On the Edge ...

Order and Meaning

2011-05-20T05:48:00.000-07:00

Both by nature and training, I am inclined towards order. Others are often confounded by my leanings. This morning my colleagues at the CBSA office didn’t understand my point, or that eccentric excitement, when I saw a perfect pattern in the vapour bubbles formed inside the lid of the Starbuck coffee cup I brought to my work space.

I observe. I look for order. I see patterns and synchronicities all the time. Then I boldly, often, with fear and trembling, announce this order. Consequently I end as a witness, without becoming a religious fundamentalist or a philosophical absolutist, to a higher order that some dare to name as God. Naming as God is not my primary concern. But I like to recognize that there is in life always something more than my mind can readily grasp with the aid of my senses and educated rationality.

The basic religious instincts are sparked by the human requisite for order and meaning in life. All centuries old God-talk, hence, is hard-work to establish that combo of order-meaning. The desire to discern and discover order and meaning, in an otherwise chancy, chaotic and meaningless loitering, or a flowing, a flooding in human life, yields a variety of religious expressions.

Meaning, then, is only an inner aspect of that order. It is this preoccupation -- as some may consider it -- that eventually led to my evolving, both professionally and existentially into a religious person. But earlier when I was a teenager I fascinated myself with atheistic discourse. My role model was Abraham Kovoor, the then president of the Rationalist Association, promoted an absence of any transcendental meaning or order.

But today I have no religious models to imitate. My preference is a mystical merging into that self beyond the ego! I came to this movement from religious-social activism and after flirting in religious ritualism as a full-time parish priest for a short time in Canada.

Recently, with all that chaos on my family-front, when my soul was completely besieged by circumstances beyond my control, I have consciously explored the eastern concept of vanavāsam.

This notion of journeying through wilderness is to be found in the great epics Ramayanam and Maha Bharatham India has produced among many other. I think this is also found within other religious faiths. Some of these religions did not emerge from the Indian subcontinent. I see the concept and practice of vanavāsam also in Jesus’s faith and in the Native American spiritualities.

Vanavāsam is a process discussed in the epics to handle crisis in an individual’s life that is similar to that of Job, a non-Jewish character who had been included in the Hebrew Bible. Vanavāsam enables one to handle with patience -- that Qur’anic sabar -- the turbulence, or the rough time unexpectedly settling around a helpless self. Vanavāsam, gives you time and space, like Joseph’s prison in Egypt, or Muhammad’s Hijra, that fleeing to Madina, waiting for the opportune moment.

Vanavāsam can be compared to an unfolding of events, like a soft caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly. The maggot, symbolically the struggling human, plods through countless hazards, covering self into a cocoon, transforming and pushing through a tiny opening to stretch as a bigger person. Such an evolution is usually very complex and carries within a miraculous element. With the commitment to vanavāsam, then, there is renewed calm and appreciation for the imminent order present always in all life and the greater meaning to develop.

Discernment and discovery of this already existing, that evolving order speeds my inner transformation. When pain is in excess, then, faith is vital. And faith is that ability to see the already surfacing order.

Therefore, the individual rooted in spirituality – the person striving to find order and meaning -- learns also the art of abandoning the need to fear abandonment. Religious persons can affirm, as does this Evangelical claim, “Even when people turn on us, friends forsake us, or circumstances separate us from loved ones, we are never alone.” This is a mystical, not mysterious, experience available to anyone who wants to look for greater order and meaning.

Yaris: Japanese Therapy!

2011-04-27T20:17:00.000-07:00

I consider my drive to Dawson Creek and back to Ramada, my home away from home, one that was powerfully therapeutic. I did this during the long weekend that included the Good Friday to Easter Sunday. After the long drive I feel magically healed of all my Maundy Thursday’s sickness -- a piercing pain in my soul -- and feel the burden of the previous week suddenly lifted away like fog in the valley.

I also had another day to drive the Yaris, temporarily mine during the holiday season, around Vancouver, enjoying -- alone -- a South Indian lunch at Sarvanabhavan and, later, a North Indian supper in a Panjabi restaurant at Surrey. The latter meal was a generous hospitality of RB. That’s how Dr Ran Banda Herath, a Sinhalese Sri Lankan-Canadian, a civil engineer by profession, wants me to call him. He is my new loquacious friend. And Hemamala, his wife, is just the opposite. RB is very caring; readily he came to pick me when I dropped my rental car on Easter Monday evening.

I spent eight hours with RB, first in the Tim Horton’s at Maple Ridge, then the remaining in his car, his home, and the rest, in the restaurant. This was our first face to face meeting. But both forthrightly open to the other. We have known each other only through emails for almost a year now, mainly through a mutual friend, the late Dr Mohan Thiyagarajah, an agriculture specialist, whose request for my response to RB’s A New Beginning for Humankind – A Recipe for lasting Peace on Earth, the manuscript of his new book RB had been working on for some time now sparked of a new relationship. I know I am likely to be persuaded to a writing a foreword for RB’s effort.

But my major concern is peace within. This is a reference to my soul, that micro-cosmos! My Maundy Thursday tornado, then, was caused by my learning from Leroy Hiller, my lawyer, the arrival of a new moment, perhaps, the kairos. The moment to let Chandra take away, a large sum of my “hard earned money”, with all the “gold jewelry” that had great sentimental value and an irrational emotional attachment, and a “divorce” that enables her not to belong to me anymore – or, for me to belong to her no more. He was actually asking for my signatures on papers for these things to become legal. The first and the second requests were reasonably easy compared to the third: to agree to the divorce. It pricked on my soul as if it was like a pin prick on my naked eye-ball!

Thursday evening, frankly, I suffered much. I was absolutely alone. It was my Garden of Gethsemane. I wanted to get into my corner, cry my heart out loud, and let tears roll to wash my soul. It was then I was also planning to drop this trip to Dawson Creek. Leanne, my supervisor at work place and Gitanjali, my general manager, tried to persuade me not to drive alone. Inappropriateness of the timing with not so good road conditions was their main argument.

However, on Good Friday morning sharp at 6.00, I jumped into the rental car, a small Toyota Yaris, and drove for 17 hours and 17 minutes to Dawson Creek. This was a nonstop drive though I stopped in many places when stung, or electrocuted by the beauty of the terrain, including Lillooet, the little hydroelectric town, to enjoy the beautiful reservoir that I saw as a gorgeous yoni-linga temple, a perfect marital cooperation between humans and gods.

The gift for this hard work, for dashing in my Yaris, was more work; Gitanjali and Jay dropped off Justin with me in the Peace Villa Motel around midnight. This was in Dawson Creek that not so big city that I used to dislike while working in Northern Alberta three years ago. Here for the first time Justin rolled and had his first fall from a bed while I was fast asleep beside him! I was, of course, quick in waking.

Though tired, obviously, from driving, I still found plenty of energy to play with my energetic grandson, soon to be two years old, as early as 6.30 in the morning. We went to the motel office for breakfast where the 70-year-old Korean-Canadian, too, connected with Justin so easily and very well. He himself is a grandfather of two granddaughters as I learnt from him.

It was also a life transforming, a very humbling experience to meet and shake hands with Murray, Jay’s dad. This is the first time I shook hands with someone from Jay’s family. Oh, no! Tina, Jay’s older sister, I hugged her, after Chandra had deserted the nest.

Murray, I noticed, ticked well with Justin and Gitanjali, relieving me of a great anxiety and a burden. I also felt encouraged by Jay’s desire to hang out with his father. That made me to comfortably drive back towards Prince George, the northern capital of British Columbia, where I had already made friends with Sonya and Ho, another couple of Korean-Canadian who own the Rosebud Motel beside Highway 97.

My drive to Dawson Creek was through very high mountains covered with thick white powder and literally dozens of hairpin bends in Highway 99 where one had to often let horses and humans walk safely. It continued in Highway 97. On both I drove through avalanche areas and hills where rocks fall frequently. On the way I also stopped at seven places for deer to cross, two places for moose to pass, and at least once, for a herd of elks to walk. The next day when I was driving back I saw a dead deer in the middle of the road, hit, perhaps, after I passed the previous night.

Though most of my drive was free of other people, in certain, very dangerous and challenging places, I saw skiers sporting with the possible death that I am always dodging, particularly with a set of weak arteries to carry my blood around. There was cool and fresh air, however, for my heart and blood vessels to liberally enjoy.

There was a unique thing I noticed, almost, towards the end of the first day driving. This was, my radio blasting, loudly, English songs I used to shut down as noise as soon as my daughter switched it on! What brought that change in me? How did I manage to enjoy this music? This also involved Bob Marley’s freedom song and “Put your hand in the hand of the Man from Galilee”, written by Gene MacLellan and sung by "Ocean", a musical group consisting of the then young musicians from Prince Edward Island.

Also, I heard a story on CBC radio that gave me goose bumps, from Calgary, if I remember correct. A single mother there invited and shared her home with a homeless person. Her son, now 23 years old, considered her mother as one who always did the unusual things. Why not? Why not drive to Dawson Creek from Vancouver and get back to Pitt Meadows in less than three days, like the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, though all alone and before the arrival of the actual spring? The strength of her character made me tip, gently, my hat for this single-mother. I also tipped my hat to the homeless person who insisted on paying rent, though only $ 10.00 per week. This person lived on picking bottles for recycling and he described his job, humorously, a recycling agent.

I also admired, earlier, while at the Rosebud Motel, a couple of older men renting rooms in that motel and one man living in a trailer. There was another man walking around with his pair of binoculars and torn bird book, while another at McDonald’s in Pemberton walking with a huge camera but admiring my little Canon SX30. This man is a wildlife photographer, taking pictures of bears, including grizzlies.

I noticed these men were very independent and none of them exposed any trace of sorrow, or anxious fears in their faces. So did the men whom I saw at the Tim Horton’s in Quesnel. All these inspirations I picked up on my way, like Justin, my grandson, picking pebbles while picnicking, resurrected, on this Easter Sunday, that strength of my character, which was once very alive but now more or less dead. My determination to drive the Yaris to Dawson Creek removed those grave clothes wrapped around letting me walk into abundance.

Enough

2011-04-08T21:49:00.000-07:00

I could have gone for work. But I didn’t. I have a very bad cold that also caused a significant loss of my voice, the main tool for my work. It was bad yesterday. But today it is a little better. Yet I thought I should stay back. This is my new way of saying “enough is enough” for unconstrained money making. Desire for limitless money is crazy leading, often, only to an “un-ordered chaotic life”. This want for more space, more money, and more fame is a sickening sickness, difficult to cure but very infectious, fast spreading, while no one cares about arresting it.

My everyday angels yesterday were Sina and Leanne. Sina, around noon, told me yesterday I should go home. Sina was also dragging me to come to lunch with the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) crowd. Leanne, my supervisor, later said I should take leave today. Karry, too, was very affectionate and brought me her unused lunch to take for my supper! These young people from the CBSA wanted to give me more life, more love.

Gitanjali, my only daughter, too gave me a large chunk of life and love with her timely note on “Sorry”. She had difficulty in accepting that giving less love to me. That is the struggle that I saw in her letter. She is a wonderful daughter who wants to give me nothing less than “more love and much care”. I am grateful to that invisible Manager of this oikumene for sending these angels on the path of my everyday life. It is these angels that do not let me slip into sickness and to that greater disease of “meaninglessness”.

Two media write-ups that caught my attention during the last few days are those that inspire me for greater meaning through less craze for money and space. The first one was on “Minimalist living popularized by books, websites – Grassroots movement preaches living mindfully”. This appeared in The Vancouver Sun (April 5, 2011, page B11). This piece critiques “consumerism” by promoting “minimalism” as a concept and practice. Jay Baydala from Alberta’s booming Calgary, here, becomes a model for “purging excess stuff from your life and your home”. Jay Baydala is not a fool to think that all people are going to consider him the “coolest person” in Calgary or elsewhere. That in any case is not part of his purpose or focus on “simple living”! But he is aware that his tribe is on the increase in the North American surface.

The second one is actually what I read a few minutes ago (in the morning of April 8, 2011) as I switched on my computer. It was a Yahoo report: “Woman lives large in what may be New York’s smallest apartment” (http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/good-news/woman-lives-large-may-york-smallest-apartment-20110407-115353-491.html). It is about Felice Cohen, a professional organizer -- I am not surprised a consumerist reacting to “minimalism” calls Cohen a “professional idiot” -- who lives in a small space in the large New York City. Mine, I realize, doesn’t have to be a 90 square foot house like Cohen’s. Yet I can stop in my heart that craving to increase my stature by increasing my space, or wanting that upgrading of my car.

My desire for, and thoughts on simpler living, did not suddenly fall from the sky on my lips or finger tips. I have been learning much of this stuff for a long time -- for almost forty years -- from others as well as my own experiences I often churn into poems. My poems “blocking with pride”, “lust for space kills”, “dance but touch not” and many other in my mongoose in chicken house & other poems (2010) and elsewhere, then, are my creedal affirmation on promoting a life beyond “affluence” that will not, I know for sure, influence the average crazy Joe chasing the “wind”, that nothingness.

Nonetheless, today I hum, in my heart, that poem titled, “simple pleasures”, I wrote almost two years ago. It reads:

“a strong cup of coffee

that plain black

with nothing added into it

a shorter story

to explore the collapse

of my strong youthful dreams

and a simple seat

to consume the free providence

of the strong morning sun

these are what I seek

these days in the dusk

of my crumbling life

that missed

those many birds in hand

with its focus on one in bush”

[http://isaachenryvictor.blogspot.com/]

Power of Positive Thinking

2011-02-28T17:59:00.000-08:00

My mind this morning is fixed on two themes -- praise and friendship. The reading from the devotional booklet Daily Bread, put out by the conservative evangelical Christians in North America, speaks of the need to offer praises to God. The online devotional resource the Daily Word, on friendship subtitles its short lesson, “Thank you, God, for my friends”. The latter is from the unity movement, a kind of a new age, Christian syncretistic North American trend that helped me to overcome, a great deal, the 2010 tsunami of my life. I have these two themes to play with the whole day.

I used to think if God were to expect me to praise him, all morning, all afternoon, and all evening, he must be a silly and an egoistic God not worthy of my worship. I can’t remember the exact name of the philosopher from whom I learnt this thought! Nevertheless that attitude has been there with me, at least, to some degree! Since, I have certain Sufistic and mystical strands embedded in my religiosity I also practice “praise”, at least occasionally, to get lost in that little known “wide ocean” people call “God”. In the process I do, also, have an opportunity to consider the many “generosities”, “pleasant goodies”, I am surrounded with. This is how I am able to not only put up with but also appreciate my “Pentecostal friends” -- Danny, David, Yasmine, to name just three -- who also have contributed towards my healing since last March!

So, certainly, when I say, “thank you, God, for my friends”, I remember those Pentecostals, who also helped me to restore, rather continue maintain, my awareness of the transcendental dimension of human life and my sense of “calling to the ministry” by inviting me to regularly participate in their “acts of praise” and “preaching and teaching ministry”.

This has enabled me to look at the world and the act of praise in a new light that should satisfy also the secularists. The genuine and deeper friendships I enjoyed since the early 2010; that too from the least expected quarters. This is prompting me to put away extreme pessimism, replacing it with a new and a vibrant optimism that sees the unfolding life -- the destiny -- as nothing but generosity and maturity. All, at the end, works towards goodness. Hence, all what I can do is to continuously praise the creative energy, the being par excellence, the very source of my existence, the providence towards my unfolding, the birthplace of my becoming into an ever-changing, or an ever-growing bigger person, who puts away, gradually, like a tree dropping off its barks and leaves, the older selfish moments that made the older life.

Not that I hold one set of friends above the others. The others too have given me life, either equally, or even greater. The friends who challenge me -- here I am thinking of those who do not always agree with me -- too are generous and truly and genuinely friendly towards my soul. I have tons of them, including the following: Abraham, fairly a recent friend, but a difficult nut to crack, joined the earlier ones; others are, Brian, the poet, whose poetic style and intentions are so different to that of mine, Azeb, the strong Eritrean woman, and the American Todd with whom I have now not spoken for a long time.

None of these mean that I drift like a jelly fish -- a cowardly activity -- with no space for critical evaluation of events, moments, and persons. Focus on praise and friendship does involve, also, critical rejection, and serious dropping of the ticks that can suck your “God-given” life energy. That is the shedding of the barks I mentioned earlier.

However, my present state, away from my usual space, limits my interactions with my friends. But this also has given me some new acquaintances, from among which I have also discovered some good friends that make “praise” a relevant concept and practice, at least, for me. My many friendships and acts of praise, I must admit, at least, have given me the spark for the power of positive thought in my life as it unfolds in the present, in an unknown and a very painful moment.

“Your thoughts are tools by which you carve your life.”

Work in Progress

2011-02-06T22:11:00.000-08:00

Joseph, my friend in Vancouver, sent me some old black and white pictures. They depict scenes in Sri Lanka when the country was known as Ceylon, the Paradise Island. These pictures are interesting, provoking a variety of emotions within me. But the scenes have now drastically changed.

I remember, in the late 50’s and the early 60’s, seeing hundreds of fishermen’s sailing boats in Trincomalee where my adolescent life and teen time were spent. People used to call these little boats with huge sails “pai kappal”, literally “mat ship”. In these boats as the fishermen reach the shores they will roll the sails as if rolling the mats early morning from their deep sleep! These boats are now replaced by bigger boats with smaller engines they, upon reaching shores, carry on their shoulders as if carrying pillows. Today, very rarely one might see a “pai kappal” around Trincomalle waters!

Becoming, a kind of changing, an unfolding of the new, an evolving, and a growing are part of not only a landscape -- nation’s history -- but also my everyday life. This is the very essence of life. “Yes, I know it; it is a fact that all know it. So, why bother?” A justifiable assertion!

The need to reflect on the fact of “unfolding”, for me then, is caused by awareness. It is my cognizance of the in-built, or the immanent, resistance to the continuous unfolding, or potential growth. Such fighting emerges from a kind of inclination to the ingrained comfort in the status quo within one’s soul. In Tamil proverbial tradition this is very succinctly announced: “puthu seruppu kadikkum”, meaning, “the new shoe bites”! Hence the reluctance to change!

I have seen this within my soul as well. But I have gone through tsunamic changes in my life. It is this that led to the sudden sharp learning curve -- a process of accommodating the unfolding -- that I went through since the last St Patrick’s day!

I am , I am aware, continually evolving, or becoming into a person I was not forty, thirty, twenty, ten years, or even a year ago. My values -- what I actually now let my eyes see, ears hear, feet walk towards, my hands reach for, my heart desire, or my mind imagine -- has been changed as I journey through new times.

I know, for certain, from the moment my life began, I have been evolving and growing. As an infant, through trial and error, I learned to crawl, walk and speak. In that I am not different to Justin, my grandson, whom I, even as I was recuperating from my open-heart surgery, watched to crawl in my bonus room, then walking in my moccasins and now running around the kitchen island expecting me to run behind to catch him! Earlier, Gitanjali, my only daughter, went through this “becoming” to eventually birthing Justin.

Today with another, almost, thirty years ahead of me, growing in harmony with that unfolding that continues in my soul is necessary for me. My feet yesterday cooperated well with my soul in discovering beauty along the backwaters of Harris road that went beyond the Old Dewdney road into the Osprey Loop! My mind, then, like the bald eagle I saw there in great numbers, took off flying along the Alouette River to the wilderness --jungles I walked as a teen, without a guide, exploring aimlessly, the birds and the nothingness.

Today each experience I encounter, each relationship I enter into, each insight intuitively or rationally I receive, offers me the opportunity to become stronger outwardly and grow in my inner self. I am delighted as I feel that my nerve endings are healing in my chest, left arm, and left leg that were surgically cut to repair my old sick heart. It gives me great peace to know that the one who began a good work in me continues with the same that I may grow and evolve to become the person I am meant to be. I am, in fact, a work in progress that becoming.

