jeepney hermeneutics

NO ROOM?

2011-12-20T07:24:00.002+08:00

The first Christmas: we re-enact it almost every December. In our school plays and our church pageants. In our re-enactments, Joseph and a very pregnant Mary find no room in any inn. No one is ready and willing to welcome the couple. Eventually, they find shelter among animals, in a manger, where Jesus is born. Soon, visitors arrive: angels, shepherd, even the Little Drummer Boy in some of our

Sunday Homily... An Invitation

2011-09-04T11:32:00.002+08:00

An Invitation from Galilee Most of us love stories with surprises. The women in Mark 16: 1-8 were in for a few surprises themselves. They went to the tomb that early Sunday morning bringing spices to anoint Jesus’ body worrying about the stone blocking the tomb. Unlike the many doors in our homes and churches and buildings—with its specific locks and, even, numeric codes—the women had no key to

The International Day of the Disappeared and the Empty Tomb

2011-08-30T11:39:00.000+08:00

We, who call ourselves Christian, should not forget that the One we call Lord and Liberator was an Executed God. He was abducted in the dead of night, unjustly tried, beaten, tortured, and executed between two rebels. Then his body was thrown into a borrowed grave. In the Gospel of Mark, at dawn on Sunday three of his disciples, all women, visit the grave to anoint his dead body. They find the

The Pais, Onesimus, and a Canaanite Mother

2011-08-30T10:04:00.000+08:00

In the Gospels of Matthew and Luke we find a story about a rich military officer, a centurion, who came to Jesus seeking healing for his sick slave. Jesus gave him his wish. Restore things back to where they were before. A sick slave is worthless to his master. A sick slave, so sick he is paralyzed, has no use to his owner. Almost every time this story is preached Jesus or the centurion gets to

Dancing, Women, and Prophets

2011-01-26T15:07:00.000+08:00

The oldest Christian tradition, quite possibly formulated within the first decade from Jesus’ crucifixion, is the Christological hymn that Paul quotes in Philippians 2: 5-11. Hebrew Bible scholars agree that the oldest tradition from Ancient Israel, quite possibly already circulating a generation or two from the Exodus event, is found in the book of Exodus. Chapter 15: 20-21 to be exact. Let me

For the Student Christian Movement at 50...(December 11, 2010 at UP CRL)

2010-12-13T15:55:00.004+08:00

If we read our Bibles and pray everyday, we will grow, grow, and grow in the knowledge that there are two kinds of sermons in the New Testament that can get one killed. Both we find in Luke’s work. In Acts, Paul preaching goes on and on and on that eventually Eutychus, a young person sitting by the window, falls asleep and falls to his death. In Luke, Jesus preaches a “gospel for the poor and

Give Us This Day our Daily Bread...

2010-07-28T08:12:00.005+08:00

The different religious groups in Palestine in the first century, like many groups today, were known by the prayers they offered. Jesus’ disciples wanted the same thing so Jesus obliged. If we read our Bibles then we know that Luke’s Jesus prayed a lot. But Jesus’ prayers, and the prayer he taught his disciples, were not individualistic, pietistic supplications. They were community prayers;

FOR PNOY: FREE THE 43; FREE IN 43

2010-07-24T10:22:00.000+08:00

Among the Priest, the Levite, and the Samaritan who chanced upon the wounded Jew on the road connecting Jerusalem and Jericho (in Luke 10: 30-37), the Samaritan was the one who showed mercy, the one who was neighbor to the person who was left half-dead, the one who stopped and helped a brother in need. That is why we call the Samaritan Good. He did what God’s Law required. He did what Jesus

Bad News for Good Samaritans

2010-03-11T14:16:00.000+08:00

If we read our Bibles and pray every day, we will grow, grow, and grow in the knowledge that serving God and serving our neighbor is actually one commandment. This is explicit in Luke 10. If God is our parent, as Jesus taught us, then we are family—Kapamilya at Kapuso—we are sisters and brothers. God’s question to Cain, found in Genesis, remains the same—“Where is your brother? Where is your

The World Needs Soup

2009-05-24T15:32:00.001+08:00

Poverty: Bane or Blessing of Ecumenical RelationsMaryhill Mission Lectures, 25 May 2009"...When Jacob had cooked soup, Esau came in from the field and he was famished; and Esau said to Jacob, 'Please let me have a swallow of that red stuff there, for I am famished.' Therefore his name was called Edom. But Jacob said, 'First sell me your birthright.' Esau said, 'Behold, I am about to die; so of

In Memoriam

2009-01-16T08:42:00.000+08:00

"One of the most compassionate human beings I have had the privilege to know passed away today. He just turned 74 last January 11. Fr. Carl was more than a mentor to us, his students. He was a very dear friend. I believe in Immanuel because of people like him." I wrote these words last January 31, 2008, the day Fr. Carlos Abesamis, SJ, died. Almost a year has passed since then.On Sunday,

WHEN DOES THE HEALING START?

