The True Body of Christ

As a christian, there is something which i have observed over the years in my church. And this supposedly erroneous perceived phenomenon has not faded away, instead, has gained some momentum sufficient enough to capture one's attention. I am guessing, with a certain degree of confidence, that it might be presence in many other churches too. As a result, the unity within the house of God is slowly eroding away. So then, what is the true body of Christ? If we look closely, some existing churches of today are not, in the strictest sense, exhibiting the full characteristics of the biological analogy taught in the bible. And why is this so? Perhaps it is worthwhile to discuss further on this topic.

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The main reference bible passage is taken from 1Cor 12:12-27.

"The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it."

From this passage, what can we understand by the word "body"? First of all, a body consists of many parts. All the various parts are doing their rightful functions. Every functions are needed for a body to perform her tasks. Though some parts are more desirable, but no part can ever claim that she is the most essential because they depend on and complement one another to fulfil the required tasks of the body. Quoting from the movie [Spiderman]: "More powers come more responsibilties". Therefore, the stronger parts will need to protect the weaker ones in order to preserve the overall good of the body.

Here are some of the common ways which many of us would understand the above passage. Firstly, every person[1] is important, though not equal in comparison, which means that no one should be despised or overly honoured. Secondly, every person has different gifts or talents, which means no one is insignificant or indispensable. Thirdly, every person is associated with the church in some ways, meaning no one is a bystander or a total monarch. Lastly, every person is inter-connected with one another, meaning no one is a lone ranger or an Indian chief.

Such discrete categorisation are useful and important to establishing the unity of the church, but by focusing solely on the individuals, it has inevitably excluded an important element from the main equation. This crucial factor is termed as the "fullness" of a body. Not surprisingly, this oversight has caused a great deal of distress in many churches, especially when their members begin to realise that their church is not a true body of Christ or is just a pseudo body of Christ. It is, in fact, more correctly to describe such churches as a factory of Christ's body, which excels in producing many similiar parts (but not all) of the body.

Let us explore more on the definition of a factory. A factory can be defined as a place that produces an uniform product, without concern for individuality [2]. In order to examine such analogy, perhaps we can pause for a moment and recap the past and existing initiatives and emphasis in which your local church were/are engaging in. In our enthusiastic efforts to fulfil the Great Commission [3], are we not moulding and conferring many members of a quick diploma or degree in Evangelism and/or Mission? In our passion to make disciples, are we not conducting countless workshops, conferences, seminars, classes and training just to tell the world that we are a disciple-making church? In our zealous to lead a Davidic worship, are we not holding a wide variety of music lessons, dance practises, vocal training and what have you, so that we can be on par or near world-class music standards? What exactly are we doing?

Are we producing or assimilating parts of the body of Christ? Did the bible tell us to manufacture or to assemble?

Has God called all of us to be evangelists? Are we all disciplers? Are we all nominated to be worship leaders? My simple answer to all these questions is NO! Now, God has called each and every one of us to be the ONE body of Christ and not a factory of body parts. If everyone is an evangelist, who is left to influence the workplace? If everyone is a shepherd, who is left to teach? Each one of us ought to do what God has called us to accomplish in His divine will. Pastors, elders, deacons and church leaders should, all the more, help their members to discover their spiritual gifts and talents which God has graciously given so that they can use them to build up the church and thus fulfil the visions of the church.

But sadly, what some churches of today are doing is to tell and teach their members to first ignore or adjorn the fulfilment of God's primary calling in their lives, and simply to engage in other priorities which the church is currently involved in. Some leaders even claimed that their members can slowly discover their primary calling through their involvement in such church priorities. Granted, sometimes it works. But is it better to first quiet down our heart and seek God for our primary calling? Today, i see many devout christians who are afraid of serving because they are confused and unsure of their primary calling. They lamented that they cannot do the job or someone more capable should take over them. Now, if the eyes cannot recognise distant objects and lamented, can the feet take over their roles? No, the feet are meant for walking and not for seeing. Conveniently (or carelessly), most of the churches are generalising the sacred God's calling universal set to just a mere handful of serving positions. Are we missing some parts of the body of Christ? To put it more correctly, are we neglecting certain functions of the parts of the body of Christ so much so that they cease to become operational (or even important) over a long period of time?

Recently, i met a usher in a church at Monterey. He is an old man but his wide smiles and passionate welcome can really brightens up all the visitors' day. After service, i heard another church member mentioning that he has been a usher for many years, yet is still full of energy and passion in that serving position. I am quite certain that God has put the gift of hospitality into his life and he is realising this great potential to welcome people into the house of the Lord.

Now, imagine discovering your hidden potential which God has put into your life so that you can accomplish the unique purpose(s) of your existence in God's kingdom. I believe that is the greatest joy for which a person can ever receive on Earth. We can compare that feeling to a young eagle soaring to the vast sky or a little penguin diving into the deep sea for the very first time. Finally, they have discovered their true self and begin to venture out on to a more meaningful and complete life.

In conclusion, the body of Christ is not restricted to the few parts which we are familiar with in our church. In fact, there are so many others, some of which may not have been discovered yet. Therefore, as we continue to share the great gospels to the world, let us be mindful that some rare parts can exist and are waiting to join the body of Christ. Therefore, we must learn to accept these people and allow them to assimilate smoothly into our midst, hence building up the church. When receiving them, we should not be quick to train them or assign them serving positions. Rather, we should be more sensitive to the Holy Spirit, hence discovering their primary calling and spiritual gifts from God. Then we will truly know how they can fit nicely or complement our shortcomings. Only then can all the existing parts, along with the newer ones, be called the true body of Christ.

References
1. Person here means all christians associated in a specific or universal church.
2. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/factory assessed at 6th Dec 06.
3. Matthew 28:18-20


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The Apostles Creed

The topic for the month of November has long been set, waiting to be penned down. Shall leave it for the December issue. For now, let us examine the Apostles' Creed.

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I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; He descended to the dead. On the third day He rose again; He ascended into heaven, He is seated at the right hand of the Father, and He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.

Amen.
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PS: The word "catholic" refers not to the Roman Catholic Church, but to the universal church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

References
http://www.reformed.org/documents/apostles_creed.html


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The Choice of Barabbas: A Post-Resurrection Trial of the Jews for the Death of Christ in the Synoptic Gospels

1. Introduction
As literary tools, real or imaginary characters are often used to define and build story plots. The author’s intent is depicted through the skillful creation and deployment of the characters. Beside theological study, the bible can also be read as a form of literature with many genres. In this aspect, all biblical characters can be understood as literary tools, which bible authors employed for achieving certain purposes within their texts.

In this paper, we will examine a biblical character named Barabbas in the context of the Synoptic Gospels. P. Winter described the Barabbas’s Episode as the most enigmatical of all parts of Jesus’ trial in the Gospels. Indeed, to prove Winter’s point, Barabbas was the insurrectionist whom Pontius Pilate freed at the Passover feast in Jerusalem instead of the innocent Jesus by the unison cries from the ‘crowd’ (ochlos), also translated as ‘the Jews’ or ‘the multitude’. Some questions are raised. Why did the crowd choose him instead of other criminals, e.g. the two robbers who were crucified together with Jesus? What was so peculiar about him? What were the gospel authors’ intentions in using this character? Could there be a hidden agenda within the texts?

The above questions will all be tackled in this paper, which are divided into four main sections. The first section will touch on the historicity of the events mentioned in the Barabbas Narrative. The second section will examine the Barabbas character in greater detail, particularly, his name, crimes and release. The third section will focus on literary criticism of the Barabbas Narrative in the Synoptic Gospels. The final section will summarize and offer a proposition that the Gospel authors’ intent for the Barabbas Narrative is really to put the Jews on trial for Christ’s death.

2. Main Body
2.1 Examining from Historicity
Firstly, we want to examine the Barabbas Narrative from the historicity of the events mentioned in the text. The Synoptic Gospels stated that there was a custom at Passover during which the Roman governor would release a prisoner of the crowd's choice. Luke 23:17 was not present in the earliest manuscripts and might be a later addition to conform to the rest of the Gospels. The repetition of this custom was shown by the imperfect use of apolyein (“used to release”) in Mark 15:6, (“usually did”) in Mark 15:8 and the verb eiōthein (“to be accustomed”) in Matt 27:15.

During the reign of Pontius Pilate, however, there was no record of this Passover custom. Moreover, this kind act was questionable because it was more lenient than the usual Roman administration style. Some pointed to the perception of Pontius Pilate as having no respect for Jewish religious and national customs. Never would this cruel governor ever accede to the release of a ‘notorious’ insurrectionist. However, other historians took the exact opposite view, arguing that Pilate showed careful regard to customs in order to avoid revolts in an unruly province, and this might be an example of Pilate creating an ‘ad hoc’ tradition in order to avoid a possibly explosive situation. Meier had described Pilate as a skillful master of pragmatic politics in his time where major disturbances and bloodshed in Judea were brought to a minimal.

