TWO PARADES

 

Each year, on the last Monday of July, the President of the Philippines delivers a SONA (State of the Nation Address) before a joint session of Congress and the Senate.

Many among us have been part of the SONA--but on the streets, the PEOPLE'S SONA outside Congress, where the true state of the nation address is articulated by farmers, fisherfolk, laborers, migrants, Indigenous Peoples, and other marginalized sectors of society.

Historians tell us that each year during Passover, the Roman Occupation Forces in Palestine led by Pontius Pilate held a parade that featured
cavalry on horses, foot soldiers, leather armor, helmets, weapons, banners, golden eagles mounted on poles, sun glinting on metal and gold. It was a show of force, a reminder to everyone about the breadth and depth of Pax Romana, a threat to anyone who dreamed of liberation.

On one particular year--historians tell us--during Passover, another parade was held at the same time as Pilate's and his Legion. There, the true state of the Pax Romana, the Roman Peace was articulated by farmers, fisherfolk, laborers, migrants, Indigenous Peoples, and other marginalized sectors of society. This parade was led by a carpenter from Nazareth.

My friends, the world is full of parades, then and now. Many times, we are so easily seduced by parades that proclaim "Peace and Order" when our calling is to follow just one: the parade led by the carpenter from Nazareth; the one that is dedicated to "Peace based on Justice."

*art, "Entry into the City," John August Swanson (1990), from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives.

JESUS WEPT...

When my father died ten years ago two people-- two pastors, on two separate occasions-- congratulated me for his death.

When Lazarus died, his two sisters Martha and Mary, on separate occasions, spoke with Jesus. Martha told Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died!" Mary, weeping, told Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died!"

NO ONE, NOT ONE CONGRATULATED MARTHA AND MARY FOR THE DEATH OF THEIR BROTHER.

Yes, not even Jesus!

When Jesus saw Mary and everyone else weeping for his dearest friend, he was overwhelmed with sorrow and deeply moved. Jesus wept.

Three of my uncles--Dante, Ve, and Namor--died in the past 16 months; Uncle Namor, last Monday. When a loved one dies, we don't pretend that everything is okay. When a loved one dies, congratulations are never in order. When a loved one dies, we are allowed to mourn.

When a loved one dies, we weep! When the pain of their death aches--even years or decades after the fact--we grieve!

Jesus wept.

*image, "Jesus wept," by Tissot available online at fine art america. 

sin AND GRACE

Sunday's Johannine lection is an eye-opener.

The disciples ask Jesus whose sin caused the blindness of the man: his or his parents'. Since the man was born blind, he was already a sinner inside his mother's womb! Actually, he was already a sinner even before he was even conceived since his parents were sinners!

Recently, I overheard a homily during a wedding ceremony. The pastor was telling the newly-weds that Jesus is the most important person in their relationship because the bride and groom were sinners. And Jesus will remain the most important person in their relationship when they become a family since all their children will also be sinners!

Why is Sunday's lection an eye-opener? Because the one who healed the sinner was also a sinner. Over and over in the passage, the Pharisees call Jesus a sinner (as well as the man who was healed). For the Pharisees, healing on the Sabbath was a sin. So was making mud! They were totally and willfully blind to the gifts of grace and healing before their very eyes.

Not just that, they would sooner collaborate with the Roman empire to have Jesus murdered than open their eyes and join him in sharing their gifts and fighting alongside the common people. Because Jesus is a sinner and the wages of sin is death!

I pray we do not think this. I pray we never turn blind eyes to the miracles of grace and healing that happen every day.

*art, "Jesus cures the Man born Blind," JESUS MAFA, Cameroon 1973 (from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives).

THE WOMAN AT THE WELL

By the time of Jesus, the enmity between Jews and Samaritans had been ongoing for at least 600 years. Imagine the Jews being told over and over throughout the centuries that they are not the real Israelites: the Samaritans were. Thus, the Samaritans had the original Pentateuch written by Moses. [Incidentally, if you compare the Samaritan Pentateuch with the Jewish version, there are at least 6000 differences.] And that they worshipped God in the right place, Mount Gerizim in Shechem, and that the bastardized Jewish sect founded by Kings David and Solomon based in the Jerusalem Temple was an abomination before God.

Imagine the Chosen People being told over and over throughout the centuries that they are not really the Chosen People. The Samaritans were.

Sunday's John 4 lection notes this centuries-old enmity. Moreover, as the disciples's suprise show, Jesus was talking not just with the enemy, but a female at that!

I love this narrative. It is the longest pericope in the gospels where Jesus is in conversation with another person. This might be the one moment in the Gospels that Jesus meets his match. They speak as equals. They talk about their own faith traditions. They talk about their differences. And they talk about their people's hope. Not one moment do they treat each other as enemies.

My friends, I love this narrative. I pray you do too.

P.S. Let us not forget that a well was the setting for the unions of Rebekah and Isaac, Rachel and Jacob, and Zipporah and Moses.

*art, "Jesus’s and the Samaritan Woman," JESUS MAFA, Cameroon 1973, from the Vanderbilt Divinity Library digital archives.

 

NURSING MOTHERS

Sunday's lection contains the 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.

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. Yet, God is male in these imaginings.

Female imagery for the divine is rare in the Bible. Sunday's lection challenges us to imagine God as a woman. Sunday's lection challenges us to imagine God giving birth. Sunday's lection invites us to imagine God nursing her children.

Why? Because this is how John's Jesus imagined God. Because hundreds of Judean Pillar Figurines (JPFs) found in Ancient Judahite homes and cultic sites tell us that this is how the masses imagined God. God has a womb. God has breasts. God is a mother.

Friends, Sunday's lection challenges us to imagine God beyond the boxes we have created to contain God.

*image of JPFs from Femmina Classica [In Search of Ashera: The Hebrew Lost Goddess].