The Lausanne Covenant and Islam: Evangelizing the Muslim World

2010-10-11T21:15:00.000-07:00

While the movement towards inter-religious dialogue in general and Christian-Muslim dialogue in particular was picking up momentum, 2,700 Christian official participants from over one hundred and fifty nations attended an International Congress on World Evangelization at Lausanne, Switzerland, from July 16-25, 1974. This meeting took place after a two and a half year preparation. Billy Graham was the main mind behind the Lausanne Congress. The purpose of this Congress was:

To proclaim the Biblical basis of evangelism in a day of theological confusion.
To examine our message and methods by this standard; to relate Biblical
truth to crucial issues facing Christians everywhere.
To share and
strengthen our unity and love in Christ.
To identify those who are as yet
unreached or alienated from the Gospel.
To learn from each other the
patterns of evangelism the Holy Spirit is using today in our churches,
fellowships and missionary societies.
To awaken our Christian consciences to
the implications of expressing Christ’s love in attitude and action to men of
every class and color.
To encourage cooperative strategies toward reaching
all men for Christ.
To pray together for world evangelization in this
century asking that the Congress may contribute significantly to this end.
To be God’s people, available for all His purpose in the world.

The purpose of the Congress was reiterated in the theme: “Let the Earth Hear His Voice”.

The most significant stress of the 1974 Congress was “reaching” the “unreached peoples of the world”, by which the participants referred to the people of other faiths and ideologies. According to the Congress report there are 2.7 billion “unreached peoples”. The highlight of the conference was the issue by Congress participants a brief document entitled, “The Lausanne Covenant” (hereafter LC), which though does not speak directly of Muslims or Christian-Muslim relations, still has some implications for the same. Hence, we need to look at the LC in some detail from which further theologizing evolved, establishing the various Lausanne Covenant Programme (LCP).

The Lausanne Covenant

John Stott, one of the chief spokespersons for the Lausanne Congress, quoted an Asian theologian, without disclosing his identity, which had said that the LC is “the most significant ecumenical confession on evangelism that the church has produced”. This was a document produced before the Congress and circulated among some of the advisers, to make sure that it reflected the mind of the Congress. After much study and revision the final draft was submitted to the participants. John Stott maintained that the word “covenant” was used, (rather than “declaration”,) to put greater emphasis on doing something. “Doing” here was meant “to commit ourselves to the task of world evangelization”, which for the participants included very definitely, the Muslim world.

The LC had fifteen sections. Each section is “packed fairly tight with content” and at the end had reference to several biblical passages. The great commission of Christ, that is, proclaiming the Gospel to all people and making disciples of every nation was the central theme of the covenant. Much stress was put on the authority of the Bible (section 2) and the uniqueness and universality of Jesus Christ (section 3). More than six sections spoke exclusively of evangelism, which included also changing the religious allegiance of people.

The LC accepted that all people “have some knowledge of God through his general revelation in nature”. But, it denied, “that this can save”. In other words, Islam, according to the LC, may contain knowledge of God, but that knowledge will be inadequate to save the Muslims. Hence, by implication, a Muslim must hear and accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ in order to be saved.

LC advocated a “dialogue whose purpose is to listen sensitively in order to understand”. But, if by dialogue it is implied “that Christ speaks equally through all religions and ideologies”, then, the LC argued, it was “derogatory to Christ and the Gospel”. The ultimate goal of a Christian, according to the LC, was not “dialoguing” but “reaching”, and “persuading” people, including the Muslims, to come to Christ.

LC, to be exact, never denied the validity of dialogue with people of other faiths. It does not consider the urgency of dialogue in the same way the SVC and the WCC documents have affirmed it. The urgency for the LC was not to dialogue with the 2.7 billion people of other faiths, but to evangelize them, among whom most are Muslims.

Critically Understanding the Documents of the LCP

To critically understand the LC we need to consider also the documents produced in consultations participated by the conservative evangelicals. This is because the Lusanne Congress, in some sense, was only a sequel to several previous consultations among them are Wheaton (1966), Berlin (1966), and Frankfurt (1970). Moreover, the establishment of the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization with its various sub-committees and consultations that sprang from Lausanne (1974) made the latter another beginning of the revival of the former concern of some of the Euro-North American Christians, namely, the evangelization of the world in this generation, a concern that had been kept alive since 1886. Along with them it is important to reflect, also, documents evolved from Pasadena (1977), Willow bank (1978), Colorado (1978), Pattaya (1980), and Wheaton (1983).

For this essay I focus only on the reports, declarations, etc., that are the outcome of group interaction, occasionally referring to a document that was released by the Evangelical Alliance of Britain entitled, Christianity and Other Faiths: An Evangelical contribution to our Multi-Faith Society. This document is related to Lausanne (1974), not so much institutionally, but in its content, faith, hopes, and aspirations.

Before the actual analysis and discussion of the above mentioned documents two preliminary observations are in order. First, excepting Colorado (1978) and Pattaya (1980), none of the other documents mentioned in this section are particularly addressed to Muslims as a distinct and a unique people. But this does not mean that these documents do not consider the Muslims as a distinct community of people with a distinct religion and culture. In fact as we proceed it will become evident that these documents for purpose of strategy treat not only Muslims but also people of other religious groups as distinct groups.

This is partly connected to the often repeated concept of “the unreached people” to describe those who have not met with the Gospel. Muslims, according to these documents, are, therefore, a part of the unreached people. These documents assume that, the Gospel, the essence of Christianity, is absent in other religions, including Islam. In this sense, Islam and its adherents are in no way different from the other non-Christian religions and their followers. Islam is dumped together with the other religions and is referred to as “non-Christian”. This will be further discussed later when the status of Islam in these documents is clarified and evaluated.

The second observation is related to the first. Unlike the Christians connected to the World Council of Churches and the Catholics conservative evangelicals do not express any necessity for Muslim participation, or participation of any other non-Christians, in formulating such documents to provide guidelines for Christian-Muslim relations. In fact, no non-Christians ever participated in any of the consultations that produced the present set of documents. For the authors of the LCP texts, Christian theology is the exclusive business of Christians.

In addition to these two comments it is possible to make a further observation about the overall theological mood of the LCP documents. These documents unashamedly disclose a particular theological bias, namely, the new conservative evangelical theology that claims “a faithfulness to the scriptures”. Further, the Christian thinkers behind the LCP documents will also claim that this “faithfulness to the scriptures” is absent in other forms of Christian theologies. What needs to be noted here is the dogmatic nature of the method and content of the theology that undergirds the LCP documents. The explorative dimension of theology as a discipline is totally absent. In this sense it is very doubtful whether these documents could commend themselves in the context of spirituality, which is basically one of exploration.

However, the documents related to Lausanne (1974) are not ambiguous. They express precisely what their concern(s) is/are, the motive(s) and objective(s) for this/these concern(s), and the strategy/strategies they adopt to reach this/these objective(s). From the motive(s), objection(s) and strategy/strategies discussed in the documents, it is possible to unearth the status of Islam and Muslims in Christian theology, which is our main aim in analysing and studying these documents. Moreover, the LCP documents also discuss the contemporary concern for Christian dialogue with Muslims, which will have serious implications in doing Christian theology. It is to these issues we will now turn our attention.

Evangelizing the Muslims

Courageously and with no hesitation the LCP documents proclaim their concern for the evangelization of the Muslim world in particular and the whole world in general. “Let the Earth hear His Voice” was, as we saw earlier in this chapter, the slogan of Lausanne (1974). This international congress affirmed:

We are deeply stirred by what God is doing in our days, moved to penitence by
our failures and challenged by the unfinished task of evangelization. We believe
the Gospel is God’s good news for the whole world, and we are determined by his
grace to obey Christ’s commission on proclaim it to al mankind and to make
disciples of every nation.

Thus evangelizing the Muslims, with that eventual result of the Muslims changing their religious affiliation, and becoming Christians was the main thrust of these documents. This is revealed through four major concerns that are discussed below.

1. The “Unfinished Task” and the “Unreached People”

The “unfinished task” and the “unreached people” are two recurring themes of this set of documents. These themes confirm the major concern of these documents. The unfinished task is the evangelization of the world of which the Muslim World is only a part. Muslims have to be made the “disciples of Christ”. Hence, Colorado (1978) was a North American Conference on Muslim Evangelization while at Pattaya (1980) the consultation was on the theme “reaching Muslims with the Gospel”.

Being aware that seventy five percent of the world’s total population were unreached people, and among them about 720 million, that is about a fourth of the total unreached people, were Muslims, the documents express a greater to evangelize the Muslims.

The desire for and urgency “of the evangelization of the human race in this generation”, initiated as early as 1886, as mentioned earlier, has remained quite steady among the evangelicals. At the World Congress on Evangelism in Berlin (1966), the urgency to evangelize was expressed by pointing “to mankind in spiritual revolt the moral chaos”. The same concern with a similar urgency was expressed at Wheaton (1983) when they spoke of “the lostness of more than three thousand million people who have not yet had the opportunity to respond to the gospel or have rejected it”.

While expressing the desire to evangelize the Muslims, these documents do not deny the need for good neighbourly relationship between Christians and Muslims. However, building better relationship between communities is not treated as number one priority. It is treated as somewhat subordinate to the concern to evangelize. Thus the documents related to and evolved from Lausanne (1974) emphasise clearly the evangelization of Muslims.

The less emphasis on cordial relationship between the two communities, namely, Christian and Muslim in the documents related to Lausanne (1974) may be due to the awareness of the conflicts that may arise in the Christian evangelization of Muslims. The documents recognise that resistance to the Christian efforts to evangelize the Muslims is unavoidable. This can often lead to conflicts. Such conflicts are testified to by some of the Muslims converts to the Christian faith. A good example of this is the conversion of K.K. Alavi, a Muslim convert from Kerala, India. Alavi’s account of his conversion is marked by persecution that he suffered in the hands of his Muslim family and community. In this context it is understandable that these documents do not lay much stress on Christian relationship with Muslims. In fact, at such moments the documents encourage the Christian evangelist or the new Muslim converts to withdraw from such areas of conflict. But it does not deny, “heroic and dogged endurance may be called for in certain situations”.

Relation and dialogue with Muslims, according to these documents, are important only as far as they help to evangelize Muslims. Friendships with Muslims are treated as effective means to evangelize. This trend of thought is to be found in all the documents related to Lausanne (1974) and in the writings of most of those individual scholars connected with these documents. A good example is the writings of Colin Chapman who stresses the importance of friendship with Muslims for effective evangelization of the latter. Hence, a Christian friendship with Muslims is encouraged not for the sake of the virtue of friendship or the value of individual Muslim as a person but for the sake of a potential convert.

Perhaps it is this kind of Christian trend that came under sharp attack by the Muslim participants at the Chambesy consultation of 1976 organized by the World Council of Churches. Even if the Christians claim that it is out of love for their Muslim neighbour that they share the Gospel with the latter, Muslims will perceive the whole enterprise as a Christian betrayal.

Before we move into the next area, two critical comments about the primary concern of these documents are in order. These comments are related to the theological presuppositions that underline the desire to “evangelize” the “unreached” Muslim. First, there is the concept of “unreached” people that occurs frequently in the documents. In these documents it is an important concept, which is used to describe the Muslims, because it reveals to some degree the status accorded to Islam in the LCP documents.

How tenable is this concept theologically? Morally, how useful is it? How relevant is it, particularly in the post 9/11 world of open conflicts? These are only a few among the many other questions that can be raised around this concept. Before clarifying these questions, however, it should be noted that the documents under discussion use this term fairly broadly, and without defining it. And, elsewhere we learn that it is not a word that expresses a theological concept but it is used to define a strategy for Christian mission to Muslims. The evangelical Christians, who have been using this term, do so to indicate a group of people that includes less than twenty percent practising Christians. However, we cannot fail to detect the exclusivistic Christian theology underlying the usage of this term. This becomes more complicated when the term “unreached people” is used in contrast to another concept “practising Christian” which is also not defined in the LCP documents.

Late Sebastian Kappan, an Indian Jesuit priest and the controversial author of Jesus and Freedom, once perhaps overstated rejection of this concept. In a private conversation with the present writer Kappan said, “if God is God of this part of the world-referring to Asia in general and India in particular – then God would speak to me through the writings of the people in this region of the world, no matter whether they are Christian or not. Therefore, I do not crave to read theological works from the west”. In saying this, Kappan affirmed his conviction that India with only two percent of Christians is a country that is within God’s reach, and God is God of India as well, those saving and creative activity continues even in Hindu India. It is precisely for this reason, Samartha first and later Ariarajah raised the question “unreached by whom”?

Raimundo Panikkar expressed similar concerns when he rejected the often-misused phrase “non-Christian”. Their basic argument is that God through Christ pervades the entire world, and therefore, the concept “unreached” is theologically inconsistent. Such an emphasis of Panikkar and others, mentioned above, is relevant not only theologically but also pastorally and missiologically. Unless this truth is taken seriously it is possible to consider the Christian diakonia, which involves secular services, as related to the Christian kerygma, which together with diakonia is part of the heritage of Christian koinonia, and as something that is directly connected to Christian worship of God.

Apart from this, will not this concept be offensive and unacceptable to people of other faiths in general and to Muslims in particular? Does not this term “unreached people” express an attitude of a theological colonialism? This phrase, however, helps to distinguish the Christians from Muslims. But, the term “unreached people”, like the term “non-Christian”, does not make any attempt to identify or describe, positively, whom the Muslim is. This makes it irrelevant.

Connected to the first is the second, namely, the concept of evangelism. Berlin (1966) describes evangelism in the following way:

Evangelism is the proclamation of the Gospel of the crucified and risen Christ,
the only Redeemer of men, according to the Scriptures, with the purpose of
persuading condemned and lost sinners to put their trust in God by receiving and
accepting Christ as Savior through the power of the Holy Spirit, and to serve
Christ as Lord in every calling of life…

Frankfurt (1970), which is more of a reaction to some of the activities of the World Council of Churches, particularly to the Dialogue Unit, in its description of evangelism states:

The offer of salvation in Christ is directed without exception to all men who
are not yet bound to him in conscious faith. The adherents to the non-Christian
religions and world views can receive this salvation only through participation
in faith. They must let themselves be freed from their ties and false hopes in
order to be admitted by belief and baptism into the Body of Christ.

The latter description actually spells out clearly the earlier one in terms of other religions. Late, Lausanne (1974), confirmed what Berlin (1966) and the others have stated. In the LC evangelism is described as spreading “the good news that Jesus Christ died for our sins and was raised from the dead according to the Scriptures and that as the reigning Lord he now offers the forgiveness of sins and the liberating gift of the Spirit to all who repent and believe”.

From the descriptions above, it is possible to conclude that the documents related to Lausanne (1974) consider evangelism as spreading abroad a certain verbal message, or proposition, namely, that “Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead”. This proposition is considered to be true because it is written in the Bible. The Bible cannot record any thing other than truth. Further, it is part of evangelism to persuade those who have not positively accepted this proposition. Of course, the documents in varying degrees emphasise that the Holy Spirit will enable a person to accept this prepositional truth. Accepting this, the LCP documents assume, is crucial to the ultimate destiny of humans, and this implies changing one’s own religious allegiance, and being baptised and becoming a member of the visible church.

But, is this the evangelism that is spoken about the Bible? Is not evangelism much more comprehensive than is described in the documents being discussed at present? Is not this an attempt to reduce evangelism to a mere cerebral activity? What is evangelism in the context of mass poverty in the world, especially in the developing countries, including South Asia? What is evangelism in the context of religious pluralism? What is evangelism in the context of Hindu, Buddhist and Islamic missionary activities?

Many of these questions are ignored in the LCP documents. The reason for this is obviously the narrow exclusivistic theological principles, from which the motives and objectives of evangelism are derived. Therefore, an examination of the motives and objectives of evangelism, as it is described in these documents, are in order.

2. Mandate to Evangelize the Muslims

The LCP documents claim that the mandate or motives to evangelize Muslims are derived, firstly, from “the commission of the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ”. Secondly, they are derived from the saving acts of Christ “as they are reported by the witness of the apostles and early Christianity in the New Testament”. In addition to these it is recognised that Christian willingness “to share with Muslims the boundless grace of God” is another motive for evangelizing the Muslim world.

However, the third one is given less importance in the present set of documents. Moreover, the Frankfurt (1970) declaration is vehemently opposed to the idea of finding the motive to evangelize outside the great commission that read: “Full authority in heaven and on earth has been committed to me. Go forth therefore and make all nations my disciples; baptize men everywhere in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit”. There is an undue importance given to the great commission. This is often quoted especially to defend evangelism against the concern for Christian dialogue or conversations with the people of other faiths. It is frequently used as if it is the central concern and theme of the Bible. While discussing the mission of the church, the great commission is cited to emphasise the priority of evangelism.

However, there are several problems connected to it. First, many biblical scholars will have difficulty in accepting this passage as some thing that belongs to the earliest witness. This is because of the Trinitarian formula, which belongs to the later period of the Christian Church. We may note here that Faruqi at the Chambesy (1976) consultation, to which we referred earlier, criticised Rudvin for “taking Matthew 28:14 (Sic.) as the historical evidence for the origin of missionary command”. The latter rightly argued that biblical studies have “shown that this verse belongs to a later stage of Christian development and could not have been said by Jesus”. In that sense, putting too much of weight on Matthew 28:18-19 to establish evangelism, as the evangelicals do, is not very convincing.

The second problem is connected with spirituality. To accept the great commission means to introduce a certain element of compulsion into our religious life. This takes away the freedom that is the basis of our religious life. Therefore, Ariarajah, a critique of evangelical theology and practice, raised the question, “Do Christians bear witness to Jesus Christ because they are under a command or a commission to do so? Do Christians go about converting and baptizing others because Christ has asked them to do so”? He, while accepting evangelism as a legitimate dimension of Christian life, argued that it should arise out to “a profound spirituality that fills our life as we encounter Christ”.

There are others who are especially influenced by India spirituality. For these, Christians practice evangelism not because they have been commanded, but because they have been influenced by the Indian norm, which in Tamil says, “Thaan petra inbam peruka ivv viyakam”, meaning, the whole earth should receive the joy I have received. Within the Western theological framework, where undue emphasis is put on authority, the Indian norm will be considered inadequate for justifying evangelism. However, it is no the basis of the Indian norm that D.T. Niles, a renowned Sri Lankan Christian thinker defined evangelism as “a beggar telling another beggar where to find food”.

Finally, but crucially, at least as far as this study is concerned, by making the great commission as something that is crucial to Christian faith, the LCP documents express and sustain a certain exclusivistic tendency in Christian theology. Implicit in the emphasis on the great commission is a belief that the other religions in general, and Islam in particular, are not of any salvific value. For the evangelicals to accept the salvific value of Islam will amount to abandoning the importance of the great commission.

The more fundamental question, however, is: can the great commission be emphasised without considering the salvific value of other religions, including Islam? Is it logical to say on the basis of Matthew 28:18-19, that there is no salvation available in Islam without examining Islam itself? Patrick Kalilombe, a Roman Catholic Bishop, while discussing “The Salvific value of African Religion”, raised a similar question. He wrote:
What becomes of Christianity’s uniqueness as God’s final salvific-revelation if it is conceded that other religions are also divinely ordained normal channels of God’s salvific activity? Where is the urgency of the “Great Commission”… if non-Christian communities can just as well find salvation in their own traditional religious systems?
Therefore, what is important is to examine the salvific value of Islam by using historical and phenomenological methods.

3. Objectives in Evangelizing the Muslims

Closely connected to the motives, are the objectives in evangelizing the Muslims. The great commission which is the motivating factor and the rational for evangelism, the Christians behind the LCP will argue, reads, “make all nations my disciples; baptize men everywhere”. Therefore, evangelization of the whole world is the missionary objective of the documents related to Lausanne (1974).

Evangelization is not mentioned in these documents in terms of “take it or leave it”. Since the content of evangelization is of the highest value, the whole enterprise is spoken of with the utmost seriousness. All the documents either implicitly or explicitly argue that the recipients in the process of evangelism should be persuaded until they are baptised and accommodated into the church. The Colorado (1978) report reads: “We anticipate that…those involved in evangelizing Muslims will be able to engage in more than seed-sowing. We believe that discipline and church planting will also take place”. Church planting and church growth are the ultimate objective of evangelism. The establishment of the church is the goal. The church as “the community of God’s people rather than an institution” is the vision, towards which the documents persuade every Christian to move. “The Church is at the very center of God’s cosmic purpose and is his appointed means of spreading the Gospel”. So the Church is both the instrument and the goal of evangelism. Therefore, through evangelism the “Churches should be always be growing”.

