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.

 

 

Give me back my religion/church. Ghar wapsi to mera ghar wapas karo! Sermon

Imagine a scenario where people below 50 years of age are moving out of the church. Churches are becoming empty and won’t have many people worshipping in them. We will in all probability think that of two scenarios. One that this is the case of churches in Europe and two that this is the case of churches in India in 2025. But what if we are talking about the present? What if this is already happening in churches in India? Is it true that the church is growing and that more and more people are coming to church or is this some misfounded reality?

According to figures in the U.S. church attendance is coming down. But does that mean that people don’t believe in religion and the church anymore. Recently I was asked in the course of a bible study as to why atheism is on the rise in India? The PEW research figures in the U.S. reveal a different picture. It is not that people are not interested in religion or the church. It is rather that they don’t like religion and church in its present form. They don’t like corruption, scandals, abuse, high handedness and non churchy things that are happening in religious places and churches.

What could be the reason.
a. They are religious but don’t associate with the church anymore. The church is only a social gathering which they would like to skip.
b. Lot of young people are going to new churches because the gospel is not being preached in the mainline churches.
c. People don’t see the church as a place which practices equality, sows seeds of goodness and unifies people. People also don’t want to be judged about their looks, choices and lifestyle.
d. Youngsters are not taken seriously and their views don’t count. People who head teams taking significant decisions are nobody’s in church.
1. Does my religion or spiritual practice move me towards love or away from love towards fear?
2. Does my religion or spiritual practice promote gentleness and kindness?
3. Does my religion or spiritual practice help me feel more at peace with myself?
4. Does my religion or spiritual practice help me dissolve the boundaries of separation and enhance a feeling of Oneness?
5. Does my religion or spiritual practice inspire humility, generosity and wisdom?
How’d you go with those questions? Often we just continue to do the same thing over and over again without really questioning why we do the things we do. Religions can be like this. One of my favourite quotes is from the Dalai Lama:
“My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.”
The story of the lost son follows the story of the lost sheep and the lost coin. Perhaps the usage prodigal son is abusive and wrong.
What are some of the questions that come out of the story of the lost son?
- The usage lost son instead of the prodigal son
- Why did the son leave from the comforts of his father’s son? Did he do something wrong?
- What did he achieve from being away from his father’s house?
- Isn’t losing oneself essential to gain oneself? (The first should be last.)
- What is the role of the elder son? Is he upset with his father? What is the faithfulness that he showed and why did he show it?

Many a time we are not aware of what is happening and what is going on? It is as if we are in a flow.
Once there was a millionaire, who collected live alligators. He kept them in the pool in back of his mansion. The millionaire also had a beautiful daughter who was single. One day he decides to throw a huge party, and during the party he announces, "My dear guests . . . I have a proposition to every man here. I will give one million dollars or my daughter to the man who can swim across this pool full of alligators and emerge alive!"

As soon as he finished his last word, there was the sound of a large splash!! There was one guy in the pool swimming with all he could and screaming out of fear. The crowd cheered him on as he kept stroking as though he was running for his life. Finally, he made it to the other side with only a torn shirt and some minor injuries. The millionaire was impressed.

He said, "My boy that was incredible! Fantastic! I didn't think it could be done! Well I must keep my end of the bargain. Do you want my daughter or the one million dollars?"

The guy says, "Listen, I don't want your money, nor do I want your daughter! I want the person who pushed me in that water!"

