Women and ministry 3

For the Christians Easter Sunday is extremely important. Christianity stands or fall with Easter Sunday. Because if Jesus is not risen from the dead, Christians may as well identify with what Paul says: eat and drink for tomorrow we die. To undermine Jesus Christ and in effect Christianity critics have tried to explain away the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

The Bible says that through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, God has begun his new creation. God is not yet done with it, but it will ultimately be complete. The Bible also says that those who believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and God are new creation. God’s work of new creation has begun in their life. In Colossians 3 and Galatians 2 Paul underscores that those who are in Christ are then to follow to a new set of ethical norm. The old relationship between Jews and non-Jews, rich and poor, male and female etc are re-evaluated in the light the this new world order i.e the new creation.

God in his creation made both male and female in his own image and likeness. This ‘image and likeness’ does not mean that we humans are like God’s statue; rather it means that we bear attributes that resemble God. Being image bearer of God, both male and female are given the mandate to take care of the world and live in it. Our ancestors somehow failed to honour God’s wish, and therefore the beginning of all wars, hatred, hunger etc.

It was God’s purpose that we human be made ‘healthy’ again—in term of our relationship with God, with ourselves, with nature etc. and that includes the repair of relationship between male and female. The dead and resurrection of Jesus is that through which the ‘healthy’ relationships begin once again, never ever to rupture again.

Is it not because of seeing through this lens that early Christians were open for women’s participation in the ministry? It is high time the reality of the dawn of new creation is visible in our individual life and our ministries.

Save Palestinian Christians from extinction!

It is not uncommon to find Christians being faulted for the Crusades launched between 1095-1272. Thousands of Muslims and Jews were killed during the period. The worst hit, however, were the Christian themselves. It all started when Pope Urban II urged the kings and leaders of Christian Europe in 1095 to bring back the Holy Land from the Turks. One of the most important rallying point of the Pope's call was to aid the Eastern Christian suffering under the infidels i.e the Muslims. Little did they know that they would end up destroying the Eastern Christians beyond almost possible repair.

As the Crusaders arrived at Jerusalem the Muslims who treated the Christians with suspicion put them out of the city. The Crusaders who could not differentiate between Arab Christians and Arab Muslims ended up slaughtering them. Villagers who were Christians were also killed due to mistaken identity. The Pope also ordered Constantinople, the seat of the Eastern church, to be sacked to pay Crusades debt. This move dealt a crushing blow to the Byzantibe Empire which have been resisting the Turkish sweep into Europe. In all this ultimately it is the Christians weakening the Christians thereby allowing the Muslims to take over.

Isn't there a similar feature between Christian Zionism and Crusades? Proponents of both movements have the intention to be faithful Christians. But the effect of both efforts is similar.There are thousands of Palestinian Christians in Jerusalem. And when Christian Zionists gave unconditional support to the display of Israel's military might upon Palestinians, it leads to the reduction in the number of (Palestinian ) Christians in the land where the church was born. Many Christians believe that when all Jews return to Israel, Jesus will return. Such policy of bringing Jews from elsewhere has negative effect on those Palestinians: Christians and Muslims, because this involves taking land and livelihood from one group to give to the other. Christian Zionism, I believe, is mistaken because land belongs to God, and there is no tribe or tongue that has absolute ownership over land. The earth is the Lord's and everything in it, and we must share and live together. Because of faulty eschatological reading of the Bible many Christians ended up supporting Israel at the expense of the Palestinian, and that is a sad affair. Since the God of the Bible who has revealed himself in the person of Jesus Christ is a God of justice, I cannot support the elevation of Israel to such status that undermines the existence of the Palestinians. With more and more Palestinian Christians being killed with the help of Christians in the West, and more of them migrating each year Christians will very soon extinct from the land from where it all began.

NB: I find the works of Stephen Sizer ( a pastor and a supporter of UCCF) and Chaukat Moucarry ( formerly worked with IFES ) quite helpful.