92. An Upside Down World

Matthew 23:4 They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.

A final bit on the idea of Power Over within religion, then I will move on to the concepts of power within and power with and religion.  Religion, and I do mean all religion, is structured on power over.  The instinct to line ourselves up like sled dogs from the Alpha on down seems to be more powerful than our instinct to breath.  And within religion it is somewhat understandable.  We know that some of the members of our religion have a greater calling.  We know that there are those more inclined to study theology, run our churches, to pray, intercede with God, and be active in their faith.  And it is natural to look towards the pulpit for instruction and guidance.

          This structure also allows for denominations of churches to maintain a similarity between churches.  The structure within the denomination sets doctrine and practices, and there is need to do so.  While I may be liberal in my theology, there seems to be certain biblical tenants that we must follow.  (They are not as many as you may have been told.)

          The rest I think is overreach. 

My pastor tells a story, and let me see if I can recall it correctly, of a creationist group wanting to do a presentation to the congregation.  Yet, when he learned that they also taught that if you did not believe in the creation myth as told in the bible you were not a Christian he passed on the opportunity.

I think it is essential for us Christians to understand these dynamics of power, or influence, to more fully live our faith.  Much of what I see within religion is the dynamic of power over, and thus I question how much of religion is of God?

Jesus Sets the Record Straight

Mark 9:35 Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”

The ninth chapter of Mark a defining moment in my faith.  The chapter opens up with the Transfiguration, the revealing of Jesus in his full glory.  He has with him three apostles; Peter, James and John.  After this encounter, which must have been stunning to say the least, the three apostles get arguing over which of them was the greatest; it was an understandable debate.  Having seen the power and majesty of Jesus, one would assume that he was mastering a conquering force.  Wanting to be the right-hand of Jesus would be a natural desire.

Jesus sets the record straight.  He tells them that the hierarchy of the Kingdom of God is different.  If you want to be the greatest, make yourself the least.  He then tells them that we must be as children.  Finally, as if to drive the point home, he says it is better to enter the kingdom of God missing a limb, eye, or other body part than to enter the fires of Gehenna.

          Most translations of the bible use the word hell.  I have had it explained to me that Jesus used the term Gehenna, an actual place, so that those who were listening would be able to relate better.  I think keeping Gehenna in the text is not only more accurate but also more in keeping with my understanding of this section.

          Gehenna is the place where the practice of religion include sacrificing children.  To me, Jesus is not warning of some torturous afterlife, but of how ruthless we can become in our desires to be powerful. One only needs to consider the inquisitions and the witch hunts to consider the accuracy of Christ’s words of warning.

         

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gehenna

So this is the reason why I have gone on at length about power-over.  While I do think that often the impetus behind wanting to exercise authority over others is based on the love of God and the love for those around us; it can only engender fear, anger and separation.  And I think, that we have been called to live differently – to be in the world not of the world.

Matt 7:14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

The path laid out to us, is narrow, and it is difficult.

91. A Hunger that cannot be filled

I want you to spend a day, even you have done this before, humour me.  Take that day and be as pleasant and engaging as you can be.  For me, many days I have to fake my way through doing so.  But do it.  Pay attention to how people respond to you.  See how even those you don’t have direct contact with respond to you.  See how difficult or easy it is to navigate your day.  See how your mood is affected. 

          If you pray, earnestly pray for those around you.  The ugly guy with the bad teeth sitting opposite you on sky train? Thank God for him. The idiot that just cut you off as you are driving?  Pray asking that he find peace so that he doesn’t have to rush around.  For the cranky cashier?  That his day gets better.

          And if some total Nimrod, who was a mighty hunter, messes your day up?  Simply start over.  Don’t get campy with doing this.  So for the guy that cuts you off so that he can make the red light faster than you; don’t pray that his penis gets bigger so that he doesn’t feel like he has to compensate.  No. No. No. 

          When those ugly memories of when the boss embarrassed you, or something hurtful that has been said or done.  Pass by them, try not to dwell on them.  Or pray for the person at the centre of the memory.

          But for one day, as much as possible, be the most positive, friendly you that you can be.

          See what happens. 

One of the functions of each of these dynamics of power, or as I referred to them this week, the dynamics of influence, is that they elicit a response from you.  If I come up to you and coerce you into doing or acting a certain way, you will seek to do the same either to me or to others.  Generally, you will try to outdo what has been done to you, why?  There has been lost prestige, or hurt feelings, or an effort redress the damage done by the violence visited upon you.

