Born a Child... Christmas 2020 | Raj Patta| Prem Joseph|

My spirit rejoices in God my saviour: Rejoice always! Reflecting on I Thessalonians 5: 16-24

 

The profound moments in our life were the days when Shiny and I were blessed with our sons. The days they were born were moments of sheer joy in our lives. When I recollect and reflect on those moments, all I can say is that those experiences of joy are captured for me in the word “Rejoice.” Those were the moments to rejoice, because our joy knew no bounds. As I write this reflection, I am nostalgic of all those awesome moments of holding the ‘bundle of love’ (our sons) into hands, and they are very precious and priceless. I am sure each of you might have a different experience of moments of sheer joy in your lives, where you can sum that as ‘rejoice’ moments.

 

The third Sunday in Advent is called “Gaudete” Sunday, where the word ‘Gaudete’ refers to the first word of the Entrance Antiphon, “Rejoice,” in way inviting the church to reflect on the theology of rejoice, as we await in hope and joy for the coming of Jesus Christ. On this Sunday, the lectionary also suggests Mary’s song from Luke 1:46-55, where she sings, “my soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my saviour” (47v). For Mary, the realisation to rejoice in God arrived, when Elizabeth affirmed the grace of God in her life, as she shared that she is going to bear a child. The reason to rejoice in God for Mary was because “God has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant” (48v). The ripple effect of rejoicing in God came along when Mary continued to be prophetic in her song, challenging the powerful and helping the hungry with good things. For Mary, that moment of sheer joy came when her cousin affirmed in the work of God’s grace in her life as the child was conceived in her by the Holy Spirit, and eventually she rejoiced in God, the saviour. We have been singing this new Christmas song, “Mary did you know?” in which we unknowingly de-celebrate the agency of Mary, and deprived Mary of her confidence and strength as a young woman. Yes, Mary did know that the “child she delivers will soon deliver the world,” which is the message for us to sing this Advent.

 

To the church at Thessalonica, Paul concludes his first ever NT letter with these words of exhortations as recorded in 5:16-24, the prescribed lectionary for this Sunday. He writes certain do’s and don’ts for the church. The three do’s for the church are: Rejoice always, pray without ceasing and give thanks in all circumstances (16-18v). These do’s are the will of God in Christ Jesus for the church. The three don’ts for the church are: do not quench the Spirit, do not despise the words of prophets and abstain from every form of evil (19-22v). These do’s and don’ts appear to be simple but harder to follow.

 

Firstly, in the do’s, we recognise that all of the three verbs mentioned are to be done forever, never ending, without any break or reservation and certainly without any ‘conditions apply’ terms on to it. Rejoice, prayer and thanksgiving are eternal and to be done at all times, both in season and off season. Secondly, rejoice, prayer and thanksgiving form the heart of the will of God, for I think they always co-exist and co-work together. Thirdly, rejoice, pray and give thanks are all verbs, that call for action and can’t be limited to mere uttering of words. Fourthly, the do’s and the don’ts are correlated and inter-related. For rejoice, prayer and thanksgiving are directly proportional to the Spirit of God for no one can stop her. They are directly proportionate to the prophetic words and also to the abstinence from every form of evil. To put it differently, the Spirit of God, the prophetic words and the abstinence from evil are all reflected in rejoice, prayer and thanksgiving. In other words, rejoice, prayer and thanksgiving should resonate the Spirit of God, the prophetic words and the abstinence from forms of evil.

 

After the exhortations of do’s and don’ts to the Thessalonian church, Paul concludes by saying how one can live up to those do’s and don’ts. His solution is simple and deep, that it is the “God of peace himself who will sanctify entirely” (23v) and makes a profound statement that “the one who calls you is faithful and he will do this (keeping our spirits, bodies and souls sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ)” (24v). Paul was invoking that one can fulfil the do’s and don’ts only by the grace of God, only by God alone, as God is always faithful and helps us to live a life worthy of our calling. By this invocation of God’s grace and God’s strength, Paul was exposing that no one should boast that they can fulfil all the aforementioned do’s and don’ts by their own merit, faith and works, for they may turn to be futile, for unless the Lord builds the house all our labour will be in vain. This is a great matter to rejoice, for God is willing to help us live our lives as God wills for us.

