During a talk at a church in Miami Lakes, two years ago, I asked a question: “Is it wrong to to be romantically involved with another person, while still being married to your spouse?
The room erupted in a collective gasp. They couldn't believe that I would ask such a question.
Slowly the group members began to respond. “The answer is Yes, that would be morally wrong” said one. “That is called adultery in my book,”said another. “Get a divorce first” another. Someone said, “It's OK if your wife gives you permission.” The consensus of the group was that it is the wrong thing to do. “Immoral, cruel, selfish, cheating” were some of the other words used to describe such a behavior.
What is your answer Paul, asked someone and I said: “It depends.”
Another gasp in the room. They couldn't believe their ears. Some of them thought I had drifted off the moral rails and fallen into a sludge of sin. You may be thinking that right now. I don't blame you, because “it depends” is at the outset, a “wishy-washy” answer. It sounds like an appallingly responsible answer when marital fidelity is in question, especially coming from a man of the cloth.
Before you judge me any further, hear me out: Let me tell you a story.
Jim and Jill were hospice patients on my team. They were residents of an Alzheimer’s unit in an Assisted Living Facility. They were among the twenty five patients living in a locked unit. They are mostly bed ridden, but sometimes they sit in their wheel chairs. They were in their early seventies and they have been diagnosed over five years. They were non-verbal but sometimes responded to a squeeze on the arm with a weak smile. They sit in their wheel chairs for hours, staring at the bare walls of the facility. Their daily routine mostly consists of three meals a day, three diaper changes and mostly sleep. One caregiver described her father as an “eating, pooping, sleeping machine.”
Alzheimers is one one hardest diseases to watch. It is a progressively degenerative disease that can be long and drawn out. As the patient goes through the ravages of the disease, it can take a huge toll on the caregivers. Alzheimers afflicts the individual patient, but affects the entire family. There is a book called The 36 hour day describing the challenges and hardships of caring for Alzheimers patients. The title says it all.
Jim and Jill had devoted spouses. Jim’s wife, Maria visited three or four times a week. She also attended the support group for spouses on Thursdays. They have been married for 54 years. Maria grieved the loss of her “amazing husband” to this “wretched disease.” Their plan of retiring together and traveling were all dashed. She felt like a crypt-widow among her couple friends, because, for all practical purposes, her husband was “dead’ but not exactly. After every visit, Maria returned to an empty home with a lonely heart.
Jill's husband, Matt is also a very devoted spouse. They have been married for 57 years. Jill had an early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s at age 63. Matt took care of his wife in the house with assistance from round-the-clock aides for ten years before placing her in the Alzheimer's unit. He was not too happy to do that, but caring for his wife in the house became emotionally stressful and financially unfeasible. He would visit daily, sit next to her, holding her hands. He would talk to her tenderly, stroke her hair gently and whisper, “I love you honey” into her ears, before the parting kiss. Matt always talked about the wonderful life they had before the disease struck her.
Maria’s and Matt’s paths crossed several times while they were visiting their spouses. They attended the same support group. They were experiencing the same loss; they were fighting the same enemy; they were undergoing the same crisis; they spoke the same language; they felt the same pain; they were on the same ground; they traveled the same road; they swam in the same emotional ocean; they were in the same proverbial boat!
Their agonizing stories of loss and pain brought them together. After the support group meeting on Thursdays, they went out for coffee together; then it was dinner together and walks on the beach two miles away from Facility where their respective spouses lived.
Matt was a realist. He talked about his wife being no more present in Jill. “She is existing, not living” he told me. He must have been rationalizing to assuage any sense of guilt he might have had for being close to another woman while his wife was still alive.
Maria too had her moments of guilt but she assuaged them by thinking that if the shoe were on the other foot, her husband would not have behaved any differently than what she was doing.
On September 18, 2010, Maria’s husband died. I officiated at the funeral. Matt was at the service comforting Maria. Matt's wife, Jill, died the same year on December 3rd. She was cremated. I had the privilege of doing a memorial service for her in the club house at Matt's condo.
Few months after the death of their respective spouses, Maria sold her house and moved in with Matt.
In January 2012, I received a phone call from Matt. “Guess what chaplain Paul, Maria and I are thinking about getting married and we want you to marry us; you know our story more than anyone else.”
I was delighted that two souls had found each other again…that their common pain had brought them together and their lives—what is left of it—does not have to be lived in isolation and loneliness.
On March 18, 2012, I officiated the marriage of Matt and Maria near the Deer field Beach pier surrounded by their immediate family.
Matt was 82 and Maria was 78. While signing their marriage license, Matt and Maria might have been signing on to a new lease on their lives—and seeing the light of love again, at the end of the dark tunnel of illness, suffering, sadness and loss.
Life is very often, messy, complex and complicated. Most life situations are mired in mystery, riddled with difficult choices and pulled in different directions by competing claims and dilemmas. None of us will ever fully know what another person is going through, what challenges they are facing, what hardships they are enduring, or what pain they are experiencing. That is why Jesus said: “Do not judge and you will not be judged; Do no condemn and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven.”
Apostle Paul repeats that advise in his letter to the Romans: “Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another.”
I think “it depends” is a good phrase to remember when faced with the quandaries and mysteries of life.
We live in a world where, most people see life as black and white. Living in the gray area is very uncomfortable for many. They want an “yes or no” answer to their questions. “It depends” is not an acceptable answer. According to them, abortion is always wrong; gay marriage should never be allowed; it is against the sanctify of marriage. Children should have both a mother and a father. They forget that the “sanctity of marriage” is callously disgraced in 50% of cases due to divorce. They forget that 45 percent of children in this country grow up in single parent homes. They forget that King Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines.
According to them, living in the gray area of life is being morally lax and, responding to life's questions with “it depends” is a wishy-washy approach.
If so, Jesus is the most morally lax and wishy-washy person who ever lived.
Jesus rarely gave a straightforward answer to any question. When the Pharisees asked “Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” he did not say pay taxes or don't pay taxes. He asked them to bring a coin. Instead of answering yes or no, he asked them a question: “Whose portrait is it? “Cesar's,” they replied. And Jesus said: “Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's”-- an open answer that can be broadly interpreted.
Let us look at the story of the woman caught in adultery brought before Jesus. (John 8). The Pharisees gathered around the woman with stones in their hands, ready to stone her to death. They wanted an Yes or No answer from Jesus. If Jesus had said: “Yes, go ahead and stone her,” they could brand him a heartless, cruel man. If he had said, No, they could accuse him of not following the law.
The law is clear. Leviticus 20: 10 and Deuteronomy 22.22 says the same thing: “If a man commits adultery with another man's wife both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.”
It would have been so easy for Jesus to quote the law, answer the question and get out of there.
But, what did Jesus say: At first, he says nothing; he gives no answer. “Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger.” By not giving them a right or wrong answer, Jesus must have been encouraging them to think about the situation a little.
Think about why is it always the woman's fault? Why didn't they catch the man involved in this event? Where is he? How could they forget that Abram committed adultery with his maid-servant from which Ismail was born? How could they ignore that king David committed adultery with his soldier's wife and he was not stoned. How could they forget that Solomon had 700 concubines? Is this one poor woman more guilty than any of those men? Or is it because they are all men in powerful positions? There are so many questions and issues to consider before stoning a woman to death. Jesus must have been thinking about all that! Jesus was forcing the Pharisees to stretch their minds to see the facts and open their hearts towards compassion.
If you read the story, you will see that Jesus was not going to give an answer at all. But the Pharisees were persistent. When they kept on questioning him” he said to them:
“Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone...” and we know what happened. That was an “it depends answer” an answer that led to profound soul searching for the Pharisees and everyone one put their stones down and quietly left, leaving the woman alone.
The story reminds me of Pope Francis' response to the question about homosexuality. He said: “Who am I to judge? It is such a departure from his predecessor. Pope Benedict who was so sure about how bad it is. He said: “ homosexuality is intrinsically disordered.”
How about this one? While Jesus was teaching, some one asked him: (Lk: 13) “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved? He did not answer that question like a Jehovah's witness. According to them only 144,000 will be saved when the rapture happens. He did not answer like an evangelical preacher. According to him, only those who believe in Jesus will be saved. This is the answer Jesus gave:
“People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God.” It is a very open ended, general, wishy-washy answer. The phrase east and west, north and south, means there are no national, religious, ethnic or cultural boundaries. There are no requirements, qualifications, or credentials needed to sit at the feast in the kingdom of God.
When it comes to salvation, many people can't handle that answer. They want a clear-cut answer, a definite answer. Are you going to be saved or not? Few years ago, while discussing this issue in a Bible class, one lady said “I don't want to go a heaven where everybody else goes.” She was so sure that she was going to heaven, but her Muslim neighbor was not.
And then Jesus adds this line to the answer about people coming from east and west: “Indeed there are those who are last who will be first and first who will be last.” That is a bombshell statement that shakes the very foundation of human calculations, assumptions, presumptions and planning. We think that if we work hard, believe the right things, play by the rules, we should be rewarded. Not necessarily, it depends...
