In the Land of Sign and Wonder

In the decades that I have been a follower of Jesus, I have never managed to have full clarity on the role that signs and wonders play in the faith life of a Christian. Like most people, I would be swayed, I suppose by events and occurrences not of everyday life, and yet would that make me believe any better and any more when I need faith to bolster me up above all else. I have to say that I don’t know; I have been witness to few if any of such occurrences and God certainly has not enabled me to perform any. However Since time immemorial, man has always been fascinated with signs and wonders. Those who are able to perform miracles are often put on a pedestal.  For example, Simon the sorcerer was hero worshipped for his magical feats. They thought that it must be God who endowed him with special power (Acts 8: 9-11).

In the Bible, signs warn and prepare people for what is ahead. Biblical signs always serve God’s purposes to instruct his people about himself. In Matthew 16, the Pharisees and Sadducees tested Jesus by asking Him to show them a sign from heaven.  We too, can become overly reliant on signs and wonders. When one is overly dependent on signs and wonders, one can be so accustomed to them that he or she becomes paralyzed in their walk with God. Signs and wonders should follow the believer, not the other way round. When times are good, it is very easy to see the signs, yet when the storms of life hit, we often feel that signs are nowhere to be found no matter how hard we search for it.

When signs do not appear, we start to despair. Living a lifestyle of heavy dependence on signs will slowly destroy one’s faith, trust and vision in God. As Christians, we must learn to trust in God, not signs and wonders. When there is no manifestation of God’s power, it does not mean His power is not at work. God’s power is not determined by feelings, emotions or manifestation. While feelings are important in many areas of life, he noted, they are completely unreliable in matters of faith.

Signs and wonders and miraculous phenomena could not save a soul then nor can they now. The power of salvation is in the Holy Spirit working through the cross of Jesus Christ. But such miraculous phenomena “can, if God pleases, shatter the shell of disinterest; they can shatter the shell of cynicism; they can shatter the shell of false religion. In our modern age, many people are skeptical of claims of healings, miracles or any supernatural events. The miracles of the Bible are looked at as quaint fairy tales developed by primitive cultures to explain the mysteries of nature. Perhaps for such as a people as this and for such a generation as this: - skeptical and unbelieving, miracles, signs and wonders still serves a purpose. 

Staring at an empty chair: The Empty Nest Syndrome……

Empty Nest Syndrome” is the time of change following the leaving of your last child from the family home, whether for college, marriage, or a job in a different town. For many parents, this time of change can be upsetting. The effort of adjusting to your shifting role as a parent can lead to feelings of melancholy, lonesomeness, and diminished tenacity in life.

Some people are able to waft through the empty nest transition. After the early regulation, they find that they love their new lives and relish having more free time. Others count the days until their children coming back home for a holiday break, and then spend the day after they leave mourning and grieving for them all over again. The course of letting go of our children differs from person to person—and sometimes is diverse as each child leaves home.

There are two wonderful stories in the Bible about men who had to leave their homes and families. The stories of Jacob and Joseph tell of extended periods during which they were far away from home and out of contact with their families. Times were very different then. No telephones and no emails and slow and ineffective communication meant no postal services and no means of getting any news about the other. If a person moved, it could be years before anyone knew where he or she finally settled. Families lost members all too often. Jacob was forced to leave due to his own act of trickery towards his brother and duplicity towards his father. He must have suffered within himself all the years he was away. He faced the danger of his brother Esau’s wrath by returning to the land of his father Isaac. We do not know if God was reminding Jacob of the pain he caused his own father Isaac when God allowed Joseph to vanish for many years. Jacob was heartbroken and God did not whisper one word of encouragement to him. The story that unfolds is one that brings tears to the eyes of parents who have children living a long way from home.

Many factors have changed about the way our world looks today.  Jobs in faraway places call out to the young into jobs that often take them far away. Educational opportunities in foreign lands and distant universities are appealing. Parents who are growing old and who ought to be enjoying the fruits of their labors are left to wonder if their children are well, seeing their grandchildren only on rare occasions and for short periods of time. The grandparents often have little influence on the grandchildren, and visits to their children’s homes can be tense. Only parents who have experienced the empty nest will truly understand.

A verse in Proverbs is a great verse to live by: “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” In short, the best way to be ready to let go of our kids is to prepare them to live responsible, Godly lives–on their own.

Figuring out the Prosperity Gospel

There’s a dangerous but popular current theology flitting around these days that says prosperity and financial success is a direct result of one’s faith. It has been around for a while but now it is projected so subtly that one can get sucked into it, quietly. Followers of this prosperity gospel say Jesus was a rich man, and so were his disciples. So these people say that following Jesus leads to financial success. If your faith is good and true, you will be blessed with health, wealth, and happiness. But what of the recession you wonder? Yes, such blessings apply even in these tough financial times. A brochure from a prosperity gospel seminar claimed: “Regardless of the media reports, believers are not subject to the recession.”  What really bothers me is what the theology says about faith. It’s so dangerous–and completely unsubstantiated by scripture–to tie one’s financial success to one’s faith. But that’s what prosperity gospel preachers preach.

When we are introduced to Abraham and Sarah in Genesis chapter 12, God’s blessing is not dependent on Abraham’s faith. God’s promise to Abraham is simple: “Go from your country…and I will make of you a great nation” not so that they might be blessed with riches, but so that they will be “be a blessing” to others (Gen 12:1-2). But even after the Lord’s declaration, life remains a struggle for Abraham and Sarah.

Some of us want to leave our faith unexamined. We know a strong faith doesn’t lead to material prosperity, but beyond that things get murky and uncomfortable. But maybe faith isn’t about strength or weakness. Maybe faith shouldn’t be measured in strong or weak, good or bad, but in understanding, in examination. Maybe it’s the process of wrestling with faith that’s key, not whether one has it all figured out.

St. Augustine famously wrote of “faith seeking understanding.” Augustine knew there are no big lines separating faith and understanding, but that faith and understanding are part and parcel of the same thing. Knowledge and understanding occurs with faith, but faith also comes with understanding. Faith doesn’t come with an end point, but it’s a process that always on-going. A river always flowing towards our Lord.

Being Just

                             

Imagine that you have a friend or a family member who is caught in an addictive behavior. Maybe they are addicted to drugs, or alcohol, or sex, or are cheating on their spouse, or are spiraling into credit card debt. Whatever it is, think seriously about that person right now. If that person continues doing what they are currently doing, do you think you can predict the outcome? Most likely. Addiction almost always ends in some form of self-destruction.

Now, what would you say to that person if you were given the chance to tell them the whole truth, without any fear on your part? You would probably tell them three things. First, you would remind them that they are a special person, they are loved, and they are worthy of a better life than what they currently experience. Second, you would tell them about the consequences they will face–the immanent destruction–that will happen if they continue on the path they are on. Third, you will remind them that there is always a way out. There is always grace and a second, or third, or fourth chance.

That is exactly what a prophet was sent to do. A prophet was sent by God to deliver a message like that. God’s people were continually getting caught up in destructive patterns that would lead them into dangerous consequences. The prophets were sent to remind them who they were–God’s chosen people–warn them apart the devastating consequences of their behavior, and offer them a message of hope if they would only repent.

Most people think of justice as “getting what is deserved.” This usually has the sense of criminals getting punished. Isn’t that what we think of when we hear the term Justice System? We all want justice when someone hurts us. Don’t we? But I wonder if that is the full picture of justice, or what God really means when he says, “let justice roll down like a mighty water.”

The real answer to the Justice question is found in Amos. It doesn’t get any clearer or more uncomfortable for us. God’s idea of justice is the proper treatment of the poor and the needy. He’s not talking about rich people in rich churches giving handouts to poor people. He is speaking to the justice system of the Kingdom. He’s talking politics. He’s telling them that a system that works to keep the poor, poor, and allows the rich and powerful to become more rich and powerful, at the expense of the poor, is an unjust and unrighteous system.

When the church supports a system like that, or quietly stands aside and lets a system like that happen without standing up against it, then the worship services become meaningless and God hates it. Jesus challenges us with his response to the lawyer’s question of ‘who is my neighbour’ by telling the parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk. 10:25-37). In our globalised industrial age the entire human population has become our economic neighbour and yet remains largely a relational stranger.  How do we then respond? 

Reflections for World Day of the Sick

As I write about the World Day of the sick, I have been thinking of a friend who has been recently diagnosed with cancer. The initial treatment cost about Rs two lakhs. Then to determine the next course of treatment, she has to submit herself to many tests, one of which has been costed at 2000 USD, translating itself into about two and a half lakh rupees. The treatment of course, once determined will be equally or more expensive. “I have been struck with a rich man’s disease”, she summed up. As another February 11 is approaching, it’s necessary to discuss about the significance of the World day of sick to for those living in India. Like every developing country, we too have own share of problems in the area of health and sickness.   As Christians and responsible citizens, we share the responsibility for contributing to the solution.

 Pope St. John Paul II first announced the “World Day of the Sick” on May 13, 1992 and fixed the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, February 11, as the day for its annual observation. It is thought that the Pope was prompted by his own encounter with Parkinson’s disease, the year before. Today, “World Day of the Sick” has become an occasion for both the sick and those who are their care givers who love and care for them. This is the occasion for us to pray for healing and peace of mind and body and to unite their sufferings with that of the Lord Jesus. The Lord himself not only sought out the sick and suffering and not only touched them with miraculous healing, but also sharing in our humanity, suffered for them and for us all.  “In the Cross of Christ,” wrote Pope St. John Paul II, “not only is the Redemption accomplished through suffering but also human suffering has been redeemed (Apostolic Letter Salvifici Doloris, para. 19, February 11 1984). Faith organizations mark this day especially to provide the sick with medicines, food, and spiritual guidance.

Sickness and sufferings come uninvited. They can happen to anyone at anytime. The Church believes that every sickness is an opportunity bestowed upon us by God to know Him better. Only by embracing the sufferings due to sickness one gets closer to God. By observing World day of Sick, the Church wants believers to realize the divine and redeeming nature of sickness and sufferings. There would be very few of us who have not personally seen or known or loved someone who is sick and suffering.  And most of us have, will at some time in our lives suffer from illness- be it physical or mental.  The health situations and crises we will meet in our own lives or in the lives of our friends may be the result of diseases or other sicknesses – hereditary, contracted or maybe accidental– that are brief or persistent, some perhaps terminal in there nature.

 The healing which Jesus offers to us in our lives is best manifest at the Cross.  At Calvary, the Lord Jesus reveals to us that healing does not indicate that all sickness, suffering and death are banished from our lives. But then the Crucifixion is followed by the Resurrection. Like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, Jesus today too asks of us: “what are these matters that you are discussing?” In sharing of our misgivings, struggles, anguish and confusion, we gradually came to recognize Him (like the disciples at Emmaus) at the breaking of bread. It is worth noting that at the end of the narrative, the disciples are not anymore sad and grief-stricken when Jesus vanishes once again, as they would continue to enter into communion with Him at every breaking of bread henceforth. As then, so now, Jesus remains to call us to gather around the altar of suffering, spot Him at the fellowship of the Communion, and to entrust our sorrow and suffering to Him.

India is a large country with a huge population. Majority of this population lives in villages in spite of an increasing phenomena of urbanization. Most of them do not have proper healthcare facilities. Bringing about a positive change in this issue cannot be something that the government cannot be done alone.  In recognition of this, the Church has been assisting the government in providing healthcare through its many institutions.  And as we observe the 25^th World day of Sick this year, we can reflect upon how we can support the Church in its mission to lessen the sufferings of sick. Challenges in healthcare are many in the country. So let this World day of sick be an opportunity for us to develop a sense of empathy towards the sick and support them in all possible ways. Let us pray to the Lord to strengthen the sick and those who serve them.

Side by Side: Changing worldviews on Leadership

In the Hindu family in which I grew up, the division of labor was clear. Men were the bread winners and women looked after the house, the kids and hospitality. This was the pattern all around, at least in middle class homes. The women kind of enjoyed a level of autonomy in this space. In most homes, the men handed over all or most of their pay cheque to their wives and then the wives could use the money responsibly and wisely. Men did not interfere; indeed, people thought it unseemly to do so.

In religious matters, although the priests were all men, women took care of piety and public participation by the families. They would take the task of fasting and encourage others to do so. The women were custodians of faith and values in the family and of observing and handing down spiritual traditions and practices to their children. 

When I became a Christian, I brought this worldview into my new-found faith. Of course, I had little real perspective on this and many other matters at that stage. I was more pre-occupied with learning the fundamentals of doctrine and picking up matters of sin and salvation. It was probably some years before I reflected on other matters as I observed among my friends several shades of the practice of Christian spirituality. Many were passed on from generation to generation through their respective churches or other institutions and in some cases, views were formed and unformed by what the church taught on leadership roles and gender. I observed that mainline churches often had a fixed tradition that they passed on without questioning, whereas independent churches with a less rigid tradition were more likely to question and challenge the status quo.

I guess I first looked at debated issues of various segments of the church at least a decade after I became a Christian. It took that long for me to journey far enough to say that the Christian faith was now fully my own and I was no longer a passerby who had a chance encounter with Jesus and Christians. Since the faith was now my own, I felt free and comfortable enough to speak into it, understand the Scriptures and interpret them for myself and even critique some of the interpretations presented to me. On my journey, I had arguably developed my own theology and felt free to comment on what I saw and heard – both on and off the pulpit.

Initially, I had naively assumed that the Christian faith was monolithic, that everyone believed in the same God and understood him in the same way. In a way, this was true, at least compared to Hindus whose beliefs could be widely divergent. Of course, I knew there were Catholics and Protestants and they were different in how they ascribed roles to men and women. Catholics were more or less clear-cut. The distinctive roles and authority of priests and nuns was clear. Priests were mostly in charge and the nuns were the worker bees, humming everywhere and generally keeping the giant institution of the Church running. Among Evangelicals, the position was not clear to me at first; the distinctions were more subtle and layered.

