Green in the Rainbow

Text:Genesis 9: 8-17

This week is observed as the Environment Week and this Sunday the Church meditates on the Ecological Sunday.  The text involves the communication of YHWH with Noah after the great flood. The flood story and the incidents followed by it have a great ecological relevance.

I. An Altar that affirms a Cosmic centered community.

The whole passage happens in the context of worship and an altar. Soon after the great flood, YHWH establishes a covenant. Unlike the Abrahamic, Mosaic and Davidic covenants, this covenant is an everlasting universal promise by YHWH. This covenant can be seen as a promise with not only Noah but to the whole creation. It is the first covenant in the Bible that is applicable to the generations for ever. In other words this law is an attempt to remind and reaffirm that human beings, how advanced they are, is a part of the Cosmos.  

The so-called ‘developments’ of our times are aimed more towards an isolated growth of human beings secluded from the nature.  Modern technologies are also interested in ‘creating’ environments rather than adapting to the nature [Whatever weather outside you stay cool inside!]. This Isolated growth assisted by modern technologies had compelled human beings to destroy nature and its resources. Nature is considered as a mere object for manipulation, a sink to dump waste products. This Anthropocentric, Ando-centric view has ruined the nature. In this context, this covenant is an attempt to rejoin human to the nature’s link.

More often in the funeral services we are reminded that human beings are a part of cosmos and will return to the soil from where they are taken. This passage reminds that the voices arise from the altar must always enable the people to have a cosmic centered spirituality. By overcoming the third temptation Jesus overcame the enticement to become a Super Human by overriding the laws of nature. Human beings are not isolated beings but called to be a cosmic centered Community.

II. Listening to the Groaning of Creation through Calamities

The covenant mentioned here reveals that flood will not become an agent of destruction again.  It was also a promise that water will not became an agent for destruction of the Earth.

Traditionally natural calamities are considered as the signs of God’s wrath that is irresistible.  Even the warranty/guarantee of many damaged gadgets could not be covered if it is caused by God’s activities. But a close examination of this covenant reveals that Natural Calamities are not Natural or God’s action. This covenant reveals that natural resources are not the basic agents of natural calamities. In other words, neither the Nature nor God cannot be blamed for the disasters; Human induced activities are the key agents of natural calamities. In this context the Global warming, global dimming, Snow sliding of our times can be interpreted as the groaning of creation due to human exploitation.

III. Rainbow as a ray of hope 

The flood narrative ends not with a catastrophic devastation but with a graceful hope to the entire creation. Whenever YHWH see the bow [usually interpreted as the rainbow], YHWH promises to remember the creation. The weapon used for fighting and killing has now transformed to a tool for love and redemption. Rainbow is not only a natural phenomenon nor an optical illusion; it has a great theological significance. It is the most powerful symbol of hope from Genesis to Revelation. In Ezekiel and in Revelation, rainbow is symbolized as the God’s glory.  Rainbow reflects the idea of diversity. Diversity is the only treasure and tool in the nature that sustains life and hope in the midst of all calamities. The ark of Noah too is an outstanding example of this bio-diversity. 

 Lastly, rainbow often appears in a cloudy sky. But the presence of rainbow affirms that there is sunlight behind the one who views it. This is our only hope in our journeys and struggles for a new alternative world. Whenever we saw the cloudy complex conditions in our actions, the rainbows in the journey reflect the  our God’s presence with us. Amen

"The Gift of Faith Articulation as the Assertion of God’s Choice on Plurality"- by Alex Das, Gurukul

Scripture: Genesis 11:1-9

The Honourable Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Thiru. M. Karunanidhi made a statement which was reported in the Hindu Newspaper says that “God does not want to be of approved by anybody, because God is not going to be a candidate in elections. God loves those who all are doing good to humanhood irrespective of the caste, colour or religious differences or even atheists.” We are living in the midst of Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Parsies, Buddhists, atheists and people who are following several other religious faiths. They are our neighbours and they form the part of this diverse society of ours as a beautiful one. One of the papers of World Council of Churches contains this beautiful statement. “God’s oikumene or house is the whole inhabited earth and not just the Christian part of it.” As we celebrated our 62nd Republic day two days ago, the passion for a secular republic is yet a challenge to all of us.

