LAST WORDS

Last words are important to many of us.

Famous last words include Jose Rizal’s “Mi Ultimo Adios” and Antonio Luna’s “P---- Ina!” My late mother's last words to me, when we were in the very cold Emergency Room of the Philippine Heart Center, were: "Anak mainit, paypayan mo ako." My father’s last text message to me was: “Thank you.”

And, of course, the most famous last words ever memorialized would be Jesus’s as found in the gospels: Mark and Matthew have one; Luke has three; and John has three. Many Christians do not read the Bible. We read books about the Bible and parts of the Bible. If the Gospels were movies, the way most of us “read” is akin to watching only parts of a movie, not the whole show. Now, who among us only watch parts of a movie or telenovela--5 minutes of Black Panther or 10 minutes of FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano?

The Gospels are complete narratives. I propose studying Jesus’s Last Words based on that fundamental assumption. In other words, if Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John were movies or telenovelas, then Jesus’s dying words play important roles in how the stories play out.

MATTHEW

If one reads Mark and Matthew from beginning to end, one will discover that both narratives privilege Galilee as locus of God’s activity. Most of Jesus’s healing, teaching, and preaching ministry happen in Galilee. In the Matthean and Markan narrative Jerusalem is bad news. Jesus is betrayed in Jerusalem. Jesus is arrested, tortured, and executed in the Holy City. Jesus dies in Jerusalem. One can even argue that God forsakes Jesus in Jerusalem, thus at the point of death he cries, “Eli, Eli lama sabacthani?” or “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Many of us who grew up in church and in Sunday school remember the countless number of Bible verses we memorized. Many of us hated the ritual. I know I did when I was growing up. We thought those verses were useless until something happened in our lives and then the verses suddenly took on a life all their own. The Jesus of Matthew was rooted in the Hebrew Scripture. At the lowest point in his life, near death, Jesus was not blaming God. He was quoting Scripture. Psalm 22 to be exact.

I have witnessed people pass from this life to the life beyond and quite a few were quoting scripture. Remember that Matthew does not end with Jesus dying on the cross. The gospel ends with God raising Jesus from the dead. Psalm 22 begins with despair but ends with triumph and an affirmation of faith in a God who saves; a God who liberates. Especially the least among the least. Go and read it. Jesus’ last words in Matthew celebrate the promise of Immanuel. In life, in death, in life beyond death, we are not alone. God is with us. Always.

MARK

In Mark, Jesus cries, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabacthani” and dies. Unlike Matthew, the risen Jesus does not appear in the ending. Check your Bibles. The gospel ends in 16:8, where we find women silent and afraid. What we have in the story is a young man who tells the women that Jesus is going ahead of them to Galilee and will be waiting for them there. Jesus is not in the tomb. He is not in Jerusalem. He is not where we want him to be. He is back in Galilee where his ministry began. And he is waiting for us there. And we are afraid. Why?

Because we know that this path will eventually lead to the cross. We know that following Jesus will lead to suffering and, yes, death. Unlike Matthew, Luke, and John where we find beautiful stories of the resurrection—Jesus appears to Magdalene, to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, by the beach and eats breakfast with his followers, Mark offers a young man with a confirmation of a promise – Jesus is risen just as he told you. We do not see Jesus. We are told to believe he is risen. And it is only in going back to Galilee, in places we do not want to go, in ministering among the poorest and the most oppressed, that we will eventually find him. The last words of Jesus in Mark are dying words. The gospel does not end with Jesus’ triumphant words as a risen Lord but with a young man’s affirmation of God’s resurrection power: that hope is stronger than despair, that faith is greater than fear, that love is more powerful than indifference, and that life will always, always conquer death.

“He has been raised. He is not here!” Do we believe the young man’s words?

LUKE

Many Filipinos love the Gospel according to Luke. I read somewhere that our favorite parables are The Prodigal Son and The Good Samaritan. Both come from Luke. A lot of the scriptural support for the Roman Catholic Church’s theology of preferential option for the poor is based on Luke. God is definitely pro-poor in Luke. Jesus’s birth is announced to poor shepherds. Jesus's first sermon, which almost gets him killed, is a proclamation of good news to the poor. And this God who loves the poor so much is most often described as a loving parent. From Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, to Mary, the mother of Jesus, to the Father of the Prodigal Son who waited patiently for his son’s return, to Father Abraham who takes poor Lazarus into his bosom… the Gospel of Luke reminds us, offers us metaphors of God’s unconditional love as parent. At the cross, two of Jesus’s last three words in Luke are addressed to his father. Jesus says, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” If God is our parent and we are all God’s children, then we should ACT as brothers and sisters. This means not behaving like the older brother in the Parable of the Prodigal Son, or like the Rich Man in the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus. This means acting like the Good Samaritan who did not consider the wounded Jew as an enemy but as a brother. Jesus in Luke challenges his followers to love their enemies and to do good to those who hate them. Jesus set the example.

