Advent as a time for ‘Anthropause’: Waiting and celebrating God’s play - Reflecting on Isaiah 64:1-9 for Pandemic Advent -1

 

We step into a new liturgical Christian calendar year from this Sunday as we begin the season of Advent, amidst lockdown and restrictions in place due to this pandemic. Perhaps, it will be right to call this season in 2020 as ‘Pandemic Advent’ and Christmas as ‘Pandemic Christmas,’ for the word ‘pandemic’ not only qualifies Advent and Christmas but also defines our times and context today in which we are called to reflect Advent and Christmas. Collins English dictionary has chosen ‘lockdown’ as the word of the year for 2020. On the other hand, the Oxford English dictionary (OED) has chosen not to name a word of the year, describing 2020 as the ‘unprecedented year’ and ‘year that left us all speechless’ and named too many names to sum up the events of 2020. These words include a wide range of words in various settings. The chosen words for 2020 include ‘unmute,’ ‘mail-in,’ ‘coronavirus,’ ‘lockdown’, ‘pandemic,’ ‘face-masks,’ ‘Black Lives Matter,’ keyworkers,’ ‘workation’ ‘staycation,’ ‘remote,’ ‘social distancing,’ ‘systemic racism,’ and ‘anthropause.’ It was reported that during this year the levels of media coverage for climate change has reduced due to the pandemic. But it was said that it resulted in the using of a new word, ‘anthropause,’ referring to “the global slowdown of travel and other human activity and the subsequent welcome consequences, such as decrease in light and noise pollution, and an increase in opportunities for wildlife to thrive.”

 

As we begin this season of ‘Pandemic Advent,’ I recognise the very meaning and a faith relevance of this word ‘anthropause’ which literally means “human interruption,” where ‘pause’ is a verb. In the text from Isaiah 64:1-9, we notice that the prophet called ‘third Isaiah’ was lamenting to God, confessing the trespasses and the iniquities of his community and seeking the intervention and interruption of God into their times. The community just returned back from the Babylonian exile through the aide of the Persian King, with the challenge of restoring their city, temple, faith and scriptures, in front of them. This post-exilic, post-colonial community as they returned to their own land, out of their desperation, helplessness, division and tiredness were interpreting their times as the period of God’s absence. Through this poetic lament, the prophet calls for an ‘anthropause,’ a human interruption to such notions of periods of God’s absence, for there can never be a phase, space and period in time and history which is devoid of God’s presence. God is always present in every situation, waiting and wanting to work with people and community in restoring their hope, confidence and faith. The prophet in this text invokes ‘anthropause’ in at least two ways. Firstly, he upholds ‘God’s play’, recognising God’s being and God’s activity, where God is at work with some awkward pauses. Secondly, the prophet explains ‘anthropause’ in seeking a confession about humans, an offering made in the presence of God to wait on God, driving away all iniquities and self-righteousness. In other words, ‘anthropause’ is a time of waiting for humanity, especially during Advent, on the one hand where we celebrate God’s play forward, and on the other hand where humanity’s righteousness is taken backwards.

 

1.    ‘Anthropause’ is a time, where God’s play is celebrated:

This post-exilic community though came back to their ancestral land, free from the Babylonian captivity, their faith still remained under the rubric of colonisation, where they spelt hopelessness as a situation of God’s forsakenness and even as God’s absence. The prophet was calling for an ‘anthropause’ in their play and faith, and uplifting them to wait, recognise and celebrate God’s play which has been at work. Human beings wanted to play the game, drawing their rules, and taking everything into their own control, without any fair play on the ground. The prophet begins to explain God’s play by calling God as his playmate, inviting God to “tear open the heavens and come down,” (1v) for when God starts playing, the mountains will quake, where the creation serves as a playfield. On God playing in the field, “the nations might tremble” for their unfair rules and unjust play, “for God’s name known to their adversaries,” for God will play against the forces of injustice, inequality and hopelessness. “For no one has heard, no ear has perceived, and no eye has seen” such a player of the histories, the God, whose play is known through eternities, for God is a just player and a best player. God the just player, “meets those who gladly do right and those who remember God in God’s ways.” The height of this moment of ‘anthropause’ arrives, when the prophet affirms in God’s play, that God is “our Father” and “our potter” (8v).

 

God is the father of the play that God plays, and also the father of the play that the humanity plays, which is a wake-up call for the community, for they assumed that they were whole and sole of their play at that point towards restoration. In other words, history is God’s play where God the father of the play, plays along with the creation as God’s playmates. In that recognition, their faith is reinvigorated and revived. When God plays with God’s playmates, the creatures, God is at work, and God helps God’s playmates in overcoming their sense of hopelessness and helplessness. God is also called “our potter” who spends time in the dirt and dust designing diversified pots from the clay. This image of God, the potter, explains that God is at play designing wonderful and unique pots. Both these images of God as “our Father” and “our potter” contests all notions of God as someone away from all the pains and perils of life, and relocates God among people, knowing that God is at play working with them in their common jobs. ‘Anthropause’ therefore is a time to celebrate God’s play as God is our Father and our potter.

 

2.   ‘Anthropause’ is a time, where humanity seeks confession:

In knowing that humanity along with the creation has been chosen as the playmates of and with God, the prophet in this text invoking an ‘anthropause,’ confesses their pride, privilege and prestige explained in their self-seeking righteousness. The playmates, humanity has thought that God, the father of the play, was hiding and therefore they have “sinned and transgressed” (5v). ‘Anthropause’ is a time to understand that lack of God-consciousness is sin and transgression, which implies being God-conscious is finding salvation in God the father of the play. The prophet calls for ‘anthropause’ from humanity where they collectively seek confession, where he laments, “we have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth” (6v). This post-exilic community not only de-recognised they were God’s playmates, they were also proud of their own righteousness, thinking that their righteous deeds can save and bring solace and hope in their desperate situation. The word used for ‘filthy cloth’ is used for the cloth used during women’s menstrual periods. In a patriarchal society where men considered any discharge of blood during menstrual periods as polluting, for they thought such blood would have made these Israelites ceremonially unclean. Without undermining or demeaning the normal physical cycles of women, this type of uncleanliness for the ritual seeking Israelites was the worst sort. To mention their acts of righteousness with such cloths is only to explain the depth of their uncleanliness, explaining that they are at a cul-de-sac in their journey of faith, and are now turning towards the righteousness of God.  

 

“Anthropause’ is a time, where the community have recognised that they are ‘clay’ used by God the potter to be mould and designed in God’s creativity. In that moment of ‘anthropause,’ the prophet continues his collective confession by saying, “we all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away” (6v). The self-righteousness will not save them, for they will be carried away by wind and will fade like a leaf, but in the righteousness of God the community now realises that they can flourish and stand up against all odds of life. In that moment of ‘anthropause,’ a time of confession, the prophet ends with a prayer, where pleads, “do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord, and do not remember iniquity for ever. Now consider, we are all your people” (9v). ‘Anthropause’ is a time where in that interruption from the norm and status quo, the community on their return to their land have recognised that they as humanity are ‘God’s people,’ ‘God’s playmates’ and ‘God’s co-workers.’

 

The relevance of this text for this Pandemic Advent 1 is at least three-fold. In the context of pandemic, lockdown and restrictions, with the news about the vaccine is now on the horizon, the first learning from this text is to recognise that Advent is a time for an ‘anthropause,’ where we are called to slow down from the busyness of our life, interrupt from the norms of our society, and uphold to that fact that God has always been at play, for God invites us as God’s playmates to join with God in collectively overcoming this phase of life filled with hopelessness and helplessness. Self-righteousness is very unchristian and pulls us down, for we are called to recognise they are ‘filthy cloths’ in the presence of God, for they cannot save us. It is purely waiting on God and willing to be led by God’s grace that this ‘anthropause’ is directed towards. Secondly, Advent is a time to celebrate God’s play, for God in Christ is at play in this field of creation. In his book The God who plays: A Playful approach to Theology and Spirituality, Brian Edgar writes, “the central idea around which everything that follows revolves is the notion that play is the essential and ultimate form of relationship with God. A playful attitude, I suggest, lies at the very heart of all spirituality and is critical for the whole of life.” Christ is God at play, and it is important to recognise this element of play as part of our theology and spirituality, and kindly don’t discount play as childish and unspiritual. God’s play interrupts the flow of games this world engages with, for in God’s play, fairness, justice, peace, equality and love are the only rules and guidelines. Anyone who subscribes to such a play is welcome to join with Jesus in playing the play of the Kingdom of God. Advent is a preparation towards that play, giving us time for warm up, to know the rules and get into the field to play along with Jesus. Thirdly, Advent reaffirms the worth of ‘anthropause’ to this our creation, where we are called to interrupt from polluting this creation and ecology that God has created with our selfish acts of greed and accumulation. It was reported that as bustling metropolises have calmed down due to the ‘anthropause’ in the first lockdowns during this pandemic, it improved the air and water quality, as well as reduced wildlife disturbance. These ecological benefits should not be limited for a short-term, rather we need to consciously allow ‘anthropause’ to happen in our lives, and contribute towards greening our planet, and striving towards sustainability, addressing climate emergencies. Our commitment to our earth is directly proportionate to our faith in Jesus Christ, where the deeper our faith in Jesus Christ, the stronger our commitment for a green planet.   

