FATHERS AND SONS

Stories about two sons abound in the Hebrew Bible. Cain and Abel; Ishmael and Isaac; Esau and Jacob. I can imagine Jesus’s original audience thinking of these pairs when he told the parable of the Two Sons. The Gospel of Matthew used this parable to address the hypocrisy of the religious leaders of his time (about 60 years after Jesus's ministry). For Matthew's Jesus, the tax collectors and the prostitutes were the older son. The members of the powerful religious elite were the younger.

The late Rev. Alberto Palma Velunta Jr., Tatay, has two sons, my older brother and I. Thus, the parable of the two sons is quite a personal one for me.

The father asks both his sons to help out in the vineyard. The older said no but afterward changed his mind and went. The younger said yes but afterward changed his mind and did not go.

During Jesus’s time, the family--the basic unit of Roman society--was run and owned by the father. Augustus, Roman Emperor, was Father of All Fathers. Fathers had the power of life and death over everyone in his family. Everyone was the father's property.

The two sons in the parable both disobey their father: the older by word, the younger by deed. We know that fathers, back then, killed children who disobeyed them. Tragically, there are still fathers today who kill their children for disobeying them; fathers who treat their children as property.

But not the father in the parable. No one is thrown into places where there is darkness, weeping, and gnashing of teeth. No one is banished. No one is punished. No one is treated as property.

The father is probably like Joseph, Jesus's father. Like Tatay. Like your father. I don't remember the number of times my brother and I have disobeyed Tatay. Growing up, I'm sure Jesus and his siblings did too. I don't remember how many times my own two sons have disobeyed me and their mother.

And, for me, that's the point of the parable. Parents do not remember their children's disobedience because they do not count them. Children are people, not property. And people change. I'm sure there were more times the sons disobeyed their father if we continued the story. But I want to believe that eventually they got to the point where they did not have to be told what to do. Because in our family, there did come a time that Tatay or Nanay did not need to tell us what to do. Or what not to do. 

I'm sure this is true in your own families too. 

P.S. Do note that in Matthew's interpretation of Jesus's parable, everyone--yes, everyone will be going to the Kingdom of God. Tax collectors and prostitutes will just go ahead of everyone else. After all, the sons in the parable share the same father. Created in the image of God, we all share the same parent too. 

 

DAY LABORERS

In Jesus's parable, why do we identify the rich landlord with God? Why do we call his actions acts of benevolence and grace? Why do we always take the side of the rich and the powerful in the stories Jesus told?

And worse, why do we demonize the grumbling day laborers? Mga arawan. Have we forgotten that Jesus preached a gospel for the poor?

A denarius was subsistence wage. It could buy a measure of wheat--one day's worth for one person. Or three measures of barley, enough for three people for one day. Just bread. Nothing else. This is why the poor ate barley.

During Jesus’s time, half of the population was slowly starving to death. During Jesus’s time 15% of the population were day laborers. Mga arawan! They survived from one day to the next. Each day laborer in the parable was promised one denarius. Each one received a denarius. Enough to buy barley to feed three for one day. Texts from Antiquity tell us that barley tasted good. For horses and cows!

Why were the day laborers who worked for 12 hours grumbling? Because they expected to receive more than one denarius each. Why? Because the landlord gave those who worked for one hour one denarius each. Everyone who worked more than one hour, especially those who did 12, expected to receive more. Everyone who worked more than one hour expected that his particular landlord was different; that this particular landlord would not do what other landlords did; that this particular landlord would not take advantage of the poor whose only choice was a denarius or nothing.

But the landlord was not different. He did what other landlords did. He took advantage of the already disadvantaged. He used a denarius, subsistence pay, to pit the day laborers against each other. He even took one of them aside, not the whole group, and arrogantly reminded him of his benevolence and generosity.

The parable is not about God or God's grace. It's about the rich's greed. It's about divide and conquer. It's about taking advantage of those who struggle to survive from one meal to the next. It is about how the rich get richer. It is about how the powerful stay on their thrones. It is about systems and structures founded on profit, private property, and privilege that make sure that significant numbers of the population survive from one day to the next, are underemployed, or unemployed.

Do not think for one moment that the denarii the landlord gave to those day laborers made a dent on his riches. Do not think for one moment that the "generosity" of Apple, Amazon, and Facebook, or closer to home, the Villars, Consunjis, Cojuangcos, Sys, Tans, Gokongweis, and Ayalas make a dent on their wealth. While tens of millions have been left homeless, jobless, and starving in the past three years, the wealth of the world's richest has quadrupled!

Do not forget this, ever! One third of the world's wealth is inherited wealth. There are people born rich who will never work one second in their entire lives yet will die richer!


*photo, "Day Laborers brought in by trucks from nearby towns," from wikipedia.

US$ 12 Billion!

The Gospel of Matthew has parables of Jesus that talk about talents. Despite scores of sermons that tell us otherwise, these talents do not refer to gifts, skills, or competencies. During Jesus's time, a talent (talanton) referred to the largest unit of currency and was roughly equivalent to about 20 years of labor. The New International Version translates it correctly: talents were bags of gold! 

So, the 10,000 bags of gold in Sunday's lection was equivalent to 200,000 years of labor. Or about 12 billion US dollars! 

For me the key to making sense of the parable (outside of how Matthew uses the tradition) is the ten thousand talents! When Rome conquered Palestine in 63 BCE, the taxes the empire exacted from its colony was that exact amount. (See Josephus, Antiquities, 14.78)  By the time of Jesus, Palestine had been under Roman Occupation for almost a hundred years. Half of the population were slowly starving to death. Exploitation was rampant and tax collectors were among the most hated in the land. And Rome executed up to 500 "enemies of the state" daily to remind everyone that defiance was unacceptable behavior.

So the king in the parable pardons a huge debt which was not really owed. Then and now the powerful have laws, ledgers, books, documents, and, yes, theologies that show and teach how much the powerless are indebted to them. And payment always requires more than what is owed.

And the servant whose supposed debt was canceled? He does exactly what the exploitative system has shaped him to do, be the face of the colonizer to the colonized. More often than not, the colonized never see the face of the colonizer--thet see only his agents who come from among the colonized. Then and now the colonizer remains benevolent. 

Read the parable again. The king comes out smelling like a newly-bathed baby. The colonized are portrayed as seeking the king's favor. And one of them is actually tortured on orders of the king. 

Do not forget this. Ever. The king in the parable is a king and served as a metaphor for the Roman Emperor. For Trump? I'd say, yes. For Duterte? Yes. For Marcos and his Junior? Yes again. For God? Never.

WHERE TWO OR THREE

Taking care of the least is a major theme in Matthew’s Gospel. Chapter 18 is particularly focused on this theme.

Many times we forget that the people who are hurt, those who are harmed, those who are sinned against are “the children,” the “little ones,” and the “lost sheep” in our communities. And more often than not, when they get the courage to confront those who sinned against them, the latter do not listen.

Thus, Jesus’s command to bring one more or two. This makes "two or three". And maybe, the offender will listen. If this does not happen, then the command is to involve the whole faith community. Maybe, the offender will listen.

Three times in the passage, the offender is given the opportunity to listen. To repent. To make amends. Twice, the church is called to take the side of the offended. To bring about genuine transformation. To bind and to loose.

Not to play referee. Not to dispassionately take a "neutral" stance, letting the offender off the hook or, worse, punishing the offended. Many times we forget that Jesus always took the side of those whose only hope was God: the children, the little ones, and the lost sheep. Many times we forget that God-with-us is most present when two or three are gathered to take the side that Jesus always took.

So, let us take a stand. Let us be that second or third person that will make two or three... And more. Against hopelessness. Against injustice. Against discrimination. Against violence against women, children and the Othered. Against the culture of impunity that pervades our world.

*image from heartlightdotorg.

SATAN DOES NOT WANT US TO SUFFER

Many among us grew up with images of and ideas about Satan that do not actually come from the Bible. Most of us grew up with this idea that Satan is a hideous monster, with a tail, horns, and a pitchfork. Many among us believe that Satan is God's equal. We blame Satan for things that go bad or wrong in our lives, and thank God for the opposite. It's like God and Satan are playing Chess, and we're pieces on the board we call life.

In the book of Job, Satan is with other heavenly beings in the presence of God. In the book of Zechariah, there is a vision of God with Satan to God's right. In Mark, Jesus was in the wilderness for 40 days and nights. He was not alone. He was with Satan. In 1 Chronicles 21, the anger of the LORD is described as Satan. In Numbers 22, the use of the Hebrew term "satan" actually means blocking one's way forward.

