S4 Day-31: Bethlehem: God in/with the ‘Little’ Ones

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose going forth are from of old, From everlasting.” 

Micah 6:3 

On two occasions I happen to stop by a grocery store. On one, I went in a good car while on the other on a “normal” car. I noticed that the treatment towards me was different on both the occasions. When I went there in a good car, they treated with the best of their services, not even allowing me to load my own groceries into my car by myself. However, when I was there in an “ordinary” car, I was only made to wait with no extra service. 

I was the same person, in the same shop but in different cars. The result of it being different treatments. I pondered how we human beings treat the other based on greatness of power, positions, richness… How we attribute respect even tolerance and kindness based on a person’s greatness. 

If God would have considered and preferred people/clan/place based on greatness of power and bigger in territorial size, the son of God Jesus would never have been born in a little town, Bethlehem in Judah. There were great states and kingdoms with great power at that time. But as Prophet Micah states, Bethlehem was “little among the thousands of Judah”, yet out of Bethlehem “the One to be Ruler in Israel” and the entire world came forth. 

We often classify people according to their caste, race, and gender too. We belittle them according to these classifications. These little people we also often do not hesitate to label them as “dirty” and not consider human. We deny them tolerance, respect and kindness. Bethlehem teaches us though people may seem “little”, God in them and with them, makes them the hope for people. Our salvation lessons come from the “belittled” people who are much closer to God in their experiences. 

Prayer: God in the Little Ones, help us to see you with and in those who are belittled, weakened and crushed. That we may respect and love all irrespective of caste, race or gender. In Jesus name, Amen. 

Author: Anonymous

S4 Day-30: Judea & its Dirtiness

Those who make a great show of being religiously pure often lead lives that are secretly very dirty. This was the case with first century Judea. Jesus, whose birth we commemorate during this season, berated and rebuked the religious authorities of Judea for their duplicity and hypocrisy. While preaching one thing, that of being pure and righteous before God, the Pharisees and scribes of Jesus’ day did the exact opposite time and again. Theirs was a religion that is empty and prevented others from having genuine relationship with God; hence, their condemnation by Jesus. 

Tragically, the reach and prevalence of opportunistic self-serving religious leaders is not limited to that of Jesus’ time. Quite a few modern-day religious leaders conceal their own worldly pursuits under the cloak of institutional legitimacy and credibility. Pursuing their own agenda, they tarnish the face of God and that of God’s people. They are guilty of besmirching the good name that the godly have earned through their diligent witness. 

It was not only the religious leadership that was closely identified with the dirt and grime of first century Judean politicking and self-aggrandizing. With the religious establishment being rotten to the core, it is not surprising that the socio-economical and ethno-political leadership was more or less the same. The Herodian kingdom of Judea, a client state of the Roman Republic from 37 BCE, was founded on duplicity that went by the name of statecraft. It was founded by Idumeans (of the old Edom) rather than ethnic Jews. Yet, it had the temerity to appropriate legitimacy for itself by locating itself in Jerusalem, the seat of the Davidic kingdom. Backstabbing and political intrigue seems to be the order of the day. 

Such a state of affairs existed even after the death of Herod the Great in approximately 4 BCE. Judea was divided into a Herodian Tetrarchy among his sons. But Herod Archelaus did such a bad job of managing the province that came under his rule that he was dismissed in 6 CE. The Roman emperor Augustus appointed Quirinius to exercise direct Roman rule after an appeal from Herod Archelaus’ own population, leading to the creation of the Province of Judea under direct Roman rule. 

Being placed under direct Roman rule was a slap in the face for hardcore Jewish nationalists advocating the reestablishment and perpetuation of a glorious Davidic kingdom. Various competing ethno-nationalist movements proliferated. Each advocated its own brand of ethno-racial and religious-civilizational purity and was willing to go to any length to enforce that. And what this led to was to make the climes murkier. 

Of course, some of these zealots and patriots were willing to be martyred for whatever cause they stood for. Then there were others for whom personal survival was all that ultimately mattered. They were willing to play dirty to achieve that. It is ironic that for any extra-Biblical information about Judea in biblical times, we often turn to Flavius Josephus, “the luckiest traitor ever”, in the words of the historian Mary Beard. 

Josephus is indeed one of the foremost Jewish extra-Biblical chroniclers of NT times. And he is often quoted to add veracity to Biblical stories. His two references to Jesus of Nazareth and one reference to John the Baptist still matter a lot to us when we think and speak of a historical Jesus. 

