So What?
In Plagues and Peoples, William H. McNeill
writes, “Since the 1940’s the impact of scientific medicine and
public health administration upon conditions of human life has become literally
world wide. In most places epidemic diseases have become unimportant, and
many kinds of infections have become rare where they were formerly common
and serious. The net increment to human health and cheerfulness is hard to
exaggerate; indeed, it now requires an act of imagination to understand what
infectious disease formerly meant to humankind, or even to our own grandfathers.
Yet as is to be expected when human beings learn new ways of tampering with
complex ecological relationships, the control over micro-parasites that medical
research has achieved since the 1880s has also created a number of unexpected
by-products and new crises.”
McNeill, in 1976, goes on to note the
“unpleasant possibility that biological research aimed at discovering
effective ways of paralyzing enemy populations by disseminating lethal disease
organisms among them might succeed in unleashing epidemiological disaster
on part – or perhaps on all of the world.”
Words written more than 25 years ago
ring with more intensity today in the emerging discussion of war. One way
of entry into the text is to simply consider what a biological event would
mean for your community, your family, your job. Another is to care for people
with HIV. The experience of social alienation is one of the greatest human
afflictions there is.
There is the poignant story of St. Francis who would do anything for Jesus
but he would not, could not touch a leper. Until the day that he is convinced
by love to do so and the leper he holds turns out to be Jesus. Embracing the
un-embraceable breaks the cycle of isolation.
In our not too distant history, we were
burning witches; we hope that, perhaps hundreds of years from now, we will
have eschewed the stupidity of warfare. Mimetic contagion is still the best
explanation for the phenomena of both witch hunting and warfare.
A Few Homiletic Fragments:
Today’s text is about a missed
opportunity. Good opportunities come along infrequently, and in our story
the healed leper may have missed one, too.
1. Jesus touches the man rendering himself
unclean;
2. The man is healed, therefore he is no longer unclean;
3. Is Jesus legally clean or unclean at this point? If he is ‘unclean’
one can understand the use of the emotive verbs in the text.
4. The man is told with great emotion to go and bear witness to the temple
authorities, who, it is assumed, know his now former condition. They must
now give him an inspection and ‘declare’ him clean and his sacrifices
acceptable. In the process they would most likely find out how the man had
been healed.
5. The leper was commanded to be a semeia to the authorities, instead he remains
the beneficiary of divine dynamis.
6. The former leper starts telling everyone he knows. The leper essentially
misses his call to discipleship. Exuberance won out over his chance to participate
in Jesus’ announcement to the authorities that ‘God’s reign
was dawning.’
January 2006:
I am always taken by the textual variant in this passage. Though we go with
the translation found in the NRSV, the variant suggests that, when confronted
by the leper’s statement, “If you will, you can make me clean,”
Jesus is not moved with pity, but with anger! I am convinced that this is
the original reading, as it is utterly inconceivable that a copyist changed
“moved with pity” (splanknistheis) to “moved with anger,”
(orgistheis) but the reverse is easily seen.
What stuns me is Jesus response of anger
to the very suggestion that he might NOT will the man to be clean. Not that
he is angry at the man himself, but at the system that has taught him that
the servant of God might understand God as desiring his illness, that he might
somehow deserve to have it continue.
Preachers are often looking for ways
to psychologize the New Testament, to make “anger” okay, and so
we look in places where it cannot truly be found to find evidence of Jesus’
acting out on his rage. (The “cleansing of the Temple” being most
folks’ favorite.) That interpretation of Jesus’ actions in the
Temple doesn’t really hold, but this one sure does. There is no mistaking
it. Jesus is made angry, and what does he do? Does he condemn? Does he withhold?
No… He heals.
Anthropological Reading
Jesus’ healing ministry more than
re-socialized the outcast, it effectively removed an entire group of scapegoats.
In today’s text, a former scapegoat has an opportunity to go before
those who profit from scapegoating and bear witness to a new power, the power
of God in the land. Power over demons, power over diseases, but not expressed
as Power, but expressed as service (diakonia). ‘A new teaching-and with
authority!” Someone who practiced what they preached and what was practiced
was pretty beneficial to those who took advantage of the opportunity.
“Jesus will be the victim of a
mimetic contagion.” (Things Hidden)
“Medieval communities were so
afraid of the plague that the word alone was enough to frighten them. They
avoided mentioning it as long as possible and even avoided taking the necessary
precautions at the risk of aggravating the effects of the epidemic. So helpless
were they that telling the truth did not mean facing the situation but rather
giving in to its destructive consequences and relinquishing all semblance
of normal life. The entire population shared in this type of blindness. Their
desperate desire to deny the evidence contributed to their search for ‘scapegoats.’”
(The Scapegoat).
“According to historians, in some
cities Jews were massacred at the mere mention of the plague being in the
area, even before it had actually arrived.”
Girard’s observations highlight an unanticipated irony. In the Markan
text a Jew will be healed of a plague whose subsequent heirs will be persecuted
and blamed for plagues by the followers of a Jewish healer.
Although Girard utilizes the metaphor
‘mimetic contagion’ it is seldom defined. That mimesis is contagious
is what gives it strength to multiply. That which is contagious is that which
is unknowingly catchable. It’s not like you and I go around seeing germs
in the air and avoiding them. Rather we take care of our health and our bodies
to give us a fighting chance should any germ gain a lodging in our system.
Think of the flu. No one wants the flu, every year people we know get the
flu, and when another season passes we wipe the anxious sweat off our brows.
The flu is unknowingly catchable.
Mimesis is virtually analogous to viral
contagion. Mimesis seeks out human hosts to propagate itself, even though
it is ‘programmed’ to destroy the host. Mimesis is like the Borg
of Star Trek, the sublimation of all identity to collective violence. So here
we are, catching mimesis all the time. Some of us catch more than others,
some are sicker than others, but all of us are sick, we are all highly contagious,
mimetically speaking.
What is intriguing about humans is the
sheer number of times mimetic models are thrust into their consciousness through
the use of various media. We have become so seduced by it that we have become
inured to it. We speak of the advertising and marketing industries. We are
called upon hundreds of times a day, probably more, to want what somebody
else wants. We are asked to fashion our desires for that which is deemed attractive
to us by another. Mimetic desire is being passed on to all of us all of the
time.
The leper in today’s story functions
in a double fashion: on the one hand it is important to observe the external
social implications of having victims to blame for social woes (= mimetic
crises). Our leper is virtually cut off from the community. There will always
be d i s t a n c e between him and others. Mythologization occurs when these
hapless souls are perceived to be divinely judged, thus their afflictions
had a divinely inspired penal character. God doesn’t let bad things
happen to good people. If so judged by God, can we judge any less? And thus
we effectively sacrifice another life for the benefit of the common good.
On the other hand, it is important to
allow the meta-story of leprosy to offer the working metaphor of contagion.
To see the many ways this metaphor can be explored in this text we only need
observe our own ‘lepers.’ Perhaps they have been our model/obstacles.
Who is it we are currently blaming for our woes? As our contagion spreads
we take this collective blame to a higher level, a more fevered pitch until
in collective unity we find a suitable substitute to cast our collective mimetic
crises upon. And it is all too easy to believe that fate has spared the community
and has accepted the sacrifice of an innocent, whose death is justified by
appeal to the myth of the guilty victim. Unless and until we identify the
roots and mechanisms of mimesis in our lives, we are little more than pawns
in the great lottery of life.
Historical Cultural
There is, in this story about the leper,
a meta-story about leprosy. And within this story are many themes, two of
which are leprosy as contagion and leprosy as a legal problem. First, let
us turn to leprosy as a contagion. We note current estimates (of the 106 reporting
countries in 2003) to be 635,000 people afflicted with leprosy, with around
500,000 new cases being reported last year. We still do not know how leprosy
is transmitted, respiratory theories are currently gaining ground; there are
some who favor transmission via insects (like West Nile Virus). In short,
it is still frightening and it is still actively seeking human hosts. It has
never been eradicated from our planet.
To get a feel for how leprosy was treated
in priestly circles, we turn to the Mishnah, tractate Negaim, which translates
as ‘Plagues.’ In the Danby edition, there are twenty pages of
densely packed rabbinic conversations and judgments on leprosy, all kinds
of discussions on color and texture of boils and hair, when to inspect them,
who may inspect them. There are opinions on leprosy and garments, leprosy
and houses. These folks are trying to figure out how to limit contagion, how
to properly diagnose the disease and how to handle proper re-entry into the
community. The rabbis were practicing community health care.
Now at one point in all of this discussion
there occurs the theory of transmission by shadow. “If a man unclean
[from leprosy] stood beneath a tree and one that was clean passed by, he becomes
unclean; if he that was clean stood beneath the tree and he that was unclean
passed by, he remains clean; but if [he that was unclean] stood still the
other becomes unclean.” (Negaim 13.7) We point this out not to show
how silly the rabbis were, but to show how seriously they took the problem
of the contagion of uncleanness. Material contact spread contagion, a shadow
is an aspect of the creation, ergo, a shadow can potentially ‘pass’
uncleanness.
These are not unimportant matters to
the rabbis. It was a heavy burden to declare someone unclean. They had to
get it right so that someone wasn’t diagnosed improperly, being declared
unclean was, and still is, devastating. The social ostracism associated with
leprosy is just as real today as it was in Jesus’ time. We must be careful
not to think the rabbis were splitting hairs, they were safeguarding the rights
of the community.
Narratively, the story of the leper
transitions a group of healing narratives to a group of conflict stories,
some of which have healing as the issue. The healing effect of good mimesis
exacerbates the fear of bad mimesis. Thus, the conflict alluded to in the
opening of the gospel, the theology of the cross, will begin to unfold as
Jesus encounters the powers hostile to his message of the healing peaceful
reign of God.
Either this page has not yet been completed, or we have not found any significant textual issues in the lectionary texts for this Sunday.
Introductory Articles
We will add articles as we are able,
or as users of the site request them, so if you have suggestions for additional
pieces, please write to us!
"Introduction
to Mimetic Theory"
"Mimesis"
"The
Scapegoat"
"The
Pillars of Culture"
"Jesus"
"The
Four Gospels"
A Brief Introduction
to Luke
What's New: (Hover your mouse over to pause cycling)
2 Kgs 5:1-14
Ps 30
1 Cor 9:24-27
Mk 1:40-45
(2 Kings 5:1-14)
Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man and in
high favor with his master, because by him the LORD had given victory to Aram.
The man, though a mighty warrior, suffered from leprosy. Now the Arameans
on one of their raids had taken a young girl captive from the land of Israel,
and she served Naaman's wife. She said to her mistress, "If only my lord
were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy."
So Naaman went in and told his lord just what the girl from the land of Israel
had said. And the king of Aram said, "Go then, and I will send along
a letter to the king of Israel." He went, taking with him ten talents
of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten sets of garments. He brought
the letter to the king of Israel, which read, "When this letter reaches
you, know that I have sent to you my servant Naaman, that you may cure him
of his leprosy." when the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his
clothes and said, "Am I God, to give death or life, that this man sends
word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Just look and see how he is trying
to pick a quarrel with me." But when Elisha the man of God heard that
the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent a message to the king, "Why
have you torn your clothes? Let him come to me, that he may learn that there
is a prophet in Israel." So Naaman came with his horses and chariots,
and halted at the entrance of Elisha's house. Elisha sent a messenger to him,
saying, "Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be
restored and you shall be clean." But Naaman became angry and went away,
saying, "I thought that for me he would surely come out, and stand and
call on the name of the LORD his God, and would wave his hand over the spot,
and cure the leprosy! Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better
than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them, and be clean?"
He turned and went away in a rage. But his servants approached and said to
him, "Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult,
would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, 'Wash,
and be clean'?" So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the
Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his flesh was restored like
the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean.
(1 Corinthians 9:24-27)
Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives
the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it. Athletes exercise self-control
in all things; they do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable
one. So I do not run aimlessly, nor do I box as though beating the air; but
I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself
should not be disqualified.
(Mark 1:40-45)
A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, "If you
choose, you can make me clean." Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out
his hand and touched him, and said to him, "I do choose. Be made clean!"
Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. After sternly warning
him he sent him away at once, saying to him, "See that you say nothing
to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing
what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them." But he went out and began
to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer
go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him
from every quarter.
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
