Jesus Christ the Innocent Scapegoat (part 1)

This summer I have been delving into the works of Rene Girard, the developer of the scapegoat theory. 

In brief, Girard, whose work cover many differ fields including literary criticism, theology, anthropology and philosophy developed the ground breaking theory which claimed that human culture is founded on the scapegoat theory of mimetic (copycat) violence in which all violence originates in the mimetic desire to, in effect, obtain what other people have.  This violence would have destroyed humanity if unchecked and was only kept in check by the scapegoat mechanism which found a common victim – the scapegoat – who was accepted as being the cause of a crisis such as a famine or plague which was consuming the community.  An example of the scapegoat can be seen in the witch-trials of the middle ages in which the women accused of being witches were assumed to be the cause of a crisis in the community.  The sacrifice of the scapegoat seemed to restore order in the community which confirmed the guilt of the scapegoat victim.  The scapegoat mechanism led to the development of all religions and this, in turn, led to the development of culture.

This just scratches the surface of Girard’s ground breaking work and in no way does justice to the complexity and comprehensive nature of his thought which can be seen as a meta-theory of a human development.  It is well worth exploring in depth as it can be validated in much of what se see going on in the world in the prominence of populism in many parts of the world today with many groups being targeted as the source of the problems that individuals and institutions are dealing or not dealing with.   An example of this is the focus of the Trump Administration on immigrants and the resonance of his slogan to “build the wall and have Mexico pay for it.”

That, I hope will give the reader the background to an application of Girard’s theory in considering Jesus as the end of the Scapegoat mechanism.  Next week I will explore Jesus as the innocent victim who ultimately overturns the scapegoat mechanism for all time.   This week I invite you to see if you can identify where the scapegoat mechanism is operating in the word and especially in your life personally.  Where have you blamed an individual or a group for problems in your life? 

Blessings on your journey

Breakfast with the Bikers

Something a bit different this week.  Below is my article published by our Diocesan Newspaper, The Huron Church News.  The article can be found on-line at https://diohuron.org/breakfast-with-the-bikers/

Bikers’ Breakfast – what in heaven’s name is a Bikers’ Breakfast?  Well, I found out a few weeks ago at St. John the Evangelist Church in Strathroy.  Let me assure you it is not a case of a bike gang such as the Hell’s Angels arriving in town raising hell in the local hang out during the breakfast hour.  It is not even the modern Christian version of Daniel in the Lions’ Den with the bikers on the menu.  This Bikers’ Breakfast was a most civilized and enjoyable experience that the most sedate Anglican would approve of (and that is saying a lot).  No bikers or even non-bikers were harmed during the event.

I found my introduction to the monthly Bikers’ Breakfast at St. John’s to be a most entertaining and educational event.  Actually, the Bikers’ Breakfast, which began in September 2018, is the brain child of Greg McNair, one of the Lay Readers at St. John’s, and was enthusiastically embraced by St. John’s as a form of outreach to the community.  As Greg noted “There are no other breakfasts quite like this with guest speakers and with a religious flavour that I know of.”  The bikers come from the Strathroy area but I wouldn’t be surprised if this expands geographically-wise as the word spreads.  You wouldn’t know it by looking at Greg but he is a biker, or perhaps I should say, a rider of motorcycles.  Greg’s current ride is a 2003 Honda GoldWing.  However, the breakfast is open to all and you don’t have to be a biker to partake of the food and activities. 

The breakfast itself is the work of a team of enthusiastic volunteers comprised of six or seven parishioners headed by Lyn Charlton.  The menu this month was a wonderfully tasty version of French Toast which was enthusiastically and summarily devoured by all present.   The cost of the food is covered by a $7.00 donation from those in attendance and the honorarium for the speaker is covered by a Jubilee Grant.

In addition to the great breakfast, the event was, as I noted, also educational.  Each month there is a guest speaker who usually speaks on a motor cycle theme.  The breakfast I attended had speaker Cal Zavitz, the senior road captain for the Canadian Motorcycle Cruisers, Strathroy chapter 021, covering the safety protocols for riding in groups.  Now, this is something that motor cycle gangs (e.g. Hell’s Angels) probably don’t worry about – but that may be prejudice on my part.  However, group riding, when done properly and safely, is much more involved than the non-biker realizes.  There are rules and lots of do’s and don’ts, and even a whole series of hand signals that are a match for a high Anglican worship service.  There are designated positions (perhaps the equivalent to the presider and sub-deacon) including Road Captains who are in charge of the route and leading the way and tail-gunners who bring up the rear to ensure that no lamb goes astray.

