Brown's Daily Word 12-28-07

Good Morning,
We are confronted during this Holy Season, the world is in uproar. It was three years ago the world witnessed the Tsunami disaster. It was on the 23rd of .
January, 1999 when Graham Stains and two of sons were burned alive in Orissa , India. The situation in Orissa is still very tense; I have been in touch with Christian leaders in Orissa. According to their reports, at least eight people have been killed, of whom three were pastors. Twenty churches have been destroyed by arson. Over 400 houses have been destroyed. The Christians have fled in to hills and mountains for safety. I have enclosed some news bulletins here with, for prayer.
The Christians in some parts of the area are in the churches day and night, praying and fasting. The Lord is hearing their prayer.
The way the Gospel according John opens, is majestic and glorious. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [2] He was with God in the beginning. …[4] In him was life, and that life was the light of men. [5] The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
… [10] He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. …[12] Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God-- [13] children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. [14] The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. [18] No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.” John 1:1-2, 4-5, 10, 12-14, 18
John’s Gospel offers nothing naïve…he sees the darkness…but he sees what is equally true…that is, darkness has been enlightened. The Word of God became flesh. It was a great day in our history when a man first walked on the moon. But John reminds us that a far greater event took place when God walked on the earth. For in it WE SEE THE REAL THING.
John’s words capture the deeper storyline; He provides the cosmic treatment which can be laid upon the events of that timeless night.

“WORD” of God
He was preexistent…always and fully God…What has been revealed is not the exception, but the essence of God. “Word” in Hebrew culture is not simply a powerless object in print. The Word is the very agent of creation. Gen 1- The Lord spoke and it came into being.
Ps. 33:6 “By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made.”
> So it is, just as God’s Word established the reality of creation…so again the reality of himself in the flesh is a recreating as real as creation itself.
Though our world may reflect the darkness and digression of a world gone wrong…THIS WORD IS A REVELATION OF THE REAL THING. The Word of God…entered a silent night
…yet spoke volumes and still speaks volumes.
This word was spoken in the midst of simplicity and silence…perhaps because our questions are deeper within… because God was and is speaking to the quiet places of our souls…like the pauses of the poet…he uses the quiet backdrop so that we might hear.
Christmas, John makes clear, isn’t simply about God’s visit, but God’s view. It’s the night God put the world into perspective. In the coming of Christ our sentiments are not only given place, they are filled with substance, with reality. It’s the wonderful night to end our deepest wondering. It’s the night that while the world slept, everything changed.
At Christmas, DO WE SENSE THAT OUR WORLD IS NOT FULLY LOST AND LEFT ABANDONED. DO WE SENSE THE PRESENCE OF ANOTHER SPIRIT IN OUR MIDST? A HOPE?
John declares the reality - GOD IS WITH US. In Jesus, our planet is filled with God’s purpose and penetrating presence. Our tiny planet matters to God. It’s filled with His purpose, as the power of God’s Spirit continues the ministry of Christ continues to fulfill that purpose. “Peace on Earth, Good Will Towards Men” is not just a good Christmas card, not merely a slogan or sentiment, it has substance and reality, for God blessed the earth. He is GOD WITH US.
At Christmas, DO WE SENSE OUR LIVES ARE GIVEN MEANING, THAT WE RISE TO A SENSE IN OURSELVES AND SEE IN OTHERS A GREATER VALUE? John declares the reality - GOD VALUES US. In Jesus, God reveals the reality of human dignity, a worth beyond our merits. God reveals himself not to the super powers, nor to those who did “power lunches”, but a small nation, a peculiar people, a displaced couple, shepherds. IN JESUS GOD DECLARES DIGNITY UPON THE OVERWORKED, OUT OF WORK, to the CEO and those vulnerable to finding merit, the homeless and the helpless.
John declares the reality. GOD WANTS US AS HIS CHILDREN. Do you ever want to be a child again, unburdened, able to be dependent on someone bigger? God says great!…that’s the kind of love he has for us.
Stephen Covey tells the story of a friend whose son developed an avid interest in baseball. As he describes, “My friend wasn’t interested in baseball at all. But one summer, he took his son to see every major league team play one game. The trip took over six weeks and cost a great deal of money, but it became a powerful bonding experience in their relationship. My friend was asked on his return, “Do you like baseball that much?” “No,” he replied, “but I like my son that much.”
So it is that Christmas reveals the reality of a Fathers Love at the heart of the universe. Is. 9:6 “Everlasting Father”
At Christmas, DO WE NOT SENSE WE CAN SEE MORE CLEARLY IN A DARK WORLD, THAT THERE”S A LIGHT WITHIN THE DARKNESS? John declares God’s reality: GOD HAS COME TO GUIDE US through the light of Christ, for “IN HIM WAS LIFE…LIGHT OF MEN.
C.S. Lewis- “I believe in Christ as I believe in the sun. For I not only see it, but by it I see everything else.”
The reality of light and darkness is one of contrast; there is a choice between the two. It is our choice. Christmas is a choice, for embracing reality, embracing light in the midst of darkness.
Ann, along with her two small sons, went to live with her parents in Texas for the duration of World War II, while her Air Force husband was busy in Europe. It was Christmas time and mother and grandparents were making great plans for the boys. The tree was up and decorated. Gifts were bought and hidden away. The excitement, the gaiety, the beauty of the season seemed to push the sorrows and separation of war aside for a time, but only for a time. Just a week before Christmas Day, word came that Daddy would not only be away for this Christmas, but for all the Christmases that were to come; he had been killed in action. Ann went away to her room and closed the door.
Grandpa and Grandma talked quietly and wondered. Finally they decided to set the tree out and take down the decorations, since sorrow had replace their joy. Ann came out of her room after a while and saw the empty space where the tree had been. “Why, Mother?” she questioned. “What have you done with the tree” “Daddy and I set it out. It seemed out of place with you so broken-hearted.” “Oh, but Mother, let’s bring it back in. Christmas was made for such times as these!” “There is a darkness in the earth this Christmas. Deep, thick, black, darkness that would destroy all that is bright and beautiful if given full release. But the light that blazed forth from Bethlehem still shines from the lives of those who believe everywhere, and the only thing that can put it out is rejection. Surely, it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness! Shall we keep Christmas this year? Yes, we must keep Christmas this year, for Christ was born for such times as these.

In Christ,
Brown

3 Killed in Hindu, Christian Violence
By GAVIN RABINOWITZ – 2 hours ago

NEW DELHI (AP) — Police in eastern India killed at least three people when they opened fire on a group of hard-line Hindus who set fire to a police station during ongoing clashes between Hindus and Christians, officials said Friday.

The killings, which occurred Thursday in a remote corner of Orissa state, bring the death toll to four since violence broke out on Christmas Eve when long-standing tensions between the Hindu majority and the small Christian community erupted over conversions to Christianity.

The Hindus had attacked the police station in the Kandhamal district's Brahmangaon village, complaining of a lack of protection after a group of Christians burned down several Hindu homes in an apparent retaliation for earlier Hindu attacks on churches.

About 19 churches, most of them small mud and thatch buildings, have been ransacked and burned since Monday and several homes destroyed, including that of Radhakant Nayak, a member of India's upper house of parliament and a Christian leader in the area.

The state's chief minister, Naveen Patnaik, told reporters Friday that three people were killed in the violence at the police station, but provided no other details.

Patnaik also called for more federal forces to be dispatched to the area after local police and a curfew failed to halt the violence. On Thursday the federal government said it was sending a 300-strong paramilitary force to the region.

At least 25 people, belonging to both Hindu and Christian communities, have been arrested for suspected involvement in the violence, Superintendent of Police Narsingh Bhol told The Associated Press by phone.

India is overwhelmingly Hindu but officially secular. Religious minorities, such as Christians, who account for 2.5 percent of the country's 1.1. billion people, and Muslims, who make up 14 percent, often coexist peacefully.

But throughout India's history, the issue of conversions has provoked violence by hard-line Hindus.

Hindu groups have long charged Christian missionaries with trying to lure the poor and those who occupy the lowest rungs of Hinduism's complex caste-system away with promises of money and jobs.

Orissa has one of the worst histories of anti-Christian violence. An Australian missionary and his two sons, aged 8 and 10, were burned to death in their car in Orissa following a Bible study class in 1999.

There were conflicting reports of what started the violence in the rural district of Kandhamal, about 840 miles southeast of New Delhi.

Hindu hard-liners said Christians had attempted to attack one of their leaders, who heads an anti-conversion movement.

But Christians said the fighting began when Hindu extremists objected to a show marking Christmas Eve, believing it was designed to encourage conversions.


A Christian-Hindu Clash in India
Thursday, Dec. 27, 2007 By SIMON ROBINSON/NEW DELHI

A bus set on fire by protestors goes up in flames at Baliguda in Phulbani district in Orissa state, India


The violence that has wracked India's eastern state of Orissa over the past few days seems, at first glance, to be purely religious. On Christmas Eve and Christmas day, Hindu nationalists in the Kandhamal area attacked churches and convents and set fire to houses belonging to Christians, killing one person and injuring at least two dozen more. Since then, more than forty Christian houses have been set ablaze despite curfews and increased police patrols. Local Hindus say the violence began after Christians attacked a Hindu leader. Christians say the attacks — the latest in several bouts of religious violence that have plagued the state over the past few years — were sparked by church plans for a performance to celebrate Christmas.

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As with most communal violence in India, this latest explosion of hatred is the result not only of religious differences but of a tangled intersection of political power, communal prejudice and the injustices of Hinduism's archaic caste system.

Orissa is predominantly Hindu, with a small Christian minority. Over the past few years, though, thousands of Hindus have converted to Christianity. Many converts, and the churches they join, say conversion is a way to escape their place in the complex social hierarchy of Hindu caste.But India's right-wing Hindu groups and political parties allege that Christian groups are forcing Hindus to convert against their will, in an effort to change the nature of India. "They want to convert people to Christianity and convert the country into a Christian land," Swami Laxmananand Saraswati, head of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council), one of India's biggest Hindu nationalist groups, told Indian reporters. "We are opposed to that and that is the source of all disputes and fights." Other low-caste groups and so-called "tribals" — ethnic minorities who stand outside the caste system but have historically been poor and neglected — who benefit from affirmative action programs that reserve for them government jobs and school places, worry that minority Christians may one day receive affirmative action places themselves — diluting their chances of moving up India's social ladder. Groups such as the VHP play on those fears in an attempt to unite India's diverse Hindu population against the Christian or Muslim "outsiders," says Ashis Nandy, a political psychologist and sociologist at India's Centre for the Study of Developing Societies. "If you can identify a common enemy it is easier to unify all these Hindu groups" that, in the view of Hindu nationalists, should "work together to save Hinduism."

One of the hard-liners' main frustrations is the fact that Hinduism is inherently tolerant of other religions and allows that they too could be valid alternative paths to enlightenment. Proselytizing as Christians and Muslims do is, by its nature, un-Hindu, which makes a looming battle for Indians' souls look "very asymmetrical," says Nandy. For Hindu nationalists, the fear of Hindu conversions to Christianity "is a kind of humiliation that is being rubbed in," he says. Ironically, of course, Hinduism's acceptance of other religions is used by extremists as an excuse for hostility towards other religions. "The source of tolerance has become a source of bigotry," says Nandy. Which is why this week's upheaval won't be the last.