Before the crucifixion, Pilate asked a question to Jesus: “Are you the king of the Jews?” (J 18). He didn't answer yes or no. Instead, Jesus asked Pilate: “Is that your own idea or did others talk to you about me? Then Pilate asked: “What is it that you have done? Again, there is no clear answer from Jesus: He said:”My kingdom is not of this world? Pilate was so frustrated with Jesus that he was not answering any of this questions with a yes or a no.
At the end Pilate asked Jesus, “What is truth”? He didn't even wait for an answer from Jesus, because, he knew he was not going to get one,because it is such a loaded question.
What is truth? What is the truth about life, death, life after death? What is the truth about other people's lives and what they may be going through in any particular moment? What is the truth about why people do what they do”?
We think we know, but we don't. We pass judgments based on what we think and know, but our thinking could be so off base and our knowledge could be incomplete or wrong.
Always remember that absolute answers are available only in areas science and math. For example if you add two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen you will get a molecule of water; you can do that in Australia, Alaska or Alabama, the result will be the same. Or you add 2 and 4 the result will be 4, be that in India, Indonesia or Indianapolis. By the way, I have to tell you that a friend of mine once told me that 2 and 2 does not add up to 4 always. “It depends” he said, and I asked: “How come?” And he said, “it depends if I am buying or selling. If I am buying it is 3 and if I am selling it is 4.” So, even in math, nothing is absolute!
The point is that, please know that life does not neatly fit into any scientific or mathematical formula. Life is messy and it rarely fits any precalculated patterns. Have the humility to admit that we know very little and the little we know could be wrong.
Socrates was one of the smartest philosophers of all time. His favorite saying was:
“I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.”
As disciples, we are called to be like Jesus. Thinking like Socrates is not bad either.
We are called to put on the mind of Christ? What is a Christ-like mind?
It is open, flexible, loving, gentle, generous, compassionate, non judgmental, forgiving and unconditionally loving.
Let us pray:
Lord help us to stretch our minds and hearts to the four corners of the earth to include all our brothers and sisters in our circle of concern. Make us realize that our knowledge is incomplete, our vision is limited, our opinions are biased, and our viewpoints are only views from a point. Help us resist the temptation to judge people without knowing the facts and make our hearts compassionate enough to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. Inspire us to replace our narrow, limited, biased minds with the generous, flexible and non-judgmental mind of Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
Monday, May 18, 2015
Sunday, May 10, 2015
MY TWO MOTHERS
First of all, I like to wish all the mothers here a very happy Mother's day. Did you know that MD is the biggest celebration in the US, more than Christmas and Val day combined, when flower shops, restaurants and hallmark make the most money. Because, everyone does not celebrate Christmas, and everyone does not have a BF, GF or a spouse, but every one has a mother.
MD, however, is not a holy day in the church's calendar and pastors usually shy away from preaching about it for fear of hurting feelings. For example, there are people who were abused or abandoned by their mothers. The last thing they want to hear is nice things about someone who was not nice. Then there are others who have wanted , prayed and waited to become mothers, without success, and carry wounds of deferred dreams.
Suddenly, what seems so simple and profoundly important becomes an uneasy celebration. Our concern for the wounded, often leads us to forgo the rejoicing. I feel that we must celebrate this day, because, as scripture says, we must rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.
Our rejoicing should always be combined with compassion-and this applies to all situations in life. For example, look at what is happening in the world these days, especially the earthquake in Nepal. We must weep with the people of Nepal and help them with our prayers and our purses, but we don't have to be unhappy about our blessings.
Besides, I am not going to just talk about our biological mother. I invite you to expand your consciousness about motherhood today: to think about mother in a larger context.
Let me start with a question: ..Is there anyone here with more than one mother? Well I have 4 mothers. Bio mom, mother country, mother Mary..Jesus on cross pointing to Mary at foot of the cross told John: behold your mother..Only speak about bio mom and mother earth.
My mom died a year and half ago 92.
I have the greatest admiration and love for my mom, because, I am who am, largely because of her. She carried me in her womb for 9 months. She made sure that I was nourished and protected. It was not an easy task, esp. in the India of early 50s. Our house was in the middle of a farm. It was a two bedroom house, with cement floor, and thatched roof—for 7 of us and there was no indoor plumbing. And we had no electricity. Here when we loose power for a few hours or few days due to a hurricane or a downed line, we panic. Imagine having no electricity for life....
At night, the whole place was pitch dark, except for the hurricane lamps which gave a faint light for about three feet radius. We had no crib or real beds. We slept on mats, not mattress. We used to fold the mats in the morning so that the room we slept in can be used as living and dining room during the day.
Sanitation was not great. Cockroaches, ants and lizards freely roamed inside the house.. But my mother made sure that I was not bitten by them and took good care of me so that I grew up in one piece with all the limbs intact.
Also, infant mortality rate was high in those days. But my mom, and of course, my dad, made sure that I survived. I lost two siblings, one older and one younger than and each lived for only less than a month.
My mother was a strict disciplinarian. She would not allow me to play with the boys in the neighborhood, because, she thought that they would lead me astray. She would not allow me to go for movies, because she thought the movies would be bad influence.
I did not like my mom for that, at that time. But looking back, I am grateful, because, she did the best she could, to protect me and keep me safe. We should never judge a situation in our past with today's awareness and yard sticks.
Motherhood means sharing in the creative power of God: Conceiving, carrying and giving birth to a human being is as close as any person can come to the act of creation. That is the beginning of motherhood, but it is far from the end: motherhood is also nurturing, sacrificing, unconditionally loving and ultimately letting go.
There may be exceptions to this love, mothers who abuse, or abandon their children, but the ideal motherhood, is a divine vocation. That is why a wise man once said: God created mothers, because he couldn't be everywhere.” A Muslim prophet put it so well when he said: “Paradise is at the feet of a mother.”
I like to talk about my second mother-mother earth. Earth day was just two weeks ago. Again pastors don't usually preach about earth day,because it is considered a worldly topic. I think it should be a holy day..
Just like I came out of my mother's body, I came out of this earth. Todays's scripture, Psalmm 139 says: “You knit me together in my mother's womb” and “You knew me when I was woven toegther in depths of the earth,” thus making a beautiful connecton between the mother's womb and the womb of th earth.
We have this notion that we came ON the earth; It appears like that; but the truth of the matter is that we came OUT of the earth. We are made of the dust of the earth. Just like we share genes and chromosomes, flesh and blood with our mothers, we share all the elements with mother earth; Elements like carbon, hydrogen, calcium, iron that are in the earth's body are also in our body. The earth is 70 percent water ; we are 70 percent water.
I often think about the unfathomable beauty, mystery and magnificence of this moving blue dot in space which holds me up tenderly in the palm of her hands as my mother once did.
Like a mother, the earth gives us so much and demands so little. So, on this mother's day, I invite you to develop a special love and reverence for mother earth, this beautiful tiny planet in this majestic cosmos, on which we are blessed to live.
I have lived on this earth for 23,178 days and it has never failed to provide for me: air, water, and food, the three most basic ingredients needed for my very existence. Thank you holy mother earth.
I have never stayed awake at night, wondering and worrying if there will be enough air to breath when I wake up in the morning. As I walk gently on this holy ground, I join Prophet Isaiah to say “ The whole earth proclaims the glory of God.”
Let us take a closer look at our home planet. We usually experience it as stationary, because that is what our five senses tell us. But if we could stop for a moment and reflect, we will realize that we are moving, rather spinning, and yet staying put...that is a huge mystery worthy of adoration itself.
The earth spins around its axis at the speed of 1,000 miles an hour at the equator. It takes 24 hours to spin around once. The spinning makes our days and nights. But as we spin, we are also on another circle journey as we orbit round the sun. Traveling at the speed of 66,600 miles an hour, this second journey takes 365 days to complete. In that annual pilgrimage around the sun, we travel 595 million miles—with no oil change or tire rotation. Think about that...
Back to earth; It weighs a gazillion tons, a normal calculator doesn't have digits for that. The surface is 300 million square miles; there are 7.7. million species of animals living on it. We are familiar with a cat or a dog or a cow or an elephant, a donkey or a horse but there are millions of others. There are 2700 different species of snakes. Have you ever stood front of an aquarium and watched those beautiful fish with different colors and textures? We might see a dozen varieties; but there are 2400 different ones. There are a 1000 species of birds.
When we see the earth as a whole, from outer space, we can clearly see the connectedness and interdependence of all of us who live upon this planet. We have created imaginary boundaries, dividing ourselves into countries and states. We forget that in reality we are all living together, breathing the same air, drinking from the same water, eating food grown from the same earth.
We share everything on this planet with other people, whether we are conscious of it or not. For example, the air that is in your lungs today was circulated yesterday through the lungs of somebody living in China. The air in the lungs of the person next to you, enters your lungs in a few minutes. It is like two people eating from the same plate.
Imagine you walk into a restaurant and notice two people sharing a plate of food. It shows a level of intimacy, closeness and love.
Few months ago, I had lunch with one of my former supervisors who is also a friend. She ordered dessert and I didn't. A generous portion of ice cream souffle was placed in front of her. “I can't finish it alone Paul, have some” she said. There were two spoons on the plate. The waiter must have thought we were a couple. Initially, I was reluctant to share ice cream with a woman who was not my wife. But ice cream? Forget the wife for an hour. (just kidding).