From a theological perspective different positions have been developed on Christian attitude to other religious faiths over the years. These positions are roughly divided into three, exclusivism, inclusivism and pluralism. While exclusivists believed that Christianity alone is true religion, inclusivists are open to other religious faiths embracing all their good values into the over arching frame work of cosmic Christ or the Kingdom of God. But by insisting a category of their own faith as the ground of all religions they also prove to be exclusive in an indirect way. On the other hand pluralists consider different religions as equal and relative constituting together the absolute truth. I would like to draw your attention to reflect on the read passage towards accepting the religious pluralism and seeks to know how the language of dominant religiosity becomes a threat to the common identity of human beings as God’s creation irrespective of religious faiths.

Tower of Babel as a Hegemonic Structure Created by Delusions of Unity and Splendour

The conventional way of interpreting the passage Genesis chap.11:1-9, views the dispersion at the Tower of Babel as a punishment of God over the human pride. But we need to understand that the dispersion has already started right after the flood, when the sons of Noah filled the earth, and it was seen as the gist of the blessing. Both in Genesis chapters 9 and 10 this dispersion is positively acknowledged. The linguistic division of peoples has already appeared in chap 10:5, 20 & 31 as has the spreading abroad or the scattering of the nations. Moreover Babel has already been named in Chap 10:10. The V. 14 explains that people are afraid of being scattered. The fear of being scattered should not only be understood geographically but also ideologically. We must not make the mistake of thinking that all are equally afraid of being scattered. But we have to assume that the people, who were having economical and political control, are the ones who are afraid of being scattered.

Within the religious realm also those who wanted to rule are trying to keep all unite. Mega projects could be understood as the means to manipulate and hold people together. The building of the tower of Babel was not the necessity of the common people. It was the project and ambition of the dominant. The phrase ‘name for ourselves’ in the same verse is also problematic. It implies the integration of the diverse identity of the humankind into ‘one name’, most probably to the dominant ‘name and identity’ existed at that time.

It may signal an autonomous attempt to secure their own future. The building projects constitute a bid to secure their own future as a unified community, isolated from the rest of the world. Both in psychology and political life, we know the presumption that “need to have a name, as well as the drive for megalomania, are responses to the human fear of losing control and domination.” Through the building of the tower, the ambitious among the human beings were trying to integrate all the cultures and faiths into theirs. Thus tower of Babel was going to be the graveyard of diverse cultures, religions and languages. In this context God is going back with the people of Babel to the created order of differences.

The Confusing of Languages as God’s revisit to Affirm Differences

Vv. 7 & 8 says “Come let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth and they left off building the city”. Here the plural “Let us” indicates that, Godself visits the humanity in the varied and multiple attributes, in the disclosures and ways in which God appeared to the people in various time and space. That visit itself ignites the people to rethink about their distinct cultures, languages, religions and identity. So when we look into the episode of confusing of the language, it must be seen as the emergence of varied opinions that stopped the building of the tower, and not just the confusion. It shows the peoples retroversion to their distinct faith systems. God desired the multiplication and spread of people over the earth, but people wanted to stay in their safe mode of Homogeneity.

The languages are part of deliverance and blessing from God. The Austrian-born English philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein in his book Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus purports that "What can be expressed can only be expressed by means of a language, and so that which is necessary for the understanding of all cannot be expressed through language." The limits of language correspond to the limits of thought; hence there are certain things that cannot be thought. The proposers of the Babel through their unity of language and might, tries to express their language of pride through the tower of Babel. Here God gives the diversity of languages as a protection against domination. Diversity in language and thus culture is given in order that people may be free and develop themselves according to their own dreams. Babel stands for an imposed unity, without freedom of culture, language or religion.

