The Messiah’s Revolution

III.    Vows of Nonviolent Witness

“We pledge to act in allegiance to God alone, and to resist injustice with goodness”

Paul Speaking Before Agrippa

12. I will be subject to civil authorities, unless they command actions which are unjust or protect injustice, or if they violate common human dignity.

This is a slippery vow to reflect on. Not being a political theologian, I danced around having to write something for this. I come from a Christian religious tradition historically wary of close Christian relationships to—much less involvement in—the civil governing authorities (enigmatically labeled “the State” in much contemporary theologizing).

As a called-out people (dwelling in the United States of America) commissioned by God in Jesus to self-emptying, nonviolent service to the least-of-these, how do we faithfully relate to civil systems and laws and even individual leaders? Especially ones who demand the right of our country to assassinate its own citizens abroad, that propagate poverty among already-disadvantaged economic classes, that create giant profit out of incarcerating (and not rehabilitating) a massive prison population, that call for enforced racial profiling against our darker-skinned migrant brothers and sisters?  “Be subject to governing authorities.” Really, Paul? “Accept the authority of every human institution, whether of the emperor as supreme, or of governors.” That’s not what I wanted to hear, Peter!

On days when all I see of “the State” is injustice and violence against fellow humans, I loathe Paul and Peter for contributing to a US American Christian culture of subservient civil religion. But, dear Lord, let me not miss the value in the exhortations to “be subject, to accept the authority” (not “blindly obey,” nor “approve of,” and most definitely not “worship” and "pledge allegiance to," mind you!) In reality, the first part of this vow today is something we do every day when we drive the correct way down the street, pay the bill on our groceries without theft, avoid gender discrimination as we peruse a new set of job applicants, or ensuring our church or non-profit finances are in compliance with our taxation exemptions. “I will be subject to civil authorities, unless they command actions which are unjust or protect injustice, or if they violate common human dignity.”

As a contemporary Anabaptist Christian oriented toward God’s larger justice, I often forget that a significant portion of the laws and actions by civil authorities in my country of residence are worth being subject to—and also worth disobeying when they foist injustice and violence or demand we grant Lordship to something/one other than Jesus Christ.

To defend Paul and Peter for one moment before we close, let us not mistake their words for universal sanction of all civic authority nor as a theological theory of the providential purposes of secular government and legal order, nor as a model for proper spheres of “church and state.” Rather, these apostles are concerned that the church maintains its proper focus: “Owe no one [including Ceasar and his laws] anything except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.”  “Honor everyone” and, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good!”

by Icarus Kuwait via Flickr

To reset the context: Peter is writing to a Christian church under dire persecution by the authorities—not some legally protected, socially acceptable 501.c.3 church group. For his readers these words on respecting civil authority are not a question of, “Do I withhold a symbolic portion of my taxes as a protest against the shameful federal war budget?” nor “Should I risk arrest at the next local #Occupy event?” These readers had no constitutional or legal guarantees of humane treatment. They could and did face torture and death by the authorities regardless of whether or not they “payed to Ceasar what was Ceasar’s” or “paid taxes, revenue, respect and honor that was due.” No, Peter is telling that church (and us) something else entirely. God’s “messianic  revolutionary power does not perpetuate, oppose or destroy what exists…Rather, messianic revolutionary power seeks only the good of what exists and does so by doing good as revealed and defined by its Lord, that is, by subordinating itself, giving itself, in the bodies of its members, even to suffering and death, for the sake of what exists. That is witness to Jesus Christ.”**

Peter and Paul call us to a different kind of subjection to the civil authorities and a very different kind of revolution against their injustice. As people of the church, we are called to messiah-shaped, cruciform and resurrected “engagement in history, against history, for the sake of history.”* May it be so in us today!

[*From Doug Harink’s 1 & 2 Peter volume of the Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible, p. 79, emphases his. For more, check out pages 75-80 or the whole section on 1 Peter 2.]

Options For Reflection and Action:

(1) Read 1 Peter 2:13-17. Consider especially: “Live as free people [which comes entirely from God, not the governing authorities!], but don’t use that freedom as a pretext for evil. By doing right, silence the ignorance of the foolish.”

• What freedoms do you have that ostensibly come from the government? What are the freedoms you have that cannot ultimately be granted nor taken away by the civil authorities and laws?
• What American freedoms are you engaging that have become a “pretext for evil”?
• In what ways are you using your freedoms (both the ones through Jesus and through human laws) for “doing right?”

(2)  Read Romans 12:17-13:10.

• Reflect on the difference between “be subject to” (subordination: ordering yourself under) rather than “obey” (subservience: abject submissiveness).
• Today, what are ways you can “order yourself under” those in authority over you (showing hospitality to the “enemy” and thus “heaping burning coals on their head”)?

The Prophet Jeremiah by Ian Scott via Flickr

(3) Contrast the “being subject to the authorities” in 1 Peter and Romans with the prophet’s critique against the authorities in Jeremiah 39:1-6⁺⁺

• What are ways this month you need to “stand up” and tell the authorities of the justice God desires?
• In the midst of your critique, how will you and your church “seek the well-being of your city?” (Jeremiah 29:4-7)

⁺⁺ [In the face of the oppression, bloodshed and idolatry by the ruling powers of the nation of Israel—the kings, officials and priests— Jeremiah stands up to protest with God’s words. No longer does he consider himself subject to the civic-religious authorities because God has called him to “stand up and tell them everything that I have commanded you. Do not break down before them.” (Jer. 1:17)] 

Prayer Focus

Governing God, you alone give us freedom,

yet your apostles called us to do good to authorities

who can neither give nor take away our self-emptying freedom.

Give us the wisdom to sub-ordinate ourselves faithfully

 to human rulers and laws,

showing honor and respect when it is due,

 offering prophetic critique when violence & injustice comes,

but always "seeking their well-being." 

Victorious Jesus, thank you for your Spirit enabling us 

to love one another, overcoming evil with good! Amen!