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 21: The Great Feast

Having a reading of the feeding of the four thousand is intriguing during lent. There is so much talk of depriving oneself of food, fasting and observing lent that we forget about feeding the people. The disciples were not interested in feeding the crowd or they thought that it would be difficult to embark on something like that. The miracle was not just feeding the four thousand and even more with seven loaves and a few fish, but being sure that it was indeed possible.

In our culture we take many things for granted. We do not want to do a certain thing because it is difficult and calls for a little effort. The disciples had to think of the seven loaves and the little fish, they also had to figure out how to divide this little food. So, the solution for them was to let the people go. Churches and communities are also like this. They will think that the people who come will fend for themselves and go back from church and eat from their home. All this because, arranging snacks or food is an effort and is hard work.

This is also why many government institutions don’t have basic facilities. There won’t be drinking water, proper toilets, canteens and the like because the idea is that the public will fend for themselves and there is no need to provide these essential and basic facilities. Jesus thinks differently. Even though he didn’t have to give food, he thinks about it. He looks at fulfilling the basic human needs of those who came to listen to him. Even though they came out of their own wish, Jesus feels it is essential to provide for them.

In St. Mark 8: 6 it is said that, he takes the loaves “and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and they set them before the crowd.” There is a great feast that Jesus initiates and calls us to initiate too. The coming together of a crowd also calls for their wellbeing and offering them food. Churches have to take this up with or without lent. Lent is a good time to think about this and start food programmes. It should not be limited to our church and community but to all who come. The Sikh gurudwaras with their Langars (community kitchen) are a beautiful example of this in today’s world. Christians cannot do without feasting. But feasting as excessive happiness should not just be the meaning we get. It is rather a meal given in a crowd which makes them justly happy and therefore in a festive mood.

Food also has a holiness aspect to it. It should not be wasted and disrespected. It becomes another sharing and fellowship. Food is indeed the way to the heart. We have a responsibility to serve food as it is an effort to alleviate hunger. Many in the crowd and in our church and community may not have the luxury of food. It is our way of life which makes us think the contrary. Many who come to churches may have fasted and are not necessarily going back to an assured plate of food. Jesus thought practically and was concerned about the people who did not have an idea about whether they would eat or not.

The Great Fast and Great Lent should go along with the Great Feast. A fast and lent without the feasting and the fellowship is far from the teaching of Jesus. Many poor people observe lent and such lents are much more difficult than observed by others. It is the responsibility of the haves to then provide to the have nots, just like Jesus did. May this lent remind us of this feasting, a feast and feasting for the poor and needy. Amen.

Lent Day 10: Remembering the sacrifices of our forefathers and foremothers and the working class of the church

The Christian community should be seen as a giving community. It is not just the money or donation one gives but the effort one puts in to make the community one which forgives, understands, helps and loves. If it is true to say that time is money, someone who gives their time for the church is of immense value to the church. When we love and give, there will be a limit up to which others can take it. After that it will have to come back. It is not just to say that we have to do good if good has to come back to us but to say, if we water our plants they will grow and bloom but we don’t have to water them too much.

The church and Christian community is now plagued with the problem of having people who will always make others think that they will give. The rich are cleverer in this than others. The leadership will be behind the rich with great expectations but the middle class and ordinary people will be the ones who actually help the community. While one group does things or promises to do things with the expectation of gaining positions, power and authority, the other group does things and helps out because it is the right thing to do. They are usually not found hobnobbing with the leadership and do not have dreams of being in power.

There are other ordinary people who help with their time and labour. People who help in cooking food, doing arrangements in church, helping to serve food, cleaning up after everything and not minding to get their clothes dirty in church. They try to work hard and give their time for the benefit and welfare of the community. There are also people who help with paper work, accounts, coordination and meetings. Others who pick and drop children to Sunday school and youth programmes and offer their vehicles, services and time for the church. They may not always be visible inside the church but will make sure that church programmes are successful.

St. Luke 6: 38 says, “give, and it will be given to you; in good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For the measure you give will be the measure you get back.” Jesus here is very clear about the reward that is awaiting people who give their best for the benefit of the community. And yet good is not just done expecting good in return, but that is a natural consequence of good actions.

The problem today in all churches is that the ordinary people are ignored and posts and chairs are given to the rich and powerful. The poor man’s (sic) church has now become the rich man’s church. It is natural that the younger generations of several families have undergone an upward social mobility by way of better education and business acumen. But that does not mean that the nature of the church has to change to an exclusive club of people who want the ordinary people only to fill the church but not for decision making and any kind of recognition.

