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| Power 2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19 and Mark 6:14-29
Merle Streep is deliciously malevolent, imperious and condescending as Miranda Priestly in the new movie “The Devil Wears Prada”. Fear and respect are intertwined as her minions race to respond to her latest needs and answer to her ever-increasingly impossible demands. Her power is such that an entire industry is held hostage to her ideas, schedules, and whims. Her power affects everyone on 6th Avenue, from the messengers to the heads of other fashion houses. Her antennae are acutely aware and she controls by guile and stealth. The founding fathers designed the new government with three branches which are independent and interdependent, each exercising restraint over, and offering balance to, the others. In their recent book The Broken Branch: How Congress is Failing America and How to Get it Back on Track, Norman J. Ornstein and Thomas E. Mann document the acquiescence of power by Congress and the rise of power by the Executive branch. In recent years Congress, the “first among equals” in our triune form of government, has not lived up to its potential or its history of questioning and challenging presidential decisions. Consequently the deliberative process has all but collapsed, order has been eroded, and the quality of the legislation has declined. Power in and of itself has no moral value. It is the ability to do something. It is strength, might; force; possession of control or command over others; authority; capacity or legal ability; authority. The definitions go on. William Hazlitt says, “The love of liberty is the love of others. The love power is the love of ourselves.” [ Political Essays, The Times Newspaper ] Whatever it is we recognize it and are often fascinated, sometimes skeptical or disgusted, and perhaps even fearful of it. For those who have it, it is seductive. The old adage “power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely” is born out in our history and our experience. Power is the thread which runs through our texts for today. David has been anointed by Samuel to be the new king, but has acted in service to King Saul. He is mindful of Saul as God’s anointed and refuses to displace him by force, although he is ever more bold as a warrior in Saul’s army. He has power but keeps it in check, even as Saul tries to kill him. He is aided both by Saul’s son Jonathan and daughter Michal who save David‘s life. Michal is given by Saul to David as his wife, but while David is living in hiding, she is later given to another man, Palti. Then David, now king of Judah, negotiates with Abner, Saul’s former general to retrieve Michal as his wife. She has no say in this - no power. Her second husband follows her weeping, but she is now David‘s property. Her presence as David’s wife helps to legitimize David as king over all of Israel and successor to her father’s throne. The scene of David dancing before the Ark is wonderful.
Exuberant, uninhibited David is praising God and celebrating God’s
return to the people of the covenant, as symbolized by the Ark.
He is also establishing his city as the place where God will dwell.
This is interrupted by the strange story of Uzzah’s death
for touching the ark, reminding us that God’s power is paramount. Whirling, twirling, David is rebuked by Micah as being inappropriate and shameless in his display, especially in front of the lowliest of young women. For that she is rebuffed and the text states that she is barren from then on. Her power is limited to her family’s name and prestige and is now diminished by being unable to produce an heir to keep her father’s dynasty alive. In Mark’s gospel, Herod’s worst nightmare is the appearance of Jesus whom he thinks is John the Baptist raised from the dead. The flashback to his birthday feast portrays Herod as a man caught between the welfare of John with whom he was intrigued, and whose life he would prefer to spare, and maintaining power at all costs. Seated with his peers in the presence of his wife, whose presence represents political alliance and power, Herod cannot bring himself to do less than honor his drunken promise. It would be too costly to his power, too suggestive that he cannot even rule over this prophet. His need to save face and his lack of moral fiber leads him to a reprehensible action. His ambition, and fear overtake his good intentions and God’s faithful witness is his victim. Political and sometimes religious structures are alike when power is the goal, as we see in Jesus‘ own life and death. Our primary response to power is a moral one, but often our response to power is complicated by our own agendas and prejudices. However, we are called to respond justly and faithfully to abuses. We cannot pretend or be deluded to think that our innocence and faith can remove us from the realities of the broken world. We live in the midst of violence and our calling as Christians is to stand against it as we work for God’s reign to be evident on earth, for there is evidence of that too. The witness of David and John stand before us as beacons of hope. Although we grieve for David’s lapses and his later abuse of power for his own pleasure, and we grieve for the unjust death of John, we also learn from them that power must be tempered by truth and to speak that truth may cost your life. In the book Absolute Power, the murderous president seals his own fate with his arrogance and by refusing to acknowledge his participation in the evil. Those who have participated with him in this power-gone-mad cover-up cannot live with themselves and expose him for what he is. Amanda Priestly, “The Devil” who wears Prada, can badger and boss and wheel and deal with beauty, charm, and power, but she has no ultimate control over a human soul. Her young assistant makes a choice to live in another world and in another way. The Congress which has rubber-stamped poorly thought-out policies will face the voters in November and its members will be held accountable. We have the power to throw the rascals out! If you are afraid, remember that “nobody is as powerful as we make them out to be.” [Alice Walker, In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens] If you think you have to be someone big to have power think about the power of the mosquito in your bedroom! Bruce Birch writes, “Power is never far from violence or the temptation to violence. … however, “brutality, violence, manipulation, and self-interest do not have the final word in these stories.” (Bruce C. Birch, NIB vol. II, p.1231) There is another power - God’s power to cleanse and set right those things which have gone awry. We are to use that power, integrate ourselves into that righteous power, to work against violence and misuses and abuses. It does not require perfection; for neither David, nor John, nor any of us imperfect beings could be used by God to accomplish this. It does require integrity and deep rootedness in an alternative vision of how things are meant to be. Power is not evil, but with no moral input there is tyranny or anarchy. We know the end of the story. Not even death on the cross can stand against resurrection power. Human power connected to God’s power can transform the world - and will --- with our committed actions ---- and by God‘s grace.
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