Institutional Dialogue

Islamic and Christian theological institutions make important contributions to the progress of interreligious dialogue and relationships in Indonesia. The practices of lecture exchanges and resource sharing between Islamic and Christian academic institutions have become quite common. For instance, the Faculty of Theology of Duta Wacana Christian University and Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University, both in Yogyakarta, have established a long-term formal cooperation in both teaching and research activities. It can be said that the reputation of the study of religions in those institutions depends heavily on the maintenance of their mutually constructive cooperation. Indeed their cooperation has attracted several universities abroad, not only to learn from them, but also to participate in the relationships.

Relationships between Muslim and Christian academic institutions have also transformed the approach of the study of religions employed in those institutions. Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University, for instance, has been a pioneer in introducing critical textual study of the Koran and phenomenological study of religions. Figures such as Professor Mukti Ali, a former rector of that institution, and Professor Amin Abdullah, the present rector, contribute much to the development of such approaches within the Islamic academic circle. In the case of Duta Wacana Christian University, its Centre for the Study of Religions not only conducts collaborative research projects involving Muslim partners, but also the annual “Studi Institut Tentang Islam: SITT’ (Institute of Study about Islam), aiming at equipping Christian leaders with fresh knowledge on Islam learned directly from Muslim scholars and leaders. In 1996, the centre conducted a seminar, inviting other Christian theological schools in Indonesia, in which curricula regarding religious studies in Christian theological seminaries were reviewed, with a perspective on interreligious dialogue in mind.

Yahya Wijaya (Th.M., 1996)
Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Tahun Mengimbas Kembali

Kata Mother Teresa: “Tidak berbaloi menjalani kehidupan yang tidak direnungi.” Begitu jugalah Gereja harus senantiasa menilai diri sendiri demi mengekalkan kesesuaiannya. Sejauh manakah kesan Gereja Malaysia terhadap negara ini sepanjang 50 tahun ini? Adakah ia berjaya mengatasi kelemahan dan ancaman serta memanfaatkan kekuatan dan peluang-peluang dalam daya usahanya membina negara?

Keadaan berpecah belah antara mazhab dengan setiap satu hanya menjaga kepentingan sendiri merupakan kelemahan yang diwarisi dari zaman penjajah. Puji syukur kepada Tuhan kerana kita mencapai kemajuan dalam usaha menyatukan gereja-gereja menerusi penubuhan badan-badan kebangsaan seperti NECF dan CFM. Pelbagai gereja berpadu tenaga demi menjalankan projek-projek yang tidak dapat dijalankan secara individu oleh satu-satu gereja.

Namun, masih wujud suatu ancaman berdasarkan hakikat bahawa Gereja, terutamanya yang di Semenanjung, terdiri daripada dan didominasi oleh masyarakat kelas menengah dan menengah atas. Dari kumpulan ini, ada yang memilih untuk berhijrah ke negara lain apabila mereka menghadapi cabaran kebangsaan yang kritis lantas negara kehilangan sumber modal insan yang berharga manakala pihak Gereja kehilangan kepimpinan yang berwibawa. Sayangnya masalah ini masih belum dapat diatasi.

Kekuatan yang ketara ialah kewujudan Gereja yang agak muda dan penuh bertenaga terdiri daripada ramai penganut generasi pertama dan kedua. Semarak semangat hasil pengalaman peribadi dengan Isa Al-Masih membuatkan kita mahu menjangkau dengan kasih-Nya. Pihak Gereja menggembleng sumber berkuasa ini untuk membawa lebih ramai lagi ke dalam Kerajaan-Nya.

Jika kita melihat dengan teliti, terdapat banyak peluang untuk membina negara. Mungkin terasa seperti ada kekangan di peringkat atas namun pada aras akar umbi ada banyak saluran di mana kita boleh melakukan sesuatu yang berbeza. Warga Kristian dan gereja-gereja perlu lebih peka serta mempunyai keprihatinan dari segi sivik dan sosial demi memanfaatkan peluang-peluang ini.

Kesimpulannya, baik juga jika kita ingat bahawa kita semua duta Isa Al-Masih ke negara kita. Maka, kita harus secara serius menghitung kosnya serta berusaha agar 50 tahun yang mendatang lebih banyak hasilnya berbanding 50 tahun yang pertama kita.

