26 April 2006

Ronald Sider in "Christ and Violence" take a look at Colossians 2:15 as a way of looking at what happens to the principalities and powers.

This verse contains Paul's most explicit statement about what happens to the principalities and powers at the cross. Paul says Christ "disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in him." Three key verbs stand out. The first one tells us that the principalities and powers have been disarmed. To disarm someone is not to destroy him. Rather it is to strip him of his power to do evil. The second verb in this sentence means to expose or make a public display of someone - e.g., to publicly disgrace an adulteress. The last verb is the most vivid of the three. ...it means to lead a triumphal procession. This verb refers to the practices of the Roman army. "When a Roman general had subdued another nation, the rulers of that nation had to march into Rome on their bare feet, behind the chariot on which the conqueror rode." The principalities and powers were part of the good creation but they rebelled against God. At the cross, Christ stripped them of their power, made a public display of their weakness, and forced them to follow humbly as conquered enemies in His triumphal procession.

So the way we take on the principalities and powers is to help show who and what they really are, to not let them have the power over us that they would like to claim, and to let it be known in a public manner that these powers will not rule over us. The cross of Christ becomes the power that guides our actions and that of the whole community. We monitor the powers and principalities and our won power in light of the cross. It is within the humble and peaceable Reign of Christ that we are encouraged to face any power in the world within the domain of truthfulness and love that insists on the well being of all. The powers around us must not be given free reign. Rather, we must remind one another that we are the vehicles of change and resistance and reconciliation that leaves no power in place - just as it is. At all times, we are to pursue justice even when it is at great cost to us. For in such living, we are already following the way of the cross that does not honor the powers of the world when they attempt to dominate and rule over us. Rather we live as though we are calling the powers and principalities into a new life.

Connection: There is always the need for each of us to be ready to disarm the powers that attempt to rule this day. This work may take many forms and yet it is necessary so that we are not simply pulled along a way of life that does not consider those beyond the walls of my own home.

Lead us, O God, so that in this day we will be encouraged to stand up and give a witness to the life that moves through the cross into a whole new way of being and building community and the life that honors all and sees to the care of each person within your Reign. Amen.