 

Moltmann in writing that “Christianity is a religion of joy” explains that when God comes to judge the earth, the whole creation will rejoice (Psalm 96:11-13), and the day of judgement is a day of rejoicing and not of terror. He further explains that repentance is joining in the joy of God, for God finds his rejoicing in seeking and finding the lost ones. So, repentance is not self-afflicted pain or self-punishment, but is the joy of God. He finally says, “which is greater, the joy or the grief, the happiness of the pain, life or death? And my answer is this: existence is greater than nonexistence, life is more than death, hope is above despair, and so joy is greater than pain. Why? The answer is simple: because whereas in pain we want our suffering to disappear, in joy we want the things that make us happy to endure.” This is what we need in our context today.

 

Drawing a relevance of this text for our context today: we are called to offer Christian faith as a faith of joy that celebrates life over death, hope over despair and happiness over pain. This year 2020 has been one of the toughest years with death, grief, fear, anxiety, distance, separation, gloom and zoom, yet if we have to name some of the ‘rejoicing’ moments this year, I am sure there are certain pointers. The arrival of kindness from unexpected quarters of life during this year is unquantifiable, for they brought joy and consolation in many ways. In all of this God has been faithful, offering us hope to rejoice in the light at the end of the tunnel. Faith has always been (mis)understood as a sigh for those in pain, but the faith in Jesus Christ is a matter of rejoicing in God, calling us to offer joy in this world, by protesting in the name of God against the forces that destroy the joy of God, which is in God’s drawing nearer to God’s creation. During this year, for some moments of rejoicing came through neighbours, through gardens, through families at home, through technology of at least catching up to meet virtually, through the songs of the birds, through the works of the essential workers, and through the arrival of the vaccine.

 

May we all join towards the end of this year to join with Mary in singing, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my saviour, for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant (of all the people on the margins).” May we wait on God who is faithful and just, helping us to rejoice in God for God’s grace and God’s love. May we step into the New year rejoicing in God to be channels of sharing God’s joy so that can share gladness to several people we meet. May the rejoice moments in our lives multiply. May we all have a meaningful season of Advent. Amen.

 

Rev. Dr. Raj Bharat Patta,

11th December 2020

 

 

‘Mark’(ing) the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ - Reflecting on Mark 1:1-8

Recently I was asking a group of friends, “what is the first book in the New Testament (NT)?” I heard four different answers which are very interesting to note. The first friend answered, “Matthew is the first book in the NT because with the gospel according to Matthew the NT canon begins.” The second friend replied, “the book of I Thessalonians is the first book in the NT as it was the first book that was written, which was about 51CE, much before the gospels were written.” The third friend replied, “gospel according to Luke is the first book as it records the birth of Jesus Christ, and subsequently gives us the story of Jesus’ ministry, his death on the Cross and the resurrection.” The fourth friend replied, “gospel according to Mark is the first book in the NT as it was the first Gospel to be written among the four gospel writers.” As I heard these four different answers, I recognised a rich diversity in the very understanding of what ‘first’ means, and how such a definition of ‘first’ defines each of my friends' understanding and perspective of faith. The big learning for me in listening to these four diverse answers is the fact that there is no one ‘first’; there are various firsts, where all my friends understand ‘first’ from their own perspective and from their own social location.

 

In the prescribed reading for this second Sunday in Advent, which is from Mark 1:1-8, the gospel writer Mark, who was the youngest and the ‘first’ one to write a gospel among the four gospel writers, begins his gospel with these words. “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (v1). ‘The beginning’ of his gospel, according to Mark, is very different from the rest of the three gospel writers. For Matthew, ‘the beginning’ of his gospel has the genealogy of Jesus Christ. For Luke, ‘the beginning’ of his gospel has the story of Zachariah and Elizabeth, besides an introduction that he has researched thoroughly in writing his gospel. For John, ‘the beginning’ of his gospel is about the word who was in the beginning. Again, we notice diverse ‘beginnings,’ for all the four gospel writers begin their gospels to four different audiences and contexts, therefore each has a way of beginning their story of Jesus. The context of the writer and the context of the audience factors in defining ‘the beginning’ for any story and we see it succinctly with the gospel writers.

Let us now reflect on ‘the beginning’ of the Mark’s gospel. In Mark’s beginning to the gospel of Jesus Christ, he quotes a passage from prophet Isaiah and explains that text in reference to the life and ministry of John the Baptiser, who came to prepare the way to Jesus Christ. Allow me to present three ways of understanding ‘the beginning’ of the good news of Jesus Christ according to Mark.

