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Saturday, August 6, 2011

Disconnecting People


Nokia – connecting people. Indeed many technology companies today come with a catch line of this sort. Mobile phone companies, the internet and the like promise a way to make communication better. Yesterday, there was no electricity in the house. No TV, DVD, laptop, etc.

With just a candle, my family and I found ourselves gathered in the living room, sharing stories, jokes, laughing. We had none but ourselves to be entertained. The darkness was very conducive to communication.

It felt primeval, a sense of intimacy was in the air.

Electricity was up and running the next day and we were back to our individual worlds – one to a TV, the internet, mobile phone and the list goes on.

God VS Religion


The plot to kill Jesus was not arranged by the common people, not those who would likely miss out on the things that come from God - the demon-possessed, corrupt tax collectors or promiscuous women. It was the religious who plotted the death of the Son of Man.

Imagine the religious today wanting to throw stones at Jesus and eventually begging Pontius Pilate for Him to be crucified –  not for anything else but that He claimed to be God. Among all others, it was the religious who were the most startled by Jesus’ revelation. It made them not only uncomfortable but angry – perhaps because the people’s attention about things of righteousness and spirituality were now drawn to Jesus – not to them.

They taught laws – Jesus taught grace. They modelled code of ethics – Jesus modelled love.

The Pharisees had high power; they could say anything and people believed them. No questions asked. So that when Jesus showed a different way in relating to God and men, mess happened.

Indeed, Jesus brought riot in the hearts and lives of not only the Jews during his time, but even those the Jews did not associate with - the Samaritans (Remember the woman at the well?). It is no surprise that when God comes and when He works, nothing is ever the same.

Lives are turn downside up. The blind can now see. Fishermen become preachers. The demon-possessed are freed. Prostitutes become witnesses. The dead come back to life.

Everyone is amazed and believes.

Except the Pharisees – the teachers of the law of Moses, the religious leaders.

Things have become extremely uncomfortable  that they simply have to exercise “religious” power to put an end to that which they failed to see as one coming from God – and that which is God, himself.

They think they see, but they are blind.