But then, who are we to question God if God desires to speak in and through such persons? The Christian tradition asserts that it was in a place of dirt and grime, a place reeking with the smell of feces and urine that the savior of the world chose to make an entry. And it was ox and ass that adored him. This Christmas let us be reminded that God has chosen to descend to our level. In the infant Jesus, God chose to shift from the divine to the human and set foot in a world that is sullied and soiled. 

Even there, instead of being born in a royal household, God has taken it a step farther. In Jesus, God has chosen to identify with the dregs of humanity. The infant Jesus was a disrespected human being that was at home among lowly farm animals, beasts of burden and modest shepherds. The adult Jesus was equally at home with all sorts of loathsome figures such as tax collectors, adulterous women, and so on. He preferred to hang out with persons that respectable society would turn up the nose at, personae non gratae because such people are ‘dirty’ and definitely not ‘worthy’. 

Prayer

O God who embraced us in our dirtiness, we pray that  you open our eyes to embrace the people who are considered dirty in the sight of the world. Grants us the courage to do what Jesus did. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Author: John Lalnuntluanga 

About the Author: John teaches in the department of History of Christianity at Gossner Theological College, Ranchi. His research interests include, among others, Human Sexuality, and Tribal Pentecostalism.

S4 Day-29: Who killed the infants? Herod or his henchmen?

Reflecting Verse:

“When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the children in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the magi.” 

Mathew 2: 16 

The killing of children followed Christ’s birth. The wailings and mourning shattered “the Silent night”. Fast rewind, Herod was furious not just because he was outwitted by the three wisemen but that he would be ousted from the throne too, the seat of power, if the prophesies were true about the birth of Messiah. So he “orders” his henchmen. He “orders to kill” the children, who among them could be the Messiah oblivious of the fact that his parents have escaped with him to Egypt. 

Often we come across horrendous news of female foeticide, and babies found in “dirty” places like the garbage bins, or piles of garbage at some isolated places or by the drainage systems. Some fortunate babies are found alive while some dead or half eaten by dogs. Some women go through abortions, involving major health risks. When such stories confront us, conclusions are made passing moral judgment. We sigh and judge the one, in most cases women, who is involved in this “dirty” act (as we, the society often perceive it) of killing the innocent infants: why does she have to bear only a girl child? why commit such a heartless act of throwing their/her own child after giving birth to the baby? Why does she have to live such a “loose” life? 

Our questions often stop there and do not investigate beyond. What must have compelled them to do the “dirty” act of killing/throwing away one’s own child? can we say they are rather “the henchmen.” There could be “Herods.” For in most cases due to economic necessity, the inability to provide for the child, or the risk factors of health, the foetus or the baby is either killed or disposed. It also cannot be overlooked that infanticide are due to patriarchy which controls woman body: when she should give birth, under which circumstances example only within marriages, and which gender she should give birth to. The risks factor and the burden involved in raising a girl child in a patriarchal society especially in India largely contribute to infanticide. 

So, then who kills the infants? The henchmen or the Herods? 

Prayer

Dear God, enable us to recognised the Herods in us and amongst us. Give us the strength to stand against Herods of our day. In the name of Jesus we pray, Amen. 

Author: S. Esther Ao 

About the Author: Esther Ao is an Indigenous native from Nagaland who has done her Masters of Theology in the Old Testament Department.

S4 Day-28: Jerusalem and its Multiplicity

Jerusalem is centrally located. Geographically, it stands at the narrow corridor between the Mediterranean Sea and the Arabian Desert. The place of history recorded in the Old Testament is Palestine, which is the corridor between Asian and African continents that were the centers of civilizations at that time: the Babylonian civilizations in Asia and the Egyptian civilization in Africa. Events such as Exodus happened within these continents. 

This land's socio-political situation was dirty according to some scholars. They agree, if Josephus, the Jewish historian, was around he would have deemed it dirty. People came from different cultures and introduced different religions, views, languages and this was dirty for the monotheistic Jews who wanted the best of the land. 

Time was important: “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent the only begotten Son, born of a woman, born under the law in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children.” Gal 4:4. This verse shows that things were planned in a right way for Christ to come. God in providence, had prepared the world for the coming of Christ and Christianity. This was God’s hour for the greatest event in history- the arrival of God’s son, Jesus Christ into the world. 

God had a schedule and the world was prepared politically, culturally and religiously. While God used everyone in general, God used three nation in a very special way- the Romans politically, the Greeks culturally and the Jews religiously. The social, moral and philosophical conditions of the Romans and the Greeks also indirectly played their roles. 

The Romans had taken over the (by then) divided and declining territories that Alexander had conquered. During the first century, the whole of Mediterranean empire, North Africa, and the Middle East was controlled by the Roman empire. One person ruled the empire- the emperor who government was based in the capital of Rome. 

So, in one way we can say that God chose a dirty place for Jesus to be born. Dirty in every way possible. Even the manger where Jesus was laid was filled with dirty rags and stench coming from the dirty of the animals. Such was the plight in which the messiah of the world was born, in a dirty place yet smiling. 

Jesus began to grow within a multi-cultural society where he was exposed to a whole new world order which had now different strands of socio religious values. This played a major factor in his life as he set as the Messiah. Being a Jew, Jesus occasionally encountered with people from different faith traditions who brought a different perspective of life and humanity which was again transformative yet liberative than what Judaism believed in. 

This was a dirty world according to the self-confessed teachers of the law. The saviour of the world growing in midst of a culture which was deemed dirty, unfit and heathen by the Jews. Growing in such a society Jesus became sensitive to the real needs which was once ignored by the pharisees and the other religious clowns. 

This helped him immensely to value human life and the gospel are filled with examples where he could relate to the pain of others and even had the audacity to break through the once regressive cultural barriers in reaching out to the Samaritans Though the people in Jerusalem lived a grim life of debts and poverty, it also had a hope that this city would reach its finest grandeur in the future. The romans also made this city as one of their main point of communication, thus, boosting its significance. 

Jesus’ outlook towards everything underwent a radical change which was not Jewish but holistic in approach. He engaged in an inter faith exchange with the Samaritan woman and gave her blessing and appointing her the messenger to his good news. This was also dirty in the eyes of Jewish men and women as the society is to be protected from what is dirty. Yet the same woman who was called names and was seen as dirty by her peers now becomes the messenger of peace. 

Thus, a city which was once considered dirty and ungodly has now become a beacon of hope and sign of positivity in a bleak future. Jesus was born in a dirty environment so that we could become clean. However, 2000 years after His death, Christianity itself has become dirty and is yearning for the saviour who would remove the dirt and make it wholesome again. 

Prayer

O loving God, we seek your presence in our lives. We are dirty and we long for cleanliness. Help us remove our doubts and difficulties and lead us to reach out to those who are in the dirt and redeem them in your name. 

Author: Sovan Kumar Mallick 

About the Author: Sovan hails from Bhubaneswar, Odisha and belongs to the Union Church, an inter denomination church in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. He completed his Bachelor of Theology and Master of Divinity from Lakeview Bible College and Seminary, Chennai and Master of Theology (Church History) from the COTRTS, Vishakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. He is presently working as the Department Head for History of Christianity with Filadelfia Bible College Udaipur, Rajasthan. 

S4 Day-27: Three Wise Men: The Seekers of Truth

The Gospel of Matthew tells of the gifts that the Wise Men gave to Jesus. These three men were wise. They gave their time, talents, treasures, and testimonies. They spent their valuable time and journeyed from a far to meet Jesus. Using their talents, they followed the star that led them to reach to the dirty manger. Without any expectation, they gifted their treasures to Jesus. When they came before Jesus, they fell down and worshipped him. In doing so, they acknowledged both his leadership and his Messianic ship that represents their gift of testimonies. 

The treasures of the Wise Men brought were of significant value and prophetic importance. Gold, frankincense, and myrrh are gifts worthy of a humble king Jesus. Gold is symbolic of Christ’s deity of king, frankincense represents his purity as priest of God and myrrh is suggestive of his anointed work as a prophet and of his death. 

Gold represents the symbolic nature of God. It is the most precious metals and is extremely rare in its purest form. To reach to its purest form the metal has to burn and die in the fire. Similarly, Jesus being a humble king went through crucifixion, and death, so that, he will fulfil the task of a king. A king dies for the people to give them life. The gift of gold given by one of the wise men pointed to the begotten Son who was given by God to be king of creation. But, his reign proclaims good news to the poor, liberty to the captives, recovering sight to the blind and set liberty to those who are oppressed (Luke 4:18-19). The wise man’s gift offers Jesus the title Messiah, for he is the Saviour of the whole humanity. 

Frankincense is an aromatic, clear resin used for incense and perfumes; and was treasured for its aroma and healing properties. Even in the Temple, the priest used it during the worship. To give fragrance, it has to put in the fire and to burn completely. Jesus being a high priest, he himself offered in the fire as an incense to please God on behalf of the whole humanity and shed his blood as a sacrificial lamb to cleanse human beings from their sins. The gift of frankincense given by one of the wise men pointed to the work of Jesus as a priest, who ministered for three and a half year to the people and finally, crucified to offer himself to God as a burnt offering (Leviticus 1:1-17). 

Myrrh is a spice used for medicine, cosmetics and anointing oil. It is generally mixed into the oil that is used to anoint prophet for the divinely appointed work of revealing God and communicating God’s will and works to God’s people. Jesus also confirmed his office as a prophet both through his words and works. Though he was born in a dirty manger within a context of male infanticide, his parents brought him up to stand for truth and justice. The gift of myrrh is also used for preserving the dead body. Hence, this precious spice honoured Jesus’ death (John 19:39). 

These three Wise Men, who were the seekers of truth following the star, came to Bethlehem to pay their homage to Jesus (Number 24:17). They recognized and acknowledged the baby Jesus, as the glorified and humble king, priest and prophet, who is going to destroy all evils from this earth. Nevertheless, he had to sacrifice his life on the cross, so the whole creation is redeemed from the bondage of sin and receive salvation in faith. 

Prayer 

God of grace, we thank you for your valuable gift, your Son Jesus Christ whom you offered as a sacrificial lamb to fulfil your plan of salvation. May these three Wise men’s gifts remind us as the Church about the richness of Christ’s love, faithfulness and obedience in order to fulfil God’s will in establishing God’s reign in this earth. Amen. 

Author: Rev. Sushana Pramanik 

About the Author: Rev. Sushana hails from Sambalpur, Odisha. She belongs to Karnataka Central Diocese St. Mark’s Cathedral, Church of South India. She has completed her Bachelor of Divinity and Master of Theology from the United Theological College, Bangalore. She has completed and submitted her Doctoral Dissertation to the Senate of Serampore University and waiting to receive her Degree. She is presently working as the Translations Advisor in the Department of Translations in the Bible Society of India, Bangalore.

S4-Day 26: The Un-Messianic Settings of Jesus’ Birth

Reflecting Verses: Luke 2:1-20

 

COVID-19 has become a major tool to muzzle dissent and disrupt sites of protest. The threat of contraction makes people hesitant to organize and agitate. Despite this, India is witnessing a humungous farmer’s protest against laws which are considered oppressive for the farming community. Farm stress is no hidden truth in India. In such a situation, who could have imagined that such a protest could take place? Men, women and children sleeping on hay, inside tractors and on roadside have explicated that protests often arise from social locations that are considered to be weak and unfit. The resistive power of such locations is also evident in Jesus’ birth. 

Jesus’s birth narratives are often interpreted from the perspective of power. The role of wise men and Herod is often overstated. They represent two contraries, while the former adores, the latter hates Jesus’ birth. These are men of power and often the significance of Jesus’ birth is located in their contradicting views. Therefore, it is not surprising to see Christmas processions being led by the three wise men. ‘Neatness’ and ‘purity’ are perceived to accompany them and are usually extended to the settings of the manger. Consequently, the ‘manger’ is fast becoming a ‘crib’ today. 

A manger is a cattle’s feeding place. Such places are dirty and unhygienic. It’s the least of places to keep a new born child. However, Jesus was to be found here. Manger was significantly un-messianic. While power and privilege defined Jewish expectation of the messiah, the first announcement of Jesus’ birth came to the shepherds who were considered ceremoniously unclean (polluted) and dirty. 

During Jesus’ time, the lower sections of the society suffered extreme forms of deprivation with no hope for improvement. In such a context, Luke connects Jesus’ birth to the shepherds and questions the legitimacy of oppressive social stratification. For, shepherds to stay in the fields during nights, points out that their accesses to common commercial and residential places were restricted. Purity and pollution were major grounds for their discrimination. Shepherds were the so-called dirty people but God chose them as the first hearers of Jesus’ birth. 

Even Jesus came from a place which was considered to be unworthy. The question posed by Nathaniel, can anything good from Nazareth? (John: 1:46) is significant. Nazareth was a province of Galilee. Herod’s heavy taxation had brought about oppression of the agrarian society. In Palestine during Jesus’s time the minority rich took advantage of the peasant families. In such hopeless context, nothing good was expected of Nazareth. However, Jesus came from here. 

The manger, shepherds and the city of Nazareth represented locations that were un-messianic and unworthy of any significant outcome. However, it is in such places that God chooses to reveal and locate itself. Jesus choose to identify himself with the dirt and the messiness of life that resulted from oppression. It is from this messiness that Jesus preached God’s Kingdom. His birth settings were resistive to power and his ministry upheld and blessed the worthless and the weak. Therefore, in our acts of Justice, we are intervening of behalf of Jesus to realize God’s kingdom here on this earth. The un-messianic settings were concretely messianic. 

Prayer 

Help us Dear God to walk on the ways that your Son Jesus walked. As we prepare to celebrate you birth, inspire us through the power of your spirit so that we can stand in solidarity with those who are oppressed and weak. Amen. 

Author: Rev. Samuel Mall 

About the Author: Samuel mall hails from Punjab. He is an ordained presbyter from the diocese of Chandigarh, Church of North India. He is currently pursuing his doctoral research in the department of Christian Theology at United Theological College, Bangalore.

S4-Day 25: Baby Jesus: A Weak Child on the Street

Reflecting Verse

Arise, cry out in the night, as the watches of the night begin; pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord. Lift up your hands to him for the lives of your children, who faint from hunger at the head of every street. 

Lamentations 2:19 

“Can’t ‘stay home and stay safe’ as I don’t have home and shelters are closed. Can’t ‘access food and water’ as there is no work on the street. ‘Risk of being locked up’ for being out during a lockdown.” 

It is a cry of a child who works as a rag picker on the streets, facing violation with no one to care, as every child has to fend for themselves and cope with the problems during this pandemic. I happened to come across one a child rag picker and asked what he loves most. He pointed to the small bottle in his hand and said, “this Solution,” (a major part of his income is spent on drugs, alcohol, solvent abuse (sniffing solvents), and gambling). I asked whether he has any dreams or ambitions. He replied, “I don’t like to have dreams for the future because it cannot be fulfilled.” Then he lists out four things: selling scrap, drinking, playing and consuming 'solutions.' With little money and too much freedom, they are vulnerable and fall prey to many kinds of situations and exploiters. 

Having said that, the whole meaning of Christmas lies with a baby ‘Jesus.’ Baby Jesus, who represented the weak and oppressed sections of the society, was wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a dirty and smelly manger, pointing to extreme poverty. We cannot ignore him as being born as a baby who represents the weak and abused children even today. Luke acknowledges that this child is a Messiah (Lk 2:8-20, 48-51) and Matthew also points to the prophecy of Isaiah being fulfilled in Jesus (Matt 1:23). Whereas people were astonished to see a “Messiah” wrapped in swaddling cloth which is always suggested for weak babies as support to weak limbs. The presence of the baby Jesus in the midst of people gave the hope for salvation as narrated in Luke 2:38. Therefore, salvation to the world does not come from the powerful but from the weak. God not only shows the magnitude of love but also the value of the child on the street, who we fail to value, teach and protect. 

These children are rag pickers who are abused and exploited, forced into begging, thieving, drug peddling, pimping, and prostitution. They suffer mentally, with a great sense of guilt and remorse which commonly fall into depression, and physically from diseases like scabies, lice, chronic dysentery, lung, ear, nose and throat infections, cuts and abrasions which are caused by poverty, malnutrition and the unhygienic surroundings in which the children are forced to work and live. 

Our view of our children often reflects the view of society or a community. Do we see children as a hope for the future, the society, the church of tomorrow and a blessing given by God? Or do we view children as essentially a problem, a scourge on the streets, the cause of burgeoning population with ecological disaster? Let us celebrate this Christmas 2020 remembering these children and make it more meaningful, reminding ourselves that baby Jesus represents the weak and oppressed sections of the society on the one side and to the rich and powerful on the other, to challenge them not to exploit or take advantage of the weak. 

Prayer

I am only a spark – Make me a fire, I am only a string – Make me a lyre, I am only a drop – Make me a fountain, I am only a feather – Make me a wing, I am only a rag – Make me a King O lord. Amen. 

Author: Rev. Amos Massey 

About the Author: Rev. Amos is an ordained minister, from the Diocese of Chandigarh-Church of North India. He is currently pursuing his Doctoral research in the department of Pastoral Care and Counselling at the United Theological College, Bangalore.