The powers will be the powers

I've been reading up on some of Charles Campbell's material lately, and he deals at length with notions of "the principalities and powers." Like William Stringfellow and Walter Wink, Charles Campbell argues that there really are powers at work in the world that oppress and bring death. Quoting Stringfellow, Campbell describes the principalities and powers as "recognizable and all too familiar: they include all institutions, all ideologies, all images, all movements, all causes, all corporations, all bureaucracies, all traditions, all methods and routines, all conglomerates, all races, all nations, all idols" (65). But as Christians we bear witness to the fact that the death dealing principalities and powers do not have the final say in this world.

Because we live in the now/not yet tension of the inaugurated kingdom of God, we understand that the resurrection changes everything. As Campbell points out, the resurrection of Jesus unmasks the lies of the principalities and powers and allows disciples of Jesus to expose the principalities and powers as nothing more than dealers of death. Reading Colossians 2:15, Campbell says that "[o]n the cross Jesus deals decisively with the large and powerful social realities...that actively and aggressively shape our world and our lives" (83).

It's important then for Christians to remember that the powers are out there and that they are vying for our allegiance. Bill Cavanaugh is right to assert that nation-states today present themselves as the Savior of humankind. However, Christians live in the midst of a story which claims that nation-state principalities have been defeated by the world's true Savior - the executed and resurrected Messiah.

So when I see a news story about the Bush tax cuts and the difficult decision that Barack Obama is having to make about them, I can't help but think about how the principalities and powers will be the principalities and powers no matter what they might say to the contrary. Moreover, when I read an observant blog post about Barack Obama's CIA being just as murderous as Bush's CIA, I can't help but think about how the principalities and powers will be the principalities and powers.

For me, this is important to note because Barack Obama campaigned under the motto: "Change you can believe in." But as Jamie Smith notes, it's simply "more of the same." There can be no changing the powers -- we can only "unmask" and "expose" them for what they really are. The life and death of Jesus displays what true life looks like: self-giving love for both neighbors and enemies. Certainly, the powers leave no room for humility and vulnerability before others, and therefore, the principalities and powers offer nothing for Christians to "believe in."

So it is my hope that the church will be the church -- that the church will bear witness to the life of God, the life of vulnerable neighbor and enemy love. It is my hope that the church will take seriously its calling to expose the principalities and powers for what they really are.

Having affirmed the claim that the powers will be the powers, I want to close with the following meditation from Will Campbell:

"More than once, the prayer of Jesus is an offer to abdicate, to yield the will, the freedom with which we are endowed back to the will and freedom of the endower. Yes, Thou has given us a kingdom, but we want Thy Kingdom to come. Thy will to be done over the free will Thou has given us. Thou has given us the earth and told us to have dominion over it, to subdue it, and run it. Now we are asking that things be on earth the way they are in heaven. Now we are asking that things be on earth the way they are in heaven. And yes, the humanistic unbeliever is right: it's a cop-out. We are asking for help, for rescue, redemption. We are asking for Grace, that something be done for us which we cannot do for ourselves. It is the total dependency of the child again. We are God's little cop-outs. And why not? God is God is God is God is God" (xiii).

Thanks be to God.