CHRISTMAS REFLECTIONS - Magi

Lets take a look at these wise men who are mentioned in Matthew's edition of the life of Jesus. Only Matthew and Luke give us historical details about the birth of Christ. Matthew chooses to tell us about these strange visitors from the east, Luke chooses to leave that out but instead tell us about shepherds in fields nearby watching their sheep. One of the hints, by the way, that Jesus was not born on December 25th.

We know these men were astrologers of some kind and that Matthew refers to them as Magi. Now, hundreds of years before, there was a nation which grew into a short lived, but large, empire called the Medes. This empire stretched from the Indus River valley in the east (Pakistan today), to Anatolia in the west (Turkey today). This empire was made of of six tribes, one of which was called the tribe of Magi.

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This tribe was a priestly tribe in the same way that the tribe of Levi was to the Jews or that Druids would were to the Celts. They were very educated having spent a lot of time learning about the natural world, including medicines, herbs and the movements of the cosmos, and how they might foretell impending events on earth. These men were soothsayers, interpreters of dreams, philosophers, naturalists and would have been highly regarded members of society.

Astrology, one of their specialties, was a widely known and used approach to telling ones future. Reading the cosmos was a science to these men. We do not know what brilliant star the Magi saw but whatever it was the message interpreted was compelling.

And of course, as everyone in the ancient world knows, the best astrologers came from the east. If you were going to have some one read the stars for you, you wanted an astrologer from the east, because those westerners don't know what they are talking about.

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This message impelled them to journey hundreds of miles across varied terrain for what what likely several months into the territory of a neighboring empire (which was hardly ever neighborly). They carried supplies for the journey, they carried money so they could resupply along the way, they had animals to carry the supplies and money, they had extra men to help them keep track of all the supplies and the animals carrying the supplies. And of course with all the animals and supplies and men to help with everything they would have drawn some attention to themselves so they would likely have had some armed security to help to protect them on their journey as well as money and supplies for those men too. Not to mention the expensive gifts that were being brought to honor this new born king.

We don't know exactly were they left from but if we were to place them in the center of the region where the Median empire was, that would put them in the middle of modern day Iran just south of the southern tip of the Caspian Sea. IF they left from there (modern day Tehran) and followed the trade routes, their journey was likely around 2,000 miles. That is a long distance to travel to honor someone who is not one of your own people and will not be your king. If you estimate the amount of time it would take to make that journey you could say that the Magi likely saw the star in the east around the same time that the angel appeared to Jesus' parents.

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Keeping all this in mind, I wonder... Why? 

Why the long journey? 

Why Magi? 

Why not wise men from the country Jesus was born in? 

Why not wise men from the Jews?

What is God telling the world by making this announcement to men who don't believe in the Jewish God?

Why not someone that others would believe?

This says something about the way God does things. We can ask why God did not announce to the the Jewish people the arrival of their Messiah; except, he had been speaking to them through the prophets for hundreds of years in the Hebrew Scriptures. In fact when the Eastern wise men arrived and asked where to find this king, the Jewish wise men knew exactly where to look, Bethlehem. 

The Magi traveled upwards of 2,000 miles to meet this newborn King, the Jewish scholars would not travel the six miles from Jerusalem to Bethlehem to even see if it was true. 

Herod was so concerned that this newborn King might take over his rulership and his Kingdom that he ordered all baby boys in and around Bethlehem slaughtered. He did not understand the kind of King that Jesus would be or the kind of Kingdom that he would establish.

I guess what I am saying is that according to Matthew's edition of the the birth of Christ, the wrong kinds of people are hearing about Jesus. What is worse they are taking action. The ones who have the Bible memorized and can quote all kinds of verses to you, they end up being the ones who miss the whole point. Matthew is telling us that God chooses the most unlikely people, the people that most others would overlook. God chooses the J.V. kinds of people, the second stringers, the ones who get ruled out, the ones who sit by themselves at lunch, even those who like country music. God did not announce his arrival to the Roman leaders or the Jewish leaders, but to astrologers who did not even believe in the Jewish God.

