If we are going to reimagine a future of peace, we have to ask ourselves some deep and absolutely uncomfortable questions. We must question some truths that we have come to believe and uphold about the nation state and the role of the armed forces. The three videos below are seriously worth watching.
I am increasingly aware how much we believe, simply because we are told it. We are educated in schools of thought, rather than taught how to learn and how to wrestle with ideas. I am so grateful for some brilliant teachers in my life who have consistently challenged me to think outside the box. If we are scared of questions we will never find the future we hope for.
I believe if we are to reimagine the future we have to be able to faithfully question some of the streams of thought that we have taken on hook, line and sinker into our corporate soul. To me it is clear that much of western thought has been shaped/is under girded by a Judeo-Christian theology of God and scripture that does not align itself with the way of love and peace that I see in Jesus. How is this so?
In this 15 minute video blog I unpack (in no great depth) some ideas from a fantastic book I read (and kind of wish I had been clever enough to articulate and write!) by a chap called Derek Flood. The book is called ‘Disarming Scripture’ (well worth a read – whatever your faith perspective).
In future video blogs, I hope to unpick some more about the currencies of empire and how they are still foundational in our western thought, but utterly opposed to a reimagined future of love and peace……
I’m currently reading Tolkien’s ‘The Lord of the Rings to my eldest son. We have just finished that part in ‘The Two Towers’ in which Gandalf has returned to Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli at the turning of the tide. He makes this awesome statement about Sauron the dark lord:
‘That we should wish to cast him down and have NOONE in his place is not a thought that occurs to his mind. That we should try to destroy the ring (of power) itself has not entered into his darkest dream.’
There are still the stirrings of revolution in many nations. But revolution that is based on violence and only replaces one form of dominant power with another sort of hierarchical dominance is no revolution at all.
Kenarchy is about the emptying out of power. It comes from an understanding that the politics of Jesus were about emptying out power and utterly transforming it. Leadership is not only to be kenotic (that is poured out for others), it is to be kenarchic (that is emptied out) so that we begin to understand that the lowest place is the highest place. We begin to understand that level playing fields are the order of the day. We are not looking for new political parties, but a new politics, that is a new way of relating to one another. We are not looking for new economic regulations, but a new economics. We are not searching for peace maintained through violence but a genuine love of one another, including the love of our ‘enemies’ that transforms how we live together as humanity.
William T Cavanaugh gives a radical reinterpretation of the christian eucharist in the light of this. We live in a divided world in which the ‘powers’ crush and break the multitude. When Jesus breaks bread and gives it away, he is not looking to form an exclusive club. He is, rather inviting us to partake of this kind of givenness, to embrace brokenness in the face of violence and to find that this way of life-poured-out-love finds hope in resurrection. As we eat the bread, we receive life, we become life and we give life as we share with others. The bread is given and is available to all who will receive it. Our barriers are broken down, our borders and our flags lose their relevance. We become part of this trans-local body that only exists to bring life, love and peace. There is no politics (way of doing life) that is more radical than this.
The nation state project holds power at the centre. It uses the components of money, law and control through violence to do this. I believe that as we build relationally in our localities we can find new ways of being. This is happening on a vast scale already and many stories are emerging of alternative ways of being that provide a different narrative to the dominant (economic and political) one of our day.
reimaginingthefuture 