THE GREAT I AM NOT!

There are a lot of people who think they are the messiah. A few have been in the Oval Office. Several have been in Malacanang Palace. Some are pastors and priests. Many are legends in their own minds. They believe that they are God's gift to the nations, institutions, and organizations they serve. They think they are indispensable, irreplaceable, and think that without them, all hell will break loose.

Our true calling, as followers of Jesus, is to bear witness to God's messiah and his liberating work. Just like John the Baptist. If Jesus is the Great "I am" then John is the Great "I am not." John proclaims, ""The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

Yes, like John, we are not the messiah. We are called to bear witness to the messiah. And like John we are to do our witnessing in the wilderness. Not in the comfort and security of our own Jerusalems. Nor inside the four walls of our magnificent temples, imposing church buildings, and prestigious seminaries. Nor while we are seated in our living rooms chatting via "Zoom" with a digital Bible in one hand and an electronic newspaper in the other.

Wilderness conjures up a lot of ambivalent images for us who study scripture. God appeared to a hardheaded Moses through the burning bush in the wilderness. The Israelites wandered almost aimlessly in the wilderness for forty long years. Many of them died there, including Moses. Like John, the wilderness played a key role in Jesus' ministry. In Mark, the Spirit had to force Jesus into the wilderness after his baptism. There, Jesus had to deal with Satan. The wilderness does not seem like a very hospitable place.

Yet, we are called to bear witness in the wilderness: in places we do not want to go; to those desolate areas we fear, and be one with communities—poor and desperate—whom many call "God-forsaken."

We are called to proclaim the good news of the incarnation: that God has not forsaken; that God is not in heaven anymore; that God is here with us; that God is in Gaza, in the West Bank, and in every place where people struggle for life, for land, for dignity, and for peace based on justice.

John the Baptist was the voice of one crying in the wilderness. These days, we are more fortunate. We, you and I, are legion.

*art: "John the Baptist," fragment of a mosaic, from the Yorck Project 12th Century, Ayasofya Muzesi Building, Istanbul, Turkey (from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives). 

CROSSING THE JORDAN

We know what we are supposed to do: help transform the world. But before we even think of changing the world, we need the world to change us.

Thus, integration with communities-- immersion into different ways of life--is a prerequisite. The late Fr. Carlos Abesamis, in conversation, said that having the Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other is not enough. Newspapers will never be a substitute for immersion. Nor will television, radio, or social media. 

Immersion transforms people! Immersion has done so for many of us! In the fullness of time, even God went on immersion. We call this incarnation. Immersion changed God.

Sunday's lection reminds us that one of the most powerful images of immersion in the Bible is baptism. Baptism is about taking sides. When John baptized people in the Jordan, they crossed from one bank to the other; from one side to the other side. They re-enacted the crossing of the Jordan.

It is about doing what Ernesto "Che" Guevarra did: swimming from one bank to the other bank of the Amazon River; knowingly putting himself at risk of a deadly asthma attack and/or drowning, yet choosing the side of those whose only hope was God. 

Baptism is crossing the Jordan: choosing justice and taking possession of liberty, land, and fullness of life that God wants for all people, especially for occupied peoples like our Palestinian sisters and brothers. 

Crossing the Jordan can lead to death. John the Baptist crossed the Jordan and was executed by Herod. Jesus crossed the Jordan and was crucified by the Romans. 

And you and I are called by our baptism to cross rivers of Jordan wherever we are. Every moment of our lives, we need to choose justice. May we have the courage to do as John and Jesus did.  

*art, "John the Baptist preaching in the desert," JESUS MAFA, 1973 (available at the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives). 

JUDGMENT DAY

The Season of Advent has begun and many expect a Christmas reading for Sunday--which Mark's passage is not. It's part of the Synoptic Gospels's mini Apocalypse (so, we find parallels in Matthew and Luke). Scholars agree that the pericope reflects traumatic memories from the Fall of Jerusalem around 70 CE. Historians have written about the children and babies and thousands more massacred by the Roman Occupation Forces during those days. The whole world is now witness to the children and babies and thousands more being massacred by the Israeli Occupation Forces in Gaza. 

