Focus July 2014

FOCUS July 2014 Vol. 2 No: 3

Pearls of Wisdom - Dr. Zac Varghese, London – Page 11 Cover Photo – MTC Dallas, Farmers Branch, By Lal Varghese, Esq., Dallas

A Publication of Diaspora FOCUS

Contents E. Stanley Jonesʼ Strategy for Missions: Lessons for Today Rev. Dr. Martin Alphonse - Page 13

Editorial - Mission in a Digital World Page 3 Reaching Out – Sharing Faith and Meeting Social Needs - Rev. Dr. Valson Thampu- Page 16

Synopsis of Metropolitanʼs Pastoral Letters, Sabha Tharaka – April, May, June 2014 – Page 4

The Golden Rule of Asian Religions – Rev. Dr. M. J. Joseph, Kottayam – Page 18

Inter Faith Contact - Celia Blackden, London – Page 8 Marks of a Disciple - Late Thomas Mar Athanasius Suffragan Metropolitan - Page 22

Everyday Theology Part IV - Dr. Zac Varghese, London - Page 6

Chickaballapur Mission-Page 24

Editorial Ministry in a Digital World Most of us seem to be somewhat parochial in our outlooks, loyalties, and concerns. Nevertheless, we appreciate the advice ʻto think globally and act locally.ʼ As stewards of a world created by a loving and caring God we have no excuse for not having a loving concern for people throughout the world irrespective of caste, color or creed. In a world where an ever increasing number of people are connected to the internet and mobile phones, the possibilities of reaching out to all sorts of people and generations are greater than they have been at any time in history. The digital environment provides a huge range of opportunities for Godʼs mission.

It is interesting to note how St. Paul broke cultural barriers to reach out to intellectual giants, traders, artisans, and poor peasants of his time; he spoke to Jews, Greeks, Romans and Gentiles with relative ease. He used different skills in spreading the gospel of Lord Jesus Christ whom he met on the Damascus Road and his tentmaking skills to support his mission. Paulʼs ʻreasoningʼ, an ancient rhetorical method, to men of Thessalonica and of Athens in Act 17 is a good model of ministry even for today. Paul starts with research of the prevailing culture (vs 16, 17) then he builds on that knowledge by making links from their culture to the gospel (vs 22, 23). Thus he spent time observing and listening, troubling even to read and memorize their philosophy and poetry. He was taking the pulpit to the pews, to people where they assembled at synagogues, market places, and philosophical supermarkets of ideas and beliefs, where people found it easy to assemble; it is important to meet people in their cultural milieu and in their comfort zones. He respected his audiencesʼ history and culture because persuasion requires the active participation and even the intervention or heckling of audiences. As we know, Paulʼs

methodology was very effective in challenging Christians in Rome to confront a pagan culture with the gospel, and he begins by making the gospel very clear. Jesusʼ parables are prime examples of using cultural conventions and traditions in His ministry for transforming cultural norms and establishing the kingdom culture.

Jesus was not using theological jargons, but he used everyday examples to reach his audience and it made sense to them. Lord Donald Soper was a very effective Methodist preacher, in the second half of the twentieth century, at the speakerʼs corner at the Hyde Park near Marble Arch in London. He encouraged his hearers to heckle him and he used that opportunity to reach out to the very same heckler and others around him because he understood and spoke the language, used their idioms and engaged with the mood of his audiences.

We are told over and over again that the young people of the Mar Thoma Diaspora communities are disenchanted with the church and its liturgical worship. Therefore, it is of utmost importance for our church to take this problem seriously and follow Paulʼs example by studying the current, continuously changing, youth culture and searching for means and methods of communication, and applying the gospel to the prevalent culture. There is a huge gap in appreciating this urgent need in the ministry of our church. This journal, in utter humility, is trying to address the question, ʻwho will stand in this gap?ʼ This is also addressing the present need for ʻchurching the churched.ʼ Is it not important to look after the ʻnetted-fishʼ before casting the net again for a new fishing expedition?

We should pay much more attention to post-baptismal faith formation. However much many of us resist, we need to make policies by taking into consideration not only the present realities of the world as it, but also the world we would love to see to be with kingdom values.

Whilst we continue to use traditional methods and print media for satisfying the emotional needs of the older generation, we should be mindful of the needs of young people and use the digital media to reach them.

It is gratifying to see that over the last two years the Mar Thoma Diocese of North America and Europe has embarked on using Internet for sending daily meditations.

These meditations are mostly written by young laypeople of the church; this is indeed a very praiseworthy initiative.

It is making them feel important and part of the community. Scripture Union is also using the Internet for sending daily meditations. Rev. Dr. Thomas Philips has been using web casting and video-conferencing effectively to conduct Bible studies on Wednesday evenings from 9 PM to 10.30 PM to reach out to busy young people of the Sinai MTC in North London; he is finding a day and time convenient to young people and using media with which they are comfortable; in doing so he is breaking into their comfort zones. These are good models, which others may be able to emulate. Please do not wait for people to come to us, go out meet them at their conveniences in their space.

Doing gospel work online may seem a strange thing to begin with; it can certainly take you to new places and creates new relationships in the virtual space. However, such virtual ministry will never replace meeting people in person on Sunday morning worships or fellowship meetings. It has its negative side as well, as we notice in TV evangelism and parading the Holy Communion on the box. We are in the middle of a digital revolution that will have an enormous impact on all our lives as the printing press (Gutenberg 1440CE) did in the 15th century. Hence we need to be very careful and disciplined in using these new technologies for interacting with people and not exploiting people who are emotionally vulnerable. Anyone can post their thoughts on the social media and there is no clearly defined source of authority of a church or a bishop. In the post-modern world the interpretation of a text depends on the people who read it. For the postmodernists, every presentation is a representation and every author of a book or article is thought to be dead, a writer has no authority over the text once the text is in the public domain. It is the reader who interprets the text using his/her cultural context. The very foundation of authority is being challenged. Therefore, we can no longer enjoy on the privileges of respect and the protection of authority we have come to enjoy and respect. Hence we should be mindful of using the modern communication media responsibly.

There are some positive things in the postmodern way of thinking as well. They argue that what is on the margins decides what is at the center. Jesus cared for people on the margins of the society, so we should. Margins should help the center to formulate policies and restructure the society. It is time to consider the importance of the subsidiarity principles in the management and governance of the Mar Thoma Diaspora regions. At present, it is the young people and women who are marginalized and silenced through a top-down hierarchical hegemony. We must identify these margins and help to recover the agency of the margins for their growth and expression of their faith.

Focus online journal is a very modest effort in using the digital environment for reaching out and highlighting important issues thoughtfully to the Mar Thoma Diaspora communities around the world. It is refreshing to see how Pope Francis is effectively using twitter to reach his people and he is leading the way; he has a twitter account in nine languages with over 12 million followers; it is indeed an amazing transformation. We hope that our community will rise to the challenges of hyper-connected super highways of communication with courtesy and discipline. Being disciplined in using the digital communication may be countercultural, but that is what the Christian message is all about; our involvement may bring the necessary discipline in propagating the Christian message of love under the grace of God. The internet-based applications including websites, blogs, face book, podcasts, and apps are opening up new frontiers for church始s mission, ministry and pastoral care.

Training in social communication is an essential area

where more emphasis should be given if future ministers are to deliver their ministry effectively; it is time to float the pulpit to reach out to people. We also need to find ways for intergenerational communication that are creative, challenging and convincing. The challenges of today始s globalized culture demand new and deeper efforts not only to read the signs of the times but also to see the challenges for being a new way of being a church in the digital age.

Churches continue to penalize young people who are not always able to attend Sunday services. They may not be attending the Sunday worship for a number of reasons including work, leisure activities, and possibly total indifference. Youths have a huge number of other attractive alternatives on Sundays; it is their business, but it is business of the church to reach them instead of writing them off. We need to think about providing interesting faith-building activities and teaching for young people at other times and days. What is wrong in arranging a worship service on an evening on a weekday? What is wrong in sending a very brief note, three points, of the Sunday sermon by email to the members of the parish? The burden of this ministry should be on the shoulders of the informed few. Leaders of our parishes ought to understand that the resources entrusted to them are only on loan from God, to be used for the good of all. We should be sharing resources of the digital age in a way that takes account of their impact on all sections of the community. Other agencies, outside the church, are using Internet for educating children in remote villages in India and other places; we are only beginning to realize the potentials of this powerful technology.

Churches should help young people through the digital media and social networks to develop their own Christian values, based on the biblical principles; they also need to have the examples of the elders who follow Christ with honesty and integrity under the grace of God. We are amateurs; we need your constant prayer and support to make our online ministry fruitful for the glory of God. Please send the following URLs to your friends and tell them about this resource:

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Synopsis of Metropolitanʼs Pastoral Letters in the ʻSabha Tharakaʼ April, May & June 2014 April 2014: India is waiting for the parliamentary election, which would decide the future of the country for next five years. The people of India approach this election on its 67th year of independence with grave concerns. India has several credits to its success in various fields after its independence in 1947. However, bribery at all levels, nepotism, and sectarianism had destroyed the country from its exemplary goals promulgated by Mahatma Gandhi. It was Gandhijiʼs dream that those who are neglected and marginalized should come to the forefront and have a stake in the society. We can see several political leaders who just move around without any principles, just like clouds moving around without any drop of water in it. Those leaders who always think what they could get for themselves; their policies are guided by an attitude of what is in it for them.

They also engage in character assassination of others, which is indeed a shameful image of the country. Let us hope, pray and work for a stable central government with commitments to religious freedom, democratic principles, and human rights for maintaining the secular identity and achieving prosperity for the whole nation.

A meeting is being arranged to celebrate the birth centenary of late Thomas Mar Athanasius Suffragan Metropolitan on May 25th at Kottayam Jerusalem MTC. A Festschrift volume remembering the life of Thirumeni will be published under the editorship Rev. Dr. M. J. Joseph, former principal of MT Seminary. Philipose Mar Chrysostom Thirumeni is entering to 97th birth year on April 27th and prayers are offered for Godʼs continued care and blessings; Thirumeni rejuvenates the lives of people around him day by day.

In the first half of the month of April, we remember the culmination of the public ministry of our Lord Jesus, and in the second half we celebrate the crucifixion of our Lord.

When our Lord approaches the Fig tree with lots of branches and leaves, and finds no fruits, he curses the tree. This challenges us to be fruitful in this world. When Jesus cleansed the Jerusalem temple, he raised the challenge against the so-called injustices in the society. The same anger and apprehension that Jesus demonstrated should encourage us to fight injustices and corruption. When the thief on the cross, repented his sins and sought mercy, Jesus

promised him a place in the paradise with him. When Mary visited the tomb of Jesus on Sunday morning, she saw an empty tomb. She went there to pay homage to his body, but she found that the stone in front of his tomb had been moved and his body was not there. Peter and John saw the empty tomb too and returned to their home, but Mary remained there with tears in her eyes. But when Jesus appeared and called her Mary, the tears of sorrow became the tears of happiness. Jesus appeared to the disciples in the closed room. He gave them the gift of Holy Spirit. Our church has a practice during the time ordination, the consecrating Bishop reads the above Biblical text and ushers the Holy Spirit to the Deacon. Jesus again appeared to the disciples, and this time Thomas was also with them; when Jesus showed Thomas his hands and feet with wounds from the nails, Thomas believed and declared his faith in the resurrected Jesus. On the fourth occasion, we see Jesus walking with two persons on their journey to Emmaus, clearing their doubts. When Jesus tried to go ahead, they invited him into their house and he had dinner with them. When they noticed the wounds from the nails in his hand and also the way in which he prayed before breaking the bread, they realized that it is the risen Jesus Christ. They returned to Jerusalem with happiness of meeting the risen Christ. Four thoughts are important here – on the occasion of the last supper Jesus prayed and broke the bread and gave to the disciples. On the Pesaha (Maundy Thursday), Jesus broke the bread, but on Good Friday God the Father broke Jesus on the cross and offered to the world.

The broken body of Jesus became whole under the unfailing sovereign power of God on the Easter Sunday. The God said “I came that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10) Today, the same God is giving us the power of resurrection through the Holy Communion. In and through a Eucharistic life and with the power of the resurrection may God help us to do a fruitful ministry.

May 2014: The long awaited election to determine the future of India has already begun. The turn of the people in Kerala is already over. The election is conducted at different times in various parts of the country, but votes are counted only in the end to avoid the influence of one set of results on other regions.

This may also enable people to cast their votes without nay violence or fear. I congratulate the people who came forward to cast their votes without fearing the Maoists or Naxalists in certain places. I feel sorry for those leaders who renounce their allegiance to their own party and pledge allegiance to a new party, just for getting a seat in the elections. I hope the people will recognize such people and will act accordingly. I pray that people may be able to elect a new stable government who can rule the country without any corruption or bribery. If all of our political parties could unite together and work for the betterment of the country, India could have become the number one country in the world in all spheres. If all of us including all political parties unite together our country can make big leaps including in science and technology. I pray that God may enable our country to unfold the secrets of the universe created by God with the

knowledge and wisdom provided by God to each one of us.

