Do you know what I really like about the Old Testament? It’s what a lot of people hate about it. But I think most people hate it because they don’t read it with the four senses of scripture. Instead, they pluck out one-line and hold it up like a dead rat, and say, “Look what I found! Look at how awful this book is! Can you see this thing?” I liked doing this, too, when I was dead, before the change happened.
But readers do this plucking of the rat without understanding the larger structure, because rats exist even in the most beautiful buildings. The Chrysler building surely has some rats in it, but we don’t go to New York to see the rodents.
What I like about the Old Testament is that the characters are not portrayed as perfect. They all sin. Every one of them. In fact, they are portrayed as human, very human. This is why I think so many people stumble while reading the Old Testament. They are expecting spotless heroes, just like we expect in our politicians now. In the growing honor/shame culture of America, we forgot how to read. We forgot nuance. We are like children who need one cowboy in a white hat and one in a black hat so we know who is good and bad in the Bible. But the Bible is more like Shakespeare than your average network TV drama. Grey’s Anatomy and Chicago Fire have the depth of a baby pool, but the Bible goes down into the Mariana Trench in our souls.
This is why I see professional wrestling everywhere today. Every news organization has its saints and villains, just as the WWE does with its characters, such as the clean-cut John Cena versus the greasy Undertaker. This is also why I think of pro wrestling as a more serious endeavor than modern news and politics. Because wrestling doesn’t pretend to be what it’s not. It doesn’t pretend at any other motive than entertainment, and is a satire on our own prideful lust for power. Thus, it is pure. It’s pure in its absurdity. It’s ridiculous. I don’t watch it regularly, but I find it more authentic than what our media and politicians are pretending at. Pro wrestling is the Days of Our Lives soap opera for boys, and some men. Like me.
Maybe there is the fifth sense of reading scripture, in that you must read in terms of power. More specifically, you have to read it under the light of living in fear vs. living in trust. I’ll use pro-wrestling here to describe what I mean, but you could use whatever sport you like. Use Battlebots or professional pickleball instead, if that’s your thing.
But when your last day arrives, there is as much at stake in the outcome of presidential politics as there was when the wrestler King Woods (my personal favorite) lost his crown to the evil Roman Reigns.
I know this sounds extreme, but hear me out.
Modern geopolitics is every bit as much smoke and mirrors as Monday Night Raw or Friday Night Smackdown. No. Correction: geopolitics must use far more smoke and mirrors, since wrestling’s kingdom is in a patchwork of rented arenas around the country, and the TV broadcast uses very focused camera shots on small crowds assembled tightly so that it appears to be large. The illusion of importance is key.
This is a modern sacrilege to say, because I don’t venerate politicians. To say that politics is not that important will trigger people, because it is perhaps the most worshipped idol of the 21st century. But let me be the first in line to disrespect modernity’s sacred cows. If there is a list to be on for sedition against the current ideologies, I’d like to have a row in that database. I don’t worship politicians, celebrities, or movements that reject right worship and non-heretical faith in Christ. I may be many things, and have committed many sins, but I don’t intend to take my last breath as an apostate to the one true King.
When America goes the way of Sumeria and Rome and the Mayans and Imperial Spain, nothing will change in terms of who is the real power over us all, for there is only one. If the fifty states are balkanized and dis-united into fifty nations, the same King will remain. Division is ugly, but it will happen at some point, because we’ve already allowed the accuser and deceiver into our nations, cities, houses, and hearts.
The spirit of a nation can obey God or reject God. Nations choose their course just like individual people choose their actions. Free-will is the gift God grants for us to choose our own ending. In either case, for a person or a nation, the choice to turn to God must be made, and of course it all starts on the personal level. The more citizens who turn away from God, the more a nation will turn away. Thus, whether it is President Biden or President Trump (or whoever), they will have my respect as the manager of America, because I learned long ago to give respect to rank rather than the person wearing the rank. But no president is the ultimate authority. I can render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, but I don’t care who Caesar is if he rejects God. If he or she leads us into temptation and delivers us unto evil, there we must part. A Caesar who thinks power is God or denies the existence of a living God cannot be followed when it comes to decision time, because the ultimate decision that we must make is not about this life, but eternal life.
