Sermon for July 5th

“Whenever I am weak, then I am strong”, Paul says. Paul prayed, appealed, pleaded to God for help. Paul prayed that God in all his immense power would take away Paul’s weaknesses. The Lord said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” In weakness, even in suffering, in death—there, right there, is where God abides, when he stays, where he makes him home. Right there in your suffering and in your weakness, this is where you will find God for you, in all his power and in all his majesty. Not in glory, but in the cross. Not in your strength, but in your weakness.

Power, miracles, strength, prosperity, perfection. These are what we want, what we have been taught that God is all about. Ask around and people will tell you that God must be omnipotent, omnipresent, unchanging, untouchable, unimaginable. But these fancy words, these images and symbols of glory are a mirage leading to a God far from us reigning up in heaven somewhere. A God of ideas and myths—a God of glory. So God, the Father of Jesus Christ, gave you a different path to life, a road he struggled down himself first, a way to the cross. You have a God who died, a God cursed, a God who bleeds, a God who cries, a God who cries out, a God wounded, a God spit on, a God abandoned. A God of flesh and blood just like you—a God of the cross.

Paul was struggling with what he called a “thorn in his flesh”. A “messenger of Satan” he called it. Was it a temptation? A disease? A limitation of some kind? The Lord only says, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect is weakness.” In North Dakota, in the middle of winter, four farmers stared into a freshly dug grave looking for the frostline, looking for signs of Spring—the end of Winter and the promise of a new hope. Paul had been looking for God to manifest his power in glory, but he is pointed, instead, to the cross. Where the promise of new life, of strength, of hope is found in death and an empty tomb.

One moment, Paul is pleading for God to deliver him, the next moment he finds true deliverance in a God who does not just save him from pain and death, but who enters into that pain and death and settles in. But not simply in solidarity. Jesus has come not to merely ease the pain, to take away your weaknesses, so that you might continue on the glory road. He has come for you. He has come, finally, to take you away from pain and death once and for all. To bring you into a new life where there is no suffering.

Why does Paul say that he is content? Why does he say that he is content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ? It is counter cultural both in his time and in ours. We are a society that thrives on becoming better and better, at easing suffering, at improving our weaknesses ourselves, at evading as many hardships as possible. When people are being persecuted in foreign lands, we are not content, are we? No, we are enraged! When calamities happen, tragedies occur and we buckle underneath the sadness, we may be depressed, shocked or paralyzed, but not content.

But Paul says he is even more than simply “at ease” with these things, the word “content” could just as easily be translated as “to delight in, to approve of”. Paul delights in his weaknesses and the insults he receives. He approves of these hardships, persecutions and calamities he is going through. How? Why? I encourage you NOT to assume that you should also approve of the sadness in your life. Suffering cannot be denied. This is much more than just some psychological attempt to “put on a happy face”. Paul is not supporting self-denial.

In fact, just the opposite. Paul is not denying the weakness he has to put up with. Paul does not pretend that the insults do not hurt. Paul admits that he is being persecuted, he is experiencing hardship, he is in the midst of tragedy BUT HE IS NOT ALONE there! Paul finds himself in the pit of despair and lo and behold there is Christ already at his side! And Jesus does not stay silent, but gives strength. Gives power. Give all of himself to one who is both powerless and weak and hopeless apart from this one and only Savior.

And so Paul is content to trust God’s power, God’s presence, God’s salvation rather than to simply trust in his own abilities. He delights in this fact. He even boasts of how weak he is! Laughing, taunting the forces of sin, death and the devil to take their best shot at him, or have they already done their worst?! “Death, where is thy victory! O Hell, where is thy sting!” This “thorn” in my flesh is not mine alone, Paul says, but is imbedded into my Savior as well. And not a cross, not a nail, not a tomb and not even death has ever held Him down.

“O Lord, Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night.” Even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you.”

You will struggle and suffer and cry out for help to God. But you need only whisper the words to a God who is right here with you. Holding you in your weakness. Listening to your every need. God has come down in the flesh for you, on a cross, in a grave, and even so far as into hell, so that you will never be as strong as when you are at your weakest. For in your darkest hour, there is where you will find the light of the world. There is where you will find your faith. There is where you will find the hope of the hopeless. There is where you will find your Savior, Jesus Christ. His grace is sufficient for you. In your weakness, you may cling to Jesus for your strength. Amen.