{"id":4357,"date":"2013-03-20T08:08:47","date_gmt":"2013-03-20T13:08:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/cwr\/?p=4357"},"modified":"2013-03-14T10:16:49","modified_gmt":"2013-03-14T15:16:49","slug":"india-reflections-part-2-bali-raja-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/cwr\/2013\/03\/india-reflections-part-2-bali-raja-lives\/","title":{"rendered":"India Reflections, Part 2: Bali Raja Lives!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>A number of CWR-connected people recently took a trip to India to visit CWR projects. Below is part one of reflections about the trip from Stephen Sharkey, pastor of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.highrockquincy.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Highrock Covenant Church<\/a> in Quincy, MA and member of the CWR Advisory Team.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-4358\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2013\/02\/Sooneal-Sardar-preaching-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/cwr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2013\/02\/Sooneal-Sardar-preaching-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/cwr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2013\/02\/Sooneal-Sardar-preaching-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Aligarh, India \u2013 Sunil Sardar, the leader of a growing movement called Truthseekers stood in front of a gathering of local farmers and their families. I listened to him share a message in Hindi to several dozen men, women, and children.\u00a0 Though I couldn\u2019t understand what he said, his charisma was captivating.\u00a0 He paused and spoke one phrase in English for the benefit of the few American observers: \u201cWill you follow Bali Raja?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bali<em> what?<\/em>\u00a0 I\u2019d been to a Billy Graham Crusade before, so I knew what was happening. This was \u2018the invitation\u2019 to follow Jesus. But who was this \u2018Bali Raja<\/p>\n<p>To say that Bali Raja is a translation for \u201cJesus\u201d could be true, but it doesn\u2019t tell the full story.\u00a0 I would later come to learn that in Hindu culture, the story of Bali Raja is part of an ancient Indian legend still celebrated today. Bali Raja, which means \u201csacrificed king,\u201d was a beloved king who gave himself up for the sake of his people.\u00a0 Sound familiar?\u00a0 The Hindu god Vishnu crushed Bali Raja in a deal that would spare the lives of the low caste people of India.\u00a0 As the legend goes, Bali Raja would one day return to his people to rescue them.<\/p>\n<p>In seminary they teach pastors about the importance of <em>contextualization<\/em>, that is, the art of conveying a timeless message to new people, in new places, in new centuries.\u00a0 You might be unaware of it, but your pastors do this every week as they prepare their message.\u00a0 They read the passage, interpret the passage, and they read <em>you<\/em> the church, and interpret <em>your<\/em> cultural context. \u00a0<!--more-->This practice of being \u2018relevant\u2019 should never be a practice in changing or diminishing the gospel.\u00a0 The good news of God is timeless, but cultures do change from generation to generation, from one city to another, and from one people group to another.\u00a0 Because of this, the means by which we communicate the gospel must change with them.\u00a0 This is precisely what the Apostle Paul did in Acts 17 when he stood before the Athenians in the Areopagus.\u00a0 They had no way to understand a Jewish messiah, but they could surely understand their own altar to \u201cAN UNKNOWN GOD,\u201d which Paul wisely used to convey the good news of Jesus.\u00a0 At Truthseekers, they are following in the creative footsteps of Paul.<\/p>\n<p>Rev. Sardar adapted this creative contextualization of the Gospel from the late Mahatma Phule.\u00a0 Phule founded the Truthseekers movement in the 19<sup>th<\/sup> century in response to the injustices and systematic oppression of the caste system in India.\u00a0 Today he remains one of the heroes among low castes and Dalits (outcaste, untouchables) in India.\u00a0\u00a0 Phule was the first to liken the Hindu god Bali Raja with the Jesus Christ.\u00a0 In fact, it was more than simply an association; Phule believed that Jesus is Bali Raja, returned to rescue his people oppressed by caste and all other injustices.\u00a0\u00a0 Now several decades after the death of Mahatma Phule, Truthseekers has been brought back to life as an evangelical and social justice movement.<\/p>\n<p>There are many that consider this loose missiology to be reckless, and most of us probably feel a certain level of discomfort at the thought of likening Jesus to a Hindu god, or any man-conceived deity.\u00a0 In fact, for many it is doubtful that Mahatma Phule was even a Christian, at least not as we typically would understand one to be \u2018Christian\u2019.\u00a0 But the Truthseekers today are not quick to drawl dividing lines of faith.\u00a0 Their concern is the direction of people\u2019s lives, hence the name \u201cTruth<em>seekers<\/em>\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 When Rev. Sardar asks the question, \u201cWill you follow Bali Raja?\u201d his concern is less \u201care you a Christian\u201d and more \u201care you rejecting the lie of castes and are you seeking the truth of Bali Raja (Jesus).\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Their methods of contextualizing the gospel may be questioned, but the results cannot.\u00a0 The day after I heard Rev. Sardar ask the question \u201cWill you follow Bali Raja\u201d we visited another village that has seen a radical turn toward Jesus.\u00a0 An entire village seeking Jesus!\u00a0 Most of the villagers lined the streets, worshiping Jesus, thanking God, and hearing the truth: Bali Raja is alive!\u00a0 The scene looked nothing like any church I had ever experienced, but there was no doubt that it was the Church.\u00a0 The Holy Spirit is moving powerfully in India.<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.covchurch.org\/relief\/projects\/cd\/india-justice-and-reconciliation\/\" target=\"_blank\">Truthseekers International<\/a> is an organization supported by Covenant World Relief, a ministry of the Evangelical Covenant Church.\u00a0 Stephen Sharkey is pastor of Highrock Covenant Church in Quincy, MA.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-report-this\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/cwr?moderation_action=report_form&#038;object_type=post&#038;object_id=4357&#038;width=250&#038;height=300\" class=\"thickbox\" title=\"Report This Post\">Report This Post<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A number of CWR-connected people recently took a trip to India to visit CWR projects. Below is part one of reflections about the trip from Stephen Sharkey, pastor of Highrock Covenant Church in Quincy, MA and member of the CWR Advisory Team.\u00a0 Aligarh, India \u2013 Sunil Sardar, the leader of a growing movement called Truthseekers [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[279],"tags":[286,364],"class_list":["post-4357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-development","tag-india","tag-justice"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>India Reflections, Part 2: Bali Raja Lives! - CWR Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/cwr\/2013\/03\/india-reflections-part-2-bali-raja-lives\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"India Reflections, Part 2: Bali Raja Lives! - CWR Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A number of CWR-connected people recently took a trip to India to visit CWR projects. 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