So What?
Preaching, we have the opportunity to
call attention to the way that we use “sickness” as a way to label
our scapegoats. Watching the news, how often do we say of the horrors we see
there, “Oh, gosh, that’s ‘sick’!” Sickness is
that which sets us apart, requires that we be placed in sanitariums. (They
were originally places for folks with infectious diseases, not mental illnesses.)
Illness, by it’s very nature, is
an arbitrary distinction. Is illness the presence of germs? No. We all carry
them all the time. Mental illness is even more arbitrary. It is basically
a way of perceiving reality that doesn’t conform that of the majority.
In Soviet Russia, it’s the place dissidents were sent. “You don’t
understand the wisdom of Marxism? You must be crazy!” (Michael and I
have been called crazy by angry readers from time to time.)
Healing is not restoration to “sameness.”
It is being freed from the association between certain states and being “afflicted.”
(That is, in some sense, cursed, or having some kind of moral deficit.) Preaching
Good News then means preaching healing in this new way.
Do we not sing that Jesus ‘is ris’n
with healing in His wings?’ Eastern Orthodoxy has long benefited from
the impact the Good Physician metaphor has played in its Christology. We in
the West would do well to consider such. Our Christology is far too juridical
in nature. Jesus is the Great Physician, the Good Shepherd, the Living Water,
the Bread of Life, the Resurrection and the Life. The Gospels do not describe
Jesus as the warrior messiah, the judge, jury and executioner, the mad dad.
If we are going to tell the truth ‘as it is in Jesus’ then we
might start by acknowledging the burden of our spiritualities; those things
that have us hunched over.
Luke 13:10-17
Anthropological Reading
Jesus’ critique today is not a
critique of Judaism but of the type of spirituality manifested by the leader
of the synagogue. (Might just as well have been a pastor or priest.) We shall
understand him as a type of religious leader. What is his objection? That
Jesus heals on the Sabbath. Jesus reply is to point out that even those who
stand in judgement on him meet the needs of their animals on the Sabbath.
His argument ‘from minor to major’ is that this woman, ‘a
daughter of Abraham’, has a need and he, in healing her, has simply
met a need.
But “religion” often rejects
healing. It has its own definition of healing that excludes Jesus’ action
in this instance.
When religion rejects healing, it takes
offense when it’s scapegoats are taken away, when the less fortunate
seem blessed. When religion rejects healing it loses it’s integrative
wholeness (shalom), it’s political impact and it’s spiritual power.
What must it have been like to have come to this synagogue for 18 years (x
52 = 936 Sabbaths), hunched over, broken, perceived as ‘judged’
or ‘cursed?’ Sabbath by Sabbath hearing the Word of God, living
the Jewish liturgical year and celebrating the mighty acts of God and yet
for her, there was no deliverance. Until the day Jesus came to town.
Real healing must come at the expense
of our way of bringing it about through adherence to prohibition and ritual.
Our human ‘healing’ generally takes place as all against one,
a dot within a circle, as it were. The community encircles the “afflicted”
one and imposes a healing that restores undifferentiation. Jesus’ healing
more frequently takes place at the margins. In his healings, Jesus re-socializes
those healed without re-forming them.
Similar to the story of the Geresene
demoniac, Jesus, in healing the woman, deprives the community of a scapegoat.
She has borne the burden of their perceptions long enough. And she, this daughter
of promise, this daughter of Abraham, is caught up in the mighty acts of God,
and shares in the promise of the biblical jubilee. She has reason to praise
God. She has reason to give thanks.
So, how do we stop the scapegoating mechanism
from driving our congregations? Like Jesus, we can bring healing to those
afflicted, those marginalized. That is our mission. Our call is to ‘bring
division’, to stand with the scapegoated, to be peacemakers, to say
once and for all, ‘All against one no longer works. One gave all for
all.”
If the religious leader is to believe
this, it must be confessed that one’s view of God may have been previously
distorted. Perhaps worldly possessions or piety aren’t measures of God’s
grace. Maybe God works in ways never thought of before. Maybe up is down and
down is up. The last first and the first last. The woman with the healed back
will walk out of the synagogue that Sabbath rejoicing. The leader will still
be carrying the burden of his religious certainty and he leaves hunched over
in spirit. In need of healing, only he is not aware of his need….yet.
Historical/Cultural
Fitzmeyer
notes: “The impersonal verb ‘dei’ literally, ‘it is
necessary’, (v 16), alludes to the necessary realization of God’s
plan of salvation-history, working itself out in Jesus’ ministry. The
irony in the episode is seen in that the opposition to Jesus’ curing
act comes from a ‘leader of the synagogue,’ who himself uses the
same impersonal verb, ‘dei,’ (v 14) to express the human obligation
of work (on six other days!).”
Frederick Danker is just too good not
to quote in full (Jesus
and the New Age): “Jesus plays on the word ‘untie’ (vs
15) and ‘bound’ (vs 16). The woman is entitled to more consideration
than an animal. For eighteen years she has been, as one might say, in Satan’s
stall. It is quite apparent that there is no real connection between the requirement
of water for an animal and a woman’s malady of eighteen years standing.
After all, she could have been healed on the next day. Jesus’ very playfulness
in the dialogue indicates that he takes no stock in casuistry. He could not
care less about such picayunish reasoning. As far as he is concerned, the
sabbath day is an especially appropriate time to release this woman. Since
she is a daughter of Abraham the oath sworn to Abraham (1:73) applies to her;
for the sabbath is emblematic of God’s outreach to his people. It is
the climax of God’s creative activity (Genesis 2:1-3) and a day of special
blessing for his people (Hebrews 4:9-11; Matthew 11:29-30). The very purpose
of the sabbath was to protect the interests of a man from exploitation by
his fellowman. Legalists had turned it into a dreary prospect. Jesus’
deed was in harmony with the spirit of the original ordinance.”
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)
Jer 1:4-10 or * Is 58:9b-14
Ps 71:1-6 * Ps 103:1-8
Heb 12:18-29
Lk 13:10-17
(Jeremiah 1:4-10)
Now the word of the LORD came to me saying, "Before I formed you in the
womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you
a prophet to the nations." Then I said, "Ah, Lord GOD! Truly I do
not know how to speak, for I am only a boy." But the LORD said to me,
"Do not say, 'I am only a boy'; for you shall go to all to whom I send
you, and you shall speak whatever I command you, Do not be afraid of them,
for I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD." Then the LORD put out
his hand and touched my mouth; and the LORD said to me, "Now I have put
my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms,
to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to
plant."
* (Isaiah 58:9b-14)
If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking
of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the
afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like
the noonday. The LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in
parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered
garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail. Your ancient ruins
shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to
live in. If you refrain from trampling the sabbath, from pursuing your own
interests on my holy day; if you call the sabbath a delight and the holy day
of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, serving your
own interests, or pursuing your own affairs; then you shall take delight in
the LORD, and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth; I will feed
you with the heritage of your ancestor Jacob, for the mouth of the LORD has
spoken.
(Hebrews 12:18-29)
You have not come to something that can
be touched, a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest, and the
sound of a trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that not
another word be spoken to them. (For they could not endure the order that
was given, "If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned
to death." Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, "I
tremble with fear.") But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city
of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal
gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven,
and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,
and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that
speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. See that you do not refuse the
one who is speaking; for if they did not escape when they refused the one
who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if we reject the one
who warns from heaven! At that time his voice shook the earth; but now he
has promised, "Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also
the heaven." This phrase, "Yet once more," indicates the removal
of what is shaken--that is, created things--so that what cannot be shaken
may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken,
let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence
and awe; for indeed our God is a consuming fire.
(Luke 13:10-17)
Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And just then
there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years.
She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw
her, he called her over and said, "Woman, you are set free from your
ailment." When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight
and began praising God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because
Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, "There are
six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured,
and not on the sabbath day." But the Lord answered him and said, "You
hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey
from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman,
a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free
from this bondage on the sabbath day?" When he said this, all his opponents
were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful
things that he was doing.
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
