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FOCUS July 2018 Vol. 6 No: 3

More Than Flesh and Blood, David Brand,

London – Page 11

Cover Photo: Dante Gabriel Rossetti -

The Sermon on the Mount, Circa 1861 (Source Internet)
A Publication of Diaspora FOCUS

Tolstoy’s Tryst with the Sermon on the

Mount, Revd. Dr. Valson Thampu, Trivandrum – Page 14

Editorial, Encountering the Sermon on the

Mount, Rev. Dr. Valson Thampu, Trivandrum - Page 3

Prescriptions for Perfection, Dr. Zac

Varghese, London – Page 18

The Concept of Power in Matt 5:38-42

A Postcolonial Reading, Rev. Dr. Mothy Varkey – Page 5

The Zonal Inauguration of the Mar Thoma

Church in the UK and Europe – Page 27
The Sermon on the Mount: The New Social
Order Envisaged, Rev. Dr. Abraham Philip, Kottayam – Page 7

The Poor and Poverty in the Sermon on the

Mar Athanasius Suffragan Metropolitan – End of a Legacy
Plain, Revd Dr. M. J. Joseph, Kottayam – Page 9
Photo Courtesy - Rev. Suneeth Mathew, Chicago - Page 29

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EDITORIAL
ENCOUNTERING THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT
Let us begin by reckoning an anomaly. “Sermon” is, these days,
almost a bad word, nearly a word of abuse. When someone
feels that he has had enough of you, you are sure to be told,
“Please don’t preach at me!” I have, in my capacity as the
principal of St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, over nine years,
interviewed thousands of young Christian aspirants for
admission –male and female. Whenever I brought ‘the sermon
preached in the previous Sunday service’ into discussion, the
commonest answer was, “Sir, I don’t remember a word of it. I
switch off the moment the preacher gets into the pulpit”.
Yet, the Sermon on the Mount remains un-bedimmed by the
verdigris of time. It shines brilliantly even in the overcast sky of
Post-Christian, Post-Modern indifference to the Bible. It
continues to challenge human understanding. All the same, it
has come to be, for all practical purposes, a celestial orb of
spiritual light, impressive at a distance, but intimidating in
proximity. I have conducted, for example, innumerable
orientation programmes for Christian heads of institutions,
drawing my insights and inspiration largely from the Sermon.
The staple response of our otherwise pietistic administrators
has been, “Well, well. It sounds great in theory; but it won’t work
on the ground.” And I would ask them, “Have you given it a
try?” They would say, “No, there is no need to. We KNOW they
would be disastrous, if brought into administration. May be,
centuries ago it would have been safer and even practical. But
today, it is unthinkable to even attempt.” ‘This went on for quite
some time: from 1984 to 2007, to be precise. During this while, I
had no experience of administering educational institutions.
In 2007, an opportunity presented itself. I was invited, while I
was serving as a Member of the National Commission for
Minority Educational Institutions, (Govt. of India), to assume
charge of St. Stephen’s College, Delhi as principal. I decide to
launch into a Good News experiment.
Admittedly it is not in the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus says,
“I have come to preach the good news to the poor…” But this,
with which the Nazareth Manifesto (Lk.4:18) begins, is the
shaping essence of the Sermon. So, I asked myself, “Is it
feasible to preach the good news to the poor in the domain of
higher education?”
If you know St. Stephen’s, and how it had been taken over, for
decades, by the economic and social elite, shooing the
Christian community out of it almost completely and know,
further, how each seat out of the 400 is graspingly coveted and
furiously contested, you would have some idea of the explosive
implications of such an experiment. Predictably, I got into huge
trouble. And became the object of intense hate from all quarters
that mattered. But, God worked his miracle. The institution
experienced an intellectual revival as never before. It began to
top the list of 42000 colleges in the national survey. The myth
that the infusion of economically poor candidates from lower
middle class down would destroy the merit of the college was
debunked convincingly. It is now well recognized in informed
educational circles that the presumed incompatibility between
excellence in higher education and social justice is a mere
prejudice. God caused his truth to prevail. And India now
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grudgingly recognizes this to be a revolution at least in thinking
on education.
In retrospect, I feel that my tenure as the principal of St.
Stephen’s was an echo of the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount
in the corridor of education. What sustained me through my
tumultuous tenure was the assurance of Jesus, “Blessed are
you when men revile you, persecute you and say all manner of
evil falsely against you for my sake…” Hand on heart, I can
vouchsafe for the reality and power of this “blessedness”.
I cite this instance only to bear witness that every word in the
Sermon on the Mount, including those that sound too idealistic,
is practical, provided we are willing to place ourselves under the
yoke of Christ and are ready to suffer, if need be, for the sake of
incarnating these teachings.
That brings us to what, it seems to me, is the most crucial issue
in our faith life. For far too long we have been taught and trained
perhaps from Sunday school onwards- to think of ‘accepting
the Lord Jesus Christ’ as an unfailing insurance not only against
all inconveniences but also for an easy and comfortable
passage through life. Jesus has asked me to put all my burdens
on him; so, I can have a pleasure trip through life. So much so, I
begin to feel uneasy about anything that gets me into the
slightest difficulty. This attitude is quite widespread in our
community.
Here, again, my experiences! When I began to get into trouble,
and I was being daily degraded by the all-powerful Indian media
through malicious false propaganda, my fellow Christians began
to feel very uneasy about associating with me. I noticed this
especially among priests; including those who had known me
for years. A gulf of alienation opened up. The logic is simple.
Can there be smoke without fire? So, if this “child of
controversy” –as I was nicknamed by the media in those days-
is in perennial trouble, there must be something wrong with him.
Even though the comparison is blasphemous, I’d still make bold
to suggest that this was, perhaps, what happened to Jesus
Christ and why he was shunned by most people when he got
into trouble with the Judaic establishment. He, who came to
abide in us that we may abide in him, was all, all alone in the last
agonizing hours of his life. That, in itself, highlights, a serious
issue in our idea and practice of religion.
Let me say only this for the time being, within the narrow ambit
of an editorial: the Sermon on the Mount is not for the chicken-
hearted. Nor is it, at the same time, for the reckless. It is
certainly not for the lazy and those who are extra-smart to seek
only what is good for themselves. The undying spiritual insights
anthologized in the Sermon are for those who dare to be of
elect. It is meant for those who are open to the prospect of
walking the Way; and not for those who want to juggle with its
words or sniffle academically over its scope.
I am sure that the enlightened readers of the FOCUS are aware
of the incredible influence that the Sermon has had on thinkers,
creative geniuses and statesmen, apart from billions of ordinary
men and women who walk their pilgrim path sheltered from
public glare. It suffices, for our present purpose, perhaps, to cite
just one example. Jesus’ teaching that we should cut off the
hand that causes to stumble, rather than compromise with
temptations, is at the root of Tolstoy’s griping story, Father
Sergius. Raja Ram Mohan Roy (1772-1833), the Hindu reformer,
used to print and distribute the Sermon on the Mount to his
followers, recognizing it as the foremost ethical text of all times.
Gandhi used to have the Beatitudes read at his multi-religious
prayer meetings, especially in Sabarmati Ashram. I wonder if the
world would have had a Victor Hugo or a Shakespeare, a
Dostoevsky or a Lincoln, without the Sermon.
But let me take note of this one very important thing. Exactly a
third of the Sermon is about religious practices –alms-giving,
praying, fasting. Especially, about the danger of distorting and
misusing religion! Read the sixth chapter of the Gospel
According to St. Matthew. It is all the way to the end about
hypocrisy. Hypocrisy, by the way, is a word of Greek origin. It
means play-acting. A hypocrite is an actor. Costumes are so
very important for actors, isn’t it? What is a character without
his or her costume? If you have to act the role of, say, Narendra
Modi clad in a million rupee suit, and you are clad like John the
Baptist, you will be sent to a lunatic asylum!
All acting is meant for popular consumption. Truth is irrelevant
to its purpose. Whatever is done, or presented to the public
view, must please, satisfy and entertain; that’s all. The stage is a
sphere of spectacles; not of bearing witness to truth. Victor
Hugo takes this up and creates a master-piece tilted, The Man
Who Laughs. I’d commend this gripping political satire to all
FOCUS readers. Gwynplaine, a Peer, gets ridiculed and rejected
for telling the truth, concerning the life of the people, in the
House of Lords. It was simply not a place for raw truth, the
unvarnished tale, to be told. Hugo makes it amply clear that
ceremony –all-important in sustaining illusions and walling out
lived realities- alone matters. No truth that jars on ceremonial
propriety and authorised presumptions shall be tolerated.
Time and again Hugo draws, and sustains, a parallel between
this political theatre and the religious domain. What is common
to both is the excessive, indeed exclusive, reliance of
ceremonies and rituals. Its consequence is the exclusion of
reality and the legitimization of derisive intolerance towards
truth.
If only we stop a moment and think! Are not all our
denominational hiccups and conflicts on account of the
deification of ceremonies and rituals and the corresponding
disobedience to the Lord? We call them “sacraments”; but what
is a sacrament and what are sacraments appointed for? To
fragment the Body of Christ, or to help transcend sectarian
pettiness and to grow towards life in all its fullness?
It is my absolute conviction that if and when we heed the
teachings of Jesus in the 6 chapter of Matthew’s Gospel and
th
truly reform ourselves accordingly, it would heal Christendom of
its fissures and fragmentations. We would begin to look like the
Body of Jesus Christ! Is that too scary a prospect? For whom?
And why? When shall we dare to begin to take our faltering
steps in that direction?
In the end, the purpose of an adventure like this –that of
spotlighting the Sermon on the Mount- is not to say the last
word on it. It is only to remind the faith community globally that
there is such a thing after all! This is not to be cynical. A major
problem in faith life is forgetfulness. Jesus knew this only too
well. Why else, do you think, would he institute the Sacrament
of Remembrance: “Do this in remembrance of me”. That is as
good as saying, do this in order to remember me, besides
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saying, “in all that you do, remember me”. Memory is the
bedrock of life. It cannot be selective. Remembering Jesus on
Sundays alone is an insult. It is the dead that we remember, in
most instances, on anniversary days alone. Either we remember
Jesus in the warp and woof of life; or not at all. On Sundays we
don’t, truth to tell, ‘remember’ Jesus; we are formally reminded.
We need to be so reminded only because we won’t, otherwise,
remember.
The reason why we are diffident about the impracticality of the
spiritual exhortations in the Sermon is that we do not try to put
them into practice. The more we consign the ideals and insights
in the Sermon to the realm of hypothetical piety and build a wall
of exclusion against them in our lived life, the deeper grows our
cynicism about the Sermon. This has the quaint effect of
wanting to hear more and more “inspiring” and energetic
sermons on the Sermon. We even invoke the Spirit to set our
hearts afire! (Thee kathikka, yennil thee kathikka, swargeeya
aathmave thee kathikka…) But the only fire, spiritually valid, is
zealous ‘obedience’, which is the note on which the Sermon
ends. He who hears these words of mine, Jesus says, and does
them….
The Sermon is no ordinary sermon because it is preached by
the Word become flesh (Jn. 1:14). That being the case, it can be
understood only according to this irreducible spiritual principle.
The Sermon must become flesh and blood through us. That
happens only when we die through the Sermon and are born
again as the New Creation. Sadly, these are godly words, which
have, in our mouths, become mere jargons employed often in a
mechanical sort of way.
The familiar illustration of this spiritual malady is Nicodemus. He
could come only at night! The comfort of ‘night’ is that it
excludes ‘doing’. Night curtains inaction. It sets us free, if you
like, from the need to act. We can rest over, and regurgitate, the
words we have heard. But the very sweetness of the words
regurgitated makes us, somehow, more and more fearful of
what the morning might demand.
That was why Jesus called the Pharisees, “You hypocrites!”
Rev. Dr. Valson Thampu, Trivandrum
Member, FOCUS Editorial Board
http://www.issuu.com/diasporafocus
http://www.scribd.com/diasporafocus
Disclaimer: Diaspora FOCUS is a non-profit organization
registered in United States, originally formed in late Nineties
in London for the Diaspora Marthomites. Now it is an
independent lay-movement of the Diaspora laity of the Syrian
Christians; and as such Focus is not an official publication of
any denominations. It is an ecumenical journal to focus
attention more sharply on issues to help churches and other
faith communities to examine their own commitment to
loving their neighbors and God, justice, and peace. Opinions
expressed in any article or statements are of the individuals
and are not to be deemed as an endorsement of the view
expressed therein by Diaspora FOCUS. Thanks.
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The Concept of Power in Matt 5:38-42
A Postcolonial Reading
Rev. Dr. Mothy Varkey
Introduction: consciousness. The physical movements or the counter
discursive practices in Matthew 5:39-42 are the language of the
Salman Rushdie, in his novel, Shalimar the Clown, realistically revitalized physicality. These practices can reconstruct the ‘lost
captures the reality of our world: “Our lives, our stories flowed body’ of the colonized from the displaced/disembodied subject
into one another’s, were no longer our own”. As a colonial text, inflicted by the colonizer’s pornographic gaze. For the reason
Bible, has been used to legitimize the continuous subjugation that, discursive practices form the objects; they do not exist
and silencing of the ‘visited’. It essentialized the life-affirming outside of these practices.
stories/discourses of the colonized as ‘irrational’ and
‘superstitious’, and colonized even the psyche of the natives. Body as a Site of Power/Resistance
But the Bible is also a text of resistance when it is read from the
vantage point of postcolonial concerns. Postcolonial theory,
therefore, is an attempt to interrogate the knowledge/power
system of the colonizer and to expose the counter discourses
and practices of the colonized/marginal communities for
counter existence, self-representation and new subjectivity. This
study, consequently, is an attempt to understand the counter
imagination of power (unusual invitation to engage the
colonizers) as reflected in Matt 5:38-42.

