TOUCHING MOMENTS

Like many people, I was nurtured in a "touchy-feely" culture. Many of our pains, physical or otherwise, were soothed and massaged away by the healing touch of our loved ones. Holding, hugging, and kissing were all integral parts of our growing up years.

Touching helps in making us feel safe, loved, and not alone. We learned the science behind all these touching moments much later. I always have a bottle of Vicki's Vaporub. Its scent alone reminds me of Nanay's "haplos ng pagmamahal."

If we read our Bibles and pray everyday, we will grow, grow, and grow in the realization that many of the healing narratives in the Gospels involve touching. Sunday's lection has two sections: the first part has a woman suffering for twelve years who touches Jesus's cloak; in the second part, Jesus touches a twelve-year old girl's hand and tells her to rise up.

The pandemic has left millions dead and tens of millions disenfranchised. Most of those who died were alone. No last visit. No last rites. No last touch. Years of physical distancing has made so many of the living socially distant. Alone. Depressed. Afraid. And in desperate need to touch someone or be touched.

Friends, someone somewhere right now needs a healing touch. Someone somewhere right now needs to experience "Immanuel."


*art, "Healing of the Daughter of Jairus," (JESUS MAFA) available at vanderbilt divinity library archives.
**read How to Hug During a Pandemic (The New York Times)
***Of course there are many that have the opposite experience about touching and being touched. Topic for another post.

THE MUSTARD SEED

Gaius Plinius Secundus--aka Pliny the Elder--in his Natural History 19.170-171, argues that the mustard in Sunday's parable from Jesus was a wild weed. He said, "That mustard [sinapi kokkos] …grows entirely wild… and when it is sown, it is scarcely possible to get the place free of it, as the seed when it falls germinates at once.”

John Dominic Crossan tells us that the "smallest of all seeds" in the parable was a wild weed shrub that grew to about five feet or even higher. Even in their domesticated form, they were a lot to handle. Mustard in a well-kept garden not only spread beyond expectations but also attracted birds of all forms.

Much to the chagrin of gardeners, the birds would go on to wreck the natural balance of a well-manicured garden with thesir unpredictable feeding habits, their nesting, and worse, their droppings.

Gardeners, of course, did not want weeds in their gardens. They especially did not want wild mustard at all cost. They spend time creating the perfect balance in their gardens: putting in the best; throwing out the worst. A well-tended garden has no room for wild mustard so they cut mustard young and at the roots.

But mustard weed have ways of coming back. They always do.

The parable likens God’s reign, God’s kingdom to a weed. It grows where it is not wanted and eventually takes over the place. The wild mustard from Galilee that sprung in the domesticated garden of Judea, that attracted all kinds of birds that gardeners despised, was swiftly cut down.

Always remember this—The God we worship is an executed God. He was executed by the empire for the life he lived in solidarity with the poor and the stories of compassion he told.

Many scholars of first century Palestine now agree:: enemies of Rome who were executed by crucifixion had their naked bodies left hanging on crosses for the vultures and wild dogs to feast on, thrown into mass graves, or hastily buried in borrowed tombs.

Nobody really knows where lie the bodies of hundreds of students, church workers, community leaders, farmers, fisher-folk, laborers, and activists who disappeared during the Marcos Regime. And the countless more who have disappeared during the Aquino, Ramos, Estrada, Arroyo, Aquino, Duterte, and the BBM administrations. Philippine soil is nourished by the blood of fallen sisters and brothers in unmarked, mass, shallow graves, just like Andres Bonifacio--who, at 34, was murdered with his brother and whose bodies were robbed of garments and then thrown naked into a hastily dug grave.

All were wild mustard that had to be cut down lest they disturb the domesticity of the gardens tended by the rich, the powerful, and the religious elite, the majority of whom take pride in calling themselves, their institutions, and their structures “Christian.” But Jesus’s vision lives on. And those of many others live on.

Mustard weed have ways of coming back. When you least expect them. Ask any gardener. You can never completely eradicate wild weeds. They have a way of sprouting in places where they disturb, disrupt, and dismantle.

They always do! And when they do, birds, all sorts, start arriving!


*art, "A Parable - The Mustard Seed" by Cara B. Hochhalter (2019), available from the vanderbilt divinity library art collection.

BINDING THE STRONG MAN

Parables are subversive speech. Subversion is often considered a crime. A crime warrants punishment. A punishment's severity depends on the magnitude of the crime. If a crime is considered severe, like insurrection, then it warrants execution. Therefore, parables can get one dead.

With that logic in mind, consider this: Sunday's lection is one of Jesus's most subversive.

"If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first binding the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered."

