PARABLE

This is a Hindu parable; not in the sense that Hindu practitioners use this though the would. It is a parable told by Hindu people (in the ethnic sense of the word) who are Christians, to illustrate how they should live...

A man jumped into the water of the Ganges who did not know how to swim. He flailed about but to no avail.

A religious man came by and pointed his finger at him accusing the man for being so foolish. “Why would you jump into the water if you don’t know how to swim?! You are a fool!” The religious man left shaking his head for the man’s stupidity.

Religion tells you when you have done wrong. But telling someone they cannot swim will not help them swim.

A man of tradition came by and saw the man who was now beginning to drown. He offered to teach the man how to swim. He made doggie paddle motions with his hands and said, “move your hands like this.” But the drowning man could hardly keep his head above water. The man of tradition walked away shaking his head think to himself, “I tied to teach him, but he would not listen.”

Tradition teaches you what to do. But swimming lessons are no good to one who is drowning.

A homeless man came by and saw the bubbles coming out of the water. He jumped into the water, diving below the surface and grabbing hold of the man as he sank. The homeless man brought him to the surface so he could breathe as the other man had no strength left of his own. He helped the exhausted wearied man to the shore so that he could live.

The homeless man was Jesus.

CLASS

On Friday, at 10:30am, after morning tea (a leftover tradition from the when the British ruled) one of the professors asked me if I would be willing to take his class which meets at 11:40am. and two classes next week. I thought about it for like a second and said sure. Needless to say there was little time to spare. But for those of you reading this who have ever been in a class that I have taught you know that sometimes I do pretty well when I wing it. The class is called “Basic Christian Spirituality”. Knowing that people in India have a very different view of spirituality than Americans do, to assume they are thinking the same thing I am when talking about spirituality could make for a very confusing class.

I began by asking them about their religious background. Many had come from other religious backgrounds and I asked them to share with me and the class some aspects of spirituality from their own background. I had a Buddhist, a few Sikhs, and many Hindus share. About a third had a Christian background. I made a list of some of the “spiritual” aspects of each of these religions and then demonstrated how Christianity has many things in common. Things like:

• There is a Holy Book or holy Scriptures.
• There is an ultimate reality
• There is some form of divine figure or figures (though for Sikhs they are gurus who are treated like gods)
• There are good works you are supposed to do

What we discovered as a class however, was there is one big difference between Christianity and these other religions. That one difference (there are many things but one big one) is the person of Jesus.

• There are no gods in the other religions who claim to love their people to the point of dying for them.
• There are no gods who became human so that they could die for their people.
• There are no gods who died and rose from the dead to forgive sins.
• Sins are not forgiven by gods in these religions instead they are worked off by suffering or through good works.

The other religions represented by those in the class state that the way to experience ultimate reality in their expressed form is through human effort; by outweighing you bad deeds with your good deeds. But according to Christianity, human effort is not enough. The only way to get to God is through God, not through our own work. Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us that we are saved by grace, and not by works, otherwise people would boast about how much they had done in comparison to others. I told the class, now that we understand the similarities between these religions we can begin to look at what makes Christianity different. And really the person of Jesus is the big difference.

One thing you may notice from the pictures is that it is all guys in one and mostly girls in another. Indian society is still very gender conscious. So most women have the same access to education but they separate men and women in their classes. Men sit on one side women on the other. This is the case in most places in India. They guy to the extreme right of the first photo is the professor of the class. He graduated from GCTS (where I am now) four years ago.

Beauty

Have you ever looked at something and thought that it was beautiful, only to see someone else observe the same thing and think is was just okay? Like... why does one guy look at a girl and think that she is gorgeous and another guy see her and think she is "just okay"? Have you ever seen a sunset and thought it was beautiful, or stood on top of a mountain and thought this view is beautiful? or the beach, or an open field on a clear night? Have you ever wondered what makes something beautiful and something else, just okay? You have heard of the phrase beauty is in the eye of the beholder right? What about someone who is blind? How do they perceive beauty? If beauty is just in the eye of the beholder then someone who is blind would never be able to experience beauty. What a tragedy...
So I was thinking about beauty the other day and wondering what makes something beautiful. It seems that beauty has to be more than just what is seen. Maybe the sound of the birds chirping on a spring morning, the smell of herbs from the herb garden in the evening, the taste of fresh strawberry's in the summer, the feel of warm beach sand beneath your feet, the sound of a mountain stream, the smell of chimney smoke in the Fall, the way a snow flake feels when it lands on your face. I could go on but you get the point. True beauty is experienced by all of your physical senses. When your physical senses perceive something that resonates with your soul you experience true beauty. When that place in your soul is attracted to or longs to be near, what your senses take in, you experience beauty.
This is how we can say that even though the cross of Christ was gruesome and horrific, it was also at the same time beautiful. The display of love, the compassion for a lost thief, the strength it took to stay on the cross. These are things that resonate with us. So beauty is not just in the eye of the beholder, true beauty is perceived by the soul - by the heart of a person. You think something is beautiful when your eyes (or any of your other four) senses experience something your heart already knows.
Find something that is beautiful today and take in the full experience...