Love's Power

July 09, 2017

The Fifth Sunday After Pentecost

 

I want to speak to you today about power. There are many kinds of power we are familiar with. We might mention hydroelectric power, or a power hitter. There is the power behind the throne, there is horsepower, and power mowers, and for those of us old enough to remember, there was Tyrone Power. But I would like to note a power that is the antithesis of itself, the power that does not appear to be power but is truly a power that we can recognize when it appears, but is not always recognized as such in the popular mind, in fact it is something denigrated and sometimes even scoffed at by those who fear it. That great power is a power that is willing to give up itself for something that is greater than itself. That power is the power of love. That sounds almost like a cliché, but I assure you it is not. It is as real as an ICBM and much more powerful.

About 2,500 years ago there lived a man named Zechariah. We heard some of his poetry this morning. In his time, there was a distinct dissonance between the community of the people and the rulers of the nation. The rulers were saying that everything was going just fine, that nothing could be better.  The people knew otherwise. There was a national malaise. Things were not right but there seemed to be nothing that could be done. So, the people gave up. They went about their daily tasks as best they could, working for the moment and letting the future take care of itself.

To these people Zechariah brought a strange vision. He sang a vision of a great king who would ride into the holy city in triumph. This king would not be the kind of king most people knew or were seeking who had a great entourage, traveled in luxury, and promised to make all things wonderful again. This king would be just as triumphant as that kind of king and just as victorious, but this king would ride in on a donkey. Not much of a king in anyone’s book. The people should rejoice because their burdens would be lifted.

Several centuries later, Zechariah’s vision was realized when a young rabbi named Jesus rode into Jerusalem in triumph, seated on the back of a donkey. He had made no promises. He said all who would come to him would have their burdens lifted because the only burden he would lay down was easy and light. He spoke of a love that was beyond understanding and it has never really been understood to this day. G.K Chesterton, author of the delightful Father Brown mysteries, said, “Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.”

You and I are living in a time when the dark side of power is being worshiped, the antithesis of the power of God exemplified by the cross of Jesus. There is the sense among too many today, that if I can do something I will regardless of the implications of my actions upon others. Caring for others is an outmoded value. There is no profit in playing nice with others. There are those today who would trample on the hardworking folk of our nation by manipulating our wages, our time, our savings, our hopes, our dreams, our environment even our loyalties because in a sense it appears to be officially approved.

Our lives are given to us in order that we may give meaning to words like faithfulness, loyalty, goodness, benevolence, integrity. These are not soft terms. They are the tough terms that describe those who serve ends and reach for goals that are beyond their personal needs, personal comforts, and ego gratification. The burden of these great words is not heavy for the cornerstone on which they are carved is Jesus Christ. Their burden is light These are the words from the cross, that horrid event that the Church has turned into the most sublime poetry. So, I suppose that it is really only in poetry we can describe these attributes. Yet in these words lies a paradox, which is that great love is the greatest of all powers. It is the only power that is able and willing to give up itself unselfishly to others.

In 1963, less than a month before he was killed, President Kennedy addressed students at Amherst College. This is part of what he said: “when power leads men toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the areas of man’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.”

Greed and avarice, dissembling and manipulation have been with us from the beginning of time. Our Scriptures testify to that. But the hero who appears in these times of darkness will not be one who rides in with noise and clamor. The hero will ride in on a donkey. Who is the hero of today? The hero of today will be the ordinary citizen who will demand that those who represent the interests of common citizens do so. The poetry of the prophets rings down through the centuries reminding us not only of who we are but also who we can be and where real power resides. The image is realized in King Jesus, who was willing to die on a cross. We worship him, not in spite of that death but because of it.

I share with you a thought from the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung regarding the relation between love and power. He wrote: “Where love rules, there is no will to power; where power predominates, there love is lacking. The one is the shadow of the other.”

Let us hear again the poetry of Zechariah who sang of hope in a dark and potentially dangerous time. His poetry echoes down through the millennia and we hear him to our comfort. “Lo, your king comes to you, triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey.”