16 March 2013 - word of power

16 March 2013 - word of power

“Never before has anyone spoken like this man.”

His words are like no other words which we hear.  And yet we treat them so cheaply.  We don't give them due attention.  We superficially acknowledge their importance, yet by how we dispose ourselves to them we implicitly deny their transformative power.  

A shield before me is God,
who saves the upright of heart;


We want to take refuge in him because our lives are not always easy.  There is pain, sometimes, and sorrow.  We know that he saves the upright of heart.  So we set ourselves to become upright and yet continue to fall.  But he invites us to let his word transform us so that he himself becomes our righteousness (wherein we will be up-right).  His life comes to us through his words, including the words he speaks through his sacraments.  It is his life in us that makes us just and no effort apart from him can help.  This is how we experience his saving help, not on our own, but as he becomes the center of our lives.

But, you, O LORD of hosts, O just Judge,


searcher of mind and heart,
Let me witness the vengeance you take on them,
for to you I have entrusted my cause!



With Jesus at the center of our lives we can experience the full vengeance of God against the enemies we really face: sin and death.  We can entrust our cause to him without reserve.  We will hold nothing back, trusting completely, not clinging to the false hope of this fading world.  With nothing held back we give God the freedom to move in power.

O Lord, my God, in you I take refuge.

There are many hardships, sufferings, and trials that may come in this life.  None of them have any power over us when our lives are given over to Jesus.  True, they often come even when Jesus is at the center.  But now they don't have the power to touch our truest self, to disturb our peace, or to limit our freedom.  In fact, they are now opportunities to love and to be transformed still more.