STORM AT SEA

In Sunday's lection, the disciples find themselves in the middle of a raging storm. Jesus is with them but he is asleep. Only the Gospel of Mark shares the detail that he was sleeping on a pillow. Scholars say that pillow was actually a sack of sand for ballast.

What's fascinating about this narrative is that the fisherfolk did not wake Jesus up until they themselves were already afraid.

Jesus, the carpenter, was sleeping in the safest part of the boat, beneath the stern deck. So, when the disciples--who lived by and off the sea in calm and stormy weather--came to wake him up, there was really reason to be afraid. The storm was life threatening!

Jesus woke up and calmed the storm.

When fisherfolk--then and now--sound the alarm, lives are at stake. When indigenous communities cry out for help, they have done everything possible to avert disaster. When farmers declare that their livelihood is endangered, they have exhausted all avenues for relief.

Many among us, despite the storms of life, are asleep and safe because of what others are doing. But there are storms that are so dangerous, for everyone, that we need to be awakened and be put to task.

It is time for us to arise and face the raging storms.

#EndTheCultureOfImpunity
#IAmWithJesus
#JunkTerrorLawNow
#JusticeForMyanmar
#StopTheKillingsPH


*art, "Jesus lulls the storm," JESUS MAFA, available from Vanderbilt Divinity Library digital archives.

THE SEED

 

Most of us were required to do this science project early in grade school. Bring soil in see-through pots or containers, as well as some seeds. In many cases in the Philippines, we brought mongo beans. We called this project, "The Life Cycle Of A Plant."

Many times our next science project was "The Life Cycle Of A Frog." But this is topic for another time.

Back to the mongo beans. We waited patiently for the seeds to break ground. For six year olds, waiting for hours takes forever. Then we see the surprise. Slowly but surely, the tiny seeds become plants...and we watch in awe and wonder.

People whose hearts beat with the heartbeat of Mother Earth know this parable. Not as a story, but as the reality of life. Life begets life. Each seed bears a promise. All life breathes!

Many times we forget that God's creation helps God create. The waters bring forth fish of all kinds; the earth brings forth plants and animals. Many times we forget that we--you and I--are latecomers to the cycles and dances of life.

Maybe it's time we just step back and watch in awe and wonder. Like we did when we were six years old.

#IAmWithJesus
#EndTheCultureOfImpunity
#SpiritIsMatter

*image from Science 101: Iowa Agriculture Literacy

BINDING THE STRONG MAN

Parables are subversive. Subversion is often considered a crime. A crime warrants punishment. A punishment's severity depends on the magnitude of the crime. If a crime is considered severe, like insurrection, then it warrants execution. Therefore, parables can get one dead.

With that logic in mind, consider this: Sunday's lection is one of Jesus's most subversive.

"If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first binding the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered."

One word: insurrection.

Many scholars say the kingdom refers to the State, more specifically, Rome and its puppet government in Palestine. The house refers to the Temple, more specifically, the religious elite beholden to empire. Satan, of course, refers to Rome. As a side note: Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor of Judea, and Joseph Caiphas, the High Priest, the two people directly responsible for Jesus's execution, were close friends. Both were removed from power in 36 CE. Many historians agree that the "cleansing of the temple" was Jesus and his followers' attempt to "bind the strong man and plunder his house."

Lest we forget, Jesus led 5,000 in that "cleansing" and was executed as an enemy of the State, as an insurrectionist. The charge, "King of the Jews," supports that. He was crucified with two other insurrectionists or rebels, not thieves or robbers.

We do not like this Jesus.

This Jesus is so unlike the one we grew up with, so unlike the one our colonial masters taught us to obey without question, so unlike the one whose portraits and paintings-- usually blond and blue-eyed--adorn our places of worship.

*art, "Binding the Strong Man, " [Arrest of St. Patrick] available from vanderbilt divinity library archives.

WOMBS AND MEN

Sunday's lection contains the arguably favorite Bible verse of many Christians: John 3:16.

I like this narrative because two men, Jesus and Nicodemus, are talking about something they do not have and an experience they never go through: wombs and birthing. When Nicodemus asks Jesus if being being born anew meant going back into his mother's womb, Jesus says no. It is being born from God's womb.

Female imagery for God is rare in the New Testament. Many among us learned about the Yahwist tradition in the Torah (the Pentateuch) which describes God in anthropomorphic terms: God forming Adam from the dust of the ground; God breathing into Adam's nostrils; God planting a garden; God walking in that garden; and God making garments for Adam and Eve.

Sunday's lection challenges us to imagine God as a woman. Sunday's lection challenges us to imagine God giving birth. Sunday's lection challenges us to imagine God beyond the boxes we have created to contain God.

#IAmWithJesus
#EndTheCultureOfImpunity
#StopTheKillingsPH
#JusticeForMyanmar

*art, "Nicodemus," JESUS MAFA, 1973, from vanderbilt divinity library digital archives.

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