Malachi 4:1-2a

Reflections and Questions

1. Malachi was a contemporary of Third Isaiah in the post-exilic era, which is the time that P.D. Hanson proposes as The Dawn of Apocalyptic. Both Third Isaiah and Malachi are heavy in their tendency to divide the world in righteous and unrighteous. The material that Luke adopts from Mark in today's gospel is often called apocalyptic. But I think we need to be careful here. Does the Gospel's apocalyptic draw such a stark distinction? James Alison prefers to describe the Gospel as eschatological. It transforms the apocalyptic into the eschatological by redeeming the themes of violence and vengeance. More below.

2 Thess. 3:6-13

Resources

1. Robert Hamerton-Kelly, Sacred Violence, comments on St. Paul's use of the Greek mimetes, p. 176, and on the wider Pauline theme: "Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ" (1 Cor. 4:16; 11:1), pp.174-179. St. Paul wrote quite a bit about good mimesis. Link to a full excerpt of this section, "The Church as a Structure of Agape Based on the Imitation of Christ Crucified" (pp. 174-182).

2. "Discipleship and Imitation of Jesus," Willard Swartley, ch. 11 in Violence Renounced, ed. by Swartley, pp. 222ff. He says,

Now we command you, beloved, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from believers who are living in idleness and not according to the tradition that they received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us; we were not idle when we were with you, and we did not eat anyone's bread without paying for it; but with toil and labor we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you. This was not because we do not have that right, but to give you an example to imitate.(2 Thess. 3:6-9)

Again, as in 1 Thess., the model to be imitated is not Paul alone, but Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, the leadership team. This appears to reflect the assumed pattern of Greek education, paideia, in which learners imitate the model of noble leaders.

Three features of this text are especially noteworthy: first, it begins with a command (parangellomen) that appeals to tradition (paradosis) for its authorization. In the universally recognized Pauline writings (2 Thess. is often considered duetero-Pauline), the appeal to tradition (paradosis) is associated with central tenets of the gospel (notably 1 Cor. 15:3; 11:1; cf. 1 Thess. 4:1-2). Second, this text reflects the Hebraic halakahic concept of the moral life in its use of walk (peripateo in 3:6, which the NRSV translates living). On this basis we might observe that the NT concept of imitation is likely derived in part from the Hebrew tradition in which way (derek) and walk (halak) are foundational to paranesis on the moral life.

Third, of all the NT uses of imitation language, only this one is not linked to the conceptual field of love, forgiveness, servanthood, humility, and suffering. Work as such, avoiding idleness or unruliness, does not necessarily fit the paradigm to which the other imitation texts conform.

Luke 21:5-19

Exegetical Note

Gil Bailie observes in his taped lectures (below) that the word lithos, stone, is featured in this part of Luke. As Jesus enters into Jerusalem he says to the Pharisees that the crowd cannot be silenced; even the stones would cry out (19:40). Shortly thereafter, Jesus prophesies to them:

"Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side. They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God." (19:43-44)

But he looked at them and said, "What then does this text mean: 'The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone'? Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls." (20:17-18)

When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, "As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down." (21:5-6)

Resources

1. René Girard, Things Hidden. There are a number of places at which he talks about Apocalypse; the index gives us: pp. 184-190, 195, 250, 259-260. Apocalypse is a central thread that runs through Book II, Chapter 2, "A Non-Sacrificial Reading of the Gospel Text." Girard says that the NT didn't completely let go of the idea of apocalypse, even though it had to purge it of its divine violence, because it realized there was a strong possibility of growing human violence. As the Gospel undermines the sacrificial mechanism through history, the times of sacrificial crisis tend to grow more frequent and more severe. Link to an excerpt of "Apocalypse and Parable" (pp. 185-190).

See also the summary on the theme of apocalyptic in last week's reflection (Proper 27C) on the Second Lesson from 2 Thess. 2, namely, the excerpt from the conclusion of I See Satan Fall Like Lightning.

2. James Alison, Raising Abel; pp. 149-152 lays out Luke's eschatology, including Luke 21 (link to an excerpt of this section, "Luke: The Coming as Revelation"). On p. 124-130 Alison talks about the apocalyptic imagination as one that was quite popular at the time of Jesus. But here's his main point:

The question then, is this: when Jesus talked of his coming and of the end, was he simply enclosed within the apocalyptic imagination? That is, did he accept the dualities proper to the apocalyptic imagination as part of what he was preaching and announcing? It will come as no surprise to you if I say that, as I see it, he was not. It seems to me that what we have with Jesus is precisely and deliberately the subversion from within of the apocalyptic imagination. What I have called the eschatological imagination is nothing other than the subversion from within of the apocalyptic imagination. That is, Jesus used the language and the imagery which he found around him to say something rather different. (p. 125)

The word "apocalypse" means "unveiling." What, then, is veiled, the unveiling of which can have apocalyptic consequences? The answer is: violence. Veiled violence is violence whose religious or historical justifications still provide it with an aura of respectability and give it a moral and religious monopoly over any "unofficial" violence whose claim to "official" status it preempts. Unveiled violence is apocalyptic violence precisely because, once shorn of its religious and historical justifications, it cannot sufficiently distinguish itself from the counter-violence it opposes. Without benefit of religious and cultural privilege, violence simply does what unveiled violence always does: it incites more violence. In such situations, the scope of violence grows while the ability of its perpetrators to reclaim that religious and moral privilege diminishes. The reciprocities of violence and counter-violence threaten to spin completely out of control. (p. 15)

5. Link to a sermon that has a Girardian view of apocalyptic in mind entitled "A Vision of the Future."