The churches have to take care of the proletariat, the working class, the one’s who work very hard to help their church and community. Without them the numbers of the church will come down drastically and will affect the very nature and survival of the church. In Kerala there is the interpretation of two political dispensations. One is a cadre party where workers do the work and the other is the party where everyone is a leader and there is no one to do the work finally. This lent, may we recognise the hard work of our forefathers and foremothers, who kept away rice, vegetables and fruits for the church and brought it so that it would be auctioned or exchanged to take care of the needs of the church. Shall we also remember the people who walked to church, built the church by offering their labour because they did not have the money to give. May we also remember the women and men who set aside coins like the poor widow and gave it to the church so that the church as we see it today would go on uninterrupted. Amen.

Lent Day 9: Our churches should not be profitable institutions

Many churches these days are trying to be professional in their approach and running. Some even appoint professionals to run churches. Many are even asked to advise priests on what to say and do. It is like the professional election strategists who advise political parties on how to run their campaign, how to select candidates for the elections and what manifestos to concentrate upon. Even though knowing the pulse of people and realising their needs is important, running a church like a business is fraught with danger.

Many churches do not like giving refreshments to their own people, don’t help the poor and don’t believe in giving but only in receiving. They would also like to have a profit at the end of the year. But are churches supposed to be like this or do they exist solely for the purpose of helping the poor and needy and taking care of the spiritual needs of their community? The business model is then also extended to church institutions like schools and hospitals. I will concentrate on churches for now.

St. Luke 6: 33-34 says, “And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again.” The essence of these verses is a reminder from Jesus that we have to be good and do good to others, irrespective of the response and without expecting anything in return. How many churches are following this advice and model?

Churches these days are looking into the feasibility of prayers, worships and perhaps even miracles. What will we get seems to be the query before we offer a service. What will we get if we give food, what will we get if the church is open for service, what will we get if the church offers spiritual services? So much that the offertory has become a part of every service. Whether we offer anything or not, we would like to get money from people.

This lent, we should rethink what we are doing. Can we offer something without expecting anything in return? Can we stop discussing profits and huge bank balances? Can we end questions of feasibility before giving food to the poor? There are many orphanages and old age homes which do not know where the money will come from for the next meal! And yet, it comes, because of God’s grace and because God makes people act. Christian faith has always run with hope and not with financial planning, feasibility studies and reports.

If we continue with this trend, we will not be far from the day when we will be advised to close our churches and institutions because they are not economically viable. We cannot do sensible charity and community formation. Because there is nothing sensible about our faith. We have a Lord who told us to show our other cheek when someone slaps us on one, to forgive when someone has to pay us and to not ask someone who has taken money from us. There is nothing sensible about this. A negation of this will lead to a negation of the very words of Jesus. May our lent offer us insights to fight the greed of churches, priests and lay leaders to make the church a profitable enterprise rather than a compassionate space which reflects God’s love. Amen.

Lent Day 4: Mutual investments with God are not subject to market risks

We get to hear a lot of talk on saving money and how to save money. Our parents would have advised us in this regard at some point of time and maybe continue to do so. They do it out of concern and love and we end up joining savings schemes, insurance policies and even collect money in piggy banks, containers and books. It is the money we hope will help us tide over a difficult time, or an unexpected expense.

We are also scared whether such money will indeed be safe. Advertisements of mutual funds have a disclaimer at the end, “Mutual Fund investments are subject to market risks, read all scheme related documents carefully.” What earlier was read in a rush is now read slower and clearer. It is a warning to be careful.

There have been moments in my life when I parted with such money which was specially kept for future needs. Moments when someone passed away, someone was hospitalized, someone was going to study and someone was getting married. I sometimes wonder how nice it would be if I still had that money with me. Because of the earlier parting with savings, I ended up sacrificing my needs and the needs of my family.

St. Matthew 6: 19-20 says, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal.” Jesus is asking us to invest in him and in heaven because we then don’t have to be worried about it rusting or being stolen. The way to invest our treasures in heaven is to help someone here on earth by breaking our savings. Every time we have helped someone, we have made an investment in heaven, an investment which is not subject to any risk, market or otherwise.

Lent is a time to help the poor, needy and hungry. Diet restrictions are not enough and form only twenty five percent of our effort to undergo a meaningful lent. The other three parts are prayer, reconciliation and good behavior and helping those in need with food and money. We need some solid investments in heaven through our help to others here. Even though we will feel sad of letting go of hard-earned savings, we can be assured that the investments we make will be safe in God’s hands, ready to be encashed at another time and in another form. Amen.

(Picture credit: rhetoricaljesus.com)

Prayer during a festival

We thank you God for the opportunities to celebrate festivals with our brothers and sisters from different faiths. We hope that people live in harmony and use such opportunities to learn about one another and about our common histories. May the celebrations be a sharing of what we have and to make sure that no one lives in poverty and no one cries due to the lack of basic facilities.
As is said in Micah 4:3-5"...they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken it. For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever." Thereby God, may we use the opportunities that we get to celebrate, as times to feed the poor, visit the sick and elderly, meet friends and family and love everyone we know and come across. Amen.

