Standing at the altar, celebrating the
Eucharist, the words of Jesus we celebrate this week have too often been robbed
of their real power. I, no less than the Jews who heard Jesus speak, find his
words offensive, so I spiritualize them to the point of irrelevance or ignore
their implications of my guilt.
What does Jesus ask of me? That I consume
his flesh, drink his blood. At least the early critics of Christianity who
described the faith as cannibalistic got it right! Jesus asks me to take my
embeddedness in the web of mimetic reality seriously. He asks me to be saved
not by rejecting my role as murderer, but by feeding on it. He, in his sacrifice
turns my murder into the means of my redemption, but He requires that I live
my role as murderer/cannibal fully.
As Michael and I have worked through
this wonderful portion of John, my own experience of the Eucharist has changed
dramatically. Now I stand at the altar and break the bread, declaring “Alleluia,
Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us,” and I stand there as the
Centurion who drove the nails through his hands, as Pilate who chose my own
political survival over justice, as Caiaphas, claiming that it is better for
one man to die than the whole people. And I say, “Alleluia” to
it all, every week. (Well, okay, we leave it off during Lent, but I’m
beginning to question the wisdom of omitting it at that point!)
The mystery no longer centered on the
magical transformation of the bread and wine into Body and Blood, but is now
focused on God’s miraculous transformation of me from killer to beloved
child. And I hear the truth of Jesus’ claim that, if I do not eat of
His Body and Blood I will not have life in me. This isn’t a claim to
Christianity’s exclusive hold on Truth, but an expression of the reality
that Girard has pointed out: the scapegoating process is only effective to
the extent that it operates below the level of consciousness. God lifts us
from this entanglement in sin when we know ourselves truthfully and fully,
when we know ourselves as murderers.
We find this image of ourselves as killers
no less repugnant than the literal imagery of consuming Body and Blood. We
prefer to see ourselves as basically good folks who just mess up from time
to time. We (in the West, at least) continually overlook the human costs of
our consumption and economic oppression of the rest of the world, the death
that we wreak daily for the sake of lower gas or clothing prices. Jesus, as
he offers us Himself in all His corporeality, asks us to embrace our murderous
natures fully so as to be delivered from them.
“Alleluia, Christ our Passover
is sacrificed for us!”
“Therefore let us keep the feast!
Alleluia!”
There is a paradigm of spirituality found
in today’s text that is at odds with modern Christianity. ‘Jesus’
quotes the Hebrew prophets (Isaiah 54:13) that “They will all be taught
by God.” This absolutely indispensable understanding of spirituality is
at almost total odds with the spirituality found in almost all Christian traditions.
The Christian Churches do not easily validate personal experience, it is just
too slippery.
The philosophical tradition of the West
has undermined the value of personal perception since Plato, and most of the
arguments as to what constitutes rationality, and hence scientific understanding,
have been limited to discussions that have their questions formed at dawn
of Greek civilization. Even the modern conversation from Kant through Heidegger
and our own post-whatever era betrays our self-understanding and self-perception.
Because we no longer trust ourselves, the need for a religious hierarchy has
grown until we do not make a move without the blessing of religious authority.
(Colin Gunton, Enlightenment
& Alienation)
Some might think here that we (or the
author of the Fourth Gospel) are espousing some form of gnosticism. Actually
quite the opposite is the case. At stake here is ecclesial henosis.
The omitted verses 36-40 tell the story: Jesus is the agent or ambassador
of God, he is “sent by the Father.” This saying is not an ego
speculation on the part of Jesus regarding his divinity. It is a description
of how he perceived his mission. What is bothersome to us was bothersome to
those in his time: How can this person, this human being, have such a relationship
with God, this just doesn’t happen to humans. His reply: “we are
all taught by God.” The door is wide open, in other words, for each
of us to share in the wonderous love that is Jesus’ abba. There are
no conditions, no restrictions, we are “all” taught by God.
It is imitation that is being discussed
here, for to be taught by God, is to learn the way we learn anything, by imitation.
But what exactly does the Creator teach? The creator teaches that in the end
one can look at a human being and in the end confirm that which is experienced
in the spirit. It means that a new form of imitation is here, a real imitation
of the Creator. Jesus is the prime human example of God’s interactivity
with humans but we all acknowledge the Creator when we acknowledge God. It
is only our lack of awareness that keeps us from seeing in Jesus the truly
non-sacralized revelation, the truly transformative messenger whose message
was and is his life, how he lived and how he lives forever.
