Wilderness Journey

You cannot enter the Promised Land without first going through the wilderness. Between freedom from slavery in Egypt and the milk and honey of the Promised Land lies the God-intended wilderness filled with trial and testing. It is a character forming time, a character that God desires. Israel had to go through that wilderness. Jesus had to go through that too. In all the synoptic gospels we read that after Jesus was baptized and the voice of God pronounced God's approval of Jesus , he was led by God's Spirit into the wilderness to be tried and tested (Matt 3-4; Mk 1:9-12; Lk 3:21, 4:1-13). Hebrews 5:8 says that although Jesus was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. No matter who you are, if you are a Christian you will have to go through that wilderness of trial and testing. The Bible says that the disciples are not above the Lord. In John 15:20 Jesus tells his disciples that a servant is not greater than the master. Therefore not to expect a better treatment in life than the one Jesus received as the Son of God. But when we turn to the “health, wealth and prosperity gospel” of our culture, I feel that we are saying to Jesus we are better than you. Look you were poor, we celebrate prosperity, you were persecuted we wallow in popularity, you were rejected we enjoy wide acceptance.

Evangelism and Worship

Often the word 'evangelism' is not received well in our society. It is treated by many as a word that implies Christian arrogance, intolerance and superiority that tells people what they ought to believe. And for that reason many Christians shy away from evangelism. However, Apostle Paul viewed it very differently. He saw evangelism as an act of worship. In Rom 15:16 Paul writes, “... because of the grace given to me by God, so that the offerings of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.” Paul considered it a sheer grace extended to him by God when God called him into his service to go specifically to the Gentile (non-Jews) with the gospel and serve them. And he describes that ministry in terms of priestly ministry. A priest's responsibility among other things included making an offering to God. Paul is viewing himself as a priest who through the preaching of the gospel making an offering of Gentile converts to God. In essence Paul views his task of evangelism as an act of worship in which he makes an offering to God consisting of people he brings to God. In Isaiah 1:12-17 we read that God is not interested in offerings of animals or incense but in how God's people dealt with other people. The same is true of Christian worship, the true worship of God includes not merely bringing offering of  money or praise to God every Sunday, but by bringing offering of people whom God loves and people who were lost to God. The true offering that God desires is people reconciled to God. This is the offering that pleases God most. This is why we Christians must evangelize.  

Saved by Grace!

Paul writes in Ephesians 2:8-9, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—not the result of works, so that no one may boast." When I attended a Catholic school in India they taught me a lot about what it meant to be saved by grace. This was 30 some years ago. During that time, in that school system if you worked really hard but failed to pass in a test by a few points, the teacher could decide to give you those much needed points and pass you. They called it grace marks. So if the passing score was 70 and you scored 65 the teacher would take a red ink pen write grace mark and give you those five points to pass you. According to Paul, we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). What Paul means is that we have all failed to make the passing score in God's test in life. Mother Teresa might have scored a lot more than any one of us, but even she ended up with a few points short of the passing mark. Therefore, what you need is the grace mark that God offers through the blood of Jesus. And when you passed in such a way in that school in India you did not go about with a proud face or went home with any sense of pride, but with humility knowing that it was by grace that you have passed. The same is true of our salvation as Paul points out, it is a gift, not our own doing so that no one may boast.

What is lost in the Genesis Debate?

