Churches’as Hills of Help: A Quest for Ortho-praxis

Reflection on “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?”

Psalm 121: 1

 

Introduction

The recent James Cameroon’s blockbuster movie Avatar takes along the viewers to the hanging mountains and dreamscape of flora and fauna of planet Pandora.  Famous theologian Kwok Pui-lan in her review of the film titled  “Avatar: A Subversive Reading of the Bible?” she writes “in Avatar, planet Pandora is not only a land of milk and honey, but also has a large reserve of a precious metal unobtanium. The avatar of Jake is sent as a messenger to ask the natives to relocate so that the humans can mine the unobtanium. Jake learns the native ways, falls in love with one of them, and becomes so identified with the natives such that he helps them to fight against the colonizers. The movie invites us to look at the world from the point of the indigenous people—to see the beauty of their interconnected way of life and learn about their culture.”

Britain’s Vedanta Resources, the multinational bauxite mining company, has pitched its tent in Orissa, one of the eastern states of India. In August last year, the Supreme Court of India allowed Vedanta Resources to mine bauxite in the Niyamgiri Hills of Orissa. The mined bauxite would feed the company’s proposed $800-million alumina refinery in Kalahandi district and an aluminium smelter project, costing Rs.70 billion, in Jharsuguda districts of Orissa. This project is going to damage the livelihood, their daily bread and environment of more than 8000 Dongria Khond adivasi people. The Na’vi in the film Avatar and the Dongria Khond adivasis in India share several common issues for justice and peace.

The above two situations sets our given text in our context to ponder and delve upon. Psalms 120-134, which are popularly called as ‘songs of ascent’, where used as hymns that were sung by pilgrims as they gathered to Jerusalem during the appointed feasts for the whole of their nations. As the pilgrims journeyed to the elevated Jerusalem, their eyes were continuously upon the hills, for the hills were their solace and destiny to which they were journeying. The pilgrims anticipated for help, calling on the accompaniment of the divine, which the psalmist records in the first verse of the Psalm, and the assurance from the divine was recorded in the succeeding verses.

Taking cognizance of the realities of our adivasi people, our indigenous brothers and sisters and their struggles for daily bread, their ongoing campaigns to affirm self-dignity and their fight for justice, allow me to reflect the given verse from the perspective of the marginalized communities. The Dongria Khond peoples daily prayer is ‘we look up to the hills, from where will our help come?’ In a context, where the hills are broken down for profit, and where the forests are cut down for selfishness, from where will our help come from? 

1. Hills Represent Strength

For the indigenous people in Niyamgiri, Orissa and for several others like them else where in the world, hills are the symbolic representations of their life systems. For generations they have lived on the hills and their livelihood, their sentiments, their religion, their culture, their beliefs, their civilisation and their value systems all are interwoven with the hills. Their strength is their relationship with the hills; their stronghold is in their association with the hills, the fauna and the flora there on.  Life for the Dongria Khond people is their hills in Niyamgiri, and they cannot expect life with out their hills. ‘We look up to the hills, from where will our help come?’ continues to be the echo that’s heard from that hill, and help shall certainly come from the God of the hills. ‘A mighty fortress is our God…’ is the hope against hope with which these our people live and God of justice who cares for the displaced and the indigenous people shall come in rescue of them. Hills do not represent power, rather they are part of God’s creation and their strength lies in being a help to the others, be it in causing rains, be it in protecting the forests and be it in giving a livelihood to the people and nature.

2. Hills Replenishes Succor

The people will be forced to leave and will be displaced from their original inhabitations, they continuously look towards the hills, for they know out of the hills they see the sunshine and out of the hills their help will come from. The modern technology may blast the hill into pieces to dig out the mine, but the will of those on that hill is so strong, that no force on earth can disunite nor shatter them, for they affirm that their hills are their strength. Hills serve as healers for these our people; they give succor and comfort to the wounded and tired. The natural eco systems give them fresh air of healing, for there is interdependence of humans and creation, in its perfect balance. The LXX has the Greek work boetheia for ‘help’ in Ps 121: 1 and is used in Acts 27:17 as ‘supporting cables’, therefore the supporting help to hold together in all harmony comes from the hills, which is the belief and comfort to the people there. God of comfort, who succors God’s people through the presence of Holy Spirit, is the driving force for the people who are fighting against the mining industry.

