Faith: A road of challenges- by Vinod Easow

Text- Hebrews 11: 17-24

The book of Hebrew is often a debated book on its authorship and content. Ignorance in these matters, however, does not seriously affect the understanding of the epistle's message. The message remains timeless and relevant whatever the circumstances out of which it arose. The passage to which we listen today speaks of a meaningful faith as well as the meaning of Faith. Having introduced the description of faith in vv. 1-3 the writer draws on an elaborate canvas on how the faith is demonstrated.
We see the faith of ancestors in the passage we read as exoduses of faith. Those exoduses were characterized by their faith counting on a God rather than on the securities offered by the world. In other words those journeys were embarked from the comfort zones of the life. Abraham leaves his land and relatives and sets off to an unknown land. Moses leaves all his pomp and glory for the sake of this faith. They could win over each and every trial they had to face footing on this faith. They challenged the structural constructions of the society, and by becoming wanderers they negated institutionalized life style. This faith journey moulded an inclusive covenant community.
Today as we claim ourselves as a faith community it is required of us to ponder whether we are putting our faith on God or on power structures. Our ancestors in faith leaped in an unconditional faith without reckoning the end results of it. Today much of our faith is conditional. For much of us, church offers a steady, uninterrupted and unchallenged career and we are more or less comfortable with that. In contrary to the faith of our ancestors we are always mindful about the results. As a result of it the mission of the church loses its direction.
Dear friends when Moses put faith in God, the pain and pathos of his brothers and sisters are revealed to him. This emboldened him to set forth for their liberation. Jesus in his earthly ministry was not preaching an invisible God rather he was living with paining human lives and comforting them. The faith journey is not an exodus in search of an invisible God but it is the constructive response to the pain and pathos of fellow human beings.
Sabarimala is a famous Hindu pilgrimage site in southern India. People travel from miles away in pilgrimage staking their money and health. They could read as they reach the temple it is written “Tatwam asi” which means “it is you itself”. The devotees recognise that the God they went in search for resides in themselves, in their fellow brothers and sisters. The faith journey for which God calls everyone compels us to see the God in ourselves and the God in our brothers and sisters.
Daya Bai was a Roman Catholic nun who came out of the comforts of an institutionalized career to identify with the poor and the marginalized. She changed her name from Mercy Matthew and is living in Madhya Pradesh among adivasis as one of them. Daya Bai heard the call for a faith journey and responded affirmatively risking her life and career. Adv. Cyrus was a leading advocate in the High Court of Kerala. He risked his career, family life for the sake of his calling and went to the impoverished backward villages of Orissa. These life stories retell the faith journeys voyaged by the ancestors. Do these stories inspire us? Do these stories disturb us? Let us examine ourselves in the light of these life stories. Amen 

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

Church at Smyrna: Heroic Endurance of outward persecution- by Jaya Jesudas Pudi

Text: Rev: 2 8-11
In 155 A.D, the Bishop of the church of Smyrna, Polycarp, was 86 at that time, was given the opportunity to renounce Jesus. The magistrate who did not want to see the old man die, said “What harm is there in saying, Lord Caesar?” But Polycarp refused. When they entered the stadium, where the executing took place, there tried again saying “Swear by the fortune of Caesar, repent and say, ‘Away with the atheists”.
The old man cried, “Eighty and six years have I served Christ, and he never did me any injury, how then can I blaspheme my king and my savior?” He was punished burnt alive.
What did I tell you this story? Polycarp shows us, it was exceptionally difficult to live as a Christian in ‘Smyrna’.
A Short Glance at Smyrna: Smyrna was a city of wealth and culture. She was built in a place of beauty. Smyrna fore saw the rising power of Rome and built a temple to Emperor Tiberius. Smyrna was a center for emperor worship. It means Christian confession that “Jesus is the lord” was in direct conflict with the Roman confession that “Caesar is the lord”.
Assertion that all is endured: Christ said “I am the first and the last” (v 8). To Christians in Smyrna and among the world experiencing persecution and martyrdom this title of Christ is very comforting. This title is a reminder that life and death are in Christ’s hands. The lord used 2 words to describe the fierceness of their persecution.
Living Christ spoke of their ‘tribulation’: The word suggests that they were undergoing fierce persecution. Their property was confiscated, their citizenship revoked and many were thrown in the prison. But that was nothing compared to the tortures of many experiences.
Living Christ spoke of their ‘poverty’: The word speaks of abject poverty, possessing absolutely nothing. They lived in destitution. Their poverty was due to their faith, because they were Christians that had lost everything. They had lost their business, houses lands and all earthly possessions.
Temporary duration of the affliction: In spite of their poverty Jesus said “Be though art rich” (v 9). If they didn’t have anything how could they be rich? These believers lived by Paul’s admonition. ‘If ye be raised with Christ, Seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of god. Set your affections on things above, not on the things in the earth” (Col 3: 1-2).
They were materially poor but were spiritually rich. When the world looks at the church at Smyrna all that it sees is a lack of worldly goods and desperate human poverty. But when the Lord Jesus looks at the church of Smyrna he sees in another dimension- the spiritual.
Today the church is feeling proud of this earthly wealth, property whatever it has. Does it have heavenly wealth, how is their spirituality. But friends remember the day may come when this world will take us and our property. The day may come when they threaten us with death. The day may come when our testimony becomes a death sentence in this world. If that day ever comes, take comfort that all of you are giving up is what you would have lost at some point or anyway. Even if everything you have is taken away, including your life, the treasures you have laid up in heaven are safe.

Promise of the final reward of Eternal life: Therefore do as Jesus said in “Be thou faithful unto death”, he promises them “Crown of life”. The Christians of Smyrna are urged to be faithful. What encouragement it must have meant to them? When lord told them He knew what they going through as a church. He told them not to fear things they were going through or would go through in future. Jesus promised them” I will give them a crown o life” Their faithfulness had not gone unnoticed and neither would it go unrewarded. The crown Jesus spoke of was the “stephanos” or the ‘victus crown’.

Smyrna was famous for its athletic games. A crown was trophy for the champion. If we have been faithful, we will receive the prize of victory- eternal life (James 1: 2). The message to the Smyrna church is to remain faithful during suffering, because god is in control and his promises are reliable. How are we today? How is our church today? It does not matter hope few or how simple you make the great primary truths and principles of Christianity to be, which have been brought to light and set forth in the world of human thought by Jesus Christ as the essential principle of Christian system, or church.
 For a church has no right to exist until and unless it is an active or working church. A Christian has no right to his/her Christian comforting and hopes until and unless he/she is an active working Christian. There are spheres for every one of us. We must find for ourselves what ours is. Nobody will tell us. Having found our spheres, the text has its message for us “Be though faithful”.
Our work may be witness, prayer, influence, giving, teaching, writing, ministry, or any other forms of social services. : be though faithful” no man ever sees the nobility of human life until and unless he/she learns to put success second and faithfulness first. Let us not feel proud of this earthly riches and wealth but let us feel proud of having heavenly victory and gift of eternal life.
[Jaya Jesudas Pudi, the leader of this meditation, is a final year BD student of Gurukul Lutheran Theological College and Research Institute]

'Being Rich toward God' -by Prince John

LUKE:12:13-21

Luke’s gospel gives special emphasis to the gentiles and the poor.

The subject of coveting arises in Luke because of an interrupting request by someone in the crowd. Apparently this person had detected in Jesus a fairness of spirit that would qualify him to settle a dispute over an inheritance. Jesus is asked to be a referee, but he refuses. Rather than acting as judge, Jesus states a proverbial truth in v.15 and elaborates with a parable in vv16-20.

We might have seen several warning boards in our roads. It helps us to move away from danger, and not to fall in danger. In the Bible also we can see several warning messages. One of the messages is in Luke 12:15 "Take heed and beware of covetousness". There we can see that one’s life doesn’t consist in the abundance of possessions.

