06.04.2020
When I made those comments ten days ago about power — who has it and who does not have it, and the fact that those who have it do not share it with those who do not, unless their power and/or position is threatened — little did I know that we would get to see this truth displayed in graphic and violent detail throughout the country.
It has even displaced COVID19 as the daily headline.
It began with “the world” (as Paul calls it) using its power against a single, unarmed person from the margins of society — a person with practically no power. And killing him, cruelly and unnecessarily.
That abuse of power was visual and visceral, and caused the powerless to act together and threaten the status and security of the powerful. And the powerful have responded in one of two ways:
- Many of the powerful saw the abuse of power as so “wrong” they are joining with the powerless.
- But some of the powerful have responded by using even more power to “protect” their status and security. Need an example: the eighth-grade bully who declares his support for free speech and assembly as his audience can hear the use of violent police power to move a group of protesters out of his way so he can promote himself.
Stunningly and sadly, some who proclaim to follow Christ are approving the use of power against the powerless — against those who Jesus called “the least of these my brothers and sisters.”
But Christ’s real direction for us in this fraying world is in the conversation that leads up to that phrase. He tells a crowd that God will welcome people into his kingdom who feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, give clothing to those who have none, care for the sick, visit the prisoner [that’s quite a list — it’s in Matthew 25].
From the very beginning of the Jewish nation God has told his people to include and care for “the strangers, the orphans and the widows,” [you can check Deuteronomy 6:11, among many others]. Following Christ means joining with those who have little or no power in this world. Following Christ means joining your voice to the voice of those crying out for food, or drink, or clothing — or breath. Following Christ means using what power you might have on behalf of those with less power.
Christ gives us a way to answer his call — Community.
Christ told the disciples to “love one another as I have loved you. You are my friends if you do that. You are no longer my servants, because servants don’t know what the master is doing and I have told you everything I have heard from my Father,” [that’s in John 15]. The disciples were a community of friends who followed Christ.
So was the early church. Here’s how Luke describes it: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers,” [Acts 2]. Luke goes on to say the believers “held all things in common so that no community member lacked anything needed.”
In a community every person belongs. Community does not distinguish among people, but accepts every person who shares the vision and wants to contribute to bringing the vision to life. In a community every person shares in and contributes to the collective power. It is power with others, which is creative and limitless. Power over others is destructive and finite — which leads those with that power to spend all their time and energy to secure and protect and defend it against the others.
People in community can bind up the fraying edges of our world. People following Christ and loving one another can weave the scattering threads of our lives back together.
If you want to learn more about community and its potential to deal with our current racial and social dilemmas, you can’t do better than Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount [Matthew 5 — yes, again]. Then read Peter Block’s Community – the Structure of Belonging, (check your friendly neighborhood or internet bookstore).