Stop, Take A Breath!

God is likely to fail again!

2011-09-25T17:28:00.000-05:00

In the actual preaching he often adds a few comments and connections as inspired that are not in this text.The following sermon is a working manuscript from which Fr. Jos Tharakan, Rector of All Saints’ Episcopal Church, Russellville, AR, Preached today.

In the jungles of South America in 1978 there was a massacre. Innocent people who longed to experience love and acceptance fell into the hands of a man who was misguided by power and passion. Not many escaped the wrath of evil that night. But a few who did live in guilt, while still struggling to understand all that happened and how they were spared from the brink of untimely death. They still wonder why did God spare them? What was God’s plan for them? Guilt, fear and anger still haunt them. Today that is the story of one of our own, Sheree Hodge. She was baptized by Rev. Jim Jones the cult leader who poisoned 908 in Guyana in 1978. She was spared from that tragedy and lives to share the story of grace even in the midst of the terrible tragedy that happened. God’s ways are unknown to man. God’s grace, however is available to all. Here is the witness for God’s grace and she lives and works, loves and cares for us amongst us. This is a day of celebration because we are all spared for one reason or another in the great plan of God, for a greater and deeper purpose.

Today’s Scripture reading from Mathew is a very powerful story we have heard many times over. This is a story whereby Jesus challenges the narrow identity carved out of national fundamentalism and theological and religious Puritanism. This is a story we all need to pay attention to.

In different words, Jesus shows light into the hidden corners of human understanding of Grace. Many times our definition of grace, by Christians of all kinds, fall short of the reality of how God makes choices. Religiosity is defined very differently in this parable.

There are two classes of people represented in today’s story. One class of people that takes pride in being clear about who they are in the eyes of God, of the society and of the world around them, and the other class of people who are, while serving the other, not clear about their standing with God, society and the world around them. For the first group, they are clear about their identity as chosen and set apart by God.

The second group of people in the story, the tax collectors and the prostitutes served a purpose in the Israeli society, but primarily for the benefit of the Romans than the Israelites.

The tax collectors were the instruments in the hands of the Romans to tone down the political pride of the chosen people. The tax collectors served as reminders to the chosen race, that their political identity is only as good as their pride.

Then there are the prostitutes. According to Mosaic law a child born of a Jewish mother was considered Jewish. Now there are Jewish women here, along with the pureblooded Jewish Pharisees and leadership, sleeping with the Roman soldiers and producing babies. Children born to them were of a mixed and therefore unacceptable people, namely the Roman soldiers. These women and their job challenged the sectarian purity of the Jewish people and questioned their capacity to remain pure.

Religious and sectarian purity was questioned. The chosen nature of the people of Israel is now to be shared with the Romans, and then the gentiles, and then list grew even further beyond the boundaries of Israel. There was every reason for them to be afraid of. Because the identity of God’s only people is now being shared by a lot more they didn’t want to share it with. Jesus tells them that God is capable of adding more people, even those that might break our narrow identities and convictions, to the chosen race.

They hated Jesus’ teaching. Because it questioned their preserved and guarded political, sectarian and religious identity. God became accessible to people they did not like. Grace became a common thing available even to those they cared about least, but took advantage of. Jesus teachings seem to confuse the understanding of God. God did not seem to take seriously the principles of human ethics.

Something tells me that If we put God to test on ethical standards of the world, God is likely to fail.

I like the story of the 100th birthday party where a man was interviewed by a reporter with the stupid question, “What one thing are you most proud of after having lived such a long life?”

The old man replied, “Well, here I am, 100 years old and I don’t have a single enemy in the world.”

The impressed reporter responded, “That is truly remarkable, sir. What made it possible for you to be able to say such a thing?” [1]

“Well,” said the 100 year old man, “I’ve outlived every one of them.”

Those whom I have outlived are not around me, but they share in the light of God. Act now is simply the principle of the story, because waiting to do the right thing in the future will only leave you by yourself in the world and those to whom you were to do right, will be in the company of God while you are left behind.

Words, words, words, I'm so sick of words  

I get words all day through  First from him, now from you Is that all you blighters can do

Don't talk of stars Burning above; If you're in love,

Show me! Tell me no dreams

Filled with desire. If you're on fire, Show me!

Here we are together in the middle of the night!

Don't talk of spring! Just hold me tight!

Anyone who's ever been in love'll tell you that

This is no time for a chat! Haven't your lips

Longed for my touch? Don't say how much,

Show me! Show me!

Don't talk of love lasting through time.

Make me no undying vow. Show me now!

Sing me no song! Read me no rhyme!

Don't waste my time, Show me!

Don't talk of June, Don't talk of fall!

Don't talk at all! Show me!

Never do I ever want to hear another word.

There isn't one I haven't heard.

Here we are together in what ought to be a dream;

Day one more word and I'll scream!

Haven't your arms Hungered for mine?

Please don't "expl'ine," Show me! Show me!

Don't wait until wrinkles and lines

Pop out all over my brow, Show me now! [2]

Let us not waste our time figuring out the rightness of what we do, but be present, caring and loving to those around us today before they all get to heaven and we are still left behind wondering what is wrong with God? Instead of knowing we didn’t act when we were called upon to act and live today.

[1] Brett Blair, esermons.com

[2] From the Movie “My Fair Lady”.

Shade of Grace

2011-09-13T05:45:00.001-05:00

He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. (Psalm 1:3)

We are planted by the side of the waters of life. We are given the charge to grow and not to die. In Psalms this is the invitation to all who believe in God, that first believe that we are planted in the best and the right place. No matter what that place looks like in our mind it still is flowing with lifegiving water. So, grow to the fullness is the invitation.

Prosperity is the inheritance of the one who grows in the shade of the almighty. But then this prosperity we are talking about is true wealth that nourishes us beyond the confines of the human body and mind. It is that which nourshies the soul and the integral human experience. If we are limited to the bodies we came with, then life is very poor and limited. Surely here it is more than simply the wealth of the world that dies anyway. Surely it is about more than the wealth that will dry up in the midst of a calamity, crisis, fear or anything else for that matter. We can find that a lot around us. It is nothing new. This lack of prosperity, famine, death, sadness, economic crisis and you name it, they were all part of human life when this Psalm was written. So the prosperity of God is greater than the wealth of human making.

May that be the properity that you seek this day. May the water's of life give you life that you may grow into a huge tree under the shadow of the Lord and allow the birds in the air to rest on you and the those who come under the shade of your love find peace. God's grace is upon the one who is willing grow in the power of the almighty.

Bendiga De Dios.
Fr. Jos

- From the mobile desk of Fr. Jos Tharakan

A civil disobedience

2011-08-21T09:25:00.001-05:00

Exodus 1:8-2:10

Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. He said to his people, "Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land." Therefore they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. The Egyptians became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites, and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in every kind of field labor. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them.

The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, "When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she shall live." But the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live. So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, "Why have you done this, and allowed the boys to live?" The midwives said to Pharaoh, "Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them." So God dealt well with the midwives; and the people multiplied and became very strong. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, "Every boy that is born to the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every girl live."

Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him three months. When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him, and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river. His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him. The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it. When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him, "This must be one of the Hebrews' children," she said. Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, "Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?" Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Yes." So the girl went and called the child's mother. Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages." So the woman took the child and nursed it. When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and she took him as her son. She named him Moses, "because," she said, "I drew him out of the water."

The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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America is a great Nation with a great heart. It has served as a destination point for all kinds of people from all kinds of places. During the colonial era most migrants came here from Northern European Countries. However the number declined in 1770s, and then again picked back up in 1840s. While those who came to this wonderful land of new life and opportunities worked hard and settled down here, their children and grandchildren became pillars of American Society. There are lots of German, Irish, English, Scottish people here among us and then the trend changed. Flow of people increased from 200,000 in 1830 to 515000 in 1850. And now, it still continues to grow, and the nations that they come from, including me is far more than the four or six countries of Europe.

Recent trend is similar. People flock to the shores of this land just like it happened in 1700s and 1800 and 1900. Each century brought a different group of people to a land of opportunity, may be for jobs, for security and sometimes not for the best of intentions. We became a land of opportunity and a land of prosperity. At every age we enjoyed and still continue to enjoy the benefit of their hard work.

Ours is a biblical story. This is the story of the people of Israel. This is what we heard in the first reading. Joseph reached the land of Egypt before his brothers and family got there. He established himself and found room for his family to be with him. Famine and poverty lead the people of Israel to the land of Egypt, the old country of power and wealth.

However Egyptians became lazy as they refused to do the everyday jobs of life and eventually lost the grace and wealth. The story of Egypt is continuing. The famine, the fear and the wrath of God that invaded the land of Egypt did not bring enough sense to them to understand the people of God.

There were people who flocked to its shores for security and life. Those who were supposed to give them life, the midwives, were instructed to kill them. But the good news is that they had more sense than the kings and rulers and politicians of the time. Shiphrah and Puah disobeyed the rulers to advance the cause of life and liberty. They listened to the voice of God, the voice of life within them. Civil disobedience became a Biblical gesture to advance life.

Why did Pharoh order them to kill the innocent? Because the people of Israel had grown in numbers. Egyptians pride was greater than common sense and hard work. Israelites worked hard in their farms, in their factories, and in their kitchens.

This was the plight of the people, who came here long ago and today. They worked in farms, factories and kitchens of those with more money and power. I am talking about our great grandparents and it will be the story of our great grandchildren who are and will be the pillars of this society. .

It is not hard to beef up nationalism and forget humanity when we do not know the history. It is easy to speak of justice when it is for ourselves and not for others. People become a threat when we forget we are the beneficiaries of their hard labor as our forefathers were.

Human plight continues even today. The story of the people of Israel continues in our midst today. We have the choice to become the Pharoah who is afraid. Or we have the choice to become the midwives, who refuse to kill human life and opportunities for others. Or we can become the daughter of the king, who chooses to give life to innocent people in the household of the king himself.

Let us not accept our dog's admiration of us as conclusive evidence that we are wonderful. We are only wonderful because we stand for life and liberty. We become a nation of greatness because we “keep in mind that the true measure of an individual is how we treat a person who can do us absolutely no good”.

None of us need to be cows to know what milk is. None of us need to be powerless to know the pain of those who seek our kindness. We know it already, unlike the cows, from our own history and our own family heritage.

So my dear brothers and sisters, Who are the people of Israel in our midst today?

© Fr. Jos Tharakan

Covet not thy past or future!

2011-08-19T17:34:00.000-05:00

“Love the people who treat you right. Pray for the ones who don't. Life is ten percent what you make it, and ninety percent how you take it!" I read this somewhere a few months ago. I thought to myself, how true.

We live in an anxious world because of the financial meltdown, and the national and global recession. Europeans are now worried about the Euro being devalued, and the financial institutions being in trouble. Germany and France, the two great proponents and supporters of the Euro, are now contemplating how to go forward in this time of crisis. Europeans in general are worried about their future and the great plan they started with: namely, eventually to become one great nation.

These immense concerns are not sufficiently simplistic to be dealt with by the stating of a few spiritual principles, and short admonitions by myself and other pastors in town. But surely we can take this whole scenario down a notch, (yes, I meant to say "down a notch") to our own personal lives, and closer to our daily experiences.

There are two days in the week about which I never worry.( Well. If I am truthful, I have to say, I am trying not to worry about). They are the two carefree days we can keep sacredly free from fear and apprehension. One of these days is "yesterday". Yesterday, with all its cares and worries, pains and aches, with all its failures and successes, has gone by. It is beyond my recall, and there are no parts of it I can change. Yes, I can learn from it for the next time, but I cannot change it. So, I might as well let it go. As hard as this may be, it is one thing you will waste 100% of your time worrying about. Yesterday has already joined the days of eternity, never more to return. It was mine then, and I had all the chances in the world to make 90% of it. But now it belongs to God.

The other day I do not worry about, at least I am trying not to worry about, is "tomorrow". I can imagine all sorts of things I think I need to worry about for tomorrow. Sickness, pain, financial stability, children and..... you name it, and I will add them to this laundry list. I invite you to add a few more concerns, and we can worry about them together! But what good will that do? Not an iota will change because I am mulling over what might go wrong tomorrow. Tomorrow is the twin sister of yesterday. They have the same genes and the the same behavioral patterns. Tomorrow is not yet mine. As the Ten Commandments say, let us not covet what is not ours.

What is left for me, then, is just one day in the week:" Today". If you are a believer in a God of eternity and a God without the limits of time, God only has "one day", whether we call it a day, week, year, or millennium. That is today, and it is the only one we have to live. Make 90% of it. You cannot hold on to what you don’t have, whether it be yesterday or tomorrow. We have plenty of grace, resources, and strength to live the present day. Anyone among us can actually and truthfully live through today's burdens.

Any man can fight the battles of today with God's help. Any woman can carry the burdens of just one day, with God's help. Anyone can resist the temptations of this day, with God's help. It is only when we willfully add the burdens of the two awful eternities, " Yesterday" and "Tomorrow" , such burdens as only the Mighty God can sustain, that we break down.

"It isn't the experience of Today that drives people mad; it is the remorse of what happened Yesterday and the fear of what Tomorrow might bring. These are God's Days ... Leave them to God." How true this is. Yesterday and tomorrow are "God Days". Today is "Our Day", with God's help. Whatever is not ours needs to be given back to its rightful owner, God. Of course, God should know and does know what to do with them. If not, we have all the reason in the world to be worried about yesterday and tomorrow.

Living into today, without the burden of yesterday and tomorrow, is a gift to a person with faith, not just beliefs. To those who do not have faith in God, or the belief of what, how, and where God, heaven, and hell are, there is no reason to give their yesterdays and tomorrows to someone who does not exist. But you and I, if there is a God in whom we have put our trust, will be sustained through this time as well. Live 90% of this day fully and truthfully, and 10% will be filled by the grace which is none of our concern. If we do not, we might as well join the ranks of the Eurozone people, and worry about our unity, whether as families, communities, or nations.

In the Pledge of Allegience ,we say that we are one Nation, under God. We have, then, an obligation to make our country behave like one nation under God, by living into today. That includes letting go of the past, refraining from coveting what is not ours, making 90 percent of this day ours through the resources and strength available to us , and claiming the remaining 10% through Grace.

Restriction or Liberation: What is Faith?

2011-08-17T10:29:00.000-05:00

Welive in a multi-cultural, multi-religious world. We have had many of these religions for a long time and some are still emerging. Our understanding of self, individual fulfillment, and interpretation of history has given us even more freedom to make new groups and belief systems and after 38000 Christian denominations and counting, besides all other religious conglomerations and splinter groups.

Many of these groups have emerged as a result of the understanding of Salvation, and the way we get to it. We found our ideaof salvation sometimes limited us from getting into heaven and while someothers made it too easy to get there. Then there are several in between who stay in the gray area about heaven and hell.

Inshort, Christian Doctrine of salvation is a very difficult one for the majorityof the people of the world to understand, and for that reason even for clergythemselves. Why is that?

Lookat what is said here today in the Gospel. Here comes a woman seeking help andJesus is not making it easy saying you don’t belong to the bunch I amsent to serve. It also sounds like Jesus was not very nice to her as many wouldfeel. Compares her to a dog apparently. What was that all about? People havetold me they don’t like this scripture passage and what it might say about Jesus.Now for some people in the world this sentence alone is sufficient to be turnedoff of Christianity and Jesus.

Butin this story it looks like the woman’s need was great and her conviction ofwho she was talking to was even greater. She is not turned off. No insult, and injury of top of that, ifthat is what it feels like to us, it was not to her obviously, could turn her away and she sticks toher initial request and then recognition of who Jesus was.

Jesus was a man, and one that was fully human who lived in the Middle East. Now if we apply the stereotype we have on the middle eastern men, true or false, sure there was enough reason for that Canaanitewoman to be upset. However, she did not hesitate; change her attitude or her impressionof Jesus, namely The LORD in spite of how Jesus treated her.

It is not going to be a new idea from me to say that it was her faith. Great. We are all on the same page now. It was her faith. I believe it was faith, which was the conviction ofthe heart, that went beyond the confines of religions and belief systems. It was surely faith, that did not limit her idea of God to the limitations of the world, and the stereotypes of culture, gender or orientation.

Her faith was a lifestyle, where one takes nothing for granted, nothing as limiting, andnothing as offensive. It was a way of acknowledging the presence of God even inthe midst of the most insulting moment of life. It was beyond the doctrines anddogmas we are used to now. It was beyond the interpretations of scholars who are trying to interpret something of the past.

Yes, I did talk about religion as I started. Let us just thing for a minute about howdid religions come about? A religion in its inception was simply a way offinding meaning for things that did not make sense. The sun and the moon, the wind and the fire, all that had more power over man. They had to find a meaning for things that they could not explain and then they all came together at some point or another to make a community of believers. they came together to believe in the same things and solve the same issues together. One group had some answers other did not. Thismade two groups of people namely those who know things different from othersthat did not know the same thing as the first group. The groups multiplied and increased and continue even today.

We are all in certain danger of believing in things that others don’t. There is a mythin every religion that there are people out there who can be excluded fromthese groups because they don’t know the things we know.

Inour context it will be something like this. Am I sent only to the enlightenedEpiscopalians to spread the message of love because we know how to love andcare for others? Or is it a myth in my heart that we are the only people whoknow how to love? Was Jesus sent only to the people of Israel and not to thegentiles because the gentiles were not in the group of the enlightened like theIsraelites?

Thepoor woman challenges Jesus, and pushes him to a corner to acknowledge God,grace and religion are greater than the restrictions and convictions of areligious understandings and self proclaimed Buddhas. God’s grace is greaterthan man’s exclusivity that goes true even for the God in Jesus, as well thosegathered around Him.

Applying this to our context can be read something like this. “Ifwe have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to eachother”. Says Mother Theresa. While she is talking here of the world that isravaged by wars and famine, it is truly and fully applicable to all those whobelieve in a God but can not find their way around the other. It is meant forthose who do not understand what was wisely said by St. John of the Cross, “Inthe evening, we will be judged on love.”

Soin the final analysis what is this woman teaching us? That we all have thegrace in true faith to ‘fire back’ at even God when we are left for granted inthe exclusivity of the world. Faith is not simply the conviction of the heartin things that are unseen, but in the courage to express the truth that to beloved and cared for are fundamental rights of every human being.

Jesusteaches the world in making disciples of the world, we need to travel to Tyreand Sydon, the land of the outcasts. A devout Jew will not go into these landswithout being defiled and the breaking of traditions. What was he doingthere? There must be more than simply concluding he lost his way and got there.If we look deeper we will find that here “His location, actions andwords all address the traditions, limitations and boundaries that the discipleswill encounter. By pushing at, dismantling and crossing over the boundariesthat the disciples might themselves put on “all nations,” Jesus foreshadows hisintention to declare the boundaries of the great commission to be limitless”.[i]

Faith liberates us fromfear. It is fear that causes us to limit. When limits are removed, we will befreed. Faith will rise up top to those who have the courage to leave fear.

[i] Boundless discipleship, Karoline Lewis

Reptilian brain to God’s mind

2011-08-13T23:16:00.001-05:00

Most of us are hurt in our life one time or another. We have been a victim of someone’s anger, abuse or misbehavior. In my fifteen years of ministry I am yet to find a person who has not experienced hurt from someone close to them many times and sometimes even a few strangers. It is only natural from the theory of the survival of the fittest that one would want to take revenge, take action or respond to such experience.

