Continuing
from the thoughts I shared two weeks ago this week I want to expand on that theme a
little. Being aware of my own
reading
site is of paramount importance when living in a very different culture
from my own.
One exercise I
have found fascinating during my time here is to attempt to deconstruct my own
reading of the bible. The bible is a very ancient text; it has continued to be
read through thousands of different cultural, political, economic and religious
worldviews. Through all of this history up to today people have found within
these texts meaning and inspiration, but crucially they have found this meaning
and inspiration in very different ways. Too often we assume that the truths we
find (or don’t find) in these texts are those which were intended by the
original authors and those understood by all peoples throughout the world and
throughout history. I all too easily assume that my interpretation is ‘The
Interpretation’.
One of the
challenges of reading the bible here is to try to put to one side what seems to
me to be the most obvious interpretation of the text and instead to try to see
it, as best I can, through the eyes of the people here. The reading site of the people here is, of
course, much closer to the reading site of the first Palestinian Christians who
actually wrote the New Testament. The Philippines is a country of vast
inequality, it is dominated by powerful neighbours, and it is a country of
visible religious fervour.
Take the
example of Matthew 23:14-30, the text to which we give the subheading ‘The
Parable of the Talents’1. This is a text which reads very
differently when read from the different perspectives of the rich world and the
poor world.
In the rich world
we understand this parable in completely non-economic terms; the master is a
benevolent God who demands that we make best use of our abilities. We with all
our wealth and opportunity look at the text from the perspective of the servant
given Ten Talents. This parable has influenced us so much that we have even come
to call our abilities ‘talents’. So most often preaching on this text in the rich world will be
about making the most of our abilities and not being like the bad servant with
one talent who wasted what God had given him. His punishment at the end of the
story is just desserts for his wasteful behaviour.
Try reading
this text from the perspective of the poor man of the story, the man given only
one Talent. This man, like many people here, maybe struggles to find enough
money to survive, this man’s opportunities are maybe very limited, each day this
man might run the risk of not being unable to feed his children. Such is the
world in which many people here in Cebu live.
From the
perspective of this man the actions of the master (in the parable) cannot be
those of a benevolent God, they are the actions of an unmerciful master, they
are the all too familiar actions of the rich and powerful over the daily lives
of many people here who are made to suffer merely for being poor. Thus the
parable is no longer a metaphor for the kingdom of God, but a symbolic
narrative of their real world where the already rich get richer and the already
poor are trodden on. The consequences handed out to the servant with one talent
at the end of the parable are not the actions of God but the callous reaction
of the rich towards those who are unable or unwilling to participate in the
economic world of the rich. Take for example the many people here who suffer
for lack of the medical resources which the richer world takes for granted, or
those who suffer from a lack of access to the education that the richer world
takes for granted, while at the same time the richer complain about (what they
call) high taxes. Those in poverty are all too often blamed for being poor.
One biblical
story, but two very different reading sites produce two very different
interpretations. Neither is necessarily right or of more value. The challenge
to all of us is not to believe that our own perspective is the only possible
perspective.
(1
I have borrowed, and adapted, the two reading perspectives of this text from
the ‘The Biblical Vision of Sabbath Economics’ by the American theologian ‘Ched
Myers’)
On the first day we were
expecting a half filled church populated by the ultra-faithful. We were wrong!
Arriving at 4.20am the church was already packed to capacity, far fuller than
for a Sunday mass, with only standing room available within the building.
Outside there were half as many people again stood or sat on portable chairs.
The attendance was truly impressive. All sections of society were present from
new-born babies to the elderly, and unlike many European churches those in
their teens and twenties were very much present.
Every week we each have 14 hours
of teaching, 8 hours of assisting the others teaching, 1 hour of faculty
meeting and a Marathon Saturday afternoon when we give extra classes to those
who need them for as long as it takes, yesterday it took just over four hours.
On top of that there is all the planning, marking and logging of results. I am
sure the experienced teachers among my readers will think nothing of this
relatively light workload. But for someone who has never taught before, and so
is lacking confidence, it is pretty tiring.
