I am currently reading a whole bunch of chapters about Solomon, ever so wise, Mr. Temple builder etc. Now in what I write he is a whole lot wiser than me… however, how are we meant to read some of the stuff? How many wives? And how many palaces? And how many foreign gods? And how many…? Silver was a nothing and everywhere gold; along comes the Q of Sheba who is well impressed… and on we go. Some very smart proverbs, but leaves me thinking – and that seems to be the thing with so much of Scripture that we just can’t figure out. Gets you thinking – cos it ain’t really about Solomon but about me aligning to what I believe. I used to say to people – listen to me and you will discover what I think (or what I hope you think) I believe. Come stay with me, go ask my spouse, even neighbours – then you will discover what I really believe. True doctrine seems far more to do with how I live than how I can string a few Scriptures together. People like Paul said – ‘imitate me as I imitate Christ’. OOOFFFF. He also suggested that we simply give a couple of considerations concerning anyone entering leadership – how is that thing called family working out and go ask a few neighbours (specifically those who don’t have faith) and get their opinion. Too practical all of that! ‘Jesus began to do and to teach’. We like to teach and tell people what to do – could it be we have got it the wrong way round? Never, I hear myself say…
Anyway back to the aforementioned king. The era of success has arrived; started by David then brought to another level with Solomon. The borders are at the largest; the army at the strongest; the order… OK wait a minute. The order – all things flowing to the centre to maintain the centre. Maybe now a question just enters. Surely Solomon has not organised things to rival that place the earlier generations escaped from – that place known as Egypt with a king known as Pharoah? And the next king of the northern tribes, Jeroboam, comes up out of… Egypt… erecting 2 golden calves… Yes it is the rebellious northern tribes that did not stay loyal to the house of David, but maybe we are to think maybe the prosperous days of Solomon were not so healthy after all.
Success. We have growth, we have influence; everything is testifying to ‘we have never seen anything like this’. Good or bad?
Small is no better than big; failure certainly no better than success!!! But the successful centre – big or small is probably more the issue. Scaling up nearly always ends up confusing us – we have done something amazing; now God can take a nap we have this. Scaling out – that is something different. Where is the centre? Bit like asking post the last Supper as to where Jesus is? Cos if each person ‘eats’ and ‘drinks’ him he is wherever the eaters and the drinkers are. It seems to make sense of Jesus botanical answer to the Greeks who wished to meet him (Jn. 12:20-26). His reply of ‘unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies…’ Strange request for an interview. Want to visit the centre? Advice… wait a while cos you don’t need a Jewish Jesus, you need a Greek one – so hang on till there are many Jesus-es (yes I know they will be inadequate and you would really like to see the proper one, but…)
Time to wrap this wandering blah blah up. Success and growth and recognition – well what a set of dangers arise. We move from being dependent on God to we pretty much got this. I advocated a whole number of years ago that a corporate exorcism would not go amiss if done once a year. To take a stand and to say to whatever we need to: ‘I am / we are not here for your success. We will not serve you, nor defend you. We will declare you and any resources you have are here to serve God’s kingdom, and that kingdom will not exalt any one person… so any spirit seeking to attach to us we renounce…’ and so on.
I’d rather not go the way of Solomon. And I kinda think that there is a squeeze on right now, for without the squeeze we have such a tendency to think we have really done something quite amazing.
This musing is also the subject of my newest reading. It is ‘Goliath’s Curse, the history and future of societal collapse’ by Luke Kemp. He takes a long look at what is called deep history, looking back 300,000 years to now and into the future to understand how humans organize themselves. Kemp refers to social arrangements that are based on domination and oppression as Goliaths. They are ready to be brought down by the right set of circumstances that could be political, economic, and environmental.
Turns out humans are super adaptable. They form groups. They leave groups. They form new groups. They travel. Humans were essentially nomadic until about 10,000 years ago, when with a warming climate, they began to settle down and create villages. It was all very sporadic and seasonal at first.
The dance of building then collapse continued. Over and over again large constructs of many thousands of people would get built up in various places across the globe. Different trades and professions. Large numbers of homes. Extensive infrastructure and trade relations. At first most of these cities were egalitarian, more or less, in nature. But then over time, elites appear. And that is the death knell of the city. Inequality appears to be the thing that kills human society and causes collapses. Many times people just left and wandered away to less oppressive living situations. Other times there is violence. And sometimes new cities get built on the old.
All of this reminds me of the rise of Solomon and the glory of the empire. Such inequality is the beginning of the end for any city or state. Today we have incredible inequality across the globe but especially in the USA. Just a couple of billionaires and so to be trillionaires own something like double that of the lowest 50% in the USA. It won’t hold. It isn’t sustainable no matter how much effort the elites put into it. The history of humans is that none of us wants to be bossed around or feel used. At some point the reckoning comes.
The collapse can be swift or slow. People can just drift away (if allowed to) or engage in violence and revolution. Elites generally turn into bullies of some sort, to at least some groups. And humans hate to be bullied. So the Jesus folk should be anti empire and comfortable with collapse of our current ones. Not sure where that will leave Christianity, especially as it is presently configured. Perhaps the call is for Goliath’s to be taken down, defeated, and removed so that people can have enough and live in peace with their neighbors and the planet. Essentially, the more a city or state behaves like a Goliath the less chance it has of adapting to and surviving threats like climate change. It will collapse slowly or quickly but it will collapse.
That is why in terms of climate adaptation and resilience, I am focused on communities. It is in community with our neighbors, in an egalitarian, democratic way, that we build resilience. That is literally, our long and deep human nature that has allowed us to live so long on this planet. Solomon may have been splendid but ultimately just the fact that he existed as an elite did not bode well for Israel. Jesus calls us to find and be with our neighbors. And that is the most radical threat to empire.
Jesus becomes an interesting figure in this. He essentially advocates an egalitarian structure. Paul sees no difference between Jew and Gentile, male and female, slave and free. That is completely anti-empire. It is against domination and oppression. Funny, how we have so entwined Jesus into a patriarchal church structure that we have lost a vision of how radical he is.
In current news, I point to the people of Minneapolis as they have resisted the violent oppression and domination of the US government and ICE. They resisted by banding together as neighbors and caring for their neighborhoods. They are a radical example of how powerful that can be.
Excellent analysis.. Thank you.