KINGS AND THEIR KINGDOMS

The Romans executed Jesus as a messianic claimant, as an enemy of the state, as a rebel. Josephus and Tacitus both wrote that he was crucified by order of Pontius Pilate.

In the world where Caesar is Lord, sin is legislated. Resistance is criminalized. Dissent is demonized. The merger of political and religious power predates Pontius Pilate's and Joseph Caiaphas's conjugal dictatorship. If we read our Bibles and pray everyday, we will grow, grow, grow in this realization: sinners are, more often than not, synonymous with the poor, oppressed, and marginalized in the Gospels. Who can afford the offerings in the temple? Who has the resources to bribe authorities? Who writes the law and for whose benefit?

Nothing has changed. The political and religious elites' culture of impunity continues in crushing the poor underfoot.

Sunday's lection features a conversation between symbols of two completely opposite gospels: Rome's and God's; the Good News for the Rich and the Good News for the Poor. Both talk about kings and kingdoms, but totally opposite kings and kingdoms.

Tragically, so many among us confess, "Jesus is Lord," but in word, thought, and deed, we side with Pilate. Our lust for power, prestige, and privilege, our envy for the powerful, prestigious, and privileged paint lives that scream, "Caesar is Lord".

#IAmWithJesus
#StopTheKillingsPH
#EndTheCultureOfImpunity
#JusticeForMyanmar
#FreePalestine

*art, "Jesus before Pilate," (James Tissot, Brooklyn Museum), available at the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives. 

NOT ONE STONE WILL BE LEFT

Sunday's lection reminds us of Herod's Temple that, according to Jesus, was built from the offerings of widows and other very poor people.

"Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down!" And Jesus was right.

We are uncomfortable with a Jesus who speaks of doom, destruction, and death. We do not wish to see Jesus driving out those who were selling and buying in the Temple, including the moneychangers. We do not want to acknowledge that Jesus can be angry.

We are so used to the Jesus we have created in our image. We are so used to the huge cathedrals and grand buildings we have created to make us comfortable when we come together in his name. We have even come up with "Sunday best" attire, air conditioning, and exclusive seating inside these walls we have built as imposing monuments of our faith in God. Remember Jesus’s words, "Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down."

Friends, our comforts have made us forget that the church is not a building. It never was. It never will be. It has always been people: people who love; people who serve; people who offer their lives so that others may live, like Jesus did.

#IAmWithJesus
#EndTheCultureOfImpunity
#FreePalestine

#JusticeForMyanmar
#GodsReignIsForChildren
#LetGraceBeTotal


*photo, The Western or "Wailing Wall" in the Old City of Jerusalem (I took this picture in August 2016).

THE WIDOW'S OFFERING

We grew up hearing sermons on stewardship based on Sunday's lection from Mark 12 (which is also found in Luke 21). Jesus said, "This poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance but she, out of her poverty, has put in all that she had to live on.”

We grew up being taught to be cheerful givers, like the poor widow, and offer everything we have to live on to the Lord and the Lord's work.

Thank God, we have outgrown these teachings. Now, we are learning to follow the One whose life and ministry was dedicated to widows, orphans, and strangers, the One who preached a Gospel for the Poor, the One who offered his life so that others may live.

Now, we are learning how structures and systems--religious or otherwise--rob people of even the barest that they have. Now, we realize that Jesus was actually denouncing the temple elite's unjust system of dispossessing the already dispossessed in the name of God. I think the incident at the temple was one of his ways of declaring, “Enough! This temple has become a den of thieves!”

Yet, many of our churches and our programs continue to thrive and live--off the backs of the poor and suffering.

Friends, don't forget this, ever: Jesus condemns the scribes who devour widows' houses. Moreover--if you read his precise words--Jesus does not tell us to "go and do" as the widow did.

#IAmWithJesus
#GospelForThePoor
#EndTheCultureOfImpunity
#FreePalestine
#JusticeForMyanmar
#StopTheKillingsPH

*art, "The Widow's Mite," JESUS MAFA 1973 (available at vanderbilt divinity library digital archives).
 

THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT

Sunday's lection is also found in Matthew 22 and Luke 10. Most historians think that Mark's is the original version. One of the scribes asks Jesus about the greatest commandment, possibly expecting him to quote one from the Ten Commandments in Exodus. Jesus responds with the "Shema" from Deuteronomy.

Sunday's lection answers a question many among us don't want to hear. Because the Hebrew word "shema" means to hear, to do, to act. The question is: How do we love God? The answer we don't want to hear: By loving our neighbor.

Take note of the "this" (singular) in Jesus's exchange with the scribe (in the Markan version) and the lawyer (in the Lukan version). The scribe says to Jesus, "THIS is much more important..." Jesus says to the lawyer, "do THIS and you will live." Loving God is loving our neighbor. THIS is more important than burnt offerings and sacrifices. Jesus observes that the scribe is not far from the Kingdom of God.

To love God is to feed the hungry, to offer drink to the thirsty, to clothe the naked, to visit the prisoners, to care for the sick, to welcome the stranger. To redtag faith communities who serve the most vulnerable, to dispossess and disenfranchise indigenous peoples of their ancestral lands and ethnic identity, to feed the insatiable greed for wealth and power while millions are dying and tens of millions find themselves barely surviving from one day to the next is the complete opposite of loving God.

Finally, the "loving" in loving our neighbor is "agape." Agape is not based on emotions. (That is "eros." ) Nor is it based on relations. (That is "filia.") It is and will always be based on decisions. Every moment of our lives, we decide for the other. We choose the least, the last, and the left out. We choose to follow Christ, to love our neighbor, and to serve the people!

