Hosanna! Save us NOW!

The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting,

Hosanna to the Son of David!

Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!         Matt 21:9

The crowds and disciples of Jesus’ time were under the yoke of Roman Empire, under the foreign rule. People were waiting for a deliverer, Messiah, to free them from the clutches of imposed slavery. Their identity was determined by the imperial structures. Here in Jesus, the disciples and crowds saw the fulfillment of the long awaited Messiah. They shouted, Hosanna! Save us now!

Contemporary culture promotes virtual reality through World Wide Web and the culture of consumerism. It is the culture of wealth. The culture of wealth has a direct relationship with consumerism and technology. It is manipulative and constructs our identity.

 According to Ellan T. Charry (Professor of Theology at the Princeton Theological Seminary, NJ) observes five manipulative strategies of consumerism that keeps the system going. They are a) the breeding of calculated dissatisfaction and alienation by manipulating individual vanities which soothes the ego through displaying wealth, b) illusion of personal power which inversely propagate freedom of choice; as it seems a perfume free life is virtually impossible, c) invention of self perpetuating need; the sugar-salt syndrome promoted by the Pepsico, d) impulsive buying stimulated by labyrinthine store layouts; only one entrance and one exist; “the more you see, the more you buy” is the slogan, e)craving for success; success as climbing up the corporate ladder; “mommy syndrome”.*

Virtual reality of life emerged with vigor lately by the World Wide Web, though the same existed in the form of library as we interact with the thought and world of other people through books. Virtuality enables us to be in more than one place at a time, and more than one self at a time. Through internet we are global citizens and we live in more than one world at a time.

We live and move in this reality. Either rich or poor cannot escape from it, or nobody is protected from these forces. A psychological agenda has been carried out through advertisement to promote vanity, greed, and insecurity. Ultimately it promotes virtual violence. As a whole the system is designed to burn us out. Our identity is constructed by these forces.

We need to get out of this manipulating, depressing realities; we need salvation. There is another source of the self: God. God in Jesus Christ provide salvation to us. In Jesus Christ we received a God given identity. Salvation through Christ reassures an identity constructed by God. 

Salvation is the freedom to live beyond being constructed by the culture of wealth, the culture of poverty, or by any other human culture for that matter, because it offers us an identity constructed by God, who is another source of the self.

Hosanna!  Save us NOW!

---

*
Theology Today, October 2004.

The Stranger and a Simple Meal!

As I approach to the waiting lounge in
the airport, the public safety announcement heard, “please report any strange
packages or suspicious act immediately to the concerned authorities.”

 The strange(r) always seems to be a
threat.

 The post resurrection passage in John 21: 1-14 is of a stranger at the sea shore at the Sea of Tiberius. The incident took place in the reality of frustration, hopelessness, and despair. They are on their daily business of fishing. The disciples did not give much care to this stranger.

The stranger took the initiative for dialogue.  He asked, “Children, you have no fish, have you?” They answered him, “No”. He said to them, “Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some. (John 21: 5, 6) The familiar word Jesus used when he called them for the first time. (Luke 5:4, 5) The dialogue eventually leads to recognition by the disciples. The disciples whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord.”

All of them came back to the shore. The stranger greeted them with a simple meal, fish and bread. He “took the bread
and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish.”  (John 21:13) A familiar and similar act reminds them of a past event, feeding the five thousand. Then Jesus “took the loaves… so also the fish.” (John 6:11) The revelation was complete. Nobody questioned the intention of the stranger or there was any doubt about him. By that time they all knew Him (John 21:12).

 
A wall hanger reads,

“Christ is the head of this house
The silent listener to every
conversation
The unseen host at every meal”

 Where will you find Jesus?

The Stranger and a Simple Meal!

Who is a visionary?

Yes I remember Moses, who got challenged by the vision of God at Horeb while he was shepherding the flock. But here is a person who saw a vision at the death of somebody else! The vision of Isaiah (Isaiah 6.1-13) is like that. A death, of course the death of a monarch, that leads to a heavenly vision. 

