Worshiping Community transformed by the Word of God.... Rev. Shiby Varghese

Gospel according to St Matthew 7: 21-27

This is the conclusion of sermon of mount of Jesus Christ.  A sermon on or about the Sermon on the Mount is a difficult task.  However, for our ministry let us take some re-reading with all its seriousness. Always preaching changes people.  It transforms people.  Thus we could take the sermon on mount as the model sermon of Jesus that throws light on various things.

On Aug 28^th 1963 Martin Luther King Junior in America gave his famous inspiring speech- “I have a dream”. This made the people to get together with a vision.  A collective consciousness was created among them. Who is a man?  How should a society be? And how to be reformed? According to Aristotle, Man is a rational being.  But Descartes goes on to say that it is not rationality it is the mind that defines human being.  Later, Heidegger said that it is language that makes man. After all these, we see Derrida coming forward with man as a text.

According to Edward Said, in order to capture or enslave a society, its sacred text has to be enslaved and corrupted first. Here Christ says that we need to give freedom or freely place the text. How a text should be and how it is to be received?  In chapter 5, Jesus speaks of state of the blessed. In chapter 6 Jesus speaks about practice. This text covers religious and socio-economic. Chapter 7 starts with the exhortation do not judge.  It also points out who God is, or ‘God consciousness’.

1.      Spelling the God of the emperor

2.      The God consciousness of Jews

3.      Cultic God concept

With all these, Jesus says what makes you enter kingdom of heaven is doing father’s will. Kingdom of “heaven” is a gift of Matthew to us. Christ speaks of heaven, a much better reality than the earth. One is the extension of the other. When Plato says one ideal and other the form, Jesus says do here or create kingdom of heaven here where you are placed. Reformation is to create a creation from scripture. Jeremiah speaks about remove or demolish and rebuild an engulfing seen here.

SPACING SCRIPTURE TEXTING

Verse 21 of above passage starts with the address, “lord, lord…”  They continued, “all in your name we prophesied.” It means that they were teaching in his name.  They added, “We rebuked demons.” Through these words they claimed that they were doing some normative, powerful works.  It means that here they say we represent you.  Thus we created ourselves through structure creation. The world is to be for us.  In the words of Mar Chrysostom this expresses “ninte peril njangal cheyum velaghal”. We see a projection of self-domestication, you are domesticating the other.  Thus the language of Jesus becomes tougher.  In verse 23 it is said that he will profess ‘I do not know you’. According to Levinas “One society that goes ethical in it will land up in anarchy” thus no one is able to guide anybody. To those preaches alone, Jesus calls them as ‘you evil doers’.  Evil doers are architecting. Oikos means house, the whole inhabited earth etc.  Oikos is used to capture the world.  It is used to create boundary during the time of Jesus. We need to rebuild this institution- oikos.  There are three houses (alayam) that need to be re-built. 

1.      House of education: as place of information, a place of formation of the self, in Paulo Friere’s work pedagogy of the oppressed, he says that the consciousness of men is built by the pedagogy”. The self to be the built on the likeness of the signs from above (uyiradayallangal).

2.      House of treatment: when the patient comes with an ailment, the doctor changes according to each of the patients for the treatment and starts a journey with him.  Purpose is a re-ordering.  The doctor is the host of patient who is the guest, we also need to see that there is a lot of similarity between the vaidyan and vaideekan and they are related

3.      House of God: Matthew chapter 23 has a call to rebuild the temple of god.  Thus we see man himself is to be rebuilt. Christ tried to say architecting is shepherding and kingdom of god is through formation and rebuilding.  This is the purpose of god.

Liturgy is to find God. It is an order.  A returning back to the liturgy is needed to have an order. It needs spacing, scripting and texting of kingdom of God.  It also demands the death of the author; God consciousness. Jesus says to Nicodimos “you need to be born again” this birth signifies the understanding of God we have and a newer understanding of God.

Karen Armstrong says that, as Moses stood at the burning bush we need to be excited in the same way each time with the word of God.  There needs to be a rebuilding of ‘Oikos’. Thus the reformation needed of the self that rebuilds three places

·         House/space of knowledge

·         House/space of treatments

·         House/space of God

Let us live a new life through rebuilding the oikos ‘self’, we need to stand with the same excitement that Moses had on seeing the burning bush, so should our experiences each time be with the word of God.


Rev. Shibi Varghese 

The Celebration of the Holy Matrimony: Messages by Rt. Rev. Joseph Mar Barnabas & Rev. Mathew P. Thomas

The Celebration of the Holy Matrimony

Mat. 19:3-6

Message by Rt. Rev. Joseph Mar Barnabas

This is a special week, where we commemorate three special events.

First, this week we meditate on the celebration of the sacrament of marriage.  The sacrament of marriage was initiated by God Himself at Eden. In the Syriac liturgical tradition, the order of marriage is termed as Takso d’ Suvogo, which means to join together. It is allegorically compared to joining two tamed bulls, under a yoke. In our church by the sacrament of marriage we are emphatically proclaiming the relationship between Christ, the bride groom and the church, the bride.  However, it is a sad part that we have changed our focus from this celebration of the sacrament of marriage to dissolution of the relationship.