2009-01-13T05:51:00.000+08:00

(A Responsive Meditation Based on Mark 1. 40-45)Leader: Millions of people today experience the plight of the leper in the Markan passage every single day. The healthy stay away from them. The healthy have stopped talking with them. The healthy have stopped interacting with them. The healthy stand from afar and watch them die.People: What is the difference between illness and disease? Disease is

Para kay Jenifer, kay Onesimus, at ang Marami Pang Katulad Nila

2008-10-20T11:42:00.000+08:00

19 October 2008, Misang Alay ng Migrante InternationalTumayo po tayo ng sandali at mag-alay ng panalangin para kay Jenifer Beduya. Mag-alay din tayo ng panalangin para kay Eugenia Baja, Jeffrey So, Myrna Vailoces, at Evelyn Milo. At para kina Eduardo at Edison Gonzales, Eduardo Arcilla, Don Don Lanuza, at Cecilia Armia Alcaraz. Ipanalangin rin natin ang kanilang mga ina, mga ama, mga anak at

MOVEMENT, EXECUTION, CONTINUATION

2008-09-28T16:34:00.000+08:00

Biblico-Theological Reflection Forum on the Economic Meltdown in the Empire and its Impact to the Filipino PeopleBantayog ng mga Bayani, Quezon City, 27 September 2008THE EXECUTED GODWe do not need the Bible to prove that Jesus lived, that he was murdered by the empire, and that his followers confess that he is alive.About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man… For he was one who wrought

God's Fart, Our Farts

2008-08-13T17:52:00.000+08:00

Imperialism exists when a single truth is forced on a plural world. This is why, despite the fact the women hold up half of the sky, majority of men and women believe that men are stronger, more intelligent, more gifted, and closer to God. This is why, to this day, many churches only ordain men as priests. This is also why Christianity has, in the past two thousand years, killed more people in

Onward, Christian Soldiers...

2008-08-06T03:50:00.000+08:00

Episode One "In Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of the Italian cohort, as it was called...." Acts 10:1 “This war is the kingdom of God coming… the sunrise of a better day for the Philippines. With Christ in his heart, the New Testament in his pocket, ‘Look up and lift up’ (Badge of Methodist Youth League) on his shirt, and forty rounds of ammunition in his belt, we

That's why we call it "Peace Time"?

2008-08-05T22:15:00.002+08:00

"Thirty thousand Americans killed a million Filipinos. We have pacified the islanders and buried them; destroyed their fields, burned their villages; furnished heartbreak by exile to scores of disagreeable patriots; subjugated the remaining 10 million by benevolent assimilation, which is the pious new name of the musket....And so, by these providences of God--and the phrase is the government's

We Worship an Executed God

2008-07-17T03:21:00.000+08:00

I have found it disconcerting to celebrate Easter Sunday apart from the horrors of the crucifixion. But many people find nothing problematic about this. The crucifix has become a fashion accessory for a lot of folks. They can do their Easter egg hunts, enjoy their Easter sunrise services, and preach a risen, triumphant Lord without any thought that the God we proclaim as risen was actually

The Parable of Juan and Maria's One-Peso Loan

2008-07-14T11:51:00.000+08:00

Juan and Maria deposit their hard-earned peso in a bank. Government propaganda have convinced them how helpful banks are and being poor farm-folk, they have identified with bank commercials that go, "Ayokong maging dukha!" (I do not want to be poor!). The bank pays them 5% a year. That's 5 centavos less final tax of 20% so they net 4 centavos. The economy being what it is drives the couple to

Tabernacles and Jeepneys

2008-07-04T12:31:00.004+08:00

Biblical interpretation has privileged the centers of power within, behind, and in front of the text. Biblical studies in the Philippines have been a stronghold of colonial scholarship for over a century, especially among Protestant churches. Indigenous denominations refuse to become autonomous and continue to depend on their mother institutions in the United States or elsewhere in the First

Texts of Terror

2008-04-10T09:17:00.000+08:00

If crying is the first prophetic utterance (as lifted up by Chung Hyun Kyung's statement during her controversial opening address, and spirit-invoking dance, at the 7th Assembly of the WCC), then TEXTS OF TERROR's poignant, gut-wrenching portraits of women as victims offer us a hearing of those "cries." In Texts of Terror1, Phyllis Trible sets out to tell sad stories as she "hears" them.