1. Lose your church to find it: Ghar wapsi to mera ghar vapas karo!
The lost son did not expect anything while coming back but his father is pretty kind to him. Pastoral care is not something we give to those who have been faithful. Pastoral care is rather a right of every individual who walks into church. The young man almost lost his life. It was when he realized what his life was.
Many philosophers are labeled as non-religious but this may not be true.
According to John D. Caputo in his book The Prayers and Tears of Jacques Derrida:Religion without Religion he talks of Derrida as thus…Still, Derrida says, his mother must have known that "the constancy of God in my life is called by other names," and that even though he does indeed "quite rightly pass for an atheist" with respect to the God of the orthodox faiths, still he has an "absolved, absolutely private language" in which he speaks of God all the time.
Derrida continues “It is this secret that believers have been entrusted with, the secret of the God to come, of an untold and extraordinary future that defies human perception and descriptions, that holds infinite promise for the human race, and that as such, is much better shared in a passionate whisper than trumpeted in triumphant certainty.”
Certainty is much beyond the truth of religion. God and religion cannot be so certain. Maybe for a few but not for everyone. The lost son did not have a definite religion. The elder son thinks he has one. The younger son comes back and in his quiet way tried to claim his religion, his house and his right. It is not a quiet ghar wapsi but a quiet but strong Mera ghar vapas karo!
2. Religion as the lover of truth.
The role of the father in the scene is most interesting. He runs to embrace his son when he draws near. “And when they accuse us of being un-Christian (and they will), we must stand strong and tell them, “You no longer get to own that word. You have used it and abused it and crucified it on crosses of hate, greed, power and control. We are taking our religion back – way back. All the way back to the teachings of Jesus.”
The movie Saath Saath which was released in 1982 and starred Farookh Sheikh and Deepthi Nawal is about a couple who get married because they believe in certain ideals. The husband then gets embroiled in money making and his wife leaves him. He then goes back to his wife and asks her to come back.
In the ending scene when Farooq conveys Deepti his decision to leave the wrong path and join his role model, A.K. Hangal's newspaper, Deepti asks him whether he is doing it just for her sake; Farooq's reply simply touches the heart of the viewer - 'NAHIN, APNE LIYE BHI AUR UN SACHCHAIYON KE LIYE BHI JINHEN HAM DONO NE MILKAR PYAR KIYA THA' (not just for your sake, for own sake also and also for the sake of those truths we had loved together).
What the father does is an ideal thing for the church. It is not just to say that we have to do something for a loved one but to say that we have to do the right thing.
A couple drove several miles down a country road, not saying a word. An earlier discussion had led to an argument, and neither wanted to concede their position.

As they passed some pigs on the way side, the husband sarcastically asked, "Relatives of yours?"

"Yep," the wife replied, "In-laws."

3. Religion as a start up with God as the capital.
Start up is a word being used a lot these days. Young people are starting companies with only their courage as capital. They have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Start up CEO’s are like women drinking wine. They sit quietly and chip away. They are not taken seriously by the older generation but they are so very good. (My generation is the “Be quiet generation.”)
Wife says “I love you so much. I don’t know what I would do without you.” Husband asks if it is her or the wine speaking. She replies that it is her speaking to the wine.

People are getting fed up and would like to start over. Over the years, Jimmy Carter, a devout Christian, has become a very strong proponent of women's rights, to a point where he has spoken out against the falsehoods and extremism we see within the 'religion' of Christianity today. In 2009, he penned an open letter, severing ties with the mega SBC/Southern Baptist Convention, after being a member of the Convention for 60 years. Carter said the decision was difficult and painful, yet 'unavoidable,' after the Convention leaders chose to take bible verses out of context and claim 'Eve' was responsible to for 'original sin,' and thus all women must be subservient to men.
The younger son has nothing with him. He is coming back doubtful whether he can do anything. But his father is very supportive. He believes in him. The elder brother has been around for a long time and he is upset. But the father sees prospect in his younger son.

Dear exam writers and scholars, all three points from the sermon have something to offer you. Losing yourself is essential to write from scratch and write new, if you love the truth and persist with that, your grades will also at some point of time reflect that and finally don’t just stick on to your preparations. There can always be a surprise round the corner. Be courageous and write like you have nothing to lose. Start up, Write more and write well. Luck and God’s grace always favours the courageous. Amen.

(Preached in the UTC chapel on August 23,2015.)

St.Joseph: Powering us to a higher spiritual realm

St. Matthew 1:18-25
18 Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah[a] took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. 20 But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:
23 “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel,”
which means, “God is with us.” 24 When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, 25 but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son;[b] and he named him Jesus.

The passage talks about the seldom revealed and exalted Joseph, husband of Mother Mary and father to Jesus. Joseph in comparison with local culture and customs is the man who takes a step back so that the woman he is betrothed to can take a step forward. Today, in all probability he would be referred to as the weak husband who does not speak and remains powerless in front of his wife. Yet Joseph’s powerlessness becomes Mother Mary’s and our power. That he chose not to express his power and his position makes him someone who took the route of equitable spirituality, meaning spirituality for all with special emphasis on exaltation of the vulnerable.

Mary was vulnerable in the position that she was in. She had nothing to let go off. But Joseph could let go of many things and it is this letting go which we can indeed learn from. Joseph lets go of his ego, his manliness, his position of future husband and plan maker. He leaves everything so that God’s will be done on earth. Only those with power and some leverage can let go and become powerless. In terms of countries of the world, it is pointless to expect a country like Nepal to let go of what they have in comparison to the USA. It is only when someone with power lets go that it becomes sacrifice. Joseph here sacrifices and it is a sacrifice which will in our society be looked upon as weakness and the act of a spineless man.