The documents are therefore very confident that the Muslim world, though it appears to be “resistant to the gospel” for historical, theological, sociological, and political reasons, can still be brought into the church provided the stumbling blocks are removed and proper strategies are adapted. In this hope the documents also rely on divine support in fulfilling the task of evangelism.

In short, the objective in evangelizing the Muslim world is to bring it into the visible church. Since the visible church is the goal, there is no room either for anonymous Christians or for the latent church. This, the documents claim, can be achieved with right scientific methods.

It is precisely this conviction that led to the Pasadena (1977), Willow bank (1978), Colorado (1978), and Pattaya (1980) consultations. At these meetings, the concern for evangelism of the Muslim world or the mandate and the objectives of this same concern were not disputed. They were accepted without any doubt. On the basis of this faith the participants of these different consultations took counsel on effective modes and methods of evangelizing the Muslim world.

Before we probe into these methods that were considered to be effective, critical clarification of the objective that is set forth in the LCP documents is essential. But this will be done very briefly, for want of space and to remain in the primary focus of the present study.

The question concerns the relation between the Kingdom of God that Jesus, according to the New Testament, came to inaugurate, and the Church, which, according to the documents, is the goal of evangelization. In that sense the LCP documents tend to overemphasise the visible church, even at the expense of the Kingdom of God, which is so central to the New Testament. By doing so the documents, wrongly, either try to equate the Kingdom of God to the Church, or make the former subordinate to the latter. In this context it is possible to argue that the LCP documents, in spite of the claim, are not truly scriptural.

It is possible, especially in the context of the Indian experience, to ask whether a person or a group should become part of the visible church after being evangelized? Isn’t it possible to receive the fruits of evangelism without actually being baptised into the visible church? For many this is not a mere theoretical question but one that calls for serious decision making and spirituality. Many Indian Christians have tried to seriously think of Mahatma Ghandi and his relation to Christian evangelism. Ghandi, though he accepted the teachings of Jesus was not willing to be baptised. Now in the context of the LCP documents Ghandi will clearly stand outside the will of God. In fact this is a question that is often asked by ordinary lay Christians in India.

The documents related to Lausanne (1974), will not hesitate to say that Ghandi is ultimately damned though they would not hesitate to acknowledge his good works. For them salvation has nothing to do with good works. It depends only on a person’s positive acceptance of the Gospel after hearing it. But, on the other hand, they may accept that it is possible to receive salvation without hearing the Gospel. In fact one of the documents confirms this when it says:

Salvation is indeed through Christ alone, won for humanity through the ‘one
full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole world which he
offered upon the Cross; but this does not necessarily mean that it is limited to
those who hear, understand and consciously respond in a positive way to his
message. There are those to who, like Cornelius, have a sense of loving
dependence upon God and a hope in his mercy without ever having heard that
message-can we doubt that God’s mercy extends to them?

However, these documents will argue that if a person hears and positively responds this should lead to baptism and therefore, to a change of religious allegiance. Hence, the documents contain carefully worked out strategies designed to lead to the conversion of the Muslim world. This is a hope, which needs conceptual clarification and perhaps actual testing in an actual situation.

4. Strategies to Evangelize the Muslim World

The LCP documents clearly reject proselytization, which is to “win people through material inducement or any form of ‘brain washing’”. It is recognised that proselytization is contrary to the “spirit of Christ” and it is violating “the freedom and integrity” of the person or group being evangelized. Wheaton (1966), therefore, declared: “The proselytism that includes forced conversions or the use of Material means (material and/or social) is contrary to the gospel of Christ and should be distinguished from that which is biblical and genuine”. This is mentioned here to note that the desire of the LCP documents to work out clear strategies should not be confused with proselytising.

If we look at the overall picture revealed in these documents, it is possible to identify two distinct strategies in evangelizing the Muslim world. They are, first, “the people approach”, which is more popular in the documents. And, second is the “individual approach”. People approach is based on cross-cultural communications, which have led to new insights into how individuals and communities behave. In this people are carefully grouped into “homogenous units”. It is these homogenous units that become the target of Christian evangelism rather than individuals. That, which is hoped here is that people as a group will make decisions, as they often do in other important matters. By encouraging this method it is also expected to minimise conflict between the ones who are being converted to the Christian faith and others.

The LCP documents, however, recognise that others prefer the individual approach to the peoples approach. In this, man/woman to man/woman evangelism is practised. This pattern is similar to the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch by Phillip in Acts of the Apostles. It appears that new Muslim converts seem to prefer this second approach while the North American evangelicals encourage the first approach.

Connected to the two different approaches is the use of the Qur’an in evangelizing the Muslims. This is viewed as a controversial issue, and documents record at least five different views. The first view is that the Qur’an should not be used in evangelizing the Muslims. It is argued that the Qur’an cannot be put along side the Bible. All the other views accept the use of the Qur’an but with different motives and reasons. In the second view, the Qur’an is used to understand the Muslim mind and Islamic terminologies. Third, it is used only to expose the inner contradictions of the Qur’an. Fourth, the Qur’an is used as the starting point for evangelism. Once the process of evangelizing is begun the Qur’an is left aside. Finally, the Qur’an is used as a source of truth and it is believed that by using it in this way the Christian evangelist makes the Muslim less defensive.

Two other aspects of strategy that are discussed in the documents are “restraint” and “withdrawal”. Certain theological terms such as “Son of God”, “Trinity”, etc., are used with greater restraint. The documents encourage the avoidance of such terms at least initially. In this, it is claimed that the method of Jesus himself is followed. It is argued that Jesus himself avoided using terms such as “Messiah” and “Son of God”, for he realised that “they would be so badly misunderstood by his hearers”. Likewise, as mentioned earlier, withdrawal is encouraged in case of conflicts or rejection of the message. On the whole the strategies suggest that the documents are success oriented, and it is claimed that the suggested strategies are ones that has been tested in actual situations and found effective.

But what do these strategies suggest about Islam and Muslim? What is the status that is accorded to Islam and its adherents in the LCP documents? Do the documents suggest any understanding of Islam or the Muslim mind? What is Islam’s relation to Christianity? These are some among many other questions that are relevant to the present study.

Status of Islam

In some sense this is a false inquiry, at least as far as the LCP documents are concerned. These documents are not interested in discussing the status of Islam, and therefore, no attempt is made to consider seriously the content of Islam. Islam is discussed only insofar as it is a problem to Christian evangelism. Therefore, Wheaton (1966) declared that the so-called non-Christian religious systems “such as Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism in their new missionary vigor, pose an oppressive threat to the growth of the Church”.

On the other hand, a careful reading of the documents reveals at least two different views about Islam. They are: first, Islam is a false religion; second, there is some truth in Islam. In addition to these two different views, there are some indications, in the LCP documents, that Islam should be considered as a preparation for the Gospel. All such conclusions are derived in the documents, by citing and interpreting the biblical passages in such a way as to establish an exclusivistic Christian theology. Most passages from the Bible are taken literally. On the basis of such biblical passages the supremacy and the decisiveness of Christ is maintained in the LCP documents. The underlying theological theme of these documents is that the people without Christ are lost. Some of the passages that are often quoted in defence of the supremacy of the Christian faith include, among other, John 14:6, Acts 4:12, and 1 Timothy 2:5.

On the basis of these biblical passages it is argued that Islam is a false religion and there is no truth in it, and therefore, the Muslims are looked upon as “Godless” people. It is perhaps the Frankfurt (1970) declaration that expresses this position more clearly. According to this declaration Islam contains “false hopes”. Those who refused to use the Qur’an in evangelizing the Muslims confirmed such a belief.

Contrasting with the view expressed in the previous paragraph, in some parts of the documents, it is possible to discover a certain willingness to accept some amount of truth in Islam. But, immediately it is always argued that this truth in Islam is inadequate for salvation. In that sense the partial and imperfect “truths which the Qur’an” contain are recognised and acknowledged. Hence one LCP document reads: “There is much in other faiths which is in harmony with the Christian faith, e.g. the sense of tremendous majesty of God, so clearly proclaimed by Islam and also by the Bible”. It is claimed, however, that these truths that are found in Islam are subordinate to that of Christian faith, and therefore, the same document argued:

But our glad acknowledgement of this fact must be qualified by our conviction of
the supremacy of Christ. At night the moon and the planets glimmer with sun’s
reflected light and dispel a little of the darkness, but when the sun rises in
all his glory the planets vanish from sight and the moon’s light becomes a
pallid glow.

According to these documents the little truth that is to be found in the Qur’an or in any other religion are not only subordinate to the biblical truths but are also attributed to Christ. In this, these documents follow the lead provided by Justin Martyr and others. The moon and the planets do not have their own light but reflect the light of the sun. Therefore, these documents, in that sense, see “the Divine Word enlightening” Islam and its followers.

Syncretism and Dialogue

Before we conclude the discussion of the LCP documents, a brief discussion on syncretism and dialogue, as it is perceived by these documents, are relevant. There are at least two reasons to do so. First, these are two themes that occur often in the LCP documents, though they are not their primary concern. Second, dialogue is a contemporary concern of the Church while syncretism is a much-feared concept.

To some extent it is fear of syncretism that makes the LCP documents reject the concern for dialogue. Syncretism is a much hated and feared word in these documents. Statements about syncretism, therefore, are often reactionary. A good example is what Wheaton (1966) says about this concern:

Syncretism, for our purpose, is the attempt to unite or reconcile biblically
revealed Christian truth with diverse or opposing tenets and practices of
non-Christian religions or other systems of thought that deny it. Alarming are
the deviant and heretical views within Christendom advocating a depersonalised
theism acceptable to religions of East and West. Such syncretism denies the
uniqueness and finality of Christian truth.

Theological relativism is also frowned upon as syncretism, along with the acceptance of religious truths of other religions, which could be inculcated into one’s own religious faith. In this context, there is no doubt that most Asian attempts to translate Christian theology in Buddhist, Hindu or Islamic terms will be considered as syncretism. However, with a new interest in cross-cultural evangelization it can be hoped that a new thinking ad understanding on syncretism is at hand.

It is fear of syncretism that makes these documents more cautious of dialogue with people of other faiths. This leads the documents to careful define the word dialogue whenever they accept it or use it. The following are some of the ways in which dialogue is accepted: (a) Dialogue as a means to “establish good points of contact for missionary communication”. (Frankfurt 1970) (b) Dialogue as a means of listening “sensitively in order to understand”. (Lausanne 1974) Similarly, Pattaya (1980) affirmed: “We may agree that dialogue is valid and even necessary activity for Christians. It is only through patient and friendly dialogue that a Christian learns how another person gives meaning and significance to life. Again, it is in dialogue that a Christian is able to appreciate in depth what is the nature of his religious experience”. (c) Dialogue is accepted as “a mood or a spirit of friendship and co-operation”. (Pattaya 1980) This is done especially in the context of “widespread poverty, social disruption, and war”. It is recognised that the followers of different faiths should “co-operate in pursuing peace and social justice for all”.

In spite of some encouraging thoughts on Christian dialogue with Muslims and their faith in these documents, the fear of venturing into other religions and an undue emphasis on Christian supremacy, leads these documents and the Christian theologies that under gird these documents to move towards the more exclusivist path.

My Writing …

2010-10-09T15:08:00.000-07:00

It is Friday. But it does not make much of a difference in my life. I know, many – in thousands – here in Edmonton get enthusiastically, excited when it is Friday, looking forward to rest, or a change in their priorities, during the weekend. But for me it has been a continous stay at home since Chandra, a woman whom I have known for forty years, left me on St Patrick’s day (March 16, 2010). But, after all that initial chaotic pain, I have tried to retain a positive, a healthy attitude, towards life, not craving to be driven around in a “Mercedez”, only collecting “Manna”, for that magical living in the margin with all my health concerns since my open-heart surgery on October 16, 2009, or authentically praying the Lord’s Prayer, “give us this day our daily bread”!

Of course, I have done plenty of cursing and whining during this time. I needed to do that to retain my sanity while watching a thirty-five year life style crumbling down, a forty year of hard work, as a poet, a priest and professor, being swept away, very swiftly, and myself, a man with lots of self-confidence and a sense of independent thinking and judgment being walked to the gallows, with face covered, by an ugly, arrogant lawyer and a handsome, cunning realtor, with many dirty hyenas around to clean up the remains!

On the flip side, I feel some advantage in being “unemployed”. May be it is this that has given birth to praise the Providence – an art I have indulged much during the past almost seven months – manifested in and through many, hundreds, of feeble human beings: Gitanjali, Jay, Justin, Iris, Todd, Brian (and, perhaps, Molly), Ajay, Prakash (and, perhaps, her old mother in law), Danny, Yasmin (and, perhaps, her Fijian mother in law), Wenzhe (with Jingbi, and their Church in Kamloops), Carrie, George, Yatta, Azeb, Joyce, Madusu, Vijendran, Ashley, Rob, Jenna, Aster, Thaddeus, Melina, Salem, Beatrice, and now Benedict, a total stranger – an Iranian Canadian, a Christian convert from the Islamic faith. The list is, no doubt, an incomplete one.

My writing – specifically journalling – is my reframing my experience and attitude to sow a seed of inner peace when I am upset, and confusion and delay are the order of the day, my daily bread! As I faithfully waste this time, I re-center myself in that hand that moves my days and nights, building up also an element of courage in my heart, with six bypasses and a scarred artery, an outcome or the cause that caused a heart-attack after the St Patrick’s day event.

This, the chiseling of my vocabulary, with a little filling in of grammar, but in an alien tongue, then, gives me my releif, my release, and my rest – my true Sabbath, my authentic weekend for another week of scarcity-filled, monotonous life, an unpoetic onomatopoeia!

My scribbling, the tapping on my key-board, then, is also my way of readying to put on that washed and pressed garment of unforgiveness. Hence, at the end, I modify my “Lord’s Prayer”. This time I look up to heavens, or turn towards my own Mecca, that innermost inward part, and say, “forgive me for my unforgiving spirit”.

Ajay’s God, Narayanan

2010-08-04T18:35:00.000-07:00

Ajay Narayan, with a natural bent ness to God, bent down to pick a penny at the Tim Horton parking lot. And he said, “Henry I always take this money”! First, I didn’t understand. Later when I connected what I saw with what I heard, that made sense to me.

Ajay is a wealthy man. But his wealth is his friends, rather his acquaintances. He greets every man he meets on the road. There are moments when his greeting prolongs to a friendly chat that connects two souls. That’s how, today, he is my friend. But he repeatedly, with great emphasis, affirms that I am his brother.

With me he frequently blurts in Hindi, though I have said so many times that I know no Hindi. Still Ajay, somewhat a short man in physical height, needs to say that in Hindi. Then he would be his own translator! Once Ajay ended challenging the official translator when the latter was wrongly communicating Ajay’s speech to his doctor writing a report for the Workers’ Compensation Board. Such is Ajay’s presence of mind that he extends very naturally to his awareness of God, the source of his very character and personality.

Ajay, his first name derived from the Sanskrit language, means “unconquered”. It is the equivalent of the Western name “Victor”. Ajay, though lacking physical tallness, and unemployed since his work related injury, he is very tall in cheerfulness. And he carries in his heart a victorious spirit, battling courageously even a wealthy contractor and a learned lawyer who have landed him in unnecessary difficulties despite taking great sums of money as fees for the services. These exploiters, he claims, exploit his lack of education and sophisticated English language skills.

His last name “Narayan” – pronounced, nārāyan, also called as “Narayana” – is a reference to the creator God. And in Hindu religion, which is Ajay’s faith, it usually refers to Brahma or Vishnu who dwells in the waters! “Nara”, according to other sources, also means “waters”, an essential resource for life! “Nara” also means “human”, while “ayana” may mean, “the direction, or path”. “Narayan” in Sanskrit also refers to the “primordial human”, the Purusa, the equivalent of the Semitic, Adam!

And it is interesting to note Ajay Narayan manifesting all these lofty meanings of human life in his simple life style of caring for his family, including his elderly widowed mother, and neighbours, particularly those who are hurt by human callousness and in need of extra human compassion, while he, gleefully, enjoys his grandchildren.

He has, in his house, Hindu images and statues, Hindu representations of God, everywhere one turn. They are his precious possessions. As for Ajay these are not mere religious monuments. They are, in some sense, God, or at least incarnation of God in which he gets absorbed. They are really divine. One cannot fail to notice Ajay, as he walks about and turns around in his home, bowing and offering flying kisses to these sculptures, expressing his devotion to God.

It is, perhaps, Ajay’s regular ritualistic immersions into God awareness that has transformed this honest, harmless, humble man to cheer up every human he encounters outside the home, feeding them also when they are hungry and in need of food.

Ajay, my friend, for many of his friends and me, is an undeclared humanist and an un-canonized living saint. He earlier sacrificed his own education and all that security and comfort that came with it in order to feed and clothe his earlier home soon after the death of his father in Fiji.

But neither his devotion nor his many sacrifices make him humourless. The other day when he was driving me through the “drive through” of the Tim Horton, I saw him hurriedly rolling down the car windows. And then he loudly said to the (white) man – colour is important here to see Ajay easily crossing colour, class, caste, and creedal boundaries – picking pennies dropped at the Tim Horton window, “today your pay day, man!” First I thought that must be his friend. But I learnt Ajay has never even seen him before!

Chiseling the Christian Arrogance

2009-03-08T14:16:00.000-07:00

The Contemporary English Version of the Bible gives the title, “Jesus is Greater than Moses” for the passage in Hebrew 3:1-6. The Good News Bible too took that line. The more popular New International Version is no different. This, for me, betrays the present Christian perception of Judaism. Not every Christian, I have reasons to believe, would subscribe to this erroneous belief that only reveals Christian arrogance and ignorance of other religious faiths.

The Ecumenical Tamil translation is still worse. This speaks of “Jesus is Greater than Moses and Joshua”. Joshua is not even mentioned in that passage. Some may differ. Considering Joshua’s part of Moses’ team that directed the people of God, they will argue, the Tamil is precise!

Bible nowhere mentions that Jesus is greater than Buddha or Muhammad. Yet, many Christians conclude this way. For them, Christian faith is not possible, not relevant, without that conclusion.

I find this way of talking about Jesus as “greater” than Moses, Joshua, Buddha, Confucius, or Muhammad is not very conducive in the contemporary global village. For me it is a sign of ignorance and spiritual immaturity. This is true in the context of the growing awareness of “religious pluralism” and the increasing alertness with regard to the “serious content of people’s faith”.

Judaism is a living religion practiced by millions in Israel and elsewhere. My student Rivka, probably in her early twenties, takes pride in her Jewish Faith that celebrates Moses as the greatest of all the prophets and the most faithful of all the servants of God! Can I tell her that my Jesus is greater than her Moses? Can I consider such a telling part of Christian love?

These questions may lead to further unsettling questions that may have to be taken seriously before I settle down in my “faith” promoted in the book of Hebrews, a letter written by a Christian of the first century in the Common Era. To the exploring of such questions I will add the need to listen to Rivka, and her friends, of what they are learning about the Christian missionary activities in places such as Kenya.

I am aware of others who may encourage dismissing such questions and concerns as evil thoughts, promoting of doubts, or as attempts “to scratch the itches of our culture”. I am aware of their good intent. Their concern often is that such questioning lead to “stubbornness”, “hardening of heart” that happened to the crowd that followed Moses thirty five hundred years ago.

I am one of those – to put the record straight – who has no time to scratch the itches of the contemporary consumer culture. I proudly announce my inclination for being and becoming counter cultural. I believe the present world needs many more to resist the dominant culture and its value systems.

But I do not apologize for questioning the folly of Christian arrogance. My critique of Christian superiority emerges from my desire to provide a healthy soul to the global village. The values of that man from Nazareth two millenniums ago, I firmly believe, still can provide inspiration.

In the context of these concerns and questions someone may be “inspired” to re-write the text. Else, the text will be rejected as irrelevant to my times, twenty first century. The other alternative is to “re-interpret” this first century text to make it relevant to my times.