Rev. Wong Kim Kong
Setiausaha Agung NECF

Institutionalised Communities

During the last few days I was confronted by two different people who questioned my commitment towards the project that are running at almost the same time. The demands of my daily class schedule, could not be compromised to fulfill my duties during the midweek, and when each of the commitments clash, I had to choose one at the risk of forsaking the other. I tried to please all three sides, but I couldn't.

"Kerepok, if you can't come for the practice tomorrow, then I am sorry you can't be part of this,"

"Kerepok, I noticed that you did not do really well in this. I would like to see you sometime during the weekday to buck that up. If you can't come, then I am sorry you cannot be in it,"

"Kerepok, if you don't attend your anatomy, physiology, histology and clinical skills lab, I am sorry you will fail your assessments and cannot be part of the medical programme,"

"Kerepok, if I were you, I would make it a priority to attend this every weekend. It is a must as a believer and there is no other excuse on earth you can give not to go for this"

These three groups assume that:

a) I do not attend the required meetings because of my laziness
b) I am using the lame reason of being a med student to skip these meetings
c) I have as much spare time and commitment as some of them do

But one thing that I do not understand is that,

a) None of the groups actually sit down and ask me the reason of not attending meetings, the complications that surround my reasons for skipping meetings, the guilt that I feel, the effort I made to attend the meetings, the problems that I faced that lead to me skipping meetings.

b) They seem to be more interested in the end product, rather than the people involved. I am probably treated more as volunteer to achieve certain organisational goals, rather than celebrating my individuality and my community. At the most, relationships within the organisational seem to be superficial and conditional (eg: only if you attend our meetings, we will hang out with you).

I sometimes wonder why do I end up in institutionalised communities, hahaha.

Nirmal Hriday - Pure Heart

Delhi From A Rickshaw

Delhi from a rickshaw
Originally uploaded by wili_hybrid

Even Young Men Grow Weary

I've always been an active participant in a lot of things around my schooling life. From secondary school, I tried to be good in a lot of things outside my classroom, including chess, badminton, martial arts, music, drama, poetry, leadership, first aid, cooking, camping, public speaking, international politics, event organising. Many of the things I did don't end up very successful, but some was quite significant in determining the course of my life.

I did very well in drama when I partnered up with few of my fellow school friends to form our first school english drama team and won the state drama competition for two consecutive years. I was leading my school english language society. I won the district poetry festival competition. In college, I help founded a toastmasters club despite much bureaucracy, served the college CF, directed a drama production and right now, am involving myself with the Malaysian club overseas and the CF. I believe that life is too short to be redundant and making a difference should not be seen through religious cliche alone, for all world is God's world.

In the past I managed to survive through the busy times, amist demands of studies. My cramming skill was superb and managed to achieve somewhat outstanding results to qualify me to get a scholarship and entrance into a medical school.

Today...

I struggled with my university timetable and my commitment outside studies for two upcoming events. I failed to keep my word. I fear that past disappointment with my studies will recur again. I cringe when people talk about giving commitment, because I know it does not reflect me at the moment. I love to be involved, I love to be energetic, I love to be in action but I realise that I can't do what I do anymore. I am no longer what I was before. Grow up!

Many people take the easy route by advising me to 'prioritise' and choose things that matter. For goodness sake!?@! Its not rocket science for a 5 year old kid to figure out that prioritisation is the solution for limited resouces such as time.

Everything is easier said than done. Extracurricular commitment is not like changing T-shirts. I can't just chuck away everything when a particular thing become less important, at my whim and fancy. Commitments are made for a period of time, like a contract, for a period of a year and resignation is not an option. Even marriage commitment is for a lifetime, you can't marry and divorce at your pleasure, although some blatantly do it.

I give up sharing my struggles and prayer requests to people who do not understand, because offering solutions is not what I want. I just want a listening ear. Will you?

Psalms 122 "I look up to the heavens, where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, maker of heaven and earth..."

Gotta sleep soon, waking up for dance practice at 8am!

Ganges Ghat

Grand Narratives

I was in a symposium few weeks ago on China cultural protection and transformation in a New Zealand setting, which deals with a whole range of issues from protecting the mother tongue, lifestyle changes of Chinese immigrants, health issues of immigrants, cultural practices, familial ties and intercultural interactions. It was interesting that the concept of Chinese-ness is being emphasised again and again within the immigrant Chinese communities, not only in New Zealand but also in Malaysia.

