17 Pentecost Cycle b Proper 20 September 20, 2015
Wisdom
of Solomon 1:16-2:1, 12-22 Ps. 54
James
3:13-4:3, 7-8a Mark 9:30-37
Lectionary Link
When Jesus knew that his disciples were arguing about who would be the greatest in the his kingdom, he said, "If you want to be first you must be last and the servant of all."
Expressions like these offended the philosopher Nietzsche who came to express his disgust with Christianity in his book entitled, "The Anti-Christ." He blamed Jesus of Nazareth and the Jews in captivity for changing the world into slave ethics. Nietzsche believe what should be valued is the will to power. He believed striving for ascendant power was natural to life and so "will to power" should be the basis for ethics. He interpreted the life of Jesus to be a "slave" mentality, one where people recommended servitude in the kingdom of this world because they were promised to be the rulers in the afterlife.
One certainly can disagree with the view of Nietzsche and characterize it as a sort of "might makes right" view of life. It could be construed as a social Darwinism whereby those with the most power, knowledge and wealth have the right and the obligation to express their fitness to dominate everyone else because it is their social destiny to do so.
I suspect that those who adhere to the most deregulated form of our market system subscribe to the same theory. Our world has many countries ruled by dictators who essentially control all of the assets of their countries and mostly for their own benefit.
The will to power might be expressed on the level of the individual as the ability to get what one wants or desires. On the individual level, the life of faith and the religious life is to embrace a program for the regulation of the energies and desires of our lives. Desire expresses the individual will to power; one wants what one wants and when one wants it. One does not want delayed gratification. But we know that we can desire things wrongly and we can desire the same things which other people desire at the same time and so we end up in competition for objects of desire.
It is because of the will to power expressed through our desires that we need regulation and rules, faith and wisdom traditions. Unfettered desire and unchecked will to power is what leads to the conditions of this world belonging to those who are strongest, wealthiest and most intelligent to be able to manipulate the human situation to their own advantage and to the disadvantage of the common good.
Jesus came to a world where the will to power was being regulated so that those who had the most could take more. It started with the Emperor. The laws were devised to keep him in power and control. Everyone under the Emperor had to fight and scrap for what was left over in the control of the goods and services of the world.
Jesus came into a world in communities of people who were not getting enough of the trickle down from those who had power to make a claim on the goods and services of the world.
Jesus was particularly concerned that his disciple misunderstood the nature of the messiah the ministry of the messiah. They were arguing about who were going to be highest leaders in his administration when he was installed as the new political and military leader of Palestine. There is a oft quoted expression of Lord Acton about absolute power; absolute power corrupts absolutely. One can find that even when Popes and Caliphs have risen to have singular power, there has been the corruption of power even by people who are supposed to be guided by religious piety. So even religious leadership can easily be corrupted by power.
This is why Jesus spoke about the regulation of power through personal transformation. Jesus used the presence of a child to make his point. Jesus said that to be great is to be able to do what a servant does not by being forced to be a servant but by choosing the role of a servant voluntarily. Christianity is not what Nietzsche said, a "slave mentality;" it is the free choice to use the power of one's life to serve other people and to practice hospitality for all of the children of this world and all who have been made vulnerable by the unfortunate circumstances of life.
This is real power; this is real greatness because one uses the power of one's freedom to engage in service. One of the irony of those who say the best economy is all about the freedom of the market. The irony is that those who tout the freedom of market are those who are not using their freedom in the market to make sure that all of the people are adequately taken care of.
Jesus did not have a problem with freedom or power or greatness; the issue is how one defines the goals and outcomes of freedom, power and greatness. If freedom, power and greatness are expressed by the neglect of children and lots of people, then Jesus was saying that we are making the wrong choices and so we have not understood God's purpose for giving us freedom, power and greatness.
It is very hard for us who are in the positions of wealth, knowledge and power to avoid thinking that we in some way deserve it because of the power of how we have exercised our free choice. What Jesus asks us to have is wisdom of regulated desire in such a way so that we arrive at the entitlement of power and greatness to help others through care and ministry.
This is what Jesus said about those who had achieved the state of the entitled: "To whom much is given; much is required." And this is where the wisdom of power and greatness of Jesus must continually convert the desire and energies of our lives.
If we want to be regarded as great in the eyes of Jesus, let us use our power, wealth and knowledge to care for children and the vulnerable. If we don't, let us not call ourselves followers of Christ, or let us cry out for the grace of further conversion to be worthy of the kingdom of Christ. Amen.
Expressions like these offended the philosopher Nietzsche who came to express his disgust with Christianity in his book entitled, "The Anti-Christ." He blamed Jesus of Nazareth and the Jews in captivity for changing the world into slave ethics. Nietzsche believe what should be valued is the will to power. He believed striving for ascendant power was natural to life and so "will to power" should be the basis for ethics. He interpreted the life of Jesus to be a "slave" mentality, one where people recommended servitude in the kingdom of this world because they were promised to be the rulers in the afterlife.
One certainly can disagree with the view of Nietzsche and characterize it as a sort of "might makes right" view of life. It could be construed as a social Darwinism whereby those with the most power, knowledge and wealth have the right and the obligation to express their fitness to dominate everyone else because it is their social destiny to do so.
I suspect that those who adhere to the most deregulated form of our market system subscribe to the same theory. Our world has many countries ruled by dictators who essentially control all of the assets of their countries and mostly for their own benefit.
The will to power might be expressed on the level of the individual as the ability to get what one wants or desires. On the individual level, the life of faith and the religious life is to embrace a program for the regulation of the energies and desires of our lives. Desire expresses the individual will to power; one wants what one wants and when one wants it. One does not want delayed gratification. But we know that we can desire things wrongly and we can desire the same things which other people desire at the same time and so we end up in competition for objects of desire.
It is because of the will to power expressed through our desires that we need regulation and rules, faith and wisdom traditions. Unfettered desire and unchecked will to power is what leads to the conditions of this world belonging to those who are strongest, wealthiest and most intelligent to be able to manipulate the human situation to their own advantage and to the disadvantage of the common good.
Jesus came to a world where the will to power was being regulated so that those who had the most could take more. It started with the Emperor. The laws were devised to keep him in power and control. Everyone under the Emperor had to fight and scrap for what was left over in the control of the goods and services of the world.
Jesus came into a world in communities of people who were not getting enough of the trickle down from those who had power to make a claim on the goods and services of the world.
Jesus was particularly concerned that his disciple misunderstood the nature of the messiah the ministry of the messiah. They were arguing about who were going to be highest leaders in his administration when he was installed as the new political and military leader of Palestine. There is a oft quoted expression of Lord Acton about absolute power; absolute power corrupts absolutely. One can find that even when Popes and Caliphs have risen to have singular power, there has been the corruption of power even by people who are supposed to be guided by religious piety. So even religious leadership can easily be corrupted by power.
This is why Jesus spoke about the regulation of power through personal transformation. Jesus used the presence of a child to make his point. Jesus said that to be great is to be able to do what a servant does not by being forced to be a servant but by choosing the role of a servant voluntarily. Christianity is not what Nietzsche said, a "slave mentality;" it is the free choice to use the power of one's life to serve other people and to practice hospitality for all of the children of this world and all who have been made vulnerable by the unfortunate circumstances of life.
This is real power; this is real greatness because one uses the power of one's freedom to engage in service. One of the irony of those who say the best economy is all about the freedom of the market. The irony is that those who tout the freedom of market are those who are not using their freedom in the market to make sure that all of the people are adequately taken care of.
Jesus did not have a problem with freedom or power or greatness; the issue is how one defines the goals and outcomes of freedom, power and greatness. If freedom, power and greatness are expressed by the neglect of children and lots of people, then Jesus was saying that we are making the wrong choices and so we have not understood God's purpose for giving us freedom, power and greatness.
It is very hard for us who are in the positions of wealth, knowledge and power to avoid thinking that we in some way deserve it because of the power of how we have exercised our free choice. What Jesus asks us to have is wisdom of regulated desire in such a way so that we arrive at the entitlement of power and greatness to help others through care and ministry.
This is what Jesus said about those who had achieved the state of the entitled: "To whom much is given; much is required." And this is where the wisdom of power and greatness of Jesus must continually convert the desire and energies of our lives.
If we want to be regarded as great in the eyes of Jesus, let us use our power, wealth and knowledge to care for children and the vulnerable. If we don't, let us not call ourselves followers of Christ, or let us cry out for the grace of further conversion to be worthy of the kingdom of Christ. Amen.
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