Downward Mobility

Coming into Holy Week today, we recognize that the way to love God, love others, and love ourselves requires a downward mobility, just as Christ Jesus showed us with his life, death, and resurrection.

When the Selah board asked me to be the executive director to follow John Kiemele, our esteemed founder, I was honored, and then dreadfully fearful. The night before I had a dream. Crawling through a cave in darkness, I came upon a jade-hued emerald gem, sparkling among other dark stones. It lit up the entire cavern. Overcome with its beauty, I knew I needed it. I reached for it, extending my body out across the rocks, stretching every inch of myself to acquire the gem. In my first swipe, I felt only the damp air of the cave. Not to be daunted in my newfound quest, I was determined to get the stone. Reaching again, I knew I could get it, if only I prostrated myself even more. Yet it eluded me; I could not touch it. I realized in my struggle, the harder I tried the further away the gem appeared. I could feel the cry of my body in my desperation to have it. In fact, I woke up in a sweat from my frenzied attempt to grab the gem. Shocked into the world in which I inhabited, thankful that I was not in the cave of my desperation, I knew the dream had something to tell me.

Not lost on me is the story of Gollum, from Lord of the Rings, the sad and scary creature who at one time is a normal hobbit name Sméagol. He has one obsession – the Ring that holds great power. Striving after the ring, coveting the ring, holding and then keeping the ring, Gollum becomes a creature possessed. The ring’s power corrupts anyone who has possession of it. Named Gollum by the sound of his gurgling, choking cough, his whole being changes in the acquisition of that Ring. Not only devoid of normal creaturely features, he lives in the prison of his obsession.

Power can do that. Power is not wrong in and of itself. Power is needed to get something done. But the use of power when it becomes the obsession as the one driving force easily corrupts. The adage “absolute power corrupts absolutely” comes into play here, where instead of using power, power starts to use you. That’s where the third temptation comes into play when Matthew in his Gospel describes Jesus’ encounter with the devil:

⁸Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and
showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.
⁹And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”
¹⁰Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written,

“‘You shall worship the Lord your God
              and him only shall you serve.’”^[1]

Henri Nouwen speaks to this power that leaders find so disturbing and disruptive. “What makes the temptation of power so seemingly irresistible? Maybe it is that power offers an easy substitute for the hard task of love.”^[2] When the devil offers prestige, power, and position, Jesus returns with the first^[3] of the ten commandments that speaks to where ultimate power lies – in the worship of the Lord your God to whom you serve. What we, as humans, can too easily do is replace what will offer short cuts for what we think we want instead of the living into the very essence of who we are – ones who are to worship the God who created us.

Prior to the ten commandments in Deuteronomy, the preamble begins with this “great” commandment, called the Shema:

“The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart 
and with all your soul and with all your strength.”^[4]

Power that includes our heart, soul, and strength starts with loving God as we are and with all of who we are. We are able to worship when our sight is set on the one who created us. When we operate out of love and worship, we find the center of what opens us up to use power as it is intended – for the healing of this world as we serve God.

Where and how do we start? Here Nouwen offers this way: “The way of the Christian [follower] is not the way of upward mobility in which our world has invested so much, but the way of downward mobility ending on the cross.”^[5] Coming into Holy Week today, we recognize that the way to love God, love others, and love ourselves requires a downward mobility, just as Christ Jesus showed us with his life, death, and resurrection. We too can face the devils in our lives that tempt us to want to wade into territories that change us into “Gollums.” If we recognize the allure of power and how easily is can entangle us, rather than succumbing to the temptation, we can set our sight not on the object of our desire of wanting more and better, but rather on the one who placed the God-desire with us – The Lord God. That changes us into more of who God created us to be.

The story continues after Troy, representing the board and Selah community as the board president, asked me to consider the executive director position. Obviously, I said yes. While the posture could suggest that I have grabbed the gem – for which Selah truly is – I continually recognize that it comes with an ongoing invitation – to look at and live into this downward mobility – the way of Jesus the Christ – as a call to love and worship God in how I serve.