Snakes in the Attic

 

Snakes in the attic. Yesterday I wrote of the wrestling pythons which fell out of the attic in Australia and landed in full sight on the kitchen floor. I drew a parallel with what is happening in America now. It’s a powerful image and it’s still with me. Today it feels more personal.

Those snakes of white privilege and racist and gender inequality are not confined to the attic of a nation. They were birthed in the attics of minds and hearts, and I have become increasingly aware of my own complicity in allowing them to grow simply through not noticing they were even there. There has been a self-satisfied complacency within me that assumed that since I am not an overt supremacist, then I am not personally responsible for what happens to my sisters and brothers of colour.

Jesus told his disciples (Luke 10:19) that ‘I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy’. Inequality and injustice are snakes which will continue to grow if we don’t stamp them out.

Followers of Jesus have the authority to trample on snakes and scorpions. In prayer we can prevail against the snakes in our own lives but also those threatening the stability of the nations. Jesus has given us authority in prayer. Come on, church, let’s get on our knees and pray! Not just for the USA, but for the world, our hurting, ravaged world.

I refuse to surrender to the threats to peace and stability. Jesus is the prince of peace and this is his world. The battle lines are clearer now than they have been in my lifetime.

This is a global battlefield. It is not confined to one nation, though it is perhaps very clearly seen right now on the American stage.

I am passionate that every American – especially every female American – should take up the hard-won privilege and exercise her freedom to choose and vote for the government which offers justice and freedom for all. The Democrats may not be perfect, but at least there is no shadow of an incipient tyrant in the wings.

I am also passionate that every follower of Jesus Christ should take up the sword of the Spirit in prayer, because I believe that is where the real battle for the nations is happening. It indeed started in the unseen attic of the supernatural world, and it is now in the open, writhing on the ground of our beloved world. Prayer is powerful; we have the authority of Jesus; it is not pie in the sky but real.

The battle is not over. It can be won in the prayer closet and in the voting booth.

We are all responsible.