THE RESURRECTION REQUIRES WARM BODIES

We love imagining the resurrected body. I have heard long discussions on how resurrected bodies are supposed to look, including what superhuman abilities these new bodies will have. Sometimes, our imagination gets the better of us.

Of this, I'm sure: despite their differences (and there are a lot), the four gospels all tell us that the Risen One has a body. In Sunday's lection from the Gospel of John, Jesus tells Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side." The Risen One has a body, and that resurrected body still bears the marks of the crucifixion. God knows who is responsible for each wound.

Every single day so many of our sisters and brothers--who serve the poor, the oppressed, and the marginalized--are red-tagged, abducted, tortured, brutalized, and crucified. Take heart! God knows. God remembers.

God will never forget the crucified. God will raise up each and every one of them. God always remembers the marks of each crucifixion. And God knows who is responsible for each of those wounds!

Dear Friends, then and now, the resurrection requires warm bodies that embody justice, solidarity, and life-giving. The resurrection requires warm bodies that will rise up for those who have fallen, that will continue the struggle for peace based on justice, and that will inspire more live-giving.

The resurrection always requires warm bodies. The resurrection requires your body. And mine.

*art, "Jesus appears to Thomas," JESUS MAFA (from vanderbilt divinity library digital archives).
*ganda!

BLACK SATURDAY TOOK LONGER THAN 24 HOURS

That Jesus of Nazareth was executed via crucifixion by the Romans is a historical fact. That Jesus is Risen is a confession of faith. Those of us who went to seminary learned this early in our ministerial formation. John Dominic Crossan has argued that "Good" Friday brought about "Black" Saturday which eventually birthed the "Easter" Faith. And that Saturday was longer than 24 hours. Much, much longer.

Let me explain.

Students of the Bible will discover right away that the writers of the New Testament books have different interpretations of the Resurrection. And these interpretations did not come overnight.

Paul has several. First, appearances. The Risen Christ appears to his followers. Next, Jesus's resurrection as the first-fruits of the general resurrection. Third, the Church as the Body of the Risen Christ.

There are no appearances in Mark. Since almost all historians agree that the gospel ends in 16.8, what we have is a young man proclaiming that Jesus has been raised and is waiting in Galilee. In Matthew, Immanuel, the "I Am" is with his followers until the end of the age. In the Lukan narrative, the first book, the gospel is about Jesus. The second, the Acts of the Apostles, is about the Risen Christ working through the Spirit. In John, Jesus is alive whenever and wherever one offers one's life for a friend.

It is also fascinating to note that in the gospels, the announcement that Jesus has been raised come from a young man, two men, an angel, and even Jesus himself (in John). The number of women who came to the tomb vary, the only constant being Mary Magdalene. And in Luke and John's accounts, no one recognizes the Risen Christ when they first encounter him.

Why so many interpretations? Because diversity is the most important gift from God. But more importantly, the breadth and depth of God's grace and our experiences of that grace defy boundaries and borders.

Including time.

 

LAST WORDS IN THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

Last words are very important to many of us. They provide closure.

Famous last words include: “Jesus, I love you,” by Mother Teresa; “It is very beautiful over there,” by Thomas Edison; “A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP [live long and prosper]!,”by Leonard Nimoy in his final tweet.

As of the end of March 2023, close to seven million people have died from COVID-19. Unfortunately, because of the protocols in 2020 and 2021, most of them--family, friends, colleagues--died alone, separated from us. Our last conversation, our last communication, our last text message--our last moments with them have taken on a more special meaning.

 Of course, the most famous last words ever recorded would be Jesus’ Last Words as found in the gospels: Mark has one. Matthew has one. Luke has three; and John has three. Many among us grew up with the traditional, harmonized version of Jesus's final words. “The Seven Last Words” as part of the church’s Lenten Tradition was started by Jesuits in Peru in the 17th. 

If we read our Bibles and pray every day, we will grow, grow, grow in the realization that the Gospel of John celebrates the discipleship of the unnamed.

In other words, the most faithful and effective followers of Jesus in the story have no names. The Samaritan woman by Jacob’s well, who engages Jesus in a dialogue of equals and runs to her people to share her experience with him, is unnamed. The young child 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 the Gospel of John leaves his followers only one commandment— greater love hath no one than this, that one offers one’s life for another. 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. Each one willing to offer one’s life especially for those we do not consider our sisters and brothers or members of God’s family.

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.

 "I thirst” represents a quote from the Hebrew Bible--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: a victim of the horrors of torture, abuse, and state-sanctioned execution.

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. Jesus’s work is finished. Ours is not!  Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved Jesus… We are asked the same thing. Do we really love Jesus? Can we love as Jesus loved? 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 a very violent death.

His last words on the cross affirmed a conviction that goodness will always conquer evil, that faith is stronger than fear, that hope is stronger than despair, that love is more powerful than indifference, and that life will always, always, conquer death.

My friends, last words are very important to us. They provide closure. Jesus’s last words serve as a challenge for us who are left behind to continue the work that God has begun. 

My hope is that they inspire us to dedicate our lives to bring about a future where God’s gift of resurrection will come without peoples and communities suffering the violence, the humiliation, and the torture of crucifixions. I pray you share this hope.

*art, "Cristo Nego," Martin Ruiz Anglada (1995) from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives.

 

TWO PARADES

 

Each year, on the last Monday of July, the President of the Philippines delivers a SONA (State of the Nation Address) before a joint session of Congress and the Senate.

Many among us have been part of the SONA--but on the streets, the PEOPLE'S SONA outside Congress, where the true state of the nation address is articulated by farmers, fisherfolk, laborers, migrants, Indigenous Peoples, and other marginalized sectors of society.

Historians tell us that each year during Passover, the Roman Occupation Forces in Palestine led by Pontius Pilate held a parade that featured
cavalry on horses, foot soldiers, leather armor, helmets, weapons, banners, golden eagles mounted on poles, sun glinting on metal and gold. It was a show of force, a reminder to everyone about the breadth and depth of Pax Romana, a threat to anyone who dreamed of liberation.

On one particular year--historians tell us--during Passover, another parade was held at the same time as Pilate's and his Legion. There, the true state of the Pax Romana, the Roman Peace was articulated by farmers, fisherfolk, laborers, migrants, Indigenous Peoples, and other marginalized sectors of society. This parade was led by a carpenter from Nazareth.

My friends, the world is full of parades, then and now. Many times, we are so easily seduced by parades that proclaim "Peace and Order" when our calling is to follow just one: the parade led by the carpenter from Nazareth; the one that is dedicated to "Peace based on Justice."

*art, "Entry into the City," John August Swanson (1990), from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives.

JESUS WEPT...

When my father died ten years ago two people-- two pastors, on two separate occasions-- congratulated me for his death.

When Lazarus died, his two sisters Martha and Mary, on separate occasions, spoke with Jesus. Martha told Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died!" Mary, weeping, told Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died!"

NO ONE, NOT ONE CONGRATULATED MARTHA AND MARY FOR THE DEATH OF THEIR BROTHER.

Yes, not even Jesus!

When Jesus saw Mary and everyone else weeping for his dearest friend, he was overwhelmed with sorrow and deeply moved. Jesus wept.

Three of my uncles--Dante, Ve, and Namor--died in the past 16 months; Uncle Namor, last Monday. When a loved one dies, we don't pretend that everything is okay. When a loved one dies, congratulations are never in order. When a loved one dies, we are allowed to mourn.

When a loved one dies, we weep! When the pain of their death aches--even years or decades after the fact--we grieve!

Jesus wept.

*image, "Jesus wept," by Tissot available online at fine art america. 

sin AND GRACE

Sunday's Johannine lection is an eye-opener.

The disciples ask Jesus whose sin caused the blindness of the man: his or his parents'. Since the man was born blind, he was already a sinner inside his mother's womb! Actually, he was already a sinner even before he was even conceived since his parents were sinners!

Recently, I overheard a homily during a wedding ceremony. The pastor was telling the newly-weds that Jesus is the most important person in their relationship because the bride and groom were sinners. And Jesus will remain the most important person in their relationship when they become a family since all their children will also be sinners!

Why is Sunday's lection an eye-opener? Because the one who healed the sinner was also a sinner. Over and over in the passage, the Pharisees call Jesus a sinner (as well as the man who was healed). For the Pharisees, healing on the Sabbath was a sin. So was making mud! They were totally and willfully blind to the gifts of grace and healing before their very eyes.

Not just that, they would sooner collaborate with the Roman empire to have Jesus murdered than open their eyes and join him in sharing their gifts and fighting alongside the common people. Because Jesus is a sinner and the wages of sin is death!

I pray we do not think this. I pray we never turn blind eyes to the miracles of grace and healing that happen every day.

