The Journey 253: Transformed Living
Read: Hebrews 6
E-A-G-L-E-S; Fly Eagles Fly, On the road to victory, Fight Eagles Fight, Score a touchdown , 1,2,3…...Hit'em low, Hit'em high, And watch our eagles fly, Fly Eagles Fly, On the road to victory, E-A-G-L-E-S...EAGLES. This was the chant on every one lips here in Philadelphia on Sunday. Yesterday was an important day in Philadelphia and for every Eagles fan as the first match of the Philadelphia Eagles in the super bowl got underway. I had just come back from Houston, Texas where I had attended a wedding of a close friend of mine from Philly who got married to a Texan. At the reception, one of the youngster from Philadelphia stunned the Texan crowd by singing the Eagles anthem mentioned above and we all joined the chorus. It was a wonderful feeling, as the Philly crowd sang, whipping up passion and euphoria for the Philadelphia Eagles Team in front of a mix Philly and Texan crowd. But then those passion for the Eagles team bore a winning result on Sunday, as Philadelphia Eagles beat Cleveland Browns 17-16. But this win was not something worth to celebrate, as Eagles had a poor offensive game, resulting into a game full of frustrations and mistakes, turnovers, passes that were overthrown, the penalties and four awful interceptions thrown by Michel Vick. Thus the feeling of Philadelphia Eagles winning [ though a win is a win] did not match the euphoria that was created while we sang the Eagles anthem in front of the Texan crowd. Here is a team who has only begun their journey to the Super Bowl. The beginning is mediocre and lot is expected from the team. Looking at the way Eagles played also brings to the fact of our life: Lot of challenges, lots to be accomplished, but the way we go about in Christian life is very mediocre and it is here that just as we want our Philadelphia Eagles team to play like a champion, what our Lord expects from each one of us to be like champions, living not like mediocre Christians, but Christians with a passion for the Lord and a passion and jest for living authentic Christian life.
We are meditating on the theme “ Transformed Living” and the portion that we shall use for our meditation is from Hebrew 6. Here the writer of Hebrews exhorts us that we need to leave the elementary teaching about Jesus Christ and move towards maturity in both knowledge Jesus Christ and also in Christian living. But then what are these elementary teaching? They are mentioned as repentance, faith, baptism, the laying on of hands, the resurrection, and eternal judgment.[Heb 6: 1,2]. In short these are basic doctrines.. Christ's teachings on the basics that needs to be there in every Christian's life. It is these basics that needs to be studied, fed upon as an infant would feed upon milk. But once you are finished with the basic, and once the foundation has been laid, the author exhorts us that we are to improve not only in our understanding about Christ but also in our practice and attitudes concerning our Christian life. The word in Greek for maturity or perfection here is ''teleiotes.'' It comes from the Greek word ''telos'' which means to make perfect, to carry through completely, to accomplish, finish, bring to an end. One of the tragedies in many Christians is that they are in the mid years of life yet they behave and act like kids. The knowledge and understanding that they carry is still that of the Sunday School. It is in such context that we need to understand that what God expects us through our life is to grow more by dwelling richly in His Word and enriching our relationship with our Lord. It is then we will have a passion to live authentic Christian life. The future of Philadelphia Eagles is not bright if they are going to play in a very mediocre manner and in the same way if we are also going to live mediocre Christian life then life will have no meaning and purpose.
Rev. Dr. Joe Joseph Kuruvilla
E-A-G-L-E-S; Fly Eagles Fly, On the road to victory, Fight Eagles Fight, Score a touchdown , 1,2,3…...Hit'em low, Hit'em high, And watch our eagles fly, Fly Eagles Fly, On the road to victory, E-A-G-L-E-S...EAGLES. This was the chant on every one lips here in Philadelphia on Sunday. Yesterday was an important day in Philadelphia and for every Eagles fan as the first match of the Philadelphia Eagles in the super bowl got underway. I had just come back from Houston, Texas where I had attended a wedding of a close friend of mine from Philly who got married to a Texan. At the reception, one of the youngster from Philadelphia stunned the Texan crowd by singing the Eagles anthem mentioned above and we all joined the chorus. It was a wonderful feeling, as the Philly crowd sang, whipping up passion and euphoria for the Philadelphia Eagles Team in front of a mix Philly and Texan crowd. But then those passion for the Eagles team bore a winning result on Sunday, as Philadelphia Eagles beat Cleveland Browns 17-16. But this win was not something worth to celebrate, as Eagles had a poor offensive game, resulting into a game full of frustrations and mistakes, turnovers, passes that were overthrown, the penalties and four awful interceptions thrown by Michel Vick. Thus the feeling of Philadelphia Eagles winning [ though a win is a win] did not match the euphoria that was created while we sang the Eagles anthem in front of the Texan crowd. Here is a team who has only begun their journey to the Super Bowl. The beginning is mediocre and lot is expected from the team. Looking at the way Eagles played also brings to the fact of our life: Lot of challenges, lots to be accomplished, but the way we go about in Christian life is very mediocre and it is here that just as we want our Philadelphia Eagles team to play like a champion, what our Lord expects from each one of us to be like champions, living not like mediocre Christians, but Christians with a passion for the Lord and a passion and jest for living authentic Christian life.
We are meditating on the theme “ Transformed Living” and the portion that we shall use for our meditation is from Hebrew 6. Here the writer of Hebrews exhorts us that we need to leave the elementary teaching about Jesus Christ and move towards maturity in both knowledge Jesus Christ and also in Christian living. But then what are these elementary teaching? They are mentioned as repentance, faith, baptism, the laying on of hands, the resurrection, and eternal judgment.[Heb 6: 1,2]. In short these are basic doctrines.. Christ's teachings on the basics that needs to be there in every Christian's life. It is these basics that needs to be studied, fed upon as an infant would feed upon milk. But once you are finished with the basic, and once the foundation has been laid, the author exhorts us that we are to improve not only in our understanding about Christ but also in our practice and attitudes concerning our Christian life. The word in Greek for maturity or perfection here is ''teleiotes.'' It comes from the Greek word ''telos'' which means to make perfect, to carry through completely, to accomplish, finish, bring to an end. One of the tragedies in many Christians is that they are in the mid years of life yet they behave and act like kids. The knowledge and understanding that they carry is still that of the Sunday School. It is in such context that we need to understand that what God expects us through our life is to grow more by dwelling richly in His Word and enriching our relationship with our Lord. It is then we will have a passion to live authentic Christian life. The future of Philadelphia Eagles is not bright if they are going to play in a very mediocre manner and in the same way if we are also going to live mediocre Christian life then life will have no meaning and purpose.
Rev. Dr. Joe Joseph Kuruvilla