Church’s ministry to the context

The life of the church in North East India and Chin regions of Myanmar are similar in many ways. First and foremost, most churches belong to Baptist denominations and they subscribed to all the fundamental beliefs and practices of the Baptist all over the world.
Many of the Baptist churches are not susceptible to the changes. The churches (including other denominations) tend to draw lines between the social issues and church issues. For instances, the churches did not join rally or protest gathering. Though pastors and church members join the rally and protest but as an individual. Another feature of the churches is that we draw a big line between the church and politics. The church did not endorse any candidates or political parties. So, the churches are keeping themselves away from anything which is political in nature. However, churches face enormous challenges and persecutions. The churches are severely affected by political activities. For instance, if there is a rebellious activity in a particular place, the government or military will always target the church; accusing the church harbor the rebels. The church stood there voiceless; for if they utter a word, it does more harm than good. Militarization, poverty, drugs, human rights violation, migration is the context of the churches in North East India and Myanmar. The church’s ministry should be addressing to all these issues. It is not easier for the church to have a meaningful dialogue with the military. A protest and rally against military is suicidal. The world has witnessed the recent event in the Myanmar. So, one must be tactful in dealing with sensitive issue like military. If rally and protest are not working, there must be other way to deal. Poverty and drugs are two issues that bring so much harm to the community. Additions to these issues are the issues of human rights violation and migration. People cease to believe in their own people; helpless and hopeless is a harsh word but not far from the truth. People are not confident in the midst of these challenges.
The church must help the community in rediscovering and reviving the confidence of the people. The church is called to lift the people up and provide hope for the mass. Can the church do the task? The transforming power of God is the sources of strength for the church to accomplish this task through the working of the Holy Spirit.

Critical Asian Principle (CAP) as fundamental cornerstone for doing theology in Asia

The Critical Asian Principle or in short CAP is something Union Theological Seminary, Philippines can be proud of. It was formulated and introduced by our former president Emerito P. Nacpil. Since the inception and eventually adopted as a bases doing theology in Asia, CAP has been playing a vital role in unearthing the richness of Asian thought in doing theology. The primary concerns of the CAP is realizing each day in many of the Asian nations i.e. promoting theological education which is basically Asian and its distinctiveness in reaching and doing theology to the various communities in Asia.
Our uniqueness as Asian; our cultures, religious needs and questions, our experiences etcetera etcetera, are distinct from the thoughts and experiences of other parts of the world. Our distinctiveness and uniqueness calls for such principle as CAP. So that it will be able to address the issues and concerns of the Asian community effectively. Having subscribed to CAP doesn’t necessarily exclude other theologies or thoughts as many opined. Rather it is given priority to the CAP in such a way that we have a platform of our own to do theology which eventually is helpful to us. It is beyond doubt that some of the ideas and thoughts, especially from those developed nations are not applicable here in the Asian context. Written from different perspectives and world, it failed to address the issues and concern of our Asian community in many ways. Only if our forefather could see CAP two hundred years ago, it would have been a different story altogether now. CAP is daring endeavor! We decided to stand neck and neck with the ‘already popular-and-settled’ theologies of the developed nations. We are second to none; for God created us equally. Who is more? And who is less? We can’t expect others to go ahead of us all the time. Or are we always expecting developed nations to give us new ideas and thoughts. Many of us will comfortably sit back and wait for others to come up. We have inferiority complex in doing theology, thinking that we are no comparison to others. CAP is a stepping stone to break away from such feeble mind, which is deeply implanted by others and sometime by ourselves. Now is the time to work earnestly, laying the foundation for the generation to come.
The strength lies in the rich experiences of our people. Asian are basically religious people. We can observe from the fact that all the major religions we know today are born from Asia. It is an indication that Asians are religious by nature.
Due to ignorance of our learned people, we don’t have enough scholars and literature to do theology in compare to the myriads of western scholarships. The mindsets of the students also post a huge challenge for the CAP. Western ideas and thoughts are readily accepted without much debate or sometimes we debate over western thoughts upon western thought. In one way, it is the weakness of CAP in her inability to capture the mindsets of the students.

The role of Ruth and Naomi in redeeming story of God

Ruth, Naomi, and Orpah (Ruth 1)
The story of Naomi and her family was a tragedy. They try to escape famine in their land and moved to Moab. It is like one is running away from a lion just meet tiger at the other end. All the men of the family died there in a strange land. They came to Moab so that they might live but instead they died there except Naomi. It is quit natural that everyone tries to escape from the death, especially by hunger. We make all possible efforts to keep ourselves alive. It must have been hard for the Elimelech family to stay in the land. But God has a plan for moving down there.
When all husbands were died, Naomi has not much option than to send them back to their respective families. Orpah left because Naomi insists her to go back to her parents. But Ruth determined to stay with Naomi and we are started to realize the purpose of Elimelech going down to Moab. If they did not go down, certainly, they will not find Ruth, a Moabite woman. If we take the story to our time, Ruth possibly is a Muslim lady from wherever the Muslims are most. Only few women’s names are written in the genealogy of Jesus (Matthew 1) and one among them was Ruth, a Moabite. God’s redeeming acts can be happen to whosoever He chooses. Ruth was the God’s champion in the narrative. She holds the genealogy of the promised Messiah unbroken.
Naomi also played a crucial part in this narrative. God used her to linked Ruth to the lineage of Jesus Christ. She shouldered the whole responsibilities of the family and going back to the land Israel with Ruth. Her decision to go back to her homeland was a God’s redeeming act.

Workers in the vineyard (Matthew 20: 1-16)

We are all invited to work in His field through out the history. The wage he promises us is the same – the kingdom of heaven. No matter at what point of time one was called or one is called or one will be call, it is for the kingdom of heaven, nothing more nothing less. The parable conveys the message of equal blessing upon all His workers.
Another truth revealed in this parable is unceasing invitation of God for workers. He calls for workers, regardless of the times of the day. He wants everyone to work in His vineyard at whatever point of time when He calls us. Interestingly, tools will be provided when we reach the field. It also implies that He is not looking for professionals and expertise in the vineyard. He calls everyone whosoever is standing at the market place. Standing in the market place implies that one is looking for job. So we need to be ready looking for Him to pass by. If He is not, we go His house and enquire about it, if there is any vacancy. Once we are accepted, he didn’t ask for much paper work, He expects us to be in the field soon after His invitation.
When the kingdom of heaven prevails: love, peace and justice shall flourish. When the kingdom’s value is in working, everyone gets enough and there will be no starvation. Can this be true to us today? Now, if one is not in the periphery of the kingdom or kingdom’s territory, such kingdom values are not meant anything to them. Therefore, it is an invitation by the Master of the vineyard to join the kingdom; subscribed to her values, so that all may enjoy the just and righteous wages of the Master. In the kingdom of heaven, no one shall deprive of their right to work and fair wages and the good Master will make sure to it that everyone gets the job. We continue to strive for this reality.
One must also consider the terms and conditions to which one is called. The workers who came earlier had a complaint against the good Owner, because they did not followed the terms and condition. So one must understand the term and condition before one start working.

Tenants in the Vineyard (Matthew 21: 33-45, Mark 12: 1-12, and Luke 20: 9-19)

No doubt, the parable is subversive and we can see that from the reactions of the chief priest and Pharisees.
The parable posts a great challenge and need careful study. In most cases today, it was the owner who is manipulating the poor tenants. The tenants are the one who are tossing and twisting by landlord. Now, certainly we are not identifying with errant tenants in the vineyard. The great challenge here for a pastor is “where can we fit in to the parable?” We are neither tenants nor the owner. Who are we then? We are other tenants who will be given the vineyard by the Landlord! How can we draw meaning and purpose from such subversive parable is a great challenge. In the present world, the resemblances we can observe with that of the errant tenants are our politicians and those big business people who are money mongers. In some way, they are entrusted with responsibilities by God. In Jesus times, chief priest and Pharisees were the “tenants”; entrusted to take care of God’s people – His vineyard. They killed God’s servants – the prophets; who were sent to take account of their works. Jesus in this parable was foretelling about His death and they (those tenants) are going to be part of that scheme. When Jesus was telling the truth, chief priest and Pharisees sense the problem. It is happening in our very world today. Whosoever is speaking the truth, the “tenants” will make sure to it that it will not go any further. But the truth can’t be withheld forever.
This parable is also a hope for those peasants who have been dispossessed of their land. Jesus said, “The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.” Though Jesus did not affirmed outrightly to the answer of the disciple, somehow He agreed to some extent. In what manner God will deal with them is not certain but one thing we can be sure of is that ‘they will be remove’ and justice will be done. The same privilege will be given to others who will “bring forth the fruits thereof”. We will bring forth the fruits thereof and give what is due to the Landlord and warmly welcome those servants send by the Landlord and will honor His son to the utmost high.

God's redeeming act from the very beginning

God’s redeeming act
(Genesis 3)
This is the story of how humanity falls from the original state of being; from the splendor and privileges of being created manually by Lord God! (Assuming I am doing the Bible study now among women). Certainly, their were in a state of innocence, enjoyment, happy and probably dancing around or running around the trees like the actor and actress of Indian Movies. Everything was going well; family (man and wife) has no quarrelling, no fights over who is greater or who is lesser, and no worries for their foods and clothing.
Now the story is about to begin. Somebody got jealous and wants to bring some troubles to the couple. This somebody is the “Serpent”, the most subtle creature of all creatures. It is a matter of investigation “who is this Serpent?” In the Book of Revelation, the writer called “the old Serpent”, probably referring to the Serpent of Genesis 3. But In others parts of the Bible, Serpent was quite helpful. For instance, Moses had to lift up “serpent” and whoever looks upon the serpent did not die. So whether Serpent is intrinsically evil or is the serpent was possessed by some kind of spirit remain at large. However, the story said, the serpent beguiled the couple, wife first and then husband. They were together and probably ate the fruit almost at the same time. They’ve just eaten the fruit and new knowledge came. They are not innocence anymore, in fact wiser little; for they now know that they are naked. Indeed serpent also telling some kind of truth but the truth leads them to their fall. They were in deep trouble and could not meet their Master for two good reasons. First, they disobey God and listen to the wrong voice, and secondly, they feel ashamed because they realized that they were naked.
So, they need to do something to get out of it. They tried to sew cloths for themselves so that they can cover their shame but failed. They have done something they were not supposed to do – eating the forbidden fruit. Certainly, the omniscient God knows what they have committed yet He came to have fellowship with them. As we are all accountable to whatever we did, Adam and Eve also accountable for what they have done. But God in His redeeming love did not cease to care for us (the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them); despite our sins and mistakes. God punishment was accompanied by hope. He didn’t punish us and left us all alone. He gives hope (her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel). God gave a hope through Eve that “her seed” will bruised the head of devil and devil will “bruise his heel”. This is referring to Jesus Christ – born of a woman (as promise to Eve). The devil thought that he had Him while Jesus was on the cross but on the third day He resurrected from the dead and that was a crushing blow to the devil’s head.
This is the story of how humankind was fallen from the original state. In this story, God unfold His redeeming plan for the fallen humankind.

