Senior Sermon - Jessie, BD IV

Sermon

Queen Vashti: A Model of Dissent

We need to agree that the human history is a history of the males where male is portrayed as courageous, powerful and ruler on one hand, and on the other, it has depicted women to be vulnerable, feeble and meant to be ruled by the male. The narratives in the scripture portray women in varied perspectives. It discloses women as passive and submissive and also projects them as subversive and progressive. Amidst the narratives which suppress the freedom and dignity of women, emerge few narratives, which reveal the intervention of God and God’s Liberative history that proclaims women as Liberative partners with God in the process of liberation history. The narrative of Queen Vashti is one such, which fuels the women and vulnerable communities to empower themselves to disagree with the stereotyped norms that project women as objects and subjugated.  However, women who disagreed with the male constituted norms have been victimized in the name of religion and culture.                               

 The passage which was read gives us an account of a woman who said ‘no’ to the king himself. This woman is often seen as a model that women should not follow. The tactic of the patriarchal writing often reiterates the silencing of women who often challenged the system and resisted power. Vashti was one such person who fell as prey to such a kind of writing. And history makes no effort in heaving the essence of her struggle to subdue patriarchy. Vashti teaches us through her being how to overcome patriarchy even if it takes to erasing her name from history. Let us reflect on the life of Vashti, who emerged as the model of dissent amidst a strong patriarchal society.

Vashti’s Refusal as a model of Resistance to Objectification of Beauty

In today’s world people are more evaluative with their external appearance than the internal values. Fairness is one of the important criterions for a person to look beautiful. Thus the consumeristic world has come up with innumerable cosmetics to change the very appearance of a person. The Beauty of an individual, especially of woman is commodified, objectified and commercialized. In Vashti, if we read carefully the scripture brings out a subversive nature of beauty.

A woman’s beauty is always the pride of man in a patriarchal culture. In this case it was Queen Vashti who was known for her beauty and her beauty was the King’s pride. The King had the authority to call Vashti anytime, predominantly in a drunken state, and she would positively respond to the King’s call. This unveils the brutality of patriarchal structure in which women were considered as male’s sex toys that was destined to fulfill the sexual urge of man without any respect for woman’s consent. ‘Women being objectified’ is the greatest discovery of patriarchy through which women are drawn into an illusionary state of being glorified and subjugated, and underplayed. Vashti was given the honour of being the Queen, and the King’s chief Queen among Queens. The trick of the King is to reward Vashti a higher place in the palace and keep her under illusion of being high on one hand, and on the other, to display her beauty for the entertainment of the men. Vashti expresses her dissent against the patriarchal nature that commodifies women in order to entertain the male dominant society. However, the King makes a mockery of the Queen’s love and expectation and forces her to be exposed to the other males. Thus, Vashti dares herself to dismantle the understanding of beauty which is commodified in order to fulfill the desires of males, and confronts the -patriarchal understanding and usage of beauty. Vashti calls us to resist those cultures which objectifies and commodifies the beauty in order to meet the flesh’s greed, and assert human identity and dignity.

Vashti’s Dissent as a Model of Combat against the Silencing by the Patriarchal Norms

The epistemology of patriarchy employed the plans of ‘silencing’ to construct the socially subjugated image of the women. By imposing shame, fear for life, safety, security and modesty on the women, patriarchy is in the process of ‘silencing’ and victimising women. The increasing rate of rapes and sexual abuse is to threaten the freedom of women and voices of women that calls and claims for empowerment. Since the empowerment of women involves de-powering of men, men are worried about their strong dominant structure being dismantled. Thus they engage in varied forms of violence against women to keep them where they are. Similarly, when Vashti rejects the wish of the King, the entire male community (Chapter 1 Verse 16) comes together to revolt against Vashti’s dissent. Further, they were worried that Vashti’s dissent will become a model for other women to fight for their dignity and feared revolution (re-evolution) of the women community. Thus, the male dominants conspired to punish Vashti on one hand, and silence the other women on the other hand (Verse 17) with the use of law. It is unfortunate that, the Law, be it religious or secular, predominantly is male centred and is often used to fence women or silence them. The tenth commandment declares the list of man’s assets and in that list woman and wife are enlisted. The asset could be used to any extent by the owner. Thus, in the name of law, especially religious law, men try to silence women’s cry for liberation. However, Queen Vashti is not threatened by the conspiracy of the male dominants. She continues to persist in her dissent and breaks the tradition of silencing women at the cost of her royal status.

During my field work in Mumbai, I came across many stories of women, who were trafficked into sex trade and were physically and sexually abused and assaulted. A person by the name “Lakshmi”[1] was trafficked and forced into sex work. While she tried to resist she was brutally beaten, when she lost her struggle against her oppressors, she was raped many times and again when she resisted, her sex organs (breasts) were slashed.  The recent attacks on women in Tamil Nadu; where all the six women were killed brutally due to their refusal. This has been the status of women in our society. Most of the women are not given any rights to say ‘no’ to the sexual urge of men. They cannot express their dissent, in other words many women do not have control over their bodies, but rather, it is the male who has control over the woman’s body. If at all the women try to say ‘no’ they are physically abused and silenced. Queen Vashti and her nature of battle against the conspiracy of silencing encourages every woman not to give up hope on her fight for dignity and subject herself to the perpetrated violence, rather, continue to fight against every force that is conspiring to silence the women’s voice for liberation.

 Vashti as a Model of God’s Liberative Act

Refusal by Vashti shows that voicing out should be the crux of every woman’s life in a society that is filled and drained with male dominant views and morals. She being a woman voiced out to say ‘No’ and her refusal shows the audacity she had to say to the king himself, in the Monarchical age the King was considered to be the representative of God and the order of the King was equivalent to God’s order, which has to be accepted and performed without any hesitance. The revolting nature of Vashti commemorates God’s liberating intervention in the human history and reiterates God’s liberative act. God intervened in the history of Israel’s slavery and transformed ‘no people’ into ‘people.’ God’s purpose of liberation was to make ‘no people’ into ‘people’. Queen Vashti, though she was a Queen, she was denied her humanity by the patriarchal structure. She was no human, according to the patriarchal culture. In dissenting the cruelty of patriarchal culture, Vasthi commemorates God’s dissent against the imposed slavery in Egypt. She further echoes God’s purpose i.e. to liberate the enslaved from the colonial clutch, and plunges into the patriarchal structure to dismantle it.

Many NGO’s are engaged in commemorating God’s liberative roles. They are involved in reminding the forsaken and suppressed women about God, who is wandering all over in resisting the evil forces that are curbing the life and dignity of humankind, especially women. However, Queen Vashti and her subversiveness emulate every woman to get involved in their struggle for freedom and commemorate the God of Freedom. The spark of Vashti’s life is still fresh and it invites us to realize, ignite within and to give a life filled with equality and dignity.