Recently as I was reading Karen Armstrong, a great inspirational writer for the brave, I came across what that desire to revenge means. In the Twelve Steps to compassionate life, she speaks about “reptilian brain”, the one that is still present underneath the more developed brain. This reptilian brain is responsible for the fight or flight response in animals.

We all need a reptilian brain to face danger and our need to respond to dangerous situations quickly. It however is not attuned to living in human societies, meaning, the developed species of the world or for the life of faith. Jesus calls humanity to outpace our reptilian brain with a call to the highest and best within us, to raise our sights upon Him and create a compassion, kind and caring world around us. True societies are based on self-giving respecting all of God’s children no matter who that person is, even our enemies.

Jesus is challenging humanity to grow beyond the tribal mentality. C.S. Lewis says, “Surely what a man does when he is taken off his guard is the best evidence for what sort of man he is. If there are rats in a cellar, you are most likely to see them if you go in very suddenly. But the suddenness does not create the rats; it only prevents them from hiding. In the same way, the suddenness of the provocation does not make me ill-tempered; it only shows me what an ill-tempered man I am”.

Jesus is right when He invites His disciples to be like His Father who is perfect. May be we are all called to strive towards perfection so that we might one day become perfect in the eyes of God rather than that of man. It is when we respect the other, we will restrain from being bad to one another. Religion is meant to make us do the right thing in life. What is the right thing in life: It is to love, to serve, to think and to be humble, says Ralph Waldo Emerson.

According to a Chinese proverb, “He who seeks vengeance must dig two graves: one for his enemy and one for himself”.

All of Jesus’ teaching is inviting mankind to become part of a civilized society of God. Respect, honor and care of one another will lead us to respect the other just like God respects mankind. The only way we become perfect in the eyes of God is when we respect ourselves as the God’s own temple and when we do the same to the other regardless of the sin we attribute to them. When our reptilian brains become civilized we will have found our true heritage. We all may be surprised at the light that appears suddenly in front of us. But I can assure you that we will not be made rats because of the suddenness of life, but what we are inside is revealed in the light that happens suddenly. We Christians need to tame ourselves to be interrupted by the suddenness of God’s light, so that what appears from within us is not rat like behavior, but God like manner of life.

Religion is to teach us to do the right thing in life: It is to love, to serve, to think and to be humble. But above all love one another and respect the dignity of all human beings. Even when our survival instincts challenge us we are to act as Christ did, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do”.

Thoughts from Fr. Helmer.

2011-05-13T12:26:00.001-05:00

Article for May-June 2011 Newsletter
St. James’ Church, Eureka Springs

Recently Jane and I traveled to the U of A campus with Cheri and Al Lacock for a remarkable afternoon of hearing and seeing the Dalai Lama in person. His Holiness is a truly gracious man, a humble Buddhist monk (his words) who has done much to promote peace and harmony among the religions of the world.

Jane and I experienced that harmony on Guam while we lived there from June of 2007 until January of 2009. We found sitting with Buddhists and Muslims to be moments filled with charity and gentleness. The rough and awkward moments came from some of our Christian sisters and brothers, but never from them.

Buddhism is not a religion; it is a way of being and is best understood from that point of view. It has a dignity and worth, and there are many Christians who have found benefit from its practices, particularly meditation, chanting and quiet.

At St. James’ we seem to have figured out how to embrace others who are not like us, living out the declaration of one of our former presiding bishops, Edmund Browning, who declared that in the Episcopal Church there are no outcasts. That is certainly the message the Dalai Lama proclaimed in his address. That does not preclude disagreement: it does prohibit the violence of exclusiveness in our behavior toward those who differ from us.

At the end of his address His Holiness spoke to me most when he said, “If there is a problem to which there is an obvious solution, then there is no need to be overwhelmed; if there is a problem to which there is no solution, then there is no point in being overwhelmed.” I thought of Jesus’ own teaching not to be anxious about earthly things. This is wisdom from a human being who has been exiled from his homeland much of his life, yet still finds hope for humanity and democratic principles.

Ben Helmer
May 12, 2011

Published with permission from the author.

- From the mobile desk of Fr. Jos Tharakan

Resurrection in the Internet Age

2011-04-21T11:19:00.000-05:00

Two days ago we got some great winds here in Russellville. Several houses on the west side of town lost power and were in dark all night long. When I came into my office early in the morning on Wednesday, I did not have power in my office either. Then I thought, we depend on electricity so much to the extend it takes a while to refocus and reconfigure the work of the day.

When all these wind and storm were happening on the previous night, I read a few facebook comments written by some of my friends. “I can deal with power outage. But if my wireless internet goes down or my Wii stops working, we have a problem. They don’t know who they are dealing with”. “If my facebook is down, I am going into depression and lonliness”.

Our modern life is so dependent on electricity and internet we hardly know how to live without it. To us a few minutes away from the web of the world that is right at our finger tips seem to take a lot out of us. We have all kinds of information available on on our fingertips from sources like Wikipedia and many times even if they are right or wrong, makes sense to us. As you know anyone can edit Wikipedia and the information you get there could be as good as you get from someone on the street who has a great imagination.

Now to draw our faith from these sources powered by electricity and downed by a surge, hacked by the unscrupulous and intercepted by malwares are not therefore the ideal way of growing in divine wisdom. Divine wisdom needs no power, www, or facebook. It is far superior powered by grace that depends on nothing that are fallible.

Faith happens within a community of believers and among a people who are willing to walk the journey with one another. Faith is not a set of statements such as I believe in God, I believe in Jesus and such, but a way of seeing the endless relationship we are in with one another and God. While events of history and statements of Councils might help us to clarify some of the notions of the historical faith as in Christianity, true faith emerges only when we it begins to take shape in the company of one another.

Behind the faceless facebook all emotions such as fear, anxiety, anger, disappointments, hopes, dreams and everything else can live fiercely. But they are still in the clouds until it becomes real in the face of a living being in front of you and then healing, true love, freedom and such sublime experiences become real.

This is what happened on the day of Easter. Jesus could have been risen and gone to the heavens, in the clouds or to the web. It would matter nothing to the disciples. But then He chose to stand in front of Mary and say, “Who are you looking for”? And then He stood in the room with the Apostles asking, “What are you afraid of?”. He walked along with two of them to Emmaus wondering, “Who are you talking about?”. Then he chose to break bread with them, an act that is tangible, relational and at the same time vital. Everyone of them is personal and present. That is Easter.

Resurrection becomes alive only to those who have the courage to come out of their hiding places on the web, from the Second Life cathedrals and make believe blissful land in the clouds. Resurrection is for those who have the courage to die to those that imprison them some way or another from being with someone who cares about them.

Jesus could not stand being in the cave too long. He had to come out to meet those whom he cared about. That is when the Resurrection happened. Not when he went to heaven. It is when he chose to appear to those whom he loved, his friends in the room both men and women, in a form and a fashion that made sense to the scared them, that is being in human form.

On this Easter Sunday, I invite you to do the same. Do not be tangled up in the web of the world in your computer. Do not get infected by the malwares of the clouds that addicts you. Let not the outage of power of the world scare you. Allow the wind of grace to blow on you that you can float into the tangible company of someone. Someone is looking for you, someone is waiting to eat with you, and someone wants to break bread with you. These are what we call resurrection. It is then our eyes open and we recognize Jesus among us. Easter is here, because you break bread with God. Easter is not here when Jesus is here but when you are with Jesus.

Wish you a Happy and Blessed Easter.

Life that changed the history

2010-12-04T11:00:00.000-06:00

The obedience of Mary has changed the history of the world. Regardless of the particulars of what happened, there is something incredibly beautiful about this woman who lived and died two thousand years ago. She had the courage, audacity and grace to live through the scorns and fears of daily life being pregnant without a man in life. She deserves our admiration and appreciation. I want to invite you to listen to this beautiful hymn as you reflect on your own courage to live life fully as Mary did.

Feast of All Saints'

2010-11-01T08:16:00.001-05:00

On this great feast day may the blessings of the Lord fill you with grace needed to live a Holy Life and enter into the company of these saints we sing about at the end of life. Enjoy this beautiful music.

God abides

2010-10-29T06:25:00.000-05:00

The Lord who changes not is the God who abides with us. Economic times are bad and there is sound of war and famine, sickness and pain. But in the midst of all that there is still the abiding presence of God that matters most and that never changes. Listen to this beautiful rendition of abide with me hymn. First by St. Paul's Cathedral Choir and then Hayley Westenra. Both sing from their hearts. Listen with an open heart so that God's presence will become tangible as you listen to this beautiful music.

The Divine Availability!

2010-10-09T21:10:00.000-05:00

Luke 17:11-19
On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" When he saw them, he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, "Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then he said to him, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well."

Jesus & the Ten Lepers from Will Heyward on Vimeo.
The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

----------------------------------
In the ancient times lepers were considered people who were cursed by God and had no access to their families and friends. They were exiled to remote places away from those whom they loved.

Why should we talk about ancient times? We have people who are banished to places and situations away from healthy ones today among us. Being exiled from the company of those whom we love hurts.

I remember the days when I was in a village of lepers who were abandoned by their parents or their children or grandparents, cared for by the sisters of Mother Theresa and Capuchin Monks. They lived in their own self-contained cities waiting for the mercy of the other and visit by their dear ones.

I saw firsthand the tangibility of rejection. I saw firsthand why we are all important and real to God. I experienced God as the most available reality on earth. No human can under any circumstance reject the other whom God created. Because God is available to us all in the no man’s land between Samaria and Galilee.

Here is what the scripture says, “when Jesus was in the region between Samaria and Galilee, lepers approached him.”

Several years ago I had heard about the great approachability of my Bishop in India. Everyone spoke so greatly of him, I decided to test it. I visited him one day in the Bishop’s house without an appointment. I rang the door bell and the porter came and asked me why was I there? I said, I am here to visit the bishop. He asked, if I had an appointment and I said no. He asked me to sit down and informed the Bishop who was in his room writing some letters. The brother who answered my bell, returned and asked me to wait for him outside. However as soon as he left, I knocked on his door to be surprised by the voice from inside saying, “come on in”. With a broad smile he welcomed me and we talked for about 25 minutes!

I think of this incident very often to reflect how miraculous it is to allow people to walk into your life. How transformative it is to be real and present. How beautiful it is when we are as simple and real as the other is. How down to earth we can be with the other that will make the incarnation real. Jesus is to be born again and again among us and within us everyday and here it is in the story of the ten lepers.

Here I have no big theology. But a simple invitation to reflect upon two things.

1. No matter how and why we are exiled from God, we are still blessed with enough grace to come out of our hiding places to find God. We have to make the move. All people have the ability and power left in them to approach God from their worst moments of life. God will meet them in the region between Samaria and Galilee.

2. Today’s story of the lepers is not simply a story of gratitude, but it is the story of God’s availability to the grateful and ungrateful, to the powerful and powerless, to the lost and found. Jesus sends a message to the busy to stop and listen to the story of the redeemed no matter who you are: The priest, the Deacon, The CEO, The President. Stop and Listen to the story of the redeemed.

Allow the other to approach you.

Your Holiness is in your availability to the other.
Healing happens when we can come out of our hiding places.

Found from under the table!

2010-09-13T08:13:00.000-05:00

Loretta Tyson sent me this small story last day. It is about a little boy who went to Grandma's house for dinner. Grandma served the dinner and little Johnny started eating. Then his mommy came by and said, Johnny, you got to pray before you eat. He responded saying, no mom. Mom insisted that he has to. And we do always pray at home before meals. Johnny responded, mom, that is at our house. We are at Grandma's house. And she knows how to cook.

Yes, we are at the grandma's house now. We are in the house of the Lord who knows how to prepare the best food in the world. On this Rally day all of our goblins, elfs and angels are back from summer rest. I pray our parents are eager to get them to church on time and get them to be found.

I have a question for you all parents. Suppose you lost one of your children in the wilderness and you are left with three others and no one else to care for the three, would you go about looking for the one who is lost out there? Be truthful. Would you? if not why not?

This is the strange paradox of Christian life. Often, it's more about being lost than found. It's more about feeling incomplete than whole. It's more about feeling excluded than included, because many of us live in those places most of the time. (Edward Beck, The Joy of Being Lost and Found)

We feel excluded many times for some reason and not included. That is why God prepares the meal day after day, to convince us over and over, it is alright to come to the table. God knows how to cook a good meal and is fully aware of who we are. When Christ invites us to dine with him, there is no need for security prayers, but trust that Jesus has done it right when he invited all of humanity to dine with him. No one is lost in the crack or wilderness of human making when it comes to the table of God.

According to some God goes into the extreme behavior which is 'foolhardiness' they say. It is not something a person with the best sense would do in the human world, they argue. May be That is why we are not Gods. Because God takes risks in love and relationship. Here is 'foolhardy' action of God going out of normal scared human behavior to bring home a point that when God invites humanity to share life with God, he will go to the extremes risking the rest. There is nothing foolhardy about acting in deep love for the other. We are taught over and over love has boundaries. We have gotten used to the idea love is with boundaries. We fail to believe love surpasses all boundaries.

This very act of God is what I call The Divine Repentance. In the book of Exodus we read today that God repented. What is this repentance all about? It is not the mourning and groaning over what filthy creatures we are, but rejoicing-ly coming out of our hiding places. It allowing the other to find us in places where we are.

Most of us are lost most of the time. Then there are lot of us who pretend that they not lost at all. They seem to have found God and all of God's glory and grace. Good for them. But for me, am still muddling through my moments of anxiety, fear, loss, anger and exclusion and needs someone to help me come out into the light and be found.

To those who are listening I like to say, we are all lost one way or another. But we are still within the reach of God as God has no qualms about taking risk when it comes to love. But for ourselves we need to figure out what is the kind of loss we are in. What is the kind of risk are we willing to take.

There are four ways a person can get lost according to the Bible. One is lost like a coin, lost for no choice of its own. It is somewhere under the table waiting to be found. Then there is the sheep that is lost wandering without having the sense to know better. Then there are some of us who have wandered away knowingly, choosing to do things otherwise, experimenting and exploring. It took real life to figure out there is more to life than just being on our own in our own devices. Then there is a brother who chooses self-righteousness and hatred on his path to being lost.

Which is the story you are playing out in your life now? Are you lost for no fault of yours? If yes, then it is time to grow up and seek ways to be found. Are you lost because you don't know better? Then it is time to learn. Are you lost because you have chosen to? Then only you can choose to return. But if you are lost because of self-righteousness and hatred, then you need lot more grace than we can help you with. God needs to come to your rescue. Try now.

Repentance is our willingness to be found by God. Repentance is not necessarily beating our chest every morning and crying out in fear for the mercy of God. Found by God when we were crawling deeper into the hole.

God allowed mankind to find him. God allowed mankind to change his heart, to see the soft side in God that could be influenced by a weakling mankind. God let man reform divine behavior.

Today's call is about us allowing someone or something greater than us to reform our behavior. It is keeping the fear out of the way to allow grace to flow. IT allowing God to change our behavior in today's world. That is repentance.

Brit Nicole has a beautiful song

Hello my friend
I remember when you were
So alive with your wide eyes
Then the light that you had in your heart was stolen
Now you say that it ain't worth stayin'
You wanna run but you're hesitatin'
I'm talkin' to me

Don't let your lights go down
Don't let your fire burn out
'cause somewhere, somebody needs a reason to believe
Why don't you rise up now?
Don't be afraid to stand out
That's how the lost get found
The lost get found

So when you get the chance
Are you gonna take it?
There's a really big world at your fingertips
And you know you have the chance to change it
There's a girl on the streets, she's cryin'
There's a man whose faith is dyin'
Love is calling you

When love calls, it is time to return. For Love has risked everything to get you back into the house of plenty. The table is set. You are already found. Why not and enjoy the table set before you?

Wherever I go...

2010-09-08T08:00:00.000-05:00

I cannot lose the presence of the Lord:
One arm, Humility, takes hold upon His dear
Humanity; the other, Love,
Clasps His Divinity. So where I go,
He goes; and better fire-walled Hell with Him

Witness to possibility

2010-09-06T22:52:00.000-05:00

I truly believe it is possible for us to be united. United by the power of the Holy Spirit in the Spirit of Love. I am a fan of Taize. Here is more on Taize.

Life at Taizé from Taizé on Vimeo.

To Learn from!

2010-09-05T05:59:00.001-05:00

Brother Roger : What we didn't know from Taizé on Vimeo.

Hunchbacked humanity! Story Continues....

2010-08-19T10:16:00.000-05:00

Thousands of years have passed. Our world is still hunchbacked it looks like. There are women all over the world that need liberation. May be it is not the women who need liberation but those who make them hunchbacked or those that are with impaired vision because they themselves are hunchbacked. Their eyes are focussed downwards than upwards. A crawling world is not the world of God. We are called tobe a upright and rising humanity. Here is a story that calls upon the conscience.

Sun Bin: The worldwide war on baby girls: "The wife was giving birth. “We had scarcely sat down in the kitchen”, she writes (see article), “when we heard a moan of pain from the bedroom next door…The cries from the inner room grew louder—and abruptly stopped. There was a low sob, and then a man’s gruff voice said accusingly: ‘Useless thing!’

“Suddenly, I thought I heard a slight movement in the slops pail behind me,” Miss Xinran remembers. “To my absolute horror, I saw a tiny foot poking out of the pail. The midwife must have dropped that tiny baby alive into the slops pail! I nearly threw myself at it, but the two policemen [who had accompanied me] held my shoulders in a firm grip. ‘Don’t move, you can’t save it, it’s too late.’

“‘But that’s...murder...and you’re the police!’ The little foot was still now. The policemen held on to me for a few more minutes. ‘Doing a baby girl is not a big thing around here,’ [an] older woman said comfortingly. ‘That’s a living child,’ I said in a shaking voice, pointing at the slops pail. ‘It’s not a child,’ she corrected me. ‘It’s a girl baby, and we can’t keep it. Around these parts, you can’t get by without a son. Girl babies don’t count.’”"

We need Jesus to come back around and show us a way out in today's world so that we can actually liberate our world that we love. Sunday scriptures might show us a world of the ancients breaking the law of Sabbath. But more it is inviting us to open our eyes to see laws that we are called to break in the modern world. Jesus is here not with the wrath of the second coming. Because His first coming is not over yet. He is still around in you and me. Therefore how about allowing Christ to speak through you?

Craving Community

2010-08-09T09:47:00.000-05:00

The Alban Institute - 2010-08-09 Craving Community: "One thing that has become crystal clear to me is that men and women are looking for communities, not congregations. Most people care very little about denominational labels or theology. Some don’t even care about the institution of religion itself (I know some individuals who actually belong to two or more different congregations of different faiths and move with ease between their respective worship services and programs).

The icons, symbols, and images of the past no longer hold power for this new generation of Americans. Some of the largest and most dynamic megachurches, for example, do not even have crosses in their facilities, let alone fixed pews or pulpits. What people seem to crave is a sense of community, a feeling of being wanted and known."

Article goes on to invite the readers to reflect on our need for protection for our bodies and souls.

Practice Modesty, Humility and Awareness!

