wrestling not with flesh and blood

In an ongoing effort to discern a way forward in our chaotic, violent time, I am wondering about the invisible forces involved in this chaos. I hesitate to say demonic forces because that language is so foreign and confusing to most of us. (Although not so foreign for charismatic and fundamentalist traditions.) This is a work in progress for me. I welcome your comments and companionship in this effort. 

The New Testament describes “principalities and powers” arrayed against human beings in a fallen creation. (Ephesians 6:12ff) These strange forces include all ideologies, institutions, even images that function as idols, demanding allegiance. “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood,” says Saint Paul, “we wrestle against principalities and powers.” Therefore, he urges believers to “put on the full armor of God” to withstand the assault. What on earth does this mean? I wonder. From a biblical perspective, these demonic powers are present now in a fallen creation, until such time when the whole creation is renewed. One might recall C.S. Lewis’ comedic “Screwtape Letters,” in which the senior devil, Screwtape, instructs his nephew Wormwood, on how to undermine the faith of the Christian believer. 

Saint Paul tells us that freedom from the principalities and powers is found only in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. To live in the resurrection is God’s unmerited grace. The fruit is human freedom. This freedom, lived daily in the Spirit, is the way of life in the face of powers distorting human life and demanding sole allegiance. My favorite quote by Irenaeus in the second century, fits here: “The glory of God is a human being fully alive.” This is life in Christ. 

Trust me: this is faith seeking understanding of what Saint Paul is describing. I hope you will join me in the quest. From one perspective, the current institutional display of raw power demanding obedience and insisting on a contested version of reality, appears to have all the marks of a principality whose sole aim is dominance and allegiance. To submit risks idolatry. Saint Paul declares that these powers of death have been defeated by the resurrection, yet their final defeat is still to come hence their present malevolent force. According to the New Testament, we live in a fallen world awaiting the renewal of all creation. Until such time, our freedom is found only in surrender to God from whom we receive daily the power-of-the-resurrection to resist the shining lure of idols, promising what they can’t deliver: life. 

William Stringfellow, a theologian who has written extensively about this subject, says:

The Resurrection refers to the defeat of the power of death and the fear of the power of death, here and now, in this life. Resurrection, thus, has to do with life and, indeed, the fulfillment of life before death.

And more good news:

Jesus’ power over death is effective not just at the terminal point of a person's life but throughout one's life, during this life in this world, right now. The resurrection of Jesus Christ means the possibility of living as a fully alive human, rendering praise and gratitude to the only God. 

Reflecting on the experience of Nazi Germany, particularly the lives of those who resisted the reign of Hitler, Stringfellow remembers his conversations with those who survived, and draws two “keys” from their experience. One is the steady day-by-day resistance to dehumanization in precise acts that support the most weak and vulnerable; honoring their humanity in the face of assaults against them. He writes, “In the circumstances of the Nazi tyranny, resistance became the only human way to live. To live other wise, in silent conformity, amounted to moral insanity. Resistance was the only stance worthy of a human being, as much in responsibility to oneself as to all other humans, as the famous commandment mentions.”

The other practice of resistance, particularly for those in the confessing movement, was intense Bible study. Stringfellow comments, I recall being slightly bemused by this strenuous emphasis placed upon Bible study. No doubt that bewilderment reflected my own biblical deprivation, a lack in my American church upbringing which I have since struggled to gladly overcome. Recourse to the Bible was in itself a primary practical, and essential tactic of resistance. Bible study furnished the precedent for the free, mature, ecumenical, humanizing style of life which became characteristic of those of the confessing movement.

I hold these two keys as exceedingly wise for out time: 
Living as a human being fully alive in Christ,
resisting forces that undermine the humanity of others.
Engaging in regular close study of the Bible in community with others, 
as free human beings called by God,
listening for the way of life that honors God and humanity.

_____________

For those interested in reading William Stringfellow, I recommend his book “An Ethic for Christians and other Aliens in a Strange Land and “Keeper of the Word,” a collection of Stringfellow’s writings complied and edited by Bill Wylie Kellerman. 

The woodcut is by Robert McGovern, featured in Uncommon Prayer: The Psalms by Fr. Daniel Berrigan.