The Lenten-Musings 40

The Lenten-Musings 40

Thursday, February 28

Read: John 6: 1-11

                Every day countless of events takes place. Some are noticed, while some go unnoticed. Some news find the pride of place in the news headlines,  while some are relegated to the sidelines. Yesterday, an event took place in U. S. Capitol, though reported was a very significant event. President Barack Obama unveiled the statue of Rosa Parks in the U.S. Capitol, in a function that was attended by congressional leaders from both republican and democratic parties. With the unveiling of statue, Rosa Parks will have a permanent place in the U.S. Capitol, just as the news agencies reported an  "an unmovable place". Parallel to history in the same way as she was unmoved on December 1, 1955, when she was threatened, abused and yelled by the bus driver to make her get up from the seat, so that a white passenger could sit. She was still unmoved even as she was arrested, but it was this single act that launched civil rights movement in this country. Finally with the rise of civil disobedience movement,  in 1956, Supreme Court banned segregation in public transportation. The President and other congressional leaders recalled the legacy that Rosa Parks had left behind. While reminiscing about her, the President replied, "we often spend our lives as if in a fog, accepting injustice, rationalizing inequity-just like the bus driver, and the other passengers. It is people like Rosa Parks who inspires us that there is something that we all can do".  Another congressional leader said that her unassuming presence in the form of a statue should inspire people to draw strength from stillness. A woman, unknown at that time of history and time, does a single act of disobedience. An action not done for any publicity, neither done with the intention of getting a rightful place in history, but done with sense of resolute,  that things need to change and if that change has to happen it has to happen from me and through me. An ordinary person who inspires us to do extraordinary things so that changes takes place.

                        Everybody talks about change and wants change, whether it is society or church. As I do ministry here, there are number of youths and other members who complain and tells us that we need to do bring about changes in the way church function or a parish function. But this is often said as if the other person has to change. The focus is not on myself it is on others. What is important if we need to bring the desired change, is that the change and the action starts from us. In John 6, we find the feeding of the five thousand. A wonderful example of how different people look at a human need, with different perceptions and how a young boy felt that even if he was young and unknown he had to do something, to share his mite in fulfilling the needs of others. As we read the biblical account of feeding the five thousand, we find that the immediate need of the people was the need to satisfy their physical hunger, the need for food. Seeing people hungry makes Jesus feels  compassionate on them and it is this compassion that forces Jesus to ask his disciples about the ways and means to feed the people. But all of them have excuses. Philip advises Jesus that it is impossible,  looking at the need in terms of finance that would be incurred  in buying food.  That is when, Andrew bring the unknown boy who had five loaves and two fish to the presence of our Lord. I don't know what Andrew would have told him so as to make the young boy to share his lunch with others. But it was this wonderful action of the boy that brought about change, that helped to satisfy the needs of thousands of people. One of the biblical commentators makes a very different observation. He says that when the boy willingly brought his little morsel of food to the presence of the Lord, it is this simple act that suddenly inspired hundreds of others who had also brought food, who may have been unwilling till that time to share food with others is compelled and inspired to share food with others. This is how crowd was fed and twelve baskets of food was collected after everybody ate. In the beginning of the incident in John 6, people have nothing to eat, but in end, you have more food, food in abundance, so much that twelve baskets of food are left over. A simple action of a boy, brings about change and transformation. What our Lord needs from us is whether we could be the tools of change that He wants to bring about in the society. Let the Lord bring about change in us first so that we are able to inspire others to bring about change and  transformation. Rosa Parks was an ordinary lady who decided to do an extraordinary thing. Let us also be that ordinary person,  who is willing to do extraordinary things for the Lord, so as to inspire others.

The Lenten-Musings 39

The Lenten-Musings 39

Wednesday, February 27

Read: Mark 7:24-30

                    People Fall. Some fall in their credibility, some fall from positions of authority, while some fall from grace. All these create a negative and a cascading effect in the minds of all. Recently there was one fall, that people just laughed, not because the person fell, but the way the person organized herself after the not so pleasant incident in a very high flying programme. The world and the media are talking about the fall of Oscar award winner Jennifer Lawrence. The incident happened on Oscar night, when the winners of different category was being announced. Jennifer Lawrence won the Oscar for best actress,  for her role in the movie "Silver Linings Playbook". But as she went to receive her Oscar, she tripped and fell. For a moment, that tripping overshadowed her walk to receive the Oscar. Though the tripping incident was considered not a good gesture in front of an august audience, the fall became the talk of town. What made people love Jennifer and her fall on  the steps leading to the podium, was the way she responded at the press conference in a very genuine and funny manner when the people from the media tried to belittling her about her fall. Here was an actress who has made it to the top, yet being mocked in full glare. But she handles the pressure and negativity in a very composed manner. At the backstage when someone from the press asked her whether she purposely fell, her reply was "Of course it was".  The answer to the next question was something that she was very genuine. To the question about what was going through her mind as she tripped and fell, she innocently replied that she said a bad word. People in the press conference and the actress were just enjoying the conversation. That is when she was asked what was the process that she undertook to come to Oscar?. Pat comes the reply that she woke up, tried a dress, took a shower, got her hair done and came to Oscar. Here is a lady, an actress,  who is on the top of world, yet very genuine, simple not trying to prove to the world or show to the world about the accolades and the honour that she received, on the contrary trying to be as simple and genuine. Neither having any arrogance nor showing off to the world that she is the award winner.. What should be emphasized in each of our life, should be the ability to be genuine in our life, genuine when we are in the heights of glory or even when we become the laughing stock in front of others. Genuiness is very rare and that is something that we need to cultivate in our life.

