The Musings 29
Read: John 15
The great lent has begun. Lent is a very symbolic event in the life of a
believer and in ministry of the church. A time for renewal, a time for
self-evaluation and a time of purification, in the life of believers. Nowadays
it is common for parishes to organize Lenten prayer meeting at residence of
parishioners, every day throughout the Lenten days. Every parish in this way
organizes its own unique way of observing lent. One of the mega church's in New
Jersey has organized a unique event of observing lent. This church known as the
Liquid Church and the leaders of the church felt that the people of the church
needed to be connected to God's Word during the time of Lent. They have planned
a Bible reading event for the next forty days. The plan was that every member
would read the New Testament from beginning to the end during the time of Lent.
When the Bible reading event was announced, they were surprised when more
than 3,300 people signed up. The ages of the participant is varied. You have a
kid aged 7 who has joined the bible reading plan along with a 70 year old
adult. But it the child participants that is being encouraged and the children
are being tempted with number of gifts and incentives to participate in this
bible reading event. They have been offered an ice cream party where the number
of toppings on the ice cream depends on how many day they have read the Bible
during this challenge period. According to the leaders of the church, why
such an event was envisaged was because they felt that in the modern world,
spiritual disciplines like reading the Bible regularly is becoming a thing of
the past. Carrying the Bible is also become a rarity. Moreover the Church feels
that expression of one's faith in today's world has been reduced to showing our
faith through bumper stickers on cars or wearing of religious bracelets
and hence the need to go deep down into the truth of the Word of God.
Thus in order to support this event, the Liquid church has distributed
more than 4,000 copies of the New Testament to its members. Along with this,
the church also trained more than 300 volunteers to host and also to facilitate
more than 200 reading groups throughout the country who are going to meet
through Google plus or through hangout video conferencing. These two hundred
groups are going to devotedly study the Word of God, and are going to meet
regularly for the next eight weeks. The meditation or the study pattern is
being made simple so that every member is able to understand the truth as reveled
in the Word of God. The members are encouraged to ask open ended
questions like- What surprised you about what you read in the passage?, What
did you learn something new in today's passage? Or questions like What bothered
you about this week's reading?. For many of us when we read about this ministry
of the New Jersey Church, we may consider this event as something not worth
highlighting. But all said and done, if the church has to move forward
faithfully in its mission and ministry, it is important that it has to
find its spiritual mooring through ones connection to the Word of God. Looking
to the reformation that has happened not only in the history of the western
church but also at the eastern church especially Marthoma Church, it we the
passion and keenness of the believers to delve in studying the Word of God that
brought about changes in the life and witness of the Church. As we begin
the observance of lent let us examine whether due importance is given to the
Word of God and whether our lives are connected to the Word of God?.
In John 15, Jesus teaches some essential truths on how one can make one's life
fruitful and blessed. He uses some powerful symbols like " I am the true
vine and my Father is the gardener" [v:1], "Abide in me and I will
abide in you" [v: 4], " I am the vine and you are the branches"
[v: 5], " Just as I have loved you, remain in your love" [ v: 9].
Here is Jesus Christ teaching some of the essential of Christian life. For a believer
to remain faithful in his/her calling and in his witness, one needs to abide in
the Lord. Abiding in the Lord is a process that happens daily, a relationship
that is strengthened daily. It is all about connections. How connected are we
to the Lord?. In a world of today, when people travel, they are very conscious
whether the place or the region that they travel has ample range or frequency
of their cellular provider, so that they are not disconnected with the world.
If there is no range in a particular areas, and people are not able to use
their cell phones, many of us get not only upset but we get paranoid. So much
importance to our cell phone connections. How about equating the same
importance to ones connection with the Word of God, a connection that will
strengthen our relationship and our commitment to God?. Today we are connected
but not to the Word of God. We are connected to lot of other things that we
think are important. We want to be connected with the latest movies, we want to
be connected with the daily gossip stories and scandals, we want to be
connected with the latest gadgets and we feel lost if we don't own one of them.
But our Lord is teaching that if our life needs to be fruitful and blessed, we
need to evaluate and re examine what sort of connections do we emphasize in
life. We may be connected to different aspects of the world, but disconnected
with the Word of God, connected in a vey feeble way in our relationship with
the Lord. The ministry of the church in the New Jersey was a humble way to
connect its members to the Word of God and ultimately helping the members to
the living Word- Jesus Christ. As we observe Lent, let us also in the same way
, take seriously our connections in life seriously. Connecting daily and
seriously with the Word of God so that our connections with the Word of God
help us to strengthen our relationship with our Lord and in our witness in the
world.
Rev. Dr. Joe Joseph Kuruvilla