Lent III

Lent III2015 – Cycle BExodus 20:1-17; Psalm 19; 1Corinthins 1:22-25; John 2:13-25

Power is so very seductive, so irresistible that even an honest, well-intentioned person can be ensnared in power’s tentacles before they know they are entrapped. Power comes in many guises and if we are honest we all are drawn to power, particularly power over others: the adolescent bully, the abusive wife or husband; the gossiping/slanderous parishioner or neighbor; the jealous co-worker, almost anyone with a title or position. There is not one of us who is not immune to power’s allure.

We use anger, veiled threats, the withholding of love, money, silence, title and office, knowledge, ingratiating and oily words as our means.

As you can see, the seduction of power is not just found in the greediness of the Wall Street financier, the high ranking member of Congress who uses their position over the freshmen in Committee meetings, the wealthy person living in a gated community yet wielding great influence over a society from which they stand aloof, the global multi-national corporation that runs rough shod over indigenous peoples, the environment and the will of the less influential in society. Power is all pervasive.

Power, like sports, is about winning – no one wants to be a loser. That is still the worst epithet a group of mean-spirited children can use to attack the one kid who doesn’t quite fit in: loser! We view power as strength and the lack of it as weakness. Like the contents in a mixing bowl, this view of power is folded over into how the males of our culture have been taught as to what it means to be a man: strength. Never let them see you vulnerable or defenseless.

Do you recall the characteristics of the tentacles in the first human grasp for power?  

“The woman saw that the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eyes, and the tree was desirable for gaining wisdom.” [Genesis 3:6]

Good, pleasing to the eyes and desirable. How could there be anything wrong with these values?  Why would we not desire food and wisdom?

Yet the garden scene quickly leads to the first fratricidal murder and hidden in the ancient genealogies a second revenge murder. Murder, the ultimate in power plays? Due to his father’s drunken nakedness, Ham takes the advantage over his father, Noah and eventually the stretched arms of Eve and Adam for a tree transform into the human stretch of the tower of Babel toward heavenly power. Are not the World Trade Center and its successor, The Freedom Tower not descendants of Babel?

In my estimation, the root of every sin is the misguided use of power over another person.

• Is this the reason why Jesus will not trust himself to anyone?

• Does Jesus withhold this trust in others because he himself was seduced by the allure of that which is good, pleasing to the eye and desirable?

Never forget the temptation scene in the Gospels or more pointedly what is revealed by the historical novel, The Last Temptation of Christ by Greek author, Nikos Kazantzakis. The last temptation of Christ? …the opportunity for Jesus to save himself from the cross: the ultimate act of assault against the foolishness and weakness of God.

Yet it is Paul who ultimately and succinctly reveals the hollowness of human power when he writes: “we proclaim Christ crucified…” [1 Corinthians 1:23]  All we Christians have to offer our world is a dead criminal – God, Christ crucified. In other words, after we are confronted by the cross we can only in turn offer our world incomprehensible foolishness and weakness. The cross is a mirror held up to humanity exposing our real motivations. Like Oscar Wilde’s character, Dorian Grey, we prefer to lock up where no one can see our true selves and intentions. The cross though is uncompromising in its revelations about our world and us.

Reflect.  On 15 February 2015, 21 Coptic Orthodox Christians were beheaded by ISIS: people exerting power over people. Yet the last words on the lips of these Christians?  “Lord Jesus Christ!”

Where is the strength of God? In the power of human barbaric violence? …or in the perceived weakness of a proclamation of faith and life in Christ Jesus? Violence, another name for human power, is here revealed as empty.

What do you see when you look into the mirror of the crucified?