Besides the dubious Passover custom, the insurrection mentioned in Mark 15:7 and Luke 23:19 would have been known by the pioneer Palestinian Jewish Christians as they read the Barabbas Narrative. However no such political revolt was recorded, not even by historians such as Josephus, during the time usually associated with Jesus’ crucifixion, ca. 30CE. Some had reconciled this issue by saying that the Gospel authors adopted an apologetic stance, in order to protect their infant communities against Roman reprisal.

2.2 Examining from Barabbas Character
Secondly, we want to examine the Barabbas Narrative from the character himself, in particular, his name, crimes and release as recorded in the synoptic gospels. Literally, Bar-abbas means ‘son of the father’. Some early Syriac manuscripts of Matthew recorded Barabbas as ‘Jesus Barabbas’ in Matthew 27:17, which translated to ‘Jesus, son of the Father’. The fact that the name of Barabbas was preserved in the tradition while the names of the two crucified lēstai (robbers) with Jesus did not, could imply that he was indeed a very prominent troublemaker at that time.

Barabbas or bar-abbas could also be a surname but it was not common in any other Hebrew text. Some scholars have speculated that Jesus was known as ‘bar-Abba’, due to his custom of addressing God as father or ‘Abba’ in prayer, as well as referring to God as Abba in his preaching. In the Gospels, however, Jesus rarely referred to himself as the ‘son of God’ and never referred to himself as the ‘son of the father’. The alternative possibility was that the name ‘Jesus’ was unintentionally inserted twice before Barabbas' name in Matthew 27:16-17. This was unlikely, especially since Barabbas was mentioned first in each verse. Most modern translations of the New Testament do not contain ‘Jesus’ as part of the Barabbas’ name.

Maccoby have averred that when the Jewish crowd clamored before Pontius Pilate to free ‘Bar Abba’, they could have meant Jesus. The argument given states that Anti-Semitic element in the Christian church altered the narrative to make it appear that the demand was for the freedom of somebody else named ‘Barabbas’, thus shifting the blame for the Crucifixion towards the Jews and away from the Romans.

Looking at the crimes of Barabbas, Mark and Luke had referred to him as one involved in a stasis, a riot (Mark 15:7; Luke 23:19). He was described as a notorious prisoner (Matthew 27:16), an insurrectionist (Mark 15:7, Luke 23:19) and a murderer (Mark 15:7, Luke 23:19). Some scholars posit that Barabbas was a member of the sicarii, a militant Jewish movement that sought to overthrow the Roman occupiers of their land by force, noting that Mark (15:7) mentioned that he had committed murder in an insurrection. Robert Eisenman has discussed the sicarii and the ongoing revolt of Jews against foreign presence in Judea. Many historians, however, maintained that the Sicarii only arose in the 40's or 50's of the 1st Century after Jesus' execution.

Regarding the peculiar choice of Barabbas’ release, Cheney stated that Pilate acquiesced the release of Barabbas and the crucifixion of Jesus to satisfy the crowd (Mark 15:15), to stop a riot (Matt. 27:24) and to silence the people’s pleas for Jesus’ death (Luke 23:18-25). Other views maintained that Pontius Pilate, encouraged by the antipathy of the temple priesthood, considered Jesus as a threat to the Roman state, and thus, released Barabbas instead of Jesus.

Faced with similar charges, Barabbas, guilty as pronounced , was released, whereas Jesus, innocent from false accusations , was condemned to death. Looking further into the texts, the three questions posted by Pilate in Mark (vv. 15:9, 11, 14), the three declarations of Jesus’ innocence in Luke (vv. 23:4, 14, 22) and the dream of Pilate’s wife and his washing of hands in Matthew (vv. 27:19, 24), showed that the gospels authors believed that the drive to kill Jesus was primarily the responsibility of the Jewish leaders though the execution was by the Romans. Beck mentioned that Pilate’s hand washing and his wife’s dream could be local traditions which were added to the main narrative to lessen Romans’ responsibility. They reflected a trying period where the Jews persecuted the Palestinian Jewish Christians and when it was important for them to avoid Romans’ suspicion.

Also, Barabbas’ release illustrated the irony of the pardon and condemnation of the similar crimes of insurrection, both at the same time. It downplayed the penalty of murder in two ways. The first was through the release of a real murderer, Barabbas, and the second was through the murder of an innocent person, Jesus.

2.3 Examining from Literary Criticism
Thirdly, we want to examine the Barabbas Narrative from a literary criticism perspective. As mentioned earlier, this Barabbas scene presented a dramatic contrast between the guilty and the innocent. It was not alien to the Jews since the condemning of the innocent and letting the guilty go free was a Judaic motif. From Matthew 27:17, the neat pattern of ‘Jesus Barabbas or Jesus who is called Messiah’ could reflect a copyist’s dramatic touch to heighten the parallelism of the two figures whom Pilate faced. Therefore, the entire Barabbas Narrative could be read like a parable to compare the true and false ‘son of the father’. Using the reader-response theory, the contrast between Barabbas and Jesus were meant to draw the readers of the Gospels into the narrative so that they must decide whose revolution was truly from the Father - the violent insurgency of Barabbas, or the challenging Gospel of Jesus.

As literary tool, Barabbas could be a totally fictional character to relate the story of a huge injustice wrought against a supremely just One. In the gospel of Mark, the author needed someone for his plot purposes to give testimony at the end that Jesus was indeed the Son of God. In the same fictitious light, Aus had argued that the Barabbas Narrative was basically a Christian composition drawing many similarities from an earlier major insurrection in Jerusalem in 4 BCE. He also illustrated that the pro-Roman sentiment among the Palestinian Jewish Christians could be due to the favorable deeds of Vitellius, a Roman governor, notably the transfer of the custody of the high priest’s special garments back to the priests at a Passover festival in Jerusalem in 36 CE. He maintained that the positive character of Vitellius had been transferred back to Pilate in the Barabbas Narrative.

Scholars like Cohn, Rigg, Maccoby and S.L. Davies interpreted the Barabbas Narrative to state that there was only one Jesus who stood at the Roman’s trial. Barabbas was not another person but an aspect of Jesus’ identity, e.g. under a religious charge Jesus was called ‘Barabbas’, the son of the Father, and under a political charge he was called the king of the Jews. Eventually, Pilate dismissed the religious charge or ‘Barabbas’ but sentenced Jesus on the political one. These arguments, however, do not stand under critical analysis because the creation of a nonexistent person was too early in the Gospel tradition, and moreover, Jesus rarely spoke of God as his father or called himself the son of God.

2.4 Summary and Proposition
At this juncture, the paper has covered the historicity, the character examination and the literary criticism of the Barabbas Narrative in the context of the Synoptic Gospels. As much as they have provided new insights, they have equally highlighted new questions on the authenticity of the texts. First of all, there was no recorded source of the custom of releasing a prisoner chosen by the people, nor was there any recorded record of an insurrection during Jesus’ time. Pontius Pilate, as historians had recorded, could not have possibly gave in to the cries of the ‘crowd’ or otherwise translated as ‘the Jews’. Next, the name of Barabbas, which literally means ‘son of the father’, was impossibly odd. The many crimes committed by Barabbas were also ‘too coincidentally’ similar to the false accusations thrown at Jesus. Ironically, these crimes were pardoned and Barabbas released, whereas the innocent Jesus was convicted and sentenced to crucifixion. Lastly, most literary criticism asserts that this particular plot was an invention of the early Church, devised in order to exhibit a simple rhetorical antithesis between the good Jesus and the bad one, so that the Jews could be shown for evermore to have rejected his authentic, good counterpart.

Approaching from the reader-response’s perspective, I will now offer another proposition that there is indeed another secondary trial within the Barabbas Narrative. This trial aims to convict the Jews for shedding innocent’s blood of Jesus. The narrative begins by drawing all its readers to the familiar court setting in front of Pilate, the governor. Then it starts to introduce all the different characters that are necessary in a typical court hearing. The ‘defendant’ is ‘the crowd’ or ‘the Jews’, in particular, their religious leaders on multiple charges of slander, giving false testimonies and murder. The ‘plaintiff’ or ‘prosecutor’ is the team of synoptic gospel authors whose purposes are to convince the court through their consistent narration and to convict the ‘defendant’ of his murder crime. The ‘defendant attorney’ is formed by the collective voices of the chief priests and the elders, who formulated the accusations against Jesus. They must prove to the court that Jesus had indeed committed the crimes that led to a death sentence. The witnesses are the council of three formed by Pilate himself, his wife and Herod. They have, consistently, maintained the innocence of Jesus through their personal testimonies. Finally, the responsibility of the ‘judge’ or ‘jury’ is bestowed onto the readers themselves so that they can make an independent verdict on whether the ‘defendant’ is guilty of Jesus’ death.

The character Barabbas, therefore, is used in the narrative as a marker to advance the court’s hearing. From the initial accusations to the illogical choice of Barabbas’ release, the defendant attorney is portrayed as self-centered and holds little regard for justice. Moreover, the notorious list of crimes attributed to Barabbas provides a sharp contrast to the false accusations of Jesus by the chief priest and elders. This should be noted as strong evidence by the judge. Repeatedly, the witnesses have shown many evidences that Jesus was indeed innocent and call for a just verdict to be passed. The mass cries of the defendant overrule the rightful judgment and caused an innocent person, Jesus, to be crucified. As an added twist, the defendant in Matthew was heard to make a self-confession on the charge of causing Jesus’ death by saying, “Let his blood be on us and on our children!” Ultimately, the reader-response’s intent of this Barabbas Narrative is that the readers, who now act as the judge, will be challenged to make their own assessment on whether the ‘defendant’ is guilty of Jesus’ death.

