LOST SHEEP, LOST COINS, AND LOST SONS

Many among us grew up with allegorical interpretations of the trio of parables in Sunday's Gospel Reading from Luke 15. The sheep, the coin, the son all represent the sinner who is lost then found and saved by God.

My friends, let us try to read the parables as parables about shepherds and sheep, women and coins, and fathers and sons. The shepherd is not God. Nor is the woman. Nor is the father. The shepherd is responsible for sheep under her care. The woman is responsible for her coins. The father is responsible for his sons. 

I have two sons. The Parable of the Lost Son is very personal for me. 

If sheep, coins, and sons go astray, we should ask those responsible: why? We must not blame the sheep, the coins, nor the sons. 

For so long our interpretations have shielded and protected those responsible and accountable for sheep, coins, and sons. It is time we ask the shepherd, the woman, and the father: why did you lose them? Why did they go astray? 

My friends, for so long we have shielded and protected King David and Eli the Priest from what happened with their "lost" sons. We still do so with today's Davids, Elis, kings, and priests. We still blame our lost sons and daughters. We still think it's their fault. We still blame Will Hunting!

*Art, "The Prodigal Son," JESUS MAFA, Cameroon, 1973 (available at the vanderbilt divinity library revised common lectionary art galleries). 

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THE CALL, THE COST, AND THE CROSS

Campus Crusade for Christ popularized Bill Bright's Four Spiritual Laws. For several generations of young people, in order to be a Christian, one had to believe these four laws: God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life; man (sic) has been separated from God through sin; Jesus Christ died for our sins and reconciled us to God; and everyone that accepts Christ will be saved and receive eternal life.

Sunday's Gospel Reading from Luke reminds those of us who call ourselves disciples of Jesus that following him has never been--and will never be--a picnic nor a walk in the park. Discipleship is not a club membership with fees, duties, benefits, privileges, and Sunday Best attire. Discipleship is not just confessing the Four Spiritual Laws. Discipleship is beyond using the Bible, God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit as props. 

If we believe that Trump, Vance, Duterte, Marcos, Bato, Curlee and Sarah Discaya, and their ilk answered Jesus’s call to discipleship, then we're following the wrong Jesus!

The cost of discipleship is very high. The cross that Jesus of Nazareth talks about does not refer to the challenge of being married to one's spouse, nor the responsibility of taking care of elderly relatives, nor the burden of pastoring a big church, nor to any of the other metaphorical "crosses" we have come up with. 

The cost of discipleship is very high. It's completing the tower--even if we die in the process. It's winning the battle--even if we perish along the way. We don't go build without finishing. We don't wage war in order to lose. Many among us want to go to heaven but are afraid to die. Many among us want to be resurrected but are afraid to be crucified. Many among us want to see a new day but are afraid of the night. We cannot have one without the other.

My friends, we cannot trully follow Jesus unless we are ready to carry our cross. When Jesus calls us, he bids us, "come and die." 

*art, "The Cost of Discipleship," from inductivebiblestudy app, 2020.

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SEAT PLAN

"SEAT PLAN" 

Sunday's lection resonates with our experiences around the dinner table (which, in many cases, is not really round). We know who sits where. In many homes we know who sits at the head and at the foot of the table. And this seating arrangement applies in many of our social gatherings and in our churches as well. 

When I was younger I assumed that the name plates on church pews were in honor of the donors. I soon realized--after being told to move--that those name plates also identified who had exclusive rights to those pews. 

People have always asked why I always stand or sit at the back (or near the back) in churches, especially the big ones. Now you know. 

Years ago, I visited a church where I felt totally unwelcomed. I did not wear the required three-piece suit for men. I also had the wrong skin color. 

These assigned spaces also apply to burials. There are those who are buried in the church's yard. There are those who are buried inside the sanctuary, along the center aisle, and in the altar. Of course, "heathens" and "pagans" cannot be buried on church grounds. 

Friends, let us never forget that the early church was known for its open table, its radical hospitality, and its proclamation of good news to the poor. There were no seat plans. 

The church is not a building. The church is not an exclusive club. The church, the one Jesus challenges to be light, salt, and seed, is people who love. Unconditionally. 

*art, "The Poor Invited to the Feast," JESUS MAFA, 1973 (from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives)

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PAIN HAS NO SABBATH

Sunday's Gospel Reading has Jesus doing his mission of liberation. Luke's Jesus’s response to the leader of the synagogue mentions three characters who are all bound and have to be released. The ox and the donkey are both tied. They have to be released in order to get water. If they are not released, if they do not get water, they might get dehydrated or worse, in cases of heatstroke, die.

The woman, who Jesus calls a daughter of Abraham—which incidentally is the only time in the whole Bible that the description is used—is also bound. Satan has bound her for 18 long years. Medical experts who have studied this passage say that those were 18 agonizingly painful years. Whether she had tuberculosis of the spine, spondylitis ankylopoietica, osteoarthritis of the spine, or osteoporosis of the spine, she was in terrible pain. Every single day. She had to be released. She had to be set free.

My friends, the exchange between Jesus and the synagogue leader is not about good and bad. It is about good and good. How do we choose? Justly. The synagogue leader was saying: you can heal her any other day except today. He was arguing: what is one more day of suffering to someone who has already endured 18 years of agonizing pain? That’s 6570 days of pain. What is one more day? 

Jesus, on the other hand, was saying: why do I need to heal her any other day when I can do it today! For Jesus, suffering is suffering. Why wait for tomorrow when we can stop it today! The synagogue leader’s opinion is justice tomorrow. Jesus’s retort was justice right now! The woman despite her agonizing pain, despite her suffering went to the synagogue regularly. Did you think for one second that her pain rested during those Sabbath days? Did you think her suffering stopped while she sang, chanted, and studied the Torah? Do not forget this, ever: suffering does not have Sabbaths. Oppression has no rest days. Evil does not rest.

Pain has no Sabbath!

Do you think the suffering, humiliation, and violence that Palestinians experience stop during Sabbath?  Do you think our Lumad sisters and brothers get Sundays off from the displacement, dispossession, and militarization they experience from the AFP, agents of development aggression, and private armies of mining corporations? Do you think the pains, the suffering, and the diseases that afflict close to a billion of the world’s children caused by malnutrition, poverty, and hunger cease every time they attend mass or praise and worship? Suffering does not have sabbaths. Oppression has no rest days. Evil does not rest!

Thus, the struggle for life, for liberation, for wholeness, for abundant life for all has no rest days as well. This is why Jesus always healed on the Sabbath. This is why he proclaimed release to the captives and set the oppressed free on the Sabbath. This is why we are challenged to do the same. Every singe day! My friends, today is the day of liberation. Of course, we can wait for tomorrow but tomorrow might be too late. Proclaim release to the captives! Let the oppressed go free!

NOW!

#CeaseFireNow

*Art, "Christ Healing the Crippled Woman who was Bent Over, " from the Vanderbilt Divinity Library Digital Archives (copyright source: Prof. Patout J. Burns and Prof. Robin M. Jensen)

THE HOLY SPIRIT AND BATO'S CLAIMS

Bato dela Rosa has expressed that the Holy Spirit guides his pro-Duterte acts as senator. Donald Trump, MAGA, and ICE use the Bible as a prop. Bato is doing the same thing with the Holy Spirit.

Now, those of us who are students of the Bible know that the Bible is not a book. It is a collection of books. The Bible is a library. Let's pick just one passage from one book to refute Bato's claims. The Gospel of Luke 4: 18-19.

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor."

These are the concrete signs of the Holy Spirit at work. Nothing in Bato's claims fit these acts of justice, liberation, and compassion for the poor, oppressed, and marginalized. NOTHING! 

I agree that spirits guide Bato. I totally disagree that it is the Holy Spirit.

JUSTICE LEAGUE!

NOT PEACE BUT A SWORD. 

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

Peace and Order 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 inaugurated by the original Prince of Peace, Caesar Augustus. 

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 and Order of Rome. Like Jesus. 

Today, the powerful, propertied, and privileged keepers of Peace and Order tag these "disturbers" as criminals, rioters, militants, dissenters, communists, terrorists and, yes, enemies of the state! They remain faithful to the One who was executed as an enemy of the state.

Friends, I want to believe that we are followers of Jesus. The Prince of Peace based on Justice. We strive to be agents of genuine transformation. We dedicate our lives to help bring about shalom, life in all its fullness. We struggle with those whose only hope is God. 

We are, therefore, members of the peace based on justice league!

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

THIEVES IN THE NIGHT

Many accepted Jesus as their Personal Lord and Savior, fueled by the terror of eternal damnation, after watching the movie "A Thief in the Night." Over 300 million watched the movie in the 1970s. (178 million watched "Star Wars.") Fear is a primary motivator. Come to think of it, many Christians are Christian because of fear: fear of punishment, fear of death, fear of eternity in hell, fear of missing out on heavenly rewards.

Fear played a primary role in the movie 2022 movie,"Maid in Malacanang." Produced by the eldest daughter of the greatest thief in history (according to the Guinness World Records), the revisionist movie has Marcos Senior asking the viewers, "Masama ba akong tao?" (Am I an evil person?) The Marcoses are afraid. They will do anything and everything to change the answer to that question. And that makes them very, very dangerous. 

I dare say fear is also the primary reason behind the recent actions of the Philippine Senate and the Supreme Court on the Duterte impeachment case. 

Thank God, Sunday's Gospel Reading's reference to a thief in the night does not conjure up images of people who are afraid. What we have are people ready, watchful, vigilant, militant. Prepared for action. Lamps lit. Always prepared for the unexpected. People who do not fear death, or thieves at night, or those in Malacañang. Or those in the White House and in the world's corridors of power. 

And they are legion. Thank God!

This is why we have hope!