A post from the Jesus Collective Theology Circle

Contribution by Adam Dyer (Somerset, England)



This is not new, but we have a problem with power. 

Everyday we see stories of power being abused and misused. From high powered business leaders, to media stars, music stars, politicians and religious leaders. We also see stories of those with power ignoring the rules, or even changing the rules to preserve their power. We see politicians saying and doing all sorts of weird things to get power or to hold on to power. And it’s not good to watch.

As an aside here, you may well be nodding along at this point and recognising everything I’m talking about in those leaders who are on the other side to you. And you’d probably be right. But the invitation here is to pause and recognise that those behaviors are also evident in some of the leaders on your own side. They may also be evident in us.

Power is attractive. It tells us we can do what we want, or that we can utilize power to get what we want, or to impose laws that we want others to follow, or it can bring us wealth or influence, or make our problems go away. It can even be as simple as just giving us the drug of winning. 

Our society, our public discourse, and our politics are all quite toxic right now. That certainly seems to be true in America, but it’s also true in Europe, and all over the world.

And it impacts us more than we think. 

It’s no surprise that stress and anxiety are on the rise. Mental health issues are more prevalent. I know from personal experience that spending a few minutes (or more) on social media can have a significant impact on my own well being and sense of peace. 

I’ve actually taken those apps off my phone and feel a significant benefit as a result. 

But it also impacts our relationships. We see the polarization across our society reaching into families and friendship groups and pulling them apart, leaving people more isolated, more angry, more suspicious and mis-trusting. It’s doing damage to our soul and our relationships. But it might even be doing damage to our life expectancy. 

One of the consequences of poorly held power is that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Something that is a clear reality in the west post covid. But a recent study discovered that countries with the biggest gaps between rich and poor have worse health, higher levels of loneliness, addiction and also lower life expectancy. That might seem obviously true as impacts on the poor, but what is surprising is that it is also true for the rich. Those who are rich in those societies which have the largest wealth gaps, have lower life expectancy too. 

We all suffer when we become disconnected from each other. We lose the ability to see each other, and more importantly, we lose the ability to see Jesus in and through each other. 

We lose the gift of imagination too. Have you ever found yourself saying something like ​“I can’t understand why they would vote that way, or believe that thing or support that party”? When we do that, it is a failure of our own imagination. We have stopped seeing the person and have become blinded by the issue or the politics. It hardens us and damages our soul, it disconnects us and shrinks us. And I think this is something of what Jesus was illuminating for us in the story of the good Samaritan. The one who saw his enemy as his neighbour. The one who chose love over hate. The one who didn’t cross the road and separate, but who cared for and moved towards. Who loved well. And it cost him something, not just time and money. It cost him his power. He used his power, his wealth, his position, his freedom, his time, to help, be with and empower his enemy. And in turn, it cost him his certainty. This Jew he courageously helped, was no longer just ​“the enemy”, ​“one of them”, or someone to be feared, now he had a name, a story, a need. He became human again. And as the Samaritan rehumanised his enemy, he rehumanised himself too. As a result of this interaction, his enemy had a name, a face and a story. So he could never again see his enemies as faceless, or evil, or inhuman. 

Power that we see modeled by Jesus isn’t power that defends us or ​‘wins’ or defeats our enemies – that’s just repeating the same cycle of unimaginative abusive power we have seen through the ages. Instead Jesus commands us to love our enemies. To embrace persecution. To forgive readily. To love unconditionally. 

Jesus has no interest in us repeating the patterns of victorious power or political power or ​‘winning’ at the expense of the other. What Jesus models is a power that is dispersed and given away. In a system which used things like prayer and forgiveness as a tool of exclusion, or oppression, or preserving privilege, Jesus came with a disruptive message. No longer should you have to pay to pray. Now he declares that whatever you ask for in my name will be given. Prayer is now for the everyone and anyone. 

