UPRISING!

Whether we read the Bible or the Jewish historian Josephus or the Roman historianTacitus, one thing is crystal clear: Jesus lived and preached an alternative empire. Historians tell us that he lived a life of open healing and shared eating, of radical itinerancy, of empowered egalitarianism, of human contact without discrimination and without hierarchies, and of preferential option for the poor. 

And Jesus was executed by the Roman Empire because of this. A life totally dedicated to the liberation of the poor and the powerless is a very dangerous life. Those who follow the Galilean Jesus, actually, follow an executed God. 

Never forget this. Any movement that seriously serves the poor will be harassed, threatened, and, oftentimes, stopped by the privileged and the powerful. The ongoing harassment of Sr. Patricia Fox and the murders of Fr. Tito Paez and Fr. Mark Ventura are but three examples of this stark reality. Archbishop Oscar Romero was murdered by state agents. He gave his life as a ransom for many. He once declared, “You can kill me, but I will rise up in the People of El Salvador.” Anasthasis which is translated resurrection can also be translated Rising Up. Or much better, UPRISING!

Over and over in the Gospel of Mark, especially in chapters 8, 9, and 10, Jesus tells his disciples he will be handed over and be crucified. But God will raise him up. At the end of Mark’s Gospel, the disciples at the tomb are left silent and afraid by the young man’s challenge: the one who began the movement, the one who was executed, the one they expected to find dead inside the tomb was not there. God has raised him up. God had begun an UPRISING.  And the young man at the tomb says, “Tell the disciples and Peter.” Tell the ten and Peter.

Unless a seed falls to the ground and dies, it remains a single seed. But if it dies, one seed produces many seeds. LET ME REPEAT THAT: UNLESS A SEED FALLS TO THE GROUND AND DIES, IT REMAINS A SINGLE SEED. BUT IF IT DIES, ONE SEED PRODUCES MANY…

For every one that offers one’s life for serving the people as a ransom for many, God will raise up ten. For every ten, God will raise up a hundred… For every hundred, a thousand.

Why "Kingdom of God"?

Historians tell us that Jesus and his band could have proclaimed Family of God
Or Fellowship of God. Or People of God. Or Church of God.
Even Synagogue of God. But they did not.

They instead proclaimed, Kingdom of God.
They also preached Good News to the Poor. Liberation to the Captives.
And Peace based on Justice.

All Anti-Imperial rhetoric.
Subversions of the pillars of the Pax Romana.
Scandalous. Dangerous. Rebellious.

Often, you and I forget that we follow an Executed God.

How to Read the Bible

Many among us grew up singing, "Read your Bible, pray every day, and you'll grow, grow, grow..." The truth of the matter is this: many Christians do not really read the Bible. What we love to read are the devotional guides: The Upper Room, Our Daily Bread, and the like. Actually, many seminaries and divinity schools do not require their students to read the Bible. Go and check their syllabi online.

Students are required to read books about the Bible. Classes in Hebrew Bible or Old Testament require students to read Anderson, Gottwald, Bruggemann, and not the 39 books from Genesis to Malachi. Classes in New Testament require students to read Ehrman, Brown, Levine, but not the 27 books from Matthew to Revelation.

Students of Hebrew and Greek read grammar books and many do not even get to see the actual Hebrew and Greek texts of the Bible.

So, we don't really read the Bible because most of us grew up reading other things. But most of us did grow up with the Bible. We grew up hearing the Bible! During Scripture Reading, via homilies, in Sunday School, through the stories our elders taught us.

My friends, the Bible was written to be heard. For centuries Christians heard the Bible. Printed copies were rare and exclusive to the rich and the learned. The printing press changed all that. Now almost everyone has copies of the Bible. But this does not change the fact that our most cherished sacred text was written to be heard.

So, what's the best way to read the Bible? Out loud. With others. In community.  Listen. Hear your Bible, pray every day, and you'll grow, grow, grow...

Immanuel (Prayer for Interns)

Dear God, Parent of us all, as we leave this sacred place let us celebrate the promise of Immanuel. Let us not forget that in the fulness of time you left heaven to be with us because no one needs to be alone. No one, ever, deserves to be alone.

And Immanuel only makes sense in relationship.

No one can serve as God's presence to oneself. To be Immanuel is to serve as God's presence to another. Help us remember, it takes at least two people to affirm Immanuel!

As we read our Bibles and pray every day, we will grow, grow, grow in the realization that Jesus was one of a pair. Throughout his ministry. Until his death and beyond. There was always Mary Magdalene.

Mary was Jesus's Immanuel.

As our interns leave the portals of our beloved Seminary, you are sending them out to serve as Immanuel. Being Immanuel is, often,  a thankless ministry. Look at what happened to Mary Magdalene. Historians tell us that the early church had three pillars. Peter, Paul and Mary Magdalene. But today most have no idea about her discipleship, her apostleship, and her leadership. Actually today, Roman Catholics celebrate Peter. While Protestants quote Paul more than Jesus.

Who among us know anyone named Mary Magdalene? Forgive us because most of us have internalized the demolition job church and society have done to Jesus's Immanuel.

Our interns  will face a lot of challenges in their internship. They will receive a lot of criticism. They will cry, they will get frustrated, they will get disheartened.

But they will persevere because they know that, despite the fact that there are over 100 million Filipinos and over 20 million Sri Lankans right now, there is someone who is so alone.

That someone might be a person living with HIV and AIDS demonized for his/her sexual sins. That someone might be a driver, a former OFW, whose 15-year old jeepney has been marked as worthless. That someone might be an ALCADEV teacher facing harassment and death threats from the very people sworn to protect her.

That someone might be a church worker who has to deal with sexual harassment from superiors and colleagues. That someone might be a young person who has to face her pregnancy alone.

That someone might be a single parent struggling to make both ends meet while caring for her family that many call dysfunctional. That someone might be a labor union leader being hunted by armed goons for standing up for labor rights.

You did not create us to be alone, yet right now, someone is.

And when our interns meet this someone, then he or she will cease to be alone. Never forget this. Ever. The best way to experience God's presence in our lives is to be God's presence in someone else's life.

So, go. Let us all go. Interns, go. Graduating Class, go!

Be Immanuel. Because no one deserves to be alone. Be Immanuel and encounter the other, among the poor, the dehumanized, the dispossessed. Be Immanuel and experience God.

Amen

[Interns' Commissioning, 4 April 2018, Union Theological Seminary, Philippines; photo from Pastor Kakay Pamaran, UTS Field Education Office]

Los Desaparecidos

We, who call ourselves Christian, should not forget that the One we call Lord and Liberator was a victim of state-sanctioned murder. He was abducted in the dead of night, unjustly tried, beaten, tortured, and executed between two rebels.

Many Jesus Scholars tell us that nobody knew what happened next. There are those who say that his body was left on the cross, to be feasted upon by wild dogs. Others say he was probably thrown into a mass grave. Still others say his body was placed hastily into a borrowed grave.

Paul writing in the 50s never talks about the empty tomb. The story of the empty tomb in Mark arrives at least two decades after.

And the Markan story is clear. There is no body. The women came to mourn, they came for closure, they came with spices. Jesus had disappeared!

Whether we talk about the Philippines, Argentina, Palestine, and many more places in the world, countless cannot mourn or find closure because their children, their parents, their comrades, their teachers, their students, like, Jesus, have disappeared.

Like Jesus they walked and worked with those whose only hope is God. Like Jesus their lives were dedicated to struggling for peace based on justice. Like Jesus, they were threats to the rich and the powerful. And like Jesus, they all disappeared!

Like the women at the tomb, many of us are silent and afraid. Like the women in the tomb, we want to find The Disappeared. We want to find them alive. Or if they are dead, we want to find their bodies. We want to anoint them with fragrant oils. Maybe build a monument or set up a memorial for them. We want to mourn. We want closure.

But the message of the young man in the empty tomb is as real today as it was thousands of years ago… Jesus is not in the tomb. He is risen. He is in Galilee… Waiting for us!

We also believe that The Disappeared has risen again in the tens, in the hundreds, and in the thousands who continue what they begun: fighting and struggling for justice, for peace, for liberation. Like Jesus, they are in Galilee where we do not want to go; where the good news is preached to the poor; where the hungry are given food; and where liberation is proclaimed to the captives…

The Disappeared are waiting for us to pick up where they left off.

[photo from ManilaToday]

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.

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.

Historians tell us that most of Paul's letters were written in the 50's. The Gospels, 20 to 50 years after.

It is also fascinating to note that in the gospels, the announcement that Jesus has been raised come to 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. God did not create duplicates. But more importantly, the breadth and depth of God's grace defy boundaries and borders.

In the end, to believe in the resurrection is to live lives believing that goodness will always conquer evil; that hope is stronger than despair; that faith will always triumph over fear; that love is more powerful than indifference; and that life will always, always, conquer death!

LAST WORDS

Last words are important to many of us.

Famous last words include Jose Rizal’s “Mi Ultimo Adios” and Antonio Luna’s “P---- Ina!” My late mother's last words to me, when we were in the very cold Emergency Room of the Philippine Heart Center, were: "Anak mainit, paypayan mo ako." My father’s last text message to me was: “Thank you.”

And, of course, the most famous last words ever memorialized would be Jesus’s as found in the gospels: Mark and Matthew have one; Luke has three; and John has three. Many Christians do not read the Bible. We read books about the Bible and parts of the Bible. If the Gospels were movies, the way most of us “read” is akin to watching only parts of a movie, not the whole show. Now, who among us only watch parts of a movie or telenovela--5 minutes of Black Panther or 10 minutes of FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano?

The Gospels are complete narratives. I propose studying Jesus’s Last Words based on that fundamental assumption. In other words, if Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John were movies or telenovelas, then Jesus’s dying words play important roles in how the stories play out.

MATTHEW

If one reads Mark and Matthew from beginning to end, one will discover that both narratives privilege Galilee as locus of God’s activity. Most of Jesus’s healing, teaching, and preaching ministry happen in Galilee. In the Matthean and Markan narrative Jerusalem is bad news. Jesus is betrayed in Jerusalem. Jesus is arrested, tortured, and executed in the Holy City. Jesus dies in Jerusalem. One can even argue that God forsakes Jesus in Jerusalem, thus at the point of death he cries, “Eli, Eli lama sabacthani?” or “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Many of us who grew up in church and in Sunday school remember the countless number of Bible verses we memorized. Many of us hated the ritual. I know I did when I was growing up. We thought those verses were useless until something happened in our lives and then the verses suddenly took on a life all their own. The Jesus of Matthew was rooted in the Hebrew Scripture. At the lowest point in his life, near death, Jesus was not blaming God. He was quoting Scripture. Psalm 22 to be exact.

I have witnessed people pass from this life to the life beyond and quite a few were quoting scripture. Remember that Matthew does not end with Jesus dying on the cross. The gospel ends with God raising Jesus from the dead. Psalm 22 begins with despair but ends with triumph and an affirmation of faith in a God who saves; a God who liberates. Especially the least among the least. Go and read it. Jesus’ last words in Matthew celebrate the promise of Immanuel. In life, in death, in life beyond death, we are not alone. God is with us. Always.

MARK

In Mark, Jesus cries, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabacthani” and dies. Unlike Matthew, the risen Jesus does not appear in the ending. Check your Bibles. The gospel ends in 16:8, where we find women silent and afraid. What we have in the story is a young man who tells the women that Jesus is going ahead of them to Galilee and will be waiting for them there. Jesus is not in the tomb. He is not in Jerusalem. He is not where we want him to be. He is back in Galilee where his ministry began. And he is waiting for us there. And we are afraid. Why?

Because we know that this path will eventually lead to the cross. We know that following Jesus will lead to suffering and, yes, death. Unlike Matthew, Luke, and John where we find beautiful stories of the resurrection—Jesus appears to Magdalene, to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, by the beach and eats breakfast with his followers, Mark offers a young man with a confirmation of a promise – Jesus is risen just as he told you. We do not see Jesus. We are told to believe he is risen. And it is only in going back to Galilee, in places we do not want to go, in ministering among the poorest and the most oppressed, that we will eventually find him. The last words of Jesus in Mark are dying words. The gospel does not end with Jesus’ triumphant words as a risen Lord but with a young man’s affirmation of God’s resurrection power: that hope is stronger than despair, that faith is greater than fear, that love is more powerful than indifference, and that life will always, always conquer death.

“He has been raised. He is not here!” Do we believe the young man’s words?

LUKE

Many Filipinos love the Gospel according to Luke. I read somewhere that our favorite parables are The Prodigal Son and The Good Samaritan. Both come from Luke. A lot of the scriptural support for the Roman Catholic Church’s theology of preferential option for the poor is based on Luke. God is definitely pro-poor in Luke. Jesus’s birth is announced to poor shepherds. Jesus's first sermon, which almost gets him killed, is a proclamation of good news to the poor. And this God who loves the poor so much is most often described as a loving parent. From Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, to Mary, the mother of Jesus, to the Father of the Prodigal Son who waited patiently for his son’s return, to Father Abraham who takes poor Lazarus into his bosom… the Gospel of Luke reminds us, offers us metaphors of God’s unconditional love as parent. At the cross, two of Jesus’s last three words in Luke are addressed to his father. Jesus says, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” If God is our parent and we are all God’s children, then we should ACT as brothers and sisters. This means not behaving like the older brother in the Parable of the Prodigal Son, or like the Rich Man in the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus. This means acting like the Good Samaritan who did not consider the wounded Jew as an enemy but as a brother. Jesus in Luke challenges his followers to love their enemies and to do good to those who hate them. Jesus set the example.

We call ourselves Jesus’s followers, but do we really follow? If Jesus is our "Kuya" then our words and our deeds should remind others of our "kuya." Bombing Afghanistan, invading Iraq, trampling on Philippine sovereignty in the guise of "visiting rights"-- are Jesus's brothers and sisters supposed to do these things? Jesus says to one of the criminals crucified with him, “Today, you will be with me in paradise.” Filipinos are social creatures. The worst punishment for Filipinos is solitary confinement. Many Filipinos turn on radios and televisions when they are alone, not to listen or watch, but simply to create a semblance of community. God’s salvation is a community project. No one can be a Christian alone. When God saves, God saves communities and peoples. To celebrate the incarnation is to celebrate that God has left heaven to be with us. So no one lives and dies alone. God is with us. In the midst of death on the cross, Jesus reminds his fellow victim that he is not alone. “Hindi siya nag-iisa.”

Then Jesus says, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” Luke follows Mark and Matthew’s lead here. Jesus also quotes an Old Testament Psalm. In this case Psalm 31. It is also like Psalm 22, a Psalm of deliverance. Jesus believed in a God who will never forsake. And God does not forsake Jesus. Many of us pray Jesus's prayer before we sleep at night. We commit everything to God, yet we stay up all night thinking of so many things only God has control over. Let us follow Jesus. Even in death, he knew that he was safe in God’s hands. We are never alone. We will never, ever, be alone.

JOHN

If one reads the Gospel of John from start to finish one will discover that the story celebrates the discipleship of the unnamed. In other words, the most effective followers of Jesus in the story have no names. The Samaritan woman by Jacob’s well, who runs to her people to share her experience with Jesus, is unnamed. The young boy 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 John leaves his followers only one commandment—for us to love one another as Jesus loved us. 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.

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. Like Matthew’s, Mark’s, and Luke’s quotations, John’s “I thirst” represents a quote from the Old Testament--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. 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. At the beach Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves Jesus… We are asked the same thing. Can we love as Jesus loved? Jesus was not alone when he faced the cross. And 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 death.

Psalm 22 which Jesus quotes in Matthew and Mark, Psalm 69 which he quotes in John, and Psalm 31 which he quotes in Luke celebrate a God who delivers, a God who liberates, a God who will always take the side of the poor, the marginalized, and the oppressed, a God who will not forsake us. And God did not forsake Jesus.

And God will never forsake us.

[Based on the Tagalog version preached at Binan UCCP.]