Counter Imaginations of Power

The colonizers and the Pharisees used ‘master-narratives’
(Matthew 5:38, 43: “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”
and “love your neighbor and hate your enemy”) to control the
consciousness of the people, to (mis) represent the natives and
to legitimize their oppressive systems. Those who engage such
narratives for (mis) representing the ‘other’ will have the power
over the objects of its construction. The notion of power which
these discourses assume is ‘fixed’/ ‘located’

Jesus initiated groundbreaking ‘counter epistemology’ (Matthew

5:39; 44: “But I say to you”) to resist the inherent and repressive
binarisms. This alternative discourse is a kind of ‘textual
cleansing’ of the ‘manipulative myths’ in the ‘archives’ of
Pharisaism and their promulgated ‘fixations’ like ‘enemy’,
‘neighbour’, ‘good’, ‘evil’, ‘just’, and ‘unjust’ because ‘truth’ is a
construction which comes to being within the dominant
discourses on the knowledge about the ‘other’. Hence, the new
imaginations interrogate ‘meaning(s)’ which have been ‘locked’
in the contest over the ‘ownership of the meaning’.
The laws of reciprocity (Matthew 5:38; 43) are replaced by a life-
affirming, ‘abnormal’, counter discourse (Matthew 5:39-47)
which is committed to retrieve voices of the ‘variations’/
‘marginals’ and interrogate the ‘facts’ of the dominant
discourses. Discourses construct the objects of its knowledge
and ‘produces reality’. Discourse(s) is the medium which
constitutes power and through which it is exercised. The
counter discourses, therefore, provide a new subjectivity,
devoid of the ‘scars’/imprints of colonialism.
Search for the ‘Lost Body’ as Redefining Power
The colonizers and the Pharisees ‘locked’ the Matthean
community/ the colonized into their bodies. So the body
became the locus of all violations. But the Matthean community,
having new imaginations of the body, acquired self-
consciousness and attained to the dialectic of subject and
object. The body, therefore, has become the object of
Discourses can define, classify, categorize and form human
beings. So the human body is the ‘inscribed surface of events’
and the locus of ‘dissociated self’. Freedom lies in the power to
identify the ‘genealogy’ of the discursive formation. Foucault’s
discourse on body omitted the ‘performative fact’: the body also
moves. Postcolonial theory becomes liberative at this juncture.
It pays attention to the process of construction of the body of
the colonized as an inscribed object of knowledge. The colonial
regimes target body, because it has the ability to affect an
unpredictable threat to a system for it is capable of being ‘self-
marked’ and ‘self-represented’. Hence, the body is in no way an
inactive/silent object upon which the colonial powers are played
out. The body is thus the site of resistance/power.
The body’s ability to move, reveal itself and even ‘fracture’
oppressive modes and social relations provide the site for
‘counter-strategic re-inscription’. It contests its essentialization
and (mis) representation by the colonial discourses. This
involves not just verbal/textual counter discourses but a
performative/‘theatrical’ reviewing of the body and its ‘signifying
practices’. Matthew 5: 38-42 offers counter social practices to
recover the colonized/ ‘lost’ body and subjectivity.

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1) ‘Dancing Body’ as New Body Language of Power
The colonizer’s abuse and physical harm (Matthew 5:39b: “if
any one strikes you on the right cheek”) and the demand to
carry the luggage (Matthew 5:41: “if any one forces you to go
one mile”) express the experiences of oppression. ‘Turning the
other’ cheek and ‘going two miles’ are the non-verbal/non-
violent forms of self-representation and positioning. It unveils
the ability of the body to counter the predatory inscriptions on
the body. By surprising the oppressor, the oppressed cross the
zones of ‘fixity’ and ‘perpiherality’. Both these ‘provocative
invitations’ resist ‘thingification’/objectification. They define and
dictate the terms of relationship. This ‘political activity’ of the
‘lost’ body shows that the power is not ‘located’/ ‘fixed’ in the
colonized, rather it is ‘diffused’. Therefore, the ‘dancing’/moving
body, hitherto ‘locked’, is a new body language of power.
2)‘Reframing Body’ as Liberative Praxis of Power
The ways in which the body is framed by and within the gaze
determine how and what it can mean. The gaze establishes the
loci of authority. The civilizing intent of clothing is a colonial
representation. Colonial logic of ‘clothing’ is a marker to
differentiate the ‘civilized’ and the ‘savage’. Standing ‘naked’ in
front of the oppressor (v.40) can invest the Matthean
community/colonized with more varied and liberative viewing
frames. This practice exposes the inherent cruelty of the
system, which the colonizer represents. So ‘nakedness’ affirms
the worth of the ‘derogated body’ and escapes the ‘gaze’ of the
colonizer, which keeps the colonized in subservience and
surveillance. It is a forceful invitation for the colonizer to get
ashamed. The ‘looking relations’ therefore becomes the site of
resistance. It challenges the ‘pornographic gaze’ of the
colonizer and subverts the subjectivity that colonialism has
assigned to the colonized subject.
3)‘Metamorphic Body’, Split Subjectivity and Power
The counter practices in Matthew 5:39-42 reflect the potential of
the body for transformation/metamorphosis. There is no
binarism between the oppressor and the oppressed. So the
colonized self is not a completed self or essential self.
Consequently, the colonized self ‘slides’ ambivalently between
‘affiliation’ and ‘disruption’. It will result in the creation of
ambivalent/split subjects. It locates a ‘slippage’/ ‘fracture’ in the
‘prediction’/certainty of the colonial discourse regarding the
behavior of the colonized objects. Split subjectivity removes
both the colonizer and the colonized from their assigned
positions. Instead of being ‘fixed’, both subject positions are
dislocated. Foregrounding this moving and metamorphic
capacity of the body is an active strategy for parading
resistance.
New Subjectivity/ ‘Children of God’ and Power
Colonial discourses represent the colonized as a ‘fixed’ social
reality that can be known. This negativity is a discursive feature
that has been employed in the textualisation of the colonized.
The whole purpose of colonial discourses is to interpret the
colonized as ‘anonymous collectivity’ and to produce subdued
subjectivity. It is probable since the subject is the effect of
discourses. There is no stereotyped ousia or esse, only
constructions or ‘discursive formations’. So framing a new
subjectivity, through counter social practices and discourse, is
not impossible.
Human beings are not eternally and essentially constructed. So
no one is ontologically ‘evil’ or ‘good’. In other words, identity is
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not essence; rather it is a construction. Matthew, therefore,
omits the definite article for ‘good’ and ‘evil’ (v.45). It is only a
representation by the ‘good’. It strategically essentializes the
‘other’/ ‘variant’ as enemy. It legitimizes the colonial logic of
‘cause and effect’. These ‘fixed zones’ or binary opposites,
‘center’ and ‘margin’; ‘inside’ and ‘outside’; ‘good’ and ‘bad’;
‘neighbour’ and ‘enemy’; ‘just’ and ‘unjust’(v.43) etc., eliminate
the differences. Such ‘morphological’ classifications will validate
‘genetical inferiority’ and ‘marginality’. These ‘regimes of truth’
prevail through social practices and institutions like race and
gender. Attitude towards the gentiles by the Pharisees and the
Matthean community must be analyzed in this context.
The politics of representation is being interrogated in vv.43-45.
The biologically constituted notions, ‘good’, ‘evil’, ‘enemy’ and
‘neighbour’, are questioned by counter imaginations and
discourses pertaining to the love of God. The laws of reciprocity
are being repudiated in v.43. The bottom line is that using the
colonial notion of power for countering the colonizers is suicidal
because the Matthean community is only a marginal
community. It is not going to (re)frame their subjectivity either.
For the Pharisees and the Romans, ‘neighbour’ means those
who subscribe to their discourses and logic. All the ‘others’
were essentialized as ‘enemies’/ ‘heretics’. The Gentiles were
stigmatized as ‘evil’ by the so-called ‘good’. But the sun rises
on ‘good’ and ‘evil’/’heretic’ and God showers rain on the ‘just’
and the ‘unjust’. ‘Love’ and ‘pray’ denote the counter social
practices. Those who practice these counter discourses
become the ‘children of God’ (v.40). Here the processes of
‘becoming’ challenge ‘fixity’ and ‘essentialism’. So for post-
colonialists, the subjectivity is not given/static, rather it is an
emerging/forming/framing subjectivity.
The community of the ‘children of God’, having divine
subjectivity, participates in the all-inclusive love of God. The
knowledge about the inclusive love of God is the key
instruments of power in this sphere. They (re)locate and
(re)imagine their position in the world. They (re)position
themselves in subject position. Their practices are different from
the hegemonic practices of colonialism (vv.46-47). The counter
practices/imaginations of power of the ‘children of God’ subvert
gender and race. So the institution called discipleship operates
on the community/counter logic called ‘Greater Righteousness’.
For them, the new body languages/gestures are a political
activity, which would (re)frame a new social body. This liberative
act of subjectivity formation is the challenge of the community
of disciples.
Conclusions:
The Matthean community had identified the liberative potential
of the body for nonviolent resistance. Body is the most
‘malleable and resonant’ vehicles for subverting and
interrogating/ problematizing the representation/positioning and
surveillance/‘anatomizing gaze’ that the
‘civilized’/male/’superior’ has inflicted on the ‘savage’/female/
‘inferior’. This will distinguish the bodies of the ‘marginals’ like
women and Dalits not only as the colonies of aggression and
representation, but also as sites of new discourses of
resistance/power and self-worth. This is the ‘politics of
difference’ envisaging a ‘differentiated subjectivity’ through
counter discourses and discursive social practices.
The Sermon on the Mount: The New Social Order Envisaged
Rev. Dr. Abraham Philip, Vaideeka Seminary, Kottayam
The Sermon on the Mount is found in chapters 5, 6 and 7
of the Gospel according to St. Matthew. In the light of the
first Gospel and especially the Sermon on the Mount
many people regard Jesus Christ as the new Moses. In
the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), Moses proposes a
Social Order in the light of the Law or the Ten
Commandments. Moses had proposed a system based
on justice and righteousness. The summary of the Law is
often given as to love God and love one’s neighbours.
It could be said that through the Sermon on the Mount
Jesus Christ envisages a new social order. Jesus says,
“You have heard that it was said” and speaks of the
teachings of Moses as given in the Hebrew Bible and
then Jesus interprets the same by saying, “and I say it
you”. Jesus emphasizes the love that Moses had taught
and makes it broad as well as deep. Jesus emphasizes
that the spirit of the Law should be observed rather than
the letter of the Law. The main thing that Jesus preached
was the kingdom of God, and his ministry was for the
establishment of the kingdom of God on earth. The
kingdom of God envisages a new social order where
there will be the reign of God as the King. The way of
looking at the kingdom of God has varied from century to
century and it has also been conditioned by the cultural
environment in which the interpreter belonged. It means
one thing to a capitalist society and it means something
else to a poor member of any country. Jesus unfolds the
will of God and the believer will have to determine his/her
way life and the social order for the world.
When Jesus taught this sermon the Jewish people were
astonished for he taught them as one having authority,
and not as their scribes (Matthew 7:28-29). People were
astonished seeing the authority of Jesus! Where did
Jesus get his authority in teaching about a new social
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order as envisaged in the kingdom of God? Jesus had
authority not only because he was the Son of God or the
Messiah/Christ, but because Jesus could do or practice
what he was teaching through the sermon. Hence we
cannot separate the new social order from the life of
Jesus. He lived to establish the new social order. A lot of
people ask: Will it be possible for humans to live up to the
teachings given by Jesus through the Sermon on the
Mount? As many thinkers have noted: it is impossible for
us to live according to the Sermon on the Mount. It is just
a frame-up to ensure the failure of all of us and all of us
will throw prostrate at the mercy seat of God for mercy, if
we sincerely and seriously start to practice the Sermon on
the Mount.
The Sermon envisages a perfect state or a perfect social
order on earth. As the Book of Revelation pictures, a new
heaven and a new earth (Revelation 21:1-8). It is a state of
blessedness that lies in possessing the kingdom of
heaven. It is in knowing God through Jesus Christ as our
Father and God. Here below let me draw our attention to
five aspects of the new social order that Jesus envisaged
as revealed in the Sermon on the Mount.
First of all, the new order envisages not only loving one’s
neighbours, but one’s enemies as well (5:43-48).
Mahatma Gandhi was very much influenced by this
teaching. Love everyone in need. Pray for even those who
persecute you. Your righteousness will have to exceed
that of the scribes and Pharisees in order for you to enter
the kingdom of heaven (5:20). Moses has given the
commandment not to murder (5:21). But Jesus says that
you should not even keep anger against your neighbor.
Instead you have to be reconciled with all including
enemy (5:24-26).
Secondly, the Sermon on the Mount exhorts that life has
to be lived not like the hypocrites. They are outwardly
neat and tidy. Jesus compared them with white washed
sepulchers. How dirty and filthy were their inner self! Not
only do the external actions, but the inner motif behind
every action counts. Why are almsgiving, prayer or fasting
performed (6:1-18)? Unless there is right intention,
nothing will be received from your Father in heaven.
Thirdly, in the new social order envisaged in the Sermon
on the Mount, amassing wealth or money shall not be the
aim of life. One cannot serve two masters (6:19-21). The
kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness
and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, according to Paul
(Romans 14:17). In Matthew 6:33, it is written: “But strive
for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all
these things will be given to you as well”.
Fourthly, the new social order envisaged in the Sermon
on the Mount does not want us to judge others (7:1).
Look inside yourself as see the blemishes in you rather
than looking at others and judging them, and asking them
to correct. Jesus says, “In everything do unto others as
you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the
prophets” (Matthew 7:12: this verse is titled the Golden
Rule by the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible
and by several other versions).

