Silliman University Church Reflections

Education for Global Reach and Relevance

Mariano C. Apilado,
Sunrise Service, August 28, 2008, 5:00 AM, Silliman University Foundation Day

 

A Time for Thanksgiving

 

We are here to worship God.

 

We want to declare that education for global reach and excellence is undertaken with the blessings of God and support and cooperation of everyone.

 

Fellow Sillimanians: Foundation Day marks another year of service and achievement.

 

Please join me in giving President Ben and the administration a big, big round of applause for a fulfilling year.

 

Education for global reach and relevance celebrates the advent of globalization.

 

Cellphones, computers, branded shirts, shoes, watches and other electronics show the ubiquitous presence of globalization.

 

Globalization as the incarnation of a new divine presence is saying seductively, “I have come that you may have life abundantly.”

 

The government has been promising a new Philippines, where peace, order and development are assured.

 

Filipinos do not need to go abroad for well-paying jobs. Corruption overcome. City and countryside development done.

 

No more drugs. No more trafficking of children and women.

 

So, this is a time to worship and give thanks to God.

 

The Painful Reality

 

And yet the painful reality is that nation-wide only about 20% of college graduates are assured of decent well-paying jobs.

 

The rest have sleepless nights and restless days looking for jobs.

 

Lines of people applying for jobs local and abroad are long.

 

Millions enjoy blessings of globalization by going to shopping malls, ukay-ukay, wagwagan and other bagsakan outlets.

 

More millions however live in sub-standard conditions in poverty ghettos, squatter areas and garbage dumpsites.

 

“Globalization, O Globalization, what crimes of exploitation, inequality and greed are being committed in your name?”

 

The latest fiasco is that Bangsamoro Juridical Entity Peace Plan has been virtually rejected.

 

How then can we celebrate and give thanks?

 

The Gospel

 

        Yes, precisely in times of difficulties and troubles we gather here to make a defining statement this is a Christian institution and established to proclaim that the gospel is good news.

 

We believe in a God who cares for and loves the world.

 

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but shall have everlasting life.”[1]

 

The good news from Jesus is, “In this world you may have tribulations, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world,”[2]

 

Because there is a God who loves and cares, we are here to give thanks, pray and celebrate together.

 

Foundation in God

 

This celebration is a reminder that education of this quality, first and foremost, must be founded in God, Creator, Savior and God.

 

Worship reminds us of God who calls men and women in a world of chaos, disorder and formlessness to pursue relentlessly and practice faithfully righteousness, honesty, goodness, love and justice.

 

Failure, defeat and sadness may occasionally visit, but God in Jesus Christ, saves and gives everyone another chance.

 

We go through conflict, confusion and corruption, trusting that with God we can overcome difficulties because in the Holy Spirit God is our companion, except that we have yet to win an Olympic gold.

 

Nevertheless, faith in a Creator God, a God of goodness, freedom, beauty and love keeps us hoping and working for the best.

 

God is the sure and strong foundation of Silliman education.

 

Qualified by Competence

 

Another defining quality is competence, defined as being qualified by suitable or sufficient skill, knowledge, and experience.

 

The visible evidence of competence is the diploma, but the practical living evidence is creativity, effectiveness and efficiency.

 

Competence is a defining quality of Silliman education.

Quality education is marked by scientific competence and technical expertise.

 

Related with the UCCP, Silliman education is refined further by the fundamental values of love, justice, truth and compassion, which are at the heart of UCCP’s life and witness to the world.[3]

 

Competence is enhanced by justice, truth and compassion and by courtesy and honesty in private life and public service.

 

Demonstrated in Social Compassion

 

There is the additional mark of social compassion, or the capacity to alleviate the conditions of victims of poverty, exploitation and the pain of hunger and disease.

 

Social compassion practices the first and greatest commandment to love God with all one’s heart, soul, mind and strength; and to love one’s neighbor as one’s self.

 

Social compassion directs the educated person to care for the underprivileged so that children and senior citizens may no longer be forced to roam the streets begging shamelessly for food.

 

The heart of a social compassion is pictured in the following lines: “I shall pass through this world but once. Any good that I can do, or any kindness that I can show any human being, let me do it now and not defer it. For I shall not pass this way again.”[4]

 

Consecrated in Love

 

The capstone of excellence is love, the more excellent way.

 

The Bible reading says that excellence provides one with the eloquence of angels, but without love, eloquence is worthless.

 

Excellence may also be seen in working comfortably with scientific knowledge, performing the intricacies of technology, and understanding the mysteries of life, but without love such understanding is not worth much.

 

Excellence may also be demonstrated in social compassion, evidenced by the offering of life for the uplift of others, but without love this social compassion is worthless.

 

Consecrated in love, excellence goes beyond the mediocrity of human struggle to the perfection of divine excellence.

 

Excellence means giving fragrance and beautifying the world with tenderness, gentleness and love.

 

That is why three things – faith, hope and love – abide, but the greatest is love.

 

The Cross: Symbol of Education for Excellence

 

        Education for global reach and relevance, therefore, is not a standard to strive for, but the character trademark of Silliman.

 

        Such education is represented by the cross, with vertical and horizontal dimensions.

 

The vertical dimension reaches deep to alleviate human fears and poverty and reaches into the excellence of the divine.

 

The vertical dimension reaches deep into the world of pains and difficulties to share love that heals, liberates and sanctifies.

 

The horizontal dimension reaches far and far to love those pained by poverty and violence and comfort those victimized by loneliness and depression.

The vertical and horizontal dimensions inspire Sillimanians to fulfill the vision of the Silliman song.

 

The vertical and horizontal dimensions joined together make the cross, symbol of education with a global reach and relevance.

 

The cross opens to the wonders of the highest excellence, challenges us to be immersed in the dangerous peace process in Mindanao and empowers us always to live saturated with God’s love.

 

Since I became pastor of the UCCP, Davao City, more than four years ago, I have been participating together with imams, priests and other pastors in seeking for peace in Mindanao.

 

We have visited with imams, priests and pastors in Cotabato City, Cagayan de Oro City, Malaybalay, Digos City and Davao City and today we have been scheduled to visit Ipil, Zamboanga.  

 

The Ipil visit has been cancelled.

 

We have known and seen evidences that the physical and emotional wounds of Mindanao are wide, deep and fresh.

 

But we have patiently been sharing the message that there can be no peace without justice and there can be justice without forgiveness.

 

Last night in a gathering among some Dumaguetenos, I learned the story of how forgiveness was practiced by a prominent family in this lovely city.

 

During the Second World War, two daughters of the family were raped and brutally killed by Japanese soldiers.

 

At the recapture of the city, a lone Japanese went to hide in the home of the family of the victims.

 

Asked by the pursuing soldiers if the family had seen any Japanese soldier, the presence of the soldier was not betrayed.

 

Such forgiveness may not solve all the problems of the absence of peace in Mindanao; such demonstration of the saturation of Christian love as forgiveness, however, is a good beginning.

 

The point is that education that reaches and is relevant in Broadway in New York at Manhattan must reach and be relevant in Midsayap, North Cotabato and the virgin beauty of Palawan.

 

Relevant and meaningful in morally decadent LA, California, Silliman education must reach and be relevant in violent stricken Ipil, Zamboanga.

 

Silliman education must meet universal standards of excellence and respond to local cries to alleviate poverty and its violence. 

 

The cross as key and God, the source of strength, together we can pursue and attain education for global reach and relevance! 

 

Can anyone person or institution attain and practice this quality education? No. No one person or institution can do this.

 

The cross as guide and source of strength, together we can pursue and attain quality education for global reach and relevance!

 

Let us go with the inspiration from the prophet Isaiah, “Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”[5]

 

Fellow Christians, fellow Sillimanians, let us go!

 

Romans 14:1-12

This is Youth Sunday. It is time to savor the innocence of youth and to see the thin line that divides innocence from ignorance or pride.

Mary, a teenager, sought the counsel of her pastor about a sin that disturbed her quite a lot. She said, “Pastor, I have become aware of a sin in my life which I cannot control. Every time I am at church I begin to look down at other women, and I realize that I am the prettiest in the whole congregation. None of the others can compare with my beauty. What can I do about this sin?” 

The pastor looked around and saw his pretty daughter and replied, “Mary, that’s not a sin, that’s just a mistake!”

The innocence of youth, warms the heart! Innocence of youth is the honesty that comes from ignorance. When we are young we are allowed our ignorance and call it innocence. But when Jesus reminds adults “what is dirty is not what enters the mouth, but what comes out of it, come from the heart (Matt
15:18), we say: “Young people never have dirty things in their hearts.” True, but adults can’t seek refuge in innocence, or they live in a fool’s paradise.

Many Christians pretending to be young and innocent live in a fool’s paradise. When they come to church, half of their mind is worshipping God. The other half of it is thinking, am I the prettiest, am I not a better Christian than others? God reads our hearts and is unhappy, because we worship ourselves. We are ignorant and foolishly proud. This is the basic cause of our conflicts.

Throughout church history, churches have split for the thinnest of reasons. Some have split over the issue of whether to put a cross or Bible on the altar. Others have split over the use of old or new English. Some churches have split over the use of organs or guitars in liturgy. Others have split over baptism – immersion, pouring or sprinkling.  

As the apostle Paul put it: “If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other” (Gal 5:15).

We are seduced into paying attention to the distractions, while our churches are rendered paralyzed, experiencing mission drift.  And a church without a mission will soon be out of commission.

Paul tells us that we are to “Live in harmony with one another” (Rom 12:16). But how can we live in harmony when there are so many tiny issues that divide us? The church in Rome was not divided in their faith. They all believed that Jesus was the way, the truth, and the life. They believed that there was only one God and that Jesus Christ was His Son. They believed that Jesus died for their sins and that He rose again on the third day and that He was coming back again one day. However, they were divided on many nonessential details of the Christian life. There were some in the church who had some very strict convictions concerning things like days of worship, types of diets and they could not worship God with those who disagreed. Others, however, had an equally strong conviction that in Christ they were free from such constraints and they considered the others to be narrow minded. Paul says that the solution to all of this is to stop condemning one another and start accepting one another.

Two church members were quarreling. The first came to see the pastor at the parsonage and gave his side of the quarrel. The pastor listened sympathetically, and said “You know, you are right.” The second came to see the pastor and gave his side. The pastor also said, “you are right.” Unfortunately, the pastor’s wife had heard both sides and began to chastise the pastor. How can both members be right? And the Pastor told his wife, you know “you are right.”

1. Paul’s Proposals to unity: Do not pass judgment on others. Do not pass judgment on matters that are disputable. A disputable matter is an issue on which scripture is not clear. The disputable matters to which Paul speaks are concerning diet and dates. Some believed that certain days like the Sabbath or other religious holidays were to be considered more sacred than others. They also held to certain dietary rules like not eating meat — probably because the meat in the market place had been offered to idols. The other group believed that all days were the same and that if you gave thanks to God for the food there was no problem with eating it and enjoying it. Who was right and who was wrong? Paul says you are both right, that neither group is wrong because these issues are non-essential to Christian faith and practice.

What are some other examples of disputable matters? Frequency of taking the Lord’s Supper, modes of baptism, styles of clothing, intensity of prayer, solemnity or loudness of music and how the world will end, are all examples of issues that are nonessential to the Christian faith. And yet all of these issues have been sources of division among Christians. When it comes to styles - you don’t have to like it, listen to it, or look like it but you cannot judge it. You don’t have to support it, agree with it, or propagate it, but you cannot condemn it.

If the scriptures do not speak clearly on an issue it is because God has given us freedom to choose in this area. There are many things that Christians are free to do or free not to do, but the one thing we are not free to do is to pass judgment on disputable matters.

2. (14:2-4) “Some believe in eating anything, while others eat only vegetables. Paul says Don’t look down on others. The one who is strong in the faith and therefore understands that he is free from legal constraints in disputable matters must not look down on those who are vegetarians. He also says that those who are weak in the faith and therefore feel that they must follow certain rules must not condemn those who don’t follow their rules. Why not? Because the other person is not your servant, but God’s. And so they answer not to you, but to God. And furthermore we see that God has accepted them both. Therefore, we dare not look down on the one whom God has accepted.

Of course, our tendency is to look down on those who hold different views than we have. So the next time you are tempted to look down on someone either because they do not share your freedom and your strict convictions remind yourself that you are not better than them nor are they better than you. Remind yourself of what the Paul said of himself. “I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle” (1 Cor 15:9). “I am less than the least of all God’s people” (Eph 3:8). If that was true of the Paul, then it is certainly true of you. Don’t look down on anyone.

3. (14:5-12) Those who observe the Sabbath, do so to honor the Lord. Those who eat vegetables, do so to honor the Lord. Live for the Lord Alone. We are here for one purpose and one purpose only — to live for the Lord. If we exercise our freedoms, we do so for the Lord. If we adhere to strict religious convictions, we do so for the Lord. If we live, we live for the Lord. If we die, we die for the Lord. And if we ever lose focus on that purpose then we are in serious trouble.

4. (14:13-18) Never put a stumbling block in the way of another. It is true that in Christ we have been set free from the law and legalism, however, we must not flaunt this freedom in the faces of those who are weak in the faith. Also those who have strong convictions are not to beat others over the head with those convictions. We are to exercise our freedoms and carry out convictions in ways that do not cause fellow Christians to stumble.

Paul warns those who are strong in the faith. You see faith results in freedom, the stronger the faith, the greater the freedom; the weaker the faith, the smaller the freedom. It is important to note that both groups have saving faith and are, therefore, true Christians. It is just that some are stronger in faith than others and those who are stronger in faith must be careful about exercising their freedoms in the presence of those who don’t know such freedom. So if the exercise of your freedom causes a fellow believer to violate their conscience and sin you have “destroyed your brother for whom Christ died.” Paul includes himself in the group who are strong in the faith and have the freedom to eat anything, but he says that it is better to voluntarily restrict one’s freedom than to cause others to stumble by exercising it. In 1 Cor 8:13 he says: “If what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall.”

5. Do That Which Leads to Peace and Mutual Edification. (14:19-21) What is good is bad if it leads to disharmony and does not build up the church. In Rom 12:18 Paul writes: “If it is possible as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”

6. Keep your personal convictions to yourself and God. (14:22-23) Why does Paul tell us to keep our personal convictions concerning these matters between ourselves and God? Because our personal convictions are just that — personal. If they were meant to be corporate, God would have put them in His word. But He didn’t. He gave them to you personally and they should stay as something between you and your God.
 
7. We who are strong ought to put up with the failings of the weak, not to please ourselves. (15:1-7) Paul is saying here that we should not insist on doing things our way. Insisting on doing things my way is the world’s way, not the Christian’s way. Paul holds up Jesus Christ as the ultimate example of someone who, rather than pleasing Himself, gave up His personal preferences for the good of mankind. We know from the scriptures that it was not Jesus’ personal preference to suffer and die on the cross.

There’s a story of two lights approaching each other in the ocean one dark night. The bigger light said to the smaller light, get out of my path or you will be sorry. The smaller light said, turn away, sir, you will be destroyed. The big light was insulted, I am a nuclear powered battleship. Who are you? ….I am the lighthouse. There is a thin line that divides innocence and Pride. Innocence is forgivable. Pride is not.  

CONCLUSION: I would like to conclude on a more positive note. During World War II, the Japanese commanded all evangelical groups to unite so that they could control them. Among the UEC, half complied and half refused. Those who went along with the order had a much easier time. Those who did not, faced harsh persecution. In almost every family of those who resisted, someone died at the hands of the enemy. When the war was over, feelings of bitterness ran deep between the groups and there was much tension. Finally they decided it was time for healing. Leaders from each group met at a quiet retreat. For several days, each person spent time in prayer, examining his own heart in the light of Christ’s commands. Then they came together. After this someone asked “What did you do then?” “We were just one,” was the reply. As they confessed their hostility and bitterness to God and yielded to His control, the Holy Spirit created a spirit of unity among them. Thus UCCP was born. Love filled their hearts and dissolved their hatred. When love prevails among believers, especially in times of disagreement, it presents to the world an indisputable mark of a true follower of Jesus Christ. When love does not prevail among believers, especially in times of strong disagreement, it presents to the world adults pretending to be young and innocent, but living proudly, in a false paradise.

Sermon for Sept. 14, 2008