So What?
If you think preaching on this text is
tough, wait until next week. Remember we are talking about more than money
here. Money is a medium of exchange. It is a thing we use to measure with.
It is a form of substitution. It (re)presents a worldview, a way we view economics
and politics that is under consideration in this parable of uncertain temporality.
It is the way our (the haves) values work themselves out in our relations
to others (the have-nots). If we have been honest, we will have to admit that
this Gospel in particular causes us to sweat bullets.
We all know a rich fool or two but we
also know many more who are working very hard to survive the present and make
it to the future intact (with 401K, IRA, Life Insurance, Savings, Investments,
etc). Should we expect anything different in a country where the economy is
of greater significance than the current war? Is this parable not a warning
to us today? Who is to say how long a life span is; how long ours should be?
Is it we ourselves? Or do we recognize God as the source of our life, our
abundance, and like God, freely share? Jesus does not condemn the wealthy,
he critiques those who place their trust in their accumulated wealth, as though
wealth in itself was a sign of the blessing of God.
I cannot think of any more dangerous
text to preach on than this. If it is put in the context of our mimetic crises,
it is easy to see that certain parties, movements, ideologies, nations and
corporations have succumbed to the world view of the rich fool. They plan
out a new world order without realizing that history repeats itself. Like
the fool, they will be in for a big surprise when history moves through the
cycle of mimetic violence until it has found resolution in a scapegoat. Except
this time there will be no resolution. The mimetic generative mechanism has
been failing for the last several years, there is no world peace. A suitable
scapegoat cannot be found. The world is unraveling faster than democracy and
freedom can ‘stabilize’ (sic) it. How long do you think we have?
How long can the current level of crisis be sustained? At what point of escalation
will it become unbalanced? Finally, how do we calculate abundance? Do we see
it as our self-right or do we see opportunities to feed others, and thus,
feed God (“make ourselves rich before God”). Blessings to you
all as you ponder these difficult questions.
Anthropological Reading
This is a wonderful parable. Like all
of Jesus’ parables, its meaning is not restricted to one point. Jesus’
parables interpret our entire existence. This is why you can peel them like
onions and continue to discern what a reconsidered worldview looks like. Jesus’
parables on the kingdom of God not only call to mind Jewish popular considerations
of God’s kingdom and literary allusions, they also demand that one change
one’s frame of reference and begin to see things from the bottom up
as it were.
The parable of the rich fool is introduced
by Luke with a perfect mimetic conflict between two brothers and an inheritance.
Someone had evidently felt ripped off when it came to the family fortune and
wanted Jesus, the Just One, to intervene. But Jesus does not judge or mediate
in our mimetic doubling. That is something we humans do in our brokenness.
Someone in the crowd felt that justice wasn’t being served and tells
Jesus what to do. Jesus’ riposte and the subsequent parable should indicate
that he was repulsed at the idea of being brought into the middle of a mimetic
crisis to be a judge or referee.
Yet how often do we invoke our God to
come to our side, to come to our aid? When things get really bad we pray for
a deus ex machina. When we are at war and things go wrong, we wonder if God
is on our side and we pray harder for God to show forth his mighty hand. And
the whole time we are being told that God is not the solution to our mimetic
conflicts. Getting God to take sides in our conflicts is something God does
not do.
Our mimetic conflicts do something else
as well: they blind us to the future and the futility of all our “worldly
success”, when all we have really done is to acquire and consume. This
acquiring and consumption is almost always at the expense and oppression of
others. This is what the rich fool did. Blessed by the creation of the Creator
with an abundant crop, he does not give thanks; he has a storage problem.
He does not think of his abundance or the possibility of feeding others, he
thinks only of his own benefit. He has become selfish and self-satisfied,
he has earned his leisure. Both his needs and his wants/desires are met. He
just hadn’t counted on one thing: game over tonight. Do not pass GO,
do not collect $200.
The moral at the end of the story (vs
21) is of a piece with the proclamation of the eschatological Jubilee, where
the poor will be fed from the abundance of the land. God feeds the birds of
the air without their toiling, how much more will he feed us as we depend
on him and seek not to hoard the earth’s abundance? Is Jesus then condemning
the rich? “The evangelist prefaces the story with a condemnation of
greed (vs 15),” (see the quote by Vermes in our “historical/cultural”
section for this week.) With this quote, the misperception of both Luke’s
and Jesus’ project is perpetuated. Read the text again. There is no
“condemnation” of greed, but a warning against its horrible costs.
