Blog Archive

Thursday, May 27, 2021

WOMBS AND MEN

Sunday's lection contains the arguably favorite Bible verse of many Christians: John 3:16.


I like this narrative because two men, Jesus and Nicodemus, are talking about something they do not have and an experience they never go through: wombs and birthing. When Nicodemus asks Jesus if being being born anew meant going back into his mother's womb, Jesus says no. It is being born from God's womb.

Female imagery for God is rare in the New Testament. Many among us learned about the Yahwist tradition in the Torah (the Pentateuch) which describes God in anthropomorphic terms: God forming Adam from the dust of the ground; God breathing into Adam's nostrils; God planting a garden; God walking in that garden; and God making garments for Adam and Eve.

Sunday's lection challenges us to imagine God as a woman. Sunday's lection challenges us to imagine God giving birth. Sunday's lection challenges us to imagine God beyond the boxes we have created to contain God.

#IAmWithJesus
#EndTheCultureOfImpunity
#StopTheKillingsPH
#JusticeForMyanmar

*art, "Nicodemus," JESUS MAFA, 1973, from vanderbilt divinity library digital archives.








Friday, May 21, 2021

LABOR PAINS



Sunday's lection is part of Jesus's Farewell Discourse in the Gospel of John. Several times in the narrative Jesus tells his friends that the Advocate, the Helper, the Holy Spirit will come; that they will not be alone; that, eventually, their grief will turn into joy.

But they don't seem to hear the promise.
This is why, on Easter evening when Jesus appears before them, they were hiding behind shut doors in fear. He breathes on them the Holy Spirit and they receive what he promised them.
This is how most of us are. We love to talk of rainbows after the storm; of life after death; of joy after grief. But when storms destroy our homes and our crops; when people we care for die senseless deaths; when grief sucks hope from our hearts, we start drowning in our fears.
Until Jesus appears--often as a stranger--and reminds us of a woman giving birth. How her pain, which oftentimes seems like forever, eventually turns to joy when her child is born.
He does not say that the pain will go away. What he promises is that we will not be alone. Through the storms, through the deaths, through the grief...And through the joy.
Take heart.
Right now, a baby is being born; communities are rebuilding; young people worldwide are rising up against fascist regimes; and Palestinians, with their allies, continue fighting for their rights and what's right.
*I took these two pictures in Bethlehem, Palestine. One shows what the Israeli Defense Forces throw regularly at Palestinians, including children. The other one shows what Palestinian children throw back. So, #GalGadot, stop saying that your country is at war. Palestine has no army, no navy, and no air force.

Friday, May 14, 2021

YOU'VE GOT EFREN. PART TWO.


Sunday's lection is part of what scholars call Jesus’s Farewell Discourse (chapters 14-17). Jesus knows he will be separated from his friends very soon. Imagine a line, a boundary, a threshold that Jesus had to cross, alone. A line his friends could not cross. Not yet.

What does Jesus do? He prays for his friends. More importantly, he asks God to protect his friends. He asks God twice.
Most of us read our Bibles and pray every day. Many of us pray several times a day. There are those among us who pray without ceasing. Oftentimes, those long prayers are often only about ourselves.
There are also those who pray for those whose only hope is God. Then there are those, in these trying times, who need to cross lines, boundaries, and thresholds who beseech our prayers. In all of these, we pray to Jesus. We are the ones praying.
Thus, many among us miss the point of our lection. Jesus is praying for his friends. Dont forget this, ever: JESUS. PRAYS. FOR. US!

Friday, May 07, 2021

YOU'VE GOT EFREN!

Lord. Savior. Rabbi. High Priest. King. Messiah. Good Shepherd. Son of God. Son of Man. Brother. Most of us are familiar with these terms that are all ascribed to Jesus in the New Testament-- terms we ourselves use to describe who he is for us.

In Sunday's lection, the Gospel of John offers another one. Friend.

Friendship. What does it mean? What is its greatest motivation? What is its greatest expression? Friendship is almost always experienced as a circle. It is a relationship of equals and of mutuality, of accompaniment and of solidarity.

Friendships are based on decisions. We choose our friends. Friendships are neither based on emotions nor on relations.

Agape is always a decision. It is always a choice. Agape is neither based on emotions nor on relations.

Thus, agape's greatest expression: no one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. Not lovers. Nor family. We choose to offer our lives for the people we choose.

Jesus did. Many have done the same. How about us who call ourselves Friends of Jesus? Can we?

*art, "Love for One's Neighbor," National Museum of Scotland (vanderbilt divinity library digital archives).

#IAmWithJesus
#EndTheCultureOfImpunity
#JunkTerrorLawNow
 

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