The Fourth Sunday After Epiphany

Every little city and every big civilization has a peculiar false god or idol. For instance, yesterday in the New York Times there was an article on a Utility company in Sacramento that rates a home's energy consumption against the neighboring houses. Houses that use less energy get a few smiley faces while the houses that use the most get a frowny face. The idols of envy and competitiveness drive these neighbors to use less energy. Alternatively, consider New York City, or any other major city for that matter, where parents make an idol out of the schools their children attend and will go to outlandish lengths to insure that their children get into the prestigious schools. One of the idols western civilization has worshipped is power. Few men spoke of the idolatry of power as effectively as Friedrich Nietzsche, who said among many other things, "There is a universal need to exercise some kind of power, or to create for one's self the appearance of some power…" ¹ Nietzsche is absolutely correct, we all feel the need for power. Power, however, is a very dangerous idol, as someone once said, "Power, like a desolating pestilence, pollutes whate'er it touches."² I believe there are at least two reasons why power is a pollutant. First, we assume that power is authority and control, to have power means to be the boss. Second, we assume that power is force, brute force. These two assumptions about power - that power is authority, control, and force - contradict the Scriptures. Our Gospel lesson about Jesus' healing of the centurion's servant is one of the best presentations of a true and scriptural understanding of power, an understanding that turns our cultural assumptions on their heads.

In our Gospel lesson, the centurion uttered one of the profound statements on power when he said, "For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me."³ The centurion is saying that to know power is to be under the power of someone else; power is found in submission. This flips our cultural assumption of power, power is not authority and control it is submission. Is this not what St. James meant when he said, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Submit yourselves, then, to God." (James 4:7)

If power is found in submission, then power can never be brute force. Consider, again, the centurion in our Gospel lesson. The centurion had the military might to force Jesus to come to his home, yet he did not. Instead, the centurion humbly begged Jesus to stay away. The centurion's power was not revealed through force, but through humility and weakness. Since power is found through submission, power will necessary be humbling. Power, therefore, can never be gained through force, only through weakness. This is what St. Paul said in II Corinthians 12:9, "[God's] power is made perfect through weakness."

If power is found in submission, and gained through weakness, we must as ourselves "why?" In I Corinthians 1:24, St. Paul said, "Christ [is] this power of God." Therefore, our understanding of power is centered upon Jesus Christ, in whom and through whom God's power is revealed. Furthermore, in I Corinthians 1:18, St. Paul said, "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." The power of God is in Christ and is reveal through the cross. God's power is reveal in Christ through the cross because on the cross, Jesus triumphed over our two greatest enemies: sin and death. Power is submission and weakness because all power derives from the power of God and God's power is revealed through the weakness of Jesus' death upon the cross and through Jesus' submissive acceptance of the cross as Jesus said in the garden of Gethsemane, "Not my will, but yours be done."

I would like to conclude with two applications. First, in order to triumph over temptation we need to think of power, not as control and force, but as submission and weakness. The world, the flesh, and the devil bombard us with temptations everyday. No one is exempt from temptation, even Jesus faced temptation as the author of Hebrews said, "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are-yet was without sin." There is also no excuse for anyone to give in to any temptation for as St. Paul also said in I Corinthians 10:13, "No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it." Every temptation has an escape route, but we cannot find this escape route through control and force, only through submission and weakness, specifically submission to the cross of Christ. Since God's power is revealed through Jesus Christ's defeat of sin and death upon the cross, when we acknowledge our weakness and inability to defeat temptation and submit ourselves to him, his victory over sin becomes our victory over sin. When we submit ourselves to Christ, his death to sin becomes ours and dead things have no power over us nor can they tempt us. This sounds easy but we have grown up with the children's book, "The Little Blue Engine that could." We, therefore, assume that the only way out of temptation is through our power, "I think I can." However, I can think all I want about being six and half feet tall, but I have insurmountable physical limitations. I can think all I want to about being a better father and a more loving husband, but, aside from spending my time thinking instead of loving, I have selfish emotional limitations that I cannot overcome through mere thought. I can think all I want about overcoming temptations but I have sinful spiritual limitations. I cannot think my way to victory because my thoughts do not dictate reality. Instead of approaching temptation with an "I think I can" attitude, we need to approach temptation with an "I know Christ did" attitude. Because Jesus has experienced our same temptations and because he has conquered sin, when we humbly submit our lives to him and acknowledge our inherent weakness he will become our strength as it says in Scripture, "Because [Jesus] himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help [us] who are being tempted."

The second and final application is if God's power is reveal through the cross of Christ, God has chosen to demonstrate his power in our salvation. St. Paul said in Romans 1:16, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes." God has chosen to reveal his power, not through a show of force, not through violent storms, not through the might of nations but through our salvation. This means that we do not build our self-esteem through assertiveness as is so often thought and taught. Assertiveness generally assumes a worldly definition of power - control, authority, and force. If we try to find our self-esteem by being assertive, we will alienate ourselves from all other people. It is foolish to believe that I can build my self-esteem by being assertive and forcing my wife to listen to my mere opinions and controlling all the actions of my children. My self-esteem is only built and fostered through the realization that God, the creator and sustainer of the entire universe, has chosen to reveal his power not through a show of force, not through his sovereign control and not through his divine ability to command assent, but through his salvation of you and me. When we realize that God demonstrates his power in our salvation, we will have all the self-esteem we need.

Someone once said, "You shall have joy, or you shall have power…but you cannot have both."⁴ This saying is certainly true if we understand power to be force and authority and control. However, if we understand power to be God's love for us revealed upon the cross, and then power will lead to joy for nothing brings greater joy than submitting ourselves to the power of the gospel revealed through Jesus Christ. "To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy- to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen."