The Parable of the Sower

The parable is not about soil. Nor is it a multiple choice question. Have you seen soil deciding to be either soil along the path, rocky, thorny or good soil?

The parable is about a sower. Then, like now, farmers were among the poorest of the poor. They had no land to call their own. Life was so hard half of the population was slowly starving to death. Life was so hard the average life expectancy was 28!

So they had to sow where it would take a miracle for the seed to actually grow. Along the path, among rocks, among thorns. And the seed that fall on good soil? The good soil owned by the rich, the powerful, and the privileged. They all grow, bringing a yield of thirty, sixty, a hundred fold. A bountiful harvest indeed. For the rich, the powerful, and the privileged.

Do not forget this. Ever. Parables are subversive speech. Parables got Jesus executed.

The Master’s House

Most of us know it by heart. Using the master's tools to dismantle the master’s house. That's why we learn the ways of the empire. That why we we are experts in imperial mimicry. That's why our institutions, systems, and structures seem to mirror the establishment's.

But we also know that the master's tools will never dismantle the master’s house; that many of his tools force a single truth upon a plural world; and that most of his tools are swords and spears which bring about peace. Peace based on victory in war.

This is why we turn his tools into our tools, beating swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks; why we tell both parables and myths; why we try to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves; why we preach good news to the poor and not to the rich; why we continue to drink from our own wells; and why we struggle with the masses to bring about peace. Peace based on justice.

If the only tool we use is a hammer, everything will look like a nail. This is why we sing, if I had a hammer, if I had a bell, if I had a song...

Difference is our strength. Diversity is our gift. It takes a village to raise a child. It also takes a village to tear down the master’s house.

The Parable of the "Wicked" Tenants

Once upon a time there was an absentee landlord who planted a vineyard. He leased it to tenants and left for another country. When harvest came he sent slaves to collect his share of the produce. The tenants beat one, stoned one, and killed another. The landlord sends more slaves. The tenants treat them the same way as they did the first wave. Finally, the landlord sends his son. The tenants, seeing the son, said to themselves, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.” So they seized the son and killed him.

Now, when the absentee landlord comes, what will he do to the tenants? He will put those wretches to a miserable death and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at harvest time.

The rich absentee landlord had every right to do what he did. He owned the land. He probably had the titles to prove that. He had a valid contract with the tenants. They broke the terms of the contract. And worse, killed his heir. The rich landlord had every right to kill each and every one who had a hand in his heir’s death. Everyone! At the end of the parable, the landlord was still rich. He still has slaves. He has new tenants. He has lost a son. But he has avenged his heir by destroying all the “wicked” tenants who had actually tried to seize his land for their own.

The rich, absentee, landlord is not God. The heir is not Jesus. The rich, absentee, landlord is a rich, absentee, landlord. Like the Cojuancos. The Consunjis. The Enriles. The heir is a landlord in training. He will eventually get the land. Then after him, his heir. Anyone who tries to seize the landlord’s property will be eliminated. 

Dispossessed farmers, peasants, tenants beware: if you collectively try to seize lands that belong to the rich, you and your kin will have a miserable death.

Render unto Caesar

Render unto Caesar what he owns. What bears his image. His property.
But never, ever, render unto Caesar what he does not own. People. Each one bears God's image. People are not property.