Empires always fall, and by the grace of God so shall we
The Bible is filled with stories of empire. God is described in stark contrast to these empires, which were oligarchies that ruthlessly maintained deep disparities between the wealthy elite and everyone else. Whether it is the Egyptian Empire of the Hebrew Text or the Roman Empire that took Jesus’ life in the Gospel, the empires of the Bible were largely run by oligarchs, a small group of corrupt, selfish, wealthy people—kings who believed that gods served their will, rather than kings serving God’s will.
We find ourselves with such a wannabe king today in the United States.
In contrast, God advocates for the oppressed and vulnerable in society and critiques and condemns kings. And if we are God’s faithful, then this is also how we should live out our faith.
What is it about God’s professed faithful that they are regularly beguiled by kings? What is it about kings that makes us betray God and God’s creation? Why do we worship kings, and turn away from our Creator?
The story of the Hebrew people in the Bible almost reads like it was written today. Despite warnings from Samuel to avoid the path of their oppressors, the Egyptian Empire, when the Hebrews had to decide how to structure their society, they wanted a king. Instead of decentralized governance under the leadership of God, they chose a king. Even with detailed warnings from Samuel, they chose oppression and slavery, instead of freedom.
The people refused to listen to Samuel’s warning, and said, “No! We must have a ruler over us. Then we will be like other nations who have rulers to lead us and to lead us in warfare and fight our battles.” (1 Samuel 19-20, The Inclusive Bible)
They wanted to both be like everyone else and also compete with everyone else. They wanted the power and prestige that comes with empire. They wanted to not just feel good enough, but to feel they were better than others. It sounds so U.S.-American, doesn’t it? That “we’re the best country in the world” mentality, and at any price.
They also wanted someone else to lead them, to lead them in war, and to fight their battles. I think this says a lot right here about where we find ourselves today as a country. Democracy only works if you work it. You have to do the work and the work can be slow and cumbersome. It takes time and lots of skill to work with other people to negotiate our diverse wants and needs, to put into balance our beliefs and values with our knowledge and experiences. To fend off selfishness, greed, fear, hate and violence, and lean into our better selves. To center “us and ours,” instead of “me and mine.” They just wanted someone else to do the work for them.
I mean…part of me doesn’t blame them. Part of me wants someone else to do the work for me, whether that is big decision-making, parenting some days, pastoring on other days, adulting and “life administration” on far too many days.
The problem with someone else doing the political, communal, decision-making work for us is that they do not have our interests at heart. No one person or even a small group of people could possibly understand the breadth and depth of human experiences that shape our lives and communities. We need to be involved in our shared political life, we need to be involved in how power is gained, shared, and used in our communities, country, and world. It feels like a lot because it is. Capitalism has us working nonstop to pay the bills to take care of our basic needs leaving little room for robust public life together. And yet, we need to find ways to build a new public life, because the alternative is slavery. Slavery to capitalism, to fascism, to white supremacy, to Christian Nationalism. Slavery in which our lives, individually and collectively are owned by the wealthy, white, male, cisgender, heterosexual elite.
What is coming for us? Nothing less than what every king offers. In the Hebrew text, King Solomon drafted young people to create a standing army, he instituted forced labor towards his personal projects, and over-taxed the people to build up his coffers. King Solomon also married into the Egyptian Empire through the Pharaoh's daughter, reuniting the Hebrew people to their enslavers.
Kings will always invest in themselves. They invest in their safety through the military and other enforcement agencies like border control and Immigration and Customs Enforcement and those local police departments that collude. They invest in their wealth through increasing taxes for those with lower incomes and taking care of their wealthy friends, and selling themselves to the highest bidder through meme coins, social media market controls, war, and political and judicial favors. They enslave us to our adversaries and threaten our allies within our own country and internationally. They use propaganda to wind us up so that we will enslave, violate, and kill one another—slaves to our own evilness.
Kings enslave us by encouraging our inhumanity, separating us further and further from our Creator and our Creator’s purpose.
God frees us by encouraging our humanity, bringing us closer into relationships so that we can love one another better.
By now, some of you are thinking, but wait, what about all the flowery prose about kings in the Bible—arbiters of justice, protectors of the widowed, or God themself sitting above the fearsome cherubim. When kings and kingdoms are all you know, being governed or enslaved by a king has good moments, or moments in which you think they are benevolent because you don’t know freedom or agency. When kings and kingdoms are all you know, that’s also how you know and describe God too.
By challenging the ways of empire, the life and teachings of Jesus upend our understanding of power, leadership, and communal life.
In preparing the disciples for his departure, Jesus says to them, “ I give you a new commandment: Love one another. And you’re to love one another the way I have loved you. This is how all will know that you’re truly my disciples: that you truly love one another.” (John 13: 34-35, The Inclusive Bible)
Today and every tomorrow we decide how we will truly love one another, and whose disciples we will be.
Empires always fall, and by the grace of God so shall we. Imagine what is possible if someday we are free from kings and empires, and make that vision a reality in your and our life today.
