Josh Bascom “The Power of the Lamb”

I once spent a summer in Durham, North Carolina working at a nursing home. There was a chaplain I worked with there who led a weekly Bible Study for the men and women who lived there and one week we were reading this passage from Ephesians. The chaplain brought out some plastic toys for what felt more like a Sunday School Lesson than a conversation with mature adults. We had the entire armor of God laid out on the table; the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit, all the hits. After all the dollar store props had been put away, a soft-spoken retired Methodist pastor, easily in his late 80’s, started to chuckle. “I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do with all these weapons other than hurt myself,” he said. “Give me the power of the lamb, give me Jesus on a cross and I’ll be all set.” 

Just the way that he said this made me burst out laughing, but I also have such a vivid memory of it because of how profound his words were. We really are guilty of turning so much of the New Testament into some hokey form of self-help, into some system that gives us the false sense of being in control, of taking our hope and future and security into our own hands. 

So, if in this reading from Ephesians St. Paul isn’t directing our attention to some sort of tool kit for us to rely on when fighting our own battles in this world of toil and snares, then what, or who, is he directing our attention towards?

At the very beginning of this passage we read this; “Be strong in the Lord,” Paul says, “and in the strength of his power.” If we want to know what the power of God is that Paul is speaking about, we should look at the most powerful and significant moment in Jesus’ life, the moment that became the most powerful and significant moment in all our lives. And that moment when Jesus demonstrates the true strength of his power was when he was stripped and beaten, nailed to a cross and left to die, but then rose again. The true strength of God’s power put on display for all of us to see and rely on is the power of his love and forgiveness, the power of his weakness and sacrifice, the power of the lamb, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. 

This is difficult to hear and wrap our heads around, at least it is for me. How can weakness be power and strength? This is very counter-cultural, for every culture in every time and place as a matter of fact. But it’s also difficult for us to hear because it implies us giving up the idea of ourselves, in our own strength and control, being the solution to our own problems.  

We often make the mistake of thinking that the answer to our problems has anything to do with us because we’re often wrong about what the true problem is. Sometimes we think that our problem has to do with other people, or what other people think of us, or at least I know I do. We worry that others won’t think we’re good enough, fit enough, kind enough or respectable enough. We all want to be respected and so we fight what we think is the good fight of presenting the best version of ourselves to the world. 

I failed at this somewhat miserably recently. You see, I like to think I present myself as a relatively well-spoken and well-read kind of guy, dare I say an intellectual (laughter is encouraged here). For some reason that’s a place my ego takes me, and I try to project that out into the world so people will respect me and think well of me, want to be my friend and talk to me. This may seem petty, or even pathetic, but I’m just being honest. Well, my daughter Sarah Grace just got a new stack of books for her birthday that are part of the ‘Fancy Nancy’ book series—maybe you’ve heard of it. It follows a young girl who likes to have tea parties and do fancy things, it teaches you new words by saying things like, “she was exhausted, that’s fancy for tired.” It’s pretty clever. Nancy also speaks a little bit of French, which is of course the fanciest of languages. So a few days ago I was reading to Sarah Grace, and I read the following out loud; “Nancy, would you like to learn how to juggle?” Her babysitter inquired (which is fancy for asked). “Oy, oy, oy!” Nancy replied. Now my wife Courtney happened to be walking by right as I read this, and she burst out laughing. “Josh, it’s not oy, it’s oui, o-u-i, it’s French for yes! She’s not barking like some British punk rocker!” Needless to say we had a good laugh, and I’m still pretty embarrassed about revealing my true, not-so-fancy self. 

It turns out our problem ultimately isn’t the problem of what other people think of us. In fact, our problems, as hard as this might be to hear, don’t have anything to do with other people at all. Paul says this further on in our reading:

“For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”

This says to us that we’re talking about a different sort of power and problem, because we’re talking about a different sort of enemy. We’re not talking about political enemies, we’re not talking about the social insiders keeping us at arm’s length, we’re not talking about the boss that drives you crazy or fired you. We’re not talking about the girl who stole your boyfriend, or the guy who stole your car, your spouse who won’t take out the trash or did have an affair. We’re not talking about people when we talk about enemies, because if we were then our problems could just be cut out of our lives, or we could pick up one of those tools from our toolbox and defeat them or set them straight. What Paul is talking about is the real enemy, the enemy of pride and selfishness and deceit. What Paul is talking about it is Sin. Sin, the enemy at the root of all evil and violence and bitterness. The enemy that is bigger and stronger than all of us, the enemy that is in fact inside all of us. 

And this is important for us to realize, it’s something that Jesus hammers home time and time again. If our problem, the world’s problem, the problems that tear families and communities apart, that keep us up at night and leave us feeling broken and helpless when we watch the news, open our emails or read our text messages, if all of those problems are truly the problem of sin, then we are not only victims, but we’re part of the problem, and that means that we alone can’t be the solution. 

The weight of sin cannot be removed or broken by good examples or a handy toolbox of self-help devices, it cannot be lifted by our own power or strength. On the contrary, the Gospel is quite clear that we can only be saved by what the world calls weakness and defeat, by the Savior who, in an excruciating death, lays down his life for us all. The power of God that St Paul urges us to rely on, to lean into when life simply feels like it’s too much, or when you feel defeated, or lost or broken, that power is the power of Christ’s passion, death and resurrection for you and me. That power is the power of love and grace, the power of the lamb. 

While mercy and meekness, grace and forgiveness, sacrifice and loss may not seem to be a formidable power in this world that we navigate, with all of its strain and struggle, there is another world where grace reigns above all else. And that world came violently crashing into ours two thousand years ago, delivering to us the very power we need. We need the weakness of mercy, the vulnerability of forgiveness and the ego-defeating gift of God’s grace, love for the unlovable, and redemption for all. Through the true power of God’s body and blood, broken and shed for us, we have all been given true strength that will see us through this life and into the next. 

Amen