It was as if
all the miseries of human creatures
had rained down
pain and hate and fear
searing the soil, consuming the fragile buds of the
acacia tree
leaving nothing
but stones
there with only a stone for a pillow, he sat
this beloved child
surrounded by whisperings
make this stone bread
It is all yours if you want it
All the power!
Grab it
All the fame and fortune!
You can be king of the world
Yes, you can!
There is that place where there was only want
Where there was every excuse to grab power
The Beloved chose another way
He did become exalted, with a name that is above every
name,
He did become one to whom every knee should bow and
tongue confess
But not by grabbing power
He humbled himself
He gave it all up
The power, the glory,
Even life
To love us to God
To show us the way
Power without love becomes cruel
Heartless
Cruel
Greg Abbott
Donald Trump
And so many more
Some, wanting what is wrong
Some, perhaps, wanting what is right
Have heard the whisperings
And responded
Have chosen to grab power
To control, to dominate, to coerce, to punish
There is no right relationship possible here
Just walls
Just people with power, and people without
People with, and people without
People winning and people losing
People turning other people into objects
To be “acquired, controlled, used and discarded”
(Spellers)
For power
The world has never gotten better
We have moved no closer to the Kindom of God
When the state, the church, and individual Christians
Have listened to The Whisperer
It has only gotten crueler
More deadly
More unjust
More divided
We have not learned
That we can have it all, and have nothing
And we can have nothing and have it all
What good is it
If we win the world
But lose our souls
There is only one path to true power
One path to the Kindom
One path
Paul said it well
“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.
Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own
interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” (Phil 2)
The path of humility
And servanthood
Jesus showed us the way
It is not an easy way
It seems nonsensical. It seems impossible, weak
We act as if Jesus was wrong
But if the cross shows us anything
It shows us that the power of God shows up most
When we are humble
When we cede
When we serve
When we love
There is a way other than domination
Maybe we ought to try it.
____________________________________
There is no possibility for right relationship if one
powerful group protects and sustains itself over and against all others. From
there, it’s just too easy to construct binaries and hierarchies of human
existence. Our group is good; all of you are bad. Our group belongs on top; we
have to keep you low. Our group owns these resources and knows the best way to
use them; you will only receive what we give you. Other members of the human
family become objects and tools to be acquired, controlled, used, and discarded.
Stephanie
Spellers, The Church Cracked Open: Disruption, Decline, and New
Hope for Beloved Community (New York: Church Publishing,
2021), 39.
Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love
without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing
the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything
that stands against love.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
Justice without love is not justice. Love without justice
is not love.
Mother Teresa
If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do
not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom
all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains,
but do not have love, I am nothing. If I
give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may
boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Paul
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