Luke Chapter 1

Rejoicing in the Lord: 
● When we believe in God’s promises, our hearts overflow with Joy. It bounces in Good spirit. Elizabeth was bold to  affirm that “This is what the Lord has done for me and took away the disgrace I have endured among my people.”  She never had any theophanic experience like Zachariah, but she was open to God and God took her disgrace by  showering GRACE upon her. (‘Grace’- John ("Yahweh is Gracious")- Elizabeth- God is my Oath – Zachariah – God  remembers, Mary – Sea of Bitterness, Joseph- Yahweh increases) 
● The Lord has done for me- God is always active and he participates in our struggles. He gives us special blessings  and elevates our esteem when we are denied by the world. The power of God amplifies the volume of joy in us.  He delivers us from all our adversaries. God, being the source of life, all good things flows from HIM. Denying this  very paradigm of Life will engender numerous mendacities in life. The author of Proverbs cities: “In all your ways  acknowledge him and he shall direct your paths”. Turning to God is the ultimate call for genuine spirituality. To  understand the connectivity between the reality and the mystery one need to turn him/herself to God with openness  of mind.  
● Took away the Disgrace- The human agency can never wipe our disgrace, because we all are limited. The human  designs and plans for life cease not to sprout the fallibilities and sustain the fallacies in life. Human impulses have  their own limitations because we are “just creatures” and not the Creator. The desire to occupy the place of God  is the origin of Sin. Here Zachariah was not able to visualize the “Creative Power of God”- He is very sure of Human  powers and its possibilities and built a wall of disbelief that fails to connect with God. The lack of openness to God  failed him to focus on the POSSIBILITIES OF GOD in spite of the vision and the theophanic encounter. When  we depend too much on ourselves and acclaim the “I” in us, it leads us to disgrace. Elizabeth was open and when  she conceived, she was able to see the ‘Creative power of God”. She understood the human limitations and God’s  unlimited power that crosses the natural boundaries.  
● Endured among people- Endurance is possible only when we have deep faith. In spite of multiple problems, we  move forward because we hope for a better future. A symphony will emerge in the context of cacophony. A  positive wave in a negative ocean. A light in a dark room dispels the darkness. Endurance is an optimistic act  because it accepts “the other” and embraces “the other” for good. There is no defeat in the dictionary of  endurance since it attempts for transformation of life. Cross is a significant symbol that elaborates the endurance  of Christ against the powers and principalities of this world to conquer it by love. The tension between good and  bad is inevitable, but our association and affirmation with the goodness enhances us to be a child of God.  ​

