Advent and Post Election Opportunity For Deep Listening

Advent is beckoning us to prepare ourselves for the coming of Christ.  It is both a reenactment of the historical incarnation of Christ as well as a time of spiritual preparation for the birthing of Christ consciousness and the promised-but-not-yet-scheduled second coming of Christ.  It is a penitential season like Lent.  Though Advent is shorter, the timing of it in our secular calendar, characterized by intense activity and materialism, makes it harder for us to observe the disciplines of penitence such as fasting, prayer, waiting and meditation. It takes greater intention on our part to fully appropriate and appreciate the gift of this season.

This year as we observe Advent and celebrate Christmas, our country is undergoing a severe post-election trauma and associated anxiety over the uncertainty as to how the new administration will carry out its manifesto, communicated over and over during the campaign. Minority communities and people of color feel vulnerable as they are called usurpers because of who and what they are.  Rather than seeing them as contributing to our society, making our union strong and adding color and texture to the rich tapestry of our society, they are made to think of themselves as a drain to our country.  They feel that this election invalidated their existence and repudiated their claims.  This election has sanctioned a wide swath of our population, the so-called ‘other’, made up of various minority communities, as targets for hate and scapegoating.  Yet, this Advent we are recalling God’s incarnation among us as an ‘other’, a vulnerable baby born out of wedlock of a peasant young girl living in Palestine, an occupied territory of the Roman Empire.

One of the post-election results is the call for deeper listening and engagement within and between our communities as we deal with our emotions and passions. On Friday following the election at The Theology on Tap Meet Up I lead, I had an opportunity to meet with a group of people, the majority of whom voted differently. We listened to each other deeply and we understood why we voted the way we did. We need to hear each other out. Elections tend to categorize people in binary terms, as black or white ignoring the gray area or continuum between the opposites.  Life is more nuanced. I hope this Advent, perhaps we can sit down and engage with each other and share with each other our hopes and dreams and what makes us tick.

I look forward to this season of Advent and its call for our preparation, our waiting on God.  I trust all of us will avail the opportunity to attend the Advent worship services and fully fathom the depth of what this season offers us and thus make our celebration of Christmas truly a transformative experience.  May this Advent help us hear God speaking to us in our worship, in our listening to each other and the nature around us.

Have a blessed Advent!

Reflecting on the trip to India and looking ahead on November, End of October, 2016

It is great to be back at St. Peter’s with you all.  While vacation was good, and it offered us some quality time with my aging mom, our siblings and other relatives, the pace was rather hectic.  Going home to India used to be a relaxing experience as soon as you hit the ground. Now it takes a while to get used to the frenetic pace of life there to be able to relax and reflect.  One evening I went out for a walk to say hello to folks in my old neighborhood to find it has completely changed.  New buildings, strip malls and houses have replaced the old ones. The two-lane narrow road, which I used to walk to school, is now swallowed up by a new 72 foot-wide highway, completely changing the landscape of my idyllic village. My old friends are not there anymore, some have moved away and some have died. I didn’t meet a single person I knew during my walk.  It felt like I was a stranger in my own place. Suffice to say, I didn’t complete my usual round. So it is good to be back home.

Vacation also gave me a brief respite from the nastiness of this year’s presidential election.  It is hard to fathom the deep divide among the electorate. However, I hope that the nastiness of the election process won’t deter us from exercising our sacred duty to vote.  As a church I hope we can engage our people listening to each other rather than shouting at each other. Many issues we care about as a church are at stake in this election. Regardless of where we stand on issues, I hope we will find a way to bridge our differences and work together as one people again.

November is the month when we as a nation celebrate the Day of Thanksgiving. While I am happy that we set apart a day for thanksgiving, let us not forget that for us, as Christians, every day is a day of thanksgiving.  We are thankful to God for our very existence. Among the many blessings, we also thank God for our church and its many ministries and missions.  Stewardship Committee has designated November 13^th as the ingathering Sunday, the day we, as a church, gather all the first fruits of our labor in pledges for the work and mission of our church.  When we make these pledges of time, talent and treasure to the church, we are acknowledging that all that we are and all that we have is a gift from God.  Our pledges are our personal statements of faith.  Pledging is different from fundraising. Pledging is giving to church in grateful response to the gospel.

November is also the month when the new church year begins with the first advent that sets off the holiday season.  There is something reassuring about the cyclical nature of our calendar. While time is linear it is also cyclical; for every ending there is new beginning.

Let us be assured of God’s loving and unchanging presence in our lives even as we go through periods of unsettling changes and divisions in our day-to-day world.

In the Elections Wake, November 9, 2016

It is inevitable that after an election there will be winners and losers.  While winners feel elated and affirmed, the losers feel depressed and dejected. It is natural. However, as this year’s presidential election was excessively long and unnecessarily negative, its wake leaves a distasteful experience for many. While our people were engaged in debating the issues and in exchanging our opinions, we were civil and respectful of each other. Still the losing side feels that somehow their deeply held convictions were not valued or affirmed. They ask themselves the question as to where have they gone wrong and how did they miss-read the deep angst among so many people who have voted differently from them.  Well, I suppose that this is the consequence of the deep division or chasm that exists between the sides in our country. Rather than wallowing in our misery or gloating over in our victory, let us work together in healing our wounds, building bridges rather walls, and once again beginning to feel the goodness of that one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all, to which we pledge our allegiance. Let’s heed to a verse from the gospel for this Sunday, “But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls.”

Summer Mission and Study on Climate Change

Once again a group of us from St. Peter's, Phoenixville is here in El Salvador.  Every summer for the last 9 years we have been coming here. For some of us coming to El Salvador has become a pilgrimage.  This year we are participating in a course called 'Liberation Science' offered by the Global School of Engagement, a program of Cristosal Foundation.  Along with our group (Gary, Cindy, Karen, Sarah, Stephanie and myself) there is a group of seminarians from California and a student from Edinborough, Scotland, and six Salvadorans are enrolled in this program. Our faculty for the course includes Prof. Rafael de Sivatte Alguero from the University of Central America, Dr. Steven Emerman from University of Utah, and Prof. Ricardo Navarro of El Salvador.

Why is there a course called, 'liberation science' and why do we study this in El Salvador? The name of the course appears to assume that the field of science is under some kind of restraint. Is it so? Well, when the knowledge gained by the pursuit of science is used or exploited or cherry picked to advance ideological views of the dominant group, and when the knowledge gained are inconvenient and do not help advance their cause are often sidelined, ignored, mocked or even silenced, in a sense science is restrained. For science to serve humanity it needs to be left alone and allow them to guide us making right decisions for the whole.  According to a majority of scientists in the world today, climate change and global warming are intensely becoming an existential threat to our globe and our species.  They call for a drastic reduction in our use of coal for the production of energy.  As this goes against the economic interests of powerful groups, climate change science and discussion are severely curtailed today.  The effect of climate change and global warming are disproportionally affecting poorer people and poorer countries like El Salvador.  We find studying the the science of climate change and global warming in the context of El Salvador and its people extremely beneficial.


  

A Gift Not Acknowledged

It is normal that we expect an acknowledgement when we give a gift to someone.  And when you don't receive the acknowledgement, you begin to worry.  You worry whether the person received your gift in the first place. Then you worry whether the gift was appropriate, too small, too big or even offensive.  And of course, you don't want to ask the person whether s/he got the gift you gave, because it might cause the person to think that s/he was ungrateful to you for what you did.  Then it gets complicated. So what do you do, is there a diplomatic way you can find out whether in fact your gift was well received in a way that it wouldn't the make person feel not bad for not thanking you or acknowledging you?
This is something that happened to me this Christmas. It made wonder as to how many times I may not have acknowledged people's gifts to me. How about God's gifts which I receive everyday, every hour, minute, or every second.  The very breath that keeps me alive is a gift from God. How about Susan and my children and grand child, and my extended family?  They are all a gift to me. Do I give thanks to God for all these gifts?
As I begin this new year and as I am about to celebrate the 10th anniversary of my ministry at St. Peter's, I acknowledge that there are so many people I am indebted to for their gifts to me and there is so much that I am thankful to God for.  My prayer for this New Year is that I find myself always grateful to God and to people through whom God blesses me.       

Happy New Year

Yesterday I received on Whatsapp a short message comparing our life to a train journey with its stations, changes of routes and accidents. I found this meaningful as we begin another year. Many passengers we knew as family and friends got off the train and left us this past year, and many new ones got on as fellow passengers on this journey. Many leave a permanent mark or vacuum in our lives, and many when they leave, we hardly notice. This journey is full of joys, sorrows, fantasies, expectations, hellos and goodbyes, and how we treat our fellow passengers and make them comfortable is what is good and remarkable. A mystery on this journey is that we do not know when we ourselves are going to get off, meaning we cannot wait till tomorrow to be good to others. Tomorrows are not guaranteed. Yesterdays are gone.  All we have is today, now, the present. 

Alfred Nobel, the Swedish chemist and inventor of TNT, read his own obituary in the local newspaper which mistook him for his brother who had died, “Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, who died yesterday, devised a way for more people to be killed in a war than ever before. He died a very rich man.” It had a profound impact on him, and as he did not want to be known as someone who profited from his invention of efficiently killing more people in war. He gave the profits from his invention to initiate the awarding of prizes to people and organizations for fostering peace in the world. He had a chance to correct himself from the mistakes of his past. As many of us won't get a chance to see our own obituaries in black and white, perhaps we can visualize or fantasize how we would like to be known and remembered. Now is the time to make the necessary changes in the way we live, move and have our beings today.

This January marks the 10^th anniversary of our labor together in God’s ministry at St. Peter’s.  It has been a great privilege for me to serve as your rector and co-worker. As I look back over the last years of our ministry, I can say without a doubt that we have been experiencing the presence of Jesus in our walk like the disciples did on their way to Emmaus. In many ways I am an outlier and stranger, yet you took me in as your spiritual leader. Many of you have invited me into your family and confided what is going on in your intimate and spiritual lives, and taken me in as part of your family.  I thank God for each one of you and for St. Peter’s, the center of our corporate life.  I admire your vision for the future, your courage to step out of your comfort zone, and your willingness and faith to go where you would rather not go and do things you would rather not do. As we reflect on and thank God for our past years together, let us think about how as a church we have brought joy, happiness and meaning to both members of our church as well as the people we serve in our community. Let us as a worshipping community continue to be relevant in addressing the peace and justice issues that matter to our larger community and the world.

Happy New Year! Pray that in this New Year we find ourselves partnering with God in realizing God’s hopes and dreams for each one of us and for our church.