We choose and we act.

#IAmWithJesus
#EndTheCultureOfImpunity
#FreePalestine
#JusticeForMyanmar
#GospelForThePoor

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

BARTIMAEUS

A fascinating thread that flows through Mark's narrative is the failure of the named disciples to understand the ministry of Jesus and the discipleship it requires. This failure is most pronounced in chapters 8,9,10, and 16. In 8,9,and 10 three times Jesus tells his disciples that he will be crucified and will be raised up. Three times his disciples do not believe him nor do they accept what he will do. Simon Peter actually rebukes him.

The male disciples fail Jesus first. The women disciples fail him next, in chapter 16. Don't forget that they went to the tomb expecting to anoint a dead body. No named disciples, male and female, believed Jesus in Mark. This is why the Gospel ends with women who are silent and afraid. Because the One they expected to find dead inside a locked tomb in Jerusalem was risen, in Galilee, and waiting for them!

In the Markan world of unbelief, we have Bartimaues, a named blind beggar, who does believe and follows Jesus. Twice he declares that Jesus is the Messiah (Son of David). Twice he cries out, "Kyrie eleison!" (Lord, have mercy). He calls Jesus, "My Teacher" and, after being healed, follows him.

Many times those of us who confess that we believe and follow Jesus ignore people on the wayside; people like Bartimaeus. Many times we tell them to shut up. Many times we pretend they are not there. Many times we turn our backs on them.

Many times they are actually the ones who do believe and follow Jesus. Because Jesus hears their cries when nobody else does.

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

*art, "Jesus cures the man born blind," JESUS MAFA, 1973 (from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives).

**One can also argue that Bartimaeus (Son of Timaeus) refers to Plato's Timaeus which discusses true sight as discerning the perfect world of "forms" as eternal and separate from the physical world. Mark might have been arguing that that true sight actually comes from following the Son of David, the perfect in physical form.

RANSOM

Many people use this Sunday's lection to support the idea that Jesus paid the price for our sins. God is holy and humanity is sinful (and has tainted the whole of creation). The only way to appease God's righteousness is for God's sinless Son to die a horrible death on the cross for our sins.

There are also those who believe that Satan has all of us kidnapped and God pays for our ransom with the life of God's Son, Jesus.

The Greek term used for ransom in the passage denotes payment to release prisoners or liberate slaves which resonates with the promise of freedom in the Exodus and Jubilee narratives. Unlike the world's other Lords and Masters, Mark's Messiah serves instead of being served. He is ready to be last instead of being first. He does not have a throne with James on his right and John on his left. But he is crucified with rebels: one on his right, another on his left. He is ready to be a ransom to set prisoners and slaves free. He offers his body and his blood so that the hungry can eat and the thirsty can drink.

Simply put, he is willing to offer his life so that others may live. He chose to give his life, instead of doing it because God told him to. And he challenges those who follow him to do likewise.


#IAmWithJesus
#EndTheCultureOfImpunity
#StopTheKillingsPH
#FreePalestine
#JusticeForMyanmar

*image, "Black Liberation Theory" in Beyond the Classroom (from Saint Leo University Community).
 

SELL EVERYTHING YOU HAVE!

Many rich people allegorize this Sunday's lection. For them "selling everything you have and giving all the proceeds to the poor" actually means something else. It is about putting God first in their lives. It is practicing "Christ above all". It means if you love God more than your money and you give regularly to charity, then it is okay to be rich. There are those who say it is not directed to the rich but to the super rich. My favorite is the interpretation that the message is exclusively for the rich young man in the passage. No one else's.

The pandemic has exposed the evils of the economies of death that run our world today. Close to 5 million people have died and tens of millions are jobless yet the richest 2,000 billionaires's wealth increased from 8 to over 12 trillion dollars! OXFAM reports if these people shared just 1/7 or about 14% of their income for 2020, they can eradicate world poverty! Thirty-five percent of the world's richest people are born rich, will never need to work one second in their lives, and will die richer! The United States of America has enough resources to feed 40 billion people! That's over 5 times the population of the world, yet ten thousand children starve to death every single day!

Do you know why there is a Second Coming?

Because we--those of us who call ourselves Christian whose cupboards are filled and do not need to pray "give us today our daily bread"--have failed miserably to do what Jesus commanded us during his First Coming. We have removed the "Poor" from the "Gospel to the Poor" that we are supposed to proclaim. We have not brought down the powerful from their thrones nor have we sent away the rich empty. Instead, we have embraced power, profit, and privilege. We have turned our backs on the One who called us to be salt, seed, and light and have, instead, connived with empire in order to rule the world.

We have failed to feed the hungry, to offer drink to the thirsty, to clothe the naked, to care for the sick, to visit the prisoners, and to welcome the stranger. We have forgotten that we are each other's keepers. We have been afraid to storm the halls of power to tell the rich and the super rich to sell everything they have and give all the proceeds to the poor because we have been complicit in legitimizing the systems, structures, and theologies that keep the rich richer and the poor miserable.

We have forgotten that the Earth is not inherited, but borrowed from our children--and when we are gone, these little ones who are first in the kingdom of heaven, will be the first to take the brunt of our mistakes.

We have ignored Jesus’s judgment in the second half of Sunday's lection: "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."

#GospelForThePoor

#IAmWithJesus

#FreePalestine

#JusticeForMyanmar

#EndTheCultureOfImpunity

#StopTheKillingsPH

#neveragain

#neverforget

*sculpture, "Educating the Rich on the Globe" by Tom Otterness (from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives).