Broken Bodies & Bodily Ascension: Ascension Day

Monday, the 22^nd May 2017 night in Manchester, witnessed one of the horrific incidents of a terror attack which cost the lives of 22 people, leaving about 60 people seriously injured. The city and its citizens, who are still reeling under deep shock, came forward openly to stand in support of one another irrespective of religious identities, offering solidarity and sharing love with one another, sending a message that ‘collectively we shall overcome hatred and embrace love.’ On one hand, there are broken bodies, and on the other there is a body of love formed and performed in this aftermath.

At the backdrop of this incident, the Christian Church as part of their liturgical calendar are observing Ascension Day today, which is the ascension of Jesus Christ into heaven, after appearing and eating with his disciples for forty days’ post-resurrection. In the context of fear, terror, violence, broken bodies, disappeared bodies and anxiety, how do we understand Ascension of Jesus Christ for our times today?

On the one hand, Ascension of Jesus Christ has been viewed by most Christians as an event outside of Jesus’ life and mission, for this is an incident happened post-resurrection, an after-life event of Jesus. On the other hand, on most occasions and by many Christians Ascension of Jesus has been limited as an act related to Jesus’ divinity, like that of his transfiguration and resurrection, and compartmentalised the activities of human Jesus and of divine Jesus. Such distinctions have diluted and compromised the wholistic understanding of Jesus’ mission. Jesus’ incarnation, his life & ministry, his death, his resurrection, his ascension and his Parousia are all integral part and parcel of Jesus mission, and no one aspect of his mission be treated in isolation. All aspects of Jesus’ mission are inter-related to one another, for every event in Jesus mission is sequential and consequential to the other. The very act of Jesus’ ascending into heaven, as Douglas Farrow observes, “is the proper outcome of his messianic career”, for as a messiah Jesus accomplishes his mission and ascends as a messiah into heavens. Such an understanding helps us to understand that life is integral and any dichotomy of human person is dubious and devious.

Allow me to share two points on this reflections on Ascension.

1.      Ascension: A Bodily Jesus Ascends into Heavens

The early Church and the then Jewish communities were familiar with stories of ascensions into heaven, from the lives of Enoch, Elijah who were taken up into heaven. It was also believed that emperor Augustus, was also witnessed to be ascended into heavens, and there was an ample evidence of familiarity on this event to people then. However, in defiance to Roman empire’s unjust criminal crucifixion, God raised Jesus from death, proclaiming hope of new life to all those that undergo such unjust trials and executions. Post-resurrection, Jesus appeared to his disciples in his body, for Thomas could touch and feel his body, ate with them in his body, and in this instance ascended into heaven in his body. The broken & crucified body of Jesus was resurrected in his body and was flourished in body as he ascended into heavens. The material broken-crucified-risen body now ascends into heaven, for the broken body becomes the site of a transfigured body, seating at the right hand of the Father of the holy Trinity.

The logic of empire, which is demonstrated by violence wants to destroy bodies by killings, scatter bodies through terror acts, crucify bodies by unjust crucifixions, disappear bodies by torture, and disintegrate the bio-politics of life. In contrast to this, the love of Trinity receives and embraces bodies into their fold, and the ascension of a bodily Jesus is a foretaste to such a reception of material body. Those that are embraced by the love of Trinity, are called to receive the broken-hearted and partake in the healing of their broken bodies. 

2.      Ascension: Descent & Disciple

In Acts 1: 1-11, the episode where Luke records the ascension of Jesus Christ, after Jesus ascends into heaven, the disciples were struck staring at this spectacle of amazement. “When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” (9-11V) Ascension was a wake-up call to his disciples to not get struck with this gazing, but to keep waiting and watching for the descent of Christ, where he comes to judge both the living and the dead. Farrow, proposes that the power of Spirit is left with the eucharistic assembly, for as they receive the body of Christ, they become the body of Christ, for ascension is ensured to all such bodies of materiality. Discipleship calls for a continuation of Christ’s work in ensuring justice and peace, liberating the bio-political bodies towards transformation into a new creation. Discipleship is attending to the ‘bare life’ of our context, and striving for the bodily liberation to all bonded by torture and violence.

Ascension of Jesus Christ invites us to a costly discipleship of addressing the wholistic needs of the people, which is their bodies, souls and minds. In the context of violence and terror, the broken body of Christ, should come forward in healing the broken bodies of the community, and resisting all forms of evil that destroy life. Life, in the sense of bio-political life belongs to God, and any attempt to disrupt and destroy such a life is against God’s will, and discipleship is to work towards that will of God.