While eating the ice cream from the same plate with a person who was not my blood family, I felt a special connection and affection for that person. She was from Jamaica, I was from India, we come from totally different worlds, experiences and backgrounds. But when we sat in that Benigans in Fort Lauderdale, and shared ice cream from the same plate, it felt like a divine connection.
Try that some day with somebody who is not a family member. It is an amazing experience of closeness, intimacy, love, freedom and unity.
If you really think about it, sharing food with others, from the same plate is happening every day everywhere. You are doing it right now. You are not sharing ice cream; in fact you are sharing something more important; you are sharing the air—food for your brain. Living on the earth and sharing the same air with everybody else is, in fact like sharing food from the same plate—an abundant cosmic plate.
Everyday, 7 billion people eat from that cosmic plate prepared and provided by mother earth—and the food never runs out.
Jesus had a special appreciation for the earth. He didn't live in high rise condos or work in board rooms. He taught on the mountain top, and the sea side; he prayed in the garden, and died on a hill. He talked about the lilies of the field and the birds of the air, because Jesus knew that the earth proclaims the glory of God.
Don't just live on the earth as aliens and strangers, plundering and taking advantage of its resources, but be respectful and grateful for everything that the earth offers, which is our life itself. We came out of the earth and we will return to it. We should always remember that the earth can survive without us, but we cannot survive without the earth. That should be a humbling thought.
So When you look at earth as your mother, your spirituality immediately improves. It is no more just about saying some prayers, reading the scripture, loving a few neighbors and trying to get to heaven after death. Speaking of scriptures, earth is actually the second scripture. Aquinas said: Divine revelation comes in two volumes; scripture and nature.
We should slow down and observe nature. We should walk barefoot on the grass or the beach. Feel the sensation of the earth sustaining us and holding us tightly and embracing us with its gravity. Earth's gravity and your mother's hug are the same thing.
In fact you are always embraced and hugged by mother earth. Without that, you will be tossed around and lost.
When you think of earth as your mother, you have no choice but to think of all the people on earth-7 billion people as your brothers and sisters. Remember we are all siblings, eating from the same cosmic plate. When you become aware of that, thoughts of nationalism, parochialism and tribalism disappear. You become more of a godly person, because God loves the entire earth and everyone on it. God has no separatist thinking.
When you see earth as mother, you see the big picture; You transcend your tribal mentality and develop a planetary consciousness. You see at all the people on this earth as members of the one body of Christ.
When you expand your consciousness to embrace the entire earth, blessings will begin to flood your life. When you include 7 billion people in our circle of concern, and love 7 billion people, you are going to get 7 billions pieces of blessing. If you just love the people in your household or your neighborhood, your blessings are limited.
So erase hatred; eradicate tribalism; eliminate narrowness; Expand your mind; enlarge your circle; engage with people; evolve as a spiritual being; emanate joy; experience mother earth and embrace humanity.
As you leave the holy ground of this church, I pray that you consider every ground as holy and every person you meet as a manifestation of the Holy One.
MD, however, is not a holy day in the church's calendar and pastors usually shy away from preaching about it for fear of hurting feelings. For example, there are people who were abused or abandoned by their mothers. The last thing they want to hear is nice things about someone who was not nice. Then there are others who have wanted , prayed and waited to become mothers, without success, and carry wounds of deferred dreams.
Suddenly, what seems so simple and profoundly important becomes an uneasy celebration. Our concern for the wounded, often leads us to forgo the rejoicing. I feel that we must celebrate this day, because, as scripture says, we must rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.
Our rejoicing should always be combined with compassion-and this applies to all situations in life. For example, look at what is happening in the world these days, especially the earthquake in Nepal. We must weep with the people of Nepal and help them with our prayers and our purses, but we don't have to be unhappy about our blessings.
Besides, I am not going to just talk about our biological mother. I invite you to expand your consciousness about motherhood today: to think about mother in a larger context.
Let me start with a question: ..Is there anyone here with more than one mother? Well I have 4 mothers. Bio mom, mother country, mother Mary..Jesus on cross pointing to Mary at foot of the cross told John: behold your mother..Only speak about bio mom and mother earth.
My mom died a year and half ago 92.
I have the greatest admiration and love for my mom, because, I am who am, largely because of her. She carried me in her womb for 9 months. She made sure that I was nourished and protected. It was not an easy task, esp. in the India of early 50s. Our house was in the middle of a farm. It was a two bedroom house, with cement floor, and thatched roof—for 7 of us and there was no indoor plumbing. And we had no electricity. Here when we loose power for a few hours or few days due to a hurricane or a downed line, we panic. Imagine having no electricity for life....
At night, the whole place was pitch dark, except for the hurricane lamps which gave a faint light for about three feet radius. We had no crib or real beds. We slept on mats, not mattress. We used to fold the mats in the morning so that the room we slept in can be used as living and dining room during the day.
Sanitation was not great. Cockroaches, ants and lizards freely roamed inside the house.. But my mother made sure that I was not bitten by them and took good care of me so that I grew up in one piece with all the limbs intact.
Also, infant mortality rate was high in those days. But my mom, and of course, my dad, made sure that I survived. I lost two siblings, one older and one younger than and each lived for only less than a month.
My mother was a strict disciplinarian. She would not allow me to play with the boys in the neighborhood, because, she thought that they would lead me astray. She would not allow me to go for movies, because she thought the movies would be bad influence.
I did not like my mom for that, at that time. But looking back, I am grateful, because, she did the best she could, to protect me and keep me safe. We should never judge a situation in our past with today's awareness and yard sticks.
Motherhood means sharing in the creative power of God: Conceiving, carrying and giving birth to a human being is as close as any person can come to the act of creation. That is the beginning of motherhood, but it is far from the end: motherhood is also nurturing, sacrificing, unconditionally loving and ultimately letting go.
There may be exceptions to this love, mothers who abuse, or abandon their children, but the ideal motherhood, is a divine vocation. That is why a wise man once said: God created mothers, because he couldn't be everywhere.” A Muslim prophet put it so well when he said: “Paradise is at the feet of a mother.”
I like to talk about my second mother-mother earth. Earth day was just two weeks ago. Again pastors don't usually preach about earth day,because it is considered a worldly topic. I think it should be a holy day..
Just like I came out of my mother's body, I came out of this earth. Todays's scripture, Psalmm 139 says: “You knit me together in my mother's womb” and “You knew me when I was woven toegther in depths of the earth,” thus making a beautiful connecton between the mother's womb and the womb of th earth.
We have this notion that we came ON the earth; It appears like that; but the truth of the matter is that we came OUT of the earth. We are made of the dust of the earth. Just like we share genes and chromosomes, flesh and blood with our mothers, we share all the elements with mother earth; Elements like carbon, hydrogen, calcium, iron that are in the earth's body are also in our body. The earth is 70 percent water ; we are 70 percent water.
I often think about the unfathomable beauty, mystery and magnificence of this moving blue dot in space which holds me up tenderly in the palm of her hands as my mother once did.
Like a mother, the earth gives us so much and demands so little. So, on this mother's day, I invite you to develop a special love and reverence for mother earth, this beautiful tiny planet in this majestic cosmos, on which we are blessed to live.
I have lived on this earth for 23,178 days and it has never failed to provide for me: air, water, and food, the three most basic ingredients needed for my very existence. Thank you holy mother earth.
I have never stayed awake at night, wondering and worrying if there will be enough air to breath when I wake up in the morning. As I walk gently on this holy ground, I join Prophet Isaiah to say “ The whole earth proclaims the glory of God.”
Let us take a closer look at our home planet. We usually experience it as stationary, because that is what our five senses tell us. But if we could stop for a moment and reflect, we will realize that we are moving, rather spinning, and yet staying put...that is a huge mystery worthy of adoration itself.
The earth spins around its axis at the speed of 1,000 miles an hour at the equator. It takes 24 hours to spin around once. The spinning makes our days and nights. But as we spin, we are also on another circle journey as we orbit round the sun. Traveling at the speed of 66,600 miles an hour, this second journey takes 365 days to complete. In that annual pilgrimage around the sun, we travel 595 million miles—with no oil change or tire rotation. Think about that...
Back to earth; It weighs a gazillion tons, a normal calculator doesn't have digits for that. The surface is 300 million square miles; there are 7.7. million species of animals living on it. We are familiar with a cat or a dog or a cow or an elephant, a donkey or a horse but there are millions of others. There are 2700 different species of snakes. Have you ever stood front of an aquarium and watched those beautiful fish with different colors and textures? We might see a dozen varieties; but there are 2400 different ones. There are a 1000 species of birds.
When we see the earth as a whole, from outer space, we can clearly see the connectedness and interdependence of all of us who live upon this planet. We have created imaginary boundaries, dividing ourselves into countries and states. We forget that in reality we are all living together, breathing the same air, drinking from the same water, eating food grown from the same earth.
We share everything on this planet with other people, whether we are conscious of it or not. For example, the air that is in your lungs today was circulated yesterday through the lungs of somebody living in China. The air in the lungs of the person next to you, enters your lungs in a few minutes. It is like two people eating from the same plate.