Languages are always developed for the God- Talk. Languages got forms as they were started to be used to express the faiths. It is difficult to set apart languages without the relation of religions, faiths and philosophy. Hebrew, Sanskrit, Pali etc are examples of the languages that emerged along with the religion. So the people speaking different languages imply the re-emergence of different religions, faiths and philosophy, which were there in the pre- Babel civilization. And it is obvious that God was the one, who took initiative in promoting the heterogeneity of faith and culture.

Towards a Faith Articulation Affirming Horizontal Relationships

Finally the building of a city with a tower may not be an issue in itself. But the motivation and attitude towards the building project has to be scrutinized. The building of a city with a tower reflects the knowledge of Mesopotamian construction methods. Two kinds of towers are common in Babylonian culture. ‘Fortified city tower’ and ‘temple tower’ the latter one is also known as Ziggurat, a stepped mountain shaped structure. In Babylonian culture, the Ziggurat provided for communication between earthly and heavenly realms through priestly intermediaries. “The base of the tower was on the earth and its top in the heavens”- it is the popular description of Ziggurat. V. 4 which say, “Come let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens,” makes clear that the tower of Babel was a Ziggurat. The Ziggurat represents an indirect relationship between heaven and earth. But the verse 8 says they left off building the city.

The God who intervened in the human attempt to grow vertically, through integrating everything into the dominant side, commissioned them to grow horizontally, enjoying the diversity of faith, culture, religion and language. Today it is a strong reminder against all fundamentalist religious claims, as it pronounce the message, what humanity needs is not towers of churches and temples but a world where one can express oneself, truly without the suppressions of the dominating culture and religion.


The famous Malayalam novelist P. C Kuttikrishnan, popularly known by his pen name “Uroob” writes a story in his famous novel, “Sundarikalum Sundaranmarum.” Raman Nair, one of the characters of the novel saw an orphaned old women lying by the road side unattended and weary. He asked her to come home and only after they started to home he realized that the woman belongs to another religion and caste, and what a trouble he is inviting on himself. “Uroob” calls this action as the act of humanity that defies rationality. Indeed the God-given humanity must defy rationality that breeds selfishness.

This rationality of making compromises at the face of making just decisions is the call of the hour when there are many who wish to make “name for themselves.” They call for the annihilation of divergent views about life, love, God, and much more, to make a one single name. The revisit of God through the confusing of language in this realm of annihilation seeking unity and splendour is the expression of God’s affirmation on diversity. Languages reaffirm the divergent views on God-talk and seek our dedicated engagement with other faiths to redeem our misconceptions in stereotyped God-talks. Our faith affirmations should be a call to mind the horizontal relationships with the members of the creation, rather than being mindful in preparing highways leading to one single faith affirmation. As Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, and others we can co-operate for bringing about justice and peace in this world. Each religious community can mobilize its resources for this corporate effort. In our contexts of plurality we may still differ in our perceptions of the ultimate goals of life, yet we can work with proximate goals and strive to achieve them. May the God who revisits our life locales, call us to mind for a committed relationship with people of other faiths and be alert against call for unities of hegemony. Amen. 
[Alex Das, the preacher of this Sermon is a final year student of Gurukul Lutheran Theological College and Research Institute, Chennai, India.] 