In Mark 7: 24- 30, we find Jesus exalting a woman for the way she replies, for the way she responds to life when things were not going the way she desired. This incident happened in the region of Tyre, where Jesus encounters a Syrophoencian woman, whose daughter is not well. She seeks the help of Jesus, but at this point of time, Jesus uses a different approach to understand her need and her genuiness both about her need and about her approach to life especially in related to the suffering of her daughter. The way Jesus treats the woman, especially someone who has come to seek help may be assumed very distressing. But,  here is Jesus testing the genuiness of her faith and her coming to his presence. Though the words of Jesus seems to be very taunting she is calm and composed. When Jesus tells  her that it is not right for children's bread to be tossed and given to the dogs, she replies that she would be comfortable even if she gets the crumbs that lie under the table. Here is a woman whose focus is only to alleviate her daughter's suffering and hence she is willing to be very humble and genuine in her approach to Jesus Christ. What Jesus appreciated through her reply,  I feel is that He found the woman to be very unassuming, genuine and innocent even in times of adversity. It is this genuiness that leads to healing of her daughter. Though Jennifer Lawrence tripped and fell in front of an august audience, she was very genuine and sincere to  acknowledge who she was and responded without any pretense about the so called infamous incident. What is needed in our life which our Lord teaches us that,  we need to be living our life in genuine way, life without any pretense, so that others can truly see who we are, appreciate our true identity and our worth. When we are genuine and comfortable with ourselves we will be comfortable everywhere and with others too. Let us build up a life of genuiness in this time of Lent.

The Lenten-Musings 38

The Lenten Musings 38

Tuesday, February 26

Read: Acts 3, 10

                                  Being famous and becoming a celebrity can sometimes be little hard in some point of life. Tim Tebow the New York Jets quarter back recently realized that truth. Being celebrity has a price to pay. He was supposed to make an appearance and speak at the First Baptist Church in Dallas in April and this event was a much publicized event. Soon critics started warning Tebow about his association with this particular Baptist church because of the controversy that surrounds its senior pastor, Pastor Robert Jeffress. Robert Jeffress has been criticized for his anti-gay stand,  for being adamant and his so called conservative stand on many issues. Many sports writers started warning Tebow, telling him that he is going to make the biggest mistake in his life. Another sports writer told him "after a season of sidelines, the ball is in your hands, Timmy better not fumble with this one". Soon Tebow's appearance in this particular Baptist church became a topic of huge controversy.  Not ready to court controversy, Tim posted a message in his Facebook page stating that he has decided to cancel his scheduled appearance in April, without assigning any specific reason for his cancellation. But he states that " While I look forward to sharing the message of hope and Christ's unconditional love with the faithful members of the historic First Baptist Church of Dallas, due to the new information that has been brought to my attention, I have decided to cancel my upcoming appearance. I will continue to use the platform God has blessed me with to bring faith, hope and love to all those needing a brighter day". With Tebow cancelling his appearance in the church, even that has brought in a share of controversy. Here is a celebrity who wanted to make an appearance in the church and speak about gospel but suddenly he realizes that his association or the appearance in that particular church may cost him many things that are precious in his life. Moreover one of the things that have been over emphasized is that, when celebrity like Tebow comes to certain church's, it is his appearance that has a greater value more than his message. Tim Tebow is a celebrity, a star and hence I know that when he comes to a particular church, his appearance is a news item and a sought after event. But that is where I think most of us have become like Tebow. We all have become a so called star or celebrity in the making by only making guest appearances in church or when we have some important assignment given to us by the parish. Is Christian life and living all about appearances in church?

One of the teaching that the Word of God and faith tradition that we find in the Word is that, our attendance in the Church is not to be considered as something as an appearance that we do once in a week. In Lent, the church encourages its members to order one's life style so that we can spend some more time reflecting on the Word of God and for prayer. What is needed in the life of a believer is not  casual attendance or casual observance as prayer, but conscious  reordering of one's life and disciplining one's life in an attitude and lifestyle of prayer. We think Christian lifestyle is all about making a casual appearance in the church occasionally, but the word of God teaches us that being a Christian means to deliberately discipline our life through prayer and worship. In the book of Acts, we find some disciplines that the apostles kept in their life. In Acts 3 we find that Peter and John going to the temple at the ninth hour and this hour is also considered as the hour of prayer [ Acts 3:1]. We also find Cornelius who was centurion a person who fears God, also praying at the ninth hour [ Acts 10]. Later we also find the Peter also goes to the housetop at the sixth hour to pray [ Acts 10: 9]. Even in the Old Testament, we find Daniel praying at different times of the day. Praying in disciplined way and manner. Thus we see that through the life style that apostle or some men of God in the old testament, a conscious re ordering of one's life through a sense of discipline,  in one's attitude to life, worship and prayer. Today discipline or order is something that we do not like to hear. We want everything especially in our spiritual attitudes and practices to be very casual and very informal. Our attitude to church, worship and prayer is like Tim Tebow making a guest appearances  in one of the Church's. Tim Tebow is a celebrity and that is what makes him to do guest appearance. But in the life of a Christian we are not to make guest appearances in worship or having a very casual attitude with regards to prayer and worship, but a conscious re ordering of one lie so that we exhibit discipline and order both in our lifestyle, in worship and in prayer. Let lent be a time of disciplining ourselves so that we take our Christian practices like prayer and worship more seriously.

The Lenten-Musings 37

The Lenten-Musings 37

Monday, February 25

Read: Mathew 6: 25-34

                 It is always a pleasure to meet people who are happy. People who radiate happiness and sense of positive outlook in their life. The news agency CNN released today a very unique news items on their column. In which states or cities do you find the happiest people?. The study has been done by Twitter, based on about 10 million geotagged tweets that people did through Twitter in 2011. Based on the tweets that people send out from the city that they lived in,  Twitter made a study to map out the mood of the Americans living in urban areas.  What they did was to rank the locations, based on the frequency of positive and negative words using a tool called as Mechanical Turk Language Assessment Word list.  This list included about 10,000 words, that have been rated on a scale of 1 to 10 and describes the level of happiness. On the higher end of scale, were words that are positive and happy.  Words like LOL, haha, good, nice, sleep, wine, food were some of the words considered as positive and happy while on the lower end of the scale were the negative words. The words that were negative were words like mad, hate, no, boo, smoke, jail and so on.  According to this list, rainbow is the happiest of words while earthquake is the saddest.  Maine, Nevada, Utah, Vermont and Hawaii were the top five happiest states while Louisiana was found to be the saddest state, followed by Mississippi, Maryland, Michigan and Delaware. Another study was also done to determine which was the happiest city along the states. Napa, California, was found to be happiest while Beaumont, Texas was found out to be the most negative and burnt out cities.  What Twitter did was just gauging the level of happiness or the state of mind through the use of words for tweeting. Though this study cannot be said as a comprehensive, yet in a unique way it show a person's state of mind and life through the words that he/she uses in their daily life. Yes, we can state that it is the words that we use daily, that actually describe who we are. But can our life be gauged only by the words that we use or is there something more foundational in helping us to a reach a state of mind, where we can call ourselves happy or in a positive frame of mind?.

                      One of the most beautiful and profound passages in the Bible is the sermon on the mount. In Mathew 5, 6, and 7, we find some of the most profound teaching by Jesus Christ about life and how one can cultivate a state of happiness, peace and contentment. In Mathew 6: 25-34, you find some eternal truths that are sometime very difficult to understand, or comprehend. For many who read this particular passage, they tend to say that what Jesus taught seems to be not practical at all. Jesus tells  his disciples  to focus on two aspects in life. One is external while the other is internal. External are those daily sights that we see but we don't notice it,  as we feel they are not very important or are taken for granted. Sights like birds of the air, lilies  or flowers or grass in the field[ Mat 6: 26-29]. Though considered very trivial or unimportant. Jesus says when you look at these unimportant elements in the creation, one finds how wonderfully God has been taking care of them and how they have been created in a unique ways to lend beauty to creation and glory and honour to the Creator. Then He also tells us to look internally [Mat 6: 33]. To look internally means to assess what is the objective and goal in our life. Here Jesus teaches us that we need to first seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and then all those things that God feels that are needed for our life and living will be added unto you. Focus on life is not on making our life and living luxurious but focusing on doing the will of God in our life. When life's purpose is to God's will, God takes care of the needs of his children. It is this internal and external perception, that truly defines our life and living. In a world, where the focus of life is to increase one financial and materialistic goals, Jesus teaches us the life becomes blessed when life is seen as an avenue of doing God's will and seeking to be co workers with God in the extension of His Kingdom on earth. Twitter found out that happiness is a state of mind through the description of the word that one uses in one's life, but as a Christian,  let us move beyond the realm of words to a realm of faith perception and living,  where one' focus of life is to totally submit in doing God's will and purpose. That is when we can experience the true state of happiness and contentment. Let lent be a time when we can re dedicate our life in seeking His Kingdom and His righteousness.

