We don't want to go to hell? Here's a step by step guide so we won't

So many Christians are afraid. We are afraid to die. We are afraid we might not go to heaven. We are afraid to go to hell. 

Here is a step by step guide so we won't go to hell.

First, feed the hungry.
Second, give drink to the thirsty.
Third, welcome the stranger.
Fourth, clothe the naked.
Fifth, look after the sick.
Sixth, visit those who are imprisoned.

We can will find these instructions in Matthew 25. And if we do not do these? The passage continues with Jesus saying, "Then you will go away to eternal punishment!"

Once upon a time three men came down the road...

Imagine listening to Jesus as he tells the parable.  

A man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho is beaten, stripped naked, and left half dead by rebels. A priest coming down the same road sees him but passes by on the other side of the road.  Likewise, a Levite coming down the same road sees him but, like the priest, passes by on the other side.

Then a third man arrives on the scene.

You, the listener, expect him to be like you. An ordinary Israelite. From childhood you have known the Shema. Nothing is more important than love for God and neighbor. And loving neighbor is the best way to love God.

The priest knew this but he failed the most important test. So did the Levite. Surely, the third man representing the third group of people, the ordinary Israelite, that made up the Chosen People will not fail. A fellow Israelite was close to death. Surely the third man would stop and help.

The third man did stop and help and did what was required of each and every Israelite.

But he was not an Israelite. He was not a neighbor. He was not part of the Chosen People.

He was the Enemy.

TATAY RODY, GOD IS ACTUALLY A FARMER!

GOD IS A FARMER (John 15: 1-8)

More often than not, we read this passage like we do the Parable of the Sower. We ask what kind of soil we are. 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 the Johannine reading, 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's time, farmers and fisher-folk comprised the bulk of the population. 7 out of 10. (Nothing has actually changed.) Then and now, farmers and fisher-folk are among the poorest of the poor. Dispossessed farmers and dislocated fisher-folk were worse. In First Century Palestine, the poor could afford only bread and fish, dried, smoked, or salted, which were the basic food of the lower classes in the cities, slaves, and peasants. 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 fisher-folk?

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

But God does not forget! In the fullness of time, God decided to become one of us. God became flesh and dwelt among us. Among the poorest of the poor. Among farmers and fisher-folk. God took sides. God always takes sides. The incarnation, the word-made-flesh, is the vine that God planted among us. And what is the fruit of the Incarnation? Greater love has no one than this that one lays down one's life for a friend. Jesus did exactly that.

The Migrante International led grassroots, mass-based, inter-faith, local and international solidarity movement that led to the stay of Mary Jane Veloso's execution in 2015 helps illustrate this fruit of the Incarnation. Both of Mary Jane Veloso's parents, Nanay Celia and Tatay Cesar, are farmers at Hacienda Luisita. Both are willing to offer themselves to save her life.

Now, pretend parents, like the landlord who occupied Malacanang from 2010-2016, who fancied himself as "Ama ng bansa" (Father of the nation), will never do that. He even blamed Mary Jane for being uncooperative and spent a measly 5 minutes to plea for her life.

Today, again with the leadership of Migrante and in solidarity with Mary Jane Veloso's plea for justice, we are calling on the current occupant of Malacanang to do what the former occupant failed to do. Let Mary Jane speak. Let her tell the truth. The truth that will set her free.

Be the "Tatay Rody" that Mary Jane and so many others like her deserve. The Tatay who will do everything, including storm the gates of heaven and hell, to save his children. The Tatay who will offer his life so that his children may live.

The God we worship takes sides. God is actually a farmer. And God cuts off the branch that bears no fruit.

[image from migrante]

FOLLOWING AND FISHING

When we were growing up we 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 decades. Probably because we have stopped fishing for people. We have stopped fishing,  folks.

What have we done instead? We praise Jesus. We worship Jesus. We proclaim, "Christ above all!" We accept Jesus as Personal Lord and Savior. Our Christianity has turned into an exclusive club membership! We have stopped doing what Jesus actually told us to do in order to fish for people. FOLLOW HIM!