Imagine you walk into a restaurant and notice two people sharing a plate of food. It shows a level of intimacy, closeness and love.
Few months ago, I had lunch with one of my former supervisors who is also a friend. She ordered dessert and I didn't. A generous portion of ice cream souffle was placed in front of her. “I can't finish it alone Paul, have some” she said. There were two spoons on the plate. The waiter must have thought we were a couple. Initially, I was reluctant to share ice cream with a woman who was not my wife. But ice cream? Forget the wife for an hour. (just kidding).
While eating the ice cream from the same plate with a person who was not my blood family, I felt a special connection and affection for that person. She was from Jamaica, I was from India, we come from totally different worlds, experiences and backgrounds. But when we sat in that Benigans in Fort Lauderdale, and shared ice cream from the same plate, it felt like a divine connection.
Try that some day with somebody who is not a family member. It is an amazing experience of closeness, intimacy, love, freedom and unity.
If you really think about it, sharing food with others, from the same plate is happening every day everywhere. You are doing it right now. You are not sharing ice cream; in fact you are sharing something more important; you are sharing the air—food for your brain. Living on the earth and sharing the same air with everybody else is, in fact like sharing food from the same plate—an abundant cosmic plate.
Everyday, 7 billion people eat from that cosmic plate prepared and provided by mother earth—and the food never runs out.
Jesus had a special appreciation for the earth. He didn't live in high rise condos or work in board rooms. He taught on the mountain top, and the sea side; he prayed in the garden, and died on a hill. He talked about the lilies of the field and the birds of the air, because Jesus knew that the earth proclaims the glory of God.
Don't just live on the earth as aliens and strangers, plundering and taking advantage of its resources, but be respectful and grateful for everything that the earth offers, which is our life itself. We came out of the earth and we will return to it. We should always remember that the earth can survive without us, but we cannot survive without the earth. That should be a humbling thought.
So When you look at earth as your mother, your spirituality immediately improves. It is no more just about saying some prayers, reading the scripture, loving a few neighbors and trying to get to heaven after death. Speaking of scriptures, earth is actually the second scripture. Aquinas said: Divine revelation comes in two volumes; scripture and nature.
We should slow down and observe nature. We should walk barefoot on the grass or the beach. Feel the sensation of the earth sustaining us and holding us tightly and embracing us with its gravity. Earth's gravity and your mother's hug are the same thing.
In fact you are always embraced and hugged by mother earth. Without that, you will be tossed around and lost.
When you think of earth as your mother, you have no choice but to think of all the people on earth-7 billion people as your brothers and sisters. Remember we are all siblings, eating from the same cosmic plate. When you become aware of that, thoughts of nationalism, parochialism and tribalism disappear. You become more of a godly person, because God loves the entire earth and everyone on it. God has no separatist thinking.
When you see earth as mother, you see the big picture; You transcend your tribal mentality and develop a planetary consciousness. You see at all the people on this earth as members of the one body of Christ.
When you expand your consciousness to embrace the entire earth, blessings will begin to flood your life. When you include 7 billion people in our circle of concern, and love 7 billion people, you are going to get 7 billions pieces of blessing. If you just love the people in your household or your neighborhood, your blessings are limited.
So erase hatred; eradicate tribalism; eliminate narrowness; Expand your mind; enlarge your circle; engage with people; evolve as a spiritual being; emanate joy; experience mother earth and embrace humanity.
As you leave the holy ground of this church, I pray that you consider every ground as holy and every person you meet as a manifestation of the Holy One.
Thursday, April 23, 2015
HOLY GROUND, NOT STAND YOUR GROUND
A woman called her husband and told him to pick up some organic vegetables for that nite's dinner. The husband stops at the store, starts searching allover the place couldn't find. Asked the produce guy. The produce guy didn't know what he was asking about. So the husband said: “These vegetables are for my wife. Heave they been sprayed with poisonous chemicals?
And the produce guy replied: “No sir, you will have to do that yourself.”
Last Wednesday was earth day. There was lot of talk about eating organic vegetables, eco-friendly living, climate change, etc. Usually, you don't hear much about earth day in churches because, it is considered a “worldly” topic. Last year, after I preached a sermon on earth day. A nice lady chided me for talking about earth in church instead of the Bible. How an earthly topic could belong in a heavenly place, she thought.
Years ago, I would not have noticed this day, or paid any attention to it, let alone preach about it. So much has changed in my spiritual life that I consider earth day as important as other religious holy days.
I have reflected deeply about the unfathomable beauty, mystery and magnificence of this moving, yes moving blue dot in space which holds me up as God holds me tenderly in the palm of His/Her hand.
Today, I invite you to join me in reflecting about the earth from a spiritual point of view. I want you consider it from a divine perspective. You have heard the song “I am standing on holy ground” sung in churches. It is referring specifically to the church as holy ground. I invite you expand your mind to include every ground as holy, the whole earth as holy, because, it is created by God.
That is why the psalmist proclaims (24:1) “the earth is the Lord's and everything in it.” “Be exalted, O God above the heavens and let your glory be over all the earth (108:5).
Thomas Aquinas who understood the deeper meaning of that psalm said: “Divine revelation comes in two volumes; scripture and nature.”
Theologian Thomas Berry elaborates it: “The natural world is our primary scripture, our primary awakening to the mysteries of existence. We might well put all our written scriptures on the shelf for twenty years until we learn what we are being told by unmediated experience of the world about us.”
We usually focus our attention on the Bible and look for God in the book. But today, I like you to focus on the earth beneath your feet and around your eyes to experience God.
I have lived on this earth 23,468 days and it has never failed to provide for me: air, water and food, the three most basic ingredients needed for my very existence. Thank you holy mother earth. As I walk gently on this holy ground, I join with prophet Isaiah this morning to say: “The whole earth proclaims the glory of God.”
Let us take a closer look at our home planet. We usually experience it as stationary, because that is what our five senses tell us. But if we could stop for a moment and reflect, we will realize that we are moving, rather spinning, and yet staying put...that is a huge mystery worthy of adoration itself.
The earth spins around its axis at the speed of 1,000 miles an hour at the equator. It takes 24 hours to spin around once. The spinning makes our days and nights. But as we spin, we are also on another circle journey as we orbit round the sun. Traveling at the speed of 66,600 miles an hour, this second journey takes 365 days to complete. In that annual pilgrimage around the sun, we travel 595 million miles—with no oil change or tire rotation. Think about that...
This moving planet is huge. But compared to the sun, earth is very tiny...the sun is 1.3 million times bigger than the earth, but compared to Antares, the 15th brightest star in the sky, which is a 1000 light years away, the sun is a pixel. It is a mind boggling mystery.
Back to earth; It weighs a gazillion tons, a normal calculator doesn't have digits for that. The surface is 300 million square miles; there are 7.7. million species of animals living on it. We are familiar with a cat or a dog or a cow or an elephant, a donkey or a horse but there are millions of others. There are 2700 different species of snakes. Have you ever stood front of an aquarium and watched those beautiful fish with different colors and textures? We might see a dozen varieties; but there are 2400 different ones. There are a 1000 species of birds.
And the amazing thing is that this huge earth with everything in it is not attached to anything...nothing below, nothing above, nothing in front or back, except deep dark endless space...and yet we don't fall down or spin out of control.....we don't deviate from the path...because, if we deviate from the orbit by one inch closer to the sun, we will be incinerated; one inch away, we will be frozen to death; to me that is one of the greatest mystery and miracle that God has created.
Just go to the beach, look at the vast ocean and endless sky and contemplate the universe and ..if your eyes bulge with tears, and your heart pound with wonder and your mind feels a deep awe, you are having a spiritual experience. You are connecting with God, the creator of the universe. Such an awareness of distance, speed and order creates a sense of awe and wonder.
Astronauts and cosmonauts who have had the privilege of seeing the earth from space were always moved by its beauty and majesty. This is what astronaut Edgar Mitchell said as he gazed down on the home planet:
On the return trip home, gazing 240,000 miles of space towards the stars and the planet from which I had come, I suddenly experienced the universe as intelligent, loving and harmonious. My view of the planet was a glimpse of divinity.
Perhaps what we need is a trip to outer space, to have our eyes and hearts opened to see the sacredness behind the superficial.
But, wait a minute. We are traveling in space; we don't have to lift our bodies from the earth to see the beauty and the splendor of God's creation; we only need to lift our minds...and open our eyes. But, that is the problem...our minds are small and our eyes are closed..
It is worthy of note that Mitchell uses the word 'divinity' but not 'God'. God is a divisive term for many. Religions people fight over their own definitions of God and make declarations like, “My God is bigger than your God.” “My God can beat up our God.” “The Christian god is a man, the Hindu god is a cow and the Muslim God is a terrrorist,”
When we use 'divinity' instead of “God' what is at work here is 'spirituality' not 'religion.' And our goal is to evolve more each day as spiritual beings not merely as religious people.
When we see the earth as a whole, from outer space, we can clearly see the connectedness and interdependence of all of us who live upon this planet. We have created imaginary boundaries, dividing ourselves into countries and states. We forget that in reality we are all living together, breathing the same air, drinking from the same water, eating food grown from the same earth.