Our mimetic understanding of this context
is confirmed by the Son of Man saying in verse 53. It is the violent death
of the true human that is envisaged here, a death brought about at the hands
of an angry and hateful humanity. The newspapers prove that we continue to
do it every day. We still haven’t gotten it. But the author is not content
to stop his exegesis at this point. He takes it one step further. He connects
all of this with the Christian practice of the Eucharist. The difficulty of
the sayings in verses 51-58 is that they are so literal. They refer to a cannibalizing
mob, sacrificing and then eating their god to gain their immortality or divinity.
Or to the scapegoat as the founding mechanism of religion. The point of the
eucharist is then this: Jesus, his life and his teachings have been taught
to him by God, for God teaches all. But we reject God and the unveiling of
all our religious folly and the proof of this rejection is the cross of Jesus.
We are murderers; this is our confession at eucharist but we live with a forgiving
God. How do we know? We have learned to see all of the little ways we too
participate in negative mimesis culminating in our own fights and arguments,
let alone nations going to war. And we have learned that “God so loved
the world that he gave his son,” that is, we stand forgiven and our
acknowledgement of that is when we take the body and blood of a broken innocent
human and consume it, naming ourselves children of Cain so that we may become
children of God and stand forgiving in a world in desperate need of God’s
love.
There are no significant issues this week.
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:
What's New? on Preaching Peace. (Hover your mouse over to pause cycling) |
2 Sm 18:5-9,15,31-33 or * 1 Kgs 19:4-8
Ps 130 * Ps 34:1-8
Eph 4:25-5:2
Jn 6:35,41-51
(2 Samuel 18:5-9)
The king ordered Joab and Abishai and Ittai, saying, "Deal gently for
my sake with the young man Absalom." And all the people heard when the
king gave orders to all the commanders concerning Absalom. So the army went
out into the field against Israel; and the battle was fought in the forest
of Ephraim. The men of Israel were defeated there by the servants of David,
and the slaughter there was great on that day, twenty thousand men. The battle
spread over the face of all the country; and the forest claimed more victims
that day than the sword. Absalom happened to meet the servants of David. Absalom
was riding on his mule, and the mule went under the thick branches of a great
oak. His head caught fast in the oak, and he was left hanging between heaven
and earth, while the mule that was under him went on.
(2 Samuel 18:15)
And ten young men, Joab's armor-bearers, surrounded Absalom and struck him,
and killed him.
(2 Samuel 18:31-33)
Then the Cushite came; and the Cushite said, "Good tidings for my lord
the king! For the LORD has vindicated you this day, delivering you from the
power of all who rose up against you." The king said to the Cushite,
"Is it well with the young man Absalom?" The Cushite answered, "May
the enemies of my lord the king, and all who rise up to do you harm, be like
that young man." The king was deeply moved, and went up to the chamber
over the gate, and wept; and as he went, he said, "O my son Absalom,
my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son,
my son!"
* (1 Kings 19:4-8)
But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat
down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die: "It is
enough; now, O LORD, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors."
Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched
him and said to him, "Get up and eat." He looked, and there at his
head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank,
and lay down again. The angel of the LORD came a second time, touched him,
and said, "Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for
you." He got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that
food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God.
(Ephesians 4:25-32)
So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors,
for we are members of one another. Be angry but do not sin; do not let the
sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil. Thieves must
give up stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands,
so as to have something to share with the needy. Let no evil talk come out
of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need,
so that your words may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the
Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of
redemption. Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling
and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.
(Ephesians 5:1-2)
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ
loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to
God.
(John 6:35)
Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will
never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
(John 6:41-51)
Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, "I am the
bread that came down from heaven." They were saying, "Is not this
Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now
say, 'I have come down from heaven'?" Jesus answered them, "Do not
complain among yourselves. No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father
who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day. It is written
in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught by God.' Everyone who has heard
and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father
except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Very truly, I tell
you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors
ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes
down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread
that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh."
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
Essay on Brethren Life & Thought to Rene Girard and the Recovery of Early Christian Perspectives (Brethren Life and Thought)
Essay on Mimesis and Dominion to 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
