Praxes: Worship and Sermon by Mr. G. Greeto Racharia, BD IV

Mr. G. Greeto Racharia, BD IV, led the evaluation worship and sermon , the last of the June term, on 27^th August 2008. The worship started with a music prelude during which a slide show of slum children and refuges was presented with the caption “open your eyes to the realities around you.” This introduced the theme of his worship and sermon: “The Life giving mission of God Towards children.” The text selected was Genesis 21: 8-20, the story of Abraham casting away Hagar and Ishmael their the plight in the wilderness. The invocation song was the composition of Dr. Parattai (a) Theophilus Appavoo, who always experimented with unconventional tunes and style of folk music in worship. Greeto’s confessional prayer also used an unconventional format. He made his methodology clear at the very beginning: a reflection on the text from a sociological perspective of the suffering children. Greeto Racharia runs a Non Governmental Organization for the benefit of the children in one of the biggest slums in Chennai, Kannagi Nagar. It was his involvement with the slum children that made him to read the Bible from the perspective of the slum children who go without food and proper education. He narrated how a Government run Municipal Corporation School teacher made the request for a map “to show our children how big our land is” or at least a “first aid“ box for the school.

Greeto in his sermon passionately said: ”I want you all to see this text from the perspective of hungry children crying for food, the malnourished children in Sudan and other African countries, the street children in our country, crying for food and shelter from the hot sun and rain, the wandering Hagars and Ishmaels in our city roads. It is a very pathetic scene for any mother anticipating the immediate death of her child. What a pathetic scene is this where a woman who is chased out by her own husband and mistress, after being used for all their needs. The cry of both Hagar and Ishmael wandering in wilderness is the cry of the refugees and their children coming out from the countries like Sri Lanka carrying their children, with fear of death surrounding them, chased way by their own country people. It is the cry of a Dalit woman and her child, who has been used by her upper caste sex-partner and chased away by the mistress of the house.

He said that the first step of our mission today is to first listen to the cries of children, just as God listened to the cry of Ishmael – the meaning of the very name Ishmael being, “God will hear.” He was wondering how God could concede to the demand of Sarah for the ouster of the “slave woman and her son,” the very woman whom Sarah has given her husband as wife. Sarah became angry Ishmael when she saw him playing with Issac, “innocent of social distinctions.” Greeto asked: How many of us will allow our children to play with the poor and Dalit children of the neighborhood? How many of us have taught our children to share things with their friends from the poor and socially lower caste families? Do we not give the left over food to our servant maids to take home for their children after our children are fed to the full? We still want to see the dalits remain as dalits, sex-workers as sex-workers, slum dwellers as slum dwellers. He ended his sermon with an affirmative note: God breaks all evil structures of enslavement to create a structure of equality and justice. God promises that Ishmael will be made “a great nation” and thus reverses the structures that made Isaac unequal to Ishmael. God has given is assurance that God’s support to make equal to Isaac and thus justice was ensured for the oppressed child. God starts to work by giving water to Ishmael. Let us also continue the mission of God by quenching the thirst of crying children around us. Dr. George Zachariah, in his evaluation, has aptly commented that it is an autobiographical sermon as Greeto has been committed to serve the slum children. Greeto Racharia is a member of the CSI Madras Diocese and we wish all God’s blessings upon him to carry out his chosen area of mission of God.