There is one thing for sure. I cannot use the first century language, or logic, to speak of Jesus Christ in the twenty first century. I need a new language and a new logic that will emerge only from a serious discontent with the old meaning.

The purpose of the writer, particularly in chapter three, as I see, is not to establish the superiority of Jesus over Moses. But he is speaking of a “new grace (from God)”. For him there is a new moment in the Jesus event. He is struggling to communicate this to the Hebrew people steeped in Moses tradition.

The writer is aware that all humans whether they lived during the time of Moses, or in his own time – to this I will add my own present time, the twenty first century – are prone to “stubbornness”, hardening of heart, when the call to “change”, or a new way of living is offered.

People, I have seen it many times, settle down in set patterns of living. It is not that easy to get them out of that settled life! These days I see this in the stores in the mall. At present only a few uses the new self-checkout electronic equipments in Super Store and Wal-Mart. These self-checkout stations save time providing “potentials for greater life”.

I am not talking about the benefits of electronics, or technology. But people have difficulty in making a shift. That was the problem during the time of Moses. And it was the same with the first century audience of the writer of the letter to the Hebrews. It is the same problem with people of my time. They are settled not to ask serious questions regarding spirituality. But these questions are urgent for retaining faith in the context of the rapidly emerging contemporary religious pluralism.

Losing and Finding

2009-01-15T18:15:00.000-08:00

I have lost two things: self and direction! But that loss comes so late in my life!

On the other hand, I have also discovered a priceless gem and acquired, adequately, I believe, a skill that is so rare in North America. Jesus, with his stance to ‘non-conformity’ is, then, that ‘pearl of great value’. And the art of ‘swimming upstream’ like the salmon of the Pacific Rockies is that proficiency that came to me after a great, great deal of practice and many failures!

Crown of gold, earlier, was my goal! In school, and later in my search for, and sustenance of, a career, I was taught to work hard towards the crowning moments and direction for success, learning the skill of careful communication with those crown princes who enable an easy climb on the social ladder and control multitude of other affairs!

But too early in my life – may be I was around twenty years – I met the crucified one! And soon my eyes became familiar with that bright light that shone from his loincloth, who had earlier proclaimed that foxes have holes and the birds have nests while he, this man from Nazareth had no place to lay his head! This in a very subtle way suggested also my path!

I have never seen such brightness elsewhere. All that immaculate liturgical colours in the wall hangings in the cathedrals, churches and the clergy vestments appeared so dull for me compared to that ‘rag’ he was wearing! As for me, I concluded the Kings and Queens of today, or of those ancient days, are not adorned with such brightness!

Hence I did not delight in the crafting of those crafts beyond that Great Friday! Friday, I learnt from another Middle Eastern Source, also was the day when the invisible purusa, the primordial consciousness gave shape and form to the chaotic prakrit, primeval substance. That is the order, I soon became convinced, the self, willing to be crucified will eventually evolve, consciously create! For me, therefore, that persistent lie of the Sunday morning is the comical tragedy, which not only alienates the humanity from the power of powerlessness but also poisons the culture of the cosmos that is created to conserve compassion!

Losing self did not come that easily! For that self in me frequently went after power seeking magic that had many different names in the modern world. And the artful magicians knew how to transform the crucifixion of my Master for the conquering of the world! So I, prompted by the self’s desire for a satisfactory survival, joined the crew. Rather I drifted into that space of comfort, celebrating at every altar belonging to Baal! Serving Baal, served my self much better, I thought at that moment; in the sense it provided a quicker bloating into a bigger self.

Losing self happened only after I discovered that selfless-self Jesus lived. It promoted not a superficial sentimentalism but a probing of difficult questions. This man Jesus, who said to me it is all right to lose that self, had fire in his eyes. Wherever he went, whichever pulpit he climbed on to, he quickly set the place on fire challenging conformity to the rot in the then religious community!

Lordly Hand of Love!

2008-12-02T20:12:00.000-08:00

I read Dr Luke’s story of “Ten Men with Leprosy” (Luke 17:11-19), subtitle of the Contemporary English Version, as a straightforward “parable”, a word that the translators of this version consistently avoided to appear less “religious elites”. I love parables. And have always enjoyed the “parables” from Middle Eastern terrains including the many fascinating parables of Kahlil Gibran, the Lebanese American.

Parables, like poetry, have an inbuilt logic that without straining my brain can gently penetrate into my heart lifting layers of that “inbuilt counter logic” to convince me of the greater truth. Parables, like great poems, are enablers to feel the applied wisdom, a part and parcel of any “aha, aha” moment.

The parable in question is a straightforward healing of a “multi-cultural” group of men, whom the New Revised Standard Version of the Christian Bible calls “lepers”, a politically incorrect word, which also suggests the safe distance!

I have always been fascinated by the fact of men and women who usually cling together in their own racial, linguistic or ethnic groups, nevertheless come and stay together, like children playing, when there is a need that is deeper than race and ethnicity. That deeper need is the only time these men and women feel very comfortable with one another. At which, these men and women long for a shortening of that safe distance, which usually only the stronger men and women desire after.

I have seen that in men and women in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, in the early eighties and nineties, dodging the liberation the younger Tamil men and women were introducing with their AK 47’s! The older folks, at that moment, could only see things in caste colour, except when they had to run into bunkers to take cover from the Sinhalese bombs! There was, I was informed in Jaffna by a younger woman of low caste, another instant when caste was transcended. And that was when it was dark, and the focus was what concerned below ones waist!

The moment that “need” is rectified they seem to be going back to their racial, ethnic, or caste groups. This is what I see in Luke’s story of the ten men, Jews and Samaritans, with leprosy.

Kahlil Gibran, the people’s philosopher, whose parables and poems provide insights to life, in his poem titled “Love”, distinguishes the stronger and the weaker self that co-exist in every personality. Coming together of persons in his poem happens in a multi-lingual, multi-cultural, and multi-racial nation, only when there is deeper human need such as physical thirst and hunger or it can happen only when the self is strengthened by directions from, and dictated by, unselfish love. The distancing takes place when the basic need is removed, or when the self of persons in a nation deteriorates. Beyond the basic needs of air, water, food, security, and sexuality it is only love that can close up the distance between the souls of a community and the larger country.

Gibran’s poem in its entirety is as follows:

"They say the jackal and the mole

Drink from the selfsame stream

Where the lion comes to drink.

And they say the eagle and the vulture

Dig their beaks into the same carcass,

And are at peace, one with the other,

In the presence of the dead thing.

O love, whose lordly hand

Has bridled my desires,

And raised my hunger and my thirst

To dignity and pride,

Let not the strong in me and the constant

Eat the bread or drink the wine

That tempt my weaker self.

Let me rather starve,

And let my heart parch with thirst,

And let me die and perish,

Ere I stretch my hand

To a cup you did not fill,

Or a bowl you did not bless."

From Kahlil Gibran, Forerunner: His Parables and Poems, 1920. P. 8

Increase My God Consciousness

2008-10-29T22:25:00.000-07:00

God to be God, God has to be more than just aware of our presence. Hence those immersed in God tell us that God knows us very intimately.

This is the basic message of the Bible too, from which we learn that God knows the exact number of hair on our head: “And even the hairs of your head are all counted” (Matthew 10:30). Elsewhere in the Bible we learn God has counted every bone that has been used to knit us together (Psalm 139:13-15). In that same place we learn that God also has all our days with all the happenings in his book (Psalm 139:16). In short, according to Isaiah the prophet, God has inscribed us on his palms (Isaiah 49:16).

All this is said to make me less anxious and worrisome about my present and the future. Hence I am encouraged not to be afraid. And I am reminded that I am of “more value than many sparrows” (Matthew 10:31).

The Bible is clear about God’s knowledge of all happenings, including that which happens to an insignificant sparrow. The Contemporary English Version of the Bible poetically proclaims, “Aren’t two sparrows sold for only a penny? But your Father knows when any one of them falls to the ground (Matthew 10:29).

These are said that I may put aside all anxiety by trusting in the providence of God. As my worry decrease my trust in God will grow. I trust in God not only for receiving my physical nourishment but also for the receiving of my spiritual guidance that I may have the right perspectives to see within and around me!

Even in adverse circumstances, the Bible encourages me to trust in the providence of God. Bible does not say there will be no adverse circumstances to live through. My faith in God, I know for sure, does not remove such “thorns” and put me on the “bed of roses”. But even when I “walk through the valley of death”, now I am learning, that I need not fear, or drown in anxiety.

Hagar, Abraham’s maidservant, the Egyptian slave, or the Egyptian princess according to the Islamic sources, did walk through, the “valley of death”. In that story Hagar after walking in the desert and she had run out of water was afraid that her little son Ishmael would die of thirst. She was utterly powerless to provide for her helpless son. Hence “Hagar put her son under a bush. Then she sat down a long way off, because she could not bear to watch him die. And she cried bitterly (Genesis 21:15f)”.

That story, however, has a happy ending! God heard her cries, or heard Ishmael’s cries and provided her with a “well” from where she drew water for her son and continued the journey. Muslims believe that the well in Mecca near the sacred Mosque of Kaba is that well from which Hagar drew water for her son Ishmael and it is still known as Zam Zam well. That well, we are informed, never dries!

As the intensity of my suffering increases, I learn from the story above, God’s nearness and providence too will increase. And this happens almost always in subtle ways that I often fail to recognize the nearness and providence that saves me.

I, like many others today, look for substantial and tangible evidence for God’s nearness and providence before I could establish trust in God. There are two very tangible boxes in my home that provide for me very quickly and mould me by dictating details! Here I refer to the television and the refrigerator that largely decrease my sense of dependence on God! These two provide me with tangible and substantial providence!

But God does not do that way! God’s ways are almost always subtle. God let Hagar see the well (Genesis 21:19). To see God enabling me to see I must increase my God consciousness. Deepak Chopra, one of the best selling authors on matters regarding spirituality and wellness, makes the same point when argues that this knowledge comes only by a “serious, diligent seeking – by opening a path to God-consciousness” (The Third Jesus, 2008, p. 76). For it is only through that God consciousness I see that nearness and providence of God.

I need to take time to reflect on my journey and the events on that path to be able to capture the nearness and providence of God in my life! Without that time and inclination to think I will miss the presence of God and his angels! So I pray to God daily: Help me to increase my God-consciousness, enabling me to multiply in my self that diligent seeking of your ways in my life.

Living in the Presence of the Unseen is Life!

2008-10-09T09:15:00.000-07:00

There are many stories, both ancient and modern, reminding me that I am created, liberated, and guided continuously towards one single end of “living in the presence of the unseen”, enjoying the splendour of the unseen light and life. These lessons are an affirmation that all around me, and deep within me is a living and an exuberant presence that some conveniently call, God. In these poems I run into a strange “absence of death” in a world of decay.

Many men and women have told me that in Jesus of Nazareth they have found “the life” that cannot be bound by the chains of “death and darkness”. And that life, Jesus, cannot be found among the “dead”, or in “empty spaces”, but rather ought to be discovered among the “living people”.

Angels too announce, repeatedly, that Jesus should not be sought in empty tombs. But Jesus goes, continuously, ahead of me “to Galilee” (Matthew 28:7). Galilee in that ancient text is a symbol of “busy human life”. Matthew, that old tax collector, is very explicit in recording this. Matthew’s point is, if the women and men want to see the “life that cannot be bound by the chains of death and darkness” then they must go to Galilee, the cosmopolitan city, and a place of bubbling human activity (Matthew 28:7).

From Matthew I learn, to encounter the “Living Christ, the Ultimate, the Beyond”, I must go to villages, towns, and cities where men, women, and children are struggling in pain. It is there I will find that life and that life in abundance. Then, my business now, is to remind myself to go out there without seeking an ivory tower!

In Matthew’s story of a new and an authentic abundant life he reveals, brilliantly, both what I possess and what I lack! In that, miles and miles away from that scene Matthew depicts, in a province of black gold, an affluent North American county, I share a similar mental state with those two Palestinian women, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary (Matthew 28:1) of different colour, class, and creed!

So, what did these two women have, and failed to have? They had plenty of anxiety. “Who will roll away the stone for us”. These two women were also fretting and sweating the small stuff. They “bought spices, so that they might anoint him” (Mark 16:1) – the dead Jesus. They had plenty of fear. And what did these two women lack? They lacked hope!

They lacked hope because they were ignorant! They were ignorant because they failed to hear “when the word was spoken”! They failed to hear because they did not listen! These two women did not listen, on the first instance, when they were told “the life that gives life, or the light that enlightens every heart” must “undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again” (Mark 8:31) before it gives “life that cannot be bound by the chains of death and darkness”! The same was repeated several times. Mark records this in 9:31 and 10:33 also.

Men and women, then, didn’t listen! People – both the writer and the readers today too – don’t listen! Or, to be very precise, people listen very selectively. Luke, Mark’s colleague, actually reveals the selective listening of these women when he says: “Remember how he told you he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again” (Luke 24:6f).

People, including my self, do not see, and do not hear. Or, if they hear, or see, they see and hear selectively, and certainly not “the events and activities” of the Unseen; seeing the unseen! That is the fundamental cause for my “anxiety and fear”!

However, I am not in a hopeless situation! Neither were those women. There is always an angel, sometimes a spiritual director, to bring, once again, that reminder. This was in the case of those two women, very early at the tomb looking for the living among the dead! It is not different to me. I too have another, and another, and yet another opportunity while I keep looking for the “living” among the dead “rituals of religions and deteriorating structures of the ecclesia”! But, if I keep rejecting the reminders it will be only to my own peril.

Seeing the unseen is a skill that I must, then, cultivate. Culturing that in my mind is what I call spirituality that is spontaneous like a great rain that rains to wash all muck away. But the unseen always manifests in what I, in pain, see in pain and struggling of the very ordinary men and women. And when my heart puts great effort to be in solidarity with those in pain then, I am spiritual, and I see the unseen, the purpose of my being here and now.

Stop Racism!

2008-09-07T11:34:00.000-07:00

Have you ever heard yourself saying, “these dogs …”, or “this bitch”, to those whom you do not like, or tolerate? I have heard my self, saying that several times! It looks like Jesus too was trapped in such emotional display that a Canaanite woman once challenged.

Christian scriptures have recorded one of Jesus’ encounters with a Canaanite woman (Matthew 15:21-28). Here is a woman who does not belong to the caste, class, or creed of Jesus, or his disciples. Jesus was a Jew. This woman was a Canaanite. Jews of Jesus’ time, I learn from my readings, frequently looked down on the Canaanites and considered them as dogs! So, naturally when the Canaanite woman approached Jesus for some favor – here she wants Jesus to heal her daughter (Matthew 15:22) - Jesus spontaneously tells her that it is wrong “to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs” (Matthew 15:26). It is too obvious that Jesus considered his people, the Jews as children and the Canaanites as dogs!

Jesus went further to justify his “gut level feelings” with sophisticated theological arguments. He said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 15:24). Jesus covers his own prejudices by implicating God, and God’s “sent-ness”. Neat argument! Isn’t it? Now, who comes to back Jesus? His own followers! They say: “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us” (Matthew 15:23). Here, I notice, that their support to Jesus comes even before he makes a request from them.

Jews of Jesus’ time was a very exclusive, insulated community. They built strong walls of separation from other communities. Jesus and his disciples belonged to this exclusive community.

I am quite aware of those who would argue that Jesus was not an exclusivist but evolved a program to break this exclusivist attitude among his contemporaries. Yes, there is supportive materiel in the Gospel for this particular stance.

My point however is, this specific incident reveals the spirit of exclusivist attitude that this woman challenged and Jesus gives in by adopting a more inclusive spirit towards this foreign, alien, strange woman. At the end Jesus commends her “spirit of inclusivism”. Hence, Jesus said: “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish” (Matthew 15:28)

I wonder if Jesus were to look at the present attitudes of bulk of the Canadian Christians towards people who are not their “caste, color, class, or creed”, will he discern and identify this inclusive spirit and say: “Great is your Christianity”, or “Great is your spirituality”, or “Great is your religion”? Do contemporary Canadian Christians through their thoughts, words and deeds promote passionately an inclusive, global, one world community that transcends color, caste, class, and creed? These are, I know, very difficult and sometimes very embarrassing questions. But they are exceedingly essential to establish faith and incredibly crucial to all faith communities.

The table that most practicing Christians walk to on a Sunday morning – I refer here to the Eucharistic table – is an inclusive table. And it demands similar attitude in the participants of that banquet the Lord of the Church has prepared.

I believe if we increase the spirit of inclusivism in the church community and the wider community and become more accepting towards people who are not our color, caste, class, or creed, the world we live in will have less conflicts and wars. Do you think I am very naïve in advocating a more inclusive world in order to stop conflicts and wars?

The Psalm 133, one of the shortest psalms, a poem, points to a beautiful vision of an “inclusive community”. It does not tell us how to establish this. But gives a taste; it inspires. A piece of poem like Psalm 133 tries to move, or persuade human emotions towards the vision that it carries within. But with those emotions, I believe, we must pull our will together to realize that vision here and now in our lives!

In the Bible I discover that our love for God and our love for humans are one and the same. In rejecting one you reject the other! When I look down on a black or a brown man or a native woman I am looking down on God. When I name him with that “derogatory” name “Negro” I am rejecting God who created him in his image.

Life in abundance for Jacob’s children who were divided depended very much on their coming together. The graphic reminder of this truth we are able to read and reflect in the story recorded in Genesis 45.

We will, I strongly believe, either live together, or die together! The future choice of the world is not between those living an abundant life and those living a life of scarcity! No! Either we all live a life of abundance and peace, or all live a life of scarcity and war with all its consequences!

Paul, a Jew, after his conversion to God, on his part, have always argued that in God’s vision both the Jews and the Gentiles are included, no matter even if they have done very badly. (For examples I read Romans 11:1-2, Galatians 3:28 and other passages!) All people in the world are “people of God”, with no distinction of color, caste, class, or creed.

God’s world is inclusive. Heaven and hell are all inclusive. The Lord’s Table is inclusive. And I am invited to build within me an inclusive mind, heart and will that eventually will pave way to an inclusive community, community where racism is only a past history and a Canada that sternly stops both overt and covert racisms.

Walking to the Beat of a Distant Drum

2008-09-07T08:55:00.000-07:00

Paul wrote: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds …” (Romans 12:3). Paul’s dual concern expressed in this quote – “not be conformed” and “be transformed”, continue to fascinate me. “Transformed Non-conformist” is the title Martin Luther King, the slain American Black Leader, gave for the sermon he preached on Romans 12:2 in the 1960’s!

Martin Luther King, in that sermon, said: “We must make a choice. Will we continue to march to the drumbeat of conformity and respectability, or will we, listening to the beat of a more distant drum, move to its echoing sounds? Will we march only to the music of time, or will we, risking criticism and abuse, march to the soul saving music of eternity?” (Martin Luther King, Jr. Strength to Love, Fortress Press, 1981, p. 29.)

The two midwives mentioned in the beginning of the Book of Exodus (Chapter 1), Shiphrah and Puah provide, for me, examples of non-conformity. They refused to march to the music of the King of Egypt. The two women by choosing “non-conformity” as their life style perhaps missed much awards and accolades and actually risked imprisonment and possibly death from the powerful Pharaoh. Many today may think this as imprudence and utter foolishness, a kind of psychological and social maladjustment!

Elsewhere in the Christian scriptures, I read, Jesus patting Peter for his “not conforming” to the views of the people of his time! There was this question: “how do you see this Jesus, the Son of the carpenter Joseph and his wife Mary?” From the text I learn some of the popular views suggested that people considered Jesus was “John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, and one of the prophets”! But Peter did not walk to that beat when he confessed Jesus as “the Messiah, the Son of the living God”. (Cf. Matthew 16:14-16)

I believe there is definitely a need today for “holy disobedience”, as during the time of Shiphrah, Puah, Peter, and Paul. I need to stop being “a parrot” that repeats the easy popular slogans and conforms to dominant creedal and cultural mould in imitating its values in preference to those values of God’s Rule! During the time of Shiprah and Puah they had the Pharaoh to disobey; for Peter and Paul they had the Jewish religious authorities and the Roman secular authorities to disobey! Don’t I have in my own times the need to disobey the “Multinational Corporations”, the “Mass Media”, and all other paraphernalia that supports these structures. These, I see, as the present day Emperors and the High Priests, promising personal progress and prosperity, distorting our humanity and dictating our living style.

I cannot be a non-conformist if I am not willing to let go the faith and religion of “profit” and “progress” that ignores the humanity of the masses! This would mean I should make the right choice. Shiprah and Puah had to choose between “obeying the King’s command” on one hand and “God’s command” on the other! These women chose in favour of God’s rule! I can’t please both God and the Mammon! I cannot compromise!

For me as a Minister under God’s rule, to become a non-conformist in the Pauline sense, I must choose between “actively serving and dining with those in the center” and be rewarded by the powers on one hand and on the other, “committed to those in the margin” and being marginalized even by the institutional Church! For me as a preacher of the Gospel my non-conformist stance provokes me to challenge the traditional wisdom that I may become a partner with God in making all things new.

Likewise, each one of us will have to find our little corner and the manner in which we are going to be a “non-conformist”. It is then you and I will “shine” for Jesus but you in your small corner and I in mine! For Jesus is the non-conformist par excellence. Without that “maladjustment” to the world “opposed to godly values” you and I can’t be Jesus people, “authentic Christians”.

I am aware that Buddha before Jesus and Muhammad after Jesus also presented this, very same, call of “non-conformity” and “maladjustment” to the ever present “rat race” to their respective followers!

That “maladjustment” to the world in Pauline sense is an important component to that “well adjustment” to the authentic life, the Kingdom of God! The poem titled “Much Madness is Divinest Sense” by that American non-conformist poetess Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) provides me further inspiration for the path of “no-conformity”. She said:
“Much madness is divinest
To a discerning eye,
Much sense, the starkest madness.
It is the majority
In this, as all, prevail:
Assent, and you are sane;
Demur, you’re straightway dangerous
And handled with a chain”

Non-conformity is a costly way, a way of the cross and crucifixion! And non-conformity is not possible unless I am transformed within. Or, I may put it this way: “non-conformity” without “transformation of the inner self” is irrelevant to the Gospel cause that comes to tame my “ego” and will have nothing to do with the Kingdom of God! I will not adjust to “non-conformity” in the authentic sense until I am transformed inside my soul! In a sense, transformation of the soul and not conforming to the world go together. They are like the two sides of the same coin. When I do one the other follows; and when I refuse one the other I consciously reject!

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds” is a call that comes to all. But only a few will respond. For the path of Jesus is not the path the majority chooses, it is the way for remnants, the little flock – not for masses, not for religious experts, but simple minded disciples of Jesus! Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount: “For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it (Matthew 7:14). For the majority in the Church always chose “conformity” so much so the Church with her leadership always appears fully conformed to the world! But I, member of this little “flock” can be different, and should be different!

Scattered Petals!

2008-08-14T07:41:00.000-07:00

I stop. I turn around and look the path I have walked, the life I have lived. This passage had been for six years today. Do I want to rest awhile? Is it time for the Sabbath? I am not sure! What would be my trail in the future? I do not know yet! But what follows are thoughts, some of my tools, with which I carved my last six years! This rosary of thoughts that I call scattered petals are prayers I uttered, sometimes clearly, and at other times only muttered in the cave of my heart even as I drifted like a failed rain cloud. These petals I now offer in honor of my father Isaac and my brother John.

1

For what you put in many plateful
You take out only one or two handful
That resulting from an unchangeable rule!

16.08.2002

2

Did I, desert those truly peaceful rock pigeons
For watching gulls, pretentious prairie doves!

16.08.2002

3

You take from this world nothing
But what you are
This you also take
To your eternity

19.09.2002

4

Let me be both
Gentle as breeze and hard as rock
With my daughter
Lest she ends up
As a slave of someone

19.09.2002

5

I saw my father in the mirror
Eyes gone deep inside
And face wrinkled

20.09.2002

6

I am glad God isn’t a mother
Running towards me
To lift me and feel me
Every time I’m hurt

23.09.2002

7

To crave for the Crucified Christ
Goes together with being
Critical of the Civilized Christianity

14.10.2002

8

Respect is the greatest gift
That I may give to
Or receive from someone

14.12.2002

9

My thoughts are the tools
That makes me a person
Or a scum of no worth

14.12.2002

10

Not by giving in
But by giving up
I grow

14.12.2002

11

I went not only to bury Evelyn’s frame
But also to prevent
Her personality being buried together

24.01.2003

12

Three that are most beautiful
And only three you take to eternity
Humility, simplicity, and beauty

25.01.2003

13

Like the little dragonfly let me move swiftly
Like her let me also sit on deep waters
Still and with inner serenity

30.01.2003

14

Your tongue in your flowers
And your speech in my thoughts
Is, your speaking to me
Help me listen

30.01.2003

15

Underneath my minute consciousness
I hear the rolling and roaring of your ocean
Keep me ever in this awareness

30.01.2003

16

Many are your miracles
That you bring into being
Create one more in my eye
That I may see the many

30.01.2003

17

As aura of aspen in autumn
Let my being always broaden
Goodness and peace

30.01.2003

18

When mind is trapped in dreams of littleness
The soul deep within invites
To glimpse the vastness within
To release self from self-imposed prison

30.01.2003

19

Only those who give love and unselfishness
Receive love and unselfishness
By giving you receive
But to receive you cannot give

30.01.2003

20

Exhibitionism in spirituality
Is, indeed, a contradiction
But not a living witness to faith

30.01.2003

21

I went on speaking
The politically incorrect language and idiom
In that the wise deciphered poetry
Calling me a poet and a prophet

07.02.2003

22

This expansive enormous creation
Its purpose I perceive not
Its mystery I shall solve not
Its owner I will encounter not
Its beauty I will sing with exultation
Its violence I protest with great vehemence

03.03.2003

23

Parading piety is for Pharisees
Not crucified their ego
Perching on, and preaching from every pulpit

03.03.2003

24

Power of powerlessness is not for Pharisees
Not crucified their ego
But practicing pomp and prominence

Henry Victor 03.03.2003

25

Let me never be inactive
But let my active activity
Be marked with my soul’s inactivity

03.03.2003

26

Shrimp waved antennae
Saying thumps up for swift shark
Unperturbed by praise

19.04.2003

27

Shrimp protested
Swift shark disturbing that calm
The big fish ignored

19.04.2003

28

Defeating is my natural inclination
Vehemently avoiding victory of being defeated

19.04.2003

29

Two that I desire most: One that I walk to my grave
Two, I make this stride without my self

17.05.2003

30

Accomplishment comes from
Taking that single most risk
Than waiting to grab that luck when crossing my path

17.05.2003

31

Time I have for that risky task
Wisdom I need to perform the work
Lest I see not friends at fireside

17.05.2003

32

I detect and discern
My authentic self in that my no self
Like that seed whose true being is its death

17.05.2003

33

I have learnt through some struggle
To find God’s stimulating presence
In the sure and certain divine absence

17.05.2003

34

Those that spend excess time at the beach
Rolling on sand and making sandcastles
Will never appreciate diving in deep sea

17.05.2003

35

When beetles defend themselves
It is terrorism
When elephants walk to defeat
It is battle for freedom!

21.06.2003

36

Affairs of the world deeply troubles me
So are my own

21.06.2003

37

I proposed to work an extra ten years
After my retirement
Only to be disposed ten years early

21.06.2003

38

Desire to dominate
Is not same as
Serving the Servant Lord

22.06.2003

39

Joke the joke! But not make life a joke
Lest the others choke your hour, day, and week
Until your years choke, and you die

19.07.2003

40

I’m listening to the chattering and chirping
Of sparrows whose genus I neither know
Nor my own intentions

22.07.2003

41

Three I received from my father
And three I pass on to my daughter:
With secrets practice restrain
In sweating curtail energy
And in posting never trust another

02.08.2003

42

Am I surprised that I’m scared of my own honesty
That brings more pain and suffering, and at last
To my own death on the cross, my own construction

02.08.2003

43

Events are designs that the unseen artist sketches
That I may ponder in my heart the secret intentions of the artist
But never am I permitted to publicly interpret
Or proclaim the meaning of artistic events

02.08.2003

44

It is indeed an unjust race
Even if the most just judge judges
If race is between an elephant and a tortoise

06.08.2003

45

In my neighborhood
The smaller ones on smaller bikes
Never catch up with bigger ones on bigger bikes

06.08.2003

46

My home is the university
I teach, research, and publish
With no book releases, promotions, or increments

16.08.2003

47

Greatest achievers are those who have learnt the art
Of discarding, omitting, ignoring, and leaving behind more
With much joy and no regrets

16.08.2003

48

Cougar trait I trail
Strong, resilient individual
That I want to be

19.08.2003

49

What has happened is the best
That can happen; better, therefore, to accept
Rather than rage in revolt

Henry Victor 06.09.2003

50

When the flower was not visible
It was not that it was not there
But the bud was hibernating

06.09.2003

51

Lord of the Worlds may delay but will never deny
You the blessing; for those who perceive
Delay is nothing but a blessing

06.09.2003

52

I waited not with patience
But faded not the supreme patience!

06.09.2003

53

Seed met with patience and the leaf evolved
Leaf exposed to patience and the flower arrived
Flower copulated with patience birthing a fruit
Fruit made life to prolong piping for patience

09.09.2003

54

Beauty that stimulates subterranean joy within my being
I sought it in women, and Satan, my lust, got released
Beauty that stimulates bliss deep within my soul
I sought it in shoe-flowers, and Song, my muse, was let loose

09.09.2003

55

A road that was not closed I cherished much
That I may reach home like mother bird to feed nestlings
But now a road that is never open is that I desire
That I may never leave home

09.09.2003

56

Put on the garment of patient placidness
And the coat of love that let goes
For your strong and swifter movement

20.09.2003

57

My neighbour’s poplar and poplar’s neighbour
Both teach a lesson I never let my heart learn:
‘To grow, I must let go’

17.10.2003

58

In middle of autumn the mountain ash
Has let go all her lush, much of her load
Only to shine with bright red light!

17.10.2003

59

Trash pits are gold mines I dig for wisdom
Gold that never corrodes nor thieves steal
Revealing self and core of my community

11.11.2003

60

Much printed materiel is re-cycled
Without being read in the first place

11.11.2003

61

Much of spoken word is heard
Not for its intrinsic worth
But for its entertainment value

11.11.2003

62

Bulls listen
Only to a bull with a bell
And I have seen this again and again!

11.11.2003

63

Turkey, chicken, cow, sheep, pig, and many
Dwell deep within my bosom
Determining values for my now and eternity

11.11.2003

64

I am much bigger than I see
And I am much smaller than I conceive

11.03.2004

65

As a priest, I realize
I need not know much theology
Nor learn too much liturgy
But, politics I must sing!

11.03.2004

66

What my father achieved in harder way
I like to achieve in the easier way!

11.03.2004

67

Spirituality, my Christian friend thinks, is:
Sharing the pain of a dead
Ignoring the pain of the living!

11.03.2004

68

Life is stronger than death
When death is embraced with open arms

16.03.2004

69

Those who embrace death
With open arms, never die

16.03.2004

70

As I embrace, with open arms
My daughter and wife
I embrace insecurity and death in life

19.03.2004

71

Mutter and mutter, and call it a sermon?
Nothing but a clutter of empty words
To litter the world of serene silence!

20.03.2004

72

I, for sure, saw your grace
And sat down to draw that face
But my lines, a flaw in your space!

29.03.2004

73

Laugh, and laugh louder
But let not that laugh create disorder
To the already chaotic order!

15.09.2004

74

Woe unto me if those around me feel
What they sense, say, and act must have my approval
Better that a millstone is tied around my neck
And I am dropped in waters oceanic!

04.12.2005

75

Doing what you can do
And doing with joy what you do
Leads to a life of sanity, that life eternal

27.03.2006

76

Serving, and serving with joy
Serving with a wanting to serve
Transforms my self from a slave to a Master!

28.03.2006

77

Faith is that venture to create a meaning
In an otherwise world of meaninglessness
In that creating I create also a Creator to anchor my faith!

28.03.2006

78

Hope rooted not in a lofty dream
But in well informed wakefulness
That blooms to become real

17.04.2007

79

Drunkenness, I have seen
Many times, walking into wilderness
In roads less traveled

06.05.2007

80

Human nature, I have seen in plenty
In the communities of Canadian geese, loud
With quarrels and battles for space

06.05.2007

81

Human potentials, I have seen in abundance
Among the flocks of Canadian geese in flight, unison in speed
As they battle the common threat of a cold winter

06.05.2007

82

Watched pot never boils!
But conscious breathing
Brings baskets full of blessings!

14.05.2007

83

Death is the destiny I see
For the mighty river rolling into the ocean
Repeating the deathless cycle

25.05.2007

84

To hit back the Siamese fighter
Aches with enormous ache
But is trapped in his destiny

25.05.2007

85

Early, at dawn, in my garden
Many colorful flowers bloomed
Only to be scorched by the noon sun

25.05.2007

86

Morning after morning, very early
Flowers in my garden embraced the dew
The night had offered them, but only to let go!

07.07.2007

87

Days have arrived when dentures smile
Knowing not this, smile not
To be transformed into a growling ass!

07.07.2007

88

Gusting wind outside
Bird sits on tips of branches
To risk I expose

21.04.2008

Henry Victor 14.08.2008

Practicing the Presence!

2008-08-09T09:13:00.000-07:00

I read the story of Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, a story of three generations put in a nutshell (Genesis 37). It is a story of perils and success of “migration” into a new land. The land of Canaan was not so friendly towards Isaac, Jacob’s father. And Jacob worked very hard to get the land to somewhat respond to his needs in a more welcoming way, while he sent his roots deep into the soil that he had taken as the land which the Lord has given for him and his descendants. But the third generation, Jacob’s children, have their conflicts, and pain. The reasons for those conflicts may be partly due to Jacob’s folly of favouritism and partly due to the envy of Joseph’s brothers.

One thing I learn from this story is that wherever humans are, the disagreements and conflicting purposes are bound to be there. They are very real. And I need not pretend as if they are not there and everything else is going very smoothly.

Then I go to another story; a story Matthew record poetically in his gospel (Matthew 14:22-33). Here I see more of other human characteristics. It is a unique story of “Jesus walking on the water”. Jesus was quite at ease in walking over the water, perhaps like a Pheasant tailed Jacana, a water bird, or as some of the water bugs walking very swiftly on water without getting wet by water, or drowning into the water. Probably it is that that prompted those who discovered that lizard which walks on the water to be named as Jesus lizard!

In that story when Jesus summoned Peter to walk on the water, he walked initially but began to drown when Peter got “lost in him-self”!

I very consciously use that phrase-“lost in him-self”! Rather he should have got “lost in the Master” who summoned him to walk. In fact in most mystical religious traditions the goal of human life is the “human soul” becoming part and parcel of that greater soul, God. I, instead of becoming part and parcel of me, must get merged into God like a raindrop becoming part of the ocean, or as a river that returns to the ocean, its own beginning!

Peter, in that mystical lesson, was not quite at ease like Jesus while walking on water. Peter started sinking when his vision was turned from the Master to the storm! I realize that I must note this subtle lesson of the sacred scriptures in fixing my focus on the Master something that Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph naturally practiced throughout their life of turbulence. Focusing my vision on God enhances my “ease” to walk in this world, which is not just “a bed of roses”, but also full of thorns!

I recognize that it will be possible for me to say boldly, like the psalmist, “even though I walk through the valley of death I fear no evil”, when I can also say: “for you are with me” (Psalm 23:4); God with me!

This, I realize, comes not merely from a cognitive or intellectual knowing but a stronger feeling of the presence of God that has to become part and parcel of my life in this increasing mechanized and consumer world. I should somehow recapture this “invisible aspect” in my life. It is this that kept Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph alive and bold in a hostile land in which they were immigrants!

I am, personally, also as a somewhat newer immigrant to Canada, this so-called “land of opportunity”, beginning to realize the value and truth of this. In fact, throughout the history of the Christendom “practicing the presence” of God was one of very fundamental spiritual exercises. It is very easy for me to slip into becoming part of a “religious community” that is not constantly conscious of this “presence of God”. And when this happens I, as a member of the religious community will loose the power and boldness that I see in the early Church of the Acts of the Apostles.

The psalmist’s injunction, “Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually” (Psalm 105:4), is then a reminder to me. I may have to continually keep reading that phrase: “seek God’s presence continually”. When I consciously and continuously practice the presence of God a moment would come when I will “feel and realize” that there is no escape from this presence. Elsewhere, the psalmist says: “You (referring to God) hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me” (Psalm 139:5). Or a little later in the same Psalm, “Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence?” (Psalm 139:7).

However, I must remember that this “presence”, or feeling the “presence” is not to manipulate God, or to practice magic to enhance my ever-expanding “greedy needs”. Sacred Scriptures has no space for this. Instead Jesus, my Master, spoke of the cross! Presence for suffering, and suffering for others sake! In all this “the presence of God” takes me out of “my self”! “Unless the corn dies” is the metaphor popular with Jesus.

When Peter was sinking he called upon Jesus to save him, literally, prevent him from drowning. And Jesus gave his hand immediately and caught him! Paul, about whom I have mixed feelings, once said: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13). But just two verses above he wrote: “No one who believes in him will be put to shame” (Romans 10:11). I know that Paul was firmly grounded on this truth. He knew that “God” Jesus revealed, “God” who was in Christ Jesus, is “God” totally dependable. And in this “God” there is no distinction of “colour, class, or creed”; this, for me, is something that is not only relevant but also very, very urgent. So Paul that man from Tarsus wrote: “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him” (Romans 10:12).

I clearly note the phrase “no distinction” and the word “all” repeated several times in that verse. Someone once said: “God is colour blind”. To this I may add: “God is authentically ultra liberal”.

With this Paul also reminds me of my mission, the purpose of my life in this world. Paul actually raises a series of serious questions to those who call themselves Christians, including my self: “But how are they (now this “they” refers to the people in the world I live) to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? …” (Romans 10”14).

The presence of God is not for me, alone, to take comfort for my self and enjoy. It is for me to share. It is for me to proclaim with my words and more with my deeds. But in that, for sure, there is no space for coaxing or proselytizing! It is then, and perhaps then only, the presence of God becomes really “alive” in this world, and becomes relevant to my thought and living. I believe that the spirit of God is also in me, persuading me to believe in the presence of God, calling me and inspiring me to perform heroic acts of compassion and transform this world with hatred, competitions, and conflicts into that heaven, the footstool of God.

Relevant Faith

2008-07-29T06:58:00.000-07:00

Why am I preoccupied with “faith”? For I have felt intensely and explored intentionally this “faith” for over four decades now!

Faiths, not just Christian but also other faiths, point to a presence of the transcendence, the unseen and invisible person, power, or energy, that most people call God, and persuade from humans an increased sense of accountability. It is this that is the concern of Christians around the world as they regularly join public worship and enter into private personal praying.

Faith, then, is that which emerges from my awareness of that which is bigger, greater, and worthier than my puny self. Faith, then, should make me to see my self with another perspective – not that is self-centred.

Extending kindness and compassion to the other, particularly the frail ones – children, the senior, those of lesser affluence, and those with special needs – caring for the world that is in some sense is so fragile, and sharing of the resources of much are non-renewable, are some of the outcome when “faith” is the preoccupation.

As such, concern for “faith” is likely to improve both our individual and communal life. But preoccupation with “faith” has led to the opposite as well. Then we call that “distorted faith”, “irrelevant faith” that needs to be discarded.

Saved to Serve

2008-07-16T18:49:00.000-07:00

My “goodness” and “greatness”, I am now convinced, are purely related to, and dependent only on the “services I render” in my neighbourhood. If so, the economic abundance – the type of car I drive, the size and location of the house I live, the stuff I pile up in my abode – or a superior social status, or even higher educational qualifications that I am inclined to do not determine, or add up to my authentic stature, or to my real greatness. They do not in any way increase my goodness. Hence, I do not need to be crazily craving for all these. All what I have to be concerned in my day-to-day living is “my little acts of good works”. This is the ‘basics’ of faith. It is the only purpose of spirituality. All the fundamentals of religion are contained in that “little acts of good works”. All the rest are lee and scum of religious faiths and secular philosophies!

Those trained in a little Christian theology, I know, may object to my saying these words! Are we not saved only by “Grace and through Faith alone”? Are you preaching a Gospel of “Good Works”, they may query? God’s Grace alone saves us, they may warn me!

To them, I would say, “Sure”! But what I want to affirm here is that “we are saved, and we are being saved, only to serve”. God saves us that we may work his good and great works to those around us!

The Book of Proverbs 31:10-31, twenty-two verses, is an acrostic poem on “good works” of a woman, through which she earns the title of “a good and a model wife”. I know it is unfortunate that we do not have a similar poem on “a good and a model husband” to complement this! Without getting into an argument about the “andro-centrism” of the Hebrew Scriptures, I note, the heroine in that passage becomes good and great only by her diligent caring for her family. She becomes the ideal only by her eager sharing of her energies for the welfare of her husband and children – her immediate neighbourhood!

Conscientious care for those in my neighbourhood, and eagerly sharing – lovingly sharing – what I have and enthusiastically giving my self is that call I receive from that ever silent, odourless, invisible “More” – that some call God, others call Nirvana, some others call Allah, Yahweh, Brahman, etc. – that is always present!

That was the essence of the message Jesus of Nazareth taught! He even dramatized the same message of diligent care and eager sharing to his disciples, who, like me, were inclined to becoming great and good in the worldly sense of addition and accumulation! To them Jesus said you become first and great by becoming last and through serving – the word Jesus offered them is servant, serving as a servant! (Cf. Mark 9:35)

Jesus once took a little child, in Mark 9:30-37, and said: “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me” (Mark 9:37). The point here is my diligent care for and an eager sharing with one of the least in my neighborhood. This, then, is that which will drive me towards “goodness and greatness”!

James, the writer of the little book in the Greek Scriptures, (which some may consider as one of the actual brothers of Jesus), like his friends who did not understand this at the beginning, appreciated the importance of diligent care for and keen sharing with those around him as the Wisdom. He therefore wrote in his letter, “Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness” – your works with gentleness because you are doing to the least among you – “willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy” (James 3:13b and 17).

Hence, I – giving it a title “Work the Faith” – say to myself:
You have been set free

To set others free

Faith is not

A spectator sport

Learn a simple truth

Share it

Discover your gift

And release it

Hook up

On a project

Not as the boss

But as a partner

Give your ear

Not your tongue

To talk her story

Look for opportunities

And meet the needs

Others passed

By the other side

Let Go the Colt!

2008-07-16T06:42:00.000-07:00

Mark narrates (Mark 11:1-11) the story of Jesus’ “bold entry” into Jerusalem with poetic brevity. The phrase “as it was already late”, part of the last verse, is likely to create a sense of urgency – no space for lethargy, no time for procrastinating! And Jesus moves forward. The disciples are with him in that journey. There were others, willing to “let go”, or “offer” what belonged to them for the sake of Jesus’ mission culminating in “sacrificing of the self”, a final overcoming of the ego!

If every single Christian takes time to read this little story and allow it to echo in their heart, will they then sense the urgency to walk with Jesus? Where will this walk take them? Are the Christians today ready, for sake of Jesus, to offer their “colt” that they jealously guard? What is that “colt” in their “heart”, in their “wallet”, that they must now “let go” for the mission of Jesus of Nazareth, the Missio Dei, the Mission of God – very different from the mission of the Christendom, particularly of the western world – to continue in God’s World?

Fundamentals of Faith

2008-07-15T06:56:00.000-07:00

Dr S. Radhakrishnan, the late philosopher president of India once said, “Christians are ordinary people making extra-ordinary claims”. He said this when he found the professed claims of Christians were not matching their life style.

Christians, sure, are humans! And they have all the human weaknesses. But yet the world demands “a validation” from those, enthusiastically and very regularly, “professing faith”. For that is the way the world ratifies the truth of a faith.

This expectation is not a mere “worldly” one; it is also a “godly” demand. Hence, Jesus said: “If you love me, you will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” (John 14:23)

One of the first things that we may want to note is that the “Word” and “Commandment” in John’s Gospel are synonymous words. Hence, “keep my word” equals “keep my commandment”.

And if we probe a little more, even the word “love” belongs to the same category. In other words, to keep the word, or his commandment, is same as to “love”. So Christians regularly pray: “Pour into our hearts such love…” And Christians are expected to repeat this until that “love” happens. It is then a useful exercise to keep repeating, day and night, the phrase “pour into our hearts love that we may in turn love”. So as God pours this love into my feeble heart “I keep his word”, or “keep his commandment”.

Or, those who regularly walk to the “Lord’s Table”, to the altar for Holy Communion, may repeat the same prayer with modified words: “May we who receive this sacrament always be strengthened to do your will”.

Second, in the writings of John “faith” is very simple. It is to love. Likewise to do God’s will is to love; to keep the words of the Lord of the Worlds is to love; to obey the commands of God is, again, to love. It is those who love have faith. When there is faith there is love.

When I love - I may not speak of faith. But still I have faith. Love that which lives and dies for the other, for sake of the other is that which marks a life of a Christian. This is precisely what Jesus offered the world at the cross. It is this love that I receive as I gather, with others, around the Lords Table.

John confirms the same elsewhere: “God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.” (1 John 4:16b) Or, in the same chapter, John said: “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who love is born of God and knows God.” (1 John 4:7)

Perhaps, not strangely, the opposite is also true. “Whoever does not love does not know God.” (1 John 4:8) Still further down in the same chapter John has some very hard stuff. He said: “Those who say, ‘I love God’, and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.” (1 John 4:20)

From this I learn that the only way to love and serve the eternal, unseen God, is to love and serve the mortal brother and sister whom I see in my every day life; now the brother and sister, as we all know, refers to every single human with no discrimination of color, race, or creed!

Earlier, I said, to have “faith” is simple. Because all that means is “to love”. Intellectually, it is a simple truth. But in reality, as we may very well know, it is the most difficult task. And perhaps that is why Christians as frail as they are fail to live up to their faith.

A reason for the failure to “love” is “forgetfulness”. At the beginning of the day, or on Sunday, at the beginning of the week, I say to myself I will worship and serve God by my love for my neighbour. But when I really encounter my neighbour, I see my neighbour not only as a threat to my interest but also as one who pricks my bloated ego. And I forget that love in my heart and replace with hate.

But I am not left alone to struggle without any support from above. The Gospel, the Christian Scriptures, speaks of the gift of the Holy Spirit, to “remind” (John 14:25) me of the need to love! Interesting aspect in this “support” from above is my actual doing love. When I “do love” then I “receive” this “support” from above. Love is given from above to those who love, not to accumulate but to spend. So it is not magical. Neither is it something that I do with my own strength. And therefore I cannot take credit for my loving. I love because I am loved first, and I am given to love.

It is grace and the power of the Holy Spirit that makes me and enables me to love, but that grace and power is experienced and realized only in my effort to love. They are both intricately connected. That is receiving love from above and spending my love are both inter-connected.

The love in the New Testament is not an expression of love from the “left-over” of my self-love. It is, as I said earlier, a love for the sake of the other; a love in which the other takes precedence to my own self. It is a love where the needs of the other is put before ones own need. It is, therefore, a costly love.

“For God so loved the world…” is the beginning of my faith. The “eternal city of love and light”, is the goal of my feeble and fragile faith. And this city has “riches beyond imagination” for those, and for only those, who love, and live this earthly life by loving!

Gibranian Spirituality

2008-06-27T14:09:00.000-07:00

Gibranian “spirituality” is a concept not unconnected to “morality”, a very practical aspect of day-to-day human life. Khalil Gibran (1883-1931) is a “reformer” and a “people’s philosopher” – very different from, and perhaps, opposed to the philosophy of the philosophers (often in their ivory towers). What Gibran said and advocated is moral philosophy. Ghougassian, a Gibran scholar, was of the opinion that Gibran through his writings and paintings attempted to reform “the social woes caused by injustice, ineffective traditions, and the unnatural laws that hurt the innate laws of human nature”. (Joseph P. Ghougassian, Kahlil Gibran: Wings of Thought – The People’s Philosopher, New York: Philosophical Library, 1973.)

For Ghougassian these are the chief concerns that Gibran expressed in his Spirits Rebellious. This was translated into English by H.M. Nahmad, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1948; London: Heineman, 1949). The basic message of this book is put through four stories – “Madame Rose Hanie”, “The Cry of Graves”, “Khalil the Heretic”, and “The Bridal Couch”. These stories inform that the laws of the Church and the State are human made, and at present, these social laws are much decayed.

Elsewhere Gibran wrote about this social decay, dirt and deterioration thus: “If you wish to take a look at the decayed teeth of Syria, visit its schools where the sons and daughters of today are preparing to become the men and women of tomorrow.”

“Visit the courts and witness that acts of the crooked and corrupted purveyors of justice. See how they play with the thoughts and minds of the simple people as a cat plays with a mouse.”

“Visit the homes of the rich where conceit, falsehood, and hypocrisy reign. But don’t neglect to go through the huts of the poor as well, where dwell fear, ignorance and cowardice.”

“Then visit the nimble-fingered dentists, [metaphorically the leaders], possessors of delicate instruments, dental plasters and tranquilizers, who spend their days filling the cavities in the rotten teeth of the nation to mask the decay.” (Quoted from “Decayed Teeth” of Kahlil Gibran, Thoughts and Meditations, translated by Anthony R. Ferris, New York: The Citadel Press, 1960).

And Gibran poetically proclaimed that these laws of the Church and State prevent growth, “the individual to develop a self-identity”. For according to Kahlil Gibran, there can be no spiritual wellness, or health, and the human spirit will not be free if these areas of our society are not renewed and made to serve the needs of humans.

For Gibran, to be closer to God necessarily amounts to be closer to people. And he saw that religious and political leadership with all its structural paraphernalia of his time was far removed from the people and their concerns. And he perceived these institutions, both religious and political, as self-serving, prompting in him a rebellion against the leadership and revolting against the institutions, including his Maronite Catholic Church.

As for Gibran’s followers, according to Ghougassian, Gibran is a prophet, like the prophets of the Hebrew tradition, playing the “same effective social role in educating the minds in spirituality”. And Gibran’s writings on social woes are similar to that of the Hebrew poetic literature. For Gibran, like William Blake, was very much influenced by the Bible. And his spirituality was pragmatic and firmly rooted in compassion towards the more “feeble” segment of the society, whom Jesus called the anāwim, the needy ones, demanding more equity.

Gibran’s Spirits Rebellious, according to some of the early biographers, whom Ghougassian used in his study, was burnt in Beirut by the then ruling Turkish Government, and Gibran was exiled. The Maronite Church too joined the state in punishing Gibran by her own excommunication. Later biographers, however, do not seem to find evidence for this inhuman acts of the Church and State!

Gibran saw in those organizations of his time, which he was critiquing, a sense of hypocrisy, shallowness, lack of love and forgiveness, leading, to a dearth of freedom for the human spirit. He believed human spirit was endowed with a forward thrust and toward the infinite. And Gibran saw how these self-serving institutions were enslaving the human spirit from leaping towards limitless expanse of life.

At the end what I hope to communicate is that Gibran despite his rebellion, particularly against his own Maronite Church, remained an intensely spiritual person promoting, joyously, spiritual values. In fact, Gibran himself said that he was deeply spiritual though we do not see him as a practising Christian, refusing even a Christian burial at the end.

As for Gibran a person who is spiritual “does not embrace a religion” and one who embraces a religion really “has no religion”, meaning is not spiritual. In this sense Gibran is a mystic who had no inclination for any “formulated” or organized religion. He was inclined towards an intrinsic spirituality that is often described as “esoteric” religion, different from, if not opposed to “exoteric” religion. Gibran had no space for any extrinsic religion in his psyche. Gibran believed that “the extrinsic religion”, like that of any organized church, including his own Maronite Church, “promotes racial and ethnic bigotry, religious prejudice” leading the followers not only towards a religious competition but also “to discrimination, segregation and denials” of other beliefs and practices.

Ghougassian is not wrong in considering Gibran’s condemnatory stance of the religion too harsh. But what Gibran condemned was only the forms of “extrinsic” religions while upholding and even promoting intrinsic religion even when it came from beyond the Christian boundary. However, the Maronite Church that condemned Gibran was harsher and irrational in her dismissal without considering carefully Gibran’s thought on the “intrinsic” nature of religion.

In a letter to his cousin Nakhli Gibran, Kahlil Gibran wrote: “The people in Syria are calling me heretic, and the intelligentsia in Egypt vilifies me, saying, ‘He is the enemy of just laws, of family ties, and of old traditions.’ Those writers are telling the truth, because I do not love man-made laws and I abhor the traditions that our ancestors left us. This hatred is the fruit of my love for the sacred and spiritual kindness, which should be the source of every law upon the earth, for kindness is the shadow of God in man. I know that the principles upon which I base my writings are echoes of the majority of the people of the world, because the tendency toward a spiritual independence is to our life as the heart to the body.”

Gibranism, I maintain, that in spite of its anti-institutionalism, including anti-clericalism, still carries with it a sensible and a relevant spirituality to induce renewal. And this renewal is essential for the continuing safety and health of human life. Hence, Gibranism proclaimed through parables – prosaic and poetic - despite its ambiguity deserves a closer examination.

[More on this subject could be found in Henry Victor, “Scarecrow Spirituality: Exploring Gibranianism”, Religious Studies and Theology, Volume 24, Number 2, (2005), pp. 59-80.]

Pondering my Path!

2008-06-26T15:01:00.000-07:00

I am in the latter part of my middle age! I realize I have the inclination to do what I did in the latter part of my teen – walking and wandering in the wilderness.

My walking trail, this morning, as I had been doing since the beginning of this summer, is the east of Cummings Lake in Fairview, Alberta. On the west of the lake is the well-driven road to Hines Creek and beyond into the Beautiful British Columbia. My work takes me frequently on that road. My leisure, however, directs me in the opposite.

This morning, as usual, again I secretly hoped I would encounter a black bear to make my day. Perhaps my hope was not strong enough that to happen. If it were, I would have carried my Canon PC 1130!

My preference to the backcountry has always remained steady. Now perhaps it is at the peak. This is perhaps strengthened by my sexual dysfunction, probably created by my diabetes with that additional catalyst, my inclination to becoming a hermit, at least in heart!

Not that I have acquired all the intellectual skills and physical muscles to promote my preference. I have tried in the past to learn more of natural life, exploring bird life, animal life, and wild flowers. I have also equipped myself with expensive books, telephoto lens and binoculars and so on. None of these have enabled me to see a black bear in this region.

But I did see this morning, for the first time, a newly born fawn, perhaps, born early this morning or last night. She was beautiful with her spots. The doe that looked very well fed left the fawn and started moving towards better security from an intruder. And the young one appeared confused and perhaps wondered why the mother in this desert has deserted her.

I am, I realize, is not in 60’s of the last century. On those days I would have walked towards that new beauty to make her my own no matter whether there was a road, or not! Since I will soon be 60, I decided to leave the fawn to find her mother and the doe to fend for her fawn while I retraced my path to my computer that is ready to listen to my adventure with hope for nothing.

My Journey to Emmaus!

2008-06-25T13:11:00.000-07:00

“Emmaus never happened; Emmaus always happens” says John Dominic Crossan, a contemporary New Testament scholar of great repute! I too have made that journey! No. To be exact, I have not made that journey. I am in that journey right now.

In that journey Jesus often comes as a stranger. He, then, nudges me to take him as a fellow traveller, walking with me, listening to all my questions, feeling my fears and anxieties. Gradually, and sometimes suddenly, he turns into a kind of a wandering rabbi, a guru, teaching the obvious and dispelling that darkness. By the time it is late evening and the journey not over, I almost always consider him as a good friend to invite him into my tent.

Jesus, that wanderer, is a unique personality! He, whom I invite as my guest, ends up being my host. And the aura around him as he breaks the bread and passes the cup always unsettles me making me to want him more. But then he disappears leaving me unable to close my eyes for a very, very long time in the night.

The images of Jesus in my mind are never static. They keep changing. Sometime I look at him as a great hero mighty in word and deed before both God and human. Him as a Crucified Prophet is one that is foremost in my mind. He, of course is a puzzling mystery who appears and disappears. But when I exchange notes with his earlier disciples Peter, Cleopas, Mary Magdalene and other disciples in Jerusalem, Jesus becomes a resurrected Lord in my heart!

I am learning, now, to change my notion of Jesus, as I continue to travel Emmaus, then, is not wrong. I walk, I go through changing scenes of life, I encounter new events, I meet with new people, I read, I talk, I debate, I hear new accents, I sing new songs, I eat new food, and I am transformed both in my thoughts about Jesus and my life with him and in him. And that is the way God of the Holy Spirit, or the risen Christ, works within me. I realize, for sure, I must without any hesitation remain open to such transformation!

Spirituality, I am gathering, is a journey. Spirituality is a long walk. It is not a “one shot performance”, either in the Sunday school, or Confirmation Class, or reading a single book on spirituality, or reading all the books of a single author, or attending a conference or a single seminary training. It is a continuous Emmaus journey! I learn; I re-learn like Cleopas and his friend. I am re-trained in my discipleship to Christ, the risen Lord!

And in that journey, I am convinced, I must leave a little space for a companion to walk with me and talk with me! And that companion may, as I grow in my spirit, become an “angel” or “Jesus”!

That journey, I am learning, is training for me, where my mind and heart gets cultured in “hospitality”. This hospitality enhances my “seeing and perceiving” the “risen Christ reality” around me, present in a concentrated manner in that which I long to dismiss as “others” and “strangers”. This hospitality includes my careful listening to the outsider demanding that I put away from my faith and culture concepts and words such as “stranger” and “outsider”. Without that renunciation I cannot retain and rejoice within my circle that “risen Christ reality”!

This hospitality presupposes humility to listen. In this hospitality I am not the one, like that padre, provides the answer. I raise my questions and wait for the answers; I am willing to be corrected! In this I do not ask questions to prove my point. I ask questions. And I am open to the answers, even when it comes from a stranger.

This hospitality does not try to control my guest; in this I getting used to letting my guest controlling, if necessary, switching roles; putting me completely vulnerable in the hand of the stranger! There is “vulnerability” in being open to a “stranger”! With God, I know, I must be prepared to “loose my control”!

In this journey I am learning to enjoy such “incredible events” to take control of me and the rest of my life. I let it guide my next move, or my continuing journey! I have no plans. In fact, I have dropped all my plans of work, rest and relaxation in Emmaus. And if I return to Jerusalem I return only to exchange notes with those who are on the journey.

And that journey is impossible without that hospitality, which interferes with my comfort zone! Yes, it is a kind of hospitality that calls for a letting go of my self, my ego, my plan, my hidden agendas; it is a kind of hospitality that expects from me to cease micromanaging others; it is a kind of hospitality that readily and spontaneously switches roles; it is a kind of hospitality that is dictated and directed by the “risen Christ reality”; it is a kind of hospitality that prays, truly, “may your will be done”.

Prioritizing the Poor!

2008-06-21T13:55:00.000-07:00

Giving priority to the poor and their concerns within the Church, at least, is as old as Christian religion. The Greek Scriptures, the New Testament, which contains the life and teachings of Jesus, portrays him as an advocate of the poor and the marginal people. Jesus’ manifesto, a quote from Isaiah that he proclaimed at the beginning of his roughly three years of ministry puts into a nutshell his concern and commitment to the poor. This reads: “The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor”. (Luke 4:18f) Later, summarizing the life of Jesus Peter said: “… God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him”. (Acts 10:38)

Jesus’ “going about doing good”, serving the oppressed, marginal poor and the sick become the model for the life style of the early Christian community. At least this is how the later Christians perceived it. A prayer that is used in most Churches in Canada – Roman, Episcopal, and Lutheran Churches – reads: “The earliest Christian community held all things in common, and no one was in need. May we recommit ourselves to hold the goods of this world in common and to work to eliminate hunger and homelessness. For this let us pray to the Lord.” (Gail Ramshaw, Editor, Intercessions for the Christian People: Prayers of the People for Cycles A, B, and C of the Roman, Episcopal, and Lutheran Lectionaries, Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1990. p. 103.)

In this we see a link between the professed faith of the contemporary church in Canada and her perceived vision of the early church, connected by this “concern and mission” to alleviate, if not eradicate “hunger and homelessness”.

The church of the Acts of the Apostles, in order to increase the effectiveness of their services to the widows and orphans, the early Christians even institutionalized that most important aspect of Christian faith by establishing “diakonia”, serving or service, particularly, “to care for orphans and widows in their distress”, along with their already established kerygma, the proclamation of the Gospel, and koinonia, the fellowship of the Christian believers. If kerygma and koinonia were fundamental, then diakonia too was. That is how the early Christians saw the spirit and structure of the newly emerging movement. For these people God is the Lord “who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who love the strangers, providing them with food and clothing”. (Deuteronomy 10:18)

Following the teachings and the living example of Jesus and deriving inspiration from the early Christian community, Christians now can learn from a long list of great champions and movements worked towards the cause of the poor and the marginal people.

Bishop Remi De Roo commending similar faith commitments to the Canadian Christians, in eighties wrote: “Concern for the poor and action on their behalf have remained the criteria for authentic Christianity throughout the ages.” (Remi De Roo, Cries of Victims-Voice of God, Ottawa/Toronto: Novalis in association with James Lorimer & Company, 1986, p. 68). And for him this “authentic Christianity” includes, among many other, the religious faith of St Ambrose (339-397), St John Chrysostom (349-407), St Augustine (354-430), and St Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153).

St Ambrose, Bishop De Roo says, always taught his people “that when the rich give alms they are only returning the property they have stolen from the poor.” And for St Bernard of Clairvaux the only way the rich can enter heaven is by befriending the poor. We may also note that many of these champions of the poor also got into the bad books of their rich parishioners. And De Roo reminds us how St John Chrysostom was accused for continuously attacking the rich.

And we know even during our time Oscar Romero and many others have paid with their lives for taking up the cause of the poor in the name of their Christian faith. Such radical views of Christian caring of the poor are all part of the Christian heritage! Francis of Assisi, Dorothy Day, Mother Teresa, and Jean Vanieer are only a few among the many that we may cite as examples for this radical Christianity from whose life and commitment we may receive greater inspiration for this concern. And what we need to note, now, is that this concern for the small and the oppressed was always kept alive throughout the Christian history.

From this discussion we learn that Christian concern for the poor, the oppressed and marginalized is in no way an innovative concern, or as some of the critiques of Christian social activism consider, it is not a newly politicized Christian faith. But rather that Christian faith demands Christians take issues of poverty, development, justice, and so on as fundamental to their faith concern.

Recognizing the increased consciousness of “justice and peace”, and writing in the eighties about the church of the future, Walbert Bühlmann said: “Christians have to learn that the option for justice, for development, for disarmament, is not the same thing as ‘going in for politics’, but an essential part of evangelization”. (Walbert Bühlmann, The Church of the Future: A Model for the Year 2001, Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1986. p. 108.) Christians, therefore, have begun to move beyond that unproductive, divisive dichotomy of the “spiritual gospel” versus the “social gospel” and to see that “humanization” of the poor and marginalized as the “total evangelization”.

With Eyes of the Poor!

2008-06-19T08:20:00.000-07:00

There is some discomfort in my heart with much that happens in the contemporary Church with regard to the poor and the nations that are yet to develop. I see a lot of irrelevance in the way we go about. If our concern for the poor has to become relevant there should be a shift towards the perspectives of the poor. “Justice” not “charity” that should be the priority. C.S. Song, a prominent Asian Theologian once said, “compassion that does not oppose injustice is not true compassion; it becomes an accomplice of unjust power” (C.S. Song, Theology from the Womb of Asia, London: SCM Press, 1988. p.156).

Christian concern for the poor must enhance the self-worth of the poor by working towards justice. Feeding, clothing, housing, teaching, counselling, training, loving, and so on that fills our Christian activism must transform the “doer” to accept the recipients of our doing as humans and equals.

The “doing” in our Christian concern for poor must decrease “dependency” and increase “self-reliance”. Christian activism must move towards finding more “permanent” solution, addressing the cause of poverty instead the symptom by constantly challenging false answers, overcoming prejudices, and eventually moving towards one community – no rich, no poor.

And this requires, first, a vision of the reality of the poor through the eyes of the poor. Therefore, Virgil Elizondo and Leonardo Boff, two prominent Latin American Liberation theologians, calling this as the Church’s preferential option for the poor, wrote: “When we enter the continent of the poor and try to think through their eyes and from their social position, we discover their strength, their resistance, their courage and their creativity. It then becomes clear that the society within which they live and suffer and from which they are marginalized has to be fundamentally transformed. From the position of the poor the urgency of liberation is beyond doubt.” (This and other quotes below are taken from their “‘Editorial: theology From The Viewpoint Of The Poor’” in Concilium – Option For The Poor: Challenge To The Rich Countries, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark Ltd, 1986.)

Second, they argued, in preferential option for the poor, we take up the cause of the poor. For Elizondo and Boff: “The cause of the poor is the cause of life and means of life such as work, bread, clothing, housing and basic education. The cause of the poor is a new society in which the vital questions which concern all citizens without distinction are given priority, in which relations of collaboration and equity prevail over exploitation and domination.”

Thirdly, Elizondo and Boff affirmed that in preferential option for the poor we take up the struggle of the poor. They wrote: “It is the oppressed who bring about liberation. They become aware of their dignity, organize their action, form links with other groups, which, like them, want a different society. The churches should join this struggle, make their specific contribution as religious bodies, reinforce the power of the poor to enable them to press for changes and participate in their implementation.”

Fourthly, they believed that option for the poor means taking up the life of the poor, as they wrote: “The option for the poor is not authentic unless we participate, at least a little, in the life and suffering of the poor…Support for the struggles of the poor frequently means suffering misunderstanding, persecution and even moral and physical injury.”

Fifthly, for Elizondo and Boff, preferential option for the poor, involves an identification of the mechanisms, which produce poverty. “The poverty of the poor is a result of a combination of causes, and first the international capitalist system and the relations of dependence and oppression it establishes between the nations at the center of the system and those at the periphery…The benefits are, on the whole, accumulated by the countries which are already highly developed or by the social classes in the poor countries which exercise social control in association with the multi-national interests of capital. The sacrifices are borne by those who are already poor and exploited. Development and underdevelopment are linked by a causal connection which makes them two sides of the same coin…If the churches and the theologians do not develop a critical attitude towards the socio-economic system within which they live, they run the risk of becoming mere reformists, reproducing the system in slightly improved form, rather than allies of the poor, who are demanding a once-for-all replacement of the existing system by another which makes possible more equality and life for all.”

And finally, they see preferential option of the poor redefining the task of theology for them and others who are committed to the poor, the oppressed, and marginal people in the world. “A theology today which does not place at the center of its concern the poor, justice, freedom and liberation will have difficulty in refuting the accusation of alienation and even cynicism, and will in the end become totally irrelevant…Without the poor the church loses its Lord and theology its evangelical content.”

Catholic Latin American Liberation theologians generally accept Pope John XXIII as the source of this revolutionary concept. For Pope John XXIII even prior to the Vatican II viewed the Church to be “the Church of all, but principally the Church of the poor.” And it is also accepted Pope John Paul II keeps repeating and reaffirming the same when he says: “The option for the poor is my daily concern.”

Thus, we may note, the Christians committed to the concern for the poor and the marginal today have been moving towards a bias towards the poor accepting the broad conceptual leadership provided by the Roman Catholic Church. This is very clearly reflected in the prayer used by the Canadian Christians following the ecumenical lectionary. Hence one of the prayers set aside for fifth Sunday after Pentecost reads: “We thank you, O God, that you favour the poor, the meek, the oppressed, the homeless, and the hungry. Make your compassion contagious that the rich might share with the poor, the strong befriend the weak”. The pastoral stance for the option for the poor is actually a response to a theological realization that God favour’s the poor, an aspect that is a guiding thought to the liberation theologies that takes the cause of the poor with utmost seriousness.

However, those who used the phrase “option for the poor”, particularly the Latin American Liberation Theologians, were aware that this was no small concern but one that involves large shifting for the Church that was not poor and hitherto had the sympathies and appreciation of the rich. These theologians were aware that this phrase was not for a mere announcing to the poor: “God loves you by preference” and do nothing. But closely connected with the words of Jesus to the learned lawyer to whom Jesus related the Parable of the Good Samaritan and said: “Go and do likewise”. In this regard Berryman makes an obvious but important point recognizing in it a call for a “change of heart” for the non-poor, for it is only the non-poor who can opt for the poor.

From this we learn that the challenge before the Christian community in Canada is, as Alfred T. Hennelly, another Jesuit commentator of liberation theology from United States puts it, “not only to accept and embrace this preferential option, but above all to translate this theoretical commitment into a creative and effective action on behalf of the poor majority of humanity”.

Breaking the Middle Wall!

2008-06-18T20:01:00.000-07:00

Christ came, Christ comes, and Christ will come, to break that “middle wall” that separates “us” from the “other” so that we, all God’s creation, may become one in Christ, the gift of God to God’s world.

“For God so loved the world …” (John 3:16) is the very essence of Christian faith that express that gift of God and Christian life evolving from that single Christ event; for this is the very axle in which our spirituality and our whole church life revolves around. It tells us, very plainly, of God’s initiative in our salvation, our wellness and wholeness, informing that we can neither earn, nor boast of our salvation, which comes as a free gift from God. This of course includes God’s continuous providence established well through our regular work and leisure activities in God’s world with God’s people.

The passage also suggests that we drop off our petty “self-righteousness” and stubborn “self-sufficiency” and serve God by caring for, and serving humbly, God’s creatures in God’s world. This serving involves that we break down the “middle wall” we keep erecting both in subtle and more obvious ways to justify our self-righteousness and self-sufficiency.

Let me close this comment with “An Accent” – just below – a little poetic story, a plea to break one brick from that middle wall. This story was published earlier in my poetry collection titled Stinging of the Scorpion and Other Poems (2006), page 30:

An Accent

To the pond behind my yard
I saw strolling a frog and a toad
They were there on that rainy day to breed
But the two soon began chatting their creed

Said the frog: “You a Bufonidae
You disturb my peace with your croak”
Protested the toad: “You a rascal Ranidae
You scare me to my death with your squeak”

Friendly chatting now turned to a dispute
They leapt across belittling each other
And there crept the water snake, moving softly
Swallowed the frog, proceeding next to the toad!

Rejuvenating the Prophetic Ministry

2008-06-18T10:10:00.000-07:00

A sure way to enhance the relevance of the organized Christian community is to rejuvenate the prophetic ministry. I will briefly explain this that may need to be developed further elsewhere. These thoughts are offered here to initiate a conversation.

I taught (between 2000 to 2007) in the University of Alberta a course titled “Community Action and Introduction to Christianity”. In this course I explored Christianity as a “religious faith” that goes beyond “merely taking care of our individual souls”. In other words, Christian faith was understood there as a concern that takes “social transformation” as an integral component, and therefore I explored the different forms of “Christian social activism” that I classified into two broad categories: One, the “Charity Model” and the other, the “Justice Model”.

I found I had little or no difficulty in presenting the first one. Charity, or Christian love, is so central to the teachings of Jesus and Christian faith! Therefore, Christian communities in their personal and congregational lives, made sure, that they keep this component alive through their support to the “Food Bank” and other similar humane causes! And generally it works not too bad though they almost never critically evaluate either the programme or their charitable contribution! All that makes them feel good! Even in the global level that works well with all Christians!

If Christians did not accept that as an important element of their faith they would not have gone to the extent of “beatifying” Mother Teresa, “the saint of the gutters”, who died in 1997. But Archbishop Oscar Romero, died in 1980, who promoted the “justice model”, by becoming “a voice of the voiceless” which many Christian Activists identify as “Prophetic Christianity”, does not get that attention which “Mother Teresa” gets!

My task here is to high light the importance of this particular stance of Christian ministry! And that is what I mean by “rejuvenating prophetic ministry”. If Mother Teresa performed a difficult Christian Ministry then Archbishop Romero was involved in doing a dangerous Christian task!

Book of Amos alludes to three types of leadership – or three patterns of actions provided by these three types of leaderships. The three types of leadership that we encounter in that little book are royal, priestly, and prophetic, all well meaning, and also found elsewhere in the Hebrew Scriptures, are rooted and emerged from two very opposite perceptions of current events, or visions. So when Amos spoke his message, Amaziah, the priestly colleague of Amos, viewed the message as something that was disturbing the status quo, very subversive and undermining the orderly rule of Jeroboam, the King. (Cf. Amos 7:10-17) In that controversy and conflict, we see the priestly ministry of Amaziah expressing a wholehearted support and a total solidarity with the royal responsibilities of Jeroboam the King while Amos was in complete solidarity with the poor, or the people in the margin. So the prophetic ministry of Amos was in conflict with both the royal and the priestly ministries!

I say all these to confirm that prophetic concerns are part of the Christian Tradition that is rooted in the Hebrew Scriptures! And Jesus of Nazareth comes in that great line, paying with his death for starting a conflict with the priestly and royal ministries of his time!

My mission in this short space is to highlight the need to rejuvenate a Christian Ministry that resembles, in spirit, the prophetic ministry of Amos and Jesus of Nazareth. And I intend to do this without going into too many technical details about Amos, a prophet who lived eight centuries before Christ, or the book attributed to him. But Amos and the book containing his prophecies will be a fascinating springboard for those who want to explore, seriously, a prophetic mission in today’s world of intense consumerism that in many respects is not very different to the world of Amos! I believe to look at Amos is not only relevant and appropriate but also urgent in the present context where organized Christian community is becoming irrelevant in the eyes of many.

Temptations of Amaziah and the priestly order of Jesus’ time were conforming too much to the perceived order. I call that conformity to the dominant culture that benefited only those in the centre while creating cracks in the margin. Amaziah and the priests of Jesus’ time derived their visions primarily through their focus in the centre while Amos and Jesus considered the importance of looking at those in the margin – “the least among you”! And therefore their actions, which of course include what they said, came into a complete contradiction to the dominant culture! This is what happened in the case of Archbishop Oscar Romero too! So to “rejuvenate” the prophetic ministry would mean, to use Pauline phrases, “not to be conformed” but “to transform” the dominant culture with the values embedded in the. In that we see a prophetic ministry as counter-cultural!

The task of prophetic ministry is then nurturing, nourishing, and evoking a consciousness and perception alternative to the consciousness and perception of the dominant culture around us. This means the Church must have a voice about the current events – not just when someone is trying to remove the Gideon Bibles from the Hospital bedside! Church should become a watchdog! Church must observe and critique the political and social development that cause “marginality” of people that eventually leads to the need to establish “food banks” only to soften the sting but never removing the cause!

Justice issues must become “Church” issues, not simply left to smaller interest groups! But the whole Church must become a living organism that mobilizes the people to speak and act together for the benefit of all people! Our vision, and therefore action, should be related to current events.

Prophet is one who watching the current events proposes “a radical alternative” – “a complete reordering” – “a changed social system” – presuming “a changed set of social priorities and social appetites”. Prophet “anticipates nothing less than the dismantling of the presently-known world for the sake of an alternative world not yet embodied”. Prophet refuses to put “a band aid”!

To rejuvenate the prophetic ministry Christians must become “excessively conscious” of justice issues! Justice is one of the major themes of the biblical prophets. “He has told you, … what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8) “… But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” (Amos 5:24)

Walter Brueggemann, a man who spent his entire life reading the biblical prophets defines biblical justice as “to sort out what belongs to whom, and to return it to them.” In my conclusion, then, I offer you an interesting story from Brueggemann who in turn borrows and re-tells to drive his definition of justice:
“I recently heard a story which speaks of forgetting to whom things belong. A very proper lady went to a teashop. She sat at a table for two, ordered a pot of tea, and prepared to eat some cookies, which she had in her purse. Because the teashop was crowded, a man took the other chair and also ordered tea. As it happened, he was a Jamaican black, though that is not essential to the story. The woman was prepared for a leisurely time, so she began to read her paper. As she did so, she took a cookie from the package. As she read, she noticed that the man across also took a cookie from the package. This upset her greatly, but she ignored it and kept reading. After a while she took another cookie. And so did he. This unnerved her and she glared at the man. While she glared, he reached for the fifth and last cookie, smiled and offered her half of it. She was indignant. She paid her money and left in a great hurry, enraged at such a presumptuous man. She hurried to her bus stop just outside. She opened her purse to get a coin for her bus ticket. And then she saw, much to her distress, that in her purse was her package of cookies unopened!”

Justice concerns are precisely a right reading of social reality, of social power, and of social goods.

Unseating the Dominant Culture!

2008-06-17T15:24:00.000-07:00

Jeremiah’s perception was that God had picked him to the prophetic ministry even before his conception in his mother’s womb. The text (Jeremiah 1:4-10) very clearly affirms that Jeremiah’s ministry had nothing to do with any human agents. It is God who appointed him in that ministry.

The text also outlines the kind of task Jeremiah was to perform. He was expected “to pluck up and pull down, to destroy and to overthrow” before he was permitted “to build and to plant”. This is spoken in a metaphorical language; it means that Jeremiah was to promote a counter culture, challenge the conventional wisdom of his time. Jeremiah precisely performed those duties and suffered for doing so!

Jesus also did much plucking up, pulling down, destroying and overthrowing that made the synagogue leaders very angry! One morning there was a disturbance in a synagogue. This was due to Jesus doing something very different from the usual Sabbath doing (Cf. Luke 13:10-17). The problem here was Jesus healing on the Sabbath. Healing on the Sabbath was considered working on the Sabbath. Jesus’ actions that morning suggested a counter culture!

For the Hebrew people working on the Sabbath was wrong and sinful. But for Jesus showing mercy, no matter whether it is Sabbath, or not is the essence of spirituality. Hence, Jesus did more than a healing on the Sabbath. He unseated their ‘religious culture’ in order to put a new one.

Three concerns that emerge from that single act are noteworthy. First, he challenged the synagogue leader and the system that considered women as mere possessions, and often less important than even an ox that ploughed the fields, or the donkey that carried the load! In this system an ox or a donkey brought more money! These were days when the work, women performed were not taken into consideration. Second, the Hebrews, like many of us, often lived with a misplaced value system. Money and money producing machineries are more important than humans! Finally, they also mistook a set of do’s and don’ts as the only requirement for faith and spirituality. But for Jesus, mercy and kindness is the core of spirituality. Those who show mercy and compassion even when they did not belong to a religious community or practice religious faith are indeed in a spiritual journey.

In lifting the woman on the Sabbath morning, then, Jesus challenged the status quo, upsetting the religious people of his time, particularly the synagogue leader. In the Gospels, Jesus’ troubles are always when he challenged the “conventional wisdom” of the people of his time, disturbing the status quo, or acting out a counter culture.

Jesus’ expressions of spirituality and cultural inclinations that morning did an uncomfortable unseating of the dominant value! He made the circle wider. He added an additional gender, with it a new sound and a new smell to the new sphere, making it more multi-gender the chief characteristic of heaven.

Challenging the Conventional Wisdom!

2008-06-17T01:48:00.000-07:00

Jesus had plenty of problems during the three years of his ministry. This was because he challenged the conventional wisdom of the people of his time. He, in other words, was disturbing the status quo. Jesus in his teaching and preaching provoked his listeners. Justifying his tendency to be provocative he said, “I came to bring fire to the earth” (Luke 12:49)! He came to provoke and disturb the comfortable people! Jesus was always a provocative disturber of the status quo. He was always pro-active in provoking his audience.

Often when Jesus spoke to people he hurt their pride, pricking their bloated ego, reducing the self-importance of the listeners, particularly those in the centre of the then society! Here, Jesus like his predecessors, the Hebrew prophets, “plucked, pulled down, uprooted and destroyed” - recurring words in the writings of Jeremiah - their sense of self-importance, something the prophets considered God’s doing before God made things new!

In the Hebrew Scriptures this is called the “prophetic inveighing”, a sport almost all the prophets practiced. And, of course, all prophets, even prior to Jesus, suffered much. They preached the Word of God through such provocation. And the Word of God, according to the Hebrew Prophetic Scriptures, frequently came not as sweet as honey as the psalmist often proclaimed. It was usually uncomfortable words, needing a lot of humility and a greater maturity on the part of the hearers. Reinhold Niebuhr about his own preaching, and all preaching said that preaching should “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable”. Jesus precisely did that. He expected his followers also to do the same.

Earlier young Moses did the same. He too knew the consequences of disturbing the status quo. At one point, he even tried to plead with God to let him out of the hook and pick instead Aaron, the old bloke who is also a good orator! But, we know, that did not happen. Once God decides on someone, there is no escape! And there is also no freedom from pain in an authentic ministry! Bonhoffer said when God calls you he calls you to suffer and die! That did happen to Bonhoffer! It happened to Jeremiah. And it happened to Jesus. Jesus could not escape from the cross, though at the end he yelled at God – Eloi, Eloi lema sabachthani? “My God, My God why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34)

God, in the Sacred Scriptures of the Christians, is not a sweet chocolate! God is not one who puts humans on a bed of roses! God does give to people chocolate and beautiful roses! But God gives above all a responsibility to become a prophet and a prophetic community to pluck up, to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow our prejudices, our narrowness, our smallness, our sense of self-importance, and so on before we build for God “the hymn of love”! Towards this, the same scriptures affirm, God gives God’s own Spirit!

Song writer James Manley boldly believed the Spirit of God is that which “breaks ancient schemes”, “stings with sand”, “calls us to live in an uncertain tomorrow”, “coaxes us to do what we do not like”, “wakes us from our slumber”, “gives us a new vision”, “stirs me from my placidness”, and much more.

Unpredictability of God!

2008-06-14T08:20:00.000-07:00

Unpredictability of that “Being” I call God has frequently frustrated me. But there have been many, many moments my mind has been simply fascinated by that “More”. It is this fascination that prompts me to what the ancients called “praising God”! And my adoration of that Absolute Love at the edge where I stand breaks into this “un-poetic” prayer where my “soft amen” disintegrates with the souls of those perishing in hell, a human construct.

Your unpredictability like the wind
Blowing where it chooses to blow
That I hear very clearly the sound
But knowing not where it comes
Or whither her path would be
Increasing that sense of mystery to surround
You and your ways of dealing in the world
Making the thought of your eternal
Unchangeableness a very sure heresy
Leaving me to wonder, and wander after you
Like Moses journeying alone
In that Sinai wilderness
For so long before he gets a glimpse
Of your being in the burning bush

I, now, drive through the Albertan bush
Seeking like Jonah, Jeremiah, and Jesus
That restless rest that comes from resting
In your endless, ever-expanding
Being that is always becoming!

Authentic God Talk!

2008-06-13T14:08:00.000-07:00

To say, “there is no God”, is not the worst thing in the world! But to believe and affirm God while denying the right of another human to live, at least, as much as I want to live is the nastiest.

This is the essence of Amos’ concern. Amos lived about 800 years before Jesus and has left behind a little book, which is part of the Bible that could be of great value for those promoting a religious culture.

Amos was very hard-hitting on those who limited all “God talk” to a “worship service” and “the Sabbath” (or a Holy Day) and went onto to live the rest of the week a self-centred, a selfish life.

The book of Amos is addressed to those “very religious” persons who have not integrated their religious faith to the values and culture of their daily living! These are the people who wait for the religious activities to be over so that they could go into another set of rules to fatten their wallet at the expense of the poor and the needy. These people, Amos said, “trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land”.

How do they do this? They do this, in his terms, by “making” the “ephah small and the shekel great”. In our terms the weight, or the volume decreases in the market place and the dollars you need to part-with goes up!

Amos observed the people. First, he saw how people behaved in the “religious spaces”. Second, he also saw how they conducted themselves in the “market places”. He did not find any connection between the two. One said something in side the four walls of the sacred space and went out to do something else.

This lack of correlation between religious profession and conduct in the day-to-day living invalidates the authenticity of the faith professed and does disservice to the religious cause!

Bertha, a Living Saint!

2008-06-12T22:34:00.000-07:00

Bertha, now, is past 80 years! She had a foot operation at the age of 13. She, in her young age, never could run, or walk straight. In the early days before a neighbor friend of the family, a police officer, detected her foot problem, her parents thought that Bertha was imitating her grandfather’s walk.

The foot problem recurred when she was in her 50’s. She has undergone hip replacement 20 years ago. And both her knees are replaced. She still walks slowly and not straight. Her hip that was cemented needs to be further repaired. The doctor who fixed it years ago though have not verbalized feels that it is not worth the fixing! But not Bertha!

Bertha’s legs may be faulty but she has a clean heart. I have never seen her controlling any one. She does not lord over any of her associates. Her relationships are bonded in true affection and authentic love.

Bertha is always doing the humblest work. Bertha is ever ready to do the cups and dishes, whether in the church basement, or at the seniors’ centre, where she has a little apartment with things scattered all over, a sign of her outgoing and busy schedule.

She goes for bowling with other seniors. Not that she scores very many points. But she continues to go, keeping her self very active and enjoying the success of others! She always has plenty to talk about other people’s greatness.

She comes to church very regularly. She also drives for worship three other women from the senior center. She agreed to serve in the Vestry and shares her views and questions without hesitation. Whether she understands, or not, she encourages the minister, the study leader, with her presence.

I was quite pleased when she said that she did not understand what I had written to the Fairview Post! She does not pretend. On an earlier occasion too she said that what I had given for print went above her head. She may, with no malice, occasionally attribute that to my university background!

She reads a little. She watches the TV a little. She socializes much, and enjoying quite a bit of Bingo! She visits the drop in centre whenever there is an event. She sits with the seniors. She loves the young people, normally talking fondly about her grandchildren in 20’s and 30’s! Her daughters do not share her faith. They go to different churches. But she neither envies them nor is judgmental. She lives, with her dead husband in her heart, frequently sharing stories of Benny. She also regularly talks about her dead son who, if alive, would be of my age.

She works hard – has a garden during summer, knits, sows, bakes, cooks, inviting always others to share her beverage and food! She is a woman of great energy. She has overcome much prejudices others of her age and younger continue carrying, to live with. She believes that she inherited such openness and kindness from her father who homesteaded in the Eureka River district, running a store, mixing very freely with the Jews, who were hated at that time, and the aboriginals who were generally looked down by the settlers, and helping those who had nothing to eat!

Water and Wine!

2008-06-11T22:29:00.000-07:00

Jesus turning water into wine has always intrigued me! To the best of my knowledge, Christians of all denominations affirm this as one of the “divine manifestations” and view it a “sign” to Jesus’ glory.

How do I understand the “manifestations” of God, the Ultimate, the More, the Unseen? Where do humans encounter God? In what manner does God meet me in my daily life? What should I be doing to meet God face-to-face? Jesus turning “water” into “wine,” I believe, provides an answer to some of these very pertinent questions.

Water is the symbol of the “very ordinary.” Water is very “earthly” and very “natural.” Water is nothing “special.” But this very ordinary “water” changes to extraordinary “wine” when my inner perspective changes!

I see spirituality as common sense. Doing simple things is all that is expected of me. A glass of water, a plate of food, a simple visit, an encouraging smile, a gentle hello to someone in need, or taking a little time to light a candle in darkness – is all that is required to be spiritual, or to be religious in the Christian sense. But most of all spirituality is a cultivation of a new sensitivity – a sense of respect and reverence to the “ordinary water.” It pleads within me “an attentive mindfulness” to the simple, the small, the humble, and the natural. What is really “extraordinary,” in the end, is the very “ordinary!”

Humans encounter the divine in small things of life. Moses encountered God in just an ordinary bush with an attentive mind to look at the ordinary with an extraordinary sense of awe and wonder. Naaman, the Syrian Commander was cured when he had the humility to do the simple dipping himself for seven times in very ordinary water.

Beauty, they say, is in the eyes of the beholder. When I feel, or think, that water is not as tasty as wine, then water will not be as tasty as wine. But when I change my perspective, water becomes as good and as tasty as wine. Water here changes to wine! Water and wine, then, are primarily a conditioning of my mind and a craving of my heart.

Sages and saints, I now realise, are those who have overcome the conditioning of mind and craving of heart. The spirituality of Jesus is cultivating a sense of equanimity in my perspective. Religion here is not a pleading for change in the chemistry of the water, but rather, a rigorous effort to transform my psychological stance.

The sage or a saint, they say, is one who can view, in the same way, “a gold bar” and “an ordinary brick.” I may not reach such a height, but I can cultivate within me a serenity to view “a glass of water” in the same way I view “a glass of wine.”

Dalai Lama and Mother Teresa!

2008-06-11T21:04:00.000-07:00

“Samaritan”, for me, is a symbol of all that I want to exclude from my little agape! Jesus by sitting and chatting with the Samaritan woman and ready to receive a drink from her suggests that I should break those little barriers I erect between others and me, sometimes in the name of morality, faith, and religion!

This spirituality of inclusion that Jesus left behind has been very carefully manipulated, in the past and in the present for the exclusion of many – continents, religious communities, even committed Christians but with different sexual orientation.

Christians, I see, continue to define their identities in terms of exclusion! Much of the Christian theology, liturgy, hagiology and so on have been developed contrary to the spirituality of Jesus. They express and affirm a distorted Christian exclusivism.

Fortunately, we have better examples of inclusion in other religions. One such is the Dalai Lama calling Mother (now Blessed) Teresa a “Bodhisattva”, an enlightened person, somewhat a synonym for Buddha, who is committed to the salvation of others. It is bigger than the Christian notion of “saint”. In this I see a Buddhist attempt to include and celebrate a Christian soul. But I am yet to see a similar Christian attempt to include and celebrate a so-called non-Christian.

And as an Anglican Christian I find it frustrating to see hardly any coloured saints, except the apostles and may be three other - a Chinese, a Japanese, and an African mentioned in the Anglican long list of saints!

Jesus broke down barriers and established the rule of the compassionate God! His was a spirituality of inclusivisim similar, or greater to that of Dalai Lama! But can Christians learn inclusion of others from Dalai Lama?

Jesus, the Inclusive Rabbi!

2008-06-11T20:14:00.000-07:00

Jesus was not a pussycat; he was a tiger. These are not my imageries. These I picked from the late Anglican Bishop J.A.T. Robinson. If Jesus had been a pussycat no one would have bothered to pick an AK 47 to deal with him! Jesus, during his time, was perceived as a disturber of the status quo. He was indeed. So he was crucified.

Jesus did not do great things; he built nothing; certainly he built no 4000-seat mega church; organized no big companies, or power blocks; gave no blue prints for any great movement. But he broke traditions that maintained the status quo, an apparent peace. People of his time, like many today, preferred that peace. This phoney peace has the tendency to breed an attitude of ‘you in your small corner and I in mine’, a counterfeit co-existence.

Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman (John 4:1-42) promotes a “pro-existence”, drastically different to a mere tolerance, a shallow co-existence. Jesus, unlike the Rabbis of his time, always journeyed through the Samaritan (the enemy!) territory, not my clique.

That was a big sin for the Jews of his time. He even committed a greater sin: Chatted with a woman. That too a Samaritan woman! It was shocking even for the Samaritan woman. For she has never before experienced such “radical love”. Jesus’ was a love that did not shy away from acknowledging its own vulnerability and need! He was thirsty; and he hesitated not to receive a drink from a Samaritan woman.

In a predominantly white – Caucasian community, it is possible to capture the impact of this text if you can imagine your self walking on a hot summer day, and walking through the inner city with no coins in you pockets, no credit cards in your wallet. You are not even carrying your water bottle, and then suddenly you stop to ask an aboriginal woman for a little drink from her bottle!

Jesus was aware that his own religious tradition encouraged him to avoid the Samaritan territory. Whenever the Jews in Jerusalem wanted to go to Galilee they preferred to avoid the shorter route of going through Samaria. Instead they would go east, cross the river Jordan, and go up north to Galilee, sometimes doing a second crossing of the river Jordan.

Jesus taught the rule of God, the Kingdom, excluded not any of God’s creatures, including the Samaritans. Jews of his time hated and viewed the Samaritans derogatively as “dogs”. But Jesus never avoided people, even if they were not of his class, clan, creed, colour, or culture. For him, the “divine agape” embraces every creature; the immanent spirit of God is always inclusive. Hence, the compassionate God of Jesus includes you and me, the Muslim and the Hindu, the atheist and an agnostic! Such is God’s inclusion. Then what about the gay and the lesbian?

Compassionate Listening

2008-06-11T18:44:00.000-07:00

Frequently people of "faith", and “no faith”, forget they must listen to one another. In their eagerness to speak their "faith", or “no faith”, they "plug" their ears and fail to recognize that the other also possess something "sacred and precious". Failure to "listen" can easily slip into "belittling" the "faith" of the other. This is the first gun shot for a major war in which the victim is not just the "other" but my own "faith" too!

Buddhist Emperor Asoka more than two millenniums ago proclaimed: "He who does reverence to his own sect while disparaging the sects of the others wholly from attachment to his own, with intent to enhance the splendour of his own sect, in reality, by such conduct inflicts the severest injury on his own sect." The late philosopher-president of India, S. Radhakrishnan, believed that religions are at their best when they accommodate the other. Other poets and philosophers too have confirmed this.

The very first step towards such accommodation is "compassionate listening". "Faith", or “no faith”, is relevant to our contemporary Canadian life, which is multi-cultural and pluralistic in religions, only when it can "listen" to the other, and "listen with compassion".

Listening to the “faith”, or “no faith”, of others is encouraged, not with a view of an "altering our religious allegiance”, but to transform our own "faith" from within, so that we may be compassionate towards one another. In the process of listening, it is possible that some may change their “faith”, or “no faith”. That’s a risk we must take in the name of a Compassionate God desiring more human compassion.

This reason for listening is hinted in Hafiz’ poem titled "An Old Musician." He asks: "How should those who know of God meet and part?" For which his answer is: "The way an old musician greets his beloved instrument and will take special care as a great artist always does to enhance the final note of each performance."

Khalil Gibran also provides not so different answer in his humorous parable titled "The Philosopher and the Cobbler." It reads: "There came to a cobbler's shop a philosopher with worn shoes. And the philosopher said to the cobbler, "Please mend my shoes." And the cobbler said, "I am mending another man's shoes now, and there are still other shoes to patch before I can come to yours. But leave your shoes here, and wear this other pair today, and come tomorrow for your own." Then the philosopher was indignant, and he said, "I wear no shoes that are not mine own." And the cobbler said, "Well then, are you in truth a philosopher, and cannot enfold your feet with the shoes of another man? Upon this very street there is another cobbler who understands philosophers better than I do. Go you to him for mending."

The purpose of listening is to walk in someone else’s moccasin, giving a little time to mend your own boots, a broadening of your perspective.

The Third Way!

2008-06-11T18:31:00.000-07:00

Anglican polity, by and large, knows only two responses to the question of “same sex marriage”: either you accept or reject! Those who reject consider those who accept as “immoral” while those who accept frown upon those who reject as “self-righteous”. My position is that there is another way. You may call it the third way. History of Religion(s), primarily, informs this position.

Marriage is a social creation, grafted only later as an aspect of religious institution – still later as one of the “seven sacraments”. Protestant reformation has firmly established that “marriage” is not a “sacrament” comparable to the Sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist. As soon as that part of the Church realized that Holy Matrimony is not the same as Holy Baptism, they “dropped” the number 7 and affirmed 2!

A similar thought was re-established when Canadian Anglicans pronounced that the “same sex marriage” does not make up the “core doctrine”. But this time nothing was “dropped”!

We must remember that the “dropping” – or to “let go” – the 7 was considered a part of “reform” and growth into vitality! What I am, then, suggesting here is the “dropping”, or that “letting go” of the “marriage” as a religious concern.

Contemporary Anglicans must “let go” that desire to “officiate” at every “social function” – and in this case marriage. Marriage in any case is a “social construct” changing from place to place and time to times! There are numerous types of marriages that I do not need to spell it here!

Marrying persons, or blessing persons, when they are socially (and legally) married was one of the many “mission” works that the church did in the past. This is in some sense parallel to the church “running educational institutes”. When the state began to do that work, and did it better, the church willingly, and at other times unwillingly decided to let go that function.

I believe Anglicans have arrived – long time ago – when they added or subtracted nothing through their liturgies to “those legal marriages”. Recognizing this fact, Anglicans must now withdraw their liturgies of “Blessing of a Marriage” from circulation.

Marriage is an affair of the state at the moment! And if Anglicans let go this business, they will have plenty of time to engage in the prophetic ministry of critiquing the state authorities and the market powers that infect and infest God’s world with consumerism, leading to all types of injustices impacting adversely the desired abundant life, which Jesus advocated. At present they are too busy debating and departing to christen, marry and bury, and this has nothing in common with the Nazareth Manifesto of Jesus, the bridegroom of the Church!

Care for Muslims!

2008-05-30T00:18:00.000-07:00

Christian community, and particularly the leadership, must take note that the Muslim population in Canada is on the increase. Here are some numbers from Statistics Canada: in Ontario the number of Muslims from 52,110 in 1981 increased to 352,525 in 2001; in Alberta from 16,860 went up to 49,045; in British Columbia 12,720 swelled to 56,215; and in Quebec 12,115 rose to 108,620. After 2001, the US war against Afghanistan and US occupation in Iraq with not much of change in US policies with regards to Middle East is only pushing these numbers higher and much quicker.

Christians have nothing to rejoice, or whine about these growing numbers. For these events are only a clarion call for Christians to consider reshaping of their minds and missions. Christians must ask the question: What is the Christian Mission in Canada in the context of a rising tide of “Islamophobia”?

Anglican Bishop Kenneth Cragg (formerly of the Diocese of Oxford, now retired) has been reminding the Christian Community for over four decades that “not to care for Muslims” does entail “not to care for Christ”!

Proclaiming the Trinity!

2008-05-28T21:16:00.000-07:00

Bible neither proves nor explains “Trinity”. But there is a witness to Trinity in every page of the Bible.

Christians, I believe, are not called to prove, or defend, “Trinity” but to promote a “Trinitarian Model” of living both in their personal and communal aspects of life! Christians proclaim and celebrate “Trinity” to spontaneously and constantly evolve a “Trinitarian community”. Hence, transforming the communities into a “Trinitarian shape” should be the chief concern of all those who belong to church communities!

In the “godhead”, portrayed in the Bible, there is perfect agreement. The “wills” of the three persons – Father, Son and the Holy Spirit – do not conflict. Jesus’ will perfectly coincided with the “will of the Father”, and therefore, Jesus could say, “The Father and I are the same, or, “If you have seen me then you have seen the Father”. Furthermore, in the Bible, Father, Son and the Holy Spirit of “Trinity” do not compete with one another for “control” but rather “co-operate and submit to one another” in harmonious unity!

When human lives are moulded into such a “shape” then there is an authentic proclamation, celebration and true worship of “Trinity”. When people gather together, breaking down the walls in between, and erase boundaries to move together towards a new horizon, then there is a human movement towards that “Trinitarian Community”.

Transformed Non-Conformist!

2008-05-28T00:03:00.001-07:00

Paul calls the people of faith to become “transformed non-conformist”, when he wrote: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds …” (Romans 12:2). Two midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, in the story of Moses (in Exodus chapter one) provide us examples of non-conformity. They refused to march to the music of the King of Egypt. The two women by choosing “non-conformity” as their life style perhaps missed much awards and accolades. They risked dismissal, imprisonment and possibly death from the powerful king. Many today think this as imprudence and utter foolishness, a psychological and social maladjustment! But, wasn’t Jesus, an imprudent maladjusted Rabbi of his time? We need to stop being “a parrot” parroting easy popular slogans and conforming to dominant cultural mould, imitating its values in preference to those values of God’s Kingdom! God’s rule is often promoted when we disobey the “Multinational Corporations”, the “Mass Media”, and many other local paraphernalia that supports the opposite of godly values, promising personal progress and prosperity, distorting our humanity and dictating our living style.