TAKE ANOTHER ROAD

It is time we took another road. Over and over again we take the same road. We never learn. We imagine that doing the same thing will change the outcome. It never has. It never will.

The Empire strikes back--always. In the case of the Magi, innocent children were massacred. And innocent children will continue to die as long as we try to save Baby Jesus from Herod. We should stop. He is not a baby anymore. He also does not need saving. The Magi did that already.

The Empire always strikes back. There are more Herods today. They are purveyors of war. Last year alone, over 2 trillion US dollars were spent on the arms industry. Over half a trillion more was spent in the illegal drug trade. The War on Terror and the War on Drugs have left a trail of suffering and death on the innocent. Over 20,000 people, mostly women and children, have been massacred by the Israeli Occupation Forces in Gaza and the West Bank using US-made arms and weapons of mass destruction.

Thus, you and I need to be wiser. We need to be Magi-er. We need to be more sensitive to the warnings in our shared dreams. We need to know when to beat swords into plowshares. And when to beat plowshares into swords. We need to take other roads.

We need to do all these to make sure that the massacre of the innocents in the Holy Land and elsewhere ends now! We need to make sure that the Herods and their ilk are made responsible. We need to act, wherever we are, right now!

["Scene of the Massacre of the Innocents," Leon Cogniet, 1824]

MIRIAM AND MARY

There's something about Miriam we often overlook: we usually say she's Moses's sister. First and foremost, Miriam was a prophet. There's something about Mary we often overlook: we usually say she's Jesus's mother. Mary was also a prophet.

There's something about Miriam and Mary we often overlook: both play major roles in the Bible's most important narratives, the Exodus and the Christ Events. We know their names come from the same root. That root is actually Egyptian and many scholars say it means "rebelling against a bitter system."

Mary's Magnificat is probably one of the most powerful prophetic passages in the New Testament. Mary, a young Palestinian woman, followed a God who scatters the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; who brings down the powerful from their thrones and lifts up the lowly; who fills the hungry with good things and sends the rich away empty.

This young Palestinian woman followed a God who takes sides, a God who takes the preferential option for the poor, a God who brings down kings and kingdoms, a God who weeps with those who weep and who cries with those who cry.

This young Palestinian woman is alive today. Yet the proud, the powerful, and the rich who pretend to venerate her fail to see her among the lowly and the hungry as they struggle against life-negating and death-dealing forces: in Gaza, among the Lumads of Mindanao, in Myanmar, and among Occupied Peoples. Moreover, the proud, the powerful, and the rich who pretend to venerate her tag so many who are working for "life in all its fullness" as enemies of the state, as terrorists, or as communists.

So, Jesus had John the Baptist as teacher. But before there was John, there was Mary: The Prophet. And she taught her son well. Very well indeed.



*image "The Annunciation. Gabriel and Mary." JESUS MAFA (Vanderbilt Divinity Library digital archives)

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!