A lot of people look forward to the End of Days or the Second Coming because it promises eternal rewards and punishment. Of course, there are millions of card-carrying Christians who expect that they will be rewarded, while so-called infidels--namely, anyone who has not accepted Jesus as their Personal Savior and Lord--will be punished. The "saved" will be taken away while the "damned" will be left behind to cry and grind their teeth painfully. 

Many others look forward to the day that God will make things right--especially for those who have been dispossessed, displaced, disenfranchised, discriminated, and dehumanized by prejudice, greed, injustice, and evil. Many look forward to the day that Palestine will be free: from the river to the sea! 

There are also those who dread the End of Days or the Second Coming because they know they have failed to do what Jesus, in his First Coming, commanded them to do: preach Good News to the Poor, feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, take care of the sick, visit the prisoners, clothe the naked, and welcome the stranger. 

Judgment Day will come. Nobody knows which day or which hour, but it will happen. Just as it came in the days of Noah, God's Day of Justice is coming, and will come. Jesus said so. 

And it might come today. 

*Photo from Gaza (Associated Press, Fatima Shbair) 

SHEEP, GOATS, AND WORSE THAN GOATS

Most of us grew up with this parable. Almost every time we hear sermons on this passage, we are challenged to be like the sheep. We are cautioned about imitating the goats. In other words, if we love God, we should care for the least among our sisters and brothers. If we don't, then we really don't love God.

There are Christians who believe that the sheep are the "saved" who will go to heaven while the goats are the "unsaved"--the "unsaved" who will burn for eternity in hell.

Amy Jill Levine, who was one of my two Jewish teachers in graduate school, used to tease us saying, "If you end up in heaven and there are two lines, take the sheep line."

I call this parable the parable of the great suprise because both groups were suprised! Those who were blessed did not expect their blessing. Those who were cursed did not expect their plight.

The parable is not about charity. The parable is not even about right beliefs or doctrines. The parable is not even about loving God. The sheep did not do what they did for God. This is why they were surprised when they were blessed. They said, "We did not do any of these for you!"

And the cursed ones? They did not do anything to help their sisters and brothers. Even if they did help, they would be doing it for God. Again, the parable is not about loving God, or about not loving God. It's about loving one's neighbor.

Never forget this: the blessing is based on what we do for people for people's sake; not what we do for people for God's sake.

Surprised?! SURPRISE!

P.S. Now, Netanyahu and his ilk are much worse than the goats who fail to love their neighbor. As expressions of their "right to self defense", they willfully starve, dispossess, dehumanize, and murder their neighbors. If there's a place worse than hell, that's where God will send them.

*art, "Food for the Hungry, Drink for the Thirsty," relief sculpture at the Hospital of the Holy Spirit (Biberach, Germany), from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives.
 

THE PARABLE OF THE TALENTS

A long time ago in a galaxy far away there lived a rich landlord couple whose initials were MV and CV. They owned thousands and thousands of hectares of land. Prime agricultural land became residential and commercial properties practically overnight under their conjugal landlordship. Their hobbies included public works and water cooperatives. They even dabbled in politics and in partnerships with religious institutions, especially the landed ones. They made sure that they covered all their bases. 

One day the couple called in three of their managers. To the first one they gave 5 talents. To the second, two. And to the third, one. Obviously, these talents are not what we usually think they are (like dancing, singing, writing, etc.). 

One talent is equivalent to 6,000 denarii or 20 years of labor. Currently, that's around US$ 1,000,000. So, the first was entrusted with 5 million US$. The second, 2 million US$. And the third, 1 million US$. 

The first two managers invest their bosses' money and double it. 100 percent profit. This return, of course, makes the rich couple very happy. And richer. The third manager does not invest the money. He returns it to the couple and says, "‘Sir and Ma'am , I knew that you were a harsh couple, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed." 

For refusing to be a part of the system that "reaps what others have sown and gathers what others have scattered" which made the rich richer and the poor poorer, the third manager was humiliated and severely punished. 

Friends, this tale from another galaxy so far away resonates with Sunday's lection that is found in Matthew 25. We know the story. Most of us grew up with this story. To this day, most of us think it is about our God-given talents. It is not, and it has never been. It's about bags of gold. It's about wealth and profit. And those who fail to earn profit--or even at a minimum, interest--for the owner will be humiliated and severely punished. 

Please read the passage. Verse 29 is explicit, "For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him." In other words, the rich will get richer. And the poor will get poorer. 

