2. Mutuality in Christian Friendship
God desires friendship not simply because it gratifies his deepest longings. He is himself, by virtue of his Trinitarian existence, the embodiment of friendship par excellence. He therefore needs no friendship beyond that which is already intrinsic to his very nature.

And yet, there is a level at which God seeks to promote goodness for the sake of itself. He is, after all, the embodiment of ultimate good. And since goodness is a moral attribute of God that is to be expressed within the context of relationships, God extends an invitation to friendship towards his creation. He therefore desires for us to engage in a friendship with him and with one another in a way that reflects the very nature of the Trinitarian friendship.

How then shall we relate with one another in Christian friendship? There must be an element of mutuality. Friendship is a mutual exchange, not a monologue. It is something that must take place between or among two or more people, not something that is to be offered by one without being accepted by another.

Friendship is mutual in that we seek to learn the life stories of our friends inasmuch as we seek to impart our life stories to them. Mutuality in friendship recognises that each person has a story to tell, and that we are all mutually obligated to listen to one another's stories. These stories, when told, come together to form a larger story, which eventually finds its place within the scheme of God's Big Story. Hence, the element of exchange is crucial in Christian friendships.

Even Jesus, the man who was very God, himself chose to come as a learner who would embrace the human experience. It is not that he did not already know all there was to know about the human condition, but that he chose to embrace the posture of a learner despite having already known it all. He was modelling the dance of friendship for us in his engagement with his friends. He embraced mutuality even when he did not have to.

Mutuality requires a certain measure of vulnerability. In telling our life stories, we are sometimes inviting despise. It hence requires one to consciously embrace the path of vulnerability even if one's life stories will be scorned at by one's listeners. It is about choosing to place a large measure of trust upon our listeners, even if they eventually choose to trample on the dignity of our stories. Trust is not about others; it is about us. We do not trust others because they are trustworthy; we trust others because we choose to maintain a posture of vulnerability. Such trust is always liable to be broken; but it is, in the final analysis, a choice one has to make between walking the safe path of isolation and treading the perilous path of friendship. For it is only in a spirit of deliberate trust that there can be true mutuality in friendship.

Mutuality also requires vulnerability in the sense that listening to the stories of other people may (and often does) require our own positions about life and faith to be shifted. When we engage a friend in conversation without rendering ourselves vulnerable enough for our positions to be shifted if necessary, there is no mutuality. The reality of our life stories is that they possess the power to shift one another's positions and perceptions of life. When the sharing of our life stories has found its expression in such (sometimes drastic) effects on our own lives and in the lives of our friends, then we know mutuality has taken place in our friendship.

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DYNAMICS OF CHRISTIAN FRIENDSHIP
1. Relationality in Christian Friendship
Martin Buber, Jewish philosopher and author of I and Thou, describes the existence of two kinds of relationships between living beings.

On the one hand, there is the "I-It" relationship in which one being relates with another functionally. In such a relationship, the other person is instrumentalised for a specific purpose and a desired end. He is treated as one would treat a thing that is manipulated for one's own fulfillment.

On the other hand, there is the "I-Thou" relationship in which one being relates with another as an equal. In such a relationship, the other person is seen as an "other" and is treated with respect. He is accorded the privilege of revealing himself in the way that he desires to be known.

It is imperatival that Christian friendship should take place at the "I-Thou" level. We approach others in friendship simply because it reflects the nature of God, not because our friendships are instrumental in propelling us to fulfill a desired end.

The world, as it is, has enough manipulative and instrumental relationships. Friendships have often been perceived functionally rather than relationally. Unfortunately, this is true even of the Christian community. There is a tendency to value others because of what they can contribute rather than simply because of who they are as people whose life stories are beautiful in themselves.

In the world of Christian friendships, there must no longer be unequal relationships. Wherein concerns the purpose of the Kingdom, we are all accorded equal honour despite the reality of our equal poverty, equal inability, and equal dependence on grace.

In this regard, it is also time for Christian communities (i.e. local churches) to be keenly aware of our propensity to befriend others for the sake of "saving their souls" or for the sake of "growing healthy ministries". We should befriend others simply because we are ourselves friends of God.