Prayer for guidance

Thank you Father God for creating us in your image and likeness. We understand the responsibility of doing well and fulfilling your purpose of creating us. Help us to be what you wish us to be. Thank you Jesus for showing us by visiting and healing the sick, helping the poor and standing with the weak, what we should do and how we should do it. Help us to read the gospels and understand truly what work we must do to be workers in the kingdom of God. Thank you Holy Spirit for living inside us and making us take correct decisions. We pray that you help us do our best and that we will be able to help others from the blessings that overflow from our cup of life. Thank you Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Make up your mind during lent

Every time we are confused with certain things in our life we take a break, go for a retreat, meditate and think about where we are. Lent is a time to get our act straight and decide what our priorities are. It is to come to an understanding that we are observing lent to reiterate that we are with God and we are working for God’s kingdom.

St. Matthew 6:24 tells us that we cannot have two masters. “No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” We can either serve God or serve mammon (wealth, money). It is clearly one and not two simultaneously. Many sermons are tweaked to explain that although we have loads of money we can still serve God. This is not possible and lent is a painful reminder of that. We can serve only one master. What then is the essence of all that we are doing? We are working and insist on being paid and feel that money is important for every small thing in life. There is also the parable of the worker in St. Matthew 25:14-30 who buried his talent and was admonished by his master because he buried the talent given to him. So it is not to say that we must leave everything but to say that God should be primary. Everything else comes later. God and not money should determine the decisions we make.

Putting it this way, lent is a reminder that we can do with much lesser and we don’t need to hoard and keep away so that we can be assured of a better life. Rather, lent reminds us that we can cut down on several things and still be happy. It is an opportunity to remind our children that everything can’t be bought with money and important things can never be purchased. During lent we have to remember that our partner is a gift of God and is with us because of our love and not because of the money we have. If it was money, we would not be able to keep our partner. It is only love which is a gift from God which can do that. Lent is a beautiful reminder of this by making us feel that our love for Christ is so much that we can make do with very little because love satisfies all hunger.

During lent, as a family we can come together and understand that we have had difficult times out of which God helped us. There could also be bad times in the future and this experience of lenting will prepare us for such a time. During lent, as a family we are reminded that the love for God over shadows the love for everything else. God and not money matters! Together with this we also understand that all that God has given us matters more than wealth. And this includes our parents, siblings, partner, children and friends. We cannot put a price on them. Lent makes us understand this better.

I remember an incident when a man came forward to help his uncle who was in the hospital. The doctors gave up and the extended and immediate family followed suit. This man though said he would spend the money for the operation even though there was a minimal chance of success. The patient died but the man still had a point. He said that one cannot put a price for family. To save a life we have to give everything we have because everything we have won’t measure up to our family! I found much faith in the man and his convictions that all the money he had made meant nothing to him as long as they could not be of help to someone.

Ecclesiastes 5 is a passage for us to learn from. Verse 10 says that the lover of money will not be satisfied with money. This is because money can’t offer everything. It only suggests it can but at the end we realize that by itself it is of no use to us. In verse 12 it is mentioned that the labourers will have sweet sleep whereas the extra burden of the rich will not allow them good sleep. During lent we try to lose all the excess baggage so that we can sleep heartily. So lent is a time for the rich to trim their wealth and in the process get much needed peace of mind. Verse 15 says that we will go back naked just like we came from our mother’s womb. It suggests that how much ever you make, you simply can’t take it with you. Lent is a good reminder of this. By deciding to follow God we will get peace of mind which we won’t get by hugging our wealth.

Lent is difficult sometimes because we haven’t made up our minds. It is not to make up our mind on whether we should observe lent or not but to make up our mind as to who we should follow. Observing lent is an opportunity we get to reiterate our commitment to God. The richer we are the more we have to let go. Contrary to what we think, most of the self made billionaires in the world don’t live lavish lifestyles. They give away a lot of what they make. We must also understand that God is working through us so that we help the less fortunate and those pushed away from main stream society. Our boss in this sense is God and we are working every minute for God and not for ourselves. The more we let go and give away the more we will have because we will learn to live with minimalist things.

There are two symbolisms I would like to leave you with. They are both impulsive behavior and yet yield different results. One is online shopping and the other is giving to the poor and needy. Both are done impulsively sometimes and both give satisfaction. It is estimated that in the U.S. impulsive behaviour leads to sales worth 4 billion dollars with 62% of store purchases considered impulsive. In India this figure is much lesser but Geetha M. and Bharadwaj in their article "Impulse Buying Behaviour in India: An overview" say that even though research suggests there is close to 16% impulsive buying, this figure could be much higher because people living in collectivistic societies like India would not divulge actual information even though they may be buying impulsively. This said, the satisfaction that we get when we help someone is more than any other satisfaction. While shopping online we may feel happy but later on the product we bought will stare back at us with no emotion because it is a product of wealth. On the other hand a human being who is helped will smile back at us because the human is a creation of God. When we are tempted into impulsive buying we buy things which we don't actually need but anyway buy them because we worship them. On the other hand helping people is considered not so important because we are not worshiping God enough. Let this lent be a time for meditation, retreat, prayer and more than anything else, for making up our mind that we serve God. Let it also be a time when other human beings look and smile at us instead of looking like the cold lifeless products we buy.

