For
our struggle is not against blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against
the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against
the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12)
Paul was a man of his time, he was educated in both
Greek and Roman thought as well as his native Hebrew culture – and all of these,
like all ancient cultures, in various ways assumed an invisible realm of
spirits, both good and bad but certainly perilous. Powers,[1] Paul called them, invisible
but potent. Spiritual forces of evil, is another phrase he uses. Earlier in Ephesians he actually tells them
that before they came to Christ they followed the course of this world… the ruler of the power of the air… the spirit
at work among those who are disobedient…[2] But most importantly, he saw Christ as having
defeated the cosmic powers[3]. Jesus by his resurrection became what
Christian theology eventually called Christus
Victor, Christ the Conqueror.
Jesus’s death and resurrection initiated a battle in which the outcome
in time and beyond time is certain.
Now, somehow this sweeping cosmic view has to be
rendered in terms meaningful to 21st century intelligence and
spiritual experience. I suppose there
are plenty of people who still assume that we are surrounded and threatened by
evil spirits – in I Peter we read about your
adversary the devil prowling around, looking for someone to devour…[4] Well, some might think that good for putting
the frighteners up recalcitrant children…
…until we take serious notice of what is going on in
our world, in which... Truth, if
inconvenient, becomes arbitrarily labelled as fake, untruth… Mindless violence is increasingly seen as the
way to resolve differences… People make
war on children… Cruelty is used as
though its victims are of no account.
Religion is warped and distorted into credulity, superstition and fear… The natural environment is plundered... Power is routinely possessed and misused,
rather than being held in trust for good.
There is a force of evil which takes possession of people and of
communities, usually masquerading as righteousness, but sometimes quite
undisguised.
And I believe it remains true that Jesus confronts
and defeats this power, even if it is just that he shows us another way, and
holds our hearts true to doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with
God.[5] But he also empowers and
inspires us by the Spirit he promised.
The prayer of silence and stillness is our reminder, daily, of truth and
wisdom and the way of Christ in our desperately wounded world.
[1]
Greek archē
(ἀρχη)
[2]
Ephesians 2:2
[3]
See eg. Romans 8:38; I Corinthians 15:24-28; Colossians 1:13; 2:15… etc.
[4] I
Peter 5:8
[5]
Micah 6:8
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