We share everything on this planet with other people, whether we are conscious of it or not. For example, the air that is in your lungs today was circulated yesterday through the lungs of somebody living in China. The air in the lungs of the person next to you, enters your lungs in a few minutes. It is like two people eating from the same plate.
Imagine you walk into a restaurant and notice two people sharing a plate of food. It shows a level of intimacy, closeness and love.
Few months ago, I had lunch with one of my former supervisors who is also a friend. She ordered dessert and I didn't. A generous portion of ice cream souffle was placed in front of her. “I can't finish it alone Paul, have some” she said. There were two spoons on the plate. The waiter must have thought we were a couple. Initially, I was reluctant to share ice cream with a woman who was not my wife. But ice cream? Forget the wife for a second. (just kidding).
While eating the ice cream from the same plate with a person who was not my blood family, I felt a special connection and affection for that person. She was from Jamaica, I was from India, we come from totally different worlds, experiences and backgrounds. But when we sat in that Benigans in Fort Lauderdale, and shared ice cream from the same plate, it felt like a divine connection.
Try that some day with somebody who is not a family member. It is an amazing experience of closeness, intimacy, love, freedom and unity. (and don't let your partner find out...just kidding).
If you really think about it, sharing food with others, from the same plate is happening every day everywhere. You are doing it right now. You are not sharing ice cream; in fact you are sharing something more important; you are sharing the air—food for your brain. Living on the earth and sharing the same air with everybody else is, in fact like sharing food from the same plate—an abundant cosmic plate.
Everyday, 7 billion people eat from that cosmic plate prepared and provided by mother earth—and the food never runs out.
Jesus had a special appreciation for the earth. He didn't live in high rise condos or work in board rooms. He taught on the mountain top, and the sea side; he prayed in the garden, and died on a hill. He talked about the lilies of the field and the birds of the air, because Jesus knew that the earth proclaims the glory of God.
Don't just live on the earth as aliens and strangers, plundering and taking advantage of its resources, but be respectful and grateful for everything that the earth offers, which is our life itself. We should erase from our minds the mistaken idea that we are living “on” the earth and replace it with the notion that we are living “with” the earth, because we are part of it. We came out of the earth and we will return to it. We should always remember that the earth can survive without us, but we cannot survive without the earth. That should be a humbling thought.
So celebrating earth day is about seeing the big picture; it is about feeling the connection with the earth, with everything and everyone on it; it is about thinking about the welfare of all people beyond the boundaries our nation; it is about relinquishing narrow nationalism and embracing a wider humanity; Earth day is about looking at all the people on this earth as members of the one body of Christ.
It is about transcending our tribal mentality and having a planetary consciousness.
It is about feeling the love of Jesus in our heart and walking on holy ground as opposed to holding a gun in our hand and “stand our ground.” We know what that did to Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida.
If George Zimmerman had considered his neighborhood “holy ground” a great tragedy could have been averted. Instead, he saw the little swath of real estate he occupied, as his ground that needs to be protected by him from “others.”
Earth day should remind us that there is no ground that needs protecting or barricading and that we are on the ground only for a short period of time.
“Divine revelation comes in two volumes: Scripture and Nature.” I encourage you to focus on the second volume!
As you leave the holy ground of this church, I pray that you consider every ground as holy and every person you meet as a manifestation of the Holy One.
And the produce guy replied: “No sir, you will have to do that yourself.”
Last Wednesday was earth day. There was lot of talk about eating organic vegetables, eco-friendly living, climate change, etc. Usually, you don't hear much about earth day in churches because, it is considered a “worldly” topic. Last year, after I preached a sermon on earth day. A nice lady chided me for talking about earth in church instead of the Bible. How an earthly topic could belong in a heavenly place, she thought.
Years ago, I would not have noticed this day, or paid any attention to it, let alone preach about it. So much has changed in my spiritual life that I consider earth day as important as other religious holy days.
I have reflected deeply about the unfathomable beauty, mystery and magnificence of this moving, yes moving blue dot in space which holds me up as God holds me tenderly in the palm of His/Her hand.
Today, I invite you to join me in reflecting about the earth from a spiritual point of view. I want you consider it from a divine perspective. You have heard the song “I am standing on holy ground” sung in churches. It is referring specifically to the church as holy ground. I invite you expand your mind to include every ground as holy, the whole earth as holy, because, it is created by God.
That is why the psalmist proclaims (24:1) “the earth is the Lord's and everything in it.” “Be exalted, O God above the heavens and let your glory be over all the earth (108:5).
Thomas Aquinas who understood the deeper meaning of that psalm said: “Divine revelation comes in two volumes; scripture and nature.”
Theologian Thomas Berry elaborates it: “The natural world is our primary scripture, our primary awakening to the mysteries of existence. We might well put all our written scriptures on the shelf for twenty years until we learn what we are being told by unmediated experience of the world about us.”
We usually focus our attention on the Bible and look for God in the book. But today, I like you to focus on the earth beneath your feet and around your eyes to experience God.
I have lived on this earth 23,468 days and it has never failed to provide for me: air, water and food, the three most basic ingredients needed for my very existence. Thank you holy mother earth. As I walk gently on this holy ground, I join with prophet Isaiah this morning to say: “The whole earth proclaims the glory of God.”
Let us take a closer look at our home planet. We usually experience it as stationary, because that is what our five senses tell us. But if we could stop for a moment and reflect, we will realize that we are moving, rather spinning, and yet staying put...that is a huge mystery worthy of adoration itself.
The earth spins around its axis at the speed of 1,000 miles an hour at the equator. It takes 24 hours to spin around once. The spinning makes our days and nights. But as we spin, we are also on another circle journey as we orbit round the sun. Traveling at the speed of 66,600 miles an hour, this second journey takes 365 days to complete. In that annual pilgrimage around the sun, we travel 595 million miles—with no oil change or tire rotation. Think about that...
This moving planet is huge. But compared to the sun, earth is very tiny...the sun is 1.3 million times bigger than the earth, but compared to Antares, the 15th brightest star in the sky, which is a 1000 light years away, the sun is a pixel. It is a mind boggling mystery.
Back to earth; It weighs a gazillion tons, a normal calculator doesn't have digits for that. The surface is 300 million square miles; there are 7.7. million species of animals living on it. We are familiar with a cat or a dog or a cow or an elephant, a donkey or a horse but there are millions of others. There are 2700 different species of snakes. Have you ever stood front of an aquarium and watched those beautiful fish with different colors and textures? We might see a dozen varieties; but there are 2400 different ones. There are a 1000 species of birds.
And the amazing thing is that this huge earth with everything in it is not attached to anything...nothing below, nothing above, nothing in front or back, except deep dark endless space...and yet we don't fall down or spin out of control.....we don't deviate from the path...because, if we deviate from the orbit by one inch closer to the sun, we will be incinerated; one inch away, we will be frozen to death; to me that is one of the greatest mystery and miracle that God has created.
Just go to the beach, look at the vast ocean and endless sky and contemplate the universe and ..if your eyes bulge with tears, and your heart pound with wonder and your mind feels a deep awe, you are having a spiritual experience. You are connecting with God, the creator of the universe. Such an awareness of distance, speed and order creates a sense of awe and wonder.
Astronauts and cosmonauts who have had the privilege of seeing the earth from space were always moved by its beauty and majesty. This is what astronaut Edgar Mitchell said as he gazed down on the home planet:
On the return trip home, gazing 240,000 miles of space towards the stars and the planet from which I had come, I suddenly experienced the universe as intelligent, loving and harmonious. My view of the planet was a glimpse of divinity.
Perhaps what we need is a trip to outer space, to have our eyes and hearts opened to see the sacredness behind the superficial.
But, wait a minute. We are traveling in space; we don't have to lift our bodies from the earth to see the beauty and the splendor of God's creation; we only need to lift our minds...and open our eyes. But, that is the problem...our minds are small and our eyes are closed..
It is worthy of note that Mitchell uses the word 'divinity' but not 'God'. God is a divisive term for many. Religions people fight over their own definitions of God and make declarations like, “My God is bigger than your God.” “My God can beat up our God.” “The Christian god is a man, the Hindu god is a cow and the Muslim God is a terrrorist,”
When we use 'divinity' instead of “God' what is at work here is 'spirituality' not 'religion.' And our goal is to evolve more each day as spiritual beings not merely as religious people.
When we see the earth as a whole, from outer space, we can clearly see the connectedness and interdependence of all of us who live upon this planet. We have created imaginary boundaries, dividing ourselves into countries and states. We forget that in reality we are all living together, breathing the same air, drinking from the same water, eating food grown from the same earth.
We share everything on this planet with other people, whether we are conscious of it or not. For example, the air that is in your lungs today was circulated yesterday through the lungs of somebody living in China. The air in the lungs of the person next to you, enters your lungs in a few minutes. It is like two people eating from the same plate.
Imagine you walk into a restaurant and notice two people sharing a plate of food. It shows a level of intimacy, closeness and love.