Left, right, left: The impending crisis of religion in a Left majority polity

The Left is back in power in Kerala. Comrade Pinarayi Vijayan is at the helm of affairs and Comrade Achuthanandan is rumoured to being given an advisor’s role with a cabinet rank. The public may have a lot of opinions on who should be Chief Minister and who not but ultimately it does depend on the decision of the party or coalition who has won the election. We may even have our own theories and opinions about the ministers without actually knowing them but it is within their rights to be given the chance to head a particular ministry.

As a church member what intrigues me though is the way that churches and other religions have conducted themselves during the course of this election and afterwards. On the one hand various churches find the Left alliance anathema and completely against the church values and on the other hand you also have churches or church leaders, priests and laity who have embraced the Left because of a perceived closeness to the Kindom values preached by Jesus. Many have given press conferences, preached against and even openly threatened candidates in their own religious way. Some of those candidates lost while some others won. Interestingly many churches have followed the easy route of immediately claiming the victory of candidates who have won, as theirs, and also claiming to be the spoil sport in the case of certain losses. We do not know how far this is true but what we do know is that there is a tendency to side with the party or alliance that has won.

This is now what is also happening in Kerala. The BJP has campaigned hard and won a lot of votes but only one seat, the Congress is cooling its heals waiting for a come back the next time around and the CPI(M) led Left alliance is basking in glory with a well-deserved victory. Political parties have their ideology and their election agendas. But what about various religions and churches? Are they supposed to change their ideology and belief with every election or is it a given that they will follow one particular ideology and that is based primarily on love?

Is the Left coming back to power bad news for churches in Kerala? It depends on how you look at the Left and what about them you are discussing? It is true that the churches should have no problem to accept liberation of the masses, upliftment of the poor and equality for all even if the Left takes that forward. The interpretation of the Left as a Godless movement has changed over the years with several leaders openly professing their faith in God. But churches or church leaders will have a problem with the Left if churches are pro-rich, anti-poor and against equality. On the other hand blindly supporting the Left need not be what a particular church has to do. Violent and revenge filled politics practiced by certain sections of the Left can’t be accepted and justified by the church as okay and acceptable.

Religion and churches in particular will find themselves immersed in a crisis by supporting whichever party that comes to power for their own needs at any particular time. This is because the people in the church will understand the double standards being played out. It may be true that the Left may have not been able to rule out gender and caste issues within their flock but they have been able to do something about it. It may be true that all Left leaders are not living a simple life style but there are many people who are called with respect as a “Communist comrade” (going on to mean just not a leader but a person respected by all for his/her simple life style ) by people from all walks of life. It may also be true that the Left has not reinvented itself to attract the modern generation but there are educated and inspirational leaders who are doing just that.

When the church is pleased with the victory of the Left, is happy that it has come to power, shouldn’t there be an introspection as to why God may have allowed such a thing to happen? Will the church when supporting the Left work on deep and contentious issues of gender and caste within the church so that a Left leader who has come up from a very difficult background is truly and honestly welcomed into the church? Will the church start preaching simplicity and ordinary living by practicing it at different levels in the church starting from the top? Will the church reinvent itself to prevent being obliterated and becoming completely irrelevant for the younger generation?

The coming of the Left is a nice thing in a state like Kerala. Kerala has seen much change happening through successive Left governments and no one can take that away from them. The church aligning with the Left is not anti-religious or non- Christian anymore. The church, however inspired it is by the word of God and by God’s revelation can go wrong when leaders misread the sign of God because they misunderstand their way as God’s way. Movements like the Left have shown through UPA I that an irritant is necessary to keep bad things at bay. The church can learn a bit from the Left movement about gender and caste consciousness, about simplistic living and about new trends in society. Similarly a close proximity with the church can also make the Left realize that violence won’t lead to solutions and positive results.

It is a welcome change to see the Left and the church together. But unless it is used by both to bring about quick change and benefit for the people, this is going to be an alliance of convenience which is going to give more strength to caste-gender- power and violent politics, which will be such a shame after showing so much promise.


Picture courtesy: www.foxnews.com
Bolivian President Evo Morales presents Pope Francis with a crucifix carved into a wooden hammer and sickle.

