From Domination to Communion: Weekly Summary
Sunday
Power, in and of itself, is not bad. It simply needs to be redefined as something m0re than domination. If the Holy Spirit is power, then power has to be good, loving, and empowering.
—Richard Rohr
Monday
When we haven’t experienced or don’t trust our God-given “power within,” we are either afraid of power or we exert too much of it over others.
—Richard Rohr
Tuesday
In the process of allowing our lives to become a salty offering, no longer driven by power plays, but instead focused upon honouring and protecting others, our ego-driven agendas are burned away.
—Sally Douglas
Wednesday
Rome’s empire was fueled by the love of power. God’s empire was fueled by the power of love.
—Brian McLaren
Thursday
Serpent power is the power of force, wealth, social influence and numbers. There is nothing wrong with the use of serpent power with integrity. However, if all we use is serpent power, we have lost our unique call and contribution—the capacity to embody the power of the dove.
—Alexia Salvatierra
Friday
The Trinity shows that God’s power is not domination, threat, or coercion. All divine power is shared power and the letting go of autonomous power.
—Richard Rohr
Week Thirty-Seven Practice
Power Rooted in Love
Pastor Dennis Jacobsen questions why some Christians avoid power, despite Jesus’ teachings about working on behalf of others.
We find that we cannot run away from power once we take the ethical teachings of Jesus seriously. These teachings draw us into a life of compassion and righteousness that seeks justice. On an interpersonal level, perhaps we find no tension. We visit the sick and imprisoned, shelter the homeless, and feed the hungry without conflict. But what happens when we begin to analyze why people are imprisoned, homeless, hungry, and poor in a society of immense wealth? We begin to thirst for justice. This thirst for justice leads us into the public arena. And there we learn rather quickly the truth of Frederick Douglass’s maxim: “Power yields nothing without a struggle. It never has and it never will” [1]….
Small wonder that many people of faith prefer to turn away from power and the public arena. It feels safer, holier, and more comfortable to operate in the realm of the individual and interpersonal. Everyone speaks well of the Christian who serves soup to the homeless or volunteers at a shelter, unless of course that Christian begins to question why people are homeless. Dom Hélder Câmara said, “When I feed the hungry, they call me a saint. When I ask why people are hungry, they call me a Communist” [2]….
The community of believers draws its power from God and trusts the power of God to lead toward victory. That victory may take the form of tentative triumphs within history, or it may take the form of courageous faithfulness in the face of the cross. The community stands firm as it opposes the powers of evil because it believes in the One who could not be defeated even by death. Faith in the power of Christ’s resurrection prevents the community from yielding to defeat of spirit or cynicism because it knows that, eschatologically, evil will be totally vanquished by God. The faithful community experiences power rooted in love and resulting in justice. To be part of such a community is an honor and a powerful blessing.
References:
[1] Frederick Douglass, “The Significance of Emancipation in the West Indies,” speech given August 3, 1847. See Frederick Douglass: Essential Speeches and Writings, ed. Philip S. Foner (Lawrence Hill Books, 1999), 367.
[2] See Francis McDonagh, “Dom Helder in Context,” introduction to Dom Helder Camara: Essential Writings (Orbis Books, 2009), 11.
Dennis A. Jacobsen, Doing Justice: Congregations and Community Organizing, 2nd ed. (Fortress Press, 2017), 58, 60, 71.
Image credit and inspiration: cal gao, untitled (detail), 2021, photo, Unsplash. Click here to enlarge image. We move—from “I” to “we”—honoring each other’s gifts, sharing skills with reverence, and weaving our strengths into a whole greater than any one alone.
