Subversive Orthodoxy Revisted

The Impotence of Government & the Inadequacy of Democracy to Give Freedom

As I listen to many of the current conversations in the world of pseudo events called the media, I see reflected over and over again the struggle we humans have in discovering and fostering what we have come to call “freedom.” We live in a democratic society that is a major advance from despotic rule but still seems mired in a philosophical addiction that creates its ongoing ferment.

As much as we appear to have moved beyond feudalism and its accompanying obeisance to monarchies and despots, I wonder if we are still inordinately obsessed with our government as the source of our freedom. As a Christian I find the acknowledgement of government’s power in our lives as a strange dependence given Christ’s Lordship and the rulership of His reign over the universe. Just too even use that language sounds grandiose and deluded. Most of my Christian friends talk incessantly about politics and the seeming impotence of the current party in office. That impotence never seems to be healed or banished as each party in control finds it unable to move the nation forward at least in terms of their agendas and mandates.

Have not the teachings of Christ powerfully directed our dependence towards our heavenly Father as our source and the Kingdom as the philosophical structure out of which we find our ethos and pathos. Paul tells us that we fight not against flesh and blood but against powers and principalities. This portion of Scripture alone is powerful in revealing our false & misunderstood dependency upon the material world of legal documents, laws, and political procedures to define our world. This is not to say that these crucibles do not indeed create a world. But it is not ultimately the world in which I truly inhabit. My citizenship is in heaven thus my understanding of who can give or take power or give or take freedom is based on this heavenly government under which I live.

I sense that we are all hungering for this deeper freedom. Can we find this in and from our governmental systems? Are we as believers looking for democracy or spiritual freedom? Are they the same? When I project power onto the government I then conclude that laws equal freedom. But as a believer I am told by our Lord that man made laws are not the constraints placed upon my life as His follower. As His follower I am beckoned by a much higher calling. I am bought with a price. I am not my own. My freedom is Christ.

In the Kingdom rule, I am called to become the leader I am looking for. I am called to develop the qualities that I insist other leaders have. Rather than see “flesh & blood” or humankind as the one with power, I am now able to see the invisible realm of minds, hearts, and intentions as the place of power & struggle. When I discover the true Lordship of Christ I begin to grasp the true governance of this world and to whom I must bend my knee to find true freedom.

Scripture tells us that this new law is written on our hearts. This means that no law or piece of paper will be a prescription for freedom. It is the realm of the ineffable and transcendent that rules and reigns over this world. It means that salvation, my own, is the beginning of the transformation of this world. This is not to make the salvation of the world as something outside myself. Quite the contrary. I am called to be a light on a hill. I am called to engage all systems and realms as those which will someday bow their knee as well. But this is not a political posture. This is a kingdom posture.

I grew up being taught in Civics class to look to my government as a source & provider of freedom. Right alongside that I was taught about Christ. As much as I was told Sunday after Sunday that Christi’s rule & reign were preeminent and all powerful, it was clear from an eagerly age that my family and my church saw the government as the most powerful source of authority in their life. When I finally came into a community that bent its knee to this invisible kingdom I began to see clearly the false dependence on man made governmental systems as the source and definer of my real freedom.

So often when I listen to the current visceral debates and conversations (if I can call them that) surrounding the current governmental leadership they seem so disembodied and removed from my freedom in Christ. I am not talking about hiding or dismissing the concerns that are represented in these conversations. Quite the contrary. I am merely wondering why we talk the way we do? Why do we empower our government with so much control over our lives? Why do we see this power as so preeminent? In fact, for those who may regard my perspective as escapism and some kind of detached spiritual flight, I am actually looking to the ultimate source of healing and truth for healing and restoration of the social ills that are much of the ruckus around these current debates.

Once again, my faith community has been teaching me about real governance and real submission and real freedom. When Jesus talked about the Kingdom of God He appeared to be confused to many especially the Pharisees and those who thought they knew how truth should be organized. When He talked of the Kingdom He said it was …”here now… but not yet.” It was in our midst…. but located somewhere in the future. What did He mean? I am sure I don't grasp this paradox for that is indeed what it is (a paradox)

What might our Lord mean when He talked about this in breaking & yet future kingdom and how does it relate to us today? Could it be that Christ was saying that "The Kingdom is here now…….. But not yet.”
The freedom we desire and have received is not held tangibly in some form of government, some set of laws, some group of buildings or shrines. We live in the tension of being in and not off this world. That is the challenge. To live in the here and now, to serve in the here & now, but to receive through faith the inner down payment on a life that we are becoming, on a world into which we are moving, into a realm through which all things will be under the submission of our Lord.

As much as we want heaven here on earth through humankind’s system of governments, this is not to be. When we deify or unduly demonize a human made system, we lose the essence of the here & now kingdom and the not yet realm. We are looking to the wrong source for a freedom they cannot ultimate bestow. We are entangled in the flesh & blood of the skirmish and not focusing on the hearts & minds of the people who need to know & experience our Lord. We cannot usher in the Kingdom with bitterness, hatred, or even mocking and dismissing. In fact, I have yet to see divine love as a tactic in this supposed “war on truth.” These are strongholds and will only be taken down through spiritual means. Much of the protesting & the rancorous posturing on all sides is so far from a kingdom response I cringe when I hear people equate their engagement to spiritual values and mandates.

So this freedom we so crave and the demands we place upon our government give to us, they cannot. They are powerless here. Only a relationship with Christ can begin to offer the down payment on this ultimate gift .Maybe an analogy might help. Think about someone you love. We are all hungering for a deeper encounter with the ones we love. Their very absence makes us long for them more thus it is their absence that makes them more present in our minds & imaginations. So to, in the incarnation and His embodiment of His bride the Church, Christ has been brought near. But who He is and what we are to become in & through our encounters with Him IS YET TO BE fully revealed. It is still "not yet." So for me to anchor myself “ONLY” in the now is to disconnect myself from what I am becoming.

All this visceral discussion regarding the government seems misplaced at best & strangely manic at worst. The very act of looking towards our government for ultimate freedom is to remove from the Gospel its true overcoming power authority offered to us through the Life of Christ.

I would imagine that this perspective will be misinterpreted as being unpatriotic, severely naive or the ranting of a spiritual malcontent. “Get real,” someone might say. “Are you living in another world?” Well …..yes…I am.

The Great Dismantling of Leadership as We Know It

Vision by Chaos

There is a grand collapsing of power & authority happening in our day. How then might one lead or point the way? Here are some thoughts...

May we reject "authority in position" in favor of "authority in relationship."

Authority is bestowed in the moment of communal need & simultaneously acknowledgement.

To lead I must be with “the other” thus I am never “over” but “among.”

I lead by standing close and being present. I listen and wait. Thus, my gifts, my knowledge, my judgment and wisdom are made real at the beckoning call of the community.

I lead when I am subordinate.

I lead when I am a peer.

I lead when I am a superior.

These are all made concrete only through example. Not being an example but simply being. Assuming I am an example inverts my gifts causing me to lead primarily out of my shadow.

I assume I know because I have been elected or chosen to know.

Assumption is a second order presence. Rather than be in the moment, in my body, I take my energy up into my head causing me to see an abstraction as a real thing. I am talking with my "idea" of my friend who is right in front of me. I am not talking with him but at him. This abstraction is a way or type of knowing but not the best way of seeing or feeling. It takes me out of “the others “ presence and tends towards making me “name” them once and for all. I need not be there to be there. I know there. I know them or at least I think I do. They are held in my head, not in my heart or soul. But in fact, there is never "there once and for all." Here is where there was a moment ago.

The point in this abstraction by the way?

To lead is to acknowledge the fluid nature of human presence and honor the collaborative emergence of “the right word fitly spoken.” To truly listen to another’s voice is to offer a response and watch the dance begin. You can not dance in your head. You must do it with your body. So too do we lead with our bodies and our minds.

I can never be merely given true authority. This is not to say there are not leaders and that they are not acknowledged and honored. It is to say that leadership cannot ultimately come through a hierarchical system as a real bestowing. There is no soul in an organization or its structures that can arbitrarily bestow leadership once and for all upon a person. Systems and hierarchies are small ciphers of truth at best and weak and sieve like at worst.

I do not provide answers as a leader. More like an air traffic controller, I do not fly the airplane but provide safe paths for flight and coordinate the interactions once in flight. Thus, my role is often invisible to the outer world.