Communication in Theological Education

The word communication brings to mind words like commune, communion and community which suggest that it means bringing together or coming together. All forms of communication thus seek to bring people together for whatever purpose. Communication also brings to mind sharing, participating, giving, taking, co-operating and transmitting. Communication thus involves people and what they do. Communication is a basic human need like food, shelter and clothing. It is a right of people. ‘One cannot not communicate’ and ‘one cannot but communicate’ provides the essence of the importance of communication. Even if we are silent, we communicate something. Religious institutions are usually happy with providing food, shelter and clothing to people in need. But this does not give the right to speak and express ones thoughts and very being. A world and church without communication would be just this. A world confined to superficial charity while refusing to give the poor and needy what is their fundamental right. This is the right to communicate.

Some definitions of communication are
1. The English word communication is taken from the Latin noun ‘communis’ and the Latin verb ‘communicare’ that means ‘to make common.’
Making common also means having something in common. Usually only people who have something in common can talk to each other. But this cannot be a hard and fast rule making us think that people who don’t share anything common cannot interact with each other. But on the other hand an element of commonness is definitely essential. All human beings have something in common but one needs to look to find and feel this commonality. Commonality includes religious beliefs, colour, taste, region, education and the like. In a theological setting it is very essential that we look for things that bind us together rather than for things that separate us. In churches also this holds true. A pastor has the responsibility of finding common threads between people rather than dividing people based on superficial disagreements. A communicator would seek to bring people together in a church setting and try to include the aspirations of all.

2. Communication is a human relationship involving two or more persons who come together to share, to dialogue and to commune.
Communication seeks to make relationships. It is not an artificial act but a human act whereby we seek to create togetherness. The first act of communication was God’s creation. God reached out to human beings and got into a relationship with them. This still continues. This is what should happen during church services as well. People should not come to see and hear something and then leave. Rather they should come and be a part of the church and each other. Without relationships, we cease to become human and therefore communication becomes an integral part of our lives.

3. Communication is the process that links discontinuous parts of the living world to one another.
We are a broken world trying to live together in hope. As pastors, care givers and social activists the hope we share is the hope given to us by the resurrected Christ. Communication forms the medium of experiencing and living this hope. How many times have we heard in theological institutions and churches that “it is a problem of communication”? Any breakdown in relationships is immediately attributed to the lack of communication and miscommunication and urgent calls are made for this to be rectified. Communication should not be seen as something using the latest technology but should be seen as the importance of doing simple things. Pastors looking at and greeting people in church, listening to people and holding their hands are all simple yet effective means of communication. This makes us a community who holds hands together, knowing fully well that we are broken and imperfect and yet coming together in the hope offered to us by God. This then should be extended to all people, of all races, castes, class, colour and gender.

4. Communication occurs when an individual assigns significance or meaning to an internal or external stimulus.
There are two types of stimulus. They are internal and external. An internal stimulus gives a signal to our brain that we need something or should do something. An external stimulus will be from someone else who wants something from us. When we are hungry, a signal is passed to the brain and we are informed of the hunger of the stomach. In Indian culture, peculiar movements of the hands and feet suggest various things at various times. This then makes us react in a certain way. Pastors/priests have to read various messages from stimuli from various sources. The need is to make out the correct meaning from what we see and feel. Many people in church will be silent and will not talk about their real feelings. Pastors should read the stimulus from silence and gather the need of people.

5. Communication is a process by which senders and receivers of messages interact in given social contexts.
We are all part of one or the other context. The social context decides how we should behave and what all conventions we should follow. This differs in each context. A pastor has to first of all understand her/his context before speaking. Only this will bring about effective interaction. The early history of modern communication hinged on the propaganda wars played out by various nations during the first and second world wars. This propaganda concentrated on transportation of messages. But mere transportation without knowledge of the social context will not ensure the intended goal. Communication as a process is much closer to understanding communication as relationships.

6. Communication is the transmission of information, ideas, emotions, skills, etc by the use of symbols, words, pictures, figures, graphs, etc.
Communication makes use of several things at the same time. It is not just words, but a plethora of other things which make the message clear to the audience. Even in churches it is not enough that we use just words to preach a sermon. A sermon should make use of all means and methods to introduce and explore the message which is being preached. Still and moving images, music, pictures, figures and graphs should all be made use of to make people understand what is being said. Take for instance the feeding of the five thousand in the bible. The message can be explained much better if we use an LCD projector to show a picture of thousands of people sitting together for food, playing appropriate music in the background through the same laptop used for projecting the picture, showing official figures of poverty in India and using graphs to show a break down of food production and distribution in India over the past decade. This will give a link between the biblical story and present day reality. There has to be a visual impact along with other things. This visual impact is present in the liturgy in churches and happens especially during the breaking of bread. This same impact should then be carried forward into the sermon and other parts of the service as well.
(to be continued...)

