| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | In the words of Isaiah 53 we hear of the Suffering Servant who (as Girard notes) dies at the hands of a community mimetically united against him. God is not doing this to the Suffering Servant - this is what we do when we are taken up into the violence that has gripped us from the beginning. 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 one who comes to be with all - to be with the forgotten and the abused and the discarded and the rejected is with them all because that is what it is to be truly human. Maybe we could say 'when the Messiah comes' this is how s/he comes. And when s/he comes - because the Messiah will not take sides or make sides but will be for all without condition - this servant will suffer at the hands of a world that does not know the ways that make for peace. Did God cause this suffering? No. God brings forth the servant (that can be Israel, the prophets, Jesus, the followerwers of Jesus) as the embodiment of God's reconciliation and forgiveness that is a contrary way to the "evil power of mimetic contagion - disease" that rules us all. In this kind of world, the servant will be cast down and crushed - by us. I want to comment on verses 10-12 tomorrow. Connection: In, with, and under the run of history, our God brings vision and life that is oriented toward God's peaceable Reign. Throughout history this is what God does. God patiently waits for us to turn and be a part of its arriving and expression. And yet, we need only look around - no way. But more than that, we need only hold up a mirror and take another look at ourselves and how we hang onto the disease of a violent contagion. When we begin to use the Enneagram at Redeemer it is my hope we will each enter an adventure through the darkness that is us and the light that also shines through the darkness. As you walk with us, O God, remind us of the ways of the servant - the truly human one that is available and present even as we look away or throw stones. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | Girard brings up an interesting question about the violence that takes place both with the Passion but also with the beheading of John the Baptist. In both places, there is growing hostility - a polarization that is essential to the deaths that take place. What is the force behind the hostile polarization? Is it God? Do the Gospels intend to portray a violence ordained and manipulated by God for the purpose of having an innocent victim sacrificed? Girard notes that the Gospels are really alluding to a specific phenomenon, an identifiable type of violence, with it own characteristic features (hostility that predates the event, growing hostility, and then action to end the hostility - for now). The violence and the hostility is "from the foundation of the world, the blood of Abel the just." That is it is a situation - a violence - that is meant to include all of humanity. Girard turns to the story of Peter (denying Peter) out in the courtyard. Peter wants to be religiously correct. When we want to be friends with a group of people we must show that we have the same friends and the same enemies. Peter mimics the crowd. This is typical of humanity. At the same time, Peter is not just any member of the crowd - he is the one with the greatest spiritual investment in Jesus (yet, he still joins the crowd). Girard says the purpose of the scene is no to humiliate Peter. It is to reveal the immense power, the evil power of mimetic contagion. This way of hiding within the crowd - being caught up in the movement - losing the ability to reveal the alternative power of Jesus - is catchy. It is like the spread of a disease. The next thing that happens is the murder. The killing of an innocent one. The growth of fear to the point of blame and persecution and 'righteous murder' within a system that is not righteous at all. Another tie in to Peter is when he tries to turn Jesus aside from Jerusalem. The way of a winner is to not go to Jerusalem. The way to fit into the system is not to go to Jerusalem. The way to play a role in the hostility from the foundation of the world is to not go to Jerusalem and expose its violence. Instead, shut up and keep low and go along with the ways things are done. This is not the way of God's will. God with Us reveals the way of unrelenting love and non-violence that is not the disease of the world. Instead Jesus will tell Peter to follow him - follow him and see the way that is contrary to the world. Peter will, like all of us from the 'foundation of the world' slip and fall into the mimetic pattern. Connection: I cannot believe that I so easily fall into the ways of the violence and evil of the world. This is one of the reasons I have been liking my reading and work with the Enneagram. It continuously shines a light on the patterns of our brokenness that keep the world as it is. We must know that part of us that is as old as all things and we must be willing to face them and go/act another way. I find that is not an easy road to go. Others are needed to help in the journey. Girard will say that this help is the Holy Spirit - the Paraclete. With that power, there is a hope that a positive contagion (non-violence) will be revealed among us. As you walk with us, O God, shine your light of peace and reconciliation upon us so that the we may face and recognize and resist the power of violence that so easily plays with our lives. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | Today a parable leads the comments: Mark 12:1-12. It is a parable that troubles a lot of folks but it I think Girard does an interesting job with the interpretation 1 And he began to speak to them in parables. "A man planted a vineyard, and set a hedge around it, and dug a pit for the wine press, and built a tower, and let it out to tenants, and went into another country. 2 When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants, to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. 3 And they took him and beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. 4 Again he sent to them another servant, and they wounded him in the head, and treated him shamefully. 5 And he sent another, and him they killed; and so with many others, some they beat and some they killed. 6 He had still one other, a beloved son; finally he sent him to them, saying, `They will respect my son.' 7 But those tenants said to one another, `This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.' 8 And they took him and killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard. 9 What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants, and give the vineyard to others. 10 Have you not read this scripture: `The very stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner; 11 this was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes'?" 12 And they tried to arrest him, but feared the multitude, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them; so they left him and went away. Girard notes the the last violence (in the parable) is unique in regard to the victim's identity but not unique as violence - it is similar as the rest. The difference is that it is the master's son who is the victim of the violence. Jesus will die like all the other prophets. Jesus death will repeat the ancient pattern of collective violence that we have in the parable. "Let's get him!" Girard is quick to say that this is not meant to be anti-Semitic (the Jews killing Jesus) but rather the ones who kill - kill like the whole human race does! What will come of this is the fact that this one who is killed - this innocent victim - will not incite a riot or will not seek any type of payback. Instead a new order will arise in which collective violence is to be no more. That is what resurrection does. God put an end to the cycle of violence that has been the pattern of our humanity. The Stone - this Son of non-violence has been rejected and yet it will be the beginning of a whole new way of living on the side of the victims of such violence. When we seek control - when we want what other have - when we want to be who others are - we have this history of violence. As time rolls on, that pattern does not change - we imitate what we know. We see what seems to 'work' and we jump into that pattern. Siding with the victim - become a victim alongside other victims - does not seem like a winning adventure. And yet, as in the parable, even though the son knows what has happened to the messengers from the Master, the son goes in and brings the message - without weapons, powerful threats. Instead, he comes with what is really good news. Those who are tending the land are still there and will be there as a gift of good will from the Master. But they want what is the Masters and will do anything to keep things in the way they want them. The 'threat' at the end is not that the Master will blow them up - I think it is more that they will destroy themselves as they live within such a system of violence - they have rejected the other way. Connection: It is too easy to follow in the ways of violence - there are so many ways that are violent. And yet, when we are caught in that cycle of blame and needing someone at whom we can cast stones for the predicament we are in, there will be violence upon violence and the world will be as it always is. The strange aspect of this 'other way' is that it does not stand up and beat up oppressive and violent powers - that would simply make us like them. Rather, the new way walks into what is considered foolishness - non-violence - forgiveness. Until all are united in such a life, there will be martyrs who are crushed by the powers but also seen as a light of hope to another way. As you walk with us, O God, be our encouragement to follow the Lord of Peace, Jesus. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | Hold on, this Satan stuff is not meant to be a turn off. Rather a reality that benefits all of us when we are aware of the power of its influence and control. In Mark 3:23 we hear this question: How can Satan cast out Satan? Girard comes back to this verse quite a bit. He notes that the Passion is called by Jesus - the hour of Satan. Girard says it is because it is Satan's attempt to cast out Jesus - to expel him as if he were another Satan, a worse Satan than Satan himself. That is, Satan attempts to cast out Satan through murder, especially collective violence. Satan cannot cast out Jesus because Jesus is not a part of this power of separation. Satan doesn't get that. Even with all the power to bring together a collective group that will use Jesus as a scapegoat, the disciples (by the power of the Holy Spirit) will help break his cycle of violence. They will be empowered to give witness to another way that breaks from the mimetic consensus that is usually the engine behind the social order. This social order is ruled by a scapegoat mechanism that the resurrection reveals and defeats. Jesus does not take part in the collective violence of the world. He is no part of it. Satan, on the other hand, is at the heart of it. Where collective violence will always come up with a scapegoat to blame and to offer as a sacrifice to keep things as is, Jesus will be that victim - dying like other victims of society - but the Holy Spirit (defender of the falsely accused) will not let the same old story rule the day. Satan cannot cast out Satan because as one system or people act as those who cast out, that same system stays in place - because it is accepted as the way things are done. So, Satan wins every time mimetic rivalry shows its head and repeats the never ending lie. Connection: How often have we all seen one lie lead to another - or one power of destruction and divisiveness lead to another - or name-calling of one become name-calling of another? This is the cycle. This is the lie. This is Satan whose rule stretched back as far as humanity. Jesus will live and die as though there are no more victims. Instead he becomes the victim of this age old lie whose cycle is broken by the event of eternal love alive for the well-being of all - without pointing a finger or creating separations. As you walk with us, O God, remind us of the power of the Holy Spirit that raises up among the followers of Jesus a people a truth-telling and abounding love that stand with and for all the victims of the endless cycle of our violence. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | The Sabbatical is over so here we go. I'd like to start in a place I did not expect. Advent is the beginning of the Church Year - the coming of the Messiah of God - Jesus. A lead character that cannot be dismissed in this adventure is Satan. Thus, I will begin with Rene Girard's look at Satan. Girard notes: Satan is a reality - expressing a source of transcendence. Another transcendence would be God's Reign. He also notes that Satan is the personification of the principles of both order and disorder. I will stop there because Satan is so often the one we point to as the power that disrupts us or causes us to stumble - creating chaos - leading to war - nurturing bigotry and hatred - death. And yet, when Jesus calls the Passion "the hour of Satan" it is not an hour of disorder. Rather it is played out very well. The 'order' of the day stays place. Girard places a special emphasis on what he calls mimesis or - desire that imitates - an unconscious imitation of others. What stays in place as the order of Satan is this kind of "wanting to be something." So the something plays itself out in many ways. The Order may be the order brought about by war. That is, they have something or they are something other than us and we desire what that appears to be. So - when Satan is of order it is because Satan embodies the self-organizing system that keeps mimesis (this imitating desire) within the bounds that will perpetuate the system. The order of the world is set up to divide - keep people separate - create fear, etc. This order is really disorder because it is based on a lie that is "from the foundation of the world" and stays in place through victimage and scapegoating. This is the world where Satan is the Prince. Connection: This is the world into which Jesus as the Christ of God is born. Satan rules and the 'orderly' way of Satan will dog Jesus throughout his life. Again and again, Satan will attempt to pull Jesus aside and win him into the camp of this destructive and ever-present domain that is ruled by the 'Father of lies.' Jesus will resist and live in a way that is contrary to this 'devilish' way to live. Jesus will live within the realm of love - the power of life that is defined by a 'love that will not let anyone go' - not them - not those - not the ones we want to be dead and gone. Jesus will be the life that exposes the lie of the order of Satan. As you walk with us, O God, continue to keep our hearts open to your love that exposes the bonds of evil that attempt to keep us just as we are - locked within their power. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | SD-56: Caught the flu-cold of this fall season so I've been down and out. Thought I would comment on Local Issues and a bit of Occupy Wall Street - from a faithful position - I hope I wrote this as part of a letter to the editor - it didn't make it but is being used by We Believe Ohio as part of adding our voice to issue 2 and 3. Hating together unites us - stops our divisions. When this is the shape of our world, we do not need to listen to the other side and take into consideration a reality that is other than the one we want to create. To be truly creative within society means that we use the whole palette of ideas and possibilities and critical analysis in order to bring about something that will be truly beneficial and make room for something new to emerge. S.B 5 - now on the ballot as Issue 2 - is less than creative. It is less than the best we can offer. Rather than bring out our best it does what is so often done when we do not know how to respect and honor others - we scapegoat. I am a part of We Believe Ohio. I think we want something more than Issue 2. We also want something more than the status quo in Ohio. We expect that we can be a creative people who are willing to be self-critical. We are a people who can step into conversations that seek to transform society for the well-being of all. We want to be a part of an Ohio where fear does not command our attention. We need to defeat Issue 2 in order to face the state of our life together in Ohio within a conversational creativity that will not settle for pointing fingers - at them. We believe lines have to stop being drawn - unless of course - they are lines that connect rather then divide. Hating together unites us - stops our divisions - but destroys the heart of us all. In Jesus (as God incarnate) - going to the cross - facing an unjust sentence of death - being a victim of systems that find ways to create scapegoats to silence crowds, we see then end of vengeance and paybacks and victimization. The resurrection reminds us that we are followers of one who was raised for living contrary to that which comes so naturally to us - blame and never-ending divisions that keep the peaceable Reign of God at a distance. It is so easy to find a scapegoat who we must knock down or destroy for