Christians whose lives have been changed by God must speak up for the oppressed in their communities, says Dr Vinita Eusebius in this reflection on the CWM Assembly theme passage Luke 8.26-39.
Life in India came to a halt the evening of 11 July 2006 at 6.20, when seven bombs exploded in the jam-packed local trains of Mumbai. They left 200 dead and 700 wounded. It took just 20 minutes of horror as terrorist bombs in luggage racks ripped through trains and platforms.
CWM's theme Take home the good news poses deep challenges for Indian churches. The theme comes from the story in Luke 8 where Jesus delivered a demoniac. The residents immediately requested Jesus to leave the city. As Jesus began to leave, the delivered demoniac pleaded with him that he might accompany him.
The Lord refused this request and commissioned him to return to his own people and declare to them what God had done for him. His greatest impact would be on those who knew his former state.
The particular focus of this man's testimony was the Decapolis region. This was a federation of 10 cities (deka means 10, polis means city). This was a region east of the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River. It was a place where two cultures interacted: the culture of the Greek colonists and the indigenous semitic culture.
There was conflict. The Greek inhabitants were shocked by the semitic practice of circumcision, while the native Semitic peoples were disgusted by the Greeks' acceptance of homosexuality and other unfamiliar sexual practices.
India is a unique country. The immensity of its physical area and its multicultural society, like Decapolis, provides opportunity for interaction and celebration of diversity and differences.
But what is happening to this great nation?
Differences are being now feared and diversity is no more respected and tolerated. The space where diverse people could interact with each other is shrinking fast. This has resulted in rioting and killing in the name of caste, race, religion and ethnicity.
Like the delivered demoniac people of faith have to go to their own to bring the hidden violence to the forefront of all conversations. Only violence exposed can be violence healed. But the church cannot just come out of the tombs to evangelise naked, insane with broken shackles hanging from its hands.
Both the powerful and powerless would reject good news from a ranting, wandering, untransformed group of people.
The prerequisite of course is for the church to wait to be transformed first by God's grace. The Gerasenes demoniac told people what happened to him but he also had his own transformation to prove it.
Undeniably changed people of faith can pledge to present a case with the oppressed and everyone will listen as they did with the liberated demoniac.
Dr Vinita Eusebius belongs to the Church of North India and is chairperson of the Student Christian Movement in India.