Preface: Faith Rediscovered
The meditations are a testimony of my faith journey, which has been one of rediscovering Christ and striving to make sense of my faith in the light of God becoming human and being crucified...
This is a compilation of Lenten, Good Friday, Easter and post-resurrection meditations that were originally preached during the English Services held at the Holy Trinity CSI Church, Elamkulam, Kochi from 2011-2014.
During the Lenten season of 2021, when the world was reeling under the COVID-19 pandemic, some of these meditations were broadcast as videos and are still available online. They are primarily intended for pastors, evangelists, theology students and those who may want to rediscover the meaning of Christian faith.
The meditations are a testimony of my faith journey, which has been one of rediscovering Christ and striving to make sense of my faith in the light of God becoming human and being crucified on the cross.
I grew up amidst the evangelical faith and piety of my grandfather, uncles and aunts, who lived exemplary lives, marked by extreme commitment to the cause of following Christ, and the increasing awareness, thanks to the rare privilege of growing up in a Dalit Christian parish of the Church of South India (CSI), of the façade that organised religion had built around itself to manage people and make them numb to the existential circumstances of their lives and the world they live in.
This contradiction, or what apparently seemed so, came to be reconciled, much later in life, in the image of a suffering God.
German theologian and dissenter, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, through his writings, introduced me to the idea that “it is not by his omnipotence that Christ helps us, but by his weakness and suffering”. This set me onto a new trajectory of Christian faith and discipleship, where one freed oneself from the trappings of ‘religion’ and began to identify with the suffering God, of Jesus “as the man for others” on the cross.
Churches in Kerala observe Lent with utmost devotion, though such fervency has diminished over the years. The related observations such as fasting, evening meditations, special worship sessions, etc. reach a high point with the events that mark the passion week, especially the Good Friday and the Easter worship services.
The period of Lent has always provided me with an occasion to re-live my childhood experiences associated with the Lenten season and passion week, especially the Good Friday service with meditations on the seven words from the cross.
As I grew up, some of the observances seemed rather pointless and misleading. For instance, the theatrical and graphic depictions of Jesus’ physical suffering to evoke sympathy towards Christ, the self-flagellation and fasting that provide a modicum of self-satisfaction and self-congratulation—all seemed to be ways of managing people and their feelings at a purely sentimental and superficial level, rather than stirring people to take up their own crosses and follow Christ to the Golgotha of our times.
Yet, all said and done, lent provides us with an occasion to engage with our congregations about the real meaning of the Cross of Christ—of how having been healed by the whiplashes on his body, we have been invited to a deeper awareness of the sins that still beset us and the world, and how we may become agents of redeeming love.
It is unfortunate that Good Friday sermons continue to be preoccupied with the mechanical atonement theories that continue to talk about how humanity has been redeemed from the bondage of sin with God paying the price (ransom) by sacrificing his own Son and so on. In such understanding, the historical reality of the cross is obfuscated.