Few months ago, I had lunch with one of my former supervisors who is also a friend. She ordered dessert and I didn't. A generous portion of ice cream souffle was placed in front of her. “I can't finish it alone Paul, have some” she said. There were two spoons on the plate. The waiter must have thought we were a couple. Initially, I was reluctant to share ice cream with a woman who was not my wife. But ice cream? Forget the wife for a second. (just kidding).
While eating the ice cream from the same plate with a person who was not my blood family, I felt a special connection and affection for that person. She was from Jamaica, I was from India, we come from totally different worlds, experiences and backgrounds. But when we sat in that Benigans in Fort Lauderdale, and shared ice cream from the same plate, it felt like a divine connection.
Try that some day with somebody who is not a family member. It is an amazing experience of closeness, intimacy, love, freedom and unity. (and don't let your partner find out...just kidding).
If you really think about it, sharing food with others, from the same plate is happening every day everywhere. You are doing it right now. You are not sharing ice cream; in fact you are sharing something more important; you are sharing the air—food for your brain. Living on the earth and sharing the same air with everybody else is, in fact like sharing food from the same plate—an abundant cosmic plate.
Everyday, 7 billion people eat from that cosmic plate prepared and provided by mother earth—and the food never runs out.
Jesus had a special appreciation for the earth. He didn't live in high rise condos or work in board rooms. He taught on the mountain top, and the sea side; he prayed in the garden, and died on a hill. He talked about the lilies of the field and the birds of the air, because Jesus knew that the earth proclaims the glory of God.
Don't just live on the earth as aliens and strangers, plundering and taking advantage of its resources, but be respectful and grateful for everything that the earth offers, which is our life itself. We should erase from our minds the mistaken idea that we are living “on” the earth and replace it with the notion that we are living “with” the earth, because we are part of it. We came out of the earth and we will return to it. We should always remember that the earth can survive without us, but we cannot survive without the earth. That should be a humbling thought.
So celebrating earth day is about seeing the big picture; it is about feeling the connection with the earth, with everything and everyone on it; it is about thinking about the welfare of all people beyond the boundaries our nation; it is about relinquishing narrow nationalism and embracing a wider humanity; Earth day is about looking at all the people on this earth as members of the one body of Christ.
It is about transcending our tribal mentality and having a planetary consciousness.
It is about feeling the love of Jesus in our heart and walking on holy ground as opposed to holding a gun in our hand and “stand our ground.” We know what that did to Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida.
If George Zimmerman had considered his neighborhood “holy ground” a great tragedy could have been averted. Instead, he saw the little swath of real estate he occupied, as his ground that needs to be protected by him from “others.”
Earth day should remind us that there is no ground that needs protecting or barricading and that we are on the ground only for a short period of time.
“Divine revelation comes in two volumes: Scripture and Nature.” I encourage you to focus on the second volume!
As you leave the holy ground of this church, I pray that you consider every ground as holy and every person you meet as a manifestation of the Holy One.
Sunday, January 25, 2015
WHY GOOD NEWS PEOPLE LIVE BAD NEWS LIVES
Once a pastor told his congregation: “I have good news and bad news for you. The good news is that there is enough money in this congregation to give me a raise; the bad news is that money is in your wallets.”
Today's sermon- why good news people live bad news lives- is actually the title of one of my books. I am not preaching about it to sell books. Even if everyone here buys ten copies each, it is still not going to make me rich.
The reason I chose to preach about it is that, this question has always nagged me. Why do so many Christians, who claim to have received the good news of Jesus, behave so badly?
This question did not bother me much when I lived in India, because India is predominantly a Hindu nation. Christians are only a mere 2 percent. There are no mega churches; there are no TV evangelists. Vast areas of the country has no churches. There are no bibles in hotels. There are no hotels except in big cities.
It is very different here. Nearly 90 percent of Americans identify themselves as Christians. There are churches every where. There are 18 churches in a 5 mile radius of my house. Christians believe that they are the people of the Good News. Some people are even proud that they have it, with a slight touch of holy arrogance, I might add.
The other day a very religious person told me that those who don't believe in Jesus as their personal savior are going to hell for eternity. He had no doubt about that, because he had the good news and people belonging to other religions did not.
How do we live bad news lives? If you are living your life—angry, upset, impatient, short tempered, sad and depressed, and not so pleasant to be around, you are living a bad news life. People who have received the good news of Jesus should not feel or behave like that on a daily basis. Imagine you have won ten million dollars in a lottery. You think you will be sad, upset, gloomy and depressed? Good news is supposed to make us excited.
If you get up every morning with no energy and enthusiasm, and look at the world with negative lens, you are living a bad news life. If you are anxious and stressed out about everything, and experience a lot of anxiety and fear, you are living a bad news life. If your life is devoid of abiding joy, you are living a bad news life. The good news of Jesus has not penetrated your life.
When we are bad news to ourselves it is so hard to be good news to others. Hitler was bad news to 6 million Jews. George Zimmerman was bad news to Travon Martin, and by extension, to a whole lot of people. Each of us is capable of being bad news on a smaller scale, to the people around us, the people we live with work with and interact with.
About 3 billion occupants of this planet are supposedly “good news people” and of course that includes us. America is often described as a Christian nation. So, why is our country and the world largely a bad news place? Why there is such abject poverty, war, hatred, killings, divisions, disunity, homophobia, and partisanship? Why is such income inequality in this country? Why would those who claim to be followers of the “Prince of Peace” amass guns and assault weapons whose only purpose is to hurt and kill? What are they afraid of if they claim to understand the message of the risen Jesus who said: “Be not afraid?
My theory is that many Christians don't even know what the good news is, let alone understand what it really means!
What is the good news of Jesus? Think for a moment. If someone were to ask you to explain it, what would you say?
I posed that question on my Face Book page. I have 291 friends on Face Book. Only 9 of them offered an answer.
The gist of the answers was that “Jesus died for our sins; and after we die, we go to heaven and spend eternity with him.”
In a bible study group, a lady said: “Jesus died for our sins thereby giving us eternal life in heaven after we die; our salvation is guaranteed in Jesus.”
I shared these answers with my wife Judy. Her response was: “How is somebody's “death” “good news.”? It sounds like “bad news.” Besides, Jesus died 2000 years ago; what did I do? How can his death “then,” benefit my life “now”?
If Judy who is a baby-boomer thinks like that, can you imagine what the millennials are thinking? I don't think they are thinking much about anything, let alone serious theology. They are just repeating the phrase: “Jesus died for our sins” without understanding it. If you don't understand what you are repeating, it is unlikely to change your life.
Do you really know what that phrase means? Can you explain it in your own words? Try it, you will be surprised.
Let me clarify something; Jesus did not die on the cross; he was killed on the cross. What is the difference, you might ask. There is a big difference. It is not like Jesus woke up the morning of that Friday, and decided that he was going to die on the cross and asked the soldiers to pin him down and pierce his hands, legs and heart so that he could just die, something like an assisted suicide! He was just 33 years old. Who wants to die at 33? Who wants to die at any age?
If Jesus were to die of cancer at age of 90 under hospice care, we will not be sitting here. There would not have been any Christianity. It is the power of his resurrection that fueled the Christian movement. Resurrection means that the powers of evil cannot overcome the power and grace of God.
Jesus was brutally murdered by the authorities because his message and ideas were a threat to their very survival. The Pharisees did not want to give up their idea of religion. The Romans did not want to give up their grip on power. Jesus was a threat to both. They wanted to get rid of the troublemaker, so they conspired, fabricated a case and executed him.
In that sense, Jesus didn’t die so much “for” the sins of the world as he died “because” of the sins of the world. In other words, Jesus was killed “because of our sins,” rather than “for our sins.”
It makes us responsible for his death rather than beneficiaries of his death.
See how re-framing our thinking about Jesus' death, changes our image of Jesus.
This understanding will hopefully help us not to kill Jesus today through our hate, prejudice and insensitivity towards other people who are Jesus in disguise, because, “whatever you did to the least of my brothers, you did it to me.”
So, back to the topic of good news. What is the good news of Jesus? I think the good news of Jesus is his “life,” not his “death.” Preachers and teachers have focused so much on the “death” of Jesus that they forget the “life” of Jesus, the message he preached, the kind of life he lived, the boundary-breaking love he showed, the forgiveness he practiced, the mercy he manifested for the lowly and the downtrodden.
If you read the gospels carefully, you will find that Jesus never called us sinners. Jesus never said that he came to die for our sins. Jesus never said he came to take us into heaven.
In the first 3 three gospels, Jesus appears on the scene when he was about 30 years old. He is baptized in the river Jordan; he is tempted for three days in the desert and after that he officially begins his public ministry.
What are the first words that Jesus spoke? According to Mt: 4:17, they are, Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near. According to Mk: 1:14, Jesus says: The Kingdom of God is near; repent and believe the good news.
The fact that the kingdom of God is “near” is the good news. Mathew and Mark do not explain what the kingdom is in that statement. In Luke we get an explanation. Jesus does not use the word kingdom in his inaugural speech as recorded in Luke 4. Like in Mark and Mathew, Jesus begins to preach after the baptism and temptation. He goes to a synagogue and reads from the book of Isaiah.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor.
