MASTERS AND SLAVES

MASTERS AND SLAVES

Every day over 6,000 Filipinos leave the country to work overseas. Millions are domestic helpers. Millions more are caregivers. Countless survive in sub-human conditions. People are the third world nations' biggest exports. If we think that slavery in its most dehumanizing forms does not exist in our 21st century society, then we are kidding ourselves. 

Slaves, in Sunday's Gospel Reading from Luke 17, should never expect to rest from their labors. Slaves should never expect thanks. Slaves should know their place, should stay there, should accept that they are worthless, and should never, ever, expect otherwise. Why? Slaves are property. They are commodities. Bought, sold, and exploited. 

Dear friends, God did not create masters. God did not create slaves. God did not create the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. Nor the Manila Acapulco Galleon Trade. God did not create any of the systems and structures--including theologies--that commodify, degrade, and exploit people.  

God did not create the death-dealing economies that make the rich richer and the poor poorer. 

God did not create the white supremacist, bigoted, racist, fascist, and homophobic "Christianity" that Trump and his MAGA cohorts revel in unashamedly.

God did not create the systems and structures of corruption, bribery, and impunity involving billions of taxpayers' hard-earned money funneled to the coffers and pockets of Marcos, Duterte, and their ilk. 

All these are man-made. All these choose profit over people and planet. 

We created all these. Which means we can undo them all. And we must. 

Now.

*Image from Brittanica, Stowage of Slaves in Ships during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. 

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LAZARUS... AND DONALD TRUMP

Two ancient stories resonate with Sunday's Gospel Reading. One is Egyptian, the other Rabbinical. The former is about the reversal of fortunes in the afterlife. The latter was about Abraham's servant Eleazar (Lazarus in Greek) who walked the earth in disguise to check on Abraham's children's observance of God's command to care for the poor, especially orphans, widows, and strangers. 

In Jesus's parable, Lazarus wasn't in disguise. He was so poor, sick, and starved that his plight was described by Abraham as evil. Left by the rich man's gate, he was in such terrible state that only street dogs kept him company, licking his sores. He died waiting for crumbs that fell from the rich man's table. He died away from any human contact and, thus, was not even buried. Being buried is the last act of human decency that societies have practiced for millenia. Lazarus died and no one was around to bury him. God had to send angels to bring him to Abraham's bosom. 

The rich man feasted every day. He also died. He was buried--I'm sure in grand fashion--with scores of professional crying ladies. 

Today, the world spends more money on ice cream and cosmetics than on basic health care, safe water, or basic literacy programs for the most vulnerable communities. Twenty-five thousand people starve to death each day while one country has enough resources to feed 40 billion people! (That's five times the population of the world.) 

Today, Lazaruses abound outside our homes, our offices, and our places of worship: homeless, jobless, hopeless... Suffering alone! With street dogs as company. And we, like Cain, smugly assert, "Am I my brother's keeper?" 

Unless we change, unless we repent, unless we sell everything we have and give all the proceeds to the poor, we will find ourselves in agony, tormented by flames in Hell. With the rich man. And Donald Trump! 

#ChooseJustice

#LoveGodServePeople 

#FreePalestine

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#PrayForMyanmar

#PrayForSriLanka 

reading the parables of jesus inside a jeepney

*Art, "The Rich Man and Lazarus," JESUS MAFA, 1973, from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives.

THE UNJUST DEBT MANAGER

Sunday's parable from Luke 16 has been interpreted so many different ways. Some work. Some do not, especially those that insist that the rich master is a metaphor for God. 

Sunday's parable from Luke 16 resonates with the ongoing investigations and exposés concerning corruption--worth billions--in the Philippines’ flood control and other public works projects. 

The master in the narrative is quite wealthy. Charges are brought against his debt manager or steward for dishonesty. Apparently, other debt managers want him out of the picture, thus the charges.

The manager--finding his position in jeopardy and knowing he cannot do manual labor and is ashamed to beg--does what most anyone would do in his situation: use the system of debts, interest, and indebtedness to his advantage. Find a way to make sure that he does not end up on the streets. He cuts his losses by literally cutting his commission.