Befriending the world reflects the friendly nature of God. No longer should we befriend others for desired ends - even if those ends seem noble in accordance with our purest of intentions. For the moment the enterprise of friendship is employed for human-generated ends, the soul of friendship itself is compromised, and friendship breaks down even before it begins.

Within the scheme of the Kingdom of God and in accordance with the being of the Trinitarian God, friendship exists for the sake of itself. Because the Trinity is about God as an intimate community of friends, and the Kingdom of God is about God drawing creation unto himself in intimate friendship.

Posted by SK at 02:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

I know this is a rather abrupt intrusion in the midst of a serious and theologically constructive series of blogposts on Friendship. But I think I'll take a short commercial break.

You see, I just came across Prof. Scot McKnight's post "On Committee Meetings" and I simply felt that I needed to quote a part of his post verbatim, for the benefit of my friends (present and future) who will be working with me in the ministry in one way or another:

I’m constitutionally incapable of finding committee meetings interesting. I do my best to come to each meeting with a good attitude, but it doesn’t last very long.

The one thing I’m most prepared for is the “second” when the chair asks if there is a motion to adjourn. Before someone utters “so moved” I clear the air with “second” in the hope of ending the meeting before someone else comes up with something else to chat about.

Yeah, whatever he said; me too. But come to think of it, this isn't utterly irrelevant to the series I'm blogging on, is it?

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2. The Kingdomic Nature of Christian Friendship
God has a dream. It is a dream to build a Kingdom wherein friendship is restored in its ultimate form. At (what is commonly known to many as) "the Fall", the friendship that God had established between himself and creation was fractured. It pained the heart of God when he lost his friends, for they had walked away from him.

But God, being the friend that he is, never stops being a friend. For to him, friendship is a covenant that never ceases. He has since embarked on a quest to find a way to restore friendship as he originally intended it to be. For those who now come to him, he extends a warm embrace of friendship and says "I call you my friends".

Friendship is about the story of God. It is about the journey of a people who call one another "friends of God", and who accompany one another as they learn to dance towards the Kingdom of God together. This dance can take place only within the economy of such divinely ordained friendship.

Friendship is about learning the dance of the Kingdom together. It is about learning how to live our lives together as "friends of God". This endeavour constitutes the soul of the Christian life, for Christianity is a faith of community.

Can really deep friendships take place beyond the scheme of the Kingdom? As with any other dimension of life, the answer to this question is "yes". Friendships can exist without a kingdomic dimension. But that does not necessarily imply that this is how God has meant for it to be.

Within the scheme of God's dream, there is a reason for friendship: the reason is that God is Trinity. There is also a purpose for friendship: the purpose is that of partaking in God's dream for the restoration of the Kingdom which is built upon his being of love. These are two preliminary comments that I have felt are necessary in our construction of a Christian understanding of friendship.

We shall shortly proceed to the Dynamics of Christian Friendship. Stay with me.

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PRELIMINARY COMMENTS
1. The Trinitarian Nature of Christian Friendship

Picture: The Trinity icon by Andrei Rublev; exhibited in the Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow) since 1927.

At the most fundamental level, it is the trinitarian nature of God that undergirds the realities and dynamics of Christian friendship. It is apparent that in speaking of Christian friendship, there is a stark corresponding relation within the Trinity itself.

In this regard, Augustine’s conception of the Spirit as love which unites the Father and Son demands our attention. Augustine identifies the Son with “wisdom” (sapientia) and the Spirit with “love” (caritas). The Spirit “makes us dwell in God, and God in us."

The Trinity is community; it is friendship. God already exists in the kind of relation to which he wishes to bring us. Just as the Spirit is the bond of union between God and the believer, so he exercises a comparable role within the Trinity, binding the persons together. Likewise, he also exercises the similar role of binding the people of God together in the kind of intimate friendship in which God exists.

Augustine's identification of the Spirit as the basis of union between God and believers is important, as it points to the idea of the Spirit as the giver of community, and therefore the giver of friendship.

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I've waited rather long to announce this, just to be sure that I'd see this train of thought through. As a result of some recent need that I see arising for a coherent understanding of the dynamics of relationships within Christian communities, I will be dwelling on a new and sustained series of theological reflections pertaining to Christian friendship.

In a church climate that is pragmatically programmatic in its ethos, I believe if we seek to recover what it means to be communities that are truly organic and missional in nature, that we must construct a foundational understanding of Christian friendship. Thus far, friendship has been by and large a by-product - a secondary result - of the local church's exercise of revolving people around planned programmes. The focus has been to run programmes (because that's what good and successful churches do! Besides, it looks good in the annual report!); and perhaps by some fortunate stroke, friendships develop among those who seek to sustain those programmes.

Those who cannot find within themselves a conscience or willingness that permits for participation in these programmes simply drop out and hop to the next church with the hope of finding a place for themselves within the scheme of churchlife. If not, they move on yet again. The sense of rootedness seems absent because "community" now simply represents a more spiritual term for "taskforce" or "workforce". Church now no longer seems to be defined so much by who we are, but rather, by what we do.

But what if we understood community as primarily about friendships? What if God's sole purpose for the formation of Christian communities was the cultivation of friendship for the sake of friendship itself, simply because God Himself consists of a community of beings relating with one another in intimate friendship? What if we were told that our lengthy and tedious theological discourse in the absence of intimate friendships was but a vain clanging cymbal or a resounding gong?

In the spirit of theology arising from relational transactions within my own faith community, I will attempt to provide a constructive (although not exhaustive) understanding of the kind of Christian friendship we so need to recover within our faith communities in order that church will once again, truly, be church; living stones of flesh and blood, not simply people who are trying their utter best to make church work.

I sincerely invite you to journey with me on this modest attempt to construct an understanding of Christian friendship.

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I spent a large part of the day with a company of friends. Throughout the course of the day, I realised that much is to be desired in terms of the Christian understanding of friendship. When friends congregate as community, is it just purely having a good time? Or is there something more, something of deeper significance, to this gathering of souls?

There must be something deeper. Beyond laughter and fun, there must be an interweaving of life stories. For it is in the interweaving of our life stories that a greater story is formed. Beyond moments of non-sensical engagements, there must be moments shared in silence, in reflection, in mutual contemplation of matters of the heart, soul and mind. So that we can together love God in a deeper way.

Friendship was given not for entertainment, but for a fulfillment of the human need to be engaged with an "other". What begins as a superficial merriment within a company of friends must proceed towards a deep interaction of souls. Fun requires no vulnerability, but transactions of the heart and soul do. And for as long as we remain in the mode of mere merry-making, friendship has yet to attain its desired potentials.

We need to cultivate more Christian communities that find their being in the presence of deep friendships; communities that actually share life. Together.

Perhaps the better question to begin with is this: What is friendship anyway?

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Not much reflective thoughts for today, as I've practially spent the entire day working on the final bit of blog-restoration that was laid off for a while in the past week or so.

Before all the pictures on my previous blog were entirely wiped out, I used to have a page totally dedicated to the posting of pictures from my ministerial and vacational travels. But like I said, it all got wiped out.

It has now been restored! To visit that newly reconstructed page, click the "My Photographs" link under SHERMAN'S SHUFFLES on the right-hand sidebar.

My students are going to have a sleepy lecturer tomorrow morning. Something tells me this won't bother them the least bit.

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Editor's Note: This entry is also posted in Generous Orthodoxy ThinkTank.

In the context of Asia, evangelicalism very much represents the body of faith propositions that has historically been bequeathed in all its orthodoxy by missionaries who arrived on our local shores during the colonial era. It very much consists of that which has been enunciated by the western community of faith.

There is nothing wrong with a body of propositions that has become a time-honoured legacy of Christianity in one's nation. And yet, at some point of maturity, a community begins to question the absence of its own rhetorical constructions of the faith. It finds itself to have inherited much of the language, together with the resulting theological battles, of a community that lies yonder. And it wonders if perhaps it can find a manner of enunciation of its faith that is more resonant with its own cultural realities. Whilst most find greater security in persisting with familiar rhetorics and delineations, an increasing dissonance is seen emerging.

It is for this reason that some of us have now begun speaking of postcolonialism in our theological exercises. I would like to distinctly contribute a new concept to this enterprise: postcolonial orthodoxy. In skimming through much of postcolonial literature, it may appear that much of its ideas constitute replicated articulations of postmodern thought. As a result, this has caused aroused much suspicion within the circle of those more comfortable with familiar classical evangelical rhetorics. In the light of this reality, I am advancing the term postcolonial orthodoxy to emphatically point out two arguments: 1) that postcolonial theology and theological orthodoxy are not mutually exclusive; and 2) that orthodoxy is not a claim that belongs solely to evangelical theology. Furthermore, while the articulation of both postcolonial thought and postmodern thought may seem to employ similar ideas, there exists an undeniable and indelible historical context in which each of these moods arose. We are, inevitably, products of our times.

Western evangelical theology is by and large the result of the western community's experience of and engagement with the being of God. It is confronted by the sheer self-revelatory nature of God and seeks to speak of this confrontation by means of its cultural rhetorics. We in Asia must seek to do the same. This is essentially even more so when the Asian culture finds within its history a legacy of religious paradigms that speak of following a person rather than a mere body of propositions.

This is of course not to say that propositions are redundant. I am also not advancing the claim that western faith propositions are irrelevant for the Asian Christians. The primary concern here is that the western methodology of theological language has often been taken to be universal beyond question. Whilst propositions are gradually inevitable in a community's engagement with the person of God, my concern is that we may have been riding on borrowed propositions as a way of evading the more tedious enterprise of constructing propositions that are more truly consistent with the Asian paradigm of faith. This problem presents the need for us to recover the Asian religious inclinations towards a relational faith so as to enable us to subsequently progress towards an authentically Asian propositional expression of the faith.

Perhaps this lingering intimidation within some segments of Asian Christians arises from the fear of pandering to heresy if they were to embark on a creative journey of Asian theological constructions (which are often mistaken as "postmodern" efforts). This fear could perhaps be partially mitigated by the concept of postcolonial orthodoxy, that the almagamation of the two terms need not be perceived as being oxymoronic after all.

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Have you ever had a surge of thoughts for which you had no words?

Tonight is one such night.

Perhaps some things in life are too sacred to be spoken of. Maybe they're just meant to be experienced and then left as they are, the way they were meant to be.

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In honourable memory of the mother of a friend, who has passed away today.

"Mother is the name of God in the lips and hearts of children."
- William Makepeace Thackeray -

Silence shall be observed tonight and tomorrow.

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Some things remain universal beyond the boundaries of chronology.

As it is with the modern day, it does seem like many (if not most) people of Jesus' day were comfortably happy with the mode of religion constructed for them by the religious authorities. Perhaps the religious programmes that were institutionally constructed helped them to feel a sense of security. "Do this and this and that, and participate in this ritual and that ritual, and you're all right."

In as much as we would like to think that people are beginning to seek reasons for their faith and to question the meaning of their existence (and hence, together with the significance of familiar religious symbols), this is perhaps not characteristic of the vast majority of the masses. Perhaps most religious people are simply secure in their unquestioning state, preferring to stay with prevalent religious conventions.

This presents the dilemma of preaching a revolutionary Christ, who by his very nature of being God, questioned the religious order of his day. He was the oddly strange person who seemed to be dissatisfied with what conventional religion had to offer to the human dilemma. And yet, how could anyone know if his revolutionary ideas were truly those that God desired? It was an insane risk to follow him. Some did anyway.

To those who were desperate for some fresh answers to their lives' concerns, Christ's message seemed inspirational and refreshing. To those who were "all right" because the religious institution said so (since they were abiding by all the prescribed religious requirements), Christ probably seemed to be a psychologically displaced oddball.

Perhaps those who did listen to his message were simply the misfits who had nothing left to lose in life. When there is much to lose, much of the revolutionary message of the Gospel has to be sifted through the lenses of our vested interests; the message of Christ needs to be "neutralised" so it becomes less distasteful.

After centuries of "preaching the Gospel to all the world", the dilemma of preaching the authentic Gospel abides. And I wonder just how much "evangelicalism" (if this term even means anything anymore) is contributing to this dilemma.

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Fear and intimidation: these are what propel people into a schizophrenic enclosure of their authentic being from the dangerously threatening world. We often imagine that the world would be out to devour us if our weaknesses and struggles were exposed. This may be well and true.

But it is also equally true that there are many others, like us, who secretly and deeply long for a kind of liberation to be effected in their lives. They wish they could be allowed the space to reveal themselves in all their brokenness without being further judged by others than they have already done to themselves.

Of course, to appear in such frailty before the ignorant is also to invite despise. But I wonder if perhaps such authenticity is a non-negotiable in the relationality of the Christian life. Perhaps it comes across as a warm invitation for those who truly desire the healing grace of God. Could it be that this paradox of ministering healing through pain is an art that needs to be recovered in our understand of that which constitutes the missional life?

I recently met a man. He was known to be disliked by his community because of his unrefined and very presumptuous ways of relating with others. But throughout a very brief moment of engagement with him (which, admittedly was not voluntary), I heard him tell his story.

He was real. He had no qualms about revealing his weaknesses, his past addictions, and his insecurities in life. And in a split moment, his (often disliked) behaviour pattern suddenly made sense to me, and he didn't seem so unlikable anymore.

I suddenly saw in him a fellow "other" who was walking exactly the same path as I find myself trudging on. I suddenly identified with him, and I saw a friend in him. Because I saw myself.

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I'm closely watching the way some of the foreign students in my seminary are struggling to churn their assignments out. Paralysed by their lack of linguistic capacity, many of them find themselves having to strive five times as hard as the other students in their academic exercises.

There is a sense in which I find myself strengthened by their weakness.

One of them told me "I am one of the few fortunate ones who have had an opportunity to study in a seminary beyond my country; I must do my best." What a resilience of the human spirit. I am uplifted by their refusal to yield.

At times when we find ourselves agonising at unjust disadvantages in life, perhaps it helps to look to some "weaker" people for counsel. They may have no verbal advice to offer. But just pause in stillness and watch them struggle; they have a story to tell you.

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Having a boring day? Read this poem; it'll make your day.

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Had a conversation with a colleague today. Well, it was actually one segment of a series of conversations that we have had in the past couple of weeks. See, the thing is this...

She tells me that the Kingdom of God is not to be alleged as a mere eschatological hope, and that it is to be understood as also being present in the here-and-now. And thus, I echoed in deep agreement, citing Jürgen Moltmann's Theology of Hope. Indeed, the Kingdom of God is present in the here-and-now, even if its culmination and absolute fulfillment is yet to be. And the visible inauguration of this Kingdom is to be made apparent even in the social dimension of human existence. On this account, I agreed with my colleague.

Now, for a moment of confession: I hold a pessimistic reservation about the hope that is advanced in the context of the here-and-now. I believe if this message of hope in the present scheme of things is to be rendered believable at all, that we must also find an answer to the problem of evil and suffering.

I find it difficult, as both a Christian and a vocational minister, to speak hope into people's lives and to assure them that "everything will be all right because the Kingdom of God is here". This claim will be empirically defiant (not that I'm a rigid empiricist of any sort).

I find it easier to approach my fellow sufferers with an attitude of suffering together. Let's journey through the storms of life together. Then even if things will not be all right, I know that it's still all right, because there is a crowd of fellow sufferers cheering me on. Could this be a more realistic picture of what the Kingdom of God should look like in the here-and-now? That things may not be all right in the present order, but we can find comfort in the company of fellow sufferers...and hence, hope?

The pessimist in me has yet to find the peace within myself to claim that things will be all right in the present scheme of things because the Kingdom of God is here. It is here, but it is also yet to be. How else can I explain the state of my fellow neighbour in the above picture?

Posted by SK at 09:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

"For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?
Seek him always with hours to live."

- Khalil Gibran -

Posted by SK at 09:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It is such a pleasure to inform you that my blog is now to be considered almost fully reconstructed.

All that's left to be done is to provide a link (or something) for visitors to find their way back to the homepage from the "email" and the "profile" pages. Actually, you can get back to the homepage by simply clicking the banner; but who would think of that, right?

If I was cajoled to a public admission as to how little of this blog is attributable to my own effort, I'd probably faint from perpetual embarassment. But such is life; we'd like to think that we can make things work in our own capacities.

And then when a task that is plain and simple to others seems impossible for us, we realise that God sends people to help us move a farther distance in our life journey. It is humbling. But heartwarming.

Anyway, welcome back to Sherman on the Mount.

Note from the Editor: As of 15 March, the links for visitors to find their way back to the homepage from the "email" and the "profile" pages have been set up.

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Okay, I've officially screwed up my blog. HEEEEELP!!!

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The people of the world often seem keen to exalt others who can be heroes for them.

Perhaps we live in a disappointed world that seeks hope. Perhaps the haste in exalting "heroes" emerges from a universal human search for a reason to sustain a dream for a better future.

But could it be that "heroes" can be heroes only when they are gazed at from afar? Could it be, if we approached the life of a "hero" in close proximity, that we would find "heroes" to be (after all) the very kind of frail, broken and wounded beings that we are. Could it be that heroes are simply people who have found creatively constructive avenues of coping with and expressing their human struggle?

Could it be that they have become "heroes" simply because we have hurried them to become symbols of hope for ourselves, and that they never intended to become heroes for anyone in the first place? Could they just be "hurried heroes"?

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It is often the ignorant who shamefully parade their arrogance.

You think you are entitled to your opinions, and so you shamefully hail your entitlement. Because we live among a generation of people who think they know, you think you belong to the category of the learned. That's good and fine...

But have you ever considered that there may be others who know more than you do, and that these others have something crucial to impart?

Has it ever minutely occured to your consciousness that there are those who have paid a high price just so you could be here today? They too have a story to tell.

And yet, your preoccupation remains with what you think to be true. In your fixation upon your own views, you have missed out too much.

I shudder with fear at the arrogant tone of your statement, "I disagree." It is plainly an arrogance of ignorace.

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My Burmese friend (who is also my student at seminary) taught me something today. It was a proverb taught to him by his grandfather: "Slowly slowly catch the monkey."

This proverb means that one must persevere in mastering a skill, for it is with time and patience that one will eventually learn the trick of the trade. This is timely advice for yours truly to persevere, since the goal for mastering Movable Type literally seems to be the movable type.

But at the rate someone is pampering me by doing most of the setup work for me on the reconstruction of this blog, I think I'll be far from being an expert on this interface anytime soon.

And I think this blog is now way cooler than it used to be. It's so cool I actually can't help feeling like I need to show it off to my fellow friends who blog. I know it's not my work of art, but still, I've got to flaunt it. As for how I'm going to manage with this interface in time to come, oh well, slowly slowly catch the monkey.

P.S. My goodness, this blog is so cool! *faints*

Posted by SK at 02:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Okay, Sherman on the Mount is so back.

So many things have taken place in the past week. The server that hosted my blog was hacked and then disconnected by the US data centre. And then they refused to reconnect the server.

So my hosting company tried to transfer my blog to another server. But in the process, every single one of my images disappeared. So there.

Anyway, I'm now parked at a different host and trying to reconstruct from what's left of my demolished blog. But I'm back with a vengeance, and blogging continues!

To all the concerned friends who called me to find out about this momentary breakdown, I appreciate your concern. And Irene, what can I say... thank you.

Posted by SK at 03:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

My sustained reflections are still dwelling on the issue of returning to God over this season of Lent. God calls us to return to him, but not everyone finds himself in a state worthy of such a return.

Some find themselves inadequate. Others find themselves incapacitated. Yet others do not think that this invitation is issued for them; it's always for others but not for them. Still others find that they have always been the misfits of society who have never quite fit into any given order; why then would they find a place reserved for them at the table of Christ?

If you find yourself having just read something here that cuts into the heart of your life's concern, then you are the precisely the person that Christ is summoning to his table of grace. You are precisely the person he would pick out from a crowd just to tell you, "Come, follow me". The table of grace is a table for the broken and the misfits, not a table for the mighty and the lofty.

Come, return to the Lord.

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A friend asked me some questions about my perception of life and ministry. I suddenly found myself feeling as if I was in a job interview, and had to present a "reason" for what I have been doing with my life. I think I fared very badly in this interview; I was too honest. But here is what I said:

I perceive myself as being very frail. There isn't an ounce of determination in me that wants to work the will of God. It's true that I could have gone and done something else with my life, but my journey would still ultimately take me through a search for answers to my existential questions. So I'd still end up going into the theological and philosophical stuff that I'm dabbling with now.

I know. I can't believe myself either. What better way to fail in a job interview than by telling your potential employer that you have nothing to offer. But I meant exactly what I said. And I have not lost my job yet. Perhaps my Employer seeks workers of a different kind. You reckon so?

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Yesterday morning, the students from my theology class were given a treat (hopefully a good one) in the form of a movie. Yes, it was the day for Theology at the Movies! They came to my home and watched a movie that painted a depiction of relational faith, and how the dynamics of both these dimensions of theology might impact a person's view of life and ministry.

One of the points I mentioned in the reflection thereafter was how the relational Christian lives out a message of grace in his life. Whilst he does not go around loud-hailing the message of repentance, the very embodiment of grace in his life is itself an invitation to repentance. In the movie, we witnessed that reality clearly in the life of a wounded and lonely little preacher's daughter, who approached the misfits of society in all her brokenness and befriended them. She brought healing to those few lives with which she engaged and connected. And in the process, they too ministered healing into her life.

How often have we gone to "sinners" and advanced our demands for repentance? As if we were any better, any less broken, any less depraved than they were. The gospel of Christ is about wounded and fractured people being found and captured by grace, and in turn, offering this grace to the rest of the world. The story of grace is most often better told by the misfits and broken people who have experienced fallenness than by the "righteous" who see themselves fit to demand repentance from a broken world.

Grace precedes repentance. The way of Christ offers grace. It does not demand repentance; repentance is but a natural response of the one who receives grace. This season of Lent challenges me to once again to be a wounded and broken embodiment of grace that will invite all to come and partake of this grace so freely offered. It has to be a message from one fractured and broken human person to another: "come and be captured by the grace that has captured me".

"God's mercy...goes before the unwilling to make him willing; it follows the willing to make his will effectual." (Augustine of Hippo)

P.S. Yeah, the students also enjoyed lots of good food from the lecturer's mother. It wasn't exactly rich food; the food was simple. Maybe we can call it Lent food.

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This season of Lent is one of contemplative reflection for me. It is to me (in a very personal way) about returning to the Lord. It is about returning in repentance and helpless inability, and asking the Lord to heal, to restore, and to enable me to live a life worthy of his calling and true to his Kingdom. I need mercy. I need grace.

I would like to invite you to journey with me and several other friends in a series of brief daily meditations we have written for this season of Lent. We call it Nails and Thorns (right-click on the link, and select "Save Link As" to download the pdf document).

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Logged onto my blog this this morning and was horrified to find only the above message showing. The server of my service-provider was hacked by some people who probably decided to do it on the occasion of Ash Wednesday.

Anyway, I only had to republish everything through my usual blogging interface, and everything was restored within less than five minutes. But if you did log onto my blog throughout that duration and found nothing, apologies! All systems go now.

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It is Ash Wednesday.

Remember, man, that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return. Let us contemplate our transgressions and bow before the Lord in a posture of repentance.

I acknowledge, Lord, that I am born in sin and cannot help but embody the reality of this sinful state in my life. Impart unto me the righteousness of Jesus Christ, that I may dwell in him, and he in me. AMEN.

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