In all there are 12 general rules which you could say are the group bikers’ version of the Ten Commandments.  The procession of bikers in the group is every bit as formal as any Anglican procession (and we Anglicans are known for our processions).  For example, the organized groups must be 100% alcohol free (rule #3 – unlike Anglicans who believe that Jesus was using actual wine at the Last Supper.)  There are also some very sensible rules for comfort as well as safety such as #12; Please ensure you have a full tank (of gas) and an empty bladder when you show up for group rides. 

Finally, there are a series of hand signals which are used to communicate to all the bikers on the group ride.  You have the usual ones that you might remember from riding the other kind of bikes (those with peddles) such as left turn i.e. the left arm extended out to the left.  But there are also ones I have never encountered before such as Emergency Stop which involves tapping the top of the helmet with a closed fist.  

All in all, I was very impressed with the planning and organization that goes into a group ride when done properly to ensure the safety of those involved and the motoring public in general.  The Bikers’ Breakfast is a great way to engage the church with the broader community and Greg and the other parishioners of St. John’s are to be commended on a great idea well executed.

I’m Not in Kansas any More Toto

Being back in my Island home i.e. the cottage in Prince Edward Island for the long summer (four + months), I find the differences as well as the similarities on our home in Ontario and our home here to be very engaging.

I don’t remember being asked to do an assignment of compare and contrast when I was in school and I am not going to do a formal one now.  That being said, the differences and similarities between the two parts of Canada were highlighted last week.  On last Thursday (June 6th) we went to the legion in near-by Montague to attend the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of D Day held at the local branch of the Legion.  If I had been in Parkhill, our other home, I would have attended the ceremony that was held at that Legion.  I am still the semi-official chaplain of that Legion having resigned when I retired from parish ministry.  However, that resignation did not seem to take as I am still called on for Remembrance Day ceremonies and other official functions. 

I felt very much at home in the Montague Legion.  The ceremony at the Montague Legion Branch 8 was well executed and, I’m sure, would have been very similar to the ceremony at Branch 341 in Parkhill.  There were prayers by the United Church minister and the Roman Catholic priest which were very appropriate to the occasion.  I do not have a copy of the prayers said on that occasion.  However, they were very much in line with Legions prayers that I would have used.  Here is the Legion Prayer of Remembrance:

O God our Father, we thank you for those valiant hearts, who at the call of Sovereign and country laid down their lives in the cause of freedom. We pray that we may uphold the torch entrusted to us so that their sacrifice may not have been in vain. Unite all the peace-loving peoples of our world in one holy purpose to defend the principles of freedom and brotherhood for which these valiant hearts lived and died. Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me. In the name of the great Prince of peace we pray. Amen.

There were speeches by local officials including the newly elected Premier of P.E.I. Dennis King.  Cadets were present to escort people laying the wreaths from various organizations.   The names on the honour role of residents who made the supreme sacrifice on that day were read ending with the call to remembrance for the fallen, “They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning.  We will remember them.” The response of “We will remember them.” was loud and clear.  A light luncheon was held after the ceremony.

So much for similarities.  The differences between our two homes came into focus at the luncheon following the ceremony.  Lorna noticed that Premier King was in conversation with people and decided to talk to him about the former Holy Trinity Church in Georgetown.  The Premier did not have any of the entourage or trappings that would accompany someone in that position in Ontario – just on his own engaging the people around him.  Lorna engaged him and made a pitch to save the former Holy Trinity Church in Montague which was deconsecrated some years ago and the building is in danger of being torn down as it has become more and more decrepit over the years.  The building had been taken over by the province for unpaid taxed but had been neglected since that time.  It has been declared derelict by the local municipality and it was estimated that the cost to demolish it is $600,000. 

The former church (pictured below from better times) is/was a wonderful example of a wooden Gothic church.  I’m not sure if it is one of a kind but it is a building of historic significance being built in 1842.  Former parishioners who now meet in a local non-church facility are heartbroken, as our Lorna and I, whenever we see the condition of this one magnificent structure. 

It turned out that the Premier was an Anglican and formerly a parishioner of Holy Trinity Church.  Premier King did a very unpolitical thing and declared to Lorna (I was a witness) that the building would never be torn down as long as he was Premier.  No waffling or obfuscation on his part.  Well, the next day CBC news had an item that the P.E.I. government had made a commitment to preserve the building. 

In our view it is a propitious start for the new government which is Progressive Conservative with emphasis on “Progressive” unlike the current version of Conservatism manifest in the Federal and Ontario Conservative parties.  Islands, even when they are provinces, are truly different than other places.  P.E.I. does feel more like our Island home. 

Blessings on your journey. 

  

It is Well

All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.  

I was reminded this morning of this quote from Julian of Norwich, the 14^th century anchorite and mystic as I was reflecting on what to write in this edition.  Is progress inevitable?  Is the world actually getting better?  Or are is the world actually heading in the opposite direction?  I have heard arguments on both sides of that position by people who seem to know what they are talking about. 

Did Dame Julian get it wrong?  There seems to be many signs that the world is going to hell in the proverbial hand basket.  Populist governments are rising up and the king - Western Democracy - seems to have feet of clay.  It is hard to see how all shall be well and especially that all manner of things shall be well.

Writing this I am reminded of another quote by Martin Luther King, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”   It certainly seems to be a very long arc indeed these days with the far end well beyond the horizon.  However, there is hope and (hopefully) truth in that.  People (and I include myself in this much of the time) seem to have a very limited horizon in their view of what is happening in their lives and their worlds.  We are guilty of tunnel vision whether it is in our personal lives or our vision of the world which is filtered to a great extent through social media whatever the silos that we usually turn to; currently the extremes seem to be Fox News on one end and CNN on the other, 

Counter to the rise of populism in the United States and Russia and even closer to home in Ontario, we have the reality that the world has been vastly improved for many people.  Poverty has been greatly reduced world wide, likewise infant mortality and hunger.  Much of that has come through scientific breakthroughs.  Countering this is the denial of the science of global warming.  In all this we have to have faith; faith that God’s time is not our time.  We can only glimpse a very small part of the bigger picture on where that arc of history, moral or otherwise, will take us.  If we are fortunate we will get a true glimpse of what that arc is pointing to. 

For those of us who have a belief that God not only spoke the Word that brought about the beginning of this universe but is still at work in this world, we can have faith that it is love that was the creative force which is all that binds the atoms together and is moving to fulfill God’s will for God’s creation.

I began with a medieval mystic and will end with a modern mystic, Richard Rohr, “Love, the attraction of all things toward all things, is a universal language and underlying energy that keeps showing itself despite our best efforts to resist it.”  Our part in this is to move beyond the prison of our self centeredness and to reach out in ways that seem to be small and insignificant but will cooperate with the divine plan which we can only see through a glass darkly. 

Blessings on your journey

A Room of My Own

Virginia Wolfe famously wrote about having a room of one’s own as being necessary as "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."  My memory of what she wrote was a bit hazier before I googled it as it is buried in the depths of my memory of my first University English class which was after all, in another millennium buried in the depths of the 1970’s.

That phrase, a room of one’s own, came to mind as Lorna and I have been settling into our cottage for the summer and I just returned from the room of my own, the bunkie which is my own space.  You might say it is a space within a space ̶ part of the space that Lorna and I occupy each summer in Prince Edward Island – you could say it is the place of our own. 

Virginia Woolf was speaking from what could be criticized as being a middle-class privileged space about the challenges of creating her place in the literary canon.  That being said, I believe it is also true for the development of a contemplative life.  At least for me, as an unapologetic introvert, I know that I must have a place where I can be alone with myself and in doing so perhaps also recognize and deepen the experience of being with God.  I know that God is always with me but it is far too easy to ignore that inner experience which I have come to identify with God.

I may have written in this space about my experience of growing up as an introvert in what seemed to be an extroverted world.  I hope you will forgive me if I am repeating myself.  As a child I found that I needed a small corner where I could hide out from a world that didn’t seem to be all that friendly to me.  It was my “small corner” following the lines from that children’s “Jesus Bids Us Shine”:

Jesus bids us shine with a clear, pure light,
Like a little candle burning in the night;
In this world of darkness, so we must shine,
You in your small corner, and I in mine.

This was not just a case of an introvert needing space to recharge his batteries and renew himself, it was a case of a place of safety from an unfriendly world.  I found the world and people hard to figure out and it was a challenge to engage with people.  As a grew older and possibly a bit wiser, I found it a challenge to differentiate between my need as an introvert to recharge my inner batteries and my desire to find a safe place which was truly not as necessary as in those childhood years.  Those defense mechanisms that we develop as children for survival can be retained even when they are no longer necessary as adults. 

I realize that I need to be aware when I retreat into my small corner to recharge my inner batteries rather than to escape from a world that is actually not actually unsafe.  I have discovered and continue to discover that my small corner is where I can recharge and strengthen my relationship with God.  If I can do this, I am much more likely to let my little light shine in the world.  This does not seem to be true for everyone as some people seem to find the room of their own to be in many different kinds of places.  It may be in nature or in encounters with other people and even, dare I say it, worshiping as part of a religious community.  I certainly have had experiences of connections with God in other places, including church.  That is part of the pulled to ordination.  However, to ground myself in my relationship with God I do need a room of my own.

May you find the room of your own in whatever form it takes and may you find blessings on your journey.