“Do you renounce the devil and all the forces that defy God?”
“Do you renounce the powers of this world that rebel against God?”
“Do you renounce the ways of sin that draw you from God?”
You may recognize these three blatant take-a-stance questions from the Affirmation of Baptism in our beloved Evangelical Lutheran Worship liturgy. The congregation is guided to honestly reply to each with “I renounce them.”
Each time we use this liturgy we are reminded what a life of faith entails: decisions that are so earth-shaking that we say them as a community in a worship service with words so adamant that they echo off all the walls.
Every year, the first Sunday in Lent is some rendition of Jesus and Satan and power. Three times, Satan magnanimously offers Jesus power that doesn’t belong to Satan. Three times, Jesus renounces these false offerings. You see, it’s not a coincidence that we, ourselves, are called to renounce three times in our faith journeys.
In these forthright Lent 1 stories, Jesus and Satan look at power. Notice that their points of view are entirely different. Satan prefers “power over” where there is top-down authority, might-over-right dominion, and a falsely manipulative use of Scripture.
Jesus counteracts those forceful thrusts with his new-yet-old “power with” where justice is granted first to the neediest, where love is offered to one’s enemy, and where accompaniment is how we show God’s compassion, curiosity, and hope.
During these next forty days, Lent calls us to pause in our hectic lives to ponder, to question, and to pray. I encourage all of us to go deeper: at various times in our lives we need to come to terms with things that have power: money, success, family, faith, education, popularity, vocation, etc. Ask yourself: what is my relationship with money? What is my relationship with any or all of that list that seeks to have power over me?
Then go even deeper and ask: do these power-driven things defy God? Do these power-full items cause me to rebel against God? Have these commonplace goals become idols that draw me away from God?
Friends, this meditative time of Lent is a prime opportunity to come clean about our own power and our uses of it. Lent invites us to ponder and then to repent. And then we are once again welcomed into the open arms of Jesus.
This open-armed Jesus is the one who already renounces abusive power, negligent treatment of others, and systems of intolerance.
This Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Prince of Peace is the one who uses his power to be in a relationship with us. He would rather walk alongside us than rule over us.
Let’s take some quiet time during Lent to come to terms with what our faith is all about. We are who we are because of who Jesus is. Let’s share and invite stories that highlight our own ways that we relate with others—as Jesus does. Because I believe that faith is all about how we relate with others through forgiveness, mercy, grace, hospitality, tolerance, and openness to the Holy Spirit’s activity.
Let us pray: Lord God of power and might, thank you for loving us into loving others. Thank you for walking with us so that we may walk with others. Thank you for deepening our faith so that we can forgive and learn and grow. Protect us from powers that seek to divide us from each other. Give us the energy to boldly renounce the powers that want to separate us from you. Then bless us with your love, peace, and kindness so that we may so the same for others. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
