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<\/a>Pastors have a frequent question when they begin to discover\u00a0mimetic theory<\/a>. \u201cThat\u2019s great. But how does it preach?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Reverend Tom Truby show that mimetic theory is a powerful tool that enables pastors to preach the Gospel in a way that is meaningful and refreshing to the modern world. Each Wednesday, Teaching Nonviolent Atonement will highlight Tom\u2019s sermons as an example of preaching the Gospel through mimetic theory.<\/em><\/p>\n In this sermon, Tom reflects upon the life and death of Ren\u00e9 Girard. He powerfully connects Girard\u2019s theory about sacrifice to the economic exploitation of the homeless widow found in the Gospel reading and how the story of the homeless widow relates to the sacrificial economic exploitation of our modern world.<\/em><\/p>\n Year B. Pentecost 24 In Memory of Ren\u00e9 Girard<\/strong><\/p>\n On Wednesday of this week, at 2:30 in the morning, Ren\u00e9 Girard died peacefully at his home in Stanford, California.\u00a0 My Facebook has been filled with remembrances, eulogies, and comments on his life from around the world.\u00a0 I posted a picture of him on my page and wrote that he has had a huge impact on my life and I am so grateful for him.<\/p>\n This morning I want to read some of those statements to you.\u00a0 I justify going in this direction because Ren\u00e9 was just the opposite of the legal experts Jesus warns us against in Mark 12 who loved to be the center of attention and yet cheated widows out of their homes.<\/p>\n Girard\u2019s thinking has made us more aware of the poor widow sacrificed on the altar of exploitive religion and culture and of how she and all those at the bottom are actually the hidden and unjust foundations upon which everything else is built.\u00a0 In this sense the homeless widow and the majority she represents did put in more, with her two coppers worth less than a penny, than everyone combined who put money in the treasury that day.\u00a0 Her contributions to the economy keeps it going, sustains those who proudly parade and remains largely hidden.<\/p>\n Think of all the people in the world who make our clothes, raise our food, build our computers, and prepare our meals while being paid a less-than-living wage.\u00a0 The elite scoff at them and yet they sustain the whole system that supports those at the top.\u00a0 Those on the top develop clever schemes that deprive the vulnerable of their houses and hide it all with long prayers. \u00a0This is what this passage is really about.\u00a0 It\u2019s not about the \u201chopeless widow\u201d having more faith and therefore being better than those who could give out of their abundance and if you want to be good you have to do this too\u2014the usual stewardship season interpretation.<\/p>\n Jesus saw how culture works as he sat opposite the offering box at the temple.\u00a0 To expose the truth of this Jesus became the vulnerable widow lifted up on the cross and there he allowed our species to do what we always do.\u00a0 And then, while we were doing it, he forgave us.\u00a0\u00a0 Jesus observed this in a nutshell in the temple and Ren\u00e9 Girard explains how it works.<\/p>\n Many scholars have claimed that Ren\u00e9 Girard\u2019s mimetic theory is one of the most important insights of the 20th<\/sup> century. But those of us who have been highly influenced by Ren\u00e9 know better. For us, it is not an overstatement to state that Ren\u00e9\u2019s explanation of mimetic theory is the most important discovery of human nature in the last 2,000 years. That is, since the Gospels.<\/p>\n This morning brought the news that Ren\u00e9 has passed away at age 91. \u201cGirardians,\u201d as we are called, have been on social media sharing our sorrow at his passing, but also our profound sense of gratitude for this giant among human beings. We stand on his shoulders. And our vision is all the clearer for it.<\/p>\n As I reflected upon the news, I was struck by the fact that Ren\u00e9 taught us so much about death. Specifically, about the scapegoat mechanism\u2026 Ren\u00e9 confronted us with the truth about being human. We all have a propensity to manage our conflicts by blaming someone else for them. We find unity against a common enemy. In good sacrificial formula, all of our conflicts and sins against one another are washed away as we unite in expelling or sacrificing our scapegoat. Temporary reconciliation and peace descends upon the community, but it is only temporary. For the expulsion or murder of our scapegoat never actually solves our problems. Our conflicts re-emerge and the scapegoating mechanism continues.<\/p>\n But if Ren\u00e9 taught us about death, he also taught us about life. The solution to our natural inclination toward scapegoating is found in the Judeo-Christian tradition, specifically in the Gospels\u2019 portrayal of Jesus\u2019 death. \u201cChrist agrees to die,\u201d wrote Ren\u00e9 in his book Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World<\/em><\/a>, \u201cso that [hu]mankind will live.\u201d<\/p>\n Many progressive Christians who do not know Ren\u00e9\u2019s work will bristle at that statement. Indeed, without reading Ren\u00e9\u2019s books, it could sound like a form of penal substitutionary atonement theory that claims Jesus allows humanity to live by saving us from the violent wrath of God.<\/p>\n But nothing could be further from the truth. The truth that Ren\u00e9 revealed throughout his career is that wrath doesn\u2019t belong to God. It belongs solely to humans. In anthropological terms, what was revealed by the death of Jesus was the human scapegoat mechanism. Once you read Ren\u00e9\u2019s works, you realize how obvious it is that the violence at the cross had nothing to do with God, but everything to do with the human propensity to scapegoat.<\/p>\n Still, at this point, we should warn ourselves not to scapegoat penal substitutionary atonement theory. After all, if Ren\u00e9 taught us anything it\u2019s that humans have been projecting our own violence onto God since the foundation of the world. We justify our violence and hatred against our scapegoats in the name of God or peace or justice or whatever we deem to be important to our well-being.<\/p>\n Ren\u00e9 taught us that to truly live is to stop scapegoating our enemies, and to stop justifying it in the name of God. Once at a conference, Ren\u00e9 was asked what would happen if mimetic theory became wildly successful. He answered, \u201cThere would be no more scapegoating.\u201d<\/p>\n To end scapegoating and to truly live we need to follow Jesus by turning away from violence and turning toward our neighbors, including those we call our enemies, in the spirit of love and nonviolence.<\/p>\n Ren\u00e9 not only taught us that truth, he lived into it. I met him once at a conference for young Girardian scholars. I was struck by the fact that Ren\u00e9 wasn\u2019t interested in teaching us, or making sure we had his theory \u201cright.\u201d What he wanted more than anything was to talk with us. He wanted to learn about our lives and what interested us. He had a special humility about him \u2013 instead of taking glory for himself, he gave glory to others. For example, I remember sitting across the table from him. He smiled as he looked me in the eyes and said, \u201cI\u2019ve watched your Mimetic Theory 101 videos<\/a>. They\u2019re good.\u201d That\u2019s the way he was. He affirmed all of us and encouraged us to follow the truth, no matter where it led.<\/p>\n Ren\u00e9 always gave the last word to the Gospels. It\u2019s where he found the truth about life and death. It\u2019s only fitting that I end with this quote that sums up Ren\u00e9\u2019s theory about God, violence, and love,<\/p>\n The following is the basic text, in my opinion, that shows us a God who is alien to all violence and who wishes in consequence to see humanity abandon violence:<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cYou have heard that it was said, \u2018You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.\u2019 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.\u201d <\/em>(Matthew 5:43-45, Things Hidden,<\/em> 183)<\/p>\n May our brother Ren\u00e9 Girard rest in peace, and rise in the glorious love of God.<\/p>\n It has been a couple of bittersweet days of memories since getting the news of Ren\u00e9 Girard\u2019s death. I have the feeling that many of us are cybernetically sitting around the fire sharing memories. Here are some of mine.<\/p>\n For many years, pretty much ever since I became a Benedictine monk in 1972, I fretted about the close proximity of religion and violence. Given the teachings of Buddha, Jesus, Lao Tzu and others, it didn\u2019t make sense. Thomas Merton\u2019s polemics against violence written from his hermitage at Gethsemane Abbey in Kentucky inspired me and assured me I was fretting about something worth fretting about.<\/p>\n
\nNovember 8th<\/sup>, 2015
\nThomas L. Truby
\nMark 12:38-44<\/a><\/p>\nAdam Ericksen wrote:<\/a><\/h3>\n
Abbot Andrew Marr wrote<\/a>: In Memoriam: Ren\u00e9 Girard\u00a01923-2014<\/h3>\n