributed to "failure in examination".”

One understands the pressure parents go through. The pressure to copulate and create off springs, the pressure to give them everything under the sun to make up for the lost time at home, the pressure to not just make them like us but to make them do everything we could not do which includes scoring more marks than us, the pressure to use them as one more trophy for social status, the pressure to say that they have a particular degree and that they studied in a particular school or college. The pressure is endless. Lent is a time to rethink about all these pressures. Don’t have children for someone else but if that is what you want. Don’t give children everything under the sun, rather give them all the love you have. Don’t make them do everything you could not do rather let them do what they want to do. You can always have a say in this process by asking the right questions and giving a fair chance for your child/children to make the correct decision. Your child is not a trophy to show off but your flesh and blood which God has given you. Don’ show them off rather keep them close to your heart till they are ready to fly off. Don’t look for the best schools and colleges, rather look for the best education of which you are an integral part. Your child cannot be someone you do not know or can no more relate with. The best education is received at home. Don’t give up the teacher in you and trade that for the teacher in school or college. They are there to bring out the best in your child, not to replace you.

As a parent, whatever happens in school, you (we) should be there for your child and help them to do their best and not to perform or show someone else. Our children are our reflection. They need not out perform us every time. They need not be as smart as us. They will flourish in their own time. For every suicide that has happened in another house, we are responsible as well, because we have contributed to the pressure felt by children. Lent should be a time we use to understand and encourage our children and sacrifice our time and resources for them just like Christ Jesus did for us. James 1:3-8 says “because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance;  and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.  If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you.  But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind;  for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord.” Don’t doubt in the grace of God which is available to all of us. Teach this to our children and they will be on their way to becoming good human beings never wanting in and for anything.

An examination should be seen as an experience and not a rat race. The life of our child/children is not worth any exam. Their life and living should be more valuable to us instead of exam results. During lent let us take time to be with them and give them all that they need to prepare for and write their exams. At no point of time should there be a talk of marks and comparisons with others because God has given you more things sometimes than others. If you or I accepted that without seeing or questioning why our neighbor did not get it, why are we now looking at comparisons? James 1:12-13 says that we are beyond trials and temptations. “Blessed is anyone who endures temptation. Such a one has stood the test and will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.  No one, when tempted, should say, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one.” Let this lent be a time to let our children flourish and become who God wants them to be and not who we want them to be. Let us love them this lent and love them so much that we allow them to relax and do as well as they can. Let the comparison be with themselves and no one else. Amen.