What does that say about who should be in your church?

What does that say about how God speaks to us?

What do you think that says about what God things about you?

The God of this story invites people no one else invites... He wants the people most of us don't even consider... this God says that even you are invited into His story... You don't have to have it all figured out to have a spot at His table...

This God invites you with all your questions, and your doubts, and your bad theology, and your bad taste in music (if you like country)...

Just a Meandering Thought...

CHRISTMAS REFLECTIONS - Joseph

As Christmas approaches I am drawn to reflect on the characters in the birth narrative of Jesus. I wonder what must the events of the Christmas story have been like for the ones who lived it. What would the shepherds have felt seeing the sky fully illuminated by an angelic choir. The wise men from the east, whose reading of the stars told them a king was born, would have had a fascinating story. Mary gets a lot of attention this time of year, for obvious reasons - she carried God in her womb. But, I start by wondering about Joseph, Jesus' step-father.

There is one verse in Matthew's edition of the events that stands out: chapter 1 verse 19. 

Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

Joseph was a righteous man but can you imagine committing to marry a woman who had become pregnant with a child that was not yours?! He was a man who was conscientious about his faith and about God but can you imagine marrying a woman who was known to be unfaithful? If Joseph had married her he would have been tacitly admitting his own guilt, because if you marry a pregnant woman it is not because she is carrying someone else's child, it is because she is carrying yours. 

Mary brought shame and dishonor to Joseph and ruin to his reputation. In the middle eastern world of the first century, adultery was grounds for the woman to be stoned to death; a husband could have his wife executed for this. We are not immune to being talked bad about, or shamed in front of friends. Think about the headlines we have seen in the past year about someone who sought out revenge for one reason or another. We are not so far removed from the feelings that Joseph would have felt, betrayed by the one he loves. We've been stabbed in the back, we've been blindsided by harsh news that came from someone we were supposed to be able to trust. We have probably thought about giving that person or group of people a taste of there own medicine. "They hurt me this way, let's see how they like it when..." fill in the rest. The full weight of the law could have led to the stoning death of Jesus’ mother Mary, at the very least a public divorce would have shamed Mary and her family and she likely would have never married. We could not fault Joseph for taking that route if he chose to do so.  

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But Joseph was unwilling to expose her to the disgrace of public divorce, so he chose a quiet yet lawful way. I believe it is one of the reason's God chose Joseph to be a step-father to God the Son. Joseph finds a way to remain faithful to the rigidity of the law while expressing compassion towards Mary. I may have chosen to find some way to get back at the person who wronged me, who embarrassed me, who ruined my reputation - Joseph chooses to quietly divorce Mary and salvage her reputation. Ultimately he chooses to marry her, accepting the embarrassment and shame of a premarital pregnancy. He accepted the shame as his own even though he had nothing to do with it.

Can you imagine being a son, and hearing this story as you grow up? I seem to remember a story of a woman caught in the act of adultery, recorded in John's edition of the gospel. Jesus, just as his father, shows compassion and does not seek to embarrass her publicly. He stands with her in her shame and disgrace. Jesus looked beyond the circumstance to show a person is more than the sum of their choices, as did his father Joseph. 

Just a short time later Jesus would do it again... from a cross. The cross is where he remained faithful to the rigidity of the law while expressing compassion towards all humanity. He chose to accept the shame of death as a common criminal on charges that were not true to not just stand with us in our shame but to take our place. Jesus' journey to and sacrifice on the cross began with the courageous choice of a man named Joseph. A man who defied convention, who chose the harder road, and modeled compassion to a young wife and son who would go on to change world in the same way.

Just a meandering thought... 

RISHIKESH

Rishikesh is a holy area along the Ganges River several miles from Hari Dwar. It became famous in the West after the Beetles went there in (‘67?). They met with a guru and stayed in one of the Ashrams here by the river.