We need to recognize the fact that the foundation of all scientific advances is the knowledge given to us by God. God has charted for the earth and other planetary bodies a fixed path to travel, but for man God has given unlimited freedom.

He has given certain guidelines on how to live in this world, but man has deviated from those guidelines and travel in different ways. When we travel away from the God- given pathway, we move away from God. Life in this world should enable us to travel on the path created by God. We are celebrating May 25th as a sacred music Sunday. To make the resurrected Christ a reality in our life is the mission of the church. The songs sung by our forefathers reflect the dream of the church and its mission. What is gospel? There is gospel of Jesus Christ, but Jesus Christ itself is the gospel.

The first gospel writer St. Mark has recorded this truth through the inspiration of Holy Spirit. I thank God for the services of the DSM & C, and bringing this truth in to the hearts of believers through beautiful songs. The meditations for this month end with the resurrection of our Lord. In the Acts of the Apostles 1:9, it is written like this about resurrection: “After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.” Cloud, in the Holy Bible, represents the presence of God. When Moses was talking to God at Sinai Mountain, there was the presence of the cloud. Prophet Elijah was taken in to the heaven in the presence of the cloud. When King Solomon dedicated the Jerusalem temple, there was the presence of the cloud.

Moses as representative of the Law of the Prophets, and Elijah as representative of prophets speak about what is going to happen to Jesus in Jerusalem. That is when Peter says, let us sit here and build three huts. We are not called out as witnesses to settle down in safe places by building huts in mountains, but to come down to the valley and find solutions for the problems of those less fortunate and marginalized living there. Jesus had proved the same through his life and mission in this world. This is the gospel for the church for all ages. The God by hearing the cry of His people in Egypt sent Moses to release them; God had sent his own son to this world to become the redeemer of us from our pain and suffering. The model of Christ is to stand with those who are marginalized and less fortunate in society. We have been given the strength of the resurrection to be with those who are suffering in pain and in difficulties. In order to be the true witnesses and to share the love of Christ, we need to taste the love of Christ first. True witnessing creates a witnessing community. Yes, we are the witnesses who have seen the glory of Christ. Let us submit ourselves before the Lord to be His true witnesses so that we can lead others to His glory.

June 2014 June is the beginning of the school year in Kerala. We thankfully remember the glorious days when we started our education with an ʻAsanʼ, who taught us the first letters by inscribing the prayer, ʻSri Yesuve Namaʼ, in ʻPanayolaʼ with his pointed iron pen. It was a secular community who lived harmoniously during those days. We used to learn all things including the multiplication table by heart. Now a day, our

generations could not do anything without calculator or computer. We are forgetting the limitless power of the brain God has given to each one of us. The new generation should be able to develop their education based on moral principles and values.

I congratulate the Kottayam Cochi Diocese and also Kottayam Jerusalem MTC for organizing in a dignified way the birth centenary celebrations of late Thomas Mar Athanasius Suffragan Metropolitan. We were able to release a Festschrift volume about Thirumeni and also a worship order book including Suriyani version during the occasion.

Thomas Thirumeni was able to follow our Lord without failing in the trials and temptations of everyday life. He was very careful in our heritage and eastern culture. He had the opportunity to share the Word of God in all continents. He stood firmly by the gospel truths and in its implementation.

He laid a strong foundation for the North American Diocese.

His words were extraordinarily powerful. Even though his face was always serious, when one interacted with him, they felt the pleasantness of his love. Let us pray that our church is able to continue its faith journey as a witnessing community in the path shown by Thirumeni. Let us pray that the ecumenical vision shown by Thrirumeni may be a pathway to enlighten us in our ecumenical journey.

In the month of June, we remember about the promise of God about the sending of the Holy Spirit. Jesus instructed the disciples to stay in Jerusalem and continue in prayers, and after receiving the Holy Spirit to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Samaria, Judea and to the end of the earth. What is our mission? God is calling us as His witnesses to renew the creation. God has created man and women in His own image. If the relationship between God and man is in the life that He has breathed in to us, the relationship between man and man is flesh to flesh and bone to bone. When we forget this relationship, we move away from God and humanity. It is the responsibility of the believers to renew these relationships, renew the creation, and redeem the environment from destruction. When we celebrate June 8th as environmental day, we pray that “let the Holy Spirit come and renew the creation.” The experience of Pentecost is the experience of renewal, and also sharing of Godʼs power.

During the Trinity Sunday, we declare our faith in the Trinity, followed by the remembrance about the calling of the Apostles, and declare our faith through worship. When we understand the discipleship is for witnessing, our Lord will provide the strength for witnessing. June 29th is the day of Apostle Peter and Paul. I am completing 57 years on June 29th in the service of the church. While going through different life experiences, I was able to experience Godʼs providence and care. I thank God for the mental strength and the discerning power he has given all these years. In order to obtain more and more grace from the Lord, who is able to make the impossible possible, please continue to pray for me so that I can discharge my priestly duties.

Compiled & Translated by Lal Varghese, Esq., Dallas (An abridged version of Pastoral Letters in appeared in Malayalam from Sahba Tharaka)

Everyday Theology: Part-IV* Culture and the Gospel Dr. Zac Varghese, London [In this four-part study, an effort is made to indicate that everyday theology evolves from an understanding of the Bible from our own cultural contexts. It is a faith seeking or faith building understanding; it is experiencing the presence of God within the community of Godʼs created world order and in the midst of all situations of our lives. It is also suggested that giving glory to God in life is by celebrating ʻthe Liturgy after the Liturgy.ʼ The importance of studying the interplay between culture and the gospel is highlighted in this final part.]

Everyday theology, as we have seen in the early parts of this series*, is taking the incidences of everyday living and relating it to the presence of God in the ordinary hub and tumble of life and in extraordinary moments. It is what Charles Kingsly experienced in his daily walks, for he said: “I was immersed in an ocean of God.” It is about loving God and realizing His love in our lives and in the lives of our neighbors. It is testifying with confidence that His grace is sufficient for us in all circumstance of living and all seasons of our lives. Then we begin to experience the presence of God in the highs and lows in our lives, in the rise and fall of the sun, in the waxing and waning moon, and in the rise and fall of wind. All these are opportunities to feel a purpose for the pulsating and throbbing lives within our neighbors, the created order, and us. The creator and the coordinator of this incomprehensible mystery is our God; everyday theology helps us to experience this mystery. We know about God through three Books: the Bible, the ʻBook of Natureʼ, and the ʻBook of Cultureʼ; we are truly the people of these Books. As we live by the precepts of these books, we also help to contribute new insights, and become part of its developing history. We are inheritors of an abundant covenantal blessing from God, and part of Godʼs plan for healing this fractured world for establishing His kingdom. The book of Proverbs also talks about everyday life; Proverbs pictures godliness in everyday working clothes.

William Tyndale (1494-1536) was burned at the stake in Belgium in 1536 for translating the Bible into English so that Bible could be accessible even to an ʻilliterate ploughboy.ʼ Before his effort, the 4th century Vulgate edition of the Bible in Latin was only available to the priestly and the scholarly classes. Tyndale defied the Pope and Henry VIII in his pursuit of making the Bible available to everyone. Then Bishop of London bought an entire edition of 6,000 copies of Tyndaleʼs translation and burned on the steps of the St. Paulʼs Cathedral.

The established church wanted to keep the treasures of the Bible to enlightened few. Lay people were not encouraged to read or study the Bible in this early period. It is against this background we should see Martin Lutherʼs reformation and the fascination for everyday and everymanʼs theology. He declared, ʻSola Scriptura - scripture aloneʼ for salvation and guidance for a God-centered life. It is the Bible alone emphasis, and not human interpretation of the Bible that tells us what we need to know about God, ourselves, and the way to salvation. Apostle Paul tells us that every part of the Bible was written by people but was inspired by God, and it is useful

for showing us truth, building our faith in Christ, Jesusʼ teaching, correcting and training us to live in Godʼs way ((2 Timothy 3:15, 16). The second ʻEvangelical National Anglican Congressʼ held in Nottingham made the following statement: “The reader of the Bible does not require training to understand its basic message, but to understand it more deeply we need the gift of the scholar and the pastoral expositor. We should use our mind to study the Bible both in its unity and in its diversity; in general, passages should not be interpreted out of context, but when valuable insights are gained in that way, they must be tested against an historical understanding of biblical truth.”

It is reasonable to assume that cultural influences might have infiltrated the thought forms of the biblical writers and hence we may find the influence of Palestinian, Hebrew, Babylonian, Greek and Roman cultural traits in the Bible. The whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation is written in the languages and styles of the particular times, and evokes cultures in which it got expressed, hence it is culturally conditioned. Using the same basic Markan text, Mathew and Luke gave a Jewish and Gentile slant respectively to their texts. Since the gospels were all written thirty or more years after Jesusʼ crucifixion, some fresh interpretations were expressed by the needs of each writerʼs constituencies. Hence, we can also see the political, sociological, and cultural trends in the gospels. The religious leaders of the day knew the laws of Moses inside out, but most of them did not have an experiential relationship with the God they professed; Jesus pointed this out to the caretakers of the Jewish religion. We can self-righteously keep all His commands but totally neglect His greatest command to love our neighbor as ourselves and to love our enemies. Such attitudes are not different to those of the Pharisees. There is a danger that we may not recognize God when we encounter His working, or worse still, we may oppose what He is doing. God encourages unity in diversity. The kingdom envisioned by Jesus gave priority for the powerless and who lived in the margins of the society; Jesusʼ friendships with sinners, tax collectors, the ritually unclean, and with the dispossessed were countercultural; it was also against centuries old expectations of a Messiah to liberate Israel from foreign rule and oppression.

We see from Paulʼs letters that it was possible to share synagogues for his ministry before the Jewish-Roman war and the destruction of the temple in 70 CE, but there was a clear separation between Jews and Christians after this period.

Therefore, socio-political and cultural tensions played a significant role in developing Jewish messianic attitudes, which profoundly influenced the ministry, the development of the early church, and the shaping of the New Testament.

The Biblical methods of interpretations of using exegesis and hermeneutics principles help us to overcome some of the cultural biases. This enables us in believing the biblical stories, though not literally, which teach us of God as the living God, one who speaks, appears acts, loves, heals, forgives, blesses, and saves. The Holy Spirit is always working to bind us

together with Godʼs unconditional love. However, people always want to know how the biblical teachings relate to daily events in life. We are also always exposed to the Nature and culture and we study the Bible in the context of the two; hence all the three books help us to appreciate Godʼs authority, and we remain grateful to Him for His mercy and abundant blessings. The Bible does not standalone; it is culture bound and exists in the matrices of the historical, present and future cultures. It is worthwhile to remember what Edmund Burke, the 18th century British parliamentarian, said about society. He said society is a contract between “the past, the present and those not yet born”. Sociologists define society as a group of people who share a common culture. This continuity is also a characteristic of the Church. We have an unwritten faith forming contract with our patriarchs – Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, prophets, Jesus Christ, apostles, Church Fathers, generations of past believers, present and future; this constitutes the invisible universal Church.

We are also connected to these people through their cultural endowments.

The main burden of this 4th part of the study is to bring out the interplay between culture and the gospel.

Everyday life is the sum total of many cultural events; culture and society are intimately linked. Everyday exists in time and space, and it is our time and our space. Everyday theology is the faith seeking understanding through our everyday culture.

As indicated before, everyday theology is making sense of our environment and our interactions with other people under the grace of God. This includes our physical location at any moment in time including intellectual and spiritual domain in which we live. This is so because culture consists of language, customs, values, rules, tools and techniques, professional etiquettes, artifacts, organizations and institutions. It is a means for defining ourselves for establishing our identities.

Hence we have religious and secular cultures and these further divided into multiple sub-cultures too. For instance, within a family or a parish we have definable sub-cultures on the basis of generational polarities and faith affirmations. However, todayʼs globalised culture has lost its sharpness in defining a particular cultural entity because increasing numbers of people interact and share cultural capital globally. It is now extremely difficult to know where one culture ends and another begins.

Jesusʼ analogy of a tree is applicable to all aspects of our life and our cultural existence: "Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit” (Matt 12:33).

One of the problems for the people in the pews is to understand the interpretation of the biblical texts without

historical or existing current cultural biases. The theological opinions and interpretative skills of the preacher or writer vary like the vagaries of the climate change. What do we believe as the authentic biblical truth or its interpretation through the authority of an institutionalized church? This is the problem that confronted Martin Luther when he sought help from the church, but instead of providing simple answers from the Bible, church leaders of the time simply quoted the leading biblical scholars and Church Fathers. They threw at him traditional unpalatable answers and the sayings of St. Cyprian of Carthage and statements such as, “extra ecclesiam nalla salus- outside the Church there is no salvation”. He took this for the power play of the Pope and his magisterium. This led to his involvement in the reformation and the search for truth directly from the Biblical texts (scripture alone), and not from interpretations and other outside influences including the hegemony of the institutionalized church. This suggests that truth is sometimes dressed up in cultural fabrics and underneath this is the hidden jewel, the Lord Jesus Christ. What we need is the solid foundation of Godʼs word, not the human opinion of it. The text alone is conditioned by cultural influences, and not truth; truth is timeless. It is a challenge to preserve the timeless truth about God and His authority while adapting to times and cultural shifts. Bishop Tom Wright argues that “in the Bible all authority lies with God himself”. The timeless truth is hidden in a culturally conditioned Book. We cannot escape from the possibility that some of the Old Testament stories were crafted and placed there for building up Israel brick by brick as an elected nation for sharing Godʼs blessings to the whole world.

