Pray or Make a Whip?

The cleansing of the temple which happens during Passion Week in the Synoptic Gospels might have been the primary reason why Jesus was arrested, tortured, and executed. The narrative comes at the beginning of Jesus's ministry in the Gospel of John.

How do we imagine this scene? Jesus drives the sheep and cattle out of the temple. He pours out the coins of the money changers and overturns their tables.  And he has a whip which he makes himself!

Many of us cannot imagine Jesus raging with anger. Many of us cannot imagine Jesus doing what the passage tells us he did.

When the temple which is supposed to represent God’s presence among God’s people becomes a den of thieves that takes  advantage of the poor and the most disenfranchised; when institutions that are created to remind people that Yahweh is liberator and deliverer of slaves and the most dispossessed become systems that proclaim the rich as blessed and the poor as sinners, what do we expect the One whose name means ‘Yahweh Liberates’ to do?

Pray? In this occasion, he makes a whip.

When women who are supposed to have equal rights with men still receive salaries much lower than men; when they face harassment, discrimination, and violence in places that are supposed to be safe; when they continue to experience blame and demonization when they are victimized, what do we expect women and those who confess to follow the One whose name means ‘Yahweh Liberates’ to do?

Pray?
#IWD2018

Interpretation is always plural!

Diversity is a gift. No two of anything is exactly alike. No two interpretations as well. There are other ways of reading. Interpretation is always plural.

In the New Testament we usually assume that we have four interpretations of Jesus. Mark's, Matthew's, Luke's, and John's. Actually there is more. There's Paul's, Peter's, and all the other writers of the letters. And then there's John's (the author of Revelation).

Every moment of our lives, those of us who call ourselves Christian, need to answer Jesus's question: "Who do you say I am?" And if there are over one billion of us, then there are over one billion answers to that question.

Interpretation is always plural but it does not mean that everything and anything goes. We are talking about Jesus. The one who proclaimed Good News to the poor, liberation to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, freedom to the oppressed, and the year of the Lord's favor.

We are talking about Jesus. The one who demands that the rich sell everything they have and give the proceeds to the poor. We are talking about Jesus. The one who stormed the temple and called it a den of thieves!

Interpretation is always plural but if our interpretation of Jesus does not resonate with the Jesus who always took the side of those whose only hope is God, then our interpretation is off the mark and we are following the wrong Jesus.

Like Donald Trump!


[Artwork from the National Episcopal Church, Tom McElligott, Emmy Kegler.]

Satan does not want you to go to hell!

When Jesus told his disciples that he will suffer, be rejected, and be killed in Jerusalem, Peter took him aside and rebuked him.

Jesus in turn, rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan!"

Most of us grew up with this idea that Satan is a hideous monster, with a tail, horns, and a pitchfork. Many among us actually believe that Satan is God's equal. We blame him for every single thing that goes bad or wrong in our lives, and thank God for the opposite. Like God and Satan are playing chess and we're chess pieces on the board we call life.

In the lectionary reading from Mark 8, Jesus calls Peter, Satan.

Peter is probably Jesus's most loyal disciple. Peter is probably Jesus's closest friend. Peter's home was Jesus's home away from Nazareth. Peter probably loved Jesus more than the other disciples.

Thus, he did not want him to suffer, to be rejected, and to be killed. Peter thought Jesus was making a big mistake going to Jerusalem.

Every day people decide to follow Jesus, to follow the path dedicated to others, to fight against tyranny, 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, or to die, do as Peter did. Rebuke their loved ones because they think they're making a big mistake.

Like Peter, they become Satan.

People who Prey

There are people who read their Bibles and pray every day.
Then there are people who read their Bibles and prey every day.

The Bible is filled with stories about predators. Joseph preyed on the Egyptians. Solomon preyed on the Canaanites then on his own people. Many characters in Jesus’s parables prey on the weak, the poor, and the marginalized.

The ruling class during Jesus’s time preyed on the masses using the temple system, taxation, and state-sanctioned executions. Nothing has really changed.

Predators are usually people we look up to, people we respect, people we trust, people we idolize.

Thus, they are able to take advantage of us, betray us, dehumanize us... We know them. They need to be stopped.

Two of the world's most dangerous predators are popular heads of state. Both are also sexual predators.

They need to be stopped. Right now!

If Jesus Showed Up Today

If Jesus showed up today, he will not look anything like the Jesus many of us preach, teach, and sing about.
If Jesus showed up today, he will probably be murdered by people in power within a year, even less.
If Jesus showed up today, churches and institutions that bear his name will have no place for him.
If Jesus showed up today and challenged us to sell everything we have and give the proceeds to the poor, most of us will think he's mad.
If Jesus showed up today and called us to leave everything behind and follow him, we will not.

The truth is Jesus does show up every day and we, those who who are so proud to call ourselves Christian, refuse to recognize him.

Among the otherized and the odorized. Among the displaced and dispossessed. Among the poorest of the poor. Among people living with HIV and AIDS. Among the LGBT. Among those whose only hope is God.

Jesus shows up. Every day.

METAMORPHOSIS

We love to call this Sunday’s story as the Transfiguration.  It is better called the Metamorphosis.

Moses, Elijah, and Jesus all experience mountain-top encounters with God. All three went through very trying and challenging times in their lives and their encounter with God enabled them to complete the tasks that God has called them to do. The three went up caterpillars, they came down butterflies.

Metamorphosis.

But not everyone who encounters God come back as butterflies. Like Peter. In the mountain Peter experienced something so special, so unique that we expected him to come out as a butterfly. He does not. He opposes Jesus’s journey to Jerusalem. He eventually denies Jesus.

Everyone who encounters God in God’s mountain needs to come down. When Moses came down he led in the birthing of a people whose love for Yahweh was expressed in love for neighbor, especially the poor, the orphans, the widows, and the strangers. When Elijah came down he continued the struggle against Israel’s oppressive kings and began a prophetic tradition that ended with John the Baptizer. When Jesus came down he followed the path that led to Jerusalem, to the cross, and, eventually, to the empty tomb!

Moses is alive. Elijah is alive. At the end of Mark, the young man who proclaims the resurrection tells the women to tell the disciples (the Ten) and Peter to meet Jesus in Galilee. Jesus is Risen! For everyone who offers one’s life for others, God will raise ten. For every ten, God will raise one hundred. For every one hundred…

To believe in the resurrection is to believe in metamorphosis; in God’s power to transform caterpillars into butterflies. Yes, even Peter.

To believe in the resurrection is to believe that goodness will always triumph over evil; that hope is stronger than despair; that faith conquers fear; that love is always greater than indifference; and that life will always, always, conquer death. 

Jesus and Coming Out

Coming out is an important theme in the Gospel of Mark. If Immanuel can serve as book ends for Matthew (since this is the promise both in chapter 1 and chapter 28), coming out frames Mark (in chapter 1 and 16).

The women at the end of Mark expected Jesus to be inside a box, a tomb, but he was not. He came out. Jesus is never, ever, where we want him to be.

In our lectionary reading, the disciples and Simon Peter expected Jesus to be inside a box, Peter's house in Capernaum. But Jesus was not. He came out. Jesus is never, ever, where we want him to be.

He always goes back to Galilee where we don't want him to be. Among the poor, among sinners, among outcasts and lepers and the demon-possessed. And he is there. Right now.

Waiting for us.

We don't want to go to hell? Here's a step by step guide so we won't

So many Christians are afraid. We are afraid to die. We are afraid we might not go to heaven. We are afraid to go to hell. 

Here is a step by step guide so we won't go to hell.

First, feed the hungry.
Second, give drink to the thirsty.
Third, welcome the stranger.
Fourth, clothe the naked.
Fifth, look after the sick.
Sixth, visit those who are imprisoned.

We can will find these instructions in Matthew 25. And if we do not do these? The passage continues with Jesus saying, "Then you will go away to eternal punishment!"

Once upon a time three men came down the road...

Imagine listening to Jesus as he tells the parable.  

A man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho is beaten, stripped naked, and left half dead by rebels. A priest coming down the same road sees him but passes by on the other side of the road.  Likewise, a Levite coming down the same road sees him but, like the priest, passes by on the other side.

Then a third man arrives on the scene.

You, the listener, expect him to be like you. An ordinary Israelite. From childhood you have known the Shema. Nothing is more important than love for God and neighbor. And loving neighbor is the best way to love God.

The priest knew this but he failed the most important test. So did the Levite. Surely, the third man representing the third group of people, the ordinary Israelite, that made up the Chosen People will not fail. A fellow Israelite was close to death. Surely the third man would stop and help.

The third man did stop and help and did what was required of each and every Israelite.

But he was not an Israelite. He was not a neighbor. He was not part of the Chosen People.

He was the Enemy.

TATAY RODY, GOD IS ACTUALLY A FARMER!

GOD IS A FARMER (John 15: 1-8)

More often than not, we read this passage like we do the Parable of the Sower. We ask what kind of soil we are. We want to be the good soil that brings forth grain. We lose sight of the Sower. Yes, we lose sight of the Farmer.

In the Johannine reading, we ask what kind of branch we are. We want to be the branch that bears fruit. We lose sight of the vine. Moreover, we lose sight of the Vine Grower. Yes, we lose sight of the Farmer.

God is the Vine Grower in today's passage. God plants the vine. God does the pruning. God does the cutting off. God is actually a farmer.

During Jesus's time, farmers and fisher-folk comprised the bulk of the population. 7 out of 10. (Nothing has actually changed.) Then and now, farmers and fisher-folk are among the poorest of the poor. Dispossessed farmers and dislocated fisher-folk were worse. In First Century Palestine, the poor could afford only bread and fish, dried, smoked, or salted, which were the basic food of the lower classes in the cities, slaves, and peasants. Have you ever wondered why the majority of Jesus's stories and sayings in the gospels are about bread and fish,farming and fishing, and farmers and fisher-folk?

Unfortunately, we lose sight of farmers and fisher-folk. And we forget that the lestes, badly translated robbers and bandits in English Bibles, better translated as rebels and freedom fighters, were composed mostly of dispossessed farmers and runaway slaves!

But God does not forget! In the fullness of time, God decided to become one of us. God became flesh and dwelt among us. Among the poorest of the poor. Among farmers and fisher-folk. God took sides. God always takes sides. The incarnation, the word-made-flesh, is the vine that God planted among us. And what is the fruit of the Incarnation? Greater love has no one than this that one lays down one's life for a friend. Jesus did exactly that.

The Migrante International led grassroots, mass-based, inter-faith, local and international solidarity movement that led to the stay of Mary Jane Veloso's execution in 2015 helps illustrate this fruit of the Incarnation. Both of Mary Jane Veloso's parents, Nanay Celia and Tatay Cesar, are farmers at Hacienda Luisita. Both are willing to offer themselves to save her life.

Now, pretend parents, like the landlord who occupied Malacanang from 2010-2016, who fancied himself as "Ama ng bansa" (Father of the nation), will never do that. He even blamed Mary Jane for being uncooperative and spent a measly 5 minutes to plea for her life.

Today, again with the leadership of Migrante and in solidarity with Mary Jane Veloso's plea for justice, we are calling on the current occupant of Malacanang to do what the former occupant failed to do. Let Mary Jane speak. Let her tell the truth. The truth that will set her free.

Be the "Tatay Rody" that Mary Jane and so many others like her deserve. The Tatay who will do everything, including storm the gates of heaven and hell, to save his children. The Tatay who will offer his life so that his children may live.