A couple make an offering to the River goddess Gunga. They put flowers purchased at a shop owned by one of the Ashrams place them in the jar of water scooped out of the river, then pour both back to the river.

An Ashram is a Hindu Monastery. The place the Beetles visited is no longer in existence, well… it is there but it is a hotel now. When that Guru died people stopped coming to that Ashram and it fell into disrepair until it was purchased by the hotel.

This is a Temple inside an Ashram near the river bank.

If you want to visit an Ashram there is certainly no shortages of them in Rishikesh. Rishikesh has one of the highest concentrations of Ashrams in India. Almost every building here is in some way part of an Ashram or is owned by an Ashram. Some have sprawling complexes where entire families will live, they are not just for meditative monks.

Men and idols under a Bodhi tree, the same tree under which Siddhartha was sitting when he attained enlightenment and became Buddha.

There are also many places in Rishikesh that teach how to read Sanskrit, the holy language for Hindus. All of Hinduism's holy scriptures are written in Sanskrit. It is a dead language but the holy men of Hinduism only read the scriptures in Sanskrit.

A guru reading the Sanskrit scriptures who whoever will sit for a while and listen.

There are many places where I saw very old men sitting by the Ganges and reading the Vedas or the Gitas in what looked like very old books. These men are thought of as very holy men. The two holy locations in the area are Hari Dwar, which I have already written on, and Rishikesh. These two places each have their specialty. Hari Dwar is holy because of the mythological stories about its origin. It is the place where you go to perform holy rituals.

Rishikesh may be the place where people go for Hindu learning, but since it is on the River, thousands of people will come here to wash their sins away in the river.

The area in and around Rishikesh is where the ancient Brahmin priests would go to get away from the world to meditate for long periods of time. It was during the middle of the first millennium b.c. roughly when the Upanishads were written. Today Rishikesh is a center of learning and study and gaining holy knowledge. Hari Dwar is the place do holy rituals, Rishikesh is the place you go to gain holy knowledge. Hence all the Ashrams where you sit under guru and learn the holy scriptures, and all the places where you can learn Sanskrit.

One of the most prominent features of Rishikesh is the huge suspension bridge that spans the entire breadth of the Ganges river. Whenever you see pictures of Rishikesh you will see pictures of the bridge. This bridge is about the width of your average sidewalk. Yet you will have four of five or ten people trying to walk in the same space, and believe it or not while walking across the bridge myself, a motorcycle went right past me.

The entire month of July is the pilgrimage month and the holy pilgrimage color is orange. It has something to do with the color of the sunset and how the color symbolizes the going down into the river and then coming up as a newly washed person. Just as the color of the sky when the sun is setting and rising. So many people were bathing it was extremely crowded. A lot of people have a lot that they need to cleanse in the their soul. I am not sure they find what they are looking for though. The Hindu scriptures say nothing of absolution. Each of these people will come back and do the same thing next year with no sense of certainty that they are getting what they came here for.

MONASTERY

Sunday afternoon we went to a Tibetan Buddhist monastery close to the school where I am staying. There were not too many monks out but we did get to see their temple and the outside of the dormitories where they live.

The gates to this monastery are always open anyone can come in at any time to seek solace and peace.

Tibetan Buddhism is different from other forms of Buddhism. In fact there are three main schools of Buddhism. The first is Theravada Buddhism which is considered the oldest but it is not as widely practiced. The second is Mahayana Buddhism, which came along a while later and is more commonly practiced. The third is Tibetan Buddhism. Tibetan Buddhism is considered heretical by the other two groups because in Tibet, Buddhism mixed with the local religious traditions and what emerged was a syncretistic form of Buddhism.

The grounds of this monastery were very well kept. The monks live a disciplined life and it shows in the well manicured grass and trees.

Buddhism does not believe in God per se; they pray to Buddha, to former Bodhisattvas and to their ancestors for help in this life and in the next. Buddhists will pray to Buddha for help in life and monks in particular will pray for help becoming enlightened. To Buddhists the purpose of life is to become nothing.

This huge gong was just inside the doorway to the temple. It goes off every morning at 5:30am for morning meditation. I sleep close enough to the monastery that it has woken me up on a few occasions.

The Tibetans revere the Dali Lama not as a god so much but as a reincarnation of a Buddha. The Dali Lama has visited this monastery a few times and interestingly, they have enshrined the car that he rode in. No one is allowed to sit in it. Part of the reason there is a monastery here is because India and China have had ongoing disputes about their land and the proper borders. As a way to get under the Chinese’s skin India gave asylum to the Dali Lama and even offered the land to the Tibetan Buddhists to build their Monastery. The monks who live here consider themselves in exile.

Not sure what this cylindrical thing is hanging from the ceiling but I am told that it represents a particularly holy place in the temple. Just behind it you can a mural commemorating an event in the life of Buddha.

The monastery has a very simple layout. The gate is left open all day, so they are not worried about who comes in and who goes out. The grounds are well kept and simple. The Temple was in contrast, very ornate. The walls were covered with murals, there were tapestries hanging from the walls and the ceilings.

These red mats are where the monks sit for their daily meditation times.

At the very front there is a statue of Buddha and he is flanked by two other well known, Bodhisattvas, but don‘t ask who they are. At the front there is also a chair or perhaps better a throne chair on which the Dali Lama sat while here, and since then the chair has been retired.

This is the very front of the temple the main statue of Buddha is about five feet tall and encased in a glass enclosure.

The Tibetan Buddhists have a long history with a deep tradition, and they are still longing to go home. Though this will not likely happen any time soon, they still hold out hope. You will still see the bumper stickers that say “Free Tibet”. The movie "Seven Years in Tibet" and the book are both worth your time. The musical score performed by Yo Yo Ma for the movie is excellent.

I would go into further detail but I am in India to learn about Hinduism and Hindu culture so I will end here. I have written a little more in my post entitled "Buddhism."

WASHED

As we walked along the bridge that crossed the Ganges river we were able to see the full breadth of activity that surrounds the Ganges myths. People will travel thousands of miles for the chance to dip in the Ganges at this specific place on the river. This river is holy to them; not just because it has the cleansing effect of their souls, but because the river is an actual goddess. When they step into the river they are immersing themselves in the goddess Gunga. They wash themselves with the goddess Gunga who takes their sins, also called bad Karma, with her down the river.

A man begging on the side of the road on our way to the river

Much of the Hindu beliefs and traditions center around the role that the Ganges plays. As I watched I tried to get my mind around the fact that people have been coming to this river to wash away their sins for centuries even millennia. I wondered to myself:

• What are these people thinking as they step into the river?
• What are they thinking as they throw water over their shoulders?
• As they strip down to their underwear and wade into the cold mountain waters do they think about what it feels like to be completely surrounded by a deity?
• Do they genuinely believe that this river is a goddess or do they wash simply wash out of tradition?

The poor and homeless walk side by side with those who are well off. Both equally need to wash in the River.

There was a man there who had set up a tarp tied to a tree. This is where he would live during the pilgrimage season. Typically he is naked but at the time we were walking by he had a towel wrapped around him. He is thought of a more holy because he walks around naked and goes into the river naked. He sets up a make shift home next to a goddess, so that he can be close to her, and wades into her naked so that he can be closer to her than anyone else. For this, he is holy.

• I wonder what people are searching for.
• I wonder if they find it.
• I wonder when they lay their heads on their pillow or their mat at night if what they think to themselves.
• Are they grateful for the chance to step into the river… the goddess?
• Are they grateful and fulfilled for having their sins washed away?

