Tuesday, September 20, 2022
Those That Would Lord It Over Others,
Have Only Shadow Powers;
For God’s People Know
Real Power Is In
Serving,
Weakness,
and Self-sacrifice.
Isaiah 42:1
Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.
Mark 10:42-43
So Jesus called them and said to them, ‘You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant.
Words of Grace For Today
Since the beginning of time, those who people have looked to rule them, to protect them, to keep peace within and without, have lorded it over them instead and given the better portion to their chosen supporters, so that they would remain lords, who could enjoy power and comforts taken from others.
Since the beginning of time nearly every person has prayed that they would be free from being lorded over by others. The greater the power one holds the greater it is that someone more powerful lords it over one. Until the most powerful, who is ‘answerable to those hidden powerful people’, and wishes to be free from that hold those behind the scenes have over them.
God provides a different vision of those who might lead, protect, and keep the peace, namely that those who are the greatest and most powerful will be those who serve others in all things.
So God’s chosen servant comes to bring justice, to free people from being lorded over by others. And Jesus points his followers to how greatness is measured in God’s Kingdom and among them: by the ones who serve others.
As always we think ‘those others’ are the ones who lord it over people and us, though in the privilege and comforts we enjoy (even homeless in the wilderness), we ‘lord it over others’ through the economics and world powers that provide us things like electricity, clean water, tools of so many kinds, decorations to life of more kinds, and places of relative peace. These we enjoy only because they are ‘taken’ or ‘kept’ from others in the world’s arrangements that favour us.
So we pray this day that we would be profoundly thankful for all that we have, from the bottom of our feet, to above our heads, from the first minute of the day in the midnight darkness broken by our electric lights, to the rising sun and the breakfasts that nourish us, to the high noon sheltered from intense weather, to the setting sun and the comfortable beds that provide us a safe place to sleep, and everything in between and beyond.
So we pray each day, throughout the day, for all things.