The Higher Authority 

Good morning, dear reader. I hope you’re well. I’ve often been tempted into silence over the past many weeks, feeling that nothing I can say will hold up in the face of so much loss and suffering. Are you experiencing this? Do you feel silenced in the swirl? 

So I’m aiming for a deeper immersion: in prayer or nature or scripture, or in trying to be attentive to the real needs of the moment. The pandemic is making our discernment of what’s necessary in our collective life so much easier. Many of us are equipped to address the urgent and desperate needs of others right where we are. We might be called into spaces we had never expected—but are nonetheless prepared for—by the orientation of our hearts. 

And, despite everything, it’s spring! The birds must feel buoyant, and maybe a little confused, with so much human quiet around them. It’s almost as if it’s their turn to take up a little more space. Don’t you agree that each creature here has a little dedicated space in this world that we’re allowed to—indeed are obliged to—occupy? I went to a conference once where each participant had to stand up and announce her name and make sure to inhabit the moment fully, make sure her voice and name were clearly heard by everyone present. There’s power in that, when everyone has a moment on the floor and also extends the same courtesy to each in the room. Shouldn’t our goal be “to build a community where all people feel safe, feel big, and feel connected”? That’s a motto of St. Stephen’s Youth Programs, an organization rooted in the Christian purpose of loving our neighbors.

To feel big, and to feel connected. Isn’t this what God wants for us? To love our creator, to love ourselves rightly, and to love our neighbors. We honor our real needs by acting in ways that connect us to the whole creation, of which each of us is a necessary part. Isn’t love the only thing that stands for us, and with us, and between us and evil and despair? 

People everywhere around us now are acting on this principle of love. A small example: We recently had a big storm in which huge trees fell and power was disrupted and all the food in the refrigerators at group housing for low-income residents was spoiled. A call to the neighborhood resulted in an outpouring of milk, eggs, cheese, and other perishables, which as you know can be hard to come by these days. It was a coordinated and rapid effort among people who don’t know each other and who may never meet. Everyone involved in this secret anonymous good is united under a higher authority. Here’s what the director of resident services said about the response to their refrigerators filling up again before their eyes:

“Residents have called asking how we could get this food so quickly. They could not believe people they didn’t know cared enough to come to their aid.”

Today we’re in Romans 13 (NIV).

Verse 1: “…the authorities that have been established have been established by God.” Does Paul mean the higher authority? I think so. Though I can see how some Bible readers assert that it’s God who puts people in positions of political power. Paul says Christians should stay on the right side of the law, unless the government is forcing us to disobey God. But how do we make these determinations for ourselves? I think of the priests who protested the Vietnam war, alongside those Christians who serve and command in the military. What is the ultimate authority when scripture alone doesn’t tell us what to do very clearly? There does come a point when the Holy Spirit working in an individual life must provide clarity and guidance. Think of Dr. King, and of every example of missionaries, saints, and ordinary people. There is an array of right action that is based on the Law. 

Verse 14: “Rather, clothe yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.” I’m always interested in the translation of that word, flesh (Greek, sarx) which according to my note refers in contexts like this to the sinful state of human beings, often presented as a power in opposition to the Spirit. So it’s not the same word as in “bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh” but a place/state where sin is waiting to happen.

God’s Love is always the higher law, but people have different interpretations of what it looks like to love your neighbor as yourself. My Bible’s note points out that we do love ourselves, in that we make sure we have food, clothing, and shelter, and that kind of love is what we could be about extending to those who lack basic needs, especially now.

And because we don’t live by bread alone, I also read poems. Here’s Franz Wright’s poem “The Hawk” from his book God’s Silence (thank you, Manuela, blogger I don’t know, but I’m grateful you posted this poem in full)! I love these lines especially, when lamenting our common status as “fellow monsters:”

“And yet/ I am changing: this three-pound lump/ of sentient meat electrified/ by hope and terror has learned to hear/ His silence like the sun,/ and sought to change!”

And these: “there is someone right how who is looking/ to you, not Him, for whatever/ love still exists.” Amen.