In Christianity people are forgiven of sin by God. For the Hindu the goddess does not forgive sins she simply washes them away. It speaks to the relational nature of Christianity and the pantheistic and ritualistic nature of Hinduism. An unfortunate aspect of the lure of the Ganges is that the Ganges is also a good place for to make money. Not only are there a lot of beggars hoping to capitalize on people's generosity while they are in a religious mood, but there are countless venders selling items from containers to bring home the mystical waters of the Ganges the people selling henna tattoos.

These stores and shops are just a few of the hundreds of shops and vendors that can be seen along the river. So simply put out a blanket and lay out holy trinkets.

There are those who are simply there to make some money off those who are aware of their need to do good and take advantage of the giving mood that many are in as they go through their rituals. Ironically, a place that is set aside for religious devotion, is also a place that many as a time to make a buck, (or a rupee). And when they see white people they see dollar signs.

When you see women using their children as a means to tug on the hearts strings of visitors to compel them to give them some money it is difficult to understand the feelings that well up. Is it sadness or anger? Unfortunately, many times the money you give them does not actually go to them. Often they are part of a ring of people who are forced to do this by one a few others.

As I think about how sad it is, I am forced to acknowledge that churches or perhaps more accurately, Christian religious leaders in the U.S. do the same thing. The only reason it does not seem as sad is because the people they prey on are not trying to get their next meal. Some of the great works of serving the poorest of the poor have been done by devotees of religion, I think of Mother Theresa as one example. But some of the worst atrocities have also been done in the name of religion, the example everyone knows is the Crusades, but historically the Muslims were every bit as barbaric as the Christians. Definitely not a high point for either religion, or its leaders.

I was also struck at the dichotomy that I observed here. In one place set back from the river there were a couple of really nice hotels, and about a twenty minute drive from the river there were several really nice hotels. These hotels exist for the rich to come in from all over the world to wash in the Ganges, and then leave once they are “clean”. But to get to the Ganges they have to pass by the thousands who are stuck in dwellings that are nothing more than sheets of plastic that barely keep out the rain.

I thought that the Ganges was a place where people would go to have some kind of profound personal religious experience, but what I saw was a lot of families who had come to make a day out of coming to the Ganges. It was a family affair for many. Others were there to make some money. Still others were there out of tradition. But for whatever the reason, everyone was there to get something from the river. Everyone there had some kind of need that they expected the river could meet. For one a clean soul, for another, the people who would have money which could meet their physical needs.

SACRED part 2 of 2

As the first millennium b.c. progressed the Vedic culture settled into the Ganges River basin and developed a more stationary, agriculturally based society. The more mobile nomadic society of their ancestors had faded and the Vedic people were living in one place for longer periods of time. Clans fought with one another and annexed land from neighboring clans creating larger and larger kingdoms.

The Vedic religion continued to go through changes as well. Since the society was more stationary Brahmans, holy men of the priestly caste, were making their homes in the forests where they would meditate and contemplate reality and the meaning of life. The fourth and final of the Hindu Shruti texts was written by these hermit holy men as they practiced their religious meditations.

If you have not read “SACRED part 1” what you essentially need to know is that there are two kinds of Hindu texts: “Shruti” which means “revealed” i.e. from a divine source, and “Smrti” which means “remembered”. There are four Shruti collections of texts; I talked about the first three in "SACRED part 1." The fourth of the Shruti texts is called the Upanishads.

The Upanishads reflect the wider cultural shift taking place in the region being written roughly between 800 and 300 b.c. In the Upanishads there is a distinct turn away from many of the Vedic ideas and practices which mirror the shift in the wider culture. The hermit-sages who composed the Upanishads sought something more-ultimate, eternal salvation. Thus they spoke about and believed in a single, eternal, impersonal, divine force that animates and permeates the entire cosmos - Brahman.

The word "Upanishad" comes from a Sanskrit term that means "to sit near." It refers to a student sitting near a teacher and learning directly through questions and answers. The Upanishads hold that since everything is Brahman, the individual is also Brahman. Individuals think that the things that make them who they are, such as one's relationships, or appearance, or even thoughts, are real. The Upanishads hold that these are merely elaborate illusions (sounds a little like Platonic dualism).

If one wishes to realize the ultimate, then one must detach oneself from all of these unreal things through ascetic meditation. One must go off and meditate on the reality of Brahman, which begins with meditation on the self, which is in essence the same as Brahman. In doing this you can be free from desire. If you think that sounds like Buddhism you are about to find out why.

And so it was that with the societal changes came the emergence of clan leaders and even kings who ruled over large areas of land and many people. One particular king, King Suddhodana, ruler of the Sakya tribe, which straddled present day India and Nepal, had a son whom he loved very much. His son was born around 560b.c. When his son had grown up he decided to venture outside of the protective walls of the palace where he lived to see what life was really like. He saw four things that changed his life, the fourth thing he saw is what was crucial. The fourth thing he saw was a person, a hermit actually. One of these priestly seers of the Brahman caste who lived out in the wilds where he would meditate. This hermit-sage had found the Hindu prince and talked with him about contemplation, meditation and the meaning of life. He returned to his palace home but at the age of 29 he left it all and headed for the wilderness himself. This prince’s name was Siddhartha Gautama; he would later become known as Buddha.

Buddhism did not do so well at first. Then Alexander the Great showed up...

SACRED Part 1 of 2

As the political and social life shifted to the east and south and the economy shifted from semi-nomadic tribes to agricultural and cattle raising kingdoms the religious life of the people went through some changes as well. Many of these changes can be traced through their sacred texts.

The sacred texts of Hinduism are an enormous collection of oral and written scriptures that include myths, rituals, philosophical perspectives, devotional poems and songs, local histories, and more. There are two basic categories within this vast collection: Shruti (revealed) and Smrti (remembered). The word Shruti is from the Sanskrit meaning “heard” suggesting that they are not from the mind of man but “revealed” or “heard” from a divine source. There are four sacred Shruti texts: the Vedas, the Brahmanas, the Aranyakas and the Upanishads.

The Shruti Texts:
The earliest set of Shruti texts are the Vedas. The word veda comes from the Sanskrit word vid, meaning to know. Not unlike the Greek root from which we get gnosis - "knowledge." In early Hinduism seers, known as risis, “heard” the Vedas and developed them into a range of oral traditions. The Vedas were never intended to be texts, they were always intended to be experienced through the dynamic activation of voice giving them life and texture. The Vedas were composed over a period of time from about 1700 b.c. to around 1000 b.c. There are four sets of Vedic texts which lumped together are often called Samhitas.

1. The Rig Veda - mainly composed of songs of praise to various Vedic gods who are personifications of natural forces like the Sun, the storm or rain, harvest, and so on.
2. The Yajur Veda - deals with sacrificial formulas recited as rituals were being performed.
   
3. The Sama Veda - The word sama meaning melody shows us that these Vedas are melodies and hymns sung to the gods to request basic necessities.
4. The Atharva Veda - Contains perhaps hundreds of magic formulas

When the Vedas had been around for a while some members of the higher caste who were seen as priests, began to collect the Vedas. As they did they developed what amounted to commentary to help explain the Vedas. The Brahmana - the second group of sacred texts are commentaries attached to the Vedas that explain the rituals of the Vedas. In fact the word brahmana means the utterance of a Brahman (Brahman is one who is of the priestly caste). Again this reinforces the idea that these were intended to be spoken instead of written. They were considered sacred because it was the Brahmans who were speaking them. From around 900 b.c. to around 700 b.c. the Vedas were gathered together into Samhitas, which means - “collections” that the Brahmans then attempted to explain through the Brahmanas.

