Bridges-Across: Confronting the Powers

Vern Rossman's Confronting the Powers that Be

About Vern Rossman
About Walter Wink
Preface
Session 1: Introduction
Session 2: Identifying the Powers
Session 3: On Redeeming the Powers
Session 4: The Domination System
Session 5: Jesus' Answer to Domination
Session 6: Breaking the Spiral of Violence
Session 7: Jesus' Third Way
Session 8: Practical Nonviolence
Session 9: Beyond Pacifism and Just War
Session 10: But What If . . . ?
Session 11: The Gift of the Enemy
Session 12: Prayer and the Powers
Session 13: Epilogue

Confronting the Powers that Be: On Redeeming the Powers (Session 3)

...for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers--all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. Colossians 1:16,17 NRSV
Readings: TPTB - Chapter 1 (last third); ETP - Chapters 3, & 4

What might it mean to "transform' the Powers in our societies, that is, to enable them to do good rather than evil, to help them recover and live out their unique calling from God? Wink writes:

God at one and the same time upholds a given political and economic system, since some such system is required to support human life; condemns that system insofar as it is destructive of fully human life; and presses for its transformation into a more humane order. Conservatives stress the first, revolutionaries the second, reformers the third. The Christian is expected to hold together all three. (TPTB 32 )

Individuals feel helpless to change anything about the huge power structures of our time. So often we not only do nothing but try to avoid thinking about the problems. Wink writes:

We are speaking now of a deeper evil--a layer of sludge beneath the murky waters that can be characterized only as a hellish hatred of the light, of truth, of kindness and compassion, a brute lust for annihilation. It is the sedimentation of thousands of years of human choices for evil (not wrong choices merely, but actual choices for evil) that has precipitated Satan as the spirituality of evil. Call it what you will, it is real. (ETP 69)

The spiritual task is to unmask this idolatry and recall the powers to their created purposes in the world. But this can scarcely be accomplished by individuals. A group is needed--what the New Testament calls an ekklesia (assembly)--one that exists specifically for the task of recalling these Powers to their divine vocation. (TPTB 29)

For Discussion

1. Does your congregation have a "mission statement?" Does it call for undertaking anything like "the task of recalling these powers to their divine vocation?" (TPTB 29) What is your congregation doing to transform society, to bring institutionalized power under the control of the will and purpose of God?

2. Many believe every kind of institutionalized power needs a watcher. Examples: A Congressional Budget Office rides herd on Presidential opinions on the federal budget. Sweden provides for "ombudsmen" to look after the complaints of individuals who may be victimized by institutions. Denominations have bought stock in order to call the corporation to concern about the effect of its actions on individuals or environment. Are these ways to make Powers more responsive to God? Where else might ombudsmen be helpful? Do you know of any churches which engage in ombudsman activities?

3. This week read chapters 12, 13 and 18 of the book of Revelation, recognizing that the Babylon of the writer is the Roman Empire which was persecuting Christians and had become, to the author, an incarnation of satanic evil. Contrast this with Romans 13, where government is seen as essential to human well-being and worthy of support. How should we as Christians look at our government?

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