The Dean’s Reflections column with the Very Rev John Dobson: Using and transferring power

We might think the ceremony in Washington DC is a long way from North Yorkshire, yet we are all aware that the influence of the US president spreads across the globe, including along the Ure and the Nidd. At the cathedral, then, we are certainly praying for wisdom and sound judgement for the new president and his team, and that his inaugural ceremony passes peacefully.

From our side of the Atlantic, we have looked on in horror over recent weeks, hardly believing the scenes of deathly and destructive rampage in the US capital. Capitol Hill with its iconic buildings is the seat of the west’s most powerful democracy.

Usually speaking of stability and the peaceful use and transfer of power, it has been turned into a well-armed fortress.

A delightful historical narrative from the Old Testament was read in last Sunday’s main Eucharist (streamed from the cathedral and many other churches in these pandemic days).

God had called his people into his service, and thereby he was attempting to transform the world for the better.

This theme goes to the very heart of the Old Testament. At the time of Sunday’s passage from the book of 1 Samuel, this involved some people having to acknowledge that their day of influence and power was drawing to a close. A dynasty was changing and God was leading the way.

It all centred on a boy Samuel who had been something of a miracle baby. His mother Hannah, who had been thought to be barren, had regarded her child as a gift from God and so presented him to the nation’s premier shrine at Shiloh, where the tablets of the ten commandments were held for safe keeping in the ark of the covenant. The child would grow up as a servant of the Lord under the watchful eye and wise instruction of the senior priest and leader Eli.

One night, Samuel, hearing his name being called, assumed Eli was summoning him. In fact, it was God himself. Samuel was being called into higher service because God was not pleased with Eli.

The old priest had failed God and the people by letting his sons go off the moral rails and allowing the people to become too relaxed in matters religious. Eli’s family needed to fall from power for God’s will to be furthered and the people to flourish.

Not only was Samuel being called to take over the top job eventually, but also to inform Eli. How would Eli respond?

Would he regard this a scandalous injustice and so stir up his followers to march on Shiloh in demonstration? Indeed not. He told Samuel, ‘It is the Lord, let him do what seems good to him’.

In some ways, the old priest Eli was a failure. He had kept a grip on neither his family’s behaviour nor the nation’s observance of its faith. But he did not fail in showing humility. He accepted that God’s will was what mattered, and that God was focused on a bigger picture, the well-being of the whole people. Eli had grasped a wisdom which was a surer defence against tyranny than any political system.

Each leader has his or her own day, but not for their own sake.

Power should be taken up, used and laid down in ways that serve the common good.

Let us pray that all nations will be blessed with leaders who accept this wisdom.