Uncontrolling Love (2): Power Exercised by the Beast in Contrast to Power Exercised by the Lamb

In a similar vein as the previous post, this chapter by Ronald L. Farmer from Preaching the Uncontrolling Love of God deals with Jesus' words in Matthew 22:15-22 in which he responds to the Pharisees and Herodians who team up to attempt to trap Jesus with a question about paying the census tax which had to be paid with a Roman denarius. (The denarius in itself was considered an idolatrous object by many Jews.)

While theologians have historically and correctly used this passage for guidance in the delicate dance between the state and God, Farmer brings out a third teaching and says,

"Most Christians are aware of the danger of 'rendering to Caesar things that belong to God,' but the danger of 'rendering to God things that belong to Caesar' is often overlooked...

"...This error occurs whenever people conceive of God in terms of Caesar, in essence creating God in Caesar's image, only 'bigger'. This all-too-common theological error results in Christians picturing God as exercising coercive, controlling, unilateral power like Caesar, except raised to the Nth degree (mathematically speaking). 

"Herein lies contemporary Christianity's fundamental flaw, the nearly ubiquitous error that alters, or at least taints, every other theological and ethical teaching and practice--including one's assessment of and vision for the socio-political order...

"I write in my commentary on the book of Revelation: 

'A person's conception of divine power greatly influences his or her understanding of power on the human level...Thus if divine power is viewed as coercive, all-controlling, and unilateral, then the corresponding understanding of the highest/ideal form of human power will be coercive, all-controlling, and unilateral--like the power exercised by the beast, the Roman empire. But if divine power is understood to be persuasive, all-influencing, and relational, then the corresponding understanding of the highest/ideal form of human power will be persuasive, influencing, and relational--like the power exercised by the Lamb.'

Uncontrolling Love (1): A Theology that Starts with Love Takes Us to a Different Place than One that Starts with Power

Because love desires the full freedom of the loved one, it is not controlling. If God is Love, then God is not controlling.

The implications of this statement mess with the ideas/beliefs that many of us who call ourselves "Christian" have been taught about the nature of God. They force us to reconsider how we think about the One we call God and his way of relating with his creation and how we, who profess to follow his ways, live and act. 

I have been working with this for a number of years and am delighted to find more and more material available to help give me language and to expand my heart and mind as it relates to God and others. Because this has been such a help to me, I want to do a series of posts about the uncontrolling love of God. These will be sporadic and short posts with quotes taken from the book, Preaching the Uncontrolling Love of God. Each chapter is by a different author, giving a wide range of input on this theme.

The following is from Ignacio Castuera in his sermon on Hosea 11:1-4 and Matthew 7:7-11:

"(...in the passage from Hosea) the image of God saying it was God who taught Ephraim to walk is one that is filled with tenderness. Jesus (in Mt. 7) is building on that. Our faith...echoes that strong division in the Bible between the faith of the religion of rules, regulations, and rituals of the temple, and the faith taught by the prophets about a loving God, a caring God, a God who wants us to love each other and to spread that love...it started with the teachings of Jesus...and that image of Jesus when he says, 'if you, filled with faults as you are, can give good gifts, how much more your heavenly papito, your heavenly Abba...' That image is one that impels the church to become the force that it was in the Roman empire.

"But Constantine saw that that force could be used for his purposes...the Caesars of Rome hired the theologians of the church to create the images of power that have been passed down to us. All of the attributes of Caesar were assigned to God and the vision of tenderness that Jesus and the prophets had given us almost disappeared...

"The religion of the God with the attributes of Caesar is challenged by the religion of love, of a caring loving God. It is not omnipotence that is important for us as followers of Jesus. Instead, it should be love...

"A theology that starts there is going to take us to very different places from a theology that starts with images of power."

Brute Force, Cunning Strategy, Ruthless Competition, and "Winning"

 A short article by Kenneth Tanner, The Great Humility that Redeems the Cosmos, expresses well how wonderfully different God's ways are from ours and how far astray the church in the west is from God's ways. He writes:

The gospels upend every human (perhaps every rational) notion of strength.

The cosmos—superclusters of galaxies, delicate wildflowers on countless meadows, the waves of every ocean—thrives on one source of energy, a hidden force of charity that does not seek its own, a Person with an unremarkable face, who came not to be served by his creation but to serve.

...The biggest challenge presented to humanity by his gospel is our mistaken bedrock belief that what drives the universe is an unbridled might that rules by fiat. This is after all the only form of power we humans recognize: brute force, cunning strategy, ruthless competition, and, above all else, "winning."

 

It goes against everything that man has built and everything that man has ventured to accept the idea that the real power that sustains all movement and all life, that binds all things together—from subatomic particles to intergalactic distances—is a self-sacrificial love without measure.

 

"If you cling to your life, you will lose it, and if you let your life go, you will save it."  Jesus is not just talking about your life but is describing how *everything* works.

 

The losers in this scenario do not "win" but instead come to participate forever in the life of him who lays down his life for the life of the world and in so doing—by a great humility—redeems the cosmos and makes all things new, makes all things well.

 

This belief is not going to get you anywhere in the world that humanity has made but you can serve that world—this world that Christ loved before it loved him—by embracing this sacred path of humility and renouncing all the other ways and means and kinds of power.

 

All of them. Political. Military. Intellectual. Physical. All.