2010-08-08T13:20:00.001-05:00

To speak of God ... is a practice to be approached modestly, humbly, and fully aware of the inadequacy of language to "set terms" to the One Who Exceeds All Terms. Found this in the writings of Scott Carinas. Then we are into fighting for establishing whose language is the best and what translation is the proper one. What will God understand? Which translation makes sense to God I wonder often only to find out that is the translation of our hearts. Now sometimes they lack grammar of course. But it does not matter though because it is about conversation which always happens in bits and pieces when it is with the real people. And God is real. Therefore let us approach God with modesty, humility and awareness of our inadequacy.

Humility to Greatness

2010-08-04T07:01:00.001-05:00

Humility runs before greatness. Pride runs before fall. Being grounded in God gives all the stability we need not to stumble on or sink into

No Rest For the Holy: Clergy Burnout a Growing Concern

2010-08-03T18:13:00.000-05:00

This is a great article for clergy and those who love them to read. It also might give insight into what is going on in the lives of your minister. Take time to read. forward this page to someone you care about and ask them to read this as well.

No Rest For the Holy: Clergy Burnout a Growing Concern

'Blessings

Jos+

From matter to Spirit

2010-07-29T18:57:00.001-05:00

Everything of the matter has boundaries. But of the Spirit are without. Love is of the Spirit. Therefore love could be without boundaries.

Grinding Grace of God!

2010-07-29T12:45:00.000-05:00

If you are reading this column I am pretty sure you have an interest in exploring what God has to say to you today through me or someone else who might appear in this place on a Friday. Or may be it is just out of curiosity that you landed on this page. Regardless of the reason of why you are reading these notes from me, I am sure something will come out of it for the better. That is a lot presumptuous of me to conclude the end result in the life of someone I don’t even know. I call it the grinding Grace.

But then what makes me say that is the strong belief beyond the logic of tolerance or reason in Grace that brings out the best every time. The only thing I can fall back on is the Grace of God no matter what situation I am in. It shall never go wrong or overboard to the extent I feel embarrassed or misrepresented. Grace is reliable and always available. What makes me so distastefully, for some, confident on what I say is the experience that I am blessed with love from those I have met and God who came to my life. Therefore I have come to this conclusion.

The only thing we are expected to do well and right is to love. We can add to that love God and our neighbor if that helps your Christian appetite. Then we have the best commandment of the Bible. Can we love someone right and well? There is no way of knowing it. Therefore do it anyway you know best and it is going to be right. This surety is what I dare to call my distasteful interpretation of Grace. What makes this right is the grinding nature of the Grace of God.

Our natural tendencies and cravings of everyday life are sometimes tough to deal with. The houses we own, the things we purchase, the loyalties we keep and the Theologies we adhere to make us choose separation of the other based on our preferences. The law of God is simple and easy to follow. But we have created binding restrictions to limit genuine love. This is why grace becomes a grinding process of our hidden selfishness. But always if we allow the grinding, grace will succeed.

Do you always understand your spouses, the one you fell in love with for the best person in the world? Then the list can be expanded with the names of our teachers, to preachers, to neighbors, to leaders and so on. The issues each of these people we have found names for are different from ours and that is why it is hard to love them. They are not anything like our own problems and therefore unbearable. That is why the grace becomes a grinding presence of God that will eat away the bite we have within us when we try to love the other.

Allow grace. I will promise you to your disappointment;(may be) it will grind every teeth you bite someone with. Now that you have read the column, I am sure it will grind your biting teeth today and every time you are about to bark at someone or pull down someone else. Whether you believe it or not, just because you read this, it is going to haunt you for the rest of your life grinding away the sharp words and comments, thoughts and fears you encounter.

That is why I call Grace is Grinding. It does good beyond the measure of what I can imagine and sometimes to my dislike. But it is still worth allowing grace in life. For it can transform us for the rest of our lives. Allow Grinding Grace.

Silence

2010-07-27T07:43:00.001-05:00

In silence we always wait for something or someone. It is in patient waiting we receive the best in life. Whatever is truly best God is.

God wakes up!

2010-07-26T06:58:00.001-05:00

When God wakes up within me I reach out for the clouds and mountains of grace. At other times I try to with little success. Help me Lord.

Being lowly

2010-07-22T07:10:00.001-05:00

If we are lowly in hearts, God will hear our prayer and make us strong. If we are proud in our hearts, we shall dig our own pit of destruction.

Kingdom and God!

2010-07-21T07:41:00.001-05:00

Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. I am sure to find these all over. If I can be these God is here.

Our Quarrels

2010-07-20T08:19:00.001-05:00

We quarrel over opinions on faith that is invisible. If only I can convince myself that i am accountable only to God I might let others be.

Loving generously

2010-07-19T07:47:00.001-05:00

We owe no one anything except love. Every one deserves love. Therefore if I love I am only paying my dues and no choice otherwise.

What are you full of?

2010-07-18T06:22:00.001-05:00

The Lord is full of compassion abounding in mercy. My acts will tell the world what I am full of. If it is mercy life will emerge all around

To live in Peace

2010-07-16T06:49:00.001-05:00

If it is in your control, live peacefully. Rejoice in who you are. It is in the joy of who I am in grace that I can bring peace around me.

Renewal and Nearness

2010-07-15T06:33:00.001-05:00

Being physically present to God is prayer and spiritual worship. Renewal of hearts lead to transformation. Renewal begins when near to God.

Listening in Nearness

2010-07-14T07:18:00.001-05:00

Draw near to hear the voice of God. In listening we pray better. Because we will truly know what to ask, where to knock and whom to seek.

Level ground integrity

2010-07-13T17:40:00.001-05:00

Those who live with integrity stand on level ground. No praise or ridicule will boost or destroy their self worth. For God is on their level

From Shame to Grace

2010-07-12T06:34:00.001-05:00

No one who looks to the Lord will be put to the shame. Therefore let go of the past. What is presented today is grace that will give you joy

Compassion is costly!

2010-07-11T17:06:00.001-05:00

What should we be doing to inherit the eternal life? Has this question even been in your mind at any time of your Christian life? What prompted such a thought and what was the answer you came up with?

This question is very active, live and a continuous statement. It is not what we should do to inherit the kingdom of God, rather what should we be doing, now, today and tomorrow. It is not about what we have done yesterday.

Life after confession as was before is not good enough to inherit the kingdom of God. To inherit something you have to actually claim it. Living the Gospel, loving your neighbor as yourself and God, after confession, alive and active is the act necessary for eternal life. It is by living the Gospel everyday we claim it. It is not based on an act started and ended yesterday.

Every email I receive from Prof. Louis Welcher comes with a tagline that reads, “Practice random act of compassion”.

If there is anyone out there looking for an answer for themselves or someone else, listen to this tagline, “Practice random act of compassion”.

Compassion is costly. It calls into question our ability to take a stand. I read recently that those who are compassionate or tolerant are people who do not know what is right or wrong. Some call it all “Willy Nilly”. Are you willing be called “all willy nilly” for being kind to someone?

Why is compassion costly? We see it is the Jew who was not a friend of the Samaritan who is seeking kindness and mercy. It is someone outside of the fold asking for compassion. It is sometimes the enemy who seeks our kindness. Many times need for compassion will come from those that we are least willing to share it.

Random act of kindness is about rising above the experiences of the past to the need of the present. Being saved is an invitation into the radical love of Christ that calls for compassion that defies our natural tendencies even that of revenge and retaliation. Being saved is more than singing of the hymn Amazing Grace. It is living the grace of forgiveness.

Being called into the midst of a world that is uncaring of one another, Christ is inviting the lonely lawyer to the radical love of Christ.

On July 22^nd2007, I asked you all from this same pulpit what kind of person of this story are you in your personal and spiritual life? Are you the storyteller, the robber, the priest, the Levite or the Samaritan. We are all given these choices in life and freedom to choose, to decide for ourselves, how we enter into the kingdom of God. I cannot sit complacently knowing Christ has redeemed me. What a waste of life if that is all what I am interested in, the knowledge of redemption and not the living of it.

Why do I bring this up again? It is because over the last few years I have encountered fears and struggles in the lives of people. At the deathbed, in the hospital room and in private conversation, I hear the fear and I sense the anxiety.

Therefore my dear brothers and sisters, If you ever wonder whether the kingdom of God is for you, stop worrying and start doing something about it. Practice acts of kindness and compassion to the stranger, the lonely, the prisoner, the widow and the poor around you. For I was hungry and you gave me to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me to drink. I was naked and you clothed me. Therefore enter into the kingdom of God. An act done without expecting a reward is the true act of kindness. It is the Nishkam Karma. (Self-less or desireless action is an action performed without any expectation of fruits or results)

Your act of kindness always brings experience of the Kingdom to the other. You make God real by what you are to those seeking God in this changing world.

If all what I do is seek ways to enter into the kingdom of God, the motivation of life is simply selfish. If all what I do is simply because I can go to heaven then I am still immature as I was when I was a little child. Do we ask the question, “what is in it for me”? If that is what it is all about, then Christian life is “dull and void”. I hate to say ‘null and void’. Because it is not completely null. It is simply dull and devoid of anything substantially great. At least such a person could improve on it a little more.

One day a Sunday school teacher asked a little nursery girl this question. What would you do if you happened to see a man who was attacked by the robbers and left bleeding on the road? The girl with all honesty said, “I think I might throw up”.

If you are still at a place where you want to throw up when you see someone different, then it is time to grow up. If the person you are looking at needs compassion from you, remember it is already beyond your desire to give it or seek compensation for it. You are spiritually left with no choice but to be kind as that is what you are blessed with.

Yesterday (July 9, 2010) His Holiness Dalai Lama said, “A compassionate attitude opens our inner door, and as a result it is much easier to communicate with others.” “If you want to be happy, practice compassion. If you want others to be happy practice compassion”.

Compassion is living the Gospel, the Escathalogical reality here and now. It is not waiting for tomorrow to practice the random act of kindness.

What is this story all about? It is about opening the doors of our hearts to people who need our love and not judgment. This story is about inviting humanity to define who they are primarily in this world Samaritans or just the storytellers. This story of course not about being all willy nilly, but it is all about being authentically true to oneself in the world we live in with a wing to our neighbor.

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Take Courage

2010-07-11T05:52:00.001-05:00

The Lord promises "I will not fail or forsake you. Take courage". If you can believe it you will find God in places you least expect.

Face to Face

2010-07-10T15:43:00.001-05:00

The Lord knew Moses face to face. God's face carried the promise and Moses' trust. What does your face carry in the midst of uncertainties?

God upholds

2010-07-09T07:22:00.001-05:00

It is God who upholds your lot. To those who make God their portion & cup life has more than they are looking for. To the rest it is empty.

Easy Perfect Way

2010-07-08T07:32:00.001-05:00

As for God His ways are perfect. I am still working on mine. I found it easier to follow God's if I can let go of my ego.

God's Mercy

2010-07-07T07:53:00.001-05:00

God's mercy is upon whomever God chooses. Today it is you An act of kindness is an act of Godliness. Whom will you choose to be merciful to

What makes sense

2010-07-06T07:12:00.001-05:00

Nothing can separate you from the love of God. Because God is for you. Live like you are for God as well and all else will make sense.

Just a deep sigh

2010-07-05T08:12:00.001-05:00

Sometimes the best prayer is just a deep sigh with the awareness of God within us. We have lots of reasons for a sigh. Why not think of God.

True Freedom

2010-07-04T05:50:00.001-05:00

True freedom rings when our hearts rest in God. Who can rest in God? The one who had found freedom from the things of this world. Be free.

Renew my heart, O Lord

2010-07-03T07:27:00.001-05:00

Renew the face of the earth o Lord. Renew my Spirit and my life. Let there be a freshness of love, faith and hope in my heart.

Lead by the Spirit

2010-07-02T08:23:00.001-05:00

All those who are lead by the Spirit of God are children of God. There is only one requirement. All else is an excuse otherwise.

Mind set on God

2010-07-01T06:22:00.001-05:00

To set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. To set the heart on God is joy. Living in peace and joy. Give life.

Prayer from the deepest heart

2010-06-30T07:24:00.001-05:00

Out of the depths I have to call God to make prayers real. Whatever comes from the deepest of our hearts is pleasing to God.

Part the sea

2010-06-28T06:26:00.001-05:00

Stand with faith before the obstacles of life. Moses with God parted them into two and walked dry. So shall you this day against all odds.

Drifting. Just Drifting!

2010-06-27T22:14:00.000-05:00

SpongeBob Square-pant’s teacher asked him “What is the meaning of the word procrastinate?”. He told his teacher, that he is tired. Could he answer the question tomorrow? And the teacher said, “SpongeBob, procrastinate means to postpone things until the next day”. And SpongeBob said; “Let us talk about it tomorrow or the next day as I feel kind of tired today”. No matter what the teacher said to SpongeBob, still he insisted that he can only talk about it tomorrow.

From now through the end of this season we are going to hear about Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem. He is set out to go to Jerusalem and he cannot wait for another day to do what He was called to. He cannot postpone anything to the next day like SpongeBob as tomorrow will have its own cares and worries to attend to. It is like home work. We got to do what we got to do today before we go to bed. Then sleep tight as we have done our job for this day.

In the 1960s movie “The Graduate” there is a scene where we see the then young Dustin Hoffman resting on a rubber raft in the pool. Seeing this, his father asks him, “what are you doing” he answers, “drifting. Just drifting”.

This is what we find in a lot of people today, just drifting along. Jesus was not drifting along. He was determined of his destination. Destination is the mission that he has to accomplish. It was a clear path laid out in front of him and he is following the call no matter what.

God’s call is always a mission we have to accomplish with diligence. It cannot be accomplished drifting along and postponing for an opportune time to come. The harvest is ripe. The time is now and that is what Jesus responds to in His life and that is what we are called to.

This is the characteristic of a leader, someone who is willing to respond to God’s grace now and with diligence. We are called to be leaders in the kingdom of God going against the current of the day and not drifting along. We are, just like Jesus in the wilderness, tempted to drift along.

Prophet Elisha, we read of in the first reading, realized that he cannot drift along in life as he was entrusted with a great responsibility. He could not have done what God called him to do alone and without the grace of God. Therefore he asks Elijah, Father, give me the double share of the Spirit. In other words give me twice the inheritance of grace of God that I may live my call to the fullness. It is the admission of the fact that he is unable to finish the job all alone.

We are all incapable people when it comes to fulfilling the mission God has entrusted to us. We cannot establish the kingdom of God alone. We need to travel along with and in the company of great men and women. We need the double share of their spirits to complete the work God has entrusted to us. Elisha asked for the right gift.

We all have all kinds of excuses to get out of what God has called to us to do. We might even let the Lord know that we cannot respond to God’s mission because someone or something is dead in our lives. Reasons are plenty not to respond to a call and they all might sound reasonable.

Call to discipleship is a hard thing to follow. Every other reason brought against God’s call is simply a way of drifting along without any passion for the mission of God.

I recently read this story of a college professor who filled a mason jar full of big rocks. He asks the students if the jar is full and they said yes. Of course he said no and pulled out a bag of gravel. By this time the students had learned that to his next question they better say No, the jar is not full. He continued and said that they are right. He then pulled out a bag of sand and then a pitcher of water. (From collected sermons - David E. Leininger)

If we hadn’t filled our jars with big rocks first, we would never get them in at all. If we fill our lives with all that are insignificant we will never have the place for God in it at the end of it. Prioritizing is so very important in Christian life. Until we do it, we won’t ever have Christ in our lives.

Discipleship is simply our ability to prioritize what is important and who is important. No more procrastinations and lay away. No more drifting. No more filling in with small stuff. Ask for a double of the share of the Spirit of God that we may have the courage to find what is important in life and live what is important in life.

I don’t need to say who is important. Who is the big Rock? Christ himself. Get Him in first and then we shall fill the rest with all the junk of life. After all when Christ is in first, all else will be found unimportant.

Discipleship is giving God what belongs to God.

Goodness and Mercy

2010-06-27T05:50:00.001-05:00

Goodness and mercy goes together. Our goodness will be shown when we are merciful to the other. This is how Christ lived on the earth.

God's Love is Fresh

2010-06-26T08:03:00.001-05:00

God's love is fresh every morning. Bless me with the same grace that I may live and love fresh every morning.

2010-06-26T00:00:00.001-05:00

May you all be blessed with peace that surpasses all understanding.

Co-dependency to Freedom

2010-06-24T12:47:00.000-05:00

In a vision given to St. Francis of Assisi God asked him to build His church. I think we are all given the same call today, to build God’s church. What are churches for? I believe it is a place for people to come and take rest. These are not my words. This is what the Lord says. “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light”.

Has this been your experience after a Sunday Morning worship? If yes Thank God. You have found the right place. Continue to nourish your soul. If not, Why? May be because we come with some a few chips on our shoulders. The biggest chip that creates tension than relaxation I found is the fear of being judged by the other. What would the pastor think of the dress I am wearing? Would he find out that I am not as clean inside as I look outside? What would Sally think of my hair if it is well kept? What would Joe think about the tie I am wearing? The color of the dress, the leather of the shoe, the smell of the deodorant and the list goes on. It hasn’t turned out to be a relaxing place after all. Because you got to really make sure that everything is well coordinated before you can step foot into the door of God’s house. If you can then dodge the bullets from the pastor’s sermon; whew… you made it through another Sunday!

Fear of being judged is a terrible feeling. Only those who have been judged know how it feels like and that is you and me. This can only be overcome by a community of loving people who knows and remembers what it feels like being judged and does something about it. However we all suffer from dementia when it comes to judging others. We easily forget that we have been judged before. We have forgotten that it is the property of God to judge and we freely have taken our place on the judgment thrown of God without being invited to share it.

To ease this tension, let me assure you, God has made us obnoxiously unique. I am sure someone is going to frown his or her brow reading this saying, “how dare he says we are obnoxiously unique”. Take delight in this that God is still happy with you though. It is because I can assure you that there is every reason for someone else in the world to judge you for what you are on the best day of your life. If anybody thinks otherwise, I would suggest get a new mirror of grace to see what you actually look like inside when no one else sees you but God. Our best judgment is worse than the worst judgment God can ever make, if God does! So, it will be better for us to let our obnoxious righteousness be put to rest so that God’s grace can actually hunt for us and carry us on His shoulders.

This can only happen when the spirit of Babel disappears from within us. What was the spirit of Babel? The spirit of the people of Babel was the fear of the other, their languages, their appearances, their pride, their righteousness and even the fear of being judged. We believe we speak one language. We don’t. We speak multiple languages everyday. When we are afraid we speak a language of fear. When we are angry we speak a different set of alphabets put together. It is not even a language many times. When we are jealous then there is a new set of phrases and languages that come up. I am very certain that none of us truly understand the other exactly even when they say the words we seem to know the meaning for. If we did, there will be no more divorces, fights, or tensions in our families. Only the Spirit Of Pentecost can help us remove our fears of the other.

Here is a way out of this situation. Speak a language all of us will understand. Speak the language of love that is patient and kind; that is not jealous or pompous or inflated or rude. Let it not be quick tempered or afraid of the other. (1 Corinthians 13) Speak a language of love for it has no alphabets or phrases.

This is what churches are meant to be. A church as a whole is called to be a place where all the chips we bring in as we walk in are to be deposited for safe keeping at least until the church is over. I can guarantee you that all of us will grab them back as soon as we come out. Do not worry. I am sure eventually we will leave our chips back for God to do whatever is best with them. That is when a church becomes truly a church. Until the chips are left in the basket of God, churches are still buildings with four walls, and a roof and we are a co-dependent people and pastor.

I hope you will find meaning for your life beyond co-dependent relationships in our churches to the freedom of the Children of God. Build your church on the grounds of freedom from fear mixed with the fountain of compassionate love. There is nothing more freeing than being freed of the need to judge and the fear of being judged.

From Fear To Freedom!

2010-06-20T12:16:00.000-05:00

Today’s collect is a beautiful prayer that says, “make us have perpetual love and reverence for your holy name”. We come with it naturally and but we don’t act on it without grace. We need continual grace of God to be actually and perpetually loving and reverent to one another. There is wisdom in this prayer that admits that we are a group of people struck with fear of some kind or another. This is the message of all the readings today.

Fear is a gift of the Holy Spirit. Fear is something that comes to us when we grow up. It is fear that causes prudence and forbearance. Having a healthy sense of fear makes us behave with kindness sometimes, patience at other times. It is this healthy fear that saved Prophet Elijah from the wrath of Jezebel. It is not this healthy fear or law Paul is talking about or Luke is saying in the story of the demoniac.

The focus of the scriptures is the crippling effect of fear that caused Elijah to hide himself under the tree in the wilderness away from the people he was called to. Similarly When Jesus came into the land of Gerasenes they asked him to leave the place, because they were seized with great fear. Wow… when God walked into the midst of people, they got afraid. I don’t blame them. I know for a fact that when mighty things happen around us we could get terrified.

They wanted Jesus to leave the place. Because they were familiar with the man they had chained in the tombs, they knew who he was and they knew what he was capable of doing. It is better to cater to the devil you know than the angel you don’t. Here it is. They did not know Jesus, he seemed powerful. That is why they asked him to leave their territory for fear of what he might do. Even a great miracle could not change the hearts of people when it came to fear.

Why were the people afraid? Because there is the unknown, unfamiliar and new in Jesus. They were not used to a man who works miracles out of nothing. They were not comfortable with someone who challenged their lifestyle. Jesus challenged them in their own seats to open their eyes to see God at work.

According to The Reverend Alison Harrity, “Unity is the big message Paul is attempting to get across to the Galatians; unity and inclusiveness that comes from faith in Jesus’ command to love each other and not necessarily from the interpretation of the law. Unity can be terrifying especially when you are being asked to be one with folks who look nothing like you. But Paul is clear that God used the law to keep the people in line, to keep the people focused on God, on right action. Interpretation of the law had gotten tricky and Jesus provides us with the love and the grace we needed to understand that the community need not be built on dietary laws or the fact of circumcision, but can instead be based on baptism and a commitment to spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world. No one need take steps back and live according to the law in order to be disciples of Christ. We must instead take steps forward to putting on the clothing of Christ and live in faith without fear”.[1]

All the scriptures today are not about the difference we have in our skin color, our languages, our liturgical differences, our appearance or our conversational styles. It is about Freedom of the Children of God. By bringing to forefront the contrast in how we appear to the external world, Paul is emphasizing the similarity in all of us, namely “we are all sons of God”. We belong to one family of God.

Why are we afraid?, because we forget that we are Baptized into Christ and clothed ourselves in Christ as is seen the second reading. Courage comes from the knowledge that we are the sons of God, which Paul goes on to say, “Sons of God are no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus”. This is not about man. It is about humanity. We are created in the image and likeness of God as we read in the book of Genesis that says, “God made them man and woman, male and female”.

What does that say? God made us male and female. We could actually and faithfully, without going anything against the Bible, call God “Our Father who art in heaven” as Jesus taught us or create a prayer that reads “Our Mother who art in heaven” and be alright. But on earth we are afraid. We are afraid to give the credit due to the other for fear and limitation within us. Not in the other. We are afraid of ourselves more than anyone else.

When we are internally free nothing in the world can scare us. When we are afraid of the other, we might even scare God out of our land, our church and our personal lives as it happened to the people of Gerazenes.
Therefore my dear brothers and sisters, let us pledge to God that we will not drive God away from among us. Let us make a pledge to God that we will welcome Him or Her into our midst so that the demons in that scared the Prophet Elijah, The people of Galatia and the Garesenes will not scare us.

Let freedom ring and ring it so loud that we will be truly children of God in every aspect.

[1] http://www.tepf.net/SermonPrep.cfm

© Fr. Jos Tharakan / 2010

Our floor our table!

2010-05-30T15:30:00.000-05:00

My mother used to tell me that table symbolized family. We had lots of friends, family and guests who sat at our table my mother set. Some of our family members were not that great in my view. But my mother would say, no matter what they are or how, they are going to sit at our table and we are going to be nice to them sharing and listening.

Sometimes we didn’t have a lot to share with our guests, but still we gave them all we had in our kitchen, and we ate what was left over. All those who sat at our table were considered people whom we could not judge because they are honored guests and would say, remember the story of Jean Waljean? Christ comes in different forms and specially at the table. She would say, open your eyes and ears. Christ may be talking.

We had some “servants” at home when we grew up. We didn’t have a lot of money to pay them, but since they were poorer than us and didn’t have a lot to eat if they got something to eat they were glad to work for us. In the culture people called them “servants” because they worked for us. They cooked our meals, cleaned our house and did the laundry sometimes. (By the way that is what my mother did everyday. So that is not an excuse for me or anyone to call others servants). At meal times they sat on the floor and we would sit at the table with our father. My mother used to say, it is alright to sit with them if we want to. We liked our “servants”. They used to be our friends and we loved them. We told them secrets and they told theirs. So we chose to sit with them on the floor where they had their plates and my mother would serve food for all. Of course she would say in secret she wanted to give us a better share of the food but since we sat with our “servants” we were all treated about the same at the “floor” which was our table. She said no one is servant in her house when we all ate the same food.

I had the fortune of sharing the table with those with leprosy, aids, abandoned children, unwed mothers, prostitutes, beggars, in a colony run by the sisters of Mother Theresa in India, and of course a table with Mother Theresa herself. I was a pastor sharing God’s table with 900 “lepers” who lived isolated in the southern part of India. This was one of the most painful experiences of my life, and that was because I saw myself better and I couldn’t and didn’t want to admit it my sins and failures! Several times I was blessed by my fellow priests at our table, deacons, bishops and archbishops. I also had an experience of sharing a meal with a national leader. We all ate the same food, laughed, talked and when we left, we were closer some way.

I used to live in a place called Chester, AR. This is a small town with lots of poor people. One day a few years ago, I decided to invite a few of my friends to share a meal with me. I told about 40 of my friends to bring one sandwich for themselves and one for another. Also I told them that they are free to invite any of their friends to come with them. To make the story short we had about 400 plus people gathered and we all ate had more sandwiches than we brought left over. We shared the table on the hilltop and there were all kinds of people in it, the sick, the sad, the rich, the poor, and of course all religious groups as well with all kinds of orientations and spirituality. But one thing that night we all became friends.

We were then reminded of the days when Jesus multiplied bread and fish. It must have been fun for Jesus to watch all kinds of people sitting at his table. Because He knew in his heart this meal shared at His table would be such a blessing for all present for they will see their own lives rather than of others around them.

Interestingly when Zacchaeus sat at the table with Christ he saw himself first, then Christ. Mathew saw himself as well and left everything to follow the Lord. Whem Mary Magdalene sat down to wash Jesus’ feet at the table of Simon, she saw her self too. So did Peter, and John. But Judas looked at himself and couldn’t take it. He walked away!

It fascinates me to see people and I always wonder why people walk away from sitting at the same table of plenty? What divides us? We have more in common than different. Who walks away from the table of God? Those who cannot see themselves. Not those who see others. But we might pretend that we are walking away because of someone else. In reality we are walking away because we are unable to face ourselves and our own smallness before the greatness of God. I find no more servants or lesser beings among the mortal men in this world, just children of God of all kinds. I wish we have the grace to acknowledge the truth.

This article was published in the Courier in Russellville, AR on 05/28/2010 (C) Fr. Jos Tharakan

Unorthodox menu to choose from!

2010-05-02T21:27:00.000-05:00

From the world of medicine and science we learn that we have unconditioned reflexes and conditioned reflexes. The unconditioned reflexes make us react in a certain way. When a light beam hits our eyes, our pupils shrink in response to the light stimulus. And when the doctor taps you below the knee cap, your leg swings out. These reflexes are called unconditioned, or built-in. The body responds in the same fashion every time the stimuli (the light or the tap) is applied. In the same way, dogs drool when they encounter food.

Now we have conditioned reflexes, those that we train ourselves for. We train a dog to run for food at the sound of a bell. We train a dog to recognize the jacket one is wearing is showing the time of his food. So the next time he seems me in the jacket he is used when he got food , he salivates.

Peter in the first story is going through conditioned reflexes and responses. His menu was pretty kosher at the time of this vision. He knew what was clean and unclean conditioned by the customs and expectations of the time and that of the religion he was part of. There is a Pavlov reaction in Peter at the sight of the great vision of the animals, beasts of prey, reptiles, and birds of the air for food. He is conditioned to feel what he felt as the scripture says.

It is then the awareness of a conditioning was brought to Peter. It is then the unconditioned grace of God and the purity of God’s creation opened up before Peter.

Without exception we are all conditioned through the ages past and religions we had been part of to be conditioned. Just like Peter our spiritual reflexes have been conditioned to see people through the lenses we are trained to see. Peter is given an unorthodox menu to choose from and that unnerved him.

It is like for an Indian man who is used to enjoying curry all life long, and having thought of it as the best food in the world coming to know of the half cooked or rare steak that drips blood as good and tasty. It is like drinking cold and iced tea instead of hot tea with lots of cream and sugar. It is like having a black cup of coffee as tastier than a cup of sugar water with a little coffee to go with. Eventually I learned wow, Louisiana gumbo, Pilipino pig head, European snails and the Japanese sushi are all food made for people and tastes as good as my Indian curry. There is nothing that is obnoxious or weird about what I am not conditioned to taste or see. It only calls for expansion of my taste buds, training of my ear, perfecting my eyes.

Why should we condition ourselves to taste and see all that God has created is good? The answer is very simple.

It is because

"See, the home of God is among mortals.

He will dwell with them as their God;

they will be his peoples,

and God himself will be with them;

he will wipe every tear from their eyes.

Death will be no more;

mourning and crying and pain will be no more,

for the first things have passed away."

There is no shadow of death among the people of difference, food of various tastes or kinds. If God has chosen to stay with those that he created, it must be pretty good. If God has chosen to come to those that God created it must bear certain qualitative substance and quantitative integrity. If God still finds meaning in wiping the tears of the creatures of the earth, there must be something more in them than we care to admit about our fellow men and women. If death is been removed for even those that I don’t understand, and even despise then who am I to award death to anyone? If life is been restored to people of all kinds what is my right to say otherwise?

Jesus challenges Peter about the blurred vision in the face of a divine vision. Jesus calls Peter to grow up to see the conditions that he has limited himself to in the face of the unconditional riches that are made available to him.

Jesus asks us all to love one another as Christ loves us. How can we do that? Only when we realize this, `What God has made clean, you must not call profane.' We can only love for an eternity what God has made clean. When there is an intrinsic cleanliness that can not be destroyed or taken away by anything we do, and when we acknowledge and accept that in all of God’s creation, we can love anyone and everyone as Christ calls us to love.

If I am unable to love and care about someone out there, regardless of their compass in any direction then I am still the Pavlov’s dog, sadly conditioned to run at the sound of a bell and not the voice of God.

What God has made in all of us for now and for an eternity is clean. Then, we all without exception get dirt all over us. Behind the dirty dress we all wear, there is a shining heart that can not be contaminated by human options. That is how the world will know we are disciples of a God who has taken shelter among the people of the world and not just followers who lives in heaven only!

Listening and following

2010-04-28T21:23:00.000-05:00

On my way back from North Carolina I happened to meet a woman in the plane visiting her two week old, never ever met online boyfriend in Portland, Oregon. In the conversation that followed I learned that she teaches an Indian spiritual practice called Tantra, which is the worship of the god Shiva, a mythical figure. “Tantra deals primarily with spiritual practices and ritual forms of worship, which aim at liberation from ignorance and rebirth”. As we continued our conversation she said, “here you are a Christian Priest from India teaching of the great teacher Jesus, I am from the US teaching the principles of Spirituality of the people of India.”

Yes, who was Jesus to her and to many who teach the “Tantra, Mantra, Mudra” which are the “Technique of living, words or syllable for transformation, or a symbolic or ritual gesture, and many other forms of religious practices? This was the same struggle for the people of Israel at the time of Jesus. For them, the people of Israel, inspite of the fact that Jesus had clearly talked about his identity and proved beyond measure what that means, he was just an opportunist. Their hearts were too closed to understand and see God at work in this man. Because he was too common and his origins are known to everyone.

In his famous book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis makes this statement, "A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic--on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg--or he would be the devil of hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us.”

I want to add to this statement by saying He was the greatest human teacher and the tangible reality of how God would look like in human form amongst us. God had to take a shape that humans will understand and be able to identify. But mere resemblance of the human figure was not enough to recognize God in human clothing. The suspense was because they stopped seeing anything beyond what their naked eyes could see.

Several years ago The Radio Corporation of America, or “RCA,” created a lasting logo: the figure of a dog sitting before a Victrola record player, staring in wonder at the speaker. The caption told it all: “He hears his master’s voice.”

Jesus is giving us today the imagery of a sheep. A little animal that trains itself to understand the accent, inflection and the movement of a different species than itself. Because somewhere in its brain it has learned that this creature, we call the shepherd has the capacity to lead the sheep to shelter, security and sustenance.

The only way for us to know who Jesus is and was is by sitting in wonder at the mouth of God. Why did Jesus say Mary has chosen the better part? She listened not just sat lazy, as some people say, at the feet of God. Mary sat with her ears open to listen carefully, not simply hear what was being said, but was not said.

Coming to belief, not a set of dogmatic statements, but a solemn internal recognition of the identity of God, happens in the five senses of the body and the experience of the sixth sense of the spirit. Whether I accept it or not, in Baptism I am “Marked As Christ’s Own” for an eternity. Now that we have become the part of his fold, we have been given the opportunity to train ourselves to understand the accent of God, the intonation of heavenly music and the destination of His journey. Listen carefully and follow the staff of his leading to green pastures.

Why did they take up stones? Because what they saw or heard threatened them. The simplicity of his teaching was scary. Jesus conversation was all about the choice God had made about them, “no one will snatch them out of my hand” if they are willing to enter into the realm of God and the decision they have made.

Liberation from ignorance and rebirth is guaranteed to those who follow the Lord. Freedom for eternity is granted to those who have trained themselves to hear the voice of God and be lead by Christ to destination.

Liberation requires no magical syllables for transformation and no fanatical ritual practices. But they are helpful human actions to calm the body and the mind that we have come to embody in this world, and that we may listen carefully to the voice of God just like Jesus in human form.

Sweet Home Mountainburg!

2010-04-25T22:06:00.000-05:00

On Tuesday morning, I drove my friend, Marian, to her home in Mountainburg, AR. As we approached this little town, 15 miles west of Alma, Marian had a glow on her face. I was amused, watching her pure joy in getting back to her home town. I said, “Sweet Home Alabama.....and Mountainburg”. She looked at me with a smile and said, “You read my heart, Jos. Although I was happy staying with you and your family for a few weeks, I felt like it was time for me to sleep in my own bed, cook in my own kitchen, and be back home”. Marian wanted to be totally herself, and to fully relax. Marian wanted to be at home.

I believe we all want a place and people that we call home and family. Home is that place where we know we can be ourselves, without being scrutinized by anyone who is not part of our family. We know our father, mother, brothers and sisters love us no matter what might happen, and no matter how we look or act . Love! Yes, they love us, although sometimes they may not agree with all we say and do.

Home is a place where all failures of one’s life are overlooked for the reason of love. Love surpasses everything. When my brothers and sisters disagree with me about the way I am and the way I live, my father says, “It is still my home. Let no one disregard my children.” In my father’s house, it is he who makes the rules.

This is one of the best lessons in the story of the Prodigal Son ,from the Holy Scriptures. The unexpressed mystery of the love of the father, gently teaches a lesson to the older son. The lesson is about who is in charge when it comes to deciding on the sibling’s future. While the siblings might wrangle over tiny details of insignificant matters, the father is set to feast because of the return of his child home.

We are all siblings in the plan of Salvation. We all share the same heritage and history. We are all sojourners in this world. We are inhabitants of this world only for a period of time, as was true in the story of the Prodigal Son. For a while, he was forced to live in the field with the pigs. We also live in the pigsty when it comes to this world we live in, as compared to the heaven we have come from. We have to return home. No matter what we have turned out to be, at the end of the day, we will be admitted back into the father’s house. There are no “left behinds”, and no “lost”.

But then, for political reasons, personal agendas, and sometimes even for spiritual rightness (or perhaps it is because of “human righteousness”),we seem to judge one another. In fact, we even say that those who are different from ourselves don’t belong in the house of the Father. In ages past, it was women of all origins. Then, of course, we turned against one another on the basis of color. Now that we are slowly growing out of those prejudices, humankind is seeking other scapegoats on whom the blame for our judgmental behavior can be placed. Groups we target may have orientation differences, varied civilizations, multiple ethnicities, or languages different from our own. We are even jealous of someone's status which we perceive to be above ours, or of our own status we perceive to be above that of the other person. Some of us might still believe in the philosophy that the younger brother has to be wrong, in order for the older one to be right!

The wise ones realize that Christian life is the joy of living in the house of God that we can all call home. It is an internal awareness that we all share the same space, and that it belongs to the first and the last, the new and the old, the different and the same. Regardless of the arrogance and righteousness of the older brother, the Father admits the younger to the family.

Celebration is an invitation to grow into the understanding of the love of the Father as being greater than the rivalry of the siblings. The canopy of the heavens that we are all under is bigger than the tiny tents we have built for ourselves. The heart of God is greater than the hearts of those who think they control the tents they live in.

If my brothers or sisters are not entitled to the love and riches of my Father, then I am not worthy of it, either. If my Father’s love is so small as not to include my brothers and sisters, then His love is the equivalent of human pettiness. If all, or even some, of mankind's polarizing rhetoric can undermine God’s merciful love and God’s kind heart, then His loving kindness is not genuine. It is, rather, merely the human concoction of a theory for control and manipulation.

If the fatted calf was the feast for the Prodigal, then it is the fatted hearts God is seeking today. Hearts made fat by being filled with love and forgiveness, acceptance and affirmation, are the attributes of Christ. When we read the story of the Good Shepherd, we read the story of the Father who does not hold out on His children. Even when the last one hides behind the bushes and thorns, or is lost between the rock and the hard place, Christ gets closer and closer to take them home! Sweet Home!

(C) Fr. Jos Tharakan | 2010

Resurrection needs spiritual muscles

2010-04-20T23:03:00.000-05:00

Presiding Bishop Katherine Schori invites us to stretch our muscles to make resurrection available to those who need it most around us. It is not an easy thing and we don’t want to because we are tired from all the labor of the day. However we have a moral and spiritual obligation to make the message of the Resurrection heard and lived. A Christian is always called to give life and make even the stones to speak.

I have been asked before what is my understanding of evangelization? This question often comes up in our adult Sunday School. Here is my thought about it.

