THE LITTLE BITCH WHO TAUGHT JESUS A LESSON. TAKE TWO.

In the Gospels of Matthew and Mark we find a story about a mother, a foreigner: a Syro-Phoenician in Mark; a Canaanite in Matthew who came to Jesus. Her little daughter was sick. She begged Jesus for help. She was initially ignored. She was even treated like a dog. Yet she persevered. And she persisted. And because she persevered, because she persisted, she got what she came for: her child was healed.

Robert Warrior, whose “Canaanites, Cowboys, and Indians” turned Hebrew Bible scholarship on its ear, argues that there might be something wrong with the Christian god, something requiring conversion and repentance. He notes that in the narrative, the “little bitch” does not become a follower of Jesus. She seeks him out because he has something she needs. She receives what she came for and walks away never to be mentioned again. She changes Jesus. Maybe she went back to her people and fought against the colonizing Romans in her own way with her own gods. The importance of her story is not whether she followed Jesus but that, without her, Jesus would have remained a narrow-minded bigot who viewed indigenous people as dogs.

The little bitch who taught Jesus a lesson was alone in the text. But in front of the text, she is not. She is Filipina. She is Palestinian. She is Mexican. She is Legion. She is transgressing borders. She is reclaiming what is hers. And she is fighting for her children’s lives, resisting empire, and surviving this pandemic her own way with her own gods.

#IAmWithJesus

#EndTheCultureOfImpunity

#StopTheKillingsPH

#FreePalestine

#JusticeForMyanmar

#JunkTerrorLawNow

#COVID19

*art, "The Canaanite Woman asks for healing for her daughter," Bazzi Rahib, Ilyas Basim Khuri (available at vanderbilt divinity library digital archives).

HANDWASHING

Medical science linked the connections among handwashing, community health, and hygiene in the 19th century by observing discrepancies in mortality rates between two hospital wards. Of course, handwashing has always been part of diverse peoples' minimum community health protocols. Who among us remember our childhood when our elders repeatedly told us to wash our hands before meals, after using the toilet, when we come home from work?

The ritual described in Sunday's lection requires using a cup to wash each hand three times. It is a ritual that is founded on God's commandment-- being each other's keepers-- that has become something else by Jesus's time: a sign of division. When handwashing becomes nothing more than a sign that defines who are insiders and who are outsiders, who are pure and who are impure, who are clean and who are defiled, then we have a problem. Jesus calls it hypocrisy.

It is especially hypocritical and heartless, given that the people in Jesus's time who had access to clean water to begin with were also the ones who defined who was unclean, denied honor to the defiled, shut their doors to outsiders, and never lifted a finger to help them be clean.

The pandemic has killed over 4.4 million of our sisters and brothers. Handwashing-- and by extension-- wearing masks and physical distancing are concrete expressions of being each other's keepers. Every time we do these, we protect not only ourselves but everyone around us.

#CommunityPantryPH
#COVID-19PH
#IAmWithJesus
#EndTheCultureOfImpunity
#StopTheKillingsPH
#JusticeForMyanmar
#FreePalestine

*photograph from REUTERS.
 

DO WE ALSO WISH TO GO AWAY?

Our Gospel lection readings for the past several weeks have been on John chapter 6. Sunday's lection asks a question that demands an answer from all of us: "Do you also wish to go away?"

Part of the passage reads: When many of his disciples heard it, they said, "This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?" But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, "Does this offend you?" Because of this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. So Jesus asked the twelve, "Do you also wish to go away?"

Many among us grew up with Sunday School images of Jesus surrounded by masses of people. Many among us grew up believing that if Jesus were around, he'll be more popular than the Pope or Michael Jackson. Many among us think that if Jesus were elected US President, peace based on justice will reign.

There are those among us who believe that Jesus is the answer; that he is the solution to our problems; and that he will right all wrongs when he returns.

But the Gospel of John paints a different picture. Following Jesus is really hard. Following Jesus requires making very difficult decisions. Folllowing Jesus demands offering one's life for another.

By John chapter 6, Jesus had only the Twelve left. By the time of his arrest, there were only two left from the Twelve. At his crucifixion, only the Beloved Disciple was left.

You and I, are we here to stay? Are we committed to the highest calling of the Gospel? Or, like so many others, do we also wish to go away?

In the name of our God, creator, redeemer, and friend. Amen.

#IAmWithJesus
#EndTheCultureOfImpunity
#StopTheKillingsPH
#JusticeForMyanmar
#FreePalestine

WE ARE WHAT WE EAT

Sunday’s lection from John is about eating Jesus’s flesh and drinking his blood. This passage has been interpreted in so many different ways throughout the centuries. It serves as a basis for the Roman Catholic church’s doctrine of transubstantiation. Others call this John’s version of the Last Supper or Eucharistic ritual found in the latter part of the Synoptic Gospels. Others locate this as a part of the “I Am” discourses of the Johannine Jesus.

The Gospel declares, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. God became human. In the fullness of time, God decided to become one of us. Oftentimes we say that the Gospel of John is the most spiritual of the gospels. It is, since spirit (which is ruach in Hebrew, pneuma in Greek, and anima in Latin) actually means breath. “Hininga." Simply put, spirit is oxygen for people and carbon dioxide for plants. Spirit, in other words, is matter. Spirit has molecules. Thus, the Gospel of John abounds with powerful metaphors which are material, physical, and earthy: water; bread and fish; shepherds, sheep, and lambs; tears and death; wombs, births, and rebirths. Now, we are commanded to eat the Word made flesh and drink his blood. And we will live.

There are people whose daily lives revolve around coffee. There are those who cannot function well without rice. Then, there are those who share an intimate relationship with pan de sal and Reno liver spread, with mami and siopao, with San Miguel Beer and adobo peanuts. Finally, there are those who are addicted to Jesus.

Loving, craving, eating Jesus on a daily basis, like manna, is dangerous. It is life-changing, transformative, and very, very risky! It requires giving up one’s life for another.

It means eventually becoming what you eat, being like Jesus—love in the flesh, food for the hungry, drink for the thirsty, clothing for the naked, a friend to the stranger and the sick, freedom to the captives, salt of the earth, light in the darkness, bread for the world.

To offer one’s “flesh and blood” is to offer the whole self. Jesus did. This is the path to abundant life for all. Self-giving. Offering “flesh and blood” so that others may live. Jesus said, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” And he did. And we are invited to do the same.

Sisters and brothers, people say, we are what we eat. For those of us who call ourselves friends of Jesus, I pray we really are!

#IAmWithJesus
#EndTheCultureOfImpunity
#StopTheKillingsPH
#FreePalestine
#JusticeForMyanmar

*art, "Bread and Fish," catacomb, 3rd century (from vanderbilt divinity library archives).

CARPE DIEM

My favorite lines in the movie Kung Fu Panda go, "Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift, that's why we call it present." Unfortunately, research shows that many people spend up to 50% of their time regretting the past and 40% worrying about the future. That leaves 10% for the gift we call present.

I think this is why the "I Am" statements in John, including Sunday's lection, are important. Jesus did not say, "I was" nor did he say "I will be." Carpe diem. Jesus seized the moment!

Many times in our lives we are left immobile: trapped between what we could have done better and what we could do better instead of seizing the moment, the now. Because the hungry need bread right now. The thirsty need drink right now. So many of our sisters and brothers need help right now.

You are; I am; we are each other's keepers. Now.

#COVID-19PH
#CommunityPantryPH
#IAmWithJesus
#JusticeForMyanmar
#FreePalestine
#EndTheCultureOfImpunity

*image, "Artoklasia or Breaking of Bread Service (Greek Orthodox Church), from Vanderbilt Divinity Library digital archives.

WE ARE THE ANSWER. NOW!

There is a virus that has killed more people than any pandemic. It is hunger. And the vaccine has always been available. It is food. Historians tell us that up to half of the population during Jesus’s time was slowly starving to death. This deadly virus only affects the poor. The rich are immune to it.

Last Sunday's lection reminded us that one poor and hungry child's offering was the beginning of the feeding of the 5000 poor and hungry people.

This Sunday's lection reminds us not to focus on the manna, nor on the bread and fish, but on the source of the offering: The poor child; God; and Jesus who says, "I Am the Bread of Life."

My friends, it is time we realize that, like the child with five barley loaves and two fish, we are the answer to Jesus’s plea. And gifts we can offer today, right now, are more life-giving than the ones we plan to give tomorrow.

We often forget that we play the primary role in the realization of our dreams, that we are the change that we desperately need, that we are the answer to many of our prayers, and that tomorrow is already here, since today is the tomorrow we hoped for yesterday!

#IAmWithJesus
#CommunityPantryPH
#EndTheCultureOfImpunity
#StopTheKillingsPH
#FreePalestine
#JusticeForMyanmar

*photograph, "Bread of Life," (from vanderbilt divinity library digital archives)

THE PARABLE OF FIVE BARLEY LOAVES AND TWO FISH

There are many people who imagine this story-- which we find in all four canonical gospels-- as an actual event in Jesus's ministry. There are those who argue that it is a parable. All the parables we have looked at so far are stories that Jesus told. This one is different. It's a parable from the early church. Jesus is a character in the parable.

He sees the multitude hungry and, following the teachings of the Law and the Prophets, he tells his disciples to feed them. In the Synoptics, his disciples make up excuses. Send the crowd away. Let them feed themselves. In Sunday's lection from John 6, they tell him: we don't have enough funds to address the situation.

The excuses then sound so much like our excuses today.

Then a young child, possibly 12 years old or younger, offers what he has. Five barley loaves and two fish. And the miracle of feeding of the 5000 begins. There is a tradition that says barley tastes good... to cows, sheep, and horses! The poor, the anawim, ate barley. It was all they could afford. The rich had storehouses of wheat, and fattened themselves with it.

Do not forget this. Ever. The barley loaves and the fish that led to the feeding of the HUNGRY multitudes were offered by a POOR, HUNGRY child. Many times, God's liberating acts begin when one-- just one we usually do not expect-- takes that step forward, that leap of faith, that offering of bread and fish.

#IAmWithJesus
#EndTheCultureOfImpunity
#StopTheKillingsPH
#JusticeForMyanmar
#FreePalestine

*art, "Jesus multiplies the loaves and fish," (JESUS MAFA) from vanderbilt divinity library digital archives.