Mary had nothing much to let go off. Joseph on the other hand had something to let go. He was respected, he had status in the eyes of the general public, he had a reasonable amount of money and he had age on his side as signs of a man who had much more than the woman he was betrothed to. His reaction on knowing about the pregnancy of Mary was decent and even unexpected. He was already being a gentleman. But God wanted more. It was not just to be a gentleman but to let go of everything which defined who he was. That was what God wanted of him.

Spirituality is easy to define when everything is from our perspective. It is our God, our church, our family, our blessing and everything is in the singular with the emphasis on I, me and myself. Spirituality becomes more complex when it has to be shared and the challenge is for those of us who are in positions of power to devolve ourselves of the power we have and share it with others.

1. Powerful to power-us- situations where one has to be powerless are criticized especially when people with no power have to further give up what they have. In family, church and societal contexts there should become a guiding principle where we can share power. Individual spirituality then becomes equitable spirituality where everyone is treated the same way and everyone has access to the grace of God. Joseph is powerful in comparison with Mary and yet when the angel tells him about Jesus, the baby who is to be born and is to save people from their sins, he turns this equation around. Immanuel, meaning God is with us leads Joseph to change his situation of power which was individual and unidirectional into power-us and not powerless. When husbands treat their wife’s with respect and give opportunities to them, society sees it as loss of power for the husband. But rather than being loss of power it is sharing of power.

2. Godless to God is with us- we are always expectant of great things in our life. This expectation also goes to the extent of hoping that God be with us, and Immanuel becomes a great hope of God being with us. But our life becomes a sign of us forgetting the immense role of God in our lives. We move away from God and move onto our own thoughts which exclude others from the grace of God. Our acts end up being Godless acts of selfishness and greed which take away the essence of spirituality from us. The understanding that God is with us should also bring us to the understanding that we have become power-us, meaning that we have to work with God and do acts of Godliness in our lives. This brings upon great responsibility in our lives and will allow us to look at things from the perspective of God and God’s willingness to power-us. Amen.

The theology and spirituality of the Jacobite Syrian Orthodox church in India

The Jacobite Syrian Orthodox church or the Syrian Orthodox church in India is a church which is entwined in the spiritual-cultural spectrum of India for centuries now. As churches in India are in the process of understanding and even re-discovering their place in the new India, the Jacobite Syrian Orthodox church will also have to travel the same direction at some point of time or the other. The new India is not just the India of progress but also the India of discrepancies and discriminations. As the diverse country tries to understand itself, it will also look at the various religious groups in the hope of learning things from them which will help it evolve towards a common good.

What does the church have to say about the equality of humankind, sexuality, poverty, the environment, rights deprivation and economic disparity? There may be a notion among the people of India that this church is an old, strict, limited and wasted communion of people. But there is also a notion that this very church can offer through its theology, spirituality and practice a different message for an India which wants to go full blast along the high road of development. This variance in opinion may even exist inside the church itself. There are those who say that church tradition means that which is unchanging and those who say that tradition evolves with time and therefore does not stand still in the time gone by.

What could be some of the aspects we could learn from? The church gains understanding from the Trinitarian relationship of God, is energised by the communitarian essence of worship which is an unending spiritual and practical expression of believers, is aware of the unseen and unheard which brings about humility into the essence of living, brings in a special concoction of the body and the being and keeps in living memory the special relationship of God, humans and creation. These cannot be explained by members of the church. They can only be lived out. This brings out the need for the Syrian Orthodox church to live out their faith in India. The actual living will express itself in various ways and it would be dangerous to give a hard and fast ruling on this.

The church will have to include others in India in this living out of its faith. This will bring out the struggle to include others into a so far exclusive circle which we have created by the non-living of our faith. Better still we may have to do away with the circle all together or make it a flexible circle which includes all, in opposition to excluding all. The church thus has to be an inclusive, creative and life affirming community of believers. There has to be a coming together of the old and the new. This is the meeting point which the church has to affirm to the people of India. This could be the development model which seeks to conserve for many, rather than destruct in the pursuit of happiness for the few.

The youth space and the church

Politics in India has come to the era of being youth-i-fied. Different parties are claiming that the youth are not only their future but present as well. With the youth being lured to join various political dispensations, youth lobbyists are asking for more seats and representation in the political decision making and the running of the country. But the seniors are not willing to let go. Understandably so, because they have themselves burnt out their youthful fire before being handed the reins of power! In the midst of this deadlock and power mongering, the debate should perhaps be about power sharing.

The church in India reflects the same predicament. The youth are demanding their share and the older generation refuses to let go of what they have themselves just received. One way of ending this impasse is to locate spaces within the political and spiritual landscape of India. Spaces where all can be included and all can participate in a worth while manner!

The youth in India are taking to the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in a big way. The internet in its various forms is helping bring about a revolution which is creating a space for youngsters in this country. The church also through interactive web sites, chat rooms, online forums and blogs is being challenged to hear what the youth have to say. A clamp down on such forums and online activity would not fare well for the traditionalists as that would bring the battle on to the streets.

The time has come for the church to claim its youth and its online community. There will be cross overs from the older generation who are still young at heart and that should be welcomed as no one can lay claim to the term youth in an exclusive manner. It would bid well for the church to allow such alternative spaces which are in a way outside the physical church but in all aspects part and parcel of the church.

The concerns about social networking sites like facebook and orkut obviously remain, with prime concerns on whether the youth are being misled into a pseudo-spiritual life rather than one based on reality and real experiences. But one cannot write away such sites without discussing the pros and cons of it. The popularity of these sites seeks a discussion on them. The discussion could also go in the direction of how the church can be a part of these spaces which the youth have made their own and how the church can take them seriously and not just write them off as technological gizmos fit only for gamers and the laptop generation.

Churches in India need to go a step further. They have to discuss the possibility of having a spirituality which fits the demands of the online generation. Is online counselling possible, can video conferencing be held between the leadership and the youth to avoid red tapism and hierarchical high handedness, can the youth meet online and discuss everyday concerns, and can the priest be available online to the youth? The non-involvement of the church will make the youth space a churchless space!

Everyone wants to play God

Kerala is going to have local body elections on October 23 and 25. We are witnessing unprecedented campaigning and new promises being delivered by all candidates. The bottom line is that all want to win. All want to serve and all are doing it as social service. They tell us that there is no hidden agenda and that development is the key. They have all come into politics to ‘save’ the various panchayats and municipalities of Kerala.

Thus candidates of all ages, gender and political affiliations have a religious tone to them in the form of the save all attitude. But even after analysing candidate after candidate, one does not understand what they intend to do for five long years, apart from saving all of us. It is sad that there is no platform to bring all together and make them explain what they are going to do. Online electioneering will take a bit more of time and so we have to rely on what they say to our faces.

The poor and the rich in Kerala are into a spirituality which is uni-religious in confession and multi-religious in action. This is because people are willing to do anything to get their things done. One has to then wonder that if politicos did indeed fulfil their promises, the picture would have indeed been a bit different. So we are faced with the difficulty of saving one of the candidates to help them save us. It is a quid pro quo. You save me and I will save you.

I am indeed confused. My religion tells me that God saves and I am just a part of that saving process. But the candidate tells me that I can save and win too! This election process has thus put me and many others in a dilemma. Do I become God for a day and vote? Or am I being made into God for a day to serve all the other days? Coming to think of it isn’t that what the candidates are supposed to do? Serve the people and stop being God after they have ensured victory? Everyone wants to play God! Is God watching?

I know what you did last summer: Sowing guilt and reaping profits

What is the one thing that we find difficult to handle but which resurfaces time after time? The feeling of guilt which comes out when we read something, listen to a talk or watch a programme on T.V. But what happens when this horrible feeling is manufactured in an assembly line, marketed and advertised in the truest professional sense and sold to an unsuspecting public who then have to buy the product which will help them overcome guilt?

This is then the spiritual commodity of guilt which is sown into the minds of the believers and non-believers, leading to the reaping and filling of the coffers of religious institutions. Rather than dwelling on the liberating aspects of equality, love, peace and justice, religious leaders like to dwell on what has gone wrong in the lives of the ordinary person. Even prophetic voices have turned into ‘I know what you did last summer!!’, sending the believer crashing down into the lowest of low’s with drooping shoulders and negative thoughts.

But does it mean that we should not discuss our past and deal with what has happened in our lives? That would also be running away from what and who we are. The effort rather should be to come to terms with ourselves, not judging others, and knowing that we should do things out of genuine love and concern rather than out of guilt and fear. Religion even in this different era is reluctant to let go of the tried and tested model of playing with guilt.

Churches both in India and abroad work up the emotional quotient of people by showing pictures of poor children and their surroundings. People then pay money out of guilt rather than genuine concern. We also get a very skewed picture of spirituality that we can buy ourselves out of this feeling of guilt, by paying huge sums of money to the church. But guilt is not something which can be washed away with pieces of paper. Rather it has to be dealt with on a people to people level at first.

If we feel that we have wronged someone we have to try to talk to that someone and see whether there is an opening for rapprochement. Sometimes this might not be available easily and therefore it is a process of building bridges over a period of time. The record has to be set straight though. It is okay to feel guilty, we are all guilty of various things, guilt wont go away by paying money and we have to try and set things right with those whom we have wronged and thereby come to terms with our guilt.