How do you have a revolution when you are trying to appease the throne?
Epistle Reading: 1 Timothy 2:1-7
For Sunday, Sept. 19, 2010: Year C - Ordinary 25
P.O.S. is one of my favorite musician/songwriters. He's an indie hip-hop artist from the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul whose real name is Stefon Alexander, and he writes some of the most brilliant cultural, political critical lyrics since Joe Strummer or Bob Dylan. I’m serious. He has this song that starts out with, First of all . . . (and then there is a pause) . . . [Screw] Bush.
First of All…
I know it's juvenile, but it always gives me a rush of adrenaline every time I hear it. What can I say? It was deep in the morass of the second Bush administration when it came out, and it seemed like the whole world was completely going off the rails. It was like this speaking truth to power, prophetic acknowledgment that the King had abandoned the people.
Of course, I am not seventeen, and it's always more complicated than that, but every time I hear the phrase, "first of all," I can’t help smiling and finishing the P.O.S. line in my head. So, when I read the epistle for this week, which starts out, "First of all..." I fill in the blank.
But that is not what St. Paul goes on to say. He says, First of all . . . then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. If you are hoping for prophetic, punk rock, gospel of Jesus Christ revolution, it’s kind of a disappointment.
Peaceable?
What happened to, "I did not come to bring peace but a sword"? Supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanks giving for the Kings and all who are in high positions, so we can lead a quiet, peaceable life in godliness and dignity"? Really?
Quiet, peaceable, dignity—that doesn’t really sound like the way our Savior went out. What peace and dignity was there in the cross? It was torture and humiliation. How did Paul travel so far in so little time—he needs to go back to Minneapolis. It seems like Paul is trying to convince the powers that he is on their side. He says he was appointed a herald (a court-appointed crier) and an apostle.
Then he writes, "I am telling the truth, I am not lying." Like, he knows this is hard to swallow, "I am a teacher of the Gentiles," he says, "I desire, then, that in every place the men should pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or argument." He wants the Empire to know that he and his Christians have no argument with them.
The Hardest Question
How do you have a revolution when you are trying to appease the throne?
Russell Rathbun is a preacher at House of Mercy in St. Paul, Minnesota, the author of Midrash on the Juanitos (Cathedral Hill Press, 2010) and the curator of The Hardest Question.
