| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | Girard talks about the Cross as a trap set by God - I find it interesting. Since Jesus, almost every time he opens his mouth, reveals the secret of Satan's power, he becomes in the eyes of Satan, a most intolerable source of disorder; he must be silenced once and for all. In order to reach his goal, Satan only has to resort to his favorite trick - the very trick about which Jesus is talking so much - the traditional trick of the mimetic murder and scapegoat mechanism. - Since this trick has always succeeded in the past, Satan sees no reason why it would not succeed in the case of Jesus. The 'same old, same old' of the powers of the Father of lies cannot tolerate the liberating life and words of Jesus. Jesus' life does not let death and fear and violence rule or control the day. Jesus will go about the new age - new rule - new being even the scapegoat mechanism is put into full swing. Jesus must be eliminated - and if he is eliminated, it will just like all the other victims of scapegoating - he is gone and forgotten and evil can persist within the order of the day that is so dear to Satan. So Jesus faces nothing more than the mechanism that we all face. It will be the attempt to murder the one who has been cast as the 'outsider' or the 'troublemaker' or the 'blasphemer' or etc. This is the pattern of the day around Jesus crucifixion. It is the order of the day around us. The creative, non-violent, truthfulness of God's Reign is in direct contrast to the power of the principalities and powers. I will add to today's reading to fill in the next link in Girard's thought. Connection: We are invited to live as though we are walking in the way of Jesus. To walk and live like that is to set oneself out as a visible target that will draw out the power of lies that insist on keeping the brokenness of the world in place. As followers of Jesus, our lives become as Jesus' life. In that way, when we show the face of love and justice and mercy and forgiveness and reconciliation - it will be confronted and ridiculed - it will be violently opposed - it will be discounted. And yet, we are to continue in that contrary life and - in time - the lies of the powers of the world will attempt to shut us down. There will be many good and sound reasons to put a stop to the incarnation of God's love in our world from day to day. As you walk with us, O God, guide us as we take steps within the light of your Reign. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | The Cross and Satan line up - Girard has much to offer Once we understand that Satan's secret is the founding murder and the scapegoat mechanism, the idea that Satan's power is reduced to nothing by the Cross makes perfect sense. - By providing us with an accurate portrayal of the mimetic process behind the death of Jesus, and secondarily the death of John the Baptist, the Gospels reveal something which, in the long run, is bound to discredit not one particular lie about one particular victim of collective persecution only but all lies rooted in the victimage mechanism, in the grotesquely deceptive scapegoat misunderstanding. Satan becomes a ludicrous nonentity. Again, we are told about the lie that is the foundation for persecution and scapegoating and the 'victimage mechanism.' We are all being pulled into this story - some as victims and some as victimizers. At the same time we must realize that we act in both of these rules in various times. But the Cross is the light that shows that this 'secretive' way of ruling the world is now exposes and needs to be exposed continuously from the smallest bit of persecution to the most drastic and grand persecutions and scapegoating. The way of lies is not the way of our God. Never has been - never will be. That places us in a predicament that demands prayerfulness that draws us closer and closer to the way of the Cross so that we see the sinister way the father of lies works among us and through us. The Cross can be for us the shouting voice that says, "Wait, wait, look again at what is being done - look again at what is ruling us and leading us." It is in that moment we can see the truth and begin to stand with those who are being made into victims by a system that needs victims in order to sustain itself. Connection: I don't think this is some kind of paranoia. Rather, I think it is a realism that is based on what the Cross pulls back for us to see. An exercise into which we can all enter into is to look at any 'event' of the day and try to see what is happening. What is causing the brokenness? Is love creating a new world or is love absent and therefore some type of violence - division is in control. I just wonder how often we will see the power of lies abounding - and as close as in our own actions. As you walk with us, O God, help us to see you alongside us and utterly available to guide us in your holy ways. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | This week we continue to look at the role of the cross to defeat Satan. The spotlight upon Satan makes it impossible for him to fool humanity any longer. Paul attempts to say this (with other words Girard notes): And you - God made alive with Christ, having canceled the bond which stood against us with its legal demands; this he set aside, nailing it to the Cross. He disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in him. (Colossians 2:13-15) The nailing (of this legal document that tries to condemn us) to the cross is a first attempt to say that the principalities and powers, in other words, Satan, are defeated and even ridiculed by the cross. I have to stop here. Girard says it out loud - the principalities and powers are the same as Satan. If you think back a few weeks, Satan was portrayed as both order and disorder - both of which can and do resist the non-violent work of Christ. It seems as though we must always keep our eyes open to how the powers around us operate. What is emerging from their realm of influence? What do they bring forth in the life around them? This does not mean that Satan is a devilish figure running around trying to turn us into a part of the principalities and power. Rather, these powers are so vital to keeping the world wrapped in mimetic violence and so good at making it all look so right and good that is is difficult to see that they are often acting quite contrary to the way of Jesus. Therefore, it is good to enter the day already expecting to see the violence (in all its many forms) that saturated the systems in which we live. For then, as people who rise out of our baptism each day, we will begin to see (by the power of the Holy Spirit) the differences of the way of the Cross and the way of the world. The day is then open to acts of everyday resistance that is the mark of the Cross. Connection: It could be that the way we enter the world dominated by principalities and powers is to have an eye for healing. Being able to see how and when things are broken or corrupted or diseased, and begin to be the presence of the healing of Christ, Jesus. The Church is a resistance movement - but not one that destroys the other side. We daily witness to another way to be humans shaped by the Holy Spirit and walking in the way of the Cross. As you walk with us, O God, teach us the ways that make for peace in a world that is in love with warring madness. Encourage all your saints who long to be nourished by your love. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | 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. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | What makes this story of Satan fall apart - we say the cross. Here are some more ways of looking at that dynamic - 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. I will add to this tomorrow. but it is here that Jesus is really present. Jesus is present in the midst of all victims as the one who will stand with and never leave any victim to the destructive power of Satan (please read here the wider notion of Satan). All powers -grand and global or simple and nearby - creates victims in order to sustain themselves. As long as there is someone or some people or some other 'power' that must be beaten down, Satan rules. Need we say anything more about who rules here?! And yet, one voice - like that of Jesus - cracks the silence that keeps things going as they have from the beginning. One voice that will lift up a word of truthfulness lessens the grip of the evil powers. That one voice may be put under just like Jesus - but we are told the voice will never die - it will rather begin another way for more and more people to live. More and more people who hear the witness of the light of the Christ, Jesus, will bring forth more and more light to another way to function as people. In the middle of this enlightened truthfulness about who we are comes a resistance movement that does not destroy but rather confronts with a non-violent innocence that can be crushed - but will be raised up as light for others. Connection: The 'truly Human One' brings the violence that has shaped us all to an end by not participating in that violence. That is why the coming of the 'truly Human One' (son of man) was greatly anticipated. I think such a truly Human One is still available to us - as us. The Church claims that it is the Holy Spirit that brings such a life to the world. It is always within the blessedness of dialogue that keeps the way of Jesus in front of us. As you walk with us, O God, keep our eyes and our hearts tuned to the coming of your beloved Jesus, among us and with us. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | Today I'll begin with a piece of yesterday's quote from Girard and then continue on with his point. Girard notes: Once we realize that the power of Satan is dependent upon a lie, which will not remain effective unless it is firmly believed by all people, an untruth that is always mistaken for a sacred truth, everything else follows. In order for it to remain credible, this untruth, this satanic lie must remain hidden. I must be protected from human curiosity. The founding murder is shrouded in darkness. This is the darkness of myth and of mythical origins. The violence at the heart of myth resembles the violence of the Passion - but the victim is always guilty. For Example: Oedipus (and others) become gods - but still are guilty of whatever they were guilty to start with. They become gods of violence, gods of the violent sacred. The lie is one where violence rules and violence will be the way that order is maintain and disorder comes to an end. And yet, the Cross signals the beginning of the end of that lie. The only way for the world to disrupt the violence and end it is through the utter transparency of the Cross and Resurrection. Violence does not prevail and never can as long as there is a witness to the non-violence and innocence of Jesus that will not let evil and hatred and the father of lies rule. It only takes one light - one witness - one word of truthfulness, to dismantle and expose the way violence never brings peace - in fact it only brings more violence. Connection: We may need to ask ourselves and discuss among the follower of Jesus the witness of rulers and people in positions of authority. What comes from their leadership - is it the ongoing presence of violence - is it another lie hiding another lie - is it the increase of victims at the hands of those given authority to rule? Then we must talk about our own lives and ask what it the witness that we bring into the world. Do we live within light - or remain in the midst of lies? I would say we do both (saint - sinner). But we do not end with that observation - which merely allows for violence to continue. We must be the encouragement to live outside the realm of the father of lies. We need to encourage one another to rise daily within the story of how the Cross defeats the powers that would separate us. That's called baptismal remembrance - no mere words - the actual victory over evil. As you walk with us, O God, give us rest that we may not let the warring ways of the days at hand make us weary and forget whose Reign is really available to us in and through all times. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | Girard starts with: The Cross is a decisive defeat for Satan, the end of his kingdom, which follows logically from the whole mimetic interpretation. It is an end to the cycles of violence - it is the beginning of light shining and exposing how we - all of us - operate. Therefore, something new is really possible. This is the supreme theme regarding Satan, the most amazing and the most difficult to believe - the idea that the Cross is a decisive victory over Satan and the end of Satan's power. Girard notes: Once we realize that the power of Satan is dependent upon a lie, which will not remain effective unless it is firmly believed by all people, an untruth that is always mistaken for a sacred truth, everything else follows. It only takes one witness to the truthfulness of the lying power of Satan - and the principalities and powers - and the structures of evil, to expose the lie that continues to keep us bound up by Satan. As was noted weeks ago, the power that helps to expose these lies is the Holy Spirit the defender of the victim - the Paraclete. This also means the community of saints who find at their very center, this defeat of Satan on the cross. This is not an individual journey - a mere inner walk. It needs to always be communal because no one can fight this kind of darkness alone. In fact, I think this 'theory' would suggest that alone, we really can do nothing but live according to lies that help us go our own way. Satan is always happy with that decision. For it is then that we forget about other - other victims - other powers that attempt to look fine and keep order but are really the source of much evil. Connection: The old bumper stick has some truth to it in this context - "Question Authority." Look more deeply at what is being held up by the 'authority' within any context. Is it a power that does not see or care for or seek to redeemer/liberate the victim - or is there another power at work. This is hard to say and dangerous to say out loud, I think. For now, is places each one of us in the position of being a contrary voice whenever we see the authorities that exist - using others for the welfare of some - of a mere institution - a way of life. When we stand as followers of Jesus (mimic that positive journey) there is going to be a tension among us as we run through the 'normal' actions of the day. Normal may not be blessed - it may just be a part of the order that keeps the father of lies smiling. As you walk with us, O God, give us eyes to see the path of your beloved, Jesus, so that we will not walk down the path of so many powers that hang on the promises of lies and liars. Draw into our lives others who long to walk together into the power of the cross that brings light to our darkness. Amen. |
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