Like Christ, change the world

The Rev. Luna Dingayen delivered the homily during the 85th anniversary of UCCP-Cosmopolitan church last Sunday. As we solemnly retrace the steps of Jesus Christ to Calvary and His Resurrection, the minister ’s message, titled “To Be Like Christ and Change the World,” helps us through our journey of remembrance. It conveys the call for us to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.

Reverend Dingayan is the founding president of the Ecumenical Theological Seminary, a UCCP (United Church of Christ in the Philippines)-owned and managed ministerial formation center in Baguio City. He obtained his Doctor of Theology from the South East Asia Graduate School of Theology under the Association of Theological Education in SouthEast Asia (ATESEA).

Space limitations regrettably falls short of truly presenting the speaker’s eloquent thesis; but one may obtain a complete copy of it from Dr. Erlinda Senturias (erlinda.senturias@gmail.com).

Reverend Dingayen started with the reminder that to change the world, we must begin with ourselves. “We cannot expect the world to change if we ourselves would not change. But more importantly, our theme affirms our faith that genuine change comes if and when we truly live the life of Christ; when we, ourselves, are like Christ.”

“One of the most basic problems of Christianity in our country today,” he said, “is the fact that we love so much to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, sometimes we accept him many times through a ritual of acceptance, but we fail miserably in living the life of Christ.

“The life of Christ was perceived as a threat to the powers-that-be. His life was declared by the political and religious powers at that time as something evil and demonic. Hence, they arrested him, tortured and crucified him to death.

“But God raised him from the dead! The resurrection event vindicated the life of Christ. By resurrecting Jesus from the dead, God is simply saying to us that the life that Jesus lived is not a demonic kind of life as perceived by the powers-that-be, but rather it is the kind of life that redeems the world. It is the kind of life that restores the whole creation into its original goodness, that would bring hope and salvation to our darkened lives, that liberates us from all forms of enslavement. Yes, it is the kind of life that would change the world.”

“Christianity is not lacking in terms of values and principles that could really make a difference in our world today,” Dingayen said. “What Christianity badly needs are men and women who are courageous enough to really live and stand by those values and principles that Christ taught in words and in deeds.

“But perhaps the question we have to ask ourselves this morning is how to be like Christ in our world today? I would like to believe that in order to be like Christ our Lord we need to go back to the basics of our faith.”

Jesus Christ our Lord was asked one time which commandment is the most important of all. And he replied saying, “‘The Lord our God is the only Lord. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second most important commandment is this: ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself. There is no other commandment more important than these two”(Mk. 12:29-31).

“These two commandments are the so-called love commandments in the Scriptures,” said Dingayen. “In his life and ministry, Jesus Christ our Lord tried to combine these two commandments together. For him, to love God is to love our neighbors.”

“To be like Christ in our world today is to obey this most important commandment of loving God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength. For, the Gospel of Christ is the Gospel of love that takes away the sins of the world.”

“To be like Christ and change the world is to love God with all our heart, to offer unto God our decisions in life decisions that would make a difference not only in our own lives, but also in the lives of other people.

“As to loving God with all our soul, let us take the word soul to mean the inner self, the inner person, our values and principles in life. Values and principles can be shown in what we do, in how we behave as human beings, in how we deal and relate with other people.

“What does it mean to love God with all our mind? God’s gift of reason is one of the things that really distinguish us from other creatures. It is that which makes us distinctly human. This includes our ability to know the truth and to stand for the truth, or even to fight for the truth.

‘’Certainly, there are moments in our life as individual believers or as a church, when we need to stand for the truth. We know that we are not exempted from the corrupting influence of our sinful world. And perhaps, we would also be tempted to compromise our faith. For oftentimes, to know the truth and to stand for the truth is not only difficult and painful, but sometimes it is also dangerous.”

As to loving God with all our strength, Dingayen said in the Bible, strength means physical fitness and wealth or material resources.

“Thus, we may say, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your wealth.’ For isn’t it true that those who have the greatest wealth are also the strongest, the most powerful people? Wealth, indeed, is power! Wealth is strength, especially in a materialistic world, like ours!”

He said the late Senator Jovito Salonga, a prominent member of Cosmopolitan Church was right when he said, “It is good to have money and all the things that money can buy, but it is better to pause once in a while, and find out whether or not we still have the things that money cannot buy. Money can buy pleasure, but it cannot buy happiness. Money can buy a palace, but it cannot buy a home. Money can buy entertainment, but it cannot buy inner peace and fulfillment in life.”

Dingayen’s last words: “Therefore, to be like Christ and change the world is to love God with all our strength, to offer unto God all that we have, and use them to serve other people, especially those who have less in life.”

* * * In my past column which mentioned reefbuds, I should have indicated that Benjamin (Benjhie) Tayag Jr. has been working on reefbuds for over 10 years. He and the late Austrian geoscientist Dr. Harald Kremnitz won a World Bank award for developing this technology. For information, check the website https://reefbuds.wixsite.com/reefbudsglobal.