*art, "Jesus cures the Man born Blind," JESUS MAFA, Cameroon 1973 (from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives).

THE WOMAN AT THE WELL

By the time of Jesus, the enmity between Jews and Samaritans had been ongoing for at least 600 years. Imagine the Jews being told over and over throughout the centuries that they are not the real Israelites: the Samaritans were. Thus, the Samaritans had the original Pentateuch written by Moses. [Incidentally, if you compare the Samaritan Pentateuch with the Jewish version, there are at least 6000 differences.] And that they worshipped God in the right place, Mount Gerizim in Shechem, and that the bastardized Jewish sect founded by Kings David and Solomon based in the Jerusalem Temple was an abomination before God.

Imagine the Chosen People being told over and over throughout the centuries that they are not really the Chosen People. The Samaritans were.

Sunday's John 4 lection notes this centuries-old enmity. Moreover, as the disciples's suprise show, Jesus was talking not just with the enemy, but a female at that!

I love this narrative. It is the longest pericope in the gospels where Jesus is in conversation with another person. This might be the one moment in the Gospels that Jesus meets his match. They speak as equals. They talk about their own faith traditions. They talk about their differences. And they talk about their people's hope. Not one moment do they treat each other as enemies.

My friends, I love this narrative. I pray you do too.

P.S. Let us not forget that a well was the setting for the unions of Rebekah and Isaac, Rachel and Jacob, and Zipporah and Moses.

*art, "Jesus’s and the Samaritan Woman," JESUS MAFA, Cameroon 1973, from the Vanderbilt Divinity Library digital archives.

 

NURSING MOTHERS

Sunday's lection contains the favorite Bible verse of many Christians: John 3:16.

I like this narrative because two men--Jesus and Nicodemus--are talking about something they do not have and an experience they never go through: wombs and birthing. When Nicodemus asks Jesus if being being born anew meant going back into his mother's womb, Jesus says no. It is being born from God's womb.

Many among us learned about the Yahwist tradition in the Torah (the Pentateuch) which describes God in anthropomorphic terms: God forming Adam from the dust of the ground; God breathing into Adam's nostrils; God planting a garden; God walking in that garden; and God making garments for Adam and Eve. Yet, God is male in these imaginings.

Female imagery for the divine is rare in the Bible. Sunday's lection challenges us to imagine God as a woman. Sunday's lection challenges us to imagine God giving birth. Sunday's lection invites us to imagine God nursing her children.

Why? Because this is how John's Jesus imagined God. Because hundreds of Judean Pillar Figurines (JPFs) found in Ancient Judahite homes and cultic sites tell us that this is how the masses imagined God. God has a womb. God has breasts. God is a mother.

Friends, Sunday's lection challenges us to imagine God beyond the boxes we have created to contain God.

*image of JPFs from Femmina Classica [In Search of Ashera: The Hebrew Lost Goddess].

FORTY DAYS OF TESTING

Sunday's Matthean lection is also found in Mark and Luke. The Spirit drives Jesus into the wilderness in Mark. In Luke and Matthew, the Spirit leads Jesus. Being driven and being led are very different descriptions. The former conjures an image of Jesus going with hesitation, even reluctance. The latter paints a picture of readiness and willingness.

Wilderness conjures up a lot of ambivalent images for us who study scripture. God appeared to Moses through the burning bush in the wilderness. The Ancient Israelites wandered almost aimlessly in the wilderness for decades. Many of them died there, including Moses. John the Baptist was a "voice of one calling in the wilderness." The wilderness does not seem like a very hospitable place. Yet, God's surprises abound in the wilderness!

And then there is the number 40, a long time in scripture. It rained 40 days and nights during the time of Noah. Forty years separated the crossing of the Red Sea and the crossing of the Jordan River. Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell us that Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness being tested. Matthew and Luke add that he fasted. This narrative is the basis for the 40 days of Lent. We might imagine that Jesus was alone in the wilderness during those 40 days of testing. He was not. Jesus had company. Wild beasts. Angels. And Satan. God's surprises do abound in the wilderness!

My friends, let us never forget. Satan did not betray Jesus. Judas did. Satan did not deny Jesus. Peter did. Satan did not plot to arrest and kill Jesus in secret. The chief priests and scribes did. Satan did not abduct, torture, abuse, and murder Jesus. The Romans did. Satan is not behind the War on Terror and the War on the Poor. Satan is not responsible for the economies of death that pervade our world. Nor is Satan responsible for the deaths brought about by COVID-19. We all know who are responsible and should be held accountable for all these.

Lent begins today, Ash Wednesday. Who among us wants to spend 40 days in the wilderness being tested by Satan? Jesus went. And he passed.

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

METAMORPHOSIS

It's one of our earliest assignments in elementary science: metamorphosis, from caterpillar to butterfly. Sunday's lection is also about metamorphosis although most English Bibles use "transfiguration."

If we read our Bibles then we know that 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 denies Jesus. Three times!

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 and eventually to the cross.

My friends, do catterpillars know they will turn into butterflies?

To believe in God's power to effect metamorphosis is to believe that goodness will always triumph over evil; that hope is stronger than despair; that faith conquers fear; that love is greater than indifference; that life will always, always, conquer death! To believe in metamorphosis is to believe in God's power to transform catterpillars into butterflies. Yes, eventually even Peter. And, yes, even you and me!

*art, "The Transfiguration," JESUS MAFA, Cameroon 1973 (from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives)

MOSES, ELIJAH, AND JESUS

The Gospel Readings since the end of January have been on Matthew's "Sermon on the Mount," particularly Chapter 5. "The Law and the Prophets" serves as a hermeneutical key when reading these passages.

My Jewish teachers in graduate school taught us that one of the best ways to understand the Hebrew Bible--especially the Law (Genesis to Deuteronomy) and the Prophets (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve [Hosea to Malachi])--is to focus on who speaks for God in these traditions.

In the Law, God speaks through Moses. In the Prophets, God speaks through Elijah (and Elisha, Deborrah, Samuel, and the rest of the prophets). In our lection (and in the gospels), God speaks through Jesus.

My friends, God speaks through anyone God chooses. God especially speaks through those whose lives proclaim good news to the poor, freedom for the prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind, liberation for the oppressed, and God's Jubilee of justice!

Lest we forget: Moses, Elijah, and Jesus are not, and never have been, Christians. Those of us who take pride in calling ourselves Christian should stop thinking that we have exclusive access to God.

*art, "Sermon on the Mount (2010)," by Laura James (from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives).

Salt, Light, and a Grain of Wheat

Two of the most popular metaphors for the church come from Paul. When you ask people what the church is, most of them will respond with "Body of Christ" or "Bride of Christ."

There are actually more metaphors and three of the most powerful come from Jesus. Salt. Light. And a grain of wheat. The first two come from Sunday's Matthean lection. The third is Johannine. We have heard so many homilies about these three. We are the salt of the earth, we give flavor to life. We are the light of the world, we push away the darkness. We are a grain of wheat, we need to bear fruit... We feel good about being salt, light, and a grain of wheat.

We are so comfortable with these interpretations we miss what those metaphors demand from us: all require self-sacrifice, all require emptying, all require death...

Salt dissolves. Light burns out. And "unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit."

We should never forget what Jesus commands us: "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends." We should never forget what his earliest disciples remind us: "We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another."

We should never, ever, forget that we follow a Crucified and Risen Lord. There is no Resurrection without the Crucifixion.

When Christ calls us, he bids us come and die.+

*art, "Shine," by Mike Moyers (from the Vanderbilt Divinity Library digital archives).  
+Deitrich Bonhoeffer

BLESSED ARE THE POOR

The Greek word for poor is "ptochos--" people who are destitute, people who are so poor that begging and stealing become options for them to survive. They are drowning in misery.

War, slavery, and indebtedness leave people widows and orphans and strangers. War, slavery, and indebtedness leave people destitute, displaced, and dispossessed.

The Hebrew Bible, over and over and over, challenged the Ancient Israelites and Judahites to care for widows, orphans, and strangers. War, slavery, and indebtedness were all part of the structures and systems of evil that made the rich richer and the poor miserable.

During the time of Jesus, the 1% owned and controlled the land and practically everything else. Half of the population was slowly starving to death. Life expectancy was 28 years.

The poor that Matthew talks about are people who have to beg God in prayer to give them today the food they need because that's how they get to tomorrow.

There are people who love to pray this prayer while they have cupboards--or even storehouses--of food enough for a week, a month, a year, or longer.

These people are not poor. They should stop praying the prayer.



*art, "The Sermon on the Mount," JESUS MAFA (from the vanderbilt diviniyt library digital archives).