What he does gets him his job back. His rich master, who knows he is wicked and unjust, commends him. And those in debt are now beholden, not just to the rich master, but also to the manager. 

No repentance. No restitution. No justice!

This is the way things actually work. This is the evil of debt, then and now. That is why the rich are still rich and continue to get richer. This is why Marcos's Independent Commission on Infrastructure, the Senate's Blue Ribbon Commitee hearings, and other livestreamed investigations are all for show and will not make a dent on the status quo. Genuine change never, ever, comes from the top of the pyramid. Justice will never, ever, come from the wealthy and their debt managers. 

This is why the poor plea, "Forgive us our debts!" An economy of debt is an economy of death. This is the way of empire.

This is the complete opposite of the Kingdom of God.

*art, "Parable of the Unjust Steward," (2012), Andrei Mironov [from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives]

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LOST SHEEP, LOST COINS, AND LOST SONS

Many among us grew up with allegorical interpretations of the trio of parables in Sunday's Gospel Reading from Luke 15. The sheep, the coin, the son all represent the sinner who is lost then found and saved by God.

My friends, let us try to read the parables as parables about shepherds and sheep, women and coins, and fathers and sons. The shepherd is not God. Nor is the woman. Nor is the father. The shepherd is responsible for sheep under her care. The woman is responsible for her coins. The father is responsible for his sons. 

I have two sons. The Parable of the Lost Son is very personal for me. 

If sheep, coins, and sons go astray, we should ask those responsible: why? We must not blame the sheep, the coins, nor the sons. 

For so long our interpretations have shielded and protected those responsible and accountable for sheep, coins, and sons. It is time we ask the shepherd, the woman, and the father: why did you lose them? Why did they go astray? 

My friends, for so long we have shielded and protected King David and Eli the Priest from what happened with their "lost" sons. We still do so with today's Davids, Elis, kings, and priests. We still blame our lost sons and daughters. We still think it's their fault. We still blame Will Hunting!

*Art, "The Prodigal Son," JESUS MAFA, Cameroon, 1973 (available at the vanderbilt divinity library revised common lectionary art galleries). 

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#PrayForNepal

THE CALL, THE COST, AND THE CROSS

Campus Crusade for Christ popularized Bill Bright's Four Spiritual Laws. For several generations of young people, in order to be a Christian, one had to believe these four laws: God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life; man (sic) has been separated from God through sin; Jesus Christ died for our sins and reconciled us to God; and everyone that accepts Christ will be saved and receive eternal life.

Sunday's Gospel Reading from Luke reminds those of us who call ourselves disciples of Jesus that following him has never been--and will never be--a picnic nor a walk in the park. Discipleship is not a club membership with fees, duties, benefits, privileges, and Sunday Best attire. Discipleship is not just confessing the Four Spiritual Laws. Discipleship is beyond using the Bible, God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit as props. 

If we believe that Trump, Vance, Duterte, Marcos, Bato, Curlee and Sarah Discaya, and their ilk answered Jesus’s call to discipleship, then we're following the wrong Jesus!

The cost of discipleship is very high. The cross that Jesus of Nazareth talks about does not refer to the challenge of being married to one's spouse, nor the responsibility of taking care of elderly relatives, nor the burden of pastoring a big church, nor to any of the other metaphorical "crosses" we have come up with. 

The cost of discipleship is very high. It's completing the tower--even if we die in the process. It's winning the battle--even if we perish along the way. We don't go build without finishing. We don't wage war in order to lose. Many among us want to go to heaven but are afraid to die. Many among us want to be resurrected but are afraid to be crucified. Many among us want to see a new day but are afraid of the night. We cannot have one without the other.

My friends, we cannot trully follow Jesus unless we are ready to carry our cross. When Jesus calls us, he bids us, "come and die." 

*art, "The Cost of Discipleship," from inductivebiblestudy app, 2020.

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SEAT PLAN

"SEAT PLAN" 

Sunday's lection resonates with our experiences around the dinner table (which, in many cases, is not really round). We know who sits where. In many homes we know who sits at the head and at the foot of the table. And this seating arrangement applies in many of our social gatherings and in our churches as well. 

When I was younger I assumed that the name plates on church pews were in honor of the donors. I soon realized--after being told to move--that those name plates also identified who had exclusive rights to those pews. 

People have always asked why I always stand or sit at the back (or near the back) in churches, especially the big ones. Now you know. 

Years ago, I visited a church where I felt totally unwelcomed. I did not wear the required three-piece suit for men. I also had the wrong skin color. 

These assigned spaces also apply to burials. There are those who are buried in the church's yard. There are those who are buried inside the sanctuary, along the center aisle, and in the altar. Of course, "heathens" and "pagans" cannot be buried on church grounds. 

Friends, let us never forget that the early church was known for its open table, its radical hospitality, and its proclamation of good news to the poor. There were no seat plans. 

The church is not a building. The church is not an exclusive club. The church, the one Jesus challenges to be light, salt, and seed, is people who love. Unconditionally. 

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

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PAIN HAS NO SABBATH

Sunday's Gospel Reading has Jesus doing his mission of liberation. Luke's Jesus’s response to the leader of the synagogue mentions three characters who are all bound and have to be released. The ox and the donkey are both tied. They have to be released in order to get water. If they are not released, if they do not get water, they might get dehydrated or worse, in cases of heatstroke, die.

The woman, who Jesus calls a daughter of Abraham—which incidentally is the only time in the whole Bible that the description is used—is also bound. Satan has bound her for 18 long years. Medical experts who have studied this passage say that those were 18 agonizingly painful years. Whether she had tuberculosis of the spine, spondylitis ankylopoietica, osteoarthritis of the spine, or osteoporosis of the spine, she was in terrible pain. Every single day. She had to be released. She had to be set free.

My friends, the exchange between Jesus and the synagogue leader is not about good and bad. It is about good and good. How do we choose? Justly. The synagogue leader was saying: you can heal her any other day except today. He was arguing: what is one more day of suffering to someone who has already endured 18 years of agonizing pain? That’s 6570 days of pain. What is one more day? 

Jesus, on the other hand, was saying: why do I need to heal her any other day when I can do it today! For Jesus, suffering is suffering. Why wait for tomorrow when we can stop it today! The synagogue leader’s opinion is justice tomorrow. Jesus’s retort was justice right now! The woman despite her agonizing pain, despite her suffering went to the synagogue regularly. Did you think for one second that her pain rested during those Sabbath days? Did you think her suffering stopped while she sang, chanted, and studied the Torah? Do not forget this, ever: suffering does not have Sabbaths. Oppression has no rest days. Evil does not rest.

Pain has no Sabbath!

Do you think the suffering, humiliation, and violence that Palestinians experience stop during Sabbath?  Do you think our Lumad sisters and brothers get Sundays off from the displacement, dispossession, and militarization they experience from the AFP, agents of development aggression, and private armies of mining corporations? Do you think the pains, the suffering, and the diseases that afflict close to a billion of the world’s children caused by malnutrition, poverty, and hunger cease every time they attend mass or praise and worship? Suffering does not have sabbaths. Oppression has no rest days. Evil does not rest!

Thus, the struggle for life, for liberation, for wholeness, for abundant life for all has no rest days as well. This is why Jesus always healed on the Sabbath. This is why he proclaimed release to the captives and set the oppressed free on the Sabbath. This is why we are challenged to do the same. Every singe day! My friends, today is the day of liberation. Of course, we can wait for tomorrow but tomorrow might be too late. Proclaim release to the captives! Let the oppressed go free!

NOW!

#CeaseFireNow

*Art, "Christ Healing the Crippled Woman who was Bent Over, " from the Vanderbilt Divinity Library Digital Archives (copyright source: Prof. Patout J. Burns and Prof. Robin M. Jensen)

THE HOLY SPIRIT AND BATO'S CLAIMS

Bato dela Rosa has expressed that the Holy Spirit guides his pro-Duterte acts as senator. Donald Trump, MAGA, and ICE use the Bible as a prop. Bato is doing the same thing with the Holy Spirit.

Now, those of us who are students of the Bible know that the Bible is not a book. It is a collection of books. The Bible is a library. Let's pick just one passage from one book to refute Bato's claims. The Gospel of Luke 4: 18-19.

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor."

These are the concrete signs of the Holy Spirit at work. Nothing in Bato's claims fit these acts of justice, liberation, and compassion for the poor, oppressed, and marginalized. NOTHING! 

I agree that spirits guide Bato. I totally disagree that it is the Holy Spirit.

JUSTICE LEAGUE!

NOT PEACE BUT A SWORD. 

What does the sword that Jesus brings do? It disrupts, it divides, it disturbs... the Peace. 

Peace and Order founded on war. The peace defined, justified, legislated and imposed by the powerful, propertied, and privileged. The peace built on the blood and bodies of the displaced, dispossessed, disenfranchised, and disemboweled. The peace inaugurated by the original Prince of Peace, Caesar Augustus. 

The peace where the father was head of the family and everyone was his property. The peace where the rich got richer and declared heaven-blessed, while the poor got worse and judged accursed and destined for hell! 

Historians tell us that Christians were never called peacemakers in the earliest days of the Jesus movement. They disrupted. They divided. They were disturbers of the Peace and Order of Rome. Like Jesus. 

Today, the powerful, propertied, and privileged keepers of Peace and Order tag these "disturbers" as criminals, rioters, militants, dissenters, communists, terrorists and, yes, enemies of the state! They remain faithful to the One who was executed as an enemy of the state.

Friends, I want to believe that we are followers of Jesus. The Prince of Peace based on Justice. We strive to be agents of genuine transformation. We dedicate our lives to help bring about shalom, life in all its fullness. We struggle with those whose only hope is God. 

We are, therefore, members of the peace based on justice league!

*image, "The Time Jesus Started a Riot," copyright, Brendan Powell Smith, from Reboot (WordPress). 

THIEVES IN THE NIGHT

Many accepted Jesus as their Personal Lord and Savior, fueled by the terror of eternal damnation, after watching the movie "A Thief in the Night." Over 300 million watched the movie in the 1970s. (178 million watched "Star Wars.") Fear is a primary motivator. Come to think of it, many Christians are Christian because of fear: fear of punishment, fear of death, fear of eternity in hell, fear of missing out on heavenly rewards.

Fear played a primary role in the movie 2022 movie,"Maid in Malacanang." Produced by the eldest daughter of the greatest thief in history (according to the Guinness World Records), the revisionist movie has Marcos Senior asking the viewers, "Masama ba akong tao?" (Am I an evil person?) The Marcoses are afraid. They will do anything and everything to change the answer to that question. And that makes them very, very dangerous. 

I dare say fear is also the primary reason behind the recent actions of the Philippine Senate and the Supreme Court on the Duterte impeachment case. 

Thank God, Sunday's Gospel Reading's reference to a thief in the night does not conjure up images of people who are afraid. What we have are people ready, watchful, vigilant, militant. Prepared for action. Lamps lit. Always prepared for the unexpected. People who do not fear death, or thieves at night, or those in Malacañang. Or those in the White House and in the world's corridors of power. 

And they are legion. Thank God!

This is why we have hope!

 

RICH FOOLS

 

Historians tell us that in First Century Palestine, practically all the land was either owned or controlled by the ruling elite: the one percent. And, yes, this group included the religious leaders. Sadly, things have not changed. Things are actually worse.
In Sunday's parable, the rich man had a problem. His harvest was so plentiful his barns were not enough to contain them. His solution? Bring down his old barns and build bigger ones. Half of the population then was slowly starving to death. How about sharing his over-abundance? Never crossed his mind.

God calls him a fool and strikes him dead that night.

Scientists tell us that 666 billion US dollars can address the world's biggest problems: poverty, hunger, illiteracy, decent housing, health, and sanitation. Oxfam reports that one-seventh of one year's income of the world's richest can address all these. The richest countries in the world spend more and more and more each year on weapons of mass destruction. In 2021 alone, over two trillion dollars were spent on weapons! That amount is over three times more than what is needed to address the world's basic needs. Rich military contractors are getting richer as tens of thousands are being murdered and hundreds of thousands are being displaced and dispossessed in Palestine.

How about sharing their over-abundance? How about declaring a jubilee? Never even crosses their minds. The United States of America has resources to feed 40 billion people. That's 5 times the world's population. Tragically-- like what happened yesterday, and the days before, and what will happen tomorrow-- about 25,000 children from the poorest countries, aged 5 and younger, will starve to death today.