The Foolish Farmer of the parable isn’t
called “reprobate” or “damned,” but “fool”
for the opportunities he’s missed, opportunities to do in the present
the things that would have given value to the time he was allotted. This is
a theme that began in Luke a few weeks ago and one that will continue to echo
for some time. “Life lived in the present is the antidote to mimetic
conflict.” Suddenly, Luke’s redaction of the command to take up
one’s Cross (“take up your cross daily” and follow me) rings
out as something other than the sign of Luke’s concession to the fading
of eschatological expectation, and becomes the means of living within it!
The loss of hope, the academic construction
imposed on the Third Gospel is precisely what Luke warns against. The inability
to trust God for the future produces the need to hoard. Jesus doesn’t
differentiate between the victims of “greed.” All are victims,
both the greedy who hoard and the greedy whose greed goes unfulfilled.
Historical/Cultural
“The Parable of the Rich but Foolish
Farmer, intent on enlarging his barns to cope with a particularly abundant
harvest, and contemplating a safe future, foretells sudden apocalyptic doom
in the form of death (Lk 12:13-21). The evangelist prefaces the story with
a condemnation of greed (vs 15), and concludes it with a contrast between
great wealth and religious generosity. However, the underlying lesson, typical
of Jesus’ thought, concerns the fundamental impropriety of forward planning
in the eschatological age.” We don’t know if Geza Vermes has had
bad experiences with insurance agents but he frames the parable succinctly.
(The
Religion of Jesus the Jew).
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) |
Hos 11:1-11 or * Eccl 1:2,12-14;2:18-23
Ps 107:1-9,43 * Ps 49:1-12
Col 3:1-11
Lk 12:13-21
(Hosea 11:1-11)
When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. The
more I called them, the more they went from me; they kept sacrificing to the
Baals, and offering incense to idols. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk,
I took them up in my arms; but they did not know that I healed them. I led
them with cords of human kindness, with bands of love. I was to them like
those who lift infants to their cheeks. I bent down to them and fed them.
They shall return to the land of Egypt, and Assyria shall be their king, because
they have refused to return to me. The sword rages in their cities, it consumes
their oracle-priests, and devours because of their schemes. My people are
bent on turning away from me. To the Most High they call, but he does not
raise them up at all. How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over,
O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim?
My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender. I will not
execute my fierce anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and
no mortal, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath. They
shall go after the LORD, who roars like a lion; when he roars, his children
shall come trembling from the west. They shall come trembling like birds from
Egypt, and like doves from the land of Assyria; and I will return them to
their homes, says the LORD..
* (Ecclesiastes 1:2)
Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities!
All is vanity.
* (Ecclesiastes 1:12-14)
I, the Teacher, when king over Israel in Jerusalem, applied my mind to seek
and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven; it is an unhappy
business that God has given to human beings to be busy with. I saw all the
deeds that are done under the sun; and see, all is vanity and a chasing after
wind.
* (Ecclesiastes 2:18-23)
I hated all my toil in which I had toiled under the sun, seeing that I must
leave it to those who come after me --and who knows whether they will be wise
or foolish? Yet they will be master of all for which I toiled and used my
wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity. So I turned and gave my heart up
to despair concerning all the toil of my labors under the sun, because sometimes
one who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave all to be
enjoyed by another who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great
evil. What do mortals get from all the toil and strain with which they toil
under the sun? For all their days are full of pain, and their work is a vexation;
even at night their minds do not rest. This also is vanity.
(Colossians 3:1-11)
So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where
Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that
are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life
is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then
you also will be revealed with him in glory. Put to death, therefore, whatever
in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed
(which is idolatry). On account of these the wrath of God is coming on those
who are disobedient. These are the ways you also once followed, when you were
living that life. But now you must get rid of all such things--anger, wrath,
malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another,
seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices and have
clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being
renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. In that renewal
there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian,
Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!
(Luke 12:13-21)
Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide
the family inheritance with me." But he said to him, "Friend, who
set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?" And he said to them, "Take
care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not
consist in the abundance of possessions." Then he told them a parable:
"The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself,
'What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?' Then he said, 'I
will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I
will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, 'Soul, you
have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.' But
God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of
you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' So it is with
those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God."
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
