Jakarta (ANTARA News) – Cukup dengan membual, seorang pria 24 tahun bisa diterima di universitas terkemuka Harvard di Amerika Serikat lalu mendapat berbagai beasiswa dan penghargaan. Rencana yang dia jalankan berlangsung mulus. Masalahnya, Adam Wheeler tidak pernah bisa mengendalikan nafsu tipu-tipu. Dia terus mengirim aplikasi untuk meraup dana dari beasiswa dan dana penelitian. (more…)
Archive for December 21st, 2010 | Daily archive page
Ya’ahowu Wanunu Fandru? (SdNMT 4)
Tuesday, December 21st, 2010
Selamat merayakan Natal! Setiap tahun dia datang lagi: Hari Natal (h dengan huruf besar). Memang dewasa ini hari Natal nyaris kehilangan H dalam huruf besar, menjadi hari-hari Natal (huruf kecil h dan jamak), karena dirayakan berkali-kali selama bulan Desember. Tak heran karena itu di beberapa tempat Perayaan Natal mengalami inflasi. Maka beberapa tahun lalu Gereja Lutheran dan Gereja Katolik di Jerman berusaha menghimbau orang Kristen mengoptimalkan masa-masa persiapan Natal.
Ya, selamat merayakan Natal. Saya sengaja memakai kalimat ini, karena dewasa ini pengaruh budaya Amerika semakin mengikis makna religius perayaan ini. Selamat Natal, biasanya orang menyingkat. Tetapi untuk apa menginginkan supaya Natal selamat? Mungkin cocok memakai ungkapan ini di Inggeris, karena memang di sana Perayaan Natal sebagai perayaan religius terancam disingkirkan oleh orang-orang yang anti-Kristen dan ateis. Semoga Natal selamat, tak tergerus desakan para musuh Kristus. Di Inggeris.
Tetapi di Indonesia? Kita ucapkan selamat Natal di sini? Semoga yang dimaksud adalah selamat merayakan Natal. Sayangnya di sini pun ucapan Selamat Natal pun makin terdesak kini dengan Merry Christmas, bahasanya Amerika. Orang Inggeris sendiri tidak begitu menyukai kata itu. Ratu Inggeris Elisabeth II bahkan menghindari kata Merry Christmas dan menggantinya dengan Happy Christmas. Mengapa? Karena orang cenderung melupakan Christmas-nya (Christ Mass, misa Kelahiran Kristus) dan hanya ingat merry-nya (enak, sedap, nyaman) saja, yang mereka terjemahkan dengan minum-minum dan makan-makan berlebihan. Pada abad ke-19 kaum kelas bawah di Inggeris memang mengartikan Selamat Merayakan Natal dengan merry Christmas tadi. Kala itu perayaan Natal identik dengan mabuk-mabukan, suatu tradisi yang justru meninggalkan Inggeris menuju Amerika dan dari sana dipopulerkan ke seluruh dunia. Kini Merry Christmas identik dengan makanan, minuman, hadiah, wah-wah, bahkan bagi sebagian orang mabuk-mabukan, foya-foya dan pesta esek-esek.
Seiring dengan degradasi merry christmas komersialisasi figur Sinterklas. Kata Sinterklaas sendiri kita warisi dari bahasa Belanda, tetapi isinya yang komersial justru kita import dari Amerika. Apalagi – lagi-lagi karena pengaruh Amerika – figur Sinterklaas melebur dengan figur Father Christmas, yang berjubah merah menyala itu. Sayang. Karena Sinterklas, dari Santo Nikolaus, tidak ada hubungan dengan komersialisasi perayaan Natal, melainkan dengan mengganjar anak-anak yang berperilaku baik selama setahun yang lewat dan menasihati mereka yang berperilaku buruk.
Sinterklas berjubah merah menyala itu justru cenderung mencemarkan perayaan Natal, karena mengartikannya dengan minum alkohol dan berhaha-hoho-huhu sambil bernyanyi-nyanyi. Sayang bahwa mereka tidak hanya tinggal di Amerika, tetapi juga menyebar ke banyak tempat di dunia, didukung oleh pusat-pusat belanja.
Tetapi saya sendiri lebih menyukai kata Natal daripada Christmas. Bukan hanya karena asosiasi komersialisasi budaya Amerika yang melekat dengan kata Christmas tadi, tetapi karena kata Natal, yang kita warisi dari bahasa Portugis, lebih mengingatkan kita pada apa yang sebenarnya yang kita rayakan: sebuah kelahiran.
Ya, kelahiran. Tepatnya Kelahiran (K dalam huruf besar) Penyelamat. Dan mungkin karena itu ucapan yang lebih tepat: Selamat merayakan kelahiran Tuhan. Kita tentu tidak mengucapkan selamat kelahiran, tetapi selamat merayakan kenangan kelahiran-Nya. Tetapi lebih daripada merayakan ulang tahun seseorang, di sini kita merayakan kelahiran Dia, yang motif kelahiran-Nya hanya satu: karena Allah sedemikian mengasihi dunia, sehingga Sabda menjadi Daging dan tinggal di antara kita (Immanuel). Ini sebuah kelahiran istimewa. Dalam peristiwa di kandang di Betlehem itu Allah lagi merajut keselamatan dunia.
