All of this confrontation with Satan does not mean Peace on Earth. The gospels present the Christian future as full of division and strife. When Christ says, "he brings a sword" all that he claims is that the truth of the victims is out and that victimage patterns, systems of scapegoating will not provide the stable form of culture that they have had in the past. I will include Girard's word (noted above) in tomorrow's piece also. But here is an important note as to what it means to be a follower of Jesus. We never stop telling the story - the story full of lies that attempts to bring down the Prince of Peace. It is the whole system of the world that is based on this pattern of victimage and scapegoating. In essence, the followers of Jesus become truly counter-cultural because we are invited to keep pulling back the curtain and exposing the violence in the world that so easily rules all of us. In some ways, our very existence - our living witness - is a threat to the power of the father of lies. I immediately think of Bonhoeffer and ML King and Gandhi and Bishop Romero - all of them did not let the lie stay as it was. Rather they lived in a way contrary to the ruling powers. As we all know, their lives were filled with division and strife. And yet, their lives were filled with the power of God that is a witness to the God's Reign of non-violence and the end of scapegoating that is done in so many way in our cultures. The truth is a sword that lays open the brutality of the system by exposing the love of God that becomes the life of the followers of Jesus. Connection: To be the followers of Jesus in any age is to be a people who do not simply go along with how the order of the day works among us. For so often, the order of the day is brought about by the oppression of some and the power of blame that builds up the warring madness all around us. Jesus takes us into a new kind of way to live within a community. It is a 'new' realm that exists alongside the power of the day. We are not separate. Rather we are right in the mix of things - but we are encouraged by the Holy Spirit to act and speak and live in a manner that does not simply accept what is. We are - by the Holy Spirit - a part of God's peaceable reign in a violent world. As you walk with us, let your peace be our life and our hope. Amen. |
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