TOUCHING MOMENTS

Like many people I know, 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 helped in making us feel safe, loved, and not alone. We learned the science behind all these "touching moments" much later. 

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 the quarantine protocols are anti-poor because these assume that everyone has a home to work from and that everyone has work. 

Physical distancing has made so many socially distant. Alone. Depressed. Afraid. In desperate need to touch someone, or be touched.

If there's a will, there's a way. Even in a pandemic. 

*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) 

 

STORM AT SEA

In Sunday's lection, the disciples find themselves in the middle of a raging storm. Jesus is with them but he is asleep. Only the Gospel of Mark shares the detail that he was sleeping on a pillow. Scholars say that pillow was actually a sack of sand for ballast.

What's fascinating about this narrative is that the fisherfolk did not wake Jesus up until they themselves were already afraid.

Jesus, the carpenter, was sleeping in the safest part of the boat, beneath the stern deck. So, when the disciples--who lived by and off the sea in calm and stormy weather--came to wake him up, there was really reason to be afraid. The storm was life threatening!

Jesus woke up and calmed the storm.

When fisherfolk--then and now--sound the alarm, lives are at stake. When indigenous communities cry out for help, they have done everything possible to avert disaster. When farmers declare that their livelihood is endangered, they have exhausted all avenues for relief.

Many among us, despite the storms of life, are asleep and safe because of what others are doing. But there are storms that are so dangerous, for everyone, that we need to be awakened and be put to task.

It is time for us to arise and face the raging storms.

#EndTheCultureOfImpunity
#IAmWithJesus
#JunkTerrorLawNow
#JusticeForMyanmar
#StopTheKillingsPH


*art, "Jesus lulls the storm," JESUS MAFA, available from Vanderbilt Divinity Library digital archives.

THE SEED

 

Most of us were required to do this science project early in grade school. Bring soil in see-through pots or containers, as well as some seeds. In many cases in the Philippines, we brought mongo beans. We called this project, "The Life Cycle Of A Plant."

Many times our next science project was "The Life Cycle Of A Frog." But this is topic for another time.

Back to the mongo beans. We waited patiently for the seeds to break ground. For six year olds, waiting for hours takes forever. Then we see the surprise. Slowly but surely, the tiny seeds become plants...and we watch in awe and wonder.

People whose hearts beat with the heartbeat of Mother Earth know this parable. Not as a story, but as the reality of life. Life begets life. Each seed bears a promise. All life breathes!

Many times we forget that God's creation helps God create. The waters bring forth fish of all kinds; the earth brings forth plants and animals. Many times we forget that we--you and I--are latecomers to the cycles and dances of life.

Maybe it's time we just step back and watch in awe and wonder. Like we did when we were six years old.

#IAmWithJesus
#EndTheCultureOfImpunity
#SpiritIsMatter

*image from Science 101: Iowa Agriculture Literacy

BINDING THE STRONG MAN

Parables are subversive. 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."

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.

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

WOMBS AND MEN

Sunday's lection contains the arguably 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.

Female imagery for God is rare in the New Testament. 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.

Sunday's lection challenges us to imagine God as a woman. Sunday's lection challenges us to imagine God giving birth. Sunday's lection challenges us to imagine God beyond the boxes we have created to contain God.

#IAmWithJesus
#EndTheCultureOfImpunity
#StopTheKillingsPH
#JusticeForMyanmar

*art, "Nicodemus," JESUS MAFA, 1973, from vanderbilt divinity library digital archives.

LABOR PAINS

Sunday's lection is part of Jesus's Farewell Discourse in the Gospel of John. Several times in the narrative Jesus tells his friends that the Advocate, the Helper, the Holy Spirit will come; that they will not be alone; that, eventually, their grief will turn into joy.

But they don't seem to hear the promise.

This is why, on Easter evening when Jesus appears before them, they were hiding behind shut doors in fear. He breathes on them the Holy Spirit and they receive what he promised them.

This is how most of us are. We love to talk of rainbows after the storm; of life after death; of joy after grief. But when storms destroy our homes and our crops; when people we care for die senseless deaths; when grief sucks hope from our hearts, we start drowning in our fears.

Until Jesus appears--often as a stranger--and reminds us of a woman giving birth. How her pain, which oftentimes seems like forever, eventually turns to joy when her child is born.

He does not say that the pain will go away. What he promises is that we will not be alone. Through the storms, through the deaths, through the grief...And through the joy.

Take heart.

Right now, a baby is being born; communities are rebuilding; young people worldwide are rising up against fascist regimes; and Palestinians, with their allies, continue fighting for their rights and what's right.

#IAmWithJesus

#EndTheCultureOfImpunity

#StopTheKillingsPH

#JusticeForMyanmar

#FreePalestine

#Gaza_Under_Attack

*I took these two pictures in Bethlehem, Palestine. One shows what the Israeli Defense Forces throw regularly at Palestinians, including children. The other one shows what Palestinian children throw back. So, #GalGadot, stop saying that your country is at war. Palestine has no army, no navy, and no air force.

YOU'VE GOT EFREN. PART TWO.

Sunday's lection is part of what scholars call Jesus’s Farewell Discourse (chapters 14-17). Jesus knows he will be separated from his friends very soon. Imagine a line, a boundary, a threshold that Jesus had to cross, alone. A line his friends could not cross. Not yet.

What does Jesus do? He prays for his friends. More importantly, he asks God to protect his friends. He asks God twice.

Most of us read our Bibles and pray every day. Many of us pray several times a day. There are those among us who pray without ceasing. Oftentimes, those long prayers are often only about ourselves.

There are also those who pray for those whose only hope is God. Then there are those, in these trying times, who need to cross lines, boundaries, and thresholds who beseech our prayers. In all of these, we pray to Jesus. We are the ones praying.

Thus, many among us miss the point of our lection. Jesus is praying for his friends. Dont forget this, ever: JESUS. PRAYS. FOR. US!

#IAmWithJesus

#EndTheCultureOfImpunity

#StopTheKillingsPH

#WeStandWithPalestine

*art, "Jesus Prays," from redeeminggod.com.

YOU'VE GOT EFREN!

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.

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

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

#IAmWithJesus
#EndTheCultureOfImpunity
#JunkTerrorLawNow
 

GOD IS A FARMER

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, 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 actually 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.

#ReadingTheParablesOfJesusInsideAJeepney
#IAmWithJesus
#EndTheCultureOfImpunity
#StopTheKillingsPH

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

THE GOOD SHEPHERD

Seven of the more popular shepherds in the Hebrew Bible are Abel, Rebekah, Rachel, Moses, Zipporah, David, and Amos. In the New Testament, shepherds are the first to receive the good news of Jesus' birth. In many Christmas pageants, young children usually play shepherds or sheep.

Many of us grew up with Sunday's "Good Shepherd" lection from the Gospel of John. Many among us grew up with allegorical interpretations of this passage. The shepherd is not really a shepherd. The sheep are really not sheep. The passage is really about something else.

I am not doing that today.

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. Sheep are smart. Ask any shepherd.

Both sheep and shepherd know that life in all its fullness is not inside the sheepfold. Never has been, never will be. There's no grass, no springs, no freedom. All these are outside of it, in the wilderness. This is why shepherds call out the sheep by name and lead them out, into the wilderness. This is why shepherds go ahead of the sheep and they follow them; into the wilderness, into the quest for life. Life in all its fullness.

P.S.
And then there are those who think that the Good Shepherd is the Communist Party and the Sheep are those who are behind the Community Pantry. I have often heard that if you're far enough to the right, everything will look left to you--even shepherds and their sheep.

#EndTheCultureOfImpunity
#IAmWithJesus
#CommunityPantryPH

*art, "The Good Shepherd," (JESUS MAFA), available from vanderbilt divinity library digital archives.

ANG JEEPNEY, ANG PANTRY, AT ANG MASA

Kwento sa atin ng mga lolo't mga lola, Pagkatapos ng digmaan, bayan nati'y nakadapa. Bagsak ang ekonomiya, transportasyon sirang-sira. Sistema ng gobyerno, nakatali sa kapitalismo. Sunud-sunod na pangulo, sunud-sunuran sa Kano. Para makabangon ang bayan, ang jeep ginawang jeepney. Pandigmang sasakyan, ginawang sasakyan ng bayan. Motorsiklo't bisikleta, ginawang tricycle at tri-sikad. Kapag kumilos ang masa, nabubuhay ang pag-asa.

Puna sa sa atin ng mga lolo't mga lola,
Isang taon ng pandemya, bayan nati'y nakadapa.
Bagsak ang ekonomiya, milyon-milyo'y walang-wala.
Sistema ng gobyerno, nakatali pa rin sa kapitalismo
Nakaupong pangulo, ang bossing ay Tsino at Kano.
Para may makain ang bayan, community pantry ay isinilang.
Ang hamon: magbigay ayon sa kakahayan,
Ang tugon: kumuha batay sa pangangailangan.

Kapag kumilos ang masa, nabubuhay ang pag-asa!

#CommunityPantry
#COVID-19
*Image from Rappler

GOD KNOWS

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 Jesus tells his disciples, "Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have." He further adds, "Have you anything to eat?"

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. Jesus said, "Look at my hands and my feet... see that it is I myself."

My friends, God will never, ever, 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 wound!

#EndTheCultureOfImpunity

#IAmWithJesus

#StopTheKillingsPH

#JunkTerrorLawNow

#JusticeForMyanmar

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

SET LOOSE OR BIND?

Many scholars agree that Sunday's lection contains John's Pentecost. If the Acts' version happened 50 days after Jesus’s resurrection, John's happened on Easter evening. 

I would like to share my take on verse 23. 

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?   

Over and over in the Gospels, Jesus sins (against the Sabbath) and heals sinners. Over and over in the Gospels, Jesus declares sinners forgiven...to the consternation of the people who legislate sin. 

In John 20:23, Jesus commands his disciples to forgive and not to forgive. A better translation, echoing Matthew 16:19 and 18:18, is worded "to set free or to bind." 

Jesus' command has not changed. Set free the poor. Bind the powerful who keep them poor. 

#IAmWithJesus 

#EndTheCultureOfImpunity 

#JunkTerrorLawNow 

*art, Jesus appears to Thomas (JESUS MAFA) Vanderbilt Divinity Library digital archives