'Stealing of Blessing'-Samuel Varghese, Gurukul

Text: Genesis 27:30-38

The just read passage Gen 27:30-38 describes how Esau the elder son of Isaac lost his blessing from the father and his cry before Isaac for the lost blessing. Isaac was also in a helpless situation. Both Isaac and Esau fell in the trap formed by Rebekah and Jacob. They steals the blessing from the father in a cunning way. This morning let us reflect together on the topic “Stealing of Blessing “. Here mother Rebekah supported and helped Jacob to steal his brother’s blessing.
The Hebrew word for blessing is ‘beraka’ It generally denotes a bestowal of good, usually conceived of materials. In the ancient near East the blessing of the father to his son was passing of his property and authority to next generation. Blessings were integral part of the Israelites liturgy and were frequently paired with curses violation of covenantal stipulation.
Today in our churches and society also there are many people like Esau, Jacob and Rebekah. Many people are denied of their basic needs under severe poverty. They can be compared to the image of the Esau. We see this image in the oppressed communities like Dalits, adivasi and women. They are eligible for the enormous blessing of God. Jacobs and Rebekahs also present among us today, By amassing wealth exploiting and living on the expense of the others, this Jacobs and Rebekahs were destroying the God’s plan for the humanity. All the development projects aim at all-round development of the Society. But eventually if fails in its aim, and it becomes ultimate blessing for the dominant group of Jacobs and Rebekahs.
They live luxuries life by stealing the opportunities and rights of the less privileged people of our Society. They make the life of the marginalized people more miserable. Jesus was also aware of this fact that is why Jesus says in Matthew 7:15 ‘Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves’. Here Jacob also came wearing the garments of sheep’s clothing and he cheated his father and brother.
Let us introspect ourselves that we share whose image with us, we claim to be a called community, working with values of Jesus Christ, but we also silently taking part in stealing the blessing which are the inheritance of our fellow being around us. We are called to serve others without expecting anything. But today we forget our call and commitment often we take the role of a paid employees. We speak theology boldly but fails to practice it in our day today life. 

Every festival is a remembrance of blessing what God has given without any hierarchy all the people celebrated. It is also remembrance of God’s abundant blessing on all people without considering Caste, Color and Class. Let it be an occasion for us to understand the blessing of God is for all. Including Jacob and Esau without any individual difference.
Let us prepare ourselves to share the blessing that we get from the God.  Amen.

[Samuel Varghese, the leader of this meditation, is a third year BD student in Gurukul Lutheran Theological College and Research Institute, Chennai, India.]

Republic day- by Rev. V.M.Mathew, Gurukul

Text :Genesis 49:22-26

Today we are celebrating our country’s 60th Republic day. This day is a day of remembrance to remember our countries great struggle to attain freedom and to become an independent Republic. I salute and remember our great leaders who led our country to be the biggest democratic country and also the struggle that they went through for this great achievement. Remember that day, When Great freedom fighters were igniting a true mission in our heart. Architectures of constitution were exploring a noble vision in our brains. Visionary leaders were casting a feeling of righteousness in our souls. Shapers of future were charging a spirit of discipline in our bodies.

Mrs. Prathibha Patil the president of our country addressed our nation yesterday and said “India has the privilege of being a great civilization; today, it is the world's largest democracy and its people have the commitment to fulfil the promise of it being a great nation.”

Let us meditate on the text.
The larger context of today’s assigned text is the final words of Jacob the patriarch. In the biblical material the patriarchal pronouncement generally concerns the destiny of their children with regard to fertility of the ground, fertility of the family and relationships between family members. Blessings or curses pronounced by the patriarch of the family were always taken seriously and considered binding, even though they were not presented as prophetic messages from God. Chapter 49 is the first long poem in the bible where Jacob addressing his twelve sons on his death bed. This is also popularly known as tribal saying mentioning the 12 tribes of Israel. It is also called the testament of Jacob. This includes blessings and curses and it also includes the dreams of this great patriarch about the future of the tribes of Israel. Ten out of the twenty five verses refer two of the tribes Judah and Joseph. The text assigned for today’s meditation contains the words of Jacob about the tribe of Joseph. The word Joseph is derived from the Hebrew word yasaf which means to increase. As the meaning denotes Jacob is dreaming about the tribe of Joseph to increase and flourish in the land. In His dream about the tribe of Joseph, he points towards three imageries. These imageries are well fit to any tribe or any nation

