GOD IS A FARMER

GOD IS A FARMER

More often than not, we read this passage like we do the Parable of the Sower. We ask, "What kind of soil are we?" We want to be the good soil that brings forth grain. We lose sight of the Sower. Yes, we lose sight of the Farmer.

In Sunday's lection from the Gospel of John, we ask what kind of branch we are. We want to be the branch that bears fruit. We lose sight of the vine. Moreover, we lose sight of the Vine Grower. Yes, we lose sight of the Farmer.

God is the Vine Grower in today's passage. God plants the vine. God does the pruning. God does the cutting off. God is actually a farmer.

During Jesus' time, farmers and fisherfolk comprised the bulk of the population: 7 out of 10. (Nothing has actually changed.) Then and now, farmers and fisherfolk are among the poorest of the poor. Dispossessed farmers and dislocated fisherfolk were worse off.

In First Century Palestine, the poor could afford only barley bread and fish, dried, smoked, or salted. These were what the urban poor, slaves, and peasants had when they were able to eat. The masses were slowly starving to death. Have you ever wondered why the majority of Jesus's stories and sayings in the gospels are about bread and fish, farming and fishing, and farmers and fisherfolk? Have you ever wondered why Jesus's Gospel is the Gospel to the Poor?

Unfortunately, we lose sight of farmers and fisherfolk. And we forget that the lestes-- badly translated as robbers and bandits in English Bibles; better translated as rebels and freedom fighters--were composed mostly of dispossessed farmers, fisherfolk, and runaway slaves!

But God does not forget! God always takes sides. And farmers and fisherfolk are closest to God's heart.

God is a farmer. God plants. God prunes. God cuts off branches that bear no fruit, and throws these to the fire to be burned.

#ReadingTheParablesOfJesusInsideAJeepney
#IAmWithJesus
#EndTheCultureOfImpunity
#StopTheKillingsPH

*art, "True Vine," from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives

THE GOOD SHEPHERD

Seven of the more popular shepherds in the Hebrew Bible are Abel, Rebekah, Rachel, Moses, Zipporah, David, and Amos. In the New Testament, shepherds are the first to receive the good news of Jesus' birth. In many Christmas pageants, young children usually play shepherds or sheep.

Many of us grew up with Sunday's "Good Shepherd" lection from the Gospel of John. Many among us grew up with allegorical interpretations of this passage. The shepherd is not really a shepherd. The sheep are really not sheep. The passage is really about something else.

I am not doing that today.

Sheep do know the voice of their shepherd. Sheep do follow their shepherd in and out of the sheepfold. Sheep do run away from those whose voice they do not know. Sheep are smart. Ask any shepherd.

Both sheep and shepherd know that life in all its fullness is not inside the sheepfold. Never has been, never will be. There's no grass, no springs, no freedom. All these are outside of it, in the wilderness. This is why shepherds call out the sheep by name and lead them out, into the wilderness. This is why shepherds go ahead of the sheep and they follow them; into the wilderness, into the quest for life. Life in all its fullness.

P.S.
And then there are those who think that the Good Shepherd is the Communist Party and the Sheep are those who are behind the Community Pantry. I have often heard that if you're far enough to the right, everything will look left to you--even shepherds and their sheep.

#EndTheCultureOfImpunity
#IAmWithJesus
#CommunityPantryPH

*art, "The Good Shepherd," (JESUS MAFA), available from vanderbilt divinity library digital archives.

ANG JEEPNEY, ANG PANTRY, AT ANG MASA

Kwento sa atin ng mga lolo't mga lola, Pagkatapos ng digmaan, bayan nati'y nakadapa. Bagsak ang ekonomiya, transportasyon sirang-sira. Sistema ng gobyerno, nakatali sa kapitalismo. Sunud-sunod na pangulo, sunud-sunuran sa Kano. Para makabangon ang bayan, ang jeep ginawang jeepney. Pandigmang sasakyan, ginawang sasakyan ng bayan. Motorsiklo't bisikleta, ginawang tricycle at tri-sikad. Kapag kumilos ang masa, nabubuhay ang pag-asa.

Puna sa sa atin ng mga lolo't mga lola,
Isang taon ng pandemya, bayan nati'y nakadapa.
Bagsak ang ekonomiya, milyon-milyo'y walang-wala.
Sistema ng gobyerno, nakatali pa rin sa kapitalismo
Nakaupong pangulo, ang bossing ay Tsino at Kano.
Para may makain ang bayan, community pantry ay isinilang.
Ang hamon: magbigay ayon sa kakahayan,
Ang tugon: kumuha batay sa pangangailangan.

Kapag kumilos ang masa, nabubuhay ang pag-asa!

#CommunityPantry
#COVID-19
*Image from Rappler

GOD KNOWS

We always imagine the resurrected body. I have heard long discussions on how resurrected bodies are supposed to look, including what superhuman abilities these new bodies will have. Sometimes, our imagination gets the better of us.

Of this, I'm sure: despite their differences (and there are a lot), the four gospels all tell us that the Risen One has a body. In Sunday's lection Jesus tells his disciples, "Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have." He further adds, "Have you anything to eat?"

The Risen One has a body, and that resurrected body still bears the marks of the crucifixion. God knows who is responsible for each wound. Jesus said, "Look at my hands and my feet... see that it is I myself."

My friends, God will never, ever, forget the crucified. God will raise up each and every one of them. God always remembers the marks of each crucifixion.

And God knows who is responsible for each wound!

#EndTheCultureOfImpunity

#IAmWithJesus

#StopTheKillingsPH

#JunkTerrorLawNow

#JusticeForMyanmar

*art, "Jesus appears at Emmaus," (JESUS MAFA) from vanderbilt divinity library digital archives.

SET LOOSE OR BIND?

Many scholars agree that Sunday's lection contains John's Pentecost. If the Acts' version happened 50 days after Jesus’s resurrection, John's happened on Easter evening. 

I would like to share my take on verse 23. 

Sin is legislated. Resistance is criminalized. Dissent is demonized. The merger of political and religious power predates Pontius Pilate's and Joseph Caiaphas's conjugal dictatorship. If we read our Bibles and pray everyday, we will grow, grow, grow in this realization: sinners are, more often than not, synonymous with the poor, oppressed, and marginalized in the Gospels. Who can afford the offerings in the temple? Who has the resources to bribe authorities? Who writes the law and for whose benefit?   

Over and over in the Gospels, Jesus sins (against the Sabbath) and heals sinners. Over and over in the Gospels, Jesus declares sinners forgiven...to the consternation of the people who legislate sin. 

In John 20:23, Jesus commands his disciples to forgive and not to forgive. A better translation, echoing Matthew 16:19 and 18:18, is worded "to set free or to bind." 

Jesus' command has not changed. Set free the poor. Bind the powerful who keep them poor. 

#IAmWithJesus 

#EndTheCultureOfImpunity 

#JunkTerrorLawNow 

*art, Jesus appears to Thomas (JESUS MAFA) Vanderbilt Divinity Library digital archives 

THE EXECUTED GOD

It is very disconcerting to celebrate Easter Sunday apart from the horrors of the Friday before it, 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, play with Easter Bunnies, enjoy their Easter sunrise services, and preach about a risen, triumphant Lord without any thought that the God we proclaim as risen was actually murdered on Calvary. Jesus of Nazareth did not die. The empire killed Jesus.

He was illegally arrested late night Thursday, then beaten, stripped naked, brutalized, flogged, and crucified by morning of Friday. He was a victim of state-sanctioned terrorism. We who call ourselves Christian actually follow an executed God.

Millions of our sisters and brothers have died from COVID-19. Majority of them were defenseless against the virus, ravaged by the systemic violence of poverty, hunger, and the inequitable distribution of the world's wealth. Every day in our beloved country, in Myanmar, in Palestine, in many parts of Asia, Latin America, Africa, and the rest of the world, people are being crucified, victims of institutionalized oppression—cultural genocide, racism, gender injustice, capital punishment, global capitalism, extra-judicial killings, militarization, and marginalization. Every single day so many of our sisters and brothers are killed, like Jesus, and they do not even get a burial. Their bodies withheld by their killers.

What does it mean to proclaim a resurrection faith in the midst of all these?  What does it mean then for us, who are among these crucified peoples, to proclaim Jesus as risen from the dead?

Easter Sunday's lection from Mark tells us about a young man at the empty tomb. He tells the disciples that Jesus has been raised up and that "he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.”

JUST AS HE TOLD YOU!

The Gospel of Mark ends in verse 8: the disciples were silent and afraid. Like many among us. We are afraid to speak truth to power. We are afraid to carry the cross and follow Jesus. We are afraid to go to Galilee. We are afraid to be executed like him.

What do we have? A promise of resurrection. God's promise. Jesus’ word. The young man said so: "Just as he told you."

Jesus’ word. Is this enough for us to continue?

#IAmWithJesus
#EndTheCultureOfImpunity
#StopTheKillingsPH
#JunkTerrorLawNow
#Easter2021