Finally, the Sermon on the Mount wants a new social

order where the needy are helped (7:7-12; 5:39-44, 48).
Let all that you do be done in love and even go an extra
mile (5:39-42). Be perfect as your heavenly Father is
perfect. Jesus Christ had authority because he practiced
all what he taught in the Sermon on the Mount. Even on
the cross, he could pray for the ones (his enemies) who
crucified him. On the cross, his words became flesh and
he could give away his self completely, or in other words
he could empty his self (kenosis as referred by Paul in
Philippians 2:5ff) revealing the self-sacrificing love at its
climax. General, Associate Director of J. M. Study Centre,
Trivandrum, member Episcopal nomination board,
Will the teachings of Sermon on the Mount be ever member C.S.I - C.N.I-Mar Thoma Joint Council, member
practiced by any Christian? If Christians at least try or ECC Council (Bangalore) and several other administrative
make an attempt to practice it, the new social order bodies of the Mar Thoma Church. He was indeed a
envisaged in the kingdom of God will become a reality. clergyman who had contributed much to the overall
Let it become the mandate for Christian discipleship, a growth and ministry of the Mar Thoma Church and its
design for Christian life and a way of life. It will provide ecumenical mission.
the new order of love and human freedom and dignity.
Let it be the challenge. After his retirement, Achen was deeply involved as a
volunteer in the Pain and Palliative Care ministry of the
Editors Note: Rev. Dr. Abraham Philip is Professor of New Pushpagiri hospital, Tiruvalla. His ministry has been
Testament at the Mar Thoma Theological Seminary, widely appreciated by people across denominational and
Kottayam and an author of several books. religious barriers. Kurien Achen has left his footprints on
the sands of time in his own way. He is to be
(Obituary Tributes) remembered as a parish priest of the Church who had
maintained personal friendship and relationship with

Very Revd A. C. Kurien
Rev. Dr. M. J. Joseph, Kottayam
The Very Revd A. C. Kurien, who has been with us in the
early period of FOCUS launching, passed away on 22nd
May 2018 and the funeral took place on 28th May 2018 at
Varicad Mar Thoma Church, Near Paipad, and Tiruvalla.
He was 80 years of age, and survived by his wife Mrs.
Susamma Kurien, three children. Achen hails from
Arappurayil family, Pattamala, Kottarakara.
Kurien Achen entered the ministry of the Ma Thoma
Church on May 8, 1964 and became Vicar General on 30th
November 1998. He retired from the active service of the
Church on 31st March 2003. He was the vicar of over 30
parishes including: Andamans, Kuwait, Kozhencherry,
Thiruvalla and Kizhakenmuthoor. He held several offices
in the Church such as Sabha Secretary, Senior Vicar
hundreds of people around the Mar Thoma globe. I am
sure, he would quote with Fr. Murray Rogers with a slight
variation, “If friends are my assets, I am the richest man in
the Mar Thoma Church.” He used to greet his fellow
priests on their birthdays whenever possible. Achen has
demonstrated leadership qualities during the period of his
ministry in the Church. It is to be recalled that he was
indeed proud of his own Church and has shown visible
signs of his allegiance with administrative acumen.
The members of the Mar Thoma Community in the UK
and Europe may fondly remember Achen’s visit there
number of times. “Life levels all men; death reveals the
eminent” (Bernard Shaw). Yes, “the remembrance of the
righteous is a blessing”. Vicar General A. C. Kurien Achen
has “passed over us”. “Blessed are the dead . . . they
will rest from their labours, for their deeds follow
them” (Rev.14:13)