We call ourselves Jesus’s followers, but do we really follow? If Jesus is our "Kuya" then our words and our deeds should remind others of our "kuya." Bombing Afghanistan, invading Iraq, trampling on Philippine sovereignty in the guise of "visiting rights"-- are Jesus's brothers and sisters supposed to do these things? Jesus says to one of the criminals crucified with him, “Today, you will be with me in paradise.” Filipinos are social creatures. The worst punishment for Filipinos is solitary confinement. Many Filipinos turn on radios and televisions when they are alone, not to listen or watch, but simply to create a semblance of community. God’s salvation is a community project. No one can be a Christian alone. When God saves, God saves communities and peoples. To celebrate the incarnation is to celebrate that God has left heaven to be with us. So no one lives and dies alone. God is with us. In the midst of death on the cross, Jesus reminds his fellow victim that he is not alone. “Hindi siya nag-iisa.”

Then Jesus says, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” Luke follows Mark and Matthew’s lead here. Jesus also quotes an Old Testament Psalm. In this case Psalm 31. It is also like Psalm 22, a Psalm of deliverance. Jesus believed in a God who will never forsake. And God does not forsake Jesus. Many of us pray Jesus's prayer before we sleep at night. We commit everything to God, yet we stay up all night thinking of so many things only God has control over. Let us follow Jesus. Even in death, he knew that he was safe in God’s hands. We are never alone. We will never, ever, be alone.

JOHN

If one reads the Gospel of John from start to finish one will discover that the story celebrates the discipleship of the unnamed. In other words, the most effective followers of Jesus in the story have no names. The Samaritan woman by Jacob’s well, who runs to her people to share her experience with Jesus, is unnamed. The young boy who offers the five loaves and two fish so that Jesus can feed over five thousand people is also unnamed. The beloved disciple who plays a role bigger than Peter’s in the story is also unnamed. But most important of all, the only disciple who we find at the beginning and at the end of Jesus’s life is also unnamed: Jesus’s mother.

We find the two—Jesus’s mother and the beloved disciple—at the foot of the cross. Jesus says to them, “Woman behold your son; behold your mother.” Jesus asks that his two faithful disciples take care of each other. Love is the key theme of the Gospel of John. God became human because of love. The world is supposed to be blessed by our love for each other. Jesus in John leaves his followers only one commandment—for us to love one another as Jesus loved us. Mothers behold your sons; sons behold your mothers; parents behold your children; children behold your parents. We are members of the family of God and our primary task is to live in love for each other, like a family: each one willing to offer one’s life for the other.

Then Jesus says, “I thirst.” Again, in the Johannine story, particularly in his conversation with the Samaritan woman, Jesus is the Living Water. Thus, many people find it puzzling that the one who says he is Living Water is suddenly thirsty. And he is given vinegar by his executioners. Like Matthew’s, Mark’s, and Luke’s quotations, John’s “I thirst” represents a quote from the Old Testament--Psalm 69. Faith draws strength from the past. Like Daniel’s three friends who faced death yet believed in a God who will deliver them as God has delivered in the past, Jesus affirms the same unwavering faith in a deliverer God. And God did deliver Daniel’s three friends. And God delivered David (who wrote the Psalm). And Jesus believed God will deliver him, as well.

Then Jesus says, “It is finished.” The End. Jesus is dead. Remember the only commandment Jesus left his followers in the Gospel of John—greater love hath no one than this, that one offers one’s life for another? Jesus does exactly that. His life was an offering. And we are challenged to do the same. At the beach Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves Jesus… We are asked the same thing. Can we love as Jesus loved? Jesus was not alone when he faced the cross. And his last words on the cross affirmed his faith in God, in people, in the transforming power of love and life, and empowered him to face death.

Psalm 22 which Jesus quotes in Matthew and Mark, Psalm 69 which he quotes in John, and Psalm 31 which he quotes in Luke celebrate a God who delivers, a God who liberates, a God who will always take the side of the poor, the marginalized, and the oppressed, a God who will not forsake us. And God did not forsake Jesus.

And God will never forsake us.

[Based on the Tagalog version preached at Binan UCCP.]

Why Jerusalem?

Over twenty years ago I had the privilege to attend a meeting of the Jesus Seminar. There I met John Dominic Crossan, NT Wright, Marriane Sawicki, Robert Miller, and Marcus Borg.

During the meeting I asked the group why did Jesus need to go to Jerusalem? His Galilee-based movement was doing great. Going to Jerusalem was suicide. Even his disciples knew this. They did not want to him to go to Jerusalem. It did not make sense. But Jesus went anyway.

Crossan volunteered John 7 where Jesus's brothers tell him, "No one who wants to be widely known acts in secret. If you do these things, show yourself to the world!"

We all know how this story ends.

Gabriela Silang did not need to take over leadership after Diego was assassinated in 1763. Jose Rizal did not need to go back the Philippines in 1892. Bonifacio did not need to go to the Magdalo camp in Cavite in 1896. Ernesto Che Guevara did not need to go to Bolivia in 1967. We also know how these stories ended.

When Jesus entered Jerusalem with over 5000 people, mostly farmers and fisherfolk, waving palm branches, Pontius Pilate entered the city from the opposite direction. With a Roman Legion. 6000 professional soldiers. Jesus did not need to go to Jerusalem. But he did anyway.

First came a movement. Then an execution. But surprise of surprises, the movement continues. To this day! Thus, movement, execution, continuation. But the greatest of these is continuation.

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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!