What Is Power For?

Scripture: Mark 10:35-45

‘Tis the gift to be simple, ’tis the gift to be free, ‘Tis the gift to come down where I ought to be;
And when we find ourselves in the place just right, ‘Twill be in the valley of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gained, To bow and to bend we shan’t be ashamed; to turn, turn, will be my delight. Till by turning, turning we come round right. Amen.

For the last five weeks, since my mom fell and was taken to the emergency room at Regions hospital, I have spent a lot of time watching how she has been cared for and how different people treat her vulnerability—both her decreased cognition and her physical needs.

Two weeks ago, after my mom was at the end of her stay at the Transition Care Unit at Episcopal Church Homes , a nurse from the TCU stopped Maggie and told her, “you know we see a lot of so-called caregivers who work with some of our patients and they aren’t always caring. But Marguerite’s Visiting Angel, Kari is one of the most genuinely loving caregivers I’ve ever seen.”

As an only child seeking to support my mom, who is also an only child, when much of the work and decision-making responsibility is on me and Maggie, I can’t tell you what a gift from God Karin is. That Karin has chosen to use the power that God has given her to advocate for and support my mom in her moment of deepest vulnerability touches me beyond words.

A week ago, as I was driving, I heard Rev. Dr. Naomi Washington-Leapheart on the NPR show, “Reveal,” in which she was talking about the exponential increase in a movement known as the New Apostolic Reformation and its roots in a theology known as Christian Dominionism. She said, “the idea is that Christians and specific Christians should take complete control over these seven pillars for the good of the whole society. So we want all of our business leaders, [our political leaders, school boards, education leaders, and leaders in all areas of society] to believe in Dominionist ideologies.” At the heart of Christian Dominionism is the believe that Christians are called to re-establish the proper hierarchies of dominance and submission that God-ordained in creation. God rules over humanity, Men rule over women, and White Christians rule over everything, including other humans and the natural world. As several Christian Dominionist leaders have said, this is necessary in order to extinguish the so-called “enemies of Christ” and bring about the Second Coming.

As I sat in the car, finishing listening to the “Reveal” episode and feeling sick to my stomach, I couldn’t help being struck by the contrast between Kari’s use of power and the vision of how the Dominionist movement envisioned the proper use of power.

Two days later, I sat down to read the scripture assigned by the Lectionary for today.

So Jesus called them and said to them, “You know that among the gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; instead, whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant,  and whoever wishes to be first among you must be servant of all. For the Human One came not to be served but to serve and to give his life to liberate many.”

I’ve been praying on this scene between James, John, Jesus, and the other disciples since. And I keep being brought back to the question, what is power for? For us as individuals, for us as spiritual communities, and for us as a nation. What is power for?

My grammie and her sisters all worked as domestic servants in Inverness, Scotland after their father died. My grammie was fourteen when she started this work. And she told so many stories about the humiliations that her employers tried to visit on her because she was their servant. She got fired for refusing to wipe the butt of the daughter of the house who was her exact same age. And she narrowly escaped sexual assault.

I share this because I think it is important to approach the question of how Jesus deals with power with some degree of complexity. When we think of servanthood, we ought do so out of a place of reflection and study.

The Adult Ed class is reading a book by biblical scholar and theologian, Walter Wink entitled The Powers That Be: Theology for a New Millennium. One of Wink’s central arguments is that Jesus lived amidst Roman Empire and a Domination System and that we continue to live amidst a Domination System. And the central way in which power is used in Domination systems is for power-over, for enrichment of the few at the expense of the many. In order to maintain domination, power is used to humiliate, to force into submission those from whom things are wanted.

In our scripture for today, James and John seem to be operating out of this understanding of power and they want to make sure they are on top. “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you… Appoint us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”

But Jesus’ vision is a complete transformation of systems of domination. Wink argues that Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount/Plain (depending on if you’re reading Matthew or Luke) gives us a powerful vision of a transformed world, one in which we are called into radical sharing of power for the flourishing of all people and all of life.

Jesus proclaims that in the face of the pull to hold and use power over others, Blessed are the poor…Blessed are they who mourn…Blessed are those that get angry at the right time for the right reasons…Blessed are they who hunger and thirst…Blessed are the merciful…Blessed are the clean in heart…Blessed are the peacemakers… Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness.

These shall be comforted, inherit the land, receive the kin-dom of heaven, be filled, receive mercy, see God, be called children of God.

I experience this call of Jesus as central to the gospel and at the center of our calls as students of Jesus (for that’s what disciple means, to be a student). How am I, how are you, how are we using our power WITH others and with creation in order to hearken the kin-dom of God here and now?

In this light, servant is not putting myself in the position of humiliation and power-under, instead, servant is recognizing that of God in the other and in all of creation, knowing that we have the spark of the Divine in all of us. It asks of me, and of you, to notice the Karis of the world and find ways to give care in the same ways. And, if we have believed the lies told by the Domination system that are not worthy, or that we are somehow outside the love of God, or somehow unclean, then Jesus’ invitation is to know ourselves blessed, comforted, held, children of God.

Jesus’ vision also has implications for politics, too. We are living in a time rife with the forces of domination. And Jesus’ name is being defiled to champion hatred, oppression, and violence. But Jesus said to them, “You know that among the gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; instead, whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be servant of all. For the Human One came not to be served but to serve and to give his life to liberate many.”

Amen.