LIFE UNDER OCCUPATION

All four of my grandparents experienced World War II and its horrors. Both my grandfathers were soldiers. My grandfather, on my mother's side, was captured by the Japanese Occupation forces several times, and tortured every time. But nothing will compare to the pain, shame, and suffering that thousands of young women and girls went through as "Comfort Women" during that war. (Historians tell us that up to 400,000 were forced into sexual slavery from 1938-1945.)

I can imagine that both Simeon and Anna were already alive at the beginning of the Roman Occupation of Palestine in 63 BCE--and both experienced its accompanying horrors. They were still under Occupation when the Baby Jesus was brought to the temple. I am sure that Palestinian friends and colleagues have relatives and friends who remember Palestine before 1948--before the current horrific Israeli Occupation, now on its 75th year.

When one has been scarred for years, even decades, of struggling against inhumanity, brutality, and insatiable greed, how does one go on? How does one hope in the midst of despair? How does one have faith in a world held captive by fear? How does one love when so much indifference exists? How does one live when death is but a heartbeat away?

Sunday's lection shows us that Simeon and Anna, who were both in their twilight years, looked to the future and saw God's life-sustaining acts in the midst of empire's death-dealing ways. They saw the future through an infant being dedicated to God. Empires create systems, structures, and walls that create strangers, that divide, that alienate, that pit one against the other, whether the division is based on class, race, creed, sex, gender, religion.

The birth of the Messiah, an infant whose name means "Yahweh saves," brings about the falling and rising of many. It brings complete strangers together. It births community! Communities birth accompaniment and solidarity and liberation. The birth of the Messiah, my dear friends, tears down walls. It has. It does. It will!

Yes, including Trump's Wall and the State of Israel's Apartheid Wall in Palestine.

*art from Vanderbilt Divinity Library. JESUS MAFA, 1973 (Cameroon) "Presentation of Jesus in the Temple."

TAKE ANOTHER ROAD

It is time we took another road. Over and over again we take the same road. We never learn. We imagine that doing the same thing will change the outcome. It never has. It never will.

The Empire strikes back--always. In the case of the Magi, innocent children were massacred. And innocent children will continue to die as long as we try to save Baby Jesus from Herod. We should stop. He is not a baby anymore. He also does not need saving. The Magi did that already.

The Empire always strikes back. There are more Herods today. They are purveyors of war. Last year alone, over 2 trillion US dollars were spent on the arms industry. Over half a trillion more was spent in the illegal drug trade. The War on Terror and the War on Drugs have left a trail of suffering and death on the innocent. Over 20,000 people, mostly women and children, have been massacred by the Israeli Occupation Forces in Gaza and the West Bank using US-made arms and weapons of mass destruction.

Thus, you and I need to be wiser. We need to be Magi-er. We need to be more sensitive to the warnings in our shared dreams. We need to know when to beat swords into plowshares. And when to beat plowshares into swords. We need to take other roads.

We need to do all these to make sure that the massacre of the innocents in the Holy Land and elsewhere ends now! We need to make sure that the Herods and their ilk are made responsible. We need to act, wherever we are, right now!

["Scene of the Massacre of the Innocents," Leon Cogniet, 1824]

MIRIAM AND MARY

There's something about Miriam we often overlook: we usually say she's Moses's sister. First and foremost, Miriam was a prophet. There's something about Mary we often overlook: we usually say she's Jesus's mother. Mary was also a prophet.

There's something about Miriam and Mary we often overlook: both play major roles in the Bible's most important narratives, the Exodus and the Christ Events. We know their names come from the same root. That root is actually Egyptian and many scholars say it means "rebelling against a bitter system."

Mary's Magnificat is probably one of the most powerful prophetic passages in the New Testament. Mary, a young Palestinian woman, followed a God who scatters the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; who brings down the powerful from their thrones and lifts up the lowly; who fills the hungry with good things and sends the rich away empty.

This young Palestinian woman followed a God who takes sides, a God who takes the preferential option for the poor, a God who brings down kings and kingdoms, a God who weeps with those who weep and who cries with those who cry.

This young Palestinian woman is alive today. Yet the proud, the powerful, and the rich who pretend to venerate her fail to see her among the lowly and the hungry as they struggle against life-negating and death-dealing forces: in Gaza, among the Lumads of Mindanao, in Myanmar, and among Occupied Peoples. Moreover, the proud, the powerful, and the rich who pretend to venerate her tag so many who are working for "life in all its fullness" as enemies of the state, as terrorists, or as communists.

So, Jesus had John the Baptist as teacher. But before there was John, there was Mary: The Prophet. And she taught her son well. Very well indeed.



*image "The Annunciation. Gabriel and Mary." JESUS MAFA (Vanderbilt Divinity Library digital archives)

THE GREAT I AM NOT!

There are a lot of people who think they are the messiah. A few have been in the Oval Office. Several have been in Malacanang Palace. Some are pastors and priests. Many are legends in their own minds. They believe that they are God's gift to the nations, institutions, and organizations they serve. They think they are indispensable, irreplaceable, and think that without them, all hell will break loose.

Our true calling, as followers of Jesus, is to bear witness to God's messiah and his liberating work. Just like John the Baptist. If Jesus is the Great "I am" then John is the Great "I am not." John proclaims, ""The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

Yes, like John, we are not the messiah. We are called to bear witness to the messiah. And like John we are to do our witnessing in the wilderness. Not in the comfort and security of our own Jerusalems. Nor inside the four walls of our magnificent temples, imposing church buildings, and prestigious seminaries. Nor while we are seated in our living rooms chatting via "Zoom" with a digital Bible in one hand and an electronic newspaper in the other.

Wilderness conjures up a lot of ambivalent images for us who study scripture. God appeared to a hardheaded Moses through the burning bush in the wilderness. The Israelites wandered almost aimlessly in the wilderness for forty long years. Many of them died there, including Moses. Like John, the wilderness played a key role in Jesus' ministry. In Mark, the Spirit had to force Jesus into the wilderness after his baptism. There, Jesus had to deal with Satan. The wilderness does not seem like a very hospitable place.

Yet, we are called to bear witness in the wilderness: in places we do not want to go; to those desolate areas we fear, and be one with communities—poor and desperate—whom many call "God-forsaken."

We are called to proclaim the good news of the incarnation: that God has not forsaken; that God is not in heaven anymore; that God is here with us; that God is in Gaza, in the West Bank, and in every place where people struggle for life, for land, for dignity, and for peace based on justice.

John the Baptist was the voice of one crying in the wilderness. These days, we are more fortunate. We, you and I, are legion.

*art: "John the Baptist," fragment of a mosaic, from the Yorck Project 12th Century, Ayasofya Muzesi Building, Istanbul, Turkey (from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives). 

CROSSING THE JORDAN

We know what we are supposed to do: help transform the world. But before we even think of changing the world, we need the world to change us.

Thus, integration with communities-- immersion into different ways of life--is a prerequisite. The late Fr. Carlos Abesamis, in conversation, said that having the Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other is not enough. Newspapers will never be a substitute for immersion. Nor will television, radio, or social media. 

Immersion transforms people! Immersion has done so for many of us! In the fullness of time, even God went on immersion. We call this incarnation. Immersion changed God.

Sunday's lection reminds us that one of the most powerful images of immersion in the Bible is baptism. Baptism is about taking sides. When John baptized people in the Jordan, they crossed from one bank to the other; from one side to the other side. They re-enacted the crossing of the Jordan.

It is about doing what Ernesto "Che" Guevarra did: swimming from one bank to the other bank of the Amazon River; knowingly putting himself at risk of a deadly asthma attack and/or drowning, yet choosing the side of those whose only hope was God. 

Baptism is crossing the Jordan: choosing justice and taking possession of liberty, land, and fullness of life that God wants for all people, especially for occupied peoples like our Palestinian sisters and brothers. 

Crossing the Jordan can lead to death. John the Baptist crossed the Jordan and was executed by Herod. Jesus crossed the Jordan and was crucified by the Romans. 

And you and I are called by our baptism to cross rivers of Jordan wherever we are. Every moment of our lives, we need to choose justice. May we have the courage to do as John and Jesus did.  

*art, "John the Baptist preaching in the desert," JESUS MAFA, 1973 (available at the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives). 

JUDGMENT DAY

The Season of Advent has begun and many expect a Christmas reading for Sunday--which Mark's passage is not. It's part of the Synoptic Gospels's mini Apocalypse (so, we find parallels in Matthew and Luke). Scholars agree that the pericope reflects traumatic memories from the Fall of Jerusalem around 70 CE. Historians have written about the children and babies and thousands more massacred by the Roman Occupation Forces during those days. The whole world is now witness to the children and babies and thousands more being massacred by the Israeli Occupation Forces in Gaza. 

A lot of people look forward to the End of Days or the Second Coming because it promises eternal rewards and punishment. Of course, there are millions of card-carrying Christians who expect that they will be rewarded, while so-called infidels--namely, anyone who has not accepted Jesus as their Personal Savior and Lord--will be punished. The "saved" will be taken away while the "damned" will be left behind to cry and grind their teeth painfully. 