3. Hills Reassures Solidarity

When the rights of the indigenous people are violated and violence against them is rampant, the hills unite people to stand for justice at any cost. The indigenous peoples’ lives are at risk, and they are in need of support and voice from across the globe for justice. Hills, which sees that the nature is in solidarity with the people there, and the people in solidarity with the nature for they both live in mutual harmony, establishes a strong bond of kith and kin among them. Therefore when one is in trouble the other comes in solidarity with the other. Thanks to all the social activists fighting for justice and thanks to the Church of England, who have withdrawn their investment support in this particular firm, for they are violating the human rights of the indigenous people in Orissa. God of justice, who has created the heavens and the earth, builds communities of peace and solidarity for the good of the creation. God holds together the creation and human who work hand in hand with each other. Solidarity comes from God, for God is the local inhabitant with the people on the hills, and we need to accompany the victims of injustice towards liberation and justice.

Conclusion

At a time, when huge structures of Churches are being built across the country competing with each other to build expensive structures, at a time when the orthodoxy of the Churches limits us to perform certain rituals within the four walls of the so called sanctuaries, at a time when Churches criticize among themselves on the basis of doctrines and dogmas, at a time, when we as Churches are struck with our orthodoxy, it is certainly a challenge to turn towards an ortho-praxis understanding of the Church. How practical are we as Churches? Does our existence as Churches have any meaning and relevance to the society in which we live? 

The Churches today needs to be like that of the hills, where the human beings, the flora and fauna and the entire creation live in mutual harmony with each other. The Church needs to give strength to those indigenous people for they look up to the hills of the Churches, which objectively needs to be the homes of justice. The Church is the place where succor and comfort is granted to those victims of human rights violations, and it is time that we as Church needs to rise up to the occasion of replenishing succor and tranquility to the communities around. When people look to the hills of the Churches, are we able to come in help to them? The Church is the place that reassures solidarity, for we need to journey with the marginalized and the oppressed towards their destined liberation. No matter what the identity of the people is, no matter what religious affirmations the people practice, if the struggle is for justice, Church needs to be in solidarity with them, even at the expense of their lives. People look up to the hills of the Churches for solidarity, from where will the help come?

These days, when the Lutheran World Federation in its General Assembly in July 2010 is discussing upon the theme, ‘give us today our daily bread’; if our Churches can be Bethlehems, the houses of breads, we can make our Churches more relevant for our times. As we join in the breaking of the bread, let us forget our orthodoxical Church traditions and affirmations and cling towards ortho-praxis, where we will be willing to be broken for the cause of our communities around, for only by being broken we can quench the hunger of many around. It is not the hill top Churches, that we are in need of, but the Churches, which serve, as hills of strength, succor and solidarity are the need of the hour. The will of the Churches should be the hills of help. Let us as Church wake up to see the grim realities around and lets commit ourselves to be in solidarity with the people of Dongria Khond in saving the hills of Niyamgiri in Orissa, and be a channel of liberation and justice. We may be distanced by space and time from Niyamgiri, but our sensitivity towards the indigenous people and their struggles needs to be taken into the cognizance of our Churches lives, for we need to garner support in favour of the people by expressing our total support to this cause of life and justice.

May God grant us God’s strength, succor and solidarity as we pledge to make our Churches the hills of help for people around who are fighting for their daily bread. Amen.

Voice of God Affirms Human Dignity to All

Our Year, Our Voice - International Youth Day

12th August 2010

Matthew 4: 1- 4

Key verse: “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But Jesus answered, “It is written, one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” 3-4 V

The tempters direction to the hungry young Jesus, who was in fast for forty days and forty nights, is a challenge for Jesus.  Jesus who turned water into wine, with all his powers at this point would have easily turned the stones into loaves of bread to satisfy his deep physical hunger. In Jesus as human, his divinity was put to test, but Jesus though is divine affirmed his human dignity and countered back at the tempter accordingly.  For the tempter, the physical hunger was not important; rather a miracle to turn stones into loaves of bread was of high regard.

In our times today, to the hungry, to the weak and to those in poverty, most times the tempters of today the rich and the powerful show forth stones like situations and asks the poor to work on those stones until they are made as bread. The tempters of today crib and complain, because the poor are lazy they are not willing to turn stones into bread, because they are technically not sound enough they are unable to turn stones into bread, because they are not meritorious and always fight for reservations they are unable to turn stones into bread. Such complains go against the human worth and dignity of these our friends. On the contrary the tempters enjoy life and privileges at the expense of the vulnerable poor and hungry people. Those people who toil day and night are paid meager wages, but the huge bulk of profits go into the hands of the rich, for they have capital and power. The tempters of today are hard task masters, for they do not want any stone unturned in making profit for themselves, even though it costs human dignity to those poor workers.

Jesus, therefore affirms his self-dignity and counters the tempter by not performing any miracle, rather quotes the Scripture, the voice, where he says that it is not bread alone that will quench the hunger, but the voice of God, which is the word of justice, equality and dignity that keeps life going. Word of God shows right direction to earn bread through right means and right modes. Word of God counters the rich who make profit by easy means and by exploiting the weak and the poor. Word from the mouth of God, which is in hunger when lots of people go with hungry mouths, affirms human dignity and provides means and methods in addressing hunger. Word of God is life giving and hunger satisfying.

