To Be A Lamb Of God

"But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.' Isaiah 53:5-6 NLT

The crowd hailed Jesus as "the King who comes in the name of the Lord" as he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey on Palm Sunday. But in less than a week, Jesus was betrayed by one of his close disciples, deserted by his other disciples and condemned by the crowd who were manipulated by the religious leaders to demand his death by crucifixion. The crucified Christ is the Risen Christ to show us the way to eternal life through suffering and persecution.

John the Baptist proclaimed Jesus as the Lamb of God who came to deliver us from the sin of slavery:

"The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" John 1:29 NKJV

To follow Jesus is to be on a journey of becoming the sacrificial lambs of God to help people to turn back to God and to live a life that is centered on God. The world badly needs to see that Christ has truly risen in the lives of those who are called Christians. Christians who are living in the kingdom of heaven in here and now with the Prince of Peace.  The world needs authentic witnesses of the Risen Christ whose hearts are filled with compassion and prepared to speak up for justice even if they will be persecuted.

Christians are not called to make converts to Christianity or to be salespersons for Christ. They are to be the light and salt so that others will be hungry and thirsty for God's unconditional agape love, the unspeakable joy of salvation and the peace of Christ which is beyond all human understanding. But to do so, we need to pay careful attention to the Risen Christ who is deep within our hearts in order that we will become "awakened and opened to God within, who enters into our heartbeat and our breathing, into our thoughts and emotion, our hearing, seeing, touching, and tasting." 

This is the practice of contemplative prayer which Henri Nouwen describes as "the discipline by which we begin to 'see' the living God dwelling in our own hearts" and to recognise the Presence of God in the world. The objective of contemplative prayer is  "not that we see God in the world, but that God-with-us recognises God in the world." Only then will we be empowered to endure suffering and to face persecution. 

There are 4 ways to live in this fallen world. Firstly, we can live like a rat running the race to seek money and fame. We are then controlled by greed and we will see others as competitors who we need to get rid off. Secondly, we can live like a  G. O. A. T. (Greatest Of All Time), driven by pride and forgetting that it is a hopeless to gain the whole world but to lose one's soul. Thirdly, we may be live like a lost S.H.E.E.P., blind to the wonder of Seeing Heaven Everyday in Every Person. We live in quiet desperation filled with anger and unforgiveness of our past and with guilt and fear for the future. 

Fourthly, we can follow Christ to be the lambs of God who are the living sacrifices to bring love, joy and peace in a dark and broken world - to be peacemakers so that heaven can come on earth even if we are persecuted. To be a lamb of God is not to live a peaceful life that is without suffering but a life that is filled with the peace of God in the face of suffering and persecution. In fact Jesus warned his disciples that the world will hate them:

"I have given them your word. And the world hates them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.  I’m not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one.  They do not belong to this world any more than I do." John 17:14-16 NLT

The apostle Paul warned Timothy:

"Yes, and everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. But evil people and impostors will flourish. They will deceive others and will themselves be deceived." 2 Timothy 3:12-13 NLT

He also commended the Thessalonians for their endurance and faithfulness in the face of persecutions:

"We proudly tell God’s other churches about your endurance and faithfulness in all the persecutions and hardships you are suffering. And God will use this persecution to show his justice and to make you worthy of his Kingdom, for which you are suffering. In his justice he will pay back those who persecute you." 2 Thessalonians 1:4-6 NLT

 Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount that  one of the 'be-attitudes" to live in the Kingdom of Heaven on earth is to suffer persecution for doing right:

"God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs." Matthew 5:10 NLT

The promise of the kingdom of heaven is bracketed by the first beatitude, blessed are the poor, and the last beatitude, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. The beatitudes are to help us cultivate the fruit of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility and self control to overcome guilt, fear and the seven cardinal sins of lust, anger, greed, envy, pride, gluttony and sloth.

We need the spirit of poverty to enter the kingdom and the spirit of mourning to be totally dependent on the power of the resurrection of Christ to deliver us from our slavery to sin. We need the spirit of meekness and to hunger and thirst for righteousness so that we will examine our hearts to understand our shadow selves in the wilderness of our lives. We need the spirit of compassion and the desire for purity to experience the wonder of God's presence and power in our daily lives.

And we need to be peacemakers to advance the kingdom of heaven here on earth and to promote peace, justice and godliness. As we do so, we need endurance and faithfulness to face persecution.  The history of the church has shown that suffering and persecution turn Christians into the most powerful witnesses of the reality of the kingdom of heaven.

God is our loving Heavenly Father who is waiting patiently for us to seek His Kingdom and His righteousness so that we can find refuge from the storms of life and rest for our souls. Over the past year I was led to the discipline of contemplative prayer to seek the kingdom of heaven. It has helped me  to understand and appreciate the importance of silence and solitude. 

Contemplative prayer is the expression of our intention to seek the power and presence of God. It is not to empty our minds but it is to become aware of our negative thoughts and feelings of our shadow selves so that we can bring them to Christ for healing. In this time of enforced social distancing, all of us have a great opportunity to follow Jesus in the practice of silence, solitude and contemplative prayer. As we do so, we become the lambs of God, not to appease God, but to open our hearts and minds so that Holy Spirit may fall afresh on us:

Spirit of the Living God, fall fresh on me
Spirit of the Living God, fall fresh on me
Melt me, mold me
Fill me, use me
Spirit of the Living God, fall fresh on me

May we be streams of the endless river of righteous living through contemplative prayer so that the world will be  covered by a mighty flood of justice.

From zero to hero

"Many will be shocked by him. His appearance will be so disfigured that he won’t look like any other man. His looks will be so disfigured that he will hardly look like a human. He will cleanse many nations ⌊with his blood⌋. Kings will shut their mouths because of him. They will see things that they had never been told. They will understand things that they had never heard." Isaiah 52:14-15 GW

The stupendous and awe inspiring event of Easter is that Jesus lived a life of a Jewish hero but was reduced to an absolute zero on the cross to empower us to be spiritual heroes to bring peace to our world. The disciples of Jesus thought that He was the Messiah to save them from the rule of the Romans but deserted him and saw him die a horrifying and apparently meaningless death on the Cross as a criminal. This was to fulfill the prophecy of the prophet Isaiah:

"Many will be shocked by him. His appearance will be so disfigured that he won’t look like any other man. His looks will be so disfigured that he will hardly look like a human." Isaiah 52:14. 

The disciples had witnessed the supernatural power that Jesus had - he healed the sick, raised the dead, stilled the storm and cursed the fig tree.  But when the priests came with the crowd to arrest him, he chose not to exercise his supernatural powers:

“Put away your sword,” Jesus told him. “Those who use the sword will die by the sword.  Don’t you realize that I could ask my Father for thousands of angels to protect us, and he would send them instantly?  But if I did, how would the Scriptures be fulfilled that describe what must happen now?” Matthew 26:52-54 NLT

Jesus knew he had supernatural power but he chose to exercise the power of love and to be a peacemaker as he faced the crowd seeking to arrest him. Jesus demonstrated the fruit of contemplative prayer as our Prince of Peace. Contemplative prayer or meditation is the narrow way and  the road less travelled to live a life deeply centered in God. It is the journey of Lent and Easter - from an empty tomb to a fruitful womb. It is about about mortality and transformation which Marcus Borg has described as follows:

"The journey of Lent is about journeying with Jesus from Galilee to Jerusalem - which is the place of endings as well as beginnings, the place of death and resurrection. It is the place where, to use an old wordplay, "The tomb becomes a womb."

Jesus turned the tomb into a womb to help us face death without fear and to live our lives with love so that our deaths will be fruitful in the lives of those we leave behind. Henri Nouwen observed that Jesus "saw death, and his own death in particular, as more than a way of getting from one place to another. He saw his death as potentially fruitful in itself, and of enormous benefit to his disciples." Sharing such a vision of death will change the way we live:

"If that is true, then the real question for me as I consider my own death is not: how much can I still accomplish before I die, or will I be a burden to others? No, the real question is: how can I live so that my death will be fruitful for others? In other words, how can my death be a gift for my loved ones so that they can reap the fruits of my life after I have died? This question can be answered only if I am first willing to admit Jesus’ vision of death, as a valid possibility for me."

To live so that my death will be fruitful for others is a most important truth that the dying has taught me and helped me to face my own aging and death. Focusing on how much we can still accomplish before we die or worrying about being a burden to others only leads to spiritual pain. What is more important is to trust that God will use my death as a gift for my loved ones and that it will bear fruit in their lives even if my life is judged to be a zero in the eyes of the world. For what does a man gain if he is a hero in this world but a zero in God's Kingdom?

The events of Easter is the amazing story of Jesus overcoming death, sin and evil.  The resurrection of Jesus Christ is not a fairy tale but the cornerstone of our Christian faith. It is a story to teach us the way of the cross - of dying to self - to become a zero in order to become a spiritual hero through Jesus Christ our Lord. This was the experience of the apostle Paul:

"I consider everything else worthless because I’m much better off knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. It’s because of him that I think of everything as worthless. I threw it all away in order to gain Christ and to have a relationship with him. This means that I didn’t receive God’s approval by obeying his laws. The opposite is true! I have God’s approval through faith in Christ. This is the approval that comes from God and is based on faith that knows Christ. Faith knows the power that his coming back to life gives and what it means to share his suffering. In this way I’m becoming like him in his death, with the confidence that I’ll come back to life from the dead." Philippians 3:8-11 GW

Jesus rose from the dead to transform his disciples from defeated and discouraged followers to  become the children of God who are without any faults among people who are crooked and corrupt and to shine like stars among them in the world (Philippians 2:15 GW). Jesus is our  Prince of Peace who taught us that to be a peacemaker is one of the "be-attitude" in the Kingdom of Heaven:

"God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God." Matthew 5:9 NLT

In the face of the Covid 19 pandemic, we need the peace of God and peace with God. Jesus died and rose from the dead so that we can come boldly to the throne of our gracious God to receive his mercy, and find grace to help us when we need it most (Hebrews 4:16 NLT). Let us learn to live in the shelter of the Most High through contemplative prayer so that we will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty (Psalms 91:1 NLT). Contemplative prayer is God's circuit breaker to rewire our brains so that Jesus can give us rest and his peace that is beyond all human understanding. So let us ask the Holy Spirit to breathe on us as we sing:

Breathe on me, Breath of God,
Till I am wholly Thine,
Until this earthly part of me
Glows with Thy fire divine.

Breathe on me, Breath of God,
So shall I never die,
But live with Thee the perfect life
Of Thine eternity.

Homesick For Heaven

"But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness. And so, dear friends, while you are waiting for these things to happen, make every effort to be found living peaceful lives that are pure and blameless in his sight." 2 Peter 3:13-14 NLT

In the midst of the Covid 19 pandemic, we are kept, to quote Rev Wong Tak Meng, from "jumping from the 'Hosannas' of Palm Sunday to the 'Alleluias' of Easter Sunday without pausing to savour Good Friday as anything more than a public holiday." This was what we had tended to do in the past years. As the Covid 19 virus sweeps over all the nations of the earth, we are confronted with the horrors of aging, suffering and death and our need to understand God's wrath in the light of God's steadfast love which endures forever:

"We live our lives beneath your wrath, ending our years with a groan. Seventy years are given to us! Some even live to eighty. But even the best years are filled with pain and trouble; soon they disappear, and we fly away. Who can comprehend the power of your anger? Your wrath is as awesome as the fear you deserve. Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom." Psalms 90:9-12 NLT

On Palm Sunday this year, there was a message calling on all meditators irrespective of their religious persuasion to meditate for 20 mins at 10.45 am. Many are praying and meditating out of desperation pleading for God's mercy to end the pandemic. Our prayers are rooted in what Marcus Borg has described as "Supernatural Theism" with "the image of God as the authoritarian parent: the rule giver and disciplinarian, the lawgiver and enforcer. This 'finger-shaking God' whom we disappoint again and again. It is the God whose demands for obedience were satisfied by Jesus's death in our place."

But it is in times like this, that we need to cry out as Jesus did on the cross, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?" It is a time when God is shaking us from a superficial faith of belief that is saddled with doubts to the deep faith of trusting in God instead of being filled with anxiety, a faithful relationship with God which keeps us from worshipping the idols of health, wealth and longevitiy and a rekindled faith that sees God with new eyes like Job did:

"I had heard about you with my own ears, but now I have seen you with my own eyes. That is why I take back what I said, and I sit in dust and ashes to show that I am sorry.” Job 42:5-6 GW

We cannot see God who is holy when our hearts are filled with sinful desires, ulterior motives and hidden agendas. Jesus taught us that purity of heart is one of the "be-attitude" of the Kingdom of heaven:

"God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God." Matthew 5:8 NLT

The celebration of Passover on Maundy Thursday is to help us to go on a journey of faith - an exodus from slavery to sin in the Egypts of our lives to liberation in the Promised Land as well as the exile to the Babylons of our lives when we are tempted to turn away from God and then to our returning home to God's Kingdom. Marcus Borg saw the Jewish experience as a paradigm for our journey of faith:

"And for us Christians, that journey has a direction, and essential biblical stories and themes of scripture powerfully suggest what that direction is. If we take the exodus story as an indicator of that journey, it's a journey that leads from bondage to liberation. Or if we take the Jewish experience of exile in Babylon as the paradigm for the journey's story, it is a journey that leads from exile and alienation to return and homecoming, from seeing ourselves as being of little or no account to seeing ourselves as the beloved of God."

It is only when we see ourselves as the beloved of God that we will be homesick for heaven. Then we will make every effort to live peaceful lives that are pure and blameless in his sight. The way we live and our responses to our struggles in life reflects our relationship with God and our image of God. When our minds and consciences are corrupted by the ways and values of the world, nothing is pure to us:

"Everything is pure to those whose hearts are pure. But nothing is pure to those who are corrupt and unbelieving, because their minds and consciences are corrupted. Such people claim they know God, but they deny him by the way they live. They are detestable and disobedient, worthless for doing anything good." Titus 1:15-16 NLT

The Covid 19 virus exposes the cardinal sins which are so infectious and deadly in each one of us - lust, pride, greed, anger, envy, gluttony and sloth. It also reveals the spiritual hunger of our world for the fruit of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility and self control. As Christians we are called to be the broken bread and poured out wine of the Body of Christ so that God's kingdom will be revealed and His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 

On Good Friday the veil in the temple was torn when Jesus died and this is symbolic of the pulling back of the veil between heaven which is God's realm and earth so that we can have a vision of God's new heaven and earth. This is another way of understanding "apocalypse" which also means "unveiling." The gloomiest notions some Christians have, according to Caroline Leaf,  is "the desire to get to heaven soon, since the earth is going to be destroyed anyway. They see the apocalypse as something terrible: lakes of fires, unending pain, disasters, and all sorts of horrors."

The wonderful message of Good Friday is that even as Jesus was dying a lonely, unjust and horrible death on the cross he comforted a thief who was crucified alongside with him: “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43 NLT). Life on earth can be an exciting adventure even as we face depression, disability and death when we set our sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand and think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth (Colossians 3:1-2 NLT). 

Morton Kelsey found that many nominal Christians are afraid to talk about death because they have not been touched by the kingdom of heaven now. He reminds us that love is the essential foundation of God and heaven. The doors of the Kingdom of heaven will open to us as we grow in love. And we need one another to make that love a concrete reality.  This world is not our home but it is our Father's world. We are not to be so comfortable in this world that we are no longer homesick for heaven:

"Friends, this world is not your home, so don’t make yourselves cozy in it. Don’t indulge your ego at the expense of your soul. Live an exemplary life among the natives so that your actions will refute their prejudices. Then they’ll be won over to God’s side and be there to join in the celebration when he arrives." 1 Peter 2:11-12 MSG

We don't have to wait until we die to get to heaven. All we need to do is not to edge God out but to embrace God only. Then we can have a foretaste of heaven even in the here and now when we are attentive to the wonders of our Father's world which is not nowhere but now here:

This is my Father’s world,
And to my list’ning ears
All nature sings, and round me rings
The music of the spheres.
This is my Father’s world:
I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas—
His hand the wonders wrought.

This is my Father’s world:
Oh, let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world,
Why should my heart be sad?
The Lord is King: let the heavens ring!
God reigns: let the earth be glad."

Fear Blinds, Faith Sees

"Then Jesus told him,  “I entered this world to render judgment - to give sight to the blind and to show those who think they see that they are blind.” John 9:39 NLT

While waiting in the hospital clinic to see my eye surgeon for my post operative review of my cataract operation, snippets of a documentary about saving the earth caught my attention. The need for changes to the ways we use energy and to control the use of fossil fuels and the hidden effects of the Covid 19 pandemic that is saving our world  opened my eyes to the mysterious and awe inspiring ways of God. Kota Sriraj, an environmental journalist, shared the following insights:

"The Earth is healing itself even as its biggest “parasite”   humanity, grapples with the virus by practicing social distancing amid strict lockdowns. Suddenly, the urban as well as peri-urban areas have started experiencing a resurgence of nature as the lockdowns have brought with them fresh air, clearer skies and the revival of urban wildlife..........

Furthermore, the suspension of all air traffic in most parts of the world, including India and  the lack of vehicular traffic on roads due to the lockdowns have considerably reduced pollution levels and especially eased particulate matter (PM) 2.5 woes........

The rejuvenation of the Earth comes as a succor at the time of anguish and pain to mankind. Every human being pauses, even if it is for a second, to marvel at the beauty of nature and forgets the hardships being faced in this difficult time. If humanity needs a break from this pandemic, the environment needs a break from us."

A more important truth is that humanity needs to get back in touch with their loving Creator. It is a time to practice the discipline of silence and meditation so that we can hear the voice of our Shepherd of love more clearly for ourselves. Only then will we not be deceived and distracted by false teachers who have "depraved minds and a counterfeit faith" which the apostle Paul spoke about in his letter to Timothy:

"They are the kind who work their way into people’s homes and win the confidence of vulnerable women who are burdened with the guilt of sin and controlled by various desires. (Such women are forever following new teachings, but they are never able to understand the truth.) These teachers oppose the truth just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses. They have depraved minds and a counterfeit faith. But they won’t get away with this for long. Someday everyone will recognize what fools they are, just as with Jannes and Jambres." 2 Timothy 3:6-9 NLT

In times like these, we can choose to let fear blind us to God's mercy or drive us to an eye-opening faith in God's amazing grace. It is a time to confess our spiritual blindness so that we can see what God is doing and what He wants us to do. It is a time to confess that we have been lovers of pleasure rather than God and for acting religious and rejecting the power that can make us godly:

"You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!" 2 Timothy 3:1-5 NLT

We are living in chaotic and challenging times. We are in the last days of a world order that is corrupted by the evils of greed, lust and pride manifested through money, sex and power. Our response to the pandemic reveals what is deep within our hearts. Is fear driving out common sense and leading us to react with panic or is faith leading us to see God at work? God is saving the world from the greed, lust and pride of men and awakening the spirit of compassion in those called to follow His Beloved Son.

In such times, Christians are tempted to speculate on the second coming of Christ. But it would be healthier for us and the world if we contemplate our own deaths which is so much more certain and to number their days to gain a heart of wisdom:

"Teach us to number each of our days so that we may grow in wisdom." Psalms 90:12 GW

We do not know when nor what will happen when the world comes to an end. But what is more important is how we are living our lives in the here and now. Our task, according to Albert Einstein, is to free ourselves from the prison of our egos:

"A human being is a part of the whole called by us the universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest  a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and affections for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle or understanding and compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."

We can see the social distancing measures as a golden opportunity for Christians to practice "monasticism." This is not following a set of strict rules to deny ourselves but the spiritual discipline of silence and solitude to surrender our lives to Jesus, our Shepherd of Love. It is a practice to experience being the beloved of God so that we can love others as we love ourselves. Social distancing will then become an act of love to reduce the risk of infecting others and not on just protecting ourselves from being infected. Solitude is a time for God to search our hearts and to reveal and remove the sin virus within so that we will not infect others with our anger, envy, greed and gluttony.

Jesus came to set us free so that we can live in God's loving embrace. Only then will we be able to live a life of love. To live is to love for love is the vital essence of life. We are born to be loved and to  love. God is love and we are created in His image. In the 1960s, the Beatles wrote the hit song, "All you need is love." It was a song that the protestors of the Vietnam sang and it was the motto of the hippie generation. But it is not the sentimental and fickle human love that we need - it is the agape love of God that we desperately need to know, understand and receive. It is also a desire that God has placed deep in our hearts which Gerald May has described so well:

"There is a desire within each of us, in the deep centre of ourselves that we call our heart. We were born with it, it is never completely satisfied, and it never dies. We are often unaware of it, but it is always awake. It is the human desire for love. Every person on this earth yearns to love, to be loved, to know love. Our true identity, our reason for being, is to be found in the desire."

May the Covid 19 virus drive us to the loving embrace of God's love. What we need most at this time is a love for one another and the spiritual vision to see heaven everyday in every person. Let us pray that we may be awakened to see that we are all God's beloved for God is our Abba, Heavenly Father:

"Open my eyes, that I may see
Glimpses of truth thou hast for me;
Place in my hands the wonderful key
That shall unclasp and set me free.
Silently now I wait for thee,
Ready, my God, thy will to see.
Open my eyes, illumine me, Spirit divine!"