When we are grateful to God for our daily life, and have learned to celebrate it in a way that makes sense to people around us, we become contextually evangelistic. Making sense to people around is extremely important as celebration of life taking into consideration where we are and what we do, and how our neighbors live and look like is the key to proclaiming the Good News.

Evangelization is not preaching. It is a lifestyle whereby people see mercy and justice personified in us. If what we preach and speak add 10% of evangelization, 90% comes from what we think and how we live in a given context. If I am not excited about being what I am, where I am and whom I am pleased with why should someone else jump into our depressed wagon?

In 2010 we made it a priority for us at All Saints’ that we will be contextually evangelistic, meaning we are going to share our excitement to those around us first, whether it is to the majority or minority. We proclaimed that it is time for us to claim the people of our neighborhoods as our brothers and sisters who need a place as much as we do to worship and belong. We decided that it is time for us to say we are not an elite church that only speaks the Elizabethan language and wears golden robes, but a church of the people of all kinds seeking God in all things. Everyone has a place here. Everyone has a ministry here.

Therefore I urge you brothers and sisters to stretch your spiritual muscles of love and compassion. With compassion and care attend to the needs of those within our congregation first whom you have come to know long before I arrived. Invite an un-churched and new person to your community of faith. There are plenty of people out there waiting to hear the Good News that we live by at All Saints’.

I guarantee you, we have problems of living together which proves my point that we are a family. I am sure you have problems and difficulties in your family. I do. But I won’t trade my family for anything. Rather I wish you were all born to my parents. I can assure you, take my word to the bank for a yield of 30, 60 or 100 fold we are one of the best in the world. I hope you will share the Good News. I hope you will stretch your muscles to give life.

Forgiveness to Peace!

2010-04-11T12:00:00.000-05:00

John 20:19-31

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."

But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe."

A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe." Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

How do we achieve inner peace? One man said by completing the things you have begun. And the other said, that is great. I have begun with two bags of potato chips and a chocolate cake. I feel great.

From this scripture we get the idea in the Liturgy that we can actually share peace with people. For the Lord appeared to a bunch of terrified men and women just like us who suffer from sickness, problems and issues, and said “Peace”.

If today I asked you a question ‘do you believe in peace?’, what would you say? Of course I do believe in peace. Do you think there will be no more wars? I doubt.

Jesus had a tough idea to sell here. The very reason why people followed Jesus was that they believed Jesus will bring an end to the oppression and injustice brought to them by the Romans and the other occupiers. According to them Jesus was the Messiah because he has the ultimate power over the infidels of the time and oppressors of Israel.

We all have our ideas about peace in the world and how it should be brought about. We try by making peacetime treatises.

Right after Europe solemnly pledged not to go for war, it started the world war II. Every time mankind created better and powerful weapons to deter war we fought more. We want to create a world that is terrified of the things we make so that they will be afraid to start a war.

Just two days ago I read in the news that people of Afghanistan love “blood sports”. What is a blood sport? Sports that involve some way or another shedding of the blood of the other whether cock fight, dog fight, cat fight or human fight. The reason given for the love of such a sport is because fights and wars have become so much part of their lives, blood shedding sports are fun to watch.

In today’s story we find something very interesting Jesus does. First he appears out of nowhere in their midst and says, “peace”. Peace is a brought about by presence. Peace is effect of being present to the other in the most vulnerable moment of their life. To appear before someone, to come in front of someone who might dislike you and disagree with you requires a lot of courage and inner strength. So in this story we have a lesson to learn. That is if you desire a world of peace slowly learn to be present to people who are afraid for various reasons, and might dislike you for what you are.

Again in this story we see Jesus showing them his scars from crucifixion. He does not hide the fact that he was wounded, hurt and given up on. There is no denial of one’s own pain and suffering but a willingness to acknowledge without anger of what one has experienced without blame or shame. IN another words a call to truthfulness of what you have experienced in the hurt rather than what others have done in the process.

Then he gives one of the most important lesson of all. Peace is the product of forgiveness. He says: “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” Is it possible?

On Easter Sunday I said how much we all want to rule the world and have a control of the world we live in. Here is that control given to you and me by the Lord. “If you forgive, they are forgiven”. You are granted the soft power of this world today.

Two days ago I was talking with Sally Skardvedt about how we all get trapped in our own world of religious piety and fundamentalism. So when it came to the question of forgiveness a fundamentalist and someone who is unable to travel beyond the boundaries of beliefs to true faith will ask, “if our sins are not forgiven by God who will”. And then she said if that is heard by a buddhist monk he will say, “we forgive”. It is simple and theologically right. Because this is what the Lord says in the scripture today.

“If you forgive, God will”. Peace is the product of your willingness to forgive.

After the repentance and renewal Eucharist during Holy Week several who attended came to me saying, “after I said, I forgive them” to your question “do you, then, forgive those who have sinned against you”, I felt so much peace within.

Jesus had to show his wounds to remind the apostles that he is capable peace only by forgiving those who inflicted that upon him. By accepting that he is violated, he was ready to let go.

If I am Thomas and heard that the guy who got killed and was buried three days ago in a cave that cannot be easily opened is walking around in town, I will be skeptical. And I am anything like Thomas who said am willing to die with my master, it is not going to be easy to forgive those who inflicted such a painful death to my master. Jesus had all the reason to do what he did. For he knew Thomas needs to let go of the narrow definition of faith which is surrounding beliefs and practices to the true principles of faith which is surrounding the act of forgiveness.

Hit the road Jack! Fire of Love and Water of Kindness!

2010-04-03T22:00:00.000-05:00

Mark was three years old when his pet lizard died. it was her grandson's first experience of death. Grandma suggested that Mark and an older boy in the family hold a "funeral" for the lizard. Grandma explained what a funeral was: a ceremony where you say a prayer, sing a song, and bury your loved one.

Grandma even provided a shoe box and a burial place in the backyard. The boys thought it was a great idea, so they all proceeded to the backyard. Taking the lead, the older boy said a prayer. Then he turned and asked little Mark if he wouldn't like to sing a song. With tears in his eyes, Mark clasped his hands, bowed his head, and belted out "Hit the Road, Jack" by Ray Charles.

Hit the road Jack and don't you come back no more, no more, no more, no more.

The apostles had already sung this song to Jesus two days ago. Now here he is back. I don’t think they had forgotten all that had happened two days ago. If I were in their place, man would I be petrified of this guy coming back to life. It is like trouble returning. They had enough people hate them, threaten them. He didn’t preach an easy to follow Gospel either.

This is what a lady on youtube tells about Ray Charles, we talked about earlier, that “God made the earth in six days and on the seventh day he made Ray Charles”.

You know his life was not all that resurrection. With depressed and saddened childhood, struggles and fears he had to suffer through some of the worst experiences of life. I think we all want to hit the road when it comes to problems in life.

Yes, Bible says God rested on the 7^th day. On the sixth day he made man and woman. Yes, but I do believe God did make Ray Charles on the 7^th day and so did God make us all children of God on the seventh day.

But on the Seventh day God made children of God. God made the children of God on the day of Sabbath, on the day of the defeat of death. But I don’t think God can or will rest until God makes mankind the children of God. If it was Peter, and Mary then, it is Ray Charles and, you and me today with a potential for explosive love.

In the movie Letters to God, that will be released on April 9^th, little Tyler asks a question to his mother, “Mom when I die is God going to replace me with another child?”. His mother says, “No, Sweetheart. No one can replace you”. After a few more minutes of beautiful conversation his mother says good night to Tyler and walks away. Then Tyler called her back and said, “mom, do you know God picked you?”. Mother’s eyes welled up hearing it. Yes, that is the truth. That is what God did on the eve of His Resurrection pick you in your struggles and problems to be a father, a mother, a brother and a child to be of someone and say there is a New Day.

The old woman's husband had been slipping in and out of a coma for several months, yet she had stayed by his bedside every single day. One day, when he came out of his coma for a few hours, he motioned for his wife to come nearer.

As she sat by him, he whispered, eyes full of tears, "You know what? You have been with me all through the bad times. When I got fired, you were there to support me. When my business failed, you were there. When I got shot, you were by my side. When we lost the house, you stayed right here. When my health started failing, you were still by my side ....You know what?"

Holding his hands in hers, smiling as her heart began to fill with warmth. She gently asked, "What dear?"

He replied, "I think you're bad luck."[1]

This must have been what those apostles thinking. Hit the Road Jesus. Don’t come back, no more, no more. Because you are a bad luck!

Christians still hit the road when it comes to faith. There are people still believing in their hearts that Jesus was a bad luck for them.

But then we are reminded on this day that even in the darkest moments of life we will be filled with the light of God just as we did in the lighting of the candles from the lonely fire that was lit at the back of the church. Then we are reminded that a 40 days long sadness and preparation are over with the singing and shouting of Alleluia. There is an end to the failures of life. There is a light at the end of every tunnel.

We can just hit the road for ever and never return. We have no bad lucks in life. Every one of the bad luck will be turned into opportunities for life for ourselves or others.

There was a used tomb stone for sale in Dayton, OH. The ad read, ‘Used tombstone for sale. Real bargain to someone named Dingo'. For more information call..."[2]

The person whose name was written on the tomb does not require the stone any more. Neither do we require a tombstone at the end of events and situations that sounds and feels like death. For we believe in the resurrection of Jesus and of ourselves. Jesus did not need a tombstone to hole him up in the cave, because life cannot be contained in the cave.

We all have to roll away the stones that cave us inside our own pitiful situations.

This vigil is all about learning the ways of the wise.

1. Recognize that we all go through hard times in life. Before we hit the road away from Christ let us take shelter with God.

2. Understand that no one is spared from bad luck, but still we are precious and lovingly re-created on the 7^th day.

3. Take courage in letting go off unwanted tombstones we are holding on to.

4. Renew oneself with a fire of love and water of kindness.

[1] Hank Ridley

[2] Brett Blair, March 2002

Servant Leadership

2010-04-03T14:48:00.000-05:00

Chānakya was a professor at Thakshashila University in 4^th century BC, and later (c. 350–283 BCE) an adviser and prime minister of Maurya Emperor Chandragupta (C 340-293 BCE). His political treatises are called Arthashastra, The Science that gives meaning. In one of his writings he talks about the qualities of a true king, which is: “the king [leader] shall consider as good, not what pleases himself but what pleases his subjects [followers]”

The one who is interested in the welfare of the people is the leader. This is one of the oldest defined concepts on Servant leadership. But a step by step process to get there was acted out by Jesus at this event we heard today which became the central theme of Christian faith and practice.

On this day in the evening at Supper with them before he broke bread, Jesus announced, “I tell you servants are not greater than their masters”. I like this statement because it leaves a door open to a world of interpretations and imaginations.

It does not say that servants are less than their masters. It suggests that you could be as great as the master. It also suggests that the master could be equal to the servant.

Because, I believe the celebration of Last Supper was meant to be more than just a farewell meal. It was meant to be a moment when Christ empowers his followers to become what he was about to become. He set the stage for the evolution of true leadership. He set the example by becoming one. He verbally affirmed the fact that true leadership is in one’s making and potential. He initiated a process of creating leaders in the world He was about to leave.

When we delve deeper into this action of Jesus we find some basic teaching and process of becoming a leader.

1. Disciples were stuck in the cultural world of who should wash the feet of the guest as was the custom of the day. Jesus surprised them to no limits by breaking the cultural expectations to do what is right. He proclaims by action that a true servant leader is not afraid of getting up against all norms and taking action when needed. Being stuck in one’s own ideological world is not an attribute of a leader. Leader should be and will be able to grow.

2. Let us take a second cue from Jesus. He invites his close friends to shed the ego and all that he or she thinks are the only way of doing things. By taking off the outer robe, we are invited to take off our own outer robes that cover up our imperfections and expose the inner reality of who we truly are. This may expose us to failure, misunderstanding and sometimes fear. But given a chance in true humility true servant leader will emerge empowered to do greater things.

3. Jesus does not walk into the midst of the apostles waiting to be served. He was ready to do it alone if needed. He tied a towel around him, got water for himself, washed their feet and dried them. No one is left to pick up the piece and solve the problem created by the leader.

In all what He did, Jesus told them what William Arthur Ward has put in modern terms.

"The adventure of life is to learn.

The purpose of life is to grow.

The nature of life is to change.

The challenge of life is to overcome.

The essence of life is to care.

The opportunity of life is to serve.

The secret of life is to dare.

The spice of life is to befriend.

The beauty of life is to give." ~

In the words of Henri J. M. Nouwen

"Servant leader is a vulnerable servant who needs the people as much as they need him or her.[1]

If you are a servant leader, it is allowing the other to become as much as you have become. If you are proud of yourself and your achievement, you will empower the other to reach at least up to the level you have gotten to.

This is the heart of ministry.

Servant leadership is not task oriented. It is a heart oriented action whereby one person is lead to the experience of love rather than completion of a project.

"People do not care how much you know until they know how much you care." ~ John C. Maxwell

Our world is confused about the idea of being a leader and servant at the time. This is why Christianity is a radical religion because it denies what we have come to believe about words, concepts and ideologies. Servant leadership is a hard work.

This is what Maundy Thursday celebration all about. In all of us there is a servant leader hidden and waiting to be freed. Within us there is a Jesus waiting to be released with good news to the hungry, the lost, the fearful and the oppressed.

Like an artist who releases the hidden images of a being within the wood, the clay, the rock, we are all asked to release The Christ who lives within us.

[1] Henri J. M. Nouwen, In the Name of Jesus.

Triumphant entry into suffering!

2010-03-28T09:47:00.000-05:00

Luke 19:28-40

After telling a parable to the crowd at Jericho, Jesus went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, saying, "Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying it?' just say this, 'The Lord needs it.'" So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, "Why are you untying the colt?" They said, "The Lord needs it." Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying,

"Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!"

Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, order your disciples to stop." He answered, "I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out."

The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

----------------------

Today, Christians kick off the holiest season in their Liturgical Calendar. We have prepared ourselves over the last few weeks to celebrate this week with much more reverence and devotion. However we have to ask ourselves one question today. Is there something called Holiest week in Christian life? If there is, then we have missed the whole point of Christ’s teachings. Here is why.

These days you can get all kinds of stuff from catalogues. Sams club catalogue sells even airplanes in them. Some others sell live animals such as dogs, cats, camels and donkeys. Beth Warpmaeker a pastor in Houston speaks of her mother when she was young. Her mother saw this cute looking donkey with a red cart in its back in a Sears’s catalogue. She pleaded with her father to get it for her and he obliged. When the donkey arrived, it was not small, cute or clean. Above all it was stubborn. Donkeys are known for their stubbornness.

Here Jesus is choosing this donkey or colt to ride on. May be Jesus is choosing a little donkey to fulfill the prophecy in Zachariah 9: 9

See, your king comes to you,

righteous and having salvation,

gentle and riding on a donkey,

on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

May be it is to remind us what we all can be one day, given the grace of God, carriers of God in spite of all our stubbornness and un-cleanliness, just like the little left out donkey that disciples got for Jesus.

I have seen dead donkeys on the road hit by the truck drivers. It is a kind of fun for those guys in the northern part of India. The reason they hit these donkeys are because they are stubborn and will not move at the sound of the horn. They are not clean or cute. They don’t sound great. Their bray makes a child wake up rather than put to sleep. But once you get them going they could be hard working and even for long hours.

We all some way or another behave sometimes like donkeys. We are many times hard and stubborn, but at times work very hard and long. But the good news is; we all have the potential to be the carriers of God like this little donkey, and St. Christopher who carried Jesus all over the place according to legends. Why do we become hard and stubborn, tough to live with? Here is an insight.

The famous book ‘The Road Less Travelled’ starts with a very small sentence. “Life is difficult”. I don’t think I need to tell you about it. Today we celebrate Passion Sunday not just palm Sunday, to acknowledge the reality of life, like the author says, that life is filled with unparalleled sufferings that causes difficulties for all who are living. Without some toughness and stubbornness we cannot face the challenges of life easily.

People have told me over and over that they don’t like Lent. I don’t either. I don’t think we have an option about it. Do we have an option about our suffering? Do we have an option about our sickness or hard labor? Lent is not optional to anyone. I would like to see one person who chose a sickness to live with over happy and healthy heart. Lent started long before Christ came into the world. Christ brought meaning to it.

Suffering is not any more human tragedy. It is a call for compassionate living. It calls for journeying together. Celebration of Passion of Christ calls for the living of the Drama of Salvation, which is the cohabitation of the lion and the lamb. It is a positive tension between the Might and Meekness of God and the aggressiveness and gentleness of world.

Lent and Holy Week are all an intentional acknowledgement of what we are going through in life and walking the journey of suffering with others we care about. It is not optional for Catholics or Protestants or Hindus or Muslims.

It is a season of awareness of one’s own fragility. It is season when we take our vulnerability and that of others seriously and walk with them.

People have asked me this question, why should we have soup suppers? Why should we focus on things that are difficult during Lent? It is depressing and sometimes hard to get through in this holiest season.

I will address it with a little help from Martin Luther.

"For what is good for us is hidden, and that so deeply that it is hidden under its opposite. Thus our life is hidden under death, love for ourselves under hate for ourselves ... salvation under damnation, heaven under hell ... And universally our every assertion of anything good is hidden under the denial of it, so that faith may have its place in God, who is a negative essence and goodness and wisdom and righteousness, who cannot be touched except by the negation of all our affirmations."

This simply means that we are called and empowered to negate death, hatred, damnation and hell so that we can claim life, love, salvation and heaven which are the essences of God.

What is Holy Week after all?

For us it has to be a conscious witnessing of God’s might and God’s weakness. It is the time of the reenactment of the drama of Salvation. It is the triumphant entry of God into the human world of suffering. Holy Week is the celebration of life over suffering and death. Can anyone not participate in it?

Why shouldn’t the stones speak up? It is God who is entering into the realm of human suffering. Meaning is brought to those that were meaningless; might and meekness a place to exist together. Helplessness is given a share of life.

Wasteful love is better than justice!

2010-03-21T10:33:00.000-05:00

Critics are all over the place. I am sure you have met people who can tell you how to do things better than what you have done. Here is a nice story that tells volumes on them.

While traveling separately through the countryside late one afternoon a Hindu, a Rabbi, and a Critic were caught in a terrific thunderstorm. They sought shelter at a nearby farmhouse.

"That storm will be raging for hours." The farmer told them. "You ought to spend the night. The problem is there is only room for two in the house. One of you must sleep in the barn."

"I'll be the one said the Hindu, a little hardship is nothing to me." And he went to the barn.

A few minutes later there was a knock at the door. It was the Hindu. "I'm sorry he said to the others, but there is a cow in the barn. Cows are sacred creatures and I cannot impose."

"Don't worry said the Rabbi, make yourself comfortable. I will go sleep in the barn"

A few minutes later there was another knock at the door. It was the Rabbi. "I hate to be a bother," he said, "but there is a pig in the barn. In my religion pigs are unclean, I wouldn't feel comfortable sleeping near a pig."

"Oh, all right said the Critic, "I'll go sleep in the barn."