When I lead I am like an orchestra conductor. I do not tell others what to play or what to do but assist them in "hearing what is." I am listening along with the players and inwardly paying attention to the "silence" within the music. I am not commanding others as much as being a presence of obedience. I find myself in the losing. I facilitate the music as it plays the people.

I am a scribe of a collaborative improvisational story being written on the fly. This narrative is much like an operating system but rather than lead by linear categorizing and pontification I proffer my own inner confusion as the reason to pay attention. I submit myself to the inner seeking of the group and support a new way of seeing some may call “vision by chaos.”

I am not a CEO, nor CFO, but a poet, prophet, and story teller. Leading is more about listening to the needs of others and walking along the path of faith with them rather than in front or behind.

I hunger for order but know that arbitrary efficiency is more of a corporate and technological metaphor that needs hierarchies to manifest its intended goals of profit. I feel at home in more organic models of leadership where much like nature we may have hundreds of leaders leading along side of each other in differing capacities. We are not a corporation but a family.

As a man, I distance myself from alpha male energy or the heroic Greek model of leader & see my own desire for being more goal directed or competent as a possible ruse for self expansion. I am not a professional human.

My leadership is not a confidence in my skills or insight but an admission of my lack. It is my obedience to the call that beckons me thus much like Frodo I say, “I will carry the Ring to Mordor…though I do not know the way.” This life is fellowship of the ring for sure.

I see the Wizard of Oz in my heart and allow my fraudulent self to be discovered so as not to hurt the Dorothy’s of this world. I honor Dorothy and humbly submit myself to her bewildered, vulnerable yet seeking self. It is her transparency that allows me to trust her. May we tear down the curtains in our hearts.

God has not called me to be a Bible analyst. Nor is my voice to be slick and amplified. Life is not a machine so I need not see people as objects that need my technical expertise. Those with which I live and love need not be a conquest. At no time need I be a warrior salesman who launches, markets, or sells the truth. I cannot use my brothers as rungs of a ladder to achieve my personal goals. My credentials are not carte blanche to see my career as more important than my life or the life of others.

I do not see myself as a solver of other's problems thus freeing me up to not to have to “fix” others. Nor am I an apologist that will use my skills with words or phrases to position my view with power and presumption. I commit my tongue to the service of the community.

I am an adopted son of the most high God. Therefore I cannot banish anyone from the community through threats or mocking. My ability to speak or command an audience when misused not only confuses and harms others but forces me to take myself out of community through arrogant exclusion. I distance my myself from others in hopes they will move towards me out of woundedness. In fact, it is I who has distanced me from myself, others & the Father.

I am not sure what I know. There is so much of which I am unaware that confidence in my knowing is dangerous to the community. This is not to say I don’t have perspectives, opinions, or beliefs, It is to say that my collaboration and improvisational offering is not the answer but my human voice in the emerging story of salvation. Answers are not what we are seeking but the presence of God.
I am not an island. To the degree I play a solo act is the degree to which I create a place where only one can stand. There is no place where only one can stand. That is a myth.
Like Dorothy I gather my friends who are equally as needy as I and believe that the common quest may offer some healing.

I will lead by offering my deepest and most revealing questions. Rather than seek solutions I invite dialogue. Community or the Church for that matter is not a tool to change the world but to be the identifiable location of God’s work of redemption and the presence of the future Kingdom.

By fostering dialogue I serve the men by deepening and widening the sense of our mutual experience. I allow myself to be invisible and go beneath and below through service to discovering the meanings & rhythms of our hearts and community.

Rather than offer advice I share a poem. Rather than demand my painting be the one and only painting I allow myself to occasionally be the frame.

I am not an entrepreneur who sees the community as a resource but an artist who fosters our imaginations so as to cultivate an environment where people might hear & understand their own story in the stories of others.

No leader owns a community although they may have been primary in the creation of the infrastructure. Community needs structure but the value is in the participants.

No one can create community on demand for it is self creating thing. It is also maintained by the community which is why leaders cannot arbitrarily demand obeisance. Emerging leaders are more like gardeners than architects.

Leaders build on flexible and stretchable terrain rather than build a foundational that is static and demands no one move or change its structural foundations.

Leaders help shape community not create it.

Leaders facilitate connection rather than demand arbitrary alliances.