Poverty and Youth - BTR for Campus and Youth Ministry

Poverty and Youth

Thousands of young people graduated from universities and colleges every year. After huge investment to get the degree, no surprise; no job around! The irony of the present world is that if you are graduated from ‘not so popular’ universities or colleges, job is hard to come by. Those who can afford to attend good schools can afford to attend good universities and end up in big corporate office. While on other hand poor can’t afford to attend good school so also can’t go to good universities and ended up in corner of your house and content with the sari-sari store. Worst, one will end up driving ‘padi-cab’ or ‘tri-cycle’. While that’s something! Still, there is possibility of ‘forever hunting’ job. This world is not a ‘poor-friendly’ world.
Who is to be blame for all these mess? Politician? Our forefather? Who? Now it is difficult to point out to a single cause, responsible for this present situation of poverty. It is like an unwelcome guest. We blame the Government and politicians and most of the time we are right but are they the only factors for all these mess? I believed there must be several factors aside from them, such as selling our agricultural for setting up industries. There are chain effects on such transaction. Some are positives and some negatives. Aside from leaving the hardworking culture, it leaves ones to indulge in a kind of lifestyle which is not at all fitted.
Where can we go and what can we do? Many are not lucky enough to get a chance to get a job even at the workplace where it is underpaid. Leaving aside those graduates, what about the drop-out youth and those youth who never has a chance to study. Our definition of youth is not limited to just educated young people, it encompass all young people regardless of what they have achieve or not, or do they attend church or not, or affiliated with other religious practice for that matter. Now, we are living in such hostile world and our future looks bleak! It is like unfinished subjects that need to be clear before ones get graduation. In India, we called it “back subjects”. The problem of “back subject” is that it resurfaced before we get graduation and many times, hold us back from graduating. Unless we deal with the back subject, we can’t go further. These unemployment and poverty hinder us from going further and it doesn’t help us to build a better future. Unless it is treated soon, it will do much harm to our future like a cancerous cell spreading rapidly and destroying all the good cell.
What really can we do with our degrees and diplomas? If one doesn’t have any background – economically, politically, socially etcetera etcetera, one is bound to face the music. Our background is not build in a day. In most of the cases, it is determined by ones’ birth. If we are born in a rich family, we have all the necessary backgrounds for any kinds of job. Only few poor youth become successful; from scraps to something well established. But the larger numbers remain jobless. Many have to push beyond their limit. The genius and talented youth, though poor somehow has no problem in getting job and get rich but such are just a micro fraction of the millions. Though some could make it, there remain a large numbers of youth; struggling to get even a job where it is underpaid. The business owners hardly count how much and how hard we invested to get those degrees and diplomas. Their main interests are basically on how much they can get out of us or from us. Profit maximization has always been the core value of any business. There is little or very negligible amount of interest given to the ‘wellness’ of the workers.
Our life will go on whether we’ve got job or not! Population is still exploding, poor is making more poor people while few rich could makes just few rich. Though I am not an expert in statistic, I am sure the ratio is wide, very wide. Who can change it? Partially the answer lies in the youth of today.
The following will help us in solving our problem of poverty
1) Healing. The word healing has been inappropriately imply by many to just healing of physical health, specifically to human kind. There are only few who realized the fact that our land has been wounded by human greediness. One wise man from Northern Philippines once said, “We don’t own the land; the land own us” and I need to be corrected if I am wrong. The same wise person further validates the statement by saying “because the land outlived us. The land has been here long before us”. Once our land was fertile but she has been wounded, abused, and manipulate to an extent that she could not bear fruit anymore. Once our land is heal, everyone will have food to eat and cloths to wear.
2) Change in attitude: Change of attitude is needed from all sections of the society. The Government need to change her attitude toward the poor and marginalized. The principle of ‘pro-people’ should be translated into something concrete and practical. The nation needs to defense her territory but at the same time need to look into her people the more. Government officials need to look beyond their individualism. In the absence of genuine concern for others corruption exists. Business owners and the rich needs to change their attitude of making profits at the cost of others. The poor also need to change our attitude. We must step out from the inferiority complex, from the timid mind; break free from the mentality of being under.
3) Reforming the society: To bring reformation is not a mean task. The history is the witness to what it took to reformed something. The Protestant church has been down this road when Martin Luther stood against “indulgence”. The church in those days was so much given to selling “indulgence” to raise money for the ongoing construction of St. Peter's Basilica. The point here is that there were so much injustices and corruptions happening and Martin Luther was brave enough to speak against it not because he don’t want but because it was not just and people were enticing to false hope. There is an urgent call for men and women to the challenges we are facing today. Can we expect our Government? May be! Our Politician? May be! Our “age-old” lola and lolo? May be not! We are not sure of them but we can be sure of ourselves; young, full of life and ideas, not yet influence by the seeds of corruption, full of dreams and aspiration for the better future.
4) Rediscovering self: Because of the harsh reality of poverty, we lost even what we have in us. God created us with a definite purpose and I don’t believe He can do anything useless. God forbid. Further, every one of us has various gifts and talents. Now, the question is “how such a purposeful and talented/gifted people go hungry?” I don’t say because we are lazy! Such is the extent that poverty took us. Since, we don’t have an opportunity and no one is willing to give us a try, our talents and gifts are draining away each day in the street. Who will hire us, when our Resume doesn’t mentioned our work experience, except one is really smart! Because of such requirement, we started to mention many things in our Resume just to impress the interviewer. We are not wholly to be blame for that? “They” make us do that. Sometimes, we are not sure of what we are really good at! By rediscovering ourselves, our sense of direction will be clear. If we know ourselves better and able to excel in what we are good at, due recognition is sure to come.

Can we imagine God is delighted while His people and His whole creation are languishing in this harsh reality of poverty? No! God forbid. In fact Jesus, Son of God, was sent for the poor and sick. One might say, Bible is talking about in spiritual term and many Christian romanticize sufferings and poor as something to be cherish as one good Christian should be. They sound like escapist to me! Of course we have to do something so that poor will have food to eat and clothes to wear, so that sick will have doctors to attend and medicine to heal their sickness. God works this way. There are only few in this world who will sincerely say “thank you Lord” in the midst of such cruelty of poverty. Matthew 7:21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. One way of looking at this portion that those who called “Lord, Lord” and not really mean it; they will not enter the kingdom of heaven. If we are really thankful to God for being in such poverty, nothing further I can go. But when our heart is really yearning for a decent food and clothes and we don’t have it, we should be addressing God in right way that is true to our heart for God sees our heart and not out lips. There are several passages in the Scripture telling us that caring for the poor is the very intrinsic nature of God:
Defender of the fatherless and widows (Deut. 10:18; Psalm 10:16-18; 40:17, 68:5; Jeremiah 22:16)
Protector of the poor (Psalm 12:5)
Rescuer of the poor (I Sam 2:8, Psalm 35:10, 72:4, 12-14, Isaiah 19:20, Jeremiah 20:13)
Provider of the poor (Psalm 68:10, 146:7, Isaiah 41:17)
Savior of the poor (Psalm 34:6, 109:31)
Refuge of the poor (Psalm 14:6, Isaiah 25:4).
Human being sometimes lie if not always. But God can never be lie. God is not like our Government or politicians who make lots of promises and never happen and even if happen, it has to be near the election. We have a numerous reference in the Scripture where poor or poverty is the agenda of God.

Now going further, is it sin to be wealthy? Or is it dreaming of becoming rich a sin? Many times friends and well wishers will simply assert “depends”! Well, my answer is yes and no. Yes, IF our motives of getting rich is to get ride of our neighbors, friends, or our enemy. Yes, IF our focus is shifting from God to money; when our primary becomes our secondary. No, IF our motives are have better life, not necessarily competing our neighbor. No, if our motives are to build up our people and the community. No, IF our conscience if free from guilt in having wealth. No, IF the way of accumulating wealth is fare and not at the cost of others dearly. When we are in poverty, other vices also come along such as robbery, killing, and hatred etcetera etcetera.
Now, how do we start these processes of healing, change of attitude, reforming and rediscovering our self? It must begin from us, the youth. Bible say in II Chronicles 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. {Which...: Heb. upon whom my name is called}
First we called upon the name of the Lord, affirming His Lordship over us, identifying in His kingdom. Secondly, humbling ourselves before Him. It is not enough to humble before God, it is easy in compare to our fellowmen. Humbling ourselves means to our fellowmen too. Thirdly, pray! We thought “calling upon His name” and “humbling ourselves” happen only during prayer! God is telling us to call upon His name and be humble to Him and to our fellowmen as an attitude of our lives. John R. Rice, evangelist and founder of Sword of the Lord ministry, once said “prayer moves the hands of God”. What a powerful way to move the hands of our God. Fourthly, seek my face, meaning seeking God. We lost focus on God when so many things are to be done. We need to seek His face, meaning seeking His will, being aware of His presence in all circumstances. Now, we thought, we’ve done enough to call upon His attention! We still lack one more thing and this is very important. “Turn from their wicked ways”, we can call, humble, pray and even seek His face but we also need to do away with our old sinful ways. We have to renounce our wicked ways. Old habits are hard to die! But if we are determine to bring change and want to step in to the future with hope, we must comply with the conditions the Scripture has laid down for us. If we do so, God said, “then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. So be it.

son of god

why Romans killed Jesus? Why Paul was killed by the Romans? Why others early Christian were persecuted and killed?

The straight forward answer is "they preached Christ Jesus - Son of God"

What is wrong in preaching Jesus Christ as Son of God? Do they hate the title or others don't want Jesus to be the Son of God?

Here is the vital information from the budding New Testament scholar Prof. Revelation Velunta of Union Theological Seminary. This is what I have learned from his class on 16th July 2008.

First, we have to understand few terms which were very important in those days.
1) Basileus a Greek term for "king". The Romans considered their king - Caesar as son of god or in other word they believed their emperor were descendant of god.
2) Basileia a Greek term for "kingdom". It was a term used by the Romans for the Roman Empire.
3) Pistis a Greek term for "faith" or "believe". In other to be member of the kingdom, one has to confess his faith in the emperor.
Now, all these terms were used by early Christians, saying Jesus is the Son of God and not the Caesar. Further, they also preached about the kingdom which is contrary to Roman Empire. And then they preached that (continue)

Inquiry to the concept of ecumenism

Inquiry to the concept of ecumenism
Kamang Gangmei Jaojianlung
Since very young, I have been hearing about the story of the Tower of Babel. The story in the Genesis says:
Genesis 11:1-9 – "And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. {Language: Heb. lip.} {Speech: Heb. words} 2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. {from...: or, eastward} 3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. {They said...: Heb. a man said to his neighbour} {burn...: Heb. burn them to a burning} 4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. 5 And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. 6 And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. 7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. 8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. 9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth. {Babel: that is, Confusion}"

Before I go further, I affirmed my belief that this story was absolutly true and it happened at some point of time in the human history and not just a story to make things easy. There was one language and one speech! And surprisingly, the people of the “whole earth” was there (may be not much those days and likely no population problem). We will not be far from truth if we say that we saw our great great great forefather were sipping tea/wine together; planning and drawing the tower plan with the limited tools they had. Indiano, Filipino, Koreano, Myanmaro, Americano etcetera etcetera were all there. Everyone was there, working together planning together. Is this the same picture the ecumenical movement is trying to draw? Now, it is not surprising to note that they were trying to make a name for themselves because many people are doing the same thing even today. It is also worth noting that one of their intentions of building the tower was, “lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth”. They were trying to build something that will keep them together from dispersing to all direction of the earth. Then the question is Is God hate unity or oneness? God forbid! We should live together as one family as one humankind. The problem with this plan is that they broke away from dependence on God. If we come together for good and for God, certainly God will allow it. But if such union or oneness will bring dishonor or will lead us to the thinking that we can do anything even without God’s help, then God will disperse the same way He did in the olden days.
There can be second Tower of Babel, if there is a second Adam. For whatever reason, God could not allow the building of the tower to continue, which I believe to be the symbol of oneness and power. But if we can ponder our thoughts and reason why God did not allowed, we might come up with an answer and rectify the past mistake. Certainly, the second tower of Babel should be better and superior.
Or if physical unity is not possible, we might have to explore from the spiritual aspects.

The Parable of Jesus by Prof. Velunta

How does one get crucified for telling Parables?Introduction

Two very important reminders: First, If there is one fact we are perfectly sure about Jesus of Nazareth, it is that he was crucified by order of the Roman Prefect, Pontius Pilate, in the mid-30's CE for allegedly being "King of the Jews." And we don't need the Bible to confirm this. Two historians, the Jewish Josephus and the Roman Tacitus, attest to the “pernicious” superstition called Christianity and its crucified and supposedly risen leader. Second, if there is one thing most scholars agree about Jesus is that he was a storyteller; that he taught in parables (like the many rabbis of his time). And his followers remembered and we have many of his stories in the gospels we now call Mark, Matthew and Luke.The key question we hope to answer this term is one which has bothered many for centuries: If Jesus were a teacher of heavenly, spiritual truths then why was he executed as a political subversive between two social bandits or freedom fighters (lestes in Greek)? It appears that Jerusalem elites collaborated with their Roman overlords to get rid of Jesus because he was a threat to their political and economic Interests? How do we reconcile the teacher with the subversive? How does one get crucified for telling stories? To answer this question, we need to try to construct the context of those so-called stories that may have gotten Jesus killed. If parables offer glimpses of everyday life in first-century Palestine, they also infer the larger whole of which those glimpses are part. We cannot understand the parables without first attending to the social reality they imply. For this task, we have Josephus, rabbinic and Roman sources. We also have anthropologists who do peasant studies. Then we have macro-sociologists' work on agrarian societies and aristocratic and bureaucratic empires.The World of Jesus’ ParablesSocial scientists map the contours of antiquity. These maps (like the maps we have in our cars) are but representations of reality. They help us understand the world of Jesus’ parables. Many of these scientists agree that the introduction of the plow (yes, the lowly “araro”) ushered the dawn of the domestication of animals for agricultural use, the eventual settlement of cultivators in villages, and the rise of an exploiter class. Agrarian societies dominated human life from about 3000 BCE to the advent of the industrial revolution in 1800 CE. One consequence of this social evolution was institutionalized bureaucracy. In the beginning there were cultivators and armed nomads who preyed on the cultivators by destroying their settlements and plundering their goods. Eventually, in order to save their settlements, the cultivators—instead of fighting—offered a portion of their produce to the nomads as bribe. The bribe eventually became tribute. The nomads soon discover they could live off the produce of villages. Warfare and plunder became their way of life and bureaucracy is its legitimization. Financial bureaucrats made sure that wealth remained in the hands of the few and the military made sure more not less came in. The elite had to legitimize exploitation through education, record-keeping (of debts particularly) and religion. The economy was based on redistribution of wealth through tribute and other forms of enforced obligations whose effect was to leave peasants at subsistence levels while urban elites lived in luxury. Sociologists also have remarked that agrarian societies have no history. Trans-historically or cross-culturally, if you see one, you've seen them all.The world of ancient Palestine may be represented by the following levels (and one can argue that these tiers are as true today as they were then).High-level elite, power players-1-2%Retainers (agents of control), 5-7%Merchants, peddlers, barter, 5%Artisans, manual-skilled laborers, 3-7%Peasants, 70-80%Unclean, despised trade, nothing to sell but bodies,5%Expendables, excess children of peasant farmers sent away asDay laborers and beggars, 10-15%This is the world of Jesus' parables. Jesus’ parables were not earthly stories about heavenly things; rather, they were earthy stories about heavy things: the reality of empire, of colonial rule, the violence of poverty and oppression, and the dispossessed’s collective longing for God’s intervention.Jesus’ parables—stories that disclosed the structures of empire, evil and greed during his time and offered glimpses of God’s reign breaking through via the struggles of the dispossessed—were, most probably, the reason he got executed. Yes, telling parables can get one killed.

Youth against corruption

The role of Youth against the rampant corruptions in the nation
"The youth are the pillar of the nation"
We feel good to hear something good, something nice about our nation. For instance, the whole nation celebrates when Manny Pacquiao won the bout against his opponent. Though my stay in this country is just over two years and few months, it is long enough to immersed myself to the culture and people as much as I could, knowing that I don’t have all my life to experience! Now, I have so many pare and mare. Growing old with them allows me to observe many aspects of their lives. All my pare and mare are from ordinary class and I strongly believe that rest of the people are not so much differ from them. All mga kaibigan are generous and very considerate! I have been wondering how such corruption creep in to the Filipino people. "Economy our friend and foe at the sametime"
The forum on “Corruption” on 9th July 2008 at Salakot, UTS Dasmarinas, answers some of my wondering questions. The corruptions creep in through Spaniard and ‘pass it on’ down to the present time. This is simply because, those who enjoy the luxury life out of the corruptions don’t want to give up their comforts. They can’t compromise their luxury life for the truth. Now, it is deeply implanted in the heart of many and becomes a norm now. In India too, corruptions are rampant and the gap between rich and poor are widening each passing day.

Now, the hope of the nation rest upon the youth of today.

One very good thing about youth is flexibility – flexibility for a change, courage to face challenges to tread the un-treaded path. However, young people will also tread the same path unless they are caution. The young people should be taught how to be nationalistic and embrace our rich cultural values. Our focus as a curriculum developer should try to rediscover the pre-colonial life. We can make use of the multimedia available today such as video, newspapers, radio, internet, fashion etcetera etcetera. “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Pro. 6:22). If we could make our youth aware of the evilness of the corruptions and its consequences, our youth will not strive for the selfish ambition. A sense of community should develop among our youth and individualism has to be minimize if not eradicate.

4 july Ecumenics and Mission

What is the problem of Ecumenism?
Our discussion start with the word meaning of Oikos (household) or Oikomene (whole inhabitant of the world)
It was really a noble ambition to have ecumenical movement, trying to unite christian, regardless of their denominations. But can such thing really happen? When we say "unity", it is talking about physical unity of the various christians sects or denomination.
There will be detail elaboration within few days.

Sports Fest '07

Sport Fest '07, Union Theological Seminary, Philippines

3 July Pauline Theology

Today, our discussion was on anthropology according to Paul. Now the issue at this subject is that "was Paul influenced by Hebraic thought of anthropology or Greek's trichotomy? The Hedrew viewed mankind as a whole being (Thats what the presenter said, need to check it) and Greek thought mankind is composed of Body, Soul and Spirit. The confusion here with Paul is, what kind of view he was following?
The question?
Is there any doctrinal significance by such anthropological views of mankind? Certainly! There is a significance. We have body, souls and spirit. Our body is temporal, not necessarily sinful. Our souls are what it make us living. As our bodies need our souls to keep alive, our souls need a spirit. Now, you choose what kind of spirit! We have Holy Spirit to give us living spirit, that will teach us and guide us. There is also a spirit of the devils. So we need to discern, what kind of spirit is about us. I will elaborate more in the next entry.

Still some pictures of Sport Fest '07

01 july Is English universal language or imperialist language

Most of the Asian countries experieince colonialism and it affected the society to a great extend. For instance, most of our churches were still under the influences of our colonial master. The hymnals, liturgies, language, organisational setup and on and on. We are coming to the point that our very own culture are evil culture, a pagan culture or we are made to think that christianity has nothing to do with our culture, someting like leave it and forget it! Now, we will have crisis identity. Our coming generation will have any idea about our rich culture God has given us. Yes, there are some practices which are really need to do away but there are numerous practices which are far more nobler and better than our colonial master tought us.

Now, our colonial master used English (language) exclusively to exploit us. For many, English language is just simply a stark reminder of the colonialism. Now, the question is "Is English an universal language or Imperialist language?
For many of us, English is a language that bridge the gap of great language barrier. We can communicate with one another though we are from both end of the globe. In such situation it is never an imperialist language. However, if English is use intentionally to show our dominionship on others, any langauge for that matter. It is wrong to use language that way.

01 July Bible Study Method

What is the objective of the CE?
Many of our friends gave their answer of which some are close while some are not that close! The primary objective of the CE according to Prof. Liz, is 'proclaiming the reign of God/Kingdom of God'. The kingdom of God is realized when there is peace, justice, and love. This was the core message of Jesus while on earth.
The CE plays a vital role in carrying out this message. Therefore, developing a curriculum that will address human development, cultural development, and community developement is the need of the hour. There is an immense need develope a value system or rather reclaiming the our rich traditional value system. A value system which will eliminate individualism, capitalism, colonialism, oppression etcetera.

Assignment
Need analysis of the church (our local church), our community
Formulating vision and mission (project proposal)
Venue (such as camping, youth class, leadership training etc)