Texts: 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, Mark 6:1-6
Perfect Power Through
Weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9)
Our meditation for this morning is based upon our Epistle reading from 2 Corinthians. I will read the last verse again that summarizes the message: “For Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (12:10)
Here in these simple words that roll so easily off the tongue is contained one of the world’s most profound mysteries. In this paradox that seems to make no sense in real life is hidden the key to a joyful and purposeful life. The key to an experience of life that escapes most of us. And I must include myself in this category, because when it comes to the things that the apostle Paul speaks about, I can only wonder with amazement how superficial my faith and my living really are in comparison. So let me invite you on a journey into the Word of God to gain greater vision of the Spirit-filled life that we have been called to in our Baptism.
The Spirit-filled life, the new life we received when we were baptized, is really a life that is filled with contradictions when compared to the natural, self-directed life of the world. That is why we often are confronted with paradoxes and what appear to be contradictions when we turn to the Word of God. The reason for this is that the spirit of the world and the Spirit of God operate under quite different principles. The principle the world operates under is death. Death is the greatest inescapable power in the world. It holds the whole world captive. Whatever we try to do, work hard or go on vacations, save up money or buy things, stay healthy or indulge ourselves, be popular, virtuous, successful, in control, in the end we all are overcome by the same fate: death. No matter what we try, the world can only offer death to those who belong to it.
Then there is the Spirit of God. Its controlling principle is life. This life was revealed when Jesus appeared on earth. It is more powerful than darkness and death. Wherever it shines its light, death and darkness flee away. But if this is true we may ask, “Why then is there still so much darkness, sin, and evil in our world? Why has God’s light not long succeeded in routing darkness and death once and for all?”
Here we come to another important difference between how the spirit of the world and God operate: The world’s spirit seeks to control and enslave those who come under its influence. God’s Spirit, however, gently woos the objects of His love and gives us absolute freedom to reject his advances in our life at any time. God never establishes control over us and only takes control of those areas in our lives that we willingly yield to Him. The reason for this is that he wants to develop a relationship with us based upon faith, upon trust. That is the greatest thing that God’s Spirit desires to accomplish in our lives: That we might believe in Him (John 6:29). In contrast, the spirit of the world rapes, steals, plunders and destroys. It wants to take over control of our lives so that we can no longer do what we really want to do so that in the end, we can no longer distinguish between what is good and wholesome and what is bad and destructive. It wants to keep us in the dark about the truth of God’s love for us. It wants to kill the life of faith that God wants to establish within us. But it can only to this to the extent that we allow doubts about God’s love to enter and poison our minds.
When Jesus came to his hometown, we heard in our Gospel lesson that the people took offense at his message. Of course they were proud to have a famous miracle worker in their midst, but Jesus was looking for more than admiration. He was looking for faith. A faith that involved denying yourself, taking up your cross and following him. But we are told that Jesus could not do any miracles there and that he was amazed at their lack of faith. These people could not accept that the One born among them was their Creator, their Saviour, and Judge.
God requires faith. That is why the apostle Paul, when asking God to relieve him of his thorn in the flesh, was denied his request. God wanted Paul to remain physically weak so that he would remain spiritually strong. Paul understood that his spiritual weakness was that he might become conceited because of his great knowledge and that he might begin to boast in his own strengths, thereby denying the power of Christ (2 Cor. 12:7). Jesus assured Paul: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” To this Paul responded in bold faith: “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” (9b)
This message is difficult even for us to understand. It is not until one has suffered severely that one can begin to understand this. Let me share with you the wisdom an Egyptian Christian learned through his sufferings: “With suffering you discover a different Jesus than you do in luxury. It’s like this: Pain forces you to deal with the weakest point of your personality. First you give up on yourself, but eventually it becomes wonderful because you realize Christ loves you even though you are so weak.”
How did this young Egyptian, only in his early thirties, come to such a deep knowledge about suffering? Because he was a convert from a Muslim family, he was jailed in the early 1990’s and tortured. He was stripped naked, prodded with electric batons, hanged by the hands and put into a tiny hole-cell with no light for three months. The cell was nicknamed “the experience” by the prisoners.
Like other prisoners, he did not emerge unscathed. “I came out shattered, weak and weeping. Sitting in the dark silence, with only my own breathing, I felt like St. Anthony in the desert-completely abandoned. All my sins, all my weaknesses, swam into my mind with vivid colours, and I saw how weak I was. I cold not even come out of the torture looking triumphant. All the things I was proud of I became ashamed of. Even my Christian testimony became an object of shame.”
This is the strength of weakness personified, when a man can be put into a smelly hole, stripped of all self respect, and still emerge even more human because he was able to hold on to the one great fact that makes us truly distinctive – that we are loved by God.
This is what weakness does. It forces us to accept the love of God to an extent that is utterly transforming, changing us from self-dependence to God-dependence. That is why Christians who have experienced persecution for their faith often seem to be more loving, more generous people. They have gone through this process. Their faith has been tested and tried. Having utterly to rely upon God they have learned to live by faith through the Spirit and not just by what the world has to offer.
John Drane, professor of practical theology at Aberdeen University, says that in the West, the church is growing primarily among what he terms “the corporate achievers.” He says, “They come to church to take control of their lives. They see Christianity as giving them a way of managing relationships like they are already managing their careers.”
But the last thing they want to hear about is their weaknesses. What they want to hear about is power. In fact, their whole professional lives are spent denying they have any weaknesses at all. And sadly, it is an attitude that gets brought into the church. They want services that meet their felt needs and which help them succeed with what they want to do with their lives.
Perhaps we too expect the church to make us feel good about ourselves. Perhaps we are resisting the work of the Holy Spirit when we try to avoid facing the reality, thinking that we are not really such “poor, miserable sinners” who deserve nothing but God’s “present and eternal punishment” (Confession of Sin, Lutheran Worship). As a result we know nothing of weakness, and so we know precious little of God. How poor we really are!
The apostle Paul
distinguished himself from the “super-apostles” of Corinth by boasting of his
weaknesses. We have to learn to follow his example and that of our persecuted
brethren. May we be blessed with such faith that can delight in “weakness, in
insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.” May we be blessed
with a faith that can accept not getting things our own way and still be able
to say, “For when I am weak, then I am strong.” May we be blessed with a faith
that can pray with Lady Julian of Norwich, “Wound me Lord, for it is only
through my wounds I can receive your healing love.” Amen.