In Sunday's lection Jesus calls Peter Satan. Why?! This is Peter, the leader of the disciples: Peter, whose house in Capernaum served as Jesus's home; Peter, the Rock. Peter is probably Jesus's most loyal disciple. Peter is probably Jesus's closest friend. Among the disciples, Peter probably loved Jesus the most. Thus, he did not want him to suffer, to be rejected, and to be killed. Peter thought Jesus was making a big mistake by going to Jerusalem.

Jesus calls Peter Satan. Why? Peter was in the way, in front of Jesus. Jesus tells him to get behind him, to get out of his way. Peter was wrong!

My friends, never, ever, forget this. Satan does not have horns, a tail, and a pitchfork. Many times in our lives, the adversary is not the enemy. Many times, the one who opposes or blocks our decision, our mission, or our advocacy is a loved one. Family. Parents. Spouses. Children. Friends--even a best friend. Like Peter.

Why, you ask? Because they love us. Because they think we are making a mistake. Because they want what they believe is best for our well-being. Because they do not want us to undergo great suffering. Because they do not want us to be killed. They behave like Peter.

Every day people decide to follow Jesus, to follow the path dedicated to the least, the lost, the last, and the left out, to fight against tyranny and dictatorships, to work for peace based on justice, to proclaim good news to the poor and liberation to the oppressed.

And every day, people who love, people who care, people who do not want their beloved to suffer, to be rejected, to die, or to experience hell on earth, do as Peter did. They rebuke their loved ones because they think they're making a big mistake. They stand in the way.

Like Peter, they become Satan. Like Jesus, we need to rebuke them and continue on the path that God has called us to tread.


*art, "Get Thee Behind Me, Satan!" by James Tissot (1836-1902), from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives.

WHO DO YOU SAY I AM?

Close your eyes. Imagine Jesus. Is he handsome? With piercing blue eyes? With beautiful shoulder length hair? White?

In Sundays lection, the most definitely nondescript, most probably brown eyed, unkempt, and Palestinian Jesus asked his followers, "Who do people say I am?"

How did they respond? John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, or one of the Prophets. Do we associate "prophet" with Jesus, like our Moslem sisters and brothers do? One of the oldest historical traditions in the Hebrew Bible is about another prophet, Miriam. But many of us do not associate prophet with her as well. Sister of Moses, yes. But prophet? No.

Close your eyes. Imagine Jesus. Not your Personal Lord and Savior. But Jesus, the Prophet. Like John, like Elijah, like Jeremiah, Huldah, Anna, and, yes, like Miriam... Is the Jesus we imagine immersed with the struggles of the Palestinian people? Is he part of the Black Lives Matter movement? Is he in solidarity with farmers struggling for genuine agrarian reform?

Is he still calling the rich among us to sell everything we have, to give the proceeds to the poor, and to follow him? Or have we been, all this time, following the wrong Jesus?


*art, based on the work of Tom McElligott for the Episcopal Ad Project. Updated 2018 by Rev. Emmy Kegler.

WE ARE THE ANSWER TO OUR PRAYERS

We know Sunday's lection. It is the story of the mother who came to Jesus. Her daughter was sick. (The girl was probably twelve years old.) She begged Jesus for help. She was initially ignored. She was a Canaanite, a member of the peoples displaced and dispossessed by the Israelites, and Jesus treated her like a dog. Yet she persevered. And she persisted. And because she persevered, because she persisted, she changed Jesus’s mind. She got what she came for: her child was healed. Do not forget this. Ever. She was the "little bitch" who taught Jesus a lesson.

Like the mother who persisted and persevered, we are the answer to our prayers. We are the families split apart by forced migration. We are the parents whose children are dying from a virus worse than covid-19: hunger. We are the children whose parents are snatched away from us by the evil culture of impunity that pervades our land.

We are today's Canaanites, displaced, dispossessed, treated like dogs, those whose pleas are never, ever, heard. We are also the mothers who will do anything and everything for our children's welfare. We are also the fathers who will storm the gates of hell to get our children food, shelter, and education. We are the children whose outrage will break the silence of heaven. We will make sure that God hears our mourning, our anger, and our collective cries for justice.

We are the answer to our prayers! We are the change that we desperately need. We are the warm bodies who will help birth the future. And we have much to do, you and I, because tomorrow is already here.

Today is the tomorrow we helped birthed yesterday.

*art, "The Daughter of the Canaanite Woman" by Peter Koenig (from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives)