I express my respect to Marthoma Valia Thirumeni, other Thirumenis and Reverends. I am thankful to God that Rev. Zachariah stands with me, he may not want to translate this speech, but I will not have any mouth or ears with out him. Just before I got up, Valia Thirumeni told me that I should sing. If Valia Thirumeni tells that, I do not have any other say after that. I will sing a song in my mother language Tamil, which I started speaking before I learned English. If I was living in Keralam, I would have sung in Malayalam. Unfortunately I cannot do the same.

The song, which I am going to sing, is a prophetic vision and imagination that is deep in the heart of the songwriter. He is singing about the Church. He says Church is a family. It is the family of Jesus. We all belong to one another. With the prophetic vision of singer he says Jesus is his own. In this family of Jesus there is no distinction of educated, illiterate, rich or poor. Inside this family, the power and freedom of sin is broken. Inside this family, the bondage and curse of the sin is also broken. It is that curse of the sin, which cause to loose the humanity as Valia Thirumeni talked about.

Who can redeem us from this conflict? The blood of Jesus Christ, Son of God not only redeems us from the bondage of the sin but also relieve us from all the consequences of the sin. Wherever this family is, there is no sickness as everybody heals each other. Wherever this family is, there is no want for anything because whatever they have, they share each other. This is the prophetic imagination of the writer of the song. Church exists for this. In the last stanza of the song he says ‘There is Joy…, There is peace…, There is singing…, There is liberation... because Jesus lives within this family.’

When I was a student of University of Madras, there was a man whose memory always comes to my mind. He was a young man who gave up his family, friends, richness, position and all his luxuries in his life for the service of a group of people who were marginalized. Nobody promised him any name or fame. But he went. He and four other worked along with him were killed on the very first day they started working among these group of people. This tragic incident had a very big influence in my mind during the time I was configuring my life. A statement made by that boy is still an inspiration in my mind. He said, it is foolish to keep ridiculous things of our life to safeguard what you will never loose.

Some university graduate from Orissa went to a group of downtrodden people to do ministry. One evening, when they were coming home riding a motorcycle, there was some people waiting for him to attack. When they turned over a hill, they invaders were hiding behind. The invaders did not like the service done by this man among a group of marginalized people. They attacked the man with swords and cut his forehead and eyes. I met the gentleman in the hospital on the very same day. I stood near his bed. His face was disfigured with wounds. Doctors advised his wife to move him to a bigger hospital with more facilities. After a thorough investigation, Doctors declared that his one eye can not be saved, but he will live a good life. He had totally lost sight of his one eye. Both husband and wife talked to me. They consoled that only one eye is lost but the other eye is saved and also his life is saved. He said with a determination that he will give his life for the service of those people. This young man is not a fool who decided to loose his life for a very important cause, which he never loose.

There were many people who strongly believed that it is desirable to sacrifice even the life fore achieving things, which they never loose. History may mention that they lost everything. They were pushed out. Today several thousands of people are assembled. What is the goal of us? With 108 years of this assemblage what is our goal? Let us look into scripture for the answer. We assembled here based on words in the Bible. We should get experienced with Word of God exactly as our forefathers did. We may have to loose many things, which we may think dear to us. But there is something, which nobody can take away from us. All the people irrespective of their age should know this truth.

Today we choose the scripture reference Gospel according to St.Mark. St.Mark had written this Gospel with the skill of a journalist. Mark was reporting the truth. Mark is talking about the disciples. If I ask you to raise hands who are disciples of God, I believe most of you will raise your hands. In the first 8 chapters Mark makes the arguments who Jesus is. As he was a good reporter he does not address the theory, but straight enter into the real story. In all his stories he is projecting the question who Jesus is ? Somebody is moving around. Who he is? In the Chapter 9-10 Mark describes the quality of the disciples in comparison with that of Jesus. In Chapter 11-16 Mark describes the events in a week, because it was such an important week. In this first session we will be discussing only first two parts of this Gospel according to St.Mark.

There are mainly 2 things involved in these Chapters.

1. How the disciples came to faith.
2. What were the visible differences in their life.

In these early Chapters of the Gospel Mark emphasize ‘Who is Jesus?’ He did not have any wealth. He did not promote himself. Yet nobody could reject him. Who is this? The answers were diverse. His friends and relatives heard of its; they went out to lay hold on him for they said he is beside himself. He must go home. If he speaks publicly, he will take the name of the family and bring defame to it. This was what the family people thought.

In Mark 3:22 the Jewish leaders told that he is in league with the devils. He got the power of devil to bind the devils. However they themselves disagreed for ‘Why the devil control the power of devil.’

People of Nazareth thought he is an ordinary man. This is what it described in Mark 6:1-6. If Jesus was living in Ernakulam, going to the Church in Ernakulam and if he was seen with an unusual attraction, people of that Church will say; he is an ordinary man like others. People will say; he was going to school with my son, he was playing Cricket with my son: an ordinary boy.

In Mark 6:16, Herod the ruler of Judea told; He is John the Baptist, whom I beheaded. He is risen from the dead. Why? The guilt of killing John was still with him. He had beheaded John to cover up his own sin. Now the righteous word of the righteous man is coming against him.

The devils around also had an opinion about him. (Mark 1:23-26; 3:11-15) The devils said; ‘You are the son of God’. They did not say that he belongs to them. The devils recognized him and witnessed him as the Son of God. But Jesus tells them to shut their mouth. Why? He was getting an easy publicity, then why he stopped them. If my faith in Jesus depends on the testimony of a devil then it will not last long. It can never change the order of the world, which controls the marginalized people. It cannot release me from the inhumanity, which prevails in me. In the witness of the devil I cannot work for the Kingdom of God.

