The Ethiopian Church Journal Blog

Just Read By Mitiku Adisu There is something special about reading the Bible that is both transforming and refreshing. It is the Word of God! So pick it up and read. Read in complete books. Begin at the beginning and read through to the end in one, two, or three sittings. Recently, a friend called to tell me what he considered a major benefit of the lockdown; he said he spent the day reading through the Book of Genesis! Yes, all fifty chapters. Yes, he did take a lunch break! Isn’t that wonderful! The question now is this; absent a pandemic, would my friend have taken a day off just to do that? We are told that Ezra the priest read Scripture to the people of Israel from daybreak to noon! The hearers were on their feet and apparently very attentive, because they soon became aware of their shortcomings and started to weep. Weeping was followed by prostration before the Lord. Soon they were feasting and sharing the good things they had received from the Lord. It was here that we read the ...

The Last Handshake By Mitiku Adisu Shaking hands may be on the way out, says Dr. Fauci of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases. According to him, handshakes could mean the difference between staying healthy and contracting a deadly disease.  How the dire warning will affect social relationships—especially within the believing community—will depend, to some extent, on the cultural context, as, for example, the Easterner will feel the severity much more than the non-Easterner. A host of questions demand our attention.  How will the "six-foot rule" define seating arrangement, congregational singing, hospitality, and the administration of the sacraments? Will visitors be looked upon as hosts to some deadly virus?  Will we see fewer visitors as a result?  Will eleven o'clock on Sunday morning worsen the already greatly diminished diversity that is the hallmark of Jesus’ new community (Acts 2:5-13; 13; Revelation 5:9; 7:9) ? Will we be seeing a thin...

Pointers in the Present Crisis By Mitiku Adisu COVID-19 now has the human race under its grip. We see parallels between the nature of the novel virus and our sinful nature; both intimate separation and stealthily decimate life. We don't, as yet, have a full picture of what is going on with our planet. But we can be certain that the God we worship, in his infinite wisdom, will bring us to a better understanding of himself and our situation.(Romans 8:28) We are in familiar and unfamiliar territory all at the same time. Conventions that nurture our humanity are summarily swept aside. Corporate worship is disrupted. We are in a lock-down against our will. Safety and fear are endured in physical isolation. Information swirls around us without let up—some of it useful, much of it a vexation to the spirit. "Why me, why us, Lord?" would be merely compounding the physical isolation . So what might we learn from the current crisis? (John 9:3) Firstly, the reality we are faced with...

 In the Eye of the Beholder     17th c., Ethiopia    16th c., Italia

We Are Not Alone ‘I see that you are in every way an extremely religious people. For as I was going along and looking at your objects of worship, I saw an altar with the inscription, TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Well: I’m here to tell you about what it is that you are worshipping in ignorance. The God who made the world and everything in it, the one who is Lord of heaven and earth, doesn’t live in temples made by human hands. Nor does he need to be looked after by human hands, as though he lacked something, since he himself gives life and breath and all things to everyone. He made from one stock every race of humans to live on the whole face of the earth, allotting them their properly ordained times and the boundaries for their dwellings. The aim was that they would search for God, and perhaps reach out for him and find him. Indeed, he is actually not far from each one of us, for in him we live and move and exist; as also some of your own poets have put it, “For we are his offspring”. ‘Well, the...