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October 31, each year marks the day of Reformation. Reformation is an on going process in divine-human history and hence confining Reformation only to October 31, 1517 is not justified. Reformation has been an on going act of God in the human from the beginnings of human history paving the way for the human to experience life in all its fullness. Whenever there was a threat to the divine plan for the human to experience this life in its fullness, God had to intervene from time to time through people to set things right. Reformation event, which happened through Martin Luther on October 31, 1517, is one of such reformation events. However, this particular event assumes significance as this day is generally regarded as the day when the Protestant reformation began against the practices of the Catholic Church, which eventually led to the formation of the Protestant Church as distinct from the Catholic Church.

One of the Biblical texts that is read for reflection on the Reformation Day is Jeremiah 31:31-34.It is a call to the people in exile to a life of newness in the midst of brokenness. This call to reformation is a call to embrace divine generosity. Like other prophets before him, Jeremiah has spent ample time and energy on the claim that Israel has systematically and long-term violated the covenant agreement of Mt. Sinai. They have violated the Ten Commandments of Sinai by economic policies that abused the poor, by foreign policy that depended on arms, by theological practice that offended God and by illusions of privilege before God. Such violation brings with it severe sanctions, culminating in the destruction of Jerusalem and the deportation of its leading residents. But now in the book of Jeremiah, in the wake of brokenness and its resultant shame, defeat and anxiety, Jeremiah asserts God’s resolve to renew the covenant that has been broken by ancient Israel (Jeremiah 31:31-34). It will be a renewed covenant, but one that stands in continuity with that of Sinai. What guarantees continuity from old broken covenant to new covenant is that both feature Torah; both line out the mutual fidelity of God and Israel by instruction and guidance for obedience that put Israel under obligation to God. The difference is that this time Israel will have a ready inclination to obey as it did not have in its ancient recalcitrance; the covenant now will be a glad practice of mutual fidelity. This will be for Israel a genuine starting over!

The ground for such starting over is to be found, singularly, in God’s ready resolve to begin anew. God, says Jeremiah, is ready to forgive and to forget, so that the renewed relationship is one of generosity and grace on God’s part.

It is indeed my prayer that we will rediscover and thereby celebrate God’s generosity of forgiving and forgetting our evil acts providing us ample opportunities to experience life in all its fullness which God gives to all. This celebration of Reformation is an on going activity bringing about transformation in us and through us in the other. When this happens in the family of the Bible Society, we can say with grace and humility that the Bible Society is a Reformed and a Reforming Community.

Rev. Dr. M. Mani Chacko
General Secretary
The Bible Society of India

Mr. Vanlalthanga, age 72 with hearing impaired, a cheerful and untiring volunteer for the Bible cause from Durtlang, Aizawl has a firm conviction that there is nothing more important in life than spreading the Word of God.

His mission is to reach out the whole of Mizoram as his area of operation! He goes from house to house, and even visits different government and Church offices campaigning for the Bible Society, proclaiming that one of the key ways to receiving God’s blessings and healing is to get involved in the ministry of the BSI by giving donations for the Bible production and distribution. It is rather surprising to know that he could even convinced the present Chief Minister of Mizoram State Mr. Zoramthanga to become the Patron member of the BSI. He always blesses the donors with a gift of his handmade wooden cross in return to the donations they made for the BSI. People like Mr. Vanlalthanga are indeed an asset to the ministry of the Bible Society.

Fr. Stan Swamy, S.J.,an 83-year-old Jesuit from Jamshedpur province in India, has spent more than 40 years advocating for the rights of the marginalized, particularly of Adivasi (tribal/indigenous) communities. He was arrested on October 8, 2020 and sent to jail under false charges and is one of the latest in a recent string of arrests of human rights defenders in the area. Let us pray for the early release.

Source: ignationsolidarity.net

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A few thousand years ago, God used a 4-step marketing process to get Moses to obey God’s will. From Madison Avenue marketing gurus to the simple neighborhood pizza parlor, businesses are still using this exact same 4-step process. While they may not be giving God the credit, the proof is in the scriptures, we just need to look for it. Rev. Dr. Mani Chacko looks at the book of Exodus to find the similarities…

If you do a word search in the Bible for the words “marketing” or “advertising” it will yield no results. With all the divine wisdom held in those pages, why aren’t these words found? Is God saying, “Do not advertise”? Is He saying, “Do not market the church”?