In a midsized city like Pune, close to cosmopolitan Mumbai, where my faith was born, I could see non-formal scenarios outside the church, like Bible Studies and the Evangelical Union, with no distinction between men and women in formal or informal leadership roles. I remember serving as the secretary of the Evangelical Union when a lady was the president and there was no unease on either side. Indeed we worked well together. In the church that I attended of course, there were things only men did and some things women did. Men delivered the sermon, women got the elements ready for communion. These I took for granted and moved on without stopping to think or analyze why it should be so. All the churches I attended whatever their tradition unwaveringly taught St Paul’s teachings about what men and women could or could not do and my own reading of the Scriptures was no different.

I suppose I started seeing the world with different eyes only after I got married. I expected my Catholic-background wife to have the mindset I observed in other observant Catholics – the demure, submissive wife. However, it turned out different. She was moving on from her Catholic faith and although she treasured many things about it, she was questioning matters she had previously taken for granted.

As she met my friends, she gravitated towards women who also questioned traditions they had grown up with and began sporting what I may call “non-conformist views. This was about the role of men and women in the church and Christian organizations and also about things in general, driven by the spirit of curiosity and enquiry. The questions became more real for me too as I became more active in the church and Christian organizations and became involved in the governance of some. Then I discovered the unspoken glass ceiling in many – certain things were not done, spoken about or brought up for discussion and if one did, the discussion was hastily steered away in a different direction by someone more tactful and wise.

Maybe a decade ago, the Evangelical Fellowship of India led by its then General Secretary, Rev. Richard Howell, the Union of Evangelical Students of India and a small group of people calling themselves “Pilgrim Partners” – all of whom happened to by my friends – got together to hold a consultation called “Side by Side”. That the consultation happened is not unusual except that the two larger sponsors were generally known to hold conservative views on the subject, except that their top leadership of the time happened to be egalitarians in their view. (It could be argued that most others in their constituency were largely certainly complementarian.) These were all new words for me. When I attended this conference I knew none of these words. I was sucked into the conference because I had roots in the UESI movement, knew the EFI General Secretary and perhaps more importantly, a lot of the organizers from Pilgrim Partners were my friends. (One of them is sadly no more with us.) These friends believed that I was a kindred spirit, thinking the way they did. Whether I actually did or not, I have no idea. I certainly was no traditionally conservative person in some ways, but I am not sure how progressive I really was. Certainly I had journeyed some distance compared to some of my friends from traditional backgrounds. I was in the fractured state where in public life, I had discarded conservatism but at home and family, the virus of patriarchy had surely not left me.

At any rate, I was invited to present a paper at this conference and it was from here as I read up and prepared that I began to intelligently grasp what the two schools, complementarian and egalitarian stood for and where they differed. In the course of my research, I learned that most of the leading scholars whose works we read and whose sermon recordings we listened to were complementarian and that groups like Christians for Biblical Equality had a relatively narrow support base.

The first passages that shaped my thinking were, as for most people, the teachings of Paul in his many letters. Traditional Christians believed that I Timothy 2, saying that women were created second, sinned first, and should keep silent, were the universal consensus of the early Church and its founder, Jesus. At any rate, in one form or the other these seemed to be practised in most churches, and found a rather extreme expression in some contexts.

When we approach the Apostle Paul's teachings concerning wives submitting graciously to their husbands (Ephesians 5:22) and women being silent in church (I Cor. 14:34), I learned much later that Paul's teachings were as controversial in the first century as they are today. The first-century biblical worlds of Judaism and Greco-Roman culture were characterised by male dominance and chauvinism. In these cultures, when the Apostle Paul writes to the church in Ephesus, he tells all the Christians, regardless of ethnicity, social rank, or sex (see Galatians 3:28) to submit themselves mutually to one another (Ephesians 5:21). Then, beginning in Ephesians 5:22, he explains in some detail how to express that submission and a servant heart within marriage.

In a culture where people saw wives as the property of their husbands, Paul commands a Christian husband to submit to his wife by loving her as Christ loved the church and to fulfil his God-given responsibility to protect, provide for, and lead the family in a godly manner. The wife is to express mutual submission from her side by submitting to her husband "as unto the Lord" or for the Lord's sake (Ephesians 5:22). Paul makes no hint in this or any other Pauline passage that women are in any way inferior to men, although that was the dominant rabbinic and cultural tradition of the time. The new, sacrificial demands on the first-century men who received Paul's letter to Ephesus must have felt profoundly shocking.

But understanding First century culture was one thing, transposing this to the late 20^th century was another. Some people believed Paul was highly sensitive to the culture and society of the time so that his instructions were not for all of the church and for all time, but rather for a particular church at a particular time. As evidence, they pointed to Paul’s glowing tributes to his many women partners in the ministry. Surely he would not have such praise for their contribution if they were defying his instructions.

The other side pointed out that it was not clear what these women were doing and that Paul’s prohibitions extended only to women preaching and teaching. They said he did not prohibit women from participating in other ways, and there were numerous avenues for ministry. They also rejected the culture specific interpretations that said a teaching could be flouted by saying it was meant for a particular place and time. It was all very confusing.

At the time, I was working in a Christian organization of some repute and I looked around to see what was happening there and elsewhere. I found that in professionally run Christian organisations, meritocracy prevailed. Women were in all forms of leadership depending on their competence and skills and this mix of men and women bringing their varied skills to the table proved to be an excellent blend. Although they sat with their head covered in their churches, women in Christian office settings took devotions with teaching as good or bad as that managed by the men. The same was true of their jobs.

Home was another paradox. A well-established church teaching said men were the head of the household. I have heard stories of course, where some men took this very seriously and behaved like tin pot dictators and despots in the home. But there was a range of scenes. In some homes men acted as head of the household like Old Testament patriarchs or even traditional Indian patriarchs. They were benevolent autocrats, generally meaning well. Then there were men who abdicated this role either because they were too lazy or too busy. Women who stepped into these vacant shoes could do very well.

Then there were men like constitutional monarchs. They were the titular heads of their families in public, but once the doors were shut, the nuts and bolts of the household were run by the women. It was not uncommon to find houses were the men would hand over their salaries (in the days, when they were the sole breadwinners and women were largely home makers) to their wives, because they believed that women could manage money (and most other things) a lot better. Another demographic that I came across was that the more educated a couple was, the more likely it was that they would have read the Bible for themselves and drawn their own conclusions, irrespective of what their church might be teaching and practising on Sundays.

A time came when I realised that my views had changed on women in leadership, at least in public life. I do not ascribe that change to any one source, though the influence of some of my closest friends who I admired and whose views I respected perhaps led to a point where I read the Scriptures differently. However I do not claim not that I have understood everything perfectly. There are passages that I still wonder about – are they cultural or are they meant to be followed by all? I do not fully know. How did people react to my changing views – not just on women in leadership but on lots of things? I was slightly earlier to tread into what is called holistic or integral mission and this was at a time when Evangelicals were wary about such things and were uncomfortable about my forays. I was too deeply embedded in the Evangelical movement to find my moorings anywhere else by then, but I also read Catholic social teaching, Jim Wallis and Sojourners and my views were certainly not conventional. My theology grew from many strands, competing with the deep roots of patriarchy in the church. (An ordained woman from an Ecumenical Church recently lamented that although it appeared that the fact the church ordained her showed approval of women in leadership in the church, they had never actually permitted her to pastor a church. They had restricted her to peripheral roles.My changing views stirred mixed reactions. Some in my Bible Studies became uneasy with my departure traditional interpretations and encouragement of reflection and thinking from different angles. My family fairly liberal and urbane family offered no opposition, though they may not have understood my new views either.

