So What?
We Christians are the most joyous of
all people, for we know that Jesus is risen, God has not abandoned us, neither
as a species nor as individuals. The fact is, even in our sin, we are included
in God’s good process of creation, an on going activity that will one
day culminate. And indeed the judgment of our God will be, as it was in the
beginning, that it is all ‘very, very good.’
We stand forgiven. Before God, before
the universe, before every animal, mineral or vegetable, before each other,
we stand forgiven. God has brought all under judgment in order that God might
have mercy upon all. Breaking bread together, forgiving each other, practicing
peace and peace making with one another teaches us how to live in and with
the world. Without our Eucharist, apart from our gratitude we are lost. But
with joy and gratitude for God’s grace, our Eucharist is a celebration
of Jesus opening our eyes to see (our victimizing), our ears to hear (the
cries of the suffering), and the turning of hearts of stone to caring and
compassion. We can live now as we will live then.
Anthropological Reading
I suspect Kierkegaard would have loved
today’s text from the Gospel of Luke. It is about misrecognition and
the grounding of true cognition. Ricouer, I think, would point out the structure
of this misrecognition. Both would have observed the alterity (‘otherness’)
of Jesus. When Karl Barth was a young pastor, he also wrote about the problem
of our misrecognition of God and spoke of God as ‘wholly other than’
the god of our religion.
It is rather astonishing how Jesus is
misrecognized today. Luke’s gospel gives us an important clue as to
why this misrecognition occurs and also shows us the means by which true recognition
takes place.
It is a simple story in its basics. Two
men are walking home. Their lives have been turned upside down over the death
of a friend. More so, they have heard bizarre tales being told about him.
They can’t figure it out. Along the way they meet a stranger who inquires
about their conversation and who subsequently puts everything into perspective,
first through his interpretation of Scripture, then through a idiom of personal
action. Suddenly, everything is clear.
First let’s discuss the phenomenon
of misrecognition as it occurs christologically. The two men have a fundamental
belief they express ”but we had hoped he (Jesus) was the one who was
going to redeem Israel.” It is plain to see that a certain expectation
was held here. Jesus was hoped to be the mighty go’el, the redeemer
of God. There was a certain ‘otherness’ to the person and work
of Jesus, so much so that it could only be contexted in the light of the end
where this ‘otherness’ was the stuff of the new beginning, the
eschatological age to come. All of this was viewed through the lens of a ‘promissory
history’ (Moltmann), a history of the people who belonged to this ‘other
God.’ In short, Jesus was perceived through the specific lens of apocalyptic,
literature that had an emphasis on the end.
We do not need to pidgeonhole these ‘messianic
beliefs’ into disparate and discrete systems, son of man, second adam,
Christ, the prophet, etc. Most important was what had occurred in ancient
Jewish messianism with the formulation of a view of Messiah as a political
redeemer who achieved victory through the use of force/power. The people were
not wrong to have such high expectations of Jesus. Where he disappointed them
was precisely in his inability or unwillingness to defend himself, to achieve
victory with shock and awe. He let himself get killed. Fool. God’s emissary
would never let that happen. God is all powerful, so also would his agent
be. It did not occur to Jesus’ followers that he would choose to not
use this potential power in his own defense or in retribution.
Jesus’ vulnerability is the veil
behind which God hides. Jesus’ openness to love and forgive is the camouflage
of the heart of God. If we are going to talk about a hidden God in Christianity
(dues absconditus), then let us acknowledge that this God is benevolent in
every way, This is the One in whom there is ‘no shadow of turning.’
Jesus is misrecognized because we do not see that suffering is not just an
experience, it is a hermeneutic. When we do not understand that ‘the
Christ must suffer’, when we are afraid to speak of God who suffers
with us in love, when we refuse to suffer and most especially when we ignore
the suffering of others, we remain blind, unable to see God at work.
This blindness, this inability to recognize
will not only be talked about, it will be demonstrated from pulpits everywhere
when this Sunday some preachers will focus on Jesus’ use of Scripture
and conclude he was justifying a theory of inspiration that they then can
twist and distort into silly putty gods. A god like every other god, a god
that is not truly different, truly distinguished, truly Holy. They will still
preach a god of power and might, a god above time, space and humanity. A god
above matter, a truly Gnostic divinity, a god who does not, cannot and will
not suffer. No, their god, their Christ comes with power, force, death, and
vengeance.
Not so, Jesus says. It is the suffering
Christ, the suffering God by which Scripture is to be interpreted. This is
the emphasis Jesus gives to the biblical text. Do otherwise and you will be
walking along a road full of questions (which is what most do and why most
are where they are). Jesus gives the perspective of the suffering victim.
Jesus addressed death.
Death is the one reality we all face,
it is the one reality from which we run our fastest. At our healthiest, we
do not choose to suffer, nor to be abandoned, alienated, hated, mocked, insulted
and murdered. Yet we constantly inflict all of this on others when we non-consciously
engage in scapegoating others, blaming others. This is our human dilemma.
It is the place in which we are blinder than bats. It is the place from which
our collective self deception originates. Because we refuse to acknowledge
that we victimize others, in thought, word and deed we fail to see that we
too would victimize Jesus were he here today? How so?
Matthew’s gospel gives us a strategic
clue. It is found in the parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25.
It is the final element of the pre-Matthean passion narrative. It says that
Jesus is to be recognized in our scapegoats. Yours, mine, ours. This tendency
we have toward the pulsating heart of violent death, to make our life better
by getting rid of others is true of virtually everybody, it is the virus infecting
humanity. We are oriented to death and we are in denial about it because we
are the cause of death. We are in service to death, we obey its every command.
Jesus comes to us to help us see that
until we hear with this hermeneutic from below, until we see from this theology
of the Cross, we will continue to misrecognize and thus misrepresent both
Jesus and the One he knew as his Daddy.
However, when we do acknowledge that
the perspective which reveals is the perspective of the innocent forgiving
victim, a true miracle occurs. Luke tells us that Jesus went on with these
men and ended up planning to stay with them. At the meal the four fold action,
take-bless-break-give, the Eucharistic action (Dom Gregory Dix), the action
of the feeding of the masses (Fuchs), this four fold action opens their eyes
to see and their ears to hear and they recognize that even in their state
of misrecognition they had a huge desire to believe that his interpretation
was true, ‘their hearts burned.’ This four fold action is the
paradigm of Jesus’ life, the way he would have us interpret his life.
It is his life that God chooses to take, bless, break and give. This self-giving
of the Parent of the universe, for us humans and our salvation, ought to just
astonish us.
True cognition of Jesus takes place when
we as a Christian community gather round our sacred victim and acknowledge
what we are doing, the symbolic ritual activity of mob cannibalism. This is
the Eucharist. This is where, even as we re-enact the murder of Jesus, we
are told we are forgiven. If we would do this to Jesus, we would certainly
do it to others. And we do, and knowing this, we can also choose to no longer
participate in processes that lead to death. We become aware that we are the
Forgiven Ones. We have come under the reign of Life. We become the Forgiving
Ones. And this is the joy of Eastertide. “It is true, the Lord is risen
and has appeared to Simon.”
Historical/Cultural
No comments today.
Either
this page has not yet been completed, or we have not found any significant textual
issues in the lectionary texts for this Sunday.
What's New: (Hover your mouse over to pause cycling)
Acts 2:14a,36-41
Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed the multitude,
"Let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him
both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified."
Now when they heard this, they were cut
to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, "Brothers,
what should we do?" Peter said to them, "Repent, and be baptized
every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven;
and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you,
for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our
God calls to him." And he testified with many other arguments and exhorted
them, saying, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation." So
those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand
persons were added.
1 Peter 1:17-23
If you invoke as Father the one who judges all people impartially according
to their deeds, live in reverent fear during the time of your exile. You know
that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors,
not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood
of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish. He was destined
before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of the ages
for your sake. Through him you have come to trust in God, who raised him from
the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God.
Now that you have purified your souls
by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love
one another deeply from the heart. You have been born anew, not of perishable
but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God.
Luke 24:13-35
That very day, the first day of the week, two of the disciples were going
to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking
with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were
talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their
eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, "What are you
discussing with each other while you walk along?" They stood still, looking
sad. Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, "Are you
the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken
place there in these days?" He asked them, "What things?" They
replied, "The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty
in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests
and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. But
we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this,
it is now the third day since these things took place. Moreover, some women
of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, and when
they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had
indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. Some of those who
were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but
they did not see him." Then he said to them, "Oh, how foolish you
are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared!
Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then
enter into his glory?" Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets,
he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures. As
they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if
he were going on. But they urged him strongly, saying, "Stay with us,
because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over." So he went
in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed
and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized
him; and he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, "Were
not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while
he was opening the scriptures to us?" That same hour they got up and
returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered
together. They were saying, "The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared
to Simon!" Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had
been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright
1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches
of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights
reserved.
Occasional Articles
As with the Introductory Articles, we
will add other articles as time permits or as our readers request. If you
have a suggestion for anything, please let us know.
Michael Hardin
Is the Apocalypse Inevitable?: Native American Prophecy and the Mimetic Theory presented to the Colloquium on Violence and Religion 2008
Michael's Essay for a Celebration Volume honoring Rene Girard
Michael's Response to Willard Swartley's Covenent of Peace at the November Colloquium and Violence Meeting
Does
Peace Make A Difference? - Michael's essay in response to Rick
Warren's P.E.A.C.E. plan (which somehow never mentions peace).
An Analysis of Rick Warren - Michael's response to "The Purpose Driven Life."
"The
God of Pat Robertson" - a response to Pat Robertson's words
to the people of Dover, PA.
"A
response to Charles Stanley's "A Nation at War"
"Must
God be violent? A Diagnosis and Prescription for Modern Christianity"
The
Scapegoat: Christologies in Conflict - A Study in Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Biblical
Testaments as a Marriage of Convenience: Rene Girard and Biblical Interpretation
Finding
Our Way Home: A Brief Note On The Authority and Interpretation of Scripture
"Does
The Passion of the Christ Preach the Gospel?"
A
sermon for the holiday devoted to Dr. Martin Luther King. (requires
Adobe Acrobat Reader.)
GRASPING
GOD: Philippians 2: 1-11 in the Light of Mimetic Theory
Rene Girard and the Recovery of Early Christian Perspectives (Brethren Life and Thought)
The Dynamics of Violence and the Imitation of Christ in Maximus Confessor (St. Vladimir's Theological Quarterly)
"EcoSpirituality"
Or What Happens When You Sit Down With A French Literary Critic
Jeff Krantz
Mighty
One or Crucified Messiah? Competing Christologies and the Chiastic
Structure of Mark's Gospel
There's
No Such Thing as the Rapture - A sermon preached at the Church
of the Advent, Westbury (requires Acrobat Reader)
Holy
Scripture and the Consecration of Gene Robinson - a response
to the request of the Windsor Report for a Scriptural rationale. (requires
Adobe's Acrobat Reader)
Worship - The Redemption of Desire by Jeff Krantz
Myth
and Film - a piece written for the City of Angels Film Festival
The Stations of the Cross - Rewritten by Jeff Krantz
A Dramatic Presentation of the Stations of the Cross for Youth by Barb Fabijan-Waddell
Escaping
the Power of "My" - A NonViolent Approach to Stewardship
Preaching
Peace in Hollywood: The Theologies of Terminator, Lord of the Rings, and the
Matrix
V
for Vendetta - The Name Says It All A review of the movie.
Essays, Sermons and Liturgical Pieces by Friends of Preaching Peace
"Jesus and the Gibeonites: Reading the Bible from the Perspective of the Hidden Victim" by James Warren.
Mark Heim's "No More of This" - A hymn on Nonviolent Atonement
Kate Layzer's "No More of This" - A hymn on Nonviolent Atonement (and inspiration for Mark Heim's hymn!)
Alan Cork, "Transformation" in L'Arche: A Mimetic Account presented to the Colloquium on Violence and Religion 2008
"The Wisdom of God's Peace" a sermon by Jim Amstutz, co-pastor of Michael's church.
Girard's Christology - Per Bjornar Grande
Violence, Anarchy and Scripture: Jacques Ellul and Rene Girard - Matthew Patillo
Comparing
Plato's Understanding of Mimesis to Girard's - Per Bjorner Grande
C. Frank Terhune, an Easter Sermon: "God's Big But" (no kidding!)
Gerald Biesecker-Mast's paper from Theologia Pacis on Pacifist Gospel Epstimology.
An essay by the Rev. John Hill on Mimetic Theory and Catechesis
