| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | Today is the last devotion based on Rene Girard's look at Satan. I think it is an interesting way to end. Modern folks (Christians) have become ashamed of Satan - and in the end also ashamed of the Gospel. Non Christians point to Satan as proof that the gospels are outmoded and the always timid Christians obediently try to censor Satan out of their own Scriptures. We must do the reverse - we must focus on Satan and discover that the Gospels are their own best source of modernization. We must focus on Satan to realize that far from being the archaic myth that we imagine, the defeated Satan of the Gospels in an enormously powerful critique of all archaic myths, a conception of culture and history so rich that its relevance to our own world is still unfathomable. Are we so afraid of the truthfulness of the existence of the Father of lies that we convince ourselves to lie about the presence of this force for evil within our culture? The only way through this mimetic violence is to reside in the hope of the Cross and Resurrection. It is the ability to say no to the lies that serve to keep the powers alive and prospering. We are not to be finger-pointing people who think we have it all and that we know all that is evil 'out there.' If that was our goal, our goal would be to become a part of the evil we claim to expose. Rather, we must prayerfully be able to critique ourselves and the powers around us. Often we will see that we are a part of those damn power. Internally we may need to say "get behind me Satan" when we see ourselves slipping into the murderous ways that have existed from the beginning of time. Oh, and it is easy to slip into just such a place. I could be we need some additional language to speak of the power of Satan in the world today so that we can wage a resistance that brings light and new life. Connection: There is a song that says: I want to walk as a child of the light. Well, we can. We have been given the Spirit of life that will defend us and support us when the world rejects the light of the Christ alive among the followers of Jesus. We must learn to walk with one another as we face the sway and the pull of the evil that want to own the world - even though it is a defeated power. Such a walk is not done alone. As you walk with us, O God, help us keep that power of evil lit up so that its every act is done in the open and all may see its many tricks and ways of death. Guide us, forever, into the light of your Messiah. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | This talk of begin 'liberated from Satan' sounds like we are coming to the end of Rene Girard's comments on Satan - well yes. The End of Satan is what the Gospels call the victory of the Cross. "The negation of Satan becomes bad only when it is accompanied by a minimization of mimetic contagion, by the illusion that, simply because as a rule, we no longer believe in Satan, we are really independent thinkers, free from what Satan ultimately means, the enormous power of mimetic contagion and scandals, the inability of most of us to criticize the ideas that now rule the world." Satan is done - and we think we are safe and clear. Sounds like some folk who say "I'm saved" as though they no longer participate in the evil of the world. Ha! We must be vigilant and never forget that the ruling power still the evil of the day - but we are to be of a new character. Otherwise, the 'mimetic contagion' continues on in its infectious ways - always keeping things as they are and keeping us thinking that we can handle this evil stuff (or already have). The world will continue to be ruled by powers and principalities that repeatedly run on the power of violence and blame and warfare and scapegoats. When we, knowing of the way of the love of Jesus and its contrary way of life, look out at our world, it becomes quite obvious that the Father of lies is still lying up a storm and able to pull the world right along within the lies. Our task is merely to live within the truth of the resurrection - the victory of the cross - whenever and wherever we encounter the world's violence. Not an easy task at all - that is why we continue to call on the Holy Spirit to come among us and shape the day at hand and the way we move through it as followers of Jesus. Connection: We are invited to live as though we know of the end of Satan. We are inspired to say 'baloney' to such evil every time it lifts it's head to convince us to follow. If we were in a blockbuster movie there would be all kinds of special effects and wild powers of all kinds. But we live right here and right now - where faithfulness to this way of Jesus that is handed to us by the Holy Spirit is the power that pushes evil out of the way so that another witness to life will rise up among us. Quite a journey is ours - quite a journey. As you walk with us, O God, don't let the fear that can consume us and sway us win our hearts and our minds. Keep us for every within the power of the victory of the Cross and the peaceable Reign that is promised therein. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | Repeating a bit of the passed two days before adding more, Girard notes: Whatever is happening to our world, coming as it does from the Gospels, must ultimately be good. 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. Satan (defeated by the Cross) is the prince of this world - principle of order and disorder who is still intact and can be unleashed - not by God - but by the greater and greater loss of scapegoat effectiveness that characterizes our world more and more with the passing time. Our being liberated from Satan's bondage means that the supernatural power of Satan and his demons is an illusion, that Satan does not exist. Let me begin with the opening note in the introduction. Something is happening in our world. We have not been left out to dry. The qualifier is the Gospel. When it is the Gospel that is happening, it will be for the good. Yes, even when the good rarely is seen as victorious. More and more, it is the responsibility of the followers of Jesus to bring to life a community of people who live as though we are liberated from Satan's bondage - from the way of mimetic violence - from the status quo that lives and feeds off of all the powers of division that keep things just as they are: unjust, unforgiving, unfair, merciless, warring. We will not find it easy to live as though all this power of Satan is an illusion because we see the results of that power each day no matter where we look. Therefore, each time we stand up or speak up about the liberation that is 'at hand' through the cross of Christ, the world as it is gets turned on its head. We are not talking anarchy here. We are talking the victory of the cross - we are talking the emergence of the New Being - the Truly Human One - the Christ alive as the body of Jesus' followers. Connection: Even though the power of Satan is an illusion, it still has a way of keeping us locked up and willing to be acolytes for the one who would control all things. Contrary voices are not appreciated especially when the voices are contrary to the central values of the powers of the Father of lies. Again, we can turn to ML King,Jr. Are there those voices still alive now or do we simply become another voice "like King" - but one that keeps in step with what is. That is, speaking up when approved by the powers of the systems of the world but remaining silent when the voice and life of liberation is greatly needed in order to turn things around. As you walk with us, O God, let your Spirit bring to life a voice among us that will reveal the power of the Gospel and speak the truth in the face of all the powers of evil that long to be power of life among us. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | Today adds onto yesterday's piece - again by Rene Girard 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. Satan (defeated by the Cross) is the prince of this world - principle of order and disorder who is still intact and can be unleashed - not by God - but by the greater and greater loss of scapegoat effectiveness that characterizes our world more and more with the passing time. In my most simple terms that makes sense to me, Satan gets really pissed off. The Father of lies knows that in the Cross and Resurrection - the lying gets nailed as false and the truth of the Good News - the Victory of truthfulness over lies is the ultimate winner. Therefore, Satan's power - the powers of the world and the powers of all the persecution of victims - will do everything it can to stay in power. On this day after the MLK holiday, it is important to note that after King's witness that helped to expose the power of evil and give word to a new life, the power of evil has tried to stay underground and do its divisive scapegoating in other ways. The evil of racism that was once so expected and almost 'common place and ordinary' has been given another seat by the powers that be. Just look at our prisons - just look at our cities - just look at poverty - just look at how race is not an issue and yet, yes it still is. Sometimes, evil has such a good way of wearing a cloak that we are not able to see that it sits among us insisting that we - in some way - get that scapegoating mechanism doing what it always does - divides and separates and kills. Connection: Evil wants to make sure things run smoothly and efficiently and without a lot of noise. That is at the center of the strategy of the Father of lies. So when the life of the followers of Jesus live within the way of the Cross and raise questions or point out what really is going on around us, the witnesses of Jesus Reign need to know that we are not a favorable bunch. That is why I look at the 'favorable' status of some religious groups in the midst of the system of today's politics and wonder who they are really serving. As you walk with us, O God, let your truth preside among us even when we are not quite sure what will come as it is revealed. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | 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. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | Today Girard writes about the connection of this violence to all of us. The unveiling of mimetic violence has a more and more powerful influence on our history and on the entire modern world. Hidden victims in societies are continuously being brought to light - the consensus against them always dissolves after a while; slaves, lower class, different ethnic folks, differing religious backgrounds, gender differences. We bring to light the mimetic violence and see that it does not own the day anymore. Unfortunately, injustice and arbitrariness are still with us. Forces continue to try and nullify our concern for victims. The victims must be seen. They cannot be covered over by well-positioned arguments that make it easier to point fingers. The victims must be seen. Our own personal interests cannot be allowed to cloud the picture and rationalize why there must be a victim. There will always be victims who are shut down and trampled upon in order to maintain differences. In those differences, we often make excuses to act as we do - usually that is not to benefit others. Most often, differences are accented in order to benefit our side of the day. It makes it so easy to fall into that pattern of mimetic violence that is rooted deeply into the human experience and story. I am realizing more and more that the victim is not always the lowly one. We are also masters of making victims of anyone. That is disturbing to me because it means I must maintain a vigil against the violence that comes so naturally - a violence I condone because it is against 'that or those' bastards! Ha. Connection: So, we are invited again into the light. It is not always a pleasant journey. It can be quite painful because it reveals the dark side that we never want to show. Therefore, we usually do not acknowledge that it is right here with us. We are invited into the light that is always available and present before we even realize we need that light. As you walk with us, open up the pathway of your grace and empower us to enter into your love and be that love. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | Here's how Girard continues his comments about the Cross as a trap set by God. 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. Everything turns out as Satan expected - except for one thing. With the help of the Paraclete, Jesus' disciples finally break away from the mimetic consensus and provide the world with a truthful account of what should remain hidden in this affair, at least from the perspective of Satan. 1 Corinthians 2:7-8 now makes more sense: But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God which God decreed before the ages for our glorification. None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. Paul and the whole New Testament are saying: once the Cross has revealed the mimetic violence at the root of human society, and the misunderstanding of this violence, the world can never be the same. The lie is done. The Father of Lies has no clothes. That very root that has sprouted nothing but violence again and again has been uprooted and destroyed. That is the Cross. No longer will mimetic violence rule here. The disciples got it - they finally got it. Even as we see them as lunk-heads who do not understand as they go along the way with Jesus, the Holy Spirit opens their eyes to see what has happened. And then, the Holy Spirit opens their mouths so that they can give a witness to the power of the love of God's Reign that cannot be ruled or overcome by the lies of all the powers of the world. We are people who are invited (pulled by the Spirit) to live within this truthfulness whenever the powers of the day attempt to rule us and attempt to brutalize the victims of the world. This truthfulness also enables us to step in and stand alongside and with the victims because we know that the brutality of the principalities and powers cannot win the day. And yet, to be in such a position is not easy. It would be easier to simply go in another direction and turn our heads and our lives away from the power that would rule us. Connection: Walking in the light of the Cross and Resurrection does involve a literal walking - a living - a resistance to all the powers that want to shape us into something other than the love of God incarnate. And yet, we are encouraged to walk and live and consider the welfare of all so that the mimetic violence will have to encounter the Christ in our day. As you walk with us, hold us up so that as we stand in the world, we will be empowered to live in the way and the truth and the life of the one we call, Lord, Jesus. For in Jesus' light we continue to see new life open up to us even as we seem to be controlled by the valley of death. Amen. |
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