A few minutes later there was a knock at the door. It was the pig and the cow. (Benjamin Hoff, The Te of Piglet)

Pastor Victor Shepherd told a story to his congregation one day. He met a missionary surgeon who was kind of gruff and tough when he spoke things. One day while he was talking to a group of University Students about his missionary work in the Gaza Strip. He said, “we the North American ‘fat cats’ knew nothing about gratitude”. Those who had gathered there were amazed to hear his ‘outrageous comment’ about our great people and nation. To their question he said this story. One day was visiting one of his poor and old patients on whom he had performed surgery. These poor people did not have a whole lot to live on and work for. They had two chickens and an Angora rabbit. The lady on whom the doctor performed his surgery, combed the hair of the rabbit and made a yarn of pure rabbit wool and sold it. They ate the vegetable they grew in their yard and ate chicken eggs. The woman excited about the visit of the doctor who gave her a future, insisted that he eat with them. The doctor was pleased and he agreed. However he had to make another post-operation visit to someone not too far from them. He returned after the visit. As he approached the house he knew from the wonderful smell that there is some great food in the oven. He got into the kitchen with the old lady and lifted the lid up and found the chickens and the rabbit being cooked away. [1]

When I first read the story I thought to myself would anyone do that for real? Then I remembered my own childhood and how my mother used to do the same thing.

I came from a poor family according to the US standards. We did not have a whole lot and did not grow up with modern conveniences. My mother who was a school teacher, and my father who was a businessman, without a good sense of business together did not bring in a whole lot. I never starved, but older brothers and mother did. We used to grow chickens for eggs. But when the priest from our parish came, or a guest visited us, we used to have a discussion as how to find good food to feed them and show them how pleased and excited we were. Then we will turn to our one or two chickens and kill it for the feast. We hardly got much of anything from the chicken as guests ate it and my mother stood at the table first feeding the guest and what was left over to us. That is how I developed a taste for chicken livers, because that is the only thing I got as with great love my mother would fry it for me before the guests ate and I was special.

We have a similar story here. The story of the woman at the feet of Jesus who is now pouring out all that pricy perfume.

There are similar stories in the bible that speaks of gratitude in such powerful terms. We speak of pledge and tithe and all kinds of financial and other contributions to the church. If they don’t represent the gratitude in us for all the blessings we have from God, then it is not worth it. And if that is all the gratitude we have for God, then it is not worth it either.

The fragrance of gratitude is greater than the best old spice, and Olay put together, deodorants and perfumes. The power of the fragrance of love lasts long after we are gone.

Speaking of the power of love and gratitude I like to share with you a facebook note I read on All Saints’ Fan Page here. “I am a fan of this church. A church full of loving "Christian" people. A church that loves people unconditionally, as did Jesus.” I hope so and I pray that we all feel the same about our church and the places we work and the people who work with us and live with us.

“Gratitude is born in hearts that take time to count up past mercies”. (Charles E. Jefferson.) We all have enough reason to be grateful towards everyone around us and of course God.

I have a beautiful prayer that I stole from the prayer book of Mother Theresa. It is called Radiating Christ. We will learn how to radiate Christ as we pray this together. Please join me.

Dear Jesus help us to spread your fragrance everywhere we go. Flood our souls with your spirit and life. Penetrate and possess our whole being, so utterly, that our lives may only be a radiance of yours. Shine through us, and be so in us, that every soul we come in contact with may feel your presence in our soul. Let them look up and see no longer us but only Jesus. Stay with us, and then we shall begin to shine as you shine; so to shine as to be a light to others; the light of Jesus, will be all from you, none of it will be ours., it will be you, shining on others through us. Let us thus praise you in the way you love best by shining on those around us. Let us preach you without preaching, not by words but by our example. By the catching force, the sympathetic influence of what we do, the evident fullness of the love our hearts bears to you. Amen.

My dear brothers and sisters, gratitude is an attitude of life. There is every reason out there not to be grateful, justice being the most used. When we search deeper we will find that grace given to us without preconditions. Being wasteful in love is better than just in this world. For all of us benefited from wasteful love than justice.

[1] Victor Shepherd, Preacher's Annual 1992, Nashville: Abingdon p. 122.

What is the act of endless forgiveness?

2010-03-14T10:36:00.000-05:00

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

All the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them."

So Jesus told them this parable:

"There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.' So he divided his property between them. A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself he said, 'How many of my father's hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands."' So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. Then the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' But the father said to his slaves, 'Quickly, bring out a robe--the best one--and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!' And they began to celebrate.

"Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. He replied, 'Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.' Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. But he answered his father, 'Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!' Then the father said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.'"

The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

This is a story we have heard over and over and I do not need to share with anyone what it means. The repentance of the younger son, the love of the father and the anger of the older brother, we know the whole story bi-heart.

In today’s version the story needs to be slightly different particularly in our context. Borrowing a concept from Pastor Phill Formo, Pastor of a Lutheran Church, I composed my own story of the prodigal son. Here is how it goes.

Once upon a time there was a man, who had a wonderful childhood. He lived with his parents until he turned 22, an age of computer literacy and modern technology. One fine morning he came to his father and politely talked to him about what he is capable of doing in this world to be rich and famous. He asked for some seed money from his father that he may invest in some of these projects, to the point may be, leaving no option but to give at least one third of his possessions. Being coerced into great possibilities, his old father, who did not understand all that it implies gave him what he asked for: to invest and increase.

The young man goes out into the world of business and becomes wickedly rich. One day in the height of his fame and name, his friends throws a party for him and he indulged in all that was given. That evening while he was alone in his room, friends all gone by, he came to his senses. He recognized that he was lonely and lost. He was alone with a craving for more and more. Life became meaningless with things that were complicated, complex and futuristic. He longed to live in the moment of simplicity rather than in the future promise of the stock. He wanted to find joy in who he was then than who he could be tomorrow.

He then said to himself. I had been living in the future for so long, I don’t know who I am. What I am is what market dictates and the world projects. What I am is nothing more than what others make me to be. I would love to be myself. I want to enjoy the beauty of simple things in life as my father does. Life is real and present and now. It is passing by as I watch it.

He then packed all he had in a bag; set out to meet his father in distant land where things are still simple and beautiful. His father in his old age saw his son from far away and welcomed him with great love.

He calls the butcher in the house, gets a great feast going. They gathered around the table in the night and danced around the bonfire. His father, who was old and did not care about what his son had and did not have, except that he got to see him, celebrated his return. For his father what matters happens now and it’s here, his own flesh and blood. He missed him terribly.

His younger son sat quietly listening to the music, enjoying the simplicity and beauty that it brings.

His older brother returned and found this celebration around his brother who had gone away and returned with all the riches of the world in his hands. He was saddened and angry not because of the party but because he had lost him all these years. He had to grow up alone without the friendship and love of a brother. He was upset because at times he had to carry the burden of care and love for his parents and family all alone. He said to his brother, “brother do you know what it takes to take care of older parents? Do you know what it takes to sit next to them, when they don’t make sense of anything they say, but you know they love you to death?” He had enough to provide all that his parents needed. But his brother needed a shoulder to cry on. He was upset because his brother had gone far away to amass the wealth of the world for himself. His brother wanted someone to say to him, I understand. All will be well.

This is where I want to end the story and say this.

To the younger sons here I say: True love calls us to return home. True repentance calls us back to our loved one. As a community that would mean, to let go of small hurts, little problems and getting back into the groove of life with our own family many times, and friends afterwards. Many times those who need us most are those who apparently do not seem to need us back in their lives. Many times they are the dearest to us.

To the rest of us I will say: To welcome those who return into our lives we need lots of bits and pieces of forgiveness. It requires one to have lots of mercy rather than justice. As Abraham Lincoln said, “I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice”. Everyone who sinned deserves to be treated justly. But all those who went far away from love, needs mercy even more.

As Peter Ustinov, actor and comedian said, “love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit”. We should develop a habit of love rather than a habit of justice. Then there will be prodigal fathers and daughters, mothers and sons, older and younger brothers amidst us.

My dear brothers and sisters, while we are anxious and worried about on whose side is the prodigal behavior in the story I said, what is important is to recognize what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Said, “if we are devoid of the power to forgive” like the older son, “we are devoid of the power to love”. It goes both ways. The greatness of the father was the ability to enjoy his son as he was in that given moment.

Golden Grain is in Every Pile!

2010-02-07T09:13:00.000-06:00

Once upon a time there was a beggar who begged all day and frantically searched for something from all what he collected all night long. When he begged people gave him food, clothes, money, grains, scrap metal and anything else that they did not want. In the evening he will dump them all on the floor of his little hut on the side of the road and start separating one by one including grains. After they have been separated he will sit in front of the pile of grain and search through hundreds of thousands of grains because he has heard that there is a golden grain in every beggars pile and it takes patience to find it. Therefore to find the lone and only golden grain he takes all the time in the night hoping to make a fortune of it. He looked for a golden grain in every pile he brought in.

I think we are all looking for a golden grain in our bundles and small possessions. In the midst of all that is going on and all we have to do to succeed in life, some of us search for the grain that glitters.

The story of a fisherman is not different. He casts his net in the sea and waits. He is hoping to make a catch that will provide him security in life. I have lived among them and found it firsthand how excited they get when have a great catch.

We all need a great catch in life. We all want to be that person who will find the priceless treasures to make them precious possessions.

Yes, I want to go with the idea that this is about bringing people into the fold of Christ. Christ is talking about evangelization and Christ is telling the secret to his followers what to do to bring people to God. We have heard that several times.

I want to say it is not just about fishing for people in the troubled waters of life. This is more than fishing for people and preaching the Goodnews.

I am reminded of the stories of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and more prophets when they were called by God they said about the same thing what Peter is saying here.

“Go away from me Lord, I am a sinful man”. I cannot take your greatness. I cannot stand in the holiness of God. I don’t want to stand in the burning bush Lord. I am a sinful man who has gone wrong and who is lost in the affairs of the world.

I think Christ is teaching this man called Peter what to fish for and how to fish. Yes, while it looks like it was fishing for man, he actually was teaching them how to fish for God.

· God is hidden in the depths of life’s struggles. God was found every time a child, a man and a woman was found in the rubbles in Haiti.

· God is hidden in the sickness and failures of life. God was found when every leper, man and woman with aids and in the mental hospitals.

· God is hidden in the people whom we don’t like around us; the rich or poor, the different or lost.

· God is among those we consider not worthy of the kingdom of God.

· God is in those places where no one dares to go.

Fish for God in the darkest and deepest corners of life. There is a golden grain hidden even in the smallest pile of struggle in life.

Peter did not want to go to the midst of the sea because in his mind he could not see the treasure hidden there. He had done all he could in his power to find the golden grain. He could not see how it was possible for Jesus who is not used to fishing find the fish in all those places he had already cast his nets. Because peter was thinking of fish and fish only.

God was not looking for fish. God was inviting Peter to go beyond what he can see and venture into what he cannot see. God invited him to find God in all of life and in the depths of struggles.

I am reminded of a story I read a few years ago of an African deer called Impala. This deer can jump over a 10 feet fence up to thirty feet across. One will think it is hard to keep these creatures in a zoo as the fence you make for them have to be at least 10 feet tall if not more. However they found it is not hard at all. Because impala will not jump until it sees where it is going to land. So if we can build a solid wall of not even 4 feet tall these creatures won’t jump as they cannot see beyond their heights. No leap until it can see the end.

Sometimes we are all blinded by the solid wall we have created in front of us. Our fears and lifestyle have made us fearful of taking a leap of faith to fish for God in the most unlikely circumstances of life.

Fishing in Greek originally meant “catching”. It is about catching God who hides behind every pole and pile, every mole and mile. It is about holding tight to the image of God that appears and disappears as we go along in life.

We came empowered to jump through the hoops of life to the rooftops of greatness. We are equipped to find God when we were set out to go into the waters of the world. We did not come powerless. Not only did we come equipped to find God, but we have God sit on the frame of our boats to guide through these tough times and deep waters so that we will truly find God and treasure Him or Her for a lifetime.

So look for Golden Grain. It is somewhere you never expect.

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Gold in Clay Pots

2010-01-31T12:00:00.000-06:00

I am sure many of you watched the first State of the Union address by President Obama. He shared with the listeners what went right and what went wrong. Sometimes even to raise the eye brows of the Supreme Court judges. But still it was a political rhetoric. Here is another State of the Human World address by Jesus Christ. He is raising issues that are causing irks amongst His listeners. Rubbing the fur in the wrong way is what some who listened to Jesus said.

From today’s story we can conclude that Jesus did not seem to know, unlike the president, the rules of the game in politics. He aimed at liberals and conservatives, scribes and Pharisees, democrats and republicans, socialists and capitalists. No one was spared for their failure to see the truth.

Jesus was no stranger to them. Everyone knew who this man was. Jesus was their homecoming king. Why; because he was born and brought among them in Nazareth and returned as great teacher. Reading this story I was reminded of my visit to Arkansas Tech University a few months ago. Dr. Brown showed me the enlarged photos of our past home coming queens. What a wonderful thing to see men and women who have achieved greatness in our midst. People from our midst grow up to be great men and women, glamorous and glorious at times and they are honored for their achievement.

Then I remind myself of the fact that all great men and women were born to young and passionate parents, may be in the midst of some foolishness of life. But they have made it through rough times. They have journeyed through the ruffled waters of life to get to the steady stream of success. Then we wonder about this man or woman as who is he or she by the way? Didn’t he grow up amongst us? Was he not that young man sometimes acted foolishly, talked childishly and was just like one of us?

Yes that is what Jesus is going through. He is the homecoming king here. He had his glorious hours of ministry as we hear the first part of the story. “All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.” Then the tide changed. He had to grow up and move away from glamour to genuineness to greatness.

Last day as I watched a documentary on the Enron scandal and all that happened behind it I realized that we all have the potential to grow into greatness or glamorousness. Everybody loved the CEO and CFO of the company because they projected a glamorous and glorious days ahead without the substance of reality and truth. They lived a secret untruthful life that lead to the failure of a system and the destruction of thousands of families’ future. They were indestructible in a destructible world.

This is where the message of Christ becomes powerful. Christ calls us to recognize that none of us are of a different breed in a world of failure. We have all failed and we have all gone through roads that are sometimes rocky and rough but many times dirty. None of us is too different from the other around us. We may look different with the clothes we wear and the make we put on.

God is not looking for beautiful faces or well dressed people. God was looking for Naman the Syrian who was infested with leprosy and rejection. God was in search of those who needed a God and those who knew within them that they cannot make it on their own. God is looking for man in need of God.

God was looking for those around the world who sometimes do not look or act like us. This was the experience of the people of Israel. But hard for us to believe, understand and accept.

Christ is challenging the people of Israel in their own comfort zone of their idea of God and God’s mercy. Christ challenges the people of Israel and yanks them out of their seats by telling them that God can take the kingdom to those whom he chooses to enter in and they may not look perfect like they think they are.

Barbara Brown Taylor says, “We don’t like being told that our enemies are God’s friends. No matter how hard we try, we cannot seem to get God to respect our boundaries. God keeps plowing right through them, inviting us to follow or get out of the way." (Taylor's sermon, "The Company of Strangers," is in Home by Another Way).

When we hear the truth we have to train ourselves to applaud and welcome. When we meet human beings we should rise on our feet and welcome them.

It is in truthful living in the midst of untruthfulness that makes a homecoming man or woman a king or a queen. It is our ability to applaud and welcome truth that makes a disciple and a follower of Christ.

My dear brothers and sisters, we have all come on different ships to where we are today. But what makes us one in Christ is our willingness to explore the journey we take together as one family. We are clay pots holding great truths and depth of God within us, as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “We may have come in different ships. But we are all in the same boat”. We could be broken at any moment and there will be clay pots to follow us. None of us is indispensible. God can and will continue beyond us.

Let us remind ourselves of one thing. God has set His Gold in clay pots. The one who gets it, the one who knows that he is destructible and small, he or she lives a truthful life and the one who does not get it, lives a lie.

It is the truth about ourselves that makes us free. But it is the truth about God, a God who is free without boundaries that makes us fully human. But living the truth of God is what makes us kings and queens in the eyes of God.

Sermon given on Sunday January 31st, 2010 at All Saints Episcopal Church, Russellville, AR.

Lord is at my shore

2010-01-01T08:43:00.000-06:00

At the day break you were at my shore to break bread. Thank you Lord for the providence. Thank you for letting us sit at your feet.

(c) Jos Tharakan

Light and love

2009-12-31T07:41:00.000-06:00

Thank you Lord for all the blessings of this year. Bless all with powerful presence in 2010. We need light to see and love to live.

(c) Jos Tharakan

Enjoy the moment

2009-12-19T08:29:00.001-06:00

Lord bless the world with patience. Bless me with awareness. Bless us all with Presence that will want us to enjoy the moment and each other.

(c) Jos Tharakan

Riches of God

2009-12-16T07:03:00.000-06:00

Lord whisper into me the words of love and wisdom that I may be filled with the riches of your world and not the things of this world.

(c) Jos Tharakan

Let loose the string of fear

2009-12-15T07:00:00.000-06:00

My capacity to love is greater than hate. Help me let loose the string of fear. Lord Let me nurture peace within.I want to love for real

(c) Jos Tharakan

You are blessed

2009-12-14T06:28:00.000-06:00

You are blessed in the eyes of God. Because you are precious. Give me grace Lord to make someone precious in my heart and mind today.

(c) Jos Tharakan

Silver line to light

2009-12-13T06:28:00.000-06:00

I saw the silver line because the Sun was behind. Grace light within me Lord that darkness can not hide anywhere Son can not reach.

(c) Jos Tharakan

Joe Hillbilly!

2009-12-12T21:59:00.000-06:00

A few years ago I moved into a house in Chester, AR, a small town of 98 people. One day I went into our only grocery store, The Chester Mercantile. A big bearded and gray old man was watching me closely and finally approached to ask “where’re you from young man?”. I said “I live on the mountains near Mr. Cluck.” He said, “You mean you live here in Chester”. I replied “Yep”. What’s your name? he continued. “Joe Hermit” I responded. He then looked at me with a grin on his face and said “There are no Hermits in Chester, Joe. All are hillbillies. And so from now on you are Joe Hillbilly”. I said, “Yes Sir”. So I am Joe Hillbilly from then on. They know me as Joe Hillbilly until it got big of 126 people.

When you drive through Chester everybody waves at you. The driver will wave to the passing by truck, car and bike. Everyone is everyone’s cousin. The cat in town had a name known to all and the dogs are the property of everyone.

If you ask for directions to the post office in Chester, they might tell you that it is across from where all the dogs gather and everybody knows what that means even though the dogs have been gone.

This is basically the story of the town of Jesus. Jesus was born to two simple people in a small town to our standards of today. Before he was born into this world there is a beautiful story explained in the Bible. Here is how it goes.

The Judean town in the hill country was home to Zachariah and Elizabeth. Not too many people liked to mingle with the hillbillies of the time as is now. So when Mary visited them it was like a feast in town. They all came to visit her specially to gossip about the pregnancy of an old woman in town, Elizabeth. Secondly to see who in the world is visiting Elizabeth. There must be something to this pregnancy they all thought.

But to Elizabeth Mary was a little girl who brought God. Presence and greeting of Mary was sufficient for the baby in her old age womb to leap for Joy. The company was sufficient and both enjoyed their “misfortunes” as the world would have said about it. Because one was “old” and the other was “Un-married”.

This is what this visit was all about. They did not judge, they did not assume. They simply enjoyed each other. Today when we celebrate Christmas no matter who is who, can we enjoy the company of the other?

