LABOR PAINS

Sunday's lection is part of Jesus's Farewell Discourse in the Gospel of John. Several times in the narrative Jesus tells his friends that the Advocate, the Helper, the Holy Spirit will come; that they will not be alone; that, eventually, their grief will turn into joy.

But they don't seem to hear the promise.

This is why, on Easter evening when Jesus appears before them, they were hiding behind shut doors in fear. He breathes on them the Holy Spirit and they receive what he promised them.

This is how most of us are. We love to talk of rainbows after the storm; of life after death; of joy after grief. But when storms destroy our homes and our crops; when people we care for die senseless deaths; when grief sucks hope from our hearts, we start drowning in our fears.

Until Jesus appears--often as a stranger--and reminds us of a woman giving birth. How her pain, which oftentimes seems like forever, eventually turns to joy when her child is born.

He does not say that the pain will go away. What he promises is that we will not be alone. Through the storms, through the deaths, through the grief...And through the joy.

Take heart.

Right now, a baby is being born; communities are rebuilding; young people worldwide are rising up against fascist regimes; and Palestinians, with their allies, continue fighting for their rights and what's right.

#IAmWithJesus

#EndTheCultureOfImpunity

#StopTheKillingsPH

#JusticeForMyanmar

#FreePalestine

#Gaza_Under_Attack

*I took these two pictures in Bethlehem, Palestine. One shows what the Israeli Defense Forces throw regularly at Palestinians, including children. The other one shows what Palestinian children throw back. So, #GalGadot, stop saying that your country is at war. Palestine has no army, no navy, and no air force.

YOU'VE GOT EFREN. PART TWO.

Sunday's lection is part of what scholars call Jesus’s Farewell Discourse (chapters 14-17). Jesus knows he will be separated from his friends very soon. Imagine a line, a boundary, a threshold that Jesus had to cross, alone. A line his friends could not cross. Not yet.

What does Jesus do? He prays for his friends. More importantly, he asks God to protect his friends. He asks God twice.

Most of us read our Bibles and pray every day. Many of us pray several times a day. There are those among us who pray without ceasing. Oftentimes, those long prayers are often only about ourselves.

There are also those who pray for those whose only hope is God. Then there are those, in these trying times, who need to cross lines, boundaries, and thresholds who beseech our prayers. In all of these, we pray to Jesus. We are the ones praying.

Thus, many among us miss the point of our lection. Jesus is praying for his friends. Dont forget this, ever: JESUS. PRAYS. FOR. US!

#IAmWithJesus

#EndTheCultureOfImpunity

#StopTheKillingsPH

#WeStandWithPalestine

*art, "Jesus Prays," from redeeminggod.com.

YOU'VE GOT EFREN!

Lord. Savior. Rabbi. High Priest. King. Messiah. Good Shepherd. Son of God. Son of Man. Brother. Most of us are familiar with these terms that are all ascribed to Jesus in the New Testament-- terms we ourselves use to describe who he is for us.

In Sunday's lection, the Gospel of John offers another one. Friend.

Friendship. What does it mean? What is its greatest motivation? What is its greatest expression? Friendship is almost always experienced as a circle. It is a relationship of equals and of mutuality, of accompaniment and of solidarity.

Friendships are based on decisions. We choose our friends. Friendships are neither based on emotions nor on relations.

Agape is always a decision. It is always a choice. Agape is neither based on emotions nor on relations.

Thus, agape's greatest expression: no one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. Not lovers. Nor family. We choose to offer our lives for the people we choose.

Jesus did. Many have done the same. How about us who call ourselves Friends of Jesus? Can we?

*art, "Love for One's Neighbor," National Museum of Scotland (vanderbilt divinity library digital archives).

#IAmWithJesus
#EndTheCultureOfImpunity
#JunkTerrorLawNow
 

GOD IS A FARMER

GOD IS A FARMER

More often than not, we read this passage like we do the Parable of the Sower. We ask, "What kind of soil are we?" 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 Sunday's lection from the Gospel of John, 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' time, farmers and fisherfolk comprised the bulk of the population: 7 out of 10. (Nothing has actually changed.) Then and now, farmers and fisherfolk are among the poorest of the poor. Dispossessed farmers and dislocated fisherfolk were worse off.

In First Century Palestine, the poor could afford only barley bread and fish, dried, smoked, or salted. These were what the urban poor, slaves, and peasants had when they were able to eat. The masses were slowly starving to death. 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 fisherfolk? Have you ever wondered why Jesus's Gospel is the Gospel to the Poor?

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

But God does not forget! God always takes sides. And farmers and fisherfolk are closest to God's heart.

God is a farmer. God plants. God prunes. God cuts off branches that bear no fruit, and throws these to the fire to be burned.

#ReadingTheParablesOfJesusInsideAJeepney
#IAmWithJesus
#EndTheCultureOfImpunity
#StopTheKillingsPH

*art, "True Vine," from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives

THE GOOD SHEPHERD

Seven of the more popular shepherds in the Hebrew Bible are Abel, Rebekah, Rachel, Moses, Zipporah, David, and Amos. In the New Testament, shepherds are the first to receive the good news of Jesus' birth. In many Christmas pageants, young children usually play shepherds or sheep.

Many of us grew up with Sunday's "Good Shepherd" lection from the Gospel of John. Many among us grew up with allegorical interpretations of this passage. The shepherd is not really a shepherd. The sheep are really not sheep. The passage is really about something else.

I am not doing that today.

Sheep do know the voice of their shepherd. Sheep do follow their shepherd in and out of the sheepfold. Sheep do run away from those whose voice they do not know. Sheep are smart. Ask any shepherd.

Both sheep and shepherd know that life in all its fullness is not inside the sheepfold. Never has been, never will be. There's no grass, no springs, no freedom. All these are outside of it, in the wilderness. This is why shepherds call out the sheep by name and lead them out, into the wilderness. This is why shepherds go ahead of the sheep and they follow them; into the wilderness, into the quest for life. Life in all its fullness.

P.S.
And then there are those who think that the Good Shepherd is the Communist Party and the Sheep are those who are behind the Community Pantry. I have often heard that if you're far enough to the right, everything will look left to you--even shepherds and their sheep.

#EndTheCultureOfImpunity
#IAmWithJesus
#CommunityPantryPH

*art, "The Good Shepherd," (JESUS MAFA), available from vanderbilt divinity library digital archives.

ANG JEEPNEY, ANG PANTRY, AT ANG MASA

Kwento sa atin ng mga lolo't mga lola, Pagkatapos ng digmaan, bayan nati'y nakadapa. Bagsak ang ekonomiya, transportasyon sirang-sira. Sistema ng gobyerno, nakatali sa kapitalismo. Sunud-sunod na pangulo, sunud-sunuran sa Kano. Para makabangon ang bayan, ang jeep ginawang jeepney. Pandigmang sasakyan, ginawang sasakyan ng bayan. Motorsiklo't bisikleta, ginawang tricycle at tri-sikad. Kapag kumilos ang masa, nabubuhay ang pag-asa.

Puna sa sa atin ng mga lolo't mga lola,
Isang taon ng pandemya, bayan nati'y nakadapa.
Bagsak ang ekonomiya, milyon-milyo'y walang-wala.
Sistema ng gobyerno, nakatali pa rin sa kapitalismo
Nakaupong pangulo, ang bossing ay Tsino at Kano.
Para may makain ang bayan, community pantry ay isinilang.
Ang hamon: magbigay ayon sa kakahayan,
Ang tugon: kumuha batay sa pangangailangan.

Kapag kumilos ang masa, nabubuhay ang pag-asa!

#CommunityPantry
#COVID-19
*Image from Rappler

GOD KNOWS

We always imagine the resurrected body. I have heard long discussions on how resurrected bodies are supposed to look, including what superhuman abilities these new bodies will have. Sometimes, our imagination gets the better of us.

Of this, I'm sure: despite their differences (and there are a lot), the four gospels all tell us that the Risen One has a body. In Sunday's lection Jesus tells his disciples, "Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have." He further adds, "Have you anything to eat?"

The Risen One has a body, and that resurrected body still bears the marks of the crucifixion. God knows who is responsible for each wound. Jesus said, "Look at my hands and my feet... see that it is I myself."

My friends, God will never, ever, forget the crucified. God will raise up each and every one of them. God always remembers the marks of each crucifixion.

And God knows who is responsible for each wound!

#EndTheCultureOfImpunity

#IAmWithJesus

#StopTheKillingsPH

#JunkTerrorLawNow

#JusticeForMyanmar

*art, "Jesus appears at Emmaus," (JESUS MAFA) from vanderbilt divinity library digital archives.