COMING OUT!

I would like to believe that the incarnation is really about God coming out.

In the Gospel of Mark, God comes out of heaven. One can argue that God actually escapes from heaven. Compared to the Matthean and Lukan versions which state that “the heavens were opened,” the Markan passage states “the heavens were torn” apart. In Mark, God comes out of heaven and does not return!

I would like to believe that the incarnation gives us a clearer vision of who God really is: the God who wants to be one of us; the God who always takes the side of widows, orphans, and strangers; the God who is waiting ahead of us in Galilee where many of us do not want to go; the God who loved sinners, prostitutes, lepers, rebels, outcasts, and eunuchs; the God who dearly loved Mary of Magdala, Simon Peter, the Beloved Disciple, and, yes, the young man in the garden; and, finally, God-with-us, Immanuel, the One who will never, ever, forsake us.

I would like to believe that you believe these as well.

[from Revelation E. Velunta, "Disciples, Eunuchs, and Secrets," Pages 89-107 of Disruptive Faith, Inclusive Communities: Church and Homophobia, Zachariah and Rajkumar,Eds., ISPCK/CISRS, 2015]

FORGIVE US, TISOY! A Letter to Genesis. From Revelation

Tisoy, when you went out to buy load last June 15th no one expected that you won't be able to come back home. No one expected that you will land in jail. No one expected you will die a senseless, violent death shortly thereafter. Not you. Not your loved ones. No one!

No one expected you, a young man who walked 17 steps from where you lived to buy prepaid cellphone load, to be arrested for alarm and scandal. And no one expected you to be beaten to death while in the custody of those legally sworn to protect you. NO ONE!

In Genesis 22 there's this story about a father and a son. Those of us who call ourselves Christian know this story. The father was expected to offer his son. The son expected to be sacrificed. But both expectations did not come to pass. We care so much for Abraham and Isaac to let the story run as expected. It was a ram that was killed. An animal was sacrificed. And we do not care!

A culture of impunity pervades our world. Worse in our country. The present dispensation legislates sin, criminalizes dissent, and demonizes the poor. The War on Terror and the War in Drugs have left thousands dead, displaced, and dispossessed. The people in power, god-players, define who are human and who are less than human; those created in their image and those who are not.

And every single day those they define as different, as deviant, as dangerous, as dirty, as enemies, as drug addicts, as istambays, and, yes, as animals are sacrificed. And those of us who are so proud to be called followers of Jesus? We, actually, do not care!

We have slogans that go "Open Hearts, Open Doors" and "Radical Hospitality" but our homes and our institutions are locked and unwelcoming to people like you. You will be sent away if you enter our temples shirtless. You will immediately be sent away even if you attempt to enter the gates of our most holy places. You can't get a job, even for a denarius, in our offices. We require at least 2 years of college. You barely finished 4th grade. And, please, don't try wooing our children. No tricycle or jeepney drivers or daily-wage earners for our children. Definitely, no istambays!!! They deserve better.

We are as guilty as Duterte and his ilk for demonizing Istambays.

We are supposed to preach good news to the poor, take the side of those whose only hope is God,offer our lives--like salt--so that others may live, and help dismantle oppressive structures that produce the unemployed, the underemployed, the Istambays.

But we have badly lost our way. Forgive us, Tisoy. Please!

Jesus, forgive us.


Revelation

[photo by Pastor Jochebed Joyce Flores Lovendino, taken during Genesis "Tisoy" Argoncillo's wake]

A Letter to the Juniors

Dear Juniors,

If we read our Bibles and pray everyday, we will grow, grow, and grow in the knowledge that there are two kinds of sermons in the New Testament that can get one killed. Both we find in Luke’s work.

In Acts 20, Paul preaching goes on and on and on that eventually Eutychus, a young person sitting by the window, falls asleep and falls to his death. In Luke 4, Jesus preaches a “gospel for the poor and liberation for the captives” in Nazareth, before his town mates, and almost gets killed for doing so.

As you begin your three or four-year journey here with us at Union Theological Seminary, we will try very hard to teach you how to preach like Jesus!

Let me remind you of the Student Christian Movements’ favorite bible passage.

Jeremiah 1:7-10
1:7 The LORD said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ But go to whomever I send you and say whatever I tell you. 1:8 Do not be afraid of those to whom I send you, for I will be with you to protect you,” says the LORD.1:9 Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “I will most assuredly give you the words you are to speak for me. 1:10 Know for certain that I hereby give you the authority to announce to nations and kingdoms that they will be uprooted and torn down, destroyed and demolished, rebuilt and firmly planted.”

This is the kind of message, then and now, that can get the messenger killed.

So, Jeremiah’s reaction to God’s call was natural. When he said, “I am too young,” he meant more than his age. He was afraid. Jeremiah’s mission was to proclaim judgment and redemption. He was to announce to nations and kingdoms that they will be uprooted and torn down, destroyed and demolished, rebuilt and firmly planted. Do not forget, Jesus was almost killed when he preached his first sermon. It was natural to be afraid. Even Moses was afraid when God called him to deliver God’s people from bondage. Jeremiah’s message to nations and kingdoms still stand. Moses’ call to liberation is as important as it was 3 thousand years ago. And Jesus’ message of good news to the poor, the one that eventually led to his arrest, torture, and public execution, is as vital and as relevant as the first time it was preached.

On December 10, 1948, in a rare moment of grace, humanity came together and proclaimed that the inherent dignity and the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family serve as the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world; that it is essential, if humans are not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last a resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law; that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights; and that they are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of solidarity.

The world expressed its collective commitment to these declarations.

Moreover, 70 years ago, the world proclaimed that no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and that no one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile. 70 years ago, humanity pledged “never again” to the injustices wrought on the poor, the marginalized, the oppressed, and their children, and we declared “enough!” to the inhumanities effected by emperors, kings, and their ilk.

Unfortunately, today there are still emperors, and kings, and rulers who wield power over life and death. And two of these are in the White House and in Malacanang. There are still sons and daughters whom these kings order to be tortured and killed. There are still countless and nameless sons, daughters, husbands, wives, sisters, brothers, mothers and fathers who are abducted, never to be seen again. Everyday, in our country, in Palestine, in so many parts of our world, daughters and sons, many not even 12 years old, are violently taken away from their loved ones: snatched, imprisoned, and violated.

There are still young children who are arrested in the dead of night for throwing stones at tanks and armored personnel carriers. There are still rural health workers who are illegally detained and branded as communist bomb-makers for working among the poorest of the poor in the most far-flung barrios. And there are still bishops, priests, pastors, nuns,deaconesses, and youth leaders whose bodies are impaled for opening their homes, their hearts, and their lives to those whose only hope is God.

Today, 70 years after, the emperors and kings are still alive. Their empires and kingdoms still stand. But so is Jeremiah. So is Moses. And Miriam. And Deborah. And Jesus. They were alone in the biblical text. Right now, today, in our context, they are not. They are legion. They are alive in the different movements for life and liberation around us; alive among the youth and young people struggling for peace based on justice; alive wherever faith is stronger than fear; as they have been for the past 70 years. And much, much earlier.

Emperors and kings have the power to kill. But God's power is greater than death. The empire can kill Bishop Alberto Ramento but God can raise up ten more to take his place. Kings and rulers can kill Father Tito, Father Mark, and Father Nilo but God can raise up thirty to take their place.

For every prophet whose blood is spilled for love of country, for serving the people, for ministering to those whose only hope is God, God will raise up more...

God always will.

The Parable of the Istambays

Istambay can be translated as people who "stand by," "hang around," those waiting for opportunities to work, bums, or even "hangers on."

Istambays are now the targets of Duterte's peace and order campaign.

Many among us associate Istambays with the poor, those who lack education, those who live from one day to the next. Tragically, more of us think they are foul-mouthed, unruly, and prone to criminal behavior because they are poor, they lack education, and live from one day to the next. We even think they are lazy, are controlled by their emotions, and are always grumbling.

We have forgotten that if Jesus were alive today, he'd be one of them. And a target of Duterte's campaign.

Historians tell us that Jesus and his band were poor, lacked education, and lived from one day to the next. Anyone who reads the Gospels knows that Jesus was foul-mouthed. And Simon Peter as well.

That both the Roman and Judean elite wanted this unruly Galilean troublemaker dead to keep their brand of peace undisturbed is attested both canonically and extra-canonically. The fact that Jesus was crucified as a criminal requires no special pleading.

One of the most powerful stories of this istambay many of us confess as our Lord and Savior is the Parable of the Istambays in Matthew 20.

Research has shown us that the unemployed reached up to 15 percent during Jesus’s time. And a denarius is subsistence pay. Just enough for a person to eat for one day.

We confess that we, like Jesus, preach Good News to the poor, but every time we preach on this parable we take the side of the rich landowner. We celebrate his benevolence, his generosity, his being a symbol for God.

And we blame the Istambays for grumbling, for being ungrateful, for being unemployed, for being Istambays.

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.