Sometimes, we are asked to believe in it literally or in its varied transcriptions or translations and subjective interpretations. At times, we worship the Bible more than we worship God. Richard Niebuhrʼs book, Christ and Culture,2 is a good way to get a grip on this complex topic of ʻculture and the gospelʼ.

Niebuhr says that our appreciation and understanding of Jesus through the gospels are inadequate, as they do not fully capture his totality, since they are culturally conditioned. How can the built-in limitations of a finite human mind fully comprehend and infinite God? This is why God is sometimes described as ʻmore thanʼ, more than any human comprehension. But we can rely on the sufficiency of the grace to guide us through. As indicated earlier, Jesus challenged social boundaries, conventions, Sabbath restrictions, purity laws, culture and traditions; he was indeed a social reformer.

Niebuhrʼs analysis of Jesusʼ interaction with culture has five aspects: Christ against culture, Christ of culture, Christ above culture, Christ and culture in paradox, and Christ the reformer of culture. Jesus questioned the Jewish culture of his day into which he was incarnated, and from within that culture he transcended to set up a new paradigm for establishing Godʼs kingdom. There is no room here to expand on Niebuhrʼs ideas, but it is helpful to consider briefly the idea of Christ as the reformer or transformer of cultures. There are conflicts and tensions when the gospel message encounters individual cultures or other religious instincts. At various points in colonial history, missionary movements were involved in the destruction of indigenous cultures. Norman Lewisʼs book, The Missionaries,3 shows how North American fundamentalist missionaries wiped out certain indigenous tribal cultures of South America. The church originated within the JudeoChristian and Greco-Roman cultural settings and spread to various other geographical locations and cultures, and has enriched them and was enriched by them. Culture is never a finished product; all cultures are dynamic, evolving themselves to ever-new situation.

It is not possible to withdraw totally from the surrounding culture without choosing a monastic lifestyle. Instead of blaming and highlighting the negative aspects of a culture, we should become agents of change and transformation.

Appreciating the good things that a culture can offer is part of the enculturation process. At the very same time, we should have the humility to appreciate and accept that the gospelʼs power cannot be contained in any particular culture or within a particular Christian denomination. It reaches into every culture and transforms it by changing the lives of people within.

Enculturation is a process of engagement between the gospel and a particular culture. A good example of this is St. Paulʼs ministry in allowing Gentile Christians not to have circumcision (Galatians). Are we permitted to think of its equivalent for us today? The ongoing dialogue between faith and culture is a mutually beneficial one; without enculturation the proclamation of the gospel message is incomplete. During the early part of the 20th century, Bishop A. J. Appasamy and others were engaged in rethinking and presenting Christ in the Indian cultural context, thus the expression of ʻOriental Christʼ became acceptable for the Indian psyche. Raymond Panikkarʼs Unknown Christ of Hinduism and M. M. Thomasʼ The Acknowledge Christ of the Indian Renaissance were praiseworthy efforts in understanding the interaction between Indiaʼs pluralist culture and the gospel. No one culture is allowed to claim for itself the sole rightful possession of the mystery of Christ. The covenantal blessing to Abram, as we read in Genesis 12:3, is for people of all cultures and nations: “And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed”. Every dialogue of Christians with another culture should enhance their understanding of what the gospel means.

Young people in our Diaspora communities are often not allowed to enjoy their own freedom for an enculturation process in an orderly way by the non-flexible attitudes and stubborn behavior of the elders in parishes. Are the elders spying on their freedom? Let us be mindful of a critical or negative attitude towards new ways of worship, different music, the enthusiasm of young people, the ministry of women etc.

Jesus is greater than all our conventional and respectable ways of being a Sunday Christian; ʻJesus is greater than the Sabbathʼ. These tensions are alienating young people and encouraging them to seek sanctuaries outside for a fresh expression of faith. The church has a responsibility to bring the power of the gospel into the very heart of the prevalent youth cultures so that young people may feel happy within the fold of the mainline churches. We have a situation of one gospel and many cultures; we need to learn to negotiate with respect and understanding to break down cultural barriers and bridge generational gaps to reach out to people. Gospel is never heard in isolation of culture. In the modern ʻuniversity campus culturesʼ and environment, theology is not generally considered to be a source of genuine intellectual pursuit; logical reasoning and the gospels are at odds with each other. Apologetics and faith formation are necessary tools for the gospel to make an impact on our younger generations; we may have to think outside the box of the Sunday school teachings to achieve this; they are not infants and they need more than milk for their spiritual growth to face secularists, agnostics and atheists. M. M. Thomas4 in one of his talks on ʻMission of the church in the pluralistic context of Indiaʼ quoted Jurgen Moltman to give an emphasis to the idea of enculturation: “There were Jewish reasons for believing in Jesus to be the Christ. There were Greek reasons for believing Jesus as the Logos….. Culture and religion cannot be separated. Consequently today we shall also have to enquire into Hindu, Buddhist and Islamic reasons

for faith in Jesus.” Paul Tillich proposed a theology of culture and considered religion and culture integrally. He treated ʻreligion as the substance of culture and culture as the form of religion.ʼ5 Pluralism and secularism are significant realities, which describe the Western culture today. Therefore, one of the challenges for us is to transform the secular into the sacred; for this we need the guidance of the Holy Spirit to become both discerners and transformers. In order to transform cultures, we must recognize what is in need of transformation. The only way to transform a culture is by engaging with that culture with trepidation, respect, and with a critical mind. This should be our approach in interacting with the youth culture of today as well.

We need to move from being victims of circumstances to active agents of dialogue and negotiations under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. As we interact with alien or other cultures, our faith should guide us in making all the right moves. The burden of proof is upon the believers to explain how does Jesus Christ, who was once incarnated into a particular historical cultural situation, transcends cultural barriers to reach others today to establish kingdom values. We need to deepen our understanding of the cultural implications of the gospel message for todayʼs congregations living in the Diaspora regions of the Mar Thoma Church. We should use technologydriven communication media too for achieving these objectives. Our God-given communication skills must be put into effective use to reach out to other cultures and transform them. God-guided and God-centered Biblical studies, fellowships with other believers, prayer, and meditation will be of help to maintain an intimate relationship with God; this is necessary to get the spiritual energy every day to help us engage and transform the cultures around us. A critical study of culture and the gospel will give us the grace to do Godʼs mission in our God-given and entrusted Diaspora existence.

This is the essence and power of everyday theology.

References: *1. Part-1, 2 and 3 of this article appeared in the previous issues of the FOCUS: Vol.1 No.3 & Vol.2 No.1&2.

2. Richard Niebuhr. Christ and Culture. New York: Harper and Row, 1951.

3. Norman Lewis. The Missionaries. London: Picador, Macmillan, 1998.

4. M.M. Thomas. The Churchʼs Mission and Post-Modern Humanism. Tiruvalla: CSS, 1996.

5. Paul Tillich, Theology of Culture. London: Oxford University Press, 1959.

Editorʼs Note: Dr. Zac Varghese, London, U.K., was the director of Renal and Transplantation Immunology Research of Royal Free Hospital and Medical School in London. He has co-authored Medical textbooks and published extensively on Transplantation, Nephrology, Inflammation, and lipid-mediated vascular injury. He is an Emeritus Professor and continues to be a supervisor for doctoral studies even after his retirement. He is also a prolific writer on religious and ecumenical issues; he continues to work relentlessly for the ʻcommon goodʼ of the worldwide Mar Thoma Diaspora communities.

Inter Faith Contact Celia Blackden, Inter Faith Officer, Churches Together in England (CTE) Our world today The last hundred years have seen an unprecedented migration of peoples around the globe, leading to the multicultural, multiethnic and multi-faith societies found in our country and others today. Many Christians have felt called to look beyond their own circle and build up friendly relations with believers of other religions.

Wars, violence and terrorism We must not be blind to the facts of history in which ʻwars of religionʼ have been fought. Although in our day religion is rarely a direct cause of conflict, there are many conflicts in the world where religion is used or abused to further violence.

Nonetheless, religions are also authentic sources of peace and reconciliation. Many church leaders, and leaders of other religions, have affirmed and declared that violence in the name of religion is an offence to God and that anyone who uses religion to stir up violence contradicts its most authentic and profound inspiration. In the wake of civil disturbances in the north of England in 2001, and following terrorist atrocities, an increasing number of Christians have become involved in inter faith activity and in efforts made by civic authorities at every level to foster dialogue and understanding for the benefit of society. Nonetheless, peace is inseparably linked to justice - a fairer sharing of the worldʼs resources and, also, to forgiveness.

Godʼs love for all humanity – the call to dialogue The Bible offers profound insights into Godʼs love for humanity.

The opening chapters of the Book of Genesis (1-11) are universal in scope and show that Godʼs initial design embraced all of humanity. The book of Jonah has long been recognized as having a universal note, where even the Ninevites were precious in Godʼs eyes and showed a greater responsiveness to Godʼs call than Jonah did. The Servant Song in Isaiah 49:6, taken up by Paul in Acts 13:47, speaks of ʻGodʼs servant being a light not only to Israel, but to all nationsʼ.

Building good relations with people of other faiths is one way of making explicit our trust in God in whom ʻwe live and move and have our beingʼ (Acts 17:28), the God who even ʻcounts the hairs on our headʼ (cf. Matt. 10:30). For Christians, genuine love of God necessarily involves love for our brothers and sisters in the human family, for we are all Godʼs children. ʻThose who say, “I love God”, and hate their brothers or sisters,

are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seenʼ (1 John 4:20).

The call to dialogue comes directly from our faith in God who is both One and Three. In God there is a Trinitarian life of exchange, mutual indwelling and communion; and since humanity is made in Godʼs image, for human life and interaction to be true to itself it should be modelled on the pattern of the Trinity.

Dialogue can be seen to be part of our spiritual DNA, so to speak, which calls us always beyond ourselves to build a relationship of interaction and fellowship with the ʻotherʼ and with ʻothersʼ, whoever they may be. We naturally rejoice when there is growth and harmony in relationships; we suffer when relationships are threatened, distorted or broken.

The presence of God in other religions Christians in Britain hold a spectrum of theological views on the status of other faiths. There are those who consider that, through the work of the Holy Spirit, or the Logos – the Word of God as expressed in the prologue to St Johnʼs Gospel – other religions can mediate Godʼs salvation in Christ, even though they may not have an explicit or full knowledge of Christ. Many insist that only an explicit acceptance of Jesus as Saviour allows full access to the salvation God brought about in Christ.

Others affirm that God has laid down many paths, which in them-selves mediate salvation without an explicit or implicit link to the person of Christ.

While there is much contemporary debate on these questions, they were also considered by leading figures in the first centuries of the Churchʼs life, such as Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria and Athanasius. Reflecting on the words of Johnʼs prologue that ʻall things came into being through the Wordʼ, Athanasius speaks of the Word being ʻstampedʼ or ʻimprintedʼ on the whole of creation. Justin wrote: ʻSince it is God who works all things in all, he is, by his nature and his greatness, invisible and ineffable to all his creatures, but not therefore unknown, for through his Word, all learn there is one sole God and Father, who contains all things, who gives being to all things….ʼ This gave rise to the concept of ʻseeds of the Wordʼ being found in other religions.

Among the significant principles Christians share with other religions is the so-called ʻGolden Ruleʼ. The Christian text Luke 6:31 reads ʻDo to others as you would have them do to you.ʼ The Golden Rule is found in the teachings of almost all religions and we can consider it ʻan invitation to put into practice a precept, or word of lifeʼ (cf Phil: 2:15-16), we share.

We can move on from there to discover how to love our neighbours according to their real or particular needs.

On this basis we can enter into a real dialogue where, not only are there already things in common but where, albeit among practices and doctrines in contrast to our own, we may find Christ already waiting for us. Generally, adherents of other religions are pleased to build on these elements of faith we share, whilst hoping that Christians will seek to understand and respect the differences that exist among religions.

So who is acceptable to God? Who is saved?

Our Christian faith makes strong affirmations about salvation through Christ alone and in John 14:6 Jesus states clearly ʻI am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by meʼ. However, Christians believe that Christ died for all and it is not for us to judge whether people are close to Christ or not since the ways of God are inscrutable and we cannot read peopleʼs hearts. John Wesley said, for example ʻI have no authority under God to judge those who are withoutʼ and Scripture gives important insights that encourage humility and trust in God; ʻGod shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to himʼ (Acts 10:34-35). ʻThen people will come from east and west, from north and south, and will eat in the kingdom of God. Indeed, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be lastʼ (Luke 13: 28-29).

This apparent paradox that exists within Christianity is a positive challenge to us. The World Council of Churches affirmed: ʻWe cannot point to any other way of salvation than Jesus; at the same time, we cannot set limits to the saving power of Godʼ. A commentator said ʻWe appreciate this tension and do not attempt to resolve itʼ. So while there is no need for Christians to renounce their belief that Christ alone is the path to salvation, we are also invited to understand that the infinite love of God knows no boundaries.