The Lenten-Musings 36

The Lenten-Musings 36

Friday, February 22

Read: Luke 7: 1-10

                    We all have some cause in our life that is very dear to us. Sadly, most of the cause that is dear to us, are very selfish in nature. We work and we toil so that our life is made more secure and our goal is to move up in life. But there are some people who live for a cause, a cause that is noble, and which has no selfish element in it. The pure joy of serving, serving without any grudge, serving for a mightier cause than just for some selfish cause.   Meet Albert Lexie. Most of the news agencies yesterday featured the life of Albert Lexie. Albert is the one who shines shoes at the Children Hospital in Pittsburg. He has been shoe shining since 1982 and earns about $5 dollar for shining shoes. What is remarkable about Albert is that from the day he started working as the shoe shine person in the hospital, he sets apart the tips that he receives while he does his shoe shine. What is remarkable about the work that Albert does is that he has to drive about ninety minutes to reach the hospital and his earning is only about $10, 000 a year. But he diligently sets apart the tips that he gets, to be donated to a free care fund that takes care of the treatment of children who come from very poor families, patients  who cannot afford treatment at the children's hospital. According to hospital sources, Albert has donated more than $200, 000 till this day, the money that he earned as tips when doing his shoe shine. In 2006, Alex was honoured for raising $100, 000 for the a cause known as "Albert's Kids", while earlier in 2001 also he received an "Outstanding Philanthropists Award.  Alex also was featured on a billboard, by the Foundation for a Better Life. What is also more noteworthy about this humble man is that he also has a children book in his name titled " Albert's Kids; The Heroic Work of Shining Shoes for Sick Children". As I came to know about Albert Lexie, I feel proud about this man, but at the same time  I hang my head in guilt thinking that many of us who are in a better position than Albert Lexie,  do  not even move our little finger to do something worthy, or for living for a higher cause than just for one's own selfish existence.

                       One of the teaching that Jesus propagated and also appreciated was when life was lived for a noble cause when, people are ready to rise above selfish confines and desires of life. In Luke 7: 1-10, we find a very moving incident about a centurion and the pains that he takes, so that his servant could get well. Who is a centurion?.  Centurions were the back bone of the Roman army who could be considered as equivalent to modern army captain. They commanded a standard unit called a Legion, which is a force of 6000 men. Here is a man who has power vested on him and who has a high place in the society. More than the power that was vested for him, for which he is respected,  what we see is that this centurion was held by others in high repute. In Lk 7: 5, we find a witness of society about the centurion. They tell Jesus that he is also a philanthropist who loves common man and he was generous enough to build synagogues for the Jews there. In this particular context, we find the heart and mind of Centurion, now being expressed not for some concrete structure, but  for a person who was his servant, who is a slave, sick and was dying. And it is for this sick person that he seeks the help of Jesus. Who is person for whom he is bringing  recommendation in the presence of Jesus?. It is for his servant which in Greek translates as "doulos" or a slave. Slave in the context of the roman empire were considered just another property. They had no rights and the owner could sell his slave to another. Owners could be very sadistic while dealing with their servants. But  here the centurion sets a very different example. He has no guilt nor has no issue to humble himself for the cause of his suffering servant. Moreover he does not ask Jesus to come to his house to bring healing to the servant on the contrary he communicates his strong faith to Jesus,  by telling him that He only has to command and his servant will be healed.  The very act of meeting Jesus for the sake of the servant is now compounded by the strong faith affirmation of the centurion. It is this act of centurion which makes Jesus to appreciate and announce to the crowd that "I tell you I have not found such a great faith in Israel" [ Lk 7: 10]. Here is a centurion who is ready to humble himself not for furthering any selfish cause of his life, but for the sake of a person who has no rights or privileges nor identify. In a world where we all are in mad rush to acquire more and in a rush to make our life more and more better off, in a rush that makes us greedy, people like Albert Lexie or the centurion in the Bible teaches that,  in life it is worth to live for a cause that is noble or for a cause higher,  than just living for satisfying or furthering selfish desires in life. As we observe lent, let us ask ourselves whether we all could order our life so that we also embrace in our life a cause that could be noble, a cause that is unselfish, higher than our life?. That will make our lent significant and meaningful.