“Truth to Power” Is Not Going To Cut It

In a brief, if not also incidental comment near the beginning of his Lecture 2 in his Paul the Pharisee Class (Homebrewed Christianity.com platform), John Dominic Crossan said something key the other day while contrasting Caesar Augustus and Jesus the Messiah-Christ. He said it’s important for us to see that Jesus’ position to Caesar was not “Truth to Power” but rather “Power to Power.” It was the power of non-violence (and forgiveness) against the power of violence (and retribution).

So I am thinking this. Truth will never win any battle, let alone the War. Facts of actual existence as well as the veracity of philosophical wisdom can be easily defeated with Fictions of created realities and the piling on of any sophistry (e.g. Skepticism which takes down the whole house of cards).  Truth is simply another weapon of violence. There is no new Power there. Nothing that can engage and defeat violence when it is violence that is used as the weapon.

There must be a Real and Unique Power to go to War with the Power of Violence.

 The reason humanity does not and will not trust God is because to do so means that something, someone, must die. And that something/someone is our beloved Free Will.

The reason humanity does not and will not stop violence is because to do so, something, someone, must die. And that something/someone is our beloved Self.

The death is not in concept, but in person. Not in spirit, but in body. You cannot be non-violent and exert that Non-Violent Power, without being willing to be killed.

Who wants no Free Will?

Who wants to Die?

And so the violence reigns.

And nobody wins as it only expands and escalates.

The biblical narrative is an accounting of God’s Power being the story of unrelenting forgiveness, from the tribes of Israel’s atrocities to the disciples of Jesus’ desertions.

A New and Unique Power has Arrived that will and does defeat violence and saves humanity as well as eternity.

Self-Giving Love.

But do not think you can do this or will do this.

You cannot and you will not.

And so living there, in that place of dependence on God to do the deed, to kill the violence (and raise the dead) is called Faith.

Stephen Paulson writes, “Life then acquiesces to the endless conflict of interpretation in which the very best that people can accomplish is to shout loud enough to have their own voice heard above all the rest. But when God enters the fray, he [sic] does so not in terms of worldly power, but in his [sic] simple, calm word of forgiveness of sins – the incarnate word rather than the uncreated word. This is the great battle of God against the gods.” Paulson continues: “The world can handle almost any opinion, any perspective, any prophet, guru, or leader, and any claim by persons or groups that think they possess the proper directions and advice to arrive at their goal. However, there is one thing the world cannot abide: Christ forgiving sinners.” (Luther’s Outlaw God, Volume 2: Hidden in the Cross).

 And God just keeps forgiving. There is no end to it. But this forgiveness puts an end to life being all about Good vs. Evil and our striving to be more Good so that Evil will be defeated by our morality. The Apostle Paul in the Bible’s New Testament writes that “Christ is the end of the Law” (Romans 10:4) and by this means not that Jesus accomplishes and fulfills all Good morality and invites us to believe that he does, but rather that a battle between Good morality and Bad morality doesn’t exist as the definition of who we are. It exists, surely. Of course you can be nice instead of nasty. Please! But it’s not the definition of who we are. Both of these moralities not only don’t define us (my identity is not found in my purity or impurity, be that race, gender or class or behaviors within each as well) but they will also not save us in the end. Replacing one morality with another is just one violence over another. You have to step outside of that world of moralities and provide a different world in order to change the world. You have to simply forgive the whole shootin’ match. You have to forgive those striving to be Good as well as those striving to be Bad (The “Waiting Father” in the Bible’s New Testament Luke 15 story does just that with the Older Son’s correctness as well as with the Younger Son’s profligacy).

What is this different world?

It is the world where forgiveness reigns and will not be denied.

Again, do not think you can do this or will do this.

You cannot and you will not.

But God can and does.

And where does that leave us?

In faith, living out love, providing hope.

Not “Truth to Power,” but “Non-Violent Power to Violent Power.”

And the sun rises on a New Day!