A Spirituality of Struggle

2008-03-28T05:34:00.000+08:00

A SPIRITUALITY OF STRUGGLE* Most leave their families and their work behind. With the barest of essentials they struggle to survive in the mountains. Up there they learn to live with lots of mosquitoes, lots of rain and mud. Up there one does not have porcelain toilet seats, nor decent bathrooms, nor even a regular bottle of Coca-Cola. In the dense jungles of the Sierra Madre mountains

Last Words...

2008-03-26T07:08:00.000+08:00

LAST WORDS (Binan UCCP, 21 March 2008) Last words are important to many of us. Famous last words includeRizal’s “Mi Ultimo Adios” and Antonio Luna’s “P___ -Ina!” Those of us who watched the coverage of FPJ's wake and burial four years ago will remember the variety of remembrances of people who talked about his last words to them. My late mother's last words to me--when

Filipinos and their Jeepneys

2008-02-19T11:12:00.000+08:00

Filipinos and their Jeepneys (An Essay in Honor of Valerio Nofuente) “The western mind is so used to having everything planned and performing like clockwork while the Filipino, conditioned by survival instincts and desperate situations, can do things on-the-spot waiting for every development to guide the next big move. This is simply revolting to the Western mind… The jeepney is

Fr Carlos H Abesamis, SJ

2008-01-31T16:52:00.000+08:00

One of the most compassionate human beings I have had the privilege to know passed away today. He just turned 74 last January 11. Fr. Carl was more than a mentor to us, his students. He was a very dear friend. I believe in Immanuel because of people like him.

Of Gardens and Weeds

2006-08-25T19:27:00.000+08:00

Voice 1: Almost 30 years ago, the whole UTS community—those who believed in what the “school of the prophets” stood for—rose up and resisted the planned merger of the seminary and PCU. Dr. Levi Oracion cautioned that the merger cannot vouchsafe the kind of autonomy and integrity that UTS has enjoyed since 1907. He added: “The administration, the faculty, the staff,

Easter Surprise

2006-04-28T19:59:00.000+08:00

Most of us love stories with surprises. The women in Mark 16: 1-8 were in for a few surprises themselves. They went to the tomb that early Sunday morning bringing spices to anoint Jesus’ body worrying about the stone blocking the tomb. Unlike many doors here in Sweden—with its specific locks and numeric codes—the women had no key to unlock the door.The women expected a locked tomb, they expected

Anumang Hiram, Kung Hindi Masikip ay Maluwang

2006-04-06T15:09:00.000+08:00

Seminaries and divinity schools have, for years, been described asmarketplaces of ideas. Unfortunately, many such institutions have beenmarketplaces, or more appropriately, malls of Western ideas. In otherwords, if one were to go “shopping” in these “malls” of theologicaleducation, one will be amazed by the number of stalls, stores and shopsoffering “imported” goods: from theologies, to liturgies

Reading Readers of the Gospel of Mark

2005-09-20T12:59:00.000+08:00

To argue for a ONE, correct, true interpretation of a text is to force a single truth on a plural world. Interpretation is always perspectival and particular. There is no one, correct, true reading of Mark. There are legion of readers and readings of Mark.

Making Sense of Mark's Ending 3

2005-05-19T17:59:00.000+08:00

Two of the more popular attempts at making sense of Mark’s ending come from feminist interpreters. The first one, a historical reconstructionist perspective, argues that the women did not remain silent and afraid. How could the gospel ever spread if the first witnesses remained fearful and quiet? The second one comes from the literary perspective. Jesus’s followers drop the ball. The men drop it

How does one do Jeepney Hermeneutics?

2005-05-17T17:50:00.000+08:00

Canaan Banana posits that the Bible is an important book of the church and that it includes liberating messages; nevertheless, there remains the sense in which, unless one embraces the Christian concept of God, one is not fully a person of God. Mary John Mananzan points out that the Bible in spite of all the reinterpretations, remains a book written from a patriarchal, dominator, imperial

Window, Story, Mirror

2005-05-16T18:23:00.000+08:00

Most interpretations can be summarized into three categories: those that locate meaning “behind texts,” those that locate meaning “in the texts,” and those that locate meaning “in front of the texts.” Those interpretations that fall under the first category presuppose that scripture serves a referential function, the text is a “window” to a privileged past—to Israel, to the historical Jesus, to

Salamat, Fr. Carl...

