"Pursue peace with everyone, and holiness — without it no one will see the Lord." + Hebrews 12:14
Here are recent highlights:
When we handed these books out to our congregation, this is part of the note we included inside each one:
This might seem at first
to be a peculiar Advent devotional.
But saints often are peculiar people
who stand out in a particular time and place.
In fact, the times when saints shine
the most are times of darkness.
They give glimpses of Jesus’ Light,
which darkness cannot overcome.
Advent begins in the dark.
And we, as part of Jesus’ Church,
are called to live as Advent people
who anticipate Jesus’ coming
into our darkness today to overcome it.
Ultimately, our hope rests in the God of Advent
who drew near to us in Jesus’ first coming
and will come again
to take away the darkness forever
and be our eternal Light. That hope is what saints have embodied
as our sisters and brothers across time,
ethnicities, Christian traditions,
nationalities, and more.
As we step into this next year,
our prayer is that we will shine
all the more with the holy light
of Christ in us and through us.
And we pray that we
“being rooted and firmly established in love,
may be able to comprehend with all the saints
what is the length and width,
height and depth of God’s love.”
After all, “the Father has enabled us
to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light.
He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and
transferred us into the Kingdom
of the Son He loves.”
This post features an excerpt from Our Church Speaks so that you might also walk some of this journey with us with reflection, prayer, and anticipation for how the Light of the world might shine in your life during this season.
Pandita Mary Ramabai Renewer of Society & Translator of the Bible
Jesus gives dignity to all people,
and He inspired Pandita Ramabai
in her outspoken advocacy
for voiceless Indian women.
In her day, Indian society was divided into a fixed hierarchy of castes, and women of all castes were expected to exist in the background. Girls, often younger than ten years old, were given in marriage to much older men. Young widows were considered cursed, their heads were shaved, and they suffered abuse. Women across India silently faced injustice and were denied education and autonomy. Ramabai wanted to put an end to all of this, and her inspiration began as a child, with the encouragement of her father.
Ramabai's father was a Hindu member of a high-caste Brahmin family. Defying cultural norms, he refused to marry off his daughter at a young age and personally taught her Sanskrit, a sacred Hindu language intended only for highest-caste me. He also gave Ramabai a comprehensive education in literature, religion, and science. When Ramabai was sixteen years old, her father and mother died from famine, and she was forced to support herself in Calcutta, reciting Sanskrit literature. She attached attention as she demonstrated her education and became known as a Pandita (scholar) by teachers at the University of Calcutta.
In her twenties, Ramabai created scandal by marrying and having a child with a man of a lower caste. After only two years, her husband died. Now a widow, she once again did the unthinkable: she traveled across the globe as a single mother. In England, she taught Sanskrit and Marathi (one of the national languages of India).
She cherished her Indian heritage but searched for a philosophy that did not degrade women. While in England, she heard the Gospel of Jesus. "Having lost all faith in my former religion," Ramabai said, "and with my heart hungering after something better, I eagerly learnt everything I could about the Christian religion, and declared my intention to become a Christian. ... I realized, after reading the fourth chapter of St. John's Gospel, that Christ was truly the and no one but He could transform of India. ... Thus my heart was drawn to the religion of Christ."
Many Indians resented Ramabai for embracing Christianity and for giving herself the name Mary to mark her baptism. She clashed with Westerners for protesting colonial attitudes, wearing Indian clothing, and eating a vegetarian diet. Keeping her eyes fixed on Jesus' example, she established communities for homeless Indian women and children and wrote and spoke for the voiceless women of India. She translated the Bible from Hebrew and Greek into Marathi, allowing Indian men and women to hear and read God's Word in their native tongue. Her translation, like her life work, transformed and uplifted her people through the hope found only in Jesus Christ.
Scripture
"For I the LORD love justice; I hate robbery and wrong; I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them." + Isaiah 61:8
Meditation: Justice as a Clue to the Meaning of the Universe
C.S. Lewis begins Mere Christianity with a chapter titled "Right and Wrong as a clue to the meaning of the universe," making a compelling case that human moral instinct is evidence of God's existence. Today, words like right and wrong are out of fashion, so when N.T. Wright begins his book Simply Christian, he uses the same logic as Lewis but updates the language: "Justice as a clue to the meaning of the universe."
When humans express moral indignation, we are saying something about and there cannot be an ought without there being intention. This is a breadcrumb, a signpost, that there is a Great Intention behind and underneath all that exists.
Meerkats do not express moral outrage when a hyena devours a litter of pups, but humans cry out in righteous protest when an active shooter mows down a kindergarten classroom. It is wrong. It is evil. We know it in our guts. This is not the way things ought to be.
The world was made for goodness, peace, and shalom. (This is why we all have a sense of the way things ought to be.)
The world has been corrupted and broken by sin. (This is why injustice, suffering, and pain are a plague on the world.)
Jesus has taken the corruption of sin on Himself and put it to death. (This is why God has enacted a solution where He bears the responsibility for what humans have caused.)
One day all things will be made new, and shalom will reign forever. (This is the guaranteed hope that gives us endurance, patience, and even joy as we labor for justice in this life.)
Ramabai longed for justice for her people but could not find support for this longing in her Hindu religion. This sent her on a journey toward Jesus and the Christian faith, where she found both a satisfying explanation of the world and clarity on how to pursue justice for others.
We live in a cultural moment where so many people feel a heightened need for social justice. This movement flows out of the justice instincts that are hardwired into every human heart. The opportunity that lies before Jesus' Church is to helpfully clarify what this longing for justice means and to become a signpost that points people toward the
Prayer
O God, who showed forth the light of Your Gospel in the land of India through Your faithful servant Pandita Mary Ramabai, enlighten our hearts, that we may receive with faith Your promises, and so be numbered with Your saints in glory everlasting through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
pgs. 83-85
Additional Advent Resources:
Many blessings of peace and presence,
Rev. Mike “Sully” Sullivan
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