Advent and the Fall of Empire
Just like last year, I will be preaching on the fourth Sunday of Advent. The gospel text for Year C is Mary's Magnificat. In this wonderful New Testament psalm, bearing echoes of Hannah and her namesake Miriam, Mary praises the mercies of a God who has looked with favor on both his humble servant and his long-suffering people in conceiving the anointed king and savior. All generations will call her blessed; the hungry will be filled. As a member of Israel's "poor ones," Mary rejoices in the long-awaited deliverance of the oppressed and downtrodden. The wealthy and arrogant who oppose God in their injustice will be, in fact, have already been dismayed by the in-breaking of YHWH's rulership.
It almost seems no coincidence to me that the cover story for the latest Newsweek is entitled "How Great Powers Fall." Written by Harvard economic historian Niall Ferguson, renowned for his book The Ascent of Money, this piece argues that America's heavy deficit may mean the end of its superpower hegemony. This country is not immune to the same forces that weakened Hapsburg Spain, pre-Revolutionary France, and the late-19th century Ottoman Empire. "Call it the fatal arithmetic of imperial decline," he declares.
Theologically, of course, the decline of empires and hegemons, no matter how benign they conceive themselves (or are judged relative to others), is an inexorable demand of Christ's crown rights. Not even constitutional democracy can secure the peaceable kingdom. In fact, the constitution has not guaranteed matters of great social and political concern in Scripture, such as equitable distribution of wealth. Instead the current economic crisis has demonstrated that our "free" system is now held captive to the success of elites whose wealth has mushroomed as the incomes of the middle class have stagnated. And, if the critique of political theorists such as Romand Coles is correct, our Western liberal system is in fact deeply susceptible to anti-democratic tendencies.
The Newsweek cover is meant to alarm. And indeed it is alarming, for weakening American power and economic burdens such as debt repayment and possible default will generate burdens to be borne by all, not just the elites. But, as the first cover story for a national news magazine in this liturgical season of preparation for the coming King, it can also be a welcome reminder. The kingdoms of this world will become the Kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. Come, Lord Jesus!
I think Newssweek should be alarmed, because if the American/NATO empire falls, Newsspeak will be blessedly silenced.
And even though I am not an anarchist (well, I am sort of a national anarchist), I am all for empires falling.
Posted by
Jacob Grail-seeker |
Friday, December 04, 2009 6:56:00 AM
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