Monday, July 21, 2008
Abraham Mar Paulose: Children the priority
Abraham Mar Paulose celebrated Holy Communion at the Annanagar Mar Thoma Church yesterday, Sunday 20th July. It was his first visit to the parish after his consecration as a bishop in 2005. As the youngest bishop of the Church, he expressed his concern for the place of children in the Church. He lamented that it has been the Sunday School which is often canceled when a special function happens in a Church. As the General Secretary of the Mar Thoma Sunday School Samajam, then priest Rev. Dr. K U. Abraham, he has made significant contributions to the children's ministry. The Children's Maramon which he organized in 2005 became a land mark in the history of the Sunday school, which attracted almost a lakh of children. In his sermon he challenged the members to go beyond the traditional concepts of ministry. He pointed out that the programmes and projects of the Church are not the ministry. Those are only some expressions of the ministry of love. The meaning and success of a project is not how effieciently it was executed, but with what purpose and concern it was organized. He has also referred to the recent tension between the church and state in Kerala. The churches need to rethink its mission and ministerial function in the light of the criticisms raised against the schools and colleges run by them. Accumulating and preserving power and property are not the mission of the Church, rather risking them for the sake of Christ. Bishop is a well groomed speaker, who has been trained by the Balajana Sakhyam, the most influential secular organization for children in Kerala. Also he was actively involved in student union activities at the university level, now having very high ranking politicians of Kerala as his friends. Even as a bishop he boldly expresses his opinion on the political and social issues in society. His leadership qualities will certainly help the church in the contemporary period to give effective leadership in the ecumenical circles. We wish him all the best in his new endeavors to make the Church meaningful and effective.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Sermon on the Mount : Earth Quake Resistant Foundation
Sunday, July 13, 2008
In concluding the Sermon on the Mount Mathew records that Jesus has said: Any one who hears these words of mine and obeys them is like a wise man who built his house on rock ... (Matt.: 7:24-27). I have preached on this verse several times. All those sermons were focused on the necessity of unchanging foundation. That has been the way it was interpreted in the Annangar church by Dr. K.M. Thomas, of Kozhikode today. Dr. Thomas is brother in law of Mr. James Abraham (Saji) our choir member) who visited the Church for the promotion of the ministry of the Gideons International. Gideon ministry will place Bibles in Public places in your name for the money you contribute. The parishioners generously responded to his appeal. People are in search of reliable and strong foundation. However, these days I am being challenged by the schools of non foundationalism and post foundationalism. The argument of the non foundationalism is that there are no reliable foundations. There are only shifting foundations and we cannot take any absolute position. Postfoundationalist position warns us of the danger of falling into the foundationalist ghettoism, taking something to be a foundation when such a thing is not there. Unless we read in between the lines of Jesus' sermon we may fall into two dangers: First, building our life on false premises, thinking that it is the foundation that Jesus spoke about as it has been happening in the recent text book controversy in Kerala. Second is endangering our freedom to change since change is the only constant reality in the world.
How to find out what does it mean by rockfoundation in Jesus' words? The Jewish people have been bringing up their children strictly on the word of God. They strongly believed that what they teach are right because all their teachings were based on the words of Torah, the Mosaic Law, the words given by God to Moses. They believed that therefore they cannot be wrong; there is no foundations stronger than their Torah for that matter. Jesus did not accept this interpretation. All his efforts were to challenge the edifice the Jews had built upon the Law, not because that they are built on shifting sands but rather that they are built on false premises, thinking that they are absolutes. All religions find their founding documents authoritative and absolute. It gives them security and sense of purpose. Without them people find them helpless, with out any direction in life. Therefore they are even willing to die for the protection of them. Christians, Muslim, Hindus, without any exception would die for their sacred Scriptures, ground of their faith, since they think that this is the basic minimum that they should do with their life. Without this foundation, no life.
The whole Sermon on the Mount is a challenge to change such traditionally considered absolute foundations based on the interpretation of the scripture. Jesus is asking them to search for new foundation in his words. The strong foundations of faith which the Jews had only led them away from God, to look to themselves and idealize their standpoints. The rock upon which the Jews built their religion had been working well, shaping their community, economics, faith for more than 1500 years. Jesus has been asking them to build their houses on his words that point to the , the fulfillment of the law, the purpose of God for Creation. The Law is fulfilled not in rediscovering the Mosaic injunctions of the past but in search of its present and future fulfillment.
