Category Archives: Sermons

God is likely to fail again!

In the actual preaching he often adds a few comments and connections as inspired that are not in this text.The following sermon is a working manuscript from which Fr. Jos Tharakan, Rector of All Saints’ Episcopal Church, Russellville, AR, Preached today.


In the jungles of South America in 1978 there was a massacre. Innocent people who longed to experience love and acceptance fell into the hands of a man who was misguided by power and passion. Not many escaped the wrath of evil that night. But a few who did live in guilt, while still struggling to understand all that happened and how they were spared from the brink of untimely death. They still wonder why did God spare them? What was God’s plan for them? Guilt, fear and anger still haunt them. Today that is the story of one of our own, Sheree Hodge. She was baptized by Rev. Jim Jones the cult leader who poisoned 908 in Guyana in 1978. She was spared from that tragedy and lives to share the story of grace even in the midst of the terrible tragedy that happened. God’s ways are unknown to man. God’s grace, however is available to all. Here is the witness for God’s grace and she lives and works, loves and cares for us amongst us. This is a day of celebration because we are all spared for one reason or another in the great plan of God, for a greater and deeper purpose.

Today’s Scripture reading from Mathew is a very powerful story we have heard many times over. This is a story whereby Jesus challenges the narrow identity carved out of national fundamentalism and theological and religious Puritanism. This is a story we all need to pay attention to.

In different words, Jesus shows light into the hidden corners of human understanding of Grace. Many times our definition of grace, by Christians of all kinds, fall short of the reality of how God makes choices. Religiosity is defined very differently in this parable.

There are two classes of people represented in today’s story. One class of people that takes pride in being clear about who they are in the eyes of God, of the society and of the world around them, and the other class of people who are, while serving the other, not clear about their standing with God, society and the world around them. For the first group, they are clear about their identity as chosen and set apart by God.

The second group of people in the story, the tax collectors and the prostitutes served a purpose in the Israeli society, but primarily for the benefit of the Romans than the Israelites.

The tax collectors were the instruments in the hands of the Romans to tone down the political pride of the chosen people. The tax collectors served as reminders to the chosen race, that their political identity is only as good as their pride.

Then there are the prostitutes. According to Mosaic law a child born of a Jewish mother was considered Jewish. Now there are Jewish women here, along with the pureblooded Jewish Pharisees and leadership, sleeping with the Roman soldiers and producing babies. Children born to them were of a mixed and therefore unacceptable people, namely the Roman soldiers. These women and their job challenged the sectarian purity of the Jewish people and questioned their capacity to remain pure.

Religious and sectarian purity was questioned. The chosen nature of the people of Israel is now to be shared with the Romans, and then the gentiles, and then list grew even further beyond the boundaries of Israel. There was every reason for them to be afraid of. Because the identity of God’s only people is now being shared by a lot more they didn’t want to share it with. Jesus tells them that God is capable of adding more people, even those that might break our narrow identities and convictions, to the chosen race.

They hated Jesus’ teaching. Because it questioned their preserved and guarded political, sectarian and religious identity. God became accessible to people they did not like. Grace became a common thing available even to those they cared about least, but took advantage of. Jesus teachings seem to confuse the understanding of God. God did not seem to take seriously the principles of human ethics.

Something tells me that If we put God to test on ethical standards of the world, God is likely to fail.

I like the story of the 100th birthday party where a man was interviewed by a reporter with the stupid question, “What one thing are you most proud of after having lived such a long life?”

The old man replied, “Well, here I am, 100 years old and I don’t have a single enemy in the world.”

The impressed reporter responded, “That is truly remarkable, sir. What made it possible for you to be able to say such a thing?”[1]

“Well,” said the 100 year old man, “I’ve outlived every one of them.”

Those whom I have outlived are not around me, but they share in the light of God. Act now is simply the principle of the story, because waiting to do the right thing in the future will only leave you by yourself in the world and those to whom you were to do right, will be in the company of God while you are left behind.

Words, words, words, I’m so sick of words 


I get words all day through 
First from him, now from you Is that all you blighters can do

Don’t talk of stars Burning above; If you’re in love,

Show me! Tell me no dreams

Filled with desire. If you’re on fire, Show me!

Here we are together in the middle of the night!

Don’t talk of spring! Just hold me tight!