Do not forget this. Ever. The one who took a stand against the exploitative system in both stories was alone. We, you and I, are not. We are legion!

P.S. If you think the Filipino couple in the tale is Manny and Cinky Vacquiao, you're dead wrong! 

THE PARABLE OF THE DEAD BRIDESMAIDS

Many times people read this parable like it were a wake; like someone died; like it's the end of the age. It's a wedding! And for communities then and now, it's about new beginnings; moving forward; a celebration of life. The groom and the bride were very late for their wedding. It happens. Most of the weddings I have attended started late.

The bridesmaids, all ten of them fall asleep waiting. Five were wise. Five were naive--not foolish. The Greek text supports that reading. And all ten girls were, yes, girls, about 12 years old or younger. Five were mature for their age and prepared. Five acted their age and did not. Those who prepared were not prepared to share. Those who did not prepare were afraid of the dark. Many of the wedding guests were shut out.

Given the horrors that is happening to the Palestinian people especially in Gaza, I propose reading this parable like it were a wake. Over ten thousand have been murdered by the Israeli Defense Forces using US-made weapons of mass destruction. It's the end of the age! It's genocide.

The grooms are late because they are dead. So are the brides. And all the bridesmaids who were waiting? Those young girls--12 years old or younger, with their names written on their arms and legs--are also dead! Mature, naive, prepared, unprepared? Those bombs that drop morning, noon, and night have only one purpose: death and destruction. And those who miraculously escape the bombs are shot.

No more time for births. Nor weddings. Nor wakes. Nor burials. Because unless a ceasefire is declared now, EVERY.ONE.IN. GAZA.WILL.BE.DEAD! And that is what the perpetrators want. Do know that this ethnic cleansing in Palestine is not new-- it began way before 1948!

*PHOTO: (ALJAZEERA) The body of a Palestinian child lies at the al-Shifa Hospital after an Israeli air strike in Gaza City on October 9 2023 [Mohammed Saber/EPA]

ANCIENT ISRAELITES, BIBLICAL ISRAELITES, AND THE STATE OF ISRAEL

The Bible is quite possibly the most influential body of literature from Antiquity. It is an ancient library written in a land--interchangeably called Canaan, Palestine, and Israel - - that has been under imperial rule or occupation for millenia. Its collection of myths, legends, stories, parables, poetry, oracles, and other literary types present a wide gamut of discourses generated in the midst of empire. From indifference to apathy, from collaboration to passive resistance, from reform to revolution. 

The Bible paints a future where swords will be beaten into ploughshares. The same Bible also paints a vision where ploughshares will be turned into swords.

The Bible, despite its pluriformity and multivocality, is a literary production of the privileged and the learned. Archeology and its allied disciplines provide us a much bigger picture. 

Archeology has shown us that, like many of its neighboring peoples, the Ancient Israelites were polytheistic and were descendants of the Canaanites. They worshipped El, Yahweh, Asherah, and other deities. Archeology thus helps us better understand the contexts that produced the texts that many now call sacred. 

Archeology and its allied disciplines help us delineate between the Ancient Israelites and the Biblical Israelites. Both are at least 2000 years old!

Now, most Christians believe that the Bible is the literal word of God. Unfortunately, these same Christians do not read the Bible!

Many literalists weaponize the Bible, like Trump and his ilk, and have no qualms about its use to support and justify settler colonialism. Many Bible-believing Christians feel no remorse over the genocides committed against the First Peoples of the Americas, Australia, New Zealand, Liberia, and many more, as long as there are prooftexts that explain such crimes as part of carrying out God's great commission. 

Many Bible-believing Filipinos don't even know about the US-sponsored settler colonialism perpetrated against the indigenous peoples of Mindanao, the "Land of Promise" (almost the same time it was being carried out in the "Promised Land"). 

Now, these three remain: Ancient Israelites, Biblical Israelites, and the State of Israel. The first two are intertwined. The last has no connection to either. 

Friends, the State of Israel, created in 1948, is an imperial project. This historically-verifiable statement of fact requires no special pleading. Its decades-long, US-sponsored systematic, racist, violent, and dehumanizing erasure of the Palestinian People needs to stop now. 

It needs to stop now!

#ChooseJustice

#FreePalestine

#Endtheoccupation

#CeaseFireNow