Reflecting on Walter Wink's Lecture at epiphaneia #ep09

Not knowing much about Walter Wink, I didn’t really know what to expect.  In the introduction, it was said that because of his health, it’s been difficult for him to attend these types of gatherings and it was special that he was able to come today.  That was affirmed by those around us with nodding heads, polite cheers and light clapping.

It’s cool to like the old guy whose spent decades writing and teaching ideas that inspire so many.  It’s similar to cheering for the MLB player who performed so well but never won that World Series (because he played in Boston.  Yes, I am talking about Wade Boggs, the first former Red Sox player that I saw with my own eyes as not having horns). Anyway, here I am a week later still cheering for this gentlemen.  He had a kind voice but despite his health, it wasn’t weak.  I appreciated his inflections as he read his lecture and you could sense the heart behind it.

The lecture opened with he and his wife reading a fable about being citizens that the king has commanded to slay the beast and bring back a claw.  The citizens represented by Walter says that the king is a liar, the beast has no claws and cannot be killed, thus he killed the king.  But when he did that, the beast was still among them.  They put a doll on the throne but still the beast was there. 

That became the theme of the lecture.  The beast is in the powers and the powers must be redeemed.  For we all deal with the powers (and are a part of them).

I’ve been thinking about this most of the week – what would the powers redeemed look like?  My mind immediately goes to the utopias that movies have created.  Sci-fi movies like Star Wars come to mind, but of course, movies like the Matrix have sober me from those images.  One of my favorite parts Walter warned was, “…to focus on redeeming them leads to utopian disillusionment, their transformation takes place in the limits of their fallen natures”.  I’ve been thinking about that.

Of course, I’ve also been thinking about what this would look like in the Church.  (This post could get long).  While I know the Church can never be perfect, what would it look like if we allow ourselves to be led by the Spirit in the hopes of redeeming it alongside our collective fallen natures?  Indeed, indeed, many have been pursuing this.  However there are times when I feel that some have interpreted the church’s mission as an island they are trying to get off, throwing as many people on the lifeboat as possible, picking up a few of the drowning along the way, and waiting for the divine coast guard to bring them aboard.  Meanwhile the boat that crashed on the island can be repaired.  It won’t be as perfect as it was when it was new, but certainly more effective than a lifeboat.  (Yes, this illustration is the product of 5 seasons of Lost). 

Seriously, what if we did try to fix the boat?  Doing so while knowing though we have God’s calling and strength, we could not restore to its original wholeness.  Has God not saved others like this before?  Thinking about how the redemption of the powers in the Church can redeem society and the individuals and institutions contained within has been a worthy and motivating idea to reflect on.  I hope to do more.  Til then, I’ve updated the notes that Evan and I too here.

Walter Wink at the Amidst the Powers Conference #ep09

Hey friends, these are just rough notes taken at the Epiphaneia’s Amidst the Powers Conference.  I hope to reflect on them later.  Here’s the twitter feed if you are interested.

Evan and I took the following notes.  Keep an eye on his blog in the coming days for his thoughts about the conference.

Walter Wink

Power is more than people – it is institutions and structures we make for ourselves, for good or for ill

the Powers also include the spiritual dimensions at the core to these systems and institutions.

The powers can hurt, destroy, manipulate, target, exploit,

However sometimes they can help. 

The powers are not always evil, some people enjoy their jobs, provide good, provide life-enhancing products/services.

They do both good and evil – a complex web …

Powers shape our present and dictate our future

please don’t find the next minister without discovering [your local church’s] angel (based on Rev. 2-3)

Nations, cities have angels,

If the demonic comes from loss of vocation – we can’t exorcise the demon; we must bring the angel back to its vocation

Everything has a physical and spiritual aspect.  If we went to the change the systems, we need not only to the outer forms but their inner souls as well.  Everything has a core.  Everything is answerable to God. [we think of this quality generally only in individuals but rarely as institutions.  It may help us from demonizing so many social structures in the forms of governments, agencies, companies, etc.).

Unjust systems perpetuate themselves through violence

Sometimes the social institution becomes evil and in an attempt to reform it becomes doomed. 

How can we overcome evil without doing evil and without becoming evil ourselves?

            + consistent non-violence

            + can massive institutions be reformed?

Businesses exist to serve the general welfare, profit is a means to an end. (according to 18th century capitalist philosopher Adam Smith)

It is up to church and prophets to remind the businesses that profit is not the bottom line. 

We are not to cast out the demons but to recast the angels to its divine task. 

He used an example of a trip to Chile to observe the powers, he became so angry with the oppressors, oppressed, physically ill and overwhelmed by despair.

He had gone to observe the powers found he became their captive. 

In his despair he wondered how the NT writers could insist that Christ, in the midst of the evil was still sovereign over all the powers.  He wrestled with this assertion.

What he found was a thin thread of hope that he clung to but it could not be crushed. 

But then something gave him energy to unmask the powers and that’s when he began to write, write, write.

From that beginning a whole new sense of Biblical understanding of the powers.

It’s a neglected emphasis in Biblical study. 

Quoting Romans 8:38 – “I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor demons, nor future nor powers …”

How can we overcome evil without being evil ourselves?

How can the institution ever be saved?

What chance do we have to take the beast and reform them for how God desires to use them?

Madoff, just one man, hurt so many.  We can put him in jail but the beast is still there.

Nixon had it

Bush is no longer in office but the beast is still there.

Can the powers be redeemed?

Are the powers intrinsically evil?

The powers are good

The powers are fallen

The powers (can and) must be redeemed

            + these statements must be held together

The powers are a part of God’s creation.

            But to focus on redeeming them leads to utopian disillusionment, their transformation takes place in the limits of their fallen natures.

South Africa

+ Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, and other Christian leaders brought reconciliation to the region so much so that they are now seen as some of the most significant humans of our time

+ the resilience of the powers continues since the powers are simultaneously good, fallen, and redeemed

The solvers must put the others’ interests above their own.

no matter how greedy or idolatrous a system becomes, it cannot escape the care and judgment of whom for it was made

Fallen = not depraved (as our Calvinist friends say), but none of us are who we are meant to be

            + the situation is not without hope

We must be careful not to demonize those who do evil

            + some “isms” like Nazism or sexism can only be reformed by being abandoned

            + powers are created in and for the humanizing purposes of God

+ it doesn’t God endorses certain systems, but humans need a way to be in society with one another

+ God wills that sub-systems would serve human need

Recognizing this (the powers are good, fallen, need to be redeemed), frees us that we do not have to demonize the powers (institutions, people).

We must be careful here, God did not create capitalism or socialism.

Humans must be socialized – there’s no helping it – at some point we must become ourselves. 

People need economic structure, we need government, we need society.

God-willing there be sub-systems to serve people.

God can liberate us from the powers

Also can liberate powers from their demonic focus as well.

We aren’t liberated by striking back at the powers that bring evil upon us but by dying out from under its command.

We must die to the domination system in order to live justly.

Why does Scripture speak of dying as breaking away from the powers?

Rebirth is not just an inward moment, but we must also die to the domination system in order to live authentically (e.g., those born in poverty may miss life by never feeling human at all)

Personal redemption cannot take place apart from the redemption of our social structures

            + cf. Rev. 21

The Gospel then is not … but about redeem an entire world right down to its basic structures. 

The powers are good, the powers are fallen, the powers can be redeemed – this means that within the limits of our fallen world fundamental change is possible – hope that another world is possible, a city of God = God’s domination-free order.

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