A future not our own

Oscar A. Romero, was the Archbishop of San Salvador, in El Salvador, when he was assassinated on March 24, 1980, while celebrating Mass in a small chapel in a cancer hospital where he lived. He had always been close to his people, preached a prophetic gospel, denouncing the injustice in his country and supporting the development of popular and mass organizations. He became the voice of the Salvadoran people when all other channels of expression had been crushed by the repression.

I first read this poem a few years back when I was starting to cast doubt on the Evangelical tradition that I belong to, primarily because I feel so disenchanted with its “we're in/you're out” mentality that I feel seems to accentuate rescue from hell as the heart (or even totality?) of the Gospel.

No place like home

There is nothing like
Sharing your room with
A complete stranger
That would remind you
That you are not where
Your heart is
It has only been days
Yet I feel like
Its been years
Since I've been here
And conversations
About Glen Hansard
Remind me more
Of my loneliness
If only you
Had been here...

Living out our narrative identity in the midst of climate change

The deafening sound of urgency
I felt my heart beat faster than usual as I clapped along to 2 sheer minutes of booming beats that reminded of the loud noise that led to the crumbling of the walls of Jericho in the Biblical narrative. I thought to myself that this must be the deafening sound of urgency as I stood on the midst of sea of people in red shirts last, December 12th 2009, where I joined environmentalists, activists, and concerned citizens in the observance of the Global Day of Action (GDA) on climate change, where people all over the world will be doing simultaneous actions to highlight the urgency of climate action at the time of the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Ever since 2005, the GDA on climate change has been observed every year at the time of the annual United Nations Talks on climate change. People from all around the world have come together on the same day to demand urgent action on climate, and climate justice, from the governments of the world meeting at the annual climate talks.

For Filipinos the reality of climate change and its impacts like that of extreme weather events have robbed most of us of our property, our sense of security and of the lives of the ones we love.

Yet ironically the Philippines like many other island nations contributes to less than 1% of the world’s total carbon emissions, but is expected to be one of the countries to be hardest hit by the impacts of climate change. And around the world this scenarios is being repeated over and over. Poor countries are suffering disproportionately from the effects of human induced carbon emissions that mostly come from the developed nations. Whether it’s about water access, drought, flooding, vulnerability to more frequent and ever intensifying storms and other extreme weather events or exposure to diseases that the rising temperatures have encouraged to grow, the story remains the same: the poor people are yet have the means to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

That is why I have resolved to become personally involved in the growing movement that seeks climate justice from our world leaders as a part of my Christian witness to the God who has revealed Himself as a God of justice and righteousness in the story of Israel’s exodus from Egypt.

What is the Spirit's testimony?

Jesus says, “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, this Paraclete will testify on my behalf. You also are to testify” (John 15:26-27)

What is the testimony of the Spirit? The Spirit will witness to the unconditional love of God that became available to us through Jesus. This divine love, as it becomes manifest within the structures of the world, is a light in the darkness. It is a light that the darkness cannot accept. The divine love of God reveals to us that fruitfulness is more important than success, that the love of God is more important than the praise of people, that community is more important than individualism, and compassion more important than competition. In short, the light of the Spirit reveals to us that love conquers all fear. But the world rules by fear. Without fear the world doesn’t know how to control or govern.

The Spirit’s testimony threatens the world. It is not surprising that anyone who testifies with the Spirit is a danger to the world.

- Henri Nouwen. Our Second Birth: Christian reflections on death and new life. (Crossroad 1998). Pp.167-168

why?

I remember a Bible study that I attended as a youth where our Bible study leader pointed out how the King James Version of the Bible referred to the Holy Spirit as an “it” in Romans 8:16.

If that is the case?

Then how come some people within the Christian community still boldly assert that only the the King James Version is the modern inspired word of God?

propitiation

We all want justice we want fairness.

Yet the problem lies not in the pursuance of justice.

But that of pursuing human justice.

I think the problem with humans administering the pursuit of human justice is the fact that we refuse to give others the benefit of the doubt that we ourselves want if ever we'd end up in the shoes of those who've trespassed us.

I think its part of human nature.

Part of the parts in our innermosts that still long for the restoration of all things in Christ.

Divine justice says otherwise.

As divine justice was enacted upon the principle of hilasterion.

Christ on the cross, apeases to God's justice and moral indignation. Christ on the cross conciliates Him who would otherwise be offended by our sin and would demand that we pay the penalty for it.

Justice met at the expense of the One who was slain.

Pardon for the unpardonable. Justice exhibited in mercy to the ones in guilt.

In Christ God is rendered propitious. The propitiation does not procure His love or make Him loving; rather, it renders it consistent for Him to exercise His love towards sinners.

To talk of human justice in the face of the Cross, is to talk of things way over my head.

I do not know what I am talking about.

Thus the resolution for pursing justice is to speak and enact justice on the basis of Christ is to pray: "Kyrie Ellison"

life

"On the long march of history we carry our ancestors on our shoulders, and our children lead us by the hand. The old offer wisdom, the young hope, and we proceed until the wave of ourselves recedes within the tidal wash of time. "

Grant, Patrick. Out of Contradiction: Meditations towards a contemporary spirituality. (The Pentland Press 1994) p. 34

Giving our ancestors a vote

During the 1970s Fr. Peter E. Gillquist a former Campus Crusade missionary established a network of house churches throughout the United States, aiming to restore a primitive form of Christianity, which was called the New Covenant Apostolic Order.

Researching the historical basis of the Christian faith, Gillquist and his colleagues found sources for this restoration in the writings of the early Church Fathers. This led the group to practice a more liturgical form of worship than in their previous evangelical background and eventually led them to embrace Eastern Orthodoxy.