2005-05-15T21:18:00.001+08:00

Sequels are usually less exciting than the originals. In the case of Backpack of a Jesus Seeker: Book Two, it is not. In A Third Look at Jesus, Fr. Carlos Abesamis offered us his construction of Jesus that does not look anything like the blue-eyed blond, liberal messiah most contemporary researchers' works portray. Through nineteen chapters, which he calls "stop-overs," he "travels" through Jesus

FPJ, Asedillo, and Aguila

2005-05-14T20:26:00.000+08:00

Most Filipinos love stories, telling them, listening to them, or watching them. Filipinos who do not enjoy movie watching are quite rare. I remember the moviehouses in the barrios where we used to go during summer vacations. Most of these had double programs. Your ticket bought you two movies to watch. A few had triple programs. We saved up for those triples, especially if they starred Fernando

Making Sense of Mark's Ending 2

2005-05-12T18:07:00.000+08:00

Take a single verse in the Bible, say John 11:35 (“Jesus wept”). Take five biblical scholars using the same method for interpreting scripture, say redaction criticism. And what do you have? Five different readings. There’s no such thing as a disinterested reading or reader. Interpretation is always perspectival and particular. Interpretation always involves choices. Take a popular telenovela, say

Making Sense of Mark's Ending

2005-05-12T11:38:00.000+08:00

Imagine you are part of the original audience of the Gospel of Mark. Christianity is about 30 or so years old. You are a second-generation believer. You believe, like many in your community, that Jesus is risen. You believe, like many in your community, that he appeared to Peter, and then to many others, and then to Paul. Then, this short gospel comes along. It's disturbing. It does not have any

Reading John inside a Jeepney

2005-05-12T11:19:00.000+08:00

Jeepney hermeneutics is but one among many “Canaanite” readings. And it is a reading that (1) presupposes that the Bible is a “jeep,” an imperializing text, and that said jeep can be (2) transformed into a “jeepney.”Let me offer a brief example using the Gospel of John. The connection of the Bible, its readers, and its institutions to Western imperialism do not call for special pleading. As Alan

Si Lazaro at ang Mayaman

2004-09-22T07:10:00.000+08:00

Mula sa mga Igorot ng Cordillera hanggang sa mga Lumad sa Mindanao, hitik ang ating kasaysayan at kolektibong karanasan sa mga taong nag-alay ng buhay dahil sa pag-ibig sa kapwa, sa bayan, at sa Dios. Marami sa kanila ay mananampalataya-- mayroong humawak ng sandata upang ipagtanggol ang bayan, ang mga anak, ang buhay laban sa mga puwersang mapang-api at sakim; mayroong namang hindi. Si Andres

Reading Matthew... part 3

2004-09-21T16:30:00.000+08:00

Look at how the pais is described in Greek, "ho pais mou," "the servant who is mine." That child's body is under somebody else's control- whether it's his father, his owner, and, as I argue elsewhere, his pedophile. The centurion's act on the pais' behalf emphasizes the latter's marginalization. As far as the text is concerned, the pais cannot speak or seek his own healing. Yet, that child

Reading Matthew... part 2

2004-09-06T07:01:00.000+08:00

Interpretation, by definition, is always perspectival and particular. In other words, everything-including the supposedly objective historical-critical method-is reader response. My selective literary analysis of Matthew as imperializing text presupposes the reality of empire as backdrop to the construction of the narrative. Many Filipinos employ a similar assumption when engaging Filipino

Reading Matthew inside a Jeepney

2004-08-29T08:39:00.000+08:00

Introduction Biblical interpretation has privileged the centers of power, within, behind, and in front of the text. Biblical Studies, in the Philippines, have been a stronghold of colonial scholarship for over a century, especially among Protestant Churches. Denominations refuse to go autonomous and continue to depend on "mother" institutions in the United States. Church buildings and

Resonance and Fishing

2004-08-24T07:47:00.000+08:00

According to Dianne Bergant, "...Anthropologists when confronted with the particularities of social reality attempt to construct a “thick description” of behavior, a highly detailed ethnographic analysis that explicitly includes, as far as this is possible, the insider's perspective. The most common approach toward this end is through a process of radical empiricism known as participant

From war machine to Pinoy "home on wheels"

2004-08-20T07:21:00.000+08:00

On July 7, 1940, the US Army requested the War Department for an all terrain reconnaissance go-anywhere vehicle that seated three and had a mount for a 30-caliber machine gun. Tens of thousands of these vehicles were used in World War II. For many Filipinos the jeep was, and—with the continuing presence of American troops in the islands—still is an imperializing “text.” The jeepney, the

Jeeps and Jeepneys...

2004-08-19T07:38:00.000+08:00

Mark Lewis Taylor, during the 2000 Annual SBL/AAR meeting, celebrated the publication of the Dictionary of Third World Theologies and called it "A Dictionary for Resisting Empire." For him, the volume summarizes critical reflection arising from people's movements in resistance to "empire," i.e. to the hegemony of Western powers whose metropole centers seek an ever-strengthened global power to