Diversity and Taking Sides

There are 66 books in the Protestant Bible. 73 in the Catholic Bible. The 39 books of the Protestant Old Testament is a Christian appropriation of the Hebrew Bible's 24. There are now over 5,700 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament. No two of which are exactly alike. (There were 5,360 when I was in Graduate School.)

There are over 2,000 English translations of the Bible. Two of the most widely circulated are the King James Version and the New International Version.

Most of us know this already: the Bible is not a book. It's actually a library. And since it's a library, it offers theologies. Read and compare 2 Samuel 24.1 and 1 Chronicles 21.1 and you'll understand what I'm pointing out. Paul's and James's understanding of faith is a study in contrast.

When one reads the Resurrection accounts in the Canonical Gospels, one discovers that there were three women at the tomb in Mark, two in Matthew, an undisclosed number of women in Luke, and only Mary Magdalene in John. The herald of the resurrection was a young man in Mark, an angel in Matthew, two men in Luke, and Jesus himself in John.

The Bible is a wellspring of diversity. Dictators and despots have used it to perpetuate their regimes. Liberation movements have used it to ground their causes. Churches have used it to disempower, dehumanize, and demonize people of color, women, indigenous peoples, LGBTQi, people living with HIV and AIDS, PWDs, and many more. The disempowered, dehumanized, and demonized have used it to rise above their oppression. And most, actually, don't read it. It is the world's number one bestselling book. But buying one and reading it are two different things.

In the Philippines, the Bible has been used to legislate sin, to criminalize dissent, and legitimize tyranny. It has also been used to birth solidarity and resistance.

Diversity is a gift. But diversity in a world led by the likes of Trump and Duterte and dominated by systems and structures of greed, power, and privilege is tokenism. Thus, those of us who confess to follow Jesus preach good news to the poor, not simply good news. We follow the One who proclaimed blessings to the poor and declared woes to the rich.

We take sides. Like Jesus did. Because God always does.

IF THE CHURCH HAD VIBRANIUM...

We should work with Cuba so that the most disenfranchised peoples in the world will get the best education and the best medical services available.

We should cooperate and collaborate with indigenous communities in healing and nursing Mother Earth back to health. We should also invest in national industrialization for the poorest counties and empowerment programs for the people there.

We should also help provide the 666 billion dollars that is needed to address with finality world poverty, hunger, safe water and sanitation, decent housing, basic literacy, and universal health services.  

And, finally, if we had vibranium, we must charge the United States of America and the State of Israel with multiple counts of crimes against humanity!

BUT WAIT, WE DO HAVE VIBRANIUM! 

BUT WE DON’T CALL IT THAT. WE CALL IT LAND. BONDS, STOCKS, SPECIAL FUNDS. VAST RESOURCES. ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY. POWER. INFLUENCE. WE HAVE SO MUCH. 

We do have vibranium. And we have failed! 

UPRISING!

Whether we read the Bible or the Jewish historian Josephus or the Roman historianTacitus, one thing is crystal clear: Jesus lived and preached an alternative empire. Historians tell us that he lived a life of open healing and shared eating, of radical itinerancy, of empowered egalitarianism, of human contact without discrimination and without hierarchies, and of preferential option for the poor. 

And Jesus was executed by the Roman Empire because of this. A life totally dedicated to the liberation of the poor and the powerless is a very dangerous life. Those who follow the Galilean Jesus, actually, follow an executed God. 

Never forget this. Any movement that seriously serves the poor will be harassed, threatened, and, oftentimes, stopped by the privileged and the powerful. The ongoing harassment of Sr. Patricia Fox and the murders of Fr. Tito Paez and Fr. Mark Ventura are but three examples of this stark reality. Archbishop Oscar Romero was murdered by state agents. He gave his life as a ransom for many. He once declared, “You can kill me, but I will rise up in the People of El Salvador.” Anasthasis which is translated resurrection can also be translated Rising Up. Or much better, UPRISING!

Over and over in the Gospel of Mark, especially in chapters 8, 9, and 10, Jesus tells his disciples he will be handed over and be crucified. But God will raise him up. At the end of Mark’s Gospel, the disciples at the tomb are left silent and afraid by the young man’s challenge: the one who began the movement, the one who was executed, the one they expected to find dead inside the tomb was not there. God has raised him up. God had begun an UPRISING.  And the young man at the tomb says, “Tell the disciples and Peter.” Tell the ten and Peter.

Unless a seed falls to the ground and dies, it remains a single seed. But if it dies, one seed produces many seeds. LET ME REPEAT THAT: UNLESS A SEED FALLS TO THE GROUND AND DIES, IT REMAINS A SINGLE SEED. BUT IF IT DIES, ONE SEED PRODUCES MANY…

For every one that offers one’s life for serving the people as a ransom for many, God will raise up ten. For every ten, God will raise up a hundred… For every hundred, a thousand.