How shall we be in integrity while holding power? And what does that mean? That's the question.

So I've been thinking about vows. I've been

thinking about vows because one of my teachers had us go through

this process where we released vows that were not serving us,

that we might have made by inadvertent processes in the

early parts of our lives. And, whoooo, was that powerful? I

wasn't surprised, of course, it was powerful. How could that

work not be powerful. And, you know, sometimes when you release

something, you can just let it be released. And that's it, it's

like a bird, it flies away, no problem. Other times, when you

release something, you're left with something, you're left with

a hole, it removes itself from a space, and you have to decide if

that space is just going to get kind of healed over. Like if you

have a tooth pulled, or if you're going to put something

back in that space. We learned in science when I was, I don't

know, in seventh grade or so that nature hates a vacuum. As

it turns out, that's very true. Any open space will eventually

be filled in by something. And so the question that I've been

thinking about and wrestling with and praying on this morning

is what happens when we release some of those really deep,

ingrained vows, especially ones around things like money and

power. And specifically, I got to thinking about vows of

poverty. Now, vows of poverty, historically, very connected to

religious practice, across different faiths, many vowed

religious people make a vow of poverty, and they make a vow of

poverty, to devote themselves more fully to the work of the

Spirit. That's, that's the usual shape of the thing. And the idea

is not that they are so poor that they can't eat or can't

have a place to sleep. The idea is that the church, the

religious institution of one kind, or another, takes care of

them. And they, in turn, devote their time and energy and

talents and spirit, to the relationship with the sacred.

And to this kind of religious leadership. And there are lots

of good reasons why that's true. It's easier if you don't have

any other commitments, to devote yourself to a community or to a

tradition. And it does sort of help focus you because there's

nothing else. Right. So there are things that people do, there

are reasons that people make, deliberate vows of poverty that

makes sense in context. So I'm not, I'm only thinking about

those as the beginning point. Because I think, I know I have,

I know a lot of other people, especially people, liberal

people, have made similar vows, but kind of by accident; looking

around seeing at the kinds of destruction that wealth and

power have wrought on our world. And deciding that, you know, in

the, in the common parlance, "eat the rich," right, that that

there is some level of wealth above which wealth is immoral.

And I don't actually have an argument with that, I think

there is a level of wealth above which, there's no way to have

accrued it without causing immense harm. And I don't want

to be part of something that causes immense harm. However,

there's a lot of space between that and poverty. And we live in

a world at this point where nobody, and I mean, nobody

should be going without housing without food, without clothing,

without their basic needs met, like that should just be a

given. And it's not. And that, that's a gut punch every time I

think about it. And also, there are a lot of people who are

between those two poles.There are a lot of folks who have

some, but not really enough to get by. They're making it but

they're making it by the skin of their teeth. And I have been in

that position in my lifetime over and over and over. So I'm

thinking about this in a very personal way. Well, what does it

mean? What does it mean to accidentally swear that you're

never gonna be rich, because rich people are bad? Because

that's what we do. And then I was thinking about, well, there

must be, as there are, right, when I think about intensives

and expansives, I figured out who intensives were and then I

was like well, there must be another end to this spectrum. So

if there are people who inadvertently make vows of

poverty, there must be people also in our world who are

inadvertently making vows of prosperity,

and I don't mean Prosperity Gospel, like, let's just not

even, I'm not even going there. You can look it up on Wikipedia

if you want. But that is not what I'm talking about. But,

people who, in the going about their lives, either because

their families were prosperous, or because their context was not

prosperous, and they were not doing that, make a vow of

prosperity, they make a vow that that is never going to be them,

that they are going to rise up from that position, to a place

of prosperity. And stay there. I think a lot of immigrants do

this. I'm pretty sure my father did this. But I think a lot of

people who aren't immigrants do this, too. I think that there is

a stratum where about half the people make a vow of poverty

because they're so hurt and angry at what wealth has done in

our world, and the other half make a vow of prosperity because

they are not about to get trapped under the boot of class

inequality. So I've been thinking like, what would it

mean for me to take a vow of prosperity? What would it mean

for me to take a vow of prosperity? And by thinking I

mean, it came to me in prayer, and then I had to think about

it. But you don't have to arrive there that way. You can get

there by straight-up logical means. What does it mean to take

a vow of prosperity. And this got me thinking about power and

the intersection of power and money, which, as some of you

know, is a big deal to me, I think about it a lot. When you

take a vow of poverty, you are relinquishing access to a

particular kind of power. Not all power, but you are

relinquishing access to the power that comes with having

money in what we live in, which is a capitalist society. You may

be gaining other kinds of power, or not, depending on your

community, depending on the context of power. But you're

definitely relinquishing access to that particular power that

comes with wealth. So when you take a vow of prosperity, first

you have to define prosperity. Is it about money? Is it about

other kinds of resources, social prosperity? Is it about... is it

about resource prosperity? What is the vow really? Because

prosperity is this kind of amorphous word where we

understand poverty to be very closely linked to money, we

don't really think about what that means on the other side. So

first, I'm thinking about like, what would prosperity mean to

me? I have so much prosperity already. I have lots of

prosperity, just not to do with money. But I have prosperity

when it comes to that kind of prosperity when it comes to

social context. I have prosperity when it comes to

resources. I have prosperity when it comes to the resources

that come from social context. I have deep and abiding

relationships that help to hold me up, that offer me shelter,

that offer me care, that offer me a buffer that other people

don't have. So what would prosperity mean? What would a

vow of prosperity mean? How would it be different from

what's happening right now? Where would I be directing it

and then, and then it's about thinking about this power piece.

Because if you vow, poverty, you're removing something. But

when you vow, prosperity, you're vowing access to, whether or not

you access it, you're vowing access to that particular kind

of power that comes from prosperity. You're vowing access

to resources, you're vowing access to a bunch of stuff. And

most of us who make inadvertent vows of poverty, do so at least

in part, because we don't want to be like somebody else, or

some other institution, or some entity that we've seen be evil

with power that we perceive having come from money. So what

happens instead, when we vow prosperity, and access to those

kinds of power, whether we choose to access them or not.

We're vowing access to those kinds of power. And immediately

it becomes obvious to me that you can't make that, I can't

make, a vow of prosperity in integrity, in isolation. Because

prosperity happens in community, prosperity happens

as a result of community, of interaction of resources, of

things that are not actually mine. But things that I might

have access to for a while. And prosperity brings with it this

power. And so there needs to be a vow, or several vows, that go

with it. Vows like integrity, vows like kindness, vows like

generosity, in order to ensure, to the greatest extent possible,

that prosperity is not a corrupting force. Because I

think that's what we're mostly afraid of, is that we will be

corrupted by it. We will be corrupted in its presence. We

will be corrupted, and then we will wield the power that we got

from the prosperity for less good ends, or for bad ends. And

the only way, the only way to mitigate that possibility,

because it's a real possibility, we can't turn away from it. When

we are deliberately accruing power in some way or other,

including via prosperity, then we have to engage the questions

of kindness and generosity. We have to engage the questions of

integrity, how will we stay in integrity when we have power?

And that's the question isn't it? So often, when people rise

to power their integrity cracks, and people who were amazing lose

some of their shine. I don't know a single person who wants

to be that person. I do know people who have been that

person. I don't want to follow in their footsteps. So

how, how will we stay in integrity? How shall we be in

integrity while holding power? And what does that mean? That's