Today will be an 'add on' to what was printed yesterday - again, Rene Girard. Satan is the prince of this world because he is first of all the Prince of Darkness. The Christian revelation dissipates the darkness of the founding murder by showing the innocence not only of the one victim, Jesus, wrongly accused by Satan, but of all such victims. - this is the secret that the Gospels force out of hiding merely by their faithful representation of one collective murder typical of them all - typical of the process that has dominated human culture since the foundation of the world. We can stand up to the power of the father of lies. The one who rules by creating a world of brokenness and insisting on a world that is ordered by such brokenness can be resisted and denied its power among us. Yes, the way of resistance is the way of the cross - a definitive "no" to all the power that tries to dominate and subdue humanity into something other than what it is. Humanity is made in the image of God - that is the life that is available to all of us. It is a life that drives the power of evil mad. At the same time, to live within the grace-filled love of God is to walk out into the open in front of evil and use our lives as that which will embarrass evil and drive the powers of death to show themselves. To be a part of the light of the world is to have lives that shine (this is Epiphany by the way) so that the father of lies will be exposed in every day life. Connection: Exposing evil is not to be one who point fingers. That is what the evil does and wants us to mimic. Rather Exposing evil is done by living in a way that is noticeably contrary to the finger-pointing, blaming, violence that accompanies the power and principalities in every place and time - that means in our place and in our time. As you walk with us, O God, make us a part of this light that brings the world to your face. Amen. |
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