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Today’s scripture readings are about power: who has it, how to get it, and what to do
with it. The Greek word is dynamis – meaning strength, ability,
power. In St. Paul’s usage, it refers to
inherent power, power residing in a thing by virtue of its
nature, or which a person or thing exerts and puts forth. In this passage from Mark’s Gospel, it has a
more specific connotation of power for performing miracles. In this sense, dynamis is the inherent power to do things you shouldn’t be able to
do! It is a power that is within us, yet
is bigger than we are.
You know you got your dynamis on when people say to you, “Who
do you think you are?” That is what they
said to Jesus! “You aren’t supposed to
be here! You don’t have a voice! Who told you that you could do that!”
It is not possible for women to own
property. It is not possible for women
to vote. Girls can’t do math. It is not
possible for people of different races to fall in love and get married. Black people can’t sit at the front of the
bus, or vote, or get a loan. It is not
possible for gay people to be out. Gay
people can’t get married.
Dynamis
is when all those things happen. They
are miracles. Miracles are not about
doing things that are impossible. Miracles happen when those who are dismissed
and discounted realize possibilities previously denied to them, claiming the
power which was theirs all along.
Dynamis
is shared power. It belongs to
everybody. We heard last week in Mark’s
Gospel about how a hemorrhaging woman, poor, outcast, unclean, with no social
standing, having exhausted all other possibilities pushes her way through the
crowd around Jesus and engages in a stealth healing. When
she touches the hem of Jesus’ garment, he is immediately aware that dynamis had gone forth from him.
Was Jesus upset about it? Did he call her out? Say, “who do you think you are?” No, he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has
made you well.” Jesus knew that she
hadn’t taken anything that wasn’t already hers. She was simply claiming the power
previously denied to her, a power to make the wounded whole that was within her,
and yet is so much bigger than her. It
is God’s power, freely shared.
For many months, Faith in Action
congregations in San Mateo County have been organizing to get the Board of
Supervisors there to create a legal defense fund to assist people caught up in
the current immigration scare. When
faith leaders first met with members of the Board of Supervisors, they said, “That
isn’t possible. It isn’t a problem
here. Who do you think you are?”
When they brought a petition with thousands
of signatures from people across the county to Supervisors’ meetings, they
said, “That isn’t possible. No money for
it. Who did you say you are?’
Two weeks ago, when more than 200
people including 40 clergy dominated the Supervisors Meeting on the county
budget, they said, “Will $1 million be enough?”
That is the miracle of dynamis.
Dynamis
is disruptive. It
challenges the consensus about what is possible and for whom it is possible. It
defies the authorities who seek to reserve power to some and deny it to
others. It demands that power be shared
because some people need to claim power for their healing, while others need to
wake up from their moral slumber and share their power for the sake of a larger
wholeness.
Of course, not everybody is interested
in sharing dynamis. Some people want to monopolize power. They are contemptuous of those who seek to
claim it. They are fearful of losing
their privilege. The leaders in Jesus’
hometown were not interested in sharing dynamis. They thought Jesus was being uppity, trying
to rise above his allotted station in life.
He was just Mary’s son;
apparently, nobody even knew who his is father was. He was doing deeds of power with his hands? The hands of a handyman, less than a
carpenter really; an unskilled laborer; a nobody. He needed to sit down, shut up, and listen to
his betters.
Here is the thing about dynamis when used as God intends: it is not coercive. It can’t make anybody do anything. It isn’t that kind of power. Dynamis
is exercised through relationships, it requires trust and mutual respect. It is the power of love. People, especially those who are privileged, can
and will resist dynamis. There is no guarantee that it will win. Even Jesus could do no deeds of power in his
hometown; except for a little healing here and there. Jesus was amazed at the level of unbelief –
of distrust – that impeded the flow of dynamis.
Dynamis
is unleashed when we fall in love with each other. If flows out of our vulnerability to God and
to each other; the vulnerability of love.
It is precisely when we are most weak, when our hearts are breaking
open, when we are overwhelmed by the suffering of our sisters and brothers,
that we discover a power we didn’t even know we possessed. We begin to see possibilities we didn’t even
know where there. Love is the energy behind
dynamis; a capacious and fierce
love.
Jesus could do no deeds of power in his
hometown. He didn’t win that round, but
he didn’t give up. Dynamis isn’t about winning or losing. It is about building relationships. It is about sharing our lives together. It is about falling in love and in the
process becoming a people, a community, a human family.
Exercising dynamis can be heart-breaking work, but every time our heart breaks
it gets bigger. It encompasses more of
reality and embraces more and more people.
Dymanis is about giving
ourselves away to each other in love, just as God does gives God’s power away
to us in love with each breath, in each moment of our lives.
When Jesus could do no deeds of power
in his hometown, he sent out the twelve disciples, two by two, to share dynamis with people in the neighboring
villages. Jesus was a brilliant
community organizer! He knew that if he
tried to grasp power for himself it would wither and die; but if he shared it,
it would plant seeds and grow to live another day. Love is subversive like that. It goes underground for a season, but them
blooms into life, transforming the landscape; just when you thought it had
disappeared forever.
Jesus shares dynamis with his disciples.
He freely shares with them the power to heal and resist evil. In turn, they must embrace their
vulnerability; depending upon the hospitality of those with whom they would
serve, so that they, too, could share dynamis
with them. Their strength paradoxically
emerged from their weakness. And it
would changed the world. It is still
changing the world.
The Twelve are representative figures,
symbolizing the twelve tribes of Israel – the entire people of God. We are all sent out to claim and share dynamis power. With this power, we win even when we lose,
because our hearts and our relationships just keep expanding.
Two weeks ago, I found myself weeping
outside a detention center among a crowd of a 1,000 people, feeling broken and
powerless as I listened to the pleas of refugee parents crying for their
children. Last weekend, more than
400,000 people marched in solidarity with those parents around the country,
including 35,000 outside of the White House, where Rabbi Jason Kimelmann-Block
recited Psalm 146.
He prefaced the psalm with these words,
“It says to the oppressed: This will pass because there is a power much
greater. And it says to the
oppressor: This will pass because there
is a power much greater than you.”
1
Alleluia! Praise God, O my soul! *
I will praise God as long as I
live;
I
will sing praises to my God while I have my being.
2
Put not your trust in rulers, nor in any child of earth, * for
there is no help in them.
3
When they breathe their last, they return to earth, * and in that
day their thoughts perish.
4
Happy are they who have the God of Jacob for their help, * whose
hope is in their God;
5
Who made heaven and earth, the seas, and all that is in them; *
whose promise abides for ever;
6
Who gives justice to those who are oppressed * and food to those
who hunger.
7
God sets the prisoners free
and opens the eyes of the blind; *
God lifts up those who are bowed
down;
8
God loves the righteous
and cares for the stranger; *
God sustains the orphan and
widow, but frustrates the way of the wicked.
9
God shall reign for ever, *
your God, O Zion, throughout all generations. Alleluia!
That is the miracle of dynamis.
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