Sharing the Testimony; 
Both Mary and Elizabeth acknowledged the providence of God and His mighty Hand in their life. History belongs to God.  In every course of history, the perishable human powers accelerate its powerful demonstration to monopolize every  history. The very expression of ‘I am that I am’ is a revelation from God to state that (I was, I am and I will be) “HE exists  throughout the whole history”. We all are part in Him and God is the “ground, structure and power of being”. When God’s 
promise work in us we cannot isolate our self but we unite with the like-minded people to vibrate the impulse of divinity.  Alienation, isolation and segregation from self, others and from God display the effects of sin. Union, communion and  association exhibit the display of blessing. Here Elizabeth and Mary share their testimony to navigate themselves to  glorify of God and submit unconditionally for God’s plan.  
Greeting Each Other: 
The act of blessing and passing a greeting to another basically stems from God. It is a divine act. God is the only connecting  force with ‘the other’. As a people of God, we too worship and greet each other to magnify God. They believed in the  communion and union in the spirit which emboldens them to walk the challenges of life. 
 “Lord be with you and also with you” is a verbal greeting and blessing that we exchange to invoke the presence of God.  This greeting shifts the paradigm of hierarchical spirituality and dictates a new dimension of mutuality anchored in God’s  Grace recognizing each other as a powerful tool of God. The rudiments of blessing are nothing but the Good thoughts  which longs for life and celebration for all in Christ. Evil thinking captives such joy and celebration and sprouts the distress  and creates the ripples of disharmony in our lives. The state of misery and pain exists in such a context of human  complexities.  
How do we greet each other? How do we integrate with others as a body of Christ? In the context of challenges, we are  called to greet each other with a prophetic and bold theological vision and hope. The arithmetic numbers may be less,  even though we are alone, being with God we become mighty. Might is not according to the standard of this world’s  parameters, but with scales of Jesus quality in us by surrendering to the plan of God, to negate the distorted with the tools of love and sacrifice.  
“Mary greeted”- “Bitterness greeted”- God’s bitterness itself is a joy. Because whatever that comes from the God give us  Joy. It’s not only a verbal greeting but a holistic feeling of goodness, made the child to leap in Elizabeth’s womb. From  womb to tomb the power of God can reach and bring transformation. This greeting connected a old, a young and a babe  as a subjects of blessing; which highlights the quality of God blessing flow to all. Specially women and children, who are  the vulnerable in any given society.  
“Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord”  
Elizabeth celebrates the faith of Mary. Faith is an important faculty to accelerate the life in its fullness. Mary believed but  Zachariah did not believe. Elizabeth was so keen in highlighting Mary and her affirmation. She unconditionally accepts  Mary as the “Mother of the Lord”. She displays the quality of Humility and submitting to the Gods motive for salvation.  Recognizing the call of Mary, and blesses her wholeheartedly. Do we recognize the call of others? Do we listen to the voice  of the other to discern God’s Plan? A competitive spirituality and a superlative attitude corrupt the mission of God.  Ministry is a diverse package which caters to the people of God in recognizing the purpose and plan of God for each one  for everyone.  

Luke 9:18-22 
18 Now it happened that as he was praying  alone, the disciples were with him. And he asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I  am?” 19 And they answered, “John the Baptist.  But others say, Elijah, and others, that one of  the prophets of old has risen.” 20 Then he said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” And Peter answered, “The Christ of God.” 21 And he strictly charged and commanded them to tell this to no one 22 saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”

​Praying Alone: (Eternal truth) 
Jesus was praying alone. Prayer engages a deep self- talk with the divine. Prayer enables us to  imagine and act out the will of God. Jesus was grounded in the will of God, and He was actively  involved in a context. The context posed many challenges to the common people and Jesus our  Saviour addressed the issues of common people specially the suffering masses. Time with God,  helps us to have clarity over the many issues that haunt the human celebration. Today's text  invites us to have our personal time with God and to discern God’s will for us to be his perfect  tool. In one way we can say that through prayer we can understand an appropriate opinion of God  which intersects both the subjective and objective phenomenon in life. Prayer helps us to  understand GOD’s opinion of us and others. Knowing God’s will is nothing but knowing the truth  in the eternal sense. 
Public Opinion. (Objective understanding) 
“Who do the Crowds say that I am?” seems to be an essential question of Jesus to his own  disciples. He wanted them to be analytical as well as informed about the public opinion. Jesus  wanted his disciples to be aware of the perspectives around them, however they were so profound  in them. Their comments were self-explanatory that people were limited only with the past history  of events and the struggle to understand the living truth (Jesus). They were occupied by their  residues (it’s quite natural). Their legacy about the past leadership blinded them to see the Son  of God who was with them. In any given society, public opinion plays an important role because  it influences the wheels of daily life. We need to be aware of the objective understanding of the  truth. People get confused because of various influences. 
Proclamation of truth: (Subjective understanding) 
“But who do you say that I am?”. Jesus wanted to know about the understanding of his own  disciples. Peter, I feel as a representation of the whole team, acknowledged Jesus as Christ 
meaning that the path of Jesus was the true salvific way. Jesus embraced the negative powers  with a positive call to repent. He wanted everyone to live a life with God, i.e., life in truth, justice,  liberty, equality, love and joy. So, acknowledging Jesus doesn’t mean, doing it just by words but  through deeds of liberation. Accepting Jesus as Christ envisages one to commit to a new way of  life...to face life with all openness and courage. Deep faith in God necessitates us to move forward  to proclaim the truth in the context of numerous perils and deludes the partial opinions of truth.  We need to know the truth, otherwise we cannot unfold the manifold blessings of God to those  who suffer.  
Questions to Ponder? 
1. We are considered to be “the body of Christ” - Church. What do people in general (public opinion) say about the church today? I wish we could commence reflecting it from our own  families. 
2. What is our subjective understanding of Christ? 
3. In what ways can we communicate Christ or the path of Christ in today’s world?

