FOCUS April 2021

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FOCUS April 2021 Vol. 9 (2)

Cover Photo by Canva: ‘Be the Gospel of Christ’, Cover Design by Lal Varghese, Esq., Dallas

Contents 1. Be the Gospel of Christ: Editorial by Dr. Abraham Philip, Kottayam, Page 3 2. The Living Gospel: Dr. Cherian Samuel, Virginia, Page 6 3. The Gospel of the Kingdom of God: V. Georgekutty, Karunagapally, Page 10 4. Let us live the Gospel: Revd Dr. M. J. Joseph, Kottayam, Page 13 5. Good From Far, Far from Good: Dr. Rajiv G. Patel, Flower Mound, Texas, Page 14 6. From Glory to Glory: Mrs. Jeny Joy, Sinai Mar Thoma Church, North London, Page 15 7. Reflection for a Transformed Self and Society: Divya Athyal Mathew, Boston, Page 16 8. Living the Gospel and not Living on the Gospel: Lal Varghese, Esq., Dallas, Page 18 9. Christmas – Confession of Faith and Reverence: Revd Shibu Kurian, Bangalore, Page 20 10. What Does it Mean to be the Gospel of Christ? Dr. Zac Varghese, London, Page 22 11. Missionary Disciples: Revd Dr. Joel Edwards CBE, Page 25 12. Denominations and Abominations: Chotebhai, Page 26 13. Why did the Good News of Jesus fail in the North and West? The Revd Dr. John T. Mathew, Page 29 14. Rainbow of Remembrances: Revd Dr. M. J. Joseph, Kottayam - Book Review by Revd Dr. Joseph Daniel, Kottayam, Page 32 15. Mr. T. T. Verghese - One of the Endearing Pioneers of the Mar Thoma Community in the UK and Europe: Dr. Zac Varghese, London, Page 33

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EDITORIAL ‘Be the Gospel of Christ’ ‘We have entered into a new phase of life globally after

living with COVID-19 for over a year. This has enhanced the use of online materials more than ever before. The use of various platforms like Google Meet, Zoom, WebEx and YouTube have increased tremendously. But we need to use them cautiously and appropriately. FOCUS Movement and its online journal has been operating usefully for almost two decades and has a wide readership. I hope that it will continue to be useful and well-read by many. I have great pleasure in writing the editorial for this issue and I thank all members of the editorial board.

The theme for this issue is: ‘Be the Gospel of Christ’.

Paul writes, “Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel” (2 Timothy 2:8). Living this gospel or sharing this gospel is our becoming the gospel of Christ. In other words, we call it as the mission which Jesus has entrusted the church.

By becoming the gospel of Christ in history we have seen the blossoming of humanity. It is through the blossoming of justice, equality and integrity, which lead us to the kingdom of God. During the last two millenniums this gospel has been preached in all continents and in almost all parts of the world. Lots of people have been led to a new vision of life through Jesus Christ. Therefore, mission is the breathing of the church – the secret on which the church continues on earth. Just like fire exists by burning, church exists through mission, which is nothing but the church members being the gospel of Christ.

But when the churches became well-organized structures, mission became evangelization, which focused only on religious conversions for adding membership in the respective churches. Moreover, some of the Christian churches seem to be only interested in increasing their membership. Mission as evangelization should be focusing on our living as the gospel of Christ. It is not a mere human act. It is the work of God. It is not mere propagation of the values of Christianity, but it is translating Jesus Christ into the socio-cultural space today. In other words, it is the re-incarnation of Jesus Christ in the annals of history. It is the exploration of new relationships and new Lordship in Jesus Christ. It is the re-establishment of the lost dignity of humanity. It is the celebration of the messianic age inaugurated in and through Jesus Christ and a call to be transformed into values of the kingdom of God. Evangelization thus marks a new discourse. It challenges us to enter into new depths of our faith, hope and love. It is the expression of our unfathomable love towards Jesus Christ. It is not religion-centred, but it is Christ-centred. It does not aim

at structured and well-defined religious concepts, but proclaims Jesus Christ in the new environment that emerges as time changes. It emphasizes the great commission to make disciples of all people. It emphasizes discipleship rather than bringing people to the structures of certain Christian “denominations”. It aims at even the transformation of many structures.

In the contemporary pluralistic society, mission should be carried out with respect to people of other faiths. The structure of society and nations tend to increase the difference between the haves and the have-nots and a large number of people are being marginalized into hardships and poverty. The political parties in their attempt to increase their vote-banks create enmity among various religious people, castes, races, communities, peoples and even states and nations. Under such circumstances the mission of the church should be carefully done in solidarity with the vast majority of the suffering people in any society and country. During His earthly ministry, Jesus Christ identified with the poor and the marginalized in society. This mind of Christ should reflect in our day to day lives if we want to be the gospel of Christ. If the church takes sides with the poor or opts for the down-trodden and the reprobates of the society, then there will be a transformation in the very identity of the church.

At the same time, the church has to cater to the needs of the members of the church. Church should be able to create an atmosphere of prayer and commitment in the family scenario of the church members in this post COVID-19 age. The gospel should continue to burn in the hearts of Christian believers. Then only church members will be enabled to be and transformed to be the gospel of Christ. When Christian believers and churches alienate from one another, can we be the gospel of Christ? When we see the number of divorces among us increasing, can we be the gospel of Christ? When we neglect family relationships and give importance to other sorts of relationships, can we be the gospel of Christ? In this digital age, when we forget our responsibility to our brothers and sisters in our own vicinity, can we be the gospel of Christ? When a lot of people among us become addicted to drugs and alcohol and other social evils, can we be the gospel of Christ? The solution for all these things will have to emerge from our own local and family environment. Family should become Christ-centred and children are to be brought up in the fear of the Lord. They should be nurtured in such a way that they learn to love one another and also to love and care for the people around them who suffer in various ways. We need a generation who can have the mind of Christ and the love that Christ has revealed to us – self-giving, self-sacrificing and self-emptying love supremely manifested on the cross.

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As we have already noted, the theme for this issue is ‘Be the gospel of Christ’. As we go through this issue of the magazine, we have several thought-provoking scholarly articles by eminent persons. Let me provide a bird’s eye view of a few of them. One has to remember that these articles have been written by different people in different continents with different backgrounds. But all of them try to bring out the theme from various vantage points.

Dr. Cherian Samuel, a new contributor to this journal has entitled his article as “The Living Gospel”. He is an economist of distinction and just retired after 25 years of a distinguished career with the World Bank Group. We wish him a happy retirement and welcome him to the FOCUS family. At the outset he deals with the origin of the word “gospel” and explores its meaning. The good news is that we can be saved of our sins. Sin points to our proclivity to live independently of God. Thus, it marks human rebellion against God and alienation from God. The author emphasizes the New Testament teaching that everyone who believes in Jesus will be saved. A holy God requires us also to be holy. God being just cannot tolerate sin. But as He is merciful, through Jesus Christ He has established a new covenant with the whole humanity. The incarnation, life and ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ provide us the good news of salvation. The author deals with the various Pauline synonyms for human salvation such as redemption, reconciliation, justification and sanctification. He reminds us of Jesus’ proclamation of the gospel during his public ministry as well as Jesus’ commissioning his disciples for the proclamation of the gospel to all people. He also draws our attention to be the doers of the word. Regular and systematic study of the Bible, its meditation as well as our communion with God in prayer are given as the prerequisites for our renewal of our minds and transformation of our lives to be the gospel of Christ in our daily life.

Revd Dr. Joel Edwards CBE in his article entitled “Missionary Disciples” draws our attention to Jesus’ mandate to us to make disciples of all ethnic people by ourselves becoming the gospel of Christ. He draws our attention to the black man saying, “I can’t breathe” being butchered by a white man in police uniform, and the world getting intoxicated with the cry of justice. He rightly points out the problem about making disciples across the kaleidoscope of cultural distinctiveness without some people dominating other people and running the risk of new forms of colonial or cultural control. Missionaries have always been inclined to spread their own Christian brands while spreading the good news about Jesus. So, the author of this article wants us to be people who know Jesus and learn from him to be his gospel as well as missionary disciples.

Revd Dr. M. J. Joseph through his article exhorts us to be in the society witnessing the values of the kingdom of

God as revealed in the teachings of Jesus Christ during his earthly ministry. The author being a New Testament scholar could quote profusely from the New Testament drawing our attention to bear fruit so that we become Christ’s disciples (John 15:8), we should not be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewal of the mind (Romans 12:2), reject every kind of evil (1 Thessalonians 5:22), train ourselves to be godly (1 Timothy 4:7) etc. The author has also tried to expound as to what it means to be living in conformity with the world and to be living with the renewal of the mind challenging us to transcend the boundaries created by geography, gender, race, caste etc. He concludes saying that whatever we do to the least of our brothers or sisters here on earth we actually do them for Christ (Matthew 25:40).

Dr. Zac Varghese in his article expounds as to what it means to be the gospel of Christ. The importance of the Jesus Christ dwelling in us and thereby our becoming the gospel of Christ is lucidly brought out. Just as the vine and the branches relationship, the Christian believers are to have a close clinging personal relationship with Christ in order to become the gospel of Christ. Paul’s Damascus Road experience whereby he gets the concept of “in Christ” experience is well brought out. Church or the believers in Jesus Christ form part of the body of Jesus Christ. Church is Church only when the Spirit of Jesus Christ indwells and controls and guides the Church.

Believers should be perennially seeking the guidance from our Lord Jesus Christ and take the necessary steps needed for becoming the gospel of Christ. Thereby the “in Christ” experience becomes shared and witnessed and the believers blossom to be the gospel of Christ.

Attorney Lal Varghese has entitled his article as: Living for the Gospel and not Living on the Gospel. He draws our attention to the Sermon of the Mount in Matthew 5-7 and particularly to 7:21-27 where our Lord wants us not to be mere preachers of the gospel and calling Jesus “Lord, Lord”, but doers of the gospel or in other words practitioners of the gospel. The phrases “living out the gospel” and “being the gospel” find emphasis in the article. Besides, he points out the Pauline ideas of adaptability and self-discipline needed for Christian believers as expressed by St Paul’s first epistle to the Corinthians in chapter 9. He denounces the prosperity gospel as proclaimed by some today and wants Christian believers to live the gospel of Christ. The texts from the epistle of James (1:22; 2:17) are also brought out to highlight the argument that we should be doers of the gospel. Mercy, love and compassion should abound in the lives of Christian believers in order for them to be the living gospel.

Chottebhai in his article entitled “Denominations are Abominations” calls for unity and co-operation among churches and points out that division is an abomination.

The author proposes that instead of the word

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“denominations”, the term “sister churches” be used to speak about other churches. The Christians today should be comfortable with the plurality of the churches rather than insisting on singularity or superiority of one’s own particular church. Chhottebhai, a member of the Roman Catholic Church, draws our attention to Jesus’ prayer for unity: “that all of them may be one …so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:21). In order for us to be the gospel of Christ, Christians should be united and the churches should not be competing with one another. The author wants us to prayerfully and humbly listen to what the Spirit is saying to churches (Revelation 3:22), for denominations are an abomination for the disciples of Christ.

Revd Shibu Kurian in his article on the prologue of the Fourth Gospel exhorts us to have reverence for life. The incarnation challenges us for it. It calls us to engage in history promoting life, trying to destroy the culture of death in and around us. Above all, the author points out that the incarnated God is dwelling among us for the reverence of life. He draws our attention towards the marginalized that seems to have been denied any right to live in this world. In some countries like India, the poor farmers struggle for their right in their agriculture produce.

Religious fundamentalism is seen as a threat to harmony and life in society. The politicization of religion has become a danger of the hour. Society is stratified and scorns life. In such a scenario how can a Christian be the gospel of Christ? A Christian should become the aroma of Christ for the reverence of life. Human dignity has to be upheld. Protection and promotion of life and harmony with nature be strengthened.

Let me conclude this write-up by giving an instance from the life of St Francis of Assisi. I remember passing through the town of Assisi a few decades back during an evening in summer as I was travelling by train from Paris to Rome. In that small town of Assisi there once lived a saintly man named Francis. He became a member of a monastery and lived an ascetic life. The noble life he lived was well-appreciated by all the people in that monastery.

Others looked at him with respect and he was well recognized by all the members of that monastic community. Many inmates there already knew that one day Francis would be canonized and proclaimed a saint by the Roman Catholic Church. One day Francis invited a young monk in the monastery to go with him to town and preach. The young man was very much delighted that this great soul chose him to accompany him. Both walked through the various ways in that town for quite some time and also through most of the important places and junctions. Through another way as they were returning to the main entrance of the monastery, the young monk became very sad and told Francis, “Father, though we went to town to preach, you have forgotten to preach”.

Then Francis replied, “Son, we have been preaching all the time. Our look and attitude to others revealed through

our walk, our eyes and other expressions were our preaching today. And it is no use, son, to go anywhere and preach, unless we preach everywhere as we walk.” Do our lives become the gospel in our everyday living? The challenge for us is to be the gospel of Christ every moment in our lives.

Revd Dr. Abraham Philip, Kottayam For the Editorial Board http://www.issuu.com/diasporafocus http://www.scribd.com/diasporafocus Web Site: www.facebook.com/groups/mtfocus E-Mail: mtfousgroup@gmail.com Published by Lal Varghese, Esq., Dallas for and on behalf of Diaspora FOCUS Disclaimer: Diaspora FOCUS is a non-profit organization registered in United States, originally formed in late Nineties in London for the Diaspora Marthomites. Now it is an independent lay-movement of the Diaspora laity of the Syrian Christians; and as such FOCUS is not an official publication of any denominations. It is an ecumenical journal to focus attention more sharply on issues to help churches and other faith communities to examine their own commitment to loving their neighbors and God, justice, and peace. Opinions expressed in any article or statements are of the individuals and are not to be deemed as an endorsement of the view expressed therein by Diaspora FOCUS. Thanks.

An Easter Hope The 2021 April Issue of the FOCUS will be reaching you during the Passion Week. This year’s Passion Week is in the midst of various difficulties and constraints of the COVID-19 Pandemic, as we experienced in the last year.

The death associated with the pandemic is over two and a half million worldwide. This loss of life has cut to the heart of humanity; we also have so many other issues to face such as the lockdowns, shielding, travel bans, unemployment, school and university closures, mental disorders and son on and on. Let us find comfort and hope in the Passion Week liturgies and worship services.

During this period, we have been able to see countless acts of random kindness from health care workers and many others, the growth of true solidarity, and determined service for the neediest, a deep appreciation of the importance of family ties, social cohesion and so on. This we must nurture in the radiance of the radical power of the Holy Spirit. Let us thank God for the green blades of hope through vaccination and other measures.

We need to grasp the meaning of the cross of Jesus Christ through every crisis in our lives, particularly during the Easter. Jesus told his disciples: “In this world you will have trouble. But Take heart! I have overcome the world” (Jn 16: 33). We wish all our readers hope, peace and joy in Christ Jesus.

The Editorial Board

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The Living Gospel Dr. Cherian Samuel, Virgina Introduction: The term “Gospel” comes from the old English word, “god-spell”—meaning “good story”— derived from the Latin “evangelium” and the Greek “euangelion” words, meaning “good news” or “good telling.” In addition, the four New Testament (NT) accounts of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are referred to as “Gospels”, given the articulation and elaboration of the “good news” rendered through them. This essay elaborates the “why” behind the good news, as well as explores the “Living” aspect of the “Gospel”. The essay draws on other books of the Bible, beyond the four “Gospels”.

The Good News: The “good news” of the Bible is that we can be saved from our sins—our proclivity to live independently of God—which separate us from a Holy God, by trusting in Jesus as our LORD and Savior, as recorded in the Gospel according to John (John 3:16-17). John the Baptist, the forerunner to Christ, affirmed this about Jesus during his discussion with his disciples and the Jews (John 3: 36). The essence of the Gospel is also outlined in Peter’s epistle to the first-century diaspora Christians in the Roman empire, where the Apostle states that salvation was obtained through the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect (1 Peter 1:18-19).

Apostle Paul outlines the salvation principle and process in several of his epistles to the NT churches.