Second, is the lent of fifteen days, which is observed from Aug 1 to Aug 15.  This second event is the commemorating of the obedience of Virgin Mary and the Holy Saints. People ask questions like, “Do we have such a lent?”  Are we actually praying to Virgin Mary? The answer is, we use this occasion to remember the life and commitment of Virgin Mary and all the saints. Through this lent we are praying to God to enable us to follow in their footsteps. Our Holy Qurbana starts with the chant “born of Virgin Mary., baptized by John”. Mary has played an important in Jesus’ life. Without Virgin Mary there is no Jesus. There is also no one who understood Jesus as Virgin Mary.  The following pondering questions, “What will this child become?, who shall he be?”, Mary treasured everything in her heart.  There are two very important events associated with the Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church connected with this lent. It was on 1^st August 1836, the starting day of this lent period, Kaithaiyil Geevarghese Malpan used the translated liturgy in Kollad MTC.  Also, it was on 15^th Aug 1836, the day when the lent ended, Abraham Malpan used the translated liturgy for the communion in Maramon church.  Therefore, 15 day lent is the time when we commemorate the re-dedication the Church in orthodoxy (right faith).

 Third, is the commemoration of the event is a Transfiguration of the Christ. Transfiguration of Christ is connected to the events that happened before it. Six days back Peter declared in Caesarea Philippi that Jesus is the Messiah. But when Jesus presented his death and suffering and then the resurrection before the disciples, Peter tried to oppose Jesus. It is the event of Transfiguration that made Peter proclaim after the resurrection that cross was important for Christ. In the Transfiguration event, Jesus was on the mountain with his three disciples. Jesus got transfigured.  Moses and Elijah appeared along with him. Moses and Elijah strengthened Jesus for the impending crucifixion and confirm him. Moses who could see only the backside of YHWH on Mt. Sinai sees God face to face in the Transfiguration event. Peter on seeing this event is excited as well as confused, he asks Jesus to build three tents for them. Tents are very significant here. We cannot go down to the valley and work unless tents are built on the mountain top. i.e., without experiencing God and seeing him face to face we cannot go down to work among the others. Transfiguration event radiates out the Glory of Jesus as well as confirms the fact that he is complete God as well as complete man.

Today, as clergy when we celebrate this three events let us point out the transforming Christ to others. Let us bring changes in the parish, whole Church, and the society just like salt brings out its flavor, by being faithful in small things, following the footsteps of the saints, to show the people through our actions that there is life in Church. 

Message by

Rev. Mathew P Thomas

During a funeral service, a young man was inconsolable. He was crying bitterly for his father. People were sympathetic, at the same time, they wondered why he felt so sorrowful over his Father’s demise. On their enquiry, the young man replied, “When my younger sister was born, my mother lost her mental stability. She used to shout and do many unwanted things. She would get violent and several times tried to kill my father.  In spite of being tormented by her, my father accepted her and her condition and severed her”. This is a testimony of the bond of love among the parents by a Son.

In this above mentioned Bible portion, the Pharisees put the question of divorce to trap Jesus. There were two beliefs prevalent during that time. One group permitted divorce if the wife is unfaithful. Another group maintained that a man could divorce his wife for any small reason. i.e., in Judah divorce could be done very easily. Also in the prevalent Roman culture, prostitution was very common. The role of women was just limited to take care of the legitimate descendant. It is in this context Jesus leads their attention to the time when God had made Adam.  The creation accounts state that after God made all the animals and birds man could not find one of them as a suitable companion for man. It is then that God puts man into a deep sleep and from man he takes one of his ribs and makes a woman. She becomes the suitable companion for man. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve had no alternative. God joined man and woman and hence man is not allowed to break it.

I our Holy Matrimony liturgy, it is stated that “you are joined together, till death parts you”. In the letter of Paul to Ephesians, he tells “a man must love his wife as much as he loves his own body”. It has to be a consistent relationship. There is a sacrificial element involved. A man must love his wife just as Christ the bridegroom loved the bride, i.e. the Church. Marriage is a consecration in Hebrew, it means dedication. That means to submit oneself as an exclusive property of the other. There is no space for selfishness. The best example is being that of Joseph and Mary. It is mentioned that Joseph did not have sexual relationship with Mary until Jesus was born.   Can we see such a sacrifice among our people? There is an advocate Mr. Thomas Mathew, a Marthomite. He left his job to serve his wife who contracted a disease quite suddenly. He mentions how he felt satisfied to see his wife pass away peacefully with hope.

Marriage involves nurturing and care by both the partners. Love is the foundation for it. There is an incident which goes as follows. A woman was suffering with stroke. The husband took care of all her needs and he never leaves by her side. One of the people who came to visit him asked, “Why don’t you hire a nurse to take care of your wife?”  The husband replied, “she might not know me, but I know her very well”.  Every partner is responsible for the growth of the other.  In our modern culture, where “live together, live in” is molded. Let we all, as Christ’s body show through our relationship in our marriage as well as with our Christ like life a model for others which they can imitate.