Conclusion 

From time immemorial the patriarchal culture has evolved various tactics to have its prevalence anywhere and at any cost. It had made sure to suppress the voices of resistance, especially the voices of women. If at all there emerges a dissenting voice from the revolting women, the patriarchal culture infuses the mind of division among women, and projects women as the enemies of women. This tactic is played in a very subtle way within the socio-political, religio-cultural, and economic realms; where women are divided according to their status and appearance. In doing so, they try to keep them at two different extremes and obstructs their convergence. In the book of Esther, we could see that there is an attempt to disqualify the role of Vashti and qualify the role of Esther. It has crafted in such a way that, even when woman read the book of Esther, they don’t give prominence to Vashti, as they give to Esther. Further, the patriarchal culture has forced the woman to internalize values which are endorsed by the women themselves such as to talk softly, walk decently, laugh mildly, be obedient to men and so forth. Therefore, in the book of Esther, it is a call for us to challenge the internalized patriarchal norms and find the intersectional of Vashti and Esther and their role as Liberative partners in dismantling the patriarchal structures internalized within and also the evil structure that has robbed the life and dignity of the vulnerable community, especially the women. May the God of Vashti empower us to de-power the male dominant world and embark in a journey of liberation with God as Liberative partners.

                           

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[1] Pseudo name

Senior Sermon - Jebastin T., BD IV

The Stories of the Three Wells from the Perspective of the Chennai Flood Victims: A Paradigm for Liberation

Let us Pray: God, grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, courage to change the things we can, and wisdom to know the difference. In Christ name we pray… Amen.

Introduction

The whole Chennai city was flooded in the months of November and December 2015. These days are unforgettable nightmare for the Chennai inhabitants even now. Many may think that it was a natural disaster, but in reality, it was a human-made disaster.  The Tamilnadu government has failed to develop an effective storm water drainage system in spite of several small scale level flooding almost every year. In addition to this chembarambakkam lake water was released into the Cooum River during heavy rainfall. This resulted in the flooding of several slums and housing areas in Adyar, Saidapet, Kotturpuram etc. Just like in Bangalore and other major cities in India, the lakes, marshlands and the natural passages for rainwater (which help the flood and the overflowing lake to recede into the sea) are sold out for housing and development. Therefore Chennai flooding is not seen as a natural disaster anymore. It is a human-made disaster.

When Tsunami came in the year 2004 the Tamilnadu government moved the costal slum dwellers to a different place. Everyone thought that the government was doing a wonderful job, but in reality that was not the case. The costal land of the slum dwellers were sold out to Multi National Companies and to rich landlords. In the same way the government is using flood as the reason to move away all the slum dwellers in Chennai to a different place so that it can feed the greed of the market economy. Such government made displacement has severe repercussions in the lives of the slum dwellers for which the government is not willing to pay any attention.

There is nothing new under the sun says the preacher in Ecclesiastes and therefore the plight of the Chennai slum dwellers can be experienced in the light of the Christian Scriptures. The read phericope, explains such a conflict in which Isaac, the sojourner or the slum dweller in the land of Canaan was displaced several times by the Philistine leaders. The name ‘Philistines’ in Genesis may reflect an earlier group that settled in Canaan prior to 1200 B.C.E., or it may be an anachronism based on their presence in the Gerar region in the later periods (that is to say that the) earlier people of the vicinity being referred to by the name known to later readers. For our exegetical reasons, it is left the way it is. The episode is about the dominant displacing the weak and the marginalized. The uncertainties of rainfall in season and in proper amount made drought and famine fairly a common phenomenon in ancient Palestinian context. Therefore dispute over land, water and well (in the region of Gerar) was expected because these were the most coveted commodities of that time. Thus there is a possibility to convert the natural uncertainties into human-made disasters and to link the periscope to address both Chennai and our present day issues.

(1) The Story of Esek: The Failed Government & the Succeeded People’s Movement

The Government or the people in power have the responsibility to take care of the afflicted, but that is not the case here. The Chief Minister of Tamilnadu, Selvi. J. Jayalalitha was severely criticized for her delayed response and immature interference in Chennai flood relief events for political gains. The Tamil Cine Actor Padma Shri Kamal Haasan made a public statement about his fraternity and government by saying, “We are sitting in our houses safely while others are going down to the toughest parts of the afflicted lives,” But such feelings of Mr. Haasan were not shared by the Tamilnadu government.

People in power turned out to be a big disappointment according to public voices as well. Mr. D. Angappan says, “In this situation I have seen only volunteers and the youngsters, but the government is nowhere to be found.” Mr. C.V. Sarathi says, “People don’t have food and safe drinking water, but the only government institution which functioned in full throttle during and after the severe flood in Chennai was the Liquor shops.” The Government focused on increasing its wealth by selling alcohol, while the people were dying on the streets.

The failed government in Chennai was replaced by people’s effort to take care of themselves. It was the successful people’s movement as in the case narrated by the read text. Famine is an extreme shortage of food, and drought is an excessive dryness of land or the devastation of basic livelihood. In such a situation Isaac and his men and women who sojourned with him, took action to protect their livelihood because the tribal chieftain or the King Abimelech and his administration was busy in taking away the land from the marginalized sections of their region. Since the powerful people of Gerar dealt unjustly with Isaac, the first well was named as (esek) ‘Injustice.’

In similar manner, at the time of flood in Chennai, the people took care of themselves by undertaking relief works, mobilizing volunteers from the colleges and private companies, distributing provisions from within and outside the state. The flood victims were sheltered in the nearby schools, churches, and community halls. Thus the people helped themselves when the central and state governments failed from fulfilling their duties.

The politicians of the nation not just failed, but also used the misery of the people for publicity. The Tamilnadu government engaged in pasting stickers of Amma (the image of Jayalalitha) on the food pockets which means that these relief packages were sent by the government, but in reality those pockets were gathered by volunteers from almost all the Indian states. Even in our present day context if the people in power fail to address the needs of those who are in the margins, a people’s movement will emerge to challenge those who behave like an apathetic tyrant.

(2) The Story of Sitnah: The Unquenchable Greed of the Government & the Rich People

Gustavo Gutierrez, A liberation theologian says, “But the poor people do not exist as an inescapable fact of destiny. They are the oppressed, exploited proletariat, robbed of the fruit of their labor and despoiled of their humanity.” In addition to this and to make things worse, it is a common phenomenon across history that the powerful not only discard the afflicted, but also engage actively in destroying their livelihood. Isaac withdrew from their malice and dug the second well, but the text says, they quarreled again and Isaac called its name (sitnah) ‘Enmity.’ Thus Isaac was forced to move from place to place to keep his kith and kin alive at the face of a stark famine because of the enmity between the powerful and the powerless.

The Biblical history repeats again in the life of the Chennai slum dwellers. According to Tamilnadu orders, the Slum dwellers are forced to resettle at Kannagi Nagar, 20 km away from the city. The daily-wage workers & their children had to spend Rs.30 to Rs.40 a day on transportation to come back to their workplaces & schools. K. Renuka, a teenager, lost her job that fetched a monthly pay of Rs.1,500/- in a cardboard-box manufacturing unit in Pudupet, in the centre of Chennai. Saraswathi, another resident, said that she had been uprooted from her place of employment and social interaction. There are thousands of similar stories from the Chennai slum dwellers.

Well is the livelihood for Isaac but that is not the case with the powerful few – for them it is a wealth to accumulate. It is read that Isaac was chased away out of envy, but if we go behind the text to reread the same we can understand that the real issue was greed which is a strong desire for more wealth and power. There must have been other wells in the Gerar region but Abimelech & his shepherds are not satisfied with what they already have. They also wanted to take away the wells belonging to the oppressed sections of their community.

The Government led by the powerful few stands with the rich. It wants to make the rich richer by destroying the livelihood of the poor. The real question is, “The government and the multination companies have a lot of money, but why do they want to steal more from the poor?” Almost in every context one can see administrators (with few exceptions of course) taking care of the privileged by stealing the little that the poor has. Why most of the administrators engage in oppressing the weak for the sake of the rich?

(3) The Story of Rehoboth: Yahweh is the Champion of the People in the Margins

Abimelech and his powerful friends expelled Isaac out of their country. The main reason for that can be seen as their greed to accumulate more. Isaac withdrew from there and dug the third well in the outskirts, and they did not quarrel about it; and he called its name (rehoboth) ‘Breadth’, saying now God has given us room and has increased us on the earth. Over a period of time the Government of Abimelech wanted to have a peace agreement with Isaac because they had realized the fact that God was multiplying and standing with the one who was marginalized by them. But if we see in Chennai flood issue the Tamilnadu government is not willing to come for a compromise with the slum dwellers. The Government has to realize the fact that God’s priority is for the people in the margins. God always takes the side of the oppressed so that they may prosper wherever they go. Similar realization has to come into our theological community, because we have the tendency to stand with the powerful for our personal gains.

Conclusion

I want to conclude my sermon by highlighting the social reality that the power relations do not remain the same forever. Today we are in power, but tomorrow we may come to the streets.  God is like the Robin Hood who steals from the powerful wicked and gives it to the powerless. No matter how much ever wealth we got, we may end up in the streets in just no time. King Abimelech came for compromise precisely for this reason. During and after the flood the service rendered by the Chennai Christian churches is commendable at this juncture. They came forward to help the flood affected victims by giving food and shelter in their premises. We are called to imitate these examples by standing for the causes of the people in the margins so that God may bless us all. May the Triune God help us to realize these eternal truths and put them into practice! Amen.

Senior Sermon - Prazwal Jasper, BD IV

John 4: 19-24 - Sermon - True Worship: In Spirit and Truth

This pericope is a conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman. To understand the reason for the genesis of a discussion on worship, we should first understand who Samaritans were and the situation they were in, at that period of time. Samaritans were the people in Samaria who dwelt in the region of Manasseh and Ephraim. It is a form of Israelite religion that developed and centred around mount Gerizim. They were the descendants of the tribes of northern Israel but the Jews believe that they were the descendants of the colonists brought into the region of Samaria by the Assyrians. They looked at them as idolaters, pagan worshippers who considered Yahweh as one of the gods they worshiped. The Samaritans were generally a subaltern community oppressed by the colonizers and the Jews.

In this pericope, we notice the Samaritan woman guiding the encounter towards the issue of worship. To be precise she questions Jesus, assuming that he is a prophet, about the place of worship which was an issue of debate between the Jews and the Samaritans. In the history of Israel, selecting the place of worship was very important. There were many places like Shiloh, Nob, Bethel, Dan, etc. But why did mount Gerizim become important to the Samaritans? The answer is simple: they’re just following their scriptures. Deuteronomy 11:29 and 27:12 clearly portrays mount Gerizim as a blessing and Mount Ebal as a curse. Also, the geography of this place helped them to worship here since it is around this mountain that the Samaritans inhabited. Interestingly, there was also a regular and reliable water supply near this mount. And so all these factors made this Mount an important place of worship. Even from the Jewish perspective this Mount should have been an important one as Abraham, Jacob and Joshua visited this place and held great religious ceremonies there. So, it is evident that the Samaritans were following the scriptures known to them and they believed that they were doing the right thing. Coming back to the aspect of worship, the Jews regarded the Samaritans as heathens and impure, thus making their worship of God inappropriate and illegitimate. But for the Samaritans, just like any religious group, worship was significant. So knowing the right way of worship becomes a liberative aspect to the Samaritans especially in a context where they were oppressed by the dominant theology of the Jews. It is in this situation that Jesus going through Samaria and has an encounter with the Samaritan woman. This encounter raises certain questions like: what is worship? Is the place where we worship important? What is worshipping in spirit and truth mean? Let us try to reflect upon these questions.

Professor Edward Aune writing about early Christian worship says that Christian worship primarily had a verbal character and though Christians used to gather, eat together, baptize new members, read scriptures, and so on, they and their worship were not tied to particular places but could be practiced virtually everywhere. This brings us to my first point:

1. Worship: Rupturing Boundaries

The conversation between Jesus and Samaritan women raises an important issue. Where should God be worshipped? The woman recognizes Jesus as a prophet, the Taheb or the “Coming One” who will restore true worship by purifying mount Gerizim. Jesus’ response to her initial statement turns her attention from the place of worship to the object and manner of worship.

Recently, the issue of women not being allowed in worship places raised few protests in Mumbai, Pune etc. There are churches that are formed on the basis of caste encouraging only those people who belong to it to participate. The recent issue of the burial of Mary John, grandmother of Priyanka Chopra is a very good example to this. She was denied space to be buried because she became ‘impure’ by marrying a Hindu. When we look at the conversation of Jesus and the Samaritan Woman, we see that she was considered impure not only because she was a Samaritan but also because she was a woman. The well, where the conversation happens, is a metaphorical representation of a place of worship, where Jesus a Jew is talking to a Samaritan woman who is considered “impure.” The disciples who saw this conversation were not very comfortable because for them this was pollution. The concept of purity and pollution undermines women and such a concept only pollutes them further. Such a concept denies women, Dalits and the LGBT communities, the right to worship. The way I see it, the recent events were not just about allowing women into places of worship but in a way denying their right to worship. The religious elites of today who invariably happen to be men, just like the Jewish religious men, not only control women’s bodies but control their spirituality. And so not allowing women into places of worship is to make worship a male-oriented affair. But as we read in the text, Jesus breaks this understanding of worship. 