In particular, the epistle to Romans presents the “Roman Road to Salvation” consisting of the following principles: (i) All have sinned, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23); (ii) Sin leads to Eternal Death, a life separated from God, “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23a); (iii) God has given us the gift of Eternal Life through Jesus Christ, “but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23b); (iv) Christ died for sinners because of God’s love, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8); (v) We must call upon the LORD to be saved from our sins, “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13); and (vi) We must confess and believe in Jesus and His resurrection, “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).

The Sin Problem: When God created Adam and Eve, they enjoyed perfect fellowship and harmony with God. God created Adam and Eve with the ability and

freedom to obey Him as well as make choices on their own. The only rule that God gave Adam and Eve was not to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In spite of knowing there was a penalty for disobedience (Genesis 2:17), they ignored God’s warning and ate from the forbidden tree. Through this act of rebellion against God, Sin entered their hearts, separating them from God (Isaiah 59:2), leading to “The Fall”, and a life independent from God. Attributes of God: In turn, the Sin problem is inextricably linked to the attributes of God, particularly Holiness. A Holy God requires perfection from us, as God commanded the children of Israel (Leviticus 19:2b), and as Jesus taught (Matthew 5:48).

A Holy God cannot tolerate Sin, which therefore requires punishment, since God is Just (Exodus 34:7, Ezekiel 18:4). However, God is merciful (1 John 4:8) and therefore doesn't want to punish us. God’s solution to the Sin problem was the shedding of blood through the sacrificial system of the Old Testament (OT), based on a covenant between God and Abraham first, followed by the covenant between God and the nation of Israel. However, with the death of Jesus Christ on the cross for our sins and Jesus’s victory over death through resurrection, God has established a new covenant with the whole humanity, beyond Abraham and the Israel. As Apostle Paul wrote in the epistle to Ephesians, we are saved by grace through faith unto good works (Ephesians 2:810).

God in Human Flesh: An integral element of the Gospel is Christmas, which signifies the coming of God in human flesh, as Jesus the Christ, to fulfill God’s redemption plan for humanity, as Paul notes in the epistle to Colossians (Col. 1:19-20). Because God the Son was born as a baby, lived as a man, died on the cross for our sins, was resurrected, and ascended back to the Father in heaven, we have the hope of eternal life. As Jesus taught the disciples, “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life” (John 5:24).

Resurrection: Believing in the resurrection of Jesus Christ is an integral element of the salvation message, as Apostle Paul wrote in the epistle to Romans (Romans 10:9). The resurrection proves that Jesus is indeed the Son of God, who satisfied God the Father with his own death on the cross as the sacrifice for sin, but overcame death through resurrection.

Christ’s resurrection was indeed the focal point of the gospel proclaimed by the disciples and the

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foundation for Christianity. As eyewitnesses to the risen Christ (1 Corinthians 15: 3-8), the disciples were certain about the resurrection, ultimately laying down their own lives as martyrs all over the world, for proclaiming the gospel. Likewise, Apostle Paul made the resurrection the central aspect of his own Gospel preaching as he traveled around the Roman world. A powerful illustration of Paul’s approach is in his epistle to Corinthians, “And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.

17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.” (1 Corinthians 15: 14, 17) Christianity is anchored in the resurrection, with Jesus as the only risen, Living Savior. Christianity is also unique among religions in its depiction of God seeking out humanity to save them, in sharp contrast to humanity’s search for God in other religions.

Christian historians have noted that if one were to take a chronological view of the NT books of the Bible, Paul’s epistles to the various early churches around the Mediterranean bases predate the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Paul’s epistles also provide compelling eyewitness testimonies to the resurrection from early Christian believers who had seen the risen Christ personally. Paul Barnett1, a pre-eminent scholar on Early Christianity, has shown from historical research that after the Romans crucified Jesus of Nazareth circa AD 33, His followers met weekly to worship Jesus as Lord, reaffirming Apostle Thomas’s proclamation of the risen Christ as his Lord and God (John 20:28). In his epistles to the Ephesians and Corinthians, Apostle Paul exhorts Christians to sing and make melody in their hearts “to the Lord” (Ephesians 5.19, 1 Corinthians 14.26).

Apostle Paul also records the “Maranatha” prayer, which mean, ‘Lord, come back’ in the epistle to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 16.22), which is also found in the Book of Revelation (Revelation 22.20).

Therefore, the evidence suggests that the early Christians worshipped Jesus as Lord and prayed to him, pleading with Him to return.

Based on the research of Early Christianity scholars, Peter May2 has concluded that Apostle Paul’s credal statement in the epistle to Corinthians (1 Corinthians 15:3-5) regarding the death, burial, resurrection, and the appearing of Jesus was passed on to Paul by AD

1

https://www.bethinking.org/jesus/messiah-jesusthe-evidence-of-history. Also, Paul Barnett, “The Birth of Christianity: The First Twenty Years”, Eerdmans, 2005.

2 https://www.bethinking.org/did-jesus-rise-from-the-

dead/the-resurrection-of-jesus-and-the-witness-ofpaul)

353, i.e., within five years of Christ’s death and possibly within only two or three years. Scholars have also concluded that the belief in Jesus as crucified Messiah and risen Lord was central to the united apostolic proclamation of the disciples. Following the credal formula, Paul also lists other resurrection appearances, including Peter, James, and himself (1 Corinthians 15:6-8). Scholars believe that Paul’s specific references to Peter, James, and himself as witnesses to the risen Christ stem from the fact they met in Jerusalem to discuss faith-related matters, staying together for fifteen days, three years after Paul’s Damascus road experience (Galatians 1:1819). The purpose of Paul’s visit to Jerusalem was to clarify the content of the Gospel they were preaching, since the Galatians had been embracing “a different gospel” because some had been “distorting the gospel” (Galatians 1:6-7). During his Jerusalem visit, Paul probably got to know the authoritative oral creed, with its list of witnesses from Peter and James, if he had not already learned it from Christians in Damascus. Therefore, Paul’s reference in 1 Corinthians 15 to the risen Christ appearing to both Peter and James must be based on Paul’s face-toface discussions with Peter and Paul.

Blood of Christ: As Apostle Peter wrote in his epistle to the first century persecuted Christians in the Roman empire, we have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ shed on the cross (1 Peter 1:18-19). When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eden, the LORD made garments of skin to clothe them (Genesis 3:21). Through this, God demonstrated that the death of an animal and the shedding of its blood was the cost of atoning for sin. Further, the LORD taught the children of Israel that the life of the flesh is in the blood, and instructed them to offer blood on the altar as atonement for sins (Leviticus 17:11).

The Old Testament sacrificial system pointed to the final sacrifice, the Lamb of God, Jesus the Christ, who shed his blood on the cross for the forgiveness of sins, past, present, and future, once for all. Jesus communicated this clearly to His disciples at the Last Supper, which forms the foundation for the celebration of the Lord’s Supper in the Church (Mark 14:22-25, Luke 22:18-20, 1 Corinthians 11:23-25).

As elaborated by Charles Stanley4, there are four aspects related to the blood of Christ in God’s salvation plan: (i) Redemption, the act of purchasing back. We were redeemed with the precious blood of Jesus Christ, the unblemished, spotless Lamb of God 3 C.H. Dodd, “The Founder of Christianity”, Fontana,

1971.

4 https://www.intouch.org/watch/the-message-of-theblood-of-jesus

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(John 1: 29b, 1 Peter 1:18-19). We were sold into bondage to sin because of the fall of Adam and Eve, but bought back by Christ with His blood; (ii) Reconciliation, the act of bringing back together alienated people. God the Father has reconciled us through Christ’s death on the cross, presenting us before Him holy, blameless, beyond reproach (Colossians 1:22). While Sin separates us from God, when we trust in Jesus Christ as our Savior, we are reconciled with God the Father; (iii) Justification, the act of declaring one no longer guilty. Justification is accomplished by God through the blood of Christ, applied to those who trust in Him. As Apostle Paul wrote in the epistle to Romans, Christ died for us while we were still sinners, and therefore justified us

by His blood (Romans 5:8-9).; and (iv) Sanctification, the act of setting one apart for God. While we are sanctified when we trust in Christ for salvation, the sanctification process is lifelong, as we are transformed into the likeness of Jesus. As the writer of Hebrews says, Jesus suffered for us and made us holy through His own blood (Hebrews 13:12).

Likewise, John notes in his epistle that the blood of Jesus purifies us from all sin (1 John 1:7b). John also emphasizes the continuing process of cleansing that accompanies sanctification, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

Proclaiming the Good News: Proclaiming the Good News was at the heart of Jesus’s public ministry. In John’s Gospel for instance, the turning of water-intowine miracle at the wedding in Cana of Galilee is immediately followed by Jesus’s extensive discussion with Nicodemus—a ruler of the Jews (John 3:1) and the teacher of Israel (John 3:10)—on being born-again (John 3:3-21). The next chapter (John 4: 4-43) describes Jesus traveling through Samaria, meeting the woman at the well at Sychar who became a believer, leading to many Samaritans—a group of people despised by Jews—placing their trust in Jesus as the Christ (John 4: 39-42). It is also noteworthy that it was to the Samaritan woman that Jesus proclaimed himself as the Christ for the very first time, according to John’s Gospel (John 4: 25-26).

Based on Jesus’ discussion with Nicodemus (John 3) and His outreach to the Samaritans (John 4), the Gospel according to John enunciates well the

inclusive, encompassing nature of the “good news”, with Jesus as the savior for All humanity.

At the end of His earthly ministry, Jesus gave the Great Commission mandate to His disciples and future Christian believers, to make disciples and share the Good News (Matthew 28: 16-20, Mark 16:14–18, Luke 24:44–49, Acts 1:4–8, John 20:19– 23).

As discussed earlier, Jesus Himself demonstrated the universal nature of the Gospel message with his outreach to the Samaritans early in His ministry. In response to the Great Commission clarion call, Jesus disciples travelled to all parts of the world to proclaim the Gospel and make disciples.

Apostle Thomas, for instance, came to the Malabar Coast of India in AD 52, according to Church tradition, and established a Christian community— called Syrian Christians/St. Thomas Christians—that has flourished in the Indian state of Kerala for nearly 2000 years. Jesus also linked the preaching of the Gospel to His Second coming during the Olivet discourse, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14).

It was Apostle Paul, more than the twelve disciples, that God used to proclaim the Gospel and establish churches that laid the foundation for Christianity in the Roman Empire during the post-Jesus period.

Apostle Paul also authored thirteen epistles in the New Testament—with some epistles preceding the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John—that establish important linkages between the OT and NT books of the Bible. The transformation from Saul of Tarsus—a zealous persecutor of Christians—to Apostle Paul—a passionate follower of Christ—has been foundational and compelling (Acts 9: 1-22).

Having experienced first-hand the power of the Gospel to transform his own life, Apostle Paul wanted others as well to be rescued from slavery to sin and experience God’s grace.

Living Gospel: The Living Gospel is the Gospel that is living and real, with the power to transform lives, applicable and true, more broadly to the entire Word of God, the Bible. As the writer of Hebrews states, “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). Further, the Word of God endures forever, as recorded by Prophet Isaiah, the Word of God endures forever (Isaiah 40:7-8). Prophet Isaiah also paints a beautiful picture of the Word of God, in terms of its power to accomplish God’s purposes in the lives of His people, “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so

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is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:10-11).

The Word of God is a mirror as well, as elucidated by Apostle James, who exhorts us to be doers of the Word, rather than be more hearers (James 1:22-25).

In his epistle to the Colossians, Apostle Paul instructs believers to be filled with the Word of God, “Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts” (Colossians 3:16).

Communing with God regularly, through the Bible study and Prayer, are regarded as the fundamental prerequisites for a victorious Christian life. Many biblical teachers refer to the Word of God as the Handbook for Life. Among the many approaches for biblical Study; the biblical teacher, David Jeremiah, has provided some useful principles5, that has also been deployed in the Jeremiah Study Bible (2004).

The three suggested principles are: (i) Observation, What the Bible says—In this section, the Study focuses on understanding what the Bible says in its original context. The purpose is to comprehend what the authors were communicating to their audiences in their settings; (ii) Interpretation, What the Bible means—In this section, the Study focuses on interpreting the Bible. Since Bible is a self-interpreting book, one passage is interpreted by other relevant passages and each verse is understood in its context; (iii) Application, What the Bible means for us—In this section, the Study focuses on application, i.e., what the Bible means for us personally. As noted earlier from Apostle James, the Word of God is a mirror (James 1:22), reflecting our inner thoughts, shining a light into the labyrinths of our lives. Therefore, a regular and systematic study of the Word of God, under the auspices of the Holy Spirit, can help us learn what the Bible says, what it means, and what it means for us. In other words, biblical Study has the potential and power to change our lives as Christians, and make us more like Jesus in our daily walk with Him. The Book of Psalms provides rich, sweet meditations on the Word of God. In Psalm 19 for instance, in verse seven through fourteen, King David renders a comprehensive testimony of the Word of God. That the Word of God is: perfect (v.7a); trustworthy (v.7b); right (v.8a); radiant (v.8b); firm and righteous (v.9b); more precious than gold (v.10a); sweeter than honey (v.10b); a warning mechanism (v.11a); a rewarder (v.11b); a gauge for discerning errors and hidden 5 https://davidjeremiah.blog/how-to-study-the-bible/

faults (v.12); and a guard against willful sins and great transgressions (v.13). The Psalm ends with David’s great petition, “May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer” (Psalm 19:14).

Psalm 119 offers the most extensive meditation on the Word of God, being the longest Psalm, and the longest chapter in the Bible. Psalm 119 is made up of 176 verses, divided into 22 stanzas, one for each of the 22 characters that make up the Hebrew alphabet (alphabetic acrostic). Among the important blessings outlined in Psalm 119 from meditating on and walking by the Word of God are: (i) acts as a bulwark against sin (v.11); (ii) provides comfort in suffering (v.50); (iii) teaches the goodness of God in all things (v.68); (iv) reveals the value of the Word as more precious than silver and gold (v.72); (v) demonstrates the faithfulness of God through generations (v.90); (vi) provides insight and understanding (v.99-100); (vii) serves as a guide, a lamp to the feet and a light to the path (v.105); (viii) creates understanding and discernment (v.130, v.133); (ix) giving delight in the midst of trouble and distress (v.143); (x) learning that the God has established His Word forever (v.152); and (xi) provides great peace (v.165).

Biblical scholars also point to the first Chapter of the Book of Joshua as providing a definitive treatise on the blessings of meditating on the Word of God. As Joshua takes over from Moses as the leader of the children of Israel during their journey to the Promised Land, the Lord God strengthens Joshua in the first nine verses of the first chapter of the Book of Joshua, culminating with the promise that the Lord God will be with him always, everywhere (Joshua 1:9). The blessings of the biblical mediation are outlined in verses seven and eight as, “you will be prosperous and successful” (Joshua 1:8b). In these two verses (Joshua 1:7-8), God commands us to obey the Word of God fully, and meditate on the Word continually. If we are obedient doers of the Word, the LORD promises that we will be successful and prosperous in what we do.

Conclusion: The Living Gospel is the good news that we can be saved from our sins by trusting in Jesus as our Lord and Savior. We commune with the Lord Almighty through Prayer and the Word of God, which has the power to renew our minds and transform our lives. For His glory. And our mercy. * Dr. Cherian Samuel is an economist, who after having had a distinguished career with the World Bank Group retired in February 2021.

He is a member of Immanuel Mar Thoma Church, Virginia (USA).

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The Gospel of the Kingdom of God V. Georgekutty, Karunagappally

"The Kingdom of God is not a matter of getting individuals to heaven, but of transforming the life on earth into the harmony of heaven."

(Walter Rauschenbusch) The word gospel means ‘good news’ or ‘glad tidings’.

What was the ‘good news’ Jesus had preached? Somof the answers this question might evoke would be, ‘the gospel of love’, ‘the gospel of grace’, ‘the gospel of redemption’, ‘the gospel of salvation’ etc.

Also, the gospel is often described as the ‘Gospel of Christ’ and the ‘Gospel of God’. These are all valid answers in the light of the ministry of Jesus. Nevertheless, the Gospel according to Mark, apparently, provides the most fitting answer. Mark says, “After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”” (Mark 1:14-15). So, what Jesus had preached was essentially the ‘Gospel of the Kingdom of God’.

We can find matching definitions in other gospels too.

For instance, Matthew says, “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people”, (Matthew 4:23). This is not to say that the other definitions of the gospel are invalid. For instance, Apostle Paul says, "Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain", (1 Corinthians 15:1-2). Paul here points to the gospel ‘by which you are saved’ or ‘the gospel of salvation’. Paul makes this explicit in his Epistle to the Ephesians: “And in Him you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, having heard and believed the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation” (Ephesians 1:13). Paul also describes the gospel as the ‘gospel of peace’ (Ephesians 6:15) and the ‘Gospel of the Grace of God’ (Romans 20:24).

Some scholars argue that Jesus and Paul were not preaching the same idea of Gospel.

While Jesus preached the gospel of the ‘Kingdom of God’, Paul preached the ‘Gospel of the Grace of God’. Paul writes to the Romans, “… I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God's truth, so that the promises made to the patriarchs might be confirmed” (Romans 15:8). The indication here is that Jesus had come as the Messiah of Israel, to fulfil the promises given to Jewish Patriarchs. Jesus himself admitted that his ministry was focused exclusively on Jews (Matthew 10:57). The two exceptions we find in the Gospels are those of Jesus acceding to the pleas of the Canaanite

woman (Matthew 15:21-28) and the Roman Centurion (Matthew 8:1-13; Luke 7:1-10).

Jesus seems to have agreed to provide succour in these cases entirely because of their great personal faith in him.

People mostly assume that the disciples ministered to Gentiles as well as Jews in the light of the so-called “Great Commission”, (“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19)).

But biblical evidence suggests that the disciples of Jesus continued to address only the Jews. They recognized the Jewish priority in the scheme of God’s kingdom proclaimed by the Old Testament prophets.

Their understanding was that the Gentiles were to be blessed through Israel since God had promised Abraham, "In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice" (Genesis 22:18).

All through his earthly ministry, Jesus had ministered under the Law of Moses (Matthew 5:17-18).

He constantly referred to the Mosaic Law as the foundation of His ministry. Gentiles had nothing to do with the Mosaic Law. Consequently, non-Jews had no share in the Kingdom of God. God gave His Law to the Jews, not Gentiles (Ephesians 2.11-13). Thus, orthodox Christianity in the beginning was an exclusive faith of the Jews, by the Jews and for the Jews.

But the situation changed substantially with the entry of Apostle Paul.

The commission of Paul was as “the apostle of the Gentiles” (Romans 11:13). He became the “Jewish agent” to bless the Gentiles. He typified a bornagain Israel. This was why he referred to himself as one “untimely born” (1 Corinthians 15.8).

Paul was born under the Mosaic Law. He was a Pharisee, who knew the Law well and enforced it rigorously and even ruthlessly (Philippians 3:5-6). But after his conversion, Paul taught that those who believed his gospel were not under the Law of Moses. He taught that believers were under the administration of grace rather than under the bondage of the Mosaic Law. His view was that the Law had no claim upon the believers due to their identification with Christ in his crucifixion and resurrection. Paul apparently believed that only by becoming dead to the Law could one live in Christ.

The reality of the situation seems to be that God had a program for Israel that He revealed to the prophets of the

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Hebrew Scripture. And God had a new program for the Church, the body of Christ, which He revealed to Apostle Paul. Jesus and the Twelve ministered to Jews under the Mosaic Law and preached the gospel of the kingdom of God to fulfil the Old Testament prophesies of Israel’s earthly kingdom with the Messiah as its Monarch (Romans 15:8). The Gospel of the Grace of God apparently argues that Christians are members of the body of Christ with Christ as its Head. The arguments over the gospels preached by Jesus and Paul notwithstanding, the ultimate goal of gospel remains the Kingdom of God. Since all the Gospels were authored by Jews, there is nothing surprising that the Gospels maintain a bias towards the Jews in suggesting that the Jews alone were the rightful heirs to the Kingdom of God to be established by the Messiah. This was a serious cause of dispute in the early days of Christianity. When the Jesus movement commenced in the first century, Gentiles had to convert to Judaism first, in order to be admitted into the Christian fold.

This involved the circumcision of male Gentile converts. Even after conversion, orthodox Jews kept themselves away from community meals in which Gentile converts were present.

Paul saw that the situation was turning out to be a roadblock to the conversion of Gentiles to Christianity.

While, Peter stuck to the orthodox view, Paul strongly opposed it. This led to the first major ideological clash in the early Church. This was resolved in the Jerusalem Council - a conference of the Christian Apostles, led by St. Peter the Apostle and St. James, “the Lord’s brother”, in Jerusalem in about 50 CE. This council decreed that Gentile converts to Christianity did not have to observe the Mosaic Law of the Jews (Acts 15:2–35).

While the terms, ‘Kingdom of God’ and ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ are used over a hundred times in the Bible, the predominant term is the Kingdom of God. Both terms apparently convey the same meaning. Now, what exactly is the ‘Kingdom of God’ that was apparently the ultimate object of the Gospel preached by Jesus?

The term ‘Kingdom of God’ holds within it grace, faith, redemption, justification, glorification etc. It is the grand plan of God for the human race. It is the ultimate goal that God had set for man. The Gospel of the Kingdom of God is the action plan to help humans realize this grandest purpose of life.

The idea of the ‘Kingdom of God’ involved both politics and religion. In the early part of the first century when Jesus was preaching in Galilee and Judea, it was impossible to separate these two dimensions of the Kingdom of God. The ‘Promised Land’ of Israel was under Roman occupation.

The province of Judea in which the Holy Jerusalem Temple was located was

administered by Roman ‘governor’ Pontius Pilate. The Jews were groaning under the heavy burden of taxes imposed by the Romans. The Jewish tax collectors, working for the Roman regime, were fleecing their compatriots. Even the Jewish priestly party, the Sadducees, were in cohorts with the alien exploiters.

The Jews who had been suffering under the Roman yoke were looking forward to a Messiah, who would redeem them from alien subjugation and establish a sovereign Jewish monarchy. So, the Jews assumed that the Gospel of the Kingdom of God preached by Jesus had fitted with the Messianic expectations of the Jews. They envisioned the ‘Kingdom of God’ as a political program to challenge the authority of the Roman hegemony over the Jewish nation.

The subjugation and victimization that the Israelites suffered under the Romans were incompatible with the tenets of the Kingdom of God. No wonder, the Jews had construed the concept of the Kingdom as a call to fight the political system that was subverting the ideals of the ‘Kingdom of God’. But when Jesus made it clear that the kingdom he preached was not of this world, the Jews were confused. And when they realized that the Kingdom of God was not necessarily an exclusive domain of the Israelites, the Jews were offended.

The idea of the ‘Kingdom of God’ also had a religious angle. The Gospels reveal that Jesus had tried to clarify the idea of the Kingdom of God through several parables.

Prominent among these was the ‘Parable of the Mustard Seed’. This parable, as appearing in the Gospel of Matthew, says, "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field; which indeed is smaller than all seeds. But when it is grown, it is greater than the herbs, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in its branches" (Matthew 13:31–32). This Parable also appears in Mark (4:30–32), and Luke (13:18–19).

The plant Jesus mentions in the parable is generally believed to be Black Mustard, although it grows only to a height of less than three meters. But once sown, it is extremely difficult to get rid of the plant since the fallen seeds germinate forthwith. Jews did not grow this plant in their gardens. So, Matthew says that the seed was sown in the field. (Incidentally, the version of the parable in Luke says that the seed was planted in the garden. Luke was probably writing for the audience outside the Levant.)

The nature of the Mustard plant could be interpreted in both positive and negative ways. One view could be that the kingdom of God spreads overcoming all efforts of the forces inimical to it. However, some commentators have identified a "subversive and scandalous" element to this parable, in that the fast-growing nature of the mustard plant makes it a "malignant weed" with "dangerous takeover properties".

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The straightforward meaning of this parable could be that the ‘Kingdom of Heaven’, (the ‘Kingdom of God’), has a small beginning like a mustard seed.

But it grows to become a giant tree. The same theme is shared in the Parable of the Leaven (yeast) that immediately follows this parable in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke.

Matthew says, “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough” (Matthew 13:33). Both parables convey the idea of a quick growth of huge proportions from small beginnings. However, the Parable of the Mustard Seed could be interpreted to give several other, much deeper and even controversial, meanings.

In his description of the tree in the parable, Jesus was probably echoing the words of King Nebuchadnezzar, in the Book of Daniel. The king tells Daniel, “These are the visions I saw while lying in bed: I looked, and there before me stood a tree in the middle of the land. Its height was enormous. The tree grew large and strong and its top touched the sky; it was visible to the ends of the earth. Its leaves were beautiful, its fruit abundant, and on it was food for all. Under it the wild animals found shelter, and the birds lived in its branches; from it every creature was fed.” (Daniel 4:10-12 NIV).

Some commentators suggest that the giant tree sprouting out of the tiny seed might represent the nation of Israel. The birds living in the branches of the tree might be non-Jews finding their refuge in mighty Israel. The birds might also be sinners and tax collectors with whom Jesus had associated during his ministry. Thus, it might be interpreted that the Kingdom of God, while representing the nation of Israel, would also be a refuge for the sinners within the Jewish faith and the gentiles who repose faith in the Kingdom.

The Christian faith is founded on the idea that sin of Adam and Eve had separated humans from God. The Bible says, “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear”, (Isaiah 59:2). Revenge, war, atrocities, famine, plague, ignorance and superstitions enslaved the world. The sinful world kept drifting away from the divine. Thus, the world that was once the kingdom of God, the paradise, became hell, the realm of the Devil. And Jesus, the Son of God came to bridge the huge chasm between God and man. His Gospel is the means by which man can re-establish the Kingdom of God. Now, where do we look for the Kingdom of God? Are we going to be transported to the Kingdom of God after we die?

It is, perhaps, silly to believe that people have to die to receive the Kingdom of God. It also seems unlikely that people are destined to live in ‘hell’ in this world and hope for the Kingdom of Heaven only in the afterlife. The Gospel preached by Jesus was primarily aimed at equipping the living with the tools to help them enter the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is the transformation of our lives in this world into the life of God and the transformation of our actions in this world into the actions of God. So, Paul writes, “For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or

drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17 NLT).

The call given by Jesus was, “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:15). He had invited everyone to search for the Kingdom of God and live according to its ways of life. Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it” (Mark 10:15). G K Chesterton (18741936), English writer says, “What we are to have inside is a childlike spirit … The most childlike thing about a child is his curiosity and his appetite and his power of wonder at the world…” (What I Saw in America). It is also the child’s innocence, pure faith and the purity of heart.

Receiving the Kingdom of God like a child means to be freed from the bondage of our old sinful nature through repentance. The things we once loved pass away – self-love, self-righteousness, self-promotion, and self-justification. The things we once loved, we now detest. We “put off the old man with his deeds” (Colossians 3:9), and put on the “new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:24). We start to see the world differently.

Our purposes, feelings, desires, and understandings change. We feel a new love for all and a new compassion for enemies. So, Paul writes, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). It is repentance that makes people become a new creation (‘born again’) as a guileless baby.

Jesus said, “Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21 KJV).

The Gospel of the Kingdom of God equips those who accept and follow its guidance to live in the Kingdom of God in this life in “…the peace of God, which passeth all understanding” (Philippians 4:7). And the spirit of the Kingdom of God grows and spreads quickly covering everyone around and eventually the whole world. The kingdom of God is the experience of unity with God. It is a spiritual realm of “…love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22).

Carl Frederick Buechner, American writer, novelist, poet, essayist, preacher, and theologian says, “If we only had eyes to see and ears to hear and wits to understand, we would know that the Kingdom of God in the sense of holiness, goodness, beauty is as close as breathing and is crying out to be born both within ourselves and within the world; we would know that the Kingdom of God is what we all of us hunger for above all other things even when we don't know its name or realize that it's what we're starving to death for.

The Kingdom of God is where our best dreams come from and our truest prayers… The Kingdom of God is where we belong. It is home, and whether we realize it or not, I think we are all of us homesick for it” (The Clown in the Belfry (1992).

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Let us Live the Gospel Revd Dr. M. J. Joseph, Kottayam The April issue of the FOCUS is on the theme, “Be the Gospel of Christ”. This is indeed the call of the Spirit in each age for the sake of the Kingdom of God in our midst. The vertical and the horizontal dimension of Christian faith is summed up in this value statement. The Sermon on the Mount which Jesus preached is an enactment of the Kingdom of God as we read in St. Matthew 5:16: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” In 2Cor. 2:15-16, St. Paul speaks of the vertical and horizontal dimensions of faith in a figurative way: “For we are the aroma (fragrance) of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing…” In Christian understanding of faith, theology and ethics are two sides of the same coin.

The Post– COVID-19 Pandemic Landscape of Faith (the New Normal) creates a thrust on us to live with more of the ethical dimensions of faith for the glory of God in the given situation. Walk the talk should be a reality in concrete human situations. The call to transform the living rooms into sanctuaries is one of the signs of the times.

The creation of Zoom platforms is a new technological gift of God for authentic communication across the globe.

This has brought to our mind that humans are not like the sands of the sea shore, but like branches on a tree. Yes, the physical /social distance does not keep the hearts away from the other person. Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. The search for the other irrespective of caste and creed is taking place around us as an expression of secular spirituality for which the gospel stands for. This is what we read in St. John 15:8: “By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples.” The disciplining of the nations should happen as a mission mandate (cf. St. Matt. 28:19). The Pauline affirmation in Eph.2:10 adds luster to the theme under investigation: The verse 10: “For we are the workmanship (Poiema) created in Christ Jesus for good works…” has been rendered into various English translations. The Greek word, poiema, could be translated as “handiwork”, “work of art” “or even “poems” etc., which simply means that “to live as the gospel of Christ” is a divine imperative laid upon us and that it is God himself who has made us what we are and given us new lives from Jesus Christ”. A discipleship of transformation is the resultant state in the mission mandate including the whole of creation. In the eco- book, The Green God of the Bible, Dr. Mathew Koshy gives us several tapestry of ecological values for a sustainable living on this planet earth.

In Rom.12: 1-2: we read “I appeal to you, therefore, … to present your bodies as a living sacrifice… Do not be

conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind…” as the ethical note to the theological affirmation of St. Paul in Romans 1-8. The Greek proposition, oun (therefore) is significant in the overall theological affirmation of God’s act of grace in Jesus Christ. Living in conformity with God’s will is to be realized on earth as a faith response and doing God’s will on earth makes one different. In Is.1:17, the Word of God is quite affirmative. “… Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow” and thereby manifest the meaning of courage as a Christina virtue. Dare to be like a Daniel is a phrase that would sum up the meaning of Christian witness. Let The oft-quoted words of Thomas A Kempis are worth recalling: “We are transformed by love and transformed in proposition to the purity of our love for God and for other people.”

1. Living in conformity to the world i) Uncritical acceptance of the immediate In 1 Thess. 5:21-22 St. Paul asks us to test everything; hold fast to what is good; abstain from every form of evil”.

In the Market culture, having is placed over being and humans are very often judged by their appearance whereas “the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Sam.16:7). We forget to do the will of another rather than of our own. We choose very often to have more rather than less.

How do we hold the flag of diversity and simplicity in life?

There are 7 deadly sins in the Bible. They are pride (being pleased and satisfied with oneself), anger (the feeling that makes people to quarrel or fight), envy (feeling of resentment at another’s better fortune), impurity (state of being impure), gluttony (habit of eating too much), slothfulness (laziness- Sloth-a American mammal which lives in the branches of trees and moves very slowly) and avarice (greed for money and possessions). In recent times, environmental sins such as air pollution, water pollution, sound pollution, light pollution etc. have been added to the list as they have social resonance. Someone has listed the deadly sins of today such as false formality, fibbing, procrastination, plagiarizing, keeping with the Joneses, double standards, giving secretly and broadcasting publically!