          Thus, when we are told, An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, I do not see a recipe for justice.  As Ghandi said, “An eye for an eye, leaves everyone blind.”

          I see a limitation on vengeance.  If your neighbour has poked out one eye, then instead of wreaking havoc, you can poke out the eye of the offender.

Luke 6:27 – 31 “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.

The trouble with the hunger for violence that power over creates is that it is never satisfied.  One cannot hurt another enough, embarrass someone else enough, or make another person do enough things to sate that appetite.  And in the end all one does is seek to take it out on someone else. 

          Thus, we see many Christians becoming the antithesis of what, at least I believe, Christians are called to be.  This would be the effect of believing one better behave or one is sent to hell.  Yet, this doctrine is the one that I have seen otherwise wonderful people become enraged over.  When I suggest that our understanding of hell is skewed, I have seen my fellow Christians become unhinged.  How I dare I suggest that God does not want us to go to hell, and our interpretation of whatever scripture we use to prove out point is wrong?

"Kill them all, the Lord will recognise His own." - Arnaud-Amaury, the Cistercian abbot-commander of the Catholic forces of the siege at Beziers on July 22, 1209.  On that day approximately 7,000 people were killed because they were of the wrong religion.

It seems to me that Jesus had little interest in the concept of power over.  His teachings, an extremism of love and grace, call for us to relate to the world in ways opposite to what we see.  As I read scripture, I see a God with a deep desire not only to be involved in his creation, but for us to be the caretakers of each other; not a God just itching to send us all to hell.

90. A question of power

Isaiah 29: 13 The Lord says:

“These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips,

    but their hearts are far from me.

Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.

I want to acknowledge the writings of Starhawk.  For those of you who don’t know her she is a Witch, and has written extensively on her religion, feminism and politics.  Her book Truth or Dare, has shaped much of my understanding of the bible, my faith and God.  It is this book in which she writes about the Power.

          Just to be clear for people. She is a Witch; she strives to see the feminine in the divine, and seeks our place within the rest of creation.  She does not worship evil.  She is not a Satanist.  Her fundamental belief is that we, all of us, need to live in harmony with each other, and that our dominion over nature is one of responsibility not entitlement.

In short – she loves God with all her heart, all her might, and all her mind.  And she loves her neighbour as she loves herself.

This is not a plug for Paganism or Wicca – I am simply explaining someone else’s perspective. 

She identifies that there are three kinds of power.

Power Over

This is what we usually see within our world.  There are layers of laws, regulations, and requirements. 

Power Within

This is our ability to impact the world around us.  It exists within each of us. 

Power With

As might be understood, there our ability to impact the world increases as we come together.

Before, I move onto explaining how I see these dynamics of power within our religious and spiritual lives, let me more fully develop the concepts.

Power Over

Is just as it suggests.  In our world there is layer upon layer.  It is the making of nation states, political parties, and our laws.  If filters through to our families, where dad has the dominion over the family. 

At its core power over is based on violence, the ability to make someone do what they should.  It is also based on fear and anger.  Power over, also engenders competition, the winner of which has either the physical or moral authority over those around him or her. 

It may come as no surprise that I see religion as being infused with power over.  We saw an example of that this week with the murder of four cartoonists, six other staff of Charlie Hebdo, and two police officers by religious extremists.  Violence is always the logical progression of Power Over. 

Within the paradigm of power over, worship, our relationship with God, becomes based on obedience.  We create lists of rules so that we know when we have been obedient.  Our sacrifices are attempts to appease God.  For within the perspective of religion as power over, God the ultimate authority, and thus is ultimately more capable of violence.

Matthew 10:28 fits nicely into this dynamic, Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

At its core, such a relationship cannot be based on love.  If our obedience is based on fear of punishment, eternal damnation, then can really be love?

1 John 4:18  There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

Power Within

is as it suggests.  It is power within us. 

Micah 6:8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.   And what does the Lord require of you?

To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

It does not take long to realize the limitations of power within.  We are fickle people, unpredictable, inconsistent, we create struggles where there is not a need.  As St. Paul wrote, he could not do what he wanted to do, and did what he did not want to.  Thus enters our relationship with God.