what we see is wrong in the world. But that is not our way. Our way is the way of truthfulness. That is, we do not let the evil of the day prevail against us. We speak up and speak with those who are the victims of the day. We bring light that exposes and calls forth justice and mercy. It has been a part of the run of history (this even checks out within Jesus' day) that a very small percentage of the people 'have' and most 'have not' or are trying to keep stable what they do have. So it doesn't seem like a big jump to encourage us to face the day at hand asking about what is just for all -not merely some. The only way to do that is through dialogue - but the way things usually run, there is no dialogue and/or no new outcome from conversations. Connection: What are the alternatives to dialogue and conversation? The Occupy Wall Street people - if they would turn to the power of violence and vengeance - would not merely put up tents and sing and bang on drums and be carted of to jail. They might go in the other direction - the direction of the day - the direction of mode of operation of the elite. They would do all they could do to make the world as they want it. For all of us, that would be tragic. For if that happens - if scapegoating turns into its usual violent ways - the Wall Street individuals would need to be warned for the power of paybacks is an endless cycle in which violence wins and we all lose. Draw us into the wealth of your Reign, O God, for when we turn to other powers to sustain our lives, we tear down the very life that you have handed to us as a gift. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | SD-51: Lost yesterday to a drive to Cleveland, I will continue today with the first lesson from Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18 (here's the whole context). Leviticus 19:1-18 19The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:2Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.3You shall each revere your mother and father, and you shall keep my sabbaths: I am the Lord your God.4Do not turn to idols or make cast images for yourselves: I am the Lord your God.5When you offer a sacrifice of well-being to the Lord, offer it in such a way that it is acceptable on your behalf.6It shall be eaten on the same day you offer it, or on the next day; and anything left over until the third day shall be consumed in fire.7If it is eaten at all on the third day, it is an abomination; it will not be acceptable.8All who eat it shall be subject to punishment, because they have profaned what is holy to the Lord; and any such person shall be cut off from the people.9When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest.10You shall not strip your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the alien: I am the Lord your God. 11You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; and you shall not lie to one another.12And you shall not swear falsely by my name, profaning the name of your God: I am the Lord.13You shall not defraud your neighbor; you shall not steal; and you shall not keep for yourself the wages of a laborer until morning.14You shall not revile the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind; you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.15You shall not render an unjust judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great: with justice you shall judge your neighbor.16You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not profit by the blood of your neighbor: I am the Lord.17You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin; you shall reprove your neighbor, or you will incur guilt yourself.18You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord. In this reading of the text I was drawn to the last bit - the highlighted part that will be the last part of this Sunday's lesson. Love once again rules. It does not rule as a "let things go" or "don't correct evil." Rather, this love -that is what is holy about us- is the life that does not 'go after the other even when the other has done us wrong.' No, we are not to be weak as though weakness is a goal. We are to be strongly confident in the position we hold according to our God - holy. Therefore, we need no attack the other even when the other seeks to put an end to us. What we must do is point out the evil - name it - pull back the curtain - rumble around in the Temple and call out the people of power who claim to be valued more than we are. Ha! No one is valued by God more than we are - we are all valued - precious -worthy. No more vengeance - no more false witness in order to get back at others - no more cutting down - no more back-biting. We can risk being filled with the truth -and with telling that kind of story. It may involve forgiveness and it may involve saying "no" to any power that attempts to lessen the power of another. That is what this love is all about. It is the power to stand against evil and stand for what is just and honorable and holy among us all. That is when we will take a hit for something called love - a love that is holy - a live that is us: from the beginning to the end. Connection: There is no need for pay-backs - ever. The resurrection puts an end to any power that thinks it must have its say and its way. Most often we think it is the other side that condemns and tries to destroy. And yet, it is also all of us - we want our way and we will do the most terrible things to make it so - even things we can justify with a boat load of arguments. How does love look when we really, really want to play the game of pay-backs and vengeance? Draw us into the wealth of your Reign, O God, for we like to go the cheap route and take life as we would control it and own it. Amen. |
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