Lent Meditation March 1: All Things Are Possible Through God Who Strengthens Us
Judges 13:15-24 Mark 3:7-19a Philippians 4:8-13
All Things Are Possible Through Christ Who Strengthens Us
In each of these passages, God brings a message of deliverance and hope to his people in an unusual and dramatic way. In Judges, the angel of the Lord tells Manoah and his wife of the coming birth of a son, Samson, a gift of fertility for them and miraculous physical strength to deliver Israel from the Philistines. In Mark, after Jesus is almost crushed by the crowd seeking access to his healing powers, Jesus bestows special authority on the 12 apostles to preach and drive out demons. In Philippians, Paul witnesses to the gift of strength and faith to achieve righteousness and peace, even under challenging circumstances. The circle of divine blessing widens with each passage, from a family (and a nation) to a select 12 and those they can touch, to all believers who can read or hear Paul’s letter.
But encounters with the divine, and our response to them as humans, are not simple or easily grasped. The mystery of God’s name and the angel’s miraculous flaming exit in Judges are echoed by Jesus’s puzzling command to the demons not to reveal his true identity, and by Paul’s assertion that he has learned the “secret of being content in any and every situation.” Our reaction to the divine message—as to the uncertain circumstances we experience in life—is sometimes fear and confusion, as exemplified by Manoah’s initial terror that, having “seen God,” he and his wife will die. Alternatively, we can react with the faith and hope that Manoah’s wife demonstrates in convincing him that God would not have visited them, blessed them, and accepted their sacrifice only to kill them.
Paul’s witness brings home the message most clearly: In life we may experience times of plenty and of want, times of joy and of sorrow, but through it all God gives us strength, if we accept it, to have peace, by meditating on what is true, noble, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous, or praiseworthy, and then going out and living our lives in accordance with those virtues. The physical strength given to Sampson depended on his following certain rules of behavior. The gift of strength Paul describes enables us to act consistently with Christ’s example regardless of the circumstances, relying on faith to achieve a peace beyond human understanding.
We just returned from visiting our sister church—the First Presbyterian Reformed Church in Havana—whose circumstances compared to ours epitomize the contrast between want and plenty Paul describes. The church has a t-shirt, worn by its members, which is emblazoned with the text of Philippians 4:13: “Todo lo puedo en Cristo que me fortalece.” (I can do anything through Christ who strengthens me.)
Strengthen us, God, to go out into the world as a living witness to your message. Fortify us with your gifts, God, when we live in fear of being overwhelmed by the multitude of demands in our lives. Help us to remember that all things are possible through you.
Jim Bird & Betsy Merritt