Before we can write this whole idea off as a waste of church resources, we need to take a closer look at what marketing is all about.
A few thousand years ago, God used a 4-step marketing process to get Moses to obey God’s will. From Madison Avenue marketing gurus to the simple neighbourhood pizza parlour, businesses are still using this exact same 4-step process. While they may not be giving God the credit, the proof is in the scriptures, we just need to look for it.
We will take a quick look at the process, then look at the book of Exodus and find the similarities.

1. The first job of marketing is to CAPTURE ATTENTION:

In order to offer solutions, services, or products you must first gain the attention of your audience. If you don’t do this first step, the whole process fails.
A common misconception in our society is that “sex sells”. Sex sells nothing; it captures people’s attention. Have you ever wondered why you keep seeing commercials pushing the limits of censorship with risk and often times even violent images? Unfortunately, it is because our society has become desensitized to the point that advertisers and marketers must continue to increase the shock-value to get our attention.
I once saw a church marketing piece that featured a graphic of a man’s large, muscular, tattooed arm (the tattoo was the church’s logo) coupled with a message that said “All of God’s people are welcome here ”. I was later told that it was one of the most successful campaigns they’ve run. They thought out of the box, untypical for “churchy” advertising. While this may not be the message or personality of your church, there is something unique about your church – share it through your advertising! Don’t be afraid to push the limits a bit; it might just reach people on a whole new level!

2. The second job of marketing is to ENGAGE the AUDIENCE:

Engaging the audience just means keeping the attention of your listeners long enough to educate them on what a particular product or service has to offer. It is important that these steps are carried out in the correct order. Once you get the audience’s attention, you need to keep it. The term “attention span” refers to how long you can keep someone engaged. While a great attention-getting image or headline may work at first, it still needs to engage (hold the attention).

3. The third job of marketing is to EDUCATE:

This is where advertisers tell you about all the benefits of their product and how it is guaranteed to make your life better. They establish “the need” and then meet the need with a solution! For example, you might not have thought you needed the product 60 seconds ago, but now that they have created a need and offered a solution, you discover you can’t live without it! If they weren’t able to keep your attention, they wouldn’t have been able to establish a need and pitch the solution.

4. The fourth job of marketing is to create a CALL TO ACTION:

A “call to action” is when marketers create an action step such as “Buy Now” or “Call Today”. By this point they have you. If they have done their job correctly then they have captured your attention, engaged you long enough to educate you on their benefits, and created a need for their product. If you listened to all the great things their product will do for you then you are ready to bite. All it takes at this point is a call to action, a way for you to respond!
Now that we understand what marketing is, we will look at the Bible and see exactly how God used this 4-step process in order to get Moses to follow God’s will. This is clear in Exodus 3 where the story of Moses and the Burning bush is narrated.

God uses the first step in the marketing process: He captures Moses’s attention with the burning bush.
(Exodus 3:1-3) “Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father -in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. (God captures his attention) So Moses thought, ‘I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.’”

A bush burning on the side of a mountain would be a huge attention-getter for any one. Once God gets Moses’ attention, he then uses the second step in the marketing process: He engages Moses.
(Exodus 3:4) “When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, ‘Moses! Moses!’ And Moses said, ‘Here I am.’” (God Engages Moses) After God has his attention and has begun to engage Moses, He then uses the third step in the marketing process: He educates him on who He is.
(Exodus 3:-5-9) “‘Do not come any closer, ‘ God said, ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.’ Then he said, ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.’ At this, Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God. The LORD said, ‘I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.’” (God Educates Moses) Finally, God has educated Moses on who He is. He then uses the fourth step in the marketing process: He tells him what to do, or makes him an offer. God presents Moses with a call to action!
   
(Exodus 3:10) “So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” God tells Moses what to do – God creates a call to action.
We can analyse story after story and see that God systematically used the principles of marketing to accomplish what He desired. If these principles are good enough for God to build his Kingdom, then why shouldn’t they be good enough for the Bible Society and the Church to do the same?

