"People must not only hear about the kingdom of GOD, but must see it in actual operation, on a small scale perhaps and in imperfect form, but a real demonstration nevertheless."
Pandita Ramabai was an Indian social reformer and activist who died April 5, 1922. Ramabai worked tirelessly for the rights of Indian women. She saw, first hand the discrimination between castes, and discrimination because she was first orphaned and then widowed due to famine and cholera. Much of her extended family died from a severe famine, leaving her orphaned. Then, she married below her caste, a severe no-no of her time and within a year her husband died from cholera, leaving her a widow. She studied in England, worked with an order of Anglican nuns, and was baptized Christian. She returned to India, with her continued and now bolstered passion to help Indian women, and founded a home for abandoned widows and orphans.
The scripture reading appointed for today’s celebration is Luke 8:1-8, the story of the persistent widow, who because of her persistence in pestering the judge, received justice. Ramabai was like that persistent widow, who kept crying out for justice.
This morning, I’m struck by how little I know about the real plight of people not in my circle, and the amazing people who try to make things right, on earth as it is in heaven. Every time I read or hear about someone doing their little bits of good somewhere, I’m drawn to do more. I’m drawn to go far afield to help in places like India with Pandita’s organization still alive in India, or in Guatemala, or Kenya – places I may never get, plan to go, or have been to seek and serve Christ in all people.
I’m thinking about how for Pandita, she didn’t go far afield. After travelling in England and the US (where she was dismayed by the racial inequity), she returned to her home and served there. Maybe the desire to go far afield is a first-world solution to a my-world problem. There is certainly no shortage of inequities or injustices here. In addition to being drawn to other places, I need to strive for justice and serve Christ in my neighborhood, just as Pandita did.
Finally, I’m thinking about how fantastic it is, that this woman 100 years ago in a caste-system India is able to so succinctly explain why mission work is critical. It’s not so much that we, the haves, are ‘helping the disadvantaged’, or the first world is helping the third world. We aren’t better. They aren’t worse. But it’s through our presence, prayer and ministry that we can share what that dream of God looks like on earth. Thy kingdom come. We can show those we serve, and maybe more poignant, we can show ourselves.
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