If our social managers turn away from God, then believers cannot play the game of “follow the leader” any longer, for there is only one leader of all earthly leaders, and that is God. Jesus said, “Follow me.” This implies a choice, not a forced march. This has been established as the way, as Jesus said we must follow him, and not earthly power. The Bible is full of examples on how to do this as well when the times comes. From the three stubborn boys that Nebuchadnezzar threw in the furnace, to the Maccabee brothers, to every Apostle and martyr in Church history. We have many examples to review and emulate in the martyrology of the Church. Most obviously, Jesus himself showed the way. Peter, too, even spells it out in Acts 5 when they were arrested for violating the speech codes and thoughtcrime of first century Jerusalem. You should immediately see parallels of this today, as we are once again instructed not to “teach in this name” of Jesus, as it is said to be a micro-aggression or colonialist or offensive. Peter says, “Sorry, not sorry. We have a higher authority than human resources or the online mob.”
And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest questioned them, saying, “We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.” But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised Jesus whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.” (Acts 5:27-32)
Understanding where the real power lies is critical. It is not in pro wrestling. It is not in presidents. It’s not even in the nation with the most naval destroyers and nuclear warheads. This is where a disconnect happens for people, in misunderstanding how to read the Bible.
There is a disconnect between those who worship the government and those who worship God. How you rank power structures changes everything in how you view the world, and for everyone who preaches on “power differentials” today, they almost always have their ranking out of order, because God is never mentioned in their ranking, the absence of which makes their entire preaching moot and empty of meaning. This is why every ideology fails in the end when it tries to assume authority and dictate its version of morality: it has no authority, nothing solid as a foundation. Oddly, we cannot know God fully or comprehend the idea of God, and we can’t fully know his ways, yet God still gives bedrock to our lives here in the material world. This is because we can know that he is infinitely greater than us and all his creation, yet we also know that he is wired right into our bodies and minds and souls. What the idea of God does for us is stop the nightmare of “infinite regress” where we keep asking, “What came before the earth? What came before the universe? What came before God?” It stops at God, the Creator. Interestingly, the band AC/DC had a pair of songs that I think illustrate this point. “Highway to Hell” and “Who Made Who?” are related, because as soon as you start to question the Creator of all things and who made you, then you will be on the highway to hell, which is just separation from God.
I truly cannot stress enough how important the concept of God being the first thing is for your mental health. God created the world “out of nothing” (ex nihilo). If you’ve heard the saying, “fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” it’s essential to know that fear in this context really refers to “wonder and awe,” which is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. If you lose that wonder and come to believe that chaos was first, then fear sets in, and everything else that comes along with it, like depression and lust and greed, well, you know - all the rest of the deadly sins.
But most importantly for this series, is the need for power. In our world, we think of power as rank in society.
You cannot make it through basic training in the military without coming to know what “respecting the rank” means. “Render unto Caesar that which belongs to Caesar,” as Jesus said. This sums up the idea well. We have a duty to obey the law. Paying taxes is right and just, so long as the nation is right and just. For a nation to be worthy of obedience, however, this duty only applies if the nation doesn’t violate the real law, the Commandments, or ask us to reject Jesus’ command to “Follow me.” You can even distill this down to natural law if you’re not inclined to religion, and plenty of atheists believe in natural law because it can be arrived at by reason. Natural laws should be the basis for national laws. But if national laws demand abandonment of natural law, which comes from God, the first thing, then we have an uncrossable chasm. At that point our loyalty must be unequivocally pointing toward God and not a President or any founding document, no matter how yellowed and venerable it looks. Within any nation, there is a battle going on, just as there is within every heart.
And this war is a spiritual one.
As for the concerns of the day (from the Covid tales about a bat, to “Who blew up the Nordstream pipeline?”, to how we should react to the Russia-Ukraine war) these are all secondary concerns to the kingdom of God. This sounds insensitive, but it’s actually the most sensitive thing you can do. Because all of the news of the day is not seeking the City of God, it’s seeking the City of Man.
The kingdom of God is among us, we are told. But are we looking for it? Are we living in it? The kingdom of God is here, but not yet. That’s a hard concept to grasp (maybe harder than ex nihilo). The kingdom will come, yet it’s here. What?
Clearly the worldly things impact bodies and souls, but still Christ says the kingdom is among us. That’s because HE is the kingdom, the way, the path, the gate, living water, the bread, the priest, the prophet, the king.
One of the strangest things is to realize that the promised Messiah would bring a kingdom to earth, here among us, and for those who look around and say, “He must not have been the Messiah? Where is this Kingdom?” But the kingdom is here. It is the Church. The Body of Christ exists. The Church is in all nations, as promised, and as promised, the violent and fearful try to topple it. In every generation, the Church is attacked, but it rebounds, retreats, reforms, repeats. Christ said the kingdom is under attack. From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. (Mt 11:12) The presidents and prime ministers and Caesars and educators can all take a number. Get in line.
This is the kingdom of the counter-culture, of Christ, because his kingdom is built on a different foundation from that of all other kings and clubs and governments. This is the kingdom where trust is greater than fear, because at the root of all power politics is fear. At the root all all pride is fear. The idea of fig leaves should ring a bell here.
This is the way that Jesus intends for us to see the world, in trust rather than fear, and any worldly king that doesn’t recognize the real king and source of earthly power must reject God in favor of his power, which requires fear to maintain. And who should our trust be in? Not in worldly power. Not in promises from people or serpents. Ultimate trust must be in one thing, and one thing only, and that the creator who made us for him and to be loved by him. When we understand that we are created, then we know that our needs will be met by God if we trust in him. This is why Jesus needs so little. He says, “Consider the lilies of the field” who are adorned greater than King Solomon (or King Woods). The beauty of creation far exceeds our human fashion and pomp and circumstance.
He reminds us that we only need to request “our daily bread,” which is Christ himself, the Bread of Life. Furthermore, he says, “foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” Yet does Jesus sound concerned about his lack of money or shelter? No. This is radical. It’s extreme. And he’s right.
It’s stunning for us to hear such a thing, especially for those of us who grew up in a time of plenty, and learned about Abraham Maslow’s pyramid of self-actualization, or Tony Robbins’ will-to-power, or Supreme Court justice Anthony Kennedy’s argument that we can shape the universe into our own image and likeness.
Jesus says, “No” to all of them.
Jesus says, “Stop trying to create the world and trust in God who already created it.” But it’s worth noting that the fox still has to dig out its den, and a bird must create its nest. Abandonment to Divine Providence does not mean that you need not do anything. It doesn’t mean you can lay around all day so that you can be spiritual all the time. Rather, it means fulfilling the duties to your station in life and letting all other worries be offered up to God. It means living for God, like a fox or a bird glorifies creation by doing what is proper for them. A fox or bird has total trust in the Creator, yet these animals must still perform their work. A nest doesn’t build itself. A den won’t dig itself. Thus, work is good, as are the created things themselves, so long as they are used rightly. We are no different. This is at the heart of the teaching of the Church, based on what Jesus said to his followers. Bodies are not bad. Work is not bad. We are fallen and compromised, but can be redeemed, and all of us, every human being, has sufficient grace on offer - an open-ended gift - that can be the ladder we use to climb to heaven.
Fear is not what foxes and birds rely on, they live freely, like children, and trust in their Creator. Only humans fear and prepare to fight in a zero-sum game, because of the Fall. We can prove our fears by simply turning on the news, and see the fingerprints of Original Sin everywhere. Fear is why we build highways and bombs and smart phones, because we don’t think God will provide for us. If we cling to our lives instead of God, then we begin to be fearful, and that is when power becomes the game, and it is a game of total obsession once it begins.
