What Only God's Power Can Do

Beloved in Christ, 

A few weeks ago, I noticed a particularly gnarly ice dam had formed at one corner of the roof of our house. As any Minnesotan knows, if not caught early, ice dams can be a particularly intractable challenge. Lacking other ideas, I grabbed a pick axe out of the garage, climbed up on a ladder, and tried to chip away at it. I soon resigned myself to what any reasonable person could have predicted before I started: my efforts were moderately effective at best, and I quickly reached the point where I was in serious danger of doing violence to my house, or myself. So I came down, went inside feeling defeated, and a few days later the sun did its thing and melted the dam during an unusual warm spell. 

We often approach our lives, and the world around us, like I approached that dam. We imagine if we exert maximum effort, anything we seek to do will just happen. We can fix anything, or save anyone, if we just try hard enough. In the process, we often do violence to ourselves and one another by trying to impose our will on the world through brute force. Indeed, as we look at the state of our nation in this moment, we have a clear example of the violence that can be done when an individual or institution seeks to impose its will or its vision on the world through force. 

The scriptures establish over and over that this ultimate faith in our own power is the root of sin, of injustice, and brokenness in the world. Our first parents are tempted by the serpent: “eat this fruit and you will be like God.” And in this week’s gospel lesson, Jesus is tempted by Satan to feed himself, save himself, and possess all the kingdoms of the world. 

Lent is a season when we are called to recognize the limits of our own powers and abilities to fix, to save, and to restore, to repent from the damage we do when we exceed those limits, and most importantly, practice making room for the power of God’s love to shine through and do the work of saving and healing that only God’s power can do. 

Following Jesus means doing everything in our power to join God’s work of healing the world with love, and remembering that ultimate power does not reside with us. We act for love, we work for justice, but we always act and work in a way that makes room for the warmth of God’s love, and joins God’s power, until the whole world is enfolded in its perfect embrace. 

Grace and Peace, 

Hannah