Christian Faith as Allegiance

Christian spirituality has to do with a system of beliefs, so we tend to think. We often equate spirituality with beliefs and rituals. However, in the light of the Bible, spirituality is not something that you believe or do but something that you belong to. Let me put in another way, it is not belief but belonging.

What did Peter had to do when he left his father, the net and the boat when Jesus called him to follow him? He did not have to sit for a membership test. If he had, I am sure he would have failed! All that he had to do was to leave what he had (what belonged to him) and follow after Jesus. He was no more a man of the lake, he belonged to Jesus. Ask James, John and even Paul who came to the scene much later. They just changed their allegiance. They had to reorder their relationships and loyalties so that they belonged to Jesus.

"What shall do to be saved?" the terrified jailer of Philippi screamed at Paul and Silas? What did he mean by "being saved"? He might have Paul preaching about Jesus who is the savior of the world. He was an employee of the Roman empire and by law accepted the fact that Caesar is Lord or divine. As a Roman citizen his allegiance was to the Caesar. Paul's answer was not to believe in a system of doctrines, but "believe on the Lord Jesus". It is to accept the Lordship of Jesus which demands that he denounce the Lordship of Caesar over him.

All that the Apostle demanded from their audience was confession of sins and confessing that Jesus is Lord. They did so in absolute obedience that the Lord had given them: to make disciples. The apostolic ministry in the first century was to make followers of Jesus and not believers of Jesus.

However, this change of allegiance, like any allegiance is not devoid of a set of beliefs. They had to believe that God has sent Jesus to this world, they had to believe that Jesus rose from the dead. They had to accept the fact that all humanity are sinful and needed a savior and that savior is Jesus of Nazareth who is God. However, it is the order that matters. Their faith is primarily an allegiance to Jesus and what they had to believe was to make that allegiance and to foster it in the days to come. Belief was at the service of this allegiance and not a substitute to it.

Jesus always thought in terms of relationship; that is why he called those who put their trust in him "my sheep" and his disciples "friends".

 

Have we not reduced Christianity to a set of beliefs and have lost this dimension of our relationship with Jesus. When we imagine Christian spirituality in terms of beliefs only we don't regret about the unholy alliances that we have made with the world and its sinful system.However, Jesus demands our absolute loyalty. 

God's Bodyguards!

“THERE is a small space in which a liberal vision of Pakistan hangs on. It shrank a lot further with the murder on January 4th of a notable progressive politician and critic of religious extremism, Salman Taseer”; The Economist commented on the murder of the governor of Punjab province of Punjab (The Economist Jan 6., 2011). His crime? He spoke against the blaspemy law which is used by extremists to persecute Christians and anyone they don't like. The liberal governor spoke in support of a poor Christian woman who is facing death penalty for alleged blaspemy.

The killer who is the bodyguard of the governor jusifies his action saying, the governors opposition to the blasphemy law amount to blasphemy! The assassin was garlanded by some extremists when he was produced before the court and some extremist groups have warned that those who express condolences at the death of the governor will meet the same fate.

Blasphemy law in Pakistan was introduced by President Zia Ul Haq back in 1980 under pressure from the Islamist groups. More than 600 people were charged with blaspemy law but none of them were hanged so far. More than fifty percent of those who charged are non-Muslims. Though, nobody were hanged on a court order so far, 300 of them were murdered!

What is blasphemy? Blasphemy is, “A contemptuous or profane act, utterance, or writing concerning God or a sacred entity” so goes the dictionary definition. Basically it has to do with the divine!

Blasphemy has been part of human history for quite some time. People have asserted their faith by repudiating the faith of others in the process speaking disrespectfully of their gods and sacred places and writings. No religion can claim innocence!

Christianity has a long history of being the victims and villains at the same time. As early as the first century non-Christians were blaspeming Christ. Alexamenos graffiti as it is known was engraved on the Palatine Hill in Rome by those who opposed Christians in the first century. The graffit portrayed a human like figure with the head of a donkey on a cross. There is also a figure of a young man with his hands in a posture of worship. The caption of the graffiti reads “Alexamenos worships his god”. This is a clear example of blasphemy against Christ whom the Christians in Rome worshipped. Resembling Jesus Christ to a donkey-man certainly amounts to blasphemy to Christians of those days. The history repeated many times as people denied Jesus divinity, denied his death and resurrection, made films about his temptations, his marriage and so on! Everyday, especially in the West, they use his name as a swear word!

Now, the villain part. Yes, there are Christians who responded with violence and also framed laws to protect the reputation of Jesus. For example, since 17th century there existed a law in England against blasphemy, particularly applying to the Church of England the state religion. This was used against atheists, Unitarians and the like. However, in 2008, the labour government abolished the law and the former Archbishop of Canterburry, Lord Carey whole-heartedly supported it. Though it took three centuries for the Church of England to realize that Jesus and his Church doesn't need legal protection of their reputation, it did really dawn on them finally.

There are questions for which we have to find answers. If it is the reputation of the divine that is attacked can't the divine take care of it? Does he need the protection of a human blaspemy law? When we tend to protect our gods aren't we stating how weak our gods are to protect themselves?

Glorifying God in Our Lives

If the chief goal humans is to glorify God and enjoy him forever, as the Westminster Shorter Catechism has expressed, then human beings ought to be in the look out for reasons for glorifying God. God's glory revealed in nature is indeed the most explicit stimulus for glorifying God. A second realm which impels us to praise God is what he has done in our lives. Put it another way, praise of God happens when we acknowledge what God has done in our lives.If that acknowledgement doesn't happen we will be singing praises to ourselves or to anything other than God.

The Psalmists pour out praises to God because they maintained hearts of thankfulness to God. For example, the psalmist who penned Psalm 116 says, “How can I repay the LORD for all his goodness to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD” (Psalms 116:12-13). In the Bible, the cups are described in terms of what they are made of or what they contain. For example, a silver cup is one made of silver while a wine-cup is that contains wine. In this verse the cup of salvation is a cup that is filled with God's acts of salvation or acts of deliverance. The Psalmist will lift up a cup that is filled with God's acts of deliverance that he has received in the past. That is his way of “repaying the Lord” for all that good things he has done for him. John Piper is credited with the alliteration “an attitude of gratitude.” This is what exactly we are talking about. Lifting up the cup of “salvation” is to maintain a heart of gratitude.

However, many times we are not able to lift up a “cup of salvation” because we are not able to ascribe to God what he has done in our lives. God doesn't get credit for what happens in our lives because we have trusted in our own strength and kept God away from our lives. This is a dangerous independence from God which impoverishes our spiritual lives. This is the tragedy of the modern secular mind which exalt human effort to such a level that there is no room for God in our consciousness.
Our culture think about God only when something goes wrong. When calamities strike, then we tend to ask where is God and why God allows such things. Until then we don't normally talk about or mention God. God doesn't normally feature in modern conversations.
However, it is important for us to lean on the strength and wisdom of an almighty God. This is what the wise sage of the Book of Proverb admonishes. “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and shun evil” (Proverbs 3:5-7).
This passage teaches us some very important truths. First of all, it is to disown our autonomy on our lives. “Lean not on your own understanding” means to understand the limits of human reason and ability. Eugen Peterson (in The Message) paraphrases this verse as, “Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don't try to figure out everything on your own.”

Some people approach God as the last resort. They have tried everything and failed. These are the people who don't like to bother God with things they can do themselves. The other group is those who totally ignore God in their lives. However, both these are wrong. The right approach would be to depend on God for everything and recognize that we can do nothing without him. This absolute dependence on God leads us to ascribe God glory in our lives. That is to give up our autonomy on our lives and give God the control.

Lives that recognize God in their lives and admit their absolute dependence on him would have plenty to praise him daily. Such lives can lead lives that “glorify God and enjoy him forever.”

Glorifying God for His Glory in Nature

The Westminster Shorter Catechism declares: “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.” That is to say that human beings exist to praise God and thus live a life that enjoys God for ever. The question that follows from this naturally is how to glorify God in such a way that we can enjoy him forever? This also means that believers ought to be always on the look out for stimuli to praise God every moment of their lives.
Glorifying God is not by repetition of some mantras that has some self-hypnotic effects or the like. It is not getting into a trance or ecstatic experience that comes from psychedelic lights or sounds. Glorifying God is not subjective, but objective in its nature where the worshiper gazes the glory of God realizing how the creator is distinct from the creation. Real praise of God happens when we see the glory of God and pours forth our hearts before him.
The psalmists are good examples for worshipers of God. They acknowledged God in their lives, in creation, in history and in everything. Psalmist who penned Psalm 8 might have composed it at night or for singing for a celebration at night because there is no mention of sun but the night sky (stars, moon) are mentioned. The singer and the chorus would scan the clear night-sky of Palestine and shout in adoration “how majestic is your name in all the earth!”
While the Psalmist had drawn his inspiration to praise from a cosmic scene the poet of Psalm 104 has a much smaller frame of nature: The cultivated land from which humans and animals get their food from. He would praise God saying “Praise the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, you are very great; you are clothed with splendor and majesty” (Psalm 104:1). His inspiration comes from the planet earth and the space where the plants and trees grow and fish, birds and animals thrive. Because it is a great God who provides for them.0
In the history of Christian church, there are numerous examples where the believers used nature as a resource for worship. Saint Francis of Assissi is the outstanding example. He could see God in the nature and had cultivated a habit of connecting with God's creation. Another example that comes to my mind is the author of the great hymn, “How Great Thou art!” translated in to almost every modern language.
In 1885 Swedish pastor Carl Gustav Boberg was walking back home after an evening service from his church when he was inspired by the sight of lightning and winds making waves in the fields and the rain that followed. The pastor himself said later about the inspiration for the song. "It was that time of year when everything seemed to be in its richest colouring; the birds were singing in trees and everywhere. It was very warm; a thunderstorm appeared on the horizon and soon thunder and lightning. We had to hurry to shelter. But the storm was soon over and the clear sky appeared.” Inspired by the nature scene he wrote “How Great Thou Art!”
Nature is the stimulus and the reason for glorifying God provided we are willing to see the majesty of God the creator in it. Just like a painting declares the creativity of the painter and all praise for the painting is in fact praise for the painter, we praise God when we see his glory in nature around us.
However, humans have marred and disfigured the nature. We have leveled the hills and filled the meadows to erect concrete jungles that hide the view of sunrise and sunset. We have lights in our streets that are so bright and lights up the evening sky so that the stars are scarcely visible. We have built factories that emit fumes in to the sky that shrivels the trees and makes birds flee from our trees and fish to die in our rivers. We have messed up God's nature.
However, though humans have marred God's nature and thus his glory we look at what remains to elicit praise from hearts. We can look at beautiful landscape photos freely available to praise him. There are TV channels that showcase the beauty of God's creation that make us bow down in praise of God the creator. A walk in the country side is certainly an unavoidable option. However, it is important that we don't just look through nature around us but see the glory and majesty of our God in it and pour forth our adoration of him.
Like wise true and meaningful worship takes place when we open our eyes to see God's glory displayed around us and is sensitive to his acts in our lives and history. Acknowledging God in our lives, in creation, in history and in everything. (to be continued...)

Christians and Civil Authorities

Click here to listen to "Christians and Civil Authority"

This sermon explores the relationship of Christians to the civil authority. An exposition based on 1 Peter 2:13-17 preached at the Community of the Redeemed, Pune.

Guidelines for a good sleep

What do you do before sleep? There are various ways of going to bed. Some people will like to read in bed and finally you will find them sleeping with an open book on their chest. Some people watch TV and doze off to sleep, the remote still in their hands. Some may have their earphones plugged in and the iPod still playing. However, there a number of people who go to bed fighting thoughts that wage war in their heads.

The psalmist who penned Psalm 4 talks about two such people because their thoughts while going to bed are different. While Psalm 3 is generally considered as a morning Psalm, Psalm 4 is considered as an evening Psalm. That means, a Psalm where the psalmist gathers his thought before retiring to bed.

The psalmist has been facing immense opposition from his enemies. His main worry is the plot of his enemies to spoil his reputation. He seems to be a man of some standing in the society, may be a king or a person of reputation. However, the plot is to spoil his reputation in society. That is why he cries, "How long will you people ruin my reputation? How long will you make groundless accusations?" (Psalm 4:2 NLT). A good name is important in his society where the controlling factor was shame. In his culture whether you are guilty or innocent doesn't matter much, but what matters is what people think of you.

This is enough to give sleepless nights. If his accusers can find enough buyers for all the false accusations they are making, then his very life even will be at risk. However, the psalmist is cool and composed. He is so cool to say to himself while going to bed: "In peace I lie down and sleep." (Psalm 4:8). His cool stems from his faith in God who makes him dwell safely (Psalm 4:8).

However, the people who are bent on spoiling his name in the society go to bed restless. Their heads are booming with plots and schemes to destroy the godly person who wrote this psalm. However, the psalmist full of confidence in his God has an advice laced with some sarcasm. "In your anger do not sin; when you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent." (Psalm 4:5). His advice is that do not lose your sleep thinking about the harm you can do to me. I am special to God and no harm can ever happen to me.

We can carry the anger and frustration of the day to bed at night and keep ourselves awake. Most of the time, the people who hurt us or people whom we are envious of, take shooting positions in our thoughts when we descend to bed. We lose our sleep because we fight battles that we should not fight in our thoughts. Some of us worry a lot about the harm others can do to us and lose our sleep. However, the example of the Psalmist is to sleep trusting in God. That quiet trust, which the psalmist who authored Psalm 3 also echoes is important: "I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the LORD sustains me." (Psalm 3:5).

Paulson Pulikottil Ph. D. is Professor of Old Testament at Union Biblical Seminary, Pune, India and Pastor of the COMMUNITY OF THE REDEEMED (CORe) a Full Gospel Church in Pune, India.

Paulson Pulikottil Ph. D. is Professor of Old Testament at Union Biblical Seminary, Pune, India and Pastor of the COMMUNITY OF THE REDEEMED (CORe) a Full Gospel Church in Pune, India.

Attitude in Worship

There are times when we are very few in number when we gather for worship on Sundays. Our eyes scan the room to find who has come and who has missed that Sunday. Our spirits are down when we are few and up when there are many people. The preacher feels less "anointed" when there are more empty chairs than people and the spirit of the worship team depends on the number of people too. I have been pasturing an urban church for three years now where the number dwindles during the holidays. During the holiday season, most of my church members would like to travel, visit their families and only a faithful few will be left during for weeks. I have learned to cope with this and am teaching my leaders to cope with this. We are learning to keep the same level of "anointing" and the spirit whether we are few or many!
The first thing that we realize is that we are not few in worship even when there are empty chairs around. Christian worship is a joint celebration with the angelic hosts in heaven and believers all over the world. The angelic hosts in heaven are in constantly in worship of the Jesus Christ; they don't take any break! So when we are in worship we are only joining them for an hour or two and withdraw. The writer of the Book of Hebrews puts this truth this way:

But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect& (Hebrews 12:22-23 NIV).

To put it in another way, the strength of a worshipping congregation is not the number of people who occupy the chairs but includes myriads of angels in worship in heaven. Christian worship is not just the worship of the congregation that is gathered in one given place. When we worship at any given place we also need to realize that we are joining other worshippers who are in worship of Christ at the same time in different places. At any moment in time, there are thousands of Christ-worshippers in worship before him and no one is alone! This is to say that there is no one who is in solitude when it comes to Christian worship. Whether in multitude, a large stadium with thousands of people, a great band and a golden-tongued preacher what pleases God is our attitude in worship. The number and the performance don't really matter to God.
Though it addresses a situation in ancient Israel, Psalm 50 teaches some important principles of worship of God. It addresses people who were keen on worship by offering sacrifices and offerings and paying their vows. That is the mode of worship that they were used to. There is nothing wrong with that however. But God's problem with them was their attitude to worship. They thought that God is dependent on them for food (Psalm 50:12).
What God expects from them was not sacrifices which they thought is feeding a hungry God but sacrifices they offered as symbols of their gratitude to God. The psalmist called such sacrifices "thank offerings" and "vows" (Psalm 50:14). God invited his people to pray to him when they are in trouble so that he can help them out of those troubles (Psalm 50:15). When worshippers engage God in their struggle they worship him with grateful hearts. So all that God expects is the right attitude in worship; he expects people to recognize him as their savior, deliverer and bring a heart of gratitude to worship. They recognize their dependence on God rather than God's dependence on them! The multitude without this attitude doesn't please him.
So, let us remember this: Whether in solitude or in multitude, what matters in worship is our attitude.

Paulson Pulikottil Ph. D. is Professor of Old Testament at Union Biblical Seminary, Pune, India and Pastor of the COMMUNITY OF THE REDEEMED (CORe) a Full Gospel Church in Pune, India.