Holy Week Special: Reading the Parables of Jesus inside a Jeepney (FREE!)

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DANCE IS A LANGUAGE OF FAITH

The oldest Christian tradition, quite possibly formulated within the first decade from Jesus’s crucifixion, is the Christological hymn that Paul quotes in Philippians 2: 5-11. Many Hebrew Bible scholars agree that the oldest tradition from Ancient Israel, quite possibly already circulating a generation or two from the Exodus event, is found in the book of Exodus. Chapter 15: 20-21 to be exact. 

Then Miriam the prophet, Aaron’s sister, took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women followed her, with timbrels and dancing. Miriam sang to them: “Sing to the LORD, for God is highly exalted. Both horse and driver God has hurled into the sea."
This passage, over three thousand years old, challenges many of our most cherished practices and traditions. First, the main characters in this oldest poem are women. Not men. Second, their faith expression is dancing, not preaching. Third, their leader is a prophet, not a priest; a woman, not a man; Miriam, not Moses.
Let me say it again: In this most ancient Hebrew Bible account, we have women, we have dancing, and we have a prophet, Miriam. Dancing is one of the oldest forms of worship. Dance is a language of faith. 

Melinda Grace Aoanan once said: “To sing to to pray twice. To dance, on the other hand, is to pray three times!” To dance is to celebrate the cycles and circles of life. To dance is to offer thanksgiving for babies born and loved ones departed, for bountiful harvests and sweet-smelling rice, for dreams realized and abundant life for all.

To dance, in Miriam and the women’s case, was to celebrate God’s liberating acts. Dance is a language of faith.

Remember this, my friends. An ancient people enslaved for centuries find themselves free. Yahweh had delivered them. God had heard their cries. God had come down to liberate them. God had accomplished what God had promised. And what is the first thing they do to celebrate their deliverance? THEY DANCE. 
God continues to deliver people from bondage. God continues to liberate those who are imprisoned. God continues to hear the cries of the oppressed and of those whose only hope is God. And what are we supposed to do to celebrate God’s continuing liberating acts? We actively participate in God's mission. We proclaim Good News to the Poor. We become the salt, and the light, and the seed God calls us to be. 
AND WE DANCE!

[image from http://www.atzmut.com/the-womens-dance/]

Unless a Seed Dies...

Seed. Salt. Light.

These are very powerful metaphors that the Church has used, for centuries, to describe itself. All these metaphors come from the Gospels. (The Church as the Body of Christ is Pauline.)

Unfortunately for the church, it has forgotten that all three metaphors require self-giving, require emptying, require death...

A seed dies... Salt dissolves... Light burns out.

The Church needs to remember its Crucified and Risen Lord. There is no Resurrection without the Crucifixion.

SOUP and SALT

The world needs soup.

Unfortunately, millions of people cannot even have or afford a decent cup of hot soup. So many people are so poor they gargle water for breakfast, take hot water for lunch, and force themselves to sleep at night in place of supper. Mas emphatic sa Tagalog: Marami tayong kababayan na mumog ang agahan, nilagang tubig ang tanghalian, at tulog ang hapunan. 
When Esau, in the Genesis 25. 29-34, came to his brother, he was close to death. And he asked for soup. For billions of dispossessed people who struggle against death forces everyday, the promise of life in its fullness is actually a hot bowl of soup. For countless people who face the violence of starvation each and every moment of their lives, God’s shalom is a hot bowl of soup. 
When our sisters and brothers’ homes and livelihood are destroyed by flash floods, relief operations bring soup. When schools offer feeding programs to malnourished grade school children, they are fed soup. When our churches and church-related institutions welcome the homeless and street-children into our “soup kitchens,” guess what we offer them? 
But you and I know this, soup is more than food for the hungry and drink for the thirsty.  It is also just wages for workers, homes for the homeless, justice for the oppressed, care for the sick and dying, welcome to the stranger, land for the landless, liberation for those in bondage and captivity, solidarity with those whose only hope is God. 
The soup that can meet the world’s hunger is the soup we cook together. Every one contributing what each can. Because we are each other’s keepers. If God is our parent, then all of us are sisters and brothers. 
Those of us who call ourselves Christian do not have the monopoly on soup. We have an ingredient to share. This is probably why Jesus calls the church, salt of the earth. Soup tastes better with salt. 
But soup does not need salt to be soup!

God Loves the Cosmos!

Yes. God loves the cosmos.

But for so many of us who memorized the verse, it's God so loved the World. And for most, the line really means God so loved (state your name).

It's actually, God loved the Cosmos! God loves the heavens, the Sun, the Moon, the Stars, and the Earth. Mountains. Oceans. Rivers. Rocks, pebbles, sand.

God loves rooted people. Finned people. Four-legged people. Winged people. Two-legged people.

God loves Moslems. Buddhists. Rebels. Indigenous peoples. Refugees. Rohingya. Migrants. Palestinians. PWDs. PLHAs...

God loves the cosmos so much that God decided to become one with the cosmos, a two-legged person. A two-legged person whose loving was experienced as life lived for others.

John 3.16

Many people love this verse.
Many people actually believe it's the Gospel in a nutshell.
Many people even think it's what the whole Bible is about.

Many people, unfortunately, do not read the Bible. Most hear it read out loud, in church, once a week.
Many people who love John 3.16 have no idea what John 3.15 is about. Or John 3.17.

Many people who love John 3.16 have no idea what John Chapter 3 is about. Or what the Gospel of John is about.

Many people who love the Bible have no idea what the Bible is all about!

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.