3. Conclusion
Notwithstanding the authenticity issue, Aug explained that the Barabbas Narrative has special social significance to the Palestinian Jewish Christians when it transferred the main responsibility of Jesus’ death from the Romans back to the Jews. Firstly, they could use this narrative to better establish their self-identity apart from Judaism. Secondly, it was advantageous for them to lean towards Rome, the occupying military power in Palestine and ruler of the world then.

The main exegesis of the Barabbas Narrative often evolves around Pontius Pilate and the Jews, shifting the blame of Jesus’ death from one party to another. Primarily, Pontius Pilate should be held responsible because only he alone, as the governor, could pronounce a death sentence at that time. The Jews, however, should also bear the fault because they had instigated the crucifixion to take place. But perhaps, we should not be quick to point our fingers at others. From a theological perspective, all of us are guilty of his death because of our sins. This is mentioned in the bible when it says that Jesus came and died for our sins so that whoever believes in him shall not perished but have eternal life. In that case, we have all taken part in the crucifixion of Jesus, and like Barabbas, our many sins are forgiven simply because he had bore our sins to himself.

In future, when we study the Barabbas Narrative or any other narrative within the biblical texts, we can, for a change, employ some literary criticism techniques such as the reader-response theory to them, so that we, as readers, can be made active and be directly involved in the plots. Surely, if there is any original reader-response purpose from the bible authors, it will only be more apparent to us when we assume the intended role and give our own response in the context of the narrative.

References
Aus, Roger David. Caught in the act, walking on the sea, and the release of Barabbas revisited. Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, 1998.

Beck, Dwight Marion. Through the Gospels to Jesus. New York, NY: Harper & Brothers, 1954.
Meier, John P. A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus: The Roots of the Problem and the Person, Vol. I. New York, NY: Doubleday, 1991.

Brown, Raymond E. The Death of the Messiah: From Gethsemane to the Grave: A Commentary on the Passion Narratives in the Four Gospels Vol. 1. New York, NY: Doubleday, 1994.

Eisenman, Robert H. James, Brother of Jesus: The Key to Unlocking the Secrets of Early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls. New York, NY: Penguin Books, 1998.

Freedman, David Noel, et al., eds. Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000.

Grant, Michael. Jesus, An Historian's Review of the Gospels. New York, NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1977.

MacCoby, Hyam. Revolution in Judaea: Jesus and the Jewish Resistance. New York, NY: Taplinger Pub. Co., 1980.

Meier, John P. A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus: The Roots of the Problem and the Person, Vol. I. New York, NY: Doubleday, 1991.

Meier, John P. A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus: The Roots of the Problem and the Person, Vol. 3. New York, NY: Doubleday, 1991.

Sloyan, Gerard Stephen. The Crucifixion of Jesus: History, Myth, Faith. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1995.

Winter, Paul. On the trial of Jesus. Berlin: De Gruyter, 1974.


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Do You have a Religion?

Sometimes a coffeeshop talk can spark off a series of interesting discussion. Recently, I was catching up with two of my former classmates when one of them popped the question on terrorism. Is that a religious or political issue? Are they (the terrorists) instigated by their religion or some other factors? The conversation went on to talk more about religion instead. From these, i somehow sense that people (at least for my two friends) are beginning to lose trust in religion. They begin to question the necessity of religion in the modern world today. Do we harbour such thoughts too?

I think it is important to understand what people perceive when we mention them of our Christian identity. Is this identity a positive or negative one? Sometimes, presumption from their past life experiences can affect the way they understand Christian. So how can we introduce our faith to them as a Christian? Is it just another form of religion? Or do we have more to offer?

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"Hey, what is your religion?", asked John.

"Oh, I believe in _________.", replied John's friend.

When approaching the topic of religion, technical terms like Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, Taoism, Judaism, Atheism and so on so forth come to our mind. But what do we really understand by the term 'religion'? Is it suffice to give a one-word answer for something which we (assuming we have a religion) hold so dearly in our heart? Perhaps, for some, this topic is mediocre. But, i think, for Christians, such issues are important because their past, present and future could be held ransom by a mere religious label if nothing concrete is done to address the fundamentals of thir faith. More details are required to define the authenticity of their faith. More explanations are necessary to clear the misunderstandings people may have. More discussions are essential to engage the non-Christians with the Word of God. At this point, Christians (readers) should establish that a simple religious label is insufficient and often redundant to tell people of their faith. On the contrary, it will create even more ambiguities for those who are new or alien in the Christian faith.

From the wikipedia website, religion is defined as

"... a system of social coherence based on a common group of beliefs or attitudes concerning an object, person, unseen being, or system of thought considered to be supernatural, sacred, divine or highest truth, and the moral codes, practices, values, institutions, and rituals associated with such belief or system of thought. It is sometimes used interchangeably with "faith" or "belief system", but is more socially defined than that of personal convictions."[1]

It seems that sociologists, anthropologists, theologists and other professional scholars have attempted to classify sacred, supernatural and superstitious social beliefs, practices, traditions and customs into some sort of taxonomy. One of the major limitations of this classification is 'over-simplificity'. Such diverse and non-scientific activities are extremely difficult to be grouped into a set of generic headers. One may be right to ask concerning the feasibility of this impossible task. It tends to fall apart easily when dissected for rigorous scrutiny.

Perhaps the next time when we hear people stating their religion, we can, for a change, make the conversation more interesting by probing further on the elaboration of their faith. The delight will be revealed when by sheer coincidence, two or more people actually embrace the same religion. After lengthy expounding, they may begin to realise that they do not share similiar understanding (or faith) in their religion after all. If, at that moment, one can read their thoughts, they may be presuming (or accusing) other parties from having some sort of knowledge deficiency or fallacy in their understanding of the religion.

Such illustration, i should say, is common in our society. Many people seem to be ignorant of what they believe (or profess) in. For the majority, a simple religious label is sufficient, leaving the hearers to interpret the rest. Unfortunately, this phenomenon is present across all religions. Exactly, why do people want to embrace a set of religious teachings and practises? Could it be for a sense of identity or are they following a social norm? Allow me to present the following three reasons to further our discussion. Detailed explanation are delibrately excluded to scope the content of this article.

Why do people embrace a religion?

Firstly, people embrace religion for a peace of mind. With so many unexplained events happening in this world, people are wary of the physical realm which they are living in. Some may believe that there is also a spiritual realm in existence which they cannot see. Therefore, they resort to having a religion in the hope that unknown or uncontrollable events can be contained (or explained) by the supernatural powers which their religion claims. If we study the diversity of the god(s) in each religion, it is not difficult to identify the main area of concerns of their followers.

Secondly, people embrace religion for a sense of identity. Quite often, family members share a common religion. Religious traditions and customs are passed down from generations to generations without much resistance. In the early Church history, some people embraced Christianity because they wanted to associate themselves with the prestigious Caesar and his royal officials who had made Christianity the national religion. Similiarly, most Chinese in China are atheist because of their closed policies which prevented the freedom of religious worship and development in their countries.

Thirdly, people embrace religion for a source of power. Mysterious as it can be, not many can comprehend the essence of the religion's core. Those who are capable of doing so are held in great regards, e.g. the High Priests, Catholic Pope, Venerables. With more knowledge come greater powers. Therefore, the knowledgeable ones are bestowed with the authority to instruct, influence and even manipulate their "religion" which, inevitably, affect others too.

No doubt the same over-simplificity problem exists here too. Notwithstanding that, most of the people tend to fall into one or more of the above justification when they embrace a religion. They want to acquire a piece of mind, a sense of identity and/or a source of power. In each of the three reasons, it is almost certain that there are overlaps as well as differing views within. The three reasons can even be mix-and-match to generate higher degree of complexity for the more sophisticated individuals. What all these imply is that religion is something which human beings had created, simply to satisfy their own self-centered desires.

So what did the bible say about religion?

"For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles." ~ Rom 1:20-23

The bible says that those who attempt to create religion(s) are like fools. They have denied the existence of the one true God whose invisible qualities can be clearly seen and understood from the creation. Although they know somehow that there is a God, but they do not acknowledge Him. In their self-centredness, they create false idols to satisfy their personal desires. This brings us to the important question on the purpose of our existence on earth. Are we created to serve (worship) God or to be served (attended to) by our god(s)?

On the same track, the bible also teaches that even if people claim to know a lot of things, but they cannot possibly comprehend everything (Ecc 8:17). Even with rapid medical science advances, no one has yet to fully understand the forces of nature at work or how a life is formed right from the beginning; let alone the work of God (Ecc 11:5). It can, therefore, be seen that the naive ideology of Man has failed miserably when we try to articulate God in the form of religion. For if God is truly God, then it is impossible for us to understand Him apart from His divine revelation. Yet, even with divine revelation, God remains mysterious because His ways and thoughts are far beyond our comprehension (Isa 55:9).

Till now, we have noted that a simple religious label is pretty much meaningless. The exact interpretation depends largely on people's life context and experiences. This problem is made worsened by the enormous volume of religious text available for reference. As a result, the same religion can be taught and practised in many different ways, depending on the needs of the people during that period of time. We also read three reasons why people want to embrace a religion; all for self purposes. Religions, therefore, are attractive because they seek to provide immediate solutions for all our needs and wants. They can even complement the deficiency of modern science in our society by providing alternative answers to unexplainable events. Most religions also adopt a modular design structure which means that new teachings can be added later in order to cater for present and future requirements. Henceforth, it is not surprising for religions to lure and rally a constant stream of followers into their respective system.

From a Christian's viewpoint, we should not regard our beliefs as a form of religion. Though some forms of systematic mechanism can be achieved and are beneficial from an academic point of view, we should be careful not to allow such doctrinal issues to take precedence over God, hence limiting His work in our midst. When we tell people we are a Christian, we should be careful not to let them garner the idea that we belong to a generalised religion called "Christianity", a term which may contain false associations or presumption based on their past and current life experiences. Instead, we should allow our faith to be at work, in both our speeches and actions; changing their old mindsets and perhaps their life experiences with us. This faith, which is in Jesus Christ, is strengthened in our daily meditation on God's Word and constant experiences enabled by the Holy Spirit. It is both alive and real, always anticipating what is come from the will of God. In God's Word, we are moulded and transformed to be like Christ (Rom 12:2), the perfecter of our faith (Heb 12:2). In experiences, we stand in awe of the marvelous things that the Lord has done before our very sight. Those will form yet another part of our personal testimonies and thanksgiving in Christ. That is why the bible mentions that Christians are to be commissioned to testify for Christ, teaching people of the good news found in God's Word and telling people of the wonderful things that happened in Christ. To God be the glory forever and ever. Amen!

References
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion


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God's Delight: Faithful or Diligent Workers

Hope this simple rendition will generate sufficient thought-provoking mental discourse in your inquisitive and discerning mind, that has endured and persevered with me thus far, surviving as victorious remnant to a glimpse of first-hand, some Christian masterpieces (in small caps) in production. Christian literary works pen down by Man, all by the grace of God and for the glory of God. Amen!

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Let us read from the passage extracted from Matthew 20:1-16 below.

...
For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard. About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.' So they went.

He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing. About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, 'Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?'

'Because no one has hired us,' they answered.

He said to them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard.'

When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.'

"The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner.

'These men who were hired last worked only one hour,' they said, 'and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.'

"But he answered one of them, 'Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?'

"So the last will be first, and the first will be last."
...

In Matthew 20:1-16, we read the parable of the workers in the vineyard. Verse 16 sums up the main theme of this parable, that is, Christians must always stay alert in their faith, else they face the danger of being judged by God. This reminder is timely for veteran Christians who are constantly enticed by the devil to forsake their humility and sole dependence on God, and to pursue self-righteousness, which leads to the ancient sin of pride, resulting in the downfall of Mankind.

Two points which we can ponder upon.

In this parable, we first observe that the workers were busy working in the vineyard, even though there was a huge shortage of manpower. Such familiar scenes are echoed in, I say, most churches today where Christians are more pre-occupied engaging in their ministry work than going out and inviting the unchurched or unsaved into the house of the Lord. Seriously, have we considered taking a break and ask God what He really want us to do?

Secondly, we discover the growing appetite of the workers in the vineyard. They were all promised to receive a denarius after the completion of their work. But the workers who were hired earlier became greedy and demanded for more compensation. The Ephesus church was reprimanded (Rev 2:4) for this exact reason when they started to forsake their first love. Now, in our zeal for God, have we also forgotten of our wretched sinful nature, that we are saved only by God’s grace through our faith and not by our own deeds (Eph 2:8-9)?

Therefore, we must always stay vigilant in our faith because the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour (1Pet 5:8). Resist the sin of pride and let verse 16 be a constant reminder to us that those who wish to be the first will be made the last in the kingdom of God.


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Did Jesus Succumb to Extreme Pressure?

Let us read from the passage extracted from Mark 11:11-25 below.

...
Jesus entered Jerusalem and went to the temple. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.

The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." And his disciples heard him say it.

On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple area and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts.

And as he taught them, he said, "Is it not written: "'My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations'? But you have made it 'a den of robbers.'"

The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.

When evening came, they went out of the city.

In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to Jesus, "Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!"

"Have faith in God," Jesus answered. "I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins."
...

From the above passage, we see a different side of Jesus. In comparison to his previous trip to Jerusalem when he was only twelve, Jesus seems to have changed from a mild and inquisitive teenager to an aggressive and critical adult. What can we observe from this passage?

Firstly, Jesus seems to have been unreasonable. Though it was not the season for figs, he cursed the fruitless fig tree because it did not satisfy his hunger. Secondly, Jesus resorted to the use of violence in the temple court. The temple market was a widely-accepted commercial practice during his time, yet he disapproved of it and created a big scene in that area. Now, was Jesus a changed person at the final lap of his messianic journey?

Looking deeper into the scripture, we can see that Jesus was definitely not being unreasonable. He had overcome the 40 days of trials and temptation prior to the commencement of his ministry. He said that Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from God. Therefore, Jesus could not have possibly cursed the fig tree because of his hunger, but rather as a vivid illustration to teach his disciples the importance of faith in prayer. This was crucial because he was going to leave them soon.

Jesus, being zealous for God, was exhibiting a type of holy anger in the temple court. His actions resembled that of Moses when he smashed the Ten Commandments in front of the Israelites during the golden calf incident. Obviously, the people still had not understood the laws of Moses fully and Jesus’ gestures seems to suggest that the written laws were smashed the second time and they would find fulfillment through Him.

Perhaps we can ask ourselves some practical questions. When we pray, are we placing our faith in God or are we subjected to the status quo of the world? Do we obey a set of written rules blindly or do we obey God by letting Jesus Christ reign in our lives? Instead of asking whether Jesus had changed, maybe we need a real change ourselves.


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The Love on the Cross

Love comes in various attributes, forms and presentation. We understand love from the way we interact with family members, friends, lovers and acquaintances. Sometimes, we offer our love and sometimes we receive love from others. This cyclic flow of reciprocal love is what propels us to move on with life; a tiny glimpse of what Christians should be expecting in heaven.

Have you noticed?

Perhaps a few more years for some and you will realise that this world which we are living in has some inherent weaknesses and errors. From the day which we were born, endless vacuum of wants and desires surrounded us. Our basic instinct is to first seek out all the possible sources of love in whatever manners we can. As babies, we cry so that our requests can be met. Some have argued that this is the only "known" form of communication by the babies and should not be considered as a selfish way but time will tell. As kids, we learn new languague(s), verbal as well as non-verbal, so that we can communicate with our family members. But we fall back to our tears when our wants are left undone. Progressively over time, we acquire new techniques of achieving our desires into our learned skillsets. As teenagers, we probably have so many love-seeking methods that we are spoilt for choices. At this juncture, some may start to realise that love is not all about receiving, we can also offer, if we want to, a portion of our love to people we hold so dearly. As adults, we tend to start to engage in mutual forms of loving interaction. This is really an art rather than a science because a precision must be achieved to avoid costly experiments. There is no empirical result that holds true between different human entities because each one of us are unique. As such, we start to mourn because love has finally taken her toil at us. Love becomes a mysterious element to be very wary of. She has emerged as a big question mark where answers are being sought throughout our lives.

So, how does the bible describes love?

The bible states that the highest form of love is the "Agape", a selfish form of sacrifical love which God has demonstrated for us when He sent Jesus, His only begotten son, to die for us on the cross. Have we got anything worthy of such a cause? Absolutely not! For all has sinned and fall short of the glory of God [Rom 3:23]. But because of God's great love, we are not consumed [Lam 3:22]. God is love [1John 4:8] and is the Author of our life [Acts 3:15], therefore He has personally come to show us how to love both our Creator and the people in this world [Matt 22:37-39].

The bible also commanded us to love one another just as Christ has loved us [John 13:34]. A command is something which we must obey, regardless of our own choices. In other words, to love is the core of Jesus's message to His disciples which summarises the two greatest commandments - to love God and to love our neighbours [Matt 22:37-39].

Are there any differences between the divine love and the earthly love? Plenty!

Most earthly love are temporal. When trials come, earthly love fade away. Reflect and count the number of times that your family and friends had disappointed you because of their lack of love. Think and recount the number of times you had neglected people because of inherent biased love. We find it hard to time-share our love to many people, especially when they come all at the same time. Often, we will choose carefully the recipient whom we want to love. Our love has a limit. At times, love can also mutate into negative feelings like hatred, jealousy and anger. The bottomline is - we do not know how to love.

What then for us?

"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." ~ Rom 8:38-39

God's Word is everlasting [Matt 24:35]. His promises hold forever. The love of God has such great strength that it binds our relationship with Him tightly together. Therefore, we can be assured that no one and nothing can separate us from the love of God. Even sins can no longer divide us from our Creator because Christ has died on the cross for all our wrongdoings. God's love is universal, inviting all to put their faith in Jesus Christ, His Son. And because of our faith in God's saving grace; we are justified and clothed with righteousness. We become heirs to God's kingdom in Christ [Rom 8:17].

Such were the vast differences between the divine love and the earthly love. And if we look carefully at the Calvary's cross, there are some interesting insights for us to ponder upon.

"... And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." ~ Eph 3:17b-19

When examined carefully from all angles, the crucifix has many dimensions - wide, long, high and deep. Indeed, Christ has demonstrated all these attributes of the divine love when He died for us, all sinners, on the cross. Perhaps, if one can measure the width between the east and the west, the length between the north and the south, the height between the heaven and the earth, the depth between the sky and the ocean bed, then that is how wide, long, high and deep God's love has for us.

For those non-mathematics inclined, the divine love that Christ had shown on the Calvary's cross can be seen as how God has extended the invitation of His salvation from the Israelites to all the nations (wide); has levelled the racial, culture, color discrimination among people to be equal in His eyes (long); has bridged the great gulf separating Man and Himself (tall), has won the victory over sins and death (deep).

Such is the divine love of God which is poured out to all those who believe and receive. Such is the "Agape" love whom Apostle Peter was being asked for three times by the Lord. He has responded. What about you?


Be blessed! You, who are being loved by God [Jedidiah].


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Sense-Making in the Great Commission - Part 2 of 2

If God allows it, i shall be on my way to obtain plenary knowledge about theology and sociology, and how they can be studied in parallel. Someone may asked, including myself, about the true intention of this decision. Honestly speaking, i am still seeking a crystal clear answer for the calling to do full-time ministry has not arrived yet. Perhaps the upcoming Korean Prayer Conference in July can shed some light to the dark Damascus cloud that is looming over my path.

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This month, we will continue to touch on the Synefin Framework[1] and how it can be applicable when fulfiling the Great Commission, which world-wide christians are engaging, in one form or another. Also, we want to first acknowledge the efforts invested by the various christian mission pioneers, missionaries and leaders whom have developed many valuable theories and teachings for the Great Commission based on their own experiences. This Synefin Framework that i am introducing serves as an alternative perspective to view things, one that we often neglect when we started to take things for granted.

In the Gospel of Matthew, the Great Commission calls us (i.e. all christians) to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and to teach them to obey everything that Jesus has commanded us[2].

But how do we make sense out of the challenges arising from the Great Commission? Perhaps the Synefin Framework can help to facilitate and further our discussion. Let us go for a quick recap.

The Synefin Framework contains four domains called "known", "knowable", "complex" and "chaos" respectively. There is also a fifth obscured domain termed "disorder" which is actually the overlapping area among the four domains, resulting from the different interpretation by different people on the same subject of interest. Generally, the ordered domains (known and knowable) have some forms of linear cause-and-effect relationships, whereas the unordered domains (complex and chaos) present little or no cause-and-effect connection at all. At the very fundamental level, the Cynefin framework attempts to question the universality of the assumption of order, the assumption of rational choice and the assumption of intentional capability. But these are beyond the scope of this article, at least for the time being.

With these in mind, let us study the actual application of the Cynefin Framework on the Great Commision.

In order for us to accomplish the Great Commission, we must be prepared to go into the harvest fields (local or overseas) to sow seads (i.e. gospel sharing and bible teaching) and then to reap the crops (i.e. new christian converts and new church leaders). The "known" domain will include pre-mission preparation like mastering our bible knowledge and evangelism tools, learning foreign languages and cultures, plotting maps and geographical topography, recruiting zealous members, raising funds, coordinating prayer and information network and so on so forth. Within this domain, people tend to plan as much as they could so that, via a systematic process, a lot of unexpected surprises can be minimized or even eliminated, and the remaining procedures ahead will be made smoother. The converse is also true, if there are insufficient preparation for a mission trip, then the final outcomes would most likely be far from desirable. Hence, the "known" domain keeps us busy by the process of planning and preparation because we know that jobs well done at these earlier stages will eventually lead to a greater success or better desirable outcomes at a later time. Generally, church leaders have little problems at managing tasks at this domain.

What about past experiences and the common pitfalls that we want to avoid? All these fall into the "knowable" domain where the highly specialized knowledge are held by a very limited group of people. Typically, they are the experts, practitioners, researchers and advisors in the realms of interest. In today's context, we could tap on these valuable resources to gain a better appreciation of the unfamiliar contexts that we are interested in, and perhaps, include some important lessons learnt into our existing training programmes. That explains why it is so important to have (but not limited to) mission post-sharing sessions, conferences and collaboration; the ultimate aim is to impart restricted knowledge, which are important, to the missionaries, who are getting ready to venture into the unfamiliar mission fields. Christianity faith has been making good progress over the centuries; (in my opinion) it would be impractical for a church to start a new mission without exploring the "knowable" domain in details. Why disadvantage ourselves by ignoring the unity of the Christ's body? I want to propose to all Churches to begin constructive communication and share the talents that God has entrusted to each individual so that the kingdom of God may truly advance without any man-made hindrance.

Even with the luxury of ample preparation, chaos theory has taught us that we cannot eliminate or contain the influence of irregularity in the world, no matter how hard we try. This is something which has facinated many scientists around the world, whom (i believe) many could have internalized and attributed this strange phenomenon to non other than the grand mastery work of the Great Architect Himself(God). Numerous empirical experiments can be conducted, but there will always be emergent chaotic elements existing in the world that do not conform to the existing scientific theories. And when that happened, either new theories or patterns have to be observed again, or we can simply label them as tolerable abnormalities in an otherwise ordered system. Does it sounds like the box office hit - The Matrix, to you? Such chaotic behaviours bring us to the next two Cynefin domains, in which the cause-and-effect line is not that apparent to people from the beginning.

In the "complex" domain, the causal relationship is coherent in retrospect and do not repeat. Hence, time is key for the identification of emerging patterns and the application of appropriate reactive measures to those identified patterns. Such instances often occur in isolation and cannot be taught because they may not happen ever again. Frequent exemplification of such domain happened during the actual ground mission work itself. In my opinion, they do, in a way, provide a wonderful space for God to display His majestic glory and power in our midst. In this domain, success come from the skillfulness of individual to spot new patterns and intervening to structure those patterns in their favor. Those who fail tend to adopt a dogmatic approach and simply refuse to allow any agent of change to alter their way. On the mission ground, we should always allow the Holy Spirit to work in our lives, even though we had spent lots of time in our preparation. Instead of dictating what we can do all the time, we should also yield ourselves to listen to the gentle prompting of the Holy Spirit, and be willing to respond in total surrender towards God's will. New wine should be poured onto new wineskin[3]. God may inspire us with the gift of pattern recognition but are we willing to change (perhaps all) our existing plans to tackle the new found pattern(s)? Extraordinary events require extraordinary power to handle, of which only God is capable of providing. When we know that the things are beyond our means, we should let go and let God takes the lead. After all, Jesus Christ is both our Shepherd and our King! He will lead us into victorious triumphant in the spiritual battles at the mission fields.

What happened if things are totally out of control? What if there is no pattern to be observed and a decision has to be made immediately? This is characterized in the "chaos" domain. According to the Cynefin Framework theory, the recommended approach is to act first so as to quickly contain the chaos, then observe the resultant stability achieved and finally responding to the outcomes in the most appropriate manner, when possible. Often, during the actual mission work itself, there are many ambiguous issues that require our immediate attention. What should we do in response? Sound the panic alarm? I think otherwise. The bible says that God gives us a bold and courageous spirit when we accomplishing His work[4]. And He promises to be with us wherever we go. Therefore, we should all the more be bold and courageous, exercising the wisdom (sometimes our common sense) and skillsets that God has given to us when dealing with chaotic situations. We must firmly believe that all things work for the good of those who love God[5]; by faith, our actions will be justified[6]; and He who is in us is above all[7].

On a lesser note, I think we ought to be thankful that such unordered domains exist, because only through self-awareness of our own lacking and uncertainities do we truly rely on God's power and strength. It is timely to remind ourselves, over and again, that the Great Commission is solely for God's purpose, enabled only through Jesus Christ and empowered entirely by the work of the Holy Spirit; which excludes any of our self-ambitions, whatever these words may mean to us.

In conclusion, it is important to note that none of the domain described is more desirable than any other. Rather, the Cynefin framework is used primairily to consider the dynamics of situations, decisions, perspectives, conflicts, and changes in order to come to a common concensus for decision-making under both certainity and uncertainity. If we could somehow identify the challenges of the Great Commission using this framework as an enabler tool, perhaps our current and future mission works may be even more insightful, not to mention fruitful too. Finally, we should not be cynical in the adoptation of new tools (even worldly ones) for overcoming the potential obstacles in missions. Ultimately, the Great Commission must be fulfilled, just as what our Lord Jesus Christ commanded us to obey.

May His kingdom come quickly! Amen!

