Jesus’ Gospel witness from Holy Thursday through Good Friday to Easter Sunday is quintessentially transforming. Knowing of his impending murder, he shares a final life-giving meal with community members on Thursday. That same evening, Militarism’s priests of theology arrest him, put him on trial, convict him of crimes, and sentence him to death. The next day, Friday, Militarism’s priests of politics execute the death sentence. They order Jesus tortured by soldiers, first by beating and whipping him, and then by nailing him to a cross. On a third day, Jesus then rises from the dead; Easter Sunday.
These three days of the Easter weekend mark the transformation of human history from a priestly culture to a Shamanic community. The priestly culture, from ancient times onward operates via rulers who claim to be ordained by a deity. They claim their deity ordains them to make “sacrificial offerings.” This means rulers kill living creatures in religious rituals. That violence, then and now, is concentrated and normalized, more so glorified, in the religious ritual of warfare. The warfare system is basis of social rule. It is a religion, Militarism. In Militarism, ranked superiors rule from positions of supremacy, justifiably abuse subordinates, and exercise violent life and death decisions over common people. Militarists devise political, financial, and behavioral systems that not only legitimize but sanctify their violent rule. This explains why the system and those attempting to conserve it will always claim the right to violence. The system has been set up to do so. It explains why in our own day conservers of the system can have members of Neo-Nazi white supremacist groups in their administration, round up and abuse immigrants, and wage war on innocent Muslims. Overall, they can promote militarized policing. Conservatives function to conserve the violent system of rulers. It is their function to conserve the right of a ruling class to claim and be granted, by worshiping underlings, permissible violence. Attempts by the people to change this, no matter how tame and nonviolent, will always be met with charges of subversion. The people’s subversive actions, more truthfully liberating actions, are always unsanctioned in the priestly system. People’s liberating actions are devoid of sanctity in a system whose rulers devise it to sanctify only their own violence. Fortunately for humanity, Jesus of Nazareth witnesses a transformation of the religion of Militarism and its supremacist, abusive, and violent systems. He first transforms it by not being a priest. We might consider instead that he is like a shaman as described by Joseph Campbell in his book, the Power of Myth. Campbell describes shamans as visionaries whose powers challenge priestly control. Priests control societies through worship rituals binding adherents to their deity’s tradition of abusive judgments and violent actions. An example would be the Old Testament and its Ten Commandments. Conversely, shamans empower people through visions opening them to the Spirit’s future creativities. An example would be co-creating the Community of God and living the power of Pentecost.
Shamans venture into the wilderness, to create a life beyond the violent and their rule. In the wild, they experience humanity and divinity in all its fullness and freedom. Shamans then return, bringing to the people a wild vibrancy and joy of life and show how it is possible to live it now, saying “Come. Follow me.” As the people will try to do so, priests will try to keep them from doing so. One method is to attack the shamans – within us and among us. Thus, priests will always kill shamans – but shamans, like Jesus, like you and I, will keep rising.
Prayer: Wild Spirit, keep alive in us the rising spirit of the shaman.
Question: What has been my shamanic experience that I am called to share?
April 16, 2017 John 20:1-9 Easter Sunday