 

It is telling that almost every news story that compels the urgent attention of Christians these days can only do so because we have denied that we serve a Lord that rules by a mysterious humility that conquers all hearts by self-giving.

You Will See Jesus "There"

In Matthew 26:31 Jesus promises his disciples that after his resurrection, he will go ahead of them to Galilee.  In chapter 28, the angel at the empty tomb tells the women that Jesus has gone ahead of them to Galilee and that "you will see Jesus 'there.'"

God is always out in front of us moving forward; in the Christ we see him going ahead of the disciples with the promise that following him to the "there" is where they will see him.

This sounds appealing in theory but is disconcerting (to say the least) in practice because it implies that we leave behind the comfort/security of what we've known, whether that be our long-held belief systems or our long-held practices or our long-held relationships.

Our Shepherd is out ahead of us today bidding us to follow him to the "there." Just like sheep, we aren't good at following but at least we can tell him we want to follow and make our weak effort to go after him...

Dear Shepherd, we want to go "there" because "there" is where we will see you; help us as we clumsily attempt to follow you and help get us to the "there" where you are this day, this season, this era. May we find peace in the reality that you are moving on ahead of us always and wanting us to be with you in your present activity. Amen.  

Thoughts for Lent (10) - Authorized for Risk

This is the final post for this Easter season from Walter Brueggemann's Lent devotional, A Way Other Than Our Own.

We find ourselves in the Saturday of the story; just as the disciples had no idea of when their "Saturday" would end and whether or not there would be a "Sunday", neither do we in our present world, whether that be in our personal life or in national or global conditions. We wait, not knowing but hoping that there is another way of living in our world other than the way of power and money and violence. 

Our faith and hope are bolstered by remembering the story in John 20 of the appearance of Jesus among his fearful followers on that Easter day. Brueggemann says of this moment: 

"He (Jesus) stood there in the midst of the violent restless empire, and he said, 'Peace be with you.' ...when they recognized him, he said a second time, 'Peace be with you.'

"And then, 'He breathed on them.' ...He gave them spirit. He performed artificial respiration on his bedraggled followers...He gave them the surging gift of surprising life, so unlike the lifeless charade of the empire that only knows about violence and control but nothing about giving life.

"...Imagine that you and I today are part of the Easter movement of civil disobedience that contradicts the empire...Let's see if life is longer than death...we have been breathed upon..To us he said, 'Peace be with you' three times, and then he charged us with forgiveness (healing, transformative reconciliation)..."

"You summon us to life in the midst of death, peace in the midst of violence, praise in the midst of despair. Filled once again with your unruly Spirit, may we answer your summons and be part of the movement of life. Amen."

Thoughts for Lent (9) - On Changing Our Minds

In this reading from Walter Brueggemann's A Way Other Than Our Own, the author issues an invitation to us as the final week of Lent begins. Based on Phil. 2:4-8, he challenges us to change our mind and alter our opinions about self and neighbor and our world. 

Speaking of Jesus, Brueggemann writes, "...because of his passion for God's will for him, he collided with the will and purpose of the Roman empire and of the Jews who colluded with the empire. He is not crucified because of some theory of atonement. He is crucified because the empire cannot tolerate such a transformative, subversive force set loose in the world. 

(In Phil. 2), "Paul summons the church and its members to exhibit in their common life the self-emptying that is congruent with Jesus. Paul knew the way (we church people) tend to act, concerned for self and our pet ideas...and our vested interests that bruise other people. And he said, do not look to your own interests.

So here is my bid to you for Holy Week. As we walk the walk from Palm Sunday to Easter...imagine all of us, in the wake of Jesus, changing our minds, renewing our minds, altering our opinions concerning self and neighbor and world. The clue to the new mind of Christ is emptying of our need to control and our anxious passion for security. And as our minds change, we come to new freedom. It is Easter freedom, unburdened and fearless, freed for the interest of the neighbor.

Lord, "we are eager for Easter joy and new life, and yet we are haunted by the space between where we are and where you are. Grant us a new mind, a new readiness, a new heart, that we might stand with you in self-emptying obedience. Amen."

Thoughts for Lent (8) - Until

This reading from A Way Other Than Our Own is based on Psalm 73:15-17 and Luke 15:17. Walter Brueggemann sees the prodigal son story that Jesus tells as a commentary on Psalm 73. He links the phrase, "until I went into the sanctuary..." of Psa. 73 with the phrase, "when he came to himself" of Luke 15. 

Brueggemann says of this turning point in the life of the prodigal son: 

"He comes to himself in his true identity. He comes to himself as a beloved son of the father...(in) his 'until' (moment), he recognizes that his father was the only one he wanted to be with. It did not matter any more that his older brother got the farm as his 'portion,' because the father is the son's 'portion' and the only thing he wants in heaven or on earth.

"The son 'coming to himself' is a decision grounded in the father's love that permits him to slough off his false self and become, finally, who he is...Jesus fully understood the psalm. Indeed, Jesus' engagement in ministry is, among other things, that we should be weaned from the seductions of commodity for the gift of communion, a presence that leaves us in joy and well-being."

Dear Abba, may we have such a grounding in your parent love that we experience "until" and "coming to ourself" moment(s) which empower us to throw off the false self and become who we truly are - your beloved daughter/son whose greatest desire is you...Amen.