Rocks, rigid, stern foundations are not as safe as we used to think as the modern geology teaches us. Every year, earthquakes, breaking and shifting of rock beneath the earth's surface, take the lives of thousands of people and destroys houses, causes tsunamis. We need to rethink the mode of our structural designing to resist earthquake forces. For hundreds of millions of years, the forces of plate tectonics have shaped the earth as they move slowly over, under, and past each other. Sometimes the movement is gradual. At other times, the plates are locked together and the plates break free causing the ground to shake.
Conventional earthquake resistant design of buildings depends upon providing the buildings with strength, stiffness and inelastic deformation capacity. New structural engineering introduces the concept of base isolation where buildings rest on frictionless rollers. When the ground shakes, the rollers freely roll, but the building above does not move. Thus, no force is transferred to the building due to the shaking of the ground; simply, the building does not experience the earthquake. The base-isolators are flexible pads. Another way is to install Seismic Dampers in place of structural elements, such as diagonal braces which act like the hydraulic shock absorbers. These modern technology provide more stability to buildings rather than inflexible rock foundation.
Jesus is asking us to build our lives on his words which challenge the absolutist categories and conventional wisdom which go over thousands of years. Jesus words act like contemporary flexible pads and base rollers absorbs better the tremors that destroy the house. Jesus' point is that no one would build a house on the sand if one knows that. In Palestine water will rise in wadis perhaps after several years. When some one builds a house one will not be knowing that the foundation cannot uphold the building. Don't try to defend the conventional knowledge as if they were eternal truths but be ready to go beyond. In Postmodernist thinking foundational truths are linguistic constructs, interpretations. So Jesus interpretation, the Words of Jesus, is the true foundation, not settling down by the present foundation. Search for the words of future from Jesus in order to find true stability for our life.
The present text book controversy in Kerala illustrates how people are upset when the conventional foundations are threatened. They are afraid that if the children are exposed to the wind and rain in the world their faith would drift away. Jesus' point is not to blame the rain and wind, which the people are now trying to do. Let the children get the right to decide, rather than we bidding them to grow in our own ignorant and false foundations.
In concluding the Sermon on the Mount Mathew records that Jesus has said: Any one who hears these words of mine and obeys them is like a wise man who built his house on rock ... (Matt.: 7:24-27). I have preached on this verse several times. All those sermons were focused on the necessity of unchanging foundation. That has been the way it was interpreted in the Annangar church by Dr. K.M. Thomas, of Kozhikode today. Dr. Thomas is brother in law of Mr. James Abraham (Saji) our choir member) who visited the Church for the promotion of the ministry of the Gideons International. Gideon ministry will place Bibles in Public places in your name for the money you contribute. The parishioners generously responded to his appeal. People are in search of reliable and strong foundation. However, these days I am being challenged by the schools of non foundationalism and post foundationalism. The argument of the non foundationalism is that there are no reliable foundations. There are only shifting foundations and we cannot take any absolute position. Postfoundationalist position warns us of the danger of falling into the foundationalist ghettoism, taking something to be a foundation when such a thing is not there. Unless we read in between the lines of Jesus' sermon we may fall into two dangers: First, building our life on false premises, thinking that it is the foundation that Jesus spoke about as it has been happening in the recent text book controversy in Kerala. Second is endangering our freedom to change since change is the only constant reality in the world.
How to find out what does it mean by rockfoundation in Jesus' words? The Jewish people have been bringing up their children strictly on the word of God. They strongly believed that what they teach are right because all their teachings were based on the words of Torah, the Mosaic Law, the words given by God to Moses. They believed that therefore they cannot be wrong; there is no foundations stronger than their Torah for that matter. Jesus did not accept this interpretation. All his efforts were to challenge the edifice the Jews had built upon the Law, not because that they are built on shifting sands but rather that they are built on false premises, thinking that they are absolutes. All religions find their founding documents authoritative and absolute. It gives them security and sense of purpose. Without them people find them helpless, with out any direction in life. Therefore they are even willing to die for the protection of them. Christians, Muslim, Hindus, without any exception would die for their sacred Scriptures, ground of their faith, since they think that this is the basic minimum that they should do with their life. Without this foundation, no life.
