Immanuel (Prayer for Interns)

Dear God, Parent of us all, as we leave this sacred place let us celebrate the promise of Immanuel. Let us not forget that in the fulness of time you left heaven to be with us because no one needs to be alone. No one, ever, deserves to be alone.

And Immanuel only makes sense in relationship.

No one can serve as God's presence to oneself. To be Immanuel is to serve as God's presence to another. Help us remember, it takes at least two people to affirm Immanuel!

As we read our Bibles and pray every day, we will grow, grow, grow in the realization that Jesus was one of a pair. Throughout his ministry. Until his death and beyond. There was always Mary Magdalene.

Mary was Jesus's Immanuel.

As our interns leave the portals of our beloved Seminary, you are sending them out to serve as Immanuel. Being Immanuel is, often,  a thankless ministry. Look at what happened to Mary Magdalene. Historians tell us that the early church had three pillars. Peter, Paul and Mary Magdalene. But today most have no idea about her discipleship, her apostleship, and her leadership. Actually today, Roman Catholics celebrate Peter. While Protestants quote Paul more than Jesus.

Who among us know anyone named Mary Magdalene? Forgive us because most of us have internalized the demolition job church and society have done to Jesus's Immanuel.

Our interns  will face a lot of challenges in their internship. They will receive a lot of criticism. They will cry, they will get frustrated, they will get disheartened.

But they will persevere because they know that, despite the fact that there are over 100 million Filipinos and over 20 million Sri Lankans right now, there is someone who is so alone.

That someone might be a person living with HIV and AIDS demonized for his/her sexual sins. That someone might be a driver, a former OFW, whose 15-year old jeepney has been marked as worthless. That someone might be an ALCADEV teacher facing harassment and death threats from the very people sworn to protect her.

That someone might be a church worker who has to deal with sexual harassment from superiors and colleagues. That someone might be a young person who has to face her pregnancy alone.

That someone might be a single parent struggling to make both ends meet while caring for her family that many call dysfunctional. That someone might be a labor union leader being hunted by armed goons for standing up for labor rights.

You did not create us to be alone, yet right now, someone is.

And when our interns meet this someone, then he or she will cease to be alone. Never forget this. Ever. The best way to experience God's presence in our lives is to be God's presence in someone else's life.

So, go. Let us all go. Interns, go. Graduating Class, go!

Be Immanuel. Because no one deserves to be alone. Be Immanuel and encounter the other, among the poor, the dehumanized, the dispossessed. Be Immanuel and experience God.

Amen

[Interns' Commissioning, 4 April 2018, Union Theological Seminary, Philippines; photo from Pastor Kakay Pamaran, UTS Field Education Office]

Los Desaparecidos

We, who call ourselves Christian, should not forget that the One we call Lord and Liberator was a victim of state-sanctioned murder. He was abducted in the dead of night, unjustly tried, beaten, tortured, and executed between two rebels.

Many Jesus Scholars tell us that nobody knew what happened next. There are those who say that his body was left on the cross, to be feasted upon by wild dogs. Others say he was probably thrown into a mass grave. Still others say his body was placed hastily into a borrowed grave.

Paul writing in the 50s never talks about the empty tomb. The story of the empty tomb in Mark arrives at least two decades after.

And the Markan story is clear. There is no body. The women came to mourn, they came for closure, they came with spices. Jesus had disappeared!

Whether we talk about the Philippines, Argentina, Palestine, and many more places in the world, countless cannot mourn or find closure because their children, their parents, their comrades, their teachers, their students, like, Jesus, have disappeared.

Like Jesus they walked and worked with those whose only hope is God. Like Jesus their lives were dedicated to struggling for peace based on justice. Like Jesus, they were threats to the rich and the powerful. And like Jesus, they all disappeared!

Like the women at the tomb, many of us are silent and afraid. Like the women in the tomb, we want to find The Disappeared. We want to find them alive. Or if they are dead, we want to find their bodies. We want to anoint them with fragrant oils. Maybe build a monument or set up a memorial for them. We want to mourn. We want closure.

But the message of the young man in the empty tomb is as real today as it was thousands of years ago… Jesus is not in the tomb. He is risen. He is in Galilee… Waiting for us!

We also believe that The Disappeared has risen again in the tens, in the hundreds, and in the thousands who continue what they begun: fighting and struggling for justice, for peace, for liberation. Like Jesus, they are in Galilee where we do not want to go; where the good news is preached to the poor; where the hungry are given food; and where liberation is proclaimed to the captives…

The Disappeared are waiting for us to pick up where they left off.

[photo from ManilaToday]