US, THEM, AND ALL OF US

The pronoun “us” assumes belongingness; being a part of a whole. In particular, “us” are insiders. As far as the people of Nazareth were concerned, Jesus was “one of us.” Isaiah was “one of us.” The promises from Scripture were “for us.” Jesus’s proclamation of said promises fulfilled in their hearing was also “for us.” Ultimately, all these presuppose that God is always and only “for us.”

“Us” also presumes another group. Those that do not belong: them. The outsiders. The empire--built on privilege, power, possession and commodification--divides and conquers peoples. The empire creates “us” and “them.” Sunday's lection from Luke 4 presents both groups and posits an alternative.

Jesus proclaims the alternative to the Kingdom of Caesar. In the Kingdom of God, there is no "us", there is no "them"; there is only "all of us".

At first, those who listened to Jesus read Isaiah were happy. Then, as they listened to him interpret the challenge of the Jubilee, they metamorphosed into a mob bent on throwing him off a cliff! Why? Because Jesus dared to change the beneficiaries of God’s jubilee. Leviticus 25, the year of the Lord’s favor, proclaimed land, liberty and cancellation of all debts. Jubilee meant gospel to those whose only hope is God; good news to a people suffering under Roman occupation. Jesus challenged their interpretation of “us” to include “them.”

For Jesus, there is only “all of us.” If God is our parent, then we, all of us, are God’s children. We are all sisters and brothers. Not just his fellow Nazarenes. Not just his fellow Galileans. During the time of Elijah, when drought and famine ravished the land, there were many widows in Israel, yet God sent Elijah to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha, yet none of them were cleansed except Naaman the Syrian. For Jesus, God’s children include the widow at Zarephath in Sidon and Naaman the Syrian.

For Jesus, the poor, the captives, the blind, the oppressed and everyone waiting for the year of the Lord’s favor were not just “us” Israelites but also “them,” the Gentiles, who were poor, captives, blind, oppressed and everyone waiting for the year of the Lord’s favor.

Thus, the jubilee, then and now, is not just for “us” but also for “them,” and therefore for “all of us.”

#IAmWithJesus
#ChooseJustice
#EndTheCultureOfImpunity
#FreePalestine
#JusticeForMyanmar
#SavePatunganNow

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

THE WEDDING AT CANA

New Testament scholars--among them Rudolf Bultmann, Raymond Brown, and several members of the Jesus Seminar-- have argued for a hypothetical "Signs [Semeia] Gospel" or tradition that is embedded in the Gospel of John.

There are no miracles in the gospel. Instead, there are seven signs which scholars say resonate with the seven days of creation in Genesis 1. The Gospel is expicit on which one is the first sign: the creation of wine from water during the wedding at Cana.

Yes, my friends, God has not stopped creating. Aside from creating wine from water, what else were created during the wedding at Cana? The water put in those six 20-30 gallon stone jars were for purification and cleansing purposes. They were not for drinking. They were to be expelled in the ritual process. Jesus more than creates wine from water; he creates wine for drinking, for taking in, from water dedicated for throwing out.

Jesus more than creates wine from water. In doing so, he creates a new community that privileges servants over masters. The servants were the first to experience the sign, then the chief steward, and then the bridegroom. The servants, who toiled yet did not even get to eat during feasts and weddings, were the first recipients of the best wine.

Finally, the creation of wine from water births a discipleship of the unnamed. Many times we forget that the most dedicated disciples of Jesus in the Gospel of John were unnamed: the child with five barley loaves and two fish; the Samaritan woman at the well; the Beloved Disciple; and Jesus's mother.

Many times we forget the role of Jesus's mother in this creation narrative. Many times we forget that the most dedicated disciples that God works through as God continues to create are people who remain unnamed, unrecognized, and uncelebrated.

We forget but God does not.

God always remembers.

#IAmWithJesus

#JusticeForMyanmar

#FreePalestine

#ChooseJustice

#EndTheCultureOfImpunity

#StopTheKillingsPH

*art, "The Wedding At Cana," (JESUS MAFA, 1973) available at the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives.

CROSSING THE JORDAN

We know what we are supposed to do: help change the world. But before we even think of changing the world, we need the world to change us.

Thus, integration with communities-- immersion into different ways of life--is a prerequisite. The late Fr. Carlos Abesamis, in conversation, said that having the Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other is not enough. Newspapers will never be a substitute for immersion. Nor will television, radio, or social media.

Immersion transforms people! Immersion has done so for many of us! In the fullness of time, even God went on immersion. Immersion changed God.

Sunday's lection reminds us that one of the most powerful images of immersion in the Bible is baptism. Baptism is about taking sides. When John baptized people in the Jordan, they crossed from one bank to the other; from one side to the other side. They re-enacted the crossing of the Jordan.

It is about doing what Ernesto "Che" Guevarra did: swimming from one bank to the other bank of the Amazon River; knowingly putting himself at risk of a deadly asthma attack and/or drowning, yet choosing the side of those whose only hope was God.

Baptism is crossing the Jordan: choosing justice and taking possession of liberty, land, and fullness of life that God wants for all people, especially for occupied peoples. Crossing the Jordan can lead to death. John the Baptist crossed the Jordan and was executed by Herod. Jesus crossed the Jordan and was crucified by the Romans.

And you and I are called by our baptism to cross rivers of Jordan wherever we are. Every moment of our lives, we need to choose justice. May we have the courage to do as John and Jesus did.

#IAmWithJesus
#ChooseJustice
#StopTheKillingsPH
#FreePalestine
#JusticeForMyanmar
#EndTheCultureOfImpunity

*art, "John baptizes Jesus," JESUS MAFA, 1973 (available at the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives).
 

THE INCARNATION

 

The four gospels begin their narratives in four different ways. Mark begins with an adult Jesus who is baptized by John in the Jordan. Matthew has a birth narrative that features Magi who spent about two years searching for the child. Luke's has shepherds who visit Jesus as a baby. John's origin story, which is Sunday's lection, begins in "The Beginning."

Incidentally, a lot of people who memorize Bible verses know John 1.1 (with Genesis 1.1 and, almost everyone's favorite, John 3.16). The Word became Flesh and lived among us. God has stopped watching from a distance.

Stories of Gods taking on human form abound in many of the world's mythologies. Many of the heroes of ancient peoples were demigods or super humans. For the Gospel of John, when the Word became Flesh, the Word was totally and fully Flesh. In other words, God was not Superman disguised as Clark Kent. God was Clark Kent.

For the Gospel of John, God Incarnate gets tired and thirsty; eats and drinks with family and friends; experiences love and loss, and cries, like all of us. God Incarnate takes the side of the poor, feeds the multitudes, experiences betrayal, and suffers torture and crucifixion by empire. Like many among us.

And then God dies. Like all of us will.

My Friends, to believe in the incarnation is to embody justice, accompaniment, solidarity, and life-giving, like Jesus did. The incarnation requires warm bodies: yours and mine.

Today, more than ever. 

#IAmWithJesus
#EndTheCultureOfImpunity
#JusticeForMyanmar
#FreePalestine
#StopTheKillingsPH
#ChooseJustice

*"In the Beginning" (relief sculpture at Westminster, London), photograh by Diane Brennan. Vanderbilt Divinity Library image collection.

THE STRANGER AND THE ONE-ROOM HOME

Let us point out what Christmas Day's lection does not say.

The text does not say that Mary and Joseph arrived in Bethlehem when Mary was about to give birth. The text does not say that Jesus was born in a cave or stable where most of us imagine he was born. The text does not say that Jesus was born among animals. More importantly, the text does not say that Bethlehem was unwelcoming of the Holy Family. It doesn't say that they were sent away by an innkeeper.

Most of what we imagine about the passage are exactly that: imagined. We need to address this right now. This means many of the things we do during our Christmas pageants and plays are not in the Lukan passage. This also means that many of the sermons we’ve heard about this passage are not even based on what the passage tells us.

Now, what does the passage actually say? And what do decades of archeological, sociological, and anthropological research about Ancient Palestine tell us?

There was a census and everyone went back to his or her hometown to register. Joseph went with a pregnant Mary to Bethlehem because he was a descendant of David. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born. She gave birth to her firstborn, a son, wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger because there was no space for them in the guest room. (The Greek term is kataluma. The NIV translates it correctly as guest room, not inn. Kataluma is also used to refer to the upper room in the Last Supper.)