Jesus asks the disciples; ‘Whom do you say I am?’ It is no matter what others or the devil say about me, but it matters your opinion about me. It is this confrontation which caused a revival on this sand bed of Pumpa River. You are the son of God. You are my Lord. Unto you I live with all my profit and loss. I understand what is that in me, which nobody can take away from me. In the middle of the 8th Chapter Jesus asks the disciples ‘ Whom you say I am.’ Simon answered, ‘You are the son of living God.’ Then Jesus said ‘ Simon, you are blessed because mere human intelligence can not reveal this to you.’ You are beyond any description, which I can give you. You are a revolutionary but more than a revolutionary. You are a prophet but more than a prophet. You are a teacher but more than a teacher. Immediately it turned off what he has proved.

In Mark 8:31-33 Jesus tells ‘Let us go to Jerusalem.’ There the son of man will be delivered into the hands of men. There he will be forsaken, crucified, killed and shall rise the third day. Then Simon took him out and rebuked him; why? Because, with the heart he loved Jesus. So you cannot go to the cross. My hero cannot suffer that way. He is the one who should conquer everybody. Jesus uses the strongest word to rebuke Simon. ‘Satan, You go behind me.’ Why Jesus is calling a man, Satan. When God decided to redeem the mankind by the way of cross, Satan came to stop it with same arguments.

Jesus tells to the disciples that if they cannot deny themselves and take cross, they can not become his disciple. This was the beginning of the great event. In the country and in the Church we belong to, what type of disciple we are? Look at the symptoms for the failure in the life of the disciples.

While looking through the 9th Chapter Verse 30, Jesus speaks of the necessity of sufferings. In Verse 33 we see they were thinking who is the greatest among them. My brothers and sisters, we get only one opportunity in our life for each one of us. If we don’t visualize the thing, which God desire us to see, then we will live and die in the darkness. If we are looking to find who is the greatest then the desire of God will not be fulfilled in us. In the circumstances where we are, the thoughts of becoming great, is wasting our time and opportunities, which will be lost forever.

Let us look the second thing the disciples did; Verse 38-41. John said ‘Master we saw one casting out devils in your name; we followed him and forbade him.’ Jesus told them not to do that. You are my property but I am not your property. God is bigger than Church. In our India, the differences among the different Churches are irrelevant. The task is huge to find who is bigger than whom. So many things are there which divided us. Jesus tells us that we should grow beyond these differences.

Look to the third thing happened to the disciples. In the 10th Chapter Jesus talks the third time about the resurrection. Verse 32-24. Then there came the sons of Zebedee. They wanted to get some position. To sit one on the left and the other on the right. Give me the ministry of internal affairs and the external affairs to my brother. We will run your government and you can take a vacation.

These are thing which subtle in our mind. Who is greatest? If you do not belong to us you do not have any right with Jesus. Even while doing evangelism we are looking for position. If we love Jesus with our heart, we have to prove it by laying down our life. Jesus considers those as his own. The values in the mind of Jesus and the values in the mind of disciples were all the way far.

In Chapter 10 Verse 45 Jesus said, the son of man did not come to be ministered; but to minister and to give his life as a ransom for many. How would this change take place? Where will I begin? It is my ardent prayer that Holy Spirit should speak to us. St.Paul talks about the bodily temptations, which hinder us from doing the work of the Kingdom of God. Without the power of Holy Spirit, the integrity of our personality will never be displayed? But the beginning of all this is the single-minded loyalty with Jesus.

Let me conclude by a telling the story of an old artist. There was a rich man. He was a widower. He had a big fancy for arts. He was very interested to collect marvelous painting of great masters. He bought many magnificent paintings in the world. His house was full of them. All the art lovers in world knew about his collections. They all knew that his collections are very valuable. He had only one son. There was a law in the country in which they lived that all the youngsters should go for war if a war break out in the country. So when a war arose, his son also had to go to the battlefield to serve his country. He went for battle with bravery. In warfront he tried to save a soldier who had fallen wounded. In that process he was shot dead.

This sad news was informed to his father. His wife was dead. Now his only son also dead. After some days, a young soldier came to his house and knocked the door. There was a small packet with the young soldier. The soldier told the old man that his son saved him from the death. The soldier gave the packet to the father. It was a picture of his son painted by the soldier. That painting did not have much artistic value. But he kept the painting in the place where he keeps most precious painting, as he considered it as the biggest exposure of his love to his son.

After some years the father died. The lawyers of the Estate arranged an auction of all his collection as written in his will. Many people came from different countries to buy the most precious paintings in the world. They were very eager to see the costliest painting, which will be put for bid first. The first picture put on auction was the painting of his son. But nobody quoted for it as it did not have any artistic value. One man from behind offered a small amount and auction finalized. All were eagerly waiting to bid for all other precious collections. But the auctioneer declared, auction is over. In the will it is written, he who gets this picture get everything.

In the first Epistle of St.John it says ‘He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.’ How our Value changes? How I can peruse the worldly life I had for the transformation of human value? Inside the Church or outside the Church, if we do not change the concept of power we cannot transform ourselves. Let the challenge of this 108th Maramon convention be the change of our value. Look to the cross and understand the power. We have to identify that the power what we desire is very distinct from the real concept of power. Let the word of God speak with us. If our concept of power does not change, we are in darkness. And our life will be futile. He is not a fool to keep what he cannot keep in order to save what he will never loose.