Have a blessed reflection! Amen

Matthew 9:14-17

14 Then John’s disciples came and asked him, “How is it that we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?” 15 Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast. 16 “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. 17 Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”

Reflections:
​There will always be resistance to change. But change is an unchangeable phenomenon in life. Jesus was a change maker and he had his tension and challenges with the beliefs which were static and out fashioned. Resistance to change is resistance to God himself because such agents they don’t feel God is in control of life. They narrow the world in their perspective and fail to realize that God’s plans and purpose has a meaning in the current context.

“Fasting” to the poor and hungry is baloney. When some are struggling for food and basic livelihood, how can we demand them too fast? The meaning of fasting in Isaiah 58:6-7 is nothing but sharing with the poor and needy and establishing justice.

6 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?

7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter--
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood....

Many feel spirituality is a self-satisfying experience. But, it’s a self-emptying experience and an experience to share the fragmented experience of the broken masses. The symbolic acts gained prominence more than the inner meaning of such acts.

Fasting is rooted in denying oneself and is rooted in the personal inspection of self which  is predominantly estranged from God’s will. Oneness of mind, to listen to the voice of God will make one to live in Godly life. In this text Jesus was challenged because the proponents of antiquity in the name of tradition charged the disciples for being natural and pragmatic.

One of the failures of the traditionalist is that their hearts glorify religious particles more than God and other humans. So pathetic! Religiosity is centered in life. Life is centered in the commonality of life for all. Jesus understood the meaning of fasting and started to unmask the reality and protested against the meaningless spirituality. His ministry is centered around the poor, the needy, the oppressed, the exploited and the vulnerable in society.

The outward projections and the inward constructs fail to conjugate because of the gulf between the belief and action. Jesus equipped his disciples and at the end his disciples became martyrs to glorify God. Jesus being a new Moses, his science of hermeneutics paved a new way and a transformed path. Doing theology for Christ is always people based and especially the negated and neglected. Restoration of human dignity for all is one of the basic traits of salvation. Let us continue to engage in restoring life to lifelessness. Amen.

I would like to conclude my study with this prayer found in Episcopal Relief and Development
website:

O Creator of all living things:
We are all hungry in a world full of abundance.
The possibilities of food for bodies and souls overflow in this beautiful world.
We ask for the grace to see the abundance of our world and
enough awareness to acknowledge our sins of greed and fear.
Give us openness of soul and courageous, willing hearts
to be with our sisters and brothers who are hungry and in pain.
We ask for your intercession on behalf of every person hungry
for earthly food and hungry for the taste of the Spirit of God.
We give thanks that we can be part of that intercession.
This world is blessed with enough food of the earth for every person to eat and be satisfied.
We all can feed on the bread of Christ, through the Holy Spirit,
as God makes a home in our hearts.
We come together in awe and wonder at the Creator who loves us so much
that we are invited and urged to be co-creators with God
in the care of our brothers and sisters.
In the name of the tender Mother-Father of all people who
hears every cry, Amen.

Action: Please let us engage in a way of love to feed the poor and needy. The Barnie Parker Sharing Shed is an opportunity to make our action a realized one.

​God Bless You! Amen.

 atthew 9:9-13

9
“As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him. 10And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. 11When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”

Reflections:
“I have come to call not the righteous but sinners” is a powerful mission statement of Jesus describing the purpose of doing God’s mission of the Church which is called to be the living body of Christ. The Agenda of Jesus’s mission is to offer life to the lifeless and to those who are in helpless situations. The gulf between the dominant and the powerless and the struggle is an ongoing issue in the world. “Mission of God” is not a club activity of the dominant; rather, it is a call to restore the image of God in all with passion and transformation connotations. Jesus constantly worked in restoring the lost human consciousness in every individual to substantiate the purpose and meaning of creation. Accepting Jesus as Lord has a diverse understanding because of offering a new paradigm of life to all.

Who are tax collectors during Jesus' time?
During the time of Jesus, the people of Israel were under the imperial and colonial rule of Rome. The religious leaders had their local autonomy in matters relating to the life of the people. The temple was at their control, and the temple was not just a spiritual institution. It was the center of the people’s holistic life. The subjects of the society were under two authorities; politically, under Rome and religiously under Sanhedrin, Rome gave autonomy to the religious leaders to mitigate the revolts because the religious beliefs were so sensitive and complex. In such a context, Rome appointed people to collect the taxes for their government and such collectors were called publicans or apostates.

They were considered as proxies of Rome and gained hatred from the public. They imposed unredeemable taxes and had their loyalty to the Roman Imperials. They gained more profit by unjustifiable taxes. They were seen as traitors and thieves of people and considered as defiled elements because of their association with the enemy, the Romans.

The hostility over tax collectors tagged them as “Sinners”. Here the tax collector was none other than Mathew, and the record from Mathew 9:9 substantiates the argument. Normally, Jews will have two names, and many theologians suggest the name as Levi Mathew, who became the disciple of Jesus.

Tax Booth
I see these booths as the places that symbolically represent oppression and exploitation. The people were under great oppression because the Roman government operated in a very systematic way at various levels to maintain their supremacy over the poor. Jews always believed in the Rule of God-Theocracy. In reality, their dreams were shattered by the foreign powers because of their military inefficiency and their ideological schisms. Rome was a superpower, and these centers represented their authority over people, their work and earnings. People were drained by the taxes which made their lives more miserable. The taxes were collected in harsh methods. The people paid money to Temple to maintain their religious commitments and paid compulsory taxes for their income.

Taxes were imposed on custom goods. Even tolls were collected for the usage of roads and bridges of that time. So, the people who indulged in such tax collections were socially abandoned by people, politically treated as traitors and religiously labelled as sinners. Mathew was sitting in that booth to collect the taxes. But Jesus liberated him from his box and made him an agency of salvation; I mean an agent to liberate people from worldly clutches that haunt life every day. We have to find such boxes and breach the forces that negate the freedom for us and others.

“Follow Me”
Jesus said to Matthew, “Follow me.” And he followed him without any question. The unconditional obedience of Mathew describes his agony over his work as well as his dissatisfaction over the colonial set-up. His attitude highlights the aspiration to repent and begin a new life in God by following Christ. His immediate response explicates his search for a better way of life. Following Jesus, is an opposite turn from the job he was assigned. Jesus' movement offered abundance of life and catered to the exploited and the oppressed. It connected people socially and enabled them to realise the reign of God.

The politics of power was defused by the power of love for one another. Matthew believed in the words of Jesus which enabled him to envision the future. Apparently, the transition of Mathew to Jesus indicates a mystic and divine experience which cannot be comprehended in total, but it can be felt at a spiritual domain. Following Jesus is not simple; it requires one to turn from the world and prepares him/her to be an agency of Christ to offer life to the people in the world. It demands us to offer life to the lifeless not to overfeed the self-righteous or the privileged. Mathew left his lucrative employment, positions, and his authority for Jesus because he affirmed the truth and chose the way of Christ, which calls our attention not to deepen our parochial attachments but to reach the reality of life and to enhance every human to have equal access over life. The disparities in life distribute horrific situations and cause civic unrest. The movement of Jesus is the movement of Love engendering all of us for peaceful co-existence and sustainable living.

Jesus - “Friend of Sinners and Tax Collectors?”
Jesus extends his relationship to all and especially to transform the people who are socially rejected, politically muted, and spiritually de-codified. Jesus’ ethics includes everyone and attends to the odds of the society with a moral appeal and not by force. 

Religion should be a moral obligation or it becomes another institution to display power to dictate. But the religion of the Pharisees was so judgmental. The “Jesus Movement” was optimistic and open. The religion of Jesus displays its roots in Love for others like oneself which expresses the Love of God in total. Jesus indicates that “only the sick need the physician”; the mission of the church should always focus for the needy not the greedy. (The Learning Pod in partnership with the Lions Club at St. James’ and the Barnie Parker Sharing Shed at St. John’s are some of our novel expressions of doing missions at this COVID 19 crisis. I would continue to urge you to contribute to such noble acts.)

Text: Matthew 9:1-8

Jesus stepped into a boat, crossed over and came to his own town. 2 Some men brought to him a paralyzed man, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.” 3 At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, “This fellow is blaspheming!” 4 Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, “Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? 5 Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? 6 But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the paralyzed man, “Get up, take your mat and go home.” 7 Then the man got up and went home. 8 When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such authority to man.

Friends today I like to highlight some thoughts from the text using the following phrases for our bible study.

“Paralyzed Man” - The divinity and humanity of Jesus is inseparable. His compassion was enacted in different forms to heal the society. Healing the paralyzed man is one such act of compassion and tells us a motif behind it. More than the magical display of Jesus the moral theme in this pericope spins the odds out of human life. I invite you to imagine this physically changed man as a society is crippled with many negatives. We cannot deny the presence of derogatory division and discrimination in society which has paralyzed the normal life what God as complemented to the life in general. The abuse of resources and the lack of proximity to the resources is the ill effect of the polluted and the insane mind of the dominant society and mindsets. However here, the and voices and the works of Jesus emphasize the importance of resolving it as a call of God. While celebrating the miraculous power of Jesus one should also remember that these acts are performed to communicate the truth, to restore the dignified and blessed life in every individual and society.

Here we can see two kinds of people, the people who brought this man to Jesus and the other the teachers of the law. While elaborating it we can define them as:

1. Who wants to resolve the issue. Genuine people always think about others. They are passionate towards the suffering and the suffering communities. They display a quality stewardship to the needy and the disabled. They like to serve, because the love of God compels them to do so. They attempt even the human impossibilities with the faculty of faith. Some men brought this physically challenged man to Jesus because this man’s problem was not addressed properly for a long time. They were courageous to address the problem and attempted to resolve it by bringing it to Jesus. 

2. Who worried about their “own authority” instead of resolutions. The second group of people were so concerned about themselves and their role in resolving instead of man’s healing. They were so cheap in putting themselves in an impossible act of healing. Instead of introspecting their call they started to question the young Jesus and his words. Their intentions were crippled by their own understanding, because they were alienated from hope and God. The new teaching of Jesus and his offering of new life dissipated them from their own understandings about life and humans. The proposals for change irritated them because they lacked vision with God for life. They strongly believed in God who santiones hierarchy and supremacy. They failed to understand the inclusive power of God who offers new life in Christ to all. They were very narrow and were mundane in their thinking and entertained evil instead of Good.

Authority of Jesus

The text clearly says how Jesus offered a holistic healing to this man. The authority of God helps people to understand themselves and help them to resolve their own issues. Every human being has the capacity of God to celebrate life in its fullness. The vicious human agency and its uncanny dominant nature spins the harmony board into misery and fails to display the design of God. Jesus was keen displaying his authority in healing the wounded by his words and deeds. He offered a new life. He said “Get up, take your mat and go home” is a powerful phrase because it has a deep theological motif. His words of absolution gave hope to the hopeless man and empowered him to handle his own problems. ‘Mat’- is a sign of a long-term problem and Jesus asked him to take up his own problem and walk with it with the power of God. When God is with us, we can handle any situation with faith.

God Bless These Words, Amen!