The only thing Elizabeth had to tell Mary was, “blessed are you among women”, a word of praise of the child in the womb and admiration of the mother who allowed life.

Today we celebrate Christmas. Look around you. Can you say a word of admiration to your neighbor. Regardless of what is going on in their lives, still are you able to say, “blessed are you among women or men or children”.

Christian spirituality is a very simple. Christian Theology is not a philosophy that needs a scientific mind to understand or logical process to live.

Christian life is contained in simple greeting of life. It is a non-judgmental blessing of life that one gives and the other receives. Look what Elizabeth does. She admires the life within Mary even though Elizabeth knew she is unmarried. The words of wisdom that comes out of Elizabeth is simple, “Et benedictus fructus ventris” meaning “Blessed is the fruit of your womb”.

Christian Life is the life of a small town people where one is acknowledged, accepted and welcomed. Christian life is knowing who is that you are meeting with, and greeting who passes by. It is awareness of the other no matter how he or she looks or acts. For in him and her there is life created in fullness by God.

It is the sound of the greeting of Mary that made a baby in the womb to leap. It is the sound of you and me that will make someone leap today with Joy. As you celebrate Christmas I want to you ponder do we allow God to leap within us? It only happens when we cause leap of life within someone else.

Merry Christmas and Blessing for a Blessed New Year.

(C) Fr. Jos Tharakan | 2010

Disappointments to Divine face!

2009-12-12T07:55:00.000-06:00

Lead me from disappointments to Divine intervention and delusions to Divine face. Be Present Lord and I shall sustain through tough days.

- (c) Jos Tharakan

Stir the Spirit

2009-12-11T08:30:00.000-06:00

Stir the Holy Spirit within me Lord that I will rise above the fears of this world. Bless me with calmness that I may see the hand of God at work.

- (c) Jos Tharakan

You are beloved

2009-12-09T07:31:00.000-06:00

God loves you because you are his beloved. Being is what God loves. Doing proves your love for God and God's love for you. Help me Lord.

- (c) Jos Tharakan

May God's peace give you restful sleep

2009-12-08T22:36:00.001-06:00

May God's love and peace give you a restful night and fresh and beautiful morning.

What You Own, Owns You!

2009-12-06T20:45:00.000-06:00

Year after year we celebrate Thanksgiving. We know the history, stories, and all that goes into the celebration of this great feast. Certainly the name of the feast tells it all. Here is a day set aside to thank God for all the blessings of life, known and unknown, big and small. However, sometimes in the midst of all that goes on in our lives, in the days of crisis and fear, sickness and poverty, it is hard to say, “Thank you, Lord.”
In the Book of Joel we read that the chosen people of God went through tough times. Everything around them fell apart. Crops were destroyed, leading to famine. Their land was invaded and they were displaced. The vines and the fig trees did not produce. The cattle in the land died. Families suffered great poverty and illness. It seemed that the blessings of life had disappeared, one after another.

This caused people to become more and more selfish and melancholic. God’s chosen people began living like abandoned people. Their faith gave way to fear. There was a breakdown of law and order. It seemed as if there was nothing to thank God for.

However, God’s response to their selfish behavior is noteworthy. God called them to comfort and promise in spite of their attitude, their need to own and hoard. God shared their pain and walked with them in their suffering. God did not stand afar and watch, challenging them to make it on their own. God promised to help and kept His word. God called them to be grateful in their hearts for the blessings of everyday life.
Small, unseen blessings, when seen, have the power to transform lives. Small graces of everyday life may grow into bigger ones, eventually. The person who is waiting to thank God until the huge, huge, blessings appear may have a long wait because there just are not too many big-ticket items waiting out there for you and me. Our lives are more like the lives of the saints who had small-ticket blessings in abundance every moment of their lives. Ours are more like the lives of the apostles and martyrs who saw God’s hand at every turn in life.

This thanksgiving I want to invite you to find the small blessings that fill our lives. Let us take to heart that our nation will recover from its crisis. Our land will prosper and grow. Our people will have plenty to eat and our cattle will survive. Our banks will grow and our economic systems will be stable again, if only we have the will to live and can live like a nation under God.

As He said to the people of Israel, the Lord says to us, “Be not afraid.” God says it over and over, be not afraid. Be faithful and be grateful. Do not let fear cripple you and cause you to become selfish and ungrateful in the midst of crisis and poverty. God will pour out His Spirit upon the young and the old when they grow in gratitude and praise. The men and women in our community will be led by the Holy Spirit to create a better society filled with justice and mercy―the two greatest attributes of God. We should not replace justice and mercy with self-righteousness.

By the time you read this, many of you will have gone through the frantic black-Friday syndrome and now you own more stuff. Or does it own you? Let us not be like those people mentioned above who lost their trust in God. Let us, instead, turn our culture and our character toward becoming a people who have plenty―having plenty with God who is everywhere, even in the gentle breeze through our front door― rather than letting our “plenty” be all the stuff that clutters our minds, hearts and homes.

It is gratefulness that makes a people viable and valuable. It is the space given to God in our hearts, minds, homes and systems that makes us a grateful people. What we own owns us in return. If what we own is God, then there is plenty to be thankful for, because then God owns us. What other thing do we need to be thankful about and joyful for?

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Shake it off and step up!

2009-12-06T11:00:00.000-06:00

Today’s scripture starts with an interesting historical setting. Luke mentions Tiberius, Pilate, Herod, Philip, Lysanias, Annas, and Caiaphas in whose time a small child was born to a small town priest and his barren wife.

Some of them will be mentioned in the later writings of Luke as people who beheaded John, Proclaimed a sentence on Jesus, persecuted others and more. But for now, they are leaders into kingdom, region and time John appears speaking of repentance.

A prophet is born to an insignificant man compared to others and an impossible woman when it is about child bearing. Natural law is broken to call the world for change.

The word repentance makes people stiff. Repentance is about change and that is not pleasant as we grow older. We are used to certain ways of doing things and don’t like anyone telling us to change.

Do you think these seven people mentioned here liked the ideas John brought to their attention? I don’t believe it. I am sure they had spotted John and he was under surveillance the moment he started talking about change of hearts and minds.

There is a very funny YouTube video named “Family Survival kit”[1]. When you get a chance please watch it. It is putting out a solution for people who ask us to change, children who disturb us, a mother-in-law who won’t go from behind us, a mother who is too affectionate. Some of us can take this path. For others:

I am sure you all have heard the story of the mule that fell into the well. But for those who haven’t here is the gist. The farmer whose mule fell into the well decided to bury him as he found no worth in saving him. He calls the neighbors and friends and says, let us bury him and close the well at the same time. As he began dropping the dirt into the well he had an idea and he said it aloud, “shake it off and step up”. The mule who was petrified of what was happening heard it and did as the farmer said. By the time the well was closed up the mule stepped out triumphantly. He took into his hands the control of his destiny.

This is the story of John here. He calls the leaders of his time, the seven powerful men and their followers of the time, to shake it off and step up. Let not the dirt of your past or present bury you down to your death. Let not the dust of the old make you filthy. Shake it off and step up. It is easy to shake it off and but not easy to step up.

Repentance is stepping up. It is not easy. True repentance consists of four things.

1. A true sense of one’s own guilt and sinfulness. (Against you have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. – Ps 51: 4)

2. An apprehension of God’s mercy in Christ. (Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. – Ps 51: 11)

3. An actual hatred of sin. (I consider all your precepts to be right; I hate every false way – Ps 119: 128)

4. A persistent desire to lead a Holy Life. (For Godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret. – 2 Cor 7:10)

The true translation of the Greek word for repentance – Metanoia - calls us to three things.

· Change of mind

· Change of Purpose

· Change of life.

This is what John is calling the people to. He was unpopular because he called to change their way of living their faith. They were used to their old ways of doing things. He calls them to shake it off and step up. Change the status-quo.

Surely you have heard these expressions.

This is how we did it for so long.

Yes we are surrounded by powerful people, social status, history and place just like John who was surrounded by the impossible realities.

Advent is a time for us to make the impossible in us to happen. It is a time that calls for the barrenness of our hearts to give way to the life of a prophet. Advent calls for removal of status quo and shifting of power. It calls us to ‘shake it off and step up’ to a new era of truth and justice when the path to God will become straight and smooth.

And “All flesh shall see the Salvation of God” and no one is exempt.

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9-ctuBFAUg

Teach me Good!

2009-12-02T09:17:00.000-06:00

Teach me good, discernment and knowledge: Psalm 119: 66

Garden of Eden was the school for Adam and Eve. God created them, gave life to them and watched every step they took. He enjoyed His time with them. He took walks with them in the evenings. And then one day God found that they are growing up and they need to learn good and bad, right and wrong, discernment and knowledge. He then took them to the school of knowledge and world of choices.

God does the same thing today. God takes us through the garden of Eden. God creates, sustains and leads us to a world of good, bad, knowledge, discernment and then we are told to choose wisely. What God did to our first parents and to us is show us good and right, what to do and what not to do, where is knowledge and where is wisdom. Sometimes we have too many choices and too much knowledge to know the difference. This is slightly different from that of our forefathers.

So how do we know if we are choosing wisely? According to St. Paul when Love starts flowing from your heart, know you are in the path of good and knowledge. When your life, actions and thoughts are filled with love there will be more and more knowledge and full of insights. Knowledge is the insight you gain when you love without judgment. Discernment is the knowledge you gain from knowing your limitedness and God’s unlimited power to affect peoples’ lives. Goodness is the result of humility from knowing the limit and the love that arises out of God’s forgiveness.

(CR-Fr. Jos Tharakan)

We are in the image of God

2009-12-01T09:09:00.000-06:00

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness. Genesis: 1: 26

The sixth day must have been the proudest day in creation when God decided finally to create mankind in his/her own image, in his/her own character, and likeness and most of all love.

I am still ecstatic of the day and will be forever when I saw my daughter's face as she was taken out of the womb of my wife and her mother. She looked like me, am sure and she will all her life. My wife proudly says she looks like her and all her life she is going to. When all the doctors and government officials were busy looking for an identifying mark for my daughter, I did not care a whole lot about it. For I knew without a shadow of doubt she is mine and she looks like mine and will be forever and different enough to spot her in any crowd. I want her to be able to love and care for the world like me, but better than me and greater than me at the least. I can go on and on, and my wife will too.

If this is what I feel it must have been the proudest feeling for God after we were born through God. For God knew in his or her heart that we looked just like him or her and that too for ages to come requiring no identifying marks to distinguish one from another. I am also sure God must have certainly hoped that we love and care for the world as much as God did. For we were created in the image and likeness of God and God alone! and all others who claim it are really faking it to claim what is God's. So, rejoice you have the greatest inheritance you can ever imagine. Let us also behave like we are the children of God!

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© 2007: Rev. Jos Tharakan. Requires permission to reproduce. Email: fathersjos at gmail.com

Praise God for creation

2009-11-30T09:52:00.001-06:00

How beautiful is God's creation. How great are all God's people. Looking at this beautiful world filled with God is the key to happiness. Take a minute or two to enjoy God. Life is more beautiful than all the problems we enconter in lfe.

Praying for our kids

2009-11-30T09:52:00.000-06:00

Bless our kids and teachers. They all worked hard and played hard today. Lord bless them all for another great day tomorrow. Amen

Being with the unchanging

2009-11-30T08:26:00.001-06:00

For years I have heard people say that you age in your mind before you age in your body. I thought I knew what that meant and I could imagine what it would be like, that is, until I went to India a few weeks ago. Then I experienced it for real. As you all know all my vacation plans were interrupted. I landed into a host of problems starting with arriving on the wrong date and not finding anyone at the airport to take me home or to welcome my friends to India. Whose mistake was it? Mine; no one else’s. I told them the wrong date of our arrival! You might ask, “How could you do that?” That is a long story for another time.

But it was a blessing in disguise because had I arrived a day later I would not have been able to support my family at the death of my niece’s husband, at the time I was scheduled to arrive! His death was a tragic accident and then from there it went downhill with one thing after another. Stress! All around stress! After the first two days I felt like I was 75! I felt like it, I acted like it, and of course it was not a bad thing, but I was there for vacation. On the plus side, I was respected more, listened to, and my words carried heavy weight. I felt good about that but I was very tired both internally and externally

Then I realized one thing that I enjoyed―being respected and listened to. But I surely did not want every word I said to weigh a ton. I wanted to be light in every way. I just wanted to see the sunrise and sunset, hear the birds, and listen to the gentle wind. I wanted to enjoy the rain and listen to the crickets and frogs. I just wanted to live life every day without the weight of the problems that bogged me down. I did not want to be responsible for too many things other than those that were fun for my babies and family.

I have had problems in life in the past and I am sure I will have problems in the future but I did not want God to exhaust them all in one month while I was on vacation! (Am I supposed to knock on wood here or what? All we have is plywood.) Problems and difficulties, stress and stress again make us feel like we are aging faster than we actually are.

Now that was just a glimpse of my life’s problems during my vacation. How about problems and struggles for you? I am sure with all the problems going on in the world of dollars and Euros, many of you are anxious. I know for a fact that some of you have lost tens of thousands from your retirement accounts and other investments. All of a sudden we are aware that life becomes hard to live happily every day. Anxieties take over and stay for the night.

So, stop for a minute. I do not want you to age like I did while I was in India. Aging is not bad; actually it is a wonderful blessing. But let us not carry a ton of weight in our hearts with the fears of life that drag us down. In every stressful situation we face, sweating blood, there is a shade that brings coolness. Begin to enjoy those things that do not require money―our children, families, church, parks, gardens, walks, community, and how about God?

How about enjoying God for a change? How about being with the people of God? How about letting our fears reach toward the hands and heart of God like the woman in the crowd? For now let us not worry about faith. As I said on Sunday, God will interrupt his journey for you, if only you will reach out for God.

I feel young again and my body feels young again. Now I know what it feels like being old and being young! I am young with God and old without. There is still life out there and life in abundance if only I can open my eyes. Life around us is vibrant and ever new.

We are only young as long as we are able to see and change along with the changing life around us. God is in the midst of all that is changing but not change itself. Therefore let us remain young at heart, vibrant in mind and ever new in spirit with that is unchanging and eternal – God.

Blessings in abundance as you read this.

Can God be our fixer upper?

2009-11-29T18:06:00.000-06:00

Today is the first Sunday of Advent in Year C, a new Liturgical Year. When a new baby arrives, when a child graduates and when a young man finds a job and a young woman falls in love, we are excited. New life brings in possibilities for a new world and continuation of our own legacy.

We love the beginnings and we love the endings. Beginnings we love because it gives hope. We love good endings because it proves our hopes meaningful and right.

Today we hear again Jesus talking about an apocalyptic ending to the world. How can this be a joyful event at the beginning of a new season?

Don’t you like when your teenager decides to go to college and has learned all that are necessary for such a journey responsibly? What a joy at that very beginning of a success story and the hope of a great career. However when the child begins to change as a result of growth and maturation, it is hard for us to take. She is no more daddy’s little girl. He is no more Mom’s cute boy. Sometimes our stomachs churn with fear and our hearts pound harder than we can take. Parents become gray faster.

Where does it all come from? When we become powerless with all that happens around us we want someone to fix the problem for us. When we were children our toy trucks and toy kitchens broke down. We made a mess of our stuff. It was too much for us to put together. Too much stuff and too many parts. We needed help to bring order to the chaos we made. Where did we find it? We called our Daddies and mommies. We called people bigger than us to take care of our problems. In those powerless moments we needed powerful people to help us.

There are three types of people in the world; ones that want someone else to fix the problems and the second that does it on their own until they cannot and the third that does on their own and seeks help when they cannot. Those who want someone else to fix it grow to be a spoiled big kid in life. A spoiled big person waits for someone else to show up at the door step, waiting for the powerful to fix all the problems.

It is powerlessness that causes people to speculate. It comes from our inability to accept that we are primarily powerless people on our own. Left to ourselves without the grace of God, we can make a mess of our lives.

This is where the Gospel of today becomes meaningful. ‘Don’t wait around’ the Lord says. Drunkenness, dissipation, speculation, anxiety, worry and such only makes us even more powerless.

End times prophecy is a reminder for all to pay attention to what is going on around them.

There is a famous saying by C.S Lewis. When the author comes on stage you know the drama ended.

The drama will end and the earth in its present form will be desolate. Our lives will end and the author of our lives will be on stage one day to ask each of us how did you play your life? It won’t be “how did you anticipate the end”?

If my father is at the point of death and wants me to do something for him I am going to do it. He calls me aside and asks, “Jos, do you love me”. Sure dad. I do, I will say. He then tells me take care of your brother and sister. And I will say “sure dad” and even roll my eyes in disbelief as if why would he say that. Doesn’t he know that?

This is what makes us powerful. Because this is what Jesus said to Simeon Peter. “Peter, do you love me” and Peter whispered in his ears, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you”. And the Lord says, “Feed my sheep” and asks again and again, responding to him “tend my flock” and “feed my sheep”. Leave the rest to God.

Power comes from our willingness to grow up and be responsible. Power is not a result of speculation, but living. Living life daily is a sign of maturity. Living life spiritually faithful is a sign of spiritual maturity.

Therefore my dear brothers and sisters, Advent is a season calling for change in our attitude, and our actions. As like the beginnings of new life and endings with a great climax, we are called to act it out in the middle.

Now let us ask ourselves three questions.

1. Will I be afraid to meet God today?

2. If I am, what can I do to change it?

3. If not, what will you do next?

Fr. Jos Tharakan

Royalties read multi-directional!

2009-11-21T19:29:00.001-06:00

We live in a world where there is lots of noise made talking about separation of church and state. All those discussions will come to an end when we talk about Jesus as the King, which is a political concept. There is absolutely no separation of church and state in this story of the Kingship of Christ. Is there?

This brings us to a new problem that we haven't properly defined church and state. We haven't defined what politics is all about and what church is all about. If Christ is both King and Savior of the world, then it is impossible for us to separate church and state.

I heard this story of a great salesman who was sent to the Arab world to sell soft drinks. After a long and hard trip he returned to the base completed failed. His boss was surprised at as what happened to him knowing what he was capable of doing. The salesman responded. When he got his posting in the middle east he did not know how to speak Arabic. Therefore he decided to make his sales pitch in posters of images. He made his first poster of a man who is tired and exhausted. Then he made the second poster that showed this exciting and energizing drink. The third poster showed an energetic and refreshed and rejuvenated guy. But then after spending all these money for these advertising campaign he learned that people in the Middle East read from left to right.

This is what happened to churches across the world over centuries. We are teaching about Christ to a people who have become one directional than multi directional. Either they read from left to right or right to left where as God is written all over. Unless we are able to teach our new and younger generation to read God all over in all directions we will have to divide churches and states. Unless our younger generations are capable of finding God in all intersections of life, we will struggle to find God as King.

Who is a king? For a world like ours that prides itself of its democracy, kingship is not attractive. We came into existence fighting kings' rule.

Pilate is caught between Jesus in the praetorian and Jews in the courtyard. He is struggling to find the truth. His gut tells him the truth about this man standing in front of him but his stomach, meaning his cravings for power make him want to do otherwise.

The inability to find the truth comes from our inability to sense the whisper of the Holy Spirit within us. Truth is always a gut feeling that pulls us to the right action as we face a challenge in life. Then we have the cravings of daily life that pulls us apart from doing the right thing.

For those who cannot live a truthful life, kingship of God is always scary. God's ultimate power lies in his capacity to replace power with love whereas man's limitedness lies in his capacity to replace love with power.

The division of a world into political or religious segments comes from the same question Pilate is asking here. What is the truth? Truthful living has been lost in today's financially fallen world. Truthful living based on truthful forecasting and planning has been fallen through the cracks of love of power and money.

Why don't we want God in politics? Because it calls us to speak what we mean, live what we speak and do what we promise. These things are not part of the politics we know of today. With all the pressures of the global village, we are still called to live daily life truthfully loving our neighbor as ourselves.

God is written in all directions. Unless we are able to read and write God in all directions, which calls for truthfulness, compassion, kindness, courage, sternness, and more, we want everything to be compartmentalized and separated.

This is why God is king; because God does not compartmentalize one principle from another and a person from another.

To put it simply:

· Money comes with God – spend it as God wants.

· Sex comes with God – Enjoy it as God meant it to be

· Life comes with God – live it as God wants

· Human being comes with God – respect them as God would

· Politics comes with God – exercise it with power of love.

We share them all with the rest who all comes with God, from God. We are Royalties as I said on last Sunday, because we come from God who hasn't compartmentalized us into divided human classifications.

What is the kingship of Christ we are celebrating today? It is the celebration of oneness and integrity of life. Kingship calls for truthfulness, inviting us to pay attention to the whisper in our hearts at every turn of life.

Fr. Jos Tharakan (C)

Good Friday Grace

2009-11-20T22:32:00.000-06:00

Heavenly Father give me the grace to live by the grace of Good Friday than the curse of black Friday. Protect those who run frantically for the things of this world. Give us a priority of things and values in life. Amen.

“El Shaddai” – Constancy, Nearness and Comfort!

2009-11-19T23:43:00.000-06:00

We live in a world of constant and fast change. What you see today is changed tomorrow and what you own today is outdated in six months. Because of this constant and fast change some of us find it difficult to relate to which is lasting and unchanging. That which lasts and should last is relationship with God and people. Relationships bring past, present and future together to form The History of Salvation for a future generation - even if those in relationship do not know how it happens. It is relationship that builds constancy, nearness and comfort.

In the introduction to the song “El Shaddai”, Amy Grant says, “I am glad to sing you a song about something that does not change”. But before Amy Grant it was said by the Lord Himself. “I am the God of Abraham, The God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”, is bringing God as real and constant presence. God also spoke concerning Christ “Here is my beloved, with whom I am well pleased”, becomes an invitation to the present and affirmative presence of the loving God here and now. “I will be with you always and will come again” becomes an assurance of hope for future.

Then God continued, “I and the Father are One. As We are One, bless them to be united.” These prayers go on and on. But seldom do we hear the beauty, power and grace of such prayer of Christ. The prayer for constancy, the prayer for unity, the prayer for relationship and the prayer of abounding love are all missed in the midst of all that flickers. For change is pleasing to the eyes and easy on the heart! Change gives us a high and takes us to the low at the same time. The irony of the flickering change is that it points to the constant and everlasting.

Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness and his hunger for food is given to show us there was a God before the perishing food and drink of humanity and that God did and will survive without human food and perishable wealth. Jesus’ temptation on the pinnacle of the temple was all about showing us that history proves beyond all doubt the nearness and presence of God here and now. Jesus temptation on the high mountain was again to say all that is good and bad, powerful and beautiful in the world is God’s and we are not required to bow down to the world or own it.

If Christ was tempted in all things, as we read in Hebrews and Matthew we shall not be tempted less in anything. But the better gift we have received is the gift of constancy through the hunger of the wilderness, the nearness and presence from the pinnacle of the temple and the comforting hope all is still in the hands of God and there is no need to fear of what future holds. What God holds no one else can give to us even if we bow down all we want. It is for God to bless us with when time permits it in God’s own eternal plan.

So there are three gifts God gives to those who are in the wilderness of their life but filled with the Holy Spirit. They are:

God’s constancy to those who are ravaged by change around them.
God’s nearness and presence to those who are afraid of the heights of loneliness and abandonment.
God’s comfort and hope to those who fear the uncertainty of life and all that it holds.

In the midst of temptations of the day all what is required is simply remember the wilderness in life is where God is waiting for your soul, the pinnacle of problems is where God is holding you in His arms and the mountains of uncertainties are where everything is still owned and operated by God. Rejoice as you enter into this season of Lent for God is waiting for you next to you with a faithful heart and comforting faith.

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Call Christ from the Crowd

2009-10-25T10:29:00.000-05:00

Today’s scripture from Mark brings us something beautiful about God and God’s desire to enter into relationship with mankind.

Christ does not assume what we want rather asks us what we want of him to do for us. Now the question is how we are going to answer that question. Are we going to say a number of things that we want him to do for us or can we understand the deeper meaning of entering into a relationship with Christ?

Jesus said the same to James and John and you know what they said. “Lord can we sit at your right and left when you come in glory”.

Here is a blind man who says, “Could I see please”.

This is the last story of healing we hear in the Gospel of Mark. Jesus is in Jericho, at the edge of Jerusalem, and at the edge of suffering and death. Jesus’ journey ends here. He could be so preoccupied with his own life and what awaits him, instead hears the cry of the blind to see.

Interestingly it is the blind who recognized Jesus from the crowd than the people with their eyes open. In the physical blindness his inner eyes were open to see God passing by.

We live in a world of communication explosion. Our world of today has more ways to reach people across the globe and to our immediate neighbor faster and easier than it was before. People can actually hear the cry for a life, for light and relationship now more easily than our grandparents and parents could.

But you know sadly we hear less the cries of our neighbors today than before. We have less relationship with our neighbors and friends around us as we sit in front of the communication box to talk to them impersonally.

This story of today shows us what is essential and what we need within us to see it.

It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eyes.

In today’s world there are three kinds of blindness I read somewhere.

1. The first kind is the blindness of Bartimaeus which is physical.

2. The second kind is the blindness of the disciples; James and John, who unintentionally sought power and place of honor.

3. The third kind is the blindness like that of our world today that hides behind a screen and don’t see real life around.

Here is a beautiful story I read some time ago.

Some years ago in a small village in the Midwest, a little twelve-year old girl named Terri was babysitting her little brother. Terri walked outside to check the mail. As she turned back from the mailbox, she couldn't believe her eyes. The house was on fire. So very quickly the little house was enveloped in flames.

Terri ran as fast as she could into the flaming house only to find her baby brother trapped by a burning rafter which had fallen and pinned him to the floor. Hurriedly, Terri worked to free her brother. She had trouble getting him loose as the flames were dancing around their heads. Finally, she freed him. She picked him up and quickly took him outside and revived him just as the roof of the house caved in.

By this time, firemen were on the scene and the neighbors had gathered outside the smoldering remains of the house. The neighbors had been too frightened to go inside or to do anything to help, and they were tremendously impressed with the courage of the twelve-year old girl. They congratulated her for her heroic efforts and said, "Terri, you are so very brave. Weren't you scared? What were you thinking about when you ran into the burning house?" She said, "I wasn't thinking about anything. I just heard my little brother crying." [1]

In the crowd and in the neighborhood our little brother and sister are crying for help, that they may see. Someone is blind and someone else is heartbroken.

We are asked everyday what are we rushing for in daily life? Call Christ from the Crowd to stop. Christ will hear his little brother and sister crying in the midst of life’s flames.

But listen carefully the Lord does not assume what you want; he waits for you to place your request. I pray that our request be not for simply a physical healing or power and place, but that we will say “I want to see you Lord”.

[1] James W. Moore

Stone Tablets to Human Hearts

2009-10-24T22:15:00.000-05:00

We live in a world of material possessions and values. Our priorities have been redefined by the stuff we gather and own in life. Ones worth is now measured by the value of the car, the home, the smart phones, the apps for those phones and the social networks he or she is member of.

Are we unique to this behavior? Not at all. When did this all begin? From the day of creation. It has nothing to do with us here in America. This is human nature, namely to amass wealth and worth from the things we own.

I am sure you all read the sweatbox tragedy of yesterday (10/09/2009) in Sedona, AZ. It is about gathering wealth and all that is to posses here on earth by channeling the energies of the angels, the earth and all the powers of the universe. Of course all of it comes with a touch of spirituality that misleads people to believe it is about spiritual abundance.

People of this world, for some reason or another, mix up spiritual abundance with material wealth, indulgence, and financial security.

Because we are so prone to fall prey into such scams about life, and definitions for life, the Lord shows us what true discipleship means and costs. To many Christian's in the world it is about Ten Commandments. It helps them shift their responsibility of life to the tablet of the mountain written for a tribal people Before Christ. Don't get me wrong. They are absolutely meaningful and truthful and surely prescribed and basic to spiritual living.

But then comes Christ with a simplified version of the Commandments for a new generation summarizing them into two: 1) Love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul and your mind and 2) love your neighbor as yourself, which gave the responsibility for living true spiritual life – a movement from stone tablets to human hearts – into the hands of people.

If you have lived the 10 commandments, great and wonderful. Now take step two, is what the Lord says. Let go of that which nails you down to living the commandments without fear, the wealth of this world and all that it holds you down.

I read somewhere. "Fear of death increases in exact proportion to increase in wealth."

I like what Princes Diana had to say. "They say it is better to be poor and happy than rich and miserable, but how about a compromise like moderately rich and just moody?"

When we are rich we think we possess a lot. But in reality we are possessed by a lot of things.

Jesus is telling the young man that wealth is an illusion for the void that we experience in our hearts without God. Wealth that belongs to God and that we are unable to part with is what owns us and subdues us eventually.

We are crippled by what we own and we are liberated by what we let go.

We all sometime or another suffer from Success Syndrome. Success Syndrome is that which desires more power, more money and more attention to make us happier in life. What is needed to be cured of it? Simply have a deep commitment that goes beyond writing a check.

This month we celebrate the feast of St. Francis, a man who walked naked when all the possessions and wealth of the world invited him to do otherwise and be nailed down to the earth beneath his feet.

I heard this story of a man who was an expert in diamonds. He was traveling in a plane and he happened to sit next to a lady who was wearing a beautiful and large diamond. After a few minutes of curiosity filled silence he asked her, I can't but notice the beautiful and big diamond you have on your fingers. May I ask what is it called? Surely the lady answered. It is called "Klopman Diamond", one of the largest in the world. There is a curse that comes with it though" The man became very curious and asked her what it was and she said, "Mr. Klopman".

I hope none of us have Mr. Koapmans around our neck to drown us in this world.

Let us walk away naked from the possessions of this world to the riches of Christ given in each other- Thus living the commandments.

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Posted By Fr. Jos Tharakan to Blessings Today at 10/24/2009 08:12:00 PM

It is OK to be quirky with Christ! What?

2009-10-18T22:30:00.000-05:00

The biggest struggle of a church going individual in today’s consumerist world is the same struggle we find in the apostles John and James. They are looking for position, prestige and power. Is there anything wrong about it? Absolutely not if all your focus is being a leader in the world.

What we fail to understand is, position gets its true prestige and power only when it is coupled with the heart of a servant. True power breaks barriers and goes beyond boundaries.

Ervant leadership is not an easy task. Haven’t you seen church boards all across America reading: First Assembly of God, First Presbyterian, First Church of God, I haven’t seen one Episcopal church with that name yet, which does not in any way mean we are not power hungry, and then comes the second Baptist and second Methodist and second Presbyterian who are not that important and takes a back seat and if no one gets first or second, I must say sarcastically, then they go for All Saints, St. John’s, Creek Willow Church, and Broadway Community Church. There is a Church in Ohio called the “The Alpa and Omega”, the First and the Last church!.

Henri Nouwen says that we have been tempted to replace love with power.

The story of James and John makes us wonder what in the world were they thinking when they asked for left and right side of Christ?

William Barclay says something very beautiful when reflecting on this passage today. "There are many negative things that can be said about James and John. They were nakedly ambitious and proud: they wanted, and believed they deserved, places of honor in Jesus' kingdom. They were ignorant and insensitive: their request for places of honor came right after Jesus had told of His coming suffering and death. But there's one positive thing you can say about James and John: they believed in Jesus. Here was a poor, homeless, persecuted carpenter and yet James and John believed Jesus was a king. They believed that He would conquer the power structure of Rome."[1]

Even their crude ambition reflected their faith in Christ.

Today as we reflect on this scripture let us ask God to give us a servant heart and a deep rooted faith in Christ. Let us take home two beautiful messages from a not so beautiful request of James and John.

1. It is OK to be quirky with Christ, and He will understand us, and set us straight.

2. It is not OK to be quirky with people, as true greatness is in being an honest servant.

[1] William Barclay, The Gospel of Mark, pp. 254, 255

Sand castles we build and destroy!

2009-09-26T23:20:00.000-05:00

A man who was walking across a bridge and came upon another man standing right on the edge, about to plunge to his death. The first man shouted "Stop! Are you a Christian?" "Yes, as a matter of fact I am." "Well so am I. Are you Catholic or Protestant?" "I'm Protestant," "Well so am I. Are you Episcopal or Baptist?" "I'm Episcopal." "Wow... I am too. Are you a United Episcopal church of America or The Episcopal Church? "I'm in The Episcopal Church," "Me too, that's amazing! Do you use 1949 or 1979 BCP?" "I use 1979 "I can't believe it, so do I." But tell me do you ordain women?" He answered, "Yes we do." To which the first man said, "Die you heretic," and pushed him off the bridge.

Here is another one. "Jesus, we just saw someone who is secretly preaching in your name. He seems to do a lot of miracles in your name including healing a lot of people. They seem to bring the people to the kingdom of God without permission. What do you think of it? We told him to stop as he does not have permission from you or us for that matter. He did not listen to us. What do you want us to do to him?

Don't you think that is what happened to all Christian Churches in history? Someone did spread the kingdom of God without the permission of the other who considered themselves better than the other?

They were too much worried about their own fellowmen not following the rule while the Satan, the evil power gained momentum on them. So, Christ uses this occasion to teach them to wage a battle against evil rather than one another.

Christ tells his disciples that the first enemy in our world is territorial ism that makes us arrogant. He calls the apostles to see the big picture in the plan of Salvation that empowers human beings who are willing to take risks to bring the kingdom to those who seek it.

Yesterday in the UN one of the world leaders proposed that Switzerland be divided up and given to France, Italy and Germany. Another guy had been talking about eradicating Israel. And then there is another man who said, he does not smell sulfur at the foot of the UN seat. Of the 3600 years of written history of the world there had been 280 years of peace and 8000 peace treaties broken.

Men do not mirror themselves in running water--they mirror themselves in still water. Only what is still can still the stillness of other things.

- Taoism. Chuang Tzu 5

Be still and know that I am God.

To know God and God's purpose we have to be still both internally and externally.

We all have to calm down and allow the other to be still. Let the course of the action takes its time to see the lasting result.

Here is a beautiful story.

Some children were playing beside a river.  They made castles of sand, and each child defended his castle and said, "This one is mine."  They kept their castles separate and would not allow any mistakes about which was whose.  When the castles were all finished, one child kicked over someone else's castle and completely destroyed it.  The owner of the castle flew into a rage, pulled the other child's hair, struck him with his fist and bawled out, "He has spoiled my castle!  Come along all of you and help me to punish him as he deserves." The others all came to his help.  They beat the child with a stick and then stamped on him as he lay on the ground.... Then they went on playing in their sand castles, each saying, "This is mine; no one else may have it.  Keep away! Don't touch my castle!"  But evening came, it was getting dark and they all thought they ought to be going home.  No one now cared what became of his castle.  One child stamped on his, another pushed his over with both hands. Then they turned away and went back, each to his home.

-          Buddhism  Yogacara Bhumi Sutra 4

Store up treasures for yourself in the kingdom of God. All that we build here are sand castles and all that we fight about are sand castles. We ourselves destroy them at the end of life. Along the way of building those sand castles we have destroyed lives and hopes.

This is what Jesus is warning against today in the scriptures. Beware of the sand castles we build and the lives we destroy for our own territorial-ism.

Is it the hand that causes us to destroy the other? Hand is the extension of God's creative power. Turn your hands into the hand of God. If not for creation what is it for? If our hand cannot any more create, then it is not worth it.

Are our feet that cause us to destroy the other? Our feet are the extension of God's sustaining power. If our feet are not for preservation and prevention what are they for? If we cannot walk the mile like Christ did with those who are lost and unloved, what are they for?

Are our eyes what cause the destruction of the other? Our eyes are the eternal sight of God that protects and watches over the weak and poor, the sick and the lonely.

Why is Christ focusing on the hands, the feet and the eyes here? Because as St. Theresa of Avila says:

Christ has no body now but yours,

No hands, no feet, on earth but yours.
Your are the eyes through which He looks with Compassion on this world
your are the feet
with which He walks to do good.
Your are the hands
with which He blesses all the world
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet.
Yours are the eyes, you are His body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours
Yours are the eyes, through which He Looks
compassion on the world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

Peace happens only when Christ happens in the other. Peace happens only when God loses the boundary.

Fr. Jos Tharakan

Stop, Take A Breath!

God is likely to fail again!

Shade of Grace

A civil disobedience

Covet not thy past or future!

Restriction or Liberation: What is Faith?

[i] Boundless discipleship, Karoline Lewis

Reptilian brain to God’s mind

Thoughts from Fr. Helmer.

Resurrection in the Internet Age

Life that changed the history

Feast of All Saints'

God abides

The Divine Availability!

Jesus & the Ten Lepers from Will Heyward on Vimeo.The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Found from under the table!

Wherever I go...

Witness to possibility

To Learn from!

Hunchbacked humanity! Story Continues....

Craving Community

Practice Modesty, Humility and Awareness!

Humility to Greatness

No Rest For the Holy: Clergy Burnout a Growing Concern

From matter to Spirit

Grinding Grace of God!

Silence

God wakes up!

Being lowly

Kingdom and God!

Our Quarrels

Loving generously

What are you full of?

To live in Peace

Renewal and Nearness

Listening in Nearness

Level ground integrity

From Shame to Grace

Compassion is costly!

Take Courage

Face to Face

God upholds

Easy Perfect Way

God's Mercy

What makes sense

Just a deep sigh

True Freedom

Renew my heart, O Lord

Lead by the Spirit

Mind set on God

Prayer from the deepest heart

Part the sea

Drifting. Just Drifting!

Goodness and Mercy

God's Love is Fresh

Co-dependency to Freedom

From Fear To Freedom!

Our floor our table!

Unorthodox menu to choose from!

Listening and following

Sweet Home Mountainburg!

Resurrection needs spiritual muscles

Forgiveness to Peace!

Hit the road Jack! Fire of Love and Water of Kindness!

Servant Leadership

Triumphant entry into suffering!

The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Why shouldn’t the stones speak up? It is God who is entering into the realm of human suffering. Meaning is brought to those that were meaningless; might and meekness a place to exist together. Helplessness is given a share of life.

Wasteful love is better than justice!

What is the act of endless forgiveness?

Golden Grain is in Every Pile!

Gold in Clay Pots

Lord is at my shore

Light and love

Enjoy the moment

Riches of God

Let loose the string of fear

You are blessed

Silver line to light

Joe Hillbilly!

Jesus & the Ten Lepers from Will Heyward on Vimeo.
The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.