Obedience ... or is it Poverty

What if Obedience means being out of control, means not being able to control our own destiny? It seems that it must, but so much of life is grounded in that sort of control or the illusion of that sort of control, either directly or indirectly by creating a buffer against misfortune.

I've passed over that "must" too quickly, though. Why say that being out of power is something that all Christians should expect and even embrace? Firstly, one of the most ancient creeds is "Jesus is Lord." The Lord is the pater familias (or perhaps more accurately the pater familias is a bad imitation of what it means to be Lord), the one who holds the power of life and death over all those under him, and is therefore to be obeyed as soon as his voice is heard. The Lord is also God, which points towards one of the relatively few lessons we can learn today from patriarchy. Secondly, as a proof text from the Gospel of John says "I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go." (John 21:18). This is Jesus speaking to Peter, who sometimes functions in the Gospels as a stand in for both the Apostles and all Christians, and this particular passage immediately follows Jesus' command to Peter (and all of us to some extent) to feed God's sheep. Thirdly, we have Jesus' own example in his Passion. Although, as the Son of God, he could have easily taken control and resisted, he did not. He chose to renounce control, knowing that he would be crucified, and let them do whatever they wanted with him.


Returning to the thread of my thought. How could we live if the only thing standing between ourselves and total collapse of meaning is what we're given from God, a bit of bread and wine which some insist are just bread and wine? How can we live with this obedience? It seems ridiculous to suppose that this should be enough, but this seems to be what Christians are given. How can this be enough? It can be enough, I think, because when we receive God we are given everything that matters.