Domination Is Not the Way of the Cross

The Rev. Sara Warfield

Scriptures: Micah 6:1-8; 1 Corinthians 1:18-31; Matthew 5:1-12

In the past week, two quotes have been coexisting—a bit uneasily—in my head.

The first is: “We live in a world, in the real world, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power.”

And the second is: “God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God.”

Each of these quotes is a pithy meditation on power—what it is, what it’s for, how it should be wielded. In the first quote, there is the conjuring of force by those who are “stronger” to impose a particular way of being on those who are “weaker.” In other words, the purpose of power is to dominate.

In the second quote, power is reimagined—not as a force for domination but as a way of lifting up God as the ultimate power. That real power can only be exercised when it puts God first.

The first quote comes from Stephen Miller, the current White House Deputy Chief of Staff. The second comes, of course, from Paul, Christianity’s first theologian, in his First Letter to the Corinthians.

Paul also writes in this same lesson: “The message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

I can’t imagine what a person like Stephen Miller thinks about Jesus not using the power he has as the son of God to dominate his naysayers and those who would oppose him. And I can’t even imagine what he might think of this man with all the power of creation at his fingertips willingly going to the cross and dying, laying down his life without a fight, asking God to forgive those who are executing him, for they know not what they do. I’m guessing he’d call it foolishness.

But Paul and Micah and Jesus have a very different conception of power. Our readings today tell us that our power derives from God’s overwhelming love that created us and God’s overwhelming grace that holds us through every hour of every day.

You see, power is neither negative nor positive. It’s a tool. When you called me to be rector of your parish, you entrusted me with power, with authority. It is only because of that power you and God have given me that I can hold this space in worship and you lean in, that I can preach these words at the pulpit and you listen. Only priests can preside at communion in our tradition, not because other people aren’t capable of saying the words and making the proper gestures—it’s because you and The Episcopal Church have entrusted the power of that ministry to those who have learned, who have reverence for, who find deep joy in the sacrament.

Our Mayor Travis Stovall, a good guy and a solid mayor by most accounts, might have the power to hold sway over the city of Gresham, but would you want him presiding over communion?

We’re all endowed by God with particular forms of power. You need a certain kind of power to be a loving parent, an inspiring teacher, an effective therapist, an efficient cashier. In each of these cases, the person in power holds authority over another person, if only for a moment. But that authority is what makes their work in the world possible.

Except when that power is used for domination. Because the need to dominate, as Paul tells us, isn’t the way of the cross, the way of God. The way of the cross is valuing the well-being of others as much as you value your own—even to the point of sacrificing so that others may have life and have it abundantly.

But domination is using power to value your own needs, your own thriving, your own abundance at the expense of anyone, even everyone, else’s. Psychologically, domination is pathological—meaning that it is maladapted, meaning that the need to dominate comes from a broken place. In some formative period of their life, a person is shown in one way or another, usually by someone in power over them, that force is the only way to get their needs met; that any form of submission is weakness; that if they don’t have everything they have nothing.

Can you imagine what kind of experiences someone had to go through—the love that was withheld, the joy that was mocked—in order for a person to think those are the most effective ways of being? I want us to pause a moment to cultivate some compassion for people in this mindset. Not to excuse their harm, not to let them off the hook when it comes to accountability, but simply to see and acknowledge the broken child inside who dictates their actions.

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Power is a tool, and it is a gift from God. It is a blessing. It is derived from the fact of our createdness out of God’s vast and incomprehensible and joyful love, of our createdness in God’s image. Our existence is the blessing. Our power derives from this blessing. Our lives, our actions, everything else is simply a matter of “what will we do with this blessing?”

As the great preacher and scholar Fred Craddock once put it, when it comes to God’s blessing, our lives are to be lived “because of,” not “in order to.”

In Buddhism there is the concept of the “hungry ghost.” According to the Buddhist publication Lion’s Roar, “hungry ghosts are beings who are tormented by desire that can never be sated. They are often portrayed with tiny mouths and throats and the swollen bellies of the starving, meaning they can never consume enough to ease the suffering of their hungers.” We become hungry ghosts when we use God’s blessing, or the power God has given us “in order to”—in order to become wealthy or famous, in order to have bigger houses or have control over people. Because “in order to” is never satisfied. There’s always more wealth, more fame, even bigger houses and even more people to be had. To abuse God’s blessing is to forfeit the fullness of the blessing.

Not as punishment. That’s just the fact of how God’s blessing works.

The beatitudes is a list of those who live out their blessing in this life “because of,” sometimes, maybe even often, at the expense of those who use their blessing “in order to.” In this way, Jesus directs us to the next fact of blessing: that ultimately it is those who chose to use their power for love and grace—those who are meek, who hunger and thirst for righteousness, who are peacemakers, who are reviled and persecuted for proclaiming God’s love and grace—it is they who will know the fullness of God’s blessing. They will know comfort and mercy. They will inherit the kingdom of heaven.

Not as a reward. That’s just the fact of how God’s blessing works.

Domination is not the way of the cross. It is not the way we are called to use the power, the blessing, that God has given us. The scriptures tell us how to use the power that God has given us, the only way to experience the fullness of God’s blessing.

God has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.

Amen.