Witnessing to Christ We are called to witness to Jesus by the constant reevangelisation of our lives and our service to others.

Nonetheless, we are also invited to speak when appropriate: ʻAlways be ready to give a defence to everyone who asks for a reason for the hope that is in you.ʼ (1 Pet 3:15). Christians must think carefully about how to speak about their faith in a multifaith society, hence the importance of prayer and study. We trust too that the Spirit may guide us in the present moment, as to what to say and when. Respect is key to every dialogue, involving a willingness to listen and to learn. Our dialogue partners can be very sensitive to poorly hidden agendas regarding hoped for conversion to Christ. They welcome however, Christian sharing on what we believe, when views are given ʻwith gentleness and reverenceʼ (1 Pet 3:16) whilst being ready ʻto make disciples of all nationsʼ (cf Matt 28:19) we must remember that Christian faith is a gift from God, the work of the Holy Spirit, and that mission is not measured by visible results. Nonetheless, perhaps the most important feature of witness today, is mutual love among Christians of different traditions ʻBy this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one anotherʼ (John 13:35) .

Principles of dialogue These grew out of a World Council of Churches document published in 1979 and are endorsed by Churches Together in England.

Dialogue begins when people meet each other Dialogue is first of all about people: meeting, building friendships, conversation, laughter, tears, sharing. Once we meet, we may realize that Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Jews, Zoroastrians, Bahaʼis, Jains or Buddhists are not what we thought. We realize too that no one is the perfect embodiment of faith. Dialogue has been defined as ʻall positive and constructive interreligious relations with individuals and with communities of other faiths that are directed at mutual understanding and enrichment in obedience to truth and

respect for freedomʼ.

While Christians have a special relationship with the Jews, and share the ʻAbrahamic traditionʼ with Islam too, much can be learned from and exchanged with the faithful of all religions.

Dialogue depends on mutual understanding and trust It is essential to abolish notions of superiority with regard to any neighbor, because we can truly learn from everyone we meet. Trust also requires that each dialogue partner is intent on listening to and receiving the best of the other (it is not right to compare our ʻbestʼ and their ʻworstʼ); and that everyone listens with an open heart and mind. It has been said that ʻto know the otherʼs religion implies seeking to walk in the otherʼs shoes, seeing the world as he or she sees it, grasping what it means for the other person to be Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu…ʼ.

Genuine dialogue nonetheless, requires that each partner work from a position of strength, knowledge and confidence in their faith. To dilute our faith is a disservice to others. Hence, mutual understanding leaves room for the view that Christ is the only mediator through whom salvation is possible, just as it does for other perspectives. Where there is both giving and receiving there is the possibility of challenge, change and growth on both sides.

Dialogue makes it possible to share in service to the community The opportunities are endless. Increasingly too at the level of local and regional governance, faith communities acting together are being invited to take part in planning and resourcing. The Christian community can play a key role here.

Dialogue becomes a medium for authentic witness The faithful of other religions are willing to hear what Christians believe. While Christian communities or individuals on their faith journey may not adhere to all of the articles in the Apostles Creed, it remains an essential summary of Christian belief: ʻI believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.ʼ Identifying with others - imitating Christ Interreligious dialogue and collaboration requires openness to others and a readiness to learn from them; that can seem to be in contrast to the immense treasure of our faith in Christ and the truth he revealed. Here Christʼs own example is the key.

Christ ʻthough he was in the form of Godʼ, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, ʻbut emptied himself… And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a crossʼ (Phil. 2:5-11). In Christ and with him we can ʻempty ourselvesʼ which means to put aside our own point of view in order to identify with the other person. It is a matter of momentarily setting aside what we have and what is most precious to us, our own faith, our own convictions, in order to be, as it were, ʻnothingʼ in front of the other person, a ʻnothingness of loveʼ. ʻ…unless a grain of wheat falls into the

earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruitʼ (John 12:24).

This, ʻdying to ourselvesʼ enables us to learn from others and also give authentic witness to Christ. Our complete openness and acceptance then predisposes the other person to listen to us. Then we can pass on to proclaiming with respect. Being true to God, and being sincere with our neighbor, we can share what our faith affirms on the subject we are discussing, without 1 imposing anything, without any trace of proselytism , but only out of love.

Rt. Rev. Dr. Thomas Mar Athanasius Suffragan Metropolitan (1914-1984)* Dr. Zac Varghese, London

Multicultural society becoming an intercultural society If this is our attitude, our partners in dialogue will be able to express themselves because they find people who seek to listen deeply and speak respectfully. In this way, we can become acquainted with their faith and with their culture. We can in some way enter into their lives, even to some extent becoming in a sense enculturated in them, and so be enriched.

This attitude enables us to contribute to making our multicultural societies become intercultural that are, made up of cultures that are open to one another and in a profound dialogue of respect and love with one another.

Difficult questions Nevertheless, dialogue and collaboration with our neighbors of other faiths does not mean agreeing with beliefs or practices contrary to our faith or remaining silent about things we might disagree with in other faiths. However, great care and delicacy is required in order to seek to understand fully, the beliefs and practices of others and the culture(s) they are associated with.

Ways of thinking and acting may seem different from our own but they are not necessarily wrong. We too should be prepared to answer difficult questions. Where there is a context of trust and a willingness to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem, difficult questions can be raised.

Photo courtesy: Mr. Jacob Joseph, Toronto

The fruits of dialogue Dialogue frees hearts to love each neighbor in a disinterested way. It helps Christians re-discover and deepen their faith and appreciate the faith and practices of others. It allows Christians to discover truths held in common with the faithful of other religions and to put them into practice together. Dialogue forges genuine friendships, builds the local community and brings joy, peace, understanding and light. Dialogue and effective action together also give credibility to religion in the eyes of those who question its usefulness.

This photograph of Thomas Thirumeni has an amazing quality and power to talk to us about who he was. I take this opportunity to write few lines to pay homage to this disciple of Jesus Christ. 2014 is the birth centenary of Thirumeni. He was th born on 26 May 1914 in the Panampunna family at Kottayam. th He passed away on 27 November 1984. In 1953, he was consecrated as a bishop of the Mar Thoma Church together with Mar Alexander Mar Theophilus and Philipose Mar Chrysostom. These three outstanding bishops contributed much to the golden age of the Mar Thoma Church.

Editorʼs Note: Celia Blackden was educated at St. Hughʼs College, Oxford.

Along with the late Bishop Charles Henderson she built up the work of the National Roman Catholic Committee for Other Faiths. Her present post, Inter Faith Officer at Churches Together in England, fosters deeper collaboration in the field of interreligious dialogue by the Churches in England. She is the author of Friendship and Exchange with People of Other Faiths: a context for witness and dialogue (EV91) Grove Books, and co-authored, with Dr. Helen Reid, a Chapter on Unity and Inter Faith Relations in Unity in Process: Reflections on Ecumenical Activity, ed. Rev. Dr. Clive Barrett, DLT August 2012. The web site for Churches Together in England (CTE) is www.cte.org.uk 1

Pressurizing people to convert

I had the privilege of knowing him from my childhood and enjoyed his thoughtful and loving mentoring all my life. He had a parathyroid surgery in London in October 1984, and I still remember him telling me, ʻI feel like a new man.ʼ He was so happy about the way he was looked after in the hospital; he was indeed a prince, the doctors and nurses felt holiness and divinity in his manners and contact with them. He used to tell, ʻNo one should do anything, which may hurt the Church.ʼ I am sure many of you may also recollect with great affection many things that Thirumeni said and did. He always will stand out in my mind as someone who set forth with such total discipline, integrity, courage, style, dignity, and leadership. Some of us, who had the exceptional fortune to know him, continue to turn to him for help and guidance because he is indeed a living legend and has been a lasting influence. Many people would acknowledge that Thomas Thirumeni was the most outstanding Indian bishop of the twentieth century. (Contd. on Page 15)

Pearls of Wisdom from Down the Ages-5 St. Augustine A reading from St. Augustineʼs commentary on the Gospel of St. John* [St. Augustine (354 – 430 CE) was a very influential theologian; he is considered as one of the most important Church Fathers. His most important works are ʻCity of Godʼ and ʻConfessionsʼ. Believing that the grace of Christ was indispensable to human freedom, he helped to formulate the doctrine of original sin and made seminal contributions to the development of just war theory.]

A woman from Samaria came to draw water (John 4: 3-43).

Jesus said to her, ʻLet me have a drink.ʼ His disciples had gone into the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to Him: How is that you, a Jew, should ask me for a drink, for I am a Samaritan? The Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.

Let us consider the position of the foreigners. The Jews would not even touch their utensils. Since the woman was carrying her vessel to draw water she was amazed, because here was a Jew asking her for a drink, which was not the custom of the Jews. Moreover, He who was asking her for a drink was thirsting for her to believe.

Finally, consider who it is who was asking for a drink.

Jesus replied and said to her: If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, let me have a drink, you would perhaps have asked Him and He would have given you a drink of living water.

He asks for a drink, and He offers a promise of a drink.

He is need of one, and He has himself so much to give that will more than quench her thirst. If you knew the gift of God, he says. The gift of God is the Holy Spirit. Up to now He has not been speaking openly to the woman.

But gradually He penetrates into her heart. Perhaps now He is teaching her, for what could be kinder or more gentle than His words of exhortation: If you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you, let me have a drink, you might perhaps ask Him to give you a drink and He might give you living water.

A woman came to draw water. She is a type of the Church not yet justified, but already on the way to justification. Now this what the text is saying: she came in ignorance, she found him and he entered into conversation with her. Let us look at the meaning of this and see why a woman from Samaria came to draw water. The Samaritans did not belong to the Jewish race, for they were foreigners. It is part of the allegory that this woman, who stands for the Church, came from a foreign race, for the Church was to come from the Gentiles, and for the Jews its members were outsiders. Let us therefore hear ourselves spoken of in her; let us ourselves recognise in her, and let us in her give thanks to God for what we are. She was indeed an image, not the reality, for she was foreshadowing of what was to become and this foreshadowing became truth. She believed in Him, and He made her story into a parable for us. She came to draw water, quite simply to draw water, as men or women were accustomed to do.

From what source is He intending to give her a drink, if not from that of which it is said: With you is the source of life? For how shall they thirst who drink their fill from the copious fountains of your dwelling? He was promising her an unfailing supply, the fullness of the Holy Spirit, and she did not understand; and as she did not understand, how did she answer? The woman said to Him: ʻLord, give me that water, so that I may never be thirsty, nor have to come here to draw water anymore.ʼ Her poverty made her think of work, and her weakness made her reluctant to undertake it. If only she could hear the words: Come to me, all of you who labor and are overburdened, and I will refresh you! Jesus was saying this so that she would not have to toil any longer; but she did not yet understand. * A Word in Season edited by H. Ashworth, 1974; The Talbot Press, Dublin, page 227-228 Collected by Dr. Zac Varghese

E. Stanley Jonesʼ Strategy for Missions: Lessons for Today Rev. Martin Alphonse Ph.D., Portland, OR Introduction:

Stanley Jones was gifted of God with a brilliant mind and an exceptional power for communication. Only a few of his contemporaries could match his capacity for interpreting the gospel as something irresistibly attractive and relevant to the modern and post-modern age. He substantiated his evangelistic apologetics with indisputable illustrations from the fields of religion and philosophy, science and psychology.

However, more than being an intellectual, he was a passionate evangelist. His passion for evangelism emerged out of three other inter-connected passions, namely the passion for God, for people, and the Kingdom of God. 1. His Passion for God in Christ.

Dr. Paul Rees, a long-term associate of Stanley Jones described him as a ʻChrist-intoxicated' person. Indeed he was a Christo-holic, a God-addict. He confessed: "I am an ordinary man doing extraordinary things because I am linked with the extraordinary" (1968:26). That link with the extraordinary was the source of his powerful ministry for 66 remarkable years.

Once, someone after listening to his passionate presentation of the gospel commented, 'Jesus has got into you. Hasnʼt he?"

He exuberantly replied, 'Yes, and he has raised my temperature."

Eli Stanley Jones was born on 3 January 1884, in Clarksville, an insignificant suburb of Baltimore, Maryland. A young man of 23 years he arrived in India in 1907 as a missionary of the American Methodist Mission Board. Keeping India as his base, he served as a global evangelist for the next 66 years until his death on 25 January 1973. During his life time, Time Magazine identified him as "The World's Greatest Missionary'. World Outlook Magazine named him: "Missionary Extraordinary". A renowned Bishop described him as: 'The greatest Christian missionary since St. Paul.” As a global evangelist he traveled extensively, presenting the gospel on a one-on-one basis to presidents and prime ministers, intellectuals and executives, while preaching to hundreds of thousands of hungry masses, speaking three or more times daily. He spoke at the celebrated Maramon Convention of the Mar Thoma Church in Kerala to almost 1,50,000 people every February for 44 consecutive years. As a prolific writer, he authored about 31 books, besides contributing numerous articles to Christian journals. As an evangelist he was busy ʻround the clock, round the year, round the world.ʼ As a missionary strategist, Jones was way ahead of his contemporaries. There is so much we can learn from his life, ministry and the evangelistic missionary strategies he employed in his generation.

E. Stanley Jones – A Passionate Evangelist.

It was said of Count Nikolaus Zinzendorf, founder of the great missionary Moravian Church: "I have one passion. It is He! He alone." Stanley Jones too was so overwhelmed with a passion for Jesus Christ that he sought to know Christ not only through his own personal experience but also through the experience of others of Christ. He believed that, "... each nation has something distinctive to contribute to the interpretation of the universal Christ ... each individual ... has something distinctive to contribute to the fuller interpretation of Christ' (1944:7-8).

While as an evangelist he eagerly presented Christ to others, he was equally eager to learn more about Christ through others. In his classical first book entitled The Christ of the Indian Road (1925), he describes with passion the Christ whom he had discovered through the cultural context and spiritual quests of the people of India. True to his own cultural heritage, he also sought to discover Christ from a North American perspective through another book called The Christ of the American Road (1944). Affirming that we could always learn about Christ from each other's experience and interpretation, he wrote another book called The Christ of Every Road (1930). In the Indian tradition, a man or woman of outstanding devotion to God is reverently addressed as a bhakta. Even the proudest heads in India would bow in respect before a bhakta. Dr. E. Stanley Jones, both as a person and as an evangelist was a Christu-bhakta par excellence, one who was consumed with a passion for Jesus Christ.

2. His Passion for People.

In his autobiography A Song of Ascents Stanley Jones noted: "If everyman is a part of everyman he has met -and he is-, then everyman I have met across the span of over half a century, in East and West, North and South, is a part of me. I owe much to the sons of men. They have enriched me. My gratitude is unbounded' (1968:5). He had an enormous passion for people of different cultures and races, anywhere, anytime. He wrote: 'I

looked into the face of the Son of Man and then looked into the face of the sons of men, and I have spent my life trying to bring them together. After that one look into that 'one dear Faceʼ, I have never seen an uninteresting face. They are all so worthwhile with infinite possibilities"(1968:5).

His passion for people is best illustrated by a missiological principle called 'The Naturalization of the Gospel', which he originated, practiced and propagated. It is an incarnational principle of evangelism which as defined by Samuel Kamaleson means: "A Christian affirmation of human dignity born out of an inner identity with Jesus Christ, on the basis of which we become part of the essential humanity in context” (1983:33). The principle of naturalization of the Gospel consists of three integral parts. a) It affirms human dignity.

The biblical doctrine of humans as a creation in the image of God underscores the validity, nobility and dignity, which are inherent in every person irrespective of sex, race, color, creed, and social status. Where this human dignity is recognized and honored, there will be no room for discrimination of any kind.

Instead, socio-cultural distinctive will be mutually affirmed and respected, resulting in a spontaneous celebration of the otherness in others and producing a spirit of equality and fraternity. Although separated by culture and language, all humans are equal and united by creation as the image of God. Jesus Christ is not comfortable with any one culture exclusively. He purifies every culture and gives dignity to every person created in God's image. b) It affirms our identity with Jesus Christ.

The Christian affirmation of human dignity stems out of our inner identity with Jesus Christ. This identity releases us from all bondages, restores us to full freedom and recreates us into a new humanity in Christ. “... if anyone is in Christ he (she) is a new creation" (2 Corinthians 5:17). This creative newness we receive by being in Christ disentangles us from our prejudice against others, enables us to see others also as an integral part of that one essential humanity we share in Christ, and calls us to uphold the dignity in every person. One who is in Christ cannot be otherwise. Jesus affirmed this dignity in the Jew and in the Samaritan, in the bureaucrat and in the proletariat, in the saint and in the sinner, in every man and in every woman. So must be the case with everyone calls oneself a disciple of Christ. c) It leads us to become a part of all humanity.

Jesus the Word became flesh, not just Jewish flesh, but the flesh, which represented and included all humanity. Although Jesus was born a Jew, he was a universal person. He conscientiously belonged to humanity as a whole. Stubbornly refusing to limit his inter-personal relationships only to those categories of people approved by parochial Judaism, he mingled freely with the prohibited segments of society such as the Samaritans, the publicans and the prostitutes. He knew he had come to die for all of them, and that he belonged to everyone of them. Hence, all those who claim to belong to Christ must have within them the spontaneous urge to become an integral part of the universal humanity of which Christ himself is the nucleus. It was this intense urge, which made Stanley Jones to declare: 'Everyman is a part of everyman he

has met ... and ... Everyone who belongs to Jesus, belongs to everyone who belongs to Jesus.'

3. His passion for the Kingdom of God. Mission, to Stanley Jones is the churchʼs attempt to expand the Kingdom of God on earth, and evangelism is the persuasion of humans to enter into that Kingdom. He saw six distinct and integral aspects of the Kingdom, which have a direct bearing upon the mission of the church.

1) The inseparability of Christ from His Kingdom Jones saw Christ and His Kingdom as synonyms. They are inseparably linked together in organic substance of truth. He wrote that the character of the Kingdom is seen in the character of Jesus – the Kingdom is Christ-likeness universalized and Christ is the Kingdom personalized. “The unshakeable Kingdom, the absolute Order; and the unchanging Person, the absolute Person. These were two absolutes than, now they have coalesced and have become one.” (1972:34). As Dr. Kamaleson has observed, the two absolutes have become one single ʻabsolute absoluteʼ. Jonesʼ missiology emerges out of the fusion the two absolutes together. As such, “mission must be carried out within the purview of all that the Kingdom of God has to offer humans under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.” (Alphonse 1993:24-25).

2) The Kingdom of God is God's Total Order for the Total Human Immanuel Kant said: 'Two things strike me with awe, the starry heavens above, and the moral law within.' What was a matter of awe and wonder for Immanuel Kant was revealed is God's total order for the government of all of creation, both celestial and terrestrial. That order which humans have rejected since creation was exactly what Jesus Christ came to re-establish on earth. Jesus called it the Kingdom of God and Kingdom of heaven interchangeably. This New order, which Jesus Christ inaugurated, is uniquely designed to cater to the total needs of the total human. The New Order does not reform society, but regenerates it. In giving the Great Commission to His disciples, Jesus entrusted to them the responsibility of expanding the horizons of this New Order to the ends of the earth.

3) The Nature of the Kingdom of God is both Individual and Social.

God's concern for humans is holistic. He cares for the total welfare, namely spiritual and physical of both the individual and the society. Hence, argued Jones: “An individual gospel without a social gospel is a soul without a body, and a social gospel without an individual gospel is a body without a soul.

One is a ghost and the other a corpse.” (1972:40) To Jones, evangelism is the presentation of the Gospel, which means the presentation of the Person of Christ for the receptorʼs personal faith and repentance, and the Kingdom the new Social Order for the liberated person. He said: “Thus social responsibility becomes an aspect not of Christian mission only, but also Christian conversion. It is impossible to be truly converted to God … without being truly converted to our neighbor.”

(1975:53) 4) The Kingdom of God is the way to total freedom.

The Kingdom of God is the only holistically redemptive institution on earth, and the only way out for all the everescalating global problems of war, social injustice, hunger and

poverty. The greatest freedom human need is freedom from self-entanglement. The Kingdom of God offers us total freedom by offering us a sense of purpose, direction, meaning and wholeness. It shows humans that: a) Humans have a destiny to live for. Jones emphasized: “… man and nature and the whole universe was made by Christ and for Christ, that a destiny is therefore written into the structure of new things, and that structure and that destiny is a Christian destiny” (1972:47) Since Christ is the Kingdom personalized, and the Kingdom is Christ-likeness universalized, a person who has found me of them has found both of them. That person has arrived home. b) Humans have a dignity to live with. Dignity is a phenomenon, which deals with human worth and respect.

Humans have an in-born urge to earn that respect from each other, by seeking to define dignity by various ways and means.

Christ and his Kingdom offer us the most sublime and splendid form of dignity. Jones said: “There is no higher status in this world or the next than to be a son of God or a daughter of God, and to be made in the likeness of the Divine Son and to belong to the Unshakable Kingdom and to the Unchanging Person.

That makes trivial and tinseled any other status” (1972:88). Our dignity is not determined by who we are, but whose we are. We belong to Christ and his Kingdom. That settles it. c) Humans have a design to live by.

The mission of Christ is to transform humans into wholesome persons. The Kingdom of God is God's design by which he is building up a New Humanity, a new World Order. This New Order has deep and wide implications for individuals and communities as Jesus Christ articulated it in Nazareth Manifesto according to Luke 4:18-19. They are: i) ʻthe Good News preached to the poorʼ meets the needs of the economically disinherited; ii) ʻthe release of the captivesʼ meets the needs of the socially and politically disinherited; iii) ʻthe recovery of sight to the blindʼ meets the needs of the physically disinherited; iv) ʻthe setting at liberty of the oppressedʼ meets the needs spiritually and morally disinherited; and v) ʻthe proclamation of the year of jubileeʼ signals the beginning of the new World Order under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

(1972:120).

Editorʼs Note: Rev. Dr. Martin Alphonse is an adjunct full time associate professor at Multnomah University, Portland, OR. He completed his B.A. from St. Xavierʼs College, Madurai University; M.A. from Madras Christian College; B.D. (M.Div.) from Union Biblical Seminary; TH.M., Ph.D. from Fuller Theological Seminary. He is also serving as pastor at India International Church, Portland, OR, and also served as a pastor in Methodist churches in India, Singapore, and the United States. Since 1976, he has also served as an adjunct lecturer or as a full time associate professor of mission and evangelism in Bible colleges and seminaries in India, Singapore, and the United States. He is also one of the speakers of famous Maramon Convention held in Kerala, India by the Mar Thoma Church. He can be reached at mpalphonse@yahoo.com

(Contd. from Page 11)

Rt. Rev. Dr. Thomas Mar Athanasius Suffragan Metropolitan (1914-1984)* Dr. Zac Varghese, London Thomas Thirumeni was first and foremost a bishop, an apostle of Jesus Christ. He was an apostle, called by Jesus Christ to lead the Church; he was called to give mentorship to others to send them to the vineyard; he was called to know when be to be strict and when to be kind, when to correct and when to turn a blind eye! Thomas Thirumeni was also a prophet; a prophet is not a fortuneteller, but a man who interprets the signs of the time for seeing the action of God here and now and so to point to future possibilities. Thirumeni also took his teaching role seriously; Thirumeni was seriously involved in the post ordination theological education of the clergy. The library in his Manganam Aramana and St. Augustine Study Centre are examples of how he wanted to encourage serious in depth study of the faith of both clergy and laity.

Thirumeni strived for excellence and perfection in all his endeavors, whether it was singing, chanting, preaching, teaching, pastoral care, administering or giving leadership.

Mediocrity had no place in his thinking. Quality rather than quantity was his motto; he strived to present his work as a perfect offering to ʻhis Lord and his God.ʼ His melodious chanting of the liturgy was entirely for giving glory to God and making people feel and experience the presence and holiness of God during worship; this was an extraordinary gift. When Thirumeni chanted, ʻHoly art Thou O God,ʼ the entire congregation felt the holiness and experienced that heavenly reality.

Our service to great men is not to praise them now and then or to put their names on institutions and plaques; great men are inspirations for us to follow them. The greatest thing that we can do to the memory of Thomas Thirumeni is to take seriously those things for which he lived his ministry; to hold firmly the traditions and the doctrine of the Mar Thoma Church, her Catholicity and apostolic ministry and yet, to be so firmly rooted in the faith of the Church that we can be free to be confident to risk anything for the Gospel. Let us therefore, remember those things, which were nearest to Thirumeniʼs heart for that is the greatest compliment we can pay as faithful children to a great spiritual father. * The festschrift volume edited by Rev. Dr. M. J. Joseph on the birth centenary of Thomas Thirumeni and released at Kottayam on 25 May 2014 will be a useful aid for learning more about Thirumeni.

Editor’s Note: Also read on Page 22, a sermon delivered by Thirumeni at Oxford in October 1984, which is a spiritual classic. He was one of the really committed and faithful Bishops of the Mar Thoma Church who led church through several issues in the sixties and seventies. We remember and thank God for such great leaders of the church.

REACHING OUT – SHARING FAITH AND MEETING SOCIAL NEEDS Rev. Dr. Valson Thampu, New Delhi Reaching out, or out-reach, is the genius of the biblical faith.

It is the secret of its dynamism. Out-reach is the very nature of God. Remember how Adam and Eve went and hid themselves, after disobeying God? They would have become anthills if God had not reached out to them! Each time the Jews reneged and slinked away from God, he reached out to them. This ʻoutreachʼ is a natural and necessary expression of the Creatorship of God. The Creator, unlike a curator, cannot but reach out, when any part of Creation is in peril or decay, just as the Good Shepherd, unlike the hireling, will reach out to the lost sheep (Jn. 10).

Incarnation is a historical expression of this out-reachingness of God. Jesus said clearly and emphatically that he came to seek and save the lost. (Luke. 19:10) Given that that is the quintessential purpose of his coming into the world, we should expect that he will sent us out, if we heed his call and go to him. It is, indeed, to send us out that he calls us to himself. It is in this sent-ness that Jesus abides with us most powerfully. (John. 15:4)

hidden in the ʻcome-to-meʼ model or the anti-outreach model, which is the reigning model today.

What is the rationale for outreach? Why reach out at all?

What is the discipline of this outreach?

Well, the thief also reaches out! So, not every instance of outreach is spiritually valid of humanly beneficial. Outreach has to be, as Jesus defines it, ʻlike sheep among wolvesʼ (Mtt. 10:16). The wolf is a symbol of unilateralism. Outreach, when it is cast in the mold of unilateralism, becomes predatory. The corrupt politician reaches out to the electorate at the time of election. He is a wolf among lambs. The lamb is the symbolic opposite of the wolf. It is, symbolically, mutuality introduced into a world of unilateralism. The lamb will, hence, be at peril. It risks being ripped apart. But the lamb is, mercifully, safe against acquiring the nature of the wolf. The outreach of the wolf and the thief is marked by aggressive self-interest. They live in a world in which neighbors will be victims.

You would recall that Jesus, while calling Simon and his brother Andrew, promised to make them ʻfishers of menʼ.

They were, till then, ʻfishers of fishʼ. What is the difference between the two? Fishers of fish work only for their profit.

They are, that is, unilateral. Do their ʻoutreachʼ results in pain and cruelty. Fishers of men reach out for the sake, and only for the ultimate good, of his fellow human beings. That is the hallmark of the Christian outreach.

It is outreach of this kind that embodies the power and possibilities of the biblical faith. Though this has many aspects, we shall, for the time being, look at only two of them: sharing faith and meeting needs.

Sharing faith………………

There are only two models of leadership in the world. First, leaders who expect you to go to them. Such people will make it difficult for you to reach them, even as they expect you go to them! They want you to go them, but they do not want to have you with them. They understand their importance in terms of this contradiction. Such leaders show off their importance or power in terms of their inhospitality and inaccessibility. This is inherent in the worldly idea of leadership. In the second model, the leader is marked by his outreach. He comes! Because he comes, there is the assurance of redemption and transformation. The Nazareth Manifesto (Luke 4:18) for example, is ridiculous in respect of the first model. i.e. the ʻcome-to-me, but touch-me-notʼ model.

Imagine a leader of the first model meeting with the woman of Samaria! (Jn.4) First of all, this is a logical impossibility.

But, for the sake of argument, let us assume that such a meeting can take place. What would be the outcome? The woman, already fallen, will only be exploited and degraded further. I note this in passing only to underline the danger

John, the Evangelist, puts the strategy of sharing faith incomparably well: “the Word became flesh” (Jn. 1:14). It is inherent in the logic of outreach that the self (even the Self) changes. The willingness to change is basic to the wholeness of outreach. Hence it is that Jesus said, “He who wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up my cross and follow me.” (Mtt.16:24) Outreach, without the saving grace of self-denial, quickly degenerates into the “thief/wolf” model.

So the Word became flesh. Not that there was anything wrong with the Word! Even the Word has to change itself into something else to be an agent of outreach. If we are in Christ Jesus, we shall be a “new creation” (2 Cor. 5: 17). Or, we shall be ʻborn againʼ (Jn. 3.3). This is the essential precondition for our outreach to be conducive to sharing the faith. Else, our outreach is likely to discredit the faith.

Our educational institutions, for examples, are embodied outreaches. At least they are meant to be. Through them we are in engagement with those outside of our community. Do they, as of today, share the faith or sear the faith? Why are they, if they are, stumbling blocks? Isnʼt it because they reject the discipline and strategy that God himself accepted? If the

salt has lost in saltiness, it is good only to be cast out and trampled underfoot by others, says Jesus.

If, as the administrator of a Christian institution, I do not deny myself and become something other than, or more than, ʻan administratorʼ as the world understands this phenomenon, what earthly chance there is that I will share my faith, or may even want to share my faith, with anyone? A Christian Principal is one who is not a stereotypical Principal, but a missionary. To be a missionary in the domain of education, I have to deny myself as Principal. Only when I deny myself as Principal do I become a Christian Principal. To be a King one has to deny one-self. Only the Servant King can be a true King. All else are imposters and pretenders. Those who have ears to hear let them hear.

The second aspect of sharing faith is ʻdwelling amidstʼ or ʻbeing withʼ. The Word, would have fallen short of the model of ʻsharing faithʼ even if it had become flesh, but did not care to ʻdwell in the midstʼ of people. “Abide in me, and I in you,” says Jesus (Jn. 15:4). This is an area of crippling weakness for us at the present time. On the social plane, we live, mostly, self-exiled. We are not in engagement with the world around us. We marginalize ourselves. Experientially, we live compartmentalized. Our professional life and our faith life are poles apart. Our weekdays mock our Sundays! What governs one is irrelevant, even incompatible with the other. We are split personalities and there is, alas, no wholeness in us!

How, then, can we share faith? We cannot ʻhaveʼ faith, much less ʻshareʼ faith!

The third aspect puts the spotlight on who we are, or how others experience us. We need to live in their midst “full of grace and truth”. Grace is that God-given quality in you which enables others to be reminded of the presence and authority of God in interacting with you. Showing the other cheek, for instance, is an expression of this grace. Staying focused on the purpose God has for us in calling us and sending us out – being good and faithful servants- is an aspect of this grace.

How we deal with difficult situations, including trials and tribulations (Mtt.5: 11, 12), proves this grace.

Sharing faith is not a walk in the park! It cannot be done with human abilities or enthusiasm alone. It has to be a shared labor. In sharing faith we are partners with Christ. This makes us a new Creation. It imbues us with grace and truth. It enables us to abide with people, with even the difficult ones.

It enables us to endure. Endurance is the key to effectiveness. He who endures to the end, says Jesus, will be saved. He will be saved from futility and fruitlessness.

Sharing faith is not a matter of Crusades and conventions!

Remember what St. Francis of Assisi said, “Preach by all means; use words, if necessary.” The simplest, and the most effective way of sharing are, in the words of Jesus, “Come and see”. This is a far cry from the predicament of Adam and Eve, who went into hiding! Where do we stand today? Are we in a position to say to people at large, “Come and see!”? Or, do we have to go and hide and our heads in the bush of hypocrisy and playacting?

Meeting needs……………….

What most people rarely realize is that meeting needs is the measure of our relevance. The needs all around us are

pregnant with opportunities! They comprise the matrix of our relevance. If we do not, or cannot, respond to needs, are we not irrelevant? The fig tree sans fruit, that Jesus cursed? But to see and to respond to the needs of others, we have to bridle our desires, or overcome our covetousness. That is why the Ten Commandments contain the Commandment, “You shall not covet”. Covetousness, on the one hand, degrades us into wolves or thieves and, on the other, makes us blind to the needs of others. We remain so obsessed with our own wants and desires that are cruelly unmindful of the needs of others (cf. The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats).

Clarity on the difference between needs and desires is basic to the discipline of being sent out in outreach. If we are not spiritually educated on this distinction, we will be no better, our good intentions notwithstanding, than ʻfishers of fishʼ. We may meet ʻneedsʼ if you like; but they will only be our own needs; or what we think are our needs, which may not be needs at all. How much land, Count Leo Tolstoy asks through a short story, does a man need? Enough to enable him to work and live? Or enough to make him collapse and die?

Remember the rich fool?

God has placed us in a world of needs. And what is more, we live in a world that denies needs and pursues desires murderously. There is mounting confusion everywhere on this count. Take an illustrative example. Most people covet power: the reason why we have kissa kursi ka. What we need is not ʻpowerʼ but ʻstrengthʼ. Jesus was strong, awesomely strong; but he was powerless. (Characteristically this was lost on those who mocked the Crucified. They were blind to his strength. They clamored for a display of power!)

Power and strength seem, in this contrary world of ours, to be incompatible. Either you have power or you have strength.

Power belongs to the order of Mammon and strength comes from the Lord. Strength is inner. Power is derived from external sources, means and institutions. What stands us in good stead is strength. The Holy Spirit is strength of that kind: the strength that transforms adversity into an advantage, pain into a profit, and crisis into an opportunity.

Any takers for strength?

One of the basic needs that we have is the need to understand our needs aright. This is discernment. Consider the parable of the Lost Son. He thought he needed the licentious, riotous freedom of the ʻfar countryʼ. He learns the hard way that it is the love of a father that he needs. There is really no point in busying ourselves with meeting needs if we are not spiritually educated about what the ʻneedsʼ are and we do not share that ʻfaith insightʼ with others. That is why Jesus gave the mandate to his disciples, as he sent them out on their mission, to “preach and heal” (Mtt. 10: 7,8).

Prophetic preaching sets people free from their slavery to the pattern of the world, which is driven by the multiplication of desires and wants. The ʻpatternʼ of the world is the substitution of needs with desires.

All human beings have a fundamental need for God. Man cannot live by bread alone. But we cannot live without bread either. Hence Jesusʼ instruction, “Give them something to eat”. Consider the profundity of this situation. It is the Living Bread, the Bread of Eternal Life that says, “Give them

something to eat”! It is this balance between the eternal and the temporal, the spiritual and the material, the worldly and the otherworldly, the intimate and the ultimate that we need.

Nothing less will do.

Remember Jesus on the Jericho road? He stops to ask the blind man, Bartimaeus, “What is it that you want me to do for you?” What is it, in other words, that you need? Thank God, he was not confused. “Rabbi,” he cried out, “I want to see!”

We have a need to have our eyes opened. Everyone! If only Christian education were to result in opening the eyes of the blind!

It is not – pray donʼt get me wrong- that material needs do not matter. They do. But material needs abound in the scope for misunderstanding. Take your ubiquitous cell phones. How often should you change your model? And how expensive need your phones be? If it is to meet your need to communicate? Is it, really?

What is your need? Is it to communicate? Or is it to afford a vague feel-good-factor? Or, to show off? Or, to keep up with the Joneses?

Or, is it to play mischief? If it is to communicate, is it necessary to invest in newer and more jazzy phones? Isnʼt it more important to develop yourself so that you ʻhave something to sayʼ when you use the phone?

To become a person whose communication will enrich others? How will catching up with the latest model in the market help in this respect? What is the use in having the best communication instrument when you have really nothing worthwhile to communicate?

It is through outreach that we learn to critique our needs and to discover the needs of others. This has a liberating effect on us. Often we remain grumpy just because we do not know the realities of the world we live in. We are like the boy in a poem from yester years who kept crying because the pair of shoes his dad bought for him was not to his liking, until a beggar came along who had only one leg to stand on. Seeing him boy stopped crying! That is the power, if you like, of the beggarʼs outreach. How does it matter that it is accidental?

The beggar ministered to the boyʼs need better than his father did. Isnʼt this splendid irony? How can we meet peopleʼs needs, for Godʼs sake, when we are so confused about our own needs? Hence it is that Jesus exhorted his disciples, “Watch and pray!”

Editorʼs Note: Rev. Valson Thampu is an Indian educator, and Christian theologian, who is the present Principal of St. Stephen's College, University of Delhi, Delhi, since 2008. He is an ordained minister of Church of North India and a member of the National Minorities Commission in India and Delhi Minorities Commission. Thampu pursued Ph.D. in theology from Sam Higginbottom Institute of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences. He can be reached on his email id vthampu@gmail.com

“Demonsʼ Vivek Zachariah Samuel, St. Johns MTC, Hounslow

The subject of “demons” is rarely discussed as a serious topic so here is an opportunity to explore this further.

Demons are often referred to as "fallen angels," or "Satan's angels."

Satan was the very highest angel, but made the mistake of rebelling against God and was cast out of heaven, (Is. 14:12-15). The evil angels who followed Satan were also cast out.

These evil beings represent the very depths of evil, including hatred, bitterness and perversions. Though often an expression of sinful flesh, they can also express their presence in the lives of people. Their purpose is to torment and harass people, leading them away from God and His truth. The Bible gives the following example: "...This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him any more, not even with a chain. For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones" (Mark 5:2-5).

Just as there are archangels in God's kingdom with higher powers, there are ʻprincipalities and powersʼ that rule over Satan's angels. There is constant conflict, and battles between Satan's ʻprincipalities and powersʼ and God's loyal angels.

We are told that our prayers offer a restraint against their evil activity by summoning the intervening presence of God (Dan 10:12-13).

Possession is not the same as being influenced or attacked

by Demons. To be "possessed," means to be indwelled by, and under their complete control. However, they regularly attack and attempt to trouble and influence mansʼ behaviour, even God's people. Christians must guard themselves not only against the sin of the flesh, but also their influence.

These evil spirits can influence and intensify the works of the flesh. This must be recognized and stood against before one can die to the flesh and walk in the Spirit.

However, we as Christianʼs need not fear Satan or his fallen angels. We are told "...the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world" (1 John 4:4). We need to believe and allow this promise to guide our walk with Jesus and be a living testimony for Jesus.

The Golden Rule of the Asian Religions Rev. Dr. M. J. Joseph, Kottayam Introduction The religious people of Asia are commissioned to serve all with the objective of sharing the fullness of divine life. For this, we need to initiate a theological understanding of the Holy Scriptures of the Asian religions with an ethical mandate. The need is tremendously felt as religious fanaticism is growing in an alarming way all over Asia. The basic tenets of all the five major religions of the world- Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Jainism do share the Gandhian philosophy of Sarva Dharma Sadbhavana in their own way. There is a call to search for the point of convergence rather than confrontation.

The call is addressed to all irrespective of caste and creed in the Sermon on the Mount: “You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (St.Matt.5: 48). Two questions emerge out of a sincere search. They are: i) How can people of differing faiths understand each other and each otherʼs faith in the common areas of life? ii) How can we learn and draw together from the religious resources of differing faiths and religious traditions with a view to building up a better tomorrow.

A theo-centric theme chosen for the 10th assembly of the World Council of Church scheduled for 2013 in Korea, God of Life, leads us to justice and peace, also speaks of a common interpretation of the historical responsibility for social transformation. If we are committed “ to celebrate the festival of life with sincerity and truth”(1 Cor.5:8) we need to look outward in the same direction. This is possible, if we celebrate the glory of love in our relationship with God and nature. “Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward in the same direction.”(De Saint Exupery). There should have a conscious effort to search for the buckle that binds and the hyphen that joins the terrestrial and the celestial. The concept of a vasudhaivakudumbakam (The world as one family) becomes a reality only when there is an inner constraint to peruse the things that make for peace and reconciliation. It is Love, which is the golden rule of all religions that makes a difference in our common pursuit. Ours is a world of pluralism.

Diversity is the order of creation. In an orchestra one should not expect everyone to play the same note. Harmony does not come automatically. It is to be created. Let this prayer be on our lips, “God Thou art one, make us one”. According to the Christian doctrine, the triune God is one. Each person of the Trinity is independent and interconnected just as water has different kinds of existence. A return to the centre whether in religion or culture contributes to the making of a relationship.

The values of the household of God, satyam, sivam, sundaram (Truth, order and beauty) as the Seers in the Upanishads envisioned have to be adhered to, and their visibility is assured only when we move from the frontier of human existence to its the core.

A study of the Holy Books of all the religions of the world reveals that there are several factors that bind people together.

It is the spirituality of religions, which is the voice of the Spirit or the cry of the soul from the cave of the heart. To respond to this call of the groaning of the Spirit in the religious texts requires boldness on our part to respond. The buzzing of bees, the twittering of the sparrows, the roaring of the sea, the chiming of bells from the worshipping places and the groaning of creation are voices from beyond for a spiritual response. We need to affirm without a ray of doubt, as Dr. Kaaj Baago, the

Church historian puts it, “if God is the Lord of the universe, he will work through very culture and religion” towards the realization of his Plan of Salvation. Raimond Panickker in a prophetic message said,” if the Church wishes to live, it should not be afraid of assimilating elements that come from other religious traditions whose existence it can today no longer ignore”. These words of wisdom help us to search for the golden rule of Asian religions, which binds people together.

Crises facing religions of the world

All the religions of the world are deeply rooted in their doctrinal affirmation of creed, code and cult. They are now showing symptoms of decay, which I would call moral cancer. This has spread deep into the soul of humanity. How can we justify mutual killing in the name of religion? “No society will be humane so long as one group dominates or subordinates the other”(Harvey Cox). The age of crusading spirit is gone. What is required is the spirit of the Crucified. The commercial face of the religious faith is being promoted by religions all over the world because of the materialistic and consumerist influences.

As Fr. K. M. George, an ecumenical theologian, puts it in a WCC document, “ the power brokers of the present global consumerist economy seem to rejoice in the number of Asian population, because for them it is over two billion consumers.

The more numerous the consumers, the bigger the profit”! In such a global context of degeneration of religious faiths, we need to stand for the regeneration of religious ethos beyond the written texts and to affirm the rich spiritual traditions of our Seers, satya, ahimsa, tyaga and seva (truth, non-violence, sacrifice and service. In the religious images of Christianity, one may notice several faces. They are Jewish face, Roman face, Greek face, Colonial face and Commercial face (.Swami Sachidananda Bharathi). These five faces have no relevance in the Indian Cultural milieu and in the multi-religious context of Asia, if we neglect the core of religious values. We need to look for a common mission paradigm, which speaks of dialogical existence in the community.

The golden rule in the religious scriptures The Cosmic Community Center at Kottarakara (Kerala) has brilliantly brought out a brochure and flagged off the need to

affirm the Golden rule in all the religions of the World. It calls forth a return to the Centre. The glory of the other is to be appreciated. In this context, there should be no element of prejudice and pre-supposition in our search. There is openness and transparency and even accountability in such a quest from the grassroots. The ordinary becomes sublime in the eyes of everybody. The least, the last and the lost have something to contribute to the common wellbeing. There is no useless person in Godʼs economy, but only used-less ones! The Lordʼs covenant with Noah (Gen.9) is indeed the celebration of divine love for flora and fauna and it is valid for the posterity. In the catalogue of texts relating to the glory of love, sacrifice and service are given an exhaled position in all religions. This is also the message of the gospel story of Feet Washing by Jesus on the eve of his earthly ministry and the subsequent institution of the Eucharist. One may notice the same abiding theme in all the religious texts for human survival. “A grain of wheat remains a solitary grain unless it falls to the ground and dies”(Jesus). What is required is to live by a new canon of life which includes a vision and an attitude, as the Sufi Poet Jalauddin Rumi wrote said ago: “ The lamps are different, but the light is the same; It comes from beyond. If you keep looking at the lampʼ Thou art lost. For thence arises number and plurality. Fix your gaze upon the light one may then notice a unitive vision. The glory of love shines at this point. What a great message for social harmony!

Let us look at a few classical texts from the scriptures dealing with the golden rule of life. Christianity: Luke 6:31“Do to others as you would have them do to you”. Hinduism: Mahabharata ch.5 this is the sum of duty; do not do others what would cause pain, if done to you”. Islam: Muhammadʼs Hadith: “Not one of you truly believes until you wish for others what you wish for yourself the prophet.” Judaism: Hillel, Talmud, Shabbat 31a “What is hateful to you, do not do your neighbor. This is the whole Torah; all the rest is commentary. Buddhism: The Buddha-Udarra-Varga-5: 18 “Treat not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful” Confucianism: Confucius Analects 15:23 “One word, which sums up the basis of all good conduct …Loving-kindness. Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself” Taoism, Lao Tzu, Tʼai Shang Kan Ying, Pʼlen, 213-218.

“Regard your neighborsʼ gain as your own gain and your neighborʼs loss as your own loss” Bahaʼi Faith, bahaullah, Gleanings “Lay not on any soul a load that you would not wish to be laid upon you, and desire not for anyone the things you would not desire for yourself” Unitarianism-Unitarian Principle “We affirm and promote respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part”.

Nature Spirituality (from the Vedas) “The whole world is one nest” “We are the birds of the same nest We may wear different skins We may speak in different tongues We may believe in different religions We may belong to different cultures Yet we share the same home- the earth.

Born on the same planet Covered by the same skies Gazing at the same stars, Breathing the same air, We must learn to happily progress together

Or miserably perish together For man only live individually But can only survive collectively.

A Christian prayer (WCC) - Christʼs bonding with humanity “Almighty God, as your son, our Savior (Jesus Christ) was born of a Hebrew mother, But rejoiced in the faith of a Syrian woman, and of a Roman soldier, Welcomed the Greeks who sought him And suffered a man from Africa to carry his cross So teach us to regard the members of all races As fellow heirs of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ our Lord….”

According to Christian faith, Jesus is not concerned with peopleʼs background but their faith in all the religious texts of the Holy Books, there are a few things that help us to follow.

Life is to be lived not in isolation but in relationship. We are not like sand on the seashore but like branches on a tree. The question of God to Cain in the book of Genesis is relevant in all human contexts: Where is your brother? “Am I my brotherʼs keeper” was the reply (Gen.4: 9). Yes, we are our brotherʼs keeper. This should be the spiritual response from all religious faiths. Peace and reconciliation-outcome of the golden rule of life (love) form the very basis of life in all its fullness. This is possible if we break the conspiracy of silence and the boundary of religions. Jesus who was crucified outside the gate always challenges the Church to cross the boundary of religion. The crucified hands of Jesus are always beckoning the whole humanity to move to the centre of love. “Let us go outside the gate” should be the slogan of the mission mandate of the Church. This is possible if the Church shows signs of boldness as shown by the Wisemen (magi) from the East.

They did not co-operate with the machinations of Herod, the King.

“They departed to their own country by another way”(St.Matt.2: 12). Love always takes the route of truth.

“Sathyameva Jayathe” The glory of love The glory of love is indeed a reflection of God in relationship. In his book One Religion of Love (CSS, Tiruvalla, 2003) by Dr. Geevarghese Mar Osthathios Metropolitan, there is a call to transcend the boundaries of religion. For him, celebration of love as truth in relationship is the hallmark of all religions. Truth about love can never be buried as love is eternal. The period of consolidation in religion is over today, but the kairos of comprehension has come to stay with us.. According to Mar Osthathios, the Welfare economics of Amartya Sen and of all the religious and the secular initiatives based on distributive justice is nothing but love in action. In this respect the one religion of love becomes the fulcrum for the celebration of plurality and inclusivism in Godʼs one world. Mission of the Church, according to the author, is to manifest the overflow of Godʼs love to all people and to the whole universe. The God of love is also the God of light. In the Holy book of Quran, we read: “ Allah is the light of the heavens and the earth. Allah guides to His light whom He wills” In the Great Celestial book, Bhagavad-Gita, it is said that the Lord brightens the world with his light”. In the Bible, it is well stated “ God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.” In his hymn of love in 1 Cor.13, St. Paul speaks about the glory of love in terms of its relation to religion and ethics. Let me paraphrase 1Cor.13 in a poem under the title “The Cascade of love”.

Though I live in the evergreen neighborhood And have all the sophisticated electronic gadgets Without love, I might as well dwell in a prison!

I may have China woven silk carpets in every room The most fashionable suites with star facilities But without love I am a poor beggar. ………………………………. ………………………………..

Love is kind to the old Love is smile on the face Love is eyes to the blind Love is legs to the lame Love is sad when there are no letters When the telephone doesnʼt ring And when none weeps when I die!

Love does not have a blind end.

Love tolerates the critics Love does not keep a record of insults Love forgives and forgets Love keeps the light burning in the darkness around.

Bricks and mortar will one day shield my mortal remains The wood of my coffin will become food for termites The costliest line on my dead body will become dust But my soul wrapped in love will soar high to my creator.

(Quoted from the writerʼs book, Beyond the Seen and the Unseen published by the ISPCK/ECC, 2003,p.7).

In praise of love, one may agree with Amy Carmichaelʼs words: “:One can give without loving, but one cannot love without giving”. In all the neo-religious movements including Christianity, one may notice a new renaissance in Human civilization, which is marked by the celebration of love and justice in Godʼs one world. The spirit of new catholicity as found in the welfare projects of Sathya Sai Baba whose teaching is centered on the theme, “Love all, serve all” and “help ever, never hurt” and of Mata Amritandamayi whose teaching is grounded in the slogan, “Donʼt live just for yourself” is indeed a celebration of the circle of love. Similar strains are found in the outreach programs of Santhigiri ashram of Navajyothi Sri Karurnakra Guru of Pothencode, Shiridi Sai Baba Ashram, Manmad and in the philosophy of Mother Teresa of Calcutta. These acts of charity and concern for the transformation of man and nature are indeed the living canon of life for a movement towards an Omega point in Godʼs economy of Salvation. It is indeed a religious text written in human hearts.

Moving to the core of faith in all religions

It is the disorientation of religion that causes social disharmony in the community. The much talked about concept of Jihad in Islam has nothing to do with violence and killing in the name of God. It simply speaks of our need to struggle hard to become good in the face of adharma. During the period of Godhera carnage, I put up a banner in front of the Ecumenical Christian Centre, Bangalore (where I served as its director) with the following words in bold letters: “The color of the blood passing through the blood vessels of Hindus, Christians, Muslims, Parsees, Sikhs, Jews and Buddhists is the same, RED. Let us not reduce India to footnotes in the world community” The legacy of Ashoka and that of Mahatma Gandhi is indeed a call to get back to the Center of religious faith which is ahimsa and love. Mahatma Gandhi, the Man of the Millennium, had rightly said, “Let all of us Hindus, Muslims, Parsees, Sikhs and Christians live amicably as Indians, pledged to live for the mother land. The Manava Mythri (Social harmony) vision of the Father of the nation rooted in justice, peace and harmony could be found in railway tickets for some time. Now these words have disappeared! The face of Gandhi is now found on the Indian currency with which corruption in public life is widely practiced! What a great travesty of facts!

Conclusion In our search of the Holy Books of different religions in terms of their spirituality, the glory of love urges humankind to affirm with one voice that love is the principle of cohesion in our social fabric. Among the five tenets of Islam, Charity is included as the divine light in our midst. Let us fill the universe with the enlargement of love, the enrichment of love and above all the employment of love. Love is to be reflected in our relationship with human beings and other living creatures. Let me conclude this paper with a few words of wisdom. “The sunlight is one and the same wherever it falls but only bright surfaces like water, mirrors and polished metals can reflect it. So is the divine light. It falls equally and impartially on all hearts, but only the pure and clean hearts of the good and holy can fully reflect it.”(Ramakrishna Paramahamsa). The words of Dr. Tawfik Hamid, an Egyptian scholar is worth recalling.” I am a Muslim by faith… a Christian by spirit… a Jew by heart… and above all I am a human being.” In Mahatma Gandhiʼs philosophy of Sarvadharama Samannya, Gandhiji maintains that a good Hindu is a good Christian and a good Muslim, a good Christian is a good Hindu and a good Muslim and a good Muslim is a good Christian and a good Hindu. What he upholds is bonding of all religions, which is the glory of love.

Editorʼs Note: Rev. Dr. M.J. Joseph, M.Th., D. Th, is the former Director of the Ecumenical Christian Centre, Bangalore. He has also served as Professor and Principal, Mar Thoma Theological Seminary, Kottayam, India. As a former member, Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches, he is widely known for his ecumenical and ecological contributions.

He has served as Secretary Board of Theological Education, Senate of Serampore College (University). He currently serves as Convener, Ecological Commission, of the Mar Thoma Church.

Dr. Joseph has also authored several articles, poems and books available both in English and Malayalam languages. EMail: drmjjoseph_65@yahoo.co.in

Marks of a Disciple* Rt. Rev. Dr. Thomas Mar Athanasius Suffragan Metropolitan (1914-2014) the call–without a parallel in history–not to accept ideas, nor to follow a program; but in unambiguous terms ʻFollow Me.ʼ Only Christ the mediator has such a right. He is God in human condition; the God-man, who has the authority over human lives. He asks for exclusive devotion to Him. There can be no Christianity without obedience to the call of discipleship. Christianity without discipleship is Christianity without Christ. No form of enthronement of self can stand in the way. It is to forsake everything for the sake of the call.

Levi had to leave the place of familiarity, of authority, of the means of income. He moves from the economy of getting into the economy of giving and distributing. Peter and Andrew changed the net. The new net is not suitable to catch fish, but only to catch men into the fellowship of Jesus.

To them as to all who gave obedience to the call Christianity is no longer a religion of security; it becomes the religion of promise, summed up in the person of one who stands before them, Jesus.

To those who obey, from that time onwards, he gives the gift of friendship; to sinners and sick, soldiers or prostitutes, Pharisees or publicans. He entrusts them with a most attractive message, which is the highest good of everyone and of the whole mankind–the kingdom of God. The message contains a criticism of the present condition as well as a vision of mankind yet to come.

Photo courtesy: Mr. Jacob Joseph, Toronto In every generation, there are those who accept the call of Jesus and those who remain only would – be disciples.

The three would be disciples: In the Gospel for today (Matt 4:19; Mark 2:14; Luke 9: 57-62), the first would be disciple offers himself, without receiving the call and therefore without counting the cost of discipleship.

The second one received the call, but gave priority to legal requirements. The third person brings human conditions, on the basis of which alone he expresses willingness to become a disciple.

True Christian discipleship is based on the call of God through His son, the mediator and the response of obedience of man. Without unconditional obedience, at no time, discipleship is possible. If it remains exclusively on human offer, the self is eventually enthroned. Priority to human requirement degrades into the religion of legalism.

Conditional discipleship has a hidden god other than Jesus.

Jesus crosses the path of human life and brings the divine imperative, ʻFollow Me.ʼ The instantaneous obedience raises the question about the authority of a person who announces

From the moment of rising up and following, Jesus begins to shape the life of his followers. Peter found in Him one who brought order in his turbulent nature, Andrew, a companion; John, a friend; Nathaniel, the innermost secret of life; Thomas, the way of life. In every age the disciples found in Jesus this and more–Paul, Augustine of Hippo, Luther, Albert Schweitzer, Kagawa of Japan, Sunder Singh of India, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Among them are theologians, poets, evangelists, reformers, missionaries, and pioneers of ecumenical movements. This list cannot be exhausted. They belong to every country, every generation. Jesus is ʻthisʼ, but more. ʻThisʼ becomes part of human experience; the more belongs to inexhaustible riches of His grace.

He shapes His followers. Does Jesus shape us or do we shape Jesus? This is a question we will do well to ask ourselves. Following Jesus remains the unchanging condition of Christian discipleship. The invitation is repeated down the centuries.

How does the Holy Spirit lead us to Christian discipleship?

In the context of socio–economic–political situations, the call to follow comes to us today from the one who was part of history and yet it is contemporaneous with us. The historical is the womb of revelation. The historicity and contemporaneity of Jesus have to be seriously considered in the obedience we offer. He was ʻborn of woman under law,ʼ

as St. Paul says in his letter to Galatians, He entered history at a particular religious, social and cultural situation. In discipleship, we are not concerned with discarnate news, but with a particular piece of news, as CH Dodd reminds us, regarding the incarnate sense of God. This piece of good news is supremely concerned about life of man upon the earth. Incarnation can take place within any culture, anywhere, at any time because the Gospel is true at one time and in one place, it is also true at all times and in all places.

Discipleship does not depend up on making Jesus relevant to any culture, but it means making us and our situation relevant to Jesus. How can we do that? It means that we must take history, modern history seriously. It is in the context of modern history with nuclear weapons, increasing cruelty, poverty, and denial of justice, side by side with churchʼs pursuit of mission, that Jesus, the same yesterday, today and ever, of historicity and contemporaneity, calls us for discipleship. Jesus must me understood afresh and obeyed afresh.

As one coming from the sub-continent of India, the cradle of world religions, which have now become powerful, I may mention that, to us the call to Christian discipleship comes in a context of religious pluralism. There are some questions, which no one can ovoid. Are all religions equal? Is Christianity the crown of Hinduism? Is syncretism the answer? Is Christianity unique or is Christianity meant to say something unique? Some of our friends in India say, to obliterate other religions for the sake of one faith would be Bolshevism in religion. We can no longer claim that the mission is from the Christian West to the pagan East. It is from everywhere to everywhere. We must have a Christian approach to men of other faith. What is the most loving approach?

Is tolerance the answer? Tolerance should not degrade to indifference to truth. What is the authority by which we can say, ʻcome to meet God where God came to meet manʼ and claim that the discovery of Jesus is the discovery of God and repeat the claim that there is no other name. Jesus is the object of religion. The International Missionary Council at Jerusalem in 1928 said, “Our message is Christ, we cannot give more, we dare not give less.” In the biblical garb, we have to confess in the final analysis, that following Jesus is a

matter of ʻchoice and decisionʼ a conviction to which, we are compelled to by the work and person of Jesus Christ.

Finally we all have to follow Jesus in the difficult territories of daily life-areas where we meet people. In the circumstances of our personal life, who are those whom we meet in the journey of life? Are they simply fellow citizens or are they friends? Christian discipleship means following Jesus in our brothers and sisters. We are surrounded by poor people, exploited people, people to whom justice is denied. The measure of the presence of the poor is the measure of the absence of the kingdom. Who is the neighbor? Our neighbor is the one who is in need. To the Samaritan the neighbor was the one lying on the roadside, robbed, naked and wounded.

He was rich enough to be robbed, and then he was sociologically poor. We are not naturally brothers to them; we are to become brothers by option.

In the parable the Levite and the priest avoided commitment.

The Samaritan committed himself to the poor man; ʻmy neighbor is the one to whom I am committed.ʼ In the world today, commitment to the poor is part of Christian discipleship. There can be no Christianity without the sense of the poor, a sense of brotherhood. Following Jesus means following the poor Jesus, who became poor for our sake.

Renounce is part of Godʼs call in Jesus. In the picture of the final judgment in St. Matthew 25 commitment to the poor is the decisive criteria for our salvation.

How do we discern Godʼs will as followers of Jesus? Leonard Hodgson, Regis Professor of Oxford 35 years used to say, ʻChristian life consist of obeying the will of God, revealed in Christ by the Holy Spirit.ʼ The Holy Spirit, the guide to all truth, takes the things of Christ and reveals the meaning of Godʼs rescuing activity in the world of today. To be fishers of men, He leads the church into the discovery of new biblical truth. Reformation is always a fresh discovery of biblical truth th bringing renewal and advance. The 19 century, the century of great advance, was the result of new obedience for worldwide missionary task. God the Holy Spirit is ever alive and ever active. The Holy Spirit led us into the realization that we need the whole world to understand the whole of Christ.

Modern ecumenical movement is a movement of the Holy Spirit. The Missionary task, as Bishop Stephen Neil– theologian, church historian, outstanding missionary of the 2oth century, who was with us till a few weeks ago said, is still ʻan unfinished task. Evangelism is compulsion from within and challenge from without; so is Christian discipleship….

Compulsion from within and challenge from without.ʼ The Holy Spirit leads us to new understanding of the working of God in the world today and summons us to new obedience.

Our temptation is to ask the question. ʻWhat can I do for the Lord?ʼ It is an egocentric question mark of the would-be disciple. We should ask, ʻWhat does the Lord want me to do.ʼ It is a Christo-centric question mark of the Christian disciple.

Editorʼs Note: This sermon is a spiritual classic; it was delivered at the Oxford University by Thomas Thirumeni in October 1984 after his parathyroid surgery. One of editors had the good fortune to be present at this most memorable occasion.

Chickaballapur Mission in Karnataka of ChennaiBangalore Diocese Chickaballapur Mission is a field near Bangalore in Karnataka State in India under the Chennai Bangalore Diocese of the Mar Thoma Church. Rt. Rev. Dr. Isaac Mar Philoxenos is the Diocesan Bishop and Rev. James K. John is the missionary in charge of this mission field and 5 evangelists are serving in various areas in various mission activities.

Chickaballapur is a rural place in the outskirts of Bangalore city in the Chickaballapura District. The mission field aims at the holistic development of people, societies and villages especially in and around Bangalore rural and Chickaballapura Districts.

The illiteracy, poverty, child marriage are some of the major social issues which hinder the development of the society in the village. The mission filed began in 2008 and is making steady progress by providing the basic needs including education, health, and training to the residents of the village.

The major activities include Vishwa Jyothi Hostel run by the mission is exclusively meant to address the struggles of the girl children in the villages. At present there are 26 girls students in this hostel. Some of them orphans and rest are coming from economically poor and backward families. God has tremendously used this hostel for providing education to these children and by God始s grace quite a number of children are living a victorious life. In order to provide a shelter for these children, the mission has undertaken a hostel building construction and need to complete as soon as possible. The successful completion of this project would enable the mission to reach out for more deserving children in the rural areas and to provide them with shelter and education.

Divya Jyothi Child Development Center is another project of the mission. It is undertaken in association with Compassion International and started in 1987. At present this center has 250 students and 15 staff and the missionary priest is serving as the project director. This mission provide The other projects of the mission are 驶Manava Vikasa Kendra, a project started about 16 years ago with the support of CCCYC, Bangalore. There is a Day Care Center, Tuition Center, and Tailoring School. The center is undertaking programs like health awareness classes and women and family development programs. Musthoor Village Vikasana Samithi is a project supported by the Bangalore Center Mar

Thoma Voluntary Evangelistic Association. Under this project there are three tuition centers where five teachers are working and around 120 children are being taught in regular classes held in remote villages.

There are two parishes, two chapels, seven congregations for the believers and seekers of about 700 people. There are five Sunday Schools for around 200 children, four Youth Fellowship for around 250 members, four Sevika Sangham for about 400 women members. Four VBS are conducted in different places in which about 400 children participate annually. Under the health work program led by one health worker, village medical camps, medical aid for needed people, and deaddiction program were given to people in the villages.

Under the education aid programs, there are four tuition centers and four tailoring schools in addition to the Vishwa Jyothi Girls Hostel, Divya Jyothi Hostel for Girls, Manav Vikasa Kendra and Musthoor Village Vikasana Samithi. Training for women includes candle making, home for homeless project and tailoring training.

Help is needed both by prayers, visiting the mission field and providing services to the villagers and also by financial help. The immediate needs are many including sponsoring for the new hostel building, sponsoring a child in the hostel, sponsoring a vehicle for the mission field. There is a need to buy land and build a mission house and church in Chickaballapur, CN Hosur, Perresandra and V. Kote.

Courtesy: Rev. James K. John, Chickaballapur Mission, Karnataka, Bangalore Contact Information: You can contact the missionary priest at his address: Rev. James K. John, Mar Thoma Mission, No. 161, Cerahalli Gate, Gerahalli P. O., Chickaballapur Dist., Karnataka, India 562101 by mail or by phone at 011-91-8156-270460 (land line) or 011-919845241851 (cell) or at his personal e-mail address: jkjachen@gmail.com or cbpuramission@gmail.com. You may also obtain more information from Rev. Thomas John, Vice President, Jerusalem MTC, Bangalore at 011-919448803393 or Mr. Shajan M. George, Treasurer, Jalahalli, Bangalore at 011-91-9448388280 or at his e-mail shajan_gm@yahoo.co.in (Please see the photos of various activities from the mission field on the next page)