 

In conclusion, Advent calls for a time of ‘anthropause,’ waiting and celebrating God’s play at work towards peace and justice, transforming our planet to be a better and greener place to live.  “The shortest definition of religion: Interruption” wrote Johanne Baptist Metz, a Catholic theologian from Germany who was articulating his theology after ‘Auschwitz’, where he was challenging that Christian faith cannot be slipped into uncritical weaving into the culture of the powerful and dominant society. By its very nature, for Metz, Christian faith disrupts the histories of conquerors and vanquished and interrupts the ideologies of the powerful and the powerlessness of the victims. To that end, may this season of Pandemic Advent help us to pause and wait on God so that we can be God’s instruments in interrupting the norms and status quo of this world that upholds unjust systems, and join with God as playmates in transforming this our planet into a green planet. ‘Anthropause’ is not only one of the words to define this year 2020, but also serves as a word that finds its meaning and significance in the Christian faith lexicon, especially during this season of Advent. Amen.

 

Rev. Dr. Raj Bharat Patta

27th November 2020

Pic credit: https://www.futurity.org/seismic-noise-covid-19-anthropause-2408882-2/

 

 

 

 

Christ the King- Raj Patta

Christ the King’s Reverse Kingship: A Curtain-raiser to the Story of Christmas - Reflecting on Matthew 25:31-46

It is again that time of year, when people are getting ready for Christmas by putting up Christmas trees and lights in this bleak winter, hoping against hope this Christmas is going to bring cheer and happiness amidst the pandemic and the lockdowns. Whilst the Government is discussing the possibilities of families meeting for Christmas following the guidelines of medical experts, there are different Christmas adverts taking over the social media, preparing people into the festive Christmas spirit. As churches we have been discussing about the plans for Christmas, thinking about carols, Advent study, Christmas day services etc. All of these can be summed up in this saying, “this Christmas might not be the same, but the story remains the same,” for it brings us to understand that the real reason for Christmas is the birth of Jesus Christ, who was born to offer hope and peace to a world of hopelessness and peace-lessness. I know some of you might be thinking is this not too early to talk about Christmas in November.

The Sunday, before the season of Advent, which is the last Sunday in the Christian liturgical calendar is observed as “Christ the King” Sunday, where churches across the nations seek the relevance of Christ the king in the journey of faith. The text from the lectionary for this Sunday is from Matt 25:31-46, which is about the Son of Man as the king judging the nations. I recognise this text serves as the curtain-raiser to the story of Christmas, where God in Jesus was born as a baby, pitching God’s tent among the creation, particularly with those on the margins to identify with and to be with the creation. This text provides some pointers in understanding Christ the king as a king offering alternative and even reverse kingship, radically very different from the then Roman emperors and even today’s political kings and kingmakers. This text is the last speech of Jesus Christ before his passion, where he shares about sheep and goats, and ultimately he becomes the scapegoat of the empire, for preaching about the kingdom of God as against the kingdom of Rome. Allow me to share three significant pointers in understanding Christ the king’s reverse kingship from this given text.

 

1. Christ the king reverses kingship by serving as a shepherd:

The role of a king is to exercise power and authority over people, and history speaks voluminously of how kings have (mis)used power, (ab)used their thrones and have upheld hierarchy in their positions. Christ the king, on the other hand reverses his kingship by not engaging in ceremonial celebrations of pomp, rather serves as a shepherd, being on the ground, working with the sheep and the goats, dirtying his hands and feet. Christ the king is a king who has a deep love for his people, and wants to identify with the common people, and chose to be a shepherd, a common job in that agrarian pastoral society. Christ the king could command any job to be done just by an order, live a life comfortably in the citadels of palaces, yet he chose to get down and do the job of a shepherd by himself, only to express his care for his people. Christ the king, “did not consider equality with God something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself, and became obedient to the point of death (became a scapegoat), even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2: 6-8). Christ the king reverses his kingship and serves as a shepherd not only in solidarity with his community but also as a critique against the power authority of kingships.

 

2. Christ the king reverses kingship by offering God’s kingdom as a free inheritance:

In the early first century Palestine, who were living under the occupation of the Roman empire, kingship was based on the family succession to the throne. It was more of a patriarchal dynasty rule, where the son inherits the throne after the father’s rule and it continued for generations. Kingship had always been a family inheritance, and the kingdom belonged to the kings as part of the inheritance. In contrast to this norm of kingship and kingdom as a dynasty rule, Christ the king reverses kingship by offering the kingdom of God to people of his choice. The people who have addressed the needs of the ‘others,’ who have been quenching thirst and feeding the hungry with food and justice suddenly became the inheritors of Christ’s kingdom. In verse 34, Christ the king invites all those who served the weak and the vulnerable and offers, “come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Christ the king offers his kingdom of God based on God’s grace to people who challenged the structures and offered hope by sharing food, water, clothing, shelter and care. It is important to recognise that it is God’s grace that chooses people to inherit the kingdom of God, because it is God’s grace that helps them to serve the vulnerable in the society and no one can serve the ‘other’ by their own strength and merit. When they were offered this kingdom, the recipients were surprised, asking “Lord when was it that we gave you water…” for they were chosen to inherit the kingdom of God purely by the grace of God. It is the grace of God that leads people to serve the weak and the poor, and it is not the other way because one serves the weak and poor that they become the recipients of the grace of God. In offering his kingdom as an inheritance to people demonstrating love in action, Christ the king did not follow the book of rules and commandments, and offered it as a surprise package to those who did not even think of inheriting it. Christ the king is a God of surprises, for he surprised all the nations by defying the norms and rules and followed the principle of grace of God that lead to love in action.

 

3. Christ the king reverses kingship by choosing the vulnerable as his family members:

When Meghan married Prince Harry, there were several racist comments made against Meghan that she was “polluting” the royal family with her African American biracial identity. Less than two years after their wedding this royal couple quit as full-time royals, for they were driven by toxic coverage in the media, which often veered into racial harassment and bullying. For some people an “outsider” joining the royal family was a matter of disgrace and couldn’t take that as ‘normal.’ Christ the king in this text, surprised everyone not only by offering his kingdom as an inheritance to people outside of his kingship, but the greater surprise came when he said to those surprised inheritors, “Truly, I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” (v40) Christ the king reverses his kingship by choosing ‘the vulnerable,’ ‘the least in the society,’ ‘the outsiders’ as his family members, as his brothers and sisters, and said anything done to such people is done unto him. There was every possibility for Christ the king to choose many other good kings in the history, the rich people, the powerful ones, the prosperous people to be his family members, for it would suit a king to make relationships with other kingly families. But reversing such norms, Christ the king chooses people who are hungry, people who are thirsty, people who are poor, people who are sick, people who are foreigners & strangers, and people who are in prison, who are those supposedly the ‘invalids’ in the society as his family members. It takes a great courage and guts to choose such vulnerable people as valuable people, and even unto making them a family, and it takes only Christ the king to do such a radical reversal from the norm of power.

 

The message that Christ the king offers is, all matters in this life is that, it is only love that thrives. Love for the ‘other’ particularly the ‘outsiders’, the ‘powerless’ and the ‘vulnerable’ is the yardstick to demonstrate the grace of God in each of our lives and communities. There are many inferences that can be drawn from this text as a relevance for us today. Allow me to share three particular points of relevance for us as a Church: Firstly, how much of our church’s mission mandate matches with this text, where love for the ‘other’ in actions thrives? As churches we have been busy trying to keep up the status quo of our churches memberships and have been engrossed in putting our energies for the survival of the church and its properties. Feeding the hungry, giving a drink to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, caring the sick and visiting the imprisoned, these hexagonal representative acts of love in action to the vulnerable people, should be the mission mandate of our churches. When our mission engagements are in such a direction, we are truly serving Christ the king, who has come to reverse the norms of kingship. Church is all about serving in love the community, outside the walls of our church building, particularly the vulnerable people.

 

Secondly, the calling for us as a church is to align with Christ the king who reverses his kingship, for he chose not to be with the powers but consciously chose the powerless as his family members. In that alignment with Christ, we are called to give up our pride, privilege, positions, and power and seek to identify with the weak and the vulnerable in our communities. On how many occasions did we not exhibit out superiority and supremacy as a church? The call is clear and loud, to give up our privilege and supremacy. It is time that we relocate our churches to the margins of the society from the centres of powers, for among such people does Christ reside pitching his tent. As a church if we want to encounter Christ today, it is pitching our tents with Jesus on such sites of margins and vulnerability.

 

Thirdly, in this text all we see Christ the king distinguishes is, those that demonstrate love in action to the ‘outsiders’ and those who don’t demonstrate love in action to the ‘outsiders.’ The calling from this text for us is to move from not demonstrating love in action to demonstrating love in action, for Christ the king is a God of love and justice, and would not want anyone to be lost. This text serves as a challenge and an encouragement in that direction to submit ourselves to the grace of God who receives any one and everyone into her fold. Rather than titling this text as ‘judgement of the nations’ as it is titled in most versions of the Bible, for me there are two titles that I want to give to this given test. The first title I choose to label this text is “Christ the king’s reverse kingship from power to love,” and second title I label is “Love alone thrives, for love to the ‘outsider’ is all that matters.” This text, thus serves as a curtain-raiser to the story of Christmas, where God in Jesus Christ reverses the kingship and is pitching his tent with the margins by being born as a baby in Bethlehem. For God in order to demonstrate God’s love in action to this world comes down as a child born of mother Mary, identifying with the weak and the vulnerable and the ‘outsiders.’ The whole story of Christmas is a celebration of the reverse kingship of God, for God did not come as a massive giant disciplining the world with a cane in his hand, nor God did not come to be born as a rich guy enjoying all the privileges and comforts of life, rather God came down as a baby, born in a manger, in the context of Roman empire, to give life and life in all its fullness to the entire creation. Therefore this text from Matthew 25:31-46 serves as a perfect curtain-raiser to the story of Christmas, and if at all I want to do a Biblical advert for Christmas, I would choose this text as my plot and convey that “love alone thrives, for God in Jesus was born for love, offering love as a way forward for any life situation.”

 

As we enter into a new Church liturgical calendar from next week, as we begin the season of Advent, let me pray and wish you all a meaningful season. Let us strive in keeping Christ the reason for this season, and if Christ is the reason, then his family members, the vulnerable, the weak, the powerless and the ‘outsiders’ should be at the heart of our mission and ministry of love. May God’s grace go with each of us so that we can serve the community God has placed us in. Amen.

 

Rev. Dr. Raj Bharat Patta,

19th November 2020

Pic credit: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/407998047472284049/ 

Review with Reverend - rajpatta/frankio Soorarai Potru/Aakasam nee Had...

Hope in the time of Unpredictability - Raj Patta

Hope in the time of unpredictability Reflecting on I Thessalonians 5:1-11

I overheard a conversation between a Dad and his fourteen-year-old curious son, where the son was asking his Dad, “can he get to the driver’s seat and drive his car at the big car park, where there is no traffic?” For which the Dad replied, “My dear son, never try to go ahead of time, nor go behind the time, always go along with time. When you are eighteen years old, you will be legal to drive a car and then you can get to the driver’s seat and drive the car. Till then observe driving and get to know the rules of the road.” “Going ahead of time” is one of the catch words today in this post-modern world, where everyone wants to be ‘ahead of time’ and do things at an early stage. Many people are eager to get to know the future well ahead, but it is important for us to understand that living the present moment and living in and with our times is essential in the journey of life. By trying to be ahead of time, we lose to live the present fully and miss out to live a life in all its fullness, for we get busy predicting the future, trying to take everything into our control, thinking we can tame the future according to our whims and fancies. 

 

In the reading for this Sunday from I Thessalonians 5:1-11, we see that the church at Thessalonica was very eager to know the future time, particularly the return of Jesus Christ, and in a way were trying to take everything in to their control. They have given up their works and jobs, and have been curious to know well ahead about the return of Jesus Christ, which was the ultimate event of the future. To such a congregation, Paul writes, “now concerning the times (chronos = chronological time) and seasons (Kairos = appointed time), brothers and sisters you do not need to have anything written to you.” (1v) Paul was encouraging this Thessalonian church to live the present truthfully, to live the moment faithfully and to live in Jesus Christ meaningfully. By saying that ‘you do not need to have anything written to you,’ Paul was keeping the future open, in other words, he was opening the future into a situation of unpredictability, allowing the church to recognise that it is God who works in that situation offering hope through the present. Imagine if Paul would have written to this church what the future is offering to them or the details of the future, in this case the exact date and time of the return of Jesus Christ. If he did so, I think Paul would have brought disgrace to the grace of God, for God’s grace works amazingly in situations of unpredictability, for God’s Spirit does not know from which direction it comes from and to which direction it goes forth. Unpredictability is in the very essence of God, who surprises people through God’s grace at the right appointed time in the historical time-line for every person. By keeping the future ambiguous and mysterious, Paul was upholding the unpredictability character of God. Paul further explains the unpredictability character of God by offering two common examples, which is like the ‘thief in the night’ and like the ‘labour pains to a pregnant woman.’ ‘The day of the Lord’ is the day of the ultimate future, which is a day of the unpredictability nature of God, for it is only God who knows when is that ultimate future, and offers the present for the creation to live in and live with it. In the globally most watched web series on Netflix, ‘Money Heist’ a Spanish drama of robbing Royal mint by a group of robbers, one can understand what it takes for the ‘thief to come,’ who works with careful planning and execution of plan, anticipating well ahead the situations and events that they will meet during the heist. ‘The day of the Lord,’ will come in that moment of unpredictability, which is only in the hands of God, who is timeless and eternal.

 

In such a context of keeping the future unwritten and unpredictable, Paul offers hope into the present time through Jesus Christ. Paul mentions several binaries in this passage, binaries like night and day, sleep and awake, drunk and sober, darkness and light to explain the living of a Christian life in a context of persecution, false prophecies and (un)predictability of the return of Christ. However, Paul offers hope in Jesus Christ to the Thessalonian church, which also has a relevance for our context today. I want to emphasise on three signs of hope in the time of unpredictability from 8-10 verses.

Before I share the three signs of hope, allow me to share that we are trying to reimagine the meaning of this text rather than repetition of it for our times today. As we know, evidence suggest that the first book that is written in the New Testament was I Thessalonians which was around 50 CE, about 20 years much before the Gospels were written. In other words, if we have a chronological New Testament in our hands, I Thessalonians will be the first book in such a canon. Paul was writing his letters to the churches in the context of Roman empire, where military language of breastplates and helmets were part of their common vocabulary. The people in these churches saw soldiers wearing such Roman military uniforms as an everyday experience. So, Paul creatively borrows the language of his public sphere and explains a counter-public message in the gospel of Jesus Christ. A mere repetition of such military words, like breastplate, sword, helmet etc. for our context will be out of place and out of meaning for us, as they are not only out of our world-view of our public sphere today, they are also not used as our critique and contestation of occupation and war that happens anywhere in our world today. So, here are the three signs of hope in times of unpredictability.

 

1. Wrapping the hearts with faith and love:

Paul reminds the Thessalonian church to not be in the trance caused due to drunkenness, but be sober, awake and alert to the message of Jesus Christ. So, the first sign of hope is by calling on the church to wrap their hearts with faith and love. As a church when they were anxious with the unpredictability of Christ’s return, the sign of hope is to fill the hearts with faith and love, where faith offers a grounding in God, and love demonstrates such grounding in God through actions, meeting the needs of the creation. God in Jesus provides meaning to the very understanding of wrapping hearts with faith and love, where the church is invited to reflect their faith in God through their love for God and love for one another. Such an act of exhibiting and living out love in faith is a key to overcome anxiety, for we live the moment in faith and we celebrate the moment in love.

 

As we reimagine this sign of hope today, when people are anxious about the future of the church in the context of this pandemic, when people are depressed with the unpredictability and uncertainty due to this lockdown, the message is clear and loud, wrap our hearts with faith and love. Faith and love offer courage to face the situation now, and also offers strength to wait on God, the source of all hope for the world today. Faith and love co-exist together, for one without the other loses their relevance. Faith without love is a dead faith, and love without faith is abstract. In the context of growing hunger in our times, faith and love has to be shown in actions today.

 

2. Wearing the hope of salvation as a headgear:

Secondly, Paul calls on the church to put on a headgear of hope of salvation, in overcoming the unpredictability of the day of the Lord. The good news is that what they have been waiting for has already begun in Jesus Christ. The gospel is not about a spiritual existence in some ether place, but a reality of living life in and with the times now, for the salvation in Jesus offers hope to face that unpredictability. By wearing the hope of salvation in Jesus, the church is called to be critical in their reflections, be vigilant in their faith, and be fervent in their love. Hope of salvation serves as a perspective, serves as a hermeneutic for the church, where they interpret the signs of the times in that hope of salvation. When this hope of salvation becomes a mindset for the church, all it can offer is hopefulness and optimism in facing uncertainty.

 

For our times today, we as a church needs this headgear called hope of salvation, where we don’t take easy answers, but are open to find hope through critical and creative thinking, even in situations of hopelessness. This hope of salvation flows into our lives, as we embody God’s love offered in Jesus in the here and now. This headgear provides protection to negativity and leads us into optimism and positivity. As a church we should provide these headgears to all people in our community.

 

3. Wonder of offering a destination of life for all people:

There isn’t any greater hope than to know that God has destined all people not for wrath but for salvation offering the gift to live with him, whether they are awake or asleep. When the Thessalonian church was wondering what would have happened to those who died before them in meeting Jesus Christ on his return. Paul was writing that the God in Jesus is a God of love, a God who surprises by receiving everyone and offering a destination of life to all. God in Jesus is a God who offers life in situations of unpredictability. Paul also writes that God has destined everyone salvation through Jesus Christ. Such an assurance, such a belief in God offers hope to the church.

 

The church today is called to offer life to all people, and all means all, irrespective of their identity, race, gender, whether asleep or awake. We in following Jesus are not called to preach wrath and judgement against people, but offer hope to cope with situations of uncertainty. In verse 11, Paul says, “Therefore encourage one another, build up each other, and indeed you are doing.” The assurance that one receives in the vertical relationship with God needs to shared and shown horizontally with our neighbours, so that collectively we celebrate life, and courageously face the unpredictable future.

 

In closing, let me conclude this reflection using the words of Graham Tomlin, who in his book “Why being yourself is a bad idea” where he offers love and wonder as the purpose of life. He says,

 

“According to the Christian faith, that is what you are here for. Whether you become famous, earn lots of money, travel the world and collect amazing experiences is all secondary and relatively trivial against the real purpose of your life, which is to learn to live in tune with the power that gave birth to the world, to live with the grain of universe, to become somebody capable of love. And again, to avoid misunderstanding, this is not primarily about feeling warm thoughts about others, but about the slow, steady, patient ability to surrender your own comfort and prosperity for the sake of someone else – not just your friends and family, but your neighbour and, even more, your enemies. It is to extend to your neighbour exactly the kind of care that you would give to yourself and to find in doing so that you thrive and flourish – finding yourself by losing yourself.”

 

May God’s grace and hope always remain with us. Amen.

 

Rev. Dr. Raj Bharat Patta,

13th November 2020

Lockdown & Signs of Hope 2020

The Forgotten lives: The Parable of Ten Women - Remembrance Sunday 2020 - Reflecting on Matthew 25: 1-13

 

As a child I remember the ‘parable of the ten virgins’ enacted as a musical play by the moms in our local Bethany Lutheran Church in India, where all the ten women were dressed in white, holding lanterns in their hands and journeying to meet the bridegroom. On the journey they were tired and lowering the flame of their lanterns, they all fell asleep. Suddenly at repeated loud shouts, they woke up one after the other, and started to adjust the flame for more light. Five of those women carried a bottle of oil and were filling their lanterns to increase the flame, and the other five did not have sufficient oil and were struggling to trim their lanterns. These five women with no extra oil requests their friends to lend some oil, at which the others replied that it wouldn’t be sufficient to both and directs them to a dealer to buy for oil at that night. The groom arrives and takes the five women who had their lanterns burning with him and entered the wedding banquet. When the other five women came and knocked the door calling him Lord, Lord, the reply that came was he does not know them. The facial expressions of the five women who made it into the wedding banquet were gloomy that their five other friends couldn’t make it inside. The woman narrator of the play concludes by announcing keep awake, be prepared to meet the returning groom, for he can come at any time of the day or night. The play was written, directed, sung and enacted by the moms of our Women’s fellowship in our local Church. This enacted parable stayed in my memory all along, and now when I am reading Matthew 25: 1-13, it comes alive, making me nostalgic of my local congregation. 

 

As we reflect this parable this week, allow me firstly to discuss the role of women in parables, which provides a political hermeneutical key in understanding this parable. Nicola Slee in her article “Parables and women’s experience,” observes the male dominance in the parables in New Testament, which is explained by the dominant presence of male characters and their roles in the parables. She notes that in the Gospel of Matthew alone there are a collection of 104 parables and sayings, out of which there are 85 characters mentioned, where 73 are men and 12 are women. Even among the 12 women, 10 are the bridesmaids, which makes all together only 3 instances where women are mentioned in the whole 104 parables. This therefore calls us to recognise the under-representation of women and their ‘invisibility’ in the Scriptures, challenging the readers to read this parable by ‘hearing to speech’ the voices of women from this text. The parable exposes the politics of recording a parable, for as men writers & narrators they hardly mentioned any women in the parables, and exposes the politics of male dominant language in it. In verse 2, he introduces five among the ten as ‘foolish’ and other five as ‘wise.’ The male writer begins with a prejudice against the first five by calling them ‘foolish.’ In our mom’s church play, all the ten women entered the stage as friends with lanterns in their hands, all of them were dressed in white, the first five were trying to help the other five by showing them the way towards dealers in buying the oil, and they had gloomy faces towards the end when they did not make it to the banquet. This enactment explains that if it were women recording their own stories, representing their own experience and narrating it in their own language, the parable would have had a totally different take and meaning to it. This therefore calls us to confess the politics of patriarchy in the text, and invites us to a subversive reading of the narratives of the parables from the invisible, decolonised and under-represented communities. The politics of re-presentation must be addressed in any hermeneutical engagement of Biblical texts, this parable of the ten women challenges us towards that.

Secondly, this is a parable of the ten unnamed women. Most translations have recorded the women in this parable as virgins, some others as bridesmaids, however, the politics of re-presentation challenges us not to define any one’s identity by their role or status or occupation. Caste system in India and elsewhere has been operated on the notions of purity and pollution, for people are divided into dominant castes and outcastes based on descent and occupation. To recognise people as people and not with any of their roles or status or occupation is an important marker for a just and equal society.

