GO FISH!

I am pretty sure that many among us 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 years. Probably because we have stopped fishing for people. Why is that? We have stopped FOLLOWING JESUS.

What have we done instead? We praise Jesus. We worship Jesus. We proclaim, "Christ above all!" We do everything in our power to make other people look like us; pray like us; act like us. We have stopped doing what Jesus actually told us to do in order to fish for people. FOLLOW HIM!

Why is that? Because following Jesus is hard. It is dangerous. It means loving our neighbor, including our enemies. It means taking up the cross. It means going against empire. It means being red-tagged, vilified, and demonized. It means being crucified. It means offering one's life as a ransom for many.

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

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*image, "St. Peter and St. Andrerw," by Peter Koenig (from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives)

THE LAMB OF GOD

Last Sunday's lection on the baptism of Jesus reminded us that, in Scripture, God does everything possible to live among God's people here on earth--whether it is God descending on Sinai, journeying with the Israelites via the tabernacle, taking residence at the temple in Jerusalem, and fulfilling the promise of "Immanuel."

This Sunday's Johannine lection resonates with the same theme: God finding ways to live among God's people here on earth. The number of sermons and commentaries on "The Lamb of God" is voluminous. But contemporary Hebrew Bible scholarship-- especially on the Priestly Tradition in the Pentateuch--can help us better understand the meaning of "The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."

Whether it is about Sinai, the tabernacle, the temple, and eventually ancient Israel and Judah, the blood that is offered as purification (or sin) offerings acts as ritual detergent. "Sins" make God's dwelling place dirty. The offerings and its related rituals (washing hands, bathing, etc.) make sure that God has a place God can call home among us.

In other words, my friends, the blood of the lamb resets God's dwelling place to its "original factory settings" so that God can dwell among us. For the Christian, Jesus is the reason the whole world is cleansed. For the Christian, Jesus is the reason God is not in heaven anymore.

Immanuel.

*image, "The Lamb of God" at the Basilica dei Santi Cosma e Damiano (Rome, Italy), from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives.

THE HEAVENS WERE OPENED...

 

Sunday's lection from Matthew talks about the baptism of Jesus by John. Mark and Luke have parallel versions. Only Mark reports that the heavens were torn or ripped apart when the Spirit descended upon Jesus. Matthew and Luke say the heavens were opened.

There are so many people who are fixated on going up to heaven. There are those who do most of what they do in order to secure themselves a place up in heaven. There are also those who believe that investing their 70 to 80 earth years on "heavenly" endeavors--putting numerous bills in the offertory, donating land, and building air-conditioned churches--will get them a reward in the after-life that spans eternity.

Now, there are those who read their Bibles, pray everyday, and grow, grow, grow in the realization that many times in scripture, God does everything possible to live among God's people here on earth whether it is God descending on Sinai, journeying with the Israelites via the tabernacle, taking residence at the temple in Jerusalem, and fulfilling the promise of "Immanuel." Of course, our lection says that the Spirit descended, came down, like a dove. I would like to believe that the Spirit tore or ripped the heavens apart because the Spirit could not wait to leave heaven for earth.

And, do not forget this, ever: the Spirit that came down has not gone back up to heaven. And Jesus likewise. He is still down here on earth, particularly in Galilee where we do not want to go. He is waiting for us to join him as he works among the poor, the oppressed, the marginalized, the dehumanized, and the silenced.

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

THE PARABLE OF THE GREAT SURPRISE. PART TWO

We grew up with this parable. Almost every time we hear preaching on this passage we are challenged to be like the sheep. We are called to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, visit the imprisoned, care for the sick, and welcome strangers. We are challenged to care, especially, for the least. And we are cautioned about imitating the goats.

In other words, if we love God, we should care for the least among our sisters and brothers. If we don't, then we really don't love God.

But why call it the Parable of the Great Surprise if we already know what the story wants us to do? And not to do?

My friends, take note that both groups were surprised. Those who were blessed did not expect their blessing. Those who were cursed did not expect their plight.

The parable is not about charity. The parable is not about loving God. The sheep did not do what they did for God. This is why they were surprised when they were blessed. They said, "We did not do any of these for you!"

And the cursed ones? They did not do anything to help their sisters and brothers. Even if they did help, they would be doing it for God. Again, the parable is not about loving God.

Never forget this: the blessing is based on what you do for people for people's sake; not what you do for people for God's sake.

Surprised?! SURPRISE!

P. S. How does Paul, who probably wrote half of the New Testament, sum up the Law? One commandment. Love your neighbor!

*art, "Food for the Hungry, Drink for the Thirsty," relief sculpture at the Hospital of the Holy Spirit (Biberach, Germany), from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives.

THE PARABLE OF THE GREAT SURPRISE

Sheep and goats usually make up the same flock. Many people cannot tell them apart, especially sheep and goats in Asia and Africa. But shepherds know.

Sunday's lection use sheep and goats to make a similar point about people. One cannot tell the blessed from the cursed. But the Son of Man, like a shepherd, knows.

Of course, there are those who are so sure they are blessed and claim they know how to tell them apart. And they have cherry-picked Bible verses to prove it!

But Sunday's lection reminds us that only one really knows how to separate the blessed and the cursed. And it is not me. Nor you.

The blessed were surprised. So were the cursed. Every. One. Was. Surprised!

Don't forget this, ever: God is a God of surprises!

*photo by Aaron Cederberg from the Library of Congress, "Sheep and Goats being taken to Market" (Jerusalem, Palestine).




 

THERE WERE SHEPHERDS...

Sunday's lection begins with a decree from Emperor Augustus and ends with shepherds glorifying and praising God.

Shepherds were day laborers. They were part of the lowest 15 percent of ancient Palestine's class structure. If we read Luke, the Gospel is Good News to the poor. God takes sides and always with the poor. Shepherds were probably the poorest, so they receive the gospel first!

My friends, lest we forget, women make up more than half of the world's shepherds. Rebekah, Rachel, Miriam, Zipporah and her sisters were shepherds. The shepherds in our lection were probably all women. Most importantly, many faith communities celebrate Mary--the mother of the Lamb of God--as a shepherd! (Unfortunately, more often than not, all the characters in our Chrismas art, pageants, and tableaux are male, except for Mary!).

Unless we understand that Jesus came for those whose only hope is God, for those who need God the most, then we don't really understand what Christmas is all about.

This Christmas, will our hearts, our homes, our hands, our doors, our tables, our churches be open to welcome shepherds? How about Lumads, refugees, orphans, widows, and strangers? More often than not, they are the ones who come glorifying and praising God.

JOSEPH THE DREAMER

The Gospels offer us two distinctly different birth narratives. In Luke's version, we have the angel Gabriel visiting Mary, shepherds watching over their flock, more angels, and the baby Jesus in a manger. In Matthew's version, we have an angel of the Lord appearing to Joseph in a dream, a star, magi or wise men from the East, Herod, the boy Jesus with Mary inside a house, and gifts.

We have harmonized these two stories together so we have nativity scenes, Christmas pageants, and "Belen" decorations which now include Three Kings, sheep, goats, other animals and even the Little Drummer Boy!

Sunday's lection is part of Matthew's version. Many times we forget that there are two dreamers named Joseph in the Bible. And both have fathers named Jacob! Most of us are familiar with Genesis's Joseph the Dreamer.

Matthew's Joseph the Dreamer encounters an angel of the Lord four times. Four times Joseph follows what the angel of the Lord commanded him to do. And those four dreams were all about making sure that Joseph took care of Mary and Jesus.

I believe that God reveals Godself outside and beyond the little boxes we have created to contain God. This is why I believe that God continues to reveal Godself through dreams.



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*image, "Joseph's Dream," Detail from the north portal tympanum of Lille Cathedral. 1854 (Relief Sculpture in Lille, France), from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives.

THE GREATEST IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN

Sunday's lection reminds me of Muhammad Ali. Today, people will not hesitate to describe him as "The Greatest"--with the same energy he called himself "The Greatest," to boot!

But those same peoole who praise Ali now often forget--deliberately, even--the times in Ali's life when many treated him with hostility, disdain, and called him a "loud-mouthed nobody".

His close friendship with Malcolm X, his decision to become a Moslem, and his being a conscientious objector against the Vietnam War made him one of the most hated men in America. Like John the Baptist, he was one voice crying in the wilderness.

Sunday's lection also reminds me of young Emmet Till. His abduction, torture, and lynching at age 14 in 1955 for allegedly offending Carolyn Bryant and the acquittal of his murderers illustrate the depth and breadth of racism, injustice, and evil that victimize the most vulnerable in society: children.

Despite rhetoric to the contrary, the world continues to treat prophets and children as dispensable and replaceable nobodies. Prophets are silenced while children are traded. Prophets are vilified while children are comodified.

Sunday's lection reminds us how Jesus feels about prophets and children. For him, they are the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. But that's for Jesus. He always took the side of those in the margins. How about us who take pride in calling ourselves followers of Jesus?

*image of Emmet Till (from the Emmet Till Research Collection, Florida State University Library).

THERE WAS A MAN NAMED JOHN

All the canonical gospels feature John the Baptist. But most scholars agree that Sunday's Matthean lection comes from "Q" (short for "quelle" meaning, source)."Q" is theorized as an earlier collection of Jesus tradition that was only accessible to Matthew and Luke.

John, like the prophets before him, did not pull punches. He calls everyone to repentance, to change direction, and to follow God's way of justice.

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 are God's favorites. John basically tells them, "God can make God's children out of a pile of stones." (John's retort resonates with Jesus's "stones crying out" response to some Pharisees in Jerusalem).

John's message remains relevant and powerful today, especially to us who think we're "Chosen". 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.

We all need to repent! God can still make God's children out of a pile of stones.

#Advent2022
#IAmWithJesus
#JusticeForMyanmar
#FreePalestine
#EndTheCultureOfImpunity
#ChooseJustice
#AlwaysJustice

*image, "St. John the Baptist," (Jacek Malczewski, 1854-1929) from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives.

JUDGMENT DAY

The Season of Advent has begun and many expect a Christmas reading for Sunday. Matthew's passage is not. It's part of the Synoptic Gospels's mini Apocalypse (so, we find parallels in Mark and Luke). Scholars 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. The "saved" will be taken away while the "damned" will be left behind.

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 prejudice, 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, and welcome the stranger.

Judgment Day will come. Nobody knows which day or which hour, but it will happen. Like in the days of Noah. God's Day of Justice is coming. Jesus said so.

And it might come today.

*art, "Two Women at the Mill," (James Tissot, 1836-1902) from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives.

REMEMBER ME

Sunday's lection is part of the church's tradition about Jesus's last words on the cross. You find one statement in Matthew; one in Mark; three in John; and three in Luke. Sunday's Lukan passage is also the basis of Jacques Berthier's famous 1978 Taize hymn, "Jesus, Remember Me."

Social scientists tell us 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 did not create us to be alone. No one deserves to be alone. Worse, no one deserves to be forgotten.

This was the plea of the man who was crucified with Jesus: Remember me. We often forget that many people do not fear death. What they really fear is oblivion; that they will be forgotten; that no one will remember them.

God's gift of grace creates communities. And these communities of grace are founded on a shared commitment to memory and remembrance. God does not want anyone to be alone. God does not want anyone to be forgotten. You and I, as followers of Jesus are challenged to race against erasure and to dedicate our lives to celebration, to commemoration, to ritualization.

And to always remember.


*art, "Dismas," (Thomas Puryear Mims, 1906-1975), at the Benton Chapel (Vanderbilt University). Tradition names the repentant man crucified with Jesus as Dismas or Dismus.

NOT ONE STONE WILL BE LEFT

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

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

We are uncomfortable with a Jesus who speaks of doom, destruction, and death. We do not wish to see Jesus brandishing a whip while 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 the phrase "Sunday best", 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.

And when the church ceases to serve its purpose, we should not be surprised when Jesus himself tears it down.

#IAmWithJesus

#EndTheCultureOfImpunity

#FreePalestine

#JusticeForMyanmar

#GodsReignIsForChildren

#LetGraceBeTotal

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

THE ASSOCIATE PASTOR

Katharine Doob Sakenfeld, one of my teachers at Princeton, shared this story with me. It resonates with Sunday's lection.

Now there were seven brothers who were all pastors. The first served as Administrative Pastor in a big church. A woman pastor served as Associate Pastor. The first brother died so the church appointed the second brother as Administrative Pastor. The woman remained Associate Pastor. The second brother died so the church appointed the third brother to take over. The woman remained Associate Pastor. The third brother died as well, and so in the same manner, all the brothers died. All were appointed Administrative Pastor. And the woman remained Associate Pastor.

Finally, the woman also died. In the resurrection, which brother will she work with as Associate Pastor?

*art, "Seven is Enough!," from the Cartoon Gospels (The-Cartoonist)