The third group of sacred wisdom which was eventually written down is the Aranyakas which is Sanskrit for “Forest Book”. The Aranyakasa developed later than the Brahmanas but held a similar function. Composed in India about 700 to 600b.c. the Aranyakas are different from the Brahmanas in that they develop ideas on secret rites to be carried out only by certain persons, and they are more philosophical in nature. They were intended to be studied only by properly trained individuals. These individuals were either studied hermits who had withdrawn into the forest and no longer took part in Vedic rituals (hence "Forest Book") or pupils who were given instruction by their teachers in the seclusion of their huts in tucked away places.

These first three groups of sacred writings outline the religious life and practice of the culture. These practices were intended to be performed by a priestly caste of people while the common person learned about them by listening to the priests not by reading scripture on their own. There was a strong communal aspect to the religion. As the society - and culture with it - moved east and south and settled along the Ganges River Basin some Brahmans began to settle in the forests and other secluded places. Think of them as the Druids of ancient India. With this move came a gradual shift away from the rituals and the hymns to a more contemplative practice and form to Hinduism. This is reflected in the sacred literature which demonstrates a move towards commenting on and contemplating the the purpose and meaning of life.

In part 2 I will trace the connection between this slow cultural shift, the writing of the fourth group of sacred texts - the Upanisads, and how this impacted the culture and paved the way for Buddhism.

JUSTICE Part 2 of 2

Most of us would say that we want justice for the wrongs that we have endured. Justice is one of those American values that we aspire to maintain. When the towers fell on September 11th and we soon discovered who was responsible, we felt emboldened and righteous as we sought the one responsible and those who were helping him. We were fighting for the great American value of Justice.

If you read through Bible you will find many stories of people who fought for justice after experiencing injustice. One the most unique stories is the story of God fighting for justice. In all the reading I have done in Hinduism and Buddhism in the last year and a half as well as some of the Greek and Roman mythology I have not come across anything like it.

I was recently reading how, in ancient near eastern culture, when a criminal was caught, the punishment that was agreed upon by village elders was equal and opposite to the crime. One example I came across was that if a man were to punch a pregnant woman in the stomach and she were to lose her child as a result, the punishment would not be for that man to be killed, but for one of his children to be killed.

In those times, much of the economy was based on your name, your reputation. To defame the character and reputation of a man would be to destroy his standing in the community, no one would interact with him. It was as serious as committing murder today.

A name or reputation was extremely valuable in that culture; If you did not have your name you did not have anything. Why do you think the third of the ten commandments is not to take God's name in vain. He does not want his name associated with anything that is not from Him. Our sin is like defaming or slandering God's name and thereby Him. Not living to the standards of holiness that God has established is like saying, "to me, God is dead" or "to me, God does not exist". An equal and opposite punishment for that? Paul really meant it when he said, "The wages of sin is death." (Rom 6:23)

We have no hope of ever living up to that standard; our lives will be a hopeless mess of falling short. When justice is served on us it means death. We have committed injustice (some of us have committed lots of injustice;-) against God; God in turn seeks and renders justice. But this is where the story takes a turn for the unbelievable.

At the moment when injustice becomes justified by death we notice that we are not the ones who have died. Instead, the one who was wronged is the who has died and served the full sentence with his own life. You and I, though we perpetrated injustice, do not pay for our injustice with our death. God pays for our injustice against him by accepting our punishment on himself and once the criteria for justice has been met he gives us credit for justice being served. This means, innocence by association. (When we draw close to God he draws close to us.)

Most Americans feel that justice has been served for 9/11 now that Osama bin Laden is dead. And even according to his own beliefs justice has been served. I've got to admit, I'm really grateful that God's justice works differently than American justice...

Just a Meandering Thought...

FOUNDATIONS part 2

The people who inhabited the Indus River Valley in North Western India 5000 years ago created one of the great ancient civilizations. The Indus River Civilization existed for 1500 years beginning around 3000 b.c. At its peak (c.2400-1700b.c.) it covered more square miles than any other ancient civilization including Egypt, Mesopotamia, and China. Archeologists have unearthed over 1,000 villages and cities connected with this great civilization.

By 1500b.c. Aryan tribes from the steppes of Western Asia had filtered onto the Indian subcontinent; their merger with the earlier, darker skinned, Dravidian inhabitants created a classical Indian culture. The Aryans composed hymns to nature and celebrated life exuberantly and referred to themselves as Aryas meaning 'noble'. There is much evidence to suggest that Hinduism was born form the influence of the Aryans settling in the region. As the two people groups merged hostility between the Aryans and the Dravidian people resulted in the subsequent migration of the darker skinned Dravidian people to the south.

***(side note)*** The Aryan's also migrated westward into Europe. The fair skinned, light haired "Indo-Europeans" were later identified by Julius Caesar in his, "Conquest of Gaul" as two people groups called the Celtea and the Belgae or as we know them, the Celts. The religion of the Celts bares many similarities to early Hinduism (more on that in a later post).

The Indus Valley Civilization existed in between 3000-1500 BC; the classical culture that emerged with the Aryans lasted for a few hundred years, but the results of this migration can still be seen and felt in India today. It is generally acknowledged that the darker your skin, the farther south you are from and if you have lighter skin you must live in the north. Also, if you have light skin generally you are of a higher social status than darker skinned people. The racial divide is the residual effect of this ancient migration of people. The Caste system reinforces this as well. Brahmans (the highest caste) have light skin and are revered and respected by most as a priestly caste which is closest to Brahma, the ultimate.

The events of the Indus River Civilization laid the foundation for a culturally reinforced racism that has held hundreds of millions of people in poverty for centuries. If you are a poor beggar on the side of the road riddled with disease and malnutrition it is understood that you are there because of your actions in previous lives. In essence you are doing penance or purifying your Dharma. If you are of a higher caste and not in such dire straights and you see someone in this condition you cannot help them. First of all getting too close to them could make you unclean and taint your own Dharma, secondly you would be interfering with that persons work to purify themselves, and pay for their own sins.

Thousands of years and hundreds of smaller empires have come and gone since the ancient Indo-Aryan migration, but these racially divisive cultural perspectives are still held to throughout modern day India. Much of Indian culture today has its foundation in this migration of people from the third century b.c.

FOUNDATIONS part I

India is a country of sweeping differences and complexity. From the climate to the food, from the people to the forms of religion they practice, from the peaks of the Himalayan mountains in the north to the depths of the Jungles in the south, from the sacred rivers that wash away sins, to the red-light districts where sins are committed India is a land of expansive diversity.

In order to truly understand India as it is today we must trek back five thousand years to what India was before it was India. Believe it or not the events that took place during the time of the Indus Valley Civilization continue to shape Indian culture today.

The Indus River Valley Civilization is one of the world's oldest, flourished during the 3rd and 2nd millennia B.C. and extended into northwestern India from present day Pakistan. It was home to the Dravidian people who inhabited the region for 1500 years. The cities of Harappa (to the left) and Mohenjo-Daro (below to the left) were the greatest achievements of the Indus Valley civilization.

This civilization was virtually unknown until the 1920's when archeologists unearthed the foundations of these cities and discovered that they were astonishingly well planned cities for their time. The ruins you see in these pictures are around 4000 years old.

The civilization in the Indus Valley has become well known for its impressive size, and its organized and regular layout. The cities even had drainage and sewer systems for private houses and public baths centuries before the Greeks and Romans had them designed into their cities. We do not know much about the people who inhabited these cities, they did not leave much behind for us to study. All was going well in the Indus River Valley until a migration of people called the Indo-Aryans began to make their way into the area.

(The above is a bath that was part of the Indus River Valley civilization.

They are the earliest to have a sewer system built in to their city layout.)

Foundations part 2: how the foundations of the caste system were laid and how events from the third millennium bc still affect Indian culture today...