GIVE ME LIGHT IN MY SOUL

JUNE 26, 2005
A MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR EDISON LAPUZ
Texts: Genesis 22:1 -14; Psalm 13

“Give me Light in my soul”

1. A life threatening situation will not find you sitting back and relaxing in the comfort of your home, it gives quivers and sleepless night and groping in the dark corners of life questioning your faith and even your philosophy in life. Then in the process of reflection you see a spark of consciousness and you say “give me light in my soul or I will sleep in death.”

2. We do not know exactly what troubled the Psalmist when he wrote the 13th Psalm which captures the immensity of the trauma he’d been going through. In many circumstances in life we have had inquiries into the divine will, “how long must I wrestle with my thoughts and everyday have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?

3. Since childhood I have not know an enemy worst than institutionalized violence, poverty cause by unequal distribution of wealth and oppression brought about by those who wield power in society. Those I can consider enemies were actually bits and pieces of the larger social evil in the world. Yes, these institutionalized violence cause deep emotional distress, person can even kill another person because one can not longer think and see clearly. For one who has this, persons become things and things are objects adulation for the owner.

4. Persons of faith turn to God for help, appeal for God’s justice and asks for light in his/her soul. The very consciousness of the divine will of God for life assists persons of faith in their unreserved service to people whom they considered as underdogs of society. However those who remain in their emotional distress and social alienation go down to the dark pit of selfishness and godlessness. Those who experience this depravity has the tendency to appeal to God as well, but in the process, distorts the ethical and moral meaning of faith in and obedience to God.

5.Distortion of faith can be seen in the co-optation of the religious symbols and rituals such as in the case of sacrificial blood offering. They who distort the message and co-opt the Gospel with their selfish interests think that it is possible to manipulate the divine will, like siding on them even if what they are doing are morally absurd.

6.The story about Abraham offering his son Isaac as the sacrificial offering is an anthropological evidence that blood sacrifice was practiced by the tribes during that time. The substitution of Isaac with a ram preludes that Yahweh would no longer require human sacrifice as proof of obedience and faith, rather, moral and ethical values are far more important than sacrifice.

7. In Christian Theology, the initiative for redemption of humanity from sin was taken over by God. It used to be that human beings make sacrifices to God, now God has willfully offered the Son as the living sacrifice for the redemption of the world. Thus the once and for all sacrifice of the Son of God on the cross is enough for the world. It is there for our taking, it is there for our commitment and obedience. With this, we therefore resolve that human sacrifices should never be used to please one’s God or deity. If ever there is we should exert our effort to stop them.

8. Even yet, in our world today, there are persons like the Rev. Edison Lapuz who was made a human sacrifice for the well pronounced “Strong Republic” of the Philippine government. Because of the inability of the agricultural, export oriented and import dependent Philippine economy to substantiate equality, opportunity and stability, the Arroyo government in connivance with the military name their “enemies”. Unfortunately, the UCCP the CBCP and other churches and peoples organizations were tagged as “enemies of the state”.

9. Edison Lapuz and I were contemporaries at Silliman University Divinity School in the Philippines. I was a year senior of him, yet we shared common interests like music, theatre arts and activism. While attending the seminary in the late from 1986 to 1991, I realized that this young man from the Island of Leyte was gifted, the moment he take hold of a guitar, he will sing for not just a song but would hold a concert, in which other students would love to sing with him. I thought he will not become of good pastor because he was too jolly and not so formal in so many ways.

10. Tell story about our attendance to the inauguration of the Center for Development Education and Training.

11. Edison and I did not know that he’s dear friend Pastor Dikoy will die of cardiac arrest two weeks after our cabinet meeting in Tacloban city in Leyte, which showed the sorrowful Edison Lapuz.

12. The Bishops of the UCCP know Edison so well, not just as an activist pastor, but is more well known for his singing talent.

Like the Plsamist….(refer to Psalm 13)