Mission Yearbook: Turning over tables and disrupting power

The Rev. Kathy Escobar

The Rev. Kathy Escobar, the author of “Turning Over Tables: A Lenten Call for Disrupting Power,” a book recently published by Westminster John Knox Press, notes that “everything Jesus did was challenging systems of privilege and oppression.”

“Most of our systems are built on unhealthy power,” Escobar told Simon Doong and the Rev. Lee Catoe, the hosts of “A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast,” in an episode that can he heard here. “That’s what Jesus was challenging and came in to call out, because the religious system and the powers of empire were so strong, and people of faith were following those systems.”

Especially in the leadup to Holy Week, “We want a certain kind of king, the kind that’s not reflective at all in the kind of king Jesus embodied,” she said. “Almost every story led to challenging the status quo, which is almost always committed to unhealthy power.”

Catoe wondered: In our politically polarized time, how do we have deep conversations about what it means to be a follower of Jesus? “Lent seems to be a great time to think about that,” he said.

“Any season is great, but the reason I love Lent is it’s a time for deeper personal reflection,” Escobar said. “I lived in a system where leaders led in a big and powerful way. They tended to be male and had a lot of charisma. They offered promises of certainty and protection and promised to be different from anybody else. I lived in that system for a long time.”

But “in practice, I’ve always worked in the margins,” she said. “When you work and live alongside people on the underside of power, it changes your perspective about power. … The hardest part is, we want things to be super clear and certain, and that’s not how Jesus did anything. He broke so many norms.”

 “Lent,” Escobar said, “is a season of that more intentional transformation.”

Asked by Doong how we can “redefine our understanding of power,” Escobar defined power as “the ability to influence through position, value, voice, and resources. Everybody has that, depending on the culture that accepts that and honors that. I think of power on a spectrum.”

 For example: In a 12-step meeting, everyone sits in a circle. “There is no one leader,” she said. There is shared experience, strength in hope and shared humanity. “A principle in recovery is right-sizing ourselves in the story,” Escobar said. “In a lot of bad Christian theology, we make ourselves too big or too small.”

“Power is not like pie,” Escobar said. “In the ways of the kingdom, power is a lot more like loaves and fishes. It really does multiply. The more we share it — the more other people get it — the more there is.”

In the early church, the Christian community was not only underground, but it was also countercultural, Escobar said.

“We should be leading the way on embodying systems that look radically different from culture,” she said, adding, “It’s hard to untangle. Little pockets of love and freedom, justice, and connection are super underrated, and people don’t really like it that much.”

“Jesus called people with certain power and privilege to mix it up a little, and most people hated it,” she said. It’s our work “to build communities that can talk about this stuff.” Our message can be, “I really want to do this with you because I don’t want to live apart from my brothers and sisters in this world.”

Especially in the current political environment, “We are the ones who aren’t supposed to be aligned with this kind of power. We should be the ones who are aligned with caring for the most vulnerable in our communities — children and immigrants,” Escobar said. The power we exercise “has to come from underneath — from the vulnerable, from something underground, which was always Jesus’ way.”

“Our response will have to be to make it as OK as we can for each other,” she said. “It’s about looking at the human experience in a society that’s afraid.”

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service, Interim Unified Agency (Click here to read original PNS story)

Let us join in prayer for:

• Ian Hall, Interim President, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)
• Rebecca Hall, Customer Service Representative, Hubbard Press 

Let us pray:

Gracious God, give us humble hearts so that we can recognize the gifts of others and encourage the use of those gifts for the building up of your church and for the fulfillment of your mission. In Jesus’ name. Amen.