So What?
The challenge to Christianity today is
the good news of the gospel of Jesus. At every turn it would appear that we
have somehow allowed the virus of negative mimesis and its consequences to
infect our theological thinking, our perception is blurred and we find ourselves
out of balance. Jesus comes both to the abuser and the abused, the terrorist
and the innocent (or not so innocent), to the persecutor and the victim. He
comes with healing, a healing that transforms our perceptions, our thinking
and our acting. In so doing we may find that we, like the heavenly abba, also
search, seek, suffer and wait……and finally rejoice!
The challenge, as preachers, though,
is to escape the easy association our congregation makes with the "lost"
in the parables. They are indeed lost, but not in the facile way they have
been taught to see in the past. How great is the Gospel we can preach to them
when we can help them to see the way that they set themselves outside the
company of Jesus, only to discover that he won't stay away! Here the great
Lutheran style of dialectic preaching comes in handy, the "Law/Gospel"
sermon. Not that I'd use those terms, but before the coming of Jesus to find
us can have it's truly life-giving impact, we have to know the extent of our
"lostness." Each congregation will have it's own "them"
group, but the one that our readers' congregations most easily identify may
well be "conservatives" or "evangelicals" or "fundamentalists."
You know. The ones we want to paint as the "Pharisees" in the story
from today. To the extent that we see them as "outsiders" we are
ourselves acting as "excluders." And, as I suggested above, which
of us can honestly say we don't see a drug dealer or an avowed racist, carrying
an automatic weapon as an "outsider?"
We are the lost, for the very reason
that we see others as the "truly" lost, while we are just "a
little off base." (If that.) As Michael has said, if we are to grasp
the power of this Gospel for ourselves, we have to switch from the egocentric
kind of theology/preaching that gives us false comfort as Jesus gathers in
those of us who have just "wandered a bit."
Anthropological Reading
What is the Gospel of Jesus about? What
constitutes the good news of the message of Jesus’ announcement of the
kingdom? Is it not the character of God, that is, the way God is in relation
to us? Can we deny that Jesus’ use of ‘abba’ language constituted
an essential inner dimension of his vision of God? Can we deny that Jesus
explicitly and implicitly saw his role through the ‘collective metaphors’
of the Hebrew Scriptures, viz., Son of Man and Suffering Servant? Can we ignore
the structure of positive mimesis found not only in the Synoptics but also
in the Fourth Gospel and Paul as well?
In the light of Luke’s emphasis
on the biblical jubilee eschatologically fulfilled in Jesus, can we continue
to deny that liberation consists precisely in the reframing of our theology
from its current moribund, tired state, to one centered in the vivacious,
life giving God who made heaven and earth? Does not this God count the very
hairs on our head? Does this God not consider us worth more than a sparrow,
and how God loves the birds! Is this not the God who has acted and continues
to act in human history as Father, Son and Holy Spirit?
Our text for today has been used over
and over again to call sinners to repentance. We are the lost sheep, we are
the lost coin. Our anthropological centeredness on the text is actually egotistical
exegesis in disguise. The text is only about us as lost sheep when it is about
others, other than us, as lost sheep sought by God. Our tendency is to see
ourselves within the sheepfold and Jesus as the Good Shepherd/Savior who brings
us into his sheepfold when we are lost, weary, miserable sinners. Though we
are indeed those miserable sinners, most of us fail to recognize how deeply
that is true, and how utterly dependent we are on the shepherd's care.
The reason we fail is that we apply the
image of the lost sheep to our false, "Oh, we're basically good folks"
images. The reality is that we need to see that because of our mimetic tendencies
we should first see ourselves as Luke’s ‘constructed audience,’
those religious faithful who already "knew" God from within, what
God was like and how God acted towards those within and those without. In
other words, our God is usually viewed from the perspective of scapegoating
theologies and the god imagined is little more than anthropological self-centeredness
writ large (as Feuerbach also demonstrated in the 19th century).
We are indebted to those scholars who
have been able to show that these three parables, this Lukan collection, is
all about the character of the ‘heavenly abba.’ To be sure we
hearers may identify with the lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost son, but
only after we recognize that God goes to the outsider, the one marginalized
and scapegoated. We must first see that it is we ourselves who do not like
it when Jesus strolls outside the boundaries of our theology. Why? Because
the God of the Scriptures, the Father of Jesus is revealing that our scapegoating
is failing, our ability to make gods, what is called the sacralization process,
is completely and forever exposed in the scapegoated Jesus (our theologia
crucis).
Note: Barth was not entirely wrong to
read the parable of the Waiting Father through a christological lens. The
God of Jesus comes to all but especially to those who function as victims.
Some have spoken of Jesus’ ‘preferential option for the poor.’
They are correct to note that there is a new sociality being created in Jesus’
actions, but when they argue that Jesus damns the opposite side of the socio-economic
perspective they fail to see that Jesus also comes to persecutors (as Luke
well knows, cf Acts 9) and to the wealthy and mighty and honored. All are
welcome, but not everyone chooses to come to Jesus’ party. The A-List
gets annoyed when there are so many D-List people there, mindless grey masses,
am ha-aretz, human trash. What could God be doing with these people?
On the other hand, If we allow ourselves
to identify with the ‘Pharisees and the teachers of the Law’ as
Luke lumps them together, we hear our own complaint, ‘This man welcomes
sinners and eats with them?’ It is a two-fold indictment. Jesus’
welcomes sinners, that is, he expresses hospitality to those whom hospitality
had been denied. The us against them paradigm of victimage had been invoked.
The gods of mimetic victimage will always have an us and them dualism, an
in group and an out group, believers and heretics. We may have a different
set of "them" people than the Poor, but all of us have a "them."
These parables of Jesus (whose authenticity we are comfortable with) challenge
this view of God. Jesus’ God leaves no one behind. Jesus God comes for
all. This is how big this God’s heart is. No one is left behind. Not
with this God.
The second act of Jesus that is rebuked
is that he eats with sinners. Were these ‘sinners’ all ritually
pure? Was Jesus contaminating himself and consequently those around him when
he ate with those for whom Torah observance was ‘minimal?’ Why
welcome those obviously punished by God, those unfit for his holy service?
Why break bread and laugh and act as a friend to those everyone knows God
has rejected? How is that that you and I accept that God may include some
folks we don't like, but still cannot bring ourselves to be seen as their
associates, for fear of "contamination?" Would we risk showing hospitality
to a member of a street gang? an Aryan supremacist?
Karl Barth was once asked who Jesus Christ
was for him and he replied that who Jesus is for all, as revealer, reconciler
and redeemer, he is for also for me, and as Jesus is for me, caring, forgiving,
loving, he is for all. No in group, no out group, no more scapegoating or
blaming or finger-pointing. That is not the way the God of the Gospel acts.
The God of the Gospel searches, seeks, suffers and waits and rejoices with
open arms. This is the God of Jesus! This is what constitutes the good news
according to Luke. We have seen this in the birth narratives, the inaugural
sermon (Luke 4:16ff), the mercy code of the Sermon on the Plain and throughout
this Central Section. There is an undeniable congruency to this Lukan theologizing
that grasps the implications of Jesus’ life and teaching that can be
traced in the use of the verbs ‘to rejoice’ and cognates. (For
those of you who wish to pursue this further we highly recommend both James
Alison’s Raising
Abel and Raymund Schwager’s Jesus
of Nazareth: How He Understood His Life).
If we examine our ecclesiology in the
light of mimetic theory we realize that any ecclesiology that begins its self-definition
by opposing "those without" to "those within" is fundamentally
self-defeating. It is not grounded in the character of God and thus the character
of those who share in the community of God, in the life of God. Rather it
is already oriented to and determined by the ‘victimage mechanism,’
or what the apostle Paul calls the principalities and powers. Jesus, by welcoming
sinners, is changing the rules about the role God plays in the cosmic ‘theodrama’
(Rahner/Schwager).
Historical/Cultural
We note that the three parables belong
together and eventuate in the character of the father in the last parable
(Luke has structured the numbers found in the parables; 100 to 1, 10 to 1,
1 to 1). This funnel effect is precisely related to the muttering of the religious
authorities and the theological implications of Jesus’ actions.
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)
Please be sure to click "What's
New" this week or next. Michael is beginning a new course on the
thought and influence of Dietrich Bonhoeffer soon at the Mercer School.
Proper
19, Year C
Jer 4:11-12,22-28 or * Ex 32:7-14
Ps 14 * Ps 51:1-10
1 Tm 1:12-17
Lk 15:1-10
(Jeremiah 4:11-12)
At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem: A hot wind comes
from me out of the bare heights in the desert toward my poor people, not to
winnow or cleanse-- a wind too strong for that. Now it is I who speak in judgment
against them.
(Jeremiah 4:22-28)
"For my people are foolish, they do not know me; they are stupid children,
they have no understanding. They are skilled in doing evil, but do not know
how to do good." I looked on the earth, and lo, it was waste and void;
and to the heavens, and they had no light. I looked on the mountains, and
lo, they were quaking, and all the hills moved to and fro. I looked, and lo,
there was no one at all, and all the birds of the air had fled. I looked,
and lo, the fruitful land was a desert, and all its cities were laid in ruins
before the LORD, before his fierce anger. For thus says the LORD: The whole
land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end. Because of this
the earth shall mourn, and the heavens above grow black; for I have spoken,
I have purposed; I have not relented nor will I turn back.
* (Exodus 32:7-14)
The LORD said to Moses, "Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought
up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely; they have been quick to
turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves
an image of a calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said,
'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!'"
The LORD said to Moses, "I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they
are. Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may
consume them; and of you I will make a great nation." But Moses implored
the LORD his God, and said, "O LORD, why does your wrath burn hot against
your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and
with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, 'It was with evil intent
that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them
from the face of the earth'? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind
and do not bring disaster on your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel,
your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, 'I
will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land
that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit
it forever.'" And the LORD changed his mind about the disaster that he
planned to bring on his people.
(1 Timothy 1:12-17)
I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he
judged me faithful and appointed me to his service, even though I was formerly
a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence. But I received mercy because
I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for
me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is sure and
worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners--of
whom I am the foremost. But for that very reason I received mercy, so that
in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience, making
me an example to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life.
To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory
forever and ever. Amen.
(Luke 15:1-10)
Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him.
And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow
welcomes sinners and eats with them." So he told them this parable: "Which
one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave
the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until
he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices.
And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying
to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.' Just
so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents
than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. "Or what
woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a
lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has
found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, 'Rejoice with
me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.' Just so, I tell you, there
is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."
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
