In the jungles of South America in 1978 there was a massacre. Innocent people who longed to experience love and acceptance fell into the hands of a man who was misguided by power and passion. Not many escaped the wrath of evil that night. But a few who did live in guilt, while still struggling to understand all that happened and how they were spared from the brink of untimely death. They still wonder why did God spare them? What was God’s plan for them? Guilt, fear and anger still haunt them. Today that is the story of one of our own, Sheree Hodge. She was baptized by Rev. Jim Jones the cult leader who poisoned 908 in Guyana in 1978. She was spared from that tragedy and lives to share the story of grace even in the midst of the terrible tragedy that happened. God’s ways are unknown to man. God’s grace, however is available to all. Here is the witness for God’s grace and she lives and works, loves and cares for us amongst us. This is a day of celebration because we are all spared for one reason or another in the great plan of God, for a greater and deeper purpose.

Today’s Scripture reading from Mathew is a very powerful story we have heard many times over. This is a story whereby Jesus challenges the narrow identity carved out of national fundamentalism and theological and religious Puritanism. This is a story we all need to pay attention to.

In different words, Jesus shows light into the hidden corners of human understanding of Grace. Many times our definition of grace, by Christians of all kinds, fall short of the reality of how God makes choices. Religiosity is defined very differently in this parable.

There are two classes of people represented in today’s story. One class of people that takes pride in being clear about who they are in the eyes of God, of the society and of the world around them, and the other class of people who are, while serving the other, not clear about their standing with God, society and the world around them. For the first group, they are clear about their identity as chosen and set apart by God.

The second group of people in the story, the tax collectors and the prostitutes served a purpose in the Israeli society, but primarily for the benefit of the Romans than the Israelites.

The tax collectors were the instruments in the hands of the Romans to tone down the political pride of the chosen people. The tax collectors served as reminders to the chosen race, that their political identity is only as good as their pride.

Then there are the prostitutes. According to Mosaic law a child born of a Jewish mother was considered Jewish. Now there are Jewish women here, along with the pureblooded Jewish Pharisees and leadership, sleeping with the Roman soldiers and producing babies. Children born to them were of a mixed and therefore unacceptable people, namely the Roman soldiers. These women and their job challenged the sectarian purity of the Jewish people and questioned their capacity to remain pure.

Religious and sectarian purity was questioned. The chosen nature of the people of Israel is now to be shared with the Romans, and then the gentiles, and then list grew even further beyond the boundaries of Israel. There was every reason for them to be afraid of. Because the identity of God’s only people is now being shared by a lot more they didn’t want to share it with. Jesus tells them that God is capable of adding more people, even those that might break our narrow identities and convictions, to the chosen race.

They hated Jesus’ teaching. Because it questioned their preserved and guarded political, sectarian and religious identity. God became accessible to people they did not like. Grace became a common thing available even to those they cared about least, but took advantage of. Jesus teachings seem to confuse the understanding of God. God did not seem to take seriously the principles of human ethics.

Something tells me that If we put God to test on ethical standards of the world, God is likely to fail.

I like the story of the 100th birthday party where a man was interviewed by a reporter with the stupid question, “What one thing are you most proud of after having lived such a long life?”

The old man replied, “Well, here I am, 100 years old and I don’t have a single enemy in the world.”

The impressed reporter responded, “That is truly remarkable, sir. What made it possible for you to be able to say such a thing?”[1]

“Well,” said the 100 year old man, “I’ve outlived every one of them.”

Those whom I have outlived are not around me, but they share in the light of God. Act now is simply the principle of the story, because waiting to do the right thing in the future will only leave you by yourself in the world and those to whom you were to do right, will be in the company of God while you are left behind.

Words, words, words, I’m so sick of words 


I get words all day through 
First from him, now from you Is that all you blighters can do

Don’t talk of stars Burning above; If you’re in love,

Show me! Tell me no dreams

Filled with desire. If you’re on fire, Show me!

Here we are together in the middle of the night!

Don’t talk of spring! Just hold me tight!

Anyone who’s ever been in love’ll tell you that

This is no time for a chat! Haven’t your lips

Longed for my touch? Don’t say how much,

Show me! Show me!

Don’t talk of love lasting through time.

Make me no undying vow. Show me now!

Sing me no song! Read me no rhyme!

Don’t waste my time, Show me!

Don’t talk of June, Don’t talk of fall!

Don’t talk at all! Show me!

Never do I ever want to hear another word.

There isn’t one I haven’t heard.

Here we are together in what ought to be a dream;

Day one more word and I’ll scream!

Haven’t your arms Hungered for mine?

Please don’t “expl’ine,” Show me! Show me!

Don’t wait until wrinkles and lines

Pop out all over my brow, Show me now![2]

Let us not waste our time figuring out the rightness of what we do, but be present, caring and loving to those around us today before they all get to heaven and we are still left behind wondering what is wrong with God? Instead of knowing we didn’t act when we were called upon to act and live today.

Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. He said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” Therefore they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. The Egyptians became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites, and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in every kind of field labor. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them.

The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, “When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she shall live.” But the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live. So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and allowed the boys to live?” The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.” So God dealt well with the midwives; and the people multiplied and became very strong. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every boy that is born to the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every girl live.”

Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him three months. When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him, and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river. His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him. The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it. When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him, “This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,” she said. Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Yes.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed it. When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and she took him as her son. She named him Moses, “because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”

The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
——————————————————————–

America is a great Nation with a great heart. It has served as a destination point for all kinds of people from all kinds of places. During the colonial era most migrants came here from Northern European Countries. However the number declined in 1770s, and then again picked back up in 1840s. While those who came to this wonderful land of new life and opportunities worked hard and settled down here, their children and grandchildren became pillars of American Society. There are lots of German, Irish, English, Scottish people here among us and then the trend changed. Flow of people increased from 200,000 in 1830 to 515000 in 1850. And now, it still continues to grow, and the nations that they come from, including me is far more than the four or six countries of Europe.

Recent trend is similar. People flock to the shores of this land just like it happened in 1700s and 1800 and 1900. Each century brought a different group of people to a land of opportunity, may be for jobs, for security and sometimes not for the best of intentions. We became a land of opportunity and a land of prosperity. At every age we enjoyed and still continue to enjoy the benefit of their hard work.

Ours is a biblical story. This is the story of the people of Israel. This is what we heard in the first reading. Joseph reached the land of Egypt before his brothers and family got there. He established himself and found room for his family to be with him. Famine and poverty lead the people of Israel to the land of Egypt, the old country of power and wealth.

However Egyptians became lazy as they refused to do the everyday jobs of life and eventually lost the grace and wealth. The story of Egypt is continuing. The famine, the fear and the wrath of God that invaded the land of Egypt did not bring enough sense to them to understand the people of God.

There were people who flocked to its shores for security and life. Those who were supposed to give them life, the midwives, were instructed to kill them. But the good news is that they had more sense than the kings and rulers and politicians of the time. Shiphrah and Puah disobeyed the rulers to advance the cause of life and liberty. They listened to the voice of God, the voice of life within them. Civil disobedience became a Biblical gesture to advance life.

Why did Pharoh order them to kill the innocent? Because the people of Israel had grown in numbers. Egyptians pride was greater than common sense and hard work. Israelites worked hard in their farms, in their factories, and in their kitchens.

This was the plight of the people, who came here long ago and today. They worked in farms, factories and kitchens of those with more money and power. I am talking about our great grandparents and it will be the story of our great grandchildren who are and will be the pillars of this society. .

It is not hard to beef up nationalism and forget humanity when we do not know the history. It is easy to speak of justice when it is for ourselves and not for others. People become a threat when we forget we are the beneficiaries of their hard labor as our forefathers were.

Human plight continues even today. The story of the people of Israel continues in our midst today. We have the choice to become the Pharoah who is afraid. Or we have the choice to become the midwives, who refuse to kill human life and opportunities for others. Or we can become the daughter of the king, who chooses to give life to innocent people in the household of the king himself.

Let us not accept our dog’s admiration of us as conclusive evidence that we are wonderful. We are only wonderful because we stand for life and liberty. We become a nation of greatness because we “keep in mind that the true measure of an individual is how we treat a person who can do us absolutely no good”.

None of us need to be cows to know what milk is. None of us need to be powerless to know the pain of those who seek our kindness. We know it already, unlike the cows, from our own history and our own family heritage.

So my dear brothers and sisters, Who are the people of Israel in our midst today?

© Fr. Jos Tharakan ​​

We live in an anxious world because of the financial meltdown, and the national and global recession. Europeans are now worried about the Euro being devalued, and the financial institutions being in trouble. Germany and France, the two great proponents and supporters of the Euro, are now contemplating how to go forward in this time of crisis. Europeans in general are worried about their future and the great plan they started with: namely, eventually to become one great nation.

These immense concerns are not sufficiently simplistic to be dealt with by the stating of a few spiritual principles, and short admonitions by myself and other pastors in town. But surely we can take this whole scenario down a notch, (yes, I meant to say “down a notch”) to our own personal lives, and closer to our daily experiences.

There are two days in the week about which I never worry.( Well. If I am truthful, I have to say, I am trying not to worry about). They are the two carefree days we can keep sacredly free from fear and apprehension. One of these days is “yesterday”. Yesterday, with all its cares and worries, pains and aches, with all its failures and successes, has gone by. It is beyond my recall, and there are no parts of it I can change. Yes, I can learn from it for the next time, but I cannot change it. So, I might as well let it go. As hard as this may be, it is one thing you will waste 100% of your time worrying about. Yesterday has already joined the days of eternity, never more to return. It was mine then, and I had all the chances in the world to make 90% of it. But now it belongs to God.

The other day I do not worry about, at least I am trying not to worry about, is “tomorrow”. I can imagine all sorts of things I think I need to worry about for tomorrow. Sickness, pain, financial stability, children and….. you name it, and I will add them to this laundry list. I invite you to add a few more concerns, and we can worry about them together! But what good will that do? Not an iota will change because I am mulling over what might go wrong tomorrow. Tomorrow is the twin sister of yesterday. They have the same genes and the the same behavioral patterns. Tomorrow is not yet mine. As the Ten Commandments say, let us not covet what is not ours.

What is left for me, then, is just one day in the week:” Today”. If you are a believer in a God of eternity and a God without the limits of time, God only has “one day”, whether we call it a day, week, year, or millennium. That is today, and it is the only one we have to live. Make 90% of it. You cannot hold on to what you don’t have, whether it be yesterday or tomorrow. We have plenty of grace, resources, and strength to live the present day. Anyone among us can actually and truthfully live through today’s burdens.

Any man can fight the battles of today with God’s help. Any woman can carry the burdens of just one day, with God’s help. Anyone can resist the temptations of this day, with God’s help. It is only when we willfully add the burdens of the two awful eternities, ” Yesterday” and “Tomorrow” , such burdens as only the Mighty God can sustain, that we break down.

“It isn’t the experience of Today that drives people mad; it is the remorse of what happened Yesterday and the fear of what Tomorrow might bring. These are God’s Days … Leave them to God.” How true this is. Yesterday and tomorrow are “God Days”. Today is “Our Day”, with God’s help. Whatever is not ours needs to be given back to its rightful owner, God. Of course, God should know and does know what to do with them. If not, we have all the reason in the world to be worried about yesterday and tomorrow.

Living into today, without the burden of yesterday and tomorrow, is a gift to a person with faith, not just beliefs. To those who do not have faith in God, or the belief of what, how, and where God, heaven, and hell are, there is no reason to give their yesterdays and tomorrows to someone who does not exist. But you and I, if there is a God in whom we have put our trust, will be sustained through this time as well. Live 90% of this day fully and truthfully, and 10% will be filled by the grace which is none of our concern. If we do not, we might as well join the ranks of the Eurozone people, and worry about our unity, whether as families, communities, or nations.

In the Pledge of Allegience ,we say that we are one Nation, under God. We have, then, an obligation to make our country behave like one nation under God, by living into today. That includes letting go of the past, refraining from coveting what is not ours, making 90 percent of this day ours through the resources and strength available to us , and claiming the remaining 10% through Grace.

Be grateful to God for all the blessings in life.

Filed under: Reflections, Thoughts ]]> http://blessingstoday.wordpress.com/2011/08/19/covet-not-thy-past-or-future-2/feed/ 0 Rev. Jos Tharakan http://blessingstoday.wordpress.com/2011/08/17/restriction-or-liberation-what-is-faith/ http://blessingstoday.wordpress.com/2011/08/17/restriction-or-liberation-what-is-faith/#comments Wed, 17 Aug 2011 15:29:00 +0000 Fr. Jos Tharakan http://blessingstoday.wordpress.com/2011/08/17/restriction-or-liberation-what-is-faith ]]>

Be grateful to God for all the blessings in life.

Recently Jane and I traveled to the U of A campus with Cheri and Al Lacock for a remarkable afternoon of hearing and seeing the Dalai Lama in person. His Holiness is a truly gracious man, a humble Buddhist monk (his words) who has done much to promote peace and harmony among the religions of the world.

Jane and I experienced that harmony on Guam while we lived there from June of 2007 until January of 2009. We found sitting with Buddhists and Muslims to be moments filled with charity and gentleness. The rough and awkward moments came from some of our Christian sisters and brothers, but never from them.

Buddhism is not a religion; it is a way of being and is best understood from that point of view. It has a dignity and worth, and there are many Christians who have found benefit from its practices, particularly meditation, chanting and quiet.

At St. James’ we seem to have figured out how to embrace others who are not like us, living out the declaration of one of our former presiding bishops, Edmund Browning, who declared that in the Episcopal Church there are no outcasts. That is certainly the message the Dalai Lama proclaimed in his address. That does not preclude disagreement: it does prohibit the violence of exclusiveness in our behavior toward those who differ from us.

At the end of his address His Holiness spoke to me most when he said, “If there is a problem to which there is an obvious solution, then there is no need to be overwhelmed; if there is a problem to which there is no solution, then there is no point in being overwhelmed.” I thought of Jesus’ own teaching not to be anxious about earthly things. This is wisdom from a human being who has been exiled from his homeland much of his life, yet still finds hope for humanity and democratic principles.

Ben Helmer
May 12, 2011

Published with permission from the author.

- From the mobile desk of Fr. Jos Tharakan

Be grateful to God for all the blessings in life.

Most of us are hurt in our life one time or another. We have been a victim of someone’s anger, abuse or misbehavior. In my fifteen years of ministry I am yet to find a person who has not experienced hurt from someone close to them many times and sometimes even a few strangers. It is only natural from the theory of the survival of the fittest that one would want to take revenge, take action or respond to such experience.

Recently as I was reading Karen Armstrong, a great inspirational writer for the brave, I came across what that desire to revenge means. In the Twelve Steps to compassionate life, she speaks about “reptilian brain”, the one that is still present underneath the more developed brain. This reptilian brain is responsible for the fight or flight response in animals.

We all need a reptilian brain to face danger and our need to respond to dangerous situations quickly. It however is not attuned to living in human societies, meaning, the developed species of the world or for the life of faith. Jesus calls humanity to outpace our reptilian brain with a call to the highest and best within us, to raise our sights upon Him and create a compassion, kind and caring world around us. True societies are based on self-giving respecting all of God’s children no matter who that person is, even our enemies.

