Closing Worship Endnote address delivered by Dr. Ben S. Malayang III during the 46th Annual Church Workers Convocation at the Silliman University Divinity School from 29-31 August 2007.

IN SEARCH OF A REDEEMING THEOLOGY OF THE DONKEY

May I invite you to prayer?

Our God and friend, we pray that in even this humble moment, you reveal your glory. For we pray in the Name of the Christ. Amen.

I recall my rather humbling experience in kindergarten. Every Christmas play we had, I was always assigned to be the donkey. Not Joseph, nor one of the three kings, not even a shepherd, but always a donkey. I complained rather bitterly to my teacher, the then Ms. Portia Cabaraban, a deaconess who would later – in the tradition of vocational incest somehow common among church workers – marry another church worker, the Rev. Wajan “Bong” Jonathan, a theology student in Silliman from Bali, Indonesia. I badgered, begged, cajoled her for another role, but, no, I have to be a donkey. And the worse part is I don’t even get to show my face because I had to wear a donkey head made of cardboard.

I guess that experience, so early in my life, left me forever traumatized. I felt I am not worth much, but only as a donkey. Imagine what this could do to a cute little child like me.

But it had another effect on me. Rather than leave me forever scarred by abject loss of self-esteem, I struggled instead to search for some redeeming theological import and implications of being just a donkey. I went into what one might view as a rather crude venture into constructing a systematic theology of a donkey. My apologies of course to Dr. Levi Oracion and to Dr. Noriel Capulong, both systematic theologians of note, but, if only to unburden me of a precipitous decline of self-worth, I just had to have my own redeeming theology of a donkey.

So please allow me to share with you today my modest meditations on donkeys.

Donkeys are slow animals. They are also known to be dim witted. They can carry a good load of things, but they can’t win races. They need to be pulled and told what to do. They are not known to be smart enough to be left on their own. They are disagreeably very temperamental. To be called a donkey is among the lowest description of a human being.

But our text refers to a donkey. It was on a donkey that Jesus rode into Jerusalem. And this was one really dim witted donkey. It was not even able to know who its owner was. When the disciples, complete strangers to it, untied it to be brought to Jesus, did we read that it resisted, or made even a small cry of concern that it was being taken by some people it didn’t know? No, not at all; it just followed the disciples to anywhere they took it. What animal could be dumber than that?

But it was this donkey that our Lord saw fit to ride on to enter the City of David where He was to fulfill His final act of salvation. It was on this donkey that Christ entered Jerusalem to fulfill God’s ultimate and final act of liberation.

Christ freed us, gave us salvation – not the donkey. But it was the donkey that conveyed Christ, brought Christ, into His place of glory.

This was one dumb donkey. But it was precisely this very humble trait of the donkey that made it perfect for conveying Christ into where He was to reveal His glory. This donkey was so dumb that when the crowd roared and waved their palm branches to welcome Christ, when the crowd sang in loud hosannas and alleluias, the donkey kept on quietly taking Christ to Jerusalem.

Imagine if the donkey had some wit to think that the hosannas were for it and started acknowledging the crowd and like a proud stallion stood on its feet to respond to the accolades? Christ would have fallen and would have had a very embarrassing time trying to get up and regain His dignity. But Christ remained regal and in the tradition of high royalty kept a dignified composure because the donkey kept on its slow but unbroken pace to bring Christ into Jerusalem, entirely unmindful of the uproar and commotion around it.

I believe that in our lives we are called to be donkeys. Our job, as workers in our God’s vineyards, is not to do Christ’s work in the vineyard, but to bring Christ Himself into the vineyard. Our job is not to be Christ or surrogates of Christ but to simply convey and bring Christ into the places and circumstances where He is to reveal Himself and His glory.

Too often, in our ministries, be it in a church or a university, in government or a company, we make the mistake of thinking that we are the stars of the show, not Christ. We are overwhelmed by the breadth of our earthly authority, the height of our position, or the range of our popularity that even as we vehemently avow that what we do is a ministry, is a work of the Lord, what we really seek is to establish our own reputation. The donkey seeks to be the Christ.

Unfair? Yes. Absolutely. It is as unfair as the hosannas reserved only for the passenger riding comfortably on the donkey’s back, when it was the donkey that was laboring with the load and toiling to make the journey into Jerusalem.

The donkey just had to settle with the fact that the triumphal entry, while it had a role in it, was not about its glorious donkey-ness.

It just had to accept that the crowd was not excited because a donkey was coming to Jerusalem!

We remember Moses, in Mt. Sinai. He was talking to God, and God asked him what he wanted God to do for him. He could have asked many things from God to complete his ministry of leading the Hebrew people into salvation and liberation. He could have asked for camels, for better equipment of war to defend themselves from enemies, or for a bigger tent for people to gather in worship or for his improved personal comfort. He could have asked for many things, all easily justifiable as being necessary for his ministry. But what did he ask instead? One request. A request that could serve as a model for what is a sufficient prayer. He asked: “God, reveal your glory!” That’s all, and that’s enough, in Moses’ ministry, or in any of ours.

There is no salvation and liberation in the donkey, but only in Christ. And if the donkey had thought that it was the agency of salvation and liberation and not the Christ riding on its back, God’s plan of salvation and liberation would have ended in fiasco and failure.

Thank God, the donkey was as humble as it was. It was not because it was dumb and poor-witted, mind you. In fact, we’ll never know how special that donkey was or what great talents and theologies it had in its soul.

But what we know is that because it had an absolutely pure and contrite heart, and was absolutely devoid of passionate pride and vanity, that Christ was glorified. Because the donkey was humble and yet determined to carry its load, Christ was exalted. Christ fulfilled His ministry and ascended into the cross of final and ultimate salvation and liberation because He was riding on a humble but sure-footed donkey.

So, what am I saying here?

Beats me. I really don’t know. I am just a donkey.

In the Name of Christ, Amen.

Other Speeches/ Messages:

- Strategic Challenges and Opportunities for Silliman
- Philippine Crocodile Conservation in the Philippines
- Inaugural Speech
- Reaction to “The Role of Equity in Development”, World Bank Forum
- Commencement Message, Villaflores College, Tanjay City
- MEA Paper, presented in Sabah, Malaysia