8 | P a g e F O C U S J u l y 2 0 1 8

THE POOR AND POVERTY IN THE SERMON ON THE PLAIN
Rev. Dr. M. J. Joseph, Kottayam
Luke’s understanding of the poor:
After “investigating everything carefully" about the truth
concerning the things about the ministry of Jesus on
earth (Lk. l: I), it pleased Luke, the physician cum
historian, to reflect on matters relating to spiritual values
and their sociological relevance. For Luke, what matters
is to build a community of hope rooted in the teaching of
Jesus on the Kingdom of God. This is meant to produce a
"community of communities" with a human face in which
human dignity is recognized, basic human needs are
satisfied and the diversity of cultural identities are duly
recognized. Overcoming violence against all forms of
oppression whether social, economic or cultural is a
biblical mandate. Luke makes it clear that poverty is a
scandal and has no place in God's plan. The Baby Jesus
was placed in a manger (Lk.2: 7), which is an expression
of divine solidarity with human brokenness. As the saviour
of the world, the birth of Jesus expresses God's complete
solidarity with the down trodden and the marginalized.
This could be termed as "oikoumene of solidarity" which
is clearly stated in Luke’s Gospel.
The visit of the shepherds to the child in the manger as
reported in Luke 2:16 gives a fitting introduction to the
Luke's understanding of the poor and the poverty. In their
encounter with the "Babe lying in the manger", their
experience becomes a guiding factor in recognizing the
meaning of the ordinary. What does it mean "being
poor"? It means to die of hunger, to be illiterate, to be
exploited, to get dehumanized, to live as a member of the
crowd (Ochlos) to deny the fullness of life and to live on
the margins. The purpose of incarnation, as St. Paul puts
it, is to make humanity rich (2Cor. 8: 9) by the kenosis of
the Word incarnate.
There is a paradoxical relationship between poverty and
wealth in Luke’s gospel. To deny life for any one is
violence. Poverty has got a religious, ethical and
economic dimension. The message of the Kingdom
speaks of the ground realities of the least, the last and the
lost in a significant manner (Lk.7: 22-the mission charge).
To talk about the poor, poverty and wealth is a way of
liberating the rich as well. This is quite evident in Luke’s
Sermon on the Plain.
“Remember the poor”:
There are quite a few texts/passages referring to the
poor and poverty in Luke. The message is quite clear as
Luke also wants to bring out a spiritual dimension of
wealth. For Luke, economics is a matter of faith. It carries
the weight of a moral code. Lucan vision is found in the
social philosophy of Jayprakash Narayanan, when he
said, "The India of my dreams is a community in which
9 | P a g e F O C U S J u l y 2 0 1 8
every individual and every resource is dedicated to
serving the weak- a community dedicated to the well-
being of the least and the weakest. In the Lucian
Magnificat (1: 47-55), we have a glimpse of God's gift of
the New Humanity in Christ. The philosophy of being
spoken in terms of a moral, economic and social
revolution is to be understood in the light of Lk. 6: 20
where the poor are called "blessed". There is no attempt
to spiritualize poverty here. The poor is blessed because
the Kingdom being the good news of liberation has come
in our midst. Luke's Sermon on the Plain makes it clear
that "blessings and woes"(Lk.6:20-26) addressed to the
poor and the rich make a difference in the life of the
people for the glory of God. In the global community of
today with the Market paradigms, there arose a new value
system, which simply asks the question, "How much do
you have?” The ebb of violence is also associated with
the “philosophy of having". In the parable of the Rich
farmer as told by Jesus in Luke 12:13-21, the issue is not
about the possession of wealth, but of its use. The wealth
as such does not make us fools. Wealth is only a servant,
and we are called to remain in the service of God, not
Mammon. "Becoming rich toward God" is indeed a call to
search for the proper placement of wealth in God's order
of relationships. The Market dynamics through the Media
has virtually invaded us. "Remember the poor" is the
mission mandate in Gal. 2:10 where as "forget the poor"
is the Market slogan! The poor is deprived of the privilege
to make use of usable knowledge, which has the potential
to generate wealth. In the service of God, there is always
an attitude of care for the less- privileged. Concern for the
weak and the defenseless is a sign of the maturity of the
heart. "A great city is that which handles its art and
garbage equally well". The introduction of a monoculture
and homogenization of taste have become the basic
philosophy of Mammon. This has contributed to the
marginalization of millions in the world as the Market
knows no brotherhood or sisterhood. Lucan perspective
of the reversal motif in the Magnificat and elsewhere has
an abiding message for the world today. The prophetic
eschatology of Jesus is found in the Magnificat (Lk. 1:46-
56) and in the Nazareth Manifesto of Jesus (Luke 4:18-
19).
The Magnificat:
The Magnificat, Divine grace Magnified, has three main
divisions:m46-50; 51-53; and 54-55.The overriding theme
in the passage is the extension of God's grace to all living
beings. Mary's song upholds the divine maxim that
‘charity without justice is an insult to humanity and to
God- self’. What has gone wrong must be set right. The
Magnificat is a commentary of Ps. 103: 6 where we read,
"The Lord works vindication and justice for all who are
oppressed." God's faithfulness in dealing with the
marginalized and the poor and the socially outcaste is
also stated in Ps.146:7-8: “. . . Who executes justice for
the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry? The Lord
sets the prisoners free; the Lord opens the eyes of the
blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; the
Lord loves the righteous." (cf. Ps.145:14-16). In the
Magnificat, Luke speaks of God's remembrance of the
poor, in terms of his solidarity and protest.
The saviour's arrival brings about great changes in the life
of the people. The changes are meant to draw people to
the love and glory of God. The great redemptive power of
God is recalled in the song. He has "shown strength", he
has "scattered", he has "put down", he has "exalted", he
has "filled", he has "sent away" and he has "helped"(vs.
5:1-54). Lucian God is a God who acts in history.
Scholars are divided on the implications of a string of
gnomic verbs used to describe God's decisive act of
Grace. One thing is quite clear that they refer to past
events with future consequences-"future events as if they
were past”. God’s care is manifested in redeeming,
reconciling and consoling the world (vs.46-50). This
ministry of reconciliation is entrusted to us (2Cor. 5:18-
21). In God's style of executing justice, there is a constant
grasping of his own nature. God's preferential option is
found in "exalting those of low degree"(V. 52), in the
process, a certain degree of displacement is inevitable.
Not only does the Lord redeem, but he also judges. "The
rich he has sent empty away"(v. 53). The judgment of
God for the sake of the weak and defenseless in the new
order of creation is an expression of God's impartiality
and his intense desire to set right what has happened in
human conduct."
The Nazareth Manifesto of Jesus:
The Nazareth Manifesto of Jesus (Lk.4:16-30) could be
summarized under the caption "Good news to the poor"
which is indeed a realization of the Magnificat and of the
prophetic vision of Is.61.1-2 and 58.6.In the Lucan
version of the text we notice that Jesus left out one of the
lines "to heal the broken hearted" and a line from Is. 58. 6
were added, "To send away the oppressed". The Lucan
record of the Nazareth Sermon of Jesus is indeed socially
10 | P a g e F O C U S J u l y 2 0 1 8
oriented and it recalls the Jubilee vision in Lev. 25: 8-17,
25-28.The exposition of the texts, in terms of Luke's
universalism, referring to a widow (a woman) and a leper
(man) who come under the "poor of Luke", implies that
the author wants to avoid any spiritualizing of the popular
Matthean text. "Blessed are the poor in spirit"(5.3).For
Luke, poor (anawim) are all those who are reduced to a
condition of diminished worth or capacity. They need not
be economically poor, but socially out caste too. They
belong to the Ochios of Mark. and under the broader
class of "tax collectors and sinners"(Lk. 151-2); "the little
ones of Matthew"(l 8.10); "the mentally ill of Mark"(5. 1-
20); "the physically handicapped of Mark"( 1.32-34; and
"the crippled woman of Luke" (13.10ff).The concern of
Jesus according to Luke was to liberate the oppressed
from the age old traditions and concepts so as to give
them an identity of their own and to make them the
subject of their own history.
Wealth:
Luke does not stop with the poor and his liberation. He is
equally concerned with the spiritual dimension of wealth.
In Luke there is a theological and ethical affirmation of
wealth as found in James 2: 11-6 and 5: 1-6. For Luke,
wealth creates social relationship. In the parable of the
Rich Farmer, Jesus makes a warning in an affirmative
way. "Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of
greed; for one' life does not consist in the abundance of
possessions"(12: 15).The Greek word, Pleonexia has
several shades of meaning such as covetousness, greed,
defraud and the accursed love of possessions. The rich
man becomes a fool by his attitude to wealth and
subsequently to life. The philosophy of Narcissism makes
the life of the rich poor and sterile. "Being rich toward (eis)
God” is the goal of human life. Those who belong to the
Kingdom should have the courage to wage a struggle
against people and forces that deny and dehumanize
their dignity. Spirituality of wealth means that life is
involvement and even confrontation for the sake of
freedom, justice and peace. It also accentuates the
ecumenical dictum, which says, "Poverty anywhere is a
threat to prosperity everywhere". The Sermon on the
Plain or the Sermon on the Mount is complimentary vision
of a New Social order, which is the hallmark of New
Humanity in Christ.
Editor’s Notre: Rev. Dr. M. J. Joseph, M.Th., D. Th, is the
former Director of the Ecumenical Christian Centre, Bangalore.
He has also served as Professor and Principal, Mar Thoma
Theological Seminary, Kottayam, India. As a former member,
Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches,
he is widely known for his ecumenical and ecological
contributions. He has served as Secretary Board of Theological
Education, Senate of Serampore College (University). He
currently serves as Convener, Ecological Commission, of the
Mar Thoma Church. Dr. Joseph has also authored several
articles, poems and books available both in English and
Malayalam languages. E-Mail: drmjjoseph_65@yahoo.co.in
MORE THAN FLESH AND BLOOD
David Brand, London
Spirituality is a difficult subject to explain, because
unless experienced it is the equivalent of granting
degrees to undergraduates without them attending the
lectures and then expecting them to be fully conversant
with their subject. However If this presentation prompts
you to consider that we are far more than simply human
beings, then hopefully this will help you tackle the
following four questions: What am I? Where have I come
from?
Why am I here? Where do I go from here?
There is only one who could answer all those questions
and that was Jesus Christ who was born divine, glorified
at birth and was fully aware of what was expected of
him. This was made evident by the Holy Spirit after being
baptised by John the Baptist. However, we have another
individual in the Apostle John, one of the sons of
Zebedee, who fully understood the divinity of Jesus and
along with Peter and James was part of the inner circle
that was closest to Jesus. If you were to be confined to a
desert island with only one Gospel it has to be the fourth,
that of Saint John the Apostle. It has been described as
“A book of magnificent beauty and artistry. The richness
of its expression and imagery has made it one of the
most celebrated works in Christian history and was once
known as the SPIRITUAL GOSPEL in the ancient
Church”, that is not surprising as it makes the other
Gospels look like a timeline of events occurring in Jesus
Christs’ ministry as John raises the bar and introduces
us to the divine family of God as Father, Son and Spirit.
John was an Apostle who fully grasped the spiritual
implications of Jesus, and here are a few superb
examples of the biblical language used by Jesus to
imbue a sense of spirituality into his disciples, which
John, having understood, was thankfully able to record
for us as follows.
Ch4 v23 & 24. “God is spirit and those who worship him
MUST worship him in spirit and truth”.
Ch6 v68. Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom we
shall go? You have the words of eternal life”.
Ch7 v38 & 39. “He who believes in me”, as the scripture
has said “Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living
water”. Now this he said about the Spirit, which those
who believed in him were to receive; for as yet the Spirit
had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
Ch8 v12. “I am the light of the world: he who follows me
will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life”.
11 | P a g e F O C U S J u l y 2 0 1 8
Ch10 v27. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them,
and they follow me, and I give them eternal life, and they
shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them from
out of my hand”.
Ch12 v36. “While you have the light, believe in the light,
that you may become sons of light”.
Ch12 v44,45 & 46. And Jesus cried out and said, “He
who believes in me, believes not in me but in him who
sent me. And he, who sees me, sees him who sent me. I
have come in as light into the world, that whoever
believes in me may not remain in darkness”.
Ch6 v63. “It is the Spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no
avail, and the words that I have spoken to you are Spirit
and Life”.
Paul also was made aware of the Spirit on the road to
Damascus, for example in his Letter to the Galatians
Chapter 5 he writes, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness and self -
control. Against such things there is no law. Those who
belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its
passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us
keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become
conceited, provoking and envying each other.” Romans
Ch6 v16, “It is the Spirit himself (God’s spirit) bearing
witness with our spirit that we are children of God”.
Emanuel Swedenborg1 wrote the following in the chapter
headed “Each of Us is Inwardly a Spirit” in his book
‘HEAVEN AND HELL’. “Anyone who thinks things
through carefully can see that it is not the body that
thinks, because the body is material. Rather, it is the
soul, because the soul is spiritual. The human soul,
whose immortality has been the topic of many authors, is
our spirit; it is in fact immortal in all respects and it is also
what does the thinking in our bodies. This is because it is
spiritual and the spiritual is open to the spiritual and lives
spiritually, through thought and intention. So all rational
life we can observe in our bodies belongs to the soul and
none of it to the body. Actually, the body is material, as
just noted, and the matter that is proper to the body is an
addendum and almost an attachment to the spirit. Its
purpose is to enable our spirit to lead its life and perform
its services in a natural world that is material in all
respects and essentially lifeless. Since matter is not
alive––only spirit––we may conclude that whatever is
alive in us is our spirit and that the body only serves it
1
Emmanuel Swedenborg, Heaven and Hell, ISBN 978-0-
87785-476-0, 2008; page 249.
exactly the way a tool serves a live and activating force.
We may of course say that a tool works or moves or
strikes, but it is a mistake to believe that this is a
property of the tool and not of the person who is
wielding it.
Since everything that is alive in the body––everything
that acts and feels because of life––belongs to the spirit
alone and none of it belongs to the body, it follows that
the spirit is the actual person. In other words, we are
essentially spirits and have much the same form as well.
You see, everything that is alive and sensitive within us
belongs to our spirit and there is nothing in us, from
head to toe, that is not alive and sensitive.”
The Holy Spirit has been released into the world after
Jesus’ resurrection; initially with the disciples and then
with all believers and the effect of the Holy Spirit on them
is well documented, what is far more important is that it
has been made available to you via Baptism but it must
be recognised and accepted by you in order to benefit
from the gifts it brings. But beware, they come with
expectations and responsibility; abuse them at your peril.
Jesus spells it out clearly when he states “knock, seek
and ask”, he wants us to seek the truth and that truth he
promises will set you free. Repeating mantras is not the
way as it blocks any reply. The correct way is to open a
channel of love, with gratitude for being allowed to exist
at all PLUS, a sense of service and have a conversation,
then LISTEN and always pray a prayer of thanks for all
you receive, bearing in mind that you may not receive
exactly what you asked for, but have the faith to believe
it is the most appropriate solution for you at the time.
Keep a notebook and pencil handy to make notes of
your conversation with God and remember Our Lord
does not keep office hours!!!
We have become so involved with day to day living that
we have forgotten to fully grasp what we really are and
consequently what we are capable of and expected to
12 | P a g e F O C U S J u l y 2 0 1 8
do. Take a look at yourself in the mirror, no not a glance;
really examine the face in front of you. Look deep into
the eyes because they are the entrance to your inner
secret self, the bit of you that is truly secluded and
strictly private and yet they can also be very revealing.
Blink and smile and notice how your face reacts to your
every command, you are in total control of the image
before you. You are in effect a combination of body and
mind, but what is mind? Some will say it is just a function
of the brain and being made of flesh it will deteriorate
with the body when you die and you will cease to exist in
this physical world. Fair enough but there must be
something else that reflects and therefore identifies you
as an immortal being and that we call your spirit. Take
another good look at the body and remind yourself that
you have developed from a tiny helpless baby to what
you are now. You accept this as a quite normal everyday
occurrence, but surely this is a remarkable development
in its own right.
Another example, which we take for granted, so why
should we not be able to transform into immortal spirits
on fulfilling our lifespan in this physical world. After all
this is precisely what Jesus Christ demonstrated after his
crucifixion for our benefit to prove that our existence
does not terminate with the body. We have to move on
from this physical world and discard all our physical
attributes in order to move into a spiritual world.
I fully appreciate the point that many believe, we live, we
die and we are gone, but I suggest that would mean
there would have been no point in existing in the first
place and creation would simply be a waste of time,
material, space and the experience gathered (usually the
hard way).If that were the case we would be fully justified
in jumping off the nearest cliff when life gets really
challenging, abandoning children and loved ones to their
fate. However, we know that Jesus returned to us three
days after he died in a body that the disciples did not
recognise immediately, but they recognised the
character and voice of their master. In other words, the
original body was not reproduced but it bore the damage
done to the original. But far more importantly this new
body contained the essence of Jesus which the disciples
instantly recognised when he spoke or moved and that
essence is the Holy Spirit.
What I am asking you to accept is that our human spirit
and the Holy Spirit can co-exist in our bodies because
we are temples of God regardless of gender, or rank,
wealth, what we are, how we think, believe, behave and
react to events in our lives. Not only that but as Jesus
proved by his resurrection it is eternal. When you were
born of flesh and blood your spirit joined the body and
becomes your essence with the indwelling Holy Spirit
and will leave the body on death and return from where it
came because it is eternal, Paul makes references to
spirit and flesh in his many letters so this is nothing new
and we are also aware of the effect that a divine
revelation can have on a human spirit, for example Paul
who was originally moving in a direction contrary to
divine will. When in this physical existence, we are often
not privy to where we have come from or why we are
here as this would make it pointless in being here in the
first place. We start here from a clean sheet of paper but
I am quite sure that everything will be revealed when the
spirit returns from where it has come. There are some
who have not had their previous memories fully erased
and consequently have tantalising impressions of where
they have come from and why and how they came here.
You hear mentioned of coming from somewhere that
was mainly parkland where everything seemed to be
stable and right, in sharp contrast to here, where we
move from one crisis to another in an unstable physical
environment that despite our best efforts things seem to
go wrong. Try not to let your gender obstruct you,
accept you are made in this way in order to procreate as
a human being, but fully appreciate you are an immortal
spiritual being on an eternal learning curve, simply recall
how much you have learned since birth on this earthly
stage of your development.
What I am describing is neither reincarnation nor
resurrection it, is best described as a “Progressive and
Continual state of Spiritual Development” until it
becomes so perfect, that like Jesus you become a part
of God and absorbed into his heavenly kingdom. The
theory that Jesus will create his kingdom on earth is not
fully understood, why only on this insignificant little rock,
surely this is ego, we now know there are vast numbers
of earthlike planets out there and they all have sell by
dates depending on the age of their suns.
William Shakespeare, 1564-1616, was nearer the mark
with his play ‘As You Like It’. In act 1 scene V11, he
boldly states: “All the world’s a stage, and all men and
women merely players; they have their exits and their
entrances. . . .” If nothing else here on earth we have all
learnt from history that humanity cannot rule itself and
we now live in an increasingly unstable world that is
growing in advanced types of destruction that affects all
of us, there is no immunity for the innocent or the young.
However you must live this life fully in this environment
and develop by learning from the experiences that you
13 | P a g e F O C U S J u l y 2 0 1 8
will receive both good and bad. It is only when you
become older do you realise how short a reasonable
lifetime of three score years and ten really is, fortunately
for us it is not about length, it is about quality based on
the ground rules set out by Jesus Christ, our perfect
human interface with God.
The challenge before you is to seek purity of spirit by
picking up your cross, and trying your best to reflect
God’s love, wisdom, healing, patience, forgiveness,
goodness and generosity. Try to be a symbol of positivity
to motivate, inspire and prove to your creator that his act
of allowing you to exist in the first place was not a
wasted talent but a fruitful one. In John 14:10, Jesus
says to Philip: “Don’t you believe that I am in the Father
and that the Father is in me?” That is an invitation to you
to be in Jesus and allow Jesus to be in you spiritually
and as a consequence you also through Jesus will
become a part of God after death. Never lose faith or
confidence that you matter and are here for very good
reasons that will eventually be revealed and will make
perfect sense to you when your time comes.
God’s promise to create a Kingdom for us is perfectly
true but it will not be an unstable earthly kingdom with a