This parable can be summed up in one word: insurrection.

Many scholars say the kingdom refers to the State, more specifically, Rome and its puppet government in Palestine. The house refers to the Temple, more specifically, the religious elite beholden to empire. Satan, of course, refers to Rome.

As a side note: Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor of Judea, and Joseph Caiphas, the High Priest, the two people directly responsible for Jesus's execution, were close friends. Both were removed from power in 36 CE. Many historians agree that the "cleansing of the temple" was Jesus and his followers' attempt to "bind the strong man and plunder his house."

Lest we forget, Jesus led 5,000 in that "cleansing" and was executed as an enemy of the State, as an insurrectionist. The charge, "King of the Jews," supports that. He was crucified with two other insurrectionists or rebels, not thieves or robbers.

We do not like this Jesus.

This Jesus is so unlike the one we grew up with, so unlike the one our colonial masters taught us to obey without question, so unlike the one whose portraits and paintings--usually blond and blue-eyed--adorn our places of worship.

This Jesus will not be welcomed in many of our churches today.

*art, "Binding the Strong Man, " [Arrest of St. Patrick] available from vanderbilt divinity library archives. 

DAY OFF

One of the more fascinating characteristics of God in Genesis 1 is one many of us miss. God rests on the seventh day.

In other words, God takes a day off.

Sunday's lection is one of so many passages in the Gospels on the observance of the Sabbath Day. So many sermons have been preached and will be preached on this topic. (Sunday's passage reminds me of one of Albert Einstein's famous quotes: If you can't explain it to a six-year-old, then you don't understand it.)

Friends, God needs a day off. =)

All of us need a break. Actually, almost all of us. There are people who are born wealthy and who will die wealthier without ever working one minute of their entire lives. They represent one third of the world's richest people. This post is not about them.

There are Church Workers whose official day off falls on Mondays. But they have never, ever, had a single day off. Even the land needs a Sabbath. And so does Mother Earth.

Please, take a day off! If God needs one, then so do God's children.

*art, "Is Jesus Sleeping?" from the blogspot godwantsmore.

TRINITY SUNDAY

May 26th is Trinity Sunday and many homilies will focus on explaining a mystery. Of course, a lot of us know that this "mystery" was discussed, debated, and formulated around the 4th century by privileged, propertied, and powerful Christian men. It is no wonder that if you ask people to imagine the Trinity, most will conjure up three male figures. All white!

Many of us grew up with these centuries-old, andocentric doctrines that made our heads hurt. Many of us grew up with doctrines that did not make sense, that created walls instead of bridges, that separated peoples instead of bringing them together, that made our faiths, our beliefs, our skin color, our sexual orientation, our class--our way of life sinful, less human, and outright wrong!

There are still so many people who are convinced that the hardships they face every single day are tests and trials from God. There are more who believe that God has a grand plan just waiting to be disclosed in the future, if not on earth then in the hereafter. There are those, quoting scripture no less, who sincerely proclaim that every elected official, including tyrants, dictators, and children of tyrants and dictators, are God's chosen. Then there are those who insist that the Bible is their exclusive "land title" and have killed, dispossessed, disenfranchised, and displaced peoples in its name.

May 26th is Trinity Sunday and many homilies will focus on explaining a mystery. Maybe some homilies will focus on the female imagery for the divine in Sunday's lection from John 3. 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.

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. Maybe the Trinity is a circle of nursing mothers, a family of sisters, a discipleship of equals.

Imagine.



*art, "Trinity," Kelly Latimore, 2016, commissioned by Mark Bozzuti-Jones (available at the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives).
 

YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE

"You'll Never Walk Alone" was part of Carousel, Rogers and Hammerstein's 1945 Broadway musical. Many artists have covered this song. These include Gerry and the Pacemakers, The Lettermen, Elvis Presley, and, my favorite, The Righteous Brothers. Sunday's lection reminds me of the song.

If Pentecost happened 50 days after Jesus’s resurrection in Acts, in John it happened on Holy Week. (The Spirit comes on Easter evening.)

Sunday's reading is part of the gospel's Farewell Discourse. Jesus, bidding his disciples goodbye, promises the coming of the Advocate or Comforter. Jesus knows the sadness they feel so he promises them someone who will take his place: someone who will do more for them than he did; someone who will help them bear their sorrows; someone who will always be there for them; someone who will always lead them to seek truth-- the truth that sets people free.

Someone who will make sure that, through life's storms, they will never, ever, walk alone.


*art, "Pentecost," JESUS MAFA, 1973 (Cameroon), from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives.
The Righteous Brothers singing "You''ll Never Walk Alone."
The Ed Sullivan Show, November 7, 1965.

MOTHERS AND GOD

 

Students of the Bible call John Chapters 14-17 Jesus’s "Farewell Discourse". Jose Rizal's "Mi Ultimo Adios" is akin to it. Jesus gives his before his crucifixion. Rizal writes his before his execution. Both die because of love.

In Sunday's lection from John 17, Jesus knows that Golgotha was hours away. He knows that his followers will be like sheep without a shepherd. He knows that he cannot protect them anymore. Jesus knows. And so he commits them to God. The God who is like a mother in the gospel. The God with a womb.

The church is the community that Jesus committed to God. It is not a building. Never has been, never will be. The church is people who love, like Jesus did. Those who love unconditionally. Like Jesus's mother in John. Like our mothers.

Like God-with-a-Womb.

This is why we have hope despite all the pain, the suffering, the greed, the indifference, and the evil around us. This is why we believe that a new world is possible. There are those who love unconditionally. There are those who are willing to offer their lives for others.

Like our mothers.



*art, "Madonna " by Catlett, Elizabeth, 1915-2012 (available at the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives).

NO GREATER LOVE

Lord. Savior. Rabbi. High Priest. King. Messiah. Good Shepherd. Son of God. Son of Man. Brother. Most of us are familiar with these terms that are all ascribed to Jesus in the New Testament-- terms we ourselves use to describe who he is for us.

In Sunday's lection, the Gospel of John offers another one. Friend.

Friendship. What does it mean? What is its greatest motivation? What is its greatest expression? Friendship is almost always experienced as a circle. It is a relationship of equals and of mutuality, of accompaniment and of solidarity.

Friendships are based on decisions. We choose our friends. Friendships are neither based on emotions nor on relations.

Agape is always a decision. It is always a choice. Agape is neither based on emotions nor on relations.

Thus, agape's greatest expression: no one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. Not lovers. Nor family. We choose to offer our lives for the people we choose. Including those who do not know who we are.

Jesus did. Many have done the same. How about us who call ourselves Friends of Jesus? Can we? Really?


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

GOD IS A FARMER

 

More often than not, we read this passage like we do the Parable of the Sower. We ask, "What kind of soil are we?" We want to be the good soil that brings forth grain. We lose sight of the Sower. Yes, we lose sight of the Farmer.

In Sunday's lection from the Gospel of John, we ask what kind of branch we are. We want to be the branch that bears fruit. We lose sight of the vine. Moreover we lose sight of the Vine Grower. Yes, again, we lose sight of the Farmer.

God is the Vine Grower in today's passage. God plants the vine. God does the pruning. God does the cutting off. God is a farmer.

During Jesus' time, farmers and fisherfolk comprised the bulk of the population: 7 out of 10. (Nothing has actually changed.) Then and now, farmers and fisherfolk are among the poorest of the poor. Dispossessed farmers and dislocated fisherfolk were worse off.

In First Century Palestine, the poor could afford only barley bread and fish, dried, smoked, or salted. These were what the urban poor, slaves, and peasants had when they were able to eat. The masses were slowly starving to death. Have you ever wondered why the majority of Jesus's stories and sayings in the gospels are about bread and fish, farming and fishing, and farmers and fisherfolk? Have you ever wondered why Jesus's Gospel is the Gospel to the Poor?

Unfortunately, we lose sight of farmers and fisherfolk. And we forget that the lestes-- badly translated as robbers and bandits in English Bibles; better translated as rebels and freedom fighters--were composed mostly of dispossessed farmers, fisherfolk, and runaway slaves!

But God does not forget! God always takes sides. And farmers and fisherfolk are closest to God's heart.

God is a farmer. God plants. God prunes. God cuts off branches that bear no fruit, and throws these to the fire to be burned.

*art, "True Vine," from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives.

THE GOOD SHEPHERD

I believe most of us know Psalm 23 by heart. We are not talking about one or two verses here. This is a whole chapter from the Bible that most of us have memorized since Kindergarten. This is one chapter that has given courage to so many when they were afraid. This is one chapter so many people have held onto when they crossed over to the life beyond. Shepherd works as a metaphor for God in the Psalm. The good shepherd will never abandon the sheep. The sheep will never, ever, be alone.

In Sunday's lection from John 10, Jesus talks about sheep and shepherds. Sheep do know the voice of their shepherd. Sheep do follow their shepherd in and out of the sheepfold. Sheep do run away from those whose voice they do not know. The good shepherd wil never abandon the sheep. The sheep will never, ever, be alone.

Lest we forget--then and now--women make up more than half of the world's shepherds. Let's stop imagining that the good shepherd in the Bible has to be male. Rebekah, Rachel, Miriam, Zipporah and her sisters were shepherds. The shepherds who visited Jesus when he was born were probably all women. Most importantly, many faith communities celebrate Mary of Nazareth, the mother of the Lamb of God, as a shepherd!

My dear friends, for many among us, the good shepherd is a woman.

*image: Palestine: A Bedouin Shepherd spinning yarn in the Sharon Region. 

BROILED FISH FOR A STRANGER

Who are the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the sick, the unwelcomed, and the prisoners that Jesus challenges us to serve, to take sides with, and to love? The stranger.

Who are the widows, the orphans, the indigenous peoples, and the foreigners that-- over and over--the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms enjoin us to care for, to hold dear, and to treat as sisters and brothers? The stranger.

Who are the daily wage earners, the laborers who survive from paycheck to paycheck, the homeless, the jobless, and the most vulnerable in a world ravaged by life-negating capitalism that we are supposed to prioritize? Yes, the stranger.

If we read our Bibles and pray every day, then we will grow in the realization that--most often than not--God comes as a stranger. God did when God shared the promise of Isaac's birth. God did when God judged the arrogance and inhospitality of Sodom and Gomorrah. God did when God wrestled with Jacob at Jabbok.

God came as a stranger when God was born in a manger instead of a palace; in Galilee instead of Jerusalem; among the odorized and the otherized; and grew up in a mud hut instead of a white house.

In Luke 24, two disciples on the road to Emmaus encounter the Risen One as a complete stranger. Their eyes were eventually opened and their hearts strangely warmed when they broke bread with him. In Sunday's lection, the Risen One suddenly appeared to the gathered disciples who were startled and terrified and thought he was a ghost!

God always comes as a stranger. This is why we welcome the dispossessed, the displaced, the disenfranchised. This is why we open our homes, our churches, our spaces to Lumads, to People Living with HIV and AIDS, to refugees, to Palestinians, to those whose only hope is God.

God comes as a stranger.

This is why we always, always offer sanctuary. And during these trying times, sanctuary can mean that extra room in our house, the available spaces in our church offices and buildings, the vacant rooms in our dormitories, and, yes, that extra bed. Safe spaces. A simple meal. Even a piece of broiled fish.

*art, "Jesus appears at Emmaus," JESUS MAFA, 1973 (Cameroon), from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives.
 

THE RESURRECTION REQUIRES WARM BODIES

We always imagine 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. The horrors inflicted on the Palestinian People in Gaza and the West Bank continue unabated.

But take heart! God knows. God will never forget the crucified. God knows everyone under the rubble. 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: yours and mine.


*art, "Jesus appears to Thomas," JESUS MAFA, Cameroon 1973 (from vanderbilt divinity library digital archives).

SURPRISE!

Most of us love stories with surprises. The disciples in Mark 16: 1-8 were in for a few surprises themselves. They went to the tomb that early Sunday morning bringing spices to anoint Jesus’ body worrying about the stone blocking the tomb. Unlike many doors in our homes, offices, and churches—with its specific locks and numeric codes—the disciples had no key to unlock the door.

They expected a locked tomb, they expected a dead body inside, and they expected to use the spices they brought to anoint that dead body. But, and we all know this already, when they got there the stone had already been rolled away, the tomb was empty, there was no dead body to anoint—Jesus was not where they expected him to be.

Like the disciples at the tomb, we want Jesus in a box, with a lock, where we could do whatever we want to do with him. Moreover, like the disciples we expect Jesus to be in Jerusalem. Jerusalem is supposed to be a holy place. It is where God is supposed to be. It is a monument to faith and the faithful. Do not forget this—the disciples went to the tomb expecting a dead Jesus. Over and over in the Markan story, especially in chapters 8, 9 and 10, Jesus told his followers that he will rise to life. Jesus’ followers did not believe him. They went to the tomb to anoint a dead person.

Dead people have no power over us. Sure we visit their graves once or twice a year. For many Christians, churches have become tombs—where they visit Jesus an hour or two once a week. A dead Jesus has no power over us; he cannot make demands on our lives, on our work, on our time, our talents, our treasures, our plans and commitments. A dead Jesus is a safe Jesus.

But alas, Jesus is not dead and he is not where we want him to be. He is risen. And he is not in heaven nor is he in Jerusalem. He is back in Galilee—where we don’t want him to be, among the sick, the poor, the demon-possessed, the marginalized. He is back in Galilee along the path that ultimately led to his crucifixion, along the path that ultimately led to the offering of his life.

He is risen! And he is already there waiting for us. Yes, for you and for me!

*image, "The Empty Tomb" (from St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Decatur, IL)