A CUP OF WATER

What do I think about Sunday's lection from Matthew? As aphorisms (one-liners) from Jesus, I believe these reflect his particular bias for those whose only hope is God. The stranger who needs our welcome, especially the little ones--orphaned children who were considered nobodies. The most vulnerable, for whom the Kingdom of Heaven is for.  

As a Jesus tradition orally transmitted, these aphorisms serve as a daily reminder to care for others. And caring for others does not mean big acts of generosity, but little acts of compassion--a cup of water, a piece of barley loaf. Love is always in the details. 

As a part of Matthew, specifically of chapter 10, it acts as another chord in the hymn of Immanuel that permeates the whole gospel. What does God-with-us really mean? 

We often forget that the best way to experience God's presence in our lives is to be God's presence in someone else's life. Yes, an offering: a cup of water or a piece of barley loaf.

*photo from UNICEF

#ChooseJustice

#GodWithUs

#JusticeForMyanmar

#FreePalestine

#Immanuel

NOT PEACE BUT A SWORD

What does this sword that Jesus brings do? It disrupts, it divides, it disturbs...the Peace. 

The peace founded on war. The peace defined, justified, legislated and imposed by the powerful, propertied, and privileged. The peace built on the blood and bodies of the displaced, dispossessed, disenfranchised, and disemboweled.

The peace where the father was head of the family and everyone was his property. The peace where the rich got richer and declared heaven-blessed, while the poor got worse and judged accursed and destined for hell! 

Historians tell us that Christians were never called peacemakers in the earliest days of the Jesus movement. 

They disrupted. They divided. They were disturbers of the Peace of Rome. Like Jesus. 

Today, the powerful, propertied, and privileged keepers of the Peace call them criminals, rioters, dissenters, communists, and, yes, terrorists! They remain disturbers of the Peace. Like Jesus. 

*image, "The Time Jesus Started a Riot," copyright, Brendan Powell Smith, from Reboot (WordPress). 

Sodom and Gomorrah

Given the breadth and depth of the hurt, discrimination, and senseless deaths brought about by the homophobic reading of the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah, it is critical to go back to what Jesus said about the matter. And what other Biblical passages say. 

Sunday's lection has Jesus telling the disciples, "If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town. Truly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town." 

The prophetic tradition describe what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah as God's judgment against the people's pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease while neglecting the poor, the needy, and strangers. 

One word: inhospitality. Over and over in the Bible, God calls God's people to always care for and to welcome widows, orphans, and strangers. Sodom and Gomorrah failed to do these. Many in Jesus's time failed as well.

Are we guilty of the real sin of Sodom and Gomorrah?

*art, "Sarah and Abraham offer hospitality to the Visitors," mosaic, Ravenna, Italy (from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives). 

THE GIFT OF TOUCH

Like many people I know, I was nurtured in a "touchy-feely" culture. Many of our pains-- physical or otherwise--were soothed and massaged away by the healing touch of our loved ones. Holding, hugging, and kissing were all integral parts of our growing up years. 

Many times, Vick's Vapor Rub was part of the ritual. "Haplos ng pagmamahal!" Touching helped in making us feel safe, loved, and not alone. We learned the science behind all these "touching moments" much later. 

Many of the healing narratives in the Gospels involve touching. Sunday's lection has two sections: the first part has a woman suffering for twelve years who touches Jesus's cloak; in the second part, Jesus touches a twelve-year old girl's hand and tells her to rise up.

Many of the quarantine protocols we've had to live with for three years were anti-poor because these assumed that everyone had a home to work from, that everyone had work, and that everyone had online access. 

Physical distancing has made so many socially distant. Alone. Depressed. Afraid. Ill. Desperate to touch someone or be touched. And experience healing. 

Friends, please let us go and help someone heal. Today. 

*art, "Woman with the Flow of Blood," Frank Wesley (1923-2002) available at vanderbilt divinity library archives.

**read "How to Hug During a Pandemic" (The New York Times) 

IMMANUEL

William Carrey's 87-page pamphlet, "An Inquiry into the Obligation of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathen," was an exposition of Matthew 28: 19-20. Published in 1792, it is considered as the first published work on the theology of missions. Centuries later, interpreters of the passage, which is Sunday's lection, still resonate with Carrey's exposition. Many missions dedicated to convert the "heathen" continue to be grounded on Carrey's exposition of "The Great Commission."

I have always argued that Immanuel, "God-with-Us," serves as the thread that binds the 28 chapters of the Gospel of Matthew. The Gospel, in 1.23, proclaims that Mary's son will be called Immanuel, meaning "God-with-Us" (echoing Isaiah 7.14). At the end of the Gospel, in 28. 20, Jesus proclaims, "I am with you always..." God-with-Us to the end of the age! The Gospel has one promise. We will never, ever, be alone.

One can ask, "What does it mean to experience Immanuel, to feel God's presence in our lives?" And, more often than not, the answer is, "Be God's presence in someone else's life!" Matthew's Jesus was.

Friends, our great commission is to do likewise. Do what Jesus did. Feed the hungry. Visit the prisoners. Welcome the stranger. Befriend the lonely. Let people know for sure that they are not alone, and then they will feel God's presence.

*art, "The Mission to the World," (JESUS MAFA, 1973, Cameroon), from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives.

PENTECOST

Many scholars agree that Sunday's lection contains John's version of the Pentecost. If the Acts' version happened 50 days after Jesus’s resurrection, John's happened on Easter evening.

I would like to share my take on verse 23.

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 and thus be cleansed of their sins? Who has the resources to bribe authorities and thus be declared not guilty? Who writes the law and for whose benefit?

Over and over in the Gospels, Jesus sins (against the Sabbath) and heals sinners. Over and over in the Gospels, Jesus declares sinners forgiven...to the consternation of the people who legislate sin.

In John 20:23, Jesus, after breathing on them to receive the Holy Spirit, commands his disciples to forgive and not to forgive. A better translation, echoing Matthew 16:19 and 18:18, is worded "to set free or to bind."

Jesus' command has not changed. Set free the poor. Bind the powerful who keep them poor. Friends, are you and I faithful to his command?

*art, "Pentecost," JESUS MAFA, 1973 (Cameroon), from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives.

JESUS PRAYS FOR US

There are those among us who grew up in Christian communities that taught "all prayers need to end with 'in Jesus's name.'" There are those among us who grew up in churches that had regular prayer meetings and 24-hour prayer chains or prayer warriors. I am sure some of us have experienced falling asleep while we were praying.

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 three times in his prayer.

I believe 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, our 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 need our prayers.

In all of these, we pray to Jesus. We ask. We beg. We cry. We are the ones praying.

Thus, many among us miss the point of our lection. Jesus is praying for his friends--not for himself. He prays for his loved ones when he, a man slated for execution by the state, has every reason to pray for himself!

In the midst of hopelessness and despair when we are most vulnerable and alone, Jesus lifts us in prayer. Good news indeed! JESUS. PRAYS. FOR. US!


*art, "The Ascension," JESUS MAFA, 1973 (Cameroon), from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives.