Sermon by Owen Rogers relating to Jeremiah 23:1-6. Luke 23:33-34, Colossians 1:15-20 and this week’s theme, the reign of Christ.
Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely!
I’m sure you have heard this saying. Now, research claims this statement as absolute truth!
New research by Adam Galinsky of the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, USA, explores ‘moral hypocrisy’ in powerful people.
The last year or three may well be remembered for its scandal-ridden headlines, from admissions of extramarital affairs by politicians and sportspeople, to corporate executives flying private jets while cutting employee benefits, and owners of bankrupt finance companies building multi-million-dollar homes. Etc.
“This research is especially relevant to the biggest scandals of the last couple of years, as we look back on how private behavior often contradicted the public stance of particular individuals in power,” said Galinsky. “For instance, we saw some politicians use public funds for private benefits while calling for smaller government, or have extramarital affairs while advocating family values. Similarly, we witnessed CEOs of major financial institutions accepting executive bonuses while simultaneously asking for government bailout money on behalf of their companies.
“According to our research, power and influence can cause a severe disconnect between public judgment and private behavior, and as a result, the powerful are stricter in their judgment of others while being more lenient toward their own actions,” he continued.
Galinsky noted that moral hypocrisy has its greatest impact among people who are legitimately powerful – who are in accepted positions of power and influence. (This is why limited terms for all politicians is the better way to go!) In contrast, a further experiment demonstrated that people who don’t feel personally entitled to their power are actually harder on themselves than they are on others.” The tendency to be harder on the self than on others also characterized the powerless in a number of other studies.
“Ultimately, these patterns of begaviour perpetuate social inequality. The powerful impose rules and restraints on others while disregarding these restraints for themselves, whereas the powerless collaborate in reproducing social inequality because they don’t feel the same entitlement,” Galinsky concluded
Frightening conclusions! And abusiveness resulting from positions of power is not only found in the public arena. I can remember a teacher who relished haranguing students until they were reduced to tears. I’ve had bosses who loved to exert their power over others through humiliation. I have seen husbands, especially those in whom power was limited in other areas of their lives, behave abusively toward their wives. And the list goes on…….
We should examine our leaders with regards to their use and abuse of power. To whom should we entrust power? According to this article, the very first indicators of corruption are not discoveries of financial or moral impropriety, but attitudes of entitlement, pride and hypocrisy. If you sense those attitudes, then the evidence of tangible corruption is not far behind. And, as we have learned, those leaders are not to be trusted.
We in Christ’s kingdom have power, but our power is not our own, nor is it for us to use for ourselves. It is available for good uses only. We are fully entitled to this power but we are still to be harder on ourselves than we are on others.
But, we need to carefully examine ourselves, too. How do we handle the power we have in our lives? How do we view the authority and power we may have in our daily responsibilities?
How do you handle the power in your life? Have a look at this video clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP3hg7XY7SU
Jesus didn’t spend very much of his time preaching about sexual mores, but he did spend an extraordinary amount preaching about the hypocritical abuses of those in power against the poor and marginalized.
We, as Christians, need to remember that power is entrusted to us as a part of our responsibility to SERVE others. And I believe this means that the highest calling and identity for a human being is to be a servant. We are most like God, not when we are all knowing or all powerful or omnipresent, though there are times we would like to be, but when we serve.
This is what Jeremiah was on about – the abuse of power. God’s solution was an uncorrptible leader. A person whom power would not corrupt and who would use his power to benefit others, not himself. A person who is so powerful he has nothing to prove. A person who has everything so he has nothing to gain. A person whose love is so all-encompasing that he would never hurt or harm but only heal and reconcile.
Yes, Jesus is that man. Note the progression through our readings. Jeremiah desscribed him but did not know his name. Jesus, at his crucifixion, was named as king. Paul described and named him with absolute certainty – the messiah, who is God, who is the manifestation of God, who is God through and through – Christ the King.
With Prince William getting engaged to Kate Middleton this week we are reminded that we live in a kingdom. We Britsh Commonwealth people are more familiar with royalty than some in today’s world. Yet our experience is rather distant and royal power is not really power. The last two hundred years of Western history is the story of the gradual decline and disappearance of royal power and its replacement with that of elected representatives.
Historically, we know kings and hereditary rulers as tyrants, refusing to yield power, or as buffoons, unable to see that their time had passed. In either case, they were forced from power. Fits the description above of the corruptive effect of power.
So what kind of king is Christ, and how does he exercise his authority?
First, we need to recognize that kingship was central to Christ’s mission. Matthew, Mark, and Luke speak with one voice in telling us that at the very beginning of his ministry, Jesus announced that the “kingdom of God” was drawing near. But Jesus upended and undermined the whole concept of kingship.
This world’s kingdoms are about power and prestige; Jesus was about service and humility. The rulers of this world are about coercion and violence; Jesus’ life was characterized by peace and reconciliation. Kings surround themselves with throngs of fawning courtiers; Jesus chose the lowly and rejected as his companions.
Two of the three sayings of Jesus from the cross illustrate the nature of his kingship. One of the powers of kings is to pardon those accused of crimes. The irony of the crucifixion is that Jesus was sentenced to die for claiming to be a king. However, even while being nailed to the cross, Jesus demonstrated that it was his executioners who were in need of pardon and he alone had the power to grant it. “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.”
In pardoning those who were executing him, Jesus showed us the power of forgiveness. Forgiveness frees not only those who are forgiven; it also frees the forgiver. When we forgive, we release ourselves from the chains of anger and resentment. In forgiving others, we exercise the royal power that Christ delegated to his followers.
Secondly, kings and rulers are usually surrounded by throngs of sycophants. One thinks of Louis the Fourteenth’s palace at Versailles, deliberately built to keep France’s nobles occupied in an endless round of meaningless ceremonies so that they would have no time to plot against the king. In contrast, Jesus surrounded himself with the poor and marginalized. He crossed social, moral, and religious boundaries by accepting women as disciples. His critics charged that he ate and drank with thieves and prostitutes. Indeed, Jesus does the same thing every time we celebrate Communion!
Even on the cross, Jesus continued his habit of associating with the despised and disreputable. Poignantly, the second thief pleaded, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
What persuaded the penitent thief to believe not only that Jesus was a king but would survive the cross and “come into” his kingdom? Had he observed Jesus pardoning his enemies? Or was he able to see that the cross itself was Jesus’ royal throne?
“Remembrance” is central to Jewish thought. When the Israelites were slaves in Egypt, Exodus tells us that God “remembered” the covenant he had made with the patriarchs. The kind of remembering that God did in Exodus and that the thief was asking Jesus to do is not the opposite of forgetting; it is the opposite of dismembering. The thief was asking to be made a part of Jesus’ kingdom.
“Lord Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom,” prayed the penitent thief; but it is our prayer, too. Indeed, it may be the most important prayer that we pray. Like the thief crucified beside Jesus, we pray that we may be a part of the great kingdom he is building in this world and the next. But we must always keep in mind that we make our prayer to Christ the King, whose judgment is ever against those who trust in their own righteousness (and at times that is all of us) but whose arms are always outstretched in love.
With acknowledgements to Adam Galinsky for his research on moral hypocrisy in powerful people and to Rev. J Barry Vaughn for thoughts on Christ the King.