One model of authority is to rule over people. It is the military model of domination. A rather clear sign of such authority is the threat of or use of a weapon. The weapon might be a fist or a gun. It could be a knife or a tongue sharpened like one. Whatever its shape, weapons always cut both ways. They hurt the one targeted and the one using it. The harm done the victim is obvious, especially if judged a criminal. Less obvious is the harm done to the person deemed justified in threatening or using a weapon. For example, police and soldiers. What is the harm done to an NRA member brandishing open carry, to a police officer who shoots an unarmed man, to a soldier shooting unarmed women and children in war, to a nation doing the same with drones?
Many people in the U.S. support the military’s domination model in which some people exercise ‘rule over’ others. Other people are concerned about the increased exercise of the military’s ‘rule over’ domination model in common life. There is also concern as to the use of violence to effect that ‘rule over’ domination. Those who rule over people have long interpreted Jesus as authorizing their rule. So it is that Peter being given the keys to the kingdom of heaven in this Sunday’s Gospel is interpreted as authorizing ‘rule over’ dominance. An entire hierarchical system has been rationalized in institutional christianity around such a mis-interpretation. It is odd how things Jesus never did, like rule over people or like use weapons to effect that rule, have been normalized within institutional christianity. It is more than odd, it is harmful, deadly – including to those who wield that rule. What is the centuries worth of harm done to members of a priestly supremacist class that claim the right to rule over people and do so in Jesus’ name? It is the same harm done to the gun owner, the cop, the soldier, and the nation that models such rule. The harm is a loss of our humanity and therefore, ultimately, a loss of authority. If we only control others because of the weapons we wield, then we have no authority. Authority means to author, to bring something to birth. We do not author when we dominate. We do not author when we kill. We cannot claim the right to rule over and to effect it violently and then claim to be an authority, bringing something, someone, to birth.
There comes a time when authority shifts. It shifts from external to internal; from rulers who tell us what we should do to conscientious people in communion determining what is best to do. It is entirely possible for a person to make the shift. Is it possible for larger groups to make the shift? Is it possible for the Ferguson, Missouri police force to shift? Is it possible for a person soldiering among U.S. forces in Iraq to shift? Is it possible for a self-titled Christian militarizing Jesus’ faith community to make the shift? It is possible. We can shift from an oppressive external ‘rule over’ to a collaborative internal power with.
Prayer: Jesus, help us to live with others and not rule over them.
Question: How do we minimize the harm done by people who cannot make the authority shift?
August 24, 2014 Gospel Matthew 16:13-20 Twenty First Sunday in Ordinary Time