Thursday, 28 August, 2003

From William C. Placher’s “Narratives of a Vulnerable God”



…it may be worth reflecting on how paradoxical is the way our society tends to think about power – a celebration of the sort of power that rests on a kind of weakness and insecurity. Nations proclaim their military power, but only enemy threat justifies the vast expenditures and potential loss of life, and so the power turns out to rest on fear. No matter how great the power of an armed nation-state, Augustine wrote of that of Rome, “the happiness arising from such conditions is a thing of glass, of mere glittering brittleness. One can never shake off the horrible dread that it may suddenly shiver into fragments.”



Today and in Friday’s devotion, Placher presents us with how fear drives our need for more power. If you have not seen the movie “Bowling for Columbine,” it is worth seeing simply for the cartoon about fear in America that Michael Moore sticks into the film. It is funny…it is extremely sad…it is who we are. But more importantly, I think it begins to point us to a level of our idolatry. I don’t think Moore meant to go there. He was not making a religious film…but he exposes the roots of a religious dedication to a cycle of violence and fear. Yes, we may be safe as long as we have the weapons to keep that which we fear away from us, but what is the price of safety…who is willing to stand up and expose its frail and brittle promises. In a post 9/11 world, the power of the love of God is still more powerful than all the security of a focus on the homeland and all the machinations of a Patriot Act. But as is always is, the love of God looks foolish to a world bent on saving itself.



Connection: Can God’s vulnerable love – that is a part of God’s beloved children – make a difference in this world? I suppose we need only walk its ways to find out what it brings to the world and to our part in the world.



By the strength of your arm, O God, you have promised to deliver you people into the promised land of your blessed Reign. Too often, we do not trust the power of your loving embrace and so we run to fend for ourselves. Inspire us by your Holy Spirit that we may stay still long enough to have a sense of the life of peace that prevail within you alone. Amen.