 

1. The beginning begins with a critique of the centres:  

In order to present the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, Mark begins by preparing the way, and he has chosen John the baptiser, who according to him lives up to the prophesy of Isaiah. What do you expect when someone begins to narrate or write a story of Jesus Christ, the son of God? One would expect the setting either to be the place where the Son of God lived and dwelt, which should be something palatial and opulent, because he is from God’s family, way above human imagination. Or one would expect the scene to be at a temple, where the people then believed that God’s presence hovered over there. On the contrary, Mark begins the beginning with a scene in the wilderness with John the baptist preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. “And people from the whole Judean countryside, and all the people from Jerusalem were going out to him and were baptized by him in river Jordan confessing their sins” (4-5v). The beginning for Mark begins with a critique of the temples and opulence, where he was giving a message to his audience that, Jesus Christ the Son of God locates Godself in sites of margins, the wilderness and not in the centres of the power. For in a way, from that wilderness, from the waters of a small river Jordan, from the sites of the margins, Jesus’ ministry begins, and therefore for Mark such a beginning marks the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God according to Mark begins in the sites of margins, in the dirt, in the wilderness, away from the centres of powers and much far away from the transcendental spheres.  

 

2. The beginning begins with a creative ‘show, don’t tell’ method:

One of the styles in story writings is ‘show don’t’ tell,’ allowing the reader to experience the story through action, words, thoughts feelings etc. The best example is: “Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on a broken glass.” Having set the beginning in the wilderness, Mark now applies this technique of ‘show, don’t tell,’ where he allows his audience to experience Jesus Christ, the Son of God as a person who baptised with Holy Spirit unlike John the baptiser who baptises with water. Mark explains the power of the Son of God, by demonstrating the humility of John who testifies in verse 7, “the one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals.” By beginning his gospel with the story of John the Baptist and his message of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, Mark was showing to his audience that Jesus Christ the Son of God, who is coming is a forgiving God, who forgives anyone and everyone, for Jesus works on the ministry of grace, with a preferential option to the least, the last and the lost. This beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God is shown by Mark, inviting us to be the demonstrators of the gospel rather than mere tellers of the gospel.

 

3. The beginning begins with a clarion call:

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, for Mark begins with a voice, a voice in the wilderness, a herald, who was calling for action, repentance for the forgiveness of sins from people. With Jesus, the Son of God stepping into the unjust world as a human being, the message that paves the way for him is the voice for action towards justice and peace. The message is not always soothing to the audience, it was a voice disturbing people towards repentance from complacency and injustice. Mark does not record the response of the crowd who heard this voice for repentance, but Luke records it. In Luke 3: 7-17, the crowd asks “what should we do?” and John the baptiser replies, share your food, give up being greedy and don’t be corrupt exploiting people and the systems. All I am trying to say is, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ calls for action, calls for a change, calls for justice, calls for repentance and calls for being and becoming a new creation.

 

One of the English sayings about beginning is “Well begun is half done,” and for me Mark, fulfils that and sets the tone and tenor of the gospel of Jesus Christ with his meaningful beginning. In short, with this kind of beginning, Mark is communicating to his audience then and us now that the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God is about critiquing the centres and identifying with the margins, is about showing God’s grace and mercy to all of the creation and is about action, an action for change and new creation.

 

The relevance from this text for our context today is firstly to learn that there is diversity in understanding of ‘the beginning’ and in narrating the gospel of Jesus Christ. The call is to be open and accommodative in humility to knowing and receive others perspectives in sharing the gospel. Secondly, we as a church are called to begin the story of Jesus Christ today, not from the centres of powers but from the sites of the margins, for the Son of God finds margins at home. Thirdly, the gospel of Jesus Christ comes with a clarion call, a call for action, a call for return to God, a call for justice and a call for new creation. It is insufficient to shout in the street corners calling God, “Lord, Lord!” rather God in Jesus is calling us to show our discipleship in action, and in striving for transforming our world today. As we step into a new year, we are hoping for a ‘new’ beginning, and the challenge for us is to envelop the gospel of Jesus Christ relevant for our times today.

 

Finally, I want to conclude this reflection by asking if Mark had a style and message in beginning the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the challenge for each of us and as a church is, how are we marking the beginning the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God today in this context of our post-secular world? The message is clear and loud, we are called to begin the gospel from the margins, led by the ministry of grace and with profound actions for transformation.

 

May God grant God’s strength to us so that we are creative, critical and consistent in our discipling Jesus Christ today.

 

Rev. Dr. Raj Bharat Patta,

4th December 2020