So what is this good news? The next lines unpack it: The good news is that Jesus has come to “proclaim freedom for the prisoners;” to bring “recovery of sight for the blind;” “to release the oppressed,” “to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” If you follow Jesus you can experience all the above.
So the good news is that if you are a prisoner to your addictions and narrow mindedness and prejudices and hatreds, your one track mind, your arrogant nationalism, your thinking that everybody who disagrees with you should be destroyed, everybody who does not believe in him will go to hell, Jesus has come to help you change that.
The good news is that if you are blind to the beauty of God's creation around you, if you are blind to the goodness of people in the world, if you are blind to the blessings you already have, if you are blind to the poverty and injustice around you, if you are blind to the needs of others, then Jesus has come to heal your blindness and open your eyes.
The good news is that the Kingdom is near. This is not a far away land, a location beyond the clouds, a gated community for selected people, but a reality right here in the midst of our world. A Kingdom of love, peace, joy, patience, goodness, kindness and a sense of well being. That is why Jesus taught us to pray: “Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.”
The good news is that Jesus has come to proclaim the “year of the Lord’s favor” when debts are forgiven, mercy is shown to strangers, compassion is manifested, and peace and harmony prevail among the people. You can read about what the year of the Lord entails in Leviticus chapter 25. It is called the Jubilee year.
The good news is not a headline in a news paper. The good news is not words in a holy book.
The good news is the person of Jesus himself. Remember when he was born, the angel announced to the shepherds: I bring you good news of great joy to the people. (Lk 2:10)
So to experience the good news, we have to get to know the “historical Jesus” and follow him.
Most Christians don't know the historical Jesus; they only know the “Christ of faith.”
They know him as the Son of God, begotten by the father, born of a virgin, and the second person of the Holy Trinity. It is an “impressive resume.” But, focusing on the divinity of Jesus has very little impact on our humanity.
We will worship him in church and leave, but how can we follow the “second person of the Holy Trinity”?
We have to discover the “human Jesus” in the pages of the gospels who has the power to transform our lives as he did the lives of Nicodemus, Zacheus, Jairus, Nathaniel, Mathew and a lot of others. Everyone who encountered Jesus was transformed. We need to encounter Jesus and follow him rather than put him on a pedestal and worship him.
We cannot be like Jesus unless we find out what Jesus was like. We have to change our whole mind-set about what it means to be a Christian. That is why the first word out of the mouth of Jesus was: “Repent.” But repent does not mean, feel sorry for your sins. It has nothing to do with feeling bad or sorry for anything.
The Greek word for repent is metanoeo which means, a different mind. You have to have a different mind about things. You have to change your thinking and align that with the mind of Jesus: a new way of thinking and seeing the world. As apostle Paul would say: “You have to put on the mind of Christ.”
You have to think like Jesus, feel like Jesus and behave like Jesus. When you do that, you will start feeling the good news and that will lead you to being good news for others.
Today's sermon- why good news people live bad news lives- is actually the title of one of my books. I am not preaching about it to sell books. Even if everyone here buys ten copies each, it is still not going to make me rich.
The reason I chose to preach about it is that, this question has always nagged me. Why do so many Christians, who claim to have received the good news of Jesus, behave so badly?
This question did not bother me much when I lived in India, because India is predominantly a Hindu nation. Christians are only a mere 2 percent. There are no mega churches; there are no TV evangelists. Vast areas of the country has no churches. There are no bibles in hotels. There are no hotels except in big cities.
It is very different here. Nearly 90 percent of Americans identify themselves as Christians. There are churches every where. There are 18 churches in a 5 mile radius of my house. Christians believe that they are the people of the Good News. Some people are even proud that they have it, with a slight touch of holy arrogance, I might add.
The other day a very religious person told me that those who don't believe in Jesus as their personal savior are going to hell for eternity. He had no doubt about that, because he had the good news and people belonging to other religions did not.
How do we live bad news lives? If you are living your life—angry, upset, impatient, short tempered, sad and depressed, and not so pleasant to be around, you are living a bad news life. People who have received the good news of Jesus should not feel or behave like that on a daily basis. Imagine you have won ten million dollars in a lottery. You think you will be sad, upset, gloomy and depressed? Good news is supposed to make us excited.
If you get up every morning with no energy and enthusiasm, and look at the world with negative lens, you are living a bad news life. If you are anxious and stressed out about everything, and experience a lot of anxiety and fear, you are living a bad news life. If your life is devoid of abiding joy, you are living a bad news life. The good news of Jesus has not penetrated your life.
When we are bad news to ourselves it is so hard to be good news to others. Hitler was bad news to 6 million Jews. George Zimmerman was bad news to Travon Martin, and by extension, to a whole lot of people. Each of us is capable of being bad news on a smaller scale, to the people around us, the people we live with work with and interact with.
About 3 billion occupants of this planet are supposedly “good news people” and of course that includes us. America is often described as a Christian nation. So, why is our country and the world largely a bad news place? Why there is such abject poverty, war, hatred, killings, divisions, disunity, homophobia, and partisanship? Why is such income inequality in this country? Why would those who claim to be followers of the “Prince of Peace” amass guns and assault weapons whose only purpose is to hurt and kill? What are they afraid of if they claim to understand the message of the risen Jesus who said: “Be not afraid?
My theory is that many Christians don't even know what the good news is, let alone understand what it really means!
What is the good news of Jesus? Think for a moment. If someone were to ask you to explain it, what would you say?
I posed that question on my Face Book page. I have 291 friends on Face Book. Only 9 of them offered an answer.
The gist of the answers was that “Jesus died for our sins; and after we die, we go to heaven and spend eternity with him.”
In a bible study group, a lady said: “Jesus died for our sins thereby giving us eternal life in heaven after we die; our salvation is guaranteed in Jesus.”
I shared these answers with my wife Judy. Her response was: “How is somebody's “death” “good news.”? It sounds like “bad news.” Besides, Jesus died 2000 years ago; what did I do? How can his death “then,” benefit my life “now”?
If Judy who is a baby-boomer thinks like that, can you imagine what the millennials are thinking? I don't think they are thinking much about anything, let alone serious theology. They are just repeating the phrase: “Jesus died for our sins” without understanding it. If you don't understand what you are repeating, it is unlikely to change your life.
Do you really know what that phrase means? Can you explain it in your own words? Try it, you will be surprised.
Let me clarify something; Jesus did not die on the cross; he was killed on the cross. What is the difference, you might ask. There is a big difference. It is not like Jesus woke up the morning of that Friday, and decided that he was going to die on the cross and asked the soldiers to pin him down and pierce his hands, legs and heart so that he could just die, something like an assisted suicide! He was just 33 years old. Who wants to die at 33? Who wants to die at any age?
If Jesus were to die of cancer at age of 90 under hospice care, we will not be sitting here. There would not have been any Christianity. It is the power of his resurrection that fueled the Christian movement. Resurrection means that the powers of evil cannot overcome the power and grace of God.
Jesus was brutally murdered by the authorities because his message and ideas were a threat to their very survival. The Pharisees did not want to give up their idea of religion. The Romans did not want to give up their grip on power. Jesus was a threat to both. They wanted to get rid of the troublemaker, so they conspired, fabricated a case and executed him.
In that sense, Jesus didn’t die so much “for” the sins of the world as he died “because” of the sins of the world. In other words, Jesus was killed “because of our sins,” rather than “for our sins.”
It makes us responsible for his death rather than beneficiaries of his death.
See how re-framing our thinking about Jesus' death, changes our image of Jesus.
This understanding will hopefully help us not to kill Jesus today through our hate, prejudice and insensitivity towards other people who are Jesus in disguise, because, “whatever you did to the least of my brothers, you did it to me.”
So, back to the topic of good news. What is the good news of Jesus? I think the good news of Jesus is his “life,” not his “death.” Preachers and teachers have focused so much on the “death” of Jesus that they forget the “life” of Jesus, the message he preached, the kind of life he lived, the boundary-breaking love he showed, the forgiveness he practiced, the mercy he manifested for the lowly and the downtrodden.
If you read the gospels carefully, you will find that Jesus never called us sinners. Jesus never said that he came to die for our sins. Jesus never said he came to take us into heaven.
In the first 3 three gospels, Jesus appears on the scene when he was about 30 years old. He is baptized in the river Jordan; he is tempted for three days in the desert and after that he officially begins his public ministry.
What are the first words that Jesus spoke? According to Mt: 4:17, they are, Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near. According to Mk: 1:14, Jesus says: The Kingdom of God is near; repent and believe the good news.
The fact that the kingdom of God is “near” is the good news. Mathew and Mark do not explain what the kingdom is in that statement. In Luke we get an explanation. Jesus does not use the word kingdom in his inaugural speech as recorded in Luke 4. Like in Mark and Mathew, Jesus begins to preach after the baptism and temptation. He goes to a synagogue and reads from the book of Isaiah.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor.
So what is this good news? The next lines unpack it: The good news is that Jesus has come to “proclaim freedom for the prisoners;” to bring “recovery of sight for the blind;” “to release the oppressed,” “to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” If you follow Jesus you can experience all the above.
So the good news is that if you are a prisoner to your addictions and narrow mindedness and prejudices and hatreds, your one track mind, your arrogant nationalism, your thinking that everybody who disagrees with you should be destroyed, everybody who does not believe in him will go to hell, Jesus has come to help you change that.
The good news is that if you are blind to the beauty of God's creation around you, if you are blind to the goodness of people in the world, if you are blind to the blessings you already have, if you are blind to the poverty and injustice around you, if you are blind to the needs of others, then Jesus has come to heal your blindness and open your eyes.
The good news is that the Kingdom is near. This is not a far away land, a location beyond the clouds, a gated community for selected people, but a reality right here in the midst of our world. A Kingdom of love, peace, joy, patience, goodness, kindness and a sense of well being. That is why Jesus taught us to pray: “Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.”
The good news is that Jesus has come to proclaim the “year of the Lord’s favor” when debts are forgiven, mercy is shown to strangers, compassion is manifested, and peace and harmony prevail among the people. You can read about what the year of the Lord entails in Leviticus chapter 25. It is called the Jubilee year.
The good news is not a headline in a news paper. The good news is not words in a holy book.
The good news is the person of Jesus himself. Remember when he was born, the angel announced to the shepherds: I bring you good news of great joy to the people. (Lk 2:10)
So to experience the good news, we have to get to know the “historical Jesus” and follow him.
Most Christians don't know the historical Jesus; they only know the “Christ of faith.”
They know him as the Son of God, begotten by the father, born of a virgin, and the second person of the Holy Trinity. It is an “impressive resume.” But, focusing on the divinity of Jesus has very little impact on our humanity.
We will worship him in church and leave, but how can we follow the “second person of the Holy Trinity”?
We have to discover the “human Jesus” in the pages of the gospels who has the power to transform our lives as he did the lives of Nicodemus, Zacheus, Jairus, Nathaniel, Mathew and a lot of others. Everyone who encountered Jesus was transformed. We need to encounter Jesus and follow him rather than put him on a pedestal and worship him.
We cannot be like Jesus unless we find out what Jesus was like. We have to change our whole mind-set about what it means to be a Christian. That is why the first word out of the mouth of Jesus was: “Repent.” But repent does not mean, feel sorry for your sins. It has nothing to do with feeling bad or sorry for anything.
The Greek word for repent is metanoeo which means, a different mind. You have to have a different mind about things. You have to change your thinking and align that with the mind of Jesus: a new way of thinking and seeing the world. As apostle Paul would say: “You have to put on the mind of Christ.”
You have to think like Jesus, feel like Jesus and behave like Jesus. When you do that, you will start feeling the good news and that will lead you to being good news for others.
Saturday, December 6, 2014
ANGRY SAD
Eric Gardner--a black man in New York was literally chocked to death by police for selling cigarets on the street. Nearly half a dozen officers gathered to kill this one man when there are many white collar criminals occupying various floors of the surrounding buildings, who are left alone so that they can devise the next scheme to defraud the public. None of the bankers who brought down the economy in 2008 and defrauded the public at large were neither charged with any crime let alone chocked to death.
We pride ourselves saying that we have the best criminal justice system in the world. We don't; we just have a criminal system, not a "justice" system. The sham of grand jury system should be abolished first.
Breathing is a birthright. To deprive someone of air by using a chokehold is a crime in itself, period. The fact that it was out-lawed by the the NY police department since 2008 should have been reason enough to indict this police officer.
I grieve for Eric Gardner my brother. I grieve for his mother who had the painful misfortune of watching her son suffocate and die on a side walk. I grieve for Mr. Gardner's children who had to see their father struggling to breathe and ultimately die a helpless death.
I pray for peace for all. I also pray that this negative experience bring forth something positive in the world.
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
DEATH WITH DIGNITY
The case of Brittany Maynard, a 29 year old newly-wed who was diagnosed with brain tumor— glioblastoma multiforme—is an inspiring and controversial story. She moved from California to Oregon where death with dignity laws exist18 to die with dignity rather than prolong her agony while experiencing the ravages of her disease. In a video message to her friends, she said: “When my suffering becomes too great, I can say to all those I love, I love you; come be by my side, and come say goodbye as I pass into whatever's next. I will die upstairs in my bedroom with my husband, mother, stepfather and best friend by my side and pass peacefully. I can't imagine trying to rob anyone else of that choice.”19
Pope Francis denounced the right to die movement, saying that euthanasia is a sin against God the creator of life. He said it was a “false sense of compassion” to consider euthanasia as an act of dignity. A Vatican’s top bioethics official condemned Brittany Maynard’s euthanasia as “reprehensible.”20 I think that was a cruel assessment and a heartless comment from a man who lives in an ivory tower miles away from the agonizing situation of this young woman and her family. Brittany’s mother, Debbie Ziegler was so upset about that remark that she wrote an open letter to all those who condemn her daughter’s agonizing decision:
I am Brittany Maynard’s mother. I am writing in response to a variety of comments made in the press and online by individuals and institutions that have tried to impose their personal belief system on what Brittany and our family feel is a human rights issue.
The imposition of “belief” on a human rights issue is wrong. To censure a personal choice as reprehensible because it does not comply with someone else’s belief is immoral. My twenty-nine-year-old daughter’s choice to die gently rather than suffer physical and mental degradation and intense pain does not deserve to be labeled as reprehensible by strangers a continent away who do not know her or the particulars of her situation.
Reprehensible is a harsh word. It means: “very bad; deserving very strong criticism.” Reprehensible is a word I’ve used as a teacher to describe the actions of Hitler, other political tyrants and the exploitation of children by pedophiles. As Brittany Maynard’s mother, I find it difficult to believe that anyone who knew her would ever select this word to describe her actions. Brittany was a giver. She was a volunteer. She was a teacher. She was an advocate. She worked at making the world a better place to live.
This word was used publicly at a time when my family was tender and freshly wounded: Grieving. Such strong public criticism from people we do not know, have never met--is more than a slap in the face. It is like kicking us as we struggle to draw a breath.
People and institutions that feel they have the right to judge Brittany’s choices may wound me and cause me unspeakable pain but they do not deter me from supporting my daughter’s choice. There is currently a great deal of confusion and arrogance standing in the way of Americans going gently into the good night. I urge Americans to think for themselves. Make your wishes clear while you are competent. Make sure that you have all the options spelled out for you if you are diagnosed with an incurable, debilitating, painful disease. Do your own research. Ask your family to research and face the harsh reality with you. Ask your doctor to be brutally honest with you. Then make your personal choice about how you will proceed. It is YOUR choice.
The “culture of cure” has led to a fairy tale belief that doctors can always fix our problems. We have lost sight of reality. All life ends. Death is not necessarily the enemy in all cases. Sometimes a gentle passing is a gift. Misguided doctors caught up in an aspirational belief that they must extend life, whatever the cost, cause individuals and families unnecessary suffering. Brittany stood up to bullies. She never thought anyone else had the right to tell her how long she should suffer. The right to die for the terminally ill is a human rights issue. Plain and simple.21
The Vatican bioethics official added that “suicide is a bad thing because it is saying no to life and to everything it means with respect to our mission in the world and towards those around us,” describing assisted suicide as “an absurdity.”
Let us clarify a few things: First of all, Brittany didn’t commit suicide. Suicide is a desperate act, committed usually by mentally ill people who see life as hopeless and pointless. Brittany Maynard was anything but. “There is not a single cell in my body that is suicidal” she said. This woman wanted to live so badly. She was just 29 and newly married. She wanted children with her husband. Death was far from her mind. But when confronted with the inevitable and savage suffering that would surely ravage her body and mind, she chose to die with dignity, which I believe is a courageous act.
The pope and the Vatican official speak from the false notion that suffering is good in itself and they point to the suffering of Jesus on the cross as a point of reference for all sufferings. Jesus did not suffer on the cross for the sake of suffering. Suffering was inflicted upon him by the religious authorities of his day. Jesus turned that suffering into a redemptive act. So, suffering undertaken for a higher cause and as a result of a higher calling is both redemptive and sublime. But to suffer, just for the sake of it, is merely masochistic.
Another argument against euthanasia is that God is the creator of life. That is only true partially; the truth is that we and God are co-creators of life. Without human intention and participation no new life will be born, regardless of how hard God tries. This is not an arrogant stance of an unbelieving atheist but the humble opinion of a committed disciple who takes his identity as image of God seriously, and his calling as God’s ambassador responsibly.
Friday, November 14, 2014
CALL FORTH YOUR LIFE...
Bishop Carlton Pearson describes life as a sexually transmitted disease. By calling life a disease, he is making it sound like a sickness, although his intention is to highlight the difficulties or lack of ease in our daily lives. I would reframe life as a sexually transforming miracle—the joining of a sperm and egg—to create a zygote, embryo, fetus, and ultimately a beautiful baby and eventually a full-fledged human being ready to transform the world. Why would the Universe, the Force, the Energy, the Consciousness (God) that initiated the miraculous process of creating the single-cell-zygote and transforming it into a 75-trillion-cell human person, forget about or discard Its (His) pet project when we grow up? So, our original calling card is trending towards a marvelous and miraculous life, not a miserable and mediocre existence. Our calling therefore is to consciously call it forth.
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