Brad Sullivan
Proper 12, Year B
July 29, 2018
Emmanuel, Houston
Ephesians 3:14-21
John 6:1-21
Kneeling to Jesus, to Freedom, to the Man Who Wouldn’t Be King
I was at a teacher’s party last week with Kristin, for the
teachers at her school; spouses were invited, and we actually got to see each
other, which was lovely. We were meeting
at one of their houses, and the Astros game was on, so as we were talking, we’d
catch glances of the game, and unfortunately, the Astros were losing to the
Texas Rangers. So at one point, the host
and I were watching the game for a few minutes, and he rather sheepishly
admitted to me that he was, in fact, a Rangers fan, having lived in Dallas for
many years, and was rather happy with the score.
There was no problem, but there was a hint of a possibility
of a problem. Was it ok for him to admit
that he was a Rangers fan? Was I going
to get upset and offended and think less of
him? Did his identity as a
Rangers fan somehow butt against and attack my identity as an Astros fan? No, of course not. Except for that passing split second when it
did. So deep is our need for identity
and some feeling of power and control, that even people rooting for a different
team in a game in which we’re not playing, can feel a little bit like an
attack.
This idea of our desire for power and control was expressed
very well in the Marvel superhero movie, The
Avengers. Simplifying the plot to
bare bones, you’ve got Loki, the bad guy from another world, who wants to rule
over a planet and be king of an entire people, so he chooses earth. After causing a good amount of destruction,
Loki has a crowd of people before him, and he tells them all to kneel before him. Then he grins a little triumphantly and says,
Loki: “Is not this simpler? Is this not your
natural state? It’s the unspoken truth of humanity that you crave subjugation.
The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life’s joy in a mad scramble for
power. For identity. You were made to be
ruled. In the end, you will always
kneel.”
Captain America and Iron Man end up saving the day in that
scene, but there is so much truth in that little speech and dialogue. Our mad scramble for power, for
identity. We want to belong, and that
belonging ties in with our identity.
That’s why you have people fighting with each other and getting serious,
even angry and violent in speech and action over things like sports teams.
We also desire power over the changes and chances of this
life. Millenia of war exhibit our desire
for power and how we seek power over others sometimes for protection, for
identity, for one group’s wrong ideology or way of life. We do desire power over situations we don’t
like or decisions with which we disagree, and in our desire to make the
situation or outcome be what we want, we often respond to others with verbal
and sometimes even physical violence.
That’s what Loki did.
Then, at the end of his little speech, as Loki says, “you will always
kneel,” a man stands up and says,
German Man: “Not to
men like you.
Loki: “There are no
men like me.” (Loki responds.)
German Man: “There are
always men like you.”
There are always people like Loki who seek power over
others. There are always people like
Loki who seek to subjugate people or situations to their wills or desires. If we look deep inside, those people like
Loki are all of us. We all desire power
over the changes and chances of this life, and we all, in our less that
wonderful moments, end up using power to get what we want in ways that cause
harm or subjugate others to our wills.
Paradoxically, as much as we desire power, Loki was right
that we also seek subjugation. Most of
us want people in governmental authority over us, and most of us don’t want
those jobs. There are areas in which we
want power, and there are areas where we’d rather be subjugated to someone
else’s power, a good ruler, and to let that person take over responsibility.
There is peace in surrender.
There is the peace of child who doesn’t have the weight of ruling over
the household. Think of Israel demanding
of God a king to rule over them. God
warned them, “he is going to subjugate you under his will,” and the people
responded, “that’s fine, just so long as we can have a king to rule over us.”
During Jesus’ day, Israel had a puppet king ruling over
them, while Rome was actually in charge.
They didn’t like this king; things were not good under his rule or under
the rule of Rome, and when people kept seeing Jesus’ power to heal, to perform
miraculous works, they decided he should be king. “When Jesus realized that they were about to
come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain
by himself.”
Jesus would not be the ruler over us in any kind of system
of power and authority of this world.
Bishop Doyle writes about Jesus’ rejection of the power and
violence of the world in his book, The
Jesus Heist. He writes, “Jesus makes
clear that violence is to be met with peace and nonviolence.” “The way of the society of the friends of
Jesus [is to] avail themselves of different weapons [than the weapons of this
world]: presence, conversation, and
humility.” That’s what Jesus did with
people. He had dinner with them. He talked with people. He was with them in their lives, joys, and
struggles. In Jesus, Bishop Doyle writes
we are freed from the systems of violence and domination in this world, through
unity with Jesus and conversion in him.
There is a paradox of surrendering to Jesus. All power and authority is his, and he will
not use that power and authority to subjugate us. Jesus is not going to force and control
us. Surrender to Jesus’ power and authority
is surrender to freedom in Jesus.
Freedom to love without fear. Freedom to love others and live out the image
of God in which we were made. Freedom to
let go our anger and our hurt which lead us to want control over situations and
control over others: in the board room,
in our homes, at work, on the freeway.
We have freedom in Jesus to let go of our desires for control and
realize, it’s ok to forsake the anger, and fear, and hurt within us, and to
live love instead.
There is freedom in Jesus to accept the changes and chances
of the life. Freedom from the need for
fear and violence to keep us safe and secure.
When a loving parent tucks a child in to bed at night, sometimes laying
down with them as they drift off to sleep, giving them a blessing on their
forehead, fears and worries slip away, and the child rests secure, knowing that
all is well. Mommy and Daddy are there.
Our surrender to Jesus is like that child with a loving parent. In Jesus, we can rest secure and at peace,
even with the changes and chances of this life.
Back to Loki in his mad quest for power, he was right that
we will always kneel to something.
Kneeling to Jesus, we kneel to one with all power and authority who
chooses not to rule over us through his power and chooses not to force us to do
anything at all. Instead, we bow to
kneel to Jesus, and he frees us to live and love without fear.
As Paul wrote, “I bow my knees before the Father, from whom
every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to
the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your
inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your
hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love.”
Paul goes on to pray that we may have some comprehension of
the vastness of the love of Jesus, so that as we kneel to him, we may be filled
with the full peace and love of God, resting secure that the power of God
working in us can accomplish far more than we can ask or imagine. We kneel to Jesus and find freedom, freedom
to love and live without fear.