In a world where forgiveness was inaccessibly expensive for most, a forgiveness scam, Jesus came to establish a whole new forgiveness economy, for the everyone and anyone. As you forgive so you are forgiven. And there is no greater dispersal of power than the holy spirit at Pentecost. 

For the everyone and anyone. Power dispersed. Power that empowers the margins and the outsiders. Power that costs the powerful blesses the disempowered. 

So how does this help us as we navigate the polarized and angry world around us? How does it inform us and guide those of us in the middle of a volatile election? I have a few suggestions:


Be peacemakers

  • Jesus announces his manifesto with the opening policy of blessed are the peacemakers. Peacemakers stand in the gap in a polarized community and help both sides see each other. There is an opportunity for the church and for followers of Jesus to model something radically different in our polarized world. A polarized church has nothing to offer a polarized world, but a church of grace that models unity amidst diversity, difference and disagreement is a church that has something powerful and beautiful to offer the world.​Let’s be people who cross the divide and bridge the gap. Whenever we draw a line between us and them, remember that Jesus is on the other side of that line


Love courageously​

  • Jesus commands us to love our enemies and forgive those who wrong us. These are certainly not easy commands for us followers of Jesus to follow, but follow them we must, and we can not love people we don’t take the time to see and to know. In a world of soundbites and caricatures it is so easy to dehumanise and dismiss our enemies as evil, but they carry a divine spark. They are created in the image of God. They are loved by God, and so when we declare them unlovable or evil, we set ourselves against our own creator. We disagree with God about who they are. 


Be imaginative and curious

  • It’s important that we engage our imagination, allow God to show us our enemies as He sees them, and as we do so, it will cost us. It might cost us our time, or our money, or our power, all of which is part of the deal, but it will almost definitely cost us our certainty about how right we are and how wrong they are.​A certain and disenchanted church has nothing to offer a certain and disenchanted world, but a church that holds space for each other and the other, and mystery and wonder has something profound to offer the world that is hungry for more. It is in these spaces we encounter aspects of Jesus that are unreachable for us on our own. When we spend time with our enemies, or who are different to us, different cultures, stories, experiences or ideas, we can encounter Jesus in them in new ways. Their difference becomes a gift to us rather than a threat. 


Hope over fear

  • The narrative in our politics is a narrative of fear. So many messages are playing on the fear of the opponent rather than hope. But we are taught that perfect love drives out fear. We are not to be held captive by fear but that we are children of hope. And so when we vote, let’s not give way to fear, let’s not be driven by fear, let’s be people of hope. Vote hopefully. For whichever side, but be people who speak hope, vote hopefully, and always, as much as we are able, speak well of your opponents. A fearful church has nothing to offer a fearful world. But a church of hope embraces light, rejecting the narrative of fear, freeing us to see as Jesus sees. 


Costly power

  • In a world that sees power as something to be wielded over others, something to be preserved and protected, to be fought for and defended, let’s be people, and let’s be a church who models a different power. Let’s be people who are generous with the power we have, using it to empower the disempowered. Let’s not see power as a means to get our way, or to enforce the ​‘gospel’ or even promote the agenda of a Christian nation. For any nation that could call itself Christian would need to be a nation that gave its power away, was a blessing to all nations at the expense of itself, was a haven for the migrant and the poor, was a nation that forgave debts every 50 years and returned land to its original occupants. It’s a high calling. But what we can do is be people who vote for power that is dispersed to the marginalized, the disempowered and the suffering. We can reject power that seeks to impose or serve itself. We can reject the politics of money and greed and vote for the leaders whose policies help others rather than ourselves. 


But, whichever way this election goes, we can submit to the result, and live lives of generous power in our neighborhoods and our communities. As churches we can give away our resources and make space for those on the margins. We can welcome the immigrants and the stranger and the outsider and meet Jesus in the act of welcoming and loving and empowering others. 

Pray for one another as we navigate this election and its aftermath. Be people of peace. Be people of hope. And love courageously. And remember to look out for Jesus showing up in the most unexpected of places and people.