 

This parable then is a recognition to the fact that the divine in Jesus communicates the eschatological message of last judgement through these unnamed, under-represented and unduly presented women, whom the first century Christians till our twenty-first century Christians think are incapable of being the bearers of the Gospel. This parable of the ten unnamed women therefore is an affirmation in the strength of women as bearers, instruments, agencies, and resources of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In our mom’s play, when it was written and performed by all women, one could feel the dancing of the Gospel coming alive, for the Spirit of God through our moms gripped us all to turn towards God, and made a lasting impact and impression in the lives of the audience there.

 

Thirdly, this parable is about keeping us awake and to wait on the hope in God, for none of us knew the day nor the hour for the return of the Son of Man (13v.) This parable is a wakeup call to each of us who have fallen into deep slumber of falsehood, seduced by false saviours of modernity. Today, secularism, market, globalisation, state etc. have been sedating communities to fall asleep offering false hopes, and deviating, even obstructing an encounter with the divine. This parable is inviting us to recognise that the divine in Christ has been visiting us daily at odd hours in different forms like in people with no food, no shelter, who are in prisons etc, which is explained towards the end of this chapter 25, and we have been busy going around to trim our lanterns and meeting the dealers of market, missing opportunities to meet and eat with the divine. This parable of ten women is challenging us to stay awake to recognise God who in Christ is coming to us in unexpected people, to meet and dine with them. In our mom’s play, there was a shout from the background that said in a loud repeated voice that the bridegroom is returning. The sound was too loud that no one could miss hearing that shout. Five women got up at that shout, and other five took time to wake up. When they were trimming their lanterns, the other five then woke up and discussed about oil. Stay awake by waiting on God’s hope, and the message that reverberates from this parable is to be prepared for the visitation of the divine in our localities. 

 

Finally, this parable of ten women de-envelops a theology of unpredictability, for no one knows the day nor the hour of the return of the Son of Man. This parable contests all kinds of predictions on God, calling us to recognise that God does not act on the terms and conditions of human predictions, but God acts on God’s own terms and times. Unpredictability has been a theological category, for the God of the Bible has always preferred to be a God associated in calling people, in sending people, in encountering people, in incarnating as human, in pouring out as Holy Spirit on communities who are on margins, all happening in the fullness of God’s own time. God in Christ has been returning in the unpredictability of our times, for the call is to keep awake and be prepared to meet God at God’s time and God’s place, which are totally different from human predictions and expectations.  In our mom’s play, after the shout from the background that the groom is coming, a woman dressed as bridegroom suddenly stands up from the audience to walk up to the stage to meet those women. No one noticed during the play, that the bridegroom was seated among us, for we were all so immersed in the play to actually recognise that the groom was one among us. None of us could predict in the play that the bridegroom comes from within the community of audience.

 

On this Remembrance Sunday, we are called to remember several unsung heroes and sheroes of wars, whose lives were lost, whose histories were lost and whose memories are also lost. It was said that approximately 1.3 million Indian soldiers served in World War I, not representing their country or their geography, but risking their lives and ultimately paying their lives. Over 74,000 Indian soldiers lost their lives, fighting on a distant foreign land for a foreign cause & countries. Those Indian soldiers included Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, people of faith and no faith and had to sacrifice their lives.

 

On this day, may we re-member those & several other people, whose names, lives & histories have been erased & forgotten and whose lives & their deaths were unrecognised, unnoticed and undocumented. It is time to dis-member their lives, histories & local narratives of resilience as war soldiers, sepoys, jawans & several others.

 

Particularly during this current pandemic in 2020, there are several people’s lives that are forgotten. The lives of people seeking asylum, people who are living in refugee camps, people who are struggling to live in hunger caused by the loss of jobs, people who are vulnerable, and many more whose lives are forgotten. This text invites us to recognise that God is present among such forgotten people, and our call is to listen to their plights and strive towards justice and peace.

 

Allow me to conclude this reflection by quoting the sermon Martin Luther preached in 1522 on this same text Matthew 25: 1-13, where he said, “Therefore, let each one see to it that he has these two together: the oil, which is true faith and trust in Christ; and the lamps, the vessel, which is the outward service toward your neighbour. The whole Christian life consists in these two things: Believe God. Help your neighbour. The whole Gospel teaches this. Parents should tell it to their children at home and everywhere. Children too, should constantly foster this Word among themselves.”

 

Rev. Dr. Raj Bharat Patta,

5th November 2020

 

Pic credit: https://upcendicott.org/sermons/2015/3/15/on-wisdom-and-folly-a-sermon-on-matthew-251013

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the context of child hunger, Christ the anchor of hope by sharing our food

 

In the context of increasing child hunger, Jai ho invokes Christ as the anchor of hope by sharing food and resources and thereby striving for equality. At the table all are equal and eat food together.