The Journey 250: Fan or follower..
Read: Mathew 7: 21-29
Recently the Life Way Research conducted a research of “Transformational Discipleship. One of the attributes that they had in the study was in the area of Bible Engagement. There was a startling discovery in the study. The survey in the study found out that 90% of the people who are regular church goers do not have a regular study of the Bible, nor even the daily reading of the Bible. But the most intriguing part of this survey is that the majority of the people said that they want to “Please and honor Jesus Christ in all I do”. There were other questions also that tried to related how faith living permeates ones personal, professional and community life. This paradox of saying that we want to honor God in our life but, staying totally disengaged from the study of the Word of God and life, does not augur well both for the church and the community and also in the life of the believer. But what does this paradox or the contradiction shows in the context of our commitment and in the way we express our faith living. One of the peculiarities that one can see especially in the context of the Marthoma Church is that these days you have more and more people coming to church and the participation of the church goers in the Lord’s Table is also growing manifold. There are lot of people who have asked me the question as why these days there is an increase in the number of participants in the communion table?. Do all these people who participate in the Lord’s Table participate in this table fellowship in a genuine manner? I have not been able to answer these question basically because I feel it is each person who has to be honest to himself and to God and it is God who judges and understands our intention whether it is participating in the Lord’s table or even when we participate in worship. It is here that we need to ask ourselves whether we have made engagement with our Christian faith more of dramatic act or a ritualistic act, an act that is totally disengaged from the realities of life?. If so aren’t we, relegating our faith into something very closed and personal forgetting the fact that faith living has to do with our life and living, both personal and in community.
We are meditating on the theme “Transformed Living” and the portion that we shall use for our meditation is from Mathew 7: 21-29. This is one of the portions from the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus talks about building a strong foundation in life. Here building the strong foundation is in life is equated with two truths that Jesus teaches us through this passage. One, he says that everyone who says Lord, Lord will not be saved, on the contrary only those people who do His will are the people who will inherit eternal life and secondly Jesus uses the parable of the two house builders about how person life is made strong when he ready to practice what the Lord has taught. What we see in the words of Jesus is that what God expects us is not making our spirituality or our religious expressions like worship, participation in communion table a ritualistic act, an act where sometimes the mind and body are disconnected with each other and also act separately. On the contrary what our Lord is asking us to consciously take our faith seriously by not just emphasizing on outward acts like participation in the church activities but also inwardly by the diligent study of the Word of God thus being empowered to make our Christian life and life not only a personal experience but also a community living and witness. If we fail in this dimension of our Christian living then I feel we are the foolish builder who built his house on the rock.
Rev. Dr. Joe Joseph Kuruvilla
Recently the Life Way Research conducted a research of “Transformational Discipleship. One of the attributes that they had in the study was in the area of Bible Engagement. There was a startling discovery in the study. The survey in the study found out that 90% of the people who are regular church goers do not have a regular study of the Bible, nor even the daily reading of the Bible. But the most intriguing part of this survey is that the majority of the people said that they want to “Please and honor Jesus Christ in all I do”. There were other questions also that tried to related how faith living permeates ones personal, professional and community life. This paradox of saying that we want to honor God in our life but, staying totally disengaged from the study of the Word of God and life, does not augur well both for the church and the community and also in the life of the believer. But what does this paradox or the contradiction shows in the context of our commitment and in the way we express our faith living. One of the peculiarities that one can see especially in the context of the Marthoma Church is that these days you have more and more people coming to church and the participation of the church goers in the Lord’s Table is also growing manifold. There are lot of people who have asked me the question as why these days there is an increase in the number of participants in the communion table?. Do all these people who participate in the Lord’s Table participate in this table fellowship in a genuine manner? I have not been able to answer these question basically because I feel it is each person who has to be honest to himself and to God and it is God who judges and understands our intention whether it is participating in the Lord’s table or even when we participate in worship. It is here that we need to ask ourselves whether we have made engagement with our Christian faith more of dramatic act or a ritualistic act, an act that is totally disengaged from the realities of life?. If so aren’t we, relegating our faith into something very closed and personal forgetting the fact that faith living has to do with our life and living, both personal and in community.
We are meditating on the theme “Transformed Living” and the portion that we shall use for our meditation is from Mathew 7: 21-29. This is one of the portions from the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus talks about building a strong foundation in life. Here building the strong foundation is in life is equated with two truths that Jesus teaches us through this passage. One, he says that everyone who says Lord, Lord will not be saved, on the contrary only those people who do His will are the people who will inherit eternal life and secondly Jesus uses the parable of the two house builders about how person life is made strong when he ready to practice what the Lord has taught. What we see in the words of Jesus is that what God expects us is not making our spirituality or our religious expressions like worship, participation in communion table a ritualistic act, an act where sometimes the mind and body are disconnected with each other and also act separately. On the contrary what our Lord is asking us to consciously take our faith seriously by not just emphasizing on outward acts like participation in the church activities but also inwardly by the diligent study of the Word of God thus being empowered to make our Christian life and life not only a personal experience but also a community living and witness. If we fail in this dimension of our Christian living then I feel we are the foolish builder who built his house on the rock.
Rev. Dr. Joe Joseph Kuruvilla