Vulnerability in the midst of climate change

1. I’m scared dear mother, because of what we’ve done
The trees have been cut and the birds have no place to go
The land has been ravaged and the seeds cannot grow
The valleys have been filled and the waters keep rising

Chorus: Don’t leave me mother, don’t leave me in the dark
I have no place to go, no place that will be home

2. I’m scared dear mother, because of what we’ve done
Our cars are polluting and we can’t breathe anymore
Our climate is changing and famine threatening
Our waste is choking and fumes rising

Chorus: Don’t leave me mother, don’t leave me in the dark
I have no place to go, no place that will be home

3. I’m scared dear mother, because of what we’ve done
Governments are greedy and selling our resources
People are needy but their voices silenced
Creation is losing its habitat but the signs are being ignored

Chorus: Don’t leave me mother, don’t leave me in the dark
I have no place to go, no place that will be home

4. I’m scared dear mother, because of what we’ve done
The poor are asked to leave, the rich take their place
Justice takes a back seat, oppression rules the day
The mighty rob the earth and we are asked to pay

Chorus: Don’t leave me mother, don’t leave me in the dark
I have no place to go, no place that will be home

Who has plundered our common wealth?

With barely a month to go for the Common Wealth games in Delhi, the can of worms is being celebrated in the Indian media. What so far was kept under guard in a locker room of patriotism and national pride is out in full public view. Even though several concerned citizens in India cried foul of the high handedness, corruption and waste of public funds, it was brushed under the carpet. So is this a failure of India which has again breached the 20,000 point mark in the sensex index or is this is a concerted effort of a few to plunder what is basically the common wealth of all the citizens of this country?

The former sports minister of India Mr. Mani Shankar Aiyar ruffled quite a few feathers in the Congress party and the Indian government when he said that he wished that the games failed. He must be giggling in private and public listening to the stories of collapsing bridges and unliveable apartments in the games village. These voices of cynicism have been many over the past few months. They have been silenced and branded as anti-national and un-patriotic.

Despite having close to seven years to prepare for hosting the games, the committee with Suresh Kalmadi as its chairperson has ended up confounding not only the people of India but also the several countries which are supposed to participate in the Common Wealth games. The cost of the games coming to 7.5 billion dollars is way beyond the 1 billion dollars of the 2006 games. The cost does include roads, a new airport, new stadiums and a big infrastructure drive which is supposed to be use worthy several years after the games. But can we justify this huge expense in a country like India which constitutes 50% of the hungry in the world and where one out of two children is under nourished?

The post colonial researchers will even question the need for a common wealth games. If India claims to be a nation which is marching forward and even forgetting its colonial past, what is the point in hosting such an event? One explanation would be that some of the oppressed have out grown their outfit and have now grown into the outfit of the oppressor. But who are we oppressing? The only answer would be that we are oppressing our own people. The common wealth organizers are thus plundering our common wealth which is meant for our common people.

What then does development mean? Is it to ensure food and basic amenities for our people or is it to dine with the wealthy? The common wealth games fiasco is not just the work of a few renegade men. It reflects the skewed aspiration of a people who want to be associated with money and power. We have a great bunny in the form of Kalmadi to kick and blame. But isn’t he just one pawn in the intricate game of fooling the poor in India?

All religious communities compete to build massive structures which house only the rich and keep out the poor. Our common wealth is plundered by our leaders who use it to grow into the custom made outfits of oppression. We definitely need a change in the development paradigm. Progress should mean that we try our best to root out oppression rather than becoming oppressors ourselves. Till then our common wealth will be plundered and ravished.

The IPL and the media have put me in a fix.

The Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) initiated by the World Association for Christian Communication brought together people all around the world to find out how the media covered various groups of people. In this instance it sought to find how women were covered in the media. The media has its inverted pyramid style way of looking at the world in which the rich, famous, powerful and beautiful are given maximum space. The bizarre, untoward, adventurous and unnatural are then given the next bits of space while the poor, women and children often have to fight to find a fleeting mention. The findings of the GMMP strengthened the argument that less than 20% of stories focus solely on women.

These days the English news channels in India are in frenzy over the IPL. After Tharoor and Sunanda setting the air waves on fire, the Modi fire is becoming too hot to handle. Stories of fund embezzlements, hastily patched up front companies, shady real estate deals and income tax department raids are all coming out by the minute and second. So much that the viewer who misses an hour misses myriad twists in the story. Soon we will be exposed to the private life of Lalit Modi, his extravagant life style and how he build his IPL castle. So much IPL that anything else has almost gone into oblivion. Everyone is found asking, “Did you watch the IPL match?” It sounds like I might be labelled unnatural if I don’t watch the IPL and hope for an IPL team for my state.

