Introduction

I’m not sure when I wrote this devotion, other than at some point while in seminary, 1985–1989, based upon the folder in which I found it this morning. The original is hand-written, undated, and bears no note about the occasion or the reason why I prepared it.

Text

Jeremiah 32:26-27

Devotion

We Americans want to admire and respect whoever fills the office of President of the United States. We see this person embodying and fulfilling our highest dreams and most noble intentions. We expect this person to deal Solomon-like with troubles and crises, meeting and overcoming all challenges. We very nearly expect this person to be almighty.

But some event inevitably arises and overcomes the President’s best intentions and efforts, and we are dismayed. Once again our idol, our President—constructed out of our own yearnings and lustings for self-sufficiency, self-determination, and self-justification—cracks, crumbles, and decays into rubble before our unbelieving eyes. So it is, has been, and always will be when humans erect their own idols and bestow upon them the title “Almighty.”

There is One, however, who bears the title “Almighty” and does not fail us. God claims of himself, “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh; is there anything too hard for me?” (Jeremiah 32:27) And before we can begin to answer that question, saying, “Well, what about …?”, God was present, molding and breathing the breath of life into the first humans, delivering Israel from its bondage in Egypt, and to our puzzlement, horror, and disbelief, dying an agonizing death over the Jerusalem garbage dump.

“Well, what about that!?” And God’s response was to raise his dead Son by the power of the Holy Spirit. In this deed, we see the love and power of the Almighty God of all flesh, for whom nothing is too hard, not even his own death.

Prayer

God, our Father, you gave yourself to us in your Son, whom we dethroned to make room for our own idols. But you raised him from death, that we might know you are almighty, loving us, your children, even in the face of death. Forgive us for placing our idols where you alone should reign. Strengthen us by your almighty love, that we may know you as Almighty God, through your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.