COMING OUT!

I would like to believe that the incarnation is really about God coming out.

In the Gospel of Mark, God comes out of heaven. One can argue that God actually escapes from heaven. Compared to the Matthean and Lukan versions which state that “the heavens were opened,” the Markan passage states “the heavens were torn” apart. In Mark, God comes out of heaven and does not return!

I would like to believe that the incarnation gives us a clearer vision of who God really is: the God who wants to be one of us; the God who always takes the side of widows, orphans, and strangers; the God who is waiting ahead of us in Galilee where many of us do not want to go; the God who loved sinners, prostitutes, lepers, rebels, outcasts, and eunuchs; the God who dearly loved Mary of Magdala, Simon Peter, the Beloved Disciple, and, yes, the young man in the garden; and, finally, God-with-us, Immanuel, the One who will never, ever, forsake us.

I would like to believe that you believe these as well.

[from Revelation E. Velunta, "Disciples, Eunuchs, and Secrets," Pages 89-107 of Disruptive Faith, Inclusive Communities: Church and Homophobia, Zachariah and Rajkumar,Eds., ISPCK/CISRS, 2015]

FORGIVE US, TISOY! A Letter to Genesis. From Revelation

Tisoy, when you went out to buy load last June 15th no one expected that you won't be able to come back home. No one expected that you will land in jail. No one expected you will die a senseless, violent death shortly thereafter. Not you. Not your loved ones. No one!

No one expected you, a young man who walked 17 steps from where you lived to buy prepaid cellphone load, to be arrested for alarm and scandal. And no one expected you to be beaten to death while in the custody of those legally sworn to protect you. NO ONE!

In Genesis 22 there's this story about a father and a son. Those of us who call ourselves Christian know this story. The father was expected to offer his son. The son expected to be sacrificed. But both expectations did not come to pass. We care so much for Abraham and Isaac to let the story run as expected. It was a ram that was killed. An animal was sacrificed. And we do not care!

A culture of impunity pervades our world. Worse in our country. The present dispensation legislates sin, criminalizes dissent, and demonizes the poor. The War on Terror and the War in Drugs have left thousands dead, displaced, and dispossessed. The people in power, god-players, define who are human and who are less than human; those created in their image and those who are not.

And every single day those they define as different, as deviant, as dangerous, as dirty, as enemies, as drug addicts, as istambays, and, yes, as animals are sacrificed. And those of us who are so proud to be called followers of Jesus? We, actually, do not care!

We have slogans that go "Open Hearts, Open Doors" and "Radical Hospitality" but our homes and our institutions are locked and unwelcoming to people like you. You will be sent away if you enter our temples shirtless. You will immediately be sent away even if you attempt to enter the gates of our most holy places. You can't get a job, even for a denarius, in our offices. We require at least 2 years of college. You barely finished 4th grade. And, please, don't try wooing our children. No tricycle or jeepney drivers or daily-wage earners for our children. Definitely, no istambays!!! They deserve better.

We are as guilty as Duterte and his ilk for demonizing Istambays.

We are supposed to preach good news to the poor, take the side of those whose only hope is God,offer our lives--like salt--so that others may live, and help dismantle oppressive structures that produce the unemployed, the underemployed, the Istambays.

But we have badly lost our way. Forgive us, Tisoy. Please!

Jesus, forgive us.


Revelation

[photo by Pastor Jochebed Joyce Flores Lovendino, taken during Genesis "Tisoy" Argoncillo's wake]