David Joy writing about a new concept of worship says that the way in which Johannine communities overcame ecclesiastical structures of worship limited by place and liturgy is through the understanding of this episode of Jesus and the Samaritan woman. He says, “When the church became more ritualistic, the community of John challenged the world by highlighting the word of Jesus.” He further says that, “Giving importance to certain place or a person in worship life is not desirable.” Through this passage, Jesus clears the ambiguity with respect to this issue and points out that the place of worship is insignificant.

2. Worship: Disintegrating Intellectual Arrogance

In Verse 22 Jesus goes on to state a very provocative statement pointing out the ignorance of the Samaritans. He says that the Samaritans worship what they do not know while the Jews know of it. He further adds that salvation is from the Jews. Recent scholarship considers this verse as a later insertion. While that could be possible, the aim behind such reasoning is to defend Jesus from having stated anything provocative, controversial and condescending. However, it is clear from the conversation that Jesus asserts and affirms his Jewishness. If that is so, what could verse 22 mean?

The possible interpretation to this verse is that Jesus’ humanness comes out in this verse. He belongs to the Jewish community and his immediate reaction was the way in which any Jewish religious elite would react. It is a fact that salvation is from the Jews, since the Messiah will come from the Jews. But the point here is not that it belongs to the Jews but it is transferred from the Jews to the non-Jews and eventually to the rest of the world. Jesus here is wrestling with the human Jewishness and divine purpose. Though he was capable of doing everything by himself, he still chose to be subordinate to God, allowing God to change his idea of worship. The initial reaction of Jesus was similar to that of a religious Jewish elite, who believe that they have the knowledge. This I call “Intellectual arrogance.”

In our context, when we observe our churches and our worship carefully, it is not the lack of understanding that makes us do what we do but rather the opposite. We the priests in general, and at times the congregation, are so obsessed with our intellect with regard to the aspects of religion and worship, that we become blind to the realities around us. We create ourselves into human gods assuming we know all and deciding who is pure or polluted, who shall enter and who shall not, who shall worship and who shall not.

Jesus here wrestled with this “intellectual arrogance” and counters this submitting himself to the authority of God and thereby fulfilled his purpose in saying that it does not matter who we are or where we come from, we are equals when it comes to worshiping God. This verse teaches us to wrestle with our “intellectual arrogance” and humble ourselves so that we make God the sole object of Worship.

3. Worship: Disarming Hegemonic Identities

There are many interpretations to worshiping in spirit and truth. Fr. Jose Maniparampil looks at it from the viewpoint of Trinity and calls it a Trinitarian worship where Father is the Godhead, Spirit is the Holy Spirit and the Truth is God the Son. Or as some others opine “worship in spirit” could mean worship going beyond one’s thoughts, words, and emotions to the innermost self, the spirit. And “worship in truth” implying worship not defiled by hypocrisy and deception.

According to John’s gospel, truth is the ultimate reality which is the understanding of God. This understanding of God is eternal life which is manifested in Christ and through him revealed to all humanity. Verse 23 in by itself is not sufficient to understand worshiping in spirit and truth. Jesus explicates this in Verse 24 by saying “God is Spirit.” God is Spirit does not emphasize the inaccessibility of God by earthly creatures but is a description of God as the foundation and giver of true life. 

While one cannot deny the meaning of these interpretations, what could the words “spirit and truth” mean to the Samaritan woman? The Jews and the Samaritans gave prominence to the time, place and the person involved in the act of worship. Jesus debunks that idea and asserts that none of the external environments matter. As we saw in the second point, the knowledge of the Jews is contrasted against the ignorance of the Samaritans. The Jews considered them to be pure and the others as impure. Thus, we see the Jews took pride in them as being Jews, the so called ‘chosen-race’. But Jesus realizing that his identity as a Jew was a stumbling block to the Samaritans, chose to disarm himself from that identity. Today, we cling to our identities defined by education, caste, class, ethnicity, sexuality, and gender. Jesus urges us to disarm ourselves from those identities that are life-negating and acts as a stumbling block to others. Jesus recognizes the woman as a human person who has the desire and the right to worship God and so acknowledges her person-hood without labeling her identity as a Samaritan. And so Jesus tells her to worship God in spirit and truth, as spirit is not defined by any social constructions and truth rests deep in one’s spirit.

Worshipping in spirit and truth makes worshiping in every other way insignificant. We are bound to the norms of place, time, liturgy and even manner of worship. Have we not noticed that many people especially the youngsters no longer connect with the church and are moving away? The reason is that we’ve made an institution of the Church. We’re not ready to let go of the monotony hovering around our worship. A faintest deviation from our set pattern of worship makes us feel uncomfortable and irritable. We are not ready to let our spirits free and accept different forms of worship which is still governed by the principle of “spirit and truth”. We are all equal before God, and Jesus portrayed this through his conversation with the Samaritan woman where he went beyond his Jewishness to assure the Samaritan woman that there is no distinction between him and her when it comes to worshiping God.

In conclusion I would like to state that True worship, the way God wants us to worship, is to worship without any ties with the place, time and our life-negating identities; know the object of worship which is God and understand the manner of worship which is in spirit and truth. Everything else becomes insignificant. God is spirit and his worshipers must worship him in spirit and truth. 

Senior Sermon - Gibin Thampy, BD IV

Sermon

Church: Not the Voice of the Voiceless but the Space of Many Voices.

Charlie Chaplin and Albert Einstein met each other while they were traveling together. And a crowd of people started to vigorously applaud the celebrities. They waved to the crowd and Einstein said to Charlie Chaplin: “What I most admire about your art, is your universality. You don’t say a word, yet the world understands you”. And Chaplin replied: “True. But your glory is even greater. The whole world admires you, even though they don’t understand a word of what you say”. Chaplin’s words are true to me, because many times in U. T. C, I also joined in laughter even without understanding what the preacher exactly said.

Language; it is not merely a means of communication. Rather language represents culture, identity, politics, geography, so on and so forth. Language can be a cause for war; it can unite and separate people, discriminate and affirm solidarity. In Babel, the scattered language disseminated human beings, and in Jerusalem the scattered language concentrated people. The Acts of the Apostles, written toward the end of the first century by the author of the Gospel of Luke, narrates the story of the early church, beginning with this event. There in Jerusalem, where people gathered from different lands for the festival, the community experienced the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, described as tongues of fire settling on their heads and enabling them to speak the good news of Jesus in different languages. With this event, the door was opened for a new community called ‘church.’  Today, based on the read pericope, I would like to reflect up on the theme Church: Not the Voice of the Voiceless, but the celebration of Many Voices.

Only the book of Acts records this story that we find in chapter 2. For Luke, it is clearly a serious event because, this event inaugurates all that follows. Without the coming of the Spirit there would be no prophecy, no preaching, no mission, no conversions, and no worldwide Christian movements. This event of Pentecost begins in a house where the disciples were ‘all together.’ Luke’s focus in this passage is on one event that happened to the early followers of Jesus as a corporate gathering. Luke is not trying here to give us a detailed description of individual Christian experience, rather a communal experience. My first point is Church: A space of togetherness.

Church: A space for togetherness

Luke’s brief summary about the believers who are present there, reflects the image of togetherness, oneness, and unity. They were all together in the same place. The use of Greek word pantes suggests that the entire group has continued to meet and pray together in continuity. In the first part of Acts 2, the reader discovers two distinct pictures. The first picture is of the group of gathered believers, which the narrative consistently depicts with unanimity and a bond of togetherness. The second picture comes out of the first one: a picture of the fulfilment of Jesus’ promise to his apostles, the coming of the Holy Spirit.

What does it convey to us, the present church? The Pentecost event clearly tells us that, the Holy Spirit kindles us as a witnessing community only when we are together in unity. When we think of church unity, we often misinterpret unity as uniformity. The concept of unity very often negates denial of genuine plurality. What kind of church unity we are aspiring for? Are we seeking to unite church as a homogeneous community like a military troop?  In a military camp the trainees must have to obey the commands of the trainer and also they have to do everything as a single unit. In a military camp the cadets are not allowed to do anything alone. They are being trained to obey and act uniformly according to the commands. This uniformity and discipline gives them a self-pride of being part of that troop. The same strategies are being used by the political parties and religious fundamental groups. When we analyse the history we observe that the fascism, Nazism and now the Islamic state and Hinduthwa are using the method of mass drills to unite their followers and to implement their agendas. Unfortunately now in churches also we are finding the same. We are trying to homogenise Liturgy, tradition, Church governance, pastoral care so on and so forth. In theological thinking, plurality is integral to reality. Prof. A. P. Nirmal had shared his radical concerns for the nature of the church. According to him, the time has come for the Christian churches to replace the traditional dogmatic affirmations about the nature of Church with new images. We need to affirm oneness through the plurality of the churches, holiness through justice, catholicity through conceptuality, apostolicity through peoplehood, which we affirm in the words of the Nicene Creed. The divine call is to seek for the thread that passes through every Christian movement. It is nothing but love, which is the principle of cohesion and binds everything together in perfect harmony. To make church as a celebration of many voices, we need to unite together by accepting and respecting the identity and integrity of every fellow believer. My second point is Church: A space for affirming diverse identities.

Church: A space for affirming diverse identities

The usual interpretation is that the Holy Spirit at Pentecost overcame linguistic difference in order for the Gospel to be heard. But to the contrary, Luke portrays that the spirit actually heightened linguistic difference at Pentecost. Exactly, what were the native languages of the Jewish communities represented at the Temple that day? For at least the vast majority of those who were in Jerusalem for Pentecost, the first language would have been Greek and Aramaic or Hebrew. Roughly speaking, Jews from the land of Israel and the eastern diaspora spoke Aramaic as their first language, while the native language of Jews from the western diaspora was Greek. Hebrew or Aramaic and Greek could all serve as markers of Israel’s ethnic identity. And these languages have been expected to serve as the lingua franca of the emerging group of Jesus followers.  Hebrew language had a unique position in first century Jewish culture. Hebrew was highly esteemed as the ‘holy tongue’. It was the language of God, the language of the Torah, the Prophets, and the Psalms, and thus the appropriate language for worship. Likewise, Greek was the language of imperial power. Greek represents the power, authority, and subjugation. But Luke does not portray the Holy Spirit as inspiring speech in Hebrew/Aramaic or Greek. The phrase ‘each in their own language in which they were born’ refers to the language of the hearer’s place of origin- their diaspora homelands. This is again emphasized in Acts 2:11. Rather than eliminating the cultural particularity marked by language, the Holy Spirit explicitly affirmed ethno-linguistic diversity by allowing the crowd to hear in diverse languages of their respective birth. It was an affirmation of the pluralization of languages and identity. In the light of the potential for language to create conflict, it is striking that the Holy Spirit does not unite through unified language. Instead the spirit gives voice to the gospel in the lesser known dialects of diaspora home lands. For the people who had made the journey to Jerusalem for Pentecost, they expected to hear Hebrew or Greek. But they were surprised to hear the disciples of Jesus praising God in the so called lower vernacular languages of the diaspora people. That clearly shows that God’s spirit respected the social identity of all the people who were gathered there.

 It tells about the role of the church to preserve and respect the identity of every believer. Church is a space for affirming diverse identities. But what is the situation of the present church? We express that we are one in Christ. But still there is no space for the ‘other voices’ in our church. We always boast about our traditions. It is a pity that we prioritize the name of the churches rather than the name of Christ and his message. In order to ‘preserve’ the “so called tradition”, we built separate church buildings for the ‘other’ voices. We categorize them as voiceless, because we do not accept their identity.

By wearing the mask of ‘voice of the voiceless’ we never let the little voices be heard. Who are we to claim as voice of the voiceless? There is no one without voice. Everyone has their own voice. At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit kindled the little voices to proclaim the word of God in their own languages that affirms their identity with authority. To make church as a space for all voices, we need to respect and affirm the identity of all the members of the body of Christ. It is sin, if we boast about of our own identities and deny the uniqueness and dignity of our fellow beings’ identity. The church which inaugurated on Pentecost is an example of preserving and respecting the identities of every believer. It is a space of togetherness and not otherness. Let me conclude my reflection with the words of Arch Bishop Nathan Soderblom: “When the spirit of God visits humanity, it kindles a flame in our heart, a fire of love and justice with the ardent compassion of Christ.” May this spirit help us to speak in different languages about unity. May this spirit enable us to respect every one’s identity. So that we can transform the body of Christ as a celebration of many voices.

Senior Sermon - Arun Varghese George, BD IV

Beyond the Safe Space

Drenched in blood she lay, crumpled on the ground after seven and a half minutes of stoning. The voice of the yelling and judging husband form the script of the horrifying story  The Stoning of Soraya M., an American-Iranian film, portraying a true story of a woman who is wrongly accused of adultery. The husband creates a conspiracy to kill her because he wants to marry a fourteen-year-old girl. Even as the husband plots Soraya’s death, the scene of her stoning makes a deep impact on the viewers. While stoning at her, she delivered a prophetic line “with each stone you throw, your honor will return.”

Such incidents are not strange in our society too. We have terms like honor killing, honor rape and moral policing all primarily victimizing women. The Global Slavery Index demonstrates that more than 35 lakh women were forced in to sex trafficking. Many among them are forced to have sex with minimum 11 men a day.

Let’s reflect on the text from this context.

John 8:1-11 is the most challenging of stories in Jesus’ ministry. The literary style suggests the non-Johannine origin of the story. While some Bibles omit this story, others put it in brackets. The omission could be have been made to avoid the scope of encouraging adultery.

Traditionally, answering a difficult legal question was a custom. It was taken to a Rabbi for a decision. Thus, considering Jesus as a Rabbi, the Scribes and Pharisees approached Jesus with the woman who was caught in adultery. The forth Gospel narrates the incident to show how the Scribes and Pharisees tied Jesus inescapably on the horns of a dilemma so that they could discredit him.

Adultery is considered as an anti-social as well as anti-God act in the Jewish law. In the Ten Commandments adultery functions as an intolerable sin along with murder and stealing. The Law of Moses prescribes death for an adulterous married woman without specifying the manner of death. However, the law advises stone death for the disloyal betrothed woman (Deut 22:23,24). The answer to the Scribe’s question and the punishment depend her marital status. It is unclear whether she is married or betrothed women or none of these?

Pseudo Morality: Being in the safe space

This incident not only shows shrewdness of the Pharisees and Scribes but also reveals their Pseudo morality. Psychologist Albert Bandura defines pseudo morality as a ‘cognitive reconstruct.’ It is turning something more moral than what it actually is. The Pharisee with an injury or bleeding is considered as the most holy person. It is done by turning ones head away from any woman seen in public and constantly hitting into things and tripping until injured himself. With this pseudo moralistic nature, Jesus calls ‘whitewashed tombs.’ Moreover, the Scribes and Pharisees used ‘pseudo moral justifications’ to describe something immoral as moral.

Today the pseudo morality has been fondly called as Moral Policing. These vigilante groups claim to be the protectors of culture. In Kerala, it went up to the extent of targeting a mother and her son for travelling together during night.

Getting back to our story, although a woman alone does not engage in adultery the counter part is invisible here. The story does deny the “space” of her identity with no name, no personality or no feelings but Jesus carries her in a “space” that brings her new identity. It was not a herculean task either for Jesus, due to the fear of the crowd for exposing their pseudo-morality in public.

In this analysis, let me put my language of psychology little more. In the psychoanalytic theory of Sigmund Freud, there is a phenomenon called “Reaction Formation,” which is a defense mechanism. Here the emotions and impulses create “anxiety”- producing or perceived to be unacceptable and develop an opposing tendency. It also appears as a defense against a feared social punishment. Furthermore, ‘The bandwagon effect’ in social psychology says that people do something primarily because other people are doing it, regardless of their own beliefs. In our story, people who brought the woman to Jesus are acting like they hate adultery while they may really engage in. This is mainly because of their fear of the losing their public image as well as punishment. In simple words it is being with the majority to be in a safe space.

Morality to humanity: Crossing the safe space

Perhaps, the words of Jesus “let him who is without sin throw the first stone at her” creates a counter space: a space between the crowd and the women. Jesus’ words resonate for the space for realization of their sin where the crowd “backed off” and the woman “stayed back.” The space between these two generates out of Jesus’ “siding with the side lined one.” Can Jesus side with the crowd who are guiltier than the woman? Should Jesus have succumbed to the crowd or the majority or power pressure? Jesus created a new “space” with the very law by which they accused her. Condemning any one to death challenges ones right to live. Jesus retains the right of the woman to continue her life. Thus the new “space” is the “space of life.”  

Now let us turn our mind to reflect upon “how far we create, maintain and sustain the “space of life?” Probably, we do deal with problems with pre-occupied minds. We conclude even before we analyze the situation. We authenticate our set values. In his book ‘Game people plays’ Eric Bern, the psychologist termed this tendency as “cognitive grid.” Our non-evaluative belief system regulates our discerning faculty in all the issues we face. These decisions may not be asserted as accurate or appropriate. As the crowed approached the woman with a prejudiced mind, any attempt of “such a crowd mind” would sabotage the “life giving space” and create a “life negating space.” Jesus, with his response dismantles all such possibilities of creating a pseudo-moral space or lifeless space. Creating a new space necessitates one to undo the values that renounce life.  Pope Francis’ recent comments that “Christians and the Catholic Church should apologize to gay people, women and the divorced and ask for forgiveness for mistreating them,” needs to be seen as an undoing or creating a space of life for whom it is denied.

Beyond the safe space: Space of Reign of God

Jesus Christ did not condemn the woman who is caught for adultery but He gave her a chance to survive and to have a new start. Though it looks so simple it is something very drastic and life changing. The woman is invited to embrace a new future that will allow her to live as a free woman, not a condemned person. Sunita Krishna a social activist who was honored with the Padma Shree award this year and is also the co- founder of ‘Prajwala’, an NGO that works for the rehabilitation of sex workers and their children, stands as the best example of affirming life that Jesus offers to all. Sunitha rescues the sex workers from their vulnerable conditions. However for her the act of rescuing the life of girls accomplishes the goal of providing “acceptance to them in society”. Their social stigma and pain of rejection alleviate when bringing them into the “space of life.” If they carry someone from the “space of death” to the “space of life,” is it not the characteristics of the reign of God?

“Safe space,” by “being with the majority,” provides a “sheltered life” for us pastors but it appears to be a “space against the reign of God.” As Jesus did, moving beyond the “safe space” demands two things. Firstly, the crowd politics should not be “taken for granted” at the cost of the life of “the weak and the meek.” Secondly, the ‘weak’ and the ‘meek’ should be brought to a space where “abundance of life is assured.”   

As a community, committed to the “new space created by Jesus,” are we ready to face the challenges of the crowd for ensuring the space of reign of God for the weak and the meek? When the church and society form itself as a prototype of the crowd, what is our response? We see the crowd around us in the form of “males with stones,” “dominant castes - with apology, including me,” “gender biased pseudo- moralists,” “pseudo-saviors of mother earth, with tons of stone like garbage, chemical emissions, water plunderers, robbers of natural resources,” and so on. As a faith community we are called to be a therapeutic community and agents of transformation. Let us travel along with Jesus to make a “model space” where life is sustained. Why don’t we all be “Christ like”?” Why can’t we be like true disciples of Christ like Pope Francis and Sunita Krishna? It needs guts, guts to break the shackles of conformities, pseudo morality and thrive to go beyond the comfort space risking our life to save lives. If we can’t do any of this, can we at least put down our stones and avoid stoning.

I’m sure Jesus would provide women a “space of life.” However, do not stop dreaming to be creators of the “space of life,” which is the reign of God. If we are ready to face risks, surely, we can be with those in the “space of life.” Amen.

Senior Sermon - Arun Thomas, BD IV

Tower of Babel: A tale of two cities

Genesis: 11:1-9

A mother was holding her five -year old little kid, trying to make her child sleep. She narrates Tom and Jerry stories narrating their funny fights. After she finished telling the story the kid asked her “Mummy, when dad and you fight with each other, who is Tom and who is Jerry?” Tales are not simple as they seem. Every tale makes an impact on some lives because evey tale contains a life and its content in focus. Therefore every tale is an opportunity to witness the consciousness of the land and people of the time. As a tale, Tower of Babel also is embedded with life and meaning in its narration. What makes this tale significant and relevant in our time? What are the possibilities to consider this tale as a paradigm to re-imagine our socio-political-religious-cultural context in India? Let us step in to this tower tale.

