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.
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