Pregnancies, births, the rituals related to both, and the dynamics of kinship that permeate all these have, more or less, remained the same for most communities throughout the centuries and across cultures, especially among those where the ideas of personal property and individual ownership are alien, anathema, or frowned upon.

Joseph and Mary go from Nazareth to Bethlehem. They travel about 150 kilometers. She is pregnant so the trip probably took a while. They get to Bethlehem, Joseph’s hometown. I’m pretty sure a relative or two would have welcomed them in his or her home. This act of hospitality is as true today as it was then, especially among peasants. Don’t forget, Elizabeth, Mary’s relative lived nearby in the Judean hill country. They could have stayed with her and Zechariah if there was no room in Bethlehem but they did not. Joseph’s relatives had space. But not in the guest room.

Archeology has shown us that most peasant homes in Ancient Palestine were a one room affair. There was a yard usually shared with other homes where cooking was done. The immediate space through the main door of the house had a mud-floor where animals were brought in at night to keep the home warm and the animals safe. A manger or feeding trough was part of this area. The animals were let out first thing in the morning.

Side note: When Jepthah in Judges 11 vowed to sacrifice the first thing that comes out of his house, he was thinking of the animals being brought out first thing in the morning. Not his daughter.

The main family section, oftentimes a bit elevated from the animal area, was where the family did most of its affairs, mostly resting and sleeping. Homes, in those days, were really shelters because most chores were done outside or on the roof. Stairs to the roof were outside the house. Many homes had space for guests in the main family section or a small guest room, sometimes, for those who can afford, on the roof (hence, the upper room).

When Mary and Joseph came to Bethlehem, the home of Joseph’s relative was filled, the guest room occupied, so they stayed with the family in the main room. When the time came, the animals were brought out of the house, the manger cleaned and prepared, and served as a crib for the newborn.

Why is this story more true-to-life than the centuries-old tale we have heard and performed over and over and over again?

It fits the general theme of the Gospel of Luke. The Gospel for Luke is good news to the poor. When Jesus is born he is born among the poor in Bethlehem. Poor shepherds receive the good news and they find the Messiah among people like them. Don’t forget that when the shepherds find Jesus, they tell everyone there (not just the parents) what the angels have told them. There were others celebrating the birth.

My friends, the first Christmas happened when Palestine was under Roman Occupation. Life was very, very hard. Fifteen percent of the population was unemployed. Half of the people survived on a thousand calories a day which meant they were slowly starving to death. Average life expectancy was 28.

But despite all these, many remained faithful to what Yahweh required of them: to welcome the stranger. There should always be space for the guest. A meal of fish and bread, and a place to lay one’s head. Jesus was born among those whose only hope is God, among peasants who shared a small house, among the poor who offered the best to a pregnant couple, among kin who opened their simple, one-room home to welcome the birth of the Messiah.

Today, life is very, very hard. Palestine is under Israeli Occupation. Half of the world’s population survive on 2 dollars each day (100 pesos). Millions take “altanghap” meals to survive. Tens of thousands of children, 5 years old and younger, starve to death every day. And thousands of our Moro and Lumad sisters and brothers are displaced, disenfranchised, dispossessed, and have nowhere to lay their heads. Fear, indifference, despair, and depression grip our communities. The culture of impunity that pervades the world has left a trail of unfathomable suffering and senseless killings, not to mention COVID-19 and the tragedies brought about by our wreckless exploitation of Mother Earth.

But, despite all these, among farmers and fisherfolk, among our indigenous sisters and brothers, among our poorest communities, there is always space for guests. Welcome for the stranger. A meal of fish and bread. A place to lay one’s head. A one-room home to welcome anew the birth of the Messiah.

My Friends, millions among us are dealing with joblessness, homelessness, and hopelessness. In the midst of these, how do our lives proclaim, Immanuel? How do we actualize "God is with us"? How do we welcome God who comes as a stranger?

#IAmWithJesus
#EndTheCultureOfImpunity
#GospelForThePoor
#FreePalestine
#StopTheKillingsPH
#JusticeForMyanmar

THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY

Last week I argued that John the Baptist was one of the two mentors of the Galilean Jesus. This week, we will discuss the other one: Mary of Nazareth.

But first things first: There's something about Miriam we often overlook. We usually say she's Moses's sister. Miriam was a prophet. There's something about Mary we often overlook. We usually say she's Jesus's mother. Mary was a prophet as well. There's something about Miriam and Mary we often overlook. We usually say their names come from the same root. That root is actually Egyptian and many scholars say it means "rebelling against a bitter system."

Mary's Magnificat is probably one of the most powerful prophetic passages in the New Testament. This young woman from Nazareth followed a God who scatters the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; who brings down the powerful from their thrones and lifts up the lowly; who fills the hungry with good things and sends the rich away empty.

This young woman from Nazareth followed a God who takes sides, a God who takes the preferential option for the poor, a God who brings down kings and kingdoms, a God who weeps with those who weep and who cries with those who cry.

This young woman from Nazareth is alive today. Yet the proud, the powerful, and the rich who pretend to venerate her fail to see her among the lowly and the hungry as they struggle against life-negating and death-dealing forces. They fail to see her at work in Sarah Jane Elago, Amanda Echanis, Reina Mae Nasino, Lady Ann Salem, and other women whose lives are dedicated to helping bring about peace based on justice and the realization of God's reign on earth.

Moreover, the proud, the powerful, and the rich who pretend to venerate her tag so many who are working for "life in all its fullness" as enemies of the state or as communists, as if communism were a crime in the country. It is not. Worse, they criminalize dissent and illegally arrest so many on trumped up charges like murder and illegal possession of firearms and explosives.

So, Jesus had John the Baptist as teacher. But before there was John, there was young Mary of Nazareth: The Prophet. And she taught her son well. Very well indeed.


#Advent2021
#FreePalestine
#JusticeForMyanmar
#StopTheKillingsPH
#IAmWithJesus
#ChooseJustice

*image "The Annunciation. Gabriel and Mary." JESUS MAFA (Vanderbilt Divinity Library digital archives)

JOHN'S MESSAGE

Many scholars agree that Sunday's passage comes from "Q," the earlier Jesus tradition that both Matthew and Luke had access to. It may contain historical memory from the community of John the Baptist which--many forget--included Jesus and several of Jesus's companions.

When people ask me who helped shape Jesus’s faith, I say, "John, and Mary of Nazareth." For this post we focus on John. Next week, we will talk about Mary.

The Baptist, like the prophets before him, did not pull punches. He calls everyone to repentance; to change direction and follow God's way of justice. He calls religious leaders snakes, challenges tax collectors to stop taking advantage of poor people through excessive taxation, and orders soldiers to stop harassments and violent extortion of the masses. He tells those who have two tunics to share one with those who have none. And those with food to share with those who have no food.

My favorite part of the passage is how John addresses those who think they do not need to repent or change their ways because they are God's "Chosen," that they're God's favorites. John basically tells them, "God can make God's children out of a pile of stones."

John's message remains relevant and powerful today. We need to repent. And repentance means doing, not thinking, nor praying: specifically it's doing acts of justice. Or we face God's wrath. Every one.

We all need to repent!

#Advent2021
#IAmWithJesus
#JusticeForMyanmar
#FreePalestine
#EndTheCultureOfImpunity
#ChooseJustice
#UDHR2021

*image "John the Baptist preaching in the desert," mafa054 from vanderbilt divinity library

PREPARE YE THE WAY OF THE LORD

Ancient Israelite tradition, particularly in Malachi, expected the prophet Elijah to return and prepare the way for the Messiah. Christianity believes that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah and, thus, his "Elijah" is John the Baptist.

Sunday's lection tells us that the word of God came to John in the wilderness. Not in Jerusalem; not inside Herod's temple; not even in a synagogue, nor through the Saducees, Pharisees, and Scribes.

The wilderness conjures up a lot of ambivalent images for us who study scripture. God appeared to a hardheaded Moses through the burning bush in the wilderness. The Israelites wandered almost aimlessly in the wilderness for forty long years. Many of them died there, including Moses. Like John, the wilderness played a key role in Jesus' early ministry. The wilderness does not seem like a very hospitable place.

God anointed John to prepare people for a new way: not the way of Emperor Tiberius, Herod, his brother Philip, Pontius Pilate, Anna, Caiaphas, and their ilk. But God's way that "will make every valley filled, and every mountain and hill made low, and the crooked made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh see God's salvation."

And God's way requires repentance: a complete turnaround; a 180; a change in the opposite direction; deciding to stop pretending but actually living our lives loving God by serving people.

#IAmWithJesus
#EndTheCultureOfImpunity
#FreePalestine
#JusticeForMyanmar
#StopTheKillingsPH
#Advent2021

*art, "John the Baptist preaching in the desert," (JESUS MAFA 1973), available at the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives.
 

FIG TREES

The Season of Advent has begun and we expect a Christmas related reading. Sunday's Lukan lection is about the Apocalypse. We also find this passage in Mark and Matthew and many scholars call it the "mini-apocalypse." They agree that the passage reflects traumatic memories from the Fall of Jerusalem around 70 CE.

A lot of people look forward to the End of Days or the Second Coming because it promises eternal rewards and punishment. Of course, there are millions of card-carrying Christians who expect that they will be rewarded, while so-called infidels-- namely, anyone who has not accepted Jesus as their Personal Savior and Lord-- will be punished.

Many others look forward to the day that God will make things right, especially for those who have been dispossessed, displaced, disenfranchised, discriminated, and dehumanized by greed, injustice, and evil.

There are also those who dread the End of Days or the Second Coming because they know they have failed to do what Jesus, in his First Coming, commanded them to do: preach Good News to the Poor, feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, take care of the sick, visit the prisoners, clothe the naked, welcome the strange, and end all forms of violence against women, children, and the most vulnerable. 

The day will come. Nobody knows which day or which hour, but it will happen. Thus, the lesson of the Fig Tree. We must be patient. You don't plant Figs today and expect fruits tomorrow. We must study the signs. Have the leaves changed color? Are flowers in bloom. We must be discerning. Friends, the day will surely come. Jesus said so.

So, we wait. And, every moment, try our very best to follow the life that Jesus lived.

#IAmWithJesus
#GodsReignIsForChildren
#EndTheCultureOfImpunity
#FreePalestine
#JusticeForMyanmar
#IDEVAW
#Advent2021

*photo by Emil Salman (Haaretz) 

KINGS AND THEIR KINGDOMS

The Romans executed Jesus as a messianic claimant, as an enemy of the state, as a rebel. Josephus and Tacitus both wrote that he was crucified by order of Pontius Pilate.

In the world where Caesar is Lord, sin is legislated. Resistance is criminalized. Dissent is demonized. The merger of political and religious power predates Pontius Pilate's and Joseph Caiaphas's conjugal dictatorship. If we read our Bibles and pray everyday, we will grow, grow, grow in this realization: sinners are, more often than not, synonymous with the poor, oppressed, and marginalized in the Gospels. Who can afford the offerings in the temple? Who has the resources to bribe authorities? Who writes the law and for whose benefit?

Nothing has changed. The political and religious elites' culture of impunity continues in crushing the poor underfoot.

Sunday's lection features a conversation between symbols of two completely opposite gospels: Rome's and God's; the Good News for the Rich and the Good News for the Poor. Both talk about kings and kingdoms, but totally opposite kings and kingdoms.

Tragically, so many among us confess, "Jesus is Lord," but in word, thought, and deed, we side with Pilate. Our lust for power, prestige, and privilege, our envy for the powerful, prestigious, and privileged paint lives that scream, "Caesar is Lord".

#IAmWithJesus
#StopTheKillingsPH
#EndTheCultureOfImpunity
#JusticeForMyanmar
#FreePalestine

*art, "Jesus before Pilate," (James Tissot, Brooklyn Museum), available at the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives. 

NOT ONE STONE WILL BE LEFT

Sunday's lection reminds us of Herod's Temple that, according to Jesus, was built from the offerings of widows and other very poor people.

"Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down!" And Jesus was right.

We are uncomfortable with a Jesus who speaks of doom, destruction, and death. We do not wish to see Jesus driving out those who were selling and buying in the Temple, including the moneychangers. We do not want to acknowledge that Jesus can be angry.

We are so used to the Jesus we have created in our image. We are so used to the huge cathedrals and grand buildings we have created to make us comfortable when we come together in his name. We have even come up with "Sunday best" attire, air conditioning, and exclusive seating inside these walls we have built as imposing monuments of our faith in God. Remember Jesus’s words, "Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down."

Friends, our comforts have made us forget that the church is not a building. It never was. It never will be. It has always been people: people who love; people who serve; people who offer their lives so that others may live, like Jesus did.

#IAmWithJesus
#EndTheCultureOfImpunity
#FreePalestine

#JusticeForMyanmar
#GodsReignIsForChildren
#LetGraceBeTotal


*photo, The Western or "Wailing Wall" in the Old City of Jerusalem (I took this picture in August 2016).

THE WIDOW'S OFFERING

We grew up hearing sermons on stewardship based on Sunday's lection from Mark 12 (which is also found in Luke 21). Jesus said, "This poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance but she, out of her poverty, has put in all that she had to live on.”

We grew up being taught to be cheerful givers, like the poor widow, and offer everything we have to live on to the Lord and the Lord's work.

Thank God, we have outgrown these teachings. Now, we are learning to follow the One whose life and ministry was dedicated to widows, orphans, and strangers, the One who preached a Gospel for the Poor, the One who offered his life so that others may live.

Now, we are learning how structures and systems--religious or otherwise--rob people of even the barest that they have. Now, we realize that Jesus was actually denouncing the temple elite's unjust system of dispossessing the already dispossessed in the name of God. I think the incident at the temple was one of his ways of declaring, “Enough! This temple has become a den of thieves!”

Yet, many of our churches and our programs continue to thrive and live--off the backs of the poor and suffering.

Friends, don't forget this, ever: Jesus condemns the scribes who devour widows' houses. Moreover--if you read his precise words--Jesus does not tell us to "go and do" as the widow did.

#IAmWithJesus
#GospelForThePoor
#EndTheCultureOfImpunity
#FreePalestine
#JusticeForMyanmar
#StopTheKillingsPH

*art, "The Widow's Mite," JESUS MAFA 1973 (available at vanderbilt divinity library digital archives).
 

THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT

Sunday's lection is also found in Matthew 22 and Luke 10. Most historians think that Mark's is the original version. One of the scribes asks Jesus about the greatest commandment, possibly expecting him to quote one from the Ten Commandments in Exodus. Jesus responds with the "Shema" from Deuteronomy.

Sunday's lection answers a question many among us don't want to hear. Because the Hebrew word "shema" means to hear, to do, to act. The question is: How do we love God? The answer we don't want to hear: By loving our neighbor.

Take note of the "this" (singular) in Jesus's exchange with the scribe (in the Markan version) and the lawyer (in the Lukan version). The scribe says to Jesus, "THIS is much more important..." Jesus says to the lawyer, "do THIS and you will live." Loving God is loving our neighbor. THIS is more important than burnt offerings and sacrifices. Jesus observes that the scribe is not far from the Kingdom of God.

To love God is to feed the hungry, to offer drink to the thirsty, to clothe the naked, to visit the prisoners, to care for the sick, to welcome the stranger. To redtag faith communities who serve the most vulnerable, to dispossess and disenfranchise indigenous peoples of their ancestral lands and ethnic identity, to feed the insatiable greed for wealth and power while millions are dying and tens of millions find themselves barely surviving from one day to the next is the complete opposite of loving God.

Finally, the "loving" in loving our neighbor is "agape." Agape is not based on emotions. (That is "eros." ) Nor is it based on relations. (That is "filia.") It is and will always be based on decisions. Every moment of our lives, we decide for the other. We choose the least, the last, and the left out. We choose to follow Christ, to love our neighbor, and to serve the people!

We choose and we act.

#IAmWithJesus
#EndTheCultureOfImpunity
#FreePalestine
#JusticeForMyanmar
#GospelForThePoor

*art, "Love for One's Neighbor," (detail from a choir screen, National Museum of Scotland), from vanderbilt divinity library digital archives.