December 31, 2017 - Epiphany - All of us are Manifestations of Sacred Life

Today Pastor Ray probably introduced everyone in our congregation to the name Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg in his sermon.

When thinking about history-changing German Christian theologians the names of Martin Luther, Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer come to our minds. For those in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg comes to their mind. In 2006 ten thousand people joined the week-long festivities celebrating the 300th anniversary of Ziegenbalg’s landing on Indian shores 

This Pietist Lutheran is called a "morning star" in India and Tamil scholar Daniel Jeyaraj gave him the moniker “the father of modern Protestant mission.”He preceded better-known Anglican and Reformed missionaries in India by a century.

Pastor Ray talked about Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg on this Epiphany Sunday because of the work he did in India and how different his work was from a sentiment we have often heard in this season "Wise men still seek him".  The implication of that sentence could be that by sincerely seeking God, God's existence will become evident. In essence the ball is man's court rather than God.

What Pastor Ray preached about Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg is that his work led a group of people, the Tamil who had always been viewed disdainfully, as fellow brothers and sisters. All of us our epiphanies, manifestations of sacred life. This is not conditional on what we do or believe, however hard this is for us to accept.