Certainly in Malaysia, there are some quarters in the Chinese community that hold strongly to cultural preservation on perceived threat of 'Malaysianisation', slow elimination of mother tongue and cultural practices, and developing a renewed interest and linkage to Chinese culture, and the economic and political prowess of China today.

Farish Noor made a good observation here when describing his previous experience.

"...a speaker from the audience spoke of her anxiety and need to preserve what she regarded as the grand history of her ‘race’ and ‘nation’. Lamenting the idea that her child may end up one day as yetanother statistic in the relentless march of global capital and consumer culture, she spoke about the need to emphasise her ‘Chinese-ness’ and to retain links to the past of Chinese civilisation; which, she added, was four thousand years old"

Certainly, the perceived threat towards culture and heritage is being shared across ethnic and religious groups feel the same thing, which invokes a new passion to things of the past. Muslims look to their glorious Arabic Empires of the past. The Chinese looks back to th 4000 years of history. Indians look back to the great Hindu-Buddha civilization of the past, and Malays look back to the rich heritage of the Malay archipelago. As a result we draw lines of dichotomy to be distinctive and to be exclusive against each other to support our assumption of cultural superiority.

Where do individuals with multiple identities stand in the midst of the neat boxes of cultural history? How do our globalised communities make sense of 'their' great stories and the great stories of others? Do we share a common humanity?

Farish Noor explored the folly of overstating our historical baggage.

"Furthermore it is almost comical to note how this recourse to nostalgia often harps back on the achievements of singular individuals who may not have acted with the interests of others or posterity in mind. Muslim apologists talk about the greatness of Muslim Sultans and Emperors, oblivious to the fact that if they were living in the days of the great Muslim empires of the past they would probably be playing the lowly role of serfs and peasants, to be stepped on and exploited by the very same Great Sultans they so admire today. Likewise apologists for China’s great imperial past forget that the greatness of China was meant primarily for the Emperor and the ruling elite, and not for the ordinary Chinese masses: Some may look to the Forbidden Palace in Peking as proof of China’s past grandeur, but the Forbidden Palace was precisely that – an elite enclave that was forbidden to millions of ordinary Chinese. The same applies for the great temples, forts and castles of the Christian West and Hindu India. So why this love of great rulers and greatness in general?"

Living in a postmodern, globalised, multicultural world makes it even harder for one to imagine a single 'grand narrative' without contracting others. How do the great stories of other individuals and cultures fit into our own 'great story'? Do we become ignorantly inclusive for the sake of tolerance? Or we become arrogantly exclusive for the sake of pride?

Even if we choose the middle path between inclusivism and exclusivism, the process of narrating our version of 'great story' can easily lure us to the the danger of shutting and exterminating other alternative stories.

"The grand histories of the so-called ‘Great civilisations’ read so neatly as grand narratives simply because the alternative voices that pointed to a plethora of other alternative endings have all but been wiped out. This gives such grand narratives their consistency and standing as canonical texts. Yet this appearance of solidity before the ravages of time is illusory, and worse still turns history into mere propaganda: self-fulfilling prophesies of greatness once realised and which will be reactivated once again."

Even though the modern, nuclear man (as described by Henri Nouwen) is separated from continuity of history, Farish Noor thought that each within us are lured by attractive nostalgia to things past.

"Can we ever escape the lure of such attractive nostalgia and accept the fact that each and everyone one of us today is an orphaned child of the modern age, divorced from our ancestors who live in that foreign country called the past?"

The question is how can we chart our future story together, in the midst of competing, parallel and sometimes contradictory stories? How do we arrange the puzzle coherently?

I find the biblical story of God's sovereign work and plan for the world and His acts in history across cultures quite coherent. While asserting that all truth is God's truth, the biblical story draws not only through the narrative of the bible, but also see God's story through cultures and a common humanity, in creation, in the fall of men, in the coming of the messiah, and an apocalyptic vision of a new world and kingdom. Therefore other stories, both big and small fit into this grand narrative of a new world, a narrative of God, with human cultures and 'histories', with all its political entanglements as subsets. It is a story bigger than myself, my family, my cultural heritage nor my religion. It is a story of God in its fullness.

--quotations taken from here

Suara Rakyat India Malaysia

Dilaporkan oleh Jeff Ooi yang bertanyakan, "Adakah suara mereka didengari?"

Merdeka?

Merdeka?

50 tahun kemerdekaan negara Malaysia akan datang pada 31 Ogos. Kehangatan sambutan kini kian terasa dengan UMSA sibuk bersiap sedia untuk majlis makan malam pada 26 Ogos ini. Pada masa yang sama, ramai daripada kita yang masih sibuk dengan assignment assignment universiti, kuliah dan tutorial dan tidak terfikirkan kemerdekaan.

Bagi ramai antara kita, perkataan Malaysia memberi seribu maksud. Malaysia memberikan identity kepada kita tentang asal usul kita, bak kata Maori, whakapapa kita. Di situlah kita dilahirkan, dibesarkan dan disekolahkan dengan setiap individu mempunyai pengalaman yang berbeza.

Ada antara kita yang dilahirkan di situ sehinggalah tamat sekolah menengah, ada yang dihantar ke sini oleh ibubapa ataupun kerajaan, ramai yang meninggalkan Malaysia untuk berhijrah ke sini semasa umur belasan tahun mengikut kehendak keluarga, dan tidak kurang juga yang dilahirkan dan dibesarkan di sini. Ada juga yang mempunyai ibubapa yang berketurunan orang Putih New Zealand, pan-Asian yang mempunyai paras rupa yang molek bak bidadari. Di samping itu, kita mempunyai pengalaman yang berbeza-beza, dari pelbagai kaum, system persekolahan, taraf hidup dan agama dan disatukan di bawah kategori Malaysian, apabila tiba di New Zealand.

Saya tidak tahu setakat mana tahap patriotisme kita terhadap negara dan tidak mahu menunding jari kepada sesiapa kerana bukanlah hak saya untuk mempertikaikan pilihan hidup setiap individu, tetapi saya ingin membawa kita untuk bertanyakan beberapa persoalan yang wajar kita tanya sebagai pelajar universiti yang bertopengkan Malaysia.

1. Apakah makna Malaysia kepada diri kita?
2. Apakah makna Merdeka kepada diri kita?
3. Bagaimanakah identiti diri sebagai seorang Cina, Melayu, India dan kaum etnik bertentangan dengan identiti kebangsaan, dan bagaimanakah saya mencari satu identiti yang koheren?
4. Bagaimanakah identiti kita sebagai Malaysian mencorakkan cara hidup, mentaliti, keperibadian kita sebagai pelajar dan individu pada hari ini?
5. Bolehkah kita menyambut kemerdekaan dengan ertikata yang sebenarnya?

Incredible India

Bonhoeffer on Monasticism

'...the restoration of the church will surely come only from a new type of monasticism which has nothing in common with the old but a complete lack of compromise in a life lived in accordance with the Sermon on the Mount in the discipleship of Christ. I think it is time to gather people together to do this...' --Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“The expansion of Christianity and the increasing secularization of the church caused the awareness of costly grace to be gradually lost…. But the Roman church did keep a remnant of that original awareness. It was decisive that monasticism did not separate from the church and that the church had the good sense to tolerate monasticism. Here, on the boundary of the church, was the place where the awareness that grace is costly and that grace includes discipleship was preserved…. Monastic life thus became a living protest against the secularization of Christianity, against the cheapening of grace.”
-- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Catalyse Change

The unstoppable power of a united movement
Organizational change usually happens via a quite different route: the route of a movement with a specific end in view. It works like this:

One or more individuals reach the view that change is needed.

1. They discover like-minded people and start to group together for support in thinking their ideas through.
2. As more and more people get involved, it becomes natural to want to translate these ideas into action. A pressure group is formed.
3. The pressure group publicizes its views widely. If those ideas are taken up, they start to become accepted as obvious and natural.
4. Those committed to the status quo feel out-of-step with the majority. Far from being the ones with all the power, they now face an increasing sense of dissonance and vulnerability.
5. To regain their former feelings of security and strength, those in charge shift their position to align with the majority. The change has become the new norm.

You can already see how attitudes on global warming, for example, are shifting as the ruling elite move from denying it, to opposing any change, to getting on the band-wagon.

A pattern for individual changes
At the individual level, a similar process happens:

• Someone gets caught up in an idea and finds others who already share it or can be persuaded to do so.
• Together, these people reinforce one another’s attachment to the idea and provide mutual support.
• The individual’s current lifestyle starts to feel increasingly out of alignment with the ideas that are current in the group.
• To lessen the dissonance, that individual starts to make significant lifestyle changes. When these are approved by the group, they are reinforced.
• In time, the changed lifestyle becomes the norm.
  

The power of shared ideas

What is driving change in both these situations—individual and organizational—is the power of shared ideas. Unlike direct demands for specific change, which can usually be beaten down by the use of power, ideas slip around the barriers.

At the start, they seem too weak to be worth trying to squash. Later, they take such a hold on people’s minds that it becomes impossible to drive them out. They even spread in secret, if overt opposition is too dictatorial to allow them free expression.

How can you crush an idea? How can you force people not to think it or pass it to others? How can you stop it spreading, even if you have all the means of institutional power at your disposal?

Nothing is quite as powerful as an idea whose time has come. For individuals too, the power of an idea that seizes your mind is almost unstoppable. It can change your life in a moment, even altering habits that you may have struggled with for years.

The message is clear: to make real organizational change you first need an idea that can grip enough people to start a movement. In your own life, you need an idea powerful enough to seize your mind, plus a support group who come to share that idea. Once that has happened, it is just a matter of waiting while enough momentum builds up to make the current ruling elite (or your existing habits) experience such unsettling dissonance that they have to change to resolve it.

That’s how change works best. Of course, it takes time . . . but nothing worthwhile ever really happened in a flash, whatever people tell you. -- Slow Leadership

Pemashyuran Kemerdekaan

Dengan nama Allah yang Maha Pemurah lagi Mengasihani, segala puji bagi Allah yang Maha Berkuasa dan selawat dan salam ke atas sekalian Rasul-Nya.

Bahawasanya kerana telah tibalah masanya bagi umat Persekutuan Tanah Melayu ini mencapai taraf suatu bangsa yang merdeka lagi berdaulat sama setimpal kedudukannya dengan segala bangsa seluruh dunia.

Dan bahawasanya kerana dengan perjanjian yang disebut namanya Perjanjian Tanah Melayu tahun 1957 yang diperbuat antara Duli Yang Maha Mulia Baginda Queen dengan Duli-Duli Yang Maha Mulia Raja-Raja Melayu, maka, telah dipersetujui bahawa Negeri-negeri Melayu, iaitu Johor, Pahang, Negeri Sembilan, Selangor, Kedah, Perlis, Kelantan, Terengganu, dan Perak serta negeri yang dahulunya dinamakan Negeri Selat, iaitu Melaka dan Pulau Pinang, mulai 31 hari bulan Ogos tahun 1957, hendaklah menjadi sebuah Persekutuan baharu bagi negeri-negeri yang bernama Persekutuan Tanah Melayu.

Dan bahawasanya kerana telah bersetuju pula antara kedua-dua pihak dalam perjanjian tersebut, iaitu Melaka dan Pulau Pinang hendaklah daripada tarikh tersebut itu tamat daripada menjadi sebahagian daripada jajahan takluk Baginda Queen, dan Duli Yang Maha Mulia Baginda Queen tidak lagi berhak menjalankan apa-apa kedaulatan baginda ke atas kedua-dua buah negeri yang tersebut itu.

Dan bahawasanya kerana telah bersetuju pula antara kedua-dua pihak yang tersebut, iaitu Perjanjian Persekutuan Tanah Melayu tahun 1948, dan segala peranjian yang lain yang ada sekarang antara Duli Yang Maha Mulia Baginda Queen dengan Duli-Duli Yang Maha Mulia Raja-Raja ataupun salah seorang daripada baginda itu sebelum tarikh yang tersebut hendaklah dibatalkan mulai daripada tarikh itu, dan semua kuat kuasa dan hak Duli Yang Maha Mulia Baginda Queen ataupun Parlimen Negeri United Kingdom dalam Negeri-Negeri Selat ataupun Persekutuan Tanah Melayu seluruhannya adalah tamat dengan sendirinya.

Dan bahawasanya kerana Duli Yang Maha Mulia Baginda Queen, Duli-Duli Yang Maha Mulia Raja-Raja Melayu, Parlimen Negeri United Kingdom dan Majlis-Majlis Undangan Persekutuan dan Negeri-Negeri Melayu telah meluluskannya, Perjanjian Persekutuan Tanah Melayu tahun 1957 itu berjalan kuat kuasanya.

Dan bahawasanya kerana suatu perlembagaan bagi kerajaan Persekutuan Tanah Melayu telah ditentukan menjadi suatu kanun yang muktamad baginya.

Dan bahawasanya kerana Perlembagaan Persekutuan yang tersebut itu, maka, ada disediakan syarat untuk menjaga keselamatan hak-hak dan keutamaan Duli-Duli Yang Maha Mulia Raja-Raja serta hak-hak asasi dan kebebasan sekalian rakyat dan untuk memajukan Persekutuan Tanah Melayu dengan aman dan damai serta teratur sebagai sebuah kerajaan yang mempunyai Raja yang Berperlembagaan yang berdasarkan demokrasi cara Parlimen.

Dan bahawasanya kerana Perlembagaan Persekutuan yang diadakan oleh Majlis Undangan Persekutuan yang tersebut itu telah diluluskan oleh suatu undang-undang yang diadakah oleh Majlis Undangan Persekutuan serta dengan undang-undang yang diadakan oleh negeri-negeri Melayu dan dengan ketetapan-ketetapan dalam Majlis Undangan Negeri Melaka dan Pulau Pinang, dengan demikian Perlembagaan itu telah berjalan kuat kuasanya pada 31 hari bulan Ogos tahun 1957.

Maka, dengan nama Allah yang Maha Pemurah lagi Maha Mengasihani, saya Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra ibni Almarhum Sultan Abdul Hamid Halim Shah, Perdana Menteri bagi Persekutuan Tanah Melayu, dengan persetujuan dan perkenan Duli-Duli Yang Maha Mulia Raja-Raja negeri-Negeri Melayu dengan ini memasyhurkan dan mengisytiharkan bagi pihak umat Persekutuan Tanah Melayu bahawa mulai Tiga Puluh Satu hari bulan Ogos Tahun Seribu Sembilan Ratus Lima Puluh Tujuh, maka Persekutuan Tanah Melayu yang mengandungi Negeri Johor, Pahang, Negeri Sembilan, Selangor, Kedah, Perlis, Kelantan, Terengganu, Perak, Melaka dan Pulau Pinang dengan limpah rahmat Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala akan kekal menjadi sebuah negara yang merdeka dan berdaulat serta berdasarkan kebebasan dan keadilan dan sentiasa menjaga dan mengutamakan kesejahteraan dan kesentosaan rakyatnya dan mengekalkan keamanan antara segala bangsa.

...[with the abundance of the blessings of Allah, (the Federation) will remain a country that is independent and sovereign, with the principles of freedom and justice, and upholds the wellbeing and goodwill of its people and maintaining peace with all nations]

Negaraku

Got this from a friend, take it with a pinch of salt!

Saya Anak Malaysia

The Irresistable Revolution

Not too long ago, those of us at the Simple Way were about to speak to a congregation. The person doing the introduction said, "These folks are a voice for the voiceless." And something inside me hurt. I gently corrected them. Everyone has a voice. I know many amazing people who have used the old "voice for the voiceless" line (Oscar Romero, Mother Teresa, even the book of Proverbs). But it just felt strange. Perhaps we are too quick to assume folks cannot speak for themselves.

We are not a voice for the voiceless. The truth is that there is a lot of noise out there drowning out quiet voices, and many people have stopped listening to the cries of their neighbors. Lots of folks have put there hands over their ears to drown out the suffering. Institutions have distanced themselves from the disturbing cries. When Paul writes in Romans 8 that the entire creation is groaning for its liberation, he goes on to say that "we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly (v. 23). This is the chorus of the generations of seemingly voiceless people we have joined.

And God has a special ear for their groaning regardless of who is listening.