sell by date dependent on the life of our sun or pollution
or global warming or self-destruction, but a spiritual one
that will last and not be subject to the physical limitations
of time and space. You are challenged to prepare for it
and to become spiritually aware beings in order to be
part of it. God does not want us bowing and scraping, he
sent us Jesus Christ with a loud and clear message, “I
WANT CONTACT”. He said “Knock, Seek and Ask”, it
cannot be any clearer or simply put! As mentioned
earlier, contact is made on a spiritual level through
Jesus Christ.
Saint Francis of Assisi put it succinctly in his prayer when
he wrote. “It is in dying (self) that you are born to eternal
life.” Finally, John in 11:25 states that inspiring and
unforgettable phrase for all of us, “I am the resurrection
and the life. He who believeth in me though he was dead
yet shall he live and whoever lives and believes in me
shall never die.” The finest possible epitaph a Christian
could ever have. Discover the spiritual part of yourselves
and use it to develop a closer relationship with both
Father and Son. Subconsciously you know that,
otherwise you would not be a member of your church
seeking answers.
Editor’s Note: Mr. David Brand
is an elder and a Lay Reader of
the All Saints’, Harrow Weald,
where the Sinai MTC conducts
worship services. He is a retired
electronic engineer with a very
deep interest in spirituality.
TOLSTOY’S TRYST WITH THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT
Rev. Dr. Valson Thampu, Trivandrum
To count Leo Tolstoy, the Sermon on the Mount was the
essence of what he called the “doctrine of Christ”. It was the
yardstick by which the authenticity of our discipleship to
Jesus is to be measured. It is hard to disagree with him.
Tolstoy comes up against the ‘offence’ of the Sermon, right
at the outset. Christendom, he says, endorses the Sermon in
theory, but deems it impractical in day to day life. He admits
that he himself was, for a long time in life, of this persuasion.
The turning point in his spiritual life was the teaching in the
Sermon, “Do not resist evil”. Here is it in his own words-
When I apprehended clearly the words “Resist not evil,” my
conception of the doctrine of Jesus was entirely changed;
and I was astounded, not that I had failed to understand it
before, but that I had understood it so strangely. (From “My
Religion”)
He recalls that his entire Christian upbringing, from
childhood onwards, had been in direct contradiction to this
core teaching in the Sermon-
From my childhood I had been taught that Jesus was God,
and that his doctrine was divine, but at the same time I was
taught to respect as sacred the institutions which protected
me from violence and evil. I was taught to resist evil that it
was humiliating to submit to evil, and that resistance to it was
praiseworthy.
I quote this as a dilemma basic to our predicament: the
predicament of all who struggle to walk along the way of the
Lord. When it comes to the higher reaches of the faith, we
prejudge –without ever having given it a try- that such things
won’t work and that we have to live by the way of the world.
A clear case in point is the widespread assumption that
God’s work cannot be done without the resources of
Mammon, complying also with the latter’s principles and
patterns. As George Bernard Shaw says in his play, Major
Barbara, Barbara’s humanitarian work, under the auspices of
the Salvation Army, can be done only with the blood money
of her father, who is an arms dealer, a merchant of death. In
our kind of wisdom, acts of love have to draw their
sustenance from hate and cruelty. Life has to be served with
the resources of death. We find this, says Shaw, reassuringly
rational.
Corruption, which is rampant in educational institutions
maintained by most denominations in India, especially in
Kerala, is justified as follows, “How else are we to run these
institutions, and keep the church above waters?” It is
14 | P a g e F O C U S J u l y 2 0 1 8
another matter that only a small fraction of the money thus
extorted unjustly finds its way into institutions for their
upkeep or upgradation. Akin to this is our faith, however
unstated, in violence. If at all we refrain from violence it is
because we cannot muster enough force. When Gandhiji
employed non-violence as the greatest liberating force in
history, the whole world sat up and took note. The ideals of
Jesus, as a Gandhian wrote, had to be translated into
historical reality by a non-Christian, against an Empire that
was, presumably, Christian.
By way of reckoning the implications of this most radical
teaching in the Sermon, Tolstoy raises the question, “Does
this teaching –that we should not resist evil- allow us to have
recourse to litigation? Is it not the business of courts to resist
evil?”
This issue came to a head in my life, during my tenure as the
Principal of St. Stephen’s College. I had to go in writ to the
High Court of Delhi against the Chairman of the Governing
Body, who was also the bishop of Delhi, Church of North
India. The circumstances, in brief, were as follows-
Barely two weeks after my appointment as Principal, I was
summoned to his office by the bishop. He wanted me to
commit myself to the percentage of seats in the college to
which he could admit students. On my refusal to give in to
his demands, he asked me to resign forthwith. I refused. In
retaliation, he persuaded the Supreme Council of St.
Stephen’s College to put me on probation, in clear violation
of the statutes of Delhi University, by which a Principal is
deemed to be permanent from the day of appointment. The
idea was to keep the sword of probation over my head and
to make me fall in line.
I had three options before me: either to give in and survive in
professional slavery, or to resist and be shunted out, or to
invoke the authority of the court and secure ‘justice’ for
myself. I also persuaded myself to believe that it would be,
above all, justice to the institution, which was sought to be
corrupted.
How do I feel about this event now? One thing is obvious: I
resisted evil and, in doing so, fell short of the teaching of
Jesus. But, would it have been morally irresponsible and
cowardly on my part to have chickened out, as people would
have said, and fled for my life? Or, should I have simply
endured the ignominy of being shunted out, on the pretext
that I was incompetent, with the world knowing nothing
about the truth of the matter?
I fought and won the case in Delhi High court. But I fought
and lost my spiritual brief, going by the doctrine of Jesus
Christ. I should have, as I now feel, simply endured. Why do I
think so?
My decision to stand and fight –or to resist evil; for clearly
what the bishop had in mind was evil- was predicated on the
assumption that I alone could serve as a fortress of
protection for the college against forces of evil. I was playing
saviour to the college. In doing so, did I not shut the door
against God’s intervention in the matter? After all, the
college did not belong to me. I had gone there being
convinced that it was in the will of God for me to steward
that institution founded for the glory of God, as its motto
maintained. If so, wasn’t it rather the duty of God, than my
exclusive burden, to intervene in this matter on behalf of
justice?
The counter argument too needs to be stated. Going by the
principle of God-human partnership, could I have abdicated
my part and left everything to God? Would it have been fair
on my part to have done so? If such an attitude is
15 | P a g e F O C U S J u l y 2 0 1 8
legitimized, wouldn’t the world be a safer place for the forces
of evil and oppression? What about the old saying, God
helps those who help themselves? Can prayer without action
complete the spiritual picture?
But what is ‘action’ in the spiritual sense of the word? All
said and done, I lost a great opportunity to live the cardinal
teaching of our Lord, “Do not resist evil”. That was ‘the road
not taken’ as the American poet, Robert Frost would say.
Who knows how it would have played out, and my own
destiny shaped, had I stood steadfastly by the doctrine of
Christ, instead of going by my common sense or my
commitment to the college and took the matter to the court
of man rather than the court of God?
I deal with this instance in some detail, for it illustrates the
reigning attitude in Christendom, resulting in a poverty of
experience in spiritual matters. Imagine what would have
been our plight, had Jesus taken the path we so habitually
take, insisting that to be the only valid and viable one? The
‘hopelessness’ –the assured self-destruction- immanent in
the path Jesus chose was so very obvious and clear to him.
Common sense would have counseled him –as perhaps it
did in the Garden of Gethsemane- to avoid this path. He
stuck to the teaching. He resisted no evil. I am now
convinced that this mind-boggling logic of the Kingdom of
God –resist no evil- is the key to Resurrection. Until we reach
the stage of obeying this teaching, we may celebrate
Resurrection sentimentally, but never know it experientially.
I must say this thing as well, before we move on. I was
greatly influenced by worldly notions about moral heroism. It
gave me a sense of special thrill to even think of frustrating
the evil intentions the person concerned. This also meant
that the option to not resist evil seemed as cowardly and
unbecoming of a ‘person like me’. That is where, as I now
realize, the doctrine of kenosis, or self-emptying, should
have exerted the counter-pull. Had I, at that point in time,
emptied myself, I would have, in all likelihood, chosen
differently.
But there is this other thought that still refuses to die out of
me. What if it was in the will of God that I stand my ground?
In that case, I was not resisting evil, but obeying a divine
purpose. After all, doesn’t Jesus himself teach us, “He who
endures to the end will be saved?” But no one, certainly not
I, should under-estimate the awesome difficulty there is in
distinguishing the one from the other. That is precisely where
the anguish of living the life of faith dwells. So, now I sense
the depth and poignancy of the prayer, “Lead us not into
temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
Jesus makes a pointed reference to the offence there
necessarily is in adhering to the spiritual path. That ‘offence’
has two aspects. First, offence to myself. Many of the
teachings of Jesus Christ offend my worldly wisdom, and it
is rank dishonesty to pretend to the contrary. They seem
foolhardy to follow. Or they seem earmarked only for
supernatural beings, like the Son of God. The second
offence pertains to offending others. As regards following
the teaching, “Do not resist evil” the foremost issue is the
first kind of offence: offence to myself. It did not make sense
to me at that time to refrain from resisting evil. Indeed, it
seemed a core spiritual duty. I did what made sense to me,
though it meant going against the specific teaching of Jesus
Christ.
Not that the second category of offence did not matter to
me. I was indeed worried about being condemned,
especially by those who knew me –such being the reach of
human vanity- as a courageous crusader against corruption,
that I fled for cover at the earliest sign of difficulty. I was in
love with this self-image. I was scared to be seen as
inconsistent.
All things considered, the foremost issue that remains at the
centre of my thinking on this event is that I forestalled the
intervention of God by acting according to the logic of the
world, which was what I had internalized. I know this could
confuse or trouble my readers. But I don’t wish to be
apologetic about it; for I am now convinced, more than ever
before, that when it comes to Christian discipleship, it is all
or nothing. Either we adhere to all of Jesus’ teachings or we
don’t even begin to be Christians. We cannot cherry-pick the
teachings of Jesus, choosing convenient and comforting
verses from the Gospels to match our disposition and to
maximize our advantages, as we tend to do ever so often.
The other issue that Tolstoy raises in his reflections on the
Sermon on the Mount is whether or not the doctrine of Christ
applies to “questions of State,” besides to the salvation of
the individual. He comes to the conclusion, through a
detailed analysis, that it does. What are the implications,
then?
Tolstoy finds serving in the army –the business of killing
under the pretext of defending life- completely incompatible
with the teachings of Jesus. Like Karl Marx, he too
expresses his reservations –indeed disapproval- of serving
as judges and members of the jury, as such work involves
‘condemning’ fellow human beings and returning evil for evil.
He cites the instance of how Jesus refuses to judge or
condemn the woman taken in adultery. Tolstoy also
disfavours the so-called law enforcing agencies –the police
in particular- as instruments of oppression maintained and
mandated to protect the rich against the poor. They are
agents of oppression, vis-à-vis the poor.
16 | P a g e F O C U S J u l y 2 0 1 8
Of course, Paul, in due course, would change this
perspective. He assumes it as axiomatic that all authority
comes from God and that Christians are duty bound to
cooperate with the State and to submit themselves to
secular authorities. He does not say much about where the
line is to be drawn, though. What if the agenda and mandate
of the State run counter to the discipline of the Kingdom, as
they often do? Specific to the present Indian context, should
Christians idolise the flag and the national anthem, simply
because there is an ideological change in the land? Should
patriotism be our creed? Or, should Kingdom values –love,
justice, truth, compassion- matter to us most? Is it
legitimate to attract the ire of the State, as Christians did in
Rome in the first three centuries of the Christian era by
refusing to endorse state rituals? If we do, wouldn’t we be
‘resisting evil’, which we are not to do?
The point I want to raise here is that Indian Christian
community today is crippled by a total absence of
hermeneutic thinking on the teachings of Jesus Christ. If
there is something worse than flouting the teachings of
Jesus, it is to cease to think about them; even think about
them heretically. The Church has virtually nothing to say on
prevailing issues and emerging challenges. The discipline of
thinking biblically is all but evaporated from our midst. We
simply drift along, assuming that all of us are good
Christians, badged and ticketed for heaven.
At the root of abdicating this core spiritual duty is absorption
–this is what Tolstoy says- in rituals, dogmas and
sacraments. Here is the relevant part of the text-Believers
profess that Christ as God, the second person of the Trinity,
descended upon earth to teach men by his example how to
live; they go through the most elaborate ceremonies for the
consummation of the sacraments, the building of temples,
the sending out of missionaries, the establishment of
priesthoods, for parochial administration, for the
performance of rituals; but they forget one little detail –the
practice of the commandments of Jesus. (My Religion)
It is not Tolstoy’s argument that ceremonies and
sacraments, rituals and rites are superfluous. His grievance
is that the church is not interested in anything beyond them.
That is to say, rituals and rites have ceased to be
incarnational. In that sense, the exclusive obsession with
them militates against the essence of biblical spirituality. It is
an issue that Jesus places at the centre of the parable of the
Good Samaritan. The priest and Levite have become
irrelevant to the world of lived realities. The circumstances of
their spiritual cosmos coincided with the boundaries of the
temple. To that extent, the rituals and sacraments themselves
lost their vitality for them. The extent to which equipping of the
saints takes place, or is neglected, through congregational
nurture should be a matter of serious concern today.
Worship in biblical worldview is a means for sanctification. But
sanctification for what? Is it not sanctification for leading life in
all its abundance? (Jn. 10:10) And how can that be, unless
worship sanctifies all aspects of our life? God is Lord not only of
Sundays, but of all days. He dwells not only in places of
worship, but at the centre of our life, and all life. His presence
fills the world. The most unfortunate effect that places of
worship have created is that of dividing the world into sacred
and profane spaces. (The word ‘profane’ in its original meaning
meant only ‘outside the temple premises’). God is relevant to
the sacred domain; the rest is claimed by man as his free-hold.
Such a view is alien to the Bible.
The doctrine of Jesus, in the sense in which Tolstoy uses the
concept, rejects the sacred-profane divide. It does so by
shifting the emphasis from mechanical and ritualistic
observances to ‘doing the will of God’, as in the case of the
instruction that Jesus gives to the expert in Jewish law, “God
and do likewise” (Lk. 15:37). Spirituality is a domain of action,
not of mere observances.
It is not my intention here to attempt a comprehensive analysis
of Tolstoy’s stand on the Sermon on the Mount. In view of the
limited canvas of an article, I have confined myself to
foregrounding a few of the issues that Tolstoy raises in his book
My Religion. Readers interested in pursuing this line of study
further are advised to also consult his other works- The
Kingdom of God is Within You, What Shall We Do? Bethink
Yourselves! And A Confession
What impresses me most is the enormous moral authority that
Tolstoy came to wield in the last phase of his life, when he tried
to live strictly by the teachings of Christ. He was recognized the
“real Tsar of Russia”. That recognition did not come because of
his pre-eminence among the men of letters of his times, but
from his moral authority. The secret of that authority was his
attempt to bridge the gulf between the teachings of Christ and
the way life is lived. Mention needs to be made, though, that he
got into serious trouble with the Russian Orthodox Church,
which excommunicated him. The Tsar, whom he criticised even
more fiercely, left him unharmed.
Regrettably, we have, unlike Tolstoy, a superstitious idea of the
power of the biblical faith. This is not an accident. It is a logical
and necessary by-product of our reluctance to take to the
straight and narrow path. The Way of Jesus Christ seems so
very daunting to us that we take refuge in a magical sort of
Christianity, which seems to offer an effortless and convenient
alternative –the proverbial broad road that Jesus warned us
against. It should not surprise us that we are almost totally
alienated from the power of the faith. As Reinhold Niebuhr wrote
in a different context-
A Christ without a Cross led a people without sin into
a heaven without judgement.
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We try to fill this vacuum, created by the dearth of radical
obedience, with show and splendour, size and scale. That is
why we build more and more expensive and impressive
churches, even if the faith community is languishing in spiritual
anaemia and growing in indifference –and as regards the youth,
in allergy- towards formal worship. Alienated from the power of
the faith, they seek compensation in the aesthetics of worship,
which is a cultural bonus, though it is mistaken for nascent
spirituality. Music, to take just once aspect of it, is at its centre
not necessarily because there is anything extra spiritual about it,
but because it pleases and satisfies one’s aesthetic sense.
The foremost feature of the Sermon on the Mount is the
spotlight on the radical difference between the Way of Jesus
and the way of the world. The former is, as the theological cliché
states, the “upside –down Kingdom”. If it is indeed such, we
need to learn to walk on our hands, not on our legs, so to
speak. We need to learn, that is to say, a different equilibrium.
The problem is that we try to walk in the Kingdom as per the
equilibrium of the world; we falter and fumble and, unnerved, we
give up in quick time. We improvise theologies and doctrines to
rationalize and legitimize our apostasy. We seek and find refuge
from the challenges of radical obedience; and do so in the
soothing arms of our mother church! Thank God, there is at
least some place we can retreat to! The fact remains,
nonetheless, that God alone is our refuge. All other refuges are,
therefore, counterfeits.
I conclude by raising a question that I consider crucial. Why is it
that Christians, all over the world, are shrinking in spiritual, even
personal, stature? Of course we have TV evangelists and
miracle-mongers. We have godmen. We have successful men.
We have Mammon on our side. But people think of Zacchaeus,
not Jesus, when they meet us. We are becoming living
caricatures of what we were meant to be- created in His
imagine and likeness.
Consider, now, what happened to a band of insignificant men –
most of them fisher folk- after they adopted the Way of Jesus.
How they grew in stature! They came to be seen as “those who
turn the world upside down”. Tolstoy was one such. That’s why
I thought I’d focus on him, by way of saying what I would not,
otherwise, have dared to say especially in my old age, even if I
have the authority of the Sermon on my side.
In the end, I am deeply disturbed that the Sermon on the Mount
does not disturb us. There are two reasons for this. First, we
read it as a duty, mechanically. So, we skip on the verbal
surface of the text; whereas its fire dwells in its depth. Second,
spirituality has very little to do with the way most of us live. Life
is lived by culture, not faith; though we profess to the contrary.
Jesus said - Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I
came not to send peace, but a sword. (Mt. 10:34). That sword,
as St. Paul would say, is the sword of the Spirit that cleaves to
the marrow of the bones.
Prescriptions for Perfection
Dr. Zac Varghese, London
“Be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Mt.5: 43)
The cardinal theme of the Sermon on the Mount is to be
found in the command of Jesus to his followers with the
hope that they will become perfect just as their Father in
heaven is perfect. This perfection is a continuing process
of growing toward Christian maturity. Through the
Sermon on the Mount in St. Matthew’s Gospel (Mt.5-7)
and in the Sermon on the Plain in St. Luke’s Gospel (Lk.
6: 17-49) Jesus gives us various prescriptions to achieve
this perfection. It is a journey, a pilgrimage, beginning
with the initial commitment to the fullness of life ‘in Christ’
under the divine grace. Jesus throughout his ministry
announced God’s kingdom, and people understood the
kingdom of God/kingdom of heaven in different ways.
The apostles, disciples and the Church through the ages
have also presented Jesus’ message in different ways
too. However, the words of this sermon are relevant
today as they were when Christ delivered them either on
the Mount or on the Plain because Jesus concluded:
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine
and puts them into practice is like a wise man who
built his house on the rock” (Mt. 7: 24). The challenge
for us is this: will we take these words of Jesus to our
heart on our pilgrim journey?
When we begin this journey, it is so easy to get lost in the
thick forests of theological arguments of when, where,
how and why of these immortal sayings of Jesus. Did he
give this sermon at one sitting on a Mount or spoke
mingling with a crowd on a Plain? People have written
volumes for finding an analogy to Moses handing down
the Ten Commandments and how St. Matthew structured
his Gospel in the form of the five books of the Torah to
give comfort to his Jewish-Christian Community. We
often find satisfaction in reaching the conclusion that the
kingdom of Heaven and the kingdom of God meant the
same entity. Others spend time on tracing the nature of
the audience for whom St. Luke wrote and many such
peripheral details. In the end, the more accommodating
theologians came to the conclusion that there are two
versions of summaries of Jesus’ discourses delivered
during his three year ministry, it may be very much like
two newspaper reporters writing about the memories of
an important event in the history of a people which they
came across thirty or forty years later. Whatever way we
want to look at it, the message has timelessness about it
and it is relevant today as it was then.
The most familiar section of the Sermon on the Mount is
to be found in what is known as ‘the Beatitudes’ or
blessedness/happiness (Mt. 5: 3-12; Lk. 6: 20-26).
Happiness or blessedness was what people urgently
needed at that period of Jewish history and people were
anxiously waiting for a deliverer, a Messiah. Therefore, it
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is significant that Jesus begins his ministry in bringing
happiness to a community, whether it was through the
miracle at the wedding celebration at Cana, or through
healings or through his Sermons or through the ministry
of the feeding miracles. It is of interest to trace the
traditional backdrop of Jesus’ statements about
blessedness. The Jewish community is familiar with the
stories of their Patriarchs seeking blessings both of
Adonai/ Lord/ Yahweh/God and of their parents. For
example, Jacob was willing to cheat his brother Esau to
receive blessings from his father, Isaac. He did this
because the idea of this blessing has a dimensionless
continuity and eternity. For us this means to establish a
relationship with God that brings happiness in the midst
of all perplexities of life. Therefore, when Jesus begins his
public ministry, he begins at the very beginning of Jewish
history with a word, ‘blessedness’, which resonates with
the blessings given to Abraham and the creation itself;
furthermore, we read: “In the beginning was the Word
and the Word was with God . . . (Jn. 1: 1-5). This
continuity as expressed so beautifully in the prologue of
St. John’s Gospel is important because of whom Jesus
is. The Sermon on the Mount was not just the message of
a charismatic leader or a manifesto of a political
revolutionary; it has as a beginning engulfed in mystery
and an ever-loving and everlasting influence on every
human soul.
The concept of happiness in the Sermon has a deeper
meaning with a reference to spiritual happiness that
Jesus intends to make accessible to his audience when
they become citizens of the kingdom of God. The criteria
for becoming the citizen of the kingdom is made very
clear to Nicodemus in his night-encounter with Jesus (Jn.
3: 3). Human happiness ordinarily results from human
endeavour. But the Divine happiness that Jesus offers us
through the prescriptions in ‘the Sermon’ is through a
transformation and through a gift that comes directly from
God. This transformation has the built in potential for
living a life in all its fullness. Jesus suggests that the kind
of happiness he brings is an inner happiness that can
only be attained by surrendering our self-interests for the
common good of others in loving our neighbours. Jesus
makes it crystal clear that loving our God is only possible
through loving our neighbours. This is one of the
important prescriptions for a happy life. Jesus is leading
his listeners to a way of life in which one can find spiritual,
inner, happiness even in the midst of trials and
tribulations. The fulfilment of the Law (Mt. 5: 17-20),
judging others (Mt. 7: 1-5) and loving the enemies (Mt. 5:
45-48) are all part of the prescriptions for perfection.
Last week in a conversation group, in north London, one
of the group leaders, Mrs. Wendy Frith, asked us to
discuss the question: who is your neighbour? We have
Jesus’ answer to this question in the story of the Good
Samaritan (Luke 20: 25-42). One friend, Mr. David Brand,
looking at his back garden and seeing the trees, flower
border, grass, insects and birds, came up with the notion
that the whole world is our neighbour and we as
custodians are obliged to look after it. Others contributed
and the discussion proceeded along the following way.
Fr. James Mercer introduced the idea of intentionality in
loving the neighbour. Our neighbour is anyone within and
without, transcending closed-circles of human
relationships. When we remove the identity that defines
the ‘otherness of the other’, we find ourselves in the other
and then s/he is our neighbour. Our neighbour includes
the so-called enemies also. Our neighbour is anyone of
any race, creed, gender, social background or IQ who is
in need. Therefore, when we remove the otherness of the
other we will find our neighbour; when we move from self-
centeredness to other-centeredness we find our
neighbour. Neighbourliness is not about spatial proximity,
it is a dimensionless reality. The word ‘I’ really should
mean here I am and here I stand with others in solidarity,
answering for everything and for everyone; it is in this
reality we recognise the neighbour. There is an Indian
saying: “Never have the feeling of ‘I’ centeredness, but if
you happened to have one then let it becomes a universal
‘I’.”
The Old Testaments narratives imply favouritism and
therefore, entail exclusion of the other in the concept of
‘election’. But this ‘election’ was specifically for becoming
a blessing to others (Gen.12: 2-3). A chosen people have
responsibilities for caring for the powerless. ‘In Christ’ we
19 | P a g e F O C U S J u l y 2 0 1 8
find inclusion. ‘In Christ or en Christo’ is one of the
favourite expressions of St. Paul in his letters. In Christ
everything is possible. Welcoming the stranger is what it
means to be a human. Jonathan Sacks2, a former chief
rabbi, said: “If we were to listen closely to the voice of the
other, we would find beneath the skin that we are
brothers and sisters, members of the human family under
the parenthood of God.” George Brown, a previous
Labour Cabinet Minister in the UK in the 60s said, “If we
scratch our skin, we find an immigrant underneath.” The
distance and the difference between the ‘other’ and ‘I’
should be very thin, transparent and touchable; it is in this
thinness that we find our neighbour to develop an ‘I-Thou’
relationship; it may be an opportunity to meet Christ in
our neighbour. It is in this relationship we find the fruit of
the Spirit and prescriptions for perfection (Gal. 5: 22-23).
The whole focus of the Sermon on the Mount is to call our
attention away from ourselves to God and from whom the
divine happiness can be received. It is all about finding a
mediatory role for ourselves between the invisible (God)
and the visible (humanity and the created-world) and
leading others to God. Swedenborg3 wrote: “Everyone in
the heaven knows, believes, and even perceives that
nothing good is intended and done by the self.
Everything comes from the Divine.” He goes on to say,
“The Divine nature that emanates from the Lord is the
good intrinsic to love and the truth intrinsic to faith.”
Therefore, the source of light, truth, and all goodness
emanates from the Lord. The flow of grace is from God to
human beings who are ‘poor in Spirit’. The real
significance of the first Beatitude in Matthew’s Gospel
comes to light in St. Luke’s description of the prayers of
the Pharisee and the tax collector (Lk. 18: 10-14). In his
prayer the tax collector says, “God, have mercy on me,
a sinner.” In these seven words, the tax collector
expresses his spiritual poverty. In expressing it so
sincerely and in utter humility he returns home forgiven
and justified like the ‘Prodigal Son’. The quality of the
father’s love determines the quality of the ‘Prodigal Son’s’
life. It is indeed a homecoming experience for him, and
happiness returns to his life. The tax collector now enters
the kingdom of God because of the acknowledgement of
his spiritual poverty, which was the first step to his entry
to the kingdom of God and blessedness. Zacchaeus
expressed his spiritual poverty by climbing down the
sycamore tree (Lk. 19: 1-9), and ‘salvation has come to
his house’ at that moment of repentance and
transformation.
In the Scripture we come across five words which often
confuse us in our inability to understand how they are
2
Johnathan Sacks, ‘Not in God’s Name’, Hodder and
Stoughton, 2015.
3
Emmanuel Swedenborg, ‘Heaven and Hell’, ISBN 978-0-
87785-476-0, 2016.
interconnected; these are body, mind, soul, human spirit
and the Holy Spirit. In some texts soul and spirit are
interchangeable in others they have different meaning
(Heb. 4: 12). The soul, as with the human spirit, is at the
heart of our spiritual and emotional experiences. The
word soul may represent the whole person, whether in life
or in the afterlife. The human spirit is the non-physical
part of the human being that connects with the Holy
Spirit, God. This relationship and interaction is a
prescription for perfection. However, the problem is that
the human spirit often seeks to reach ‘the mountain top
experience of transformation’ out of its own resources,
making access to Divine happiness a distinctively
personal achievement. This is similar to the failed-
adventure and ego trip in the story behind the ‘Tower of
Babel’, trying to reach heaven by human endeavour.
The composite of the above five words in the right order
and relationship makes a perfect life, and for this we need
to follow the grammar of life. In the Sermon on the Mount
we find this grammar, which gives us a longing for justice,
truth, relationship, love and beauty. The minutiae of
insignificant part and personality of the individual is not
the whole reality; to understand the whole, the part or
parts should interact with other parts to create a musical
symphony of life. ‘The whole is greater than sum of its
parts.’ We need to listen and train with the universal
conductor of the orchestra for creating the eternal
harmonious symphony. We find the musical score for this
symphony of life in the Sermon of the Mount.
Krishnamurti4 said, “We should not use the word
individual at all, or the word mine and yours as they
have no meaning, fundamentally. I am the result of my
father and my mother and the environmental influence
of the country and the society.’ This interdependence is
important in our everyday living and understanding the
‘other’ is part of our Christian identity in Christ, “if
anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Cor. 5: 17).
Paul said to the Greeks: “For in him we live and move
and have our being” (Acts 17: 28). We should learn to
move from self-centeredness to other centeredness. It is
in this process that we will be understood in our
understanding of the other. What the Indian mystic, Sri
Aurobindo5, said is relevant in this context: “A solitary
salvation leaving the world to its fate is almost
distasteful.”
To illustrate this point let me quote a story from
Johnathan Sacks’ book, ‘Not in the Name of God’, from
which I quoted earlier. Two friends were walking in the
jungle when they hear the roar of a lion. The first starts
thinking of a place they could hide. The second puts on
his running shoes. The first says, ‘what are you thinking
4 6
J. Krishanmurti, Ojai Talks, 1947.
5 7
Sri Aurobindo, Satperm, The Mother’s Institute of
research , Delhi, and Mira Aditi, Mysore, 2003.
20 | P a g e F O C U S J u l y 2 0 1 8
of? You cannot run faster than the lion.’ The second
replies, ‘I don’t need to run faster than the lion, I need to
run faster than you.’ In this story the first man thinks of
saving both him and his friend. The second one is
thinking of saving himself at the expense of his friends. It
is a question of survival at the cost of the life of one’s
friend. Jesus did the opposite; he gave his life to save the
whole created world. Therefore, Sri Aurobindo is right in
thinking that ‘nothing can be saved unless everything
is saved.’ A human being left to himself in his vanity is
spiritually bankrupt, but the moment one admits one’s
spiritual poverty, he can become a citizen of the kingdom
of God.
It is only when we tackle our spiritual poverty, under the
grace of God, we can continue with our spiritual journey,
a pilgrim’s progress, which brings fullness and perfection
out of our emptiness. It is a continuing, step-by-step,
process of reaching perfection and growing into maturity.
It is this maturity for which Jesus tells us to ask, seek,
and knock. Jesus tells us when we do so continuously,
we find satisfaction for our deepest desire for abiding
with him. Fake spiritual exercises or following religious
formulations created for exercising power over others are
not the right way; the right way is a ‘narrow way’, even an
impossible way. The prescriptions are there for us to
continue the journey with Christ and to listen to his
words: "Be perfect, as my Father in heaven is perfect.”
These prescriptions are not like the Mosaic laws; it is
entirely based on love. In ‘Honest to God’6, John
Robinson wrote: “It is love which is the constitutive
principle––and law, at most, is only the regulative one,
if it is even that.”
It is good to remember that even the best human efforts
are not perfect and the worst are not devoid of merits. In
this process we have the possibility of materialising the
dream of Swedenborg7 because he said, “Human being
is the divine design and therefore heaven in
miniature.” It is also good to remember St. Augustine’s
words: “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and
our hearts are restless until they find their rest in
thee.”
Editor’s Note: Dr. Zac Varghese,
London, U.K., was the director of
Renal and Transplantation
Immunology Research of Royal Free
Hospital and Medical School in
London. He is also a prolific writer on
religious and ecumenical issues; he
continues to work relentlessly for
common good of the worldwide Mar
Thoma Diaspora communities.
John A. T. Robinson, ‘Honest to God’, SCM Press,1963.
Emmanuel Swedenborg, ‘Heaven and Hell’, ISBN 978-0-
87785-476-0, 2016.
‘Hostility to Hospitality’ is the Very the Essence of Spirituality
Part-2* (Dr. Zac Varghese, London) [Part 1 of this article appeared in the July (2017) issue of the FOCUS (Vol 5: 3)]
Most of the hostility toward other religions is essentially
due to lack of understanding of our own faith and more
seriously an absolute ignorance of about other peoples’
religions, faith and worship patterns. For this reason, for
no other, there is an urgent need for a greater and deeper
theological understanding of hospitality and solidarity in
all churches today and also across all religious
enclosures. Most of the theological basis for the
formation new branches of churches (40,000 or more
denominations) has arisen from a response to events and
insight of a particular period. Such historically oriented
theology is occasional theology. Such occasional
theology is formulated for a need of the day and
satisfying that need in the context of best possible
theological insight of the time. This is also true for the
Mar Thoma Church and its reformation in the nineteenth
century.
Church historian will never be able to neglect the role of
lay participation in formulating this important occasional
theology during the reformation or transformation of any
faith community. Such a theology is a theology of the
whole people of God and not just of professional
theologians because theologians usually talk about God,
but religious people experience God; this experience of
God and having an intimate relationship with God is
spirituality. William James divides religion into two main
categories: the Institutional – including church, theology,
rituals and traditions; and the personal experiential side.
TS Eliot wrote: “I had the meaning, but missed the
experience.” We all know what we ought to do, but we
often manage not to do it. Spiritual experiences can be
triggered in many ways: some people find this during
worship, in chanting a liturgy or a mantra, in meditation or
in silence. Others may feel an awareness God in nature.
Charles Kingsley felt the awareness God during his nature
walks and wrote, “I was aware that I was immersed in the
infinite ocean of God.” This is indeed the sensitivity
needed to see the presence of God in human activities.
This is the hospitality of including everyone in our spiritual
journey to experience God.
Christian theologian is the cuckoo that lays her eggs in
other people’s nest and flies away. It is the laity who is
responsible for hatching the theological egg and their
contribution is vital for its nurture. Here we see hostility is
being transformed to hospitality through lay participation.
A lay-centered church should be the hallmark of the
twenty-first century. Mar Thoma Church has the label of a
lay-centered church. Generally speaking there are three
kinds of laity in the Church: the first group is the one who
spends their entire time in councils and committees and
who are designated, quite incorrectly, as representing the
21 | P a g e F O C U S J u l y 2 0 1 8
laity. But they are very important in maintaining the
structures of the Church. This lay contribution is not
democracy’s answer to an institutionalised church. They
pretend that they are the standard bearers of tradition.
The second group is evangelically minded born again
group of laity who is also important in the life and mission
of the Church and they are flag bearers of word of God in
the scripture. They sometimes practise a tyranny of
emotional experience. We also have a third much larger
group of silent lay people whose insight and experience is
drawn from daily chores at the working environment of
their daily living. This sort of lay presence draws their
strength form their daily involvement in that continuing
process of God’s continuing revelation and creation. Our
liberal understanding is that creation is a continuing
process within which there is the further revelation and
purpose, which we come to call redemption.
God’s revelation is not restricted to Israelites, Christians
or any particular religion. We see this in the anointing of
the Persian King Cyrus (Isaiah 45:1-6) and his
involvement in helping exilic community in Babylon to
return to Jerusalem and rebuilding the second Temple
through Ezra and Nehemiah during the reign of Darius.
We also read the strange story of Balaam, the
Mesopotamian prophet, who is made to prophesy for
Israel in the presence of their enemies (Numbers 22-24).
In the story of the Melchizedeck, we have Canaanite
priest-king bringing bread and vine to Abraham. In the
Christian tradition, this incidence gives to the reflection on
the priesthood of Christ himself as being according to
‘the order of Melchizedek’ (Genesis 14: 18; Hebrews 6:
20). The story of Ruth informs us, how a Moabite woman
became the ancestress of David and thus of Jesus
himself (Ruth 4: 17-22). Boaz’s generosity and hospitality
is at the heart of this amazing story. This continuing
redemptive process is set within a continuing creative
process in which man/woman at some point comes to
play his part under the grace of God. It is important to
see that we should not allow ourselves to be guided by a
tyranny of the institutions or emotional blackmail in
appreciating this reality. This understanding is essential
for moving away from hostility to hospitality in our
interfaith dialogue.
Many people are experiencing a vacuum in their religious
experiences and expectations. It is a god-shaped hole
created by the theological vacuum or rejuvenating
fellowship of the mainstream churches, which so many
religious cults are filling in through university ministries
and church planting. This is a real crisis and it will be met
only by a fresh understanding of the importance and
place of theology in the life and faith of whole people of
God. A tripartite theology involving the word of God in apoptosis, is a built in safety valve for the homeostasis of
scriptures; the word of God in tradition and the teaching cells, tissues, and the physiology of life. Repentance,
of the Church and also the word of God in human renewal and regeneration are important processes in our
experience and reason are out there. It is this third part spiritual life and the life of the church as well to build and
which is hidden in the very fibre of his creation. The nurture a faith- based community. This is the way for
genius of a living theology is to see how these three shifting our emphasis from hostility to hospitality in our
witnesses, scripture, tradition and reason, can agree for everyday living. We need to pray for keeping our arms
creating God’s Kingdom here and now. This is a sure way open to strangers, to those who are different and social
of providing hospitality for seekers of spirituality. God is outcasts; there is also the possibility that these strangers
working His purposes out in a variety of ways and that no may be carrying unexpected gifts and blessings with
one model is adequate in describing God’s work. We them, which might change our lives. God’s mission
need absolute humility to appreciate this and offer demands the church to proclaim the good news not only
hospitality to others. This understanding is essential for in words, but also effectively through deeds promoting
interfaith dialogue. Malachi speaks of the way in which communal harmony and hospitality among all human
God is recognised and worshipped among other nations. beings.
In some cases these were more acceptable than the
worship of Israel itself (Malachi 1: 11). TO REMEMBER IS DIVINE*
Is there such a thing as a unique Mar Thoma Theology? Rev. Dr. M. J. Joseph, Kottayam
What is it? Where is it? Are uniqueness and special
For it is right in the sight of God.
claims recipes for disaster and hostility? Metropolitan
In the book of Sibylline Oracles
Chrysostom of the Mar Thoma Church seems to have chapter 44
said in a recoded conversation (Mission in the Market We read the words of wisdom to
place) that “Malpan’s reformation was a movement live and to die.
against the practices of the church; it was not based on Remembrance of the blessed and
any well thought out theological position.” What is it the departed is adored.
then? Is it an evolving theology based on its history, So also in the book of Proverbs
10:7 and Ps.112:6.
corrective actions, social exclusions, and evangelical Lord, you have assured me in
fervour? Perhaps it is based on stories and legends of Is.49:15: “I will not forget you”.
our forefathers; if it is, then we need to tell these stories Lord, you have assured me again in
very quickly before our memories fade away. There is a Heb.6:10:
need to tease out every layer of that theology hidden in You are not unjust to forget my work of faith in serving the saints.
the developing story of the Mar Thoma Church. If you I am being re-assured by the words of Abdul Kalam by an
analogy:
know these stories and the theology behind the stories,
“If an egg is broken from outside force life ends
would you please come out tell us these for the benefit of If broken by inside force, life begins.
future generations, particularly generations growing up in Great things always begin from inside”
diaspora communities. But there is a problem here Yes, remembering the good deeds of a friend comes only from
because of Metropolitan Chrysostom has this amazing inside.
insight based on the apparent lack of an identifiable Lord, you have set an example to us
Christian culture in Kerala at the time of reformation; he You remembered your old female friend after your exalted (risen)
status
wrote: “The reason for this was that our forefathers did In the Garden city of Jerusalem, where Zac had his brief sojourn
not have any deep understanding of Christ. How is a in 1974,
deep understanding of Christ is possible without the You called your former friend by her name, MARY
study of the Bible?” Now we have the Bible in various And you had shown courage to break the barriers of
formats, theological interpretation of all types, our own communication
theological institutions and research centres, but what is What a great gesture of friendship!
In Your mercy, you have enabled Zac to speak and to write what
preventing us from studying and writing an authentic
is profitable
theological basis of the reformation? Are we still carrying And to make human bonding across the continents.
with us the hostility and resentment associated with the FOCUS is his legacy on the sands of time.
reformation? What is on the agenda for creating Yes, Lord, to remember is divine
Eucharistic hospitality at the Lord’s Table with other To forget is natural
churches? Is there a problem in raising such a question? To forget willingly is devilish!
We would like to thank you, Lord, for what he means to us
Death and resurrection is written into the very fibre of We know, Lord, that love is a verb for Zac
For many it is only a noun.
human experience. As surely as a grain of wheat falls into
May God’s name be glorified today and tomorrow.
earth it must die in order to bring forth new life, this
regeneration is the need of our times to remove hostility *A poetic greeting for Dr. Zac Varghese (London) on
and to create hospitality. Programmed cell death, his 80th birthday on July 21, 2018.
22 | P a g e F O C U S J u l y 2 0 1 8