In Luke the rich have no way of entering the kingdom of God unless they sell everything they have, give the proceeds to the poor, and follow Jesus.  Only Zacchaeus did.

Warning to rich fools: unless you change, God will strike you dead.

Probably tonight.

GIVE US TODAY...

Luke’s Jesus prayed a lot. But Jesus’ prayers, and the prayer he taught his disciples, were not individualistic, pietistic supplications. They were community prayers; prayers on actualizing God’s reign on earth. In the Gospel of Luke and its sequel, the Acts of the Apostles, the test of one’s relationship with God was proven by one's relationship with people, especially the poor, the orphans, the widows, the strangers. 

When Luke’s Jesus prays, “Give us this day our daily bread,” he was lifting up a peasant’s petition for today’s food, echoing the farmer’s prayer for daily sustenance in the book of Proverbs; he was mouthing the hope of the Jubilee Year for dispossessed farmers for land, and the dream of day labourers, the daily wage earners, for justice. Moreover, his prayers resonates with the experience of The Tabernacle, when God "dwelt abundantly" with God's people which made sure that everyone's basic needs were met. 

When Luke’s Jesus prays, “Give us this day our daily bread,” he celebrates the peasants’ capacity to serve generously, sharing of the little they had, even rising at midnight to give three loaves of bread to a persistent friend in need; he affirms poor communities’ capacity to share meals and all things in common, selling their meager possessions, and distributing the proceeds to all, as they had need; he believes that God’s reign has

come and God has chosen to reveal it among shepherds, among the poor, the oppressed, the marginalized, the Lumads, and, yes, the Lupang Ramos community.

When Luke's Jesus prays, "Give us today our daily bread," he proclaims good news to the poor and affirms the day when everyone, especially those who gargle water for breakfast, sip warm water for lunch, and force themselves to sleep in place of supper, actually gets to eat a warm meal! And we are all enjoined to make sure that day will come. Sooner than later. 

Friends, shalom, for those whose only hope is God, is not eternal life nor a mansion over a hilltop. It is a warm meal. Today. 

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*art, "The Insistent Friend," JESUS MAFA, 1973, Cameroon (available at vanderbilt divinity library digita archives).

MARTHA AND MARY'S OPEN DOOR AND OPEN TABLE

Sunday's gospel reading from Luke is about a warm welcome and one very simple meal.

I would argue that we can find historical memory in the passage. Martha and Mary’s home was a house church, open to everyone: a sanctuary. Martha and Mary were involved in the diakonia of the open table. There are scholars who argue that the sisters were once wealthy, and the lack of servants in the narrative and Martha doing all the preparations by herself, showed that they had followed what Jesus required from the rich.

Jesus’s admonition to her that “there is need for only one” is a reminder to us that, one dish was enough, “tama na ang isang ulam,” especially for the poorest of the poor who were most welcome in these house churches. Maybe Martha, so used to feasts and banquets, momentarily forgot that--for those whose only hope is God--there is need for only one.

That Jesus is referred to as LORD three times in the passage reminds us of the Basileia movement’s most fundamental, subversive affirmation: JESUS IS LORD AND NOT CAESAR! And to proclaim that Jesus is Lord is to proclaim the good news for the poor.

What about Mary choosing the better part? But what is the better part? Martha and Mary’s sanctuary was a home, not a cathedral most churches today want their worship places to be. Jesus admonished Martha that the open table needed just one dish for everyone, not a feast or a banquet most of us believe are expressions of hospitality, prosperity, and fullness today.

And he praised Mary for focusing on the guest, on welcoming the neighbor. The ministry of the open door. In the Lukan narrative, the neighbor includes widows, orphans, strangers, those who are robbed, beaten, stripped naked, and left half dead, and, yes, enemies!

And because many of us are not poor, we forget that for millions of people in the world who gargle water for breakfast, drink hot water for lunch, and cry themselves to sleep for supper, a welcoming home and a simple meal represent God’s shalom!

We need more Marthas and Marys. We need more open doors and open tables.

*Art, "Martha and Mary," JESUS MAFA, 1973, Cameroon (from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives)