WE HAVE THE WHOLE WORLD IN OUR HANDS

In one of our Eucharistic Prayers the celebrant says, on behalf of all of us: “You formed us in your own image, giving the whole world into our care, so that in obedience to you, our Creator, we might rule and serve all your creatures.” In other words, we, you and I, together and separately, have the whole world in our hands. Yes, I know, in the old spiritual we sing about God that “He’s got [bad grammar] the whole world in his hands.” And God does, of course.

But God has handed most of the control over this world to us, into our care. It is now up to us – and has always been so – to do the best we can in this world. We are to rule and serve everyone, every creature, at the same time. How we rule and serve will determine what this world looks like and what it will become, as it always has. This world today is the product of how those who came before us ruled and served.

We are in control. We rule. We serve. We rule and serve as one. The problem has been and continues to be that often when we rule, how we rule turns out to be self-serving rather than other-serving. When we are in charge of whatever we are in charge, do our actions serve us first and foremost or do they serve others first and foremost and who will reap the good or the bad from how we have ruled, from how we used our power?

That’s a touch question is it not? We know that power corrupts because power is intoxicating, very much so. There comes a high in holding power over someone or something. And it is so easy to revel in that power and then to abuse it, to use it to serve self rather than to serve those over whom we have that power. We see it constantly in our political system – no party being exempt. We see it throughout society throughout our world, and from time immemorial to boot.

Perhaps that is why the church in its wisdom and grace reminds us in that prayer of what our responsibilities are. To be honest, I’ve said that prayer hundreds of times and it was only the last time I said it that I actually heard those words in such a way that they almost made me stop in my tracks. They’ve haunted me ever since. They have forced me to stop and reflect upon the tremendous responsibility that is mine as an individual and all of us together have in being obedient to our God who has given this world over to us to shape and form.

Ruling and serving together. When we separate them, we have two classes: the rulers and the servers. But when those in charge rule to serve others, they are served as well. We know we get more joy and pleasure out of doing for others than when we use others to serve us, to give us pleasure. The temptation is always there to abuse the power and authority given to us by God and there are times when we succumb to that temptation. The world is in the mess it is in because of the abuse of power. I am partially guilty. We all are. It’s time to begin cleaning up the mess by being rulers who serve. That’s all of us.