GARGANTUAN steps
Friday, September 28, 2007
brave old world
I'm headed over to London tonight, once again, after a seemingly brief three months back home in Singapore. A paralytic fear has once again gripped me, and I am leaving home with much apprehension. The thought of another nine months away from home just crushes the heart and the will to continue on. And the thought of many more 'nine months' to come just seems to cover my life in darkness.
I know what is in store for me this time round, and so I don't leave with the previous excitement that I had. I can only look forward to seeing my brother next Wednesday (he's in Birmingham for a conference and will come down to London for a day) and again in December when we meet up in Athens! After that, I hope to see my parents at the end of my school year in June and then it'll be time to go home. Perhaps I should arrange to somehow come back to Singapore permanently, if the opportunity arises.
Meanwhile, I've finally finished reading Jesus of Nazareth by Pope Benedict. Had about 60 pages to go at the start of today but it was all completed in good time. Quite a tough book to read as the pages wore on. Some chapters were written quite poignantly, like the chapter on Jesus' parables, but others like the Johannine gospel's understanding of Jesus and what Jesus calls himself (He calls himself the "Son of Man", the "Son", and "I am") were rather deep and felt like I was going through a medical textbook. The Old Testament was linked very closely with the New Testament and it gave me a much better understanding of the bible than I previously have had.
Just to talk a little about the chapter that struck me the most, that being on the parable of the Prodigal Son ( Luke 15:11-32). The parable is essentially about three people: the loving father, the prodigal son and the older, bitter son. The father is God who loves us unconditionally and will go all out for that one sheep that is lost. The prodigal son was, in the context of when this parable was preached, in reference to the sinners that Jesus was having a meal with and whom the Pharisees confronted him about. And so the older brother was Jesus talking about the Pharisees. And I always wondered why Jesus sort of ended the parable rather abruptly, without knowing what the response of the older brother was after the father had said this.
'My son,' the father said, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.'
And the actual fact is that right at this point in time, reality comes into the story and we have become the older brother, and it is now us who have to respond to Jesus. This is Jesus' invitation to us, to join Him at the table and He has laid it in our hands to make this choice.
I shall end this entry with a paragraph taken from the book which I hope might entice many of you to read it -
" the great question: What did Jesus actually bring, if not world peace, universal prosperity, and a better world? What has He brought? The answer is very simple: God. He has brought God. He has brought the God who formerly unveiled his countenance gradually, first to Abraham then to Moses and the Prophets, and then in the wisdom literature - the God who revealed his face only in Israel, even though He was also honoured among the pagans in various shadowy guises. It is this God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the true God, whom he has brought to the nations of the earth. He has brought God, and now we know his face, now we can call upon him. Now we know the path that we human beings have to take in this world. Jesus has brought God and with God the truth about our origin and destiny: faith, hope and love."
Alright, it is time to go now! Through the narrow gates...
I know what is in store for me this time round, and so I don't leave with the previous excitement that I had. I can only look forward to seeing my brother next Wednesday (he's in Birmingham for a conference and will come down to London for a day) and again in December when we meet up in Athens! After that, I hope to see my parents at the end of my school year in June and then it'll be time to go home. Perhaps I should arrange to somehow come back to Singapore permanently, if the opportunity arises.
Meanwhile, I've finally finished reading Jesus of Nazareth by Pope Benedict. Had about 60 pages to go at the start of today but it was all completed in good time. Quite a tough book to read as the pages wore on. Some chapters were written quite poignantly, like the chapter on Jesus' parables, but others like the Johannine gospel's understanding of Jesus and what Jesus calls himself (He calls himself the "Son of Man", the "Son", and "I am") were rather deep and felt like I was going through a medical textbook. The Old Testament was linked very closely with the New Testament and it gave me a much better understanding of the bible than I previously have had.
Just to talk a little about the chapter that struck me the most, that being on the parable of the Prodigal Son ( Luke 15:11-32). The parable is essentially about three people: the loving father, the prodigal son and the older, bitter son. The father is God who loves us unconditionally and will go all out for that one sheep that is lost. The prodigal son was, in the context of when this parable was preached, in reference to the sinners that Jesus was having a meal with and whom the Pharisees confronted him about. And so the older brother was Jesus talking about the Pharisees. And I always wondered why Jesus sort of ended the parable rather abruptly, without knowing what the response of the older brother was after the father had said this.
'My son,' the father said, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.'
And the actual fact is that right at this point in time, reality comes into the story and we have become the older brother, and it is now us who have to respond to Jesus. This is Jesus' invitation to us, to join Him at the table and He has laid it in our hands to make this choice.
I shall end this entry with a paragraph taken from the book which I hope might entice many of you to read it -
" the great question: What did Jesus actually bring, if not world peace, universal prosperity, and a better world? What has He brought? The answer is very simple: God. He has brought God. He has brought the God who formerly unveiled his countenance gradually, first to Abraham then to Moses and the Prophets, and then in the wisdom literature - the God who revealed his face only in Israel, even though He was also honoured among the pagans in various shadowy guises. It is this God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the true God, whom he has brought to the nations of the earth. He has brought God, and now we know his face, now we can call upon him. Now we know the path that we human beings have to take in this world. Jesus has brought God and with God the truth about our origin and destiny: faith, hope and love."
Alright, it is time to go now! Through the narrow gates...
posted by Gabriel Yan at 6:09 PM
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