The first book in the JEEPNEY HERMENEUTICS Collection.
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Reading the Bible inside a Jeepney: Celebrating Colonized and Occupied Peoples' capacity to beat swords into ploughshares; to transform weapons of mass destruction into instruments of mass celebration; mortar shells into church bells, teargas canisters to flowerpots; rifle barrels into flutes; U.S. Military Army Jeeps into Filipino Mass Transport Jeepneys.
Wednesday, January 29, 2025
READING THE PARABLES INSIDE A JEEPNEY
The first book in the JEEPNEY HERMENEUTICS Collection.
Tuesday, January 28, 2025
Thursday, January 23, 2025
US, THEM, AND ALL OF US
The pronoun “us” assumes belongingness; being a part of a whole. In particular, “us” are insiders. As far as the people of Nazareth were concerned, Jesus was “one of us.” Isaiah was “one of us.” The promises from Scripture was “for us.” Jesus’s proclamation of said promises fulfilled in their hearing was also “for us.” Ultimately, all these presuppose that God is always and only “for us.”
“Us” also presumes another group. Those that do not belong: them. The outsiders. The empire--built on privilege, power, possession and commodification--divides and conquers peoples. The empire creates “us” and “them.” Sunday's lection from Luke 4 presents both groups and posits an alternative.
Jesus proclaims the alternative to the Kingdom of Caesar. In the Kingdom of God, there is no "us", there is no "them"; there is only "all of us".
At first, those who listened to Jesus read Isaiah were happy. Then, as they listened to him interpret the challenge of the Jubilee, they metamorphosed into a mob bent on throwing him off a cliff! Why? Because Jesus dared to change the beneficiaries of God’s jubilee: Leviticus 25, the year of the Lord’s favor, proclaimed land, liberty and cancellation of all debts. Jubilee meant gospel to those whose only hope is God, good news to a people suffering under Roman occupation. Jesus challenged their interpretation of “us” to include “them.”
For Jesus, there is only “all of us.” If God is our parent, then we, all of us, are God’s children. We are all sisters and brothers. Not just his fellow Nazarenes. Not just his fellow Galileans. Not just his fellow Israelites.
During the time of Elijah, when drought and famine ravished the land, there were many widows in Israel, yet God sent Elijah to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha, yet none of them were cleansed except Naaman the Syrian. For Jesus, God’s children include the widow at Zarephath in Sidon and Naaman the Syrian.
For Jesus, the poor, the captives, the blind, the oppressed and everyone waiting for the year of the Lord’s favor were not just “us” Israelites but also “them,” the Gentiles, who were poor, captives, blind, oppressed and everyone waiting for the year of the Lord’s favor.
Thus, the jubilee, then and now, is not just for “us” but also for “them,” and therefore for “all of us.”
*art, "The Poor invited to the Feast," JESUS MAFA 1973 (from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives).
Monday, January 20, 2025
Sunday, January 19, 2025
THE LITTLE BITCH WHO TAUGHT JESUS A LESSON: READING THE GOSPELS INSIDE A JEEPNEY
Thursday, January 16, 2025
THE WEDDING AT CANA
There are no miracles in the gospel. Instead, there are seven signs which scholars say resonate with the seven days of creation in Genesis 1. The Gospel is expicit on which one is the first sign: the creation of wine from water during the wedding at Cana.
Yes, my friends, God has not stopped creating. Aside from creating wine from water, what else was created during the wedding at Cana?
The water put in those half-dozen 20-30 gallon stone jars were for purification and cleansing purposes. That water was not for drinking--it was to be expelled in the ritual process.
Jesus did not simply create wine from water; he created wine for drinking--for taking in--from water supposed to be thrown out.
In doing so, he created a new community that privileges servants over masters. The servants were the first to experience the sign, then the chief steward, and then the bridegroom.
The servants, who toiled yet did not even get to eat during feasts and weddings, were the first recipients of the best wine.
Finally, the creation of wine from water births a discipleship of the unnamed. Many times we forget that the most dedicated disciples of Jesus in the Gospel of John were unnamed: the child with five barley loaves and two fish; the Samaritan woman at the well; the Beloved Disciple; and Jesus's mother.
Many times we forget the role of Jesus's mother in this creation narrative. Many times we forget that the most dedicated disciples that God works through as God continues to create are people who remain unnamed, unrecognized, and uncelebrated.
We easily forget. God does not.
God always remembers.
*art, "The Wedding At Cana," (JESUS MAFA, 1973) available at the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives.
Tuesday, January 14, 2025
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