Jesus is challenging humanity to grow beyond the tribal mentality. C.S. Lewis says, “Surely what a man does when he is taken off his guard is the best evidence for what sort of man he is. If there are rats in a cellar, you are most likely to see them if you go in very suddenly. But the suddenness does not create the rats; it only prevents them from hiding. In the same way, the suddenness of the provocation does not make me ill-tempered; it only shows me what an ill-tempered man I am”.

Jesus is right when He invites His disciples to be like His Father who is perfect. May be we are all called to strive towards perfection so that we might one day become perfect in the eyes of God rather than that of man. It is when we respect the other, we will restrain from being bad to one another. Religion is meant to make us do the right thing in life. What is the right thing in life: It is to love, to serve, to think and to be humble, says Ralph Waldo Emerson.

According to a Chinese proverb, “He who seeks vengeance must dig two graves: one for his enemy and one for himself”.

All of Jesus’ teaching is inviting mankind to become part of a civilized society of God. Respect, honor and care of one another will lead us to respect the other just like God respects mankind. The only way we become perfect in the eyes of God is when we respect ourselves as the God’s own temple and when we do the same to the other regardless of the sin we attribute to them. When our reptilian brains become civilized we will have found our true heritage. We all may be surprised at the light that appears suddenly in front of us. But I can assure you that we will not be made rats because of the suddenness of life, but what we are inside is revealed in the light that happens suddenly. We Christians need to tame ourselves to be interrupted by the suddenness of God’s light, so that what appears from within us is not rat like behavior, but God like manner of life.

Religion is to teach us to do the right thing in life: It is to love, to serve, to think and to be humble. But above all love one another and respect the dignity of all human beings. Even when our survival instincts challenge us we are to act as Christ did, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do”.

When all these wind and storm were happening on the previous night, I read a few facebook comments written by some of my friends. “I can deal with power outage. But if my wireless internet goes down or my Wii stops working, we have a problem. They don’t know who they are dealing with”. “If my facebook is down, I am going into depression and lonliness”.

Our modern life is so dependent on electricity and internet we hardly know how to live without it. To us a few minutes away from the web of the world that is right at our finger tips seem to take a lot out of us. We have all kinds of information available on on our fingertips from sources like Wikipedia and many times even if they are right or wrong, makes sense to us. As you know anyone can edit Wikipedia and the information you get there could be as good as you get from someone on the street who has a great imagination.

Now to draw our faith from these sources powered by electricity and downed by a surge, hacked by the unscrupulous and intercepted by malwares are not therefore the ideal way of growing in divine wisdom. Divine wisdom needs no power, www, or facebook. It is far superior powered by grace that depends on nothing that are fallible.

Faith happens within a community of believers and among a people who are willing to walk the journey with one another. Faith is not a set of statements such as I believe in God, I believe in Jesus and such, but a way of seeing the endless relationship we are in with one another and God. While events of history and statements of Councils might help us to clarify some of the notions of the historical faith as in Christianity, true faith emerges only when we it begins to take shape in the company of one another.

Behind the faceless facebook all emotions such as fear, anxiety, anger, disappointments, hopes, dreams and everything else can live fiercely. But they are still in the clouds until it becomes real in the face of a living being in front of you and then healing, true love, freedom and such sublime experiences become real.

This is what happened on the day of Easter. Jesus could have been risen and gone to the heavens, in the clouds or to the web. It would matter nothing to the disciples. But then He chose to stand in front of Mary and say, “Who are you looking for”? And then He stood in the room with the Apostles asking, “What are you afraid of?”. He walked along with two of them to Emmaus wondering, “Who are you talking about?”. Then he chose to break bread with them, an act that is tangible, relational and at the same time vital. Everyone of them is personal and present. That is Easter.

Resurrection becomes alive only to those who have the courage to come out of their hiding places on the web, from the Second Life cathedrals and make believe blissful land in the clouds. Resurrection is for those who have the courage to die to those that imprison them some way or another from being with someone who cares about them.

Jesus could not stand being in the cave too long. He had to come out to meet those whom he cared about. That is when the Resurrection happened. Not when he went to heaven. It is when he chose to appear to those whom he loved, his friends in the room both men and women, in a form and a fashion that made sense to the scared them, that is being in human form.

On this Easter Sunday, I invite you to do the same. Do not be tangled up in the web of the world in your computer. Do not get infected by the malwares of the clouds that addicts you. Let not the outage of power of the world scare you. Allow the wind of grace to blow on you that you can float into the tangible company of someone. Someone is looking for you, someone is waiting to eat with you, and someone wants to break bread with you. These are what we call resurrection. It is then our eyes open and we recognize Jesus among us. Easter is here, because you break bread with God. Easter is not here when Jesus is here but when you are with Jesus.

Wish you a Happy and Blessed Easter.

Be grateful to God for all the blessings in life.

Jesus & the Ten Lepers from Will Heyward on Vimeo.
The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

———————————-
In the ancient times lepers were considered people who were cursed by God and had no access to their families and friends. They were exiled to remote places away from those whom they loved.

Why should we talk about ancient times? We have people who are banished to places and situations away from healthy ones today among us. Being exiled from the company of those whom we love hurts.

I remember the days when I was in a village of lepers who were abandoned by their parents or their children or grandparents, cared for by the sisters of Mother Theresa and Capuchin Monks. They lived in their own self-contained cities waiting for the mercy of the other and visit by their dear ones.

I saw firsthand the tangibility of rejection. I saw firsthand why we are all important and real to God. I experienced God as the most available reality on earth. No human can under any circumstance reject the other whom God created. Because God is available to us all in the no man’s land between Samaria and Galilee.

Here is what the scripture says, “when Jesus was in the region between Samaria and Galilee, lepers approached him.”

Several years ago I had heard about the great approachability of my Bishop in India. Everyone spoke so greatly of him, I decided to test it. I visited him one day in the Bishop’s house without an appointment. I rang the door bell and the porter came and asked me why was I there? I said, I am here to visit the bishop. He asked, if I had an appointment and I said no. He asked me to sit down and informed the Bishop who was in his room writing some letters. The brother who answered my bell, returned and asked me to wait for him outside. However as soon as he left, I knocked on his door to be surprised by the voice from inside saying, “come on in”. With a broad smile he welcomed me and we talked for about 25 minutes!

I think of this incident very often to reflect how miraculous it is to allow people to walk into your life. How transformative it is to be real and present. How beautiful it is when we are as simple and real as the other is. How down to earth we can be with the other that will make the incarnation real. Jesus is to be born again and again among us and within us everyday and here it is in the story of the ten lepers.

Here I have no big theology. But a simple invitation to reflect upon two things.

1. No matter how and why we are exiled from God, we are still blessed with enough grace to come out of our hiding places to find God. We have to make the move. All people have the ability and power left in them to approach God from their worst moments of life. God will meet them in the region between Samaria and Galilee.

2. Today’s story of the lepers is not simply a story of gratitude, but it is the story of God’s availability to the grateful and ungrateful, to the powerful and powerless, to the lost and found. Jesus sends a message to the busy to stop and listen to the story of the redeemed no matter who you are: The priest, the Deacon, The CEO, The President. Stop and Listen to the story of the redeemed.

Allow the other to approach you.

• Your Holiness is in your availability to the other.
• Healing happens when we can come out of our hiding places.

Be grateful to God for all the blessings in life.

Yes, we are at the grandma’s house now. We are in the house of the Lord who knows how to prepare the best food in the world. On this Rally day all of our goblins, elfs and angels are back from summer rest. I pray our parents are eager to get them to church on time and get them to be found.

I have a question for you all parents. Suppose you lost one of your children in the wilderness and you are left with three others and no one else to care for the three, would you go about looking for the one who is lost out there? Be truthful. Would you? if not why not?

This is the strange paradox of Christian life. Often, it’s more about being lost than found. It’s more about feeling incomplete than whole. It’s more about feeling excluded than included, because many of us live in those places most of the time. (Edward Beck, The Joy of Being Lost and Found)

We feel excluded many times for some reason and not included. That is why God prepares the meal day after day, to convince us over and over, it is alright to come to the table. God knows how to cook a good meal and is fully aware of who we are. When Christ invites us to dine with him, there is no need for security prayers, but trust that Jesus has done it right when he invited all of humanity to dine with him. No one is lost in the crack or wilderness of human making when it comes to the table of God.

According to some God goes into the extreme behavior which is ‘foolhardiness’ they say. It is not something a person with the best sense would do in the human world, they argue. May be That is why we are not Gods. Because God takes risks in love and relationship. Here is ‘foolhardy’ action of God going out of normal scared human behavior to bring home a point that when God invites humanity to share life with God, he will go to the extremes risking the rest. There is nothing foolhardy about acting in deep love for the other. We are taught over and over love has boundaries. We have gotten used to the idea love is with boundaries. We fail to believe love surpasses all boundaries.

This very act of God is what I call The Divine Repentance. In the book of Exodus we read today that God repented. What is this repentance all about? It is not the mourning and groaning over what filthy creatures we are, but rejoicing-ly coming out of our hiding places. It allowing the other to find us in places where we are.

Most of us are lost most of the time. Then there are lot of us who pretend that they not lost at all. They seem to have found God and all of God’s glory and grace. Good for them. But for me, am still muddling through my moments of anxiety, fear, loss, anger and exclusion and needs someone to help me come out into the light and be found.

To those who are listening I like to say, we are all lost one way or another. But we are still within the reach of God as God has no qualms about taking risk when it comes to love. But for ourselves we need to figure out what is the kind of loss we are in. What is the kind of risk are we willing to take.

There are four ways a person can get lost according to the Bible. One is lost like a coin, lost for no choice of its own. It is somewhere under the table waiting to be found. Then there is the sheep that is lost wandering without having the sense to know better. Then there are some of us who have wandered away knowingly, choosing to do things otherwise, experimenting and exploring. It took real life to figure out there is more to life than just being on our own in our own devices. Then there is a brother who chooses self-righteousness and hatred on his path to being lost.

Which is the story you are playing out in your life now? Are you lost for no fault of yours? If yes, then it is time to grow up and seek ways to be found. Are you lost because you don’t know better? Then it is time to learn. Are you lost because you have chosen to? Then only you can choose to return. But if you are lost because of self-righteousness and hatred, then you need lot more grace than we can help you with. God needs to come to your rescue. Try now.

Repentance is our willingness to be found by God. Repentance is not necessarily beating our chest every morning and crying out in fear for the mercy of God. Found by God when we were crawling deeper into the hole.

God allowed mankind to find him. God allowed mankind to change his heart, to see the soft side in God that could be influenced by a weakling mankind. God let man reform divine behavior.

Today’s call is about us allowing someone or something greater than us to reform our behavior. It is keeping the fear out of the way to allow grace to flow. IT allowing God to change our behavior in today’s world. That is repentance.

Brit Nicole has a beautiful song

Hello my friend
I remember when you were
So alive with your wide eyes
Then the light that you had in your heart was stolen
Now you say that it ain’t worth stayin’
You wanna run but you’re hesitatin’
I’m talkin’ to me

Don’t let your lights go down
Don’t let your fire burn out
’cause somewhere, somebody needs a reason to believe
Why don’t you rise up now?
Don’t be afraid to stand out
That’s how the lost get found
The lost get found

So when you get the chance
Are you gonna take it?
There’s a really big world at your fingertips
And you know you have the chance to change it
There’s a girl on the streets, she’s cryin’
There’s a man whose faith is dyin’
Love is calling you

When love calls, it is time to return. For Love has risked everything to get you back into the house of plenty. The table is set. You are already found. Why not and enjoy the table set before you?

Be grateful to God for all the blessings in life.