Rev. Rajbharat Patta,

Ascension Day,

Thursday, 25^th May 2017 

Pic courtesy: http://liturgy.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Ascension-Jesusmafa.jpg

To Disciple Christ is to be ‘Born Again’: A Re-reading from ‘Below’

John 3:1-17

Greetings to you all in the precious name of our Lord, Saviour and Liberator Jesus Christ.

It is such a delight to have SCM gathering happening here at St. Peter’s this weekend, which makes me nostalgic of my work at SCM India and some five years ago, particularly I remember coming to speak at a national conference of SCM UK here at St. Peters. I can only say how grateful I am to SCM for the way it has challenged my faith on several counts and called me to a vocation of wider horizons, particularly inspiring me to translate faith into actions, which is the key that I learned from SCM. Wish and pray that this mission of God will continue to challenge and inspire many more young people in translating our faith in Jesus Christ with more concrete actions and reflections, as needed for our context and times today. SCM played a midwife role in my life for a renewed life experience in my faith journey, for which I am grateful to God and to SCM.

The gospel lesson read for us today from John 3, for this second Sunday in Lent is a call towards a new birth in faith and to become a new creation in Christ and for Christ, for Christ plays a midwifery role in trying to give a new birth experience in faith to Nicodemus. Jesus tried hard and insisted Nicodemus to push hard to come out as a ‘born again’ or ‘born from above’ person, and also helping all of us as listeners of this word today to push hard to come as ‘new born people in faith.’ Nicodemus was struck in between in that labour for new life, for he neither could come out nor go in that day.

The conversation between leader Nicodemus and Jesus, which comes straight after the Wedding at Cana and the Cleansing of Temple by Jesus in the previous chapter. For Nicodemus on knowing these acts he came to Jesus by night, for in verse 2 he says, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” Nicodemus was a powerful person in that context, for he is a religious teacher by calling who has well read all the religious scriptures, a Pharisee by birth, a leader and a ruler in the government of his day, and commanded authority on all fronts of his life. Jesus encounters this powerful man with the gospel of ‘born again’ theology, a theology which is invitational into a journey towards a new birth experience, giving up all the old forms and practices. This periscope did not mention, how Nicodemus responded or acted to Jesus invitation, probably he went unconvinced and confused about this new birth experience, for we see him to be mentioned at two other instances in John’s gospel, once in 7^th chapter asking his co-governmental authorities to investigate properly on the accusations made against Jesus, and for the last time in 19^th chapter where he comes with expensive spices to embalm the body of Jesus Christ at his burial. I think those appearances are too late for Nicodemus to emphasise that he had this ‘born again’ experience. To understand further,

I want to share two things this morning from our text,

1.      The Activities of the Presence of God:

Nicodemus in verse 2 recognises that Jesus has come from God, and he says no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God. What were those signs and activities that Nicodemus knew which he says are the activities of the presence of God. In chapter two we have the first miracle at Cana, where Jesus turns water into wine, and then the cleansing of the Temple, for he contested that ‘the house of God is a place for prayer for all nations’ driving away all activities of commercialisation that is taking place there. The activities of the presence of God are those that challenges the normalisation of status of quo, in other words it was the activity of the presence of God, that sees to it that the least and the last who came for the wedding were given fresh and new wine, for Jesus tries to locate his mission of God among and with the margins. The activity of the presence of God is to ensure that the least gets the best, the least are the privileged friends of Jesus, and best wine is served to those at the last who are willing to stay with perseverance with the last.

In the second account, Nicodemus as the leader of the government and of the temples, saw that no one can overthrow the tables of money lenders, for those moneylenders had the patronization of the powerful religious authorities and the empire, except from the activity of the presence of God. Perhaps this is a wakeup call for us to feel that it is the activity of God’s presence to speak truth to the powers, cleanse our churches and worships and to see to it that ‘these are the houses for prayer for all nations.’ The presence of God is in the cleansing of the corrupt systems and unjust structures. The church today needs to see its mission as cleansing our own systems and ensure that our worship places becomes a place of prayer for all people of all nations, encouraging diversity and affirming in pluralities. Here I need to affirm that our St. Peter’s Church has been trying to explore ways and means in which we can be ‘a house of prayer for all people of God and for all nations.’

In short, for Jesus’ ministry and from Nicodemus’s acknowledgement we recognise that, the activity of the presence of God is to quench the thirst of the people, to ensure that the least gets the best, to cleanse the corrupt structures, to make our churches a place of prayer in action for all people of God from all nations. This morning this is a call to audit our own Churches and mission engagements, for are we able to partake in the activities of the presence of God, and how actively are we engaging in the activities of the presence of God? The Church as a body of Christ cannot collapse because of our own whims and fancies, but has to engage creatively and enthusiastically in the activities of the presence of God, relevant and needed for our times in this 21^st century.