Christian maturity should be understood as the connectivity in God’s one world through a vision rooted in the law of love. The task before us is to entertain a vision beyond the barriers of caste, creed and religion in a borderless world of today. We should also list the following values which bind people as members of God’s larger family on earth. They are: i) A deep caring for all forms of life. ii) A responsible attitude to the planet earth. iii) Adherence to values such as non-violence,

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compassion, justice, love, humility, generosity, sharing, integrity, honesty and contentment. These are the visible expressions of the fruits of the Spirit. ii)

Moving with the currents of the times

All the three temptations of Jesus are indeed warnings for us to lead a life worthy of praise (Lk.4:1-13; Matt.4:1-11) These are: (i)Stones to become loaves of bread (ii)jumping from the pinnacle of the temple and (iii) falling down and worshiping the devil. The whole body is involved in the sinning against God’s will. The message is this: Do not try to match your life with all the fashions of this world, and conformity to the world is the sign of spiritual decay. Jesus has warned us to resist them.

2. Living with the renewal of mind The Greek verb: anakaineo means “having newness in character and nature”. To get trained in godliness-(I Tim.4:7b-8) is the divine calling of a Christian. Boldness in Christian life implies stripping off the old self and transcending the boundaries created by geography, gender, race, caste etc. This happens through the enlargement of love, enrichment of love and employment of love. In offering life as a sacrifice to God, we fulfill mission in Christ’s way. The value system of the followers of Jesus varies in accordance with their perception of Jesus. Those who followed him for the sake of miracles to get their needs satisfied (St. John 6:2, 26) and others who expected of him to be their political leader to achieve political goals (Lk.19:37-38) have had a low profile of spiritual values in their discipleship. A life pleasing to God will be a commitment to seek in doing good to one another and to all. It has been well stated in the following way in the daily pursuits of life: In home-kindness; in business-honesty and integrity; in society-accountability; in work- thoroughness and excellence; in play-fairness and co-operation; in life-thankfulness and gratitude. This is well stated in the message of John the Baptist in Lk.3:8: “Bearing fruits worthy of repentance.” The words of Pope Francis are worth recalling when we sum up the divine challenge. To quote: “Rivers do not drink their own water; trees do not eat their own fruit; the Sun does not shine on itself and flowers do not spread their fragrance for themselves.” Living for others is the rule of Nature. We are born to help each other. No matter how difficult it is…Life is good when you are happy; but much better when others are happy because of you. One’s care for others is the visible manifestation of his/her spirituality at work as we read in St. Matt. 25:40. The Bible characters give us the portraits of their character to lead a life worthy of their calling. Someone has rightly qualified and given us a brief sketch of them to imitate in the pilgrimage of our life. Let me narrate them: Pray like Nehemiah, obey like Daniel, lead like Moses, serve like Thomas, believe

like Mary, fight like David, build like Noah, love like Jesus, and above all follow the mission strategy of Paul: “All things to all people” (1Cor. 9:22). In Christian life style, we need to “strive always to do what is good for each other and for everyone else”(1 Thess.5:15).

Conclusion: Living by the gospel in our own life is a call from above to take up the cross daily. A true disciple is asked to remember and repeat the prayer of Jabez recorded in 1 Chron. 4:10: “And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying and God granted him what he requested” (NKJV).

“OH, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that your hand would be with me, and that you would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!”

God opens His arms wide open to extend love to everyone in a borderless world. May we do the same in His power for His glory.

Good From Far, Far from Good Dr. Rajiv G. Patel, Flower Mound, Texas Living in the age of an invisible threat, Going away with just one breath.

Affected by an entity which doesn’t discriminate, No guns, no swords can eliminate Coming together, by staying apart Are we sheltering in and doing our part?

Time to keep the faith, Stronger soon, be patient and wait.

Listen to nature’s reboot.

Resistance is futile, your efforts moot.

Appreciate the unsung heroes, Look around, find them in multiples of zeroes.

Wake up, spare time to smell the roses; Life offers plenty in small doses.

Live life like there’s no tomorrow; Have no regrets or sorrow.

Hope is not just an illusion, Getting there without any delusion.

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From Glory to Glory Mrs. Jeny Joy, Sinai Mar Thoma Church, North London “But

we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18, NKJV).

If you go to any good bookstore, you will find a section called “self-improvement”. Here, you’ll find all kinds of books describing various principles and methods you can follow to improve yourself. In all these books, the focus is on you using your will power and self-discipline to apply the principles to improve yourself.

But God does not want you focusing on yourself. That’s self-occupation, which can only take you so far, with results that last only as long as your willpower lasts. God has a higher way. He wants you to be Christ-occupied.

Look at what happened to a fisherman called Peter, who was one of Jesus’ disciples, in Mathew 14:22-33. The greatest miracle that Peter experienced happened one night when he stepped out of his boat in the middle of the storm at Jesus’ word. That night, the winds were boisterous, but as long as Peter kept his eyes on Jesus, he did the impossible- he walked on water! When you keep your focus on Jesus, you are transformed into His image from glory to glory. You are transformed by beholding, not by working. When you see that Jesus is above the storms of your life, you will effortlessly rise above those storms. No amount of self-effort could have helped Peter walk on water. Now, observe what happened the moment Peter turned his eyes away from Jesus, and started to look at the wind and the waves around him. In that instance, Peter became natural and he began to sink. Now, let’s imagine that there was no storm, no howling winds, and no crashing waves that night. Let’s imagine that it was a perfectly calm evening and the Sea of Galilee was as still as a mirror without a single ripple on its surface. Could Peter have walked on water then? Of course not! Walking on water is not something anyone can do whether or not the water is calm. The wind and waves made no difference to Peter’s ability to walk on the water. The best thing Peter could have done was to keep his eyes on Jesus and not look at the distractions. In the same way, instead of looking at how insurmountable your circumstances and challenges are, turn away from them and keep your eyes on Jesus. It is the most powerful thing you can do, and Jesus will cause you to reign over every storm in your life!

Many think they must do more to be holy, accepted and loved by God. The truth is, when you behold Jesus more

and see His agape love for you, His forgiveness, His abundant grace and His gift of righteousness purchased for you with His own blood, you will be transformed supernaturally. Holiness is a by-product of seeing Jesus in His grace.

When you see Jesus and receive His love and grace every day, your heart is transformed inwardly. This is real change that is sustained by a heart touched by His grace and by an emancipated conscience that is forever freed from guilt. This is when that fear begins to dissolve in His perfect love, and that condemnation arising from past mistakes is cleansed by His precious blood. This is when that addiction begins to drop from your life.

Good things happen to you when you look to Jesus and behold His glory. The woman who had a bleeding condition for 12 years received her healing when she looked to Jesus. Even blind Bartimaeus received his sight when he ‘looked’ to Jesus by crying out to Him.

What does it mean to “behold Jesus” today?

My friend, the way you behold Jesus’ glory today is to see Him in the scriptures. He is there in the stories, in the prophecies, in the parables, in the laws, in the rituals and even in the temple design. When you find Him, the scriptures come alive. When you see Him, you see His glory. When you read the Bible, see His beauty, His majesty, His compassion and His grace. The living Word, Jesus, is unveiled in the written word, the Bible. As you keep beholding and meditating on His glory, the Holy spirit inside you goes to work in you. He will transform you into the very same image of Christ. You will be changed from glory to glory, experiencing true and lasting inward transformation!

Mrs. Jeny Joy is bron and borught up in Bahrain. She has a Bachelor’s degree in physiotherapy.

She and her family now live in London; she is a member of the Sinai MTC church, where she is the head teacher of the Sunday school and the South Zone Sunday school Coordinator. She is very active in all aspects of the parish life, including preaching.

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Reflections for a Transformed Self and Society Ms. Divya Athyal Mathew, Boston When asked to reflect on her journey through the tumultuous year of 2020, Natalie Manuel Lee, host of “Now with Natalie” on the Hillsong Channel says with a heavy breath, “This has been the most challenging year of my life. I don’t understand how people have survived 2020 without faith, because I’m barely surviving with faith.” Many people across the globe empathize with this sentiment, as for almost all of 2020, the world has been filled with hardship, pain, suffering, loneliness and overwhelming discomfort. Many of us have experienced a season of confronting; confronting our beliefs that aren’t comfortable relating to racial justice and discrimination. One of the most painful moments of 2020 was witnessing the senseless murders of Breonna Taylor, Ahmad Arbury and George Floyd, which captured our nation’s attention, specifically putting a lens on how society and the justice system treats Black Americans. It is more apparent than ever that our country is wrestling with our nation’s troubling and painful history, and the social and economic inequities heavily ingrained in our society.

Unfortunately, racial statistic reports exemplify that many people in the United States live in very different worlds. In 2018, the average Black worker earned just 62% of what the average white worker made (Gal).

Minority women die three times more often giving birth than their white counterparts. Minority poverty rates more than double white poverty rates. People of color consist of a slim minority, however they disproportionately account for 60% of those imprisoned. The war on drugs has taken a heavy toll in communities of color and they are more likely to receive higher offenses (Kerby). Tragically, people of color are incarcerated, policed and reprimanded at a significantly higher rate than their white counterparts.

What are we to do with all this despair and disappointment? What is the Christian response to discrimination and injustice? Is there reason to be hopeful in the midst of all the injustices in our society today?

The Gospel of Luke is a fitting place to look for answers because out of all the four Gospel writers, Luke was the only Gentile. Because of this, many scholars speculate that Luke was addressing a wider audience to help them understand that Jesus is the Savior for all humanity. Throughout Luke’s Gospel, he masterfully demonstrates how Jesus provides hope and comfort to those who are persecuted and who are marginalized.

Within the pain of one’s current condition, the Book of Luke conveys that they can experience the

everlasting joy of Christ, as evidenced in numerous parables in the Gospel of Luke. Luke’s Sermon on the Plain is parallel to Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount, suggesting that the topic of inequity, disparity and systemic oppression was a topic preached numerous times during Jesus’ ministry. Interestingly, he includes women in the narrative of Jesus’ ministry in a way the other Gospel writer fail to do.

Luke 6:20-26 says, ‘And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. “Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets. “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. “Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry. “Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.

“Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.”

Jesus discusses two contrasting populations. In the former section of the text, He speaks of the poor, hungry, grieving, hated, and marginalized people who are on the lower end of society. Their unfortunate condition is not based on their wickedness or indulgence; however, it is derived from the systems and structures of their society that disproportionately benefit one group over the other. However, in Jesus’ Kingdom, they will be embraced with open arms and can experience overwhelming joy, happiness, and contentment. Jesus is not saying all marginalized communities are going to inherit the Kingdom because of their situation, however He is saying there is a grace for those who are poor and desire following and living for Jesus (Grace Chapel).

In the latter portion of the text, He speaks of the second group of people- the rich, the well fed, proud, people who are well educated, and those who experience the abundance of this world. Although the text does not explicitly state this, we can infer that some of these people may be enjoying these blessings at the expense of other people. In contrast to the poor, these are the callous rich. In our world today, many of us are driven by education, wealth, prestige and affection of others.

Although one should pursue this in moderation, we must reflect on if we are allowing Christ to be the giver

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of wisdom and lead us, so we can pursue this out of joy and exist for Christ. (Grace Chapel) Jesus is addressing people in power, more specifically, people who experience privilege. People who experience material abundance, approval from society, leisure and safety. Evidently, He is talking about people a lot like many of us. We forget at many times that we have more in common with the callus rich, than the pious poor. Here, Jesus is reminding and warning us that although the system may be benefiting you, it may not be working well for everyone. We are all entrusted to take action and be mindful of the inequities surrounding us, because Jesus actively championed for the marginalized and lowly. Furthermore, Christ is interested in the holistic rejuvenation that He offers, spiritually and materially, thereby transforming us to His likeness.

As Christians, it is imperative for us to have a biblical understanding of sin, thereby highlighting the origin of systemic racism and discrimination. By being born of Adam’s line, we entered this life as sinners. When we sin, we often engage in corporate sin. Structural sin affirms the corporate reality of human sin and the truth that sin invades every aspect of human life and society (Mohler). Sin infiltrates every system set in place because of our sinful human condition. Therefore, our policies, laws, institutions, systems are tainted and corrupted by sin. The American philosopher, Dallas Willard, says: “We live from our heart. The part of us that drives and organizes our life is not the physical.

This remains true even if we deny it. You have a spirit within you and it has been formed. It has taken on a specific character. I have a spirit and it has been formed. This is true of everyone. The human spirit is an inescapable, fundamental aspect of every human being; and it takes on whichever character it has from experiences and the choices that we have lived through or made in our past” (Willard). Although the Bible discusses the depth of our depravity, there is also reason for hope and redemption. The Good News of the Gospel proclaims that God has won over evil and has accomplished the salvation of sinners.

Honest conversations surrounding racial inequities are long overdue, however recently, people have vehemently spoken out on social media and communities have taken to streets to protest. Many of us get defensive and uncomfortable when we confront our own beliefs, however it is important for us to step into our discomfort to deconstruct our implicit biases, notions about race, and educate ourselves on the steps we can take to advocate against racial injustice.

Systemic change is imperative for cultivating a more equitable world for all and prayerfully participating in educated conversations is the first step towards making a meaningful impact. Conversations produce a more

loving, intentional and Christ-honoring place of healing within the community of believers. Let us place our hope in Christ to do far more than what we can see and imagine.

We are called to be proactive and do everything in our power to expunge sin from the institutions of our society. As Christians, we recognize the justice God demands from us and recognize that the Gospel of Christ can produce discernment and a renewed heart.

Our Christian commitment to Christ calls us to speak out on the justices surrounding us. Racial disparities have deprived people of color in every sector of society, calling for radical reform in our criminal justice system.

At this juncture, I am reminded of the great minister and civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr., who states, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

Eliminating socioeconomic and racial inequities in our current system must be at the core of a renewed, recalibrated, and Christ-like society. Willard poignantly captures our pursuit in this world by saying, “The most important thing in your life is not what you do; it’s who you become. That’s what you will take into eternity” (Willard).

Sources: 1. Gal, Shayanne, et al. “26 Simple Charts to Show Friends and Family Who Aren't Convinced Racism Is Still a Problem in America.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 8 July 2020, web.archive.org/web/20210223183924/www.businessinsider. com/us-systemic-racism-in-charts-graphs-data-2020-6.

2. Kerby, Sophia. “The Top 10 Most Startling Facts About People of Color and Criminal Justice in the United States.”

Center for American Progress, 29 May 2015, 3.www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/news/2012/03/13/1 1351/the-top-10-most-startling-facts-about-people-of-colorand-criminal-justice-in-the-united-states/.

4. Grace Chapel. “Hope in the Face of Injustice: an Honest, Open Conversation.” YouTube, commentary by Bryan Wilkerson and Jua Robinson, 24 Jan 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgS4NLE-cWQ 5. Mohler, R. Albert, et al. “Systemic Racism, God's Grace, and the Human Heart: What the Bible Teaches About Structural Sin.” Public Discourse, 15 July 2020, www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2020/06/65536/.

6. Willard, Dallas. Renovation of the Heart: Putting on the Character of Christ. Colorado Springs, Colo: NavPress, 2002.

Print.

Editor’s Note: Divya Athyal Mathew is a member of Carmel Mar Thoma Church in Boston. She has a degree in Public Health and Political Science from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

She will be attending Law School in the Fall of 2021.

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Living for the Gospel and not Living on the Gospel Lal Varghese, Esq., Dallas The entire Bible centers on a single, surprisingly simple theme: God loves you so much that He made a way to be forgiven for every sin, so you can spend eternity with Him. That’s the essence of the gospel, and the central subject of the Scriptures.

The written Word of God is intended to help us understand this “good news.” By studying the Bible, we learn that each person needs to be saved (Romans 3:23), each person can be saved (Romans 1:16), and God wants each person to be saved (2 Peter 3:9).

What separates us from God is sin. No matter how good we think we are every person is guilty of sin (1 John 1:10). Since God is absolutely perfect, no one deserves to spend eternity in heaven. Instead, we deserve to be separated from Him forever (Romans 5:16). No amount of effort, no good deeds, no money, no talent, no achievements are enough to take away this guilt (Isaiah 64:6). Fortunately, God doesn’t want us to be separated from Him, so He made a way to fix what’s broken (John 3:1617).