It is a beautiful thing when folks in poverty are no longer just a missions project but become genuine friends and family with whom we laugh, cry, dream, and struggle. one of the verses I have grown to love is the one where Jesus is preparing to leave the disciples and says, "I no longer call you servants....Instead I have called you friends" (John 15:15). Servanthood is a fine place to begin, but gradually we love toward mutual love, genuine relationships. Someday, perhaps we can even say those words that Ruth said to Naomi after years of partnership: "where you go I will go and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God will be my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried" (Ruth 1:16-17)

And that's when things get messy. When people begin moving beyond charity and toward justice and solidarity with the poor and oppressed, as Jesus did, they get in trouble. Once we are actually friend with folks in struggle, we start to ask why people are poor, which is never as popular as giving to charity. One of my friends has a shirt marked with the words of late Catholic bishop Dom Helder Camara, "When I fed the hungry, they called me a saint. When I asked why people are hungry, they called me a communist." Charity wins awards and applause, but joining the poor gets you killed. People do not get crucified for charity. People are crucified for living out a love that disrupts the social order, that calls forth a new world. People are not crucified for helping poor people. People are crucified for joining them. Pg 127 - 129

He later writes this...

Almost every time we talk with affluent folks about God's will to end poverty, someone says, "But didn't Jesus say, 'The poor will always be with you'?" Many of the people who whip out this verse have grown quite insulated and distant from the poor and feel defensive. I usually ask, "Where are the poor? Are the poor among us?" The answer is a clear negatory. As we study the Scriptures, we see how many texts we have misread, contextualized, and exegeted to hear what we want to. Like this one about the poor being among us, which Jesus says in the home of a leper and after a poor marginalized women anoints his feet with perfume. The poor were all around him. Far from saying in defeat that we should not worry about the poor, since they will always be among us. Jesus is point the church to her true identity -- she is to live close to those who suffer. The poor will always be among us, because the empire will always produce poor people, and they will find home in the church, a citzenship in the kingdom of God, where the "hungry are filled with good things and the rich sent away empty."

I heard that Gandhi , when people asked him if he was a Christian, would often reply, "Ask the poor. They will tell who the Christians are." Pg 159-161 -- Shane Clairborne

Bahasa Malaysia

Saudara Pengarang,

Saya ingin memberi pandangan terhadap komen Budi Hartono (Lim Sia Kim) tentang kurang penguasaan Bahasa Malaysia di kalangan bukan Melayu. Sememangnya gejala ini tidaklah baru malah bertitik tolak daripada zaman pra-merdeka lagi di mana banyak imigran masih lagi berada dalam masyarakat budaya tersendiri.

Dengan dasar pendidikan baru, Bahasa Malaysia dijadikan bahasa pengajaran dan seterusnya tahap penguasaan Bahasa Malaysia generasi masa kini meningkat dengan banyak berbanding nenek moyang kami.

Namun masih lagi ada segelintir kumpulan yang masih lagi mempertahankan identiti budaya sendiri dengan menggalakkan bahasa ibunda, dan kerajaan sendiri telah memberikan komitmen untuk mempertahankan budaya minoriti. Ada juga golongan progresif berpendidikan Barat yang berpendapat bahawa Bahasa Inggeris harus diutamakan berbanding bahasa lain, atas sebab-sebab ekonomi dan kemajuan. Namun walau apapun alasan, keperluan untuk membentuk identiti nasional dan perpaduan saya percaya perlulah menjadi keutamaan semua pihak dengan semangat persefahaman, kepercayaan antara satu sama lain dan hormat-menghormati.

Timbalan Perdana Menteri baru-baru ini menyatakan dalam temuramah dengan akhbar The Strait Times, menyatakan "Kami menggalakkan integrasi, bukannya asimilasi".

Meskipun saya berpendapat bahawa Bahasa Malaysia harus dikuasai dengan baik dan dibudayakan sebagai identiti nasional, saya ingin memohon jasa baik saudara Budi untuk bercanggah pendapat. Dasar asimilasi yang dijalankan oleh pemerintahan Suharto telah merosakkan budaya etnik minoriti dan meningkatkan lagi perasaan tidak senang dan tidak percaya terhadap kerajaan Indonesia. Konflik perkauman masih banyak berlaku meskipun kononnya Indonesia merupakan negara yang bersatu-padu secara lahiriah sahaja.

Saya percaya rata-rata rakyat Malaysia bersyukur dengan kerajaan Malaysia dalam meraikan kepelbagaian kaum dan budaya, perpaduan dan muhibbah antara satu sama lain sebagai satu kelebihan, bukannya satu kelemahan.

Dengan penguasaan bahasa-bahasa lain di samping bahasa Malaysia, kita mampu menjalinkan hubungan diplomatik, budaya, ekonomi dan politik yang lebih akrab dengan negara-negara Asia yang lain seperti China, India dan Asia Tenggara. Kepelbagaian rumpun budaya Asia yang dimiliki Malaysia, seperti dalam iklan Tourism Malaysia "Malaysia Truly Asia" hanya akan menjadi realiti apabila kepelbagaian budaya dihormati dan dipertahankan.

Mungkin di sini, apa yang kita perlukan adalah untuk memperkasa dan memperbaik sistem pendidikan kebangsaan kita ke arah membentuk masyarakat yang bersatu padu, menghayati identiti kebangsaan seperti Bahasa Malaysia, menghayati sejarah silam dan membentuk sejarah baru bersama ke arah masa depan.

Bersekutu bertambah mutu

Truth

Jesus Christ is the living Word of Truth, whose personhood bears propositional and relational weight to the Truth. Truth is not a set of eternal doctrines, morality nor convictions of which one swear allegiance to. But Truth is embraced by knowledge and trust in the person of Jesus Christ, who promises and teaches us what it means to be truly human, with all its pomp and frailty. It is when we become truly human, God is exceedingly glorified. It is when we become the fullest of which we can be, we experience the mystery and joy of our eternal salvation.

What do you think?

Thoughts on Missional Living

"I have a growing concern that the proliferation of mission and missional language in many of our churches today may not do justice to the joy, mystery, and fullness of life that Christ invites us to share with the triune God. In its current usage, the word mission often paints a mental picture of a task to complete more than a picture of a life to live. Like the Blues Brothers on their “mission from God,” anything that does not obviously contribute to the completion of the mission is treated without respect. So when we view individual conversion, or serving marginalized peoples, or saving our planet as the mission, then everything else plays second fiddle. Hosting a Christian version of a Halloween party is not the mission, but loving our neighbors is—and loving our neighbors is rarely a completed task.

Because of the subtle singularity communicated through missional language, a dualism is often reinforced. This dualism suggests that mission is important and everything else is less important. Church work is important; Web design is less important. Working in a homeless shelter is important; working at the Holiday Inn is less important. Working to save the rain forest is important; doing yard work at home is less important.

This mindset can suggest that we believe that God is more concerned with what we do than who we are. God is interested in us as whole beings, not simply in what we can do for God. How we hold and share the stories of our lives; when, where, how, and with whom we interpersonally relate or choose to dodge; our life experiences and those we seek to avoid; the ways in which we see the world and try to make sense of it; the hopes and dreams, the dreads and fears which inform our every step, all matter to God."

"Mission and life are inseparable. A thoughtful reading of most missional texts will reveal that Christian mission naturally flows out of life with Christ."

"At this time I find myself preferring the language of incarnational living instead of missional living. The language of incarnational living more meaningfully emphasizes embodying Christ in every situation and cultural context. The celebration of Christmas is the celebration of God with humanity—it is the Incarnation, Emmanuel, God with us. Fully God and fully human, Jesus by his very life and presence was mission.

Incarnational living more meaningfully marries mission with the wholeness of life. Incarnational living places the mystery of life with Christ at the center of each follower’s life and each faith community’s life together.

Incarnational living invites all Christ-followers to flesh out their uniqueness, encouraging the totality of their being to reflect or embody Christ. When people and their respective communities see their “being” as inevitably making the invisible Christ visible through their lives, then every interaction, every act, every moment of stillness becomes a Christ moment. This explodes the singularity of mission; now life becomes mission in a holistic sense. Mission is inevitable when Christ is incarnated, but without incarnation mission looks a lot like busy religiosity."

"Mission is always lived out of our being, and incarnational living always results in doing. Every person (Christ-follower or not) and every organization is missional, and the more purpose-driven in the execution of their mission, the more they are viewed as successful, because the results are often more clearly measurable.

There is nothing uniquely Christian about being missional. Christ-followers may espouse a mission that serves God and others, but we are not alone in such selfless service nor are we entirely selfless. What does set Christian mission apart is that Christ is lifted high. God is made visible. What makes mission Christian is that Christ is incarnated."

--Dwight J. Friesen