“Who’s Got the Power?”
A Sermon by Carol Howard Merritt, Pastor
Western Presbyterian Church
Washington, D.C.
September 28, 2008

Text: Philippians 2:1-13

My grandmother died a couple of years ago, but when she was alive, she used to be the undeniable matriarch of the family. Toward the end of her life, she had gathered most of her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren around her. They lived on the same plot of land that she did, and they cooked and cleaned for her, as she sat, blankly watching the Christian Broadcasting Network. Granny could not speak and she could hardly point, but she could speak volumes with her eyes.

And we listened. We jumped when she looked at her cup of water, and we quickly quieted our children if she glanced disapprovingly at them.

She had remarkable power over all of us. We looked for her blessing on every major decision that we made. Sometimes she granted it, and other times, she didn’t.

When I attended her funeral, I found out that my little perspective of my grandmother’s life was a small slice of her influence. As we gathered to mourn our loss, the service was packed with people from all sorts of backgrounds, who were there because of the great respect that they had for her.

And her pastors got up and talked about how she would inspire them, and she would chastise them. As a pastor, I have become very attune to the cynical edge or the humorous dismissals that we learn to develop toward people who complain too much. But I couldn’t hear any of that in their voices. It sounded as if they were disappointed when my grandmother was disappointed. Sitting there, I realized that this woman with very little means, with hardly any education, was a woman of great authority and respect.

All of that authority that she had, it did not come from all of those things that we associate with power. It did not come from physical threats, it did not come from abuse, it did not originate from yelling, or screaming, or jumping up and down. It did not even come from buttering people up or complimenting them a lot.

It came simply because she spent years and years serving other people. She sewed her children’s clothing and she made one meal stretch into five. She kept the house running through her pure, hearty resolve. My grandfather never made much money, but my grandmother used every resource available to make sure that her family was cared for. She worked harder than anyone I have ever met in my life, and it was through a lifetime of scrubbing floors, and feeding children, and changing diapers, that she gained a depth of respect and honor.

I recognized this as I sat in that service, but it was not the first time. I noticed it from a very early age. Somehow, through her service, she gained power.

Watching her reminded me of the words in Philippians, this passage that we read is part of a letter from Paul to the church in Philippi, a city in Macedonia. It seems that the people in Philippi were facing some opposition in their communities, and so Paul is encouraging them to have courage and persistence. The letter is packed full of images of how we ought to live.

The main thing is that we ought to be like Jesus. And then Paul describes Jesus. This bit is so interesting, because it is not a sweaty account coming from a fisherman, about Jesus’ confusing words, surprising temper, or incredible miracles. We don’t hear about the confusion of the followers and the anger of the religious leaders that the gritty narrative of the gospels spells out. Instead, it is a sort of cosmic account of Jesus.

In fact, the form of the words changes in this section, and they take on the structure that is reserved for poetry or a song.

Jesus, who though he was in the form of God,
Did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited,
But emptied himself,
Taking the form of a slave,
Being born in human likeness,
And being found in human form…
Therefore God also highly exalted him.

There is this really odd recipe for power here. Empty yourself, put away your selfishness, look after the interest of others. All of these things go against our instincts. They hardly make any sense to us. And yet, it is something that we can see happening over and over again, especially if you ever had a grandmother like mine.

My grandmother, of course, is not the only one. You can even see this in corporations or non-profit organizations. In fact, when I first started at this job, I saw how John often moved and worked and organized in our city, and so I asked him about it. John told me the secret to gaining power on any Board of Directors. He said that when there is a job that no one wants to do—and there are always jobs that no one wants to do—volunteer for it. Then do it really well. And then, in a couple of years, you will have power on that board.

It is odd, but in many organizations, it works. We can also see it in our churches. The matriarch or patriarch who serves the church dinners year after year, has an important voice in that congregation. Selfless acts of love and charity very often lead to a lifetime of respect.

Now, I have to say, it is in this part of the sermon that alarm bells are going off internally. Much because of my Grandmother and Mother, and the strict, conservative tradition that I was raised in, I shy away from these passages. These calls to emptying oneself, to take the form of a slave have been used over our dark history to keep women in their place, to bind African Americans in chains. These words have been used in ways that make me fear and tremble.