2.      The Applications of Being Born Again:

In my youth one of the questions that I was often asked by some of the peers in the evangelical circles, “are you born again?” or “when was I born again?” What does it mean to be born again? In this age of modernity, the language has come to suggest some sort of conversion experience, a shift that promises eternal reward. ‘Born again’ Christians have become a new class today who takes privilege in their self-righteous attitude of being ‘more’ Christian than others.

But in the context of the Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus says in verse 3, “very truly I tell you, no one can see the Kingdom of God without being born from above,” by which Jesus was inviting Nicodemus to a journey of Christian discipleship which includes denying oneself, taking up one’s Cross and follow Jesus Christ, which was a call towards subversive discipleship of leaving the old self, and renewing to be a member of a new community in communion with Christ.  

Allow me to say that being ‘born again’ is not to take a birth afresh after death, but a second birth which calls us to be born anew, into a renewed community, which is a marker of the Kingdom of God. We need to understand that ‘born again’ is better translated as ‘born from above’, which is to say ‘born of Spirit.’ This then calls us how should we understand ‘born from above’ from the perspectives of the margins, or in other words “what does it mean to read ‘born from above’ from below?” In the context of the caste system, ‘birth’ becomes a norm to define one’ s status of caste, for those born outside of the body of caste system are considered to be polluted and out-casted. ‘Twice born’ takes the privilege of the dominant Brahmin caste, for they consider themselves superior to the rest of the people, in a way ascertaining that they are ‘born from above’ from the head of the body of God. In such a context, subalternity contests these notions of ‘twice born’ and affirms that ‘born from above’ is to be ‘born again’, which is an invitation of erasing the norms of status quo which classifies people into different castes, by virtue of their birth and descent.

The second birth of water recalls Jesus’ own emergence from the waters of the Jordan, for such a baptismal experience according to Sathianathan Clarke is to ‘give up the privileges ethnicity in Jewishness, giving up the domination of male-ness and also giving up his ‘white-ness.,’ for Jesus by giving up such privileges was forging a new identity for the Kingdom of God, which does not privilege any one by their birth or piety but which will be governed by inclusivity, justice, equality and liberation. Therefore, ‘born again’ experience is an invitational call to give up all privileges of power and domination, and foraging for a renewed community in Christ.

‘Born again’ is to start living subversively different from the logic of empire, for it expects people to shift their gears and journey with a drive from the values of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is to locate and explore the activities of God among the margins. This was an invitation to Nicodemus from Jesus to give up his power and prestige, and join the oklos the people on the margins in their movements for justice and peace. It was a call to turn away from colonial episteme, which calls on rationality as a norm, for Nicodemus replies Jesus with such an episteme, where he asks, ‘how is it possible for him to get into his mother’s womb second time?’

‘Born again’ therefore is an invitation to acknowledge the counter oppositional collective knowledge that comes from below, which seeks re-ordering of the public sphere and even to reclaim it by those on the margins. It was a tough call for Nicodemus to catch up with Jesus’ invitation of ‘born again’, for he was left confused and unconvinced. Have he been convinced of what Jesus meant, he could have come open to join in Jesus’ movement for justice, giving up his privilege and power. The theology of ‘born again’ did not match with his ideologies, for he left more puzzled from Jesus.

Towards the end, Jesus says, ‘for God so loved the world that he sent God’s only Son, and who ever believes in him will have eternal life,’ by which he explains that the gift of salvation that Jesus brings to this world is a salvation that seeks people to be ‘born again’ and ‘born anew’ in Christ, which is to give up the old self and become ‘new creation’ in Christ.  To disciple Christ one must be ‘born again’ which is to engage in the activities of the presence of God as reflected and demonstrated by Jesus Christ.

Allow me this morning to conclude to mention the SCM theme song of SCM India, which was written by a young friend from Burma, the modern-day Myanmar, which summarises the application of being ‘born again’ Christian, relevant for our times today.

1.      The song we sing not for ourselves,

For those who are oppressed and chained,

Build up a new society,

Let’s share and feel with them

Come SCMs unite be one

pull out injustice from this world,

Live with people, build together,

One day we ll reach a new just world.

2.      The way we work not for ourselves,

For those who are oppressed and poor,

Suffer with them and let us know

That our struggle will win

3.      The life we owe not for ourselves,

Women and men work hand in hand

The unity will triumph,

We share the vision and hope

Rajbharat Patta,

12^th March 2017

(Sermon preached at St. Peter’s Church and Chaplaincy, Manchester)

Thanksgiving Litany for Shiny's Ruby Birthday Celebrations

    

1. Invocation:

Chorus: I will enter His gates with thanksgiving in my heart, I will enter his courts with praise, I will say this is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice for He has made me glad. Jesus makes me glad, Jesus makes me glad, I will rejoice for He has made me glad.

2.       Call to Worship:

L: Dearly beloved, we have gathered here to join & celebrate & rejoice for the gift of life specially for Shiny on her 40^th Birthday, and more importantly to offer praise and thanksgiving to God, from whom life originates, evolves and sustains.

All: Bless the Lord O my Soul and forget not all God’s blessings upon us, Bless the Lord O my Soul

3.       Opening Prayer:

4.       Opening Hymn: O God our help in ages past… 705

5.       Praise & Thanksgiving:

L: God of Eve, God of Sarah, God of Hagar, God of Tamar, God of Rahab and God of all our mothers, we praise you for being faithful towards us, and we specially thank you for being faithful to Shiny from her childhood, to her youthhood, in her womanhood and in her motherhood. 

All: Ha Ha Ha Halleluiah…ha ha Amen (tune)

L:  God of Ruth, God of Hannah, God of Vashti, God of Esther, God of Deborah and God of all our sisters, we praise you for guiding & guarding us under your wings and we specially thank you for the Christian nurture Shiny receives & contributes and for being a strong woman of faith & courage in life

All: Ha Ha Ha Halleluiah…ha ha Amen (tune)

L: God of Mary, God of Elizabeth, God of Mary the Magdalene, God of Mary & Martha and God of all our daughters we praise you for embracing us with love, peace & kindness and we specially thank you for the gifts of hospitality, love, humility and generosity that Shiny brings to each of us.

All: Ha Ha Ha Halleluiah…ha ha Amen (tune)

L: God of Priscilla, God of Rodhe, God of Louis, God of Eunice, God of Salomi, God of several unnamed, forgotten and neglected women, God of the unsung sheros of our Bible & history and God of all our mothers, sisters and daughters, we praise you O God for you in Jesus Christ brought us salvation and we specially thank you for channelling Shiny to be the agency of your grace to family and friends around her.

All: Ha Ha Ha Halleluiah…ha ha Amen (tune)

6.       Scripture Reading: Joshua 3: 1-7

7.       Thanksgiving Homily:

8.       Dedication: (Irish Celtic Blessing)

Women: May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm on your face,
The rains fall soft upon your fields.

And until we meet again, May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

Men: May God be with you and bless you,
May you see your children's children.
May you be poor misfortune,
Rich in blessings, may you know nothing but happiness from this day forward.

All: May the road rise to meet you
May the wind always be at your back,
May the warm rays of sun fall upon your home, and may the hand of a friend always be near. 

May green be the grass you walk on,
May blue be the sky above you,
May pure be the joys that surround you,
May true be the hearts that love you.

9.       Closing Hymn:

10.   Closing Prayer & Lord’s Prayer:

11.   Benediction:

The way is long, let us go together

The way is difficult, let us help each other

The way is joyful, let us share it

The way is Christ’s, for God is the way

Let us follow the way is open before us;

Let us go with the love of God, the grace of Jesus Christ and the communion of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

12.   Cake Cutting & Fellowship Dinner 

@rajpatta, 3rd Feb 2017 

Rediscovering Lamb of God Christology

Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. John 1:29

Last year, we as a family were at a village called Seatoller in Lake District, and as we were waiting for the bus, we were admiring the flock of sheep on the lovely green pastures in the field. It was an sight to watch. We then saw two farmers rushing and catching hold of a sheep, and to our surprise we saw the sheep delivering a lamb, to which the farmers were assisting her. It was so precious for us to see a lamb born out of a sheep, so cute and so wonderful. “A lamb is born” exclaimed my sons and from then on they went on telling so many people “that they saw a lamb being born.” The memory is so fresh on our mind and we cherish it to see a lamb being born.

Today, in the gospel reading from John chapter 1, we see another kind of introduction to a lamb, for John testifies to his disciples on seeing Jesus, “Behold the lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world,” which he mentions twice in the text 29v and 36v. Time again this metaphor ‘lamb of God’ has been used to describe the death of Jesus on the cross, for from his blood our sins are cleansed. There have been several images drawn on the lamb of God Christology, for most of the pictures depict a lamb along with Jesus to show on the one hand his meekness and to describe that he is the good shepherd to the flock of sheep. To many in our post-modern contexts, the symbol ‘Lamb of God’ has not been appealing thinking it is too naïve and too old a metaphor assuming it as something irrelevant to the existential needs of our times.  Allow me this morning to bring in three pointers in rediscovering the significance of the ‘lamb of God’ Christology, for this metaphor is the first of the introductions of Jesus Christ to the Johannine community.

The introduction of title ‘Lamb of God’ to Jesus needs to be understood as a witness of both John the Baptist who utters this title to his disciples and as a testimony of John the Gospel writer who introduces this title to his readers of the early Church. This therefore, helps us to reflect this morning on three things from the text,

1.      What is the importance of this title to the immediate context, the disciples of John the Baptist?

2.      What is the importance of this title to the larger context, the disciples of the early Church, to whom John the Gospel writer writes this gospel to, the Johannine community?

3.      What is the importance of this title to the public context, the disciples of Christ today in 21^st century?

By this way we can rediscover the importance of this Christological title, which has an immense potential and relevance for our times today.

1.      ‘Lamb of God’ – Disciples of John the Baptist:

John the Baptist who has been living in wilderness, and who has come to prepare the way for the arrival of the Messiah has been waiting for the right time and opportunity to introduce Messiah to the world, as he has experienced. John the Baptist in the text confesses that he himself did not know him twice, only to say there has been a lots of debate and discussion of who the messiah is. But eventually in that unknowing and partial knowing we see the divine intervention in his life, for he was compelled by the Spirit to hear the voice coming from heavens, and to acknowledge that Jesus is the Messiah, in whom God is well pleased. In that context, the title ‘lamb of God’ for Jesus is a recognition of the messianic significance for their context. So it is a messianic title for Jesus.

Secondly we recognise that John the Baptist, having spent most of his life in wilderness, eating locusts and honey should have encountered several strong animals in his time, and leaving aside of them why did he chose ‘lamb of God’ to introduce Jesus. He could have called Jesus, ‘ lion of God’ or ‘an elephant of God’ or ‘a rhino of God’ or to stretch it to our times, ‘a dinosaur of God’ or a ‘tyrannosaurus of God’ which are really big, strong, ferocious and grand. On the contrary he picked up a ‘lamb’ for Jesus Christ, which was an animal most of his community people have seen and known of. This is to show forth to his disciples that this title is a ‘title from the margins’, a local well known animal of their times, for the revolution of establishing the messiahship in bringing down the Empire comes from a local, known, meek, which is the ‘lamb of God.’ The princes and the emperors tames animals like lions and played with them to symbolize their power and might. Here is a ‘lamb of God’ who comes as powerless, situates among the powerless and yet will bring in a revolution called reign of God here on earth.

On hearing this introduction of Jesus by John the Baptist, two of his disciples became the followers of the lamb of God. The messianic title and the marginal title impressed them about Jesus and therefore went on to receive the hospitality of Jesus as he said ‘come and see.’ Little did John the Baptist knew that this title ‘lamb of God’ will make him lose two of his disciples from his team, yet as a team leader John the Baptist would have been happy that two his team mates have joined a better club, the club of the lamb of God. Therefore for John the Baptist and his disciples, this title lamb of God was invitational into the Kingdom of God and was inspirational to disciple Jesus Christ from then on.

2.      Lamb of God – Disciples of the Early Church in Johannine Community:

This title ‘lamb of God’ becomes important in John’s gospel for he unlike other synoptic gospel writers uses lots of symbols and icons to communicate his post-Hellenistic early Christians. John the gospel writer has been a witness to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and he therefore on knowing the person of work of Christ introduces to his early Church that in Jesus Christ we have the paschal mystery happening, for he was slaughtered unjustly by the unjust Empire for the redemption of the entire creation. So the title ‘lamb of God’ brings that paschal lamb to the memory of the early Church in Jesus Christ. So it was very important for them to cling on to this eternal sacrifice made on the Cross by Christ.

Secondly, this lamb of God is the one who takes away the sins of the world, not with a winnowing fork or with fire, but with the sacrifice. Some draw parallels to the ‘suffering servant’ in Isaiah 53 to show that Jesus as the lamb of God is the suffering servant who died a vicarious suffering on the Cross. So this title remind to the early church the suffering servant image in the lamb of God.

Thirdly, this lamb of God is an apocalyptic title for the early Church, for in Revelation 5:6, where the lamb stands on the throne contrasting the five magnificent creatures. The early church believed in the elevation of the lamb of God to be at the throne of God, for he shall judge both the living and the dead. So this title reminds the early church of the throne of grace, for which they have all been waiting to be at. On the throne are not the magnificent animals, but the meek and lowly, the animal from the margins to be seated, which will come as an unexpected and surprising to most disciples.

3.      Lamb of God – Disciples in the Public Context today

Finally having discussed the importance of the title ‘lamb of God’ both for the disciples of John the Baptist and the disciples of John the Evangelist, what is the importance and relevance of this title for us as disciples of Christ in the context of post-secular, post-truth public contexts today? Does this title mean anything to us, or is it of no worth for us to think of a lamb except for a kebab or roast or a curry?

Firstly, the title ‘lamb of God’ is important for us today because God in Jesus Christ as the lamb of God has come to take away the sins of the world, both personal and corporate sins. We are called to recognise that it is God who has come as a lamb, as an ordinary, as the one among the locals, as the one from margins, as the one unexpected to bring in liberation to all creatures of the creation. The challenge therefore for us is to look for the ordinary, unexpected, margins, to the locals out of whom liberation comes. Don’t expect the divine among the magnificent and majestic creatures, look, explore and situate the divine among the margins.

Secondly, the lamb of God implies a sacrificial hospitality, who is willing to be broken for the cause of accepting many into the reign of God. The challenge for u as churches is to therefore be and become sites of radical hospitality for others. After all what does the lamb live for, in most ways for the sake of others. The calling for us to willing to be broken for the sake of others, for Christ was broken for others and in that brokenness, he identified with the broken and crucified communities. Let people on looking to our deeds call us, ‘behold here is the church which is like lamb’, ‘behold here is a Christian who is like a lamb.’ Let our sacrificial radical hospitality speak for us.

Thirdly, in the vision of Isaiah 11: 6, we see that

“The wolf shall live with the lamb,
    the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
    and a little child shall lead them.

Initially, the lamb might be frightened to live with a wolf, the kid might be afraid to lie down with a leopard, the calf to be the lion, but in the peace reign of God the lamb will initiate to live with the wolf as much as the wolf will live with the lamb, for it is the little child who will lead of them together. The calling for us is to engage in ways and means to bring in reconciliation between the strong and the weak, to bring in repentance on the strong and to bring in confidence to the weak in making this vision a reality. The lamb reminds us of a revolution, to which we are called to partake and participate in.

To that end, may the Spirit guide and lead us to rediscover lamb of God Christology as a relevant Christology for our times, and challenges us to channel grace and love to several people around us as a lamb of God. Amen.

Rajbharat Patta, 

15^th January 2017. 

Sermon Preached @St. Peter’s Church & Chaplaincy

When Roman Census Enumerator Arrives at the Manger…

Mary & Joseph are Questioned Tough at the Census Registration

As the Magi returned to their place after worshipping baby Jesus,

Mary & Joseph heard a knock on the door of their manger,

“Oh, dear yet another visitor tonight, another stranger?”

This time it was expectedly an unexpected visitor, ‘Census Enumerator’,

Commissioned by the office of Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus,

Census Enumerator(CE) enquires Mary & Joseph of their details to fill in the Census forms,

CE: Your name

Joseph: Joseph

CE: Where are you from?

Joseph: Nazareth of Galilee

CE: Then why did you come to be enumerated at Bethlehem?

Joseph: Because I am descended from the house and family of David, and had to come to this city of David Bethlehem to register

CE: ok fine, what is your profession?

Joseph: Carpenter

CE: Who is she in the manger with you?

Joseph: my wife Mary

CE: Are you married?

Joseph: well, we are Engaged

CE: Who is this child?

Joseph: Our Child

CE: What is his name?

Joseph: We are told by the angel to name him Jesus

CE: Oh Jesus, is he going to be a saviour?

Mary: Yes, for sure, he is born to deliver people from the bondage of oppression

CE: (laughs out loudly) are you gone crazy? There is no opposition to the Roman empire, hail Caesar!

CE to Mary: By the way what is your name?

Mary: Mary

CE: what is your native place?

Mary: Nazareth of Galilee

CE: Marital status?

Mary: Well, you wouldn’t understand whatever I say?

CE: What is that I don’t understand? Tell me the truth? Have you eloped from your town and have conceived a child illegitimately?

Mary: Please stop speaking as you wish, I am a virgin and am conceived by Holy Spirit and bore Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

CE: Ha ha ha ha, this is the joke of the year and the years to come. I don’t care whether you bore a child illegitimately or by any spirits, all I need to emphasize is that there is no other emperor than Caesar, and there is no other kingdom then the Kingdom of Rome. All you say is cock and bull stories and will not appeal to anyone in this context.

Mary: My son Jesus is going to bring down the powerful to become lowly, will establish Kingdom of God very different from the ethos of your kingdom and is bound on love, peace, justice and equality and his kingdom has no end.

CE: I have come here not to listen to your spineless sermons, let me do my job and register you as virgin/unmarried/engaged/homeless/ and profile you and your family as insurgents, and mind you with this red tag on your family, you cannot cross borders or escape from the wrath of Roman empire. I am going to alert all the check-posts in our empire and no one can save you and your family.

Mary & Joseph depended on God and said, “For nothing is impossible to God”

Christmas challenges us to

remember people who are struggling to fill in their documents,

remember people who are struggling with ambiguous identities,

remember people who are crossing the borders and oceans,

remember people who are profiled unjustly as insurgents for contesting empire,

remember people who are branded unpatriotic for expressing dissent,

remember people who are vulnerable and pushed into margins…

Christmas inspires us to participate along with God who in Jesus pitched his tent among such people in their quest for life, peace, justice and liberation and in striving to bring them to realization.

For with God everything is Possible

Wishing you A Very Meaningful Christmas & A Challenging New year

Jai Ho, Jubi, Shiny, Raj Bharat,

Indira & Deva Raju Patta,

Gnana Kumari & Rajaratnam Budithi

Christmas 2016,

Manchester

Recovering “S/O Mary” as the Relevant Christological Title Today

If my name was Mary, just sixteen with a Child…

In our liturgical Christian tradition, the fourth Sunday in Advent is a time to reflect on Mary, the mother of Jesus, particularly contemplating on how she waited and paved way for the arrival of Jesus Christ into this world. Most times Mary is projected as ‘mother of Christ’ and over the years in some popular Church traditions she is celebrated as ‘Theotokos’ (mother of God), in a way discounting her identity, self-worth and agency as a women and mother. In the reading for this Sunday from Mathew 1: 18-25, we see the explanation of birth of Messiah presented by Mathew all from the perspective of Joseph with hardly anything to say from Mary’s perspective or position. This passage has at least three Christological titles, Messiah, Son of David and Emmanuel, for Mathew want to quickly introduce Jesus to his audience about his Jewish roots and his fulfilments of the Old testament prophecies in Jesus right at the start of his gospel in his birth narratives.

The prominent Christological titles in the Scriptures have been Son of God, Son of Man, Son of David, Messiah, Lord, King, Prophet, Priest, Lamb, Shepherd, Emmanuel etc. have all evolved out a contextual demand in the early Christian Church, for they only reflect the kind of patriarchal world during which the gospels have been written and circulated. “Son of Mary” is one the most under-recognised or even unrecognised and even less-explored Christological titles. It is time now for us to recover this title, which is of immense relevance for our times today in 21^st century. Exploring the title ‘Son of Mary’ is a Biblical, contextual and theological necessity, for it conveys profound theological insights into our Christian faith journeys, which is to identify Jesus through a woman, in this case his mother Mary.

1.      Problematizing the title Son of Mary:

Only in two instances is ‘Son of Mary’ mentioned, in Mark 6: 3 and in Mathew 13: 55, and is one of the least mentioned Christological titles in the gospels. Is this title a problematic one, or is there a problem in this title? In Mark 6:3, it is written “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.” Several scholars have argued that this title ‘Son of Mary’ in this Markan context is used to pick on the ‘illegitimate birth’ of Jesus, which is only used to mock at Jesus and his birth outside of a marriage. This reveals the kind of patriarchal dominance that was thriving those days, where Mary as a woman, her image and identity was used & misused and even abused for the gains of male arrogance.

The other problem with this title is demonstrated in Paul, the major and early contributor of New Testament who conspicuously did not refer to neither the name of Mary nor to her virgin birth in any of his epistles. In Galatians 4: 4, he only says that “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law.” Such a conscious non-referral of Mary raises a brow, for it only diminishes the worth and agency of a mother called Mary, who bore and delivered a saviour baby Jesus. This also reveals the kind of privilege male-centeredness was enjoying in the mission and ministries of the early Church, for they did not think important to affirm in the agency of a young woman Mary.

These incidents therefore call us to read this title subversively, contesting and unwrapping all the patriarchal perspectives in the title Son of Mary, for in such a title there is a deep encounter of divine with human, in which we celebrate and affirm.

2.      Programming the title Son of Mary:

Mary as a young woman is a significant site where the divine and the mundane encounter, delivering a saviour to be born in Jesus Christ. Bearing a son Jesus in her womb signifies that in Mary’s vulnerability and fragility as a human, the divine finds a favour and indwells with her and comes out as a fully divine and fully human Jesus Christ. The Christological title S/O Mary for Jesus aptly speaks of his calling, nature and purpose of his coming into this world. The title S/O Mary happens to be nurturing space for both S/O God and S/O of Man to shoot up and bloom in Jesus Christ. It here that the transcendent and the immanent meet up to reveal to the world that out of the womb of Mothers like Mary, divinity can be en-fleshed, be born and take on the flesh of humankind.

