Class Reflection for Wednesday of Week 2

Last Wednesday’s class was my favorite yet.  Mostly because it was the most content driven yet.  Our discussion about the ways we see domination being played out in culture, in our personal lives, and in our church, has been something that I’ve recently been thinking a lot about–that is, even before this class.  Last quarter, I took a class called “Old Testament Themes in the New” with Dr. Beaton.  Many of the ideas in Lohfink’s book actually paralleled those we discussed in Dr. Beaton’s class.  One the themes that I have been thinking about is Jesus’ appropriation of the “servant” theme in Isaiah and how he applied it to his approaching death on the cross.  And then how Mark paints the picture of a Christian as one who takes up her cross.  And Mark’s expression doesn’t really seem to imply much of how it’s so often interpreted today…that taking up one’s cross means bearing whatever burdens we have been given in life.  Rather, it seems much more radical than that…that taking up the cross means no longer playing by the rules of power and manipulation…to the point where one might have to die because of it.  In thinking about what Mark meant, I have realized how pervasive issues of domination are.  Actually the movie Borat helped me think about how domination and manipulation make up so much of the fabric of society.  I think Sasha Cohen is brilliant , and if I didn’t know better I might say that his character was a variation on the theme of the Christ figure–albeit a perverse variation on the theme.  So Sasha Cohen exposes everybody’s prejudices in this really offensive way…well, who else is doing that much needed work (the exposure not the offense, per se)…Christians! No. But whatever Jesus was doing was really offensive because he got killed for it.  But unlike Sasha Cohen, Jesus’ offense was not just for the sake of being offensive, but Jesus was offensive because of the radical nature of his love.  In any case, the thing is, I’ve realized how prone I am to manipulate and go for power, granted in these small and seemingly insignificant ways.  I once heard somebody say that there was no such thing as a conversation, but really we only play these games with each other, sometimes very subtly or not so subtly.  That seemed an apt assessment of social dynamics.  So, when Jesus comes along and upsets power structures, he seems to be getting at something deep within us…maybe instead of boiling down sin to pride, another way to envision the root of sin is our tendency to grasp after power.  In any case, for the most part, there is nothing in me that wants to relinquish power…or at least in the way that Jesus models for us.  And my current question is, how should we conceive of our personal power?  Lots of times, I pride myself on the ways I can effect changes around me.  Or really is God the only one who should effect real power in the world?