THE OTHER RICH YOUNG MAN

In the Gospel of Luke, we have “enemies who love:" those who serve the least, who take the side of those whose only hope is God, who completely subvert expectations. 

Historians tell us how so many in Occupied Palestine hated the Romans, the Samaritans, and tax collectors. But in Luke, the Roman Centurion, the Samaritan on the road connecting Jerusalem to Jericho, and Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector, are presented as models of faith. They are "enemies who love."

The Centurion not only loved the Jewish people and built their synagogue, he also loved his slave dearly and sought help from the Jewish community when the latter was ill and close to death. We all know about the Samaritan who was a neighbor to the Jew who fell into the hands of robbers.

Then, there is Zacchaeus in Sunday's Gospel Reading. There are two important things in the passage that many English Translations do not emphasize. Scholars have been raising these points for a long time.

First, he was young, not short. And he was a very young but very rich chief tax collector, not just your regular hated publican. The passage tells us how the people ostracized him. For them, he definitely did not belong. For them, he, most definitely, was not a child of Abraham. 

Second, the verbs in verse 8 are in the present tense. Even present progressive. Not future. Zacchaeus did not promise to give back half of his possessions to the poor. He did not promise to pay back those he has defrauded four times as much. HE WAS ALREADY DOING BOTH! He was already doing acts of justice which Jesus commanded the rich to do in order to enter the Kingdom of God. 

The Synoptic Gospels all narrate the story of the rich young man who could not follow Jesus's command to the wealthy. Zacchaeus is the other rich young man who could. And did. 

For Jesus, Zacchaeus was, most definitely, a child of Abraham!

Maybe there's still a path to salvation for the very, very rich old and young men in government who have defrauded the masses worse than Zacchaues did. 

*Art, "Zacchaeus welcomes Jesus," JESUS MAFA, 1973, Cameroon (from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives).

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THE PHARISEE AND THE TAX COLLECTOR

Pharisees loved God and country. They were very religious, highly trained, upright, and totally against the Roman Occupation of Palestine. They were loved by the masses in contrast to the elitist Sadducees who belonged to the ruling class. Let us not forget that Paul, Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea, and Gamaliel were Pharisees. 

In Sunday's Gospel Reading from Luke, the Pharisee was telling the truth. Everything he said in his prayer was true. 

Tax collectors, like Zacchaues and Levi (aka Matthew), were probably the most hated people during Jesus’s time. They worked for Rome and were considered collaborators and traitors. 

In Sunday's lection, everything the tax collector said in his prayer was also true. 

Both men were truthful. What's the difference? 

The tax collector judged himself and found himself needing God's mercy. The pharisee judged the tax collector and found the tax collector needing God's mercy. 

Then and now, we all need God's mercy. Especially those of us who--like the pharisee-- think we do not. 

*art, "The Pharisee and the Publican," JESUS MAFA, 1973 (from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives)

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THE PARABLE OF THE WIDOW AND THE UNJUST JUDGE

Homilies on this parable tell us that if we persist, like the widow, in prayer, pleading to God, then God, like the judge, will relent.

Dear Friends, let us stop imagining that the judge in the story is God. He is not. He is a judge that did not fear God nor respect people. Jesus calls him an unjust judge. He is like so many in the world's justice systems that serve the powerful, the propertied, and the privileged. 

And then there's the widow. Widows are among the three most dispossessed people in the Bible (along with orphans and refugees), crying out for justice like so many in Gaza, in the Philippines, in Myanmar, and other places today. 

Development aggression, militarization, large-scale mining, human trafficking, and the culture of impunity perpetuated by powers and principalities fueled by insatiable greed and lust for profit have produced thousands of widows. All crying out, all relentless, all persistent in their quest for justice. 

And the unjust judge relents. Not because he had a change of heart. The situation changed because the widow never gave up. Morning, noon, and night. Rain or shine. She was in his face. Standing her ground. She never lost hope. She fought for justice and justice prevails at the end. Then and now, widows who fight for justice never give up. 

Justice always prevails. This is why we should always choose justice. And always stand with widows and orphans and refugees and everyone whose only hope is God. 

Justice will always prevail. 

*Art, "Parable of the Widow and the Unjust Judge," from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://a.co/d/7ACdLTy

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KRISTER STENDAHL AND THE NINE LEPERS

I had the privilege of presenting a paper at the Society of Biblical Literature's annual meeting during my first year of grad school. I did not expect Krister Stendahl* to be in the audience. He was in the front row. I did not expect him to come up the stage after the presentation and introduce himself to me. He did. 

I did not expect him to remember me when we saw each other again in the following year's SBL meeting. He did remember me. He even remembered my paper, and asked if he could join me for lunch. Those very priceless moments with Bishop Stendahl seem surreal to this day, over two decades later. 

He was interested in my reading of Romans 1 about faith being a response to grace which resonated with "utang na loob" being a response to "kagandahang loob". And that the best way to respond to God's grace by faith is to pay it forward. The best way to love God, our Parent, is to love our sisters and brothers. I used the story of the ten lepers to unpack the concept. And the narrative is Sunday's Gospel Reading.

We expected the ten lepers who were healed to go back to Jesus to express their gratitude. But only one returned to do so. The Samaritan. And most of our interpretations have celebrated this one who returned. How about the "ungrateful" nine? Is it not possible that they paid it forward? Is it not better if an act of kindness is repaid by doing an act of kindness to someone else instead of returning the favor? Again, reading "from grace to grace" as paying it forward. 

Isn't serving the people--especially widows, orphans, and strangers--the greatest expression of our gratitude for God's grace? 

*Krister Stendahl (1921-2008) was Bishop of Stockholm (Sweden), theologian, and New Testament scholar. He served as professor and dean of the Harvard Divinity School. His works on Paul are required reading in many seminaries. 

+art, "The Healing of the Ten Lepers," JESUS MAFA, 1973 (from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives).

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MASTERS AND SLAVES

MASTERS AND SLAVES

Every day over 6,000 Filipinos leave the country to work overseas. Millions are domestic helpers. Millions more are caregivers. Countless survive in sub-human conditions. People are the third world nations' biggest exports. If we think that slavery in its most dehumanizing forms does not exist in our 21st century society, then we are kidding ourselves. 

Slaves, in Sunday's Gospel Reading from Luke 17, should never expect to rest from their labors. Slaves should never expect thanks. Slaves should know their place, should stay there, should accept that they are worthless, and should never, ever, expect otherwise. Why? Slaves are property. They are commodities. Bought, sold, and exploited. 

Dear friends, God did not create masters. God did not create slaves. God did not create the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. Nor the Manila Acapulco Galleon Trade. God did not create any of the systems and structures--including theologies--that commodify, degrade, and exploit people.  

God did not create the death-dealing economies that make the rich richer and the poor poorer. 

God did not create the white supremacist, bigoted, racist, fascist, and homophobic "Christianity" that Trump and his MAGA cohorts revel in unashamedly.

God did not create the systems and structures of corruption, bribery, and impunity involving billions of taxpayers' hard-earned money funneled to the coffers and pockets of Marcos, Duterte, and their ilk. 

All these are man-made. All these choose profit over people and planet. 

We created all these. Which means we can undo them all. And we must. 

Now.

*Image from Brittanica, Stowage of Slaves in Ships during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. 

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LAZARUS... AND DONALD TRUMP

Two ancient stories resonate with Sunday's Gospel Reading. One is Egyptian, the other Rabbinical. The former is about the reversal of fortunes in the afterlife. The latter was about Abraham's servant Eleazar (Lazarus in Greek) who walked the earth in disguise to check on Abraham's children's observance of God's command to care for the poor, especially orphans, widows, and strangers. 

In Jesus's parable, Lazarus wasn't in disguise. He was so poor, sick, and starved that his plight was described by Abraham as evil. Left by the rich man's gate, he was in such terrible state that only street dogs kept him company, licking his sores. He died waiting for crumbs that fell from the rich man's table. He died away from any human contact and, thus, was not even buried. Being buried is the last act of human decency that societies have practiced for millenia. Lazarus died and no one was around to bury him. God had to send angels to bring him to Abraham's bosom. 

The rich man feasted every day. He also died. He was buried--I'm sure in grand fashion--with scores of professional crying ladies. 

Today, the world spends more money on ice cream and cosmetics than on basic health care, safe water, or basic literacy programs for the most vulnerable communities. Twenty-five thousand people starve to death each day while one country has enough resources to feed 40 billion people! (That's five times the population of the world.) 

Today, Lazaruses abound outside our homes, our offices, and our places of worship: homeless, jobless, hopeless... Suffering alone! With street dogs as company. And we, like Cain, smugly assert, "Am I my brother's keeper?" 

Unless we change, unless we repent, unless we sell everything we have and give all the proceeds to the poor, we will find ourselves in agony, tormented by flames in Hell. With the rich man. And Donald Trump! 

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reading the parables of jesus inside a jeepney

*Art, "The Rich Man and Lazarus," JESUS MAFA, 1973, from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives.

THE UNJUST DEBT MANAGER

Sunday's parable from Luke 16 has been interpreted so many different ways. Some work. Some do not, especially those that insist that the rich master is a metaphor for God. 

Sunday's parable from Luke 16 resonates with the ongoing investigations and exposés concerning corruption--worth billions--in the Philippines’ flood control and other public works projects. 

The master in the narrative is quite wealthy. Charges are brought against his debt manager or steward for dishonesty. Apparently, other debt managers want him out of the picture, thus the charges.

The manager--finding his position in jeopardy and knowing he cannot do manual labor and is ashamed to beg--does what most anyone would do in his situation: use the system of debts, interest, and indebtedness to his advantage. Find a way to make sure that he does not end up on the streets. He cuts his losses by literally cutting his commission.

What he does gets him his job back. His rich master, who knows he is wicked and unjust, commends him. And those in debt are now beholden, not just to the rich master, but also to the manager. 

No repentance. No restitution. No justice!

This is the way things actually work. This is the evil of debt, then and now. That is why the rich are still rich and continue to get richer. This is why Marcos's Independent Commission on Infrastructure, the Senate's Blue Ribbon Commitee hearings, and other livestreamed investigations are all for show and will not make a dent on the status quo. Genuine change never, ever, comes from the top of the pyramid. Justice will never, ever, come from the wealthy and their debt managers. 

This is why the poor plea, "Forgive us our debts!" An economy of debt is an economy of death. This is the way of empire.

This is the complete opposite of the Kingdom of God.

*art, "Parable of the Unjust Steward," (2012), Andrei Mironov [from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives]

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LOST SHEEP, LOST COINS, AND LOST SONS

Many among us grew up with allegorical interpretations of the trio of parables in Sunday's Gospel Reading from Luke 15. The sheep, the coin, the son all represent the sinner who is lost then found and saved by God.

My friends, let us try to read the parables as parables about shepherds and sheep, women and coins, and fathers and sons. The shepherd is not God. Nor is the woman. Nor is the father. The shepherd is responsible for sheep under her care. The woman is responsible for her coins. The father is responsible for his sons. 

I have two sons. The Parable of the Lost Son is very personal for me. 

If sheep, coins, and sons go astray, we should ask those responsible: why? We must not blame the sheep, the coins, nor the sons. 

For so long our interpretations have shielded and protected those responsible and accountable for sheep, coins, and sons. It is time we ask the shepherd, the woman, and the father: why did you lose them? Why did they go astray? 

My friends, for so long we have shielded and protected King David and Eli the Priest from what happened with their "lost" sons. We still do so with today's Davids, Elis, kings, and priests. We still blame our lost sons and daughters. We still think it's their fault. We still blame Will Hunting!

*Art, "The Prodigal Son," JESUS MAFA, Cameroon, 1973 (available at the vanderbilt divinity library revised common lectionary art galleries). 

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THE CALL, THE COST, AND THE CROSS

Campus Crusade for Christ popularized Bill Bright's Four Spiritual Laws. For several generations of young people, in order to be a Christian, one had to believe these four laws: God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life; man (sic) has been separated from God through sin; Jesus Christ died for our sins and reconciled us to God; and everyone that accepts Christ will be saved and receive eternal life.

Sunday's Gospel Reading from Luke reminds those of us who call ourselves disciples of Jesus that following him has never been--and will never be--a picnic nor a walk in the park. Discipleship is not a club membership with fees, duties, benefits, privileges, and Sunday Best attire. Discipleship is not just confessing the Four Spiritual Laws. Discipleship is beyond using the Bible, God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit as props. 

If we believe that Trump, Vance, Duterte, Marcos, Bato, Curlee and Sarah Discaya, and their ilk answered Jesus’s call to discipleship, then we're following the wrong Jesus!

The cost of discipleship is very high. The cross that Jesus of Nazareth talks about does not refer to the challenge of being married to one's spouse, nor the responsibility of taking care of elderly relatives, nor the burden of pastoring a big church, nor to any of the other metaphorical "crosses" we have come up with. 

The cost of discipleship is very high. It's completing the tower--even if we die in the process. It's winning the battle--even if we perish along the way. We don't go build without finishing. We don't wage war in order to lose. Many among us want to go to heaven but are afraid to die. Many among us want to be resurrected but are afraid to be crucified. Many among us want to see a new day but are afraid of the night. We cannot have one without the other.

My friends, we cannot trully follow Jesus unless we are ready to carry our cross. When Jesus calls us, he bids us, "come and die." 

*art, "The Cost of Discipleship," from inductivebiblestudy app, 2020.

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SEAT PLAN

"SEAT PLAN" 

Sunday's lection resonates with our experiences around the dinner table (which, in many cases, is not really round). We know who sits where. In many homes we know who sits at the head and at the foot of the table. And this seating arrangement applies in many of our social gatherings and in our churches as well. 

When I was younger I assumed that the name plates on church pews were in honor of the donors. I soon realized--after being told to move--that those name plates also identified who had exclusive rights to those pews. 

People have always asked why I always stand or sit at the back (or near the back) in churches, especially the big ones. Now you know. 

Years ago, I visited a church where I felt totally unwelcomed. I did not wear the required three-piece suit for men. I also had the wrong skin color. 

These assigned spaces also apply to burials. There are those who are buried in the church's yard. There are those who are buried inside the sanctuary, along the center aisle, and in the altar. Of course, "heathens" and "pagans" cannot be buried on church grounds. 

Friends, let us never forget that the early church was known for its open table, its radical hospitality, and its proclamation of good news to the poor. There were no seat plans. 

The church is not a building. The church is not an exclusive club. The church, the one Jesus challenges to be light, salt, and seed, is people who love. Unconditionally. 

*art, "The Poor Invited to the Feast," JESUS MAFA, 1973 (from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives)

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PAIN HAS NO SABBATH

Sunday's Gospel Reading has Jesus doing his mission of liberation. Luke's Jesus’s response to the leader of the synagogue mentions three characters who are all bound and have to be released. The ox and the donkey are both tied. They have to be released in order to get water. If they are not released, if they do not get water, they might get dehydrated or worse, in cases of heatstroke, die.

The woman, who Jesus calls a daughter of Abraham—which incidentally is the only time in the whole Bible that the description is used—is also bound. Satan has bound her for 18 long years. Medical experts who have studied this passage say that those were 18 agonizingly painful years. Whether she had tuberculosis of the spine, spondylitis ankylopoietica, osteoarthritis of the spine, or osteoporosis of the spine, she was in terrible pain. Every single day. She had to be released. She had to be set free.

My friends, the exchange between Jesus and the synagogue leader is not about good and bad. It is about good and good. How do we choose? Justly. The synagogue leader was saying: you can heal her any other day except today. He was arguing: what is one more day of suffering to someone who has already endured 18 years of agonizing pain? That’s 6570 days of pain. What is one more day? 

Jesus, on the other hand, was saying: why do I need to heal her any other day when I can do it today! For Jesus, suffering is suffering. Why wait for tomorrow when we can stop it today! The synagogue leader’s opinion is justice tomorrow. Jesus’s retort was justice right now! The woman despite her agonizing pain, despite her suffering went to the synagogue regularly. Did you think for one second that her pain rested during those Sabbath days? Did you think her suffering stopped while she sang, chanted, and studied the Torah? Do not forget this, ever: suffering does not have Sabbaths. Oppression has no rest days. Evil does not rest.

