>Evangelisation, as I understand it, accords primacy for
witnessing
>one's faith through one's exemplary Christian conduct and behavior
>than by preaching the gospel.
Dear Dr. Alex Alexander,
I have to agree with you, even though I had some more thoughts on
this. Seeing your message I started doing some math. There has been 1954 years
since St.Thomas told us Indians about the gospel. (A.D.52 till A.D. 2006) I
looked up that we can consider a generation as roughly about 30 years. If so, we
have had a time line for 65 generations of us Indians living in India as
Christians. If in this time, we could not show Christ as the ultimate symbol of
Love to our neighbors by our lives, if we could not show His sacrifice as the
ultimate and purest sacrifice to our neighbors by imitating Him, then our
preaching about the gospel will not achieve anything more. If after 1954 years
of being continously nourished, cleansed, nurtured and renewed by the Living
Body and Blood of Christ, if our neighbors do not see the witness of Christ in
us, then our preaching of the gospel outside will not do any good.
It is a sad truth that we have all failed in being Christian witnesses. I do not
know if this is true, but I have heard a legend
that prophet Muhammed got an idea about Christianity from some Orthodox
Christian monks, and his impression was of "Mary worshippers"(these words are
seen in the Quran?) which drove him to look elsewhere for true God. If this is
true, then our failure as witnesses of Christ was a prime factor in the birth of
Islam as a religion.
If after 1600 years, we still had to rely on help from Persia and
Syria for our spiritual nourishment, it was because we did not have a strong
Christian base in India, we failed in our witness of Christ at that time. We
failed to inspire our neighbors by our lives to look upto us and see the love of
the Savior and accept Him. When the Europeans came to India and saw Christians
in India and wished to bring us under the Roman yoke, we failed in our witness
there because they failed to see the divine spark in us. Instead they saw a
church that was becoming Nestorian. No sense in blaming any one else for our
lack of awareness and alertness in guarding the pure faith.
When the Protestants came and influenced the people and the Marthoma
Church broke away, we failed in our witness because the people who went away
could not see the wounds of Christ when they saw the church and her leaders.
When the Syrian Patriarch started taking advantage of our relationship with
Antioch, we failed in our witness, because
the Patriarch did not see the heavenly glory of Christ when he looked
at the Indian Church.
When the Syro Malabar Church broke away from us, we again failed in
our witness because the people who went away did so because the aura of Christ's
divine passion was not emanating from the Indian Church.
Each court case filed in the name of the church betrays our lack of
faith and our poor witness. If the brethren in the Pathrkeese faction
today feels better off under the Antiochian Patriarch, it is a
failure of our witness because they do not see Christ when they see
us.
>That is what Gandhiji meant when he stated that he likes Jesus
>Christ, but not Christians because the ones he knew are mostly
>unlike Jesus!
Exactly. We who were supposed to be mirrors of Christ seem to be
showing the devil's face instead. We have been better witnesses of Satan, and
hence horribly poor witnesses of Christ.
Thinking about these, I have to take back from what I said in my previous
message. I now feel, that having lived in this manner
for about 65 generations, we have been sleeping for too long. Our focus then
should not be on attracting members on the outside, but cleaning our home on the
inside. Hypothetically speaking, if we do manage to preach the gospel in a big
way outside the church, and manage to bring in a lot of converts, what example
do we have to show them? We must first set our home in order. There is nothing
wrong with the church or her teachings, the problem is in the implementation
part -- in the church living the faith. So then, as you rightly said, we need to
live our faith. The neighbor needs to see the depth of Christ's love when they
see us.
Perhaps if we succeed to build a generation or two in this manner to
live the faith like perhaps most of the first Century Christians(unprecedented
in our Indian Church History?), then people on the outside will be able to see
Christ in us. Then it will become natural to preach the faith outside if it is
needed, or perhaps it may not even be necessary as people will be able to see
Christ plainly by just being in touch with us.
Some may interpret the above as me passing the buck to someone else.
Others may say that this is just being a perfectionist. I honestly do not think
so. Spreading the awareness about Christ till the ends of the earth is very
important, but after 1950 years of slumber, I feel now is the time to look
within us, not outside. This is no easy job. This also needs a lot of sacrifice
and dedication, committment, prayers and tears. Are we upto it? This must be
seen as a unique challenge. The solutions for the Church in the first Century
cannot be applied to the Church in the 21st Century - simply because the
problems are different. When St. Thomas came to India, he was preaching about a
Christ that was never heard of earlier, about a life He had lived with, who
lived on earth just 2 decades earlier. That was the time of the formation of the
infant Church. Today the church has been
nurtured by the Living Body and Blood of Christ for about
2000 years. The world today by and large knows about Christ and
Christ's body has been divided and mutilated into several
hundred pieces. Christian theology has grown and matured and has even
been fractured and distorted. All the challenges of today cannot be met by the
solutions of the apostles then. Perhaps if the apostles were to be sent back
again, they would themselves have unique solutions for today. When we have so
many problems in living as members of Christ's body, as saints, as royal
priests, in the world today, how can we preach to others to be living witnesses?
Whose examples do we show them? If we cannot show ourselves as examples what
right do we have to preach? We should not venture out on this ministry till we
can say boldly like St. Paul - 'imitate me'(1 Cor 4:16, 1 Cor 11:1). We will be
ready when we can point them to our church, confidently entrust them in the
church's care and teach them the nuances of the faith of the church by asking
them to imitate the lives of the living witnesses in the church. For surely we
do not want the new converts to imitate any other denomination(or non
denomination, or any other version in between).[This is not an issue of
increasing membership, but of guiding in a path which we know as right] Hence
surely our focus must be on the inside at the moment, because so large is the
decay from within. First we need to build generations of the living witnesses.
The 19th-20th centuries have been a time of great emotional and spiritual
awakening in the church like never before. We were jolted out of our hibernation
by the separation of the Marthoma Church, the Syro Malabar Church, tussle with
the Pathrkeese and perpetual exodus to the Pentecostal groups; and guided by
spiritual giants like Parumala Thirumeni, Pampadi Thirumeni and world renowned
theologians like Fr.V.C. Samuel and Paulose Mar Gregorios. All of these have now
brought us to the realisation that we are doing precious little in terms of
evangelisation(a point of the review of 'an Atraita God'). So it took about more
than a century of turmoil within the church and in the world outside to give us
this realisation (if this has really sunk in now), hence we may not hurry with
the rest of the tasks. We may need some more time first to live the faith before
we call others to enjoy in this treasure.
May the renewal and cleansing of the Holy Qurbana we have, create in
us a great passion to live our faith in a manner never seen before so that the
entire India(and other parts of the world where we live now) and through her the
entire world, sees Christ and His glory by the living witness of the members of
the Indian Orthodox church. Seems impossible, but we are followers of a Master
who said that by our faith, we can move mountains!
Regards,
Mathew Samuel,
Albany, NY
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IndianOrthodox/message/13800
>one's faith through one's exemplary Christian conduct and behavior
>than by preaching the gospel.
Dear Dr. Alex Alexander,
I have to agree with you, even though I had some more thoughts on
this. Seeing your message I started doing some math. There has been 1954 years
since St.Thomas told us Indians about the gospel. (A.D.52 till A.D. 2006) I
looked up that we can consider a generation as roughly about 30 years. If so, we
have had a time line for 65 generations of us Indians living in India as
Christians. If in this time, we could not show Christ as the ultimate symbol of
Love to our neighbors by our lives, if we could not show His sacrifice as the
ultimate and purest sacrifice to our neighbors by imitating Him, then our
preaching about the gospel will not achieve anything more. If after 1954 years
of being continously nourished, cleansed, nurtured and renewed by the Living
Body and Blood of Christ, if our neighbors do not see the witness of Christ in
us, then our preaching of the gospel outside will not do any good.
It is a sad truth that we have all failed in being Christian witnesses. I do not
know if this is true, but I have heard a legend
that prophet Muhammed got an idea about Christianity from some Orthodox
Christian monks, and his impression was of "Mary worshippers"(these words are
seen in the Quran?) which drove him to look elsewhere for true God. If this is
true, then our failure as witnesses of Christ was a prime factor in the birth of
Islam as a religion.
If after 1600 years, we still had to rely on help from Persia and
Syria for our spiritual nourishment, it was because we did not have a strong
Christian base in India, we failed in our witness of Christ at that time. We
failed to inspire our neighbors by our lives to look upto us and see the love of
the Savior and accept Him. When the Europeans came to India and saw Christians
in India and wished to bring us under the Roman yoke, we failed in our witness
there because they failed to see the divine spark in us. Instead they saw a
church that was becoming Nestorian. No sense in blaming any one else for our
lack of awareness and alertness in guarding the pure faith.
When the Protestants came and influenced the people and the Marthoma
Church broke away, we failed in our witness because the people who went away
could not see the wounds of Christ when they saw the church and her leaders.
When the Syrian Patriarch started taking advantage of our relationship with
Antioch, we failed in our witness, because
the Patriarch did not see the heavenly glory of Christ when he looked
at the Indian Church.
When the Syro Malabar Church broke away from us, we again failed in
our witness because the people who went away did so because the aura of Christ's
divine passion was not emanating from the Indian Church.
Each court case filed in the name of the church betrays our lack of
faith and our poor witness. If the brethren in the Pathrkeese faction
today feels better off under the Antiochian Patriarch, it is a
failure of our witness because they do not see Christ when they see
us.
>That is what Gandhiji meant when he stated that he likes Jesus
>Christ, but not Christians because the ones he knew are mostly
>unlike Jesus!
Exactly. We who were supposed to be mirrors of Christ seem to be
showing the devil's face instead. We have been better witnesses of Satan, and
hence horribly poor witnesses of Christ.
Thinking about these, I have to take back from what I said in my previous
message. I now feel, that having lived in this manner
for about 65 generations, we have been sleeping for too long. Our focus then
should not be on attracting members on the outside, but cleaning our home on the
inside. Hypothetically speaking, if we do manage to preach the gospel in a big
way outside the church, and manage to bring in a lot of converts, what example
do we have to show them? We must first set our home in order. There is nothing
wrong with the church or her teachings, the problem is in the implementation
part -- in the church living the faith. So then, as you rightly said, we need to
live our faith. The neighbor needs to see the depth of Christ's love when they
see us.
Perhaps if we succeed to build a generation or two in this manner to
live the faith like perhaps most of the first Century Christians(unprecedented
in our Indian Church History?), then people on the outside will be able to see
Christ in us. Then it will become natural to preach the faith outside if it is
needed, or perhaps it may not even be necessary as people will be able to see
Christ plainly by just being in touch with us.
Some may interpret the above as me passing the buck to someone else.
Others may say that this is just being a perfectionist. I honestly do not think
so. Spreading the awareness about Christ till the ends of the earth is very
important, but after 1950 years of slumber, I feel now is the time to look
within us, not outside. This is no easy job. This also needs a lot of sacrifice
and dedication, committment, prayers and tears. Are we upto it? This must be
seen as a unique challenge. The solutions for the Church in the first Century
cannot be applied to the Church in the 21st Century - simply because the
problems are different. When St. Thomas came to India, he was preaching about a
Christ that was never heard of earlier, about a life He had lived with, who
lived on earth just 2 decades earlier. That was the time of the formation of the
infant Church. Today the church has been
nurtured by the Living Body and Blood of Christ for about
2000 years. The world today by and large knows about Christ and
Christ's body has been divided and mutilated into several
hundred pieces. Christian theology has grown and matured and has even
been fractured and distorted. All the challenges of today cannot be met by the
solutions of the apostles then. Perhaps if the apostles were to be sent back
again, they would themselves have unique solutions for today. When we have so
many problems in living as members of Christ's body, as saints, as royal
priests, in the world today, how can we preach to others to be living witnesses?
Whose examples do we show them? If we cannot show ourselves as examples what
right do we have to preach? We should not venture out on this ministry till we
can say boldly like St. Paul - 'imitate me'(1 Cor 4:16, 1 Cor 11:1). We will be
ready when we can point them to our church, confidently entrust them in the
church's care and teach them the nuances of the faith of the church by asking
them to imitate the lives of the living witnesses in the church. For surely we
do not want the new converts to imitate any other denomination(or non
denomination, or any other version in between).[This is not an issue of
increasing membership, but of guiding in a path which we know as right] Hence
surely our focus must be on the inside at the moment, because so large is the
decay from within. First we need to build generations of the living witnesses.
The 19th-20th centuries have been a time of great emotional and spiritual
awakening in the church like never before. We were jolted out of our hibernation
by the separation of the Marthoma Church, the Syro Malabar Church, tussle with
the Pathrkeese and perpetual exodus to the Pentecostal groups; and guided by
spiritual giants like Parumala Thirumeni, Pampadi Thirumeni and world renowned
theologians like Fr.V.C. Samuel and Paulose Mar Gregorios. All of these have now
brought us to the realisation that we are doing precious little in terms of
evangelisation(a point of the review of 'an Atraita God'). So it took about more
than a century of turmoil within the church and in the world outside to give us
this realisation (if this has really sunk in now), hence we may not hurry with
the rest of the tasks. We may need some more time first to live the faith before
we call others to enjoy in this treasure.
May the renewal and cleansing of the Holy Qurbana we have, create in
us a great passion to live our faith in a manner never seen before so that the
entire India(and other parts of the world where we live now) and through her the
entire world, sees Christ and His glory by the living witness of the members of
the Indian Orthodox church. Seems impossible, but we are followers of a Master
who said that by our faith, we can move mountains!
Regards,
Mathew Samuel,
Albany, NY
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IndianOrthodox/message/13800
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