Many others look forward to the day that God will make things right--especially for those who have been dispossessed, displaced, disenfranchised, discriminated, and dehumanized by prejudice, greed, injustice, and evil. Many look forward to the day that Palestine will be free: from the river to the sea! 

There are also those who dread the End of Days or the Second Coming because they know they have failed to do what Jesus, in his First Coming, commanded them to do: preach Good News to the Poor, feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, take care of the sick, visit the prisoners, clothe the naked, and welcome the stranger. 

Judgment Day will come. Nobody knows which day or which hour, but it will happen. Just as it came in the days of Noah, God's Day of Justice is coming, and will come. Jesus said so. 

And it might come today. 

*Photo from Gaza (Associated Press, Fatima Shbair) 

SHEEP, GOATS, AND WORSE THAN GOATS

Most of us grew up with this parable. Almost every time we hear sermons on this passage, we are challenged to be like the sheep. We are cautioned about imitating the goats. In other words, if we love God, we should care for the least among our sisters and brothers. If we don't, then we really don't love God.

There are Christians who believe that the sheep are the "saved" who will go to heaven while the goats are the "unsaved"--the "unsaved" who will burn for eternity in hell.

Amy Jill Levine, who was one of my two Jewish teachers in graduate school, used to tease us saying, "If you end up in heaven and there are two lines, take the sheep line."

I call this parable the parable of the great suprise because both groups were suprised! Those who were blessed did not expect their blessing. Those who were cursed did not expect their plight.

The parable is not about charity. The parable is not even about right beliefs or doctrines. The parable is not even about loving God. The sheep did not do what they did for God. This is why they were surprised when they were blessed. They said, "We did not do any of these for you!"

And the cursed ones? They did not do anything to help their sisters and brothers. Even if they did help, they would be doing it for God. Again, the parable is not about loving God, or about not loving God. It's about loving one's neighbor.

Never forget this: the blessing is based on what we do for people for people's sake; not what we do for people for God's sake.

Surprised?! SURPRISE!

P.S. Now, Netanyahu and his ilk are much worse than the goats who fail to love their neighbor. As expressions of their "right to self defense", they willfully starve, dispossess, dehumanize, and murder their neighbors. If there's a place worse than hell, that's where God will send them.

*art, "Food for the Hungry, Drink for the Thirsty," relief sculpture at the Hospital of the Holy Spirit (Biberach, Germany), from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives.
 

THE PARABLE OF THE TALENTS

A long time ago in a galaxy far away there lived a rich landlord couple whose initials were MV and CV. They owned thousands and thousands of hectares of land. Prime agricultural land became residential and commercial properties practically overnight under their conjugal landlordship. Their hobbies included public works and water cooperatives. They even dabbled in politics and in partnerships with religious institutions, especially the landed ones. They made sure that they covered all their bases. 

One day the couple called in three of their managers. To the first one they gave 5 talents. To the second, two. And to the third, one. Obviously, these talents are not what we usually think they are (like dancing, singing, writing, etc.). 

One talent is equivalent to 6,000 denarii or 20 years of labor. Currently, that's around US$ 1,000,000. So, the first was entrusted with 5 million US$. The second, 2 million US$. And the third, 1 million US$. 

The first two managers invest their bosses' money and double it. 100 percent profit. This return, of course, makes the rich couple very happy. And richer. The third manager does not invest the money. He returns it to the couple and says, "‘Sir and Ma'am , I knew that you were a harsh couple, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed." 

For refusing to be a part of the system that "reaps what others have sown and gathers what others have scattered" which made the rich richer and the poor poorer, the third manager was humiliated and severely punished. 

Friends, this tale from another galaxy so far away resonates with Sunday's lection that is found in Matthew 25. We know the story. Most of us grew up with this story. To this day, most of us think it is about our God-given talents. It is not, and it has never been. It's about bags of gold. It's about wealth and profit. And those who fail to earn profit--or even at a minimum, interest--for the owner will be humiliated and severely punished. 

Please read the passage. Verse 29 is explicit, "For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him." In other words, the rich will get richer. And the poor will get poorer. 

Do not forget this. Ever. The one who took a stand against the exploitative system in both stories was alone. We, you and I, are not. We are legion!

P.S. If you think the Filipino couple in the tale is Manny and Cinky Vacquiao, you're dead wrong! 

THE PARABLE OF THE DEAD BRIDESMAIDS

Many times people read this parable like it were a wake; like someone died; like it's the end of the age. It's a wedding! And for communities then and now, it's about new beginnings; moving forward; a celebration of life. The groom and the bride were very late for their wedding. It happens. Most of the weddings I have attended started late.

The bridesmaids, all ten of them fall asleep waiting. Five were wise. Five were naive--not foolish. The Greek text supports that reading. And all ten girls were, yes, girls, about 12 years old or younger. Five were mature for their age and prepared. Five acted their age and did not. Those who prepared were not prepared to share. Those who did not prepare were afraid of the dark. Many of the wedding guests were shut out.

Given the horrors that is happening to the Palestinian people especially in Gaza, I propose reading this parable like it were a wake. Over ten thousand have been murdered by the Israeli Defense Forces using US-made weapons of mass destruction. It's the end of the age! It's genocide.

The grooms are late because they are dead. So are the brides. And all the bridesmaids who were waiting? Those young girls--12 years old or younger, with their names written on their arms and legs--are also dead! Mature, naive, prepared, unprepared? Those bombs that drop morning, noon, and night have only one purpose: death and destruction. And those who miraculously escape the bombs are shot.

No more time for births. Nor weddings. Nor wakes. Nor burials. Because unless a ceasefire is declared now, EVERY.ONE.IN. GAZA.WILL.BE.DEAD! And that is what the perpetrators want. Do know that this ethnic cleansing in Palestine is not new-- it began way before 1948!

*PHOTO: (ALJAZEERA) The body of a Palestinian child lies at the al-Shifa Hospital after an Israeli air strike in Gaza City on October 9 2023 [Mohammed Saber/EPA]

ANCIENT ISRAELITES, BIBLICAL ISRAELITES, AND THE STATE OF ISRAEL

The Bible is quite possibly the most influential body of literature from Antiquity. It is an ancient library written in a land--interchangeably called Canaan, Palestine, and Israel - - that has been under imperial rule or occupation for millenia. Its collection of myths, legends, stories, parables, poetry, oracles, and other literary types present a wide gamut of discourses generated in the midst of empire. From indifference to apathy, from collaboration to passive resistance, from reform to revolution. 

The Bible paints a future where swords will be beaten into ploughshares. The same Bible also paints a vision where ploughshares will be turned into swords.

The Bible, despite its pluriformity and multivocality, is a literary production of the privileged and the learned. Archeology and its allied disciplines provide us a much bigger picture. 

Archeology has shown us that, like many of its neighboring peoples, the Ancient Israelites were polytheistic and were descendants of the Canaanites. They worshipped El, Yahweh, Asherah, and other deities. Archeology thus helps us better understand the contexts that produced the texts that many now call sacred. 

Archeology and its allied disciplines help us delineate between the Ancient Israelites and the Biblical Israelites. Both are at least 2000 years old!

Now, most Christians believe that the Bible is the literal word of God. Unfortunately, these same Christians do not read the Bible!

Many literalists weaponize the Bible, like Trump and his ilk, and have no qualms about its use to support and justify settler colonialism. Many Bible-believing Christians feel no remorse over the genocides committed against the First Peoples of the Americas, Australia, New Zealand, Liberia, and many more, as long as there are prooftexts that explain such crimes as part of carrying out God's great commission. 

Many Bible-believing Filipinos don't even know about the US-sponsored settler colonialism perpetrated against the indigenous peoples of Mindanao, the "Land of Promise" (almost the same time it was being carried out in the "Promised Land"). 

Now, these three remain: Ancient Israelites, Biblical Israelites, and the State of Israel. The first two are intertwined. The last has no connection to either. 

Friends, the State of Israel, created in 1948, is an imperial project. This historically-verifiable statement of fact requires no special pleading. Its decades-long, US-sponsored systematic, racist, violent, and dehumanizing erasure of the Palestinian People needs to stop now. 

It needs to stop now!

#ChooseJustice

#FreePalestine

#Endtheoccupation

#CeaseFireNow

AND PHARISEES

The Bible is not a book. It is a library with 66 books if you're Protestant, 73 if you're Roman Catholic, 81 if you're Orthodox, and 24 if you're a Jew. Those 24 books (or scrolls) which make up the Hebrew Bible was Jesus's library. Christians have appropriated the Hebrew Bible, turned the 24 books into 39, and call it Old Testament. The New Testament is 27 diverse interpretations of Jesus and what it means to follow him.

Sunday's lection, from Matthew 23. 1-12 with its shorter parallels in Mark and Luke, clearly illustrates this diversity in Scripture. Whose voice are we hearing? The Historical Jesus of the 30's, Mark's Jesus of the 70's, or Matthew's Jesus of the 90's? The synoptics points out the hypocrisy of the teachers of the law or the scribes. Matthew's version adds "and pharisees."

That's how we know that Matthew's extended discourse addresses the growing conflict between the Jews and the Christians in the 90s. After the Roman Jewish War of the early 70s that destroyed the temple in Jerusalem, two Jewish communities began to take different yet parallel paths. One was Rabbinic Judaism, with its synagogues, grounded on the written and oral Torah. The other group was made of Jews who believed that the Messiah has arrived and whose community eventually expanded to include the uncircumcised.

This explains the several "and pharisees" in the passage. In other words, Matthew was saying, if Jesus were here he would be saying all these things against these pharisees.

We do something similar all the time. We try to make Jesus address our contemporary situations. If Jesus were here, what would Jesus do? If Jesus were here, would he support Netanyahu and the IDF? If Jesus were here, would he not be in Gaza among the Palestinians right now? If Jesus were here, would you be on the same side? We have actually pushed this appropriation too far by proclaiming JESUS IS THE ANSWER to every question.

Dear friends, if Jesus were here and he was the answer, he'd probably be executed within a year because he would not be the answer most of us want him to be.

*art, "Christ Teaches Humility" by Robert Scott Lauder (1803-1869), from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives,

THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT

Sunday's lection from Matthew 22 is also found in Mark 12 and Luke 10. Most historians think that Mark's is the original version. One of the scribes asks Jesus about the greatest commandment, possibly expecting him to quote one from the Ten Commandments in Exodus. Jesus responds with the "Shema" from Deuteronomy. 

The answer Jesus gives according to the passage is one some of us don't want to hear. The Hebrew word "shema" means to hear, to do, to act. The question is: How do we love God? The answer we don't want to hear: By loving our neighbor.

Take note of the "this" (singular) in Jesus's exchange with the scribe (in the Markan version) and the lawyer (in the Lukan version). The scribe says to Jesus, "THIS is much more important..." Jesus says to the lawyer, "do THIS and you will live." Loving God is loving our neighbor. THIS is more important than burnt offerings and sacrifices. Jesus observes that the scribe is not far from the Kingdom of God. 

To love God is to feed the hungry, to offer drink to the thirsty, to clothe the naked, to visit the prisoners, to care for the sick, to welcome the stranger. 

To justify 75 years of violent and oppressive occupation of Palestine as a "God-given right", to redtag faith communities who serve the most vulnerable, to dispossess and disenfranchise indigenous peoples of their ancestral lands and ethnic identity, and to feed the insatiable greed for wealth and power while millions are dying and tens of millions find themselves barely surviving from one day to the next is the complete opposite of loving God. 

Finally, the "loving" in loving our neighbor is "agape." Agape is not based on emotions. (That is "eros." ) Nor is it based on relations. (That is "filia.") It is and will always be based on decisions. Every moment of our lives, we decide for the other. We choose the least, the last, and the left out. We choose to follow Christ, to love our neighbor, and to serve the people! 

We choose and we act.

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

WHOSE IMAGE, WHOSE TITLE?

Coin collectors highly value the denarius in the photo. It dates back to the time of Jesus. Most historians think that the denarius the Pharisees and Herodians showed Jesus as described in Sunday's lection most likely comes from the same series. Most of us know the dilemma Jesus faced when he was asked the question abot paying taxes to Caesar. On one hand, the Pharisees (who resisted Roman Occupation) probably expected him to say NO. On the other hand, the Herodians (who supported the Roman supported Herodian dynasty) probably expected him to say YES. 

Jesus tells them to show him the coin for the poll tax, the denarius, and asks, "Whose image is this, and whose title?"  

They answer, "The emperor's."

One side of the coin has the image of the emperor and reads, "Tiberius Caesar, son of the Divine Augustus" while the other side reads, "High or Chief Priest." That coin, my friends, was an affront to Israelites. It violated at least two of the Ten Commandments. (Let us not forget that the titles "Son of God" and "High Priest" were only ascribed to Jesus many years, actually decades, later. They were originally ascribed to the emperor. )

Then Jesus says, "Give back therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's."

Render unto Caesar what he owns. What bears his image. His property.

But never, ever, render unto Caesar what he does not own: people. People are not property. People are not commodities. 

But most importantly, do you know why God despises graven images and false titles, like what that coin symbolized? 

Because God has already created God's image. 

God already has a title for them: God's sons and daughters. 

People. Everyone! Especially those we think are not children of God. 

KINGS, WEDDINGS, AND GAZA

Why do we identify the King in Sunday's parable with God? Or the masters, fathers, and landlords in Jesus's other parables?

The king is a king. He is on top of an intricate system of honor and shame, patronage, property, and privilege. He is rich. He is powerful. He hosts a banquet. His invite is turned down. He is shamed. He gets back at those who shamed him. He has them killed and burns down their city.

Then he gathers the dregs of society to his banquet. He finds one of the dregs not wearing the wedding robe, which the King obviously provided--where do you expect the dregs of society to get clothes for a royal wedding?

The King is a King. He is rich. He is powerful. He is benevolent, but he has been shamed--again! He has his minions bind the man, hand and foot, and thrown out to where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

This is how many among us, who proudly call ourselves God's People and God's Chosen, tragically imagine God and God's Kingdom. This is why so many among us support the "burnings and the killings" in Gaza because God's People and God's Chosen have been shamed.

P.S. My friends, there is no war in the Holy Land. The State of Israel has an army, a navy, an air force, 90 nuclear warheads, and the US Government! Palestinians have none of these. There is no war in the Holy Land. What is there is Israel's illegal occupation of Palestinian Territories and the largest open-air prison on earth, Gaza.

*art, "The Marriage Feast" by (from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives).

THE PARABLE OF THE "WICKED" TENANTS

Once upon a time there was a rich absentee landlord who planted a vineyard. He leased it to tenants and left for another country. When harvest came, he sent slaves to collect his share of the produce. The tenants beat one, stoned one, and killed another. The landlord sends more slaves. The tenants treat them the same way as they did the first slave. Finally, the landlord sends his son. The tenants, seeing the son, said to themselves, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.” So they seized the son and killed him.

Now, when the absentee landlord comes, what will he do to the tenants? He will put those wretches to a miserable death and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at harvest time.

The rich absentee landlord had every right to do what he did. He owned the land. He had the titles to prove it. He had a valid contract with the tenants. They broke the terms of the contract. And worse, killed his heir. The rich landlord had every right to kill each and every one who had a hand in his heir’s death. Everyone! At the end of the parable, the landlord was still rich. He still has slaves. He has new tenants. He has lost a son. But he has avenged his heir by destroying all the “wicked” tenants who had actually tried to seize his land for their own.

The rich, absentee, landlord is not God. The heir is not Jesus. The rich, absentee, landlord is a rich, absentee, landlord. Like the Cojuancos, the Consunjis, the Enriles, the Villars. The heir is a landlord in training. Like the heirs of the Cojuancos, the Consunjis, the Enriles, the Villars. The heir will eventually get the land. Then after him, his heir. Anyone who tries to seize the landlord’s property will have a miserable death. 

Don't forget this fact--ever. One-third of the world's wealth is inherited wealth. There are heirs who are born to wealth, who will never work one second in their entire lives, and who will die wealthier. 

Then there are the millions who live from one day to the next. Those whose lives are tied to the land yet are dispossessed, dislocated, and disenfranchised. Farmers, peasants, tenants beware: if you organize and collectively try to seize lands that belong to the rich by whatever means, you and your kin will have a miserable death. 

Like each and every one of the tenants who was killed in the parable. 

https://www.esquiremag.ph/long-reads/features/lupang-ramos-agrarian-reform-a2212-20190315-lfrm2

FATHERS AND SONS

Stories about two sons abound in the Hebrew Bible. Cain and Abel; Ishmael and Isaac; Esau and Jacob. I can imagine Jesus’s original audience thinking of these pairs when he told the parable of the Two Sons. The Gospel of Matthew used this parable to address the hypocrisy of the religious leaders of his time (about 60 years after Jesus's ministry). For Matthew's Jesus, the tax collectors and the prostitutes were the older son. The members of the powerful religious elite were the younger.

The late Rev. Alberto Palma Velunta Jr., Tatay, has two sons, my older brother and I. Thus, the parable of the two sons is quite a personal one for me.

The father asks both his sons to help out in the vineyard. The older said no but afterward changed his mind and went. The younger said yes but afterward changed his mind and did not go.

During Jesus’s time, the family--the basic unit of Roman society--was run and owned by the father. Augustus, Roman Emperor, was Father of All Fathers. Fathers had the power of life and death over everyone in his family. Everyone was the father's property.

The two sons in the parable both disobey their father: the older by word, the younger by deed. We know that fathers, back then, killed children who disobeyed them. Tragically, there are still fathers today who kill their children for disobeying them; fathers who treat their children as property.

But not the father in the parable. No one is thrown into places where there is darkness, weeping, and gnashing of teeth. No one is banished. No one is punished. No one is treated as property.

The father is probably like Joseph, Jesus's father. Like Tatay. Like your father. I don't remember the number of times my brother and I have disobeyed Tatay. Growing up, I'm sure Jesus and his siblings did too. I don't remember how many times my own two sons have disobeyed me and their mother.

And, for me, that's the point of the parable. Parents do not remember their children's disobedience because they do not count them. Children are people, not property. And people change. I'm sure there were more times the sons disobeyed their father if we continued the story. But I want to believe that eventually they got to the point where they did not have to be told what to do. Because in our family, there did come a time that Tatay or Nanay did not need to tell us what to do. Or what not to do. 

I'm sure this is true in your own families too. 

P.S. Do note that in Matthew's interpretation of Jesus's parable, everyone--yes, everyone will be going to the Kingdom of God. Tax collectors and prostitutes will just go ahead of everyone else. After all, the sons in the parable share the same father. Created in the image of God, we all share the same parent too. 

 

DAY LABORERS

In Jesus's parable, why do we identify the rich landlord with God? Why do we call his actions acts of benevolence and grace? Why do we always take the side of the rich and the powerful in the stories Jesus told?

And worse, why do we demonize the grumbling day laborers? Mga arawan. Have we forgotten that Jesus preached a gospel for the poor?

A denarius was subsistence wage. It could buy a measure of wheat--one day's worth for one person. Or three measures of barley, enough for three people for one day. Just bread. Nothing else. This is why the poor ate barley.

During Jesus’s time, half of the population was slowly starving to death. During Jesus’s time 15% of the population were day laborers. Mga arawan! They survived from one day to the next. Each day laborer in the parable was promised one denarius. Each one received a denarius. Enough to buy barley to feed three for one day. Texts from Antiquity tell us that barley tasted good. For horses and cows!

Why were the day laborers who worked for 12 hours grumbling? Because they expected to receive more than one denarius each. Why? Because the landlord gave those who worked for one hour one denarius each. Everyone who worked more than one hour, especially those who did 12, expected to receive more. Everyone who worked more than one hour expected that his particular landlord was different; that this particular landlord would not do what other landlords did; that this particular landlord would not take advantage of the poor whose only choice was a denarius or nothing.

But the landlord was not different. He did what other landlords did. He took advantage of the already disadvantaged. He used a denarius, subsistence pay, to pit the day laborers against each other. He even took one of them aside, not the whole group, and arrogantly reminded him of his benevolence and generosity.

The parable is not about God or God's grace. It's about the rich's greed. It's about divide and conquer. It's about taking advantage of those who struggle to survive from one meal to the next. It is about how the rich get richer. It is about how the powerful stay on their thrones. It is about systems and structures founded on profit, private property, and privilege that make sure that significant numbers of the population survive from one day to the next, are underemployed, or unemployed.

Do not think for one moment that the denarii the landlord gave to those day laborers made a dent on his riches. Do not think for one moment that the "generosity" of Apple, Amazon, and Facebook, or closer to home, the Villars, Consunjis, Cojuangcos, Sys, Tans, Gokongweis, and Ayalas make a dent on their wealth. While tens of millions have been left homeless, jobless, and starving in the past three years, the wealth of the world's richest has quadrupled!

Do not forget this, ever! One third of the world's wealth is inherited wealth. There are people born rich who will never work one second in their entire lives yet will die richer!


*photo, "Day Laborers brought in by trucks from nearby towns," from wikipedia.

US$ 12 Billion!

The Gospel of Matthew has parables of Jesus that talk about talents. Despite scores of sermons that tell us otherwise, these talents do not refer to gifts, skills, or competencies. During Jesus's time, a talent (talanton) referred to the largest unit of currency and was roughly equivalent to about 20 years of labor. The New International Version translates it correctly: talents were bags of gold! 

So, the 10,000 bags of gold in Sunday's lection was equivalent to 200,000 years of labor. Or about 12 billion US dollars! 

For me the key to making sense of the parable (outside of how Matthew uses the tradition) is the ten thousand talents! When Rome conquered Palestine in 63 BCE, the taxes the empire exacted from its colony was that exact amount. (See Josephus, Antiquities, 14.78)  By the time of Jesus, Palestine had been under Roman Occupation for almost a hundred years. Half of the population were slowly starving to death. Exploitation was rampant and tax collectors were among the most hated in the land. And Rome executed up to 500 "enemies of the state" daily to remind everyone that defiance was unacceptable behavior.

So the king in the parable pardons a huge debt which was not really owed. Then and now the powerful have laws, ledgers, books, documents, and, yes, theologies that show and teach how much the powerless are indebted to them. And payment always requires more than what is owed.

And the servant whose supposed debt was canceled? He does exactly what the exploitative system has shaped him to do, be the face of the colonizer to the colonized. More often than not, the colonized never see the face of the colonizer--thet see only his agents who come from among the colonized. Then and now the colonizer remains benevolent. 

Read the parable again. The king comes out smelling like a newly-bathed baby. The colonized are portrayed as seeking the king's favor. And one of them is actually tortured on orders of the king. 

Do not forget this. Ever. The king in the parable is a king and served as a metaphor for the Roman Emperor. For Trump? I'd say, yes. For Duterte? Yes. For Marcos and his Junior? Yes again. For God? Never.

WHERE TWO OR THREE

Taking care of the least is a major theme in Matthew’s Gospel. Chapter 18 is particularly focused on this theme.

Many times we forget that the people who are hurt, those who are harmed, those who are sinned against are “the children,” the “little ones,” and the “lost sheep” in our communities. And more often than not, when they get the courage to confront those who sinned against them, the latter do not listen.

Thus, Jesus’s command to bring one more or two. This makes "two or three". And maybe, the offender will listen. If this does not happen, then the command is to involve the whole faith community. Maybe, the offender will listen.

Three times in the passage, the offender is given the opportunity to listen. To repent. To make amends. Twice, the church is called to take the side of the offended. To bring about genuine transformation. To bind and to loose.

Not to play referee. Not to dispassionately take a "neutral" stance, letting the offender off the hook or, worse, punishing the offended. Many times we forget that Jesus always took the side of those whose only hope was God: the children, the little ones, and the lost sheep. Many times we forget that God-with-us is most present when two or three are gathered to take the side that Jesus always took.

So, let us take a stand. Let us be that second or third person that will make two or three... And more. Against hopelessness. Against injustice. Against discrimination. Against violence against women, children and the Othered. Against the culture of impunity that pervades our world.

*image from heartlightdotorg.

SATAN DOES NOT WANT US TO SUFFER

Many among us grew up with images of and ideas about Satan that do not actually come from the Bible. Most of us grew up with this idea that Satan is a hideous monster, with a tail, horns, and a pitchfork. Many among us believe that Satan is God's equal. We blame Satan for things that go bad or wrong in our lives, and thank God for the opposite. It's like God and Satan are playing Chess, and we're pieces on the board we call life.

In the book of Job, Satan is with other heavenly beings in the presence of God. In the book of Zechariah, there is a vision of God with Satan to God's right. In Mark, Jesus was in the wilderness for 40 days and nights. He was not alone. He was with Satan. In 1 Chronicles 21, the anger of the LORD is described as Satan. In Numbers 22, the use of the Hebrew term "satan" actually means blocking one's way forward.

In Sunday's lection Jesus calls Peter Satan. Why?! This is Peter, the leader of the disciples: Peter, whose house in Capernaum served as Jesus's home; Peter, the Rock. Peter is probably Jesus's most loyal disciple. Peter is probably Jesus's closest friend. Among the disciples, Peter probably loved Jesus the most. Thus, he did not want him to suffer, to be rejected, and to be killed. Peter thought Jesus was making a big mistake by going to Jerusalem.

Jesus calls Peter Satan. Why? Peter was in the way, in front of Jesus. Jesus tells him to get behind him, to get out of his way. Peter was wrong!

My friends, never, ever, forget this. Satan does not have horns, a tail, and a pitchfork. Many times in our lives, the adversary is not the enemy. Many times, the one who opposes or blocks our decision, our mission, or our advocacy is a loved one. Family. Parents. Spouses. Children. Friends--even a best friend. Like Peter.

Why, you ask? Because they love us. Because they think we are making a mistake. Because they want what they believe is best for our well-being. Because they do not want us to undergo great suffering. Because they do not want us to be killed. They behave like Peter.

Every day people decide to follow Jesus, to follow the path dedicated to the least, the lost, the last, and the left out, to fight against tyranny and dictatorships, to work for peace based on justice, to proclaim good news to the poor and liberation to the oppressed.

And every day, people who love, people who care, people who do not want their beloved to suffer, to be rejected, to die, or to experience hell on earth, do as Peter did. They rebuke their loved ones because they think they're making a big mistake. They stand in the way.

Like Peter, they become Satan. Like Jesus, we need to rebuke them and continue on the path that God has called us to tread.


*art, "Get Thee Behind Me, Satan!" by James Tissot (1836-1902), from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives.