THE SHEEP AND THEIR SHEPHERD

Many of us grew up with this passage from John 10. Many among us grew up with allegorical interpretations of this passage. The shepherd is not really a shepherd. The gatekeeper is really not a gatekeeper. The sheep are really not sheep. The thief and the bandit are not really thieves nor bandits.

Real 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. Ask any shepherd.

Life in all its fullness is not inside the sheepfold. Never has been, never will be. No green grass. No fresh springs. All these are outside of it, in the wilderness. This is why the shepherd calls out the sheep by name and leads them out--into the wilderness. This is why the shepherd goes ahead of the sheep and they follow him--into the wilderness and into the quest for life. Life in all its fullness.

Friends, many times we forget that life in all its fullness is found outside the boxes we have created to contain it. Many times the life that really matters is waiting for us out in the wilderness. We just need to heed the voice of the Risen One who is already out there waiting for us.

*art, "The Good Shepherd," Julien Dupre (1851-1910), from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives.  

THE RISEN ONE COMES AS A STRANGER

Who are the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the sick, the unwelcomed, and the prisoner that Jesus challenges us to serve, to take sides with, and to love? The stranger.

Who are the widows, the orphans, the indigenous peoples, and the foreigners that, over and over, the Law and the Prophets enjoin us to care for, to hold dear, and to treat as sisters and brothers? The stranger.

Who are the daily wage earners, the laborers who survive from paycheck to paycheck, the homeless, the jobless, and the most vulnerable in a world ravaged by the pandemic that we are supposed to prioritize? Yes, the stranger.

If we read our Bibles and pray everyday, then we will grow in the realization that, most often than not, God comes as a stranger. God did when God shared the promise of Isaac's birth. God did when God judged the arrogance and inhospitality of Sodom and Gomorrah. God did when God wrestled with Jacob at Jabbok.

God came as a stranger when God was born in a manger instead of a palace; in Galilee instead of Jerusalem; among the odorized and the otherized; grew up in a mud hut instead of a white house.

God does as the Risen One: waiting for us to meet up in Galilee; reminding us that we will never be alone; calling the rich among us to sell everything we have, to give the proceeds to the poor, and to follow... In Sunday's lection, two disciples on the road to Emmaus encounter the Risen One as a complete stranger. Their eyes were eventually opened and their hearts strangely warmed when the stranger broke bread with them.

God always comes as a stranger. This is why we welcome the dispossessed, the displaced, the disenfranchised. This is why we open our homes, our churches, our spaces to Lumads, to People Living with HIV and AIDS, to refugees, to Palestinians, to those whose only hope is God.

God always comes as a stranger. This is why we always, always offer sanctuary. And these days, sanctuary can mean that extra room in our house, the available spaces in our church offices and buildings, the vacant rooms in our dormitories, and, yes, that extra bed. Safe spaces. Open hearts. Open minds. Open doors. Or five barley loaves and two fish.

*art, "Jesus appears at Emmaus," JESUS MAFA, 1973 (Cameroon), from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives.

THE RESURRECTION REQUIRES WARM BODIES

We love imagining 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 from the Gospel of John, Jesus tells Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side." 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.

Every single day so many of our sisters and brothers--who serve the poor, the oppressed, and the marginalized--are red-tagged, abducted, tortured, brutalized, and crucified. Take heart! God knows. God remembers.

God will never 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 of those wounds!

Dear Friends, then and now, the resurrection requires warm bodies that embody justice, solidarity, and life-giving. The resurrection requires warm bodies that will rise up for those who have fallen, that will continue the struggle for peace based on justice, and that will inspire more live-giving.

The resurrection always requires warm bodies. The resurrection requires your body. And mine.

*art, "Jesus appears to Thomas," JESUS MAFA (from vanderbilt divinity library digital archives).
*ganda!

BLACK SATURDAY TOOK LONGER THAN 24 HOURS

That Jesus of Nazareth was executed via crucifixion by the Romans is a historical fact. That Jesus is Risen is a confession of faith. Those of us who went to seminary learned this early in our ministerial formation. John Dominic Crossan has argued that "Good" Friday brought about "Black" Saturday which eventually birthed the "Easter" Faith. And that Saturday was longer than 24 hours. Much, much longer.

Let me explain.

Students of the Bible will discover right away that the writers of the New Testament books have different interpretations of the Resurrection. And these interpretations did not come overnight.

Paul has several. First, appearances. The Risen Christ appears to his followers. Next, Jesus's resurrection as the first-fruits of the general resurrection. Third, the Church as the Body of the Risen Christ.