Before moving to the interpretation it is essential to review the background of the text and its place in the Old Testament narrations. Tower of Babel is a part of the wider pericope of Genesis 1-11. Genesis 1-11 known as the primeval history, refers to the first section of the Old Testament.[1] It is also considered as the prologue not only for Genesis alone but for the whole Old Testament.

Tower of Babel has been traditionally interpreted and understood in two ways. Firstly, it explains the origin and the cause for the existence of diverse languages or cultures. Secondly, traditional Jewish Christian interpretations offer an idea for the existence of multiple nations and languages. It is understood as an outcome of God’s angry judgment on human desire for crossing their creaturely limits and for attempting to challenge His supremacy. The Book of Jubilles also has this idea. Philo’s allegorical approach sees the story as a reflecion of the inherent evilness in human and its consequences. Josephus reads it as human attempt to be free from dependence on God.

Another line of interpretations from Bernhard W. Anderson and Theodore Hiebert completely shift away from the pride and punishment paradigm and focus on the theme of cultural diversification. They consider the text as a narrative of the origin of the world’s culture. I would like to consider ‘Tower of Babel’ as an event[2] that happened in post -flood context of the people.

Tower of Babel: An event of building the city of the empire

How do we understand an ‘event’? we can call a natural disaster like Chennai flood as an event, the victory of Modi as an event and many more. Events may be classified into material and immaterial events, artistic, scientific, political and intimate events, etc. I tried to incorporate Slavoj Zizek idea of events[3] to read this periscope. For Zizek Event is like a Trojan horse, which comes with a mission but no one knows it because of its appearance and claim. In this periscope we can consider the building of the city and tower as an Event because this Event has a hidden mission. In order to problamatise this hidden mission i am using Zizek’s theory on Event.

The building project begins by gaining the interest of people. In order to achieve this they need to create Events induced pseudo realities which offers ‘possibilities’ of life,’growth’ and ‘developments’. There is  ‘knowledge’  behind every Event. ‘Making name’ and  ‘reaching high’ are the keywords of the knowledge proposed in the event of building the new city. The one who is going to get benefit from this event and its knowledge and the product of the knowledge(city) is the empire of the time. Through the setting of an event and the knowledge of the event the emperor channelizes the human effort and consciousness towards his majesty. Most scholars note that the bulding projects in the Babylonian cities are the effort of claiming ‘sacred’. It  is normally known as Ziggurat, a term derived from the Akkadian Verb Zaqaru, meaning “to build high”. Through the making of the Big towers the empires are trying to relocate the sacred mountains to their towers and claim the status of God. So the whole purpose of these Ziggurat Events is to develop the Emperor as ‘Author’ and ‘Authority’ of human life.

 In the Exodus narratives we can see a new Pharaoh beginning his task of oppression:”Look, the Israelite people are much too numerous for us. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, so that they may not increase; otherwise, in the event of war, they may join our enemies in fighting against us and go up from the land”(Ex. 1:9-10). As presented in the text, the pharaoh's logic is hard to discern. His solution to the problem of Israel's increasing population was persecution and enslavement, rather than exclusion or genocide (Ex. 1:11). If they were too many, why not just kill them? Later Pharaoh order the killing of all the male babies born to the Hebrews, but only after his first policy resulted in an Israelite population boom (Ex. 1:12, 16). Why was Pharaoh afraid that they would leave the land? He should have welcomed their departure. He was able to justify his subjugation of the Israelites with this pretext, but the lack of logic in his reasoning suggests that his true goals were elsewhere. The intention was making a land of slaves in order to make his memories alive against the memories of their God and diversities of life. The idea of empires city is an Event to fulfil this task.

We can notice the Events as the arrival of Emperor in silence. Events help the empires to establish their interest by creating a pseudo reality. In our own context we can identify the arrival of empires in events such as ‘IT parks’, ‘Express ways’, ‘Dam projects’, ‘Nuclear power plants’, ‘Airport projects’, ‘cultural nationalism’ etc. In every event such as these the production of knowledge is evident which offers the city with  ‘glittering future’.  The new city which comes out after the event of building the tower is a city which witnesses the memories of the Emperor. Building projects are often associated with human pride, and Nebuchadnezzar is reputed to have had his name stamped on every 50^th brick to commemorate his building programme in Babylon. The pride that he showed was reflected in the book of Daniel 4:30.  Therefore, the Proposed city of the Empire is a city which make the name of the Emperor high and his memories active forever.  But the empire failed in his mission when God comes with the idea of an alternative city.

Tower of Babel: An ‘Event’  which reveals the face of God and the alternative city of God

Tower of Babel reveals the face of God who faced most criticism over the centuries as an interrupting and intervening factor. We see a God who is jealous of people’s endeavour to reach his majesty through the building of tower.  Is reaching or seeking God’s ‘space’ an offence? There are some other characteristics of the face of God revealed in this narration which is important to notice. God says : ‘let us confuse them’ Why does this God need to confuse the people? Why does this God want to shatter them over the surface of the earth? What makes this God upset and ‘punish’ his people’s intention to reach him?

The face of the God leads us to reimagine an alternative city through the ideas of ‘confuse’, ‘shatter’, ‘sending out’. God tried to reorient people with these three concepts. We need to consider these words as God’s resistance over the ‘event’ of the empire.  The emperor’s act creates a pseudo oneness in order to achieve his authority over the land and people. The element which creates the ambience of oneness is the sameness of language they share. What are the concerns they need to understand together? This question will bring the politics of this ‘oneness’. What they share and they understand is only about emperor’s mission’. They need to understand the task of the empire well and share the spirit of this task. This is evident in their brick making process. They are making the brick without knowing the purpose(v.3). The purpose is revealed later after they finish making bricks(V.4). This sequence is not accidental but intentional and carries out the hidden task of the ‘Event’. So the oneness is not the realisation of justice because this understanding never brings forth the truth to the people. When church says we are part of one body and one blood does it make any sense to the life of the people? I would say no because every body receives respect and dignity according to the colour and standard of the body. Therefore, we need to always problematize the claims of ‘oneness’ because a collective oneness hides an event within. Through the development of one language and one mode of sharing the emperor limits the possibilities of alternative sharing and communication.  In the development of this one language mission people lose their ‘little world’: the ‘little world’ of their knowledge, joy, stories, celebrations, and consciousness and many more. They are part of the Empire’s language means they are in the consciousness of the Empire’s ‘Mega World’. This is a way of developing an exclusive community without having diversities. Absence of other language or modes of sharing signifies the absence of the ‘manyness’ of the communities. Therefore the face of God revealed in the narration ‘confused’ them as an act of resistance against the dangerous face of ‘oneness’. He ‘scattered’ them in order to move from the unethical utilitarian nature of the emperor. He ‘sent them away’ to build their life in liberation rather than baking bricks for unknown reasons. Liberation is not just freedom rather a state of reclaiming our own consciousness. The Kannada Writer D R Nagraj talks about “Protest as a consciousness” and the face of God revealed in the tower of Babel is protest of God . Liberation of enslaved consciousness is the task of God. The need of the hour is to bring back our consciousness as a church in the midst of empires of our time. We identify ourselves as the liberated community but are we liberated in our consciousness? Where is our consciousness in the struggle for the land? Shall we find a theological community in kudumkulam or other struggles for land or issues of our land?  We as a called out community need to ‘shatter’ ourself from the ‘unknown oneness’ the pseudo-reality of the emperors city which overlook the diversities of life.  We need to ‘interrupt’ the knowledge of the emperors’ events to build the ‘city’ of alternatives.

Dear friends, the Pharaohs of our time who limit our life and its possibilities in the events are nameless. A "Pharaoh" is only the designation of an office, or a political position. The Hindutva ideologists, development policies favouring the privileged, and multinational companies are some of the emerging and existing emperors of our times who try to question the identity and well being of the communities of God. The life and dignity of the Earth communities, the minorities, justice of the Dalits and the Adivasi communities all are facing challenges in the city of the emperor of our times. Church as an interruptive movement needs to ‘come down’ in order to break the Events of the emperor and envision the new city of justice, peace and well being. In the tale of the tower of Babel we can see the vision of the new city as an alternative  against the city of the empire. As Martin Luther King Jr states “Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred” because freedom is beyond this. Let us stop bricking for the unknown goals of the events. Let us ‘shatter’ and ‘confuse’ ourselves and the community to experience freedom and joy of living in our own consciousness.

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[1] John J. Scullion, “New Thinking on creation and sin in Genesis i-xi,” in ABR, Vol.22 (October, 1974), pp.2-3.

[2] I  consider event as a philosophical category and try to elaborate it by  incorporating Slavoj Zizek’s idea of Event.

[3] He states that the classification of events into different types ignores the basic features of an event, the surprising emergence of something new which undermines every stable scheme. The only appropriate solution is to approach events in an evental way, to pass from one to another notion of event by way of bringing out the pervading deadlocks of each.

Epistle to Laodicea: A Call for Repentance (Revelation 3:14-22)

Let us pray: Almighty God, we believe that you are the one who transforms our life through your powerful words. This morning, we seek your guidance as we meditate upon the read passage. Speak to us so that we can genuinely commit ourselves to your voice. In Jesus’ name we pray Amen.

Good morning everyone. We have been meditating upon the seven letters written to seven churches. As we know Laodicea is the seventh church and today we are going to reflect on the message given to this church. The church at Laodicea was probably founded during the time of Paul. There is no evidence that Paul visited this church, but there is a reference in Colossians that he wrote a letter to them that was subsequently lost. Laodicea was in Southern Phrygia, midway between Philadelphia and Colossae. Laodicea was known as an independent and wealthy city where wool was a main source of commerce. Agriculture and commercial prosperity brought banking industry to Laodicea. The most striking indication of the city’s wealth is that the city was rebuilt without financial aid from Rome, following the devastating earthquake of A.D 60. The major weakness of this city was its lack of an adequate and convenient source for water. The water had to be brought in from springs near Dazili through a system of stone pipes. The revelation that John receives identifies Jesus as Amen exclusively to this church. The Amen insists that the church pay careful attention to what he is saying. From this letter, I would like to briefly share three points. 

 

Luke warmness: to be avoided

When we refer to verses 15&16, they say “you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” The church of Laodicea is like the water of Laodicea which is lukewarm in nature. In fact, water from the hot springs in Hierapolis, six miles away was brought to the city by aqueducts. By the time it reached Laodicea, the water was no longer hot, it was lukewarm. Cold water from Colossae was also piped in, by the time it reached Laodicea, this water was lukewarm as well and not very palatable. The therapeutic properties of hot water and refreshing quality of cool waters are missing in this. In the same way, the church in Laodicea was providing neither refreshment for the spiritually weary, nor healing for the spiritually sick. It was totally ineffective and thus distasteful to the Lord. Jesus expects his church to be a place of healing and refreshing or else he would abandon them.

What I would like to convey from this is that we are expected to take a standpoint. Double position, half-knowledge, half-truths, middle paths are always dangerous. Especially in our theological articulations and spiritual journey we have to be firm in our conviction and should not to be carried away by false doctrines and teachings. Let us examine ourselves this morning whether we are like the Laodicean church which is lukewarm.

False Perception: Way to Blindness

Verse 17 says, “for you say, ‘I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.’ You do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.”

 

The church of Laodicea is economically rich like the city of Laodicea. When the people looked at themselves they considered themselves as a perfect church. They were very proud of their riches and probably felt that they were above other churches. Moreover, they were famous for three basic things- wealth, fashion and medicine. Laodicea is a centre for banking and finance but Jesus says they are “poor”. Secondly, they are known world-wide for soft, raven-black wool but Jesus says they are “naked”. Thirdly, Laodicea is famous for its healing eye creams but Jesus says they are “blind”. The city and the church are wretched and pitiful because they do not know their true condition. They are miserable but do not recognize it. They think they need nothing but, in fact they need everything.

It is always good to know our limitations, so that we can improve and correct ourselves. The danger is to have a perception that we are perfect and we have accomplished everything in life while we are lacking the basic stuff. There is always a danger in a theological community to consider lay people inferior to us. Though we might be academically excellent, if we do not have the Christian virtues like love then we are poor, naked and blind in the sight of God. 

 

Earnest Repentance: The Need of the Hour

Chapter 3:19 says, “Be earnest, therefore and repent.” Although Christ’s language was strong, the condition of the Laodiceans was not final. Christ issues them a call to repentance in verses 18-20. The strong language is a stern warning to them to repent and return to their first love. They must overcome complacency and turn with joy to God. Christ challenges the Laodiceans to buy from him gold refined by fire. The language is clearly metaphorical. This is the gold of faith. The church is challenged to cover her nakedness with garments of purity and sincerity; in addition they need eye salve to anoint their eyes. We are in Lenten season and it is a time of repentance. Let us examine ourselves and repent earnestly. Many times we are worried about structural sin and also claim sin is relative, but our conscience says how much we have gone astray from the love of God. It is the right time to come back to the love of God. St. Maximus, the confessor, once wrote: God’s will is to save us, nothing pleases him more than our coming back to him in true repentance.

As future pastors and leaders of the church, unless we give up the lukewarm nature and realize our limitations and correct ourselves our churches are going to remain as church in Laodicea. May the God who has called us for ministry renew us through this meditation. Amen



T. Jebin
BD II