Tetapi kalau kita pulang Nias kita akan mengucapkan Ya’ahowu Wanunu Fandru. Menarik mengamati bahwa tradisi perayaan Natal sendiri sudah dimulai sejak ke-4, tetapi ucapan Selamat Merayakan Natal baru populer pada abad ke-19. Dan tradisi perayaan natal di Nias kemungkinan besar dibawa oleh para misionaris Jerman pada abad ke-19 juga. Kita tahu misi protestan sampai di Nias 1865, itu berarti tidak lama setelah Pohon Natal mulai diperkenalkan di Jerman. Jadi satu tradisi yang jauh lebih muda dibanding tradisi Kandang Natal, yang sudah mulai populer sejak abad ke-13.
Ya’ahowu wanunu fandru. Kemungkinan ucapan ini ada hubungannya dengan menyalakan lilin di Pohon Natal. Terang lilin dimengerti sebagai lambang Kristus yang baru lahir yang adalah Terang dunia. Tetapi bagaimana kisahnya kita mengucapkan selamat menyalakan lilin dan bukan selamat merayakan kelahiran Kristus, pastilah menarik untuk dipelajari. Pasti ada makna rohani di belakangnya, sebab kalau tidak, mungkin tidak begitu disarankan untuk mempertahankannya.
Tetapi yang jelas, kendati ucapan ini sudah mentradisi, ya’ahowu wanunu fandru tidak begitu mengenai sasaran perayaan kelahiran Tuhan. Ya’ahowu Wa’atumbu Zo’aya (selamat hari kelahiran Tuhan), mungkin agak lebih baik, karena kalau dijabarkan berarti ya’ahowu ita sangowasaini wanörötödö wa’atumbu Zo’aya (selamat bagi kita yang merayakan peringatan kelahirana Tuhan). Selamat bukan bagi Tuhan (Dia sendiri adalah sumber keselamatan), tetapi selamat bagi kita.
Ya’ahowu Wa’atumbu Zo’aya atau Ya’ahowu Wanunu Fandru? Yang terakhir ini telah mentradisi. Tetapi bagi orang Kristen yang sadar akan apa yang dilakukannya kalau merayakan Natal pasti lebih menggugah kesadaran bila mengatakan Ya’ahowu Wa’atumbu Zo’aya. Terasa tidak lazim memang, karena itu kalimatnya harus diucapkan secara sadar, dan karena itu lebih membantu untuk menyadari makna di balik hiruk-pikuk perayaan Natal: Kelahiran Penyelamat, yang terjadi tanpa hiruk pikuk di sebuah kandang di sebuah padang. Semoga kejadian tanpa hiruk pikuk ini tidak terjepit oleh hiruk pikuk berbagai perayaan Natal. Selamat merayakan kelahiran Penyelamat. Ya’ahowu wanörötödö wa’atumbu Zo’aya. (Keterangan foto: Tradisi Kandang Natal jauh lebih tua daripada tradisi Pohon Natal. Lukisan Kandang Natal ini berasal dari abad ke-4. Sumber Foto: Wikipedia.org).
London, 20 Desember 2010
Sirus Laia
Silent Night, Holy Night
Tuesday, December 21st, 2010December 1, 2010 – In a world of turmoil and fear, is “silent night, holy night†a false hope?
by Billy Graham
Once again the world celebrates Christmas in the midst of a political and economic crisis so deep that millions are not certain they will survive this decade.
Some years ago I flew over a little town in the beautiful Austrian Alps. As I looked down from 30,000 feet I could not help but remember a scene that some say took place 160 years earlier. It was Christmas Eve, and in Obendorf, the Reverend Joseph Mohr, the 26-year-old assistant pastor of St. Nicholas Church, was troubled.
As the story goes, mice had eaten into the bellows of the old church organ, and there would be no music at the Christmas Eve service. So, Mohr sat down and quickly wrote a poem of six stanzas, celebrating the glory of the birth of Jesus Christ. He brought the poem to his friend Franz Gruber and requested that the musician set the words to music.
That night Gruber and Mohr sang their melody, little dreaming that this song would go around the world and become possibly the greatest Christmas carol of all time: “Silent Night, Holy Night.â€
But much of the world today is not silent, and it is not holy. It is a world of political, economic and social turmoil, standing on the brink of Armageddon. If there’s one word that seems to describe our world and its mood today it is fear. It seems like every day the headlines scream of some new crisis in our world that threatens to plunge us into chaos. Just as real and just as tragic are the personal crisis points that never make the headlines. The marriage that is falling apart. The heartache of a broken relationship. The despair of a lost job. The threat of illness. The slavery of a drug or alcohol problem that seems unbreakable.
Jesus spoke of a time when men’s hearts would fail them for fear. We seem to be living in just such a time as that today. “Silent night, holy night†seems like a romantic dream or even a false hope that vanishes in the face of the realities of life.
The Only Source of Peace
But there can be peace in our hearts when we turn to the only true source of peace, Jesus Christ.
Think back to that first Christmas about 2,000 years ago. It was probably late at night on the plains just a few miles outside the little village of Bethlehem. The stars shone like diamonds in the sky, and a little band of weary shepherds had settled down to sleep on the cold, rocky ground. They had no reason to expect that this night would be different from any other night, just as you may think that nothing is going to change in your own life. But God had other plans. This was the night that would be the most important night in human history, the night when God Himself would come to Earth.
Listen to Luke’s account of that remarkable night: “And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord†(Luke 2:9-11, KJV).
Can you imagine the fear that must have gripped the shepherds’ hearts? One translation says, “and they were terrified,†but the first words of the angels to those shepherds were “fear not.†Fear not, because Christ has come, and He makes all the difference. Because Christ has come, you need not be bound by fear and despair. You can know that all is calm and all is bright because of Christ.
Fear Not
Four times in the Gospel accounts of Christmas, the angels use that expression, “Fear not.†Zechariah, an old man, was filled with fear when he was told that he would be the father of John the Baptist, who would be the forerunner of the Messiah. The angel told him, “Fear not†(Luke 1:13, KJV). Mary was told that she would have the awesome privilege of bearing the Son of God. Fear filled her at first, but the angel said, “Fear not, Mary†(Luke 1:30, KJV). Joseph, betrothed to the virgin Mary, was filled with fear and embarrassment when he discovered she was pregnant, but the angel declared, “Fear not … for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost†(Matthew 1:20, KJV). Then, as we have already read, when the Holy Child was born, the angel came to those shepherds and said, “Fear not†(Luke 2:10, KJV).
And that is what God says to us today. No matter what our fear may be, He says to us right now, “Fear not.†Fear not, because Christ has come.
There are, of course, different kinds of fear. Not all fear is wrong. It is right for a child to fear a hot stove or a sharp knife, because those can harm him. It is right for us also to fear sin and Satan, for they can bring devastation to us. The Bible also tells us to fear God. That does not mean that we’re to be in terror of Him, shrinking from Him and even fleeing from Him—although we should fear His judgment—but it does mean we’re to have a reverence and respect for Him, knowing that He is holy and all powerful.
But the angels tell us, “Fear not.†Why? Because there is no longer any reason to be gripped and enslaved by fear. Think of the fears that so easily assault us. There is the fear of problems we face and what might happen to us. Jesus declared, “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world†(John 16:33). He invites you today to bring your cares and your burdens to Him. He said, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest†(Matthew 11:28).
Or there is the fear of loneliness. You’re never alone when you know Christ. He has promised, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age†(Matthew 28:20). You were created for fellowship with God, and when you come to Christ, He makes you a child of God. You have a special relationship with Him, and nothing can take that away, because Christ made it possible through His death on the cross.
Then there’s the fear of death. There was another time in the Bible when the angel came and said, “Fear not.†It was spoken to the women who came to the tomb of Jesus early on that first Easter morning and discovered the tomb was empty. “Fear not ye … He is not here: for he is risen†(Matthew 28:5-6, KJV).
Christ is the answer to death. By His death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead, He took away the sting of death. He took away our sins by dying on the cross in our place, and by putting your faith in Him as your Lord and Savior you can know the joy of forgiveness and peace with God.
Just the Beginning
Christmas was just the beginning. Ahead was the cross, and beyond the cross was the empty tomb.
Christ has come to take away the source of our fears. Fears are real. Christ does not tell us that we should simply cheer up and they’ll all go away. It’s right to fear death if we do not know Christ. It is right to fear loneliness or the problems that seem to overwhelm us, because those things are very real. But so is Christ, and when we realize that He has dealt with sin and made it possible for us to be reconciled to God, then we do not need to be paralyzed by fear any longer. Instead, we should do what the shepherds did: come to Christ. Come to Him with our sins and cast them at His feet, then we can know Silent Night, Holy Night. Then we can know what the Bible calls the peace of God which passeth all understanding.
Jesus promised, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid†(John 14:27).
Christmas tells us what it cost God to save the world: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son†(John 3:16). Christ is God’s great Christmas gift to the world. The Scripture says, “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!†(2 Corinthians 9:15).
Hope That Lasts
However, the hope that was given to those shepherds on that first Christmas morning is available only to those who believe. To know the pardon, joy, peace and power that come through Christ, we must personally receive Him by faith. Faith must be real if the heart is to be changed.
There are many of you who long for peace in your own heart this Christmastime. You, too, can meet God at the foot of the cross and find the peace that you have searched for so long.
You say, “What do I have to do?†Well, you have to turn from your sins, receive Christ as your Lord and Savior and commit your life to Him. He will come into your heart, and this Christmas you can spend knowing the Christ of Christmas for the first time.
Whatever your need, Jesus can meet it. Whatever the desires and longings of your heart, Christ can touch your life and transform you and make you a new person. I’m going to ask you to make that commitment and that decision tonight. What a wonderful time of the year to say “yes†to Jesus Christ and let Him change your life. (Sumber: Situs Billy Graham: Sumber: http://www.billygraham.org/articlepage.asp?articleid=7533)
