Looking to the Power of God
How powerful do we feel? It is funny, but the older I get, the less I sense any personal power. To be honest, I get less and less impressed with any human power, or maybe I should say, the human exertion of force. You know Jesus was probably right, responding to the inquiry of Pontius Pilate (John 19:10-11). Pilate said to him “Do you refuse to speak to me? Do you not know that I have power to release you, and power to crucify you?” Jesus answered him, “You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above.”
When I was a teenage athlete I liked to train. I had to gain weight to play football, then cut weight to get into the weight class that I could dominate on the wrestling team. A friend, Gary Crawford, and I trained with weights in his backyard. He had lots of equipment, given his athletic family. One of his brothers pitched about five seasons with the Astros in the seventies. Those were some of the years I was using his old barbells and weights. My friend pushed for us to see what maximum weight we could press. I think he said we should try for twice our weight in the bench press. I did not make that, but I felt pretty powerful maxing 240 lbs. Nearly accomplishing the goal added nothing practical for me, so it was not in itself powerful: just personal amusement for the ego. Very fleeting!
There are all kinds of power, interpretations of power, and illusions of power. With his adage, Edward Bulwer-Lytton wanted us to consider the might of a sword compared with that of a pen. I would like to look at the prayer coming up this Sunday, the Collect for the Third Sunday in Lent. I remind you that when we look at a Collect, we are peering into expressions of faith and theology. Each prayer says something about God and something about our place before God. It not only asks something of God, but it also makes a testimony, look at The Collect of the Day for 3 Lent:
Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves: Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The petition put simply is the request that God keep us, that is, defend us, body and soul. We are asking that God guard and defend us from adversities that could happen to our bodies, and from evil thoughts that could assault and harm the soul. As the prayer begins, we find the humblest of assertions: that God knows and we know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves. This is the language of our faith, acknowledging our weakness.
Now, we do experience powerful things, personally. We do enjoy amazing qualities. Think of how your body has the power to heal. You have internal physical features and functions that allow you to ward off infection or repair skin or tissue that is torn. The person with faith in the Creator humbly points to God as the Giver of that quality. We don’t have to set bench-press records; I am just happy we can lift a fifteen-pound sack of potatoes into the grocery cart if we want to. God made us with the muscle and bone to do such a thing. These personally enjoyed abilities have limits, but we are glad we have them. God is generous.
In general terms, we admit that we have God to thank for all abilities we enjoy; we have God to thank for the gift of life itself. Here is another theological point we assert with this prayer: God is available to grant help. The Almighty chooses to be involved in the creation and to give aid to us personally. We are creatures that have physical bodies and spiritual souls. We know the kinds of things that hurt the body. It is harder for us to know what kinds of things harm the soul. Praying this prayer, we posit that evil thoughts hurt us and that God will help keep us from that.
We want health for our whole selves, our bodies, and our souls. Since we do not have the power to bring that about, we will fold what power we do have, mainly our determination and trust, into the limitless power God has. Since God loves us, we count on the One who creates and redeems for the healing power of love to make it all happen. When the priest lays hands on us for healing, she or he says, “I lay my hands upon you in the Name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, beseeching him, to uphold you and fill you with His grace, that you may know the healing power of his love.” We need that.
I finish sharing what follows so that you can make one more thing from the prayer book (BCP p. 461) your prayer always:
O God, the source of all health: so fill my heart with faith in your love, that with calm expectancy I may make room for your power to possess me, and gracefully accept your healing; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.