This title in its literal sense conveys that Jesus is the son of Mary, and tell me which child does not want to be called after their moms, particularly when she is a woman of courage, singing songs of revolution, teaching her child to ‘overthrow the powers.’ Mary’s song, the Magnificat, (Luke 1: 46-55) reveals her role as a mother. When most mothers sing lullaby to their children, Mary has a very revolutionary song that she had to sing when she was pregnant with Jesus. There were several available songs for Mary in Nazareth those days, for she could have chosen a hymn from Psalmody or from their hymnal, but she chose to compose a contemporary song of justice, her own yearning for her society, and sang it for her son Jesus. Her situation and context of oppression and discrimination, demanded mother Mary to sing this radical song of justice. This song reveals her mothering quality, her dream for her son, and raised Jesus with those values and ethos and he eventually lived up for all those that her mother aspired and raised him with. This song could have been the song that Jesus heard her sing daily, and learnt it as an anthem of justice for his mission in his life. Eventually, with that kind of radical nurture from her mother Mary, there is no surprise that Jesus became a revolutionary of his times critiquing and contesting all forms of injustice of temple and empire. Jesus lived up to all the dreams of her mother Mary, and became a proud son of Mary.

S/O Mary is the most fitting title for Jesus, for out of Mother came an Emmanuel, came a Saviour, came a Messiah, came a king, came a prophet etc. To put it other way, S/O Mary is the mother of all Christological titles of Jesus, and by understanding this title, we get to grips with the rest of the titles of Jesus.

3.       Pragmatizing the title Son of Mary:

This title is important to Jesus because, S/O Mary is a critique against all dominant forces of patriarchy which has not allowed to celebrate womanity as an agency of delivering divine in human form.  This title is important for the Church today because, S/O Mary challenges the Church to affirm woman as agents of divine grace and calls on the Church to confront all forms of violence meted against women and all genders of vulnerability. This is a confessing title of the Church for our times, where the divine is willingly partaking to co-in habitat in the human.  S/O Mary is a liberating affirmation for all those parents and children who are struggling in life with broken parental relationships. This title is the most public theologically relevant title of Jesus, for Jesus is situated in the context of human motherhood, who is relatable to all human beings without any dogmatic assertions.

The title S/O Mary has been used more prominently as Isa ibn Mariyam  (Jesus, Son of Mary) in Arabic of the Muslim faith tradition, for they believe in the virgin birth of Jesus and as a prophet.

Let me also remind you that today the 18^th December is observed as International Migrant Day, where we as churches are called to participate in addressing the concerns of the people who are crossing the borders and seas as migrants. As I think of mother Mary today, as a young woman of Nazareth in Galilee, she was forced to take on the hazardous journey to Bethlehem with Joseph, just because she was betrothed to him, and for he is of the lineage of David to be registered in his home town and so had to go with him as a pregnant. And after the delivery of Jesus, she again with the baby in her arms nursing him, had to flee with Joseph to Egypt as a migrant to save their lives from the wrath of Herod. Mother Mary along with baby Jesus took on a risky travel as a refugee family with some insufficient documents or no documents which reveal some grey areas on the forms like the status of their marital relationship, their permanent address etc. Yet she faced all those hardships with courage and faith in God, and did all she could in raising a child for God to be the child of God and to be child God.

Till today they say about 7000 people died in 2016 alone in crossing the borders as migrants, and there would have been many more whose lives are lost as they are undocumented and unrecorded. They say one in every seven people in the world is a migrant, which is one-seventh of the globe today form the migrant community, and the call of the Church is to join along this community for there are several Mary, Jesus and Joseph among them, and for the Church happens among them only.  

It is high time that we are called to recover this very significant and relevant Christological title Son of Mary, for it provides an important gender, political, spiritual & public twist in the kaleidoscope of Christology.

(A picture of Mother Mary and Jesus from African tradition as found in the Church of Annunciation at Nazareth)

Allow me to conclude with the lyric that was penned by John Bell in 2015 in response to the growing migrant crisis, as an commitment to the call of gospel.

If my name was Mary 
(Just sixteen with a child) 
Forced to flee my country 
(failing state turning wild) 
Would you find a place for me?

If the town I came from 
once had been occupied 
By your nations soldiers 
At whose hands my dad died
Would you find a place for me?

If your nations air force 
Dropped their bombs on my street 
On the wrong presumption
That was where rebels meet 
Would you find a place for me?

If I'd learned that your country 
Saw and heard our plight
But remained persuaded
We were wrong, you were right 
Would you find a place for me?

If the boat I paid for 
Was unfit to set sail 
And that seeking refuge 
was now certain to fail
would you find a place for me 
Would you find a place for me?

If my name was Mary 
(Just sixteen with a child) 
If his name was Jesus...

Rajbharat Patta,

18^th December 2016

(Sermon Preached at St. Peter’s Church and Chaplaincy, Manchester)