Diversity and Taking Sides

There are 66 books in the Protestant Bible. 73 in the Catholic Bible. The 39 books of the Protestant Old Testament is a Christian appropriation of the Hebrew Bible's 24. There are now over 5,700 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament. No two of which are exactly alike. (There were 5,360 when I was in Graduate School.)

There are over 2,000 English translations of the Bible. Two of the most widely circulated are the King James Version and the New International Version.

Most of us know this already: the Bible is not a book. It's actually a library. And since it's a library, it offers theologies. Read and compare 2 Samuel 24.1 and 1 Chronicles 21.1 and you'll understand what I'm pointing out. Paul's and James's understanding of faith is a study in contrast.

When one reads the Resurrection accounts in the Canonical Gospels, one discovers that there were three women at the tomb in Mark, two in Matthew, an undisclosed number of women in Luke, and only Mary Magdalene in John. The herald of the resurrection was a young man in Mark, an angel in Matthew, two men in Luke, and Jesus himself in John.

The Bible is a wellspring of diversity. Dictators and despots have used it to perpetuate their regimes. Liberation movements have used it to ground their causes. Churches have used it to disempower, dehumanize, and demonize people of color, women, indigenous peoples, LGBTQi, people living with HIV and AIDS, PWDs, and many more. The disempowered, dehumanized, and demonized have used it to rise above their oppression. And most, actually, don't read it. It is the world's number one bestselling book. But buying one and reading it are two different things.

In the Philippines, the Bible has been used to legislate sin, to criminalize dissent, and legitimize tyranny. It has also been used to birth solidarity and resistance.

Diversity is a gift. But diversity in a world led by the likes of Trump and Duterte and dominated by systems and structures of greed, power, and privilege is tokenism. Thus, those of us who confess to follow Jesus preach good news to the poor, not simply good news. We follow the One who proclaimed blessings to the poor and declared woes to the rich.

We take sides. Like Jesus did. Because God always does.

IF THE CHURCH HAD VIBRANIUM...

We should work with Cuba so that the most disenfranchised peoples in the world will get the best education and the best medical services available.

We should cooperate and collaborate with indigenous communities in healing and nursing Mother Earth back to health. We should also invest in national industrialization for the poorest counties and empowerment programs for the people there.

We should also help provide the 666 billion dollars that is needed to address with finality world poverty, hunger, safe water and sanitation, decent housing, basic literacy, and universal health services.  

And, finally, if we had vibranium, we must charge the United States of America and the State of Israel with multiple counts of crimes against humanity!

BUT WAIT, WE DO HAVE VIBRANIUM! 

BUT WE DON’T CALL IT THAT. WE CALL IT LAND. BONDS, STOCKS, SPECIAL FUNDS. VAST RESOURCES. ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY. POWER. INFLUENCE. WE HAVE SO MUCH. 

We do have vibranium. And we have failed! 

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]