That one and only way is through faith in Jesus Christ (John 14:6). God Himself came to earth, as a human, living a perfect and sinless life (Hebrews 4:15). He willingly died as a sacrifice to pay the debt for our sins (2 Corinthians 5:21). According to the Scriptures, anyone can be “saved”—forgiven by God and guaranteed heaven—through faith in Jesus Christ (Romans 10:13). This isn’t a call for blind, ignorant belief (Acts 17:11; 1 John 4:1). It’s an invitation from the Holy Spirit to submission and trust (James 4:7). It’s a choice to let go of everything else in order to rely entirely on God. The only way a person can find salvation is by accepting Jesus Christ as their savior.

The term “living the gospel” has become a popular one in the past few years, being used by people such as Tim Keller, J.D. Greear, David Platt, and many others. Many variations on the term exist: “living out the gospel,” “living in light of the gospel,” “being the gospel,” and so on. While most people probably hear the terms and skip right past them without a second thought, there are others who have repeatedly and loudly declared opposition to all such uses of these terms. (Is “Living the Gospel” an Acceptable Term? How does Scripture itself use the word “Gospel”, Joel S. | Thursday, October 11, 2012) “The gospel is the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ; it is the declaration of how God has made it possible for men to obtain the forgiveness of their sins and the assurance of eternal life. The gospel is also a new and higher standard of conduct for Christians that we are commanded to live up to.” (Christian Citizenship: Living Out the Gospel, Robert L. (Bob) Deffinbaugh, formerly Pastor at Community Bible Chapel, Richardson, Texas) First Corinthians 9:1–18 describes Paul's case for why he, as an Apostle of Jesus Christ, has the right to ask for financial support from the people he serves, including the Corinthian Christians.

Though he could demand, Paul refuses to insist on his right. He doesn't want anything to get in the way of someone hearing the gospel. He understands that he must preach the gospel and he has no choice. But Paul wants to be able to boast about offering the gospel free of charge even though he has the right to ask for

financial support. His point is for believers to pursue godliness, and the good of others, with that kind of commitment. This is called a gospel-centered life for faithful believers, living the gospel and not living on the gospel.

What is living on the gospel and instead living for the gospel?

Prosperity theologians preach and practice that those who preach the gospel have the right to be paid from the tithes and offerings. They amaze millions of dollars at the expense of the faithful believers. This is happening in many denominations including in India also. The leaders amaze wealth and spend for luxurious items like cars, bungalow and luxurious living styles, but they forget the less fortunate on the street in front of his mansion. Gospel is for emptying ourselves and not for amazing what we lack. Gospel is to give and not to take. Gospel is to live and not to live on.

Living for the gospel differentiates a faithful believer from that of one living on the gospel. Gospel is the Word of God and it should be practiced and preached. The faithful should tread the less traveled roads and visit less frequented Samaritan wells with the gospel. The one who lives for the gospel, like Paul willingly give up their ''rights'' for the good of those who are weak in their faith. But the one who lives on the gospel, prospers from it at the expense of the faithful believers and at the same have a blind eye to the needy and the poor at his door.

The process of bringing people into the family of God is the work of all three persons of the Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Luke 6:17–49 echoes the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5–7), but it’s actually a separate discourse Jesus gave “on a level place” (Luke 6:17). Luke 6:46–49 mirrors Matthew 7:21–27, and—similar to that passage—it contains a dire warning: “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46). The Matthew passage is even stronger: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 7:21). Christ’s message is clear: If we profess to love Him, we’ll listen to and follow His commands. A quick overview of His commands is found in Luke 6:27–36: love those who hate you; be merciful; do not judge; forgive lavishly; give generously. The one who does these things is building a foundation on rock (v. 48).

Pope Francis recently said while talking about the spiritual sickness affected the American society: “We believe that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a "Gospel of life." It invites all persons and societies to a new life lived abundantly in respect for human dignity. We believe that this Gospel is not only a complement to American political principles, but also the cure for the spiritual sickness now infecting our society. As Scripture says, no house can stand divided against itself (Lk 11:17).

We cannot simultaneously commit ourselves to human rights and progress while eliminating or marginalizing the weakest among us. Nor can we practice the Gospel of life only as a private piety.

“American Catholics must live it vigorously and publicly, as a matter of national leadership and witness, or we will not live it at all” (Pope John Paul II, Ad Limina Remarks to the Bishops of

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Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas (June 27, 1998); 28 Origins, p.

282 (October 1, 1998).

Scripture calls us to "be doers of the word and not hearers only . . . [for] faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead" (Jas 1:22, 2:17). Jesus Himself directs us to "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations . . . teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you . . ." (Mt 28:19-20). Life in Christ is a life of active witness. It demands moral leadership.

Each and every person baptized in the truth of the Christina faith is a member of the "people of life" sent by God to evangelize the world.

Let us be careful shepherds watching over Christ's flock. Let us preach the whole of God's plan to the powerful and the humble, to rich and to poor, to men of every rank and age, as far as God gives us the strength, in season and out of season, as St. Gregory writes in his book of Pastoral Instruction (Boniface, Ep. 78: MGH, Epistolae, 3, 352, 354; from Liturgy of the Hours According to the Roman Rite, New York: Catholic Book Publishing Co. 1975).

Let me quote Dr. Zac Varghese, London, from his exposition of theme for April 2021 issue: “When St. Paul met the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, he became a different man ‘in Christ’; he was transformed and became the Gospel of Christ. He preached the Gospel and identified with the Gospel; he said to Athenians. “For in him we live, move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). He wrote to the Corinthians: “For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing” (2Cor 2:15). The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the good news to heal this fractured world and we need to become the Gospel of Christ to overcome the uncertainties surrounding us, particularly in the post-COVID-19 landscape.

The WCC in their exploration of the role of the laity in the Church in 1998 stated, we Christian people, wherever we are, are a letter from Christ to the world.”

So, let us be different people by living for the gospel and not living on the gospel like Paul who transformed himself as a different man ‘in Christ’. For in him we live, move and have our being (Act 17:28). Yes, we are a letter from Christ to the world and the letter should be read by others and not to be thrown in the trash. This is what means living the gospel and not living for the gospel. Let us be the aroma of Christ and enable us to heal the fractured world and to overcome the uncertainties surrounding the world in a post COVID-19 landscape. May the Lord, enable each one of us to live for the gospel and not live on the gospel by being the letters of transmission of the good news to the whole world.

As people made in God’s image and called to follow His example (Genesis 1:27; Ephesians 5:1–2), this is profound.

Achievement is good, titles have their place, but what really matters is how compassionate, gracious, and loving we’re becoming. This idea of being compassionate, gracious and loving is being repeated again by Jesus Christ as mentioned in the gospels. “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ (Mathew 25: 35-40) God wants our lives to overflow with mercy, love, and compassion — the marks of His kingdom. As followers of Jesus, we have a choice: respond to unsettling realities in fear and withdraw, or follow Him in responding to the greatest needs of our day with love and hope. We know salvation doesn’t depend on works, but we also know that caring for those in need is evidence of a faith that changes lives. We should be doers of what God has instructed us. Pope Francis said: “Gospel calls us to feed all the hungry, clothe all the naked and visit all the sick and oppressed. In fact, doing that is living the Gospel.

In a materialistic world, the chances of being neglecting the above words of Lord is very frequent in our lives. Simple, apostolic mission to do justice to others does not require large sanctuaries or halls and lengthy pulpit preaching. It is much simpler than that just open your heart to do justice to others who are being ignored by the world around them. It means finding the living thread from one person to another, from house to house, from one town to the next. It means discovering the footsteps of Jesus Christ to see which way He went, so that we can go to the very place where He has been. Jesus didn’t make the Pharisees or other people in authority in position as His disciples, but He went and gathered those who were in the lowest strata of the society to be with Him and to do His justice in the world. He entrusted the twelve disciples to continue to spread the Good News, the Gospel, so that social justice will be served to those marginalized people.

Jesus told the people to sell everything and then follow Him. He never said, just set apart only a tithe of what they have. Our churches have become market places where you see sacraments, festivals, pulpit calls for tithe offerings; collection boxes are placed for pledge drive for building multimillion Dollar structures. They also offer privileges to the wealthy such as plaques with their names or beloved one’s names placed at the entrance of rooms or buildings. David Platt in his book, “Taking Back Your Faith from American Dream Radical” wrote: “We were settling for a Christianity that revolves around catering to ourselves when the central message of Christianity is actually about abandoning ourselves.” When we do not live for the gospel and living on the gospel, we are settling around catering ourselves, while the central message of Christianity is actually about abandoning ourselves.

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Christmas: Confession of Faith and Reverence of Life (John 1:1-14) Revd Shibu Kurian, Bangalore* Existence produces essences and the essences decide the quality of the existence. The Johannine community affirms the essence of their faith through the proclamation that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that by believing, one may have life in His name.

This faith proclamation, Jesus is the incarnate Word of God is emphasized in the prologue (St. John 1:1-18), is in the form of a poem. It is a faith creedal hymn, which is the foundation of the Johannine gospel and the community. This faith credal hymn challenges the cosmic pre-existence of the Word and Word’s relationship to the world.

becoming flesh is a decisive event in the human history.

This historical event changes God’s relationship to humanity and humanity’s relationship to God. Through the incarnation human beings can see, hear, and know God in ways never before possible. Becoming flesh means en-fleshment. Flesh in the Bible refers to the whole human personality in its frailty and vulnerability.

The Greek word egeneto means that a person or things changes its property and enter into a new creation, becomes something that was not before. The Greek aorist tense egeneto indicates that the becoming was a single decisive event in history. Hence history is important for a faith community. Engaging in the history is the need of the hour. The Hebrew word for Word is dabar, it is not a static word, but always active and dynamic. Incarnation, the light of the world, which is active, and dynamic, which is engaging in the history to remove its darkness. The incarnation challenges us to engage in the history with the incarnated One for annihilating the culture of death in and around us.

The pre-existent Word became human and challenged us for the reverence of life. This faith affirmation expelled the early Christian community from the Jewish Synagogue, because for a Jew God to become human is a negation of the Jewish faith. The community believed in Jesus the Christ in the midst of the Jewish and Roman persecution proclaimed and affirmed that Word in the creation is the Word in the incarnation. They confessed their faith that Jesus Christ is the God Himself.

3. Incarnated God is indwelling among us for the reverence of life. The word “dwelling” is a verb rich in the Hebrew Scripture. In Exodus 25:8, “and let them make a sanctuary that I may dwell in their midst.” It recalls God’s promise to dwell with God’s people. God choose to live with humanity in the midst of human weakness, confusion, and pain. His self-revelation is not outside human experience but belongs to human experience. The incarnation is the source of life and light for all people. The transcendent, metaphysical, and invisible became immanent, practical, and visible for His creation. His incarnation is for the reverence of human life. In the time of the birth of Jesus the Christ, the society was under a third- military dictatorship. It was a society where everyone was coerced. The sociopolitical-religious elite has the right to enjoy life. They churned the non-elites, especially the women and the children. As an agriculture society, the farmers had no right in their crops. The life of the common people was in miserable condition because of the brutal nature of the socio-political-religious authorities. The vast majority of the community lived between the fine line of hunger and assurance of subsistence. They were stratified, based on their economic and purity pollution mapping of the religious life. The incarnated One – Jesus the Christ- through His ministry challenged the aristocratic community both in political and religious circle. He gave His life for the reverence of the life of “others.”

1. The incarnated God is the God Himself. The eternal Word entered into the time bound world (Gal. 4:4). That means the Word is what God is and the Word does what God does. It affirms the oneness of the Word and the God. The infancy narrative is the story of God Himself. It provokes the wonder of creation, the gift of life, the power of the Word and celebrates the mystery of revelation that transcends covenantal limits of time and space. It means, He is the eschaton, the Alpha and the Omega.

Christmas is the message of the eschaton and through this celebration, the Church is looking into the eschatology, the coming of Christ. Therefore, Christianity is not an ideology, but it is a faith community which affirms Jesus Christ is “God Himself.”

He is the only One in this world to be born without sin.

One who is perfect and complete in the humanity. His incarnation challenges us for the reverence of life.

2. The incarnated God is the God of History.

Incarnation is a glorious historical event. The Word

The existence of the Johannine community produced good essence in their living spaces. They affirmed Jesus Christ is the God Himself, He is the history and

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He indwelled among us for the reverence of life. Graham Kendrick, a prolific English Christian singer, songwriter, living in Tunbridge Wells, England wrote a poem with title “Meekness and Majesty.” In his poem, he wrote “Meekness and majesty manhood and deity, in perfect harmony the Man who is God. Lord of eternity dwells in humanity. Kneels in humility and washes our feet. O what a mystery meekness and majesty. Bow down and worship for this is your God. This is your God . . .” He is explaining the incarnation, His humility, and the meekness and majesty of our God. His incarnation is for the redemption of life from the death. Today we lack Christian discipline and Christian ethics. We are celebrating Christmas without remembering the Christ event, the death, resurrection, ascension and His coming. Christmas is not a mere festival among other seasonal festivals. It is remembering and retelling the great event that happened in the history, the birth of the Messiah, the Saviour. Therefore, Christmas is the time of confessing the faith in Jesus the Christ and to celebrate the reverence of life. We are living in a world, which neglects the co-existence and praising of asymmetrical relationship.

The arrogant bureaucratic nature of the political leaders and their method of using the religious life of the people to enhance the conflict in the society where the marginalized have no right to live in this world. The gap between the rich and poor is widening. The poor farmers have no right in their agricultural products. The religious fundamentalism destroying the harmony, meaning and the life of the society. The politicisation of religion is the danger of the hour. The women are picturized as a commodity for pleasure. The socioeconomic disparity is increasing. We are living in the absence of the presence of the world. The world we are living is not responding ethically good in manner.

The harmony of the society is stratified and scorned the life. In this ridiculous condition, the role of the Christian believer is to live as an aroma of Christ for the reverence of life. We are called to proclaim the human dignity in the midst of annihilation of the life. The confession of the faith will lead to protection and promotion of life.

Our responsibility is a harmonious connectedness with nature and with the fellow human beings in the world.

Respecting and preserving the nature for the future, the taste of the coherence of the life and the co-existence are our pressing priorities. The God Almighty will strengthen us to confess the faith in Jesus the Christ and reverence of life for the Glory of God and the extension of His Kingdom. *Revd Shibu Kurian is a D.Th. Student, New Testament, United Theological College, Bangalore. This paper was previously published in the NCC Review, December 2020, Vol. CXL No,11, p 638-640.

Theme for July 2021 FOCUS Vol.9 (Part 3)

Reconciliation and Unity

Reconciliation is a major theme in St. Paul’s writings to the early churches and his letter to Philemon. The early churches in the Mediterranean basin had many theological, ethnic and sociological problems to overcome. Therefore, Paul emphasized the need for reconciliation and unity in Christ and the unconditional love of God. The power for the reconciliation comes from God’s abundant love. ‘Christ’s love moves the world to reconciliation and unity’ is the suggested theme for the next general assembly of the World Council of Churches. Reconciliation is the first step in the relationships between God and man. Paul Says, “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation” (2Cor 5:18). This reconciliation has come to us from God through Christ and we will have forgiveness of sin, salvation and peace. The whole message of reconciliation and unity is centred around the love of God and the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. “. . . but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation” (Rom 5:11). Because of the reconciliation between Jacob and Esau, Jacob was blessed and was able to say to Esau, “For to see your face is like seeing the face of God, now that you have received me favourably” (Gen 33:10). Here we see the blessedness of reconciliation and unity under the amazing grace of God.

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What does it mean to be the Gospel of Christ?

Dr. Zac Varghese, London* St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians of his compulsion to preach the Gospel of Christ: “. . . for I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!” (1 Cor 9:16) Where did this compulsion come from? The mandate of the risen Christ was, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation” (Mk 16:15).

Jesus’ disciples did just that: “Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it” (Mk 16:20). It is this compulsion, which brought St. Thomas to Kerala in AD52 and other apostles to other parts of the world.