The whole Sermon on the Mount is a challenge to change such traditionally considered absolute foundations based on the interpretation of the scripture. Jesus is asking them to search for new foundation in his words. The strong foundations of faith which the Jews had only led them away from God, to look to themselves and idealize their standpoints. The rock upon which the Jews built their religion had been working well, shaping their community, economics, faith for more than 1500 years. Jesus has been asking them to build their houses on his words that point to the , the fulfillment of the law, the purpose of God for Creation. The Law is fulfilled not in rediscovering the Mosaic injunctions of the past but in search of its present and future fulfillment.
Rocks, rigid, stern foundations are not as safe as we used to think as the modern geology teaches us. Every year, earthquakes, breaking and shifting of rock beneath the earth's surface, take the lives of thousands of people and destroys houses, causes tsunamis. We need to rethink the mode of our structural designing to resist earthquake forces. For hundreds of millions of years, the forces of plate tectonics have shaped the earth as they move slowly over, under, and past each other. Sometimes the movement is gradual. At other times, the plates are locked together and the plates break free causing the ground to shake.
Jesus is asking us to build our lives on his words which challenge the absolutist categories and conventional wisdom which go over thousands of years. Jesus words act like contemporary flexible pads and base rollers absorbs better the tremors that destroy the house. Jesus' point is that no one would build a house on the sand if one knows that. In Palestine water will rise in wadis perhaps after several years. When some one builds a house one will not be knowing that the foundation cannot uphold the building. Don't try to defend the conventional knowledge as if they were eternal truths but be ready to go beyond. In Postmodernist thinking foundational truths are linguistic constructs, interpretations. So Jesus interpretation, the Words of Jesus, is the true foundation, not settling down by the present foundation. Search for the words of future from Jesus in order to find true stability for our life.
The present text book controversy in Kerala illustrates how people are upset when the conventional foundations are threatened. They are afraid that if the children are exposed to the wind and rain in the world their faith would drift away. Jesus' point is not to blame the rain and wind, which the people are now trying to do. Let the children get the right to decide, rather than we bidding them to grow in our own ignorant and false foundations.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Three Sermons
Today I happened to hear three sermons. One in the Annanagar Mar Thoma Church by Rev. Joseph Chacko and another by Mr.Y. Biju, Thiruvalluvar Hostel secretary and BD student of Gurukul, in the house of one of the neighbours of Gurukul, Dr. P.K. Joy. The third one was in Gurukul Chapel by Dr. Adella Paul.
What interested me in Joseph Chacko Achen's sermon has been the unusual introduction to the sermon, narrating the spirituality of the Hindu pilgrims who go to Sabarimala. He explained the significance of the "Irumudikkettu" which the pilgrims carry when they go to the mountain shrine of Lord Ayyappa of Sabarimala. Irumudikkettu is a two pronged head gear in which the swamis (the devotees) carry coconut, ghee and other pooja (worship)materials. They will break the coconuts before Lord Ayyappa and ghee will be poured upon the idol. The significance of the Irumudikkettu, as it has been explained to Achen by one senior Hindu swami, is that the two bundles the pilgrims caary on their head are of different sizes, one is big and another is small. The big bundle represents the sins of people (of course the concept of sin is quite different from the Christian teachings, and for them it is more or less actions of ignorance, agnana, rather than deliberate defying of God's will). The samll one represents the punya (virutous acts of people). The pilgrims take both to the Lord Ayyapaa and offer them and come back as new persons carrying back only the prasadam (sweets blessed by Ayyappa), in order to start a new chapter of life with God. I found the interpretation very meaningful and significant to the spiritual life of Christians. I would write later about another story which is told by Achen to explain the silly character of St. Peter.
What interested me in Joseph Chacko Achen's sermon has been the unusual introduction to the sermon, narrating the spirituality of the Hindu pilgrims who go to Sabarimala. He explained the significance of the "Irumudikkettu" which the pilgrims carry when they go to the mountain shrine of Lord Ayyappa of Sabarimala. Irumudikkettu is a two pronged head gear in which the swamis (the devotees) carry coconut, ghee and other pooja (worship)materials. They will break the coconuts before Lord Ayyappa and ghee will be poured upon the idol. The significance of the Irumudikkettu, as it has been explained to Achen by one senior Hindu swami, is that the two bundles the pilgrims caary on their head are of different sizes, one is big and another is small. The big bundle represents the sins of people (of course the concept of sin is quite different from the Christian teachings, and for them it is more or less actions of ignorance, agnana, rather than deliberate defying of God's will). The samll one represents the punya (virutous acts of people). The pilgrims take both to the Lord Ayyapaa and offer them and come back as new persons carrying back only the prasadam (sweets blessed by Ayyappa), in order to start a new chapter of life with God. I found the interpretation very meaningful and significant to the spiritual life of Christians. I would write later about another story which is told by Achen to explain the silly character of St. Peter.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Liberative Praxis - A Sermon by Dn. Aby Paul M.
Liberative Praxis - A Sermon by Dn. Aby Paul M.
On Wednesday 25th June, Dn. Aby Paul, M.led the first evaluatory worship and sermon for this academic year (2008-9) in Gurukul Chapel. The worship has been an ecumenical blend, songs and prayers taken from different Indian languages and ecumenical orders of worship as well as from his own traditional Syriac liturgy. Aby belongs to the Antiochean wing of the Orthodox Church in India which considers the Patriarch of Antioch as the head of the Church. Both in his worship and sermon he incorporated the ecumenical spirit and bold theological vision of Gurukul together with his Syriac tradition. Traditional Syrian liturgical emblems and Indian Bhajans were profusely used. He titled his sermon, "Liberative praxis: A Mission imperative." It was based on the Lukan text of the healing the crippled woman on a Sabbath in the Synagogue (Luke 13:10-17). Dn. Abey began the sermon by narrating his personal experience in a Church in North India. A local Christian woman came to one of the Syrian Orthodox congregations there to receive Holy Communion. However, the Presbyter would not give her communion because she did not belong to a denomination which has got intercommunion relationship with the Orthodox Church. This incident disturbed him and there started his theological journey in search of the liberative nature of the gospel of Christ and attempts to overcome the denominational barriers imposed on the praxis of the Gospel. He said he would not disown his tradition but would try to make it more liberative. Those who observed Aby all through his years in Gurukul would testify that he has been a conscientious student contributing his best to the ecumenical character of Gurukul. He has been quite active in the various programmes of Gurukul promoting Dalit and gender liberation. He is one who got selected to study in Jerusalem on an exposure programme for three months. He would certainly be an asset to any ecumenical community and certainly to the Indian Christian ecumenical movement.
On Wednesday 25th June, Dn. Aby Paul, M.led the first evaluatory worship and sermon for this academic year (2008-9) in Gurukul Chapel. The worship has been an ecumenical blend, songs and prayers taken from different Indian languages and ecumenical orders of worship as well as from his own traditional Syriac liturgy. Aby belongs to the Antiochean wing of the Orthodox Church in India which considers the Patriarch of Antioch as the head of the Church. Both in his worship and sermon he incorporated the ecumenical spirit and bold theological vision of Gurukul together with his Syriac tradition. Traditional Syrian liturgical emblems and Indian Bhajans were profusely used. He titled his sermon, "Liberative praxis: A Mission imperative." It was based on the Lukan text of the healing the crippled woman on a Sabbath in the Synagogue (Luke 13:10-17). Dn. Abey began the sermon by narrating his personal experience in a Church in North India. A local Christian woman came to one of the Syrian Orthodox congregations there to receive Holy Communion. However, the Presbyter would not give her communion because she did not belong to a denomination which has got intercommunion relationship with the Orthodox Church. This incident disturbed him and there started his theological journey in search of the liberative nature of the gospel of Christ and attempts to overcome the denominational barriers imposed on the praxis of the Gospel. He said he would not disown his tradition but would try to make it more liberative. Those who observed Aby all through his years in Gurukul would testify that he has been a conscientious student contributing his best to the ecumenical character of Gurukul. He has been quite active in the various programmes of Gurukul promoting Dalit and gender liberation. He is one who got selected to study in Jerusalem on an exposure programme for three months. He would certainly be an asset to any ecumenical community and certainly to the Indian Christian ecumenical movement.
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