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...

JUSTICE Part 1 of 2

Most of us would say that justice is a good thing; it is one of the values that make America, America. We want justice to be served. When we are wronged or a crime is committed what we want is justice. We want someone to be responsible for the wrongs, the injustices. Then we fight for justice. That is who we are as Americans.

When the towers fell on September 11th, 2001, the entire nation reeled at the massive injustice that had been brought to our soil. We grieved, we searched, we pulled away rubble, we sifted through ashes. Even if we did not personally know someone who died, we still somehow felt the gaping hole. In the days following we learned who was responsible and soon we were in the fight - for justice.

The last ten years will likely go down in the history books as a decade that America sought closure and justice. For the lives that were taken from us, we wanted justice; for the hearts that were broken for their loss, we wanted justice; for the nation that was attacked, we wanted justice; for the memories that were seared into our souls of two towers burning and collapsing, we wanted justice. On May 1st, 2011 justice was served with an American bullet (66 years to the day after Hitler died from his own bullet).

It has been said that justice is about giving a voice to those who cannot speak for themselves. To the 2992 people who died in the attacks (minus the perpetrators) our voice on your behalf has been heard. We never forgot you. We all wanted justice for those who lost their lives. Yet if we were to receive justice ourselves for even the little things we have done we might think twice. Justice is a liberating event when you are the one wronged.

2000 years ago justice of a different kind was served with a cross and some nails. But you and I don't get justice, instead we get mercy. We don't get what we deserve, we get what He paid for. Because God never forgot or abandoned us. He hears the voice of those who call to him. I know this for sure, God is present in the places where injustice happens - to comfort those who have to walk that road. He sticks around to see that justice happens. Whether it is justice he accomplishes on our behalf, or just his presence in the stairwells of collapsing towers, God does not leave us but gives a voice to those who cannot speak for themselves.

Just a Meandering Thought...

VEDAS

Hinduism is one of the oldest if not thee oldest of the worlds great religions. There is speculation that Hinduism traces back thousands of years before Christ, perhaps as far back as 7000b.c. There is not a whole lot of concrete evidence to support these early development theories. We do get substantial evidence of early Hinduism with the coming of the Indo-Aryan people to the Indian Subcontinent (check out posts "Foundations part 1 & 2").

Around 1500bc the Vedic culture including its religion began to exert some influence in the fading Indus River Civilization. The early Vedic religion was an animistic religion centered around sacrifices and sharing the sacrificial meal with each other and with the many gods. Elaborate sacrifices were offered to different Vedic gods or devas and forms of these rituals continue to this day.

The Vedic deities of the Indo-Aryans bare many similarities to those of the pagan and animistic deities of early Western Europe. One of the Vedic gods, the sky god Indra, comes from the same root word as Zeus. The Vedic religion was based on the strong oral tradition of the Aryans and was was later written down in the Rig Vedas.

The Vedas are the holy books of the Hindus, the earliest of which are the Rig Vedas which were written around 1200b.c. to 1000b.c. They were composed in Vedic Sanskrit and make up the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest scriptures of Hinduism. The Rig Vedas are a compilation of the oral traditions of the Vedic people. They are a written record of hymns and songs to the earth and celebrations and sacrifices to their gods who were anthropomorphism's of forces in nature. A more philosophical focus began to develop around 700 BC, with the Upanishads and development of the Vedanta philosophy. More on these later.

The Rig Vedas include their own account of the creation of the world. Prajapati, who is the first god, was sacrificed to himself by younger gods and out of his body the whole universe was made. Each of Prajapati's body parts turned into different groups of people. From this the Indian people thought of themselves as belonging to one of the four castes. So it would seem the whole caste system has its roots with the Aryan people even though it is deeply embedded in the Hindu worldview.

COMMISSION

Yesterday morning Gordon Conwell held a commissioning service for all the students who will be going overseas this summer. It was in some ways a typical chapel service but there were some elements that distinguished it from others. There was a guy on a guitar who led the songs and a girl on a piano, along with a back up singer to harmonize with the guy on the guitar. There was a podium where people stood to say important words; there were students and faculty in the pews, though with it being at the end of the semester there were not as many as there are at the beginning of the semester.

One member of each team headed overseas got up to briefly share about where they will be going and what they will be doing. Afterward a faculty member came to the platform and put a hand on the shoulder of the team members and prayed. This is the commissioning. It seemed like a symbolic event with little consequence until I began to think about why we even have a commissioning service. The answer lies in the word COMMISSION.

The "CO" in COmmission suggests that I am not alone. There is someone with me as I go. In the commissioning service a faculty member stood next to me, demonstrating symbolically that I am not alone. For all those who are supporting me whether in prayer or financially you are standing with me as I go. Matthew 28:19-20 is the passage of scripture that is usually called the great commission. The last sentence in that passage says, "And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." That sentence is why we call it the Great COmmission. Jesus said that he is with us.

The "MISSION" in comMISSION tells us that there is something that we need to do. There is a task to accomplish, a goal to work towards, a road to travel. My mission this summer is to teach and mentor students at New Theological College and their satellite schools, to serve in the orphanages in the nearby cities, and to perhaps speak at a local Indian church or two. I have been told that the best thing I can offer the people is myself. This is my mission.

So as I share myself with the people I meet; as I walk the road of mission I do not do it alone. I have been CO-MISSIONED. There are faculty, family and friends, who stand with me in prayer and who contribute to get me there. Most importantly Jesus is with me always. I do not accomplish a single task that He is not a part of or the driving force behind.

Incidentally, Jesus was commissioned too. John the Baptist performed a symbolic ceremony which inaugurated Jesus into his official ministry. Jesus was not alone; besides the twelve disciples he had regular conversation with his "sending institution" - God the Father. Stands to reason that if Jesus did that way it is probably not a bad way to do it. Seems like "CO" anything is a better way.

Just a meandering thought...

RESURRECTION

Some random thoughts about Easter & Resurrection:

1. Jesus told Martha that he was The Resurrection before he was raised from the dead. He gives himself a title that is a verb but here expressed as a noun - The Resurrection. You could say it this way: Jesus is the one who is raising from the dead. So for Jesus raising from the dead is not something he does it is something he is...
2. The disciples who had followed Jesus for three years were, I am sure, a little disappointed, shocked, discouraged, maybe a little angry, maybe they felt betrayed. Jesus talked about a coming Kingdom for three years but on the Saturday after the crucifixion his lifeless body was laying on a cold slab of rock. The cold slab seems dark and hopeless but it is not quite the end of the story; there is more to come...
3. Jesus cannot be resurrected if he does not die. There is no victory without at least the risk of defeat.
4. In every competition there are winners and losers. The cliche is that Jesus won and sin lost, but the way it plays out, we actually get the credit for the "W" in a "competition" that we simply were not good enough to win on our own. Death gets the "L" because even though we still sin we do not still die...
5. Martha knew that her brother Lazarus would eventually raise from the dead; she did not realize that new life was possible while she was standing there in front of her brother's grave.
6. There were a lot of bodies in graves as Jesus stood there with Martha, the only one who walked out of his grave was the one who knew Jesus.
7. Death was the ultimate proof that Jesus is the resurrection. You can claim to be the president all day, but it is only seen to be true if the military moves when you give the orders, or they ask for your signature on a piece of legislation. Any others are posers and fakes.
   

The resurrection did not just change the world it changed the lives of the people who experienced it. Their experience with The Resurrection propelled them to share their experience with others because it changed their lives and it was too good not to share. It has continued to change the lives of people who are willing to get close enough to Jesus to hear him call their name.

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...