References
1. C.F. Kurtz and D.J. Snowden, "The new dynamics of strategy: Sense-making in a complex and complicated world", IBM Systems Journal, Vol. 42, No. 3 (2003).
2. Matt 28:18-20
3. Mark 2:22
4. Jos 1:6,7,9
4. Rom 8:28
5. Rom 14:2
6. Eph 1:18-23


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Sense-Making in the Great Commission - Part 1 of 2

Shalom! Peace be with you! It has been a busy April for me. I feel as if i have "over-prayed" for the lack of work in my office, so much so that work just keep coming at me. I have to attend tons of meetings, correspond dozens of emails, assist tens of people on top of my current chores. Finally, i have to decide to divide this article into two parts, one in April and another in May. I could, if i want to, rush to complete this article by April, but then it would be a piece of sub-quality work. That is definitely not what i want to offer to my faithful readers out there. Therefore, enjoy this first part of the article and then stay tune for the second part which will continue in May.

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Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." [Matt 28:18-20]

This is the famous Great Commission which most of us, christians, are familiar with. Often, it is chosen as the theme biblical passage for many of our mission initiatives. Strictly speaking, we can consider it as one of the two strong pillars of Lord Jesus's teachings whom He had left for His disciples; the other being the Great Commandmant[1]. It was meant not solely for the disciples then, but also for the later disciples, both you and me, in ages to come.

Coherently, pastors, preachers, missionaries and church leaders like to quote this passage so that we may be spurred towards willing submission to our Lord's final instructions. In ready response, many christians offer up their lives, time and money to the "so-called" mission ministry. This is a very wonderful thing to do but when we fail to examine the actual dynamics involved, we could unintentionly be misled and swayed. Of course, some may argued that in any ways, the gospel is eventually preached to the rest of the world. However, i think if we just adopt a simple cause-and-effect model without realising the complexity and chaotic nature of the Great Commission to the gentiles, then this great oversight may endanger the furtherance of the gospel to what the Lord has intended, that is, to the ends of the world.

At this juncture, allow me to borrow some of the interesting sense-making concepts from the Cynefin Framework[2]. This framework is used primarily to consider the dynamics that occur in different situations, decisions, perspectives, conflicts and changes with the aim to arrive at a more meaningful understanding for a better decision-making process under uncertainties. Broadly, it contains four named domains called "known", "knowable", "complex" and "chaos" respectively. There is also a fifth obscured domain termed "disorder" which is actually the overlapping area among the four named domains. In the ordered domains (known and knowable), the cause and effect relationship are generally linear, correlated and most of the time known, whereas the two un-ordered domains (complex and chaos) present little or no cause and effect connections at all. At the fundamental level, the Cynefin framework attempts to question the universality of three basic assumptions - the assumption of order, the assumption of rational choice and the assumption of intentional capability, which are very much entrenched in the policies, processes/procedures and strategies of many organisations.

With these as our basic building blocks, we shall try to explore at how the Cynefin Framework can be applied to the Great Commission in the Christian arena. It may sound too academic to some but i do believe strongly that all wisdom and understandings come from God above and can be used in conjunction with His Word, especially when dealing with carnal issues. And for the benefit of those readers who are interested to learn more about the detailed explanations of the Cynefin Framework[2], i have included the references right at the end of the article.

Practically, this article will not attempt to cover a comprehensive discussion of the Cynefin Framework to the various aspects of the Great Commission. First, the lengthy content would probably turn many of the "leisure" readers of this article off. Second, it would probably take many empirical results, and thus time, to ascertain some of the proposed hypotheses. Third, the primary goal of this article is to highlight new and interesting discussion elements for the Christian community, and not to provide a complete solution to all the monthly theme.

Therefore, the scope of this later article will be mainly focusing on the final instructions of the Great Commission. The actual implementation issues are then entrusted to the readers as assignments in their own fellowship or ministry time.

If we examine closely, there are three main instructions in the Great Commission. First, we (i.e. all christians) are to go and make disciples of all nations. Second, we are to baptize the disciples in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Third, we are to teach the disciples to obey everything that Jesus has commanded us. Notwithstanding these, the Great Commission also comes with the power and promises of the Lord for those who obey. The Lord proclaims that "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him" and He promises that "He will with us always, to the very end of the age". These are congruent to God's everlasting mercy for us and will carry us through as we fulfil the Great Commission.

We shall now see how we can apply the Cynefin Framework to the Great Commission.

References
1. Luke 10:27
2. C.F. Kurtz and D.J. Snowden, "The new dynamics of strategy: Sense-making in a complex and complicated world", IBM Systems Journal, Vol. 42, No. 3 (2003).

The New Genre of Worship

I have came to realise that my general knowledge is very limited, with deficiency spanning across vast arrays of topics. In actual fact, my pen is not so much constrained by the rhetorical ink (aka words) but rather by the mediocre facts within my capacity. Nonetheless, i will continue to write. Who knows, perhaps one day, when i got hold of more or all of the relevant facts, i could revert back to my past works, feed those bare skeletons with new flesh and spirit, then reincarnate them to influence the world in the form of books or periodicals.

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A simple prelude to the topic of music, something which has fascinated me for an extended period of time.

Most of us can agree that music is an universal language, powerful enough to transcend all races, languages, cultures and nations. Music has the innate ability to absorb, guide, control and tame our emotions. She is unparallel when it comes to healing of our emotional wounds and sorrows. Yet, we also find joy and excitement when a certain set of tempo is played. To the extremists, anger and frustration are often exhibited (thankfully) through this peaceful alternate outlet. Music is definitely multi-facets; magical in every sense.

Now, a friend of mine used to describe briefly to me on how some of the different genre of music[1] came about. By this i mean the proper official classification, as i know there are unofficial ones too. Allow me to summarise what i had heard in the most simplest form here.

Let me start off with "Jazz". It all started from the influx of immigrants from the European and African countries to the United States from the 16th Centuries[2] onwards. This diverse combination gave birth to what is called "Jazz" in our modern context, carrying traits from the West African black folk music developed in the Americas, joined with European popular and light classical music of the late 18th and 19th centuries [3].

The following period was characterised by a series of wars and revolutions. Hence, a new post-war genre, named "Rock", emerged to portray such extreme hurts, sorrows, angers and frustration. It is no wonder why "Rock" music are by far the loudest and most aggressive among their peers.

Then slowly enters the "Pop" genre which is very radio-friendly, henceforth enjoyed a much wider audience base. By then, the post-war syndrome has subsided substantially. Emerging music belong to a more sentimental setting, with plenty of romantic love stories.

Of course, there are still many other genre in the music industry nowadays. And it seems almost impossible to describe all of them here because that would incur lengthy description of detailed researched findings and we would probably lose our main focus of an authentic christian article.

Perhaps, we can shift our attention to the music found in the bible.

With reference to the Old Testament, we understand that the Israelities worshipped their God using a rich variety of creative styles, often musically inspired. They sang songs [even new songs], shouted [aloud and with great rejoicing], danced, played the instuments (i.e. harps, trumpets, ten-stringed lyres, ram's horns, tambourines, flutes, cymbals) [skillfully] and clapped their hands to the LORD [4].

King David even danced before the LORD when the ark of the LORD was brought into the city of David. It was recorded that he used all his might to dance unto the LORD, while the rest of the Israelities shouted and sounded the trumpets throughout the entire procession [5].

When despised by one of his wives, Michal, he responded, "It was before the LORD, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the LORD's people Israel—I will celebrate before the LORD. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor." [2Samuel 6:21-22]

Such freedom of worship is definitely envied by many of the modern christians like us. Therefore, it seems only right for us to ask ourselves how our forefathers of this very same faith have evolved the worship styles till the present day forms. Have we forego the richness of the worship styles of the ancient days? Have we limit ourselves to certain rituals such that whoever defies are despised just like King David by his wife? Do we use all our might to worship God or do we rest our body, less our mind and heart, as though to observe the Sabbath law? What happened to the shout, dance and resounding instruments? Were they all buried together with Jesus on the cross?

Mind you, Jesus Christ has resurrected! This is something we can rejoice and celebrate over and over again. Granted that there is a time for everything [6]. But whenever there is a time to weep, there is always a time to laugh, and when there is a time to mourn, there will be another time to dance. We ought not to weep and mourn on every sunday service or christian gatherings, nor should we be laughing and dancing at every christian fellowship. There is always a proper time for everything.

With weeping and mourning, there are less to prepare. We need only to bring our broken hearts to God and allow Him to mend our hurts and sorrows. But with laughing and dancing, the things required are definitely much more than mere us. We need appropriate instruments, preferably resounding ones. We also need a window to shout, a space to dance and a dimension to celebrate; all these harmonised along with our fellow brethren-in-Christ.

Like the development of the different genre in music, christian worship (liturgies in particular) have underwent a series of major surgeries. Unfortunately, one obvious side-effect of these massive operations is the reduction in worship styles and tools, not to mention creativity. It seems that the past "Dark Ages" of Christianity [6] had taken too much toils on the forefathers of our faith that they had lost the spirit of rejoicing and celebration. The repercussion effect, as felt today, was overwhelming in some of the conservative church denomination. They permit only the singing of ancient hymns, with little or no room for new praise songs and tempos. They permit only the solemn styleas, giving little or confining space for the congregation to worship with all their might.

