Engaging the Powers

The full title of Walter Wink’s 1992 book is “Engaging the Powers: Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination” (Fortress Press).  I’m often confused about John’s term “The World”:  is this the Creation which God loves enough to enter personally in the person of Jesus (John 3:16), or is this the System which Jesus warns us to avoid?  Wink maintains that the kosmos “is not synonymous with God’s creation, but is rather the fallen realm that exists in estrangement from God and is organized in opposition to God’s purposes.”  Readings this weekend address the Otherness of God –and those who follow this God.

The prophetic passage from Jeremiah 31:31-34 recounts the renewed covenant with Israel:  “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts”.  More recent students of soul-ethics call this “conscience” (which may actually be a cultural term).  However it’s seen, this action is a sacramental inbreaking which demands our yielding to a Greater Power.  Yet this is the essence of freedom, “to be who one truly is, knowing that one’s true character is what is most pleasing to God and therefore reflects the best of what the law requires.” (Woody Bartlett, FEASTING on the WORD, B 2:125)

Hebrews 5:5-10 can be an awkward read.  Jesus is compared to the mist-wrapped high priest of legend, Melchizedek, an archetype given credence specifically because he DOESN’T have human credentials.  The writer likens Jesus to the traditional high priest who bears to God the most intimate human need–not gaining access once a year, but each day “offering up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears”.  All the World-System’s oppressed, those with reason for tears & loud cries, are privileged through Christ to thus daily engage the powers.

“Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out”, says Jesus at the Passover festival  (John 12:20-33).  The Gentile seekers represent the entirety of Creation:  Jesus sees this occasion as confirmation that “all people” will be drawn to him, even through the Cross.  “In this text the crucifixion is interpreted as an exorcism, in which the System is judged and its driving force is cast out” (Charles L. Campbell, FEASTING etc.,ibid, page 143)   Once we see the System for what it is, we’re on the way to liberation from its demands!   The Cross exposes the System as selfish and shallow, judging it and rejecting its ruler.

Walter Wink’s book introduces us to the “myth of redemptive violence” which maintains the System.  Imperial soldiers (storm troopers?) enforce the PAX ROMANA.  Popeye restores order by beating up Bluto.  War is Okay, because we can’t trust those ____ (fill the blank with the enemy-du-jour).   Our guides down the path of death have many names: consumerism, exploitation, selfishness, arrogance, false patriotism…  I often have difficulty imagining anything else:  we’re numb, sheep going to the slaughter-house.  Will these passages enable us to more readily Engage the Powers?

God Bless Us, Every One               Horace Brown King

My wrestling with scripture passages assigned to the upcoming weekend can be observed every Tuesday at this spot on Facebook; or at horacebrownking.com