Anyone who’s ever been in love’ll tell you that

This is no time for a chat! Haven’t your lips

Longed for my touch? Don’t say how much,

Show me! Show me!

Don’t talk of love lasting through time.

Make me no undying vow. Show me now!

Sing me no song! Read me no rhyme!

Don’t waste my time, Show me!

Don’t talk of June, Don’t talk of fall!

Don’t talk at all! Show me!

Never do I ever want to hear another word.

There isn’t one I haven’t heard.

Here we are together in what ought to be a dream;

Day one more word and I’ll scream!

Haven’t your arms Hungered for mine?

Please don’t “expl’ine,” Show me! Show me!

Don’t wait until wrinkles and lines

Pop out all over my brow, Show me now![2]

Let us not waste our time figuring out the rightness of what we do, but be present, caring and loving to those around us today before they all get to heaven and we are still left behind wondering what is wrong with God? Instead of knowing we didn’t act when we were called upon to act and live today.

[1] Brett Blair, esermons.com

[2] From the Movie “My Fair Lady”.

A Civil Disobedience!

Exodus 1:8-2:10

Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. He said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” Therefore they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. The Egyptians became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites, and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in every kind of field labor. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them.

The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, “When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she shall live.” But the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live. So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and allowed the boys to live?” The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.” So God dealt well with the midwives; and the people multiplied and became very strong. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every boy that is born to the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every girl live.”

Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him three months. When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him, and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river. His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him. The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it. When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him, “This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,” she said. Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Yes.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed it. When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and she took him as her son. She named him Moses, “because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”

The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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America is a great Nation with a great heart. It has served as a destination point for all kinds of people from all kinds of places. During the colonial era most migrants came here from Northern European Countries. However the number declined in 1770s, and then again picked back up in 1840s. While those who came to this wonderful land of new life and opportunities worked hard and settled down here, their children and grandchildren became pillars of American Society. There are lots of German, Irish, English, Scottish people here among us and then the trend changed. Flow of people increased from 200,000 in 1830 to 515000 in 1850. And now, it still continues to grow, and the nations that they come from, including me is far more than the four or six countries of Europe.

Recent trend is similar. People flock to the shores of this land just like it happened in 1700s and 1800 and 1900. Each century brought a different group of people to a land of opportunity, may be for jobs, for security and sometimes not for the best of intentions. We became a land of opportunity and a land of prosperity. At every age we enjoyed and still continue to enjoy the benefit of their hard work.

Ours is a biblical story. This is the story of the people of Israel. This is what we heard in the first reading. Joseph reached the land of Egypt before his brothers and family got there. He established himself and found room for his family to be with him. Famine and poverty lead the people of Israel to the land of Egypt, the old country of power and wealth.

However Egyptians became lazy as they refused to do the everyday jobs of life and eventually lost the grace and wealth. The story of Egypt is continuing. The famine, the fear and the wrath of God that invaded the land of Egypt did not bring enough sense to them to understand the people of God.

There were people who flocked to its shores for security and life. Those who were supposed to give them life, the midwives, were instructed to kill them. But the good news is that they had more sense than the kings and rulers and politicians of the time. Shiphrah and Puah disobeyed the rulers to advance the cause of life and liberty. They listened to the voice of God, the voice of life within them. Civil disobedience became a Biblical gesture to advance life.

Why did Pharoh order them to kill the innocent? Because the people of Israel had grown in numbers. Egyptians pride was greater than common sense and hard work. Israelites worked hard in their farms, in their factories, and in their kitchens.

This was the plight of the people, who came here long ago and today. They worked in farms, factories and kitchens of those with more money and power. I am talking about our great grandparents and it will be the story of our great grandchildren who are and will be the pillars of this society. .

It is not hard to beef up nationalism and forget humanity when we do not know the history. It is easy to speak of justice when it is for ourselves and not for others. People become a threat when we forget we are the beneficiaries of their hard labor as our forefathers were.

Human plight continues even today. The story of the people of Israel continues in our midst today. We have the choice to become the Pharoah who is afraid. Or we have the choice to become the midwives, who refuse to kill human life and opportunities for others. Or we can become the daughter of the king, who chooses to give life to innocent people in the household of the king himself.

Let us not accept our dog’s admiration of us as conclusive evidence that we are wonderful. We are only wonderful because we stand for life and liberty. We become a nation of greatness because we “keep in mind that the true measure of an individual is how we treat a person who can do us absolutely no good”.