The gospel, the good news, is Christ himself; Christ is indeed the message and the messenger. The message is the promise of forgiveness of sin, redemption, justification, faith, hope, love and eternal life. It is in Christ that we find the fullness and flourishment of this message. Paul’s total identification with Christ made him say: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20). Paul’s faith was born of an encounter with the living God on the road to Damascus, which led him to accept faith as a gift for a total commitment of his life to Christ. This gift of faith calls us to become one with Christ and have an indwelling experience; it is this experience which gives us the joy of being and becoming the gospel of Christ.

Paul preached the Gospel and identified totally with Christ; he said to the Athenians. “For in him we live, move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). He wrote to the Corinthians: “For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing” (2Cor 2:15). The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the good news to heal this fractured world; we need to become the Gospel of Christ to overcome various uncertainties surrounding us, particularly in the COVID-19 landscape. The theme for the April issue is for seeking the guidance and steps needed to become the Gospel of Christ. The WCC in their exploration of the role of the laity in the Church circa 1998 stated, “We Christian people, wherever we are, are a letter from Christ to the world.” To be in Christ, ‘En Christo’, experience is not only to live within a faith community that was shaped by the story of Jesus the Christ, but also to share that story with others by living out that experience authentically in day today encounters with others.

The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown the whole world into confusion and chaos; this is a global incident with

an opportunity to feel that we are all in this together instead of relying entirely on political, economic or scientific strength to come out of this. This idea of togetherness is very important for our progress as the children of God with a God-given purpose to live this life as desired by our creator, provider and protector.

In the fifties, the war-torn and ‘shell-shocked’ Europe challenged religious, political and social systems upon which people relied. It was a fertile time to challenge the authenticity of all belief systems. It was under these circumstances existentialist philosophers thrived in France. ‘Atheistic existentialist’ such as Jean-Paul Sartre believed and propagated the idea that ‘existence is prior to essence’6. This challenged the foundational Christian principle that St. Paul lived and preached for.

He told the Athenian’s in his Areopagus address: “. . . for in him we live and move and have our being. As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring” (Acts 17:28). ‘Being’ is a major theme of the studies in ontology, religion, metaphysics and philosophy.

The concept that we are thrown into the world and slowly and steadily build ourselves our essence, being and identity is not in accordance with the Christian thinking and the salvation through Christ. The existential thinking is that “man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up into the world––and defines himself afterwards . . . Man is nothing else but that which he makes of himself.”7 I am what I am because of me, the idea of a self-made man, is an arrogant attitude. This attitude also was expressed much earlier by an 18th century English poet, “I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.”8 This is not our day6 Jean-Paul Sartre, ‘Existentialism and Humanism’,

Methuen Publishing Ltd., 1971, page 26.

7 Ibid, page 28.

8 The Oxford Book of English verse, H. Gardner, OUP, 1972,

page 792.

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to-day experience in the real world. Children are born under the loving care of parents; the child’s existence is not in a vacuum but has a mystical link to the creator God. A child has a God-centred past, a God-given present, future and purpose; the life is purpose-driven from the moment of gestation; it is in the loving and caring hands of the mother, the child learns his or her vocabulary, grammar and rhythms of life and living. The essence of the child is nucleated and grown within the dimensions of the motherhood. This is indeed the essence and hence ‘essence is prior to existence’ and not the other way around. Existence is determined by essence. The essence of a person is the kind of person that he or she is; it is their identity. Psalmist reminds us: “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever” (Psalm 73: 26).

Being is often described with words such as living, nature, existing and essence. It is also described as a state of the inner life, which gives a sort of stillness, contemplation, sufficiency, inner peace, and suspension of physical activities. Being is a state or stage; it is not a future expectation or hope or dream because it is a condition of the present; it is already here; it is in the now of our life. ‘Being’ is about being true to ourselves, about our identity, our nature and our essence; it is our unique identity and distinctiveness, which we could bring to others as a part of our relationshipdevelopment in building a family and the wider community. What does it mean ‘to be or not to be’? It means that we find reflective time for our self-discovery to think and act for the benefit of others. As a humanist, Sartre also said: “And, when we say that man is responsible for himself, we do not mean that he is responsible only for his own individuality, but he is responsible for all men.”9 People often get confused with problems of life and get baffled and ask questions such as: ‘who they are? Who am I?’ We are often pressurised in wanting to become what others want us to be. The children are often expected to live the dreams of their parents. Trying to

be what others want us to be can cause many psychological, emotional and health problems that threaten our wellbeing and peace. Taking care of our being – respecting it and nurturing it – is very important because no one else can do it except our dependence on God’s amazing grace and the indwelling experience of Christ within us, as St. Paul indicated. Being makes us think of the present, the now moment; it is a sacred time, the Kairos time as opposed to chronological time, the God-given time, to do what God wants us to be and do. It is indeed the time to remove all traces of ‘I’ and remove the ‘otherness’ of others and live in an ‘I- Thou’ moment of relationship. This is the mutual indwelling, perichoresis, in other words the reality of the Trinity. It is important to realise who we are and our state of being; it is essential to have the realisation that we are the children of God and are made in his image; we are God’s image bearers. This is indeed a very heavy responsibility and honour; we need help to realise this and act on it. The choices that we make influence others. Therefore, when choosing for oneself one is also choosing for others too; it is a collective responsibility for the common good of the community. This realisation is the transformation needed for becoming.

We see this ‘being and becoming as a sign’ in the story describing the events on the ‘Mount of Transfiguration’ with Jesus, Peter, John and James (Mt. 17: 1-9; Mk. 9: 2-8; Lk. 9: 28-36). It was a critical moment in the ministry of Jesus, and it was a continuous process for Jesus and his disciples of being and becoming.

Transformation is a process of transfiguration for God’s mission for healing this fractured world. This transfiguration implies a revelation of the purpose and nature of Jesus’ journey. The link between Moses and Elijah is important for us to appreciate the significance of the exile and liberation, going away and returning; it is about the oppression under the burden of sin and the freedom that Jesus is offering through his salvific action on the cross. There is an unbroken continuity in this story of God’s rescue operation for the fallen world from the beginning. What happens here is that Jesus stands revealed, and the disciples are granted a vision of God’s glory and who Jesus really is. Jesus’ internal glory and magnificence got externalised in his transfiguration. This visibility is expected in our spiritual journey also of being and becoming. It is the point of revelation of our true being, and we are becoming Jesus’ letter to the world, and we are the letter that the world sees and reads.

Paul’s silent years in Arabia and Tarsus after the Damascus road encounter was his formative period.

This period transformed and transfigured him for God’s mission. To the Christians in Rome Paul wrote: “Don’t conform any longer to the patterns of the world but be transformed by renewing your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is –

9 Ibid, page 29.

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his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Rom. 12: 2). He urged them to give themselves fully to God (v.1).

The disciples who remained in the valley of the transfiguration mount asked Jesus why they could not heal the demon-possessed boy (Mt. 17: 19, 20). Jesus said to them, “Because you have so little faith.” People do so many things in parishes and communities as busy bodies without having the real being and becoming experience of doing. Being and becoming is a prelude to mission and ministry. This is also what Jesus told Mary of Bethany. Martha was doing all the right things in the kitchen as a perfect hostess, but Mary was sitting with Jesus for having the experience of being and becoming; Jesus said: “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her” (Lk 10: 41). This does not mean that Martha’s detailed work and attention to hospitality should be ignored or left undone, but there should be a balance between physical and spiritual needs. Faith is a gift from God, but faith formation and preparation for mission is a slow and steady process for being and becoming in order to do God’s work as his image bearers. The long years of preparation for priesthood and ministry reflect this; Jesuits have eight to seventeen years of preparation for their work.

In a self-centred, greedy, and grasping world, Paul nurtured and mentored early Christians on how to live a Christ-centred life. It is in this being and becoming that we shall be able to do God’s mission of establishing the kingdom values of spiritualty, justice, relationship, hospitality and truth. Our living should be centred on the process of being and becoming in Christ, with Christ and for Christ. It is the ‘in Christ’ matrix, which will lead us to become the image of Christ. This demands a complete re-evaluation of oneself and others in relation to Christ, resulting in various acts of self-giving love.

Chiara Lubich, the founder of Focolare Family, wrote: “The world is in need of a cure, a cure of the Gospel. Because only the Good News can give it back the life it lacks. This is why we live the Word of Life, allowing it to take flesh in us to the point that we become living Word." It is a way of being and becoming that is shaped by the gospel of Christ. This is indeed the meaning of ‘be the gospel of Christ.’ Let us in absolute humility pray for this privilege. * Dr. Zac Varghese was the director of Renal and Transplantation Immunology Research at the Royal Free Hospital and Medical School in London and now he is an Emeritus Professor. He is also a prolific writer on religious and ecumenical issues; he continues to work relentlessly for common good of the worldwide Mar Thoma Diaspora communities.

From the Orthodoxy Cognate Page (OCP) News Service OCP Secretary Mr. George Alexander Received by the Travancore Royal Family

OCP Secretary Handing over a copy of the book ‘Malankara Nasrani Research Papers’ to Her Highness Aswathi Thirunal Lakshmi Bayi.

From (L) George Alexander, Her Highness Princess Pooyam Tirunal Gouri Parvathi Bayi, Her Highness Princess Aswathi Thirunal Lakshmi Bayi, Lijo George, and His Highness Prince Avittam Thirunnal Adithya Varma.

George Alexander (Secretary of Orthodoxy Cognate PAGE, Pan-Orthodox Christian Society) was cordially received by Her Highness Princess Pooyam Tirunal Gouri Parvathi Bayi, Her Highness Princess Aswathi Thirunal Lakshmi Bayi, and His Highness Prince Avittam Thirunnal Adithya Varma, the venerable members of the Travancore Royal family at the Kowdiar Palace during the last week of December 2020. The Travancore Royal Family was the ruling house of the Kingdom of Travancore till1949. His Highness Sree Padmanabhadasa Sree Moolam Thirunal Rama Varma is the present titular Maharaja of Travancore.

The Royal Family has historic relations with the Malankara Church and the Malankara Nasranis. Malankara Metropolitan is the ecclesiastical and legal title granted to the head of the Malankara Church, by the Government of Travancore and Cochin. After a lively discussion of 30 minutes (on various topics), OCP Secretary presented bilingual copies of the book ‘Malankara Nasrani Research Papers‘ to the members of the royal family. George also provided a brief overview of the book and responded to the specific questions put forward by the members of the Royal family. The Secretary was accompanied by OCP Associates Lijo George and Ajin V C.

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Missionary Disciples Revd Dr. Joel Edwards CBE* [From the Churches Together in England (CTE) Newsletter. This article first appeared in CTE-Newsletter December 2020and January 2021, published by Churches Together in England.]

More than any other year I can recall, 2020 has been a global year. We all sat in a global pandemic-induced isolation to watch a black man saying, “I can’t breathe”, being murdered by a white man in a police uniform.

And the world became intoxicated with the idea of justice.

So, of all the virtual meetings this year, meeting with the CTE family to explore the idea of being missionary disciples in a Covid climate was one of my most meaningful events.

To be sure, lockdown has presented Christians with challenges and opportunities for vibrant witness and we have seen more news items of churches doing good than I can recall in a long while. Learning to Zoom will be important for years to come, but I am fascinated by a bigger picture.

There are a number of reasons for this. Firstly, whatever you make of ‘mission’ and its association with ‘discipleship’, you simply cannot ignore the fact that all Christians, everywhere have a global mandate to witness to Jesus across all the imaginable ethnic and cultural communities. Jesus did say that we are to go everywhere making disciples of all ethnic peoples.

Secondly, missionary discipleship presents us with a tricky task: how do we do missionary discipling across the kaleidoscope of cultural distinctives without some people dominating other people and running the risk of new forms of colonial or cultural control? This has always been the challenge of the global task. And we have not always done it well.

Much of our witness has been tarnished by a kind of ecclesial discipling, which means we have been inclined to spread our own Christian brands while spreading the good news about Jesus. But as the theologian Dallas Willard said, what Jesus meant was, ‘Go therefore into every ethnic group and help them become my students.’

In the heat of stifling injustices where Romans oppressed the Jewish people and the Jewish authorities were often indifferent to the common people, the search for justice was all around them. And as they talked about Jesus beyond Judaism, the early disciples had to

grapple with unfair treatment of its Hellenistic widows, a Roman centurion, and Gentile Christians from the new power base of Antioch in Syria.

Similarly, 2020 has been an important setting for our mission because, in the popular mindset it has been supremely about how crushed people experience justice.

Diversity and injustice were big issues for disciples from a small town who were learning to be global witnesses.

When you think about it, the disciples were learners helping other people to learn about Jesus.

So thirdly, discipleship was a kind of ‘learnership’. They had to come to terms with the fact that God was teaching them through people who had a very different cultural and theological backgrounds. Samaritans, a Roman soldier called Cornelius, and a group of gifted people in Antioch where disciples were first called Christians.

I suspect that what kept them on course was that their discipleship was shaped by the fact that they had been close to Jesus. That’s what the people said about them. Which leaves me asking, how do we discipleship people in such a way that they feel they really know Jesus?

But equally, they had learned about dealing with otherness from Jesus. Jesus was always at the centre of their global enterprise. So, when they started calling disciples ‘Christians’, I suspect it was another way of saying, ‘Anyone can be a disciple, but only the people who know him and learn from him can be Christians’. ** Revd Edwards is a freelance broadcaster with the BBC, a writer and international speaker on a wide range of areas including bible teaching, issues of justice, leadership, faith and society. He is a Visiting Fellow at St John’s College, Durham and is also involved in a small number of consultancies and personal mentoring.

Revd Joel ’Edwards’ wide range of experiences includes 11 years as General Director of the Evangelical Alliance UK and 10 years leadership in Micah Challenge International - a global faith-based response to extreme poverty. Watch Rev Edwards' keynote message at the CTE Learning to be Missionary Disciples conference in November 2020.

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DENOMINATIONS ARE ABOMINATIONS* Chhotebhai I find the word “denominations” abominable. In an era of competition between different churches, the term was used to distinguish between them. In today’s ecumenical era, the term becomes redundant. I would rather call them “Sister Churches”. Did not St Paul write to the churches in Corinth, Thessalonica, and Ephesus etc.? Does not the Book of Revelation talk of the Spirit speaking to the churches (in plural) not in the singular.

So, shouldn’t we too be comfortable with the plurality of churches, rather than insisting on the singularity or superiority of one’s own particular church?

History is replete with instances of churches being critical, hostile to and in open competition with each other. If in 1302 the 189th pope, Boniface VIII, summarily declared that there was no salvation outside the Catholic Church; there are even today, several churches, mostly from the Evangelical stream, that are merrily sending all unbaptised “pagans” to hell. I do not believe in a God that is hell-bent on packing “sinners” off to hell.

As a Catholic myself, I will restrict myself to the current teachings of the Catholic Church, especially in the postVatican II era. It was a watershed moment in the life of the Church. With its changed self-understanding, it also brought about a tectonic change in its relationship with other churches, religions, the natural and behavioural sciences and the world at large.

This change is most evident in the events of 1054 and 1965. The first was the “Great Schism of the East”, when the western churches based in Rome and the eastern ones based in Constantinople (Istanbul today) ex-communicated each other. It took 911 long years for those ex-communications to be lifted by Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagorus, when they met, warmly embraced and lifted the sanctions in 1965.

The Catholic Church, in the post Vatican II era has come a long way from the sad events of 1054 and 1302.

Before that the Catholic Church was like the cat’s whiskers, steeped in its own pride and exclusivity, a head and shoulders above other “lesser” mortals. Now it very humbly calls itself “an initial budding forth of God’s kingdom” (LG No 5), not a full bloom basking in the sun. She “embraces sinners in her bosom” (LG No 8), not a rarefied puritan, and admits that it is still “a pilgrim”, not one that has arrived at its destination. From absolutism it has moved to relativity. This is a crucial change reflected in its attitude to others, including the Sister Churches. Of them it says, ”The church recognizes that in many ways she is linked to those

who, being baptised, are honoured with the name of Christian” (LG No 15). This is the official dogmatic teaching of the Catholic Church. Unfortunately, there is a yawning gap between precept and practice.

There are many Catholic priests and bishops in India who are uncomfortable with the relativism and inclusiveness of Vatican II ecclesiology. They are more at ease with the fundamentalist, absolute, binary preVatican ecclesiology of Me or You; not Us. That black or white binary refuses to recognize the various shades of grey.

Jesus’ last prayer included an impassioned one for unity. “May they all be one, just as, Father, you are in me and I am in you, so that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe it was you who sent me” (Jn 17:21). Jesus is linking unity with witness value.

Conversely, Christian disunity or division is the greatest stumbling block to Christian witness and evangelization.

This is evident in colonial India, where each western church came with its own theological baggage, confusing those who had never heard of Jesus. In contrast, the apostle Thomas in Kerala and St Francis Xavier in Goa were successful, partly because of a unified message. There was no counter witness. We will revert to the Indian church later.

For now, let us return to apostolic times. Those who oppose organized religion, derogatorily referred to as churchianity, point to the early Christian community.

“The whole group of believers was united, heart and soul; no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, as everything they owned was held in common” (Acts 4:32). This was too good to last. Shortly after, there was a division among Hebrew speaking Christians and the Greek speaking ones (cf Acts 6:1).

The second dispute arose between circumcised Jews and proselytes (circumcised Gentile converts to Judaism) and non-circumcised converts on the other. St Peter had to step in to breach the divide (cf Acts 11:118). There are several other instances of both Sts Peter and Paul admonishing the neo-converts for their ethnic divisions and personal loyalties.

If in the first flush of apostolic times, when the Holy Spirit was powerfully manifest, unity was at a premium, then how much more difficult is it for us today; bombarded as we are by multiple messages and factors in both history and the present all-pervasive media? It requires both prayer and humility.

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The history of Christianity in India is different from that of the west that suffered persecution for 300 years till Emperor Constantine’s Edict of Milan in 312 CE, effectively making it a State religion. It was also spared the ignominy of being subjected to Roman, Byzantine, French, German and Spanish emperors, as also the scars of the Crusades. The infamous Inquisition was limited to a section of Goa. However, with colonialization came missionary expansion and various white missionaries toeing the line of the churches of their native lands. It was this conflict that greatly contributed to the failure of Christianity to make its presence felt in India. When I was in Jyotiniketan Ashram, Bareilly, we had an ecumenical meeting. I recall the words of Rev Kenneth Sharp of the Brotherhood of the Ascended Christ, an Anglican order.

He said that we may be divided in thought or belief, but we can always be united in service where there is no room for dispute. Some years later when I had organized an ecumenical meeting under the aegis of the Kanpur Catholic Association, the main speaker, Dr. A.B.K. Sebastian of Christ Church College, said that in India there was no need to perpetuate the divisions of European Christianity. Words of wisdom.

Good Samaritan, a detested “other”. Jesus upholds him as a paragon of virtue (cf Lk 10:25 ff).

This doesn’t mean that Christian churches may do as they please, often pulling in opposite directions. St Paul gave us two beautiful analogies of the church as a body and as a bride (cf I Cor 12:12-30, Eph 5:23). Both indicate some kind of organic unity and bonding, if not exactly organizational. Interestingly, Jesus himself never used the word “church”; though some English translations use it (cf Mat 16:18 & 18:17). The actual Hebrew word used by Jesus was “qahal” that meant a community or assembly of believers. The Greek word “ekklesia” from which the English word “church” is derived, also has the same meaning.

However, there is an evolution discernible in the New Testament itself. In the Acts of the Apostles the word “church” is used 23 times, and in the Pauline letters 65 times! So obviously, as the community grew, it needed to be better identified. For those critics of churchianity that say that Jesus never founded a church and personal discipleship would suffice, I give the example of a human embryo. It is just a few cells, with no head, hands or feet. Yet it bears all the intrinsic qualities of a baby and later an adult. So too with the church. It grows and evolves and sometimes mutates because of external influences. This should not detract from the reality that Jesus wanted his disciples to have some form of spiritual, organic and organizational unity.

This can never be fully achieved. If the apostles failed with small numbers and no excess baggage, then we have a slim chance of getting there. This should not deter us from moving forward as pilgrims seeking to convert the bud into a full bloom, while embracing sinners in its bosom.

It is for this reason that Pope Francis refuses to get sucked into theological hair splitting. He prefers to directly reach out to people, saying that we should leave the debates to the theologians. In a joint gathering of Catholics and Lutherans somebody asked him a tricky question – “Whom do you prefer – Catholics or Lutherans?” Pat came the reply, “I equally dislike lukewarm Catholics and Lutherans”. It reminds one of how the Pharisees tried to trap Jesus by asking him if it was proper to pay taxes to Caesar? (cf Mat 22:21).

Pope Francis has repeatedly adopted a pastoral, rather than a dogmatic approach to complex issues. He gave the telling example of the field hospital in battle. You don’t stop to check the injured soldier’s cholesterol or sugar levels. You first bandage his wounds. In his latest encyclical “Fratelli Tutti” he talks at length about the

Management gurus teach us about areas of concern and areas of control. I may be concerned about the world economy, over which I have little control. But I do have control over my own domestic budget. Instead of bemoaning my inability to transform the world, let me first address what is within my control. Many Christians may feel that they are facing insurmountable odds in climbing the treacherous mountain of Christian unity.

They then despair. Let alone the Evil One, even sociologists, psychologists and political pundits tell us that despair is the easiest way to accept the inevitable (like a Trump or Modi) and be resigned to one’s fate.

However, the Holy Spirit spurs us to action. That is why I reiterate that humility and prayer are pre-requisites for Christian unity.

Like Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagorus let us begin by warmly embracing each other and stop seeing each other as antagonists. There are two steps that we can adopt immediately. The first is to stop criticising

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each other. The second is stop “sheep stealing”, grabbing disgruntled or dissatisfied members from sister churches, especially from what are described as the “mainline” churches like Catholics, CNI/CSI and Methodist. They are soft targets for preying evangelical churches. Not that they are the only culprits. Catholics do the same with their superior organisation and financial resources. This has been widespread in the Punjab, Uttarakhand and North East regions. It must stop. If at all some of us are determined to increase the number of Christians through conversions, then let them go out and share the message with those who have not heard it, rather than sheep stealing.

I became starkly aware of the divisions among Christians when I visited the Holy Land in 1980. Not only were there divisions among Christians, Jews and Muslims; there were scores of them among Christians themselves. The worst example of this was the Holy Sepulchre. The six feet slab has three altars; one belonging to the Catholics and the other two to different Orthodox churches, possibly Greek and Armenian.

When celebrating the Holy Eucharist at these altars the respective priests must ensure that their hands do not extend beyond their allotted two feet. It is scandalous.

Nevertheless, I would like to end on a positive note, again from Jerusalem. I had been invited there by the Anglican archbishop, at the behest of Rev Murray Rogers, the founder of our ashram in Bareilly, who had since relocated to Jerusalem. It was during Holy Week itself. On Holy Thursday we attended a Catholic service.

It was presided over by a bishop of the Melchite (Greek) Rite. The choir was led by French speaking Vietnamese nuns. Rev Rogers was an Englishman, a pastor of the Anglican Church, who wore ochre robes and lived like an Indian. He was vegetarian and regularly used Hindu texts in his own liturgy. And there I was, an Englishspeaking Indian of the Latin Rite! Could that congregation have been more catholic (universal)?

For the Easter vigil we again attended a Catholic service presided over by an African cardinal. Later during coffee there was a blackboard on which people from different countries wrote Easter greetings in their native languages, mostly in the Roman script. I wrote in Devanagari script in Hindi at the top of the board “Jai Sri Yesu”. It caught the eye of the cardinal. He immediately asked me where I was from and was thrilled to know that I was Indian.

After coffee we proceeded to the Russian Orthodox Church presided over by the Patriarch himself. At that time Christianity was still banned in the communist Soviet Union. A ninety-year-old retired army general was playing the organ. It was about 3.00 a.m. but the service was still warming up for the few elderly people there. I could not but wonder at some churches’ inability

to adapt to the times. Many of us fossilised Christians are in urgent need of perestroika, glasnost and aggiornamento (opening up and updating to change).

In this season of Advent let us prayerfully and humbly listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches (Rev 3:22), for denominations are an abomination for the disciples of Christ today. * Much of this information is contained in the writer’s forthcoming book “The Jerusalem Code”.

A Meditation by Patriarch Ignatius IV of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch and all the East (1920-2012) Church and the Holy Spirit Source: The Uppsala Report: Official Report of the Fourth Assembly of the World Council of Churches, July 4-20, 1968 Bishop Ignatius became Patriarch of Antioch in 1979 and served until 2012.

Church Without the Holy Spirit: God is far away, Christ stays in the past, the Gospel is a dead letter, the Church is simply an organization, authority a matter of domination, mission a matter of propaganda, liturgy is no more than an evocation and Christian living a slave morality.

Church with the Holy Spirit: The cosmos is resurrected and groans with the birthpangs of the Kingdom, the risen Christ is there, the Gospel is the power of life, the Church shows forth the life of the Trinity, authority is a liberating service, mission is a Pentecost, the liturgy is both memorial and anticipation, and human action is deified.

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Why did the Good News of Jesus fail in the North and West?

The Rev. Dr. John T. Mathew (The United Church of Canada) The Christian faith brought into being on the day of Pentecost by a gathering of over three thousand frightened believers from communities in and around Palestine two millennia and two decades ago is the world’s largest faith community with over two billion followers. The 18th century dawn of the age of enlightenment turned out to be the end of the triumphalist European Christendom.

Ever since the outbreak of the deadly virus over a year ago, life on our fragile planet has stomached seismic ups and downs at home, at work and in the global community; the season of Lent, began in the last week of February and with no Easter in sight to celebrate.

During Lent most theologians were running crazy racking their brains for a rational response. Time magazine approached an unsuspecting Anglican bishop - New Testament scholar Tom Wright, to find a magic bullet. Wright replied: “Christianity offers no answers about coronavirus; it’s not supposed to.” Why didn’t editors of the magazine, who misguidedly prefigured that Christians probably had a loftier response, approach a Hindu or Buddhist or Muslim scholar for their feedback?

It could well be either our hubris or stuck-up claim as if God trusts us to solve this conundrum more than our neighbors who might belong to other faith traditions. No one religion is in charge; no one person speaks for God or temple or church or mosque! Fly-by-night theologians are no different from Chicken Little: The sky is falling!

It might be a warning? God is angry! Insurance business calls it ‘an act of God’? Then, is COVID19 a sign of end of this world? It is not nice or prudent to mess with Mother Nature. As Pope Francis prophetically said in his “urbi et orbi” (to the city and to the world) address during the Holy Week: “We ignored a world that had gotten sick, thinking we would never get sick ourselves.” He also repeated an old Spanish proverb — “God always forgives, man sometimes forgives, but nature never forgives”.

It might be fun for some to thrash bucolic landscapes and forests, which are natural habitats of animals and plants and unknown species of organisms. Cut down the trees; carnage or cage the animals; rub eco-systems the wrong way and chase viruses from their natural hosts – you guessed it – they need a new host.

Predictably, we are it.

There is bad news all around us. Thankfully, we have good news within us. In the midst of this day in, day out dreadful encounter that sucks the life of everything we established, our duty is to remember, retrieve, reclaim that small shred of resolve, tenacity which sustained us hitherto. In that inexorable struggle, we must transcend the bad news and hold on to the good news within us.

Is this COVID19 battered days are not a god-send opportunity for us to do some soul-searching?

The European church history infers that Flavius Constantine, the first Roman emperor to credibly confess to the new Palestinian spiritual configuration, was the prime promoter of the Good News of Jesus. His baptism on his deathbed by Eusebius of Nicomedia probably was the formal beginning of European Christianity. All the major religions emerged in Asia; therefore, the newly instituted faith flourished in the European spiritual vacuum. Perhaps that is why western churches insist that they have uncovered and snatched a whole new deeper perception of Christianity!

The emperor demanded his people to accept this freshly marketed faith in the declaration of the Edict of Milan in 313. He also built the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at the claimed site of Jesus’ tomb in Jerusalem and the convoked the First Council of Nicaea in 325. Therefore, Christianity which emerged in the forlorn Palestinian forts out of the blue became a European religion! Originally ‘evangelical’ – mid 16th century Latin evangelium, from ancient Greek for ‘good news’ or gospel was similar to television updates or amber alert – an imperial ‘breaking news’, which has nothing to do with Jesus, his teachings or the Bible.

However, this spanking new faith turned out to be another spoil like the whopping Kohinoor from India, or oil from the Gulf region, or spices and tea from Darjeeling, Kerala and Sri Lanka.

When I was a teenager my mother, gazing at the land she brought in from her family, redrafted King Philip’s

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words to Alexander, “my son, look out; Macedonia is too little for thee”. So, I walked off outside the Apostle Thomas birthright of Malabar with my tamed Bucephalus and strolled by the statue of John Knox in Edinburgh for three years. Yes, a reformed breath of fresh air of European Christianity looked tantalizing then.

Now, fast forward to 1969 – the year when the first humans - American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin landed on the Moon on Sunday, July 20th. A few weeks later that year in the refreshing autumn temperatures the progeny of colonial trailblazers of affluence and power returned to the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society residence. An unknown tropical tyro from an ancient Nasarani heritage joined them at breakfast. Our matron Eleanor Thompson graciously asks: “Would you like some more English tea, Mr. Mathew?” My response was: “Where on earth is tea grown in England?”. Viscerally unimpressed, Eleanor dashed off to the kitchen cupboard and returned with a tea box. She read the label on it: “Oh, Indian Tea packaged in Birmingham!” And she cackles: “Goodness, gracious; there is no such thing as English tea.”

Later that day after my classes, I heard an earful on the European reformers, predominantly Luther’s defiant act of posting his Ninety-five Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany on October 31, 1517 and of course more on the Disruption of 1843 when 450 ministers left the established Church of Scotland to form the Free Church of Scotland. Phew!

Both my professors and my classmates suffered from a myopic theological worldview because of their lack of diversity with the global community. The reformers such as John Knox and Thomas Chalmers were like eagle parents who carried narrow doses of ‘prey’ to their nest to feed their chicks. They fed the people who were rescued from the Roman hegemony by tearing off pieces of food and holding them to the beaks of the newly morphed Presbyterian eaglets. Like the little chicks, they breathed, moved and had their being in

whatever Knox regurgitated from his learnings in tumultuous Geneva. Therefore, they never heard of my first Century (52 CE) St. Thomas apostolic full-blood Nasarani pedigree and heritage of Malabar!

Characteristically nostalgic and a bit naïve being there, I said to myself: “There is no European Christianity.”

However, this ignited a fire inside me to investigate at least five fundamentally theodemic events in the younger European Christianity. In Jeremy Bentham’s phrase, the five demons or monstruous crashes of Chicane in and around the church punctured the socalled triumphalist Christian Europe are the unholy Crusades, Colonialism, Holocaust, Apartheid and Slavery – all made in Europe! In fact, the former missionary denominations are flattened before our eyes.

What a dismal spectacle of a cataclysmic collapse of 20th century of Western Christianity!

Whatever happened to the church that sang, “Onward Christian soldiers!” and fired the fabricated flow of personnel to convert the heathens? As Martin Luther King Jr. put it: “I came to the conclusion that there is an existential moment in your life when you must decide to speak for yourself; nobody else can speak for you”.

Crusades This appalling word ‘crusade’ ought to be erased forever from the ecclesial wordlist as it had absolutely little to do with the imperial cross of Jesus. Perspectives of historic experiences differ from the victor who records them and those of the vanquished left speechless on the sidelines.! The authors of the Bible and the Quran outrageously exculpate atrocities imposed on women and minorities relegated the margins. Most students probably never questioned why the Middles Ages in Europe were the Dark Ages! The affluent landlords who promoted a fatuous theocratic rule, which did not originate from the Holy, that inflicted hideous brutalities and terrorism including the Crusades in the name of faith.

Colonialism No nation on earth gained anything from colonialism except the colonial powers who destroyed the economic future most nations in Africa, Asia and South America. The so-called ‘third world’ of poverty was created by 450-year-long colonialism. In spite of the fact that the older Asian cultures never surrendered to the fabricated European superiority, the missionaries as conceited agents of hard-line expansionism, except a few exceptional servants of God’s people such as C. F Andrews and Stanley Jones, brought with them a mindset of a moral condescension which Mahatma Gandhi staggeringly crushed soon after the second World War. Over the years many in Europe tried to tell me how generous the colonizers were in improving the

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lifestyle of the people around the world. Previous to the four-century long British domination India, the world leader in manufacturing producing most of the world’s industrial output, was the richest nation on the planet during the medieval times. However, they forgot how they wiped out the native peoples of North America and Africa albeit ancient Asian cultures were impermeable.

The British monarch, the head of her church, should consider returning the stolen crown jewels as well as offer an apology for the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh genocide.

Holocaust (Shoa) A few Protestants openly opposed the Nazis.

Disgracefully, Pope Pius XII and his church preferred a policy of neutrality during World War II. Abraham Heschel in his book, Israel: An Echo of Eternity states: “Our people’s faith in God at this moment in history did not falter… We all died in Auschwitz, yet our faith survived. We knew that to repudiate God would be to continue the holocaust.”

Apartheid This 18th century racial segregation, enlarged on the premise of baasskap or white supremacy, was cooked up in the Dutch Empire to keep the minority Europeans in South Africa and Namibia cloistered from Asians, Coloureds and the native black Africans. Abraham Kuyper being one of the patriarchs of apartheid, the model was ‘christened’ within the Dutch Reformed Church to experiment in the distant colony! No one described it better than Desmond Tutu, “When the missionaries came to Africa, they had the Bible and we had the land. They said 'Let us pray. ...

When we opened them, we had the Bible and they had the land”.

Slavery Woefully the outbreak of slavery has been part of our human condition in all cultures and faith traditions. The Ottoman Middle Ages captured Christian slaves. From the seventh to the twentieth century, Western and Central Asia, North-eastern Africa, Europe and India had Arab slaves. The Christian Europe and several African kingdoms promoted the Atlantic slave trade for centuries since 1600 CE. However, endorsed by the self-made apostle Paul the early church did not raise a red flag as it hailed the clampdown of slaves, especially women, created in the image of the Holy One! Fifty years ago, as a student at first it was interesting to visit British castles or palaces in almost every hamlet. They were made of freighted hard wood from my backyard in India and loaded with stolen trinkets and costly works of art from far way colonies. The weirdest thing was that there nothing English or Scottish about them except the

locale. I felt being mugged twice when I had to pay to enter these fabulous estates where my family inheritance was ensconced and elegantly built by the sweat and blood of slaves.

The Good News of Jesus encapsulated in the Song of Mary and in Jesus’ first sermon recorded in Luke’s Gospel (4:14-30) offer both grace and judgement: comfort and contentment for the oppressed and caveat and concern to the oppressors. Such an imperative news of titanic daring against despair, energising radiance against darkness, galvanising liberation against captivity will never fail. However, the thing called Christianity, the church and its protagonists have been fading.

The heart and soul of our faith keep moving from Jerusalem and Nazareth to Alexandria and Malabar, from Antioch and Istanbul to Rome and Athens, from Geneva and London to New York and Toronto, from Maramon and Singapore to Busan and Shanghai, from Hamburg and Stockholm to Tokyo and Invercargill.

Therefore, the 21st century church with its epicentre in the south and east is alive and well. The northern and western ways of life of Greece and Rome are no more required to prosper and preserve the old Palestinian faith. No matter how the church prospers or plunges, the Good News of Jesus will always weather the high winds of time and place. No one faith tradition can contain all of divinity. No one denomination displays the humanity of Jesus in its fullness. Deeply enthralled by the Upanishads and the Good News of Jesus, T. S. Eliot reminds us: “We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time.”

The Rev. Dr. John T. Mathew is an ordained minister in The United Church of Canada. Besides serving several urban and rural congregations in the province of Ontario, Canada since 1974, he also taught in the Department of Religious Studies, Huntington/Laurentian University, Sudbury, Ontario. He also served at St. Machars’s Cathedral, Aberdeen (Church of Scotland) as Ecumenical Minister (2010) and as Interim Minister at St. Andrew's Parish, Gore, Southern Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand (2015-2017).

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A Book Review – Rainbow of Remembrances RAINBOW OF REMEMBRANCES (ENGLISH AND MALAYALAM) Author: REV. DR. M. J. JOSEPH, PRINCIPAL (RETD), MAR THOMA THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, KOTTAYAM. CSS BOOKS, TIRUVALLA, Pages 292, Price INR. 350/USD $20 Available at: CSS Book Shop, Tiruvalla.

“Rainbow of Remembrances”, containing fascinating memory lanes and inspiring biographical insights into eighty-one lives, will answer your questions about famous and less known men and women, who radically redirected their lives and contributed richly to the social, intellectual, ecological, ecumenical and theological life of the church and society in India and abroad. In an age of failing memory, this amazing documentation of up-todate, meticulously reserached and reasonably argued scholarly biographical sketches supersede autobiographical descriptions and shines bright like a candle to guide generations. In his book, “RAINBOW OF REMEMBRANCES” Rev. Dr. M J. Joseph tries to explore brilliantly the prophetic, pastoral, theological and social concerns of his friends, celeberate their contributions and present them as icons of building bridges in the church and society through their dazling and erudite career. One feels that one is traveling on a parallel track with a moving cine camera that captures the life and mission of Rev. Joseph’s friends, and various frames are clearly and well focused in this book.

Rev. M. J. Joseph’s academic, literary and artistic description, full of information, insight, prolific oratory style, amazing writing skills and ecological expertise are evident in this book. This book also reveals authors’ brilliant research skills of comprehensive and interdiciplinary research method including the articles about his friends that had already been published in the NCC Review, Sabha Tharaka, Diaspora Focus, People’s Reporter, and ECC. Two types of articles can be identified here: Smaranajali and Felicitations. The Smaranajali refers to the obituary tributes that Rev. Joseph offers in honour of his friends’ lives who completed their life journey. Rev. Joseph’s felicitations

on various occasions aimed to celebrate his friends’ pastoral, theological and ecumenical concerns that radically influenced the Church and society in India and abroad is the content of this book.

Selfdiscipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishments according to the American author Jim John. “The Power of Ambition”, a notable work of Jim John, which needs no further testimony than the life story of the author Rev. M. J. Joseph – a New Testament professor, writer, ecumenist and environmentalist of international repute. His unique calibre of keeping the files and letters is evident as he handed over more than 300 hand-written personal letters from eminent personalities, stretching a period of more than five decades, to be kept at the Seminary Archives in 2020. This book is also a testimony to his brilliant research quality of invaluable documentation – a key to delve deep into his friends’ biographical routemaps, thought world and field of work. Fr. Dr. T. J. Joshua’s foreword and Prof. Dr. Zac Varghese’s appreciation to this book illustrate the thrust of this work.

Rev. M. J. Joseph’s journey from ‘Seminary’ to the ecumenical and ecological horizons, where he endeared his life-long friends was indeed a long one of more than half a century. And it had necessarily to pass through various social, economic and political interfaces. The author weaves the journey beautifully and it adds a third strand in this tapestry. One is tempted to describe this book as ‘thriveni sangamam’: a man, his friends and a concept, being brought under a single scanner without loss of focus.

Walking the first mile is not optional but mandatory; every Jew under Roman rule had to, if called upon.

Walking the second mile is what we have been called to. Often we tend to see this second mile only in terms of social, ecumenical and theological initiatives. I believe that the theologians have to try to walk the second mile intellectually. (Incidentally that is one of the many points which make me a fan of Rev. M. J. Joseph, my favourite benchmark, who has already commenced that journey.)

From the second mile perspective, Rev. M. J. Joseph’s attempt to chronicle analytically the life contributions of his friends is an effort in the right direction.

Review by: Rev. Dr. Joseph Daniel* *Rev. Dr. Joseph Daniel, Professor, Mar Thoma Theological Seminary, Kottayam; Research guide and Head of the Department of History of Christianity, ‘Federated Faculty for Research in Religion and Culture’, (FFRRC), Kottayam; Dr. Habil research scholar, University of Bern, Switzerland.

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Mr. T. T. Verghese: One of the Endearing Pioneers of the Mar Thoma Community in the UK and Europe.

Dr. Zac Varghese, London [The following is an atypical, occasional article, a story, in honour of a pioneer of a Mar Thoma Diaspora community in the UK and Europe. I write with the hope that it will encourage others to appreciate contributions of people who helped to build communities, not for exclusion but for inclusion. Community isn't a private club to be separated and defended against those who do not belong to it. Rather, it is an inclusive space, a space to enjoy the gift of the other.]

us to half a dozen other families in London who used to meet once a month for a Mar Thoma worship service at the Indian YMCA under the pastoral care of late Revd Dr. V. V. Alexander. Late Mr. O.V. Alexander of the Indian YMCA, Dr. John Thomas MBA, Dr. Titus Mathew, Mr. Mathew Joseph, Dr. Benjamin Pulimoodu, Dr. Mathen, Mr. John Thomas, Mr. Mathew Koshy and their families were part of this nuclear group. There was also an Indian orthodox family of late Mr. I. John. Deacon K. G. George of the Orthodox Church, who was studying at Cowley Fathers of St. John the Evangelist; he also conducted occasional services from 1963 to 1972; he later became bishop Geevarghese Mar Ivanios. Mar Ivanios was a saintly person, his life was immersed in prayer and sadly passed away in 2013. Fr. Allunkal who became a bishop of the Jacobite Church was also very helpful to us during this early period. Thus, this early group slowly evolved into an ecumenical worshiping community of all Kerala Christians and functioned as such until 1978.

Mr. T. T. Verghese arrived in the UK in 1948 and he and his family were integral part of the Kerala Christian Community until 1993. He had a very successful utilities store, television repair service and rental business. He then decided to return to Kerala and settle down in Cochin. His wife, Ammini, and daughter, Roshini, remained in London.

Verghese continued to visit his family and friends in the UK until 2009. Verghese hails from the Thoppil family of Uthimoodu in Pathanamthitta. He was born on 11 October 1925. th

It is an unfortunate idiosyncrasy that we often only acknowledge the contributions of people after their death.

We criticise and damage people’s reputations while people are alive and then say all sorts of wonderful things about the same people after their death. Realising this quirk in our nature, I thought it would be a good to appreciate and thank Mr. T. T. Verghese, one of the pioneers of building a Mar Thoma Community in the UK from 1957. I am writing this tribute to Mr. T. T. Verghese (known as TT) because I just came to know that he is 96 years old and he is having some age-related physical disabilities. Let us support him through our prayers.

One of the people from the Malayalee community that I first met when I came to London for postgraduate studies in the early sixties was Mr. T. T. Verghese. He introduced

As the number of Kerala Christian families in London were very small, we built an ecumenical fellowship with the Indian Orthodox, the CSI church and other denominations until we decided to express the Mar Thoma identity more clearly by establishing an official parish in 1978. Verghese was the treasurer of the Mar Thoma Congregation that was established in 1957; he remained so, as he kept a bank account in the name of the Mar Thoma Church from that time onwards and until we became an official parish of the Mar Thoma Church in 1978. We moved from the Indian YMCA to St. Mary’s Anglican Church in Newington in 1978 through the kindness and hospitality of Revd Dominic Walker OGS who later became the Bishop of Reading and later the Bishop of Monmouth. It is good to remember the help of late Bishop Mervyn Stockwood, bishop of Southwark, for allowing us to worship at St. Mary’s church.

Verghese gave effective leadership for the Silver Jubilee celebrations in 1982 under the magnificent guidance of Late Thomas Mar Athanasius Suffragan Metropolitan. This event was very significant because of the presence of fourteen Anglican bishops who had intimate knowledge

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and relationships with the Mar Thoma Church during the colonial times; many ecumenical leaders and members of the political establishment were also present. Late Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie was the chief guest who spoke very sincerely and warmly about our relationship with the Church of England. This event was the most important event in establishing ourselves as a recognisable worshipping community in the UK. It was indeed the corner stone of our continued development.

Verghese together with Dr. John Thomas MBA, Late Mathew Kallumpram and Late John Mathew played leading roles in building prayer groups, congregations and parishes in London and other part of the UK. Kallumprams travelled from Manchester every month and spent the weekends in London to attend Holy Communion Services; he was the first secretary of the official Mar Thoma Parish and T. T. Verghese was its first treasurer.

We were fortunate in having had the pastoral care of Revd P.T. Joseph in 1966-67 when he was a student of the Oxford University. He later became a bishop and a Metropolitan who passed away recently; this was our late Most Revd Dr. Joseph Mar Thoma Metropolitan. He loved us all very dearly.

We also fondly remember the blessings our community received for a whole year, 1975-76, from late Rt. Revd Easow Mar Timotheos. This endearing bishop conducted services for us on a regular basis when he was studying at St. Augustine’s college at Canterbury. The arrival of Mr. and Mrs. P.A. George from Zambia for spending a sabbatical year in London in 1976 was also very helpful in making us to understand the need for establishing a firm Mar Thoma identity.

The community took a momentous decision in April 1976 at a general body meeting chaired by Mar Timotheos, that they should work towards becoming an official parish of the Mar Thoma Church. He laid the foundations for their spiritual growth through his simple lifestyle, total involvement and love for the community. We celebrated our first twenty-one years in England on 30 July1978 with late Most Revd Dr. Alexander Mar Thoma Metropolitan.

Our first vicar of the UK Mar Thoma Church was Revd Philip Varghese, Revd Dr. Abraham Philip followed him; he was also a student of the Oxford University, and late Revd Dr. V. V. Alexander became the Emeritus Vicar. th

There were so many others who were so helpful in building the community. In this respect we also should pay tribute to Dr. K. John, late P. M. Oommen, late George John, late T. C. George and V. M. Kattapuram. There are equally important women who played significant roles; please forgive me for not mentioning the names of others involved in building the early diaspora community in the UK in this short article. I only mentioned few names, but one could recollect so many things that these and others have done for us. Let us thank God for them. I very much hope that every parish historian in the UK will record the

contributions of the pioneers who built their parishcommunity.

There is an equally important story to tell about our young people and their contributions. The very first Mar Thoma family conference started as a youth conference in 1983 under the leadership of Revd Dr. Abraham Philip. This eventually became the ‘Family Conference.’ We have seen these conferences grow from 40 participants to well over 500. The continuity of the conference was broken in 2020 because of the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions. Some gifted young people gave very good leadership for the spiritual enlightenment and revival of our community and as a result many young people dedicated their lives to Christ under the spiritual guidance of Mr. Zachariah Abraham (Prakash). Mr. Jaffey Chacko and Mr. Abraham Mathews (Rennie), Noble Mathew, Anil Mathew, John Thomas and many others were involved in building the family conference and its continuity.

In the middle of writing this article I was informed that Mr. Noble Mathew has been appointed as the secretary of the COMPE and the Zone in succession of the very good work done by Mr. P. M. Mathew over several years. This is an endearing news because Noble’s father and mother were part of the pioneering group that I mentioned at the beginning. This continuity is very important to us as a living faith community with a past, a present and a future.

One of the proudest moments in our history of this early period was the contribution of £30,000 (This was a huge sum in 1978) that we were able to make towards Juhanon Mar Thoma Study Centre at Trivandrum to perpetuate the vision and message of Juhanon Metropolitan Thirumeni in the areas of ecumenism and social justice. I very much hope that the same vigour, enthusiasm and cooperation would emerge once again to build the proposed Zonal centre. We need to think beyond our prayer groups and parish boundaries to build on the Mar Thoma identity to create an ecumenical space to work with other communities.

Verghese and his family provided hospitality and organised travel arrangements for our visiting clergy and bishops. He also helped many new Malayalee immigrant families. This tribute to Verghese is also a tribute to all men and women who helped in building a Mar Thoma Community in the UK. Let us thank God for them and their contributions. I hope this short appreciation of Verghese’s contribution will be a stimulus to remember and acknowledge various contributions of others in building our parishes in towns and cities of the UK. Verghese was a weaver of the community and his presence in the UK was a source of great comfort because he was always there when help was needed. Let us thank Verghese for his generosity of spirit and contributions, and pray for his health and wellbeing. May God continue to bless him.

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