UCCP Quadrennial Assembly

with Cecile M. Genove

It was a thought-provoking of a keynote address that Dr. Ben S. Malayang III, president of Silliman University, delivered in the Quadrennial General Assembly of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines held recently in Dumaguete City.

Invoking on the Scriptures according to Exekiel 34: 11-15 and Luke 10: 30-37, Malayang took notice of the crisis of our faith institutions. While "temples, mosques, and churches were once the sanctuaries of last resort, where people used to run to for security, comfort, and ministration of hurts and tortured souls, today the pursuit of faith have gotten people hurt, children abused, and faith seekers demeaned by advocates and leaders of the faith."

Addressing some 500 members of the UCCP from all over the country, Malayang scored the UCCP as being in crisis. Although it claims to be united, according to him, the church is actually disunited and in disarray, especially in how it conducts its activities. Self-righteousness abound, with each member perhaps claiming to be in the right path, while the other is treading the wrong path, primarily because both could not come to terms with the interpretation of their faith.

Thus, Malayang asks, perhaps God has failed us, His people. Furthermore, Malayang equated this to the Israelites in the wilderness who asked where God is when they were faced with no water and no food. Worse, the Israelites also asked where God was and why He was not around to give them what they wanted.

Conversely, said Malayang, perhaps we might as well ask, is it that we have failed God? "Is it rather that we are facing one crisis after another because we have failed to love and to care for each other - as God loved and cared for us? Would it be that our UCCP is in crisis because we have focused our attention more on each other, on our personal achievements and failures, and on our own sense of correctness and importance - on our human affairs in the church - rather than on Jesus the Christ and on His affairs with us? Would it be that we are in crisis because we would rather tell God what we prefer to do than impose upon us what God tells us to do? Might we be in crisis because we had been trekking back into the convenient captivity of Egypt rather than stay with God in the inconvenient but liberating wilderness?"

Malayang reminded the assembly of the old Sunday school story about the Good Samaritan. Jesus told the story of a person who lay unconscious on the road after having been mugged by robbers. Two individuals of the church chose to pass by him and simply went about their way. Somehow, these two individuals did not practice what they preached. But, there was the Samaritan who, though not very knowledgeable about the Scriptures, was kind, loving, and caring in mind, heart, and soul.

The Samaritan, said Malayang, did not even have to read Exekiel to correctly know that God is the Shepherd of flock who will "search for His sheep and look after them," who will "rescue them from all the places where they are scattered on a day of clouds and darkness," and who will "tend them in a good pasture." Malayang continued that even if the Samaritan did not know Exekiel, the Samaritan showed a "deep and intimate knowledge of a loving and caring God. He may have been short on loud displays of piety but he loved and he cared. And, that was what mattered to Jesus. The Samaritan knew god and did God's work and obeyed God's most basic command to love and to care for others."

Malayang articulated what others may have in mind, but were simply at a loss to say it aloud and in public: "Understanding our God as a loving and caring God would be crucial to understanding and confronting crises. The crises of our world and of our national life, and of our church, all stem from our failure to care for and love others in the manner and extent that God loves and cares for us."

Loving and caring are critical needs in these critical times.

 

 

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