Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, July 19, 2020            (today’s lectionary)
Power and control vs authority and love
When you listen to people who have been battered, attacked, insulted or belittled, the strength of the Duluth Model’s Power and Control Wheel becomes obvious.
Abuse is any touch not given in love, respect or dignity, and anything said that does not uplift or edify.
Thus my words and my actions are defined not by commission, but by omission. When I don’t love, when I don’t treat both you and myself with respect, I am committing an act of abuse. When I don’t speak to uplift and edify, I am committing an act of abuse.
Abuse is not always just a politicized word. Abuse can be claimed by people who are not being abused. Tough love can feel very abusive sometimes.
On the other hand some Christian men and women, among those of other religions as well, indulge less-than-innocently in “spiritual abuse.” There are too many forms to list here, but this chart, although it might make you sick at least at heart, describes a multitude.
The actions of police are our favorite example of the chasm between power and authority. Chicago’s blue cars are emblazoned with the goal: “WE SERVE AND PROTECT.” When that is what we need and what we receive, we are profoundly grateful for the presence of the police. On the other hand (and there at least two “other hands”), if we are guilty and want to escape, those blue cop cars are the last thing we want to see. And then, famously these days, there are the times when because of prejudice and fear, the police use their power and control to accuse and attack instead of their authority and love to serve and protect. In those moments I want to get as far away as I can get.
God never governs us with power but always with authority. He does not act out of rage. He does, however, love us with tough love, hoping to spur us on to love and good deeds.
You are master of might, but judge us with clemency
Power attends you
But you teach your people by your example
That those who are just must first of all be kind
Thus you give your children your good grounds for hope.
Over and over we forget that what we make with our hands must first be commissioned by God.
For it is you who have accomplished all we have done.
If it is not from God, our work will fall to pieces; if it is, our work will grow and thrive.
All the nations you have made shall come worship you, O Lord
You are the doer of wondrous deeds
You alone are God.
Psalmists, therapists, and the rest of us have the right to turn toward God for sustenance and hope.
You are merciful and gracious
You are slow to anger
You abound in kindness and loyalty.
Have pity on me and give me strength
For I am your servant.
Paul clarifies this. I am not just God’s servant, but also his son. And we will know this as we pray because God herself will pray within us.
We don’t know how to pray, but God does.
And the Spirit himself intercedes inside us with inexpressible groanings.
He intercedes for all his holy ones according to God’s will.
This is a mystery, of course. Mysteries are best lived by children. Growing up, we seek to understand them, and they disappear from our sight like fog in the morning.
You have revealed to little ones the mysteries of the kingdom.
Listening closely to the stories of Jesus, we return to the mother of all mysteries, that of God’s seed planted in each and every cell of each and every one of us. We might use the birth control of logic and reason to avoid carrying this renegade spiritual wisdom. But our reason will fail, and then we will welcome again the timeless words of God into every corner of our bodies and our being.
Wheat, mustard seed and yeast all multiply and bear their fruit in season. God attends the harvest of his souls like a farmer watches her crop or a baker his bread, searching it hour after hour to finally bring it in.
The Son of Man will send his angels
They will collect the evildoers out of his kingdom
They will throw them into the fiery furnace
And there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Whether this describes eternal punishment or a temporary purging experience we can only say by choosing one set of proof-texts or another. But this “sending and collecting” is a measure of God’s love, administered with authority but not solely to control. It is God’s tough love, to be sure. But God does not act out of fear. This is God’s justice, always preceded and accompanied by kindness.
God’s justice warns me in the strongest terms away from claiming power or taking revenge of my own on my abusers.
Hate what is evil, cling to what is good.
Do not repay anyone evil for evil.
If it is possible, as far as it depends on you,
Live at peace with everyone.
God never teaches us the ways of power. He always shows us how to manage authority with love.
Jesus is not a prude or an an innocent. Pollyanna did not learn her ways from Jesus. He knew that bad things happen to good people.
While everyone was asleep his enemy came
He sowed weeds all through the wheat
And then crept off.
No doubt rubbing his hands together in evil glee.
Do you want us to go and pull up those weeds?
No, you might uproot the wheat. So leave it.
Let time pass and we will see the weeds for what they are,
Then we will bundle them and burn them.
God’s words. David, just do it. Cool your jets. Keep your calm. Shut up. Smile.
God has got this.
(Wisdom 12, Psalm 86, Romans 8, Matthew 11, Matthew 13)
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