Faith

God took his people out of Egypt but not Egypt out of them – ThirdSunday in Lent – Exodus17:1-7/ John 4:5-42

The first reading has so much meat on the bone that you won’t miss the tidbits. So let us place the text in context. The ‘children’ of Israel (to be taken affectionately but in this case literally because of their behaviour) have seen the mighty plagues that delivered them out of, when in Egypt. Having crossed the Red Sea in chapters 14 and 15 they enter the wilderness of Shur (15:22) and it is here that their complaining begins.

While Google Maps did not exist at the time of Moses, common sense did! Common sense coupled with tribal chatter should have been enlightening enough to make people entering the wilderness expect the reality of a desert. But while God took the Israelites out of Egypt, they refused to take Egypt out of themselves. We know that they hankered for the fleshpots of Egypt which in reality could have only been starvation and hard labour, all of this wrapped in slavery.

Their first encounter in the desert was the bitter water at Marah which God sweetened for them with a ‘piece of wood’ that Moses threw into the well. In another age, God would give us the ‘wood of the cross’ to sweeten the bitterness of our lives. But does God’s saving action make us grateful?

Having got sweet water, the people complain about food in the ‘wilderness of Sin.’ This time God rained down bread from heaven. But it is at Rephidim, which means rest, that the children of Israel begin their unrest again. Now at Massa and Meribah God gives them water from the rock.

I did mention earlier that there is much meat on this bone for us to enjoy, so let us begin.

1. Have you asked yourself, “can I trust God?” This is an important question when you decide to break away from your slave master (who could even be your boss at work) and step into new unchartered inhabited and hostile territory. If you want to answer that question don’t look to God but look into your past. Has God let you down in the past? It is more likely that you let him down. Our lives are a living testimony to a God who has come through for us and yet even when our throat is slightly parched, we feel compelled to bring God’s deliverance into question.

2. Moses is more than a leader he is a leader par excellence especially when you have to lead a tribe of constant grumblers whose ingratitude almost brought Moses to death (the text of today tells us they wanted to stone him). The leadership of Moses is not the result of attending a Christian leadership seminar but rather his dependency on God. When faced with a problem he went to God. “How do I deal with these people?” he asks God. You may feel the need to talk to a counsellor but a counsellor may help you to solve your issues for the day, God on the other hand helps you resolve them for a lifetime. Choose God first, choose him always!

3. For the third reflection, I want to frame this reflection in the purple of Lent. Moses was the man who led and fed his people. Yet the text of today tells us that in his appeal to God, Moses tells God that these very people wanted to stone him. Sound familiar? Christ fed 5000, raised the dead, cured the leper, and welcomed the sinner but finally, they not only wanted to kill him, but they did it. Moses had to deal with the possibility of being stone, Christ was crucified.

4. In the Gospel of today taken from John 4, Christ, knowing the sinful life of this Samaritan woman engages her in a theological discussion, offers her living water and wins her over to eternal life. Did she get it at first? No, she seems to make fun of this man offering her ‘living water’ at a well, when he has no bucket at all (no one told her he walked on water). But her openness draws her to see him as more than just a Jew (verse 9), as a respectable man, for she calls him “sir” (verses 11 and 15) as a “prophet” (verse19) and to the beginnings of accepting him as the Messiah (verse 29) and the acknowledgement of Jesus as the “saviour of the world” (verse 42)

Is this good enough for your day? If yes then take this water to someone else who is thirsty and all you have to do is send it with a click of a button.

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Food


Kerala style chicken stew

500 grams chicken
2 tosp coconut oil
1 teaspoon black pepper
3 to 4 green cardamom
Two cloves
Half inch cinnamon
1 tsp fennel seeds
7-8 garlic cloves
1 inch Ginger
3 to 4 green chilies
1 onion sliced
1 cup carrots, potatoes and peas
1 cup thin coconut milk
1/2 cup thick coconut milk
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 teaspoon black pepper powder

For the tadka or tempering
1 tbsp coconut oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
Hand ful of curry leaves a
Handful of Pearl shallots or small onion

in a Kadai or deep bottom dish add coconut oil and temper, the whole spices, add ginger garlic, green chilies, curry leaves followed by onion Add the chicken and sauté it well. once the chicken changes colour, add the thin coconut milk. Cover and cook for 15 minutes.
Once the chicken is cooked, add the thick coconut milk, garam masala powder and black pepper powder.

now for the tempering or tadka. In a small pan, add coconut oil, mustard seeds a handful of curry leaves, and handful pearl shallots or onions. Let the mustard seeds crackle and then pour it over the stew and mix well.
You can also fry some cashew nuts  and add to the dish.

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Faith

Empty gestures make only noise – Third Sunday in Lent – Exodus 20:1-17/ John 2:13-25

I would like to approach this teaching with a two-pronged approach; theologically (and I will not approach it as if I am writing a doctrinal thesis) and pastorally so that we can take a thought or two home.

The cleansing of the temple by Jesus is a narrative that is found in all four gospels. Not every narrative (the wedding at Canna being a case in point) is found in every Gospel. But what is unique to John’s Gospel is that it is placed right at the beginning of the Gospel in chapter two, just after the wedding at Canna. The Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) have this narration towards the end of their Gospels

For the Synoptics (meaning to see together, because they are similar) the cleansing of the temple was the last straw that broke the camel’s back or in this case the tolerance levels of the Jewish establishment towards Jesus. It is this incident that drove the nail into Jesus’ coffin or more precisely, into his palms and feet. In the case of John’s Gospel, it was the raising of Lazarus.

So why does John position and present this text differently? For John, the cleansing of the temple is highlighted not so much in what he does (which is a bit different in details compared to the Synoptics) but rather in what Jesus says. “You will not make MY FATHER’s house into a marketplace.” (In the synoptics it is a den of thieves).

Here in lies the revelation of Jesus as the SON OF GOD establishing his authority at a time when every Jew from the region and the diaspora poured into the temple for the Passover. Jesus was not making some petty claim in a small town of Galilee. This was him making his bold case; he is the Messiah; he is the Son of God and this is his father’s house. This was his big-ticket announcement, his first public speech and one that would send ripples throughout the Jewish faith.

Coming to the pastoral implications. The Lord is presented as all riled up and while I would love to talk about our anger issues I would rather focus on the actions of Jesus. This is not the image of the sweetheart of Jesus that we have got used to; this is the Christ setting perspectives right. Understandably, commercial activity will surround religious expressions. But when the activity overtakes the core essentials of the faith, when faith becomes mere activity, then this can best be described as a faithless business.

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Faith

This son of yours – Saturday, the second week in Lent – Micah 7:14-15,18-20/Luke 15:1-3,11-13

The first reading taken from this 7th-century BC prophet reveals the heart of a man who pleads on behalf of his people. It is not that the people of Jerusalem had not heard the warnings of God; they simply did not heed them.

Micah is laying the praise thick; he is pleading with God who has been offended and rejected by a people He has loved and cherished. They have blatantly and repeatedly rejected his love. This is not a God who had been stingy in his loving. He had led his flock out of bondage into the rich and fertile pastures of Bashan and Gilead. Yahweh’s mercy and love were incomparable to the other gods; they were but a pale shadow of his mercy. Revealed in today’s text is the core of God; He is a God who DELIGHTS in his mercy.

That is something to sit back and think about. What do we delight in? To delight in something means that we are tremendously happy or exhilarated in or with something or somebody. Perhaps it is our home, our family, our job, a vacation or an ability. Micah tells us that God, delights in his people, in you and me; and in his mercy for us.

Micah whose very name means, “who is like our God” reminds us this Lenten season that we have a God who delights in us, delights in giving us, and delights in forgiving us. We are the only object of his affection. He loves no other. This is the kind of love that you and I seek from others in this world. We are reluctant to acknowledge that if we only accept God’s love, we will be truly happy. If only with St Augustine we confessed, “Our hearts were made for you Lord, they will never find rest until they rest in you.”

Yet you may ask, “Why then did God deliver his people, whom he delighted in, into the hands of the Babylonians? One should never forget the number of prophets who pleaded of Jerusalem to harken to his voice, one should never forget the number of sermons that we have heard, one should never forget the number of Lenten reflections that have been churned out, yet we harken not his voice. Mercy is not devoid of justice! I can’t get away with murder it needs a just punishment. This does not mean God rejects the man who committed murder. If that was his criteria then Jesus would be sitting in the Sanhedrin and not in the house of Matthew.

God’s wonderful mercy is reflected in the parable of what has commonly been called the ‘prodigal son.’ The mercy of God is seen in the Father who is waiting for his son and then runs to embrace this wayward child. Sadly, the mercy of the elder son is not only lacking it seems non-existent. In his anger, he refuses to come into the house where his wayward brother’s return is being celebrated. In his anger, he refers to his brother as “this son of yours” and not my brother. We desire God’s mercy but don’t want to pass the same on to those who have merely scratched our ego.

Let us learn to understand the words we profess, “forgive our sins as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

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Faith

 

Haters beware! – Friday, 2nd Week in Lent – Genesis 37:3-4,12-13,17-28/ Matthew 21:33-43,45-46

Place the text from Genesis, Matthew and the life of Jesus side by side and what emerges is a very obvious pattern. There is a father (Israel/the landlord/God) who loves his son and sends his well-beloved to a hate-filled people (Joseph’s brothers/the tenants/those among the Jews who rejected Christ) who plot his death, strip him of his garments, throw him out(well/vineyard/pit) and then put him to death. Joseph had his brothers turn against him; Christ had his people turn against him.

Reading these texts, you come to see that your life and mine have more than just stands of similarity with the narratives. We could either be the victims of hate or even worse the perpetrators of hate. If you, knowingly and willfully are the cause of someone’s pain then the scriptures have some strong words for you; REPENT NOW!

All three narratives tell us that hate is not the last word in God’s plan of things; hate does not and cannot win. You may revel in your evil, and you may even succeed in killing the body but while your evil plan may work for a while, God’s victory is going to run right over you. His angels with trample you. You can never have the last word with God’s plan.

We see hateful people at a personal and institutional level; BOTH ARE BULLIES and even more so when they sit in positions of power. Joseph experienced hate at a personal level, and Christ at an institutional level. In nations across the world, leaders who swear on religious books to protect their nations, use and abuse that power to torment and put to death those who raise their voices against hate and injustice and they are ‘supported’ by the silence of ‘good people’ even ‘godly leaders’ who never speak out and ironically join these leaders, shaking hands and exchanging greetings with these new age dictators.

I mentioned earlier that God has the last word but it does not mean that this word necessarily translates into an immediate intervention. While the landlord’s son and Our Lord were put to death, Joseph escaped death though subject to suffering. The final victory of God is experienced differently in each case; Joseph becomes the second most important man in Egypt, the tenants meet with a violent death and Jesus rises triumphantly.

I like how the Gospel of today ends. “When the chief priest and scribes realized that he was speaking about them, they would have liked to have him arrested but were afraid of the crowds who looked at him as a prophet.” Hateful people who read this reflection know that the cap fits, collaborators of hateful people know that the cap fits and the innocent suffering take consolation in the glory of God, who has not, will not and cannot let his people down.

Read this text as you may! I write the words you are clever enough to draw the images in your mind.

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