The frenzy over the IPL is so much that everyone in one way or the other is involved with it. Some by going to the stadiums, some by watching matches on T.V., few by supporting Tharoor, and others by following the IPL related news. The IPL is stirring the imagination of the media audience. But it also shows that the IPL has changed cricket in India and it has used the media to this effect. It has changed cricket which had ‘use value’ to cricket which now has ‘exchange value’. This is why the IPL is gobbling up all that print space and invading the air waves. The exchange has been made! We the audience have thus been ‘commodified’ and given a price tag. The critique of religion as the opium for the masses has now undergone a change to IPL as the opium for the masses.

It is this that the poor, the helpless women and the powerless children of this country don’t have: ‘exchange value.’ They have use value but that is not enough for the main stream media and for us. We therefore neglect them by not speaking about them, not writing about them and not reading about them. They don’t give us the ‘fix’ we need. That is provided by the cheer leaders, bright lights, colour and entertainment. As a country we are living in a fix. We expect religion, movies and sports to be our opium. Therefore the politicians, religious leaders, earning middle and upper middle class, business community and different media are all responsible for the IPL dirty linen that is now being washed in public. I don’t know whether we will be able to come out of this perpetual fix! Maybe we don’t want to?

Is my church a public monument?

Where does one learn the unforgettable lesson of sharing one’s resources with others? In one’s house…no. My first lessons of sharing what I have with others were learnt from my church. The countless sermons from esteemed and learned priests, the worship, the bits and pieces of advice I got from elderly people. Having been exposed to what good the church can offer, I realised that this is only one part of the church. As I grew up I realised that the church is as exclusive as it is inclusive. Small wonder that every church has its own people from a preferred setting coming together every week. Anyone outside this setting is not usually welcome wholeheartedly, although we say that everyone is welcome.

Different denominations follow different norms of profiling society and setting into a pattern wherein rich, poor, dalit, syrian, nadar, women and men comprise of the body check that people are forced to undergo before entering the holy sphere of the church. More than the number of people inside the church, I would say the church should actually be concerned about the number of people outside the church!

In Kerala the trend is to showcase our money and power by building huge churches which cost crores of rupees and are built over centuries of unclaimed history and life of the poor of the land. On the one hand, I cannot possibly out rightly condemn this because the church is the collective expression of a group of people. But on the other hand, many of these huge churches are not used to their optimum level and therefore only become the collective expression of a few rather than all. My own denomination has also gone through the experience of having churches closed down because of the rift between two groups within the Orthodox line of thought in India. Both groups lay claim to the churches and therefore the court finally has no other option but to close down the churches completely.

The concept of sharing that I have developed in my mind takes a beating time and again because I see and experience the reverse of that happening in front of my eyes. Is it totally irrelevant to discuss the idea of sharing church spaces among all denominations? This gives significant importance to the church as a place of all and brings people together instead of separating them. Kerala faces a similar pattern with regard to houses. Everyone wants to build a separate house surrounded by a boundary wall to protect it. We build our own private spaces and this has an adverse impact on the environment as well, as waterways and low lying areas are filled with the mud from mountainous regions and sand is smuggled from rivers to contribute to the ever increasing scale of construction in the state.

In effect the church also contributes to the destruction of our state and after constructing beaming towers we will all get together to discuss the degradation of the environment and our state. I don’t know if I can inspire my congregation to understand what real sharing and openness is? It is a practice to take young groups of students to public monuments where all kind of people get together. There we don’t ask people about their religion, caste or other preferences. We have a sense of pride that the monument belongs to all and that all of us have to take care of it. Can’t churches become public monuments? A place for all to congregate, relax and reflect?

World AIDS Day

Luke 6:20-22
Blessed are you who (have)1 are (AIDS) poor , for yours is the (fellowship) kingdom of God.
Blessed are you who (have) are (AIDS) hungry now for you will be filled.
Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
Blessed are you when people hate you, exclude you, revile you and defame you
For surely your reward is great in heaven (and earth)

Yesterday I was a fortunate person with friends and relatives
Yesterday I glowed with pride, my accomplishments did with me lie
Yesterday I dreamt of a life, of happiness, love and care
Yesterday I had everything…today I have memories of yesterday


1 Brackets mine.

‘Statutory warning: Cross at your risk’ India’s aggressive development model vis-à-vis India’s aggressive roads

I waited to see if I would be cared for
Whether someone would stop and let me be
The wait continued in a forced anonymity
Till everyone else called ‘break’ in magnanimity


How many of us have felt paralysed in the course of trying to cross a road in a city (towns also these days)? My recent experience in Bangalore was indeed an eye opener.

It’s not just the fact that there is a dramatic increase in traffic or more cars in proportion to two wheelers, or narrower roads handling huge volumes, but the psyche that rests behind the steering wheel and the handle bar and the traffic rules. Both systemic apathy and individual ‘I care a hoot’ feelings come together to crush the aspirations of the foot bearer.

Does this signify anything? Does it mean that India is on the move and vehicles are bound to increase? Does it suggest that we are in a competitive jungle and ‘survival of the fittest’ is the norm? Does it bring about the age of the ‘fast and furious’?

