Power Reveals & Transforms Us:

Worship Text for Sunday, 11/26

I read an interesting article in the Chronicle this past Sunday (Power is not only an aphrodisiac, it does weird things to some of us) on power and its power on our relationships.

The articles is based upon an observation by Robert Caro that "power doesn't corrupt, it reveals." Power reveals our true natures, our deepest fears and suspicions, and brings into light our most-real selves. It's like a mirror that reveals through reflection how we really look. The article goes on to say that "power not only reveals but also that it changes people." Quoting several sociological and psychological studies in which this reality is exposed through scientific observation, the point is driven home. What I heard is maybe that we're not corrputed by power, but rather that power reveals our deep corruption we often seek creatively and actively to hide from others out of some sort of morality, or fear of social rejection, or out of a terror of who and how we really are. What also struck me was that thought that maybe the absence of power also reveals who we really are.

The article mentions the Greek myth of Icarus, who intoxicated by his newly found power to fly, disobeys his father in their flight from certain doom, and flys too close to the sun thus ensuring his own death. It seems that we see that over and over - wether that's in the political sphere, in our celebrity-driven culture in which articles in People and US Weekly seem to be the most consistent form of social-gossip truth-telling that characterizes our national conscious today, and even in our own personal lives and relational spheres. Power reveals who we really are: wether it's the power of becoming speaker of the house, a member of a church committee, or someone who is given a key and asked to be "in charge" of something. I find that I see it nearly every time that a ask a child to be in charge when I leave the room temporarily at the Preschool I work at weekly. Some kids don't react differently, but do reveal a pride of being in charge. Others will quickly - nearly instantly - become bossy. What is it that makes us be like that? The testimonies of the Bible point to our inner (and outer) brokeness, calling it sin.

This Sunday's text for worship (John 18:33-37) lifts up the power encounter and discussion between Pontius Pilate and Jesus of Nazareth during the latter's arrest. In Pilate's efforts of interrogation he's lead to ask, "What is truth?" of the one he's to judge. Both are trapped in a sense by their contemporaries, the cultural situation that characterizes them, their life-stories, and their social position on the "power" ladder. Pilate is in charge - expected to judge and execute Roman justice. Jesus has no power and yet through conversation reveals the hearts of all those that he encounters. Jesus seems to know what the outcome will be, Pilate is still unsure, pressured by his context to do one thing but expressing interest in making an opposite choice. The power that they have reveals who and how they are.

This coming Sunday - November 26th - is traditionally called "Christ the King" Sunday - a day in which we seek to fathom and put into practice the world-transforming ways in which Jesus of Nazareth was a king, sought power, and used it. What do you think? Does power reveal who we are? What have you experienced or observed? How does this passage from John - Jesus' trial and crucifixion - address the idea that "power reveals"?