Marketing is a science and one that is equally applicable for the Bible Society and the Church as it is to any product, service, or business. When implemented correctly, these well -thought-out steps can effectively produce desired results.

Rev.Dr.M.Mani Chacko,Ph.D(Lond.)
General Secretary
The Bible Society of India

We are again at the brink of Christmas! How soon yet another opportunity has come to us to think about the deeper meaning of Christmas! An appropriate verse for our reflection that comes to my mind is 1 John 1:1-4:

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete.

These verses teach us that Christmas is neither only a doctrine nor only history but both! This is what I would like to explore with you.

A. Christmas is Doctrinal

What do I mean by “doctrinal”? I used the word doctrinal on purpose. I know it is a negative word. It is part of a family of words that have negative connotations. Doctrine or dogma connotes being narrow, being rigid or closed. It is bad to be closed. It is bad to be haughty. It is bad to not be open to reason. It is bad not to listen to others. But in our fear of being doctrinaire, we are not frank, we are not honest, about the fact we are all doctrinal.

A doctrine is a belief we base our lives on, and it is something we contend for, we insist on. In other words, a doctrine first of all is a faith position. It is not something we can prove scientifically. It is not something we prove empirically. Secondly, it is something we live on, we commit ourselves to, we base our lives on. And thirdly, it is something we push, we contend with other people over. That is a doctrine. And even though we should not be doctrinaire, we are all doctrinal.

Let us try not to be doctrinaire. But we cannot avoid being doctrinal. Everybody has faith assumptions about God, about eternity, about human nature, about moral truth. We bet our lives on them and press for them, and there is no way to avoid being doctrinal.

Christmas is doctrinal. The text says the invisible has become visible, the incorporeal has become corporeal. In other words, God has become human. The absolute has become particular. The ideal has become real. The divine has taken up a human nature. This is not only a specific doctrine, but it is also unique. Doctrine always distinguishes us. One of the reasons we are afraid to talk about doctrine is because it distinguishes us from others. Here is why the doctrine of Christmas is unique.

On the one hand we have got religions that say God is so imminent in all things that incarnation is normal. If you are a Buddhist or Hindu, God is imminent in everything. God is the divine spark in everything, and therefore incarnation is normal. God is incarnate in all sorts of people and things. Christians say Jesus is the God. On the other hand, the family of religions like Islam and Judaism says God is so transcendent over all things that incarnation is impossible. Jesus as God is blasphemous.

But Christianity is unique. It does not say incarnation is normal, but it does not say it is impossible. It says God is so imminent that it is possible, but God is so transcendent that the Incarnation of God in the person of Jesus Christ is an event. Christianity has a unique view on this that sets it apart from everything else.

B. Christmas is Historical

Christmas is not just doctrinal; it is also historical. Look at what John says: we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.

Here is what he is saying: When we give you these accounts of Jesus walking on the water, of Jesus rising from the dead, of Jesus speaking these words, these are not legends. These are not things we made up. These are not wonderful spiritual parables. These are things we saw. We saw him do this. We heard him do this. We felt him do this.

In other words, the doctrine of Christmas is that God became historical. The manger, the resurrection, the story of Jesus is not just a story. It is true. It actually happened in history. The doctrine of Christmas is that Jesus came. If he did not come, the story of Christmas is one more moral paradigm to crush us. If Jesus did not come, I would not want to be anywhere around these Christmas stories that say we need to be sacrificing, we need to be humble, we need to be loving. All that will do is crush us into the ground, because if it is not true that John saw him, heard him, felt him, that Jesus really came to do these things, then Christmas is depressing.

Every year we see stories in newspapers saying Christmas is the time of year for depression. It is, but not if you believe these first two verses, not if you understand Christmas is not just an inspiring story we can live up to, but it is both doctrinal and historical.

Christmas is both doctrine and history. May the reality of Christmas govern and direct our thoughts, words and actions as we celebrate Christmas once again!

Rev.Dr.M.Mani Chacko,Ph.D(Lond.)
General Secretary
The Bible Society of India