 As I conclude, I cannot allude to my nearly three decade long involvement in the  NGO sector where is a documented fact that money invested in developing  women in leadership and empowering them in various ways provides lasting dividends and benefits, not just for herself, but also for her family. Although economic development efforts to combat poverty can only succeed if women are part of the solution. Doing so yields a double dividend: When women are economically empowered, they raise healthier, better-educated families. Their countries are more economically prosperous because of it, too, in many societies, women and young girls do not enjoy the same access to health as men, let alone the same rights or opportunities. But a society that does not cure and treat its women and young girls with love and care and with equality will never be a healthy society. Many in the global health community are working to weave a focus on women and girls more tightly into the framework of global public health efforts. The shape of the family is changing across the world and it is no longer appropriate or constructive to view family as one-dimensional. Families are diverse and shared experience, acceptance of difference and respect and are key values in any progressive society. Gender is a social contract, it is used to explain and justify men’s dominance over women across all dimensions of society. Women are no more inclined or able to cook, clean and care than men are to protect, provide and punish.  Evidence suggests legible differences between the sexes outside of physiological ones 

One specific area in which I used my changing views on women in leadership came through nurturing and mentoring young girls. Along my journey in the NGO sector, where I have spent the better part of my life, my passion drove me to train as a Life Coach and through that medium, I have been helping many young girls to realise their potential as leaders and I have encouraged them to develop their talents and gifts. This is frequently away from church contexts – more often where the glass ceiling is rather low for women. Perhaps that concern came from the fact I had a daughter. I was already weighing the support needed for her. I have come to understand that we don’t live beyond what we think about ourselves and if the expressions of self-doubt, insufficiency or fear of failure are loud enough, they will paralyze us. There are many contradictory opinions within our culture on the lookout for an opportunity to teach women on their value and purpose, so a robust understanding of God given identity is vital. The church has mostly sought to express womanhood in the light of Eve, dwelling on her failure rather than her unique design. Eve was intended to know God in close relationship and take charge in the world He created along with Adam. (Gen 1:28- 31). It is therefore unquestionably crucial that women comprehend God’s value of their worth and vision for their potential in Him.

My opinion that women could and should be leaders also showed while I worked with women bosses. People say it is hard for men under a woman boss or senior colleague, and I have myself seen this for some. Personally, I have so far had no difficulty with working under a woman boss. On bosses and colleagues, I am largely gender neutral. I have not felt this so much in a church context, however.  I think a key way to empower women in the church is not to have doctrinal debates which will never be resolved but empower women by freely talking about their stories as well as talking about significant Christian women in history and around the globe. It will always be a bit hard for a women to step out in leadership when she sees herself to be the only one. It would be wonderful for such women to be aware that they are in good company.

Marred Images

I have always understood life to be fuller of various shades of gray and have looked askance at people who have everything sorted out in life with all the right scriptures as footnotes. And yet every day my boundaries in this area are being challenged and enlarged with every new experience that I have. The other day, after hearing a colleague talk about a person who didn’t know whether he was a man or a woman, I am even more intrigued about the Pandora’s box that life is and how impossible it is to shut the lid on that box after filing the contents in neat files. And no, the story is not that of some homosexual or lesbian confused about their sexuality and so I am not sure that the typical verses will any more apply. So listen to this story.

Very much like a man who is hoodwinked into getting into a hospital with a promise of a large some money and wakes up from anaesthesia to find a paltry sum of cash in his hands and a scar from where one of his kidneys had been removed, a man was similarly kidnapped and brought into hospital. Under anaesthesia, he was castrated and then with the help of skilled cosmetic surgeons, “converted” into a woman anatomically. Post surgery, he/she was then given hormone injections so that other physical attributes of a woman eventually developed. At an opportune time, then the individual was sold into a brothel where he/she was abused, raped and brutalized repeatedly over time.

This is not a story out of a book, but one that I heard last week from one of my own colleagues, and the person telling the story, a counsellor assigned to work with the person, after she was rescued on an anti trafficking raid in the brothel. The question before the counsellor was this – what was the point of reference for this trafficked person in the counselling sessions to be done – was this person a man or a woman? Anatomically , the advancement of medical science had seen to it that the person was fully a woman in every possible way ; and yet the mental makeup of the person , the person’s emotions, thinking , orientation and inner wiring was all that of a man. The world would only see this person as a woman and relate to her at that level; but in this story of course there is a lot more here that meets the eye.

We read in the Bible that God created man and woman in His image and gave them one or the other of this dual identity. But what of someone whose identity has been so complexly damaged, that the person can no longer even say if he is a man any more or a woman. He could say that he was a woman, because that is what the person looks like, but his heart beat is still largely that of a man. He could say that he was a man because that is how he was created in the first place; but only God looks at the heart and sees that struggle – for the rest of us he looks, dresses and appears like in a woman, and in at least some churches I have been to, if he went and sat in the men’s pews, the person would be promptly shown his place.

It is not every day that I look forward to getting older, but the one thing that I see and recognize with each passing day, is that life leave us with more questions and puzzles and answers. I never went to a Sunday school and have never been able to do memory verses. So I don’t have a scripture verse for every occasion. But perhaps the one thing that I have learnt is that being a Christian is to embrace all of life’s unanswered mysteries with a curious, open and inclusive heart and mind which is open to God…. because perhaps tomorrow and the day after , each day in fact, I will encounter a new story, a new riddle, a new mystery … and none of these very human, very painful, very sensitive stories about people who were made in God’s image but has now got badly marred can be patched up by citing some passages of scripture from here and there….. I don’t know what it means … but it means a lot more than that.

Questions with no Answers

I live a rather peculiar life these days. My wife and daughter who is in her final year of school live in Delhi. I live alone in Mumbai and my elderly mother in Kolkata. All of us have our own concerns and fears and lead peculiarly lonely lives. In another day and age, this might have been considered odd, but times are changing and have always been changing and social norms and mores are changing too.

For instance in Abraham’s time, families were extended households. Abraham and Isaac lived under the same roof with their wives, siblings and a large entourage of other family members and servants. Similarly Jacob lived with his wives and sons and that was the pattern in the times of the patriarchs. As Israel settled into a less nomadic existence, family patterns changed and people began to live as household of individual families. Families were still extended, but their sizes were smaller. Probably by New Testament times, perhaps even extended families were shrinking. We see Joseph and Mary alone travelling to Bethlehem for the census ordered by the Caesar, possibly indicating that there was no one else they had to call as family.

Today, families are changing shape and complexion again. If Abraham and his kind were nomadic people, today’s generation has become nomadic too. Except that today we no longer travel swathes of deserts on camels and living in tents. Today more likely than not , often one member of a family is travelling , often across continents , riding not a camel but a jet plane and keeping in touch with his family through Skype or e mail. What is one to make of these phenomena and should one accept it or condemn it?

