MULLINGS
Easterine Kire
Rev Merin Mathew, Burning Bush, Fifty Biblical Meditations, CSS Books Tiruvalla, 2013. 238 pages. Rs 150.
[dropcap]W[/dropcap]ould you like to read a book of meditations that tells you your true identity? A book whose pages remind you that you are the beloved of God? And that as the beloved of God, you are destined for greater things than to be trapped in the rat race of scrambling after the inconsequential things of earthly life? That is what “Burning Bush” does by way of inviting the reader to discover and recognise their place in the whole scheme of things, and learn to prioritise the eternal over the here and now. Because the demands made by the here and now are so high, designed as they are to blind us and deafen us to the invitation of our eternal destiny. It solicits the reader to ‘reflect, savour and abide.’”Burning Bush” is the title of a book of fifty biblical meditations by Rev Merin Mathew. In the introduction, the author says that the book is meant for 1) preachers of the word and 2) spiritual seekers. There is also a third set of readers, and it is anybody who loves stories and narratives. It was this very aspect of story narrations in the book that drew me in, and each story he tells drives home the lesson poignantly. It is so clearly a good application of the method used by the great Teacher who used parables to convey immortal spiritual lessons. The author, 31-year-old Rev Mathew is the very youthful Vicar of North East India Parishes. His home parish is Immanuel Mar Thoma Parish, Vishrantwadi, Pune.
Rev Mathew speaks for today’s generation because he knows only too well the invasion of technology into our psychological world. Virtual reality, he says has robbed children of the sense of awe and wonder. Reality TV has numbed us adults to life itself, with the result that nothing shocks or excites us anymore. To such a world the book shouts, “Stop, stop, stop, let us see the burning bush!” Let us slow down and do as Moses did, let us go close to the burning bush and hear what God is saying to us. Most of all, slow down and look at the burning bushes all around us. He suggests that we are the ones with eyes but do not see, the ones with ears but do not hear. “Let us stop for a while and ask ourselves, are we missing our burning bush?”
With that introduction, the meditations go on to deal with the problems of our everyday world and offer an alternative lifestyle in the word of God. It is a difficult invitation given with deep awareness of the demands modern lifestyles make on our time.
What makes this book of meditations different from other books is the honesty of the author. Rev Mathew is not preaching from a distant pulpit. He is sitting beside the reader and being absolutely frank about his personal weaknesses which the reader easily recognises in his/her own self. They are problems that beset the spiritual seeker in the twenty-first century: An inordinate preoccupation with technology, a compulsive need to be online and to check statuses and comments on Facebook, an itch to twitter everything that is happening in one’s life. That a spiritual leader could confess being affected by time-stealing social networks endears him to me as a reader. I feel that here is a writer who has walked the same path I am walking. I feel I can trust the author and I am eager to open the book every morning. This book is also an invitation into transparency and intimacy. Being transparent where our failings are concerned, and becoming liberated thereby to experience intimacy with God.
In addition, I thoroughly enjoyed the family narratives he has included about his mother and grandmother, about himself as a child and adolescent. It is a very warm book made more human by the inclusion of the family narratives. I am reminded of young Timothy to whom Paul writes commending his mother Eunice and grandmother Lois, and their godly lives which had influenced the young Timothy to grow up godly as well. Indeed, Rev Merin’s family narratives show a godly line of believers in different generations in his family that have played their role in strengthening his own faith. Even so, the author confesses in chapter three, “I have problems with surrendering to God.” It is not the problem of an unbeliever; it echoes the ever present problem faced by believers. It is the struggle to abandon oneself to God, to give Him the reins in every decision and choice we make. It is the dilemma of lives too busy with other things that the truly important details are postponed and moved to tomorrow. He cites the example of Pharaoh who preferred to sleep with the frogs one more night rather than submit to God and be free of the frogs.
In this world of multiplicity of choices we live in, we are bombarded by noise, by constant other voices that tell us what we should be doing. The author gives the example of Elijah who listened to the still small voice of God, that came after the sound explosions of mighty wind, earthquake and fire had come and gone. Like Elijah, he adjures us to learn to stop heeding the other voices and sharpen our spirits to hear the still small voice, which is a tender whisper reminding us that we are His beloved. As we choose to listen to this voice, it shuts out all the other voices that tell us we are unworthy, and that we are non-achievers or non entities. The still small voice telling us that we are His beloved can transform us to be carriers of God’s blessings to others, not carriers of gossip and negative criticism of others.
I like the terms that Rev Mathew uses such as, “the approachability of God” which erases the angry, punishing image of God that has plagued old covenant Christianity far too long. He also introduces the concept Daiva Suthar: the children of God, the idea that we are called to be children of God who offer comfort and healing to those who need it. Another beautiful term is the Shubhkono which means reconciliation. It is so timely that Shubhkono Susrusha is a service before Lent that initiates reconciliation between man and God and neighbour. There are many other such treasures waiting to be discovered in the Burning Bush.
Although the book is not being sold on Amazon.com, it’s possible to get your copies much closer to home by either contacting the author directly:
merin.mathew.z@gmail.com
or to CSS books:csspublications@dataone.in
Written in an engagingly conversational style with very accessible language, and without the trappings of theological terms, this is a very readable book of meditations. How to read the book? The recommended way is one meditation a day, though the author assures us that reading the whole book in its entirety in one sitting will not be harmful. But there is much to digest in each individual meditation and it is best when savoured slowly.