And so we have to be cautious about uttering them. We should never use them to keep the oppressed from empowerment. And yet, this week, this week when our country is in the midst of a grave economic crisis, I just could not ignore them. They are wise words for us to heed.

It is a strange fact in life, that many, many times, the humble worker becomes powerful. That the person who has served a family all of his or her life becomes the person who runs that family. The person on the board who does all of the grunt work often ends up as president. Many times power in an organization, influence in society, authority in family, does not come from great wealth or prestigious education, rather it comes from hard work, from humility. It comes from these strange upside-down laws of love that we heed as Christians. 

But I think that there might be something else that is going on here, something that we can hear in this important time. Because just as power can bubble up from a lifetime of serving others, the powerful can be brought down when they do not take into account the interest of the powerless. And in this salient time, we can hear this warning that we must not only look for our own interest, but also to the interest of others. This is a principle in our spiritual communities, but it is also a rule of life and of civilization.

And, we have seen throughout history, that if a society does not look after the interest of others, if we ignore the weak, if we allow greed and gluttony to rule our lives without ever looking around at those who are suffering, then the powerless can bring down the mightiest systems.

We’ve watched the volatile stock market. We’ve seen some of our giants in the financial industry cave. And there are so many reasons for the collapse of these corporations. They are, of course, things that I have neither time nor the expertise to delve into.

And yet, I know that as people go through the pain of foreclosing on their homes, there is a whole lot of finger-pointing going on. I have overheard it in restaurants, in private conversations, and in the newspapers. People are saying, “How could these homeowners be so stupid? Why have they borrowed what they could not pay back?” There is a callous sense that they get whatever they deserve.

There have always been strict rules about how much a person could borrow. I used to work in finance, so I know. We had debt to income ratios that we would look at, and then we would not allow people to borrow more than they could pay back. But, over the last years, we have suspended many of those common sense principles.

We can all find credit card companies signing up college students for plastic at 23 percent interest. And mortgage lenders became more and more creative, finding ways so that borrowers could be lent more and more money. As two incomes became the norm, and more money became available through creative loaning, that drove up the cost of housing.

Sometimes people have been greedy, taking on more house than they need. Using second mortgages for vacations, or whatever. I’ll grant you that. But that’s not the only thing that is going on here. 

I understand why people borrow money with creative mortgage financing. If we look at the housing situation in D.C., we know that incomes have not kept up with increasing real estate. And anyone who has recently tried to enter the housing market here knows just how difficult it can be for those who are starting out.

And it can hits people who are not starting out. Parents take out additional mortgages to make sure that they can help their children handle the increased cost of college. Or people suddenly find themselves in over their heads because of a job loss, a family illness, or an unforeseen medical expense. People have had to get creative in order to support their aging parents.

There are many homeowners, who were not trying to be greedy, but they were trying to do the right thing. Harvard economist, Elizabeth Warren, writes about this a great deal, and she has noticed that young families, solid middle-class families, who went to college, got decent jobs, are often the ones who have gotten caught in this desperate situation.

I guess what I am saying is this. When we look over a forest and see that one tree is thirsty for water, then we know that there is a problem with that one tree. But when we look over that same forest and see a huge percentage of trees that are brown and brittle, then that is something else entirely. That means there is a blight. That means that our whole thinking needs to change.

And when we look at our neighborhoods in our country, and see foreclosures on every block, that means there is something wrong with the system. And if we walk around, blaming the tree for something that is happening in the whole forest, we are not really going to get to the heart of the problem.

As negotiations take place in our country, as the foundations of our economy continue to shift, as our industries continue to change, as baby boomers suddenly realize that they are not ready for retirement, there is something that we can remember. It is a moving current that pulses through our faith, but it is also something that extends far beyond these walls. The principles of love are this: sometimes the lowly are exalted. But if we are in powerful positions, we will heed of these words as well. We will need to listen, and put the interest of others before our own.
To the glory of God, our Creator;
God, our Liberator,
and God, our Sustainer. Amen.