The King was Uzziah, or ‘Azariah’ (2Kgs 15.1-7; 2 Chr 26) of Judah. He was a visionary, a fighter (2Chr. 26. 6-8), reformist, always open to new ideas, pro-develomental-ist, strategic military personal (2Chr. 26.11-13), eagerness for self reliance (2 Chr. 26. 14, 15), and a dare devil, others feared of him (2 Chr. 26. 8). But when he had become strong he grew proud (Chr. 26. 16). He went on to the extent to make offerings at the altar, where the priests and Levites are allowed to enter. He dared to challenge the divine authority. The result was that he became leper. He lived in a separate house, excluded from the community to the rest of his life, till death. Isaiah was an eye witness to all these realities. He was in the temple for the usual worship. He was deeply troubled by all the events. The land lost the great king. 

The death of the earthly king created a vacuum in his psyche. There is a void in his inner being. As he was worshipping, the usual chanting of ritual got a new turn in his entire psyche. In this worship, the familiar Holy, Holy, Holy, chant spoke to him, a heavenly sensation. He could envision the heavenly worship and the heavenly King.

 The void created at the death of Uzziah was replaced by the Heavenly Eternal King. He responded I am lost and I live among a lost community. The heaven asked ‘who will go for me.’ ‘Here I am’, he responded. The task is to proclaim the message of eternal judgment, a message of doom. He was prepared even for that.

He becomes a visionary, who receives a prophetic vision even in times of emptiness.

P.S. When we are disturbed, the vacuum or void it creates, helps us to the see extraordinary in
life. It would provide us with the task of true prophet of God.

Against Giving????? *

We all are taught or
instructed to give. Giving is considered as one of the noble act. We often ask
questions like, how much I have to give. Or to which project I should help?

These questions pose an
idea as if we are the owners of our resources. Who can give? Only a person who
owns can give.

Human beings, according to
the Bible, are stewards. “Think of us in this way, as servants of Christ and
stewards of God’s mysteries” 1 Corinthians 4.1. Steward means manager. One who
acts on behalf of someone else. A manager has no right tot act according to
his/her plan. He/she is entrusted to fulfill the wish and plan of the owner.
Managers act in the interest of the owners.

In that sense, are we
acting as owners or as stewards? Do we own anything? The way we do with our
resources often reflects as if we are owners of everything.

The Bible teaches us that
God is the owner of everything. We are mere managers or stewards for Him.

The biblical God is a
giving God. God spends his resources for the benefit of others. Even He was
willing to spend/spare His Son for us. We ought to spend all our resources for
human benefit and for the glory of God. The nature of God is to give
abundantly. We are also expected to give abundantly.

Therefore don’t give as per our plan, give
according to God’s plan, like the widow’s mite. She gave out of her poverty. “She
out of her poverty has put in all she had to live.” Luke 21.4

* I am indebted to The Rev. Francis H. Wade for the title.

Password: Love

The advanced computer technology erected a more sophisticated phenomenon ‘my space.’ This is an area where people are specially invited to enter into a more personal and intimate level. Only intimate buddies are invited to this area. It creates a personal zone, secure and manageable with secretpassword.

A password is the successful key to enter into the personal zone.

The love of Jesus Christ is the password that God has created to establish the broken relationship with humanity. Jesus Christ has given the same password: love to maintain relationship with him and with fellow beings.

Love is in a way creating the space to allow others into ones own heart. It is inviting others to ‘my space;’ to feel, to explore, and be enriched by the warmth. It is allowing others to invade my personal zone. Others are not a threat but the presence of others create a bond of relationship. The password: love, therefore creates a space for my enemy, outcast, and the outsider. That is possible only through letting go of old self. Buddhists call this “little death.”  Jesus said, “unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (John 12.24) Yes our ‘I’ has to undergo little death. John the Baptist said, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3.30)

An Amsterdam policeman – who had been meditating everyday for years, along with a colleague had to disarm a dangerous man. Along with a gun, the man was also carrying a knife, which had used to cut himself. He had sliced through the tendons in his fingers. The officers manged to overpower him and take him to the hospital. When the police officer was leaving the hospital a couple of hours later, the injured man called to the officer, gave him a piercing look and said, “I’ll never forget your eyes.” A simple act of humanity  is all it takes: a look, a smile, a pose, a gesture. (Source: Ode,June, 2007, p31.)

Love one another. (2 John 5c)