None of us need to be cows to know what milk is. None of us need to be powerless to know the pain of those who seek our kindness. We know it already, unlike the cows, from our own history and our own family heritage.

So my dear brothers and sisters, Who are the people of Israel in our midst today?

© Fr. Jos Tharakan ​​

Restriction or Liberation: What is Faith?

Welive in a multi-cultural, multi-religious world. We have had many of these religions for a long time and some are still emerging. Our understanding of self, individual fulfillment, and interpretation of history has given us even more freedom to make new groups and belief systems and after 38000 Christian denominations and counting, besides all other religious conglomerations and splinter groups.

Many of these groups have emerged as a result of the understanding of Salvation, and the way we get to it. We found our ideaof salvation sometimes limited us from getting into heaven and while someothers made it too easy to get there. Then there are several in between who stay in the gray area about heaven and hell.

Inshort, Christian Doctrine of salvation is a very difficult one for the majorityof the people of the world to understand, and for that reason even for clergythemselves. Why is that?
Look at what is said here today in the Gospel. Here comes a woman seeking help and Jesus is not making it easy saying you don’t belong to the bunch I amsent to serve. It also sounds like Jesus was not very nice to her as many would feel. Compares her to a dog apparently. What was that all about? People have told me they don’t like this scripture passage and what it might say about Jesus.Now for some people in the world this sentence alone is sufficient to be turnedoff of Christianity and Jesus.
Butin this story it looks like the woman’s need was great and her conviction of who she was talking to was even greater. She is not turned off. No insult, and injury of top of that, if that is what it feels like to us, it was not to her obviously, could turn her away and she sticks toher initial request and then recognition of who Jesus was.
Jesus was a man, and one that was fully human who lived in the Middle East. Now if we apply the stereotype we have on the middle eastern men, true or false, sure there was enough reason for that Canaanite woman to be upset. However, she did not hesitate; change her attitude or her impression of Jesus, namely The LORD in spite of how Jesus treated her. 
It is not going to be a new idea from me to say that it was her faith. Great. We are all on the same page now. It was her faith. I believe it was faith, which was the conviction ofthe heart, that went beyond the confines of religions and belief systems. It was surely faith, that did not limit her idea of God to the limitations of the world, and the stereotypes of culture, gender or orientation. 


Her faith was a lifestyle, where one takes nothing for granted, nothing as limiting, andnothing as offensive. It was a way of acknowledging the presence of God even inthe midst of the most insulting moment of life. It was beyond the doctrines anddogmas we are used to now. It was beyond the interpretations of scholars who are trying to interpret something of the past. 
Yes, I did talk about religion as I started. Let us just thing for a minute about howdid religions come about? A religion in its inception was simply a way offinding meaning for things that did not make sense. The sun and the moon, the wind and the fire, all that had more power over man. They had to find a meaning for things that they could not explain and then they all came together at some point or another to make a community of believers. they came together to believe in the same things and solve the same issues together. One group had some answers other did not. Thismade two groups of people namely those who know things different from othersthat did not know the same thing as the first group. The groups multiplied and increased and continue even today. 
We are all in certain danger of believing in things that others don’t. There is a mythin every religion that there are people out there who can be excluded fromthese groups because they don’t know the things we know. 
Inour context it will be something like this. Am I sent only to the enlightenedEpiscopalians to spread the message of love because we know how to love andcare for others? Or is it a myth in my heart that we are the only people whoknow how to love? Was Jesus sent only to the people of Israel and not to thegentiles because the gentiles were not in the group of the enlightened like theIsraelites?
Thepoor woman challenges Jesus, and pushes him to a corner to acknowledge God,grace and religion are greater than the restrictions and convictions of areligious understandings and self proclaimed Buddhas. God’s grace is greaterthan man’s exclusivity that goes true even for the God in Jesus, as well thosegathered around Him. 
Applying this to our context can be read something like this. “Ifwe have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to eachother”. Says Mother Theresa. While she is talking here of the world that isravaged by wars and famine, it is truly and fully applicable to all those whobelieve in a God but can not find their way around the other. It is meant forthose who do not understand what was wisely said by St. John of the Cross, “Inthe evening, we will be judged on love.”
Soin the final analysis what is this woman teaching us? That we all have thegrace in true faith to ‘fire back’ at even God when we are left for granted inthe exclusivity of the world. Faith is not simply the conviction of the heartin things that are unseen, but in the courage to express the truth that to beloved and cared for are fundamental rights of every human being. 
Jesusteaches the world in making disciples of the world, we need to travel to Tyreand Sydon, the land of the outcasts. A devout Jew will not go into these landswithout being defiled and the breaking of traditions. What was he doingthere? There must be more than simply concluding he lost his way and got there.If we look deeper we will find that here “His location, actions andwords all address the traditions, limitations and boundaries that the discipleswill encounter. By pushing at, dismantling and crossing over the boundariesthat the disciples might themselves put on “all nations,” Jesus foreshadows hisintention to declare the boundaries of the great commission to be limitless”.[i]
Faith liberates us fromfear. It is fear that causes us to limit. When limits are removed, we will befreed. Faith will rise up top to those who have the courage to leave fear.

