Text: Luke 7:1-10 

7 After Jesus had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. 2 A centurion there had a slave whom he valued highly, and who was ill and close to death. 3 When he heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him, asking him to come and heal his slave. 4 When they came to Jesus, they appealed to him earnestly, saying, “He is worthy of having you do this for him, 5 for he loves our people, and it is he who built our synagogue for us.” 6 And Jesus went with them, but when he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to say to him, “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; 7 therefore I did not presume to come to you. But only speak the word, and let my servant be healed. 8 For I also am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and the slave does it.” 9 When Jesus heard this he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, he said, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.” 10 When those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave in good health. 
Capernaum. The etymological meaning of the Hebrew word Capernaum is “village of comfort” (Caper - Village and Nahum - to cover, to purge or to atone). It was one of the basic centers of Jesus in which we were able to see many ministerial accounts of Jesus. Basically, it was situated near the banks of the Galilean Lake. He performed many miracles in the village which gained him lots of popularity. Even though Jesus was from Nazareth, Capernaum became his home after he was rejected at the synagogue in Nazareth. His exposition on the word of God from the book of Isaiah at Nazareth revealed his manifesto (Luke 4:16ff). He was very well accepted in this village, where we have the archaeological evidence of Peter’s house. In spite of the much activity the subjects of the village consistently lived in poverty because of the tax system. The taxes drained their hard work and the imperial tones subdued their human dignity. The peace of the village was maintained by violence and force. Roman officials were one of the key tools used by the authorities to keep the system alive and people were tortured because of the powerful exploitation of the rulers. Their lives were in a mess. 
Centurion: A centurion was a Roman official who was in charge of 80 to 100 soldiers. The degree varies in par with their ranks. In Roman army we can see an army unit called Legion which constitutes 5200 to 6000 soldiers. The “Legion” was subdivided into ten units called cohorts. The cohorts were subdivided into six centuries, of about 80 to 100 men each. Each century was commanded by a centurion. 
Slave: The institution of slavery was present during the time of Jesus. Without doubt the system of masters and slaves’ projects evidence of oppression and exploitation of the weak and the meek. However, the centurion valued his slave marks the key interpretation to the text. 
Jesus: We can notice a paradox in this text that is so self-evident; the love of the master to his slave and his engagement to redeem the life of his slave. Normally slaves were seen as inanimate objects and were abused by their master. But the act of the centurion who cared about the life of the dying slave amazed Jesus about the value system the centurion had. The inherent qualities of the divine in pleading life for his subordinate adds more meaning to the text when we interpret it in context. Jesus was well pleased about the act of centurion because his humility and concern for the other is the quality of God’s Kingdom values. Even though the slavery is an inhuman system, the human concern of the centurion amazed Jesus because the morality of the centurion seemed to be the antidote of change. I feel Jesus highlighted this centurion because he would have felt that the concern for “Life” makes one human. Mutual respect and dignity for everyone is the key moral that articulates the aroma of true peace and justice in society- the society which Jesus dreamt about. 
Today we can see how the slavery system has taken its shifts and the status quo of mind which discriminates people. It can be altered only when we believe in the Life. Life is a gift of God to all and Jesus is our model who died on the cross as a sign of a powerful protest against the powerful and privileged who manipulated and misunderstood the meaning of life. By lifting the character of the centurion, Jesus is telling us to believe in LIFE FOR ALL to realize the real faith community of God. 
May God Bless these Words. Amen. 



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Text: Luke 6:46-49
46 “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? 47 As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are like. 48 They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. 49 But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.”
 
Foundations are important.

Recently, my family and I joined the peaceful protest organized by a couple of young friends from Watkins Glen against the brutal acts of racism in America. The same evening during family prayer we asked our children to share about their day. John told his experience at Savona which gave us a big shock. He narrated his experience, and our tears rolled and praised God for his qualitative approach towards racist comments. While he was in the track field, he was called by one of his friends as “Dog in the field” and some of his friends confronted the accuser. John was so angry at him, but never reacted. He swallowed his emotions. In due course, when the accuser had some problems in the Math subject, John helped him to resolve his issues which eventually made his friend understand John’s love for him. He never shared his experience with us until he listened to the talks on Saturday at the park. We asked him what made him turn his anger into love? He just smiled, and we thanked God for the quality which transformed his friend, and now they are good friends. This experience haunted me about the foundations of moral thinking. As we know, we all are gifts of God and such assertions will enable us to refix and dismantle the organized systems that advocate bigotry, hate and apathy to make ourselves bind with Christ.
 
I feel intentions are so important as well the approach to resolve the issues. The hate for the blacks (George Floyd) made four people (Police) reap the consequences by law. Because racism is so systematic and institutionalized like the caste system in India. The unconscious bias is still articulating in the minds of the racist and its effects are so unpleasant. However, my argument is, will these four be morally corrected???? Likewise, the other racist notions?? Can force bring a change? I feel the unconscious belief influences our deeds. This unconscious self is difficult to be measured but can be altered when it is scrutinized with the moral prism more than the legal prism. I am happy justice is served today; however, I fear this will not put the matter to end. The notion of race is immoral and inhuman. This needs to be confronted without fail but in a modest way. I strongly believe hate cannot win hate. We are called to communicate the message of love to everyone for a moral change. We can take the horse to the water but we cannot make it drink!!!
 
Morality is the first demand, and we are called to live with the morality of respecting each other with mutuality and dignity. America has had an unresolved pandemic called racism for centuries!!! Blacks, Browns, Reds and Yellows still live in an uncanny deprivation of identity based on the content of color which stirs the cacophonic echoes in a free and brave society. Both East and West vacillates between the caste and race issues. When will this end!!!????
 
When we follow the teaching of Christ, eventually the foundations of peace and love will be the true language both in speech and deeds. Such foundations can be done by the Church (We), since it's mandatory for every Christian to propagate the Good News. The empire's nature and prosperity traits have shifted the priority of the church’s mission agenda and the foundations became so shallow. Let the movement of Christ spread the aroma of love everywhere to treat humans as human and accept everyone equally.
 
If any of us say it will change in due course of time, I think we escape from the challenge. We need to help people to understand that everyone is equal not only by law but in moral thinking. This is true spiritually. Let the unconscious bias of race disappear and through our evangelical acts to realize humanity in appropriate peace and justice.  Let us continue to act with love and stay with Christ as our profound foundation to spread the moral demand. Also, it’s our duty to bring the horse to drink the water of love!!!!
 
God bless these words.