The Imperial
Temptation
Marcus
Borg
Excerpted
from "Three
Major Options for Living Our Lives" -
a homily delivered during the Lenten Noonday Preaching Series
at Calvary Episcopal
Church, Memphis, TN, on March
18, 2003.
"You
can have all the kingdoms of the Earth if you will fall down
and worship me," the devil says to Jesus. "You can have all the
kingdoms of the Earth."
On
a personal level, I suppose this is the temptation to power;
perhaps even to wealth; to standing
out, if you will. But it's also the imperial temptation--the
temptation to rule the world.
This
is the temptation that we as a nation face in our time, for we
are the imperial power
of our time. Ever since the end of the Cold War, we are the
world's only superpower, and that power is made up of two elements:
military
power and economic power. Those are the two classical marks
of empire.
Empire
is not simply about geographical expansion. Empire
is possessing military and economic power to such a degree
that you can shape the world in your own interest. We, the
United
States, are the imperial power of our time, and how we
use that
matters greatly.
I
leave it to your own discernment, your own conscience, as to
what you should think about the war that now seems imminent.
But I do want to tell you about the Bible's perception of empire
and imperial power so that that also is part of your thinking
through this difficult time. ...
As
I suggest some Biblical reflections on empire, I'm going to focus
on the New Testament in particular. I'm going to develop this
with three main points.
The
first of these is the kingdom of God. The kingdom of
God is utterly central to the message of
Jesus. Twenty years ago a New Testament scholar wrote, "Ask any
one hundred Biblical scholars what was most central to the message
of and activity of Jesus, and all one hundred of them would respond,
'The kingdom of God.'" It's
very important to realize that in the First Century, the phrase "Kingdom
of God" was a political metaphor, and it was also a religious
metaphor. Jesus could have talked about the community of God
or the family of God, but he talks about the Kingdom of God.
He
lived in a world in which there were other kingdoms. When he
spoke about the Kingdom of God, his hearers would have thought
to themselves, "Well, we know about the kingdom of Herod, and
we know about the kingdom of Caesar. Here is this fellow talking
about the Kingdom of God. That must be something different."
The
Kingdom of God is something for the earth in the teaching
of Jesus. "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is
already in heaven." The Kingdom of God is what life
would be like on earth if God were king and the rulers of
this world were
not; if God were king and Herod were not; if God were king and
Caesar were not.
A
second way of seeing this in the New Testament is that very familiar
Christian affirmation, "Jesus is Lord."
It
is utterly central to the New Testament beyond the gospels, utterly
central to Paul
and all the rest of the New Testament documents. It's the most
common, widespread Christian affirmation of who Jesus is.
To
see the anti-imperial thrust of this affirmation, we have to
realize that one of the titles of Caesar was "lord." It's on
coins and inscriptions throughout the Roman Empire, "Caesar is
Lord."
Not
only was lord one of the titles of Caesar, other titles of Caesar
included "Son of God," "Savior," "The one who has brought
peace on earth," "King of Kings and Lord of Lords." These are
all titles of Caesar.
When
the early Christian movement says, "Jesus is Lord," they are
concretely saying, "Caesar is not. Empire is not." When they
say, "Jesus is the Son of God," they're saying, "The empire is
not." When they say, "Jesus is the One who brings peace on earth," they're
saying, "The empire is not."
It's
hard to know what the equivalence of this would be in our time. "Jesus
is my president" doesn't really work; sounds like he's been elected. But
try this one on for size, "Jesus is my commander-in-chief;
the President is not."
I
don't mean to stack the deck. There might be times when these
two loyalties are in sync with each
other, but there might also be times when they are not. The
affirmation, "Jesus is Lord," in the First Century contrasted
the lordship of Christ with the lordship of empire.
It
is the same contrast, the same opposition that we see in the
Kingdom
of God versus the kingdoms of this world.
The
third way I want to develop this from the New Testament is to
share with you some early Christian perceptions of empire. The
first two come from the book of Revelation.
In
Revelations 12 and 13, we have this magnificent vision that includes
many elements,
but the point I want to stress here is that part of the vision
that speaks of the beast rising from the sea--the beast rising
from the abyss, this terrible beast, this ancient serpent,
this dragon that rules the world. At
the end of the thirteenth chapter of the book of Revelation,
the author tells us the number of
the beast is 666. Without
going into the details, using the
First Century rules of decoding a number into a name, 666 decodes
into
the name Caesar Nero. The great beast is the Roman Empire.
What
is fascinating about that chapter is that it makes use of the
ancient story of Apollo and Python. Apollo, the god of light,
the god of order. Rome styled itself as Apollo. Python, the other
figure in that story, is the ancient serpent, the ancient monster
that always threatens to throw the world into chaos.
In
Revelation 12 and 13, that ancient serpent is actually named
as Satan. Rome
told the story of Apollo and Python with Rome as Apollo, and
Python as all of the chaos that the Roman Empire had managed
to bring under control.
But
the author of John reverses that story and says, "No, empire
is not Apollo. Empire is the ancient serpent. Empire is Python.
Empire is the beast from the abyss
that rules the world." It's tough language. ...
One
last early Christian perception of empire--it's an
early Christian acrostic or acronym from 1 Timothy 6:10. An acrostic is a word
made up of the first letters of a series of words. I have to
do it in Latin for it to work. But let me give you the acrostic
to it, translating as I go. The
first word is radics,
like the English word radical, but it means root. Omnium,
like the English prefix omni, which means all; third word, malorum,
like the English word malediction, I suppose, but malorum means
evil; and then, finally, avarita, like the English word
avarice.
In
Latin, it translates into, "Greed is the root of
all evil." And what does it spell? Radics, omnium, malorum, avarita?
ROMA, the Latin name of Rome.
Rome
is the embodiment of greed. Empire is the embodiment of greed.
That's how the early Christians
saw imperial power. It's about greed. So
the Bible and the New Testament and Jesus do not speak kindly
about empire. Empire is of the devil. Empire is a Satanic temptation.
That's strong language, and I don't think we should soften it,
even as we should not literalize it in a wooden way.
We
need to take these perceptions very seriously, for if we do as
Christians
living in this nation, it means serious reflection about what
it means to be an imperial power, for we
are the imperial power of our time, the Rome of our time. And
the perennial temptation of empire is the overuse and misuse
of its imperial power. ...
The
only legitimate Christian positions about war in the history
of the church have been pacifism or the "just war." ...
The
imperial temptation is the temptation that we now face as a country. It is a test of loyalty that faces us as Christians. I don't
mean that Christians can come out on only one side of the issue
of this war.
But
I do mean that Christian reflection about all of this needs to
take seriously the Biblical suspicion of empire
and Christian teaching about war and peace. We
need to be as thoughtful, responsible, and creative as possible
in the use of our imperial power. I'm not just talking about
the impending war, but over the next decade or two or three,
for imperial power can be used in two very different ways.
We
can use it to control the world in our own self-interest--to
structure the system so that it serves us to impose our will
on the world.
Or
imperial power can be used to build up. We
can use it with the world's well-being in mind, rather than
with primarily our own well-being in mind.
I
think of words from the
prophet Ezekiel, words with which he indicted the City
of Tyrus--famed
for its wealth as a center of trade in its time--they're
very sobering words. In Ezekiel 26 Ezekiel says this about
Tyrus: "You
corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor."
It's
unusual and very difficult for a superpower to be gentle, wise
and kind, but that's what we are called to do. We
have enormous potential to do good. This is a great country.
But our greatness
is not about imperial power. ...
Copyright
2003 Dr. Marcus J. Borg
Excerpted
from "Three Major
Options for Living Our Lives" - a homily delivered during
the Lenten Noonday Preaching Series at Calvary Episcopal Church,
Memphis, TN, on March
18, 2003. |