Change of course is inevitable and it will happen irrespective of whether we like it or not ; but the only way to aloft and be in some control of change in the domain of family and relationships is to be clear on what the scriptures teach and try and interpret them in sensitive and humane ways.

Let me give some examples. The Bible tells us to honour our parents. This seems easy enough when we are children and live with our parents. Besides often it is a case of “obey or else”..... But as a child becomes an adult and his or her parents grow older and often driven by job or other constraints, live separately, how is love and honour to be expressed in such situations?

Similarly churches hold seminars all the time titled family seminars. But these seminars usually have a lot to teach spouses about to honour each other and love each other. Or they are parenting seminars. Both are important and have their place. But families are more than spouses and their children. As life expectancy goes up, sooner or later one or the other spouse dies. How does the one left behind cope with life and build healthy, supportive relationships? The Bible has a lot to say about widows, but it is a long time if ever I heard any teaching about the place of widows (or widowers) in the community of faith. Or what about the single man or woman? Are relationships meant for them too? Or what kind? What will the church endorse? The Bible tells us to treat the stranger and the alien with the utmost consideration, yet the stranger nearest to us is often the single man or woman in the next pew, whose hand every one shakes but no one invites home.

What about promoting families across ethnic and language divides? When I was a new and young Christian, almost all of my friends were from a particular community. They taught me all about the scriptures, about the Christian life and discipleship, loved me hugely and sincerely. I wouldn’t be anything without their love and care and I can never forget that and hope that I never will. These friends taught me that in Christ all men and women were equal and that Christ had broken down every wall, every barrier. They taught me that it was always wrong to be unequally yoked and marry someone who did not know the lord. I absorbed it all in.

After I finished my studies and started praying about getting married, I looked around in the same community of friends. Yet suddenly I found that not one person was available to me; all wanted to marry people of their language and ethnicity so that life would be simple and adjustment easy and the barriers that I heard Christ had broken in Bible Studies appeared firmer and stronger than prison walls. By the time I woke up to this and realized that I needed to think out of the box if I were to have a family , I was in the Air Force serving in remote places with no social life and no one to meet. By the time eventually I was posted to a city and finally met my wife, many years had gone by. That was a long time ago, and yet I feel saddened to see and find that although so many things are changing around us, people who will be bold enough to marry cross culturally are still few and families which accept them are fewer.

Like everything else, families and relationships are subject to change as the wider society changes. Certain fundamentals do not change of course like loyalty, faithfulness , honour, the obligation to care for one’s family – (and the bible defines family in a very wide sense and not just you, me and the kids); but lots of things do change. A whole industry has grown up around the topic of change because change is not easy and people need help – I need help and some day you will need help. The question is that I have is whether I will find that help and answers in the church walls in the context of the Bible or will I need to find a book at the Crossword Book Store and find my answers there.

Transparency : Living in the light

Many of us might have been following the news pertaining to the members of the judicial community in India trying for a long time; not to make their financial assets public in spite of an increasing demand to do so. That they eventually agreed was not so much a voluntary act in the usually understood sense of the term; rather it was more of a capitulation to a growing chorus of public opinion. Though a large number of the establishment seemed to side with the judges – the government tied to introduce a bill that would make it unnecessary for the judges to disclose their worth.

The wide acclaim with which the Supreme Court’s final decision that the judges would up details about their assets on the Supreme Court website shows one thing very clearly; we love transparency. Whether it is in public life, or insurance forms, or anything else. We like things out in the open. No secrets hid. In broad daylight. We dislike darkness and those things that limit our vision.

As Christians, I often wonder as to how transparent are we? How transparent am I? I wonder how we can expect to reach the world - to give our light to the world - without being transparent. Jesus was transparent. He lived a transparent life. He did not gloss over things; He did not shy away from confrontation. He talked about the hard stuff, and He took the challenges presented Him without a second thought.

The Apostle Paul was able to say:

“Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.” 2 Corinthians 4:2

Essentially Paul is saying that he has chosen to live a transparent life—to practice a transparent ministry. Transparency is the watch word for anyone in leadership today. Whether he or she is a CEO, a politician or a judge there is a cry from the bottom to the top for transparency. We do our ministry in the world of blogs and Facebook. Long before the high tech transparency was foisted upon us, Paul taught us that the only truly legitimate way to conduct one’s ministry is with transparency in your life. Our lives and ministry should be an open statement of the truth. How else, as he writes in verse 2, could we “commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.”? This is the ultimate transparency — that we practice our ministry in the presence of God.

A part of the whole struggle with transparency is the struggle that we have in admitting or hiding our own weaknesses and struggles. This is of course a very real battle. I am of course very aware of my brokenness, but I am also aware that there’s nothing in me that commands the admiration of the world. But that does not mean going around with a low self esteem. There’s a difference between a low self esteem which comes from an inferiority complex, some sort of neurosis and a true understanding of who we are, that then allows God to work through us and shows to the world the face of brokenness, of holiness lived in brokenness, transparency enables ,me to say that God has shown me, I cannot do it by myself, but his light in me manifests itself and I give him all the glory.

To live a transparent life is to be as completely real as possible. It is to truly be “in the world but not of it”. It is to meet people where they are at, instead of expecting them to somehow find their way to where we are. To connect with others on their terms, in a real way. To be yourself, instead of wearing the masks we put on as often as we seek our place in the world. To not be afraid of others seeing our flaws. For nobody is perfect.

To live a transparent life means that not everyone will like us. In fact, some people will hate us outright. We may lose our lives. But transparent lives are passionate lives, full of movement, and they are worth whatever time we are given on this earth.

Change, Apathy and Us

About ten years ago, the relief and development agency that I worked for sponsored a young man from leading evangelical congregation on a tour around the world along with a few others chosen from all over the globe. The intention was that as they went around and saw the relief and development activities being done in the name of Jesus Christ in many difficult places in the world and how lives of people and communities were being transformed as a result, they would develop a perspective. That when they returned back to their lands and to their church, they would speak for what we today call “integral mission” , that the gospel is all about transforming lives in all dimensions : body, mind and soul.

One Sunday morning, pinned on the church notice board was a picture postcard written by this young, man from some picturesque location in Europe. He narrated briefly all that he had seen and experience d in his travels, and ended by saying that for all that the trip was really a waste because they weren’t doing any evangelism on the trip and so the whole trip was a big waste . I remember cringing inwardly seeing that letter; but shouldn’t have – evangelicals were like that only.

Around the same time, we tried to influence a VBS class in the city to include at least one session on a Christian’s responsibility in society; in looking at events around us through heaven’s eyes as Jesus would and then respond to them according to the teaching and ethos of scripture. The stony look that the organizers and teachers gave was unforgettable. Similarly, when I tried to talk about my experiences with the Catholic Church (mostly positive), my doctrine conscious evangelical friends reached for their Bibles and sneered at me disdainfully, if not snobbishly. It is difficult to exactly pin point when things began to change and evangelicals began to be accommodating and how this happened. But today, if you walk into that church, you are unlikely to recognize the church from what it was back then and what it has become now.