Pain has no Sabbath!

Do you think the suffering, humiliation, and violence that Palestinians experience stop during Sabbath?  Do you think our Lumad sisters and brothers get Sundays off from the displacement, dispossession, and militarization they experience from the AFP, agents of development aggression, and private armies of mining corporations? Do you think the pains, the suffering, and the diseases that afflict close to a billion of the world’s children caused by malnutrition, poverty, and hunger cease every time they attend mass or praise and worship? Suffering does not have sabbaths. Oppression has no rest days. Evil does not rest!

Thus, the struggle for life, for liberation, for wholeness, for abundant life for all has no rest days as well. This is why Jesus always healed on the Sabbath. This is why he proclaimed release to the captives and set the oppressed free on the Sabbath. This is why we are challenged to do the same. Every singe day! My friends, today is the day of liberation. Of course, we can wait for tomorrow but tomorrow might be too late. Proclaim release to the captives! Let the oppressed go free!

NOW!

#CeaseFireNow

*Art, "Christ Healing the Crippled Woman who was Bent Over, " from the Vanderbilt Divinity Library Digital Archives (copyright source: Prof. Patout J. Burns and Prof. Robin M. Jensen)

THE HOLY SPIRIT AND BATO'S CLAIMS

Bato dela Rosa has expressed that the Holy Spirit guides his pro-Duterte acts as senator. Donald Trump, MAGA, and ICE use the Bible as a prop. Bato is doing the same thing with the Holy Spirit.

Now, those of us who are students of the Bible know that the Bible is not a book. It is a collection of books. The Bible is a library. Let's pick just one passage from one book to refute Bato's claims. The Gospel of Luke 4: 18-19.

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor."

These are the concrete signs of the Holy Spirit at work. Nothing in Bato's claims fit these acts of justice, liberation, and compassion for the poor, oppressed, and marginalized. NOTHING! 

I agree that spirits guide Bato. I totally disagree that it is the Holy Spirit.

JUSTICE LEAGUE!

NOT PEACE BUT A SWORD. 

What does the sword that Jesus brings do? It disrupts, it divides, it disturbs... the Peace. 

Peace and Order founded on war. The peace defined, justified, legislated and imposed by the powerful, propertied, and privileged. The peace built on the blood and bodies of the displaced, dispossessed, disenfranchised, and disemboweled. The peace inaugurated by the original Prince of Peace, Caesar Augustus. 

The peace where the father was head of the family and everyone was his property. The peace where the rich got richer and declared heaven-blessed, while the poor got worse and judged accursed and destined for hell! 

Historians tell us that Christians were never called peacemakers in the earliest days of the Jesus movement. They disrupted. They divided. They were disturbers of the Peace and Order of Rome. Like Jesus. 

Today, the powerful, propertied, and privileged keepers of Peace and Order tag these "disturbers" as criminals, rioters, militants, dissenters, communists, terrorists and, yes, enemies of the state! They remain faithful to the One who was executed as an enemy of the state.

Friends, I want to believe that we are followers of Jesus. The Prince of Peace based on Justice. We strive to be agents of genuine transformation. We dedicate our lives to help bring about shalom, life in all its fullness. We struggle with those whose only hope is God. 

We are, therefore, members of the peace based on justice league!

*image, "The Time Jesus Started a Riot," copyright, Brendan Powell Smith, from Reboot (WordPress). 

THIEVES IN THE NIGHT

Many accepted Jesus as their Personal Lord and Savior, fueled by the terror of eternal damnation, after watching the movie "A Thief in the Night." Over 300 million watched the movie in the 1970s. (178 million watched "Star Wars.") Fear is a primary motivator. Come to think of it, many Christians are Christian because of fear: fear of punishment, fear of death, fear of eternity in hell, fear of missing out on heavenly rewards.

Fear played a primary role in the movie 2022 movie,"Maid in Malacanang." Produced by the eldest daughter of the greatest thief in history (according to the Guinness World Records), the revisionist movie has Marcos Senior asking the viewers, "Masama ba akong tao?" (Am I an evil person?) The Marcoses are afraid. They will do anything and everything to change the answer to that question. And that makes them very, very dangerous. 

I dare say fear is also the primary reason behind the recent actions of the Philippine Senate and the Supreme Court on the Duterte impeachment case. 

Thank God, Sunday's Gospel Reading's reference to a thief in the night does not conjure up images of people who are afraid. What we have are people ready, watchful, vigilant, militant. Prepared for action. Lamps lit. Always prepared for the unexpected. People who do not fear death, or thieves at night, or those in Malacañang. Or those in the White House and in the world's corridors of power. 

And they are legion. Thank God!

This is why we have hope!

 

RICH FOOLS

 

Historians tell us that in First Century Palestine, practically all the land was either owned or controlled by the ruling elite: the one percent. And, yes, this group included the religious leaders. Sadly, things have not changed. Things are actually worse.
In Sunday's parable, the rich man had a problem. His harvest was so plentiful his barns were not enough to contain them. His solution? Bring down his old barns and build bigger ones. Half of the population then was slowly starving to death. How about sharing his over-abundance? Never crossed his mind.

God calls him a fool and strikes him dead that night.

Scientists tell us that 666 billion US dollars can address the world's biggest problems: poverty, hunger, illiteracy, decent housing, health, and sanitation. Oxfam reports that one-seventh of one year's income of the world's richest can address all these. The richest countries in the world spend more and more and more each year on weapons of mass destruction. In 2021 alone, over two trillion dollars were spent on weapons! That amount is over three times more than what is needed to address the world's basic needs. Rich military contractors are getting richer as tens of thousands are being murdered and hundreds of thousands are being displaced and dispossessed in Palestine.

How about sharing their over-abundance? How about declaring a jubilee? Never even crosses their minds. The United States of America has resources to feed 40 billion people. That's 5 times the world's population. Tragically-- like what happened yesterday, and the days before, and what will happen tomorrow-- about 25,000 children from the poorest countries, aged 5 and younger, will starve to death today.

In Luke the rich have no way of entering the kingdom of God unless they sell everything they have, give the proceeds to the poor, and follow Jesus.  Only Zacchaeus did.

Warning to rich fools: unless you change, God will strike you dead.

Probably tonight.

GIVE US TODAY...

Luke’s Jesus prayed a lot. But Jesus’ prayers, and the prayer he taught his disciples, were not individualistic, pietistic supplications. They were community prayers; prayers on actualizing God’s reign on earth. In the Gospel of Luke and its sequel, the Acts of the Apostles, the test of one’s relationship with God was proven by one's relationship with people, especially the poor, the orphans, the widows, the strangers. 

When Luke’s Jesus prays, “Give us this day our daily bread,” he was lifting up a peasant’s petition for today’s food, echoing the farmer’s prayer for daily sustenance in the book of Proverbs; he was mouthing the hope of the Jubilee Year for dispossessed farmers for land, and the dream of day labourers, the daily wage earners, for justice. Moreover, his prayers resonates with the experience of The Tabernacle, when God "dwelt abundantly" with God's people which made sure that everyone's basic needs were met. 

When Luke’s Jesus prays, “Give us this day our daily bread,” he celebrates the peasants’ capacity to serve generously, sharing of the little they had, even rising at midnight to give three loaves of bread to a persistent friend in need; he affirms poor communities’ capacity to share meals and all things in common, selling their meager possessions, and distributing the proceeds to all, as they had need; he believes that God’s reign has

come and God has chosen to reveal it among shepherds, among the poor, the oppressed, the marginalized, the Lumads, and, yes, the Lupang Ramos community.

When Luke's Jesus prays, "Give us today our daily bread," he proclaims good news to the poor and affirms the day when everyone, especially those who gargle water for breakfast, sip warm water for lunch, and force themselves to sleep in place of supper, actually gets to eat a warm meal! And we are all enjoined to make sure that day will come. Sooner than later. 

Friends, shalom, for those whose only hope is God, is not eternal life nor a mansion over a hilltop. It is a warm meal. Today. 

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*art, "The Insistent Friend," JESUS MAFA, 1973, Cameroon (available at vanderbilt divinity library digita archives).

MARTHA AND MARY'S OPEN DOOR AND OPEN TABLE

Sunday's gospel reading from Luke is about a warm welcome and one very simple meal.

I would argue that we can find historical memory in the passage. Martha and Mary’s home was a house church, open to everyone: a sanctuary. Martha and Mary were involved in the diakonia of the open table. There are scholars who argue that the sisters were once wealthy, and the lack of servants in the narrative and Martha doing all the preparations by herself, showed that they had followed what Jesus required from the rich.

Jesus’s admonition to her that “there is need for only one” is a reminder to us that, one dish was enough, “tama na ang isang ulam,” especially for the poorest of the poor who were most welcome in these house churches. Maybe Martha, so used to feasts and banquets, momentarily forgot that--for those whose only hope is God--there is need for only one.

That Jesus is referred to as LORD three times in the passage reminds us of the Basileia movement’s most fundamental, subversive affirmation: JESUS IS LORD AND NOT CAESAR! And to proclaim that Jesus is Lord is to proclaim the good news for the poor.

What about Mary choosing the better part? But what is the better part? Martha and Mary’s sanctuary was a home, not a cathedral most churches today want their worship places to be. Jesus admonished Martha that the open table needed just one dish for everyone, not a feast or a banquet most of us believe are expressions of hospitality, prosperity, and fullness today.

And he praised Mary for focusing on the guest, on welcoming the neighbor. The ministry of the open door. In the Lukan narrative, the neighbor includes widows, orphans, strangers, those who are robbed, beaten, stripped naked, and left half dead, and, yes, enemies!

And because many of us are not poor, we forget that for millions of people in the world who gargle water for breakfast, drink hot water for lunch, and cry themselves to sleep for supper, a welcoming home and a simple meal represent God’s shalom!

We need more Marthas and Marys. We need more open doors and open tables.

*Art, "Martha and Mary," JESUS MAFA, 1973, Cameroon (from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives)

 

THE PARABLE OF THE "BAD" SAMARITAN AND HIS DONKEY

We love the Parable. Most of us identify with the Samaritan. We name our institutions after him. I know of a Good Samaritan Hospital, a Good Samaritan Church, and a Good Samaritan Multi Purpose Credit Cooperative. I'm sure you all know more. 

But before we continue patting each other's backs and celebrating, let us remember what Samaritan meant during Jesus’s time.

There were at least three groups of people that were most hated and despised during Jesus’s time: centurions, tax collectors, and Samaritans. These were the "bad" guys. Jesus's self-righteous enemies pejoratively call him a Samaritan.