There are no appearances in Mark. Since almost all historians agree that the gospel ends in 16.8, what we have is a young man proclaiming that Jesus has been raised and is waiting in Galilee. In Matthew, Immanuel, the "I Am" is with his followers until the end of the age. In the Lukan narrative, the first book, the gospel is about Jesus. The second, the Acts of the Apostles, is about the Risen Christ working through the Spirit. In John, Jesus is alive whenever and wherever one offers one's life for a friend.

It is also fascinating to note that in the gospels, the announcement that Jesus has been raised come from a young man, two men, an angel, and even Jesus himself (in John). The number of women who came to the tomb vary, the only constant being Mary Magdalene. And in Luke and John's accounts, no one recognizes the Risen Christ when they first encounter him.

Why so many interpretations? Because diversity is the most important gift from God. But more importantly, the breadth and depth of God's grace and our experiences of that grace defy boundaries and borders.

Including time.

 

LAST WORDS IN THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

Last words are very important to many of us. They provide closure.

Famous last words include: “Jesus, I love you,” by Mother Teresa; “It is very beautiful over there,” by Thomas Edison; “A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP [live long and prosper]!,”by Leonard Nimoy in his final tweet.

As of the end of March 2023, close to seven million people have died from COVID-19. Unfortunately, because of the protocols in 2020 and 2021, most of them--family, friends, colleagues--died alone, separated from us. Our last conversation, our last communication, our last text message--our last moments with them have taken on a more special meaning.

 Of course, the most famous last words ever recorded would be Jesus’ Last Words as found in the gospels: Mark has one. Matthew has one. Luke has three; and John has three. Many among us grew up with the traditional, harmonized version of Jesus's final words. “The Seven Last Words” as part of the church’s Lenten Tradition was started by Jesuits in Peru in the 17th. 

If we read our Bibles and pray every day, we will grow, grow, grow in the realization that the Gospel of John celebrates the discipleship of the unnamed.

In other words, the most faithful and effective followers of Jesus in the story have no names. The Samaritan woman by Jacob’s well, who engages Jesus in a dialogue of equals and runs to her people to share her experience with him, is unnamed. The young child who offers the five loaves and two fish so that Jesus can feed over five thousand people is also unnamed. The beloved disciple who plays a role bigger than Peter’s in the story is also unnamed. But most important of all, the only disciple who we find at the beginning and at the end of Jesus’s life is also unnamed: Jesus’s mother.

We find the two—Jesus’s mother and the beloved disciple—at the foot of the cross. Jesus says to them, “Woman behold your son; behold your mother.” Jesus asks that his two faithful disciples take care of each other. Love is the key theme of the Gospel of John. God became human because of love. The world is supposed to be blessed by our love for each other. Jesus in the Gospel of John leaves his followers only one commandment— greater love hath no one than this, that one offers one’s life for another. Mothers behold your sons; sons behold your mothers; parents behold your children; children behold your parents. We are members of the family of God and our primary task is to live in love for each other, like a family: each one willing to offer one’s life for the other. Each one willing to offer one’s life especially for those we do not consider our sisters and brothers or members of God’s family.

Then Jesus says, “I thirst.” Again, in the Johannine story, particularly in his conversation with the Samaritan woman, Jesus is the Living Water. Thus, many people find it puzzling that the one who says he is Living Water is suddenly thirsty. And he is given vinegar by his executioners.

 "I thirst” represents a quote from the Hebrew Bible--Psalm 69. Faith draws strength from the past. Like Daniel’s three friends who faced death yet believed in a God who will deliver them as God has delivered in the past, Jesus affirms the same unwavering faith in a deliverer God. And God did deliver Daniel’s three friends. And God delivered David (who wrote the Psalm). And Jesus believed God will deliver him, as well.

Then Jesus says, “It is finished.” The End. Jesus is dead: a victim of the horrors of torture, abuse, and state-sanctioned execution.

Remember the only commandment Jesus left his followers in the Gospel of John—greater love hath no one than this, that one offers one’s life for another? Jesus does exactly that. His life was an offering. And we are challenged to do the same. Jesus’s work is finished. Ours is not!  Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved Jesus… We are asked the same thing. Do we really love Jesus? Can we love as Jesus loved? His last words on the cross affirmed his faith in God, in people, in the transforming power of love and life, and empowered him to face a very violent death.

His last words on the cross affirmed a conviction that goodness will always conquer evil, that faith is stronger than fear, that hope is stronger than despair, that love is more powerful than indifference, and that life will always, always, conquer death.

My friends, last words are very important to us. They provide closure. Jesus’s last words serve as a challenge for us who are left behind to continue the work that God has begun. 

My hope is that they inspire us to dedicate our lives to bring about a future where God’s gift of resurrection will come without peoples and communities suffering the violence, the humiliation, and the torture of crucifixions. I pray you share this hope.

*art, "Cristo Nego," Martin Ruiz Anglada (1995) from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives.