27th July, 2011

LLOYD HARKNESS

Ambition and politics, politics and ambition, can be dubious bedfellows and when it comes to the church it can be fatal.

The New Testament largely speaks of the degenerative form of ambition and, in modern terms, would refer to it as a virus that scrambles the circuitry of church community life. Cutthroat competitiveness, or ambition, produces contention, strife and envy and this is largely how the Greek word eritheia has been interpreted into English.

YOUR WAY OR GOD'S WAY? When politicking ambition takes hold, the focus moves from  taking the path God has chosen for you to choosing your own. PICTURE: © © Roman Milert (www.istockphoto.com) "When ambition and politics...take hold in the church it splinters and factionalises the body. Christ is no longer the head of the body and His self sacrificing life is no longer the model of discipleship being followed."

Eritheia has seen quite a meaning shift over time. It originally meant to labour for your day's wages. The definition then narrowed to an attitude towards work which was all about what I am going to get for my work. The focus was less on the working and more on the getting. This stance, in public positions, meant the concept of serving the public was being neutered by a seeking after personal glory and profit.

Eritheia was now more about the abuse of public and private positions where the principal characteristic was intrigue and jockeying for power. This word defined behaviour where personal power and profit, not service, were the norm.

Hence eritheia came to mean mean-spirited ambition in the game of politicking and connivance.

When ambition and politics of this type take hold in the church it splinters and factionalises the body. Christ is no longer the head of the body and His self sacrificing life is no longer the model of discipleship being followed.

It is a situation where the spleen or the tibia or a neuron has declared itself to be the head. It is ridiculous but it is what happens when people are more concerned about being seen than fulfilling God’s role for them in His body.

It is a serious issue and one of the problems Paul addressed in his letters to the church at Corinth. Strife arose because people were factionalising along lines of leadership style. There was an unhealthy competitiveness about it.

When the virus eritheia prevails a hood is pulled over Christ’s face. The greater concern is no longer revealing Christ. Putting yourself forward has subtly become the focus. For preachers and teachers there is peril in becoming more concerned about articulating their words than the Spirit anointed Word for that day for that group of people. That is why they are doubly warned to play with a straight bat.

Problems of this ilk can start in innocent and simple ways, when the flesh becomes involved. One example is the area of storytelling. Personal faith stories are a great encouragement to others but when ambition gets involved talking about God at work in your life can become talking about yourself with God given only a by-line.

In all things Jesus is to be elevated. When we start to elevate ourselves, eritheia is taking a foothold and instead of the veil being rent for all who choose to to enter the kingdom of God, we stitch our cloak into that torn curtain and make it difficult for others to enter into all that God has for them.

If we have lit our lantern then it is not Christ’s light that will be shining. Paul’s powerful letter to the church at Philippi was partly an inspirational response to this issue also. Preachers were preaching more for their name's sake than for Christ’s. Hence, Paul exhorts all to stop looking to your own advantage and start emulating the self-sacrificing example of Jesus. Christ is supreme and He is to be held as supreme in His church.

If we measure the value of life, and success in life, by personal prestige then we are embracing the wrong ambition, an ambition which is viral.

At the heart of the Abrahamic covenant is a conviction and a directive that we have been blessed and we are to pass the blessing on. Similarly, the New Testament declares it is better to give than to receive. What such-and-such does for me and what I get out of this are not to be the twin rails our heart and mind run along.

Trying to make ourselves look better, which usually means trying to look better than others, strips the fruit of the Spirit from the tree that is the church. An envious and contentious ambition stops the flow of nutrients.

Sometimes God even calls us to lay down ‘our’ ministry to reveal our heart to us so that what we take up is very much His ministry.

What happens when you are no longer the organist, the liturgical dancer, the one with a prophetical edge for the local church? Plenty of people rush to another church in these situations when perhaps God is simply calling them to a closer walk with Him.

Eritheia is about labouring for the wrong reasons. It is contentious and self orientated ambition. Christians, however, are to observe Jesus’ modus operandi ‘for I came not to be served but to serve’.

We all need to maintain vigilance in keeping politicking ambition out of the church.

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