My concerns go in the direction of the aggression we experience in the new India, the crazily developing India. It’s not just a question of increasing deadlines, swelling pay cheques (which is now zigzagging like the share market) and changing life styles. It is also about being impatient, impolite, selfish, and doing whatever it takes to achieve one’s goals.

This aggressive push however totally forgets India’s underprivileged. The poor, the discriminated, the old aged, the have-nots, and even the silent environment (including the trees and the natural flora and fauna) are out of the picture. It’s not about crossing the road in a city but it’s about being left out of India’s so-called push for progress and development. Those who want to be a part of this are only given the option to follow the industrial-information-labour-share-automobile dispensation while others can wait for the time when the dispensation rests, the time we are served out mercy from the plates of the haves. If we flaunt existing un-written rules and venture to cross…’Cross at your own risk’…

My name is nobody!!!

Those who work in private offices and corporations will be aware of the never ending push to do well and climb the corporate ladder. We as individuals are responsible for our life and future and so we should work hard and do well in life. Even though this is a straight forward statement and gives oodles of encouragement for the weak soul, secrets lie hidden for those who are willing to scratch (not one self but the ground).

Although we are made to believe that success will be ours to toy with as long as we are willing to work, reality is entirely different. Those who are willing to work are not allowed to do so in the field they want to because they are told, “Your father was a scavenger and so will you be!!” How do we see such people? Do we think of their welfare, their income, their work? Or do we think that our work is much more specialized and deserves better salaries than sweepers, scavengers and those who do the most menial of works?

All through history there have been movements to give recognition to ordinary people and communism has also been one such movement. Kerala created history when the first communist government (the first time anywhere) came to power in 1957 through democratic elections, the first after the formation of the state. But the old goosebumps and the excitement which accompanied the movement has died down. Now even the party is after money and the poor are left out in the cold.

The poor are lapped up by parties (especially during election time) based on religion, caste and class only to be dumped once they come to power. They are given names during high profile election campaigns only to be forgotten conveniently afterwards. These then are the people, the faceless and nameless people whom we use and throw. ‘We want them but we can’t marry them!!!’ would be a good way to put it. If we ever come across someone like this and ask them their name, perhaps we will get the answer……My name is nobody!!!

The goddamn philosophy of life!!!

Why do people go hungry?
Is it because they laze around and do not more?

Why do people live in poverty?
Is it due to their predestination and fate so ill?

Why do people exist on streets and roads?
Is it coz they never inherited property galore?

Why do people eat so much that they can eat no more?
Is it because they have so much to finish and so gorge more?

Why do people live in richness?
Is it due to their good luck and hard work as well?

Why do people have huge mansions and farm houses?
Is it coz they got huge inheritances to support them from door to door?

But what if I told you that it’s not this way
That we have to see it all another way

People go hungry, because we choose to keep them so
People are poor, because we become rich by doing so
People exist on streets and roads, because we snatch every inch that they own

The church as a public sphere

The word church has been troubling and testing my thinking faculties for quite some time now. Why? The reasons are two. One, how can the church be discriminatory against the poor, the one's without power (Money and political), women, youth, children and the differently abled? Two, did Jesus practise a discriminatory ministry in which he favoured a few and if he did, who did he favour? Can the church, the congregation of believers, be unified in this huge diversity of existence?
My thoughts go in the direction of Jurgen Habermas who wrote of the public sphere. The public sphere is a space of dialogue between the people in society. The dialogue takes place in coffee houses and pubs, basically places frequented by people. I am also reminded of my colleague Johnson Peter Kunnampally's Master of Theology thesis, "Tea shop communication", in which he describes how ordinary people in Kerala come together in tea shops to discuss the day's news over a small glass or two of tea. This has been almost been wiped out now of the Kerala scene save for a few villages.
The criticism of the public sphere has been that women and the lesser privileged were kept out of the dialogue process. I cant help but think of the church as a public sphere. A place where people get together to get into dialogue about God, the society and what can be done about the injustices that happen. The church unfortunately reflects a gross misunderstanding of the sphere of the church. Women are largely kept out of the decision making process and the young and differently abled are conveniently ignored. Thus the place which should be above all injustice and discrimination itself becomes a place holding both.
Jesus appeared to be in constant dialogue with those at the lower strata of society. Every landscape became a church, every problem became a discussion. Jesus then may have taken sides, but it was definitely for the down trodden, the women, children and the sick.
What could be an ideal church, however utopian it may sound? The priest/pastor should initiate the dialogue but should not prevent others from entering the dialogue. He/she should help the process of dialogue to thrive among different age groups but not based on different socio-economic levels. Discrimination based on sex, caste and class should be done away with and people should enjoy the process of free and uninhibited communication. The global way of life is doing away with a sense of community and dialogue. Lets hope that the church and other places of worship bring this back.