Swearing Allegiance to Love
For the Scriptures say, “‘As surely as I live,’ says the LORD, ‘every knee will bend to me, and every tongue will declare allegiance to God.’” — Romans 14:11
I was introduced to this verse by a misguided man who believed it prophetically foretold the eventual conversion of the entire world to Christianity. The image of “bend the knee,” reminds me of the Queen of Dragons insisting that the Seven Kingdoms would have to “bend the knee,” and serve her. But I don’t experience God as a menacing figure forcing me to kneel.
Rather I experience God as someone who is pulling me up and helping me get on my feet. When everything in the world seems to be pushing me down, God is pulling me up. When I was experiencing emotional abuse in my marriage, God insisted I deserved consideration and care. When I was fired from my job, God insisted that my importance and value went beyond my paycheck. When I was ashamed of my mental illness, God insisted that my struggle was heroic and beautiful.
Typical marriage advice is that you have to learn to compromise and humble yourself. Trying to humble myself before my ex-husband when he insulted me just didn’t work, though. It felt like being on my face in the dirt, and believing that somehow I had to solve my problem by getting down lower than the dirt. But there is no way you can get lower than the ground itself. The entire world becomes your obstacle then, rock-hard and unresisting, impossible to move.
So when God had me kneel before Them — They moved me from a groveling position to a kneeling position. They moved me upwards.
So many men have expressed to me that their journey towards God is a journey of submission and humility. For me, my journey towards God has been a process of elevation and self-confidence. Maybe we both approach the kneeling position, but there’s a big difference between kneeling down from a high place and getting up from a low one.
And what does it mean to “declare allegiance to God?”
The first line of the Lord’s prayer is, “Father Who Art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name.” What does it mean to hallow a name, to keep a name holy and sacred? Does it mean speaking it in hushed and reverential tones? Or does it mean living up to the name’s actual meaning?!
When you live out the meaning of a word, you keep the word from being emptied of its value and worth. You care enough to make the word real.
Is “father,” a holy word in this culture? At least half of the people I know grew up scared of their fathers. The fathers were absent, grumpy, demanding, or even downright abusive. Given this social context, when we talk about God being a “father,” we’re talking about God being someone who hands down arbitrary punishments, doesn’t understand our deeper concerns, and is indifferent to our sorrows. Perhaps we’re talking about someone who abandoned us. Because of the irresponsible and occasionally criminal actions of fathers all over the globe, the word “Father” cannot be kept holy. The actions of fathers have devalued the word “Father.”
The same could be said of all the other relationship metaphors used to describe God in the Bible: mother, husband, lord, savior, friend…. Abusive parents and spouses, mean bosses (aka unjust lords) betraying politicians (aka false saviors) and flaky friends all empty out the meaning out of these beautiful words. Our failures to love our nearest and dearest, our failures to respect the people we hold power over: these are the things that un-hallow the many names of God.
So when I hear Romans 14:11, “Every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God,” I don’t see people groveling to a tyrant. I don’t see helpless conquered subjects pledging allegiance to Christian dogma like it was some sort of fucking American flag. That is not what this verse evokes for me.
What this verse evokes for me is a world where the proud are humbled and the downtrodden are uplifted, a world of equality. This is a prophetic Word that foretells a day when the words Father, Mother, Husband, Lord, Savior, and Friend will no longer be words shadowed by feelings of betrayal, disappointment, and loss.
It foretells a world where everyone has all the family they could ever possibly want. When that day arrives, the words that have been used to describe God for centuries will finally make sense. The prophecy describes a world where there are no lost and lonely children wondering where they belong. That’s the prophecy I believe in.