Yet, we also need to applause them for their efforts in perserving the christian faith, truth and traditions which would have gone astray if left unguarded to the mercy of the bombardment of pagan beliefs and philosophies during the Dark Ages. Surely, the main bulk of the Word of God has been perserved and left for future generations to come. Still, there are more to be done with the perserved artifacts. Bible scholars would have agree that there are even more exploration to be conducted, especially in this post-modernisation era. There are many outstanding questions left unanswered, many disputed issues left unsettled and many truths left undiscovered in the Word of God.

Therefore, let us rekindle the sealed artifacts left by the forefathers of our same faith. As a start, I propose that we can rediscover the richness of the worship styles and instruments as described in the Old Testament. Such was the freedom of worship that we have missed. Such was the tangible intimate interaction between God and His created beings. Such is a delight to the LORD by His people [7].

Now, if we are able to reconcile the past relevation to our present day context, the by-product is a new synergy or "genre" for worshipping our God. After all, our faith is not simply an ancient faith passed down from our forefathers. It is as relevant to any one of us now as it was used to be then. It is called a living faith because the manificant power and dynamics of God are still at work in our daily lives through the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus Christ. As such, we must understand and accept that the Word of God transcends all ages, even the future.

Worship cannot be held back at a certain era, it must continue to evolve back its original authentic forms. At the same time, it must also move forward to stay relevant with the current era and beyond. New song composition, dance choreography and instrument invention will pave the way for a richer worship to our God who alone deserve all our praises and gratitudes. At all ages, people who revered the Lord will readily bow down in worship to God through a magnitude of creative styles and instruments. Indeed, true worship ought to be done in spirit and in truth [8]. If we open our hearts to God, the Holy Spirit will fill us with the understanding of the truth, in which we can worship God. By asking the Holy Spirit to work in us, worship should then be free because the Holy Spirit is not bounded by Man's rules and regulation. If a person is convicted by the Holy Spirit of impenitent sins, he may choose to kneel down and repent to God. Alternatively, he may choose to beat his chest and cry out that he is a sinner and ask God for forgiveness. Such is the privilege of coming before our heavenly Father during worship which is often being deprived by the church in the name of orderliness.

Church, the body of Christ, must continue to discuss openly the important topic on worship. The argument on the perservation of traditions is diminishing. If there is no prompt resolution, then the first sign would be the mass migration of their existing youth to other greener pastures. This becomes a vicious cycle because the next committee of policymakers would still be comprising mainly of older folks, hence the status quo again. With aging congregation, they would then have to spend more time to educate and retain their offsprings than to be able to expand their ministries. I suppose the kingdom of God waits for no one, it is still expanding rapidly because the end times are coming soon. And God does not take delight in a tree that cannot bear fruit [10]. Granted, church dynamic is far more complicated than mere worship alone. But worship is very central to a person's walk with God, it must, therefore, be considered with great details and thoughts.

In conclusion, let us consider King David whom God described as a man after His own heart [11]. He worshipped in a manner that was pleasing to God. He wrote many psalms to God. He did not restrict himself to a pathetic number of worship styles and instruments. He did not fear despises from other people when he worshipped. He was a true worshipper of God at his times. Let us then strive to be a true worshipper [9] in our present times too. Let our focus of worship be geared towards bringing delight to the LORD [7].

May all honors, glories, powers, praises be unto the LORD. Amen!

References
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_genre
2. http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/173.html
3. http://www.apassion4jazz.net
4. Psalm 33:1-3, 81:1-3, 98, 149, 150
5. 2 Samuel 6:14-15
6. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Ages
8. Psalm 149:4
9. John 4:24
10. Luke 13:7
11. 1 Samuel 13:14

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The Need For a Creed

This month we will be touching on a historical topic. Historical not because the topic is outdated, but rather the origins are far before our times. Yet, this topic is important, coherent and central to our christian faith and development.

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What is the first thing that came to your mind when you hear the word 'Creed'? Yes, i do mean creed, and not crepe or creep.

A quick check at the Dictionary.com website defines a creed as [a formal statement of religious belief or simply a confession of faith]. That should be put us into the right perspective for now. Henceforth, creed in this article will be defined as the a set of christian beliefs, often stated in a formal and authoritative written form, used primarily to guide one's faith in God.

Why do we, christians, need to have a creed(s)?

David Bennett[1] provided us with the following insights. He said that everyone who has the capacity to believe in something has a creed. Creeds, in general, are meant to define the boundaries within which a group of people operate. We do not want to let our personal beliefs reshape a whole Church, whose character embraces millions of people, and almost 2000 years of existence. Therefore, creeds are important to state explicitly what a Church believes in and hold firmly to in the very heart of her building constitutions.

In this same light, Tony Windross[2] commented that creeds are commonly regarded as anthem of catholic Churches, of which when read, the congregation actually participate in the proclaimation and confirmation of their faith to God. Notwithstanding the resultant unity bonding, one side effect of having creeds is that they confined our present faith with those literature and experiences from the past faith. They may hinder the progressive development of the modern theology and even our knowledge of the infinite trinity God whom we worship.

However, H. Frank Rall[3] argued that a creed seemed to be a necessary ecclesiastical equipment. It was a fence to keep the wolves out, or to keep the sheep in. As a test of orthodoxy, to be applied on proper occasion, it was necessary. Thus, it is inevitable to include traditional creeds in the building blocks of all the sound doctrinal establishments.

Having heard several different opinions on the needs for a creed, allow me to provide some of my humble insights to the practical sustenance of traditional creeds. These, but not limiting to, include the Apostles' Creed (origins debatable but earliest written form appeared in A.D. 215[4]), Nicene Creed (A.D. 325) and the Athanasian Creed (origins debatable too but highly probable composed in the 4th century[5]).

Creeds, i think, are important to our understanding of the ways earlier Church's leaders viewed and defended the christians faith. Attacked from all sides, these shepherds of God's flock need to take a definite and assertive stand on what the Church believes in and hold firmly to with their lives. It seemed, then, that simple interpretation of the bible could not addressed the cultic thoughts, teachings and influences in the pagan lands. The people, christians and non-christians, were divided, often confused from the many false teachings they received from the teachers and practitioners of various foreign religions; particularly emerging or reigning philosophies. They needed something more concrete and concise; written or spoken with such great authority, as if endorsed by God Almighty Himself. Hence, creeds were created to bridge the greyish doctrinal areas. We know, at least from history standpoints that these creeds had served well the intended purposes, during those chaotic era and beyond.

Mentioned earlier, creeds do serve an important unifying purpose in the Church. The bible says, "The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body." [1Cor 12:12]. Therefore, although christians tend to have different belief systems and experiential encounters, but we all belong to the body of Christ whom partakes a common vision, faith, baptism, communion, fellowship and anointing from the Holy Spirit. As the creed(s) is read, the members of the body participate in the proclaimation of their faith in unison. Suddenly, we are brought into a different dimension. We put aside our many differences and opinions temporary and are made to reflect upon the fundamental faith that first drew us to Christ. To those who partake in the creed(s), we are then recognised as one body of Christ.

Do we, modern christians, have creeds too? Yes, we sure do. Whatever we believe in and hold firmly to are our personalised mental creeds. Quite often or not, our creeds are closely aligned to what our church has. The reason is simple, there exists a hidden dual-feedback loop between a church and her congregation which resulted in numerous permutation of active and passive influences to one another. A church offers foundation classes, sermons, bible classes and discipleship to her congregation. These shape what her members think, meditate and act. Over a period of time, they became part of the congregation's belief systems. Members, in turns, read christian literature, attend biblical seminars, courses and events, expose themselves to mass media, interact with christians in other churches. Indirectly, they were enriched, positively or negatively, with much more beliefs that are not found in their own church. Some of them are pastors, some are deacons, some are elders, some are teachers, some are layperson leaders and some are active members in their own rights within the church. They are pretty much involved, contributing extensively to shape the future of their church's belief systems. And the endless cyclic feedback loop tends to repeat autonomously by itself.

Pardon me, but my intended meaning is not to say that a church's doctrinal stand can be easily swayed by mere opinions of leadership person(s) in the church. What i am implying here is that a church without a solid creed(s) as part of their foundation can be eroded, doctrinally, by modern trends and philosophies of the present and future. Repeatedly, history has reminded us that if a church does not remained as a true light to the world, pretty soon, we will be tinted by the world. And how can we say we are Christ's witnesses when we cannot shine like Jesus, effecting God's radiance to the world?

Take, for example, the issue on the acceptance of gays within a christian community. Yes, because of God's great love, we do want to accept them, as a created being, into the Church. In fact, God's love encompasses all Man on earth. However, it is definitely against God's truth if we choose to concur with and overlook their persistent gay behaviours. In my opinion (and possibly the majority of the reformed orthodox Churches), it is absolutely absurd to conduct gay marriages, even more so, (as they claimed) in the presense of the Almighty God, whom in fact, has condemned the act as sinful!

It is written, "Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion." [Rom 1:26-27]

The ways some churches chose to deal with the above issue often reflect the lack of a sound doctrinal belief systems within their congregation. In the junction of a crossroad, they opted to follow the former wicked path of the (if i may use) 'Sodomites' [Gen 19:5], rather than that of the Lot [Gen 19:6]. By the mere words of their leaders, the church has failed miserably in her duty to represent Christ, the Word made flesh, in the world. Where is that life-changing voice saying, "Go now and leave your life of sin." [John 8:11]?

Such will be the eventual deformed state of many other catholic Churches if we continue to relent on establishing a firm doctrinal stand or beliefs.

Most traditional creeds are ambigious in nature which led to the congregation having to make a lot of so-called "common sense" presumption when faced with doubts. We also see many churches using other synonym terms like faith confessions, statement of faiths, church's beliefs and so on to differentiate their doctrinal stand from the traditional creeds as they were used. Nonethelesss, all these set of christian beliefs, stated in a formal and authoritative written form, proved to be useful in helping the churches to propagate the fundamental christian doctrinal belief systems to the mass congregation.

Now, it is up to the respective God's appointed and anointed leaders of the catholic Churches to re-visit and review these set of christian beliefs (or creeds) so that they can contain a larger base of other relevant areas such as social, political, ethical and moral issues. Without these, typical christians would surely encounter difficulties when deciding on the best course of actions to take when they enter into the greyish zones the world has conveniently and ingeniously presented to us.

On the other hand, we should also avoid the Pharisees' mistakes of over-emphasing the laws over God's grace and mercy. The effects of stating formal and authoritative christian beliefs may be too overwhelming for many to handle. If unwisely governed, they can, in turn, became stumbling blocks for the people both within and outside the churches, waiting for the grace of God to be upon them.

Therefore, the body of Christ should provide guidelines to govern members' thinking process so as not to create any confusion for them. Catholic Churches, on the whole, should also come together and openly discuss such issues so as to come to a common consensus. After all, the catholic Churches of Christ, though having different sacrement and worship practises, should be unified in one common faith, in one common baptism and in one common Holy Spirit.


* The word "catholic" refers not to the Roman Catholic Church, but to the universal church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

References
1. http://www.ancient-future.net/creeds.html
2. http://www.tcpc.org/resources/articles/why_bother_creed.htm
3. http://www.quarterlyreview.org/classics/creed1907.html
4. http://www.creeds.net/ancient/apostles.htm
5. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02033b.htm


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The Rod of Mercy

"He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him." ~Proverbs 13:24

Let us examine this question - "Does God love us"?

Seemingly a simple question with quite an obvious answer, yet subtly it can render some forms of serious discussions. How do we approach this question then? One thing for sure, it is definitely not exclusive to Christians circle. As a matter of fact, non-believers will sometimes ponder upon themselves whether the great Creator of the universe is a loving Being towards His creation.

Surely, this world that we are living on has too many sufferings and hardships. Flip open any of the newspapers and you will find plenty of articles relating to innocent victims, total strangers to many of us, being terrorized or killed; often by inhumane manners. In our recent memories, there were the infamous major catastrophe like the "911" and the "Indian Ocean Tsunami". The former was an erroneous result caused by Man whereas the latter was largely due to the uncontrollable forces of nature. It seems, therefore, that we are being surrounded and hammered on all sides.

In distress, we asked, "Why did God allow such disastrous things to happen to Man?"

The bible says that the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness [Romans 1:18]. Yet we argued that the victims are mainly innocent souls. What grievance wrongs have they committed to deserve such terrible misfortune?

Points taken. As much as our judgemental values attempt to dictate us, we should hold on to such micro views and realign ourselves to a bigger macro view of the entire situation. The world we know and are living on is definitely not limited to these group of unfortunate victims. There are also many other fortunate ones who are living at peace and even some in immersing comfort. Should we then re-conclude that God is loving based on such visible evidences? But who are we to judge the loving nature of our Creator? Our love cannot even compel us to reconcile with our enemies, to feed the poor and needy, to care for the sick and homeless or even to help the widows and orphans out there in the streets. What do we know about love to make any sound verdict out of it? Clearly, we are inadequate in many areas on the topic of love.

So what can we say about ourselves then? The fact remains, we are densely populated all over the world, organised by either geographical locations, languages, races and cultures. It is the rapid communication and technological advancement in the 21st Century that allows us to be fully networked to one another.

Internationally, current news are being broadcasted, often instantaneously, so that no one will be omitted in this mega series of human events. Through the mass media, we can know the next elected President of a particular democratic country immediately after the poll. We will also be exposed to world events like free trade agreements, strikes, syndicate crimes, natural disasters, holiday celebration and so on so forth.

With the widespread of the mass media, pretty soon, most of us will start to share common visions and goals for the entire human race. In fact, the most frequently quoted phase for Miss Universe pageant is "World Peace"! Certainly, this resembles closely to the unity of the people who were building the Tower of Babel in the book of Genesis.

The bible mentions that "we all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way" [Isaiah 53:6]. Indeed, each and every one of us are doing things as we deem fit. When we start scribbling words on a piece of paper, did we ever spare a second of your thought for the trees that were chopped because of Man's purposes. When we are eating extra snacks for supper, did we ever spare a minute of our thought remembering the poor and needy in the Third World countries? Needless to say, the answers are regretfully understood.

Throughout history, Man has been very proactive in the search for newer innovation to improve our quality of life. Yet, we have been acutely passive in our resource allocation to the poor and needy. What an irony! The quest for better life has stretched the social status even wider, leaving the rich richer and the poor poorer. The truth is, we only desire local optimisation but not global ones. Such on-going pursues leave us with one alarming observation, that is, the depth of a Man's heart is unmeasurable.

Man is never contented, no matter how much he has actually gained or achieved. [1]

The Word of God says that Man is sinful and guilty of evil doings; the ultimate being failing to acknowledge our one true Creator. In fact, all has turned away from God. And the bible clearly states that the wages of sin is death [Romans 6:23] - eternal separation from God, our Creator.

Consequently, is this the end of the road for Man? Fortunately, the answer is "NO". The great mercy of God has preserved the remnant offsprings of Man. As it is written, "Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail." [Lamentations 3:22]

Nonetheless, whom had initiated to mend his evil ways and return back to God? Whom had successfully restored the initial covenant with God? No one, not even one! In response to God's mercy, Man committed more sins and stirred up more wrath against ourselves. [2]

What then, should a loving Father do to bring back His beloved children? Without any divine intervention, how can Man discern the right from wrongs. Do we follow the standards set by the majority? Even those are not sure proof that we are heading towards the right direction. We need some forms of guidance, we need a shepherd's rod - the kind that they used to tend flock of sheeps.

Shepherds will understand that sheeps are very timid by nature. They get frightened very easily. In times of crisis, they will be totally defenceless against the incoming threats. Therefore, whenever a sheep is disobedience and tries to wander away from the flock, the shepherd will use his rod and strike it hard on one of the sheep's leg so as to injure it. The main focus here is not on the injured leg, but rather on the purpose of this harsh reaction by the shepherd. To many, it may seems cruel to break the sheep's leg just because it is disobedience. However, the good shepherd here is trying to save the sheep from foreseeable dangers when left to wander off by itself. Supposedly, if a sheep is left wandering alone in the wilderness, it may end up being attacked and eaten by another animal. Worst, it may even die of dehydration because its timid nature will prevent it from going near any running streams of water. Indeed, not many people can understand the good shepherd's heart simply by observing the outward circumstances. After all, we are not a shepherd by trade. And a true good shepherd will actually carry the injured sheep in his arms whenever he goes till its wound is healed and it is able to roam about freely on its own.

Here is where the rod of mercy comes into play. Mercy because the rod of God does not lead us to death. Instead, it leads us into eternal life. Truly, God delights in seeing His people living in the true light. He wants Man to find the true purposes of our existence. For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to save us so that we can be reconciled back to Him forever. [John 3:16]

In contrary to popular belief, true freedom is not defined as simply lawlessness; rather it is defined as the mental strength or consistency to do the right things, given all our free will, without being influenced from the written laws. Imagine a father deciding to let his son go on a late night party with his friends in a disco pub. If the father knows that his son will always make the right decisions even in tempting environment, he will gladly grant his son not only the permission but the freedom to go. He does not need to lay down any ground rules because he knows his son well. True freedom occurs when we are free to do any task without any explicit rules because the one responsible for us knows that we will always make the right decisions that will result in positive outcomes.

The bible says, "This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds." [Hebrews 10:16]

In Christ, we will have true freedom because God's laws are now ingrained in our hearts and minds through the help of the Holy Spirit. This means that we will know and do the will of God even without the explicit laws to govern our thoughts and behaviours. And we will gladly submit to God's will because we know that His will brings salvation and hope to everyone who believe.

Truly, the rod of mercy has struck and is now striking on those whom God wants to have mercy to [3]. Instead of focusing on the outward impact, let us realign ourselves to ask what are God's intended purposes in each of these valuable lessons. Perhaps, by doing so, we can then see clearly the mighty arms of the Lord at work - changing the old self in us to a new one; moulding us to be the man after God's own heart.

References
1. Romans 1:21; Romans 3:10-12
2. Hosea 4:2; 2Corinthians 12:20; Galatians 5:19-21; Romans 1:29-32
3. Psalm 23:4; Proverbs 23:13-14; Proverbs 29:15; Ezekiel 20:37; Hebrews 12:4-13


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