TOUCHING MOMENTS

Like many people, I was nurtured in a "touchy-feely" culture. Many of our pains, physical or otherwise, were soothed and massaged away by the healing touch of our loved ones. Holding, hugging, and kissing were all integral parts of our growing up years.

Touching helps in making us feel safe, loved, and not alone. We learned the science behind all these touching moments much later. I always have a bottle of Vicki's Vaporub. Its scent alone reminds me of Nanay's "haplos ng pagmamahal."

If we read our Bibles and pray everyday, we will grow, grow, and grow in the realization that many of the healing narratives in the Gospels involve touching. Sunday's lection has two sections: the first part has a woman suffering for twelve years who touches Jesus's cloak; in the second part, Jesus touches a twelve-year old girl's hand and tells her to rise up.

The pandemic has left millions dead and tens of millions disenfranchised. Most of those who died were alone. No last visit. No last rites. No last touch. Years of physical distancing has made so many of the living socially distant. Alone. Depressed. Afraid. And in desperate need to touch someone or be touched.

Friends, someone somewhere right now needs a healing touch. Someone somewhere right now needs to experience "Immanuel."


*art, "Healing of the Daughter of Jairus," (JESUS MAFA) available at vanderbilt divinity library archives.
**read How to Hug During a Pandemic (The New York Times)
***Of course there are many that have the opposite experience about touching and being touched. Topic for another post.

THE MUSTARD SEED

Gaius Plinius Secundus--aka Pliny the Elder--in his Natural History 19.170-171, argues that the mustard in Sunday's parable from Jesus was a wild weed. He said, "That mustard [sinapi kokkos] …grows entirely wild… and when it is sown, it is scarcely possible to get the place free of it, as the seed when it falls germinates at once.”

John Dominic Crossan tells us that the "smallest of all seeds" in the parable was a wild weed shrub that grew to about five feet or even higher. Even in their domesticated form, they were a lot to handle. Mustard in a well-kept garden not only spread beyond expectations but also attracted birds of all forms.

Much to the chagrin of gardeners, the birds would go on to wreck the natural balance of a well-manicured garden with thesir unpredictable feeding habits, their nesting, and worse, their droppings.

Gardeners, of course, did not want weeds in their gardens. They especially did not want wild mustard at all cost. They spend time creating the perfect balance in their gardens: putting in the best; throwing out the worst. A well-tended garden has no room for wild mustard so they cut mustard young and at the roots.

But mustard weed have ways of coming back. They always do.

The parable likens God’s reign, God’s kingdom to a weed. It grows where it is not wanted and eventually takes over the place. The wild mustard from Galilee that sprung in the domesticated garden of Judea, that attracted all kinds of birds that gardeners despised, was swiftly cut down.

Always remember this—The God we worship is an executed God. He was executed by the empire for the life he lived in solidarity with the poor and the stories of compassion he told.

Many scholars of first century Palestine now agree:: enemies of Rome who were executed by crucifixion had their naked bodies left hanging on crosses for the vultures and wild dogs to feast on, thrown into mass graves, or hastily buried in borrowed tombs.

Nobody really knows where lie the bodies of hundreds of students, church workers, community leaders, farmers, fisher-folk, laborers, and activists who disappeared during the Marcos Regime. And the countless more who have disappeared during the Aquino, Ramos, Estrada, Arroyo, Aquino, Duterte, and the BBM administrations. Philippine soil is nourished by the blood of fallen sisters and brothers in unmarked, mass, shallow graves, just like Andres Bonifacio--who, at 34, was murdered with his brother and whose bodies were robbed of garments and then thrown naked into a hastily dug grave.

All were wild mustard that had to be cut down lest they disturb the domesticity of the gardens tended by the rich, the powerful, and the religious elite, the majority of whom take pride in calling themselves, their institutions, and their structures “Christian.” But Jesus’s vision lives on. And those of many others live on.

Mustard weed have ways of coming back. When you least expect them. Ask any gardener. You can never completely eradicate wild weeds. They have a way of sprouting in places where they disturb, disrupt, and dismantle.

They always do! And when they do, birds, all sorts, start arriving!


*art, "A Parable - The Mustard Seed" by Cara B. Hochhalter (2019), available from the vanderbilt divinity library art collection.

BINDING THE STRONG MAN

Parables are subversive speech. Subversion is often considered a crime. A crime warrants punishment. A punishment's severity depends on the magnitude of the crime. If a crime is considered severe, like insurrection, then it warrants execution. Therefore, parables can get one dead.

With that logic in mind, consider this: Sunday's lection is one of Jesus's most subversive.

"If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first binding the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered."

This parable can be summed up in one word: insurrection.

Many scholars say the kingdom refers to the State, more specifically, Rome and its puppet government in Palestine. The house refers to the Temple, more specifically, the religious elite beholden to empire. Satan, of course, refers to Rome.

As a side note: Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor of Judea, and Joseph Caiphas, the High Priest, the two people directly responsible for Jesus's execution, were close friends. Both were removed from power in 36 CE. Many historians agree that the "cleansing of the temple" was Jesus and his followers' attempt to "bind the strong man and plunder his house."

Lest we forget, Jesus led 5,000 in that "cleansing" and was executed as an enemy of the State, as an insurrectionist. The charge, "King of the Jews," supports that. He was crucified with two other insurrectionists or rebels, not thieves or robbers.

We do not like this Jesus.

This Jesus is so unlike the one we grew up with, so unlike the one our colonial masters taught us to obey without question, so unlike the one whose portraits and paintings--usually blond and blue-eyed--adorn our places of worship.

This Jesus will not be welcomed in many of our churches today.

*art, "Binding the Strong Man, " [Arrest of St. Patrick] available from vanderbilt divinity library archives.