| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | Though we are approaching Christmas, the Passion and the movement of the crowd is more the focus here today - again from Rene Girard. The Passion's violent unanimity results from a massive transference of scandals - a snowballing that becomes inescapable. When this happens the guilt of the victim becomes an absolute certainty to the participants and the expulsion and destruction of that victim is experienced by each one as a destruction of his or her own scandal - a personal liberation. When this happens peace immediately returns and the mob is no more. In the Passion - when Pilate submits to the crowd - agitation subsides. Unanimous violence produces peace that is rooted in Mimetic consensus. In the cross, it is not unanimous - the disciples eventually break away from it. In so many ways I think it is good that the disciples are shown to be - at best - cowards and common folk who cannot understand Jesus way as the Christ of God. The appear to be slow - inept. And yet, it will be these folks who will see the truth that comes forth from the Passion. They do not continue to go along with the crowd - they break away and begin to see and hear and experience the way of Jesus after the resurrection. The victim becomes the way rather than the way of the crowd that must make victim of others. Therefore, the Church becomes a power on the side with victims - with the left out - with the dirty ones - with the powerless. It does not rally them all to take over the powerful and the rich and the owners of societies precious ways. Rather, the followers of Jesus will be the presence of non-violent living that will always cause the 'powers' to get ruffled and want to put an end to anything that is not going along with the patterns of culturally accepted ways of keeping the order of things in place (I suppose we could read - keeping Satan in charge.). The violence of the world is not to be the way of the followers of Jesus. And yet, it is hard to see that we are indeed a part of the cultural patterns of violence. Connection: I just drove by a church that had a message on their sign board: Keep Christ in Christmas. It goes along with a trend among many Christians who try to make it look as though they are being persecuted - victims in a secular culture. And yet, the message I hear is one that tries to rally folks (the crowd) against anyone who is no thinking like these "Christians." The language used to set up a group of -often - unnamed, threatening people to blame for what is seen as an attack on Christmas has all the signs of the violence that has been around from the beginning of time. A violence - remember - into which Jesus did not and would not step. These 'Christians' may not be the violent 'crusaders' of the past, but their violence leaks out and infects the culture and the church with nothing more than the ways of the Father of Lies. As you walk with us, O God, save us from hiding behind a name. Make the followers of your Son, Jesus, a people who walk in his image even as we are tempted to merely speak his name in order to have our world as we would make it for ourselves. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | More on scandal and evil and Satan in the context of Jesus knowing exactly what was going on along the way. I have included parts of this previously. Before the Passion - Jesus warns his disciples that he is about to become a scandal to them. They will all scatter (passive accomplices of the persecutors). Jesus knows that scandals are mimetic from the start and they become more so as they are exacerbated. They become more and more impersonal, anonymous, undifferentiated, and therefore interchangeable. In Gospels the operation of scandals are the same thing as demonic and satanic possession - characterized by a process of transference. Girard uses Peter again. When Jesus speaks of his suffering at the hands of others - Peter is scandalized. Peter's ideal is the same as ours - worldly success. Peter tries to turn his own desire into a model that Jesus should imitate. This is how Satan operates. All who join a belligerent crowd act more or less like Peter. It is the last sentence here that hits home. Have you ever been part of a 'belligerent' crowd - by simply going along with what is being said or done - by simply being quiet and not speaking on behalf of another way? I know I do. Usually I don't give it too much thought at the moment. I simply go along. It is after - during a time of reflection - that I can have feelings as deep as shame. In some ways, doing or saying nothing is how the violence of the world has continued from the beginning of time. Jesus will be the one who acts contrary to that endless circle of oppression, despair, fear, threat, and deadly silence. Jesus is to be the one we mimic. That is the saving way of life that is real and is set before us. It is part of the promise that God defeats all that evil through the cross. The way of Jesus - the way of resisting our need to keep safe or uphold the ways things are done at the expense of people - was and will be a scandal. It is the way that the powers of the world will point out as being revolutionary. And yet, Jesus is revolutionary - but a non-violent one that exposes the various ways we can embody violence and calling us to turn around and follow his lead. Connection: We do not have to be part of the crowd that persists with the ways of Satan's rule. We do not have to be liars who fall in line with the Prince of Lies. We are told we are indeed able - by the power of the Holy Spirit - to be truthful - to be a light in the world. That is what Jesus leaves us - this Spirit. It is always going to be enough - just as it was for Jesus. As you walk with us, O God, remind us again and again that your Spirit walks with us and most often is bidding us to follow the pull of that inspiring life that was Jesus. This is what we ask again and this is our hope. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | More on scandal - which Jesus says must happen. Girard writes: If Satan could indeed cast out Satan, it means that Satan himself and not God would be the policeman who keeps his own disorder in check. This necessarily means that, at some point in the crisis that scandals generate, they must turn, somehow, into a force for order. This idea sounds impossible and even crazy but a careful examination of the various uses of 'scandalon' reveals that it is both possible and true. This goes back to something from last week when Satan was described as one who personifies order and disorder. If Satan is to stay in control (if evil is to continue - if scapegoating and mimetic rivalry is to shape the day) there must be some sort of order that will let this kind of existence continue and thrive. Therefore, war - though it is bad and evil and destructive and no one really wants war - when we end a war it is always with a sense of peace that keeps a new war as an option. For the sake of order, the warring madness/brokenness must be held back for now. But it will be the shape of what is to come. Evil brings about evil by ridding the day of evil only to make room for more and more evil. I thought of the Germans after WWI. The consequences of losing the war meant that the alliance had to put controls/order on the German people. This 'order' was seen as evil to many Germans. It created at peace but it was an order that led to more disorder and the rise of the Third Reich who would throw these evil ones out and in order to create a new 'order' - evil grew all the more. Connection: So we live within a day in which various people or actions are being considered 'evil.' To act against that 'evil' -however it might be defined- there is an attempt to create an order that will stop the perceived evil and disorder. And yet, so often this 'order' is in fact a power that creates enemies,scapegoats and even when the thought that order would bring peace, it brings a culture of separation and suspicion and, eventually, war of some kind. Evil it seems prevails even when we work so hard to create an orderly world. As you walk with us, O God, help us to see how easily we turn to walk another way and disregard the Reign of love and peace that we are to call our home in you alone . Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | Sometimes when reading Girard i get caught up in the language. So let me - for my benefit - try to define terms again. Mimesis - is desire - seeking to obtain the object that the 'model' desires - imitation. There is also mimetic rivalry that is explained as this: if a model is a person in our immediate life setting (parent, authority figure, peer) then s/he is potentially a rival - so a rival and a model are basically the same - but we are not able to always see this. Now on to Satan again. In order to designate the exasperation of mimetic rivalry, the Gospels have a marvelous word that, at times, seems almost synonymous with Satan, scandalon - it means the obstacle against which one keeps stumbling. The scandalon designates a very common inability to walk away from mimetic rivalry which turns it into an addiction. The scandalon is anything that attracts us in proportion to the suffering or irritation that it causes us. It is even the aching tooth that we cannot stop testing with our tongue, even though it hurts more and more. The scandalon is all kinds of destructive addiction, drugs, sex, power, and above all morbid competitiveness, professional, sexual, political, intellectual, and spiritual, especially spiritual. Just think of the story of Pete - once again - who appears to be concerned about Jesus' discussion about Jerusalem and what will happen there when he arrives. This is Peter's dear friend and, no doubt, Peter is probably one of Jesus friends. And yet, Peter throws into the mix of their journey the rational for not going forward - the excuse to move in a way contrary from the way Jesus is called to go. It is an attractive alternative - certainly a safer one for now. This could very well be the pull. Jesus is drawn to the way of our God and Jesus also has this other way - a way that Jesus will tag as Satan - a stumbling block - attractive yet repulsive. Jesus sees it and hears it and does not get sucked into the mimetic rivalry at hand. He is self-defined by the promises of God and does not fall into trap that keeps us all so bound up in the ways of Satan - the scandalon. In the moment at hand, it is not at all easy - maybe even close to impossible - to catch ourselves in the act of following along with Peter. It is so inviting -seems so sensible - fits into how others think and act. And yet, we are called into another way of imitation - that of the life within the Reign of Go - the way of Jesus. Yet even in those moments, we are experts in making excuses and justifying our ways so that we continue in the way of the violence and brokenness of the world rather than the life of the non-violence of God's Reign. As you walk with us, O God, bring into our lives other saints who will be for us our eyes and ears that will remind us of your way even as we are ready to step off into the pathway in which we seem to know it all. For we know it all - sometimes - to our detriment and the detriment of others. Keep us in the way of your peace. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | I wrote that we would look at how Jesus and Satan imitate God. Again this comes from Rene Girard. Not unlike Jesus, Satan Says, "imitate me" and he himself is an imitator. His ultimate model is God the Father, the same model that Jesus has. Girard goes on to say that there is a difference between the mimetic desire of Jesus and that of Satan. Satan imitates God in a spirit of rivalry. Jesus imitates God in a spirit of childlike and innocent obedience. This is the way Jesus calls us to imitate him. Since there is no acquisitive desire in God - the ways of imitation that Jesus goes and invites us to enter is one that cannot generate rivalry. Mimetic rivalry is triggered when two competing desires ceaselessly reinforce each other. At such a time, violence is likely to erupt. Just think of two children who want the same toy. Or one child who has a toy and the other child wants to be in the shoes of that child. Or think of two children looking on and each wants the toy that the third child has. This all sounds like the beginning of war, conflict, the games of blame and the beginning of a separation - a break. Girard goes on to say that mimetic rivalry is not satanic to begin with, it is not sinful per se, it is only a permanent occasion of sin. That 'condition' is always at hand. It is so easy to slip into this rivalry and let it be the path we enter. Within the rite of Confession when I was growing up in the Roman Catholic church, we would say an "Act of Contrition." It ended with I firmly resolve with the help of they grace to sin no more and to avoid the near occasion of sin. That occasion is always now. Jesus calls us to imitate him - the one who did not enter into the violence of mimetic rivalry. Connection: It is by the power of the Holy Spirit that we stand up against the near occasion of sin - and follow the the peaceable Reign of God that we see in Jesus. For at our door - whipping around us - infecting all that we say and hear - is that desire to be in the shoes of the other person - even if it means destroying that one to get there. It all sounds like Cain and Abel - and it is. As you walk with us, O God, let your Spirit lead us from violence and hold onto the image of your loving Reign that does not fall for the lies that bring us into the realm of violence and a desire that kills us all. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | For another example of mimetic violence in Scripture Girard turns briefly to the story of Jonah. Jonah is one who does not want to die but, as we know, is swallowed by a whale. Girard goes on to say: The whale, however, would not swallow Jonah if he had not been cast into the sea by the unanimous crew of the ship on which he has embarked. This expulsion is a collective casting out similar to the Passion. The whale is an image of the violent crowd. Does God put together this violence against Job? No. The violence grows within the crew. Something or someone is making the storm take over us. In the ways of mimetic violence that has (once again) been around from the founding murder (Cain and Abel) something must be done. Elimination of the other - the one who we can cast as the reason for our bad luck or bad situation - so that the 'seas will calm.' I find it interesting to see that even Jonah buys this ancient turn toward mimetic violence. As we look at this in comparison to the Passion, we must see that after Jesus execution and burial - where are the crowds? They disburse - the victim has been eliminated and - at least for a while - life can go back to the way it was - until another victim is needed. Collective violence will never stop within the patterns of our lives. This imitating brutality and violence and need for a victim upon whom the world (or our group) can cast stones so as to think we are the good and right ones, is ever-present. It quite impossible to see it happening until it has happen and we have put away another one of 'them' for what we see as the welfare of 'us.' Next week we will look at Satan and Jesus as imitating God - it will be an interesting twist and insight by Girard. Connection: I find it is important to have a voice that keeps speaking up in the middle of the flood to condemn. I know that I too easily go with the flood. I need time to think back to the call to imitate Christ and not the disease of the culture or the group or the mob. This all has so many applications to the Church and so many applications to the politics of the day. As you walk with us, O God, let your Spirit be our guide and our strength so that our lives will hesitate to think of your Reign even as we are beginning to follow the reigning power of the day. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | Again the words of Isaiah 53. Yesterday I said I wanted to especially comment on verses 10 -13. Isaiah 53 Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?2For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.3He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity; and as one from whom others hide their faces he was despised, and we held him of no account. 4Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted.5But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed.6All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.7He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.8By a perversion of justice he was taken away. Who could have imagined his future? For he was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people.9They made his grave with the wicked and his tomb with the rich, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. 10Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him with pain. When you make his life an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, and shall prolong his days; through him the will of the Lord shall prosper.11Out of his anguish he shall see light; he shall find satisfaction through his knowledge. The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.12Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he poured out himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. The Servant will not be tolerated. The voice of the Servant will speak in a way that is contrary to the violence of 'everyday.' Therefore, when people are gathered into the crowds to insist on their way of having the world run, the Servant will stand out - an easy one to stone because if the 'good and right' can rid themselves of someone who must have caused the pain and disturbance in the community, there will be peace. Yet, there is never peace - there will only be warfare, brutality, lies, and separation. The Servant of God arrives as one from God to be the one who sides with and becomes one of the disposable ones. It looks like God is doing this in order to 'make things right' in the world - but this is not the case. Those who do the killing and the stone throwing are trying to make things 'right and good and pleasing'. The Servant of the Lord, God, by speaking and living outside the grasp of violence and the power of the mimetic contagion is done in by this contagion. But, alas, it will be with the promise that a positive contagion does and will rise and change all that is. Connection: In the face of all that goes on around us, we compromise. I know I do. Compromise is good. But, compromise also means I will let the violence continue -and in fact - by doing that, I become a part of its power. Think of Peter in the courtyard - the deep desire to fit in - the disease of violence and revenge. As you walk with us, O God, remind us of the one who kneels to serve and who breaks the cycle of violence and control that seems to be able to possess us at every turn of the road within this day. Amen. |
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