There is a lot of debate going on in our culture about Genesis 1. The Genesis writer was not mainly addressing 21 century scientific questions, but responding to the polytheistic culture of its time. Sometimes in the midst of the heated debate between young-earth and old-earth proponents we lose the beauty of what God is telling us through this beautiful text. Here are some of the things that we can learn if we choose to listen rightly.
1. Genesis 1 tells us that one God created everything out of nothing. It challenged stories afloat at that time about how everything was created. The Babylonian story of Enuma Elish describes discontentment between wild and young gods and older gods. Younger gods are led by an older goddess named Tiamat, the goddess of the primordial sea. Marduk, who led the older gods, kills Tiamat, and out of her corpse constructs the cosmos. Genesis writer, however, tells us that one God is the creator of the universe who created every thing out of nothing. While in the Babylonian story the universe is created from the corpse of goddess Tiamat, in Genesis it is created out of nothing.
2. Genesis 1 also tells us that natural elements are not to be treated as gods. Watery deep in Genesis is not personified as in Enuma Elish (Tiamat). Also the writer of Genesis uses the phrase “greater and lesser lights” to describe the sun and the moon created on the fourth day. In a culture that worshipped the sun and the moon, the Genesis writer wanted to make the sun and the moon seem nothing more than greater and lesser lights. Creation is also described as “good,” but not “divine” as it is in many cultures of the world. Genesis writer wanted to stress the fact that only God, the creator of all things is God.  
3. Also, Genesis 1 tells us that humanity is special. It tells us that on the sixth day God created humanity in his own image. It is well known that in both Egyptian and Mesopotamian societies the king or some high official was regarded as the image of God. Such designation was, however, not applied to ordinary working class people. Genesis however by claiming that humanity is created in the image of God made what was ordinary extraordinary, and made every one equal as the created image of God.  Also it is only after humanity is created that God calls it all not just good, but “very good.” In genesis 1 humanity is given dignity and entrusted with responsibilities and with authority. This is seen as a part of the divine plan. This stand in opposition Mesopotamian mythology that humanity was an afterthought of the gods or that people were created to take over the labor that gods were tired of doing.
4. According to Genesis 1, created order was "very good (31)." The number seven of seven days represents perfection. It opposes other religious ideas such as that of the later Gnostics that matter is bad.

 

No Individual Christianity!

Churches at times might be a pain to deal with, but there is no way of being a Christian without the Church. There is a growing number of people who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ, but claim not to attend Church for various reasons. This is a product of Western individualism. It is not Biblical. Paul calls the Church the "body of Christ" (Rom12:5; 1Cor 12:12-31). Paul says when you are baptized you are baptized into Christ's body (1Cor.12:13). That means that a person through baptism not only comes to belong to Christ, but also to his body, the Church. In Acts 2:43-47, in keeping with the extended family system of that time and culture the Church is seen acting as one such extended family by having things in common. Acts 20:28 talks about God obtaining the Church with the blood of his Son and not just individuals. The Church and not individuals is also defined as the bride of Christ (Eph 5:25-26). Even while writing to a highly dysfunctional Church like the one in Corinth, Paul refers to it as "sanctified and called to be saints (1Cor 1:2)." This is the high priority and value that the Bible places on the Church. Christians need to stick with Churches and strive to make them better. But leaving the Church is not an option. You cannot follow Christ and not be a part of his dysfunctional family. After all, Christ himself became a part of our dysfunctional humanity!

Remembering

In our Judeo-Christian tradition remembering is of utmost importance. Our identity as an individual or as a people is influenced by what we remember about our past and about ourselves. In Exodus 13:3 we hear Moses urging the people of Israel to remember their great deliverance from Egypt. This act of remembering is established forever in the Jewish celebration of Passover, and this act of remembering was meant to be more than just a mental exercise of recalling a past event, but it was meant to shape the Jewish identity and how they lived. As they remembered generation after generation what God did for them, they were to remember their identity of being God’s free people and live accordingly no matter what socio-political situation they found themselves in. The same is true of the Lord's Supper or the Christian reinterpretation of the Passover tradition. In the Lord’s Supper tradition as narrated by Paul in 1Corinthians 11:23-26 Jesus in verses 24 and 25 is heard saying as He breaks the bread and takes the cup, “Do this in remembrance of me.” In essence what Jesus is saying also is, ‘Never forget.’ What Jesus is asking us to remember is his self-sacrifice for our sins, and allow that remembrance to inform our identity and how we live in this world.   As we remember, no matter what socio-political situation we find ourselves in we need to live a life of self-sacrificial love toward God and others.

Prayer

We know that often a lack of healthy communication is the cause of breakdown of a relationship such as a marriage or a parent-child relationship. Counselors tell us that a healthy relationship whether between spouses or between a child and a parent should have a strong foundation of regular communication. Communication is also important for healthy development. That is why, for example, many TV advertisements on teenage alcoholism and drug addictions keep repeating the same mantra: take time talk to your children. Communication is important for a healthy relationship and healthy development. The same is true of our relationship with God. At the heart of that relationship lies also a need for constant communication called prayer in which we take time to listen to God as well as speak our hearts to Him. How healthy our relationship with God is dependent upon the communication we have with Him on a daily or weekly basis. And how healthy our development as Christians is also dependent on our prayer life.