Since the escape from slavery in Egypt and being called to be covenant people in the promised land, our story has always been intertwined with the story of empire.
At the course Christine Conkin and I taught at Sorrento Centre this summer, which we will be revisiting at the upcoming Women’s Retreat, we traced the progression, through the Biblical texts, from living in the Egyptian Empire, to becoming the people of Israel, to being occupied, ruled and conquered by the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks and the Romans.
No sooner is Jesus born than the Roman Empire is so threatened by his birth that an edict to kill all male children under two is issued. His followers soon recognise that he, not Caesar, is the son of God and they are drawn, as an occupied people, to the kingdom of God. For, unlike the empire, it is a kingdom where all are loved, all are fed, all are treated with dignity and respect. The Kingdom of God is such a threat to the empire that Christ is arrested, tortured and crucified.
The early centuries of Christian history have many martyrs as the early Christians were considered traitors to the empire. However, with time the empire started to see the efficacy of the Christians and, in much of the Western world, Christianity became the empire. Empires will always and everywhere co-opt land, peoples and religions to bulk up their power and influence. Religions and people will always and everywhere be tempted by the trappings of empire. Proximity to power, prestige and influence is always tantalizing.
Fast forward to the mid-point of the turbulent 2020s and we are once again in the midst of empire and emperors. The empires that we are most aware of right now are the empire that Trump is desperately trying to dominate, and the empire that Netanyahu is desperately trying to expand.
Both men are behaving like ruthless and violent emperors. Both face significant opposition from their own peoples. Both have religious leaders in their own countries who support them. Both have religious leaders in their own countries who oppose them.
As part of the course in Sorrento we watched the documentary God & Country (which you can rent on AppleTV for a few dollars) that highlights Christian nationalism in the United States and especially its role in the January 6 attack on the Capitol and the rise of Trump.
Christian nationalism is the belief that a country, and sometimes its leaders, is ordained by God and can defend its actions and power by calling on God’s favor and the country’s preferred place in salvation history. As eight bishops and six theologians said in a 2024 publication of The Episcopal Church The Crisis of Christian Nationalism, Christian nationalism is idolatrous and “consists of assumptions about white supremacy, Anglo-Saxon nativism, patriarchy, and militarism.”
In face of all of this, Richard Rohr’s recent publication The Tears of Things: Prophetic Wisdom for an Age of Outrage is a timely and helpful read. Rohr reintroduces us to the ancient prophets (the same ones we’ve been hearing from all summer in church) and reminds us: “Besides being truth-tellers, they were radical change agents, messengers of divine revelation, teachers of a moral alternative and deconstructors of every prevailing order.” He talks about how “they introduced a completely novel role into ancient religion: an officially licensed critic, a devil’s advocate who names and exposes their own group’s shadow side!”
As people of God, we are at a stage in history when we must listen, once again, to the cries and tears of the prophets. We must be willing to see our own religion’s, our own group’s, shadow side.
As someone who lives in Victoria, British Columbia, and who leads an organisation that is only at the very beginning of repenting for our role in the colonialism of these islands and inlets, it would be foolish of me to point at other empires without also looking at the one I am complicit with and benefit from.
To that end, I would point you to a prophet of our own time and place, Canadian journalist Omar El Akkad. His book One Day, Everyone Will have Been Against This is a must read. El Akkad reminds us of a repeating pattern in history. Whether it be residential schools in Canada or the current invasion of Gaza, one day, after the powerful have finished benefitting from their colonial aggressions, those same powerful people will posture and decry past injustices.
As we begin another church year, Diocese of Islands and Inlets, may we pay attention both to the empires of our day, but foremost, to the voice of God in our day, to the cry of the prophets in our day. May we remember that our loyalty is never to the empires and emperors of the day but always and everywhere to the Kingdom of God and the true son of God, Jesus the Christ.