[i] Boundless discipleship, Karoline Lewis

Be grateful to God for all the blessings in life.

The Divine Availability!

Luke 17:11-19
On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”

Jesus & the Ten Lepers from Will Heyward on Vimeo.
The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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In the ancient times lepers were considered people who were cursed by God and had no access to their families and friends. They were exiled to remote places away from those whom they loved.

Why should we talk about ancient times? We have people who are banished to places and situations away from healthy ones today among us. Being exiled from the company of those whom we love hurts.

I remember the days when I was in a village of lepers who were abandoned by their parents or their children or grandparents, cared for by the sisters of Mother Theresa and Capuchin Monks. They lived in their own self-contained cities waiting for the mercy of the other and visit by their dear ones.

I saw firsthand the tangibility of rejection. I saw firsthand why we are all important and real to God. I experienced God as the most available reality on earth. No human can under any circumstance reject the other whom God created. Because God is available to us all in the no man’s land between Samaria and Galilee.

Here is what the scripture says, “when Jesus was in the region between Samaria and Galilee, lepers approached him.”

Several years ago I had heard about the great approachability of my Bishop in India. Everyone spoke so greatly of him, I decided to test it. I visited him one day in the Bishop’s house without an appointment. I rang the door bell and the porter came and asked me why was I there? I said, I am here to visit the bishop. He asked, if I had an appointment and I said no. He asked me to sit down and informed the Bishop who was in his room writing some letters. The brother who answered my bell, returned and asked me to wait for him outside. However as soon as he left, I knocked on his door to be surprised by the voice from inside saying, “come on in”. With a broad smile he welcomed me and we talked for about 25 minutes!

I think of this incident very often to reflect how miraculous it is to allow people to walk into your life. How transformative it is to be real and present. How beautiful it is when we are as simple and real as the other is. How down to earth we can be with the other that will make the incarnation real. Jesus is to be born again and again among us and within us everyday and here it is in the story of the ten lepers.

Here I have no big theology. But a simple invitation to reflect upon two things.

1. No matter how and why we are exiled from God, we are still blessed with enough grace to come out of our hiding places to find God. We have to make the move. All people have the ability and power left in them to approach God from their worst moments of life. God will meet them in the region between Samaria and Galilee.

2. Today’s story of the lepers is not simply a story of gratitude, but it is the story of God’s availability to the grateful and ungrateful, to the powerful and powerless, to the lost and found. Jesus sends a message to the busy to stop and listen to the story of the redeemed no matter who you are: The priest, the Deacon, The CEO, The President. Stop and Listen to the story of the redeemed.

Allow the other to approach you.

  • Your Holiness is in your availability to the other.
  • Healing happens when we can come out of our hiding places.
Be grateful to God for all the blessings in life.

Found from under the table!

Loretta Tyson sent me this small story last day. It is about a little boy who went to Grandma’s house for dinner. Grandma served the dinner and little Johnny started eating. Then his mommy came by and said, Johnny, you got to pray before you eat. He responded saying, no mom. Mom insisted that he has to. And we do always pray at home before meals. Johnny responded, mom, that is at our house. We are at Grandma’s house. And she knows how to cook.

Yes, we are at the grandma’s house now. We are in the house of the Lord who knows how to prepare the best food in the world. On this Rally day all of our goblins, elfs and angels are back from summer rest. I pray our parents are eager to get them to church on time and get them to be found.

I have a question for you all parents. Suppose you lost one of your children in the wilderness and you are left with three others and no one else to care for the three, would you go about looking for the one who is lost out there? Be truthful. Would you? if not why not?

This is the strange paradox of Christian life. Often, it’s more about being lost than found. It’s more about feeling incomplete than whole. It’s more about feeling excluded than included, because many of us live in those places most of the time. (Edward Beck, The Joy of Being Lost and Found)

We feel excluded many times for some reason and not included. That is why God prepares the meal day after day, to convince us over and over, it is alright to come to the table. God knows how to cook a good meal and is fully aware of who we are. When Christ invites us to dine with him, there is no need for security prayers, but trust that Jesus has done it right when he invited all of humanity to dine with him. No one is lost in the crack or wilderness of human making when it comes to the table of God.

According to some God goes into the extreme behavior which is ‘foolhardiness’ they say. It is not something a person with the best sense would do in the human world, they argue. May be That is why we are not Gods. Because God takes risks in love and relationship. Here is ‘foolhardy’ action of God going out of normal scared human behavior to bring home a point that when God invites humanity to share life with God, he will go to the extremes risking the rest. There is nothing foolhardy about acting in deep love for the other. We are taught over and over love has boundaries. We have gotten used to the idea love is with boundaries. We fail to believe love surpasses all boundaries.

This very act of God is what I call The Divine Repentance. In the book of Exodus we read today that God repented. What is this repentance all about? It is not the mourning and groaning over what filthy creatures we are, but rejoicing-ly coming out of our hiding places. It allowing the other to find us in places where we are.

Most of us are lost most of the time. Then there are lot of us who pretend that they not lost at all. They seem to have found God and all of God’s glory and grace. Good for them. But for me, am still muddling through my moments of anxiety, fear, loss, anger and exclusion and needs someone to help me come out into the light and be found.

To those who are listening I like to say, we are all lost one way or another. But we are still within the reach of God as God has no qualms about taking risk when it comes to love. But for ourselves we need to figure out what is the kind of loss we are in. What is the kind of risk are we willing to take.

There are four ways a person can get lost according to the Bible. One is lost like a coin, lost for no choice of its own. It is somewhere under the table waiting to be found. Then there is the sheep that is lost wandering without having the sense to know better. Then there are some of us who have wandered away knowingly, choosing to do things otherwise, experimenting and exploring. It took real life to figure out there is more to life than just being on our own in our own devices. Then there is a brother who chooses self-righteousness and hatred on his path to being lost.

Which is the story you are playing out in your life now? Are you lost for no fault of yours? If yes, then it is time to grow up and seek ways to be found. Are you lost because you don’t know better? Then it is time to learn. Are you lost because you have chosen to? Then only you can choose to return. But if you are lost because of self-righteousness and hatred, then you need lot more grace than we can help you with. God needs to come to your rescue. Try now.

Repentance is our willingness to be found by God. Repentance is not necessarily beating our chest every morning and crying out in fear for the mercy of God. Found by God when we were crawling deeper into the hole.

God allowed mankind to find him. God allowed mankind to change his heart, to see the soft side in God that could be influenced by a weakling mankind. God let man reform divine behavior.

Today’s call is about us allowing someone or something greater than us to reform our behavior. It is keeping the fear out of the way to allow grace to flow. IT allowing God to change our behavior in today’s world. That is repentance.

Brit Nicole has a beautiful song

Hello my friend
I remember when you were
So alive with your wide eyes
Then the light that you had in your heart was stolen
Now you say that it ain’t worth stayin’
You wanna run but you’re hesitatin’
I’m talkin’ to me

Don’t let your lights go down
Don’t let your fire burn out
’cause somewhere, somebody needs a reason to believe
Why don’t you rise up now?
Don’t be afraid to stand out
That’s how the lost get found
The lost get found

So when you get the chance
Are you gonna take it?
There’s a really big world at your fingertips
And you know you have the chance to change it
There’s a girl on the streets, she’s cryin’
There’s a man whose faith is dyin’
Love is calling you

When love calls, it is time to return. For Love has risked everything to get you back into the house of plenty. The table is set. You are already found. Why not and enjoy the table set before you?

Be grateful to God for all the blessings in life.

Compassion is costly!

 

What should we be doing to inherit the eternal life? Has this question even been in your mind at any time of your Christian life? What prompted such a thought and what was the answer you came up with?

