eptember 28-Ex. 17, Phil. 2, Mt. 21:23-32
I don’t trust myself with power, as I fear I would help myself too much or try to help others too much. At the same time, I know that I do not like being told what to do, so I would have a hard time in a religious tradition that prizes obedience to one’s superior, as in the military or with a bishop.
Israel remembered, even in the psalms, ancient attempts to test power over God In grumbling, The people seem to expect Moses to have power over God. Instead of being delighted with an amazing outpouring of gifts, they ak, and wonder why do we even have to ask? Why shouldn't it be here now> I am deliberately comparing the slave generation to children, as they have to learn to become a free people; the issue of water in the desert is important for the body of course, but the quarrel, the contention over it toward God haunted the memory of Israel. it may even suggest that deep with us all is the desire to question or test God. Indeed, one could read the Lord’s Prayer save us from the time of trial as save us from the time of testing God.
Being empowered requires a sense of agency and action, of being able to do something. It includes the power of choice and some capacity to move. It is able to live with the tension of being dependent, independent, and interdependent. It realizes that power shared works best for the long term. Power over may work in a crisis but it dissipates. Look a the reaction of Moses fearing what the people could do next? IN the old KJV he refers himself as a nursing father, again these people were in the infancy of development; the wilderness was a place for them to learn how to govern themselves before arriving in a land flowing with milk and honey.
losing power or better relinquishing power. Many think Paul is quoting a hymn that the Philippians use in worship that Jesus lived a life that was the opposite of being power hungry or exercising domination power over others but he lived humbly, not as an emperor or a rich mogul but a simple craft worker and rabbi.
Does the faith urge us to be doormats? Does the faith urge us to be in the face of people constantly on our version of the faith?
Philippi was the site of a battle for control of Rome and its lands were given to veterans of the battle. Paul uses that background, perhaps, to counter the image of Christ here in regard to military and political power.
Second, this passage has us to try a remarkable thing., It is one thing to seek Christ in others. it is quite another matter to try to see things through the eyes of christ, to share a divine perspective on life itself.The incarnation of Christ into our world, our joys, our struggles is not mere playacting but a full immersion of God into human life. Jesus walks in our shoes, is kin with us, part of our lives, as close as our own breath and heartbeat. I think of the awe in which G. Washington was held because he could turn his back on power, as he walked away from the presidency after two terms. If you watched the PBS special on the Roosevelts, TR never got over that tradition. In the end, the parable has us sit up when we realize that the two responders do not exercise power well. Perhaps the Scripture points us toward a God who works through us, who empowers us to live as god envisions.
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