Why? Because following Jesus is hard. It is dangerous. It means taking up the cross. It means going against empire. It means being crucified. It means offering one's life as a ransom for many.

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

DUTER-TRAIN: TATAY RODRIGO ACCELERATING INJUSTICE

Genesis 47 tells us how Joseph oppressed the Egyptians. He introduced a famine relief system that required all the people to give up all their money, all their livestock, all their land, and, eventually, their freedom so that they do not starve to death.

1 Kings tell us how Solomon enslaved both the Canaanites and his own fellow Israelites. He replaced the tribal confederacy with 12 economic zones and introduced forced labor to undertake his infrastructure projects for the Lord (and for himself).

I am not making this up.

It is in the text. Read it. Study it. Tragically, we have been so enamored with Joseph the Dreamer and Solomon the Wise that we do not see the stark truth before our very eyes. Yes we read but we do not see.

The same applies to Duterte. We are so enamored, actually blinded by the myth and the myst that we cannot see the truth of his dictatorial, fascist, and violent regime. Majority among us call him "Tatay."

TRAIN is one of Tatay's projects. Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion. So many are riding this train, including so many among our pastors and church workers. The increase in take home pay for a minority creates the illusion of reforms but this train is anti poor and pro rich.

Duterte's TRAIN is really Tatay Rodrigo Accelerating INjustice!

Lest we forget, Joseph, Solomon, and, yes, Duterte all believe in God. All believe that God is on their side. But Joseph, Solomon, and Duterte forget that God is on the side of the enslaved Egyptians, Canaanites, Israelites, and the poor in the Philippines.

In God's oikos, according to Jesus, there are only sisters and brothers (see the Synoptics) and friends (see John). Any system that creates masters and slaves, rich and poor, victors and victims is oppressive, abusive, and wrong!

Joseph, Solomon, and Duterte are all masters, rich, and victors. God is on the side of the slaves, the poor, and the victims. God always is.

[infographic from Ibon Foundation]

Fishing for People

Life during the time of Jesus was really difficult. The works of Herzog, Crossan, Ehrman, Borg, and other Historical Jesus Researchers paint a Roman Occupied Palestine where the average life expectancy was 28 and half of the population was slowly starving to death. 

At the bottom of the social structure were farmers and fisher-folk. Nothing has changed. Farmers and fisher-folk remain at the bottom of the social structure today. 

In our lectionary reading this week Jesus calls fisher-folk to follow him in order to fish for people. Jesus does not call anyone to believe him. Jesus calls us to follow him. To do what? Fish for people. Many ancient peoples were afraid of the seas. But Jesus does not call us to fish people out of their fear of the deep. 

During Jesus's time, the Empire owned the sea! Taxes were imposed on fishing, on boats, on nets. On everything! Jesus's call to fish for people is a call for us to follow him in taking out people from systems and structures that oppress, that dehumanize, that subjugate, that kill. The call has not changed. 

People, especially the most vulnerable, are drowning in imperial waters. Jesus is calling us right now to follow him and fish for people.

CAN ANYTHING GOOD COME OUT OF NAZARETH?

"Can anything good come out of Nazareth?"

Nathaniel asked. We ask the same question every single day. We want someone from Jerusalem. Or maybe Bethlehem. Heck, Nazareth ain't even on the map!

No king, no prophet, no priest ever came from Nazareth. Maybe that's why Luke and Matthew came up with Bethlehem birth stories. And the 'Joseph-from-the-house-of-David-was-the-father' tradition as well. And, of course, the demigod mythology. Mark's 'The woodworker from Nazareth, the son of Mary' (read, bastard) was a hard sell.

Yet to this day, the Nazarene who lived his life with and for those whose only hope was God; who preached good news to the poor; who challenged the rich to sell everything they have and give the proceeds to the destitute; who defied empire; and who commanded everyone who followed him to offer one's life for a friend is a hard sell.

Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Philip's answer is as true today as it was then. 

COME AND SEE!