By The Power Of...Words?

One of the fun things about church life is that we have our own language. I don’t mean a completely different language, but there are words and phrases that hold a certain amount of power and influence in a religious context. For example if I were to say, “the Spirit is moving me to pray” in a McDonalds in order to get a little more time before ordering I would not be understood. Yet if I said it in a church context, a meeting, small group, or worship service, then people would most likely understand what I am saying.

            

This being the case, there are certain phrases that hold power that I think people knowingly use to claim that power. Here is a situation. You are in a church meeting trying to decide to buy new hymnals. You have been involved in the conversation for 45 minutes and are nearing a decision. It is almost time to take a vote and move on when someone who does not like where the conversation is headed stands up and says:

I really feel that the Holy Spirit is calling us to stop everything and pray.

What can you do in response to such a statement? The only statement that could counter such a claim would be, “I really feel that the Holy Spirit is calling us to take a vote.” Then people have to figure out which Holy Spirit is the true Holy Spirit and which is just trying to derail the meeting process (or the Holy Spirit is just messing with the church and enjoying the chaos of the moment).

            It reminds me of a couple of wizards throwing spells back and forth, one trying to counter the other. How do we know who is speaking from a place of truth?

                                                        "No, I'm moved by the Holy Spirit!"

                         

            Another phrase that holds power is around the idea of the “call.” In this instance someone could volunteer to be a Sunday School teacher claiming that God had “called” him to teach. The problem is this person has no relational skills with anyone let alone children, has personal hygiene that would make Oscar the Grouch blush (at any given moment there are at least four flea circuses concurrently performing), he believes that only the books in the Bible that start with the letters J, R, and Z are relevant, and that Jesus Christ talks to him through his fish who have been dead for at least five months. This may not be a bad person, but probably not someone who you want teaching your children. Yet what do you say when he says that he is “called”? Do you say that the Holy Spirit told you that he is not called? How do you know when he is speaking from a place of truth?

                                                   Don't you trust me with your children?

            I am sure that there are other religious phrases aside from invoking the Holy Spirit or claiming that one is called that hold power and sway in a religious community. Phrases will vary depending on the religious community. In a Catholic context one could say that the Pope said it is so and leave it at that. In a Lutheran context you could point to Martin, and in a Quaker community you can say you need to discern for a while. Each community has its own phrases of religious power and the struggle to discern a sense of truth.

            What usually ends up happening is deference is given to the individual because we all want to be nice; power is given to the individual over the community. In many Baptist traditions a call was confirmed by the community, yet today if someone were to claim that he or she was called to the ministry most likely the church would affirm the individual with an emphatic “ok” because we want to be nice and because we don’t really know how to discern a spiritual truth as a community.

I wonder if we know what it really means to be called or to be moved by the Holy Spirit. Or perhaps better stated, we may not know what it looks like when someone is called or moved by the Holy Spirit. We may look for clues or indications, but when it comes down to it we aren’t sure how to discern and critique claims of religious power.

           

            There is a balance of power that needs to be struck between the community and the individual, but that balance seems to have fallen to the individual.

            I don’t have an answer (yet) but becoming aware of religious language of power and the way it is often misused to control and gain one’s desires is a start. To be honest, everything would be better if everyone just realized that I am always right and that the Holy Spirit is always speaking directly to me.