THE GOOD SHEPHERD

I am willing to bet that most of us know Psalm 23 by heart. We are not talking about one or two verses here. This is a whole chapter from the Bible that most of us know! This is one chapter that gave courage to so many when they were afraid. This is one chapter so many people held onto when they crossed over to the life beyond. Shepherd works as a metaphor for God in the psalm. The good shepherd will never abandon the sheep. The sheep will never, ever, be alone.

In Sunday's gospel lection, people gather around Jesus and ask, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly." These people expected a male leader who will lead them to victory. These people expected a strongman who will destroy the Romans and restore the former glory of the monarchy. These people expected a leader who will make sure that the people who put him in power are rewarded handsomely.

Jesus responds by talking about sheep and shepherds. 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. Shepherd works as a metaphor for Jesus in Sunday's lection. The good shepherd wil never abandon the sheep. The sheep will never, ever, be alone.

Our country does not need a messiah nor a strongman. We need a shepherd.

Lest we forget, then and now, women make up more than half of the world's shepherds. Let's stop imagining that the good shepherd in the Bible has to be male. Rebekah, Rachel, Miriam, Zipporah and her sisters were shepherds. The shepherds who visited Jesus when he was born were probably all women. Most importantly, many faith communities celebrate Mary--the mother of the Lamb of God--as a shepherd!

Friends, the good shepherd is a woman.

On May 9, let's elect a shepherd!

LOVE. RIGHT NOW!

In Sunday's lection from John 21, Jesus and Simon Peter exchange "I love you!" three times. In the Greek Jesus asks Peter if he loves him with an agape kind of love. Peter responds with a filial kind of love. Again, Jesus asks with agape. Peter responds with filial. On the third go, Jesus adjusts. He asks for filial love. Peter responds with filial.

God asks us to love unconditionally, to love the unlovable, to love those who can never love us back. Agape. But like Peter, most of us can only offer what we can offer right now. Mutuality. Reciprocity. Solidarity. The love most of us know. Filial.

So many among us who confess to be followers of Jesus promise to offer what we do not have yet. We will volunteer our services when we get a vacation. We will give more support when we get a raise. We will serve the church and its ministries when our situation changes for the better. The future is in God’s hands. Not ours.

Only in John do we find the source of the five barley loaves and two fish that led to the feeding of the 5000. It was from a child. A poor child. One among the hungry multitude. The child offered what he had. Right there and then.

In the narrative, Jesus adjusts. He asks Peter for the very best but when Peter could not, Jesus accepts what Peter could offer right there and then.

My friends, what we can offer right now is better than the very best we can offer in the future: especially for a world that needs to be fed, to be given drink, to be welcomed, to be cared for, to be clothed, to be set free, and to experience peace based on justice. Right now.

#IAmWithJesus
#JusticeForNewBataan5
#JusticeForMyanmar
#FreePalestine
#NoToMarcosDuterte2022
#StopTheKillingsPH

*art, "Miraculous Catch," JESUS MAFA (from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives).

WARM BODIES

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 from the Gospel of John, Jesus says, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side." 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.

Every single day so many of our sisters and brothers--who serve the poor, the oppressed, and the marginalized--are red-tagged, abducted, tortured, brutalized, and crucified. Take heart! God knows. God will never 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 of those wounds!

Dear Friends, then and now, the resurrection requires warm bodies that embody justice, solidarity, and life-giving. The resurrection requires warm bodies that will rise up for those who have fallen, that will continue the struggle for peace based on justice, and that will inspire more live-giving.

The resurrection always requires warm bodies: yours and mine.

#IAmWithJesus
#JusticeForNewBataan5
#JusticeForMyanmar
#FreePalestine
#PrayForSriLanka
#StopTheKillingsPH
#NoToMarcosDuterte2022

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

EMPTY TOMBS...

It is very disconcerting to celebrate Easter Sunday apart from the horrors of the Friday before it, but many people find nothing problematic about this. The crucifix has become a fashion accessory for a lot of folks. They can do their Easter egg hunts, play with Easter Bunnies, enjoy their Easter sunrise services, and preach about a risen, triumphant Lord without any thought that the God we proclaim as risen was actually murdered on Calvary. Jesus of Nazareth did not just die; he was murdered by the empire.

He was illegally arrested late night Thursday, then tortured, beaten, stripped naked, brutalized, flogged, and crucified by morning of Friday. He was a victim of state-sanctioned terrorism. We who call ourselves Christian actually follow an executed God.

Over 6 million of our sisters and brothers have died from COVID-19. Most of them were defenseless against the virus, ravaged by the systemic violence of poverty, hunger, and the inequitable distribution of the world's wealth. Every day in our beloved country, in Myanmar, in Palestine, in Ukraine, in many parts of Asia, Latin America, Africa, and the rest of the world, people are being crucified, victims of institutionalized oppression—cultural genocide, racism, gender injustice, capital punishment, global capitalism, extra-judicial killings, red-tagging, militarization, and marginalization. Every single day so many of our sisters and brothers are killed, like Jesus, and they do not even get a burial: their bodies withheld by their killers. Tragically, more often than not, friends and family face the painful reality that their beloved are desaparecidos. There are no bodies to bury. There are no bodies to mourn over. There are only empty tombs, empty caskets, and empty urns! No closure...

And this is why, my friends, we are called "Resurrection People." This is why New Testament scholars tell us that the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday took longer than 24 hours. Much, much longer.

How do we move forward in the midst of death from every side? How do we make sense of life in the midst of evil, despair, fear, and indifference all around us? How do we deal with the horrors of crucifixion?

We proclaim resurrection!

To proclaim resurrection is to continue living: believing that goodness will always conquer evil; that hope is stronger than despair; that faith will always triumph over fear; that love is more powerful than indifference; and that life will always, always, conquer death!

#IAmWithJesus
#FreeAldeemYanez
#JusticeForNewBataan5
#JusticeForMyanmar
#FreePalestine
#StopTheKillingsPH
#NoToMarcosDuterte2022

 

WHY JERUSALEM?

When I was in graduate school, I had the privilege of attending several meetings of the Jesus Seminar. There I met John Dominic Crossan, NT Wright, Marianne Sawicki, Robert Miller, and Marcus Borg. (I think having Revelation for a name helped a little.)

During one meeting, I asked the group, "Why did Jesus need to go to Jerusalem?" His Galilee-based, grassroots movement was doing great. Going to Jerusalem was suicide. Even his disciples knew this; they did not want to him to go to Jerusalem, especially Simon Peter. It did not make sense. But Jesus went anyway.

Crossan volunteered John 7, where Jesus' brothers tell him, "No one who wants to be widely known acts in secret. If you do these things, show yourself to the world!" We all know how this story ends. But I don't think for a moment that Jesus went because of what his brothers said.

Gabriela Silang did not need to take over leadership after Diego was assassinated in 1763. Jose Rizal did not need to come back to the Philippines in 1892. Bonifacio did not need to go to the Magdalo camp in Cavite in 1896. Ernesto Che Guevara did not need to go to Bolivia in 1967. We also know how these stories ended.

When Jesus entered Jerusalem he did so with over 5000, made up of mostly farmers and fisherfolk. Sunday's lection from Luke (and its parallels in Mark and Matthew) tells us the masses welcomed them with hosannas! Historians tell us that Pontius Pilate also entered the city from the opposite direction with a Roman Legion. (That is 6,000 fully armed soldiers!).

Jesus did not need to go to Jerusalem. Jesus did not need to cleanse the Temple with a whip. But he did anyway. The Passion narratives report that every single day the authorities tried to arrest him but they were afraid of the masses who protected him. So, they arrested him at night, with a Roman Cohort. (That is one battalion!)

First came a movement. Then an execution. But surprise of surprises, the movement continues to this day!

Jesus knew that for every one that is executed in Jerusalem, God will raise up ten; for every ten, God will raise up one hundred; for every hundred, one thousand! Jesus knew exactly what he was doing!

Thus, movement, execution, and continuation. These three remain, but the greatest of these is continuation.

#Lent2022
#IAmWithJesus
#NoToMarcosDuterte2022
#FreePalestine
#JusticeForMyanmar
#JusticeForNewBataan5

*art, "Entry into the City," John August Swanson (from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives).

IN MEMORY OF HER

The depth and breadth of interpretations about Sunday's Johannine lection have filled volumes. Mark and Matthew also have versions of the narrative. In Matthew's and Mark's, the woman who anoints Jesus with expensive perfume is unnamed. Jesus tells his disciples to remember what she did in memory of her. John's Gospel does exactly that. The woman who anoints Jesus is named. She is Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus.

A reading of the gospels focused on his followers would show that, more often than not, they cannot understand what Jesus does and what he says. Over and over Jesus has to explain his words and his actions. Over and over Jesus tells them about his suffering and his resurrection and they misunderstand him. All four gospels end with women coming to the tomb to anoint a dead body! No one among Jesus’s named disciples believed that he will rise again.

But one woman in the whole narrative does believe: the unnamed woman in Mark and Matthew; Mary of Bethany in John. She anoints Jesus for burial because there would be no body to anoint later. There would only be an empty tomb—as the named women disciples led by Magdalene discover when they came Easter morning with their anointing oils.

Only one person believed that Jesus will be raised up. One woman. Mary of Bethany. And she was right!

#Lent2022

#IAmWithJesus

#NoToMarcosDuterte2022

#JusticeForMyanmar

#FreePalestine

#JusticeForNewBataan5

#StopTheKillingsPH

*art, "Mary of Bethany and Jesus," anonymous, wood carving (from the vanderbilt library digital archives).

THE PRODIGAL SON

There was a man with two sons.

He was rich. He had property. He had land. He had slaves. He had two sons. The younger asks for his inheritance and squanders it. He goes back home and is welcomed back by his father. With a feast, a robe, sandals, and a ring. The older is angry, feels slighted, and left out so the father reminds him that “you are always with me and all is mine is yours.”

In the end, everybody lives happily ever after. Father and sons. Still propertied. Still landed. Still slaveholders. Still rich.

There was another man with two daughters and a son.

He was propertied, landed, and filthy rich from illegally-gotten wealth. He actually wrote a letter noting that his only son was lazy and lacked willpower. This son, his junior, now thinks he can be the president of his country.

My friends, I think we should stop identifying rich fathers, rich landowners, and rich slaveholders with God. Or God's representatives. The parables of Jesus were subversive speech. They indicted the status quo. They challenged Pax Romana. They proclaimed good news to the poor.

They were the reasons Jesus was executed by the Romans.

#NoToMarcosDuterte2022

#JusticeForNewBataan5

#EndTheCultureOfImpunity

#FreePalestine

#JusticeForMyanmar

#StopTheKillingsPH

#readingtheparablesofjesusinsideajeepney

*art, "The Prodigal Son," JESUS MAFA 1970 (from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives).