Puppies, Power, and Ephesians

For the couple of last weeks, one of my coworkers has brought their new puppy into the office. Pappy is one of the cutest German Shepherd mixes I've seen (sorry Fenway) if you are able to get around the smell of his potent, surprise landmines accidents.

Like every pup, he's in the midst of learning and exploring - which brings all sorts of excitement for us and his owner.  Dogs are pack animals so they naturally strive to take or have the role as the alpha or leader present, so as a pup it's important for dog owners to instill structure and dominance.

One trick for doing this I was shown from a friend is to place a puppy on it's back and gently but firmly pin them in place. I've done this a time or two over the years and the result has always been the same - at first the dog playfully fights it, then they calm down, then out of no where they yip and truly struggle, but ultimately they calm back down when they realize they can not win.  I decided to show Matt, his owner, this little trick one of the first days Pappy was here.

Pappy responded as expected, but when we moved to the yipping stage - he cried bloody murder! It was gut wrenching. It alarmed me so much that I was unable to push through to the the calming stage.  When Matt heard it, it didn't catch him as off guard as it had me, he simply responded with "I think he's learned that from some where, he seems to do it whenever he's being corrected."

In that very simple exercise, Pappy displayed a very real response to power. He knew he was losing his own so he did whatever he could be break free from it. In his 'puppy-ness', he cried out because what he was experiencing scared and frightened him - he did not know what the outcome would be.

Now, this example loses some traction when I attempt to apply it to humanity and human interactions/relationships. Yet it does show the very real reality of hierarchy they lay under the surface of our society. We don't have to look very far to see how this hierarchy has deeply infected itself within culture as a whole. We rank one another, we place different values on gender, races, income levels.

We like the idea of freedom, liberty, and justice for all just as long as it doesn't come at the expensive of how we currently experience them.  Yes, I say this as a white male who benefits from a systems, structures, and bias' that I didn't create but am a participant in.  For far too long I have taken this for granted - in my youth I even embraced passages of Scripture that can be easily twisted to affirm a position of power. Look no further to the 'submission' passage of Ephesians. Many love to lean into certain portions of this, some times it's intentional other times it is not.

[As a general suggestion in reading Scripture, read what came before it. And simply ask how does that inform what follows.]

This section, Paul starts out by writing - 'Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.'  This is a fully inclusive state for all of humanity - for all those who proclaim Christ.  With this in mind, when looking at this passage it is not a passage on roles but simply Paul unpacking this statement and giving the community in Ephesus examples of how to subject to each other - stressing that none are exempt from this.

In many ways, it's a race to the bottom for all of us.

A race to continually be subjecting and serving each other, of stripping ourselves of the power that society and culture has built up and given us.  And it's a long hard process, it can and will hurt, it can feel unfair as we acknowledge that power is not ours to hold.  Like Pappy, we often are going to fight losing power at first; we might even get to a place of calm for a moment; but then there will be very real moments when we truly must subject ourselves - when we are going to scream bloody murder. It is in that moment we are given a chance to show how deeply rooted our convictions and faith we are. Where we will truly show our belief that the world is a better place when we subject ourselves to each other. It is the moment where our Lord's Prayer can become real, it is a moment where the Kingdom can come, for this is how we have been shown that Kingdom works as displayed by Christ and His willingness to subject Himself for us all - even to death.

Regardless of where we find ourselves in all of this - may all our interactions and relationships start by asking:

"What can I do to be of subject to you?"