1. The tribe is a fruitful branch (bough).

Verse 22 says “Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a spring, his branches run over the wall.” The image of a righteous man flourishing like a tree planted by a river is well known in Old Testament. The dream of the patriarch about this tribe is that it should be a fruitful branch. The repeated use of the Hebrew word ‘porat’ in verse 22, which means fruitful, is obviously for the sake of emphasis of this imagery. The branches are not only fruitful but also run over the wall. The fruitful branch that covers the wall signifies the inclusion of the entire creation. The branches that cover the entire wall cannot ignore or exclude anyone from its fruitfulness. The branches run over the wall can even extend its fruitfulness to those who are outside the wall. The centre and the periphery, the privileged and marginalised, the rich and the poor, the literate and illiterate, they all will come under this fruitful branch. The human and non human world and the nature will be included in this fruitfulness. A country like our country should be like a fruitful branch which serves its people and the non human world. We are boastful about our countries progress and economic growth but we need to ask who are benefitted out of these progress. Mukesh Ambani can build a house, the Antalya, spending 6000 crores, Vijay mallyas and shrukh khans can own an IPL team. Is this what is meant by a fruitful branch?

2. The tribe is a fearless bow

The second imagery that the patriarch dreams about this tribe is that it will be like a fearless bow. Verse 23 and 24 depicts the tribe as a bow which remained firm and his hands and arms were agile. The bow is used metaphorically as the symbol of strength and power. The "archers" denote the adversaries of Joseph and the arrows shot at him from his various opponents were envy, revenge, temptation, ingratitude etc. The archers fiercely attacked him but his bow remained like a fearless bow. Today as we celebrate our countries republic day our dream about our country is that it should remain like a fearless bow. The archers are very strong and arrows shot at our country are enormous. Can our country withstand the attack of these archers? The terrorist’s attacks, the mounting allegations about corruption, the increasing number of farmer’s suicides, the caste issues, the politicisation of religion; we can keep on listing the names of the archer’s. Can our country remain like a fearless bow?

3. The tribe is with a comprehensive blessing

Verse 24 -26 talks about the blessing the tribe is going to experience. Blessing is a powerful theme in the theology of the Old Testament. Claus Westermann is one of the chief proponents if this theme. He says God's blessing is universal, for all living beings. In these verses we understand that the nature of the blessing which is pronounced by the patriarch is a comprehensive one. The Blessings of heaven ‘shamaim’ - i.e., ample descents of rain and dew, which are so necessary for promoting the growth of vegetation. The Blessings of the deep ‘tehom’ - i.e., springs and rivers in the earth, which contribute to moisten and fertilize the soil. The Blessings of the breasts and of the womb, ‘Sadayim’ and ‘rehem’- i.e., a numerous and healthy progeny of descendants of male and female, as well as of cattle. The dream about a tribe, which enjoys the comprehensive nature of the blessing. These blessings are the gift of the almighty, El shadai and it was a free gift. Our great country was blessed comprehensively by the almighty. But in order to satisfy the greed of the few, these blessings are being plundered and exploited. Our natural resources are depleted in the name of development and progress. The multinational companies like Vedantha Aluminium in Niyamgiri, Orissa and Coco cola in plachimada are the examples of this dangerous looting of our natural resources. One of the village girl in Niyam giri asked the officer of Vedantha aluminium “This land is my mother. She has given me food, water and clean air. When I die, she will take me back into her womb. Tell me, would you be willing to sell this mother? And if so, then at what price?” Can our country experience the comprehensive blessing of the almighty?

As we celebrate our country’s republic day today let us reflect upon the current situation of our country on the basis of this message from the Bible. Is our country a fruitful branch, is our country a fearless bow and are we able to experience the comprehensive blessing from the almighty. If not we all have to take decision to contribute to our great country. Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam in one of his republic day speeches said “India can become a developed nation only if everyone contributes to the best of his or her ability and capacity”.
We all have something to do to our country. May God bless us through these words
Jai Hind
[Rev.V.M.Mathew, the leader of this meditation is a first year MTh student (Old Testament ) in Gurukul Lutheran Theological College and Research Institute, Chennai, India.]