Prayer: God, who has sent the Word to become flesh in order to know the hungry, help us to be prudent in affirming dignity in all people and help us to voice against all tempters, who exploit the weak and the poor of our times today. Amen.

Our Mother Earth Bleeds…

(An offering on the eve of the 35th anniversary of coining the term 'global warming'. It was on 8th August 1975, Wally Broecker for the first time used this term in a scientific journal. )


Bombs on civilians were thrown in Hiroshama,

Making many innocent fight against comma,

Tombs have resulted for those in trauma,

For death spread around its stinking aroma.

Let there be peace in land filled with violence,

Make our faith to take cognizance

Of conflicts around, using our lives lens,

Seeking forgiveness for our deep silence.

Temperatures of our earth are rising,

Apertures covering the earth are widening,

Creatures on the earth are vanishing,

Raptures within the earth are deafening,

Departures from the earth are increasing,

Signature the earth to save her from shrinking.

Our life giving earth’s womb is soon turning to be a tomb

 Plumb and do not succumb to it. Save our earth

Our mother earth bleeds because of our greeds,

she ‘ll be pleased if we can take care of her seeds/needs

Is peace and justice still a reality?

Oh sure, only when we give up our cruelty,

Fighting together justly with out any partiality,

Affirming equality and sharing in commonality.

Peace is not only absence of war,

It is not when people are afar,

It is when we are one at this hour,

When self is gone, peace remains forever.

Our Mother Earth Bleeds…

Bombs on civilians were thrown in Hiroshama,

Making many innocent fight against comma,

Tombs have resulted for those in trauma,

For death spread around its stinking aroma.

Let there be peace in land filled with violence,

Make our faith to take cognizance

Of conflicts around, using our lives lens,

Seeking forgiveness for our deep silence.

Temperatures of our earth are rising,

Apertures covering the earth are widening,

Creatures on the earth are vanishing,

Raptures within the earth are deafening,

Departures from the earth are increasing,

Signature the earth to save her from shrinking.

Our life giving earth’s womb is soon turning to be a tomb

 Plumb and do not succumb to it. Save our earth

Our mother earth bleeds because of our greeds,

she ‘ll be pleased if we can take care of her seeds/needs

Is peace and justice still a reality?

Oh sure, only when we give up our cruelty,

Fighting together justly with out any partiality,

Affirming equality and sharing in commonality.

Peace is not only absence of war,

It is not when people are afar,

It is when we are one at this hour,

When self is gone, peace remains forever.

Come Let’s be Friends

In my search for the ends of the rainbow

On my journey to the origins of the streams flow

In my search for the pearls in the depths of the seas so low,

I found you my friend, precious in all glow

Come lets be friends

Communicate life’s new trends

Committing to cast away fiends

Communing to meet lives ends

How pure you are O my friend just as water,

For to you life-giving is all that matter,

Nursing my wounds and healing is what you cater

Flowing in silence to make others greater and greater

Friendship with God is friendship with human,

Friendship with human is friendship with nature so common

Friendship with creation is what God summon

Friendship has no barrier, slave, free, man and woman

In our times when divisions dominate,

When conflicts and prejudices dictate,

When enmity and cruelty abominate,

Let friendship emulate unity and precipitate

How old are you O friendship?

As old as the world that’s made from God’s tip

As old as the Word that came from God’s lip

O boy, you are as eternal as God, who’s in total grip

(Dedicated to all my friends and wishing you all a very happy friendship day on 1^st August 2010)

Give us today our daily bread…

Give us today our daily bread,

Teach us today to thank on what we’re fed,

Help us today, realise many go to bed,

Without a meal and are nearly dead.

Refrain:          

             Food for thought, food for life and food for all,
             Good for thought, good for life and good for all,
             Said our thought, said for life and said for all, 
             Live our thought, live for life and live for all.

Forgive us O God for we eat in greed,

For selfishness is what we breed,

Forgetting that sharing should be our creed, 
Forever we are insensitive those in need.

O God, the maker & the giver of life,

You have sent your son as bread of life,

Broken for us to save from death & strife,

Promising those that taste you, eternal life.

Is starvation swallowed up in victory of sharing?

Its sting, accumulation broken by caring,

Root of greed is uprooted in that sharing,

Food for all and life for all will be its bearing.

Mission Towards Building Just & Inclusive Communities

Reflection on Luke 15: 11- 32

1. Equal Bread Builds an Equal Society.

Key Verse: But when he came to himself he said, “How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger.” 17 verse.

Occupational discrimination has been still a rampant phenomenon in India, and particularly in the name of caste and gender there has been unequal distribution of wages. Unequal treatment of workers at work, some occupations are being looked down and have been attached to caste-based works and work force has been divided and ruled by the oppressive ruling class in our society.

The Parable of the Prodigal and his brother, when re-read in out times of hunger and food security, it is surrounded around food politics. The younger son in a distant land, when he was dying of hunger thinks of his father’s house, his memory cannot but think of the plentitude of food the workers enjoyed there. The house of his father was an inclusive community where there was equal food for all at that house. No matter what the identity of a person is, what the work of a person is, if they are at father’s house, whether hired ones, temporary workers, permanent workers, day labourers, his own sons and even himself, all had the privilege of enjoying food, which was served equally and justly. Probably what the father and his son ate so was it for those hired hands in that house. All sufficient food was available for all those working at father’s house. No discrimination, no exclusion, no barriers, no boundaries, no gaps and no individualism, the bread was enough and was even to spare for all those working at that house.

This parable calls us to fight against occupational discrimination in our society today. There should not be any discrimination at work. Like the father’s house in the parable our Churches and homes should be examples where equality and sufficiency is maintained to all at work. When there is equality at work, there is peace and productivity at work. Give us today our daily bread is meaningful, when there is equal bread and sufficient bread to all at work, transcending all barriers. Equal bread builds an equal society.

II. Feasting Together Builds Inclusive Community

Father said, “…And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate.” 23 V

Bishop VS Azariah, in 1910 Edinburgh World Missionary Conference in one of his speeches he said that ‘missionaries have always prayed for granting us thrones in heaven but have never given their chairs in their rooms to sit for us.’ This has been so, for most of the Christian mission engagements elsewhere, which is even practiced today. Most of us when people come in hunger, forget to address their hunger and have either prayed for those who are in hunger to be fed, or made hunger as the vulnerable situation for us to evangelize and show mercy and charity, and least of all have forgotten to feed them when they are hungry. By doing so, a hierarchical society is further made, with donor and receiver.

But the father in this parable, on seeing his son coming from a distant country in hunger, first of all addressed his hunger by ordering a grand feat of non-vegetarian dinner. Even though the son has asked for forgiveness, and expressed his unworthiness to be called as his son, long before he forgave him, he addressed the hunger of his son. By ordering a feast, father builds an inclusive community with the others over there. The father did not order to give his hungry son some left over food, nor did he give some snacks that were available instantly, nor took him to a restaurant for an individual private dinner. But the father organized a feast, where his hungry son was fed as well as the others in the community was also fed. I assume that every time a hungry person comes to this father, there would have been a feast for the whole of the community. By doing so, probably father was building an inclusive community, where the ethic was if one is hungry in the community, every one needs to feel for them and when is fed, every one in the community needs to be fed.

Therefore let our Churches and houses become the places where hunger is addressed not by mere prayers, nor by charity but by inclusivity and justice. Let us as individuals feel hungry, when one in our community is hungry, and let us make feasting for when the hungry are fed along with them.

III. Complacency A Threat to Inclusive Community

Key Verse: But he answered his father, “Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you and I have never disobeyed your command, yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends.” 29 V.

Complacency has been one of the manifestations of self-righteousness of our times, and has been a dire reality of Christian living. The ethos globalisation has always taught us to be self-content, self-satisfied and made us more individualistic and selfish, no matter what happens to the other in our own community.

In this parable, the younger son is projected as dying in hunger, the father as giving life out of hunger, and the elder son as depressed in anger. When the elder son saw and heard that there has been a feast at his home, he was depressed in anger for out of his complacent character, he replies his father in anger that he never has given even a young goat to celebrate with his friends. What was more pressing for this elder son was, when the property was divided equally between the two sons, the property where his father was, legally speaking the elder ones portion. Therefore, when his father on the return of his younger one threw a feast, it was from the elder’s portion that he cooked some beef for the community. And probably that did not taste good for the father shared from his portion. Complacency makes us not to share, and therefore frustration is shown. Complacency also made the elder one to further point down the allegations of the younger one, that he being hungry was his own making. Complacency breeds greed, and makes an individual excluded from the community living. Complacency made him to grumble that the father never gave a goat to be cooked for him and his friends.

In today’s context, it is high time that we Christians need to give up complacency in our lives. Our attitudes need to change, for sharing; caring and not alleging are all part of community and inclusive living. Let us give up our complacent nature, let our churches give up complacent nature and even let our missions give up exclusive and complacent attitudes. For today, complacency is the great threat of inclusivity. Complacency is the new aristocracy, which is a threat to inclusivity.

1. Logo Courtesy: http://www.lutheranworld.org/Images/LWF_Photos/Photos_Assemblies/Stuttgart2010/Logos/Assembly2010_logos/2010-Assembly_square-EN-448.gif