The God we worship takes sides. God is actually a farmer. And God cuts off the branch that bears no fruit.

[image from migrante]

FOLLOWING AND FISHING

When we were growing up we used to sing a song that went, "I will make you fishers of men, fishers of men, fishers of men. I will make you fishers of men if you follow me."

I haven't heard this song sung in decades. Probably because we have stopped fishing for people. We have stopped fishing,  folks.

What have we done instead? We praise Jesus. We worship Jesus. We proclaim, "Christ above all!" We accept Jesus as Personal Lord and Savior. Our Christianity has turned into an exclusive club membership! We have stopped doing what Jesus actually told us to do in order to fish for people. FOLLOW HIM!

Why? Because following Jesus is hard. It is dangerous. It means taking up the cross. It means going against empire. It means being crucified. It means offering one's life as a ransom for many.

Jesus is, right now, waiting for you and me to follow him to Galilee. By the sea. To fish for people.

DUTER-TRAIN: TATAY RODRIGO ACCELERATING INJUSTICE

Genesis 47 tells us how Joseph oppressed the Egyptians. He introduced a famine relief system that required all the people to give up all their money, all their livestock, all their land, and, eventually, their freedom so that they do not starve to death.

1 Kings tell us how Solomon enslaved both the Canaanites and his own fellow Israelites. He replaced the tribal confederacy with 12 economic zones and introduced forced labor to undertake his infrastructure projects for the Lord (and for himself).

I am not making this up.

It is in the text. Read it. Study it. Tragically, we have been so enamored with Joseph the Dreamer and Solomon the Wise that we do not see the stark truth before our very eyes. Yes we read but we do not see.

The same applies to Duterte. We are so enamored, actually blinded by the myth and the myst that we cannot see the truth of his dictatorial, fascist, and violent regime. Majority among us call him "Tatay."

TRAIN is one of Tatay's projects. Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion. So many are riding this train, including so many among our pastors and church workers. The increase in take home pay for a minority creates the illusion of reforms but this train is anti poor and pro rich.

Duterte's TRAIN is really Tatay Rodrigo Accelerating INjustice!

Lest we forget, Joseph, Solomon, and, yes, Duterte all believe in God. All believe that God is on their side. But Joseph, Solomon, and Duterte forget that God is on the side of the enslaved Egyptians, Canaanites, Israelites, and the poor in the Philippines.

In God's oikos, according to Jesus, there are only sisters and brothers (see the Synoptics) and friends (see John). Any system that creates masters and slaves, rich and poor, victors and victims is oppressive, abusive, and wrong!

Joseph, Solomon, and Duterte are all masters, rich, and victors. God is on the side of the slaves, the poor, and the victims. God always is.

[infographic from Ibon Foundation]

Fishing for People

Life during the time of Jesus was really difficult. The works of Herzog, Crossan, Ehrman, Borg, and other Historical Jesus Researchers paint a Roman Occupied Palestine where the average life expectancy was 28 and half of the population was slowly starving to death. 

At the bottom of the social structure were farmers and fisher-folk. Nothing has changed. Farmers and fisher-folk remain at the bottom of the social structure today. 

In our lectionary reading this week Jesus calls fisher-folk to follow him in order to fish for people. Jesus does not call anyone to believe him. Jesus calls us to follow him. To do what? Fish for people. Many ancient peoples were afraid of the seas. But Jesus does not call us to fish people out of their fear of the deep. 

During Jesus's time, the Empire owned the sea! Taxes were imposed on fishing, on boats, on nets. On everything! Jesus's call to fish for people is a call for us to follow him in taking out people from systems and structures that oppress, that dehumanize, that subjugate, that kill. The call has not changed. 

People, especially the most vulnerable, are drowning in imperial waters. Jesus is calling us right now to follow him and fish for people.