All Things New

"...behold I make all things new..." Rev. 21:5

In an age of unfathomable pain and suffering; at a time of inconceivable disparity between rich and poor; amidst wars and rampant environmental destruction; does the promise of Jesus’ Easter, resurrection still make sense today?

...behold I make all things new...

This is the promise of the ultimate consummation of all things to glory in Christ, whose resurrection assures us that indeed the world can and will change because the one whom God brought upon this earth has dared to challenge its sinful status quo to the point of costing his life has triumph over the greatest potency of sin –death.

...behold I make all things new...

The empty grave of Jesus, tells us that indeed all things are becoming new and that death doesn’t have the final say in the struggle for a better world. It tells us that Christ’s resurrection has turned the tide against the power of sin and death.

One Day

I just finished watching the movie One Day, and it somehow led me into writing this, because the movie's theme of people defined and coming to terms with the nature of love and life itself as being ushered by a fateful day seems fitting for this occasion.

Some 2000 years ago  everything came to a halt. All frozen: heaven and hell; past, present and future; life and death itself--bound together in a dreadful hill to witness the outstretched arms of one who gave up the ghost and died the tragic death of a martyr for a noble cause.

There in that hill time froze and all came into pieces. It might be said that it was serendipity unrealized. A divine question mark in humanity’s history of tragic comedy.

Easter and the triumph of life over death

This morning I greeted Easter in a taxi cab.

There I watched the darkness of Black Saturday give way to the piercing light of the Easter dawn. Light beaming, shining brightly as the resurrection hope glistened in the quiet streets of Manila.

Easter was spent early at church with the remembrance of Christ’s death in the Eucharist and the commemoration of dedicating one’s self to the resurrected Christ in the waters of baptism. It is there that it climaxed with the deafening chorus of the Halleluiahs chorus from Handel’s Messiah.

Easter was remembered with a celebration of life that came with a whole day spent in the company of those that I love.

Easter is where love and life is both celebrated and given meaning with the miracle of Christ’s resurrection the triumph of life over death.

Alas! 'Tis finished...

Alas! 'Tis finished...

...at least for this semester.

Yesterday I paid my pending balance at the seminary.

That was the last engagement that I'll have with them for this semester.

I must say that studying again has re-kindled a new sense of purpose, and at the same time has also brought about a whole lot of heartache specially since studying theology also involves a deconstruction of long established doctrinal biases and well held beliefs that in reality is tainted more by tradition than Scripture.

After gruelling discussions, sleepless nights writing papers, and relationships that were marred forever by apparent conflicts on things that were not at all that important as exhibiting grace and the likes, I am still unfinished...

...even as I have finally completed everything that's expected by the seminary from my end.

Perhaps this Lent would give time for much needed reflection on life, love and ministry in light of the season upon which we remember and stand in solidarity with the Passion of our Savior....

Bonhoeffer on Discipleship

“God is a God who bears. The Son of God bore our flesh. He therefore bore the cross. He bore all our sins and attained reconciliation by his bearing. That is why disciples are called to bear what is put on them. Bearing constitutes being a Christian. Just as Christ maintains his communion with the Father by bearing according the Father’s will, so the disciples’ bearing constitutes their community with Christ. People can shake off the burdens laid on them. But doing so does not free them at all from their burdens. Instead it loads them with a heavier, more unbearable burden. They bear the self-chosen yoke of their own selves. Jesus called all who are laden with various sufferings and burdens to throw off their yokes and to take his yoke upon themselves.”

~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Discipleship (DBW2), 90-91.

Lent

You are the anointed Son of God. You revealed God's nature to us all.

You revealed God, vulnerable and without pretense, in a manger. You showed us God teaching in the temple, amazing rabbis. Because of You, we saw God eagerly asking people, "What can I do for you?" We were surprised to see how delighted He is to respond with a healing touch. You showed us God, welcoming and embracing: "Come to me - I will give you rest." It was God You revealed there, using stories to feed empty souls and filling a multitude of bellies with just a few fish and loaves. We sat on the edge of our seats as we saw You command sea storms and resurrect the dead with a word! You left nothing to description and everything to demonstration.

This begins the sober season when we see You revealing God's nature in completion, leaving nothing to our imagination. You show us God's love: rugged, whole, no matter how uncomfortable it makes us feel. We are confused when He walks away from all our sensible plans to take a path to certain destruction, His eyes unflinchingly set on Jerusalem.

You show us that God is more than compassionate toward us. You prove God is obsessed with us. You show us He refuses to rest until all things are made new. We watch in horror as you demonstrate that nothing on earth can separate us from His love: not betreyal, denials, mocking and hateful scourging, not dishonor, not even torturous murder. We delivered up our worst. You show us God, responding with Your best. We are at once joyously amazed and embarrassed.

This changes everything. We can't decieve ourselves any longer with a religion of words, compulsion, ceremony, or acts of piety. We are drawn to worship in genuine adoration and devoted love. I cannot embrace a system of belief or code of behavior. Only a Person who loves us with an outrageous passion can be the object of worship. We worship you!

- John Randall Dennis
The Book of Worship

My Redeemer Lives

I suppose this is a little bit too late for Easter but here's a very interesting piece that I read from Benedict Groeschel's book entitled Arise from Darkness which I bought a few weeks back when I am asking very deep questions about my local church and I accidentally browsed on a topic in its table of contents entitled: 'when the church lets us down'. Anyways here's an interesting insight that Benedict wrote on Job 19:25.¹

“ My Redeemer – your Redeemer – has the right to be called that because he suffered with us as well as for us. God could have saved us in some simpler, less terrible way than subjecting Himself to the worst that human beings could do, but He wanted us to know how much He loved us when we are in pain and suffering. Salvation surely did not need to come through the murder of the Messiah. But that's how it came, so we could know, in all sufferings and sorrows of life, that our Creator was also our Redeemer, that He would bring joy out of sorrow, hope out of despair, love out of hate, life out of death, eternity out of time. This is our hope. It alone makes sense.”²

notes:

1I know that my Redeemer [a] lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. Job 19:25 (NIV)

2 Benedict Groeschel, Arise From Darkness, p145