Authority Issues

OK, I admit it. I have problems being told what to do. When I was a child and my parents or teachers or whoever said "because I said so" I knew they said that only because they couldn't think of any other reason for me to obey. Plain and simple, I have always viewed rules as optional. If rules don't make sense to me, more than likely, I don't follow them, no matter who told me.

This kind of obstinance is nothing unique, and despite my occasional hubris, nothing admirable. Stubbornly insisting that you know better, and refusing to acknowledge authority is not simply rude and inconsiderate, it is a relationship killer. Refusing to play along, follow rules, respect authority, listen to others, acknowledge my limitations and being self-righteous have hampered my relationships with others. I always thought I was being strong by resisting authority, but I was really keeping myself from fully engaging in relationships. Submitting to authority and becoming obedient requires humility and is a sign of strength not weakness. To have a relationship with God, means we must submit ourselves to God's will, we must acknowledge that we are not God and not in charge. To be faithful to God, we must become obedient and allow God to work in us, or we will simply be following our own desires.

God's word is filled with instruction and guidance to God's people. We are called to be obedient to God not because God wants or needs to be in control, but because God's word offers us a way to stay in right relationship with God. The word of God tells us who God is, what God has done, and who are in relationship to God. As we study and learn the word, we become more and more in tune and connected to God, and our relationship becomes stronger. When we go our own way, when we refuse to listen or submit, we can get ourselves in big trouble. Scripture not only captures God's words of guidance and instruction, but cautionary tales of the mess we can get into when we go our own way. The story of the golden calf illustrates this perfectly.

When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make gods for us, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” Aaron said to them, “Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” So all the people took off the gold rings from their ears, and brought them to Aaron. He took the gold from them, formed it in a mold, and cast an image of a calf; and they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” Exodus 32:1-4

As Moses was on the mountaintop receiving God's word, Aaron and the Israelites were reveling in their idolatry. Without God's word of instruction and guidance the people forgot who God was, what God had done for them, and followed their own sinful and self-gratifying desires. Without God, the people were lost whether they knew it or not. Similarly, when we refuse to listen to God's word, when we refuse to submit to God in our life we are in danger of forgetting who God is, who we are, and constructing gods based on our sinful desires, our lives get torn apart and disintegrate.

When we learn to listen to what God is saying and follow where the Spirit leads, we move away from ourselves and toward God. When we submit ourselves to God's will and become obedient, we align ourselves with God's vision for our lives. As we study the word, learn to listen, and faithfully respond God can and will do miraculous work in and through us. So if you are like me and have authority issues, listen up: the Word is speaking.

Moral Evil: Sins of Strength

Do you have problems with authority? Are you defiant? Do you have problems submitting to God and being obedient? If you are at all like me, authority and power issues are a real struggle. When our lives lose balance and were are unable to maintain a healthy self-esteem we can open ourselves up for following our own agenda, rather than seeking God's guidance and will.

“Sins of Strength” can be understood as the things we do which are in defiance of God. Acts of defiance are the actions or inactions that are conscious, intentional, and deliberately done against God by individuals or groups. While sins of weakness derive from a loss of “centeredness” leading to self-annihilation, sins of strength derive from over-centeredness or the elevation of the self. Paul Tillich uses the Greek word hubris to describe the phenomenon of self-elevation. Hubris is more than simply pride, but the “temptation to make one’s self existentially the center of himself and the world.” Hubris is an over emphasis on humanity’s potential infinity (imago dei; cf. Gen. 1:26) without acknowledging actual finitude. Another sin of strength, related to hubris, is concupiscence, which is generally associated with unhindered physical and sexual appetites. What makes this a sin of strength is not the actions themselves, but the “unlimited striving for knowledge, sex, physical hunger, will to power, material wealth, or spiritual values.” In short, hubris can be understood as self-elevation, while concupiscence is extreme self-indulgence. They are sins of strength because they involve the inflation or indulgence of the self, rather than the loss of self (sins of weakness), or ideally a person centered on God.

Our scriptures, focused on the lives of God’s people, illustrate both hubris and concupiscence. In Exodus 32, as Moses receives the 10 Commandments and is on the mountain for 40 days, the Israelites become restless. Their impatience leads them to construct a golden calf by which they might worship and offer sacrifices. In their hubris they decide that they are unwilling to wait for God. They do not need Moses to tell them about God, they have it all figured out. Their idolatry is not exhibited in their worship of the golden calf, but in their worship of themselves. They elevated themselves above their covenant with God, forgetting their deliverance from slavery. They grew impatient with the Lord and sought to fulfill their desires, and to know God on their own terms. In doing so they committed the great sin of idolatry.

Although many of the idolaters of Exodus 32 are unrepentant, some repent and turn from their evil ways. Those who refuse to acknowledge the limits of humanity or do not humble themselves to the Lord, are subject to the same kind of judgment Jeremiah predicts: “I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings, says the Lord; I will kindle a fire in its forest and it shall devour all that is around it.” (Jeremiah 21:14) Jeremiah further details the failings of Israel. These sins of strength all revolve a lack of love/fear of God and lack of care and concern for the neighbor. Without repentance, these sins of strength will be punishable for both the individual and the community. “Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms by injustice; who makes his neighbors work for nothing, and does not give them their wages.” (Jeremiah 22:13)

These stories are a sober reminder to those of us who have had many blessings in our lives, to acknowledge God as the source of all we have. In all that we do, God is with us; in times of prosperity and despair, God is present. Ironically the same tendency to feel abandoned by God in times of suffering, is present when we fail to acknowledge God in the midst of prosperity. To live lives of spiritual balance we must acknowledge God’s presence in all that we do. Exodus and Jeremiah point us to a jealous God who does not tolerate idolatry.

Reflecting upon these texts and your personal experience with hubris and concupiscence, consider the following questions:

-Have you ever become so self-involved as to fail to acknowledge God’s presence in your life?

-Have you taken credit for the blessings God has given? What happened as a result? How did you become aware of this?

-Have you ever made idols of the things of this world? money? food? material things? work? What was the result?

-How can we balance being “created in God’s image” without creating ourselves into “little gods?”