"IT IS MORE BLESSED TO GIVE THAN TO RECEIVE"

Transcription

1 "IT IS MORE BLESSED TO GIVE THAN TO RECEIVE" (Revd Dr. Monodeep Daniel) Acts This is the final sentence of Paul's last speech to the Ephisians, 'In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive".' This one sentence, "It is more blessed to give than to receive", in a nutshell describes the spirit of Christianity i.e. to be generous. It means to give and share with others what we have. However, we are expected to be sensible in "giving". The failure to be sensible would only result in losses; instead of bringing about the desired result. At this point we should also draw our attention to the words "desired result" which we have used above. I say that the the meaning of this is in Saint Paul's phrase in the above text, namely, "we must help the weak." In practice this would mean that we must "give" our resources to the church for making the God's people laos capable human beings so that they can contribute to the good of the society. In this way they become a blessing to others (Gen ). Here we should recall Saint Lawrence of Rome, a deacon who when pressed by the officials to hand over the wealth of the church, sold the church property, distirbuted it to the poor and presented them before the city's Prefect as the wealth of the Church. He was put to death by being grilled by fire. Hence he became the patrons of cooks and chefs One way to increase the capabilitiy of people is to organize them into ecclesia which is an inclusive community sangat where all members are treated with dignity. This is foundational for making people capable for enhancing their life, health, intellect, emotions, association, recreation and participation (Cf. Martha Nussbaum). For this reason, ecclesia is a community that welcomes both the weak and the strong, the poor and wealthy, the simple and the intellectuals, the touchable and the untouchables with the divine vision of forging a new humanity in the new creation where all polarities, for instance, of Dalit and non-dalit, will be no more. The crucial point of inclusivity should be appreciated in the light of the prevalent caste-based practice of social exclusion and untouchability in India which is detrimental to intrigate this nation. Prof Amartya Sen, the 82-year-old economist and philosopher, in his address on the 125th birth anniversary of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar at the London School of Economics (LSE) said, I would say caste is anti-national because it divides the nation. We want to be national, not

2 anti-national, for which it is important to eliminate all divisions, The aim of inclusion is to create a national community where the caste system that divides people will be no more. The Church is already engaged in this exercise in the anticipation of God's Kingdom with the New Jerusalem which should be described as the Begampura of Ravidas i.e. the city free from misery. What it means is this that those in the position of advantage are expected to give and share their resources with the disadvantaged i.e. adivasi, dalit, women, monorities and people with other abilities. Here the institutionalized section of the church has to operate for "collecting" and then "distributing" what the people in socio-economically and intellectually advantaged position give for the disadvantaged people to become economically indepnedent. For this purpose "giving" involves surrendering our resources to the Church. These resources are our money, time, ability and property. However, the desired results of our "giving" will only be possible when what is collected is appropiately utilized. This involves the process of budgeting, raising funds and resources, spending as budgeted, keeping accounts, getting the audit done and placing the whole exercise under the scrutiny of the appropiate church body eg. pastorate committee or diocesan council or synod or their executive committees etc and finally the exercise of evaluation. For the above aspects there are proper methods and good practices. Undertaking this whole exercise is what we describe by one word, namely, stewardship. We must appreciate the power of this text (Cf. Acts above) in view of Paul's significant association with the Christains of Ephesus. He had started his work by contacting the synagogue there. However, he failed to convince the Jews about the gospel and after three months moved to the school of Tyrannus (Acts 19:9). But a neonate church, with whom he had lived and worked, thrived in Ephesus. Happily for the ephisians Paul could convinced about twelve people to take the 'baptism with the Holy Spirit' who had previously only been baptised into the baptism of John-the-Baptiser (Acts 19:1-7). However, his dispute with some artisans was an unfortunate accident. It is understable why these artisans who were threatened of their livelihood by selling the statues of goddess Artemis threw up a violent protest (Acts 19:23 41). We also know that between AD 53-57, Paul wrote his first letter to the Corinthians from Ephesus. Later around AD 62 he wrote the Epistle to the Ephesians while imprisoned in Rome. The point here is to grasp the feeling of affection that Paul and the new believers of Ephesus had for each other. He taught them to work hard, to be economincally self-sufficient and contribute to the work of the church especially for the poor. For this he himslf set an example. This purpose is presented as the ideal in the New Trestament. However, it was questioned by philosophers like Friedrich Neitzsche ( ) was a German philosopher, cultural critic, poet,, ironocally whose father was a pastor. His most provocative statement was, "God is dead and we have killed him." He also held that two things that were detrimental to the European civilzation were Christianity

3 and alcholol. In his view the correct cultivation of envy held the key for the emergence of supermen i.e. those who overcome by becoming who they really are. Human beings are not to be slaves but superhuman so they must reject Christian tenets. He criticized christianity for diverting people from cultivating envy. His reasoning was that Christianity had emerged among the slaves in Rome who lacked what they really wanted and made a philosophy which celebrated cowardice as virtue. He called this a "slave mentality". He held that these slaves who had embraced Christanity were like herds who had lost power to think for themselves. He argued that they, in fact, had wanted position in the world, pleasure of sex, mastery of intellect and creativity, but were incapable to get them. So they created a creed denouncing what they did not have and praising what they happened to have. So they turned sexlessness into purity; weakness into goodness, submission-to-those-one-hates into obedience and not-being-able-to-take-revenge into forgiveness. For example he analyses the theme of pity in Christian piety to conclude that, "Christianity is called the religion of pity. Pity stands opposed to the tonic emotions which heighten our vitality: it has a depressing effect. We are deprived of strength when we feel pity. That loss of strength which suffering as such inflicts on life is still further increased and multiplied by pity. Pity makes suffering contagious." 1 Christianity instead of turning great personalities into supermen/women had distracted them by stimulating their feeling of pity. As a result they ended up to serve the weak. in Neitzsche's line of thinking discarding Christainty would fecilitate the Europeans to emerge as super-people. Neitzsche's indicment of Christianity can gain the sympathy of casteist minded people who view Indian Christians with suspision and as inferior. They, for example, appreciate the prestegious church-run-institutions, because they serve the dominant castes. These are the famous schools, colleges and hospitals under the ownership of the Church; But they turn hostile when Christians demand a share in political power. This must be appreciated in the light of the estimation that 90% of the membership of the Church of North India (CNI) is constituted by Adivasi and Dalit people. These are historically the beaten and the broken people who were reduced to servitude. Can the dalit and adivasi share political power with the people of dominant castes who consider themselves already as super and pure race? So the problem before us is this, how to get around the apparent contradiction in the aim of our Christian "giving". In other words, should we give to help the weak? Or should we develop the privileged high castes to become super? In answer we must say that firstly, Neitzsche's argument against Christanity is flawed, in the light of the fact that human beings despite being selfish to preserve themselves are, nonetheless, selfless in compassion. They develop to superior levels by self-sacrifice for greater cause, including the cause of the weak. Human beings have to develop as intellegent nobel personalities not selfish super beings.

4 Secondly, we must choose either follow the ideals of Bible or not. If we choose to follow the Bible then we should know that God is on the side of the disadvantaged people. Now the philosophy of Neitzsche implies that the best should not be neglected at the expense of the weak. This is unacceptable to the way in which Christians think and act. Thirdly, we know that human beings are social. They do not leave the infirm, the old and the vulnarabe unattended, even the dead are not abandoned but accompanied with dignity to for cremation or burial. Clearly the Christian way of thinking gives importance both to society and to individuals. Every individual must be free and equal with all the rest within the social collectivity. Similarly the society also has to promote greater justice so that individuals enjoy freedom, eglitariansim and fellowship. In as much as we have to help individuals to change their way of thinking vichar-parivartan we also have to push transformation of society samaj-parivartan. Stewardship, therefore, involves firstly, to develop the capacities of people for the promotion of greater social justice and protection of individual interest. This means investment have to be made to educate people to understand the relationship between the social justice and individual's fulfilment. Secondly, investments have to made to organize people all every level i.e. the local, the regional and the national. One way has been through the pasotrate, dioceses and the synod of the church of North India. The church organizes God's people to worship and to have fellowship. This offers a model to organize people outside the church for various other causes. Such investments or expenditures for building capabilities of people are within the orbit of stewardship. In this way the aim of stewardship is to facilitate missio dei or the mission-of-god. This on the one hand involves education and organizing people to resist oppression of the dominant castes, and on the other hand it involves the promotion of egalitarianism, freedom and fellowship among all people. We can reduce these concerns into two words, namely, empowerment and justice. The implication of this is clear. It is one thing to produce fearless people, but another thing to forge a society free from fear. It is pne thing to wipe the tears of the miserable, but another thing to forge a society free from misery. The implication is clear. That unless injustice is removed, "the poor will always be with us" (Mark 14.7). Therefore, God in the Torah had said, "Follow justice, and justice alone" (Deut 16.20) with the result that "there should be no poor among you" (Deut 15.4). It is towards this end that makes one more blessed to give. End Notes 1. Neitzche. Fredrick, The Antichrist, section 7. transl. Walter Kaufmann, in The Portable Nietzsche, 1977, pp

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