The general thinking of a section of the evangelical community is that because Jesus’ kingdom is not of this world (John 18v 36), so too our concerns ought not to be of this world. In our terms, it means that we should be having a perspective of eternity and all our efforts and interests ought to be directed towards that one end – that we witness to and testify among as many university students as possible so that through all our stratagems and programs should be directed to that end so that “by all possible means we might save some” (1 Corinthians 9:22). The harvest is plentiful; the laborers are few and more so, life is short, and so let us not get distracted by the other demands that may be made on our time and energy. So far so good.

But the counter argument that I would make is that such a view is an incomplete and even a distorted view of the gospel. After all it said of Jesus that He “went about doing good."- (-Acts, 10:38) and it can be nobody’s case that doing well is confined to preaching the good news alone.

Some graphic illustrations of the coming kingdom of God are to be found in passages like Zechariah 8 v (4-5)

Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'Old men and old women will again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each man with his staff in his hand because of age. And the streets of the city will be filled with boys and girls playing in its streets.'

Isaiah 65 v 18-23 paints an even more detailed and more graphic picture of the Kingdom dealing with health, housing, agriculture, justice and equity. These and other passages describe the kind of world that will bring joy and delight to the Lord – a world He would rejoice over (Isaiah 65 v 19). If we know the heart beat God and know what exactly gives Him pleasure and delight , then can we in all honesty pray the Lord’s prayer about His will being done on earth “as it is in heaven” without lifting a finger to make this happen ? It sounds inconceivable.

It is not that today’s Christians are like the desert fathers who have actually retreated from society and civilization and created a parallel even if unsustainable universe. No, that has not happened. In fact today’s Christians are if anything, more worldly wise than their forbears of even a generation ago. But we have it upside down.

Conventionally, we are taught that believers are not to be “of the world”, even as by happenstance, they are “in the world”. Of course the Bible really teaches us that we shouldn’t “be conformed any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12 v2). But what has happened is that while we have often been transformed through dialogue and immersion in the world, usually our minds have not been renewed by the Word of God, they have been renewed by the world. Instead of us Christians exercising a leavening effect on the world and through our engagement helping to provide for the world of a glimpse of God’s Kingdom, we have allowed the world and “secular” society to transform us. I have deliberately put the word “secular” in italics because “secular” culture and world view is ultimately an amalgam of many different influences and its ultimate nuance is finally shaped by who has finally contributed the most to shape that secular world view.

I submit that the mean reason as to why Christians, particularly Christians from our kind of people , which is basically a middle class constituency shy away from any particular engagement is not theology , but apathy – for a classic description of apathy , see the quote attributed to Pastor . It is not that we have tried to change things and turn things around; we have not even attempted anything. Yes, we may use the scriptures or the teachings of our church and denomination to dress up our apathy and lack of activity the main reason for this is apathy, the typical middle class apathy. We are neither for nor against any thing; but just plain indifferent – and therefore by default instead of we shaping society, we are in turn shaped by it.

The one area where apathy and its impact is most perceptible is in the area of the renewal of our minds, especially since we have grown up in a culture where a “turning of the heart” is more prominently emphasized. And since our minds are not renewed or transformed, usually we make the same choices that any else makes; enter the same rat race that everybody else does and end up in the same careers and jobs that everyone else is in. Christians, because their minds are often not renewed are influenced more by the peer pressure of their kinsman than by the peer pressure of the kingdom.Most decisions in our life are made by discerning by God’s will, or so we say. But we seem to have atomized this. We have set procedures for knowing the will of god – we rely on scripture, circumstances, an inner “peace”, the counsel of fellow believers and by triangulating the results, we come to a conclusion about what we must do.

While these are all fine in their particular context; certain things are forgotten and we seem to try and discern God’s will in a vacuum. The primary identity of a follower of Jesus Christ is that of a subject of his kingdom and to then live according to the priorities of that kingdom. To give an example, when people choose to apply for and then accept the citizenship of the USA or Canada or some other when offered, they are first required to owe allegiance to the constitution of the country and then find their place in society within the parameters of the constitution. The criteria of offering citizenship are often the value addition that the new immigrant would bring to the country he is migrating to and points are awarded on various criteria.

But with Christians, usually the norm is opposite. We often make our decisions and life choices , even if made in consultation with others and in prayer , keeping out of radar screen , the larger kingdom picture and priorities and the value addition that we can bring when we “emigrate” to god’s kingdom. Often we make our choices just as anybody else would, and then try and rationalize them with reasons that might seem shallow to our own ears.

Will society benefit and the world become a better place to live in if it reflected the priorities of the Creator? if so, should it be a question to ask while seeking God’s will as to how best my gifting can best serve society so it more accurately serves as a shadow of the kingdom to come. Seeking to discern God’s only seeking my personal best while ignoring the Lord’s larger purposes for this world (the Lord after all did love the world enough to send His son for them….) where I may fit is self serving and shallow.

How then does one engage with society? Needless to say, one must begin by developing a Christian world view, the habit of as Moses would put it in Prince of Egypt of looking at life through heaven’s eyes. Of course how one does is that is a discipline by itself which ought to be part of all our discipleship programs. Even supposedly highly technical subjects like textile technology or architecture when studied with the proper perspective can help fulfill God’s will on earth is important and path breaking . You don’t study architecture merely you are bright, cleared the NATA exam and landed a seat; no you study architecture because it can be a tool In God’s hands.

If a secular, temporal state finds utility and value in the study of architecture, will not an eternal kingdom find it invaluable too? In the first decade of the 21st century, there are far greater career and educational options than what existed even a decade or two ago, but a far lesser understanding of what can be achieved and accomplished through them. If we look at the history of the freedom struggle; we will find that most of the leaders then were accomplished lawyers and barristers. If you asked them why, they would tell you why – they saw the study of law as a tool through which they could dialogue and discuss political change at the highest levels of the establishment and eventually negotiate for independence for the country. They had a vision for their people and for their country and could freely and openly articulate it. But today it is quite possible for a student to study whatever he or she secured admission in after appearing for a rainbow of entrance exams and the assuming one had the choice to pick out of one or more streams, choose the one which is the most materially lucrative.

Often Christians are reluctant to get involved in issues of society because we are so few in number or we will get involved in a few particular fetishes. A lot of people get involved when the Delhi High Court declared Section 3 77 of the Indian Penal Code anachronistic and deemed it illegal. Similarly, people get agitated when persecution happens. While this is right and proper, God is the lord of all creation (….the Firstborn and Lord of all creation- Colossians 1 v 15) and our concerns ought to embrace everything according to our education, aptitude and gifting.
I suppose that everything begins with awareness.

Let me give an example from my own work. When we began talking to churches and Christian groups that human trafficking and particularly the trafficking of minor girls and boys, (yes, boys) is the largest illicit industry in the world overtaking the arms trade and the trade in drugs by far, people didn’t know. Similarly, though we laud the efforts of William Wilberforce in outlawing slavery in the British Empire and those of Abraham Lincoln in the United States , not many will know that there are more slaves alive today in this century than there were in Wilberforce ‘s time or Lincoln’s time. Slavery was legal and in your force then, it is cover and underground then; that is about all the difference.

Of course, I have cited examples from my own context and experience in the social sector; but the point that I am trying to make ought to resonate anywhere. We in India are blessed to be living in a democracy, however imperfect; but the direction in which a democracy moves is determined often by sustained and informed lobbying and advocacy and debate. Informed decision makers do not just happen ; their opinions are shaped by those who have assiduously worked to shape them by furnishing facts and data and information. Even fringe groups do this ;

I have just finished reading a book “Red Sun” by Sudeep Chakravarty on the Maoist insurgency in India and he documents how Maoists have successfully used music ,art,literature,media and other forms of popular expression and married them with existing social and political realities to sell the idea of a communist utopia. Using this approach , Maoists have managed to recruit many to their cause ; and even those who have not signed up have often turned sympathizers providing crucial logistical and moral support. In many of the same areas , missionaries are also active but preach the gospel in a style and idiom that is often other worldly and dry in its approach. Maoists have emerged as thought leaders ; whereas evangelists are seen as proselytizers.

Typically, following awareness would be engagement and involvement; but most of us never get there. Even if we are aware – we read the papers, watch the news on television ; and increasingly the media is highlighting issues in society that are flawed and need fixing; life for most of us just goes on as it always has. This is where apathy kicks in and the kingdom of God and its values start receding as I retreat into the confines of my comfort zone. I go to Bible Study every week and dissect up books like Amos and the sins and shortcomings of the Israel of two millennia ago with ease. I artfully dodge the wrinkles and hiccups in my time and country. Israel of the Bible doesn’t require a direct response from me ; but if I extrapolate scripture into my country, my society, then I may need to do more and my comfort driven lifestyle may have to be abandoned. And that is difficult for most of us.

But if finally a Christian student or graduate is convinced that need to be engaged in society be it through art or media or education or banking or micro finance – society after all has more hues than the rainbow, what should they do ? Should they go and join up with some Christian organization trying to address these issues ? Should they join some secular concern ? The government ? This complex and debatable question.

As I travel around the country, I have often heard Christian organizations being described as regressive, reactionary, backward looking and slow to absorb new thinking and ideas and even slower to adapt them. And my own experience is that this is often true. However , it is also true that there is a dearth of good leadership in many or most Christian organizations. Many years ago, I know of Mr. Lalchungliana, a serving IAS officer , who left the civil services to come and provide leadership to the then fledgling Emmanuel Hospital Association; I do not know of many others who went to the IITs and IIMs or any of the other prestigious higher education institutions finish their courses and serve Christian institutions ? to ask a more pertinent question – how many student s who study in St Stephen’s College and particularly those who get in under the minority quota , finish their course and come back to serve in Christian organizations and make them more forward looking, more progressive , less ghettoized ? Probably very few.

And because we don’t want to perpetuate a mission compound or ghetto culture of which we already have plenty, we also of course need to be involved in secular entities of whatever kind that can make proper use of our gifts and skills. The thing to keep in mind of course is that the term “secular” by itself means nothing in terms of a worldview. We often talk of a “secular” world view , but actually that is nothing but the world view that is made prominent by the thought leaders of the time. In the Islamic world , secular world views will have an Islamic flavor; in India it has a Hindu flavor and in Europe , it has or till recently it had a Christian flavor.

So can we enter the secular work force and inject it with the aroma of Christ ? And in my understanding , the aroma of Christ is not just about not taking bribes, not being corrupt , not coming late to office and all that but presenting a biblical view of the world and its affairs which is born of a deep attachment and bonding. Many millennia ago, Jeremiah advised thus for exled Jews in Babylon “Work for the good of the city where I've taken you as captives, and pray to the LORD for that city. When it prospers, you will also prosper”(Jeremiah 29 v 7). If that is the level of engagement expected of captives towards a land to which they have been forcibly exiled, what might God expect of us who are citizens ?

Times have changed

About ten years ago, the relief and development agency that I worked for sponsored a young man from leading evangelical congregation on a tour around the world along with a few others chosen from all over the globe. The intention was that as they went around and saw the relief and development activities being done in the name of Jesus Christ in many difficult places in the world and how lives of people and communities were being transformed as a result, they would develop a perspective. That when they returned back to their lands and to their church, they would speak for what we today call “integral mission” , that the gospel is all about transforming lives in all dimensions : body, mind and soul.

One Sunday morning, pinned on the church notice board was a picture postcard written by this young, man from some picturesque location in Europe. He narrated briefly all that he had seen and experience d in his travels, and ended by saying that for all that the trip was really a waste because they weren’t doing any evangelism on the trip and no souls were being won. I remember cringing inwardly seeing that letter; but shouldn’t have – evangelicals were like that only.

Around the same time, we tried to influence a VBS class in the city to include at least one session on a Christian’s responsibility in society; in looking at events around us through heaven’s eyes as Jesus would and then respond to them according to the teaching and ethos of scripture. The stony look that the organizers and teachers gave was unforgettable. Similarly, when I tried to talk about my experiences with the Catholic Church (mostly positive), my doctrine conscious evangelical friends reached for their Bibles and sneered at me disdainfully, if not snobbishly.

It is difficult to exactly pin point when things began to change and evangelicals began to be accommodating and how this happened. Possibly when the first instances of persecution began happening in the late Nineties. This was still the United Front government but the BJP and its allies were on the ascendant. And of course the fundamentalist forces neither knew nor understood doctrinal niceties and they destroyed, killed and burnt churches of all denominations and persuasions. Perhaps it was the sudden dawning that if fundamentalist forces had to be appropriately countered , it was no longer possible to be confined to one’s denominational or theological positions that made evangelicals open up to embrace Catholics and “liberals” and other “social gospelers”. This embracing did not mean that each party abandoned their stated positions but certainly ushered in a wave of acceptance, tolerance and diversity that exists among God’s people.

It is similarly difficult to say when Evangelicals began to be accommodative of social concern ministries; not just tolerate them but actually embrace them and acknowledge that these are a valid expression of the Christian gospel. But when umbrella organizations of the evangelical constituency like EFI, began opening their doors to such an expression of ministry, a milestone had surely been crossed.

Of course, EFICOR had been birthed by EFI way back in 1967, but for a long time that remained the only entity that dabbled in developmental and justice issues and became an autonomous entity in little over a decade. But today, it would seem that we have traveled a long way. Today when we have programs like Viva which works with issues of children at risk operate under the umbrella of EFI, the leading evangelical magazine does a whole issue with homosexuality as the theme and the decadal Congress on Church in Mission has tracks like human trafficking, Christians in political engagement and Religious freedom, it seems that finally the evangelical community has finally made it to the new millennium.

Grace and Stigma

One of the hallmarks of a developing and progressive society is the degree to which it is inclusive – inclusive of minorities, marginalized and other vulnerable sections of society who may normally not expect to find a place under the sun. Such a place of equality is what the Indian constitution guarantees in Article 14(equality) and Article 15(no discrimination)

So what is one to make of the recent Supreme Court ruling that those leprosy patients cannot contest a civic election or hold municipal office in Orissa state? The case was brought to court by two men who were elected to a civic body in Orissa in 2003, but were later disqualified as they had leprosy. The Orissa Municipal Act of 1950 bars people suffering from tuberculosis or leprosy from holding such posts.

"The legislature in its wisdom has thought it fit to retain such provisions in the statute in order to eliminate the danger of the disease being transmitted to other people from the person affected," Supreme Court judges CK Thakker and DK Jain said in their ruling.

In the colonial era, the central government passed the Lepers Act of 1898, which provided legal provision for forcible confinement of leprosy sufferers in India. A hundred and more years have passed by; politically India is an independent state, has become a signatory to the UN resolution which says discrimination against leprosy patients must be ended. Medically, leprosy is detected early and thanks to a multi drug regime, cured early too. And yet a few years short of the second decade of the 21st century, piles of archaic legislation keep those who happened to have contracted leprosy at some point on the margins of society.

I always think of that fear and stigma when I read the stories about leprosy in the Gospels. Leprosy was of course greatly feared in the ancient near east. No one had contact with a leper(as they were referred to till recently). They were, instantly, removed from every social sphere. They couldn’t worship in the synagogue, they couldn’t live with other people, they couldn’t participate in the economic system of the time; who would take money from a leper?

We are familiar with the story of Naaman. Successful military man and leader, struck down by disfiguring disease –But Naaman’s disease is likely to get him ousted from his post, in a society even more fixated on appearance than ours. If Naaman can’t get his skin cleaned up, not only will he have to leave office, he’ll be banished from polite and religiously observant society. Naaman’s route to healing reads almost like a spy novel. A word dropped by the slave girl who works for his wife – and why would this little girl who was captured in an enemy raid want to help him? But her tiny shred of hope has him rushing off to his king to get a letter of passage to the enemy. When the letter comes to the king of Israel, he despairs, for he knows he can’t fulfil this request. But Elisha gets wind of the visitor and says, “Come see me and I’ll see what I can do.” Naaman goes, but he’s too proud to enter Elisha’s house. Elisha sends a message out – “go wash in the Jordan, and you’ll get what you’re after.” It must have sounded amazingly dismissive, because Naaman leaves in a huff. But his own servants offer him encouragement, and he finally goes off to the river, and gets his youthful appearance back. Maybe this is where the fountain of youth idea came from…Slave girl, servants, enemies, kings, and prophets – an impressive set of links that bring Naaman to his knees.

Jesus’ healing of the leper is more direct. The leper appears and asks to be healed. And Jesus reaches out his hand and touches the leper and says, “I do want to; be clean.” Jesus chooses to foul himself – touching a leper makes him unfit for polite society. Being gut-wrenched may also carry the sense that Jesus touched the man in spite of his own revulsion – or, more likely, the revulsion of the people around him. Those onlookers, just like the people around Naaman, are accustomed to keeping themselves “clean” by excluding anybody who threatens them. They don’t want to get too close, and they certainly don’t want their eminent visitor and rabbi to get too close.

Several secular laws and courts of course discriminate against those who have leprosy and those who are “different” in subtle and not so subtle terms. But maybe we can be brave enough to admit there are banished ones within the household of faith too. There was a decade or two at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic where more than one preacher declared those with the illness were socially unclean; some even claimed those with the disease were going to hell for the depravity of their sin as preachers declared that the illness itself was a sign of God’s curse. There have been days not too long ago when a divorce was enough for a couple to feel the wrath of the church. Some of us still remember days when watching television, going to movies and many other social activities were the sins that would stigmatize you in way that would eventually shun you from the good fellowship of the church.

If the church is to be a different kind of community transformed by grace and surviving by grace, then in my reckoning, we are called to be the compassionate community moulded by the Lord. We must forever look over the wall of the community to see who’s outside the gates, banished there by the people of God, unable to get in other than to get on their knees to beg. There’s a risk in loving the outsiders to be sure. But if we’re the people of faith we claim to be, that’s the kind of love we must share.

Healing takes a whole community of unlikely partners, and it takes getting past our own fear of contamination. it is time for us to seek to be liberated from our own hidden demons and stigmas.

The Classroom and the Kingdom

One of my friends whose whereabouts are usually not traceable, because he is involved in hectic travel has grounded himself for the next month or so. he has stationed himself at home ; well not exactly at home, but like a tame pet, he goes off to the office in the morning and is safely back to home base by evening. after hearing that piece of news, I haven been given similar instructions on the home front and my wife herself has taken leave a month’s leave and has parked herself at home. In both our families, a child is going through that iconic rite of passage – the board exam….. An event talked about in awe and hushed whispers.

I do not know the number of students who sit for the Board examinations in India every year, with practically each state having its own board of secondary education apart from the grand daddy of them all, the Central Board of Secondary Education. But whatever be the number, the ides of March bring with them the news of the examination season and the country it would seem defers to the phenomenon. elections if due, are scheduled and rescheduled to ensure that the examination schedule is not trifled with ; the election commission , typically a law unto itself , defers to the board examinations – elections will never be scheduled in a way that they interfere with the examination time table.

But stress for exam going students and increasingly their families is becoming a major issue in the last decade and it is a matter of concern that young people are being exposed to stress at such an early stage of their lives when their coping mechanism is so weak. Eexamination stress pushes students to various kinds of perversions, not only affecting concentration and memory but also forcing them to adopt abnormal behavior. Stressed out children are increasingly consuming tobacco, drinking tea, coffee and taking commonly-available amphetamine drugs such as cough syrups to keep up while preparing for exams.

And then there are those who simply can’t cope and end their lives. According to government reports, over 5000 students committed suicide in 2006. The unofficial figures are even higher. It seems stress is pushing our students to the brink; many of them just in class six. Boys are more vulnerable to committing suicide than girls, because adolescent girls seek support from family and friends to deal with emotional stress during examination. But as boys are less expressive, they tend to suppress their feelings of inadequacy and fear of poor performance. This often drives them to suicide to end their frustration

What's pushing today's Indian students - a bright generation with a global reputation for their high intelligence quotient - to the brink? Parental and peer pressure, rising ambitions and fierce competition are brewing a deadly cocktail for these young minds. Moreover, a nation racing towards affluence, an economy on a remarkable upward growth trajectory and skyrocketing salaries are putting unprecedented pressure on youth to succeed.

Often Christian families are not too different when it comes to choosing careers and vocations for their children although it should be obvious that the biblical perspective is that the purpose of education is to advance God’s purposes and plans for this world. Christians ought to pursue education so that through that means they may best serve the interests of the Kingdom of God and work for justice and equity in a society that reflects the character of God in his justice, compassion, grace and mercy. If we think of education only as a means for the young to develop their skills, or to achieve their potential, or to be equipped to succeed in life, then we have seen only one side of the coin. Rather, education must do all of that and also serve the entire society. It must serve not just its students but all of society, it must be as concerned about responsibility to the world.

Ephesians 2:10 says that each one of us were shaped for a specific task. All of us were custom-designed by God to fulfil a specific calling. The purpose of any education is to equip us to best do the work that God has designed us to do-the tasks He has called us to. As Christians our ultimate aim in the race of life is not necessarily to be the top of the class. That way life becomes not just a race to join but a rat race to win -and what matters is doing our competitors down. Our primary mission in pursuing an education is not to win a rat race, but to be better skilled in caring for what God has entrusted to us - our world, our sisters and brothers.