The Journey 64: Transformation in my community
Read: Exodus 3
Key Verse: “The LORD said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. [ Exodus 3:7]
A huge tornadoes ripped across the Midwest and South on Friday, which killed an estimated 40 people in five states, 22 of them in Kentucky and 13 in Indiana, including a 15-month-old toddler named Angel, who was in the news for the last two day, as a survivor of the tornado, but later succumbed to her injuries. The tornado had killed her parents and two siblings too. The deaths also included three in Ohio and one each in Alabama and Georgia. The destruction of the property, homes and other essential belonging is also another concern for the residents there. Yesterday I celebrated Holy Communion service at the St. Peter’s Marthoma Church, Teaneck, New Jersey. As we were travelling back, my wife mentioned to me as to how I forgot to pray for the victims of tornado during the intercessory prayers. That is when I remembered that I had totally forgotten the people of Midwest and south. Being in south east region in Philadelphia, I had totally taken for granted the suffering and magnitude of death and destruction in another part of the state. That set me thinking. ...Aren't we become so immune to all these innumerable news people being killed both by natural disasters or otherwise, that whatever happens it is life and business for us as usual. Is that what God expects from us?
This week we shall meditate on the theme : Transformation in the Community”. Transformation in our personal life has a repercussion for the better in the community that we live. Our faith and faith living is not only expressed in our personal life but we need to be a witness of that faith in our community too. The character that we will meditate this week will be on the life and ministry of Moses. In today’s portion we find one of the most powerful statement that brings hope to all the suffering people. A statement that God makes to Moses and we find that in Exodus 3:7, “The LORD said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering”. Here we find the nature and character of God which gives us a model for how we need to bring transformation in our community. I think even the people of Israel live in a mind set and got so used to take their suffering and oppression, that though they were the ones suffering, they continued to endure it as something normal as they had no other option. A whole nation is suffering, men, woman and children. Suffering because of the oppressive nature of the rulers of Egypt. That is when God makes known his mission and His mind to Moses. He is concerned about the untold suffering of his people. He cannot be a mute spectator or witness to all that is happening around, and that is when He wants to commission Moses to go to Egypt as His deliverer and liberator. The mind of and nature of God teaches us that we are not to be a mute spectators to all that suffering that we see around us if even it is in another state of our land. Transformation in the community starts when each of us build in us the attitude of empathy, a sense of commitment and duty to do something for the people who suffer.
Are we mute witness to all the suffering that happens or do we want to live a life of trying to be immune from all these tragedies that happen around us?
Let us open our eyes and ears…...so that we can see and hear the cries of our neighbour. That is the beginning of the transformation process in our community.
Let us Pray: Lord forgive us because we sometimes tend to live like a mute witness to all that is happening around us. We are only concerned when something disastrous happens to us only. Empower us to be channels of change and transformation. Amen