Title: STRENGTH IN
WEAKNESS
Focus: God reveals his power when we are powerless.
Function: To move the people to welcome hardships and struggles as an opportune time to receive God’s power and to experience his abiding grace.
Text: II Corinthians 12:1-10
Together with Melodie, we professed the Christian faith today. For some, such a profession may seem routine. You have embraced and spoken these 12 articles of the Christian faith many times before. For others, such as Melodie perhaps, professing one’s faith may be a thought-provoking, and I assume, a heart-warming, gratifying, and even a puzzling or daring step to take. For whenever we embrace the teachings of the Christian faith, we, in essence, embrace mystery.
Let’s face it: When we profess that Christ was born of a virgin, we are defying human logic and science. When we declare that Christ was raised from the dead, we are making an astonishing claim. And when we say that Christ will come again to judge the living and the dead, and to make all things new, we have entered the twilight zone of many skeptics.
Yet, all of these claims are true, biblical teachings, fully upheld and professed by the historic, Christian church throughout the ages. In other words, then, embracing the Christian faith calls for embracing mystery.
Today we enter another one of those mysteries found in the Scriptures. Listen to the apostle Paul: (vs. 10) “…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.”
There are
many things in life that you and I, by virtue of our education, may be able to
explain. But there are a number of things in the Bible that leave me
speechless. Some things cannot be taught; they are caught; some things defy
logic; they call for trust and obedience. It’s only then that we may discover
the mystery and truth of Paul’s statement when he says: “…when I am weak,
then I am strong.”
This much we can say with confidence about Paul’s hard saying in the text: God reveals his power to us and in us when we are powerless.
We find the apostle Paul in a very uncomfortable situation. He is writing a letter to the church in Corinth. And Paul is addressing a challenge—a foolish challenge, mind you—by some leaders in the church who are saying: “Paul, prove your authority as an apostle. Tell us why you should be our teacher. Give us evidence or testimonies of your qualifications as an apostle. Why should we listen to you?”
Paul hates doing this very thing because people may get the feeling that he is boasting about his gifts and achievements. Boasting in one’s accomplishments leads to pride in oneself. It leads to self-dependence, which in turn, deteriorates our trust and reliance upon God.
Boasting in Paul’s days led many male Jews to pray prayers of thanksgiving that they were not women; boasting led to Jewish national pride, where Gentiles were considered to be at best second class if not on the same level as dogs.
In chapter 11 of II Corinthians Paul echoes the boasting of his contemporaries when he says: (vs. 21ff) “What anyone else dares to boast about—I am speaking as a fool—I also dare to boast about. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they Abraham’s descendents? So am I. Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again.” Paul could floor anyone of us with his testimonies. But he is reluctant to do so, for he knows the danger of pride and self-reliance. Paul knows that God reveals his power when we are weak. Paul prefers to boast about God’s power, God’s grace in our weaknesses. That’s why he is so reluctant to respond to the Corinthian challenge of testimonies and qualifications.
I have been thinking lately about the things that you and I may be tempted to boast about as members of Calvary Church. I catch myself, at times, relying for success upon such things as:
All of these are items for which we owe thanks to God, but
they also are items that may tempt us to boast and rely upon ourselves. They
may lead to foolish pride. And that’s why we do well to listen again to Paul: “…when
I am weak, then I am strong.”
Why is Paul so reluctant to boast about his qualifications and accomplishments? For one thing, he knows history and he knows the workings of God in history. Paul knows the story of Abraham and Sarah—a childless couple, completely powerless to conceive. It’s only when there is no hope left, so to speak, when they are completely powerless, that God fulfills his promise to them. And he gives them a son: Isaac.
As a devout Jew, Paul knows the story of Israel’s exodus; how God separated the waters of the Red Sea at a moment when God’s people were completely powerless, chased by Pharaoh’s soldiers and blocked by the waters of the sea. When I am weak, then I am strong.
Paul knows the story of Naomi and Ruth and Boaz. Just when it is clear to Naomi that there is no future for her—her husbands and sons having died—God opens up the future for Naomi by giving Boaz and Ruth a son by the name of Obed, the father of Jesse, the father of King David.
And Paul knows the story of Peter. How Peter ended up in prison, waiting to be executed by King Herod. And how an angel of God freed Peter and led him to the house where the rest of the disciples were praying for him. Peter saw God’s strength at a moment when Peter was so very weak.
Paul has
learned that God reveals his power most clearly when we are weak. He learned
this also in the context of a “thorn in the flesh.” What that thorn is, we
don’t know, but Paul considers it something that relates to the devil and his
power to bring ruin or sin in Paul’s life. The thorn tempts Paul to go against
the mind of Christ. The thorn confronts Paul with his own frail, sin-spoiled
human nature, and with his own inabilities to bring praise and glory to God by
his own strength. The thorn is a pest. Yet, God does not remove it from Paul.
Why not? The Lord said to Paul: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my
power is made perfect in weakness.”
Nine years ago, I sat down with Andrew and his wife;
Andrew was 49 years old; and he and his wife had 4 children. They had just
learned from the doctor that Andrew had multiple myeloma—a deadly disease. They
were devastated by the diagnosis.
Together we talked and prayed. The next 14 months were months of trial, suffering, and fear laced with the grace of God. I walked with Andrew through the valley of the shadow of death, and it was in the valley that God’s power sustained him and his family.
On the day of his diagnosis, Andrew had no idea how he was going to cope with his illness. But he, together with his family, simply began leaning on this word of God: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Anyone who interacted with Andrew during the months of his illness until the day he died, will testify of God’s grace and power in Andrew’s life.
Many of you, I know, have similar stories. You never knew you had the strength to go through difficult times. Yet, God sustained you.
My parents lost a child. Out of that loss, devastating though it was, came unexpected blessings. With the eyes of faith, I can now see the finger of God at work directing and leading us as a family. Though my parents and I would never have chosen the pathway of death and grief, God revealed his grace precisely at that point to my family.
C.S Lewis (The Problem of Pain) has said: “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” I think that the words of Paul rouse us to take note of hardships, afflictions, and difficulties as opportunities for God to reveal his power and grace to us.
At first sight, it may not make any sense for Paul (or anyone else) to say: “…for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardship, in persecutions, in difficulties.” What does Paul know that the average person, sound in mind, does not know? Paul has experienced the truth of God’s grace. Paul has discovered that when he is weak and vulnerable, he is in the best position to receive and experience the indwelling power and grace of God.
You see, when we are weak, we learn to adopt a posture of strength. A boxer may take the stance of a fighter. A basketball player may show his strength by standing erect—7 feet tall, blocking the offense.
For you, Melodie, and for us, congregation, we must learn to adopt the posture of prayer. For that’s the posture of strength when we are weak:
On our knees
Hearts lifted up
Hands stretched out in
prayer—that’s the posture of strength in weakness.
On our knees
Eyes of faith lifted upwards
Empty hands with open
palms, receiving God’s strength, comfort, promises and abiding presence—that’s the posture of grace and hope to face the day and to enter the future.
God reveals his power when we are powerless. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.