This question is very active, live and a continuous statement. It is not what we should do to inherit the kingdom of God, rather what should we be doing, now, today and tomorrow. It is not about what we have done yesterday.

Life after confession as was before is not good enough to inherit the kingdom of God. To inherit something you have to actually claim it. Living the Gospel, loving your neighbor as yourself and God, after confession, alive and active is the act necessary for eternal life. It is by living the Gospel everyday we claim it. It is not based on an act started and ended yesterday.

Every email I receive from Prof. Louis Welcher comes with a tagline that reads, “Practice random act of compassion”.

If there is anyone out there looking for an answer for themselves or someone else, listen to this tagline, “Practice random act of compassion”.

Compassion is costly. It calls into question our ability to take a stand. I read recently that those who are compassionate or tolerant are people who do not know what is right or wrong. Some call it all “Willy Nilly”. Are you willing be called “all willy nilly” for being kind to someone?

Why is compassion costly? We see it is the Jew who was not a friend of the Samaritan who is seeking kindness and mercy. It is someone outside of the fold asking for compassion. It is sometimes the enemy who seeks our kindness. Many times need for compassion will come from those that we are least willing to share it.

Random act of kindness is about rising above the experiences of the past to the need of the present. Being saved is an invitation into the radical love of Christ that calls for compassion that defies our natural tendencies even that of revenge and retaliation. Being saved is more than singing of the hymn Amazing Grace. It is living the grace of forgiveness.

Being called into the midst of a world that is uncaring of one another, Christ is inviting the lonely lawyer to the radical love of Christ.

On July 22nd 2007, I asked you all from this same pulpit what kind of person of this story are you in your personal and spiritual life? Are you  the storyteller, the robber, the priest, the Levite or the Samaritan. We are all given these choices in life and freedom to choose, to decide for ourselves, how we enter into the kingdom of God. I cannot sit complacently knowing Christ has redeemed me. What a waste of life if that is all what I am interested in, the knowledge of redemption and not the living of it.

Why do I bring this up again? It is because over the last few years I have encountered fears and struggles in the lives of people. At the deathbed, in the hospital room and in private conversation, I hear the fear and I sense the anxiety.

Therefore my dear brothers and sisters, If you ever wonder whether the kingdom of God is for you, stop worrying and start doing something about it. Practice acts of kindness and compassion to the stranger, the lonely, the prisoner, the widow and the poor around you. For I was hungry and you gave me to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me to drink. I was naked and you clothed me. Therefore enter into the kingdom of God. An act done without expecting a reward is the true act of kindness. It is the Nishkam Karma. (Self-less or desireless action is an action performed without any expectation of fruits or results)

Your act of kindness always brings experience of the Kingdom to the other. You make God real by what you are to those seeking God in this changing world.

If all what I do is seek ways to enter into the kingdom of God, the motivation of life is simply selfish. If all what I do is simply because I can go to heaven then I am still immature as I was when I was a little child. Do we ask the question, “what is in it for me”? If that is what it is all about, then Christian life is “dull and void”. I hate to say ‘null and void’. Because it is not completely null. It is simply dull and devoid of anything substantially great. At least such a person could improve on it a little more.

One day a Sunday school teacher asked a little nursery girl this question. What would you do if you happened to see a man who was attacked by the robbers and left bleeding on the road? The girl with all honesty said, “I think I might throw up”.

If you are still at a place where you want to throw up when you see someone different, then it is time to grow up. If the person you are looking at needs compassion from you, remember it is already beyond your desire to give it or seek compensation for it. You are spiritually left with no choice but to be kind as that is what you are blessed with.

Yesterday (July 9, 2010) His Holiness Dalai Lama said, “A compassionate attitude opens our inner door, and as a result it is much easier to communicate with others.” “If you want to be happy, practice compassion. If you want others to be happy practice compassion”.

Compassion is living the Gospel, the Escathalogical reality here and now. It is not waiting for tomorrow to practice the random act of kindness.

What is this story all about? It is about opening the doors of our hearts to people who need our love and not judgment. This story is about inviting humanity to define who they are primarily in this world Samaritans or just the storytellers. This story of course not about being all willy nilly, but it is all about being authentically true to oneself in the world we live in with a wing to our neighbor.

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Be grateful to God for all the blessings in life.