YESTERDAY AND EVERY DAY

Yesterday 76 members of our seminary community, led by our president, joined the United People's SONA. It was, for many, a liminal moment. A rite of passage. A baptism of fire. Actually, more water than fire... And we were prepared with our umbrellas and raincoats. And boots! Yesterday, 76 members of our community woke up earlier than usual, others did not even sleep, to prepare streamers, banners, rice, hard-boiled egg, and Adobo. Yesterday 76 members of our community waited for our jeepneys to arrive and spent over 4 hours in those jeepneys going to and from Commonwealth Avenue. Yesterday, 76 members of our community walked 6 kilometers to be a part of the thousands who protested against the War on Terror, the War on Drugs, and the War on the Poor that Duterte and his cohorts have declared against the Filipino People. 

Yesterday, individually and corporately, 76 members of our community participated in embodying our core values: prophetic boldness, ecumenical openness, compassionate witness, contextual timeliness, and Christ like faithfulness. Yesterday, Monday, July 23rd 2018, 76 members of our seminary community experienced what majority of our people experience EVERY DAY.

Every day, millions wake up at dawn to ride jeepneys, buses, and trains in order to go to work. Every day they have to line up to get these rides that take up to four to six hours of their lives in traffic. Every day, millions walk 6 or more kilometers a day to go to school or work. Or to get clean water. Every day, countless people spend hours under the sun, without umbrellas, or under the rain, without raincoats, toiling. Farmers, fisher-folk, laborers… Mostly overworked, grossly underpaid. Trying to make ends meet. 

Many surviving, each day, on one meal of rice and hard-boiled egg. No adobo. Struggling against death forces; working for life in its fullness. Do not forget this. Ever! For so many of our sisters and brothers our yesterday is their Every Day! 

Remember our core values? I'm pretty sure all of us know them by heart already. Those values are best embodied, like we did yesterday, in the every day of the masses. Eventually, our yesterday will be a weekend integrating with basic communities. Then two summer exposures of 6 to 7 weeks each. Then a full year. 

In the fullness of time God decided to go on community integration. We call it the incarnation. In the Gospel of Mark, God is always coming out. Out of heaven; out of the home his disciples wanted to be the locus of his healing; out of the tomb! He was a woodworker based in Nazareth most of his life. Then he leaves Nazareth. He started spending a day or two among the fisher-folk by the Sea of Galilee. A weekend with farmers. A year with the masses, displaced, dispossessed, disenfranchised, who protested against the conjugal dictatorship of the Roman Empire and the Judea Elite. 

In the fullness of time, God decided to leave heaven to be with those whose only hope is God. And God is still with them, every day. As they work for life in all its fullness. And God is waiting for us. Yes, for you. And for me.

So that eventually, our yesterday becomes every day. Amen.

[post-People's SONA reflection]

Volume 2, coming soon!

Reading the Parables of Jesus inside a Jeepney came out eight months ago. Thank you so much to everyone who got a copy, the Kindle or Print-on-Demand version. Many among you actually got more than one copy. Some even have both versions! Thank you as well to the UCCP's National Christian Youth Fellowship that distributes the book in the Philippines.

I cannot thank you enough. Volume 2 will be out very soon. I hope you continue reading more of the Parables of Jesus inside a Jeepney. With me.

Duterte and the Parable of the Trees

Most of us identify parables with Jesus. But two of the most powerful parables in the Bible are found in the Old Testament. One is more popular, Nathan’s when he confronted King David. The other is the Parable of the Trees.

Once the trees went forth to anoint a king over them, and they said to the olive tree, “Reign over us!”
But the olive tree said to them, “Shall I leave my fatness with which God and people are honored, and go to wave over the trees?”
Then the trees said to the fig tree, “You come, reign over us!”
But the fig tree said to them, “Shall I leave my sweetness and my good fruit, and go to wave over the trees?”
Then the trees said to the vine, “You come, reign over us!”
But the vine said to them, “Shall I leave my new wine, which cheers God and people, and go to wave over the trees?”
Finally all the trees said to the bramble, “You come, reign over us!”
The bramble said to the trees, “If in truth you are anointing me as king over you, come and take refuge in my shade; but if not, may fire come out from the bramble and consume the cedars of Lebanon.” (Judges 9:8-15)

The tree is a common metaphor for Ancient Israel. In the parable, trees go seek for a king. The Olive, the Fig, and the Grape are asked. All say, no. All are much smaller than the Cedar of Lebanon and are, therefore, incapable of “waving over” or reigning over them. All three know the purpose of their creation and were not tempted to covet a role that was not theirs.

Finally, they ask the Bramble.

Scholars tell us that bramble are opportunistic and insatiable.  They are capable of sucking the life out of other trees. Moreover, they have the capacity to deprive other trees of sunlight and starve them to death!

The Philippines has a Bramble in Malacanang. He is opportunistic and insatiable. He has sucked the life out of thousands among the people he has sworn to protect and serve. Every day, his minions and programs, anti-poor, anti-youth, anti-life, deprive the most vulnerable and the basic masses of the fullness of life that God wills for God’s children.

  

ONE DOES NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE

One should not live on bread alone. There is always more than one way of reading a text. I am pretty sure you’ve heard countless homilies on the First Temptation. I offer another one.

Given the reality of hunger and starvation under the Roman Empire, eating plays an important theme in the Lukan landscape. Luke’s Jesus as a baby was laid on a manger or a feeding trough. Jesus’ body, represented by bread, is broken and shared among his disciples. 5000 eat together in the wilderness. Jesus spends 40 days in the wilderness, ate nothing, and is challenged to turn stone into bread.

One does not live on bread alone. A person does not live on bread alone. God did not create us to eat alone!

The empire is built on greed, power, possession, property, and commodification. For the empire, when one is hungry, one eats. When one is thirsty, one drinks. One eventually eats and drinks even if one is not hungry or thirsty. One eventually hoards. Like the Rich Fool. Like the rich young ruler. Like Zacchaeus until his encounter with Jesus. Thus, the rich in Luke is told to sell everything they have and give the proceeds to the poor.

Humanity was not created to eat alone. Eating is a communal thing. The most sacred of our rituals is a community breaking bread together. The most remembered ministry of the early church was its open table. Remember that line from the prayer our Lord taught us? Give US today our daily bread. Give US. It's not Give ME!

Our daily bread conjures up manna from heaven. God gave manna to the Hebrews so that everyone could have food one day at a time. Hoarding was not allowed. Each one was expected to make sure that everyone had food for one day. Today. Tomorrow is in God’s hands. Unfortunately, we don’t believe so. We play God and make sure that we have food not just for tomorrow but for as long as we can. This is why today, this day, 25,000 children will starve to death while there’s one country in the world that has resources enough to feed 40 billion people!

Finally, lest we forget and start thinking that we Christians are supposed to provide all the bread that the world needs, let’s go back to scripture. The five barley loaves and two fish that birthed the miracle that fed 5000 hungry people in the wilderness did not come from Jesus. It came from one of the hungry.  According to the Gospel of John, it came from a poor, hungry child with five loaves and two fish. The bread that Jesus took, blessed, broke, and shared during the last supper, a great thanksgiving that eventually became our most cherished sacrament, did not come from Jesus.

No one deserves to be alone. God did not create us to be alone. God did not create us to live, to eat, to die alone. This is why we confess that in the fullness of time God became one of us. Immanuel! 

So that we will never, ever, be alone.

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.