Power within is inherent in all of us, and arises out of our relationship with God.  It is the infilling of the Holy Spirit. It this which allowed me to live continually clean and sober for decades. 

At its core is love, gratitude, and joy.  Our obedience is not based on appeasement of an angry God, but rather the response of love.  Our sacrifices, and I believe that all aspects of life requires such, are an expression of gratitude.

Power With

To continue an earlier thought, although it was the power within, that allowed me to get stay clean and sober, it was through the power with others that allowed me to begin that journey.  It is the power that is experienced when we come together.  It reminds me that “Together we can do what I cannot do alone.”

It shares the same core as power within; love, gratitude, and joy.  It reminds that first, that I have a place, as do you, and as does the person that irritates me.  Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. (1 Cor. 12:14) With power with, I am called to great works with those that are around me. My obedience, my service to others, is based on “what has been so freely given, I now return.”  And my sacrifice, is display of gratitude.

Please bear me as I work through all of this.  I have tried to reduce these concepts into a reasonable blog post – a few hundred words.  As I explore in my writing the world of religion, I hope that the stuff that has not been clear, becomes so.

89. Another Year

Well, another year is upon us. And the question is...what to do with the blog? 

I started it with only a few intentions. The primary purpose was to present a different face to Christianity; a counter point to the Westboro Baptist Churches of our world.  And the goal was to do one entry per week.  I wanted to challenge, or at least speak (write) my mind about my faith.

          A friend of mine talks with me about exorcising the demons of my past.  Not a far cry from this working out my faith in a public setting.  And I have done so.  88 posts to date – if I post this one it will be 89. 

          I have gotten some rather encouraging feedback, much of it second hand.  For the most part the theology seems to have been ignored, and it has been mostly the trials and tribulations that has captured people’s attention.

          It seems that it is more than simple voyeurism. Maybe, in my walk of faith, or the writing of my faith, the example of someone who has more questions than answers, and has numerous contradictions, offers some comfort?  Maybe it is someone willing to say the things we only think?  But, what to do for 2015?

If this is posted, then, I will have decided to continue.

I think we as Christians need to create space for ourselves where we seriously question our faith.  And if I can be an example of that; why not?

          So here goes.

To start we were having coffee, there was four of us from my church.  If any of you are in the Vancouver area and are looking for a place to call your spiritual home, the Urban Village Church would be it.  It meets Sundays (duh) at 11:00 (sort of) at the Collingwood Neighbourhood House.  Urban Village Church has allowed me to not only go to church, but has also allowed me to feel that I fit within the entire scheme of Christianity.

          Back to the four of us.  We were talking about religion.  I make a smart ass comment that religion seems to me a competition as to who God loves the best.  And that often our competition is based on how bad you are.  That is because it is easier to find fault with you.  If you are like me, your obedience to the Lord is seeing what I can safely get away with without incurring his wrath. 

          Thus, it easier to say, “See Jesus I am not like him.”

          Or her.

          And there are many of us, and as always I include myself with this, that play this game.  There is a down fall, serious down fall, to living our spiritual lives out like this.  For often in the game of my righteousness is purer than your righteousness we use the court of public opinion, or our standing in the fellowship, to prove that we are better than you.  Thus, we live our lives not in obedience to God, but in compliance to popularity.

          We see this most clearly in the debate over homosexuality.  It is an issue that has no impact on the church.  Those of us who claim that homosexuality was the downfall of the Roman Empire, yes I have heard that, should do a bit of historical reading.  But the lack of authenticity of the argument is really, God loves us best cause we are not like them.  I cannot think of another reason why the debate over the Gay Rights exists other than to reassure ourselves of our goodness - we are not like them.

         

Over the next few weeks, whether you follow along or not does not matter, I want to work out a concept that has been on the edge of my thoughts.  It seems to me, that much of the bible is aimed at getting us in the right direction. I still see it as a love story, but I also see God trying to teach us how to love him.  As well, how to love each other. 

Central to this is the concept of power over.  The idea that power is the ability to make others do what we want.  I think we humans are addicted to power over and its companion punishment.  We create God in our image, we make him like we would be. 

So, I am to post.  Next week I will elaborate on the concept of Power Over and its implications in religion.

Til then, it is my prayer that you all have a great New Year, and that you come to know the joy, love and peace of God.