Priests and Levites were the "good" guys. They were models of society in word and deed. They were expected to help the wounded: their fellow Jew, on that "bloody way" connecting Jerusalem to Jericho. But they did not.

The "bad" guy did. With his donkey. Ironically, to this day, the "bad" guys still do. Also with their donkeys. They continue to help the wounded, rescue the dying, save the half-dead. But we don't call them Samaritans anymore. We call ourselves that now. We even added a qualifier, we are "The Good" Samaritans. 

But, tragically, we still do not stop and help. We have even come up with the best excuses for our inaction, apathy, and indifference: especially if the wounded is Indigenous, Black, Palestinian, Rohingya, LGBTQIA+, PLHA, Muslim, refugees, communists, or, simply, different from us. The Other. 

The "bad" guys do not care about labels. They are red-tagged, vilified, harassed, and demonized. Yet, they--and their donkeys--continue helping the wounded along the world's bloody ways. 

*art, "The Good Samaritan," JESUS MAFA, 1973 (from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives).

+Most of our interpretations of texts are anthropocentric (human-centered). Actually, androcentric (male-centered). We forget reading the non-human agents of life and liberation in these texts. Like donkeys and fish, birds, trees, land, rivers... 

++Reading the Parables of Jesus inside a Jeepney https://a.co/d/iB9Eb05

SODOM AND GOMORRAH

THE REAL SIN OF SODOM AND GOMORRAH 

Given the breadth and depth of the hurt, discrimination, and senseless deaths brought about by homophobic readings of the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah, it is critical to go back to what Jesus said about the matter. And what other Biblical passages say. 

Sunday's Gospel Reading from Luke has Jesus telling the disciples, "But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.’ I tell you, on that day it will be more tolerable for Sodom [and Gomorrah]* than for that town."

The prophetic tradition describe what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah as God's judgment against the people's pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease while neglecting the poor, the needy, and strangers.+ 

One word: inhospitality. Over and over in the Bible, God calls God's people to always care for and to welcome widows, orphans, and strangers. Sodom and Gomorrah failed to do these. Many in Jesus's time failed as well.

Are we guilty of the real sin of Sodom and Gomorrah?

===

Art, "Sarah and Abraham offer hospitality to the Visitors," mosaic, Ravenna, Italy (from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives).

*Matthew adds "and Gomorrah" 

+Ezekiel 16. 49-50

#SodomAndGomorrah

#Sodom

#ChooseJustice

#FreePalestine

#PrayForMyanmar

#ClemencyForMaryJane

#JusticeForEJKVictims

#letgracebetotal

HAMMERS, BELLS, AND SONGS

Fear paralyzes people. Fear impairs judgment. Fear prompts an instinct to flee, fight, or even freeze. Fear is the most effective weapon of those in power against dissent and resistance. The Roman Empire maintained peace and order using the fear of imprisonment, exile, and crucifixion. The Romans crucified those they tagged as "enemies of the state," and carried out up to 500 state-sanctioned executions in a single day. All legal! 

Fear permeates the Gospels. Why did Peter rebuke Jesus? He was afraid for Jesus. Why did Peter deny Jesus? He was afraid of being identified with Jesus. Why did all the male disciples flee when Jesus was arrested? They were afraid of being arrested with Jesus. Everyone was afraid of being crucified!

Fear permeates Sunday's Gospel Reading. The fear of rejection? Yes. The lack of provisions? No purse, no bag, no sandals! Yes. Inhospitality, apathy, indifference from people and communities? Yes. The fear of death? Definitely. Sheep among wolves is a dangerous situation. Wolves kill sheep. Violently. Many times, wolves will kill more than they need. Human wolves do worse. 

Only two things can conquer fear: a bigger fear or faith. Faith embodied through the quest for justice, the struggle for freedom, and the practice of love. 

And for many among us, this faith that conquers fear is best expressed by the anthem incarnated in the lives of generations of prophets and peace activists worldwide. Their dissent and resistance were like hammers of justice, bells of freedom, and songs about love among brothers and sisters. 

Trump, Netanyahu, Duterte, Marcos, and their fellow predators and purveyors of fear need to be reminded that the anthem is greater than the sum of its parts. Much, much, more. In the end, we shall overcome. Faith will always, always, conquer fear! 

*YouTube link: "If I Had a Hammer" by Pete Seeger and Lee Hayes, performed by Peter, Paul, and Mary at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1965 (attended by over 250,000 people). 

https://youtu.be/AKgm9ARmOMM?si=IVovhxA77pq-_VjM

HOMELESS JESUS

 

Sunday's Gospel Reading is about choices. More importantly, it is about choosing God’s Kingdom over the Kingdom of Rome. It is--at its most fundamental--about taking sides with those whose only hope is God and rejecting Pax Romana, its paterfamilias, its peace based on war, its systems of patronage. 

Foxes having holes and birds having nests allude to the imperial family and its domain-- the basic hierarchical unit of society--that provided food, clothing, shelter, safety, security, and honor. Those who follow the "Homeless Jesus" are members of a different household: God’s oikos where widows, orphans, and refugees are the most privileged and where even the most unwelcome is always welcome. Yes, even beggars. 

Burial rites are again part of the rituals and obligations of the imperial family. Going and proclaiming good news to the poor, release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind; letting the oppressed go free, and proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor--God's jubilee of justice--takes priority.

Anyone who has put a hand to the plow knows that looking back is unacceptable. The one who has decided to become a farmer in the Kingdom of God but yearns to go back to farming for the Kingdom of Rome, the complete opposite direction, is not fit to follow Jesus. 