The common tendency of human beings is to acquire maximum wealth. The rich usually get reputation in society without taking into consideration the ways in which they have earned it. Those who accumulate wealth further attempt to catch hold of more possessions. Here Jesus is trying to remind us of a fundamental truth and for that purpose he introduces a parable. This story might come to Jesus’ mind from an untimely death of a rich man. The parable illustrates the fate of the man who loves neither God nor neighbor. There are some reasons to call him a fool. At this juncture, it is extremely important to recognize these reasons in order to be rich toward God.In any event, the topic of wealth is prominent in Luke's writing. Above all Luke shows Jesus as the friend of outcasts and sinners. But the outstanding characteristic of this book is that it is the universal gospel and it has been called "The gospel of the underdog". Jesus Christ is for all human without distinction removing all kinds of barriers.

He was not concerned about the uncertainty of life

Here we see this young man uttering some words to himself such as relax, eat, drink, and be merry. He thinks that he can be the unchanging owner of all his possessions utilizing unlimitedly as he wished. He is never aware of the fact that there may be interruptions to his desires. The psalmist’s voice in psalm 39:4-5 is very much relevant here: "…let me know how fleeting my life is. You have made my days a few handbreadths and my lifetime is as nothing in your sight." The world has so far witnessed the emergence of many leaders and revolutionaries who made their presence felt, but ultimately defeated by death. Alexander the Great thus said moments before his death: "My hands should lie outside the coffin, because people should know that I came to this world empty-handed and returning likewise". So no one can escape the reality of death, whether it be rich or poor, educated or illiterate, youth or the aged etc. But the thing is that we need not be upset with the uncertainty of life but we must be aware of it.

He never saw beyond the self

V.19 he says to himself "you have ample goods laid up for many years". He believes that nobody has any partake in his possessions. Perhaps we may also have the same attitude towards our possessions. But we must affirm that the blessings and possessions which are given to us is God’s trust on us. If we give priority to that conviction, then only we get motivated to share our possessions.

The evil is not in the treasure or in laying up treasure, but in laying up treasure for oneself. It is a devotion to self not to God, and gathering up solely for the self is, therefore, a sin according to the judgment of Christ.

Pope John Paul VI made a statement in his UNO conference "there are enough resources here to all people in this world. But the accumulation made by some hands is the cause of poverty and marginalization." This is very true. God granted us the resources not to be grabbed by some people, but for equal distribution. Sometimes we see the same attitude in the church itself. It is a sad aspect that their primary motive is the accumulation of wealth which is the offshoot of self-centeredness. The rich man looks himself through his wealth and says "you have ample goods laid up for many years. It shows how narrow minded he is. So there is no wonder in God calling him a fool. Are we truly aware of this matter?

He was ignorant of the life beyond

Most of us acknowledge that this life is temporary. But some of us don’t know what is beyond this earthly living. For this assurance, our lord Jesus Christ died and resurrected for us. This man was rich in his worldly possession. In Rev. 3: 17 we read the satisfaction of the church in Laodicea: "I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing". But what the spirit of God said to them? "You are wretched, pitiable, poor blind and naked. We are very much concerned about this perishable body. But the Luke passage says: "Ones life doesn’t consist in the abundance of possession". Then what is the base of life? John 17:3 says "And this is eternal life that they may know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent". So knowing Christ is the base of our life. Do we have this knowledge? If we are not realizing that our health, knowledge, wisdom which are the gifts of God, we are fools in front of God. So those who store up treasures for themselves are not rich toward God since they give little heed to the life beyond.

There is a contrast between "laying up treasure for oneself" and "being rich toward God". God cannot be enriched or impoverished. That man is rich toward God who lays up treasure in heaven, and so he is rich indeed. By being rich toward God he becomes rich forever. So the great duty of all, irrespective of the rich and the poor, is to become rich toward God.

[Prince John, the preacher of this sermon is a final year BD student in Gurukul Lutheran Theological College and Research Institute.]

'THE RESOLUTION OF GOODNESS TOWARDS EVIL' by Ajay T.Oommen

Scripture Text: 1 PETER 3: 8-12.

“An eye for an eye only ends up, making the whole world blind” This is a powerful quote of Mahatma Gandhi.
A society could become a just society, only when everything is paid in a befitting measure. The state, law and constitution ensure that, not only services and virtuous actions are to be paid, but also each and every evil should be repaid. It is one of the primary functions of the state and judiciary, to make sure that, the evildoer is repaid with a punishment, which is equally evil. In this structure, if the victim needs retaliation, the ultimate option would be another evil. This is the logic that is working out in every society.
However Christian Ethics have something else to propose. In I Peter 3: 9, we see the exhortation, “Do not repay evil for evil and abuse for abuse.”
Does it seem logical? Yes, that only makes Logic.
Evil things happen in a society, which continues to “contain evil”. If we are about to repay evil by an evil, we are going further to contain a greater evil.
We need to admit that evil could not be exterminated. But it could only be transformed. Evil as we perceive, was never been created. It is only “perverted goodness”. Goodness that got perverted gets transformed into evil. The goodness that confines to individual selves, or to the interest of particular communities, could become an evil for others. So we need to be cautious that, every goodness has a prospect to get perverted, depending on the space it works. The same gives us hope also. Even though evil could not be exterminated, it could be transformed into goodness.
Such a counter practice is named as a life of blessing in the text. What else could be a blessed life, other than the one which transforms the evil into blessing?
There are some characters in the bible who have foreseen that, their life trajectories eventually may lead them to inestimable evil. As they got engaged with this knowledge, they took a deliberate deviance from the “acceptable goodness” of their time and space. Though many civilizations and societies fall, as their goodness eventually got perverted into evil, the men and women who took this deliberate deviation became blessed, and a blessing to the society and the nation.
This deliberate deviation is what we have seen in verse 11, saying, “turn away from evil and seek peace.” Both these imperatives obligate us to choose a counter culture that demands an earnest commitment. The blessedness of Abraham must be seen in this light. Often we comprehend the blessedness of Abraham as a preferential grace of God. However we need to reassess this understanding in the light of this passage.
The innate goodness of Abraham compels him to go out of the land of Ur, into a nomadic life to preserve his goodness, without being perverted. He gives away the green pastures that he had, to his nephew, and thus once again he dismantles the prospect, that his goodness may get perverted. This earnest commitment of Abraham to preserve the innate goodness in him without being perverted, helped him to continue as a blessing for the nations.
So friends, if we are going to repay evil for an evil, we are not exterminating the evil. But rather, “we contain a greater evil.” We have the scope to transform evil into goodness, since all evil manifestations are perverted goodness. At the same time, it should be our longing, to keep the innate goodness, without being perverted.
May God help us to have these earnest commitments to lead a blessed life and to be a blessing to all. Amen

[Ajay T. Oommen, the preacher of this sermon, is a final year BD student in Gurukul Lutheran Theological College and Research Institute,Chennai, India]

A friend, of the poor - God, by Georvin Joseph

Scripture  Portion: James 5: 1-6

As I tried to interpret this passage today I had to face two temptations. One is to view that the message of this passage would be best left, safely back in the first or second century, where it originated. Another is to use them as the basis for the revolutionary denunciation of everyone who happens to be well off. Without doubt this is a difficult passage, and we shall understand it properly only if we are aware of the kind of writing we are dealing with and of its setting.

James 5: 1-6 is one collection with basic content and its forms of expression intimately relating to a long history of theology and piety, according to which, the rich and powerful are per se, enemies of God and appointed to destruction, while the "poor and wretched" are considered as the innocent friends of the Lord of Hosts. Though the Old Testament by no means glorifies poverty as a good thing in itself, many strands of Israel's literature plainly depict God as unequivocally on the side of the poor. In Deuteronomy 15: 4-11 God wills that there should be no poor at all in Israel, and the prophets like Amos, repeatedly announce Yahweh's support for and the protection of the poor.

As the poor are "friends of God," so also are those who are concerned for them as recorded in Ps. 41:1; but the enemies of the poor are ipso facto, that is by the fact itself enemies of the Lord. Similarly, in the Wisdom literature riches are often the subject of warnings, while poverty is linked to humility and godliness.

Jesus and the first Christians ministered and taught in an atmosphere impregnated with such ways of seeing things, and the New Testament is profoundly influenced by it. Therefore, when Jesus spoke of the poor as heirs of the Kingdom and denounced the rich, or suggested that it would take a miracle for the rich to be saved, he not only had a ready audience but was in fact placing himself, in the midst of poverty based piety. It was not simply an accident in the history that, in the first decades of the church, Christians were drawn from the lower strata of the society. Nothing could be more evident than this in the whole of James and especially in the text with which we are dealing.

For James the Christian community is made up chiefly of poor people. This is as it should be, given the risks attached to wealth. As time passed by, however, persons of means are beginning to come in. One purpose of James’ writing, therefore, is to warn the church against the dangers of riches and worldliness going hand in hand, and to remind believers about poverty and righteousness which had a noble pedigree among them.

The prophetic genre is obvious in the first verse. We hear not an admonition to repent but a proclamation of judgment that is surely coming. Those "who have great possessions" are the rich in society who oppress the poor and, by implication, the church to whom James address also, by showing partiality to the rich is encouraging this oppression as we see in 2:6-7. He is not just exhorting members of a congregation but making a statement about God's view of things in the community at large. The wealthy power-brokers will weep and howl, their riches will rot, their fine clothes will become moth-eaten, and their money will rust. The silver and gold of the rich have tarnished because it has lain idle and not been used for the benefit of any. This neglect will now testify against the owners. Even in the last days the rich have gone on accumulating treasure. This they have done by defrauding their workers, and both the unpaid wages and the labourers themselves testify against them before the Lord like the blood of Abel crying out. The rich have existed "on earth" in luxury and self-indulgence, stuffing themselves on the "day of slaughter". The definition that the rich as the enemies of the poor is reiterated in the final verse. The downtrodden are both humble and pious offer no resistance to their destruction at the hands of the powerful, but their murder will not be forgotten in the judgment.

What then are we to make out of this fiery, tradition-laden diatribe that James has chosen to record an evaluation of wealth? Can it in fact be taken over as a text supporting an egalitarian revolution, as an unvarnished call for the abolition of wealth and the redistribution of earth's treasure?

Clearly there are enormous dangers in wealth. If we possess it, we must beware of it. The rich who remains to be rich can ‘un-inherit’ the Kingdom of God more easily than others, knowing what God truly values. If those who have great possessions are in the church, and the church herself, critique themselves. Let the poor ones in the church know where the trust is truly to be put. Let the powerful "outside," be reminded in no uncertain terms, of where God's concerns and commitments are focused. God's eye is on the poor and the wretched. Let everyone who has means, in the church or out of it, know that there is assuredly One who watches over the helpless, the alien, the orphan, and the mistreated toiler. There will be a reckoning in due course.

So if it is all that God in fact wills justice for the poor, are we not required to be imitators of God as far as we can be? In a day when we do not look for an imminent End to set things right, can we hear the Word spoken and yet do nothing, when we obviously could do a great deal? In our contexts the church is hardly a tiny, helpless minority who cannot envision and strive for such changes of overthrowing the established economic order. When we know where we are and who we are, and the plain meaning of James' portrayal of what God is up to in these matters, how can we in good conscience remain content to leave intact the crippling inequities with which so many of our sisters and brothers must daily compete? When we ourselves live gospel in the very existence of the here and now we just can’t remain content, but we ourselves become the change we envision.

Let the spirit of God guide us to walk this talk in our daily lives. Amen.

[Georvin Joseph, the preacher of this sermon, is a final Year Student of Gurukul Lutheran Theological College and Research Institute, Chennai, India.]