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<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nPastors 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 shows 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 week, Teaching Nonviolent Atonement will highlight his sermons as an example of preaching the Gospel through mimetic theory.<\/em><\/p>\n Mimetic theory teaches that we find our lives in relationship with others. But relationships can go sour when we unite against a scapegoat. Jesus teaches that when we refuse to scapegoat others and instead love all people, we will find our true selves.<\/em><\/p>\n Year A, 3rd<\/sup> Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 7,\u00a0<\/strong>June 25th<\/sup>, 2017 Finding Our Lives<\/strong><\/p>\n In 2014, three years ago, I wrote a sermon on this text entitled \u201cTroubling Bits.\u201d\u00a0 At that time I could see pieces but I couldn\u2019t clearly see how they belonged together. This year I want to try again.<\/p>\n The disciples have just returned from their experimental foray into the world and it hadn\u2019t gone well.\u00a0 \u00a0Maybe their expectations are out of adjustment.\u00a0 In the text we are exploring Jesus explains what following him will be like.<\/p>\n He begins with a story-image. \u201cIf they have called the head of the house Beelzebul, it\u2019s certain that they will call the members of his household by even worse names.\u201d Jesus in this story is the head of the house and his critics call him the chief devil; do his followers expect anything different?\u00a0 It\u2019s enough for disciples to be like their teacher and slaves like their master.\u00a0 They shouldn\u2019t expect any more.<\/p>\n They don\u2019t want to be called names.\u00a0 They don\u2019t want to be brought up on fabricated charges. Why would they sign up for that?\u00a0 The answer seems to be \u201cbecause disciples aren\u2019t greater than their teacher.\u201d They will accuse Jesus and how will Jesus respond? He will use the false charges to reveal what had always been hidden.\u00a0 The secret their accusation conceals will be brought into the open. \u00a0The same will happen with his disciples.<\/p>\n When people falsely accuse they show their hearts.\u00a0 People see the evil that runs them.\u00a0 Their accusation and the disciples\u2019 innocence become part of the ongoing revelation that Jesus is seeding in the world.\u00a0 His disciples don\u2019t need to be afraid because when they are accused, they know they are being faithful to their master and joining him in uncovering the sin that has run humankind from the beginning.<\/p>\n The accusation is the sin.\u00a0 This sin is being exposed.\u00a0 His disciples, no matter what generation, participate with him in exposing it.\u00a0 All the ways humans manipulate, deceive, blame, and throw others \u201cunder the bus\u201d are being exposed. The cross is the great revealer of human folly and the resurrection reveals the innocence of all those who have been accused and condemned.<\/p>\n In Matthew\u2019s text Jesus speaks before the crucifixion and so it is still dark but we live after the crucifixion and so proclaim what Jesus has revealed.\u00a0 Jesus is the light of the world and he has illumined all the accusers who condemn those God loves.\u00a0 In the crucifixion Jesus revealed the pointing finger.\u00a0 He asks his disciples in join him in doing the same.\u00a0 He said \u201cWhat you hear whispered in the halls of power; secrets that oppress, schemes that deceive, lies that enslave, and plans that inevitably sacrifice others, announce from the rooftop. In doing that you are being a faithful disciple. Subvert the story meant to blame and cast out.\u00a0 Don\u2019t allow truth to be hidden; reveal it!<\/p>\n Now we are ready for the next mind-blowing bit. \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid of those who kill the body but can\u2019t kill the soul.\u00a0 Instead, be afraid of the one<\/u> who can destroy both body and soul in hell.\u201d\u00a0 Who is \u201cthis one\u201d?\u00a0 It\u2019s not God!\u00a0 There is another culprit here. God is our lover and not our accuser.<\/p>\n The culprit is the satanic mechanism itself; Satan, the accusing finger personified.\u00a0 This is the one who can destroy both body and soul in hell. \u00a0The accuser starts wars, conflicts, altercations and then uses violence to stop them. Any stray bullet from any side can destroy the body.\u00a0 The accuser can also tempt us into accusing too, imitating everyone else, and when we do that we lose our essential humanity.\u00a0 Our accusing makes hell on earth and everyone around gets caught in the cross fire.\u00a0 In this hell of our own making we lose our bodies and our souls as our essential humanity ebbs away.<\/p>\n Beginning with verse 29 the feel of what Jesus is saying seems to change.\u00a0 Suddenly we are talking about two sparrows, sold for a penny, that are so important to the Father that he knows instantly if one of them falls.\u00a0 Jesus then adds, \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid.\u00a0 You are worth more than many sparrows.\u201d\u00a0 If we knew how deeply our Father loves us, there would be no need to accuse.\u00a0 Human accusation is driven by fear; the fear that we are not good enough, that others are better and will replace us, and that we may be cast out or left behind.\u00a0 The fear drives us into the arms of the devil and we too accuse.<\/p>\n If we only knew how much we are loved by our Father.\u00a0 His love is not generalized and abstract; it is intimate, particular and specific.\u00a0 \u201cEven the hairs of your head are all counted.\u201d<\/p>\n In this ongoing rush of insight Jesus next says \u201cTherefore, everyone who acknowledges me before people, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven.\u00a0 But everyone who denies me before people, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.\u201d\u00a0 I think this can be paraphrased as \u201cIf we acknowledge Jesus as our teacher, leader and revealer of God\u2019s truth, Jesus will acknowledge us as one of his with his Father who exists outside the vortex of human rivalry.\u00a0 Then we will be in the process of giving up rivalry and learning to love as God does.\u00a0 If we don\u2019t acknowledge Jesus then we humans simply continue on the path we are on and it will take us where it will.<\/p>\n Now we come to the verse we have all been bracing for.\u00a0 \u201cDon\u2019t think that I\u2019ve come to bring peace to the earth.\u00a0 I haven\u2019t come to bring peace but a sword.\u201d\u00a0 Jesus\u2019 division-revealing presence in the world will divide all institutions including the family and whether we lose our life or gain it will depend on which side of that divide we place ourselves.<\/p>\n David Cayley, the producer of the Canadian Broadcasting Company\u2019s \u201cIdeas\u201d series explains this best.\u00a0 He interviewed Rene Girard and they talked about this passage from Matthew.\u00a0 I would like to read an excerpt from that conversation.<\/p>\n David Cayley starts:<\/strong> Ren\u00e9 Girard replies:<\/strong> The rules of the kingdom of God are to love like God loves.\u00a0 It\u2019s a love for all that excludes no one.\u00a0 This love always wants what is best for the other and for all.\u00a0 Because it renounces all violence, it depends on forgiveness, humility, compassion, suffering and mercy to spread itself.\u00a0 We have been invited into this kingdom.\u00a0 To accept the invitation is to find our lives.\u00a0 Amen.<\/p>\n Image from Wikipedia, public domain<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Matthew 10:24-39
\n<\/strong>By Thomas L. Truby<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nIn the New Testament, in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells his disciples, \u201c<\/em>Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. It is not peace I have come to bring, but a sword. For I have come to set son against father, daughter against mother\u2026 A person\u2019s enemies will be the members of his own household.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0The passage is puzzling. Why would Jesus\u2019 gospel of love and mutual forbearance create division and discord? Ren\u00e9 Girard\u2019s interpretation unlocks the puzzle. Human society, Girard says, creates order by channeling violence towards scapegoats. Envy and resentment are directed away from one another and towards a common enemy. Ritual sacrifices institutionalize this way of expelling violence. Jesus denounces the lie on which this system rests and allows himself to be crucified in order to reveal for all time the innocence of all sacrificial victims. But this revelation, by depriving people of the means to disown their violence and project it onto others, inevitably brings that violence home to roost, so to speak, setting father against son and so forth. Jesus flushes the hidden violence of culture into the open, imposing a choice on people, and it is this choice, Girard says, that constitutes the unveiling or uncovering that Christians call the Apocalypse.<\/em> (The great revealing that we must decide about and our decision will determine whether we live as a species or die.)<\/p>\n
\nThe Apocalypse is not some invention. If we are without sacrifices, either we\u2019re going to love each other or we\u2019re going to die. We have no more protection against our own violence. Therefore, we are confronted with a choice: either we\u2019re going to follow the rules of the Kingdom of God or the situation is going to get infinitely worse.<\/em><\/p>\n
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