The challenge of the song we learned in Sunday School is true. "I have decided to follow Jesus... No turning back!" 

Donald Trump and those who believe that following Jesus of Nazareth is easy, rewarding, and will bring us closer to heaven are following the wrong Jesus. 

*art, "Homeless Jesus," sculpture by Timothy Schamlz (at King's University College, Ontario), image from vanderbilt divinity library digital archives.

MY NAME IS LEGION. FOR WE ARE MANY!

 

We learn early in school that the family is the basic unit of society. The familia, with the father as its head, goes back to the Ancient Romans. The father had absolute power over everyone in his family. Absolute meant exactly that: the father can disown, sell, even kill his children. For many fathers in Antiquity, children were property. Possessions. 

For the Ancient Romans, the emperor was the father of all fathers. For the emperor, occupied peoples and nations were property. Possessions.

Jesus's exorcism reminds us, especially those among us who are fathers, that people are not property nor possessions. Especially not our children. And if we think they are, then we need an exorcism. Among fathers who badly need an exorcism are those who disown or turn their backs on their children. 

We know how it starts: a child displays different, deviant, disruptive behavior: a boy who loves playing with Barbie dolls; a girl who plays with toy cars; embarrassing tantrums in public places, especially in church; unwelcomed, anti-social behavior; attempts at correcting all these based on church and society’s normative, purity, and morality laws. And then we start naming these, putting labels like “Alanganin,” “Retarded,” “Abnormal,” and, worse, “Demon-Possessed.” The labels stick. The labels are gossiped about. And they hurt.

The man from Gerasa in our text was a man from the city. Yet, when he encountered Jesus, he was homeless, living among the tombs outside of the city, bruised from self-inflicted wounds, and naked. He had been bound with chains, kept under guard, but he would break free, and flee into the desert. People were afraid of him at the beginning of the narrative. They were still afraid of him at the end of the story.  I dare say the first person to fear him was his father.

When Jesus heals lepers, he tells them to show themselves to the priests because in Antiquity priests, not doctors, diagnosed leprosy. In today’s text, Jesus tells the man from Gerasa to “go home and tell them what the Lord has done for you.” In other words: “Go back home to your father who turned his back on you and tell him what the Lord has done!”

My friends, professionals who study D.I.D. or dissociative identity disorder (multiple personality disorder as it was wrongly called in the earlier days) have studied this text as well as the Levite’s Concubine in the book of Judges to bring light on D.I.D. in conversation with anthropologists who study altered states of consciousness. There are people who love to escape by basking in the moonlight, stargazing, or, for a handful, actually going to the moon or outer space. There are people who escape to the oceans, to the unexplored mysteries beneath our feet. Then there are those who, in order to protect themselves, in order to survive, escape into the vast recesses of the mind. Let us never forget: the brain is a three-pound universe. Estimates put the number of people with D.I.D. at 1-3% of the population. 

Jesus asked the man, “What is your name?” He said, “Legion. For we are many.”  

There are also many daughters and sons who are grateful to God for their fathers, their grandfathers, living and those who have gone ahead. There are also many sons and daughters estranged from their fathers. And then there are sons and daughters who have D.I.D. most probably because of their fathers. They are survivors. And they are legion.

Jesus’s exorcism reminds us, especially those among us who are fathers, that people are not property nor possessions. Especially not our children. Each one is created in God’s image. Each one is a gift. Each one, our pride and joy. And each one has a name uniquely their own. 

*Art, "Jesus, the Gerasene, and the Unclean Spirits" by James Tissot (1836-1902), from the Art in Christian Tradition (a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library).

IMAGINE THE TRINITY

 

June 15 is Trinity Sunday, and many homilies will focus on explaining a mystery.

This "mystery" was discussed, debated, and formulated around the 4th century by mostly privileged, propertied, and powerful Christian men. It is no wonder that if you ask people to imagine the Trinity, most will conjure up three male figures--usually all white! The doctrine has been retrojected into biblical texts, including Sunday's Gospel Reading. 

Many of us grew up with centuries-old, androcentric doctrines that make our heads hurt. Many of us grew up with doctrines that do not make sense; that create walls instead of bridges; that separate people instead of bringing them together; that make our faiths, our beliefs, our skin color, our sexual orientation, our class, our way of life sinful, less human, and outright wrong!

There are those--quoting scripture no less--who sincerely proclaim that all rulers--including tyrants, dictators, and children of tyrants and dictators--are God's chosen. Even Senator Ronald "Bato" Dela Rosa declared recently that he is guided by the Holy Spirit. Then there are those who insist that the Bible is their exclusive "land title" and have killed, dispossessed, disenfranchised, and displaced peoples in its name. 

June 15 is Trinity Sunday, and many homilies will focus on explaining a mystery. Maybe some homilies will focus on the female imagery for the divine. Sunday's lection may challenge us to imagine the Spirit as a woman, giving birth, nursing her children. 

Friends, maybe Sunday's lection challenges us to imagine God beyond the boxes, even the texts, we have created to contain God. Maybe the Trinity is a fellowship of nursing mothers, a family of sisters, a discipleship of equals, a circle of life. 

Maybe it is better to imagine God as a "they" instead of a "she" or a "he" or a "s/he." 

*Art, "Trinity" by Kelly Latimore (2016). Available from the Vanderbilt Divinity Library Art Galleries.

WHERE IS GOD?

 

Philip's request to Jesus resonates with what many among us long for: "Show us the Father and we will be satisfied!" Some ask this question in the comforts of their armchairs inside their air-conditioned offices. Tens of millions ask this as they struggle to survive from one day to the next. Where is God?

One seventh of one year's income from the richest 2,000 billionaires on earth can eradicate poverty while 25,000 people from the poorest countries, 40% of them children, starve to death every single day. Where is God?

The world's richest countries spend close to 2 trillion US dollars a year on weapons of mass destruction while the United Nations report that less than a third of that amount can provide food, water, basic education, health care, and decent housing for the poorest nations. Where is God?

The Ministry of Health in Gaza reports that over 54,000 Palestinians, a third being children, have been killed by the State of Israel's war machine since October 7, 2023. Where is God?

Jesus tells Philip over and over to believe. Believe in the words. If these are not enough, believe in the works. Believe in love!

Those of us who call ourselves Christian must embody the basic tenet of our faith: incarnation. Love in the flesh. So, where is God? Among us. Between us. One of us. Many times, a stranger... Anywhere and everywhere we experience goodness wrestling free from evil, where we find hope being triumphant over despair, where we encounter faith stronger than fear, where we see love chosen over indifference, where we experience life rising up in the midst of death. Even from under the rubble.

Love in the flesh. God is there.

*Photo of Gaza (from The New York Times)

JESUS PRAYS FOR US

 

There are those among us who grew up in Christian communities that taught "all prayers need to end with 'in Jesus's name'". There are those among us who grew up in churches that had regular prayer meetings and 24-hour prayer chains or prayer warriors. I am sure some of us have experienced falling asleep while we were praying.

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. He also prays for those who will believe because of his friends. Jesus prays for us! More importantly, he lifts all of us in his prayer to God. He asks God three times in his prayer.

I believe 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, our 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 need our prayers.

In all of these, we pray to God. We ask. We beg. We cry. We plead. We are the ones praying.

Thus, many among us miss a key point of our Gospel Reading. Jesus is praying for his friends and for us--not for himself. He prays for his loved ones when he, a man slated for execution by the state, has every reason to pray for himself!

In the midst of hopelessness and despair when we are most vulnerable and alone, we are not the only ones praying; Jesus lifts us in prayer.

Good news indeed! JESUS. PRAYS. FOR. US!


*art, "The Ascension," JESUS MAFA, 1973 (Cameroon), from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives.

THE MATMAN RISES

 

Sunday's Gospel Reading from John 5 reminds me of Linus Van Pelt and his security blanket. Linus's relationship with his blanket started on June 1, 1954! (Our clan has had a love affair with Charles Schulz's Peanuts that now span three generations. We even have a cousin named Linus!)

The man in the narrative has had a relationship with his mat almost four decades; 38 years to be exact! Note that the narrative begins with the man lying ill on his mat and ends with the man made well, standing up, and walking with his mat. (Structural exegetes will have a field day dealing with this pericope!)

I am pretty sure that many people asked Schulz to do a strip where Linus eventually lets go of his security blanket. I am also pretty sure that many people probably expected Jesus to tell the man to let go of his mat. In sickness and in heallth, even Jesus celebrated the man's special bond with his mat.

One person's junk is another one's treasure. We all have "mats" that we hold dear, that accompany us through the highs and lows of our lives, that make us feel safe, secure, at "home."

Dear Friends, many among us have been lying on our mats, feeling terribly ill, since the May 12th Midterm Elections. More of us have been paralyzed by the disheartening indifference of so many on the ongoing genocide in Gaza... Soon, we will hear a still small voice, whispering: "Stand up, take your mat, and walk!"

THE 25% REVOLUTION

Most of us were taught the 50% plus one formula. We call this the "Majority Rule." Those in power use the term "Silent Majority" (popularized by Richard Nixon in 1969) to describe the large groups of people who quietly support them and their policies, in contrast to the "Vocal Minority" of protesters.

History and research show us a totally different reality. A committed minority, relentless and dedicated, needs to reach 25% of the population to reverse the majority viewpoint. This committed minority, relentless and dedicated, by modeling behavior--repeatedly and consistently--eventually leads the rest to copy such behavior.

Dear Friends, do not forget this. Ever. Tradition tells us the Jesus Movement began with Twelve. Sunday's Gospel Reading reminds us of the behavior that eventually changed the world: love for others, especially the least, the lost, the last, and the left out. Loving the way Jesus loved.

Bonifacio had 30,000 Katipuneros. Each one of them ready and willing to die for our Motherland. Each one believing that love for country is the same as love for God. Each one loving as Jesus did.

Monday's midterm elections served as a showcase of solidarity and volunteerism on the ground, a concrete expression of the youth sector's protest vote, and a testament to the masses' collective quest for genuine transformation.

As I write this, Kiko Pangilinan has over 15 million votes. Heidi Mendoza has over 8 million. Teddy Casino has 4.6 million while many among the Makabayan candidates have around 4 million each!

Again, a committed minority, relentless and dedicated, loving as Jesus did, needs to reach 25% of the population to reverse the majority viewpoint.

Friends, the 25% Revolution is slowly but surely unfolding! Monday's elections is but one of the signs of this unfolding. Change is in the air.

We are almost there!



*The 25% Revolution—How Big Does a Minority Have to Be to Reshape Society? [The Scientific American]
**Political scientists argue that Bam Aquino is the biggest beneficiary of the youth sector's protest vote and the ongoing rift between the Marcos and Duterte camps.