The End of an Amazing Pilgrimage, but the Beginning of Another
Dr. Zac Varghese, London
It is indeed a blessing to join others from the Mar Thoma
Community in the UK and Europe for thanking God for
the life and ministry of the Rt. Revd Geevarghese Mar
Athanasius Suffragan Metropolitan. We are all saddened
by Thirumeni’s death on 18th April 2018, but it was a
saintly ending of an amazing pilgrimage. Death may seem
a remote and improbable event that only happens to
other people. Most of the time, aging process is not
smooth or gentle; it can be very cruel, rushes up and
pushes you over. Thirumeni courageously showed us how
to prepare, under the grace of God, by finding solutions
to severe health-related problems from January 2007.
Although the struggles were protracted, Thirumeni never
gave up and faced them with amazing courage, and
never allowed it to affect his ministry in any way.
Thirumeni made us experience the fact God had given
him time and space over the last few months to prepare
himself for his final pilgrim journey to his eternal home. He
respected life, as it is a gift from God, and searched for
the meaning of suffering. Our Metropolitan Thirumeni had
given us a detailed and very caring account of his final
days in the May issue of the Tharaka. Athanasius
Thirumeni had the courage and time to say final graceful
goodbyes to his brother bishops, and his beloved people
within the faith community and the wider-ecumenical
world. It is often said that the manner of a person’s death
illustrates the character of the individual; this is certainly
true in Thirumeni’s death and magnificent funeral service
of eternal hope.
Thirumeni lived under the amazing grace of God for 74
years of which he did episcopal ministry for the last
twenty-nine years. Over these years he influenced and
touched all of us through his right mindfulness, right
views, lofty ideals, penetrating thoughts, memorable
sermons, and right lifestyle. We have all known him in our
own special ways. I had the opportunity to meet him with
late Iype Abraham, for the first time on 11th June 1976,
when he was returning to Kerala after his higher studies in
Toronto. He was then Revd C. I. George, and Achen
generously spent a very enjoyable evening with us, and
our friendship grew over the following 42 years. He had
an endearing smile; simple and sincere people have the
habit of expressing their thoughts on their face, this
indeed is the mark of their innocence and Thirumeni was
an example of this. One memorable habit of Thirumeni, in
later years, was his early morning phone calls for very
specific and precise needs relating to various mission
projects of the Church; he used to be very direct and very
sincere about everything. Thirumeni was a tower of
strength and inspiration for those who attended the three
23 | P a g e F O C U S J u l y 2 0 1 8
FOCUS Seminars at Santhigiri Ashram from 1999 to
2003.
‘Service at any cost, but not fame at any price’ was one
of Thirumeni ideals. Thirumeni was first and foremost a
Bishop, an Apostle of Jesus Christ. His mission was
God’s mission, ‘Missio dei’. For all sorts of reasons, it is
possible to sense a difference between the mission of
God and the mission of the Church, Thirumeni was
mostly interested in the former. St. Paul said, “And God
has appointed in the Church first of all apostles, second
prophets, third teachers. . .” (1 Cor. 12: 28). Therefore,
Apostles, prophets and teachers are given pride of place
in the Church and it is rare that all these three gifts can be
found in one man. But in Athanasius Thirumeni there was
a true combination of all these ministries. He was an
Apostle, sent by Jesus Christ, called to preach and lead
the Church. He endeavoured to bring God’s future to the
present in knowing the fully well that ‘the kingdom of God
is here, but a not-yet reality’. He took great care in
preparing his sermons. He used to stay at Santhigiri
Ashram during weekdays for preparing number of
sermons for the year ahead and carefully practiced them
during his early morning walks through the grounds of the
Ashram. His sermons were spiced with poetry and
quotations from poets, philosophers and writers. He was
very fond of quoting from Vivekananda, Tagore, Tolstoy,
Kumaran Assan, Azhikode and such. Thirumeni had
‘intelligence beyond thought’. He had a great love and
facility for speaking rhetorically and eloquently in
Malayalam, and he used it well for driving home the
Gospel message.
Each man’s achievement is his own under the most
benevolent grace of God and only the person can tell
what the cost has been. No one can live the life of
another and no one can make his own life out of
another’s. However, love and compassion can help
everyone, strengthening the weak and encouraging the
dispirited; whilst hate, anger and malice can only
slowdown everyone’s progress. Thirumeni endeavours to
build Mar Thoma communities around the world for the
glory of God. Thirumeni taught us the importance of
following the essential Christian virtues and kingdom
values for the common good of the community. This was
because of his Christ-centred self without being self-
centred.
The greatest tribute that we can pay to Thirumeni is to
take seriously those things for which he lived his ministry;
to hold firmly the traditions and doctrines of the Church,
and to be firmly rooted in faith; to know that faith must be
taught and lived, and theology studied with intellectual
integrity if people are to be spiritually fed and truth
proclaimed to quench spiritual poverty. This is very
important to any teacher, mentor, or charismatic spiritual
leader, and Thirumeni had it all.
Is not it strange that hardly anyone has a good word to
say about a Bishop in private when he’s alive or bad
things to say in public about him when he is dead? That
is because we remember the bits we want to remember
and forget the bits we would rather forget, but I would
suggest to you to remember those things which were the
nearest to Thirumeni’s heart for that is the greatest tribute
we can pay as sincere friends to a great Bishop.
Human life is a strange and wonderful experience: bright
with promise and deep with sadness, joy of abundant
health and the burden of illness, marked with love and
loneliness, joy and tears. The future is upon us all too
soon and the present quickly becomes the past.
Thirumeni taught us that with faith we can entrust all our
days, good and bad, to the care of our Lord––the past as
well as the future, and the present, since ‘all time belongs
to Him all the ages.’ Thirumeni just completed God’s
mission in this world very successfully, finished his
pilgrimage and embarking on another journey. Athanasius
Thirumeni was a faithful servant of God and His Church,
and walked closely with Jesus in his life. May his soul rest
in peace and resurrect in glory. Let us pray that he will be
welcomed by the God he served so faithfully to be with
Jesus forever.
Book Review
Published by: ISPCK, Delhi
March 2018
MUSINGS AND MARKINGS
(Poetic Reflections and Essays)
By Revd Dr. M. J. Joseph, Kottayam
“Lakshmir
lakshanahinee
Kulaheenee Saraswathii
Apatree Labhatee harrii
Megha Varshantu
parvatee”
If Lakshmidevi showers all
blessings on a person
without any quality, it is of
no use. So are the
blessings of Saraswathy
on an undignified human
being. An excellent wife
given to an undeserving
being is also useless. All
24 | P a g e F O C U S J u l y 2 0 1 8
these will be like the rain falling on top of a mountain. It is
of no use.
My long association with Revd Dr. M. J. Joseph has
taught me one thing – he is a rare genius who really is
blessed by Saraswathy and Lakshmi. All the divine gifts
from above have been abundantly used by him in
articulating his theological and philosophical
interpretations of life. His books celebrate the joy of life
and all life supporting phenomena.
“Musings and Markings” is a beautiful collection of
poems and essays in four sections. Twenty two chapters
in the beginning part deal with a variety of subjects like
ECC, Peoples Reporter, Diaspora Focus, Jesus the
Radical, The Om of the Universe and so on. “Poetry at the
bottom is a Criticism of Life”, says Matthew Arnold. Here
we find the real critic in Dr. M. J. We are taken to hitherto
unknown dimensions of numerous subjects, which the
poet handles with elegance and dexterity.
Section ‘A’ deals with a variety of topics in wider
ecumenism, of which the author is a renowned champion.
Section ‘B’ covers Biblical reflections. The last part is
about “Friendship with our Neighbours”. Only a person
with immense depth of knowledge and understanding
can delve deep into such a spectrum of epistemology. Dr.
M. J. has a pen perfected by craft and his siddhi
blossoms through constant sadhana, as exemplified in
these beautiful renderings.
A poet receives impressions from the cosmic intelligence,
when his intellectual wavelength equals that of the
universal knowledge. Poets become prophets at this
juncture. Rev. M. J. Joseph, no doubt, excels in imparting
his prophetic insights through the captivating pages of
this volume. It provides us an exciting reading experience
and it is my pleasure and privilege to recommend it to all
beloved readers. Come and feel the difference. In poetic
musings, the fountain of inspiration is at large. The book
is a welcome addition to Eco-Theology. Preface cum
Reflections by Fr. Dr. Mathew Chandrankunnel, CMI,
Director ECC and Prof. Dr. Zac Varghese (London) add
luster to the book.
Total Pages: 217
Price: Rupees 225 (India) US: 9 dollars and UK-11
Pounds.
Order- ISPCK, Delhi: ella@ispeck.org.in
Online order: http//ispck.org.in/book.php
Contact the author Rev. Dr. M. J. Joseph at his-mail
address: drmjjoseph _65 @yahoo.co.in
Review by: Dr. Abraham Karickam, URI Asia
Secretary General
Mission and Liturgy: Contest, Convergence
and Congruence with Special Reference to
the Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church
By Jameson K. Pallikunnil
As an ancient Christian community,
the Mar Thoma Church with its
vibrant life of mission and
sacraments, has a pride of place in
the Christendom. The evangelization
process and constant migration
made this church a global Church,
which has encountered multi-cultural
and multi-ethnic atmosphere and
assimilated various cultural practices
and faced faith confrontation in its
own geographical regions. This
confrontation has caused a renewed
view of nature, identity and mission of the Church in a
positive manner. Mission is, in fact, the lifeblood of the
Church. Through its mission-work and revised liturgy, the
Mar Thoma Church took a pioneer role in the formation and
nurturing of new Christian communities in India and different
parts of the world. Hence, this book reflects on the role of
liturgy and its influence on the missionary undertakings of
the MTC. It elucidates how the revised liturgy functions as a
basis for mission and recounts how liturgy and mission are
connected. Further, the diverse mission centres of the
Church and its cultural specialties, an integration of liturgy
and evangelism, importance of liturgicalorientation and
training, are also dealt with in detail. Added to this, the
various challenges of the Church in its mission fields and
diaspora regions are studied in the framework of the liturgy.
The scope of liturgical renewal is looked into where the
liturgical adaptation and possibilities of contextual liturgies in
the Church are studied. This study concludes with some of
the pertinent liturgical proposals for the furtherance to
sustain the life and mission of the Church. With a living
experience and profound theological understanding, this
ancient but reformed Church has something unique to offer
to the whole Christendom.
The Eucharistic Liturgy: A Liturgical Foundation for
Mission in the Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church
By Jameson K. Pallikunnil
The Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian
Church exists as a “hybrid church”
by blending the Eastern liturgical
elements of the Oriental Orthodox
Church and the evangelical ideas of
the Protestant Reformation of the
sixteenth century. This Church is a
“bridging” church, connecting
Protestantism and Oriental
Orthodoxy. The reformation in the
Malankara Church (1836) instigated
a new impetus for this church in
constructing an ecclesial identity
25 | P a g e F O C U S J u l y 2 0 1 8
and pattern of mission. A major missiological imperative
employed by CMS missionaries in India was solely centered
on the scripture. Against this popular understanding, the Mar
Thoma Church, through its reformation process showed that
liturgy can also be an imperative for mission. The translation
and revision of the Eucharistic liturgy is the basic visible
expression of reformation in the Malankara Church. Hence,
this book explicitly places how the Eucharistic liturgy of the
Mar Thoma Church is observed as the foundation for
mission in its course of growth. In order to accomplish this
objective, the writer has examined the historical evolution
and the developmental process of the Eucharistic liturgy of
the church, which is a revised version of the liturgy of St.
James. In a nutshell, this study is an appraisal of various
missiological themes reflected in the Eucharistic liturgy of
the church. This study throws ample light on how the Mar
Thoma Church integrated liturgy and evangelism in its
course of development. The writer systematically illustrates
how the church made a serious effort to bring missional
themes employed in the liturgy into the practical realm by its
ancillary organizations, convention gatherings, and
sociocharitable works. This volume asserts that an emphasis
on Eucharist-centred ecclesiology guides and motivates the
church to enliven a mission-oriented life, which is crucial for
accomplishing a relevant mission.
It is with great honor and privilege for FOCUS to inform that
the AuthorHouse publishers, UK has published the second
book, Mission and Liturgy: Contest, Convergence and
Congruence written by Rev. Dr. Jameson K. Achen’s first
book is “The Eucharistic Liturgy: A Liturgical Foundation for
Mission in the Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church.” By the
grace of God, this book got the Maliyekkal M C. George
Achen memorial prize of our church last year.
Both of these books are dealing with our Church’s historic
liturgy, its rich theological understanding, and its
commitment to mission in its emerging cultural contexts. It is
available in Barnes & Nobles, AuthorHouse, Amazon, Ebay,
and other international online sites. It's a humble attempt to
introduce our Church, especially its historic liturgy and
mission endeavors to our diaspora and other wider
communities. More information about both of the books can
be found by clicking the following links:
Barnes & Nobles:
https://goo.gl/WDGoPy
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-eucharistic-liturgy-
jameson-k-pallikunnil/1126024106?ean=9781524676537
AuthorHouse, UK
https://goo.gl/LJFnFL
Amazon:
https://goo.gl/1gvxG5
https://www.amazon.com/Mission-Liturgy-Convergence-
Congruence-
reference/dp/1546293736/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=152967382
1&sr=8-1&keywords=mission+and+Liturgy%2C+contest
Contact Information for Achen:
St. Thomas Mar Thoma Church
Keezhvaipur South, Keezhvaipur (PO)
Pathanamthitta – 689587 Kerala Tel: 0469-2651359,
8281381867/9847176015, E-Mail: jamesonachen@gmail.com
The Zonal Inauguration of the Mar Thoma Church in the UK
and Europe Held on June 9, 2018
In 1942, William Temple at his enthronement as the
Archbishop of Canterbury referred to the existence of a
worldwide Anglican Church as ‘the great new fact of our
time.’ Within a short span of seventy-six years Mar
Thoma Church has become a global church. ‘Scatter my
people’ was a prophetic prayer of Metropolitan Abraham
Mar Thoma in the nineteen forties. Under the grace of
God, the Mar Thoma Diaspora communities have
contributed richly in elevating the status of a church
confined within the boundaries of Kerala to a world-wide
church, which is indeed ‘the great new fact of our time.’
The Mar Thoma Christians as a regular worshipping
community in the UK can trace their history so far back
into 1957, and as a result we celebrated our Diamond
Jubilee in August 2017. Although we have grown
individually and can be very proud of our individual
achievements, we do not have any real feeling for a
united Mar Thoma Community of the UK and Europe. The
awareness of other people of us has become limited as
well; we really have no public face; we have no corporate
identity. This became very clear to us during our
conversations with ecumenical organisations such as
‘Churches Together in England.’ This realisation
prompted the Rt. Revd Dr. Geevarghese Mar Theodosius,
Diocesan Episcopa, to set up a Council of Mar Thoma
Parishes in Europe (COMPE) in August 2009.
However, we realised that this is only an intermediary
body and a stopgap solution for linking us with the
Diocese of North America and Europe. An Amazing
expansion of our parishes and congregation happened
since our Silver and Golden Jubilees in 1982 and 2007
respectively. As a result, the Episcopal Synod has
given an independent Zonal Status for the UK and
Europe region from 1st January 2018. Our Metropolitan
Thirumeni, Most Revd Dr. Joseph Mar Thoma
Metropolitan, inaugurated the Zone on 9th June 2018
at Cotton Green Church, Tamworth, in the presence
of The Rt. Revd Isaac Mar Philoxenos Episcopa and
bishops of other churches (The Rt. Revd Michael
Ipgrave, The Rt. Revd John Fenwick, The Rt. Revd
David Hicks) and other distinguished ecumenical (Mrs.
Christine Elliot) and civic guests including Mr.
Sunondo Chakraborty, head of the Indian Consulate.
Nearly 1000 people attended the function. We realise that
it is only a beginning and we need to work together and
pray together for further expansion and development.
Churchill after the battle of El Alamein said: “Now this is
not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end.
But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”
In 1889, after the Royal Court judgement, our forefathers
lost everything and built our worldwide Church with a
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total dependence on the forgiveness, mercy,
regeneration, revival, commitment, and the grace of God.
We are sent here for God’s purposes and we should be
mindful to use our God-given resources to develop this
region and should not be dissipated and misdirected for
other causes or issues. We are needed here and should
be conscious of this important fact and nobody else can
do the job God has entrusted us to do and we should do
it as a united Mar Thoma community in the UK and
Europe. Metropolitan Thirumeni and Philoxenos
Thirumeni reminded us of our responsibilities in
conducting God’s mission in this region.
The Mar Thoma Community in the UK and Europe
experienced great joy and excitement in coming together
for the Zonal Inauguration of the Mar Thoma Church. It
was a most enjoyable once in a life time event. In addition
to the inauguration of the Zone, we were able to celebrate
the centenary of the formation of the Sevika Sanghom,
which has been doing amazing work in empowering our
women over the last hundred years. Everyone
appreciated the contributions of the Sunday school
children and the youths; we congratulate them and thank
them. We also celebrated the Diamond jubilee of the
priestly ordination of our Metropolitan Thirumeni and the
Silver Jubilee of the Episcopal consecration of Philoxenos
Thirumeni.
We salute our pioneers (both men and women) who built
the Mar Thoma parishes and congregations in this Zone,
and we welcome the next generation of young leaders
and thank God for their vibrant contributions, dreams and
vision. It was these young leaders who were mostly
responsible for the most amazing inaugural function of
the Zone. There was an amazing fresh enthusiasm and
confidence in the air at the inaugural service of the Zone.
It was indeed a day of dedication for building the
community for the glory of God. Both the Metropolitan
Thirumeni and our Zonal Episcopa reminded us why we
are sent here and not just arrived aimlessly; it is indeed an
answer to a memorable and prophetic prayer from
Abraham Mar Thoma Metropolitan, as indicated earlier, of
‘scatter our people’ for God’s mission. Therefore, every
member of the Mar Thoma Church is sent out to this part
of the world as a missionary to live and spread the ‘Good
News’. This is indeed our mission statement and it is the
oath that we took on 9th June, 2018 at the Cotton Green
Church to build a united community for the glory of God.
It is our responsibility to tell this story to our future
generations.
We would like to express our most sincere thanks to
everyone for creating such a memorable experience. We
thank our Metropolitan Thirumeni, Philoxenos Thirumeni and
other distinguished guests for blessing us with their august
presence. We also thank our Achens, and all the members of
the organizing committee and its sub- committees. We thank
the excellent choir, the catering team, reception and
publicity sub-committees, bouquet and flower
arrangements, and others who organized the transport and
all other logistical aspects of this amazing community event.
The following people require special mention and they owe
our gratitude, they include: Very Revd V. T. John, Revd
Shibu Kurien, Revd Stanley Thomas Mr. P. M. Mathew, Mr.
Thomas Abraham, Mr. Raji Mathew and Mr. Agy George. We
offer our very special thanks to Miss Natasha Abraham and
Dr. Sujith Abraham who efficiently and gracefully compered
the inaugural function. This was an event, which the next
generation and we can gratefully remember and be proud of
over the years to come. We also want to thank each and
every participant. It was not a triumphant ceremony, but a
humble thanksgiving event for God’s amazing and abundant
grace.

For our patriarch, Abraham, and for our forefathers in the 19 th

Century who built the Mar Thoma Church after the Royal
Court judgement––faith was not a simple legalistic way of
being religious; rather it was a being alive within a
community and to be a blessing to everyone. May this event
challenge all of us to support wholeheartedly all the
proposed developments for the growth of this Zone. There is
no one else out there, it is our responsibility. As we have
seen on Saturday, our participation and prayers are the most
important ingredients for our growth. Let us thank God, for
His love endures forever. We hope that the Mar Thoma
Community in Europe will help the people in this region to a
better life in Christ. We offer thanks to Almighty God for
these sixty years in Europe and pray for His blessings on the
Mar Thoma communities throughout the world and our
fellowship in Jesus Christ, our Lord, redeemer, and
protector.

The Editorial Board FOCUS

Photos of Europe Zone Inauguration Held on June 9,

2018 by His Grace Joseph Mar Thoma Metropolitan

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Joseph Mar Thoma Metropolitan’s Visit with Archbishop
of Canterbury and Archbishop of York, England

Photo Courtesy: Archbishop’s office Canterbury & York

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Photos of Geevarghese Mar Athanasius Suffragan
Metropolitan’s Funeral Service Held at Thiruvalla. Photo
Courtesy – Gloria News, SD Imaging and Anil George

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