The problems with the church (an arrogant series of cynical genius) the upside down kingdom

The church as we have been taught is an organization.  It is modeled after all of the organizations that we see in the world.  Whether we are talking about the CEO on top of the international corporation, or the boards that run similar ones.  Whether you are talking about Governments that run based on democratic rule, or despotic dictators, our church has been modeled after these worldly organizations.

This is not as it should be.  The church of God should not be a pyramid of power, with Jesus at the top and the great "leadership" just under him.  What we have there is the mimicry of a system of oppression.  Oh sure, as long as the "leaders" are benevolent, this might work ok.  In fact, it might even be more expedient, and less chaotic that the alternatives.  But it is not God's revealed way.

Now as this is a blog, not a treatise on the issues of leadership and structure, we will be approaching this subject with a bit of simplicity.  I have found that of all my "weird" ideas, this one seems to get the most resistance.  I believe this is because the structure of our entire life is based around the idea of top down, oppressive leadership and ministry.  We are so stuck into this system that anything else seems incredibly subversive and wrong.  That our deep involvement with the culture and structures of our day not only hold our imaginations hostage, but they seductively inspire our treatment of the scriptures.  We do not see the truth, even though God lays it out before us so powerfully.

In order to grasp what I am talking about there must be a breaking of supernatural power upon our minds.  We must be able to see how the powers that be use our marriage to these structures of hierarchy to not only keep us bound up, but to keep us supporting those structures that are outside of the church.  We become upholders of evil, as we practice systems and structures that are in themselves the tools for the oppression of the entire world.

Like I said, I am going to keep it simple, I could go through the entirety of scriptures, and tear our systems to shreds, but I will instead just share two scriptures here, and if you need more, we can speak of that in the comments.

The first scripture I would share with you comes from the 1 book of Samuel chapter 8  ⁷ The Lord told him, "Listen to everything the people are saying to you. You are not the one they have turned their backs on. I am the one they do not want as their king. ⁸ They are doing just as they have always done. They have deserted me and served other gods. They have done that from the time I brought them up out of Egypt until this very day. Now they are deserting you too.

The Lord goes on to explain how a king will tax them, take their sons and daughters into service and slavery, rule over them with an iron fist and make his own house great.  Yet the people wanted a king so they could be like other nations.  Now please hear this, to God this was rejection of Him.  The rest of the scriptures speak of the horrible atrocities that accompany kingship, even a "good" king like David winds up in the midst of civil war, murdering a man and taking his wife, and practically destroying the nation all the while building up a huge monument to himself.  The fact that God loved David, does not take away from the fact that God did not desire a king, in fact it shows that even with a man as good hearted as David, power corrupts.

The next scripture is repeated in the gospels, but lets look at Mark 10

James and John Ask a Favor of Jesus

 ³⁵ James and John came to Jesus. They were the sons of Zebedee. "Teacher," they said, "we would like to ask a favor of you."  ³⁶ "What do you want me to do for you?" he asked.
 ³⁷ They replied, "Let one of us sit at your right hand in your glorious kingdom. Let the other one sit at your left hand."
 ³⁸ "You don't know what you're asking for," Jesus said. "Can you drink the cup of suffering I drink? Or can you go through the baptism of suffering I must go through?"
 ³⁹ "We can," they answered.
   Jesus said to them, "You will drink the cup I drink. And you will go through the baptism I go through. ⁴⁰ But it is not for me to say who will sit at my right or left hand. These places belong to those they are prepared for."
 ⁴¹ The other ten disciples heard about it. They became angry at James and John.
 ⁴² Jesus called them together. He said, "You know about those who are rulers of the nations. They hold power over their people. Their high officials order them around. ⁴³ Don't be like that. Instead, anyone who wants to be important among you must be your servant. ⁴⁴ And anyone who wants to be first must be the slave of everyone. ⁴⁵ Even the Son of Man did not come to be served. Instead, he came to serve others. He came to give his life as the price for setting many people free."

The disciples John and James want to be at the top of the pyramid.  The other disciples get mad, probably because they didn't think of it sooner.  They understand the way leadership and power work in the world, and they would like to be at the top end of the pyramid.  But Jesus explains that in his kingdom, things are not as they are in the world.  The leaders are those that give up everything and serve others, not those that have authority.  We in the church are called to a different understanding of structure and leadership.  We are not to be a hierarchy, but a place that truly practices "the first shall be last and the last first"

Another problem with the church is our refusal to abandon the ways of empire in our structure.  To elevate people, usually professionals into places of authority.  For the incredible majority of people to give away their own power, their own responsibility to someone else.  And what is very disturbing to me in this culture of consumerism, people pay others to live out their discipleship. One of the problems with the church is we have a structure that allows a dereliction of discipleship by the majority, and an acceptance of power and authority that is unbiblical by the leadership.

How this is remedied is by the first relinquishing their thrones and serving the last.  By smaller groups, allowing, in fact requiring, that all share their gifts, their talents, their thoughts and practices.  That once again all of the church becomes the reflection of God, and the dazzling presence of Jesus is found not at a service where the hierarchy is in full effect, but in the everyday life, where every single joint supplies.

rev
 

An Alternative to singing songs for worship

In our group we have people from many points of view, some are not even theistic.  This makes worship time a bit difficult, but we have tried to be creative.  When seeking for a common ground we have found that appreciation, awareness and thankfulness are all ways that we can take part in an activity that is meaningful for everyone.

As is our tradition everyone takes turns with things.  So each night we have a dinner, and a discussion around the scriptures.  We all take turns with this.  But then we have four traditions that we do monthly, one per week.  Those are confession, prayer, worship and communion.  Since we take turns these can turn out to be very different from one week to the next.  This week one of our members, Ted, wanted us to focus our understanding of worship on being present in the now, of seeing the wonder of God's good creation.  So we wrote haiku and shared.  This exercise was a great way to allow everyone to participate, and is not exclusive.

Here are a few of the them:

Eclipse

Blinding afternoon
Dark moon slides quietly in
Corona extreme

Dean

bye bye, Hi, bye bye
Joy and innocence and fun
run for the kitchen

Untitled
Days swarm the sweet sage
life is trapped sun energy
they store and prosper

Papyrus

Papyrus for us
hidden treasure fierwork top
beneath your green skin

Church
With love all around
laughter sits at the center
acceptance abounds

Community
easy, hard, noisy
exhausting and wonderful
love becomes alive

rev

Problems With the Church 3 (an arrogant series of cynical genius)

The church has handled truth in a number of ways.  In the older traditions the church hierarchy was called the holder of truth. In the extremes the church did not even let the scriptures be in a common language so that unskilled, uneducated people would not even have access to them, but the scriptures would only be explained to them by the church.  The Waldensian's died because they began to teach outside of the authority of the church.  In many newer church groups everyone can interpret scripture as an individual, which some point out as the reason for so many denominations, or the quote "you have made every man a pope".  I think at the heart of much of the problems with the church stands an inadequate way in which we might process truth.

Truth, and specifically scriptural truth tends to be addressed in between these extremes.  There are some notable distinctions in some groups however.  In some Quaker groups they highly value the idea of a communal interpretation.  In other words as the church silently waits for the leading of the Spirit, they are lead to an understanding of truth.  In the liberation theology camp they talk about action reflection.  In other words, as you are part of the struggle for liberation, and freedom from poverty and oppression in real life activities, you are then able to reflect upon the scriptures from a proper alignment. 

Let me say that I believe there is much that we can learn from all of these traditions particularly the last two.  But the problem I see with the church today, is they miss a very important principle.  In fact, I would say that all of these traditional methods have merit, and should be combined to give us the best understanding of scripture, yet if we did this well we would still miss the most important aspect of our faith, and what it means to be the church.

What is this little secret?  It is that Jesus, is actually the center of our knowledge, not the bible.  Now I am well aware that without the bible we don't have a Jesus.  But lets look at how we approach scripture.  In most cases we do not approach it as a narrative, though that is what it is.  And we take it in pieces, using all pieces equally, (unless they disagree with out lifestyle or dogma in which case they are just figurative, or not in proper context).  But this is a problem, because the bible is not THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE.  The bible is not the EXACT REPRESENTATION OF GOD'S BEING, nor is it THE LOGOS BECOME FLESH.  Nor are we known as biblians.  We are called Christians, which means we are to be followers of Christ.

This radically effects the way in which we view truth, or interpret scripture.  If we are to be true to our name, and discipleship, then first and foremost we must acknowledge Christ.  So in order to understand all of scripture, we must first understand Christ.  What Christ did, what He said, and how He died and rose again, is the pinnacle of our understanding of God, and scripture.  Far from meaning the other scriptures don't matter, or even that they matter less, it means that all scripture comes alive when viewed through the lens of Jesus. 

The problem has been that we have not followed Jesus.  In fact, most of the time we elevate Jesus so high into the clouds that we forget he actually asked real live men, to follow him in the real live earth, and entrusted the real live church into their hands.  We do not read Paul in light of Jesus, but we read Jesus in light of Paul.  We do not take the Jesus of the gospels as the one true God, but we say, "well he was just a nice guy back then but in Revelations he is gonna wreck shit"  We say, "well look at Joshua, God is not just love He is just".  But the thing is Jesus shows us what God's justice looks like "neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more".  God is revealed truly, and perfectly in the actions, and teachings of Jesus, and the scriptures bow to Him, not the other way around.  This is the actual meaning of Jesus statement in the sermon on the mount, "not one tiny little morsel of the law will be done away with until it is all PERFECTED"  Jesus comes to make the understandings of God, and scripture perfect. 

A problem with the church is we look every way we can besides the actual example of Jesus life, the powerful teachings he gave us, and the invitation to join in His death and resurrection.  If Jesus is the Way, Truth and Life, then we should be about that.  Isn't it funny that the only people Jesus really tore into were those that already figured it out, had all their doctrines and dogmas straight, and used them all as currency to buy and sell power and influence over others.  What He spoke of was the kingdom, a way of acting, and living, a way of being the community of God, and in the midst of this community His very presence lives.  Truth is not a book, nor a method, it is a person, the person of Christ.

All of our interpretive methods must be engaged, but more importantly, we must set our sight firmly on Christ the man, and His call to follow Him.

rev

Another problem with the church (an arrogant series of cynical genius)

In this series I am addressing a number of things that I believe are big problems in the church.  Before I go much further I must just say that I do believe that many church people and leaders are in fact good-natured. The people in the church are trying to do the right thing, they are trying to do God's thing, and many of them are warm, wonderful and loving people.  They are just caught up in a system that is very, very messed up.

What I would like to address in this post is an issue that is probably gonna piss off some of my friends.  I would like to talk about the idea of clergy laity distinction, and particularly the idea of paid ministers.

In the church of today we have a structure that operates like either a business or a government.  There are experts and professionals at the top, and there are the rabble on the bottom.  Like I showed in my previous post we have adopted a system that allows and encourages this kind of structure, and the values that come along with it.  We in most cases require our leaders to have degrees of some sort, to have aptitude in "running things" or incredible charisma.  The greater your schooling and gifting, the higher you rise in the chain of command.

It is sad to me that in much of the "emerging" church, we have not really dealt with this issue at all.  We might have different things that "qualify" the person at the top of the heap, but we still have heaps.  We talk about how many people come to our church, how many books we have read, how many conferences we have been invited to speak at, or how many cool innovative worship ideas we have incorporated into our church.  We have traded one hierarchy for another.  We have made church "cooler" but not actually emerged into something that is different.  For all the talk of a new reformation that addresses more than just doctrine, we have not really addressed much more than doctrine, and tried to make church culturally more fun for ourselves.  This is simply not good enough.

At the heart of this hierarchy is this idea that certain people should be paid to be the ministers, while others are only volunteers.  We like to talk about the priesthood of all believers, but like the saying goes, "money talks, bullshit walks"  If we truly believe that we are all equally called to share our gifts within the body, that in Christ there is no Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female then why are some paid and some not?  If we truly believe that every joint in the body is of equal importance, then why do some people get paid for it?  Why are those people expected to have degrees and qualifications that allow them to hold these positions? 

Now I know that once again I am the minority position here, but let me just list a number of reasons why our system is broken, and needs to be torn down and rebuilt not patched up:

In a consumerist culture, paying for experts, keeps us from learning and growing ourselves
In a consumerist culture we must resist the current of our culture and not cater to a consumer mindset that com-modifies religious experience 
When your degree and income are based on "religious" studies what happens when you need to step down or leave the ministry?
How do you relate to your neighbors when they work "real jobs" and you get paid to read the bible and pray for people?
How do you relate to the people in your congregation when you get paid to do devotions and bible study, and have a good marriage, and kids under control ect.
How much of church budget that could go towards helping the poor and marginalized goes towards paying salaries?

Now are their scriptures that back certain people getting paid? yes, but I believe they are the exceptions, not the rule.  Paul, a far more accomplished church man than many today, worked making tents so that he wouldn't be a financial burden.  He said Peter did get supported by the church, but Peter was not the pastor of a church in a city, but rather the traveling apostle, providing leadership (I will talk about leadership without hierarchy later) over an entire movement.  There is an excellent resource by Frank Viola called straight talk to pastors (free online) that goes into the scriptural support for what I am talking about.

 When Christ was walking along and hears the disciples arguing about who will be the greatest in the kingdom, he stops them and explains, "if you want to really be great in my kingdom, you will be a slave to everyone:"  We have twisted that to this abomination, "well to be a servant to everyone, I need to be more able to care for the needs of the sheep, and paying me a salary, and making me their leader, and giving me authority over them will help me serve them better".  And I know why we do this, it is more expedient, it makes more sense the only problem is, it isn't the way of Christ.

Ultimately, the gathering of God's people for a new politic should not follow the paradigms of business, or government, or even religion. The gathering of God's church should be one of unparalleled equality,, anarchic in its nature, and radically communal in its economy. The church practiced much like this for three hundred years, until it became married to the government, and Rome needed priests and bishops of the stature and quality worthy of their great empire.  And the leadership of the humble laborer, who though being God says later in his ministry, "I call you all now my friends" gets forgotten, as we grab a hold of an ideology that is far from that of Christ. 

So we must do away with titles, and salaries, and hierarchy, we are a kingdom of priests.

rev

ps. reverend is an ironic nickname, not an official title, please feel free to call me john, or friend, or brother, or asshole, I answer to all of those

The Problems With the Church (an arrogant series of cynical genius)

There are churches that are doing their best to do good work, to create disciples not converts, to take part in movements of social justice, and relational integrity.  They try and promote many good things like mission, community, prayer, self discipline and morality.  But I would suggest that the very structure of the church, is a horrible handicap.  That those that succeed in small ways in these endeavors do so in spite of these horrible structures.  And in fact that these structures are not only incapable of truly doing what God calls the church to do, but they are (the structures) an act of disobedience and idolatry.

Oh no, did he really just say that?  Yes I did.  Over the next few weeks I will explain the many ways that I think the structures and very nature of the church is corrupt and explain why I believe that we cannot seek to effect change from within, but can only truly grow into our calling by coming out from her (pardon the apocalyptic smart assery)

Let me start with a little picture.  I am a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.  I often teach others this amazingly effective martial art.  Let me explain how I do this.  I spend very much time reading books about BJJ.  I watch the Gracies in Action videos.  I study how other people have applied this teaching in their lives.  And then once a week, I gather all of the students.  Now some of my students are also musicians so we have written some songs that sing our thankfulness for such a wonderful art.  We sing about how much we love Rorion and Helio Gracie for bringing this art to America.  And we even have some songs that teach us in rhyme important truths about grappling.  I then collect the dues for the rent on the dojo, which is only used this one day, and for my salary.  Then... I stand up and I begin to talk to them about the importance of BJJ, about how we are to follow the example of Royce, who came to this country and even though he was small and skinny, he conquered all of the foes that he encountered.  I talk about times in my life that I have had to apply some of these techniques, and I encourage you to apply them as well.  And then we all bow our heads, and I ask if there is anyone who has never accepted the truth of Brazlian Jiu Jitsu, and would like to begin training. 

How many of you would go to that school?  That is not the way I learned jiu jitsu, it is not the way I learned how to wrestle, how to paint, nor how to do drywall, carpentry or roofing.  I learned how to do these things by having a small group of people, actually do these activities with me.  Oh, there were experts of course.  People that I may never measure up to, but they actually got on the mat and wrestled with me, swung a hammer with me.  Sometimes they even slowed down so I could keep up.

Well, that might just be my smart assed brain trying to make everyone do it my way.  Pastoring is different.  But... it is the way Jesus did it.  Jesus says, "come and see"  Jesus says come and follow me.  When Peter prays for a dead person, he does the exact same thing Jesus did when he was with him earlier.  Jesus shows us that we are called to live our discipleship in a community.  To learn a new way of living, believing and relating.  And those most qualified to teach us these things are truly experts, but not because they learned to read Greek, (though that is a wonderful helpful thing), but because they have been following Jesus, forgiving and loving their brothers, and practicing the kingdom for longer than we have.

As long as worship is entertainment or classroom, discipleship will not be apprenticeship. 

rev

How therefore shall we live? (last question in my series)

4) Finally, I wanted to ask what it means to live this stuff out.  Are there different approaches for Kingdom living?  How do we work on becoming a part of God's Kingdom?  Any thoughts or advice you have would be great.  

Well this is the issue isn't it?  How do we do this?  If you ask me how does my community live this out I would have to answer honestly... not very well, but we are trying to get better.

There are many different approaches, and many different avenues.  What we have decided to do is to go down a weird hybrid of the house church network, and the intentional community path.  Others have chosen to focus on intentional community and monastic practice, while everyone attends different churches.  Some have chosen to stay completely committed to their denominational church, or the Catholic church while practicing radical community and social justice like the Catholic worker communities.  Some have decided to continue their work in the midst of the city, or the suburbs.  Some have decided to move out of the mainstream and try to live off the grid.

The issues are so very complex, that it is never easy to make a clear answer to what should anyone do.  We can hardly figure out what we should do, which makes it very ridiculous to give much advice to others.  But we have learned some principles that have helped us along the way.  The first is that we need to realize that we are stronger, wiser and more complete as a group than as individuals.  We should spend the time to talk, to discuss, to sit in silent waitfulness, and then to make a decision as a group.  I even let my group decide which speaking engagements I should take, or even if I should take a long vacation.  Why? because I can figure out lots of reasons to make my own desires sound the most efficient and credible path, I need others that are just as committed to the path to help me figure it out.

A perfect example is worship.  We meet on Monday nights for a communal meal, and a discussion or some kind of reflection upon the scriptures.  There are mostly Christian people (though from radically different perspectives), but a few non-theists that are with us regularly.  So we talked about worship as something we would like to consider a part of our regular practice without being alienating towards those that don't recognize a personal deity.  We talked about it, and came up with this idea:  We can all realize the good that comes from being thankful, and from appreciating the wonder and beauty we see in life.  So let us take time to reflect and share about things we are thankful and in awe of as a regular part of our time together.  It is all about learning to grow together.

The best advice I could give is that we first need to recognize the upside down nature of all Jesus says.  Don't take revenge, forgive.  Don't seek for security, but trust.  Don't seek fortune, but be stupidly generous.  Do not accept injustice, but resist it non violently even if it means your death.  It is not the people that are most talented, wealthy, or holy that are blessed but those that learn to serve the poor, the marginalized, the sinners the heretics, the sick, the imprisoned ect. is completely at odds with how this world operates

Secondly we need to recognize we have a whole system that is built to teach us, to pull us, to push us and threaten us to continue in the hierarchical structure of oppression.  Whether it is the lies of consumerism, or the fear of violence from bad men, everything in our society is designed to support the structure of power and hierarchy.

And then realizing these first two, we must also realize that we need a community to both live an alternative to this hierarchy, and to see clearly how we must address the needs of our current world, thinking both globally and locally if possible.  It is in these communities that we practice the ideals that the world needs in order to move past the hierarchy of power and wealth.  But it is also in these communities that we figure out how to live as a community to address some of these issues in ourselves and our neighborhood.  It would be my goal in our "network" that we would have many small groups that have different flavors of the revolution.  Some might be more concerned with economic justice, some with restorative justice through the penal system, others might be focused on racial reconciliation, others might have radical anti war and non violence activists, ect.  That we would all support, and encourage one another in all of these kingdom tasks, as well as be educated by each other as to how our everyday lives can help us to address these concerns.

I have an amazing vision of several community houses that take in those in need, that share food, and that grow it as well.  Of small groups that meet in homes to eat together and learn how they can begin the journey towards a new way of being human, living in this kingdom of God.  Of places where people can come to learn trades, good work, work with integrity and value.  Building things, growing things, helping people rather than just making money for its own sake.  Of studios where we can practice the creativity that is in each of us, making art and healing in the process.  I have a vision of a group of people that are as committed to each other as they are to changing the world.  I am a dreamer, I have lived 45 years, suffered much failure, little success, and quite a bit of ridicule, yet I still believe.

rev 

Question number 2 in my interview with Larry

2) Another question people have asked, and that maybe ties in, is the idea that Anarchy means chaos, lawlessness, and rebellion against the established order.  A few people have asked me how that can be compatible with the kind of communities you've been a part of, which seem to be about loving and serving those who have been marginalized by society.  

There is a difference between a Christian anarchy and a non Christian one, though not always, and I will get into that.  But before we do we must look at what anarchy is and isn't.  Anarchy, as a word, means against the powers.  It does not mean chaos, lawlessness or no order.  Anarchy means simply a stand against systems and structures of power. 

There are many different ways in which this belief is manifested.  There are some that believe we need to go back to more tribal, live off the land nomadic lifestyles.  There are some that believe we should have a communistic, or socialistic economy, with an anarchic structure of governance.  Some would say that true democracy (as opposed to representation democracy) is anarchy.  But the idea is that the power resides either in the individual, or in the community, not in certain individuals whether elected or chosen in some other manner.

Then we get to the manner in which this should come to pass.  There are in an oversimplified view three ways:
Overthrow the established order
Work within the established order for change
Ignore the established order and become "off the grid" as much as possible

Which brings me to my beliefs about a Christ centered, and biblical anarchy.  I believe that Christian anarchy focuses on a few ideas that address the above comments in a unique way.  This does not mean all forms of non Christian anarchy cannot address them in similar ways however, nor that we have a different practice.  

As I have followed Jesus, and studied the scriptures I find that we are called to live in a covenanted community.  One that is covenanted to the ideals of Jesus, and the belief that love, and the holy spirit can guide us towards correct living.

That we are to live in a tension that says we are not here to overthrow the powers that be, but to basically live an alternative to them.  To stand against the injustice and pain caused by them.  And to offer a refuge from them to those trampled under its machine.

As a covenanted community we are told that withing the community dwells the power to "bind and loose".  Which in ancient times was the application of laws, punishment, retribution and forgiveness.  This means that the power does not reside in a hierarchy, in "the professionals" or the "leaders".  But that small groups, of people covenanted to look out for one another, to follow Jesus, and to stand against the powers, can through discussion, and action/reflection, support one another in "figuring it out".  That we provide a mechanism for working out issues between members, and living a life of forgiveness and mercy, rather than punitive justice.  This is not disorderly, nor is it always efficient, but it is good.  This recognizes that some might actually be gifted leaders, but these leaders are situational, not positional. And that these leaders would be just as submitted to the covenant as the others.

So a Christian anarchy would say that any system or structure, (including the religious or church structures), that holds power over others, is to be rejected and stood against.  That we live an alternative based upon the teachings of the non violent, and liberating Jesus.  That we practice anti hierarchical living, which prioritizes those that are on the bottom of the powers hierarchy.  That we see the spiritual force behind those powers that seem invisible, like greed, and consumerism, and retribution, and amidst those powers we stand firm in opposition.

Please feel free to ask any questions, or help me to clarify what I have said so that it can be more widely understood.

rev 

Leadership in an upside down kingdom

Jesus shows up on earth and turns the worlds systems upside down. He says, unlike the worlds values we value simplicity, humility, meekness, servanthood, mourning and most of all love. He often contrasts these values with the values that are inherent in the worlds "way" and then not only tells us a new way but shows us. He triumphs over the power and violence of the day, not by being powerful, but by being powerless. He triumphs not by being violent, but by being non violent. He triumphs not by looking out for himself, but by sacrificing himself for the universe. This is an upside down kingdom.

I have often talked about the anarchic nature of this kingdom. That it is anti hierarchical. That the church has been seduced into the age old folly of wanting its hierarchy. Just like Israel of old we have cried out "give us a king that we might be like other nations". Only we have cried out "give us a CEO and a board of directors so we may have a successful church". Or "give us an inspiring motivational speaker, that we might grow to large numbers". Or perhaps in a better motivation, but same resultant hierarchy, "give us a godly pastor to lead us into being a growing church".

When Jesus not only talks about but lives an upside down kingdom, everything changes, including leadership. Jesus calls for those who are most inclined to lead to be abject servants. Almost a different interpretation of the old adage, "those most desiring of positions of power are those least worthy of them". Jesus calls us to be submitted to one another, not to our "leadership" Jesus calls us to lead by our loving service, not our personality, or our position.

This is often a very difficult task, especially those of us that have been gifted as leaders. So like my post about unnamed power suggests the answer is not to run and hide, or pretend these gifts aren't there. But to recognize them, and then to subvert the corrupting influence by:

often refusing to take power (Jesus quickly left the crowd before they took him by force and made him king)

looking for opportunities to serve in quiet humble ways (Jesus stopped the train of admirers on his way to heal the "important persons daughter")

Seek to position yourself in the humble places (Jesus stayed in the marginalized places of Empire, and when he did go to Jerusalem the place of power, he didn't exactly make himself at home)

Submit to others (Jesus was unique in being accountable only to the Father, but we see Paul and Barnabus and Peter all being submitted to one another)

In the end holiness means being different, special even. In a world so sold out to the hierarchical pyramid of power, perhaps this is a holiness much more apparent than not saying shit?

rev