Solitude Ransacked

This morning I was working on the finishing touches of my Sunday sermon for the afternoon. The sermon was on 'Solitude'. And I was once again humbled by the experiences of such spiritual giants as Henry Nouwen, Richard Foster, Dallas Willard, and the likes. In my best attempts to 'live' the sermon before delivering them, I was trying to bath myself on the verse from the Psalm 46: "Be still and know, that I am God", attempting to capture the still, small voice of God. You know, the kind that Elijah experienced in Mount Horeb.

All was going well, until my wife came into our study room with a breaking news: "You've got a speeding ticket." It was a $130 ticket for allegedly 4km/hr above the 60 km/hr limit. I was just driving 4 km/hr extra on the boxing day (26th of Dec) and I've got $130 fine! As you rightly guess, my quiet, comtemplative moments before God suddenly evaporated into thin air. My joyful, reflective mood quickly changed into a grumpy, angry mood.

Later it dawned on me that how easy it is for a 'menial' thing (like a speeding ticket) to disrupt my time with the Creator of the Universe. While $130 is far from menial to me, it should not have a huge impact on the attitude of my heart. Well, another area that I need His grace on . . .

Nouwen on Vulnerability

A deep reflection from a favorite author of mine, Henry Nouwen:

Life is precious. Not because it is unchangeable, like a diamond, but because it is vulnerable, like a little bird. To love life means to love its vulnerability, asking for care, attention, guidance, and support. Life and death are connected by vulnerability. The newborn child and the dying elder both remind us of the preciousness of our lives. Let's not forget the preciousness and vulnerability of life during the times we are powerful, successful, and popular.

Why I like GK Chesterton

Isn't the answer obvious?

Even C.S. Lewis looked to Chesterton as his spiritual father. About him, Lewis wrote:

"The contemporary book that has helped me the most is Chesterton's The Everlasting Man." (God in the Dock, p.260).

Here are some of his thought-provoking, memorable thoughts:

Chesterton on Courage: “Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die."

Chesterton on Atheists and God: "The worst moment for the atheist is when he is really thankful and has no one to thank."

Chesterton on Man and Modesty: “In one way man was to be haughtier than he had ever been before; in another way he was to be humbler than he had ever been before. In so far as I am a man I am the chief of creatures. In so far as I am a man, I am the chief of sinners. All humility that had meant pessimism, that had meant man taking a vague or mean view of his whole destiny--all that was to go. We were to hear no more the wail of Ecclesiastes that humanity had no pre-eminence over the brute, or the awful cry of Homer that man was only the saddest of all the beasts of the field. Man was a statue of God walking about the garden. Man had pre-eminence over all the brutes; man was only sad because he was not a beast, but a broken god."

Chesterton on the Failure of the Church: "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried" Yancey's commentary: Chesterton readily admitted that the church had badly failed the gospel. In fact, he said, one of the strongest arguments in favor of Christianity is the failure of Christians, who thereby prove what the Bible teaches about the Fall and original sin. As the world goes wrong, it proves that the church is right in this basic doctrine.

Chesterton on Progress: "Everyone is interested in making things better. But what does "better" mean? Nature cannot answer this question, for nature accepts things as they are without making value judgments. Nor does the mere passage of time guarantee progress. Any meaningful sense of progress must come from a definite vision of how things should be, a point toward which we can move . . . A belief in the inevitability of progress is the best reason not to be progressive. For in that case we need do nothing at all. The best reason for being progressive is that things tend to get worse . . . Christianity answers these three challenges of progress. 1. It fixed the ideal before the foundation of the world. 2. It can give us the complex picture of life toward which we should move. 3. And its doctrine of original sin alerts us to the need to work toward that ideal."

Chesterton on Christian Theology (or Paradox): "Christianity got over the difficulty of combining furious opposites by keeping them both and keeping them both furious." Yancey's commentary: "Throughout church history, Christian leaders have shown an impulse to pin everything down, to reduce behavior and doctrine to absolutes that could be answered on a True/False test . . . Uncomfortable with paradox, Christians tend to tilt in one direction or the other, usually with disastrous consequences . . . The first shall be last; find your life by losing it; work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you; he who stoops lowest climbs highest; where sin abounds grace abounds more—all these profound principles of life appear in the New Testament and none easily reduces to logical consistency. "Truth is not in the middle, and not in one extreme, but in both extremes," 19th-century British pastor Charles Simeon remarked. With some reluctance, I have come to agree."

Christian Lone Ranger

Christian lone ranger. What an oxymoron!

We were designed to live in a community, just like the Triune God. We were asked to live in an authentic fellowship, not in a superficial, plastic community. How can you tell the difference? Well, think of these 'one anohter' attributes. To what extent are they shown in your community? By others to you? By you to them?

Forbearing one another
Edifiying one another
Loving one another
Looking after one another
Opening up to one another
Welcoming one another
Shouldering one another's burdens
Honoring one another
Inspiring one another
Praying for one another

C.S Lewis once wrote:

“The worldly man treats certain people kindly because he ‘likes’ them. The Christian, trying to treat every one kindly, finds himself liking more and more people as he goes on -- including people he could not even have imagined himself liking at the beginning.

Gereja Hampir Punah?

Beberapa tahun lalu, saya membaca sebuah kalimat yang agak mengganggu:

"The church, as always, is only one generation away from extinction”.

Gereja hampir punah! Di negara maju seperti Australia, gereja semakin kosong dan sepi. The National Church Life Survey yang dilakukan 5 tahun sekali di tahun 2001 melaporkan masa depan yang suram bagi gereja: “Sangat kecil kemungkinan gereja-gereja mainstream yang dipadati dengan jemaat lanjut usia untuk dapat digantikan oleh orang-orang muda.” Kalau hari ini generasi muda stop ke gereja saat mereka berusia 17 tahun, gereja akan terus menyusut dan . . . lenyap! Mengapa hal ini terjadi?

Gereja dianggap tidak relevan, tidak menjawab kebutuhan zaman. Gereja dianggap 3K: kuno, kaku, dan kering. Untuk meresponi ini, gereja mencoba menjadi relevan dengan multimedia presentation, lagu kontemporer, tim musik full band, kotbah yang lucu, enak didengar dan tidak menuntut perubahan hidup, dan beragam spiritual entertainment lainnya. Yang menarik, rasul Paulus menawarkan solusi yang samasekali berbeda.

Justru ditengah banyak orang yang meninggalkan Tuhan, Rasul Paulus menasihati penerusnya Timotius untuk meneruskan ajaran yang sehat secara turun-temurun: “Peganglah segala sesuatu yang telah engkau dengar dari padaku sebagai contoh ajaran yang sehat” (2 Tim 1:13). David Wells dalam bukunya God in the Wasteland menulis,

“The fundamental problem in the evangelical world today is not inadequate technique, insufficient organization, or antiquated music . . . but that His truth is too distant, His grace is too ordinary, His judgment is too benign, His gospel is too easy.”

Dengan nada yang sama, John Stott menulis:

“I’ve discovered that it’s not hard to biblical if you don't care about being contemporary. And it’s certainly not hard to be contemporary if you don't care about being biblical. Being biblical and temporary – that’s the art of Christian communication.”

Inilah tantangan kita: Menjadi biblikal dan kontemporer. Gereja relevan bukan karena tata ibadahnya, musiknya, kulturnya, atau teknologinya. Gereja relevan saat setiap anggotanya hadir sebagai komunitas alternatif yang menampakkan Kristus secara otentik lewat perkataan dan perbuatan. Gereja relevan saat kita turut bergulat dengan dunia yang gelap bersama segudang masalah manusia abad ke-21: kekosongan hidup, krisis identitas, hidup untuk karir, kemerotan moral, individualisme, gila harta, eksploitasi seks, kemiskinan, hak asasi manusia, dst.

Gereja Sarang Penyamun?

Sudah nonton film trilogi Godfather? Ada sebuah adegan dalam film tersebut yang menunjukkan bagaimana seorang anggota mafia datang beribadah di gereja dengan sangat khusuk setelah membunuh seseorang. Dengan demikian, tidak ada yang menyangka ia seorang mafia berdarah dingin!

Ketika bangsa Israel mengalami ‘pertobatan nasional’ yang superfisial dibawah pemerintahan raja Yosia, semua bentuk berhala dihancurkan (2 Raja-raja 22-23). Tetapi berhala-berhala dalam hati mereka tetap utuh. Dalam konteks inilah Yeremia menyampaikan teguran yang sangat keras dari Tuhan:

“Masakah kamu mencuri, membunuh, berzinah dan bersumpah palsu, membakar korban kepada Baal dan mengikuti allah lain yang tidak kamu kenal, kemudian kamu datang berdiri dihadapan-Ku di rumah yang atasnya nama-Ku diserukan, sambil berkata: ‘Kita selamat, supaya dapat pula melakukan segala perbuatan yang keji ini.’ Sudahkah menjadi sarang penyamun rumah yang atasnya nama-Ku diserukan ini?” (Yeremia 7:10-11).”

Ekspositor Alkitab G. Campbell Morgan menulis bahwa sarang penyamun adalah tempat dimana para penyamun bersembunyi setelah mereka melakukan aksi kejahatan.

Memang cara yang paling aman (dan ironis) untuk menutupi dosa kita adalah dengan pergi ke gereja, mengikuti ibadah, dan melibatkan diri dalam berbagai aktifitas gerejawi. Dengan demikian, kita tetap terlihat rohani meski sebenarnya kita hidup jauh dari Tuhan. Orang di sekitar kita berpikir bahwa kita cinta Tuhan, padahal banyak keputusan yang kita ambil & aksi yang kita lakukan menyedihkan hati Tuhan. Itu sebab jangan heran kalau hari ini kita menyaksikan orang berbondong-bondong datang kepada Tuhan, namun tidak ada perubahan hidup. Jangan kaget kalau gereja penuh dan bermunculan dimana-mana, namun kebejatan moral juga merajalela.

Bukti utama bahwa manusia itu berdosa adalah bahwa ia tidak sadar akan dosanya sendiri, demikian tulis Martin Luther. Seringkali ketika firman Tuhan disampaikan, kita merasa tertantang, tetapi tidak ada perubahan dalam hidup kita. Kotbah yang kita dengar membuat kita merasa tertegur, tapi tidak ada pertobatan. Semakin canggih kita bersandiwara dengan segala tingkah laku rohani kita, semakin terjerumus kita dalam berbagai dosa, dan semakin dashyat penghakiman Allah atas diri kita.

Christmas 2005 in Singapore

Relaxing at the pool side of Marina Mandarin Singapore with my daughter, Tiffany, last Christmas 2005. My wife was having an academic conference there (hence, the luxury hotel!), and I was just tagging along. During my stay in Spore, I spoke at an Indonesian Christian retreat attended by NTU students and alumni from Indonesian Graduate Christian Fellowship.

Learning from the Past: New year's sermon

My sermons on the 25th of Dec and 1st of Jan entitled 'Past, Present, and Future' were focusing on how we as Christians are supposed to respond accordingly towards the past and the future in order to live effectively in the present. Let me first share about our attitudes towards the past:

The Past
I noticed people tend to dwell on the past and/or neglect the past altogether. As much as we wanted to, I think human being are incapable of completely erasing our past memories. And the past will to a certain extent shape who we are today. On the one hand, we should not dwell in the past. It's been well said that we are the products of the past, but should not be the prisoners of the past. On the other hand, we should not neglect the past, but ought to learn from it and change. People say experience is the best teacher. I simply disagree. Reflection on the experience is. We can have many experiences, but never learned a single thing from it.

In Genesis 50 we read the account of Joseph finally met face to face with his brothers. They were all scared to death. Their dad, Jacob, had died, and all they could think of is Joseph's vengeance towards their evil acts. They were even willing to be his slaves. Yet, to their shocking surprise, Joseph said: "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives."

Joseph was not trapped in the past. He saw his past painful experiences as special ways in which God shaped him for his future. When he was sold as a slave by his brothers, God walked with him. When he was accused by Potifar's wife and jailed, God strengthened him. He did not blame anyone nor the circumstances. When Joseph looked at the past, all he saw is God's faithfulness towards him. All those tough moments in his past has been the 'school of suffering' that God put him into. The purpose? To be the most effective logistic manager/political leader in the entire Egypt.

The Bible chronicles many characters who, in obedience to God's call, had to go through many uncertainties in their lives. Job, for example, was faced with an extreme dose of harsh reality that made him shaken to his core. He did not know how to live in his present time. He groaned, and questioned God. But as Philip Yancey wrote, God did not answer Job, He exploded. Instead He reminded Job of their respective positions as Creator and created, Infinite and finite, God and man.

I can relate easily with Job, but not with Joseph. Whenever things get rough, I remember Job, which reminded me that my problems are no where near his. Not in a million years. Once I tried to seek a satisfying answer from the Bible on how I should live in the midst of the uncertainties. But there were no such answers. What I found was this. God repeatedly introduced Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He kept reminding the Israelites: Remember that I am their God who is sovereign and prove Myself faithful to My promises. Isn't that beautiful? I don't know about you, but drinking on that gives me strength to face the present and future time.

In fact, isn't that what faith is all about? Faith is trusting God for the future on the basis of what He did in the past generations after generations. Don't get bogged down with the past, or anxious about the future. Face the new year with the courage from God knowing that we can hold His sovereign hands.

A hypocritical life

Life is a hypocrite if I can't live
The way it moves me!

~ Christopher Fry

My family

My life would never be the same without these people. My wife LyFie, my daughter Tiffany, and my son Calvin together help maintain my sanity in this frantic world. In between changing nappies and going about doing my daily work, I thank God for these gifts from above.

Hello...

I am still learning this not-so-new tech, but I can finally say to myself: "Go Blog!" (which unfortunately means 'stupid' in Indonesian).