"Believing That Grace Is Sufficient July 9, 2006 Pentecost 5 Proper 9

(First read the text for this sermon: 2 Corinthians 12:2-10)

Most of you know that there are three Scripture passages (plus a Psalm) appointed for each Sunday. Many of you know that, when I’m deciding which of these lessons to preach on, I choose the one that gives me the most trouble! This morning, it’s the passage from Paul’s letter to the tiny congregation at Corinth. It reveals the Christian gospel to be so odd, and so counter to our culture, that I wonder if any of us actually gets it!

In these verses, Paul is presenting the prerequisite for believing that God’s grace is sufficient. In one place he writes, …on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses. A couple of verses later he writes this: So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. How strange this is: juxtaposing boasting and weaknesses! What is going on here?

Well, first of all, the older we get, the more you and I understand weaknesses! As we age, we deal increasingly with weaknesses in our bodies, and weaknesses in our memories. The longer we live, the more mistakes we make and the more practice God gives us to learn how to forgive ourselves for our weaknesses!

But still, it is a jarring thing to read Paul boasting about his weaknesses. Aren’t strengths good? Isn’t it a good thing to discover our strengths, and to build on them?

Of course that’s a good thing! Indeed, Paul himself is not at all hesitant to celebrate his own considerable strengths. You see that when you read through chapters 10 and 11 in Second Corinthians. They provide context for this morning’s verses.

You see, Paul is dealing with the worst of problem congregations in Corinth! (Any pastor who reads the letters to the Corinthians is awfully glad s/he is serving the congregation s/he has been called to!) Not only are the members of the Corinthian congregation fighting with each other and suing each other and sleeping with each other, but Paul is also having to defend himself against members who are attempting a power play against him. Some want to take over leadership of the congregation from Paul. And they are revising the gospel Paul preached and taught when he founded the congregation. They’re adding requirements to Paul’s gospel of radical grace.

Paul is no shrinking violet! He fights back, with vigor equal to his oppenents! He asserts that his authority was given to him directly, from the Lord, Jesus Christ. With sarcasm, he writes of his opponents: I think that I am not in the least inferior to these super-apostles. (2 Cor. 11:5) He calls himself a fool, but he plays their game and demonstrates that he can hold his own in any competition with his opponents’ qualifications for leadership of the congregation. But whatever anyone dares to boast of – I am speaking as a fool – I also dare to boast of that. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. Are they ministers of Christ? I am talking like a madman – I am a better one: with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless floggings, and often near death. Five times I have received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked; for a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from bandits, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers and sisters; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, hungry and thirsty, often without food, cold and naked…

Paul has established beyond the shadow of a doubt his commitment to the gospel, and his qualifications for missionary leadership in the Corinthian congregation. But he’s not finished yet. As this morning’s passage begins, Paul adds to his list of qualifications by sharing a mystical experience that he has never told them about. He writes, It is necessary to boast; nothing is to be gained by it, but I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. (According to the rhetorical conventions of the day, now, he refers to himself in the third person.) I know a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven – whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows. And I know that such a person – whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows – was caught up into Paradise and heard things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat.

What a position of strength Paul has set out, by boasting of his experiences and background! What superior credentials of authority and service in the Lord he boasts of, against those who are contesting his authority.

But here’s the problem with this kind of competitive foolishness: that’s not the gospel of radical grace through Jesus, the Christ.

And so Paul changes his tack, in a startling way! He moves away from his position of strength. He writes, …on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses. But if I wish to boast, I will not be a fool, for I will be speaking the truth. But I refrain from it, so that no one may think better of me than what is seen in me or heard from me, even considering the exceptional character of the revelations. Now. Listen to this. Therefore, to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated.

This weakness takes Paul down a notch when he’s becoming too full of himself? What was this “thorn?” No knows. There have been many guesses by Biblical scholars over the centuries but, really, it doesn’t matter! Here is what is important: Paul is not relieved of this “thorn,” this affliction and suffering. And, here is what is most important: it is only while suffering this weakness that Paul can believe the gospel of grace.

Listen to the next thing he writes: Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness." And then Paul writes, So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

Can you and I do anything to earn God’s favor? Now! But still, how often do we think we should? How often are you motivated by guilt, thinking that there must be something more that you can do, that it’s up to you?

It is only when Paul is afflicted with debilitating weakness that he can believe this word from God: "My grace is sufficient for you.” Do you believe that? Do you believe that grace is sufficient? Or do you still cover up your weaknesses and your desperate need for that grace?

The audacious and provocative Franciscan, Richard Rohr, declares that no one younger than 35 can understand the gospel of grace! That’s because, he says, for the first several decades of life, each one of us appropriately is discovering and building on our strengths. To accomplish anything in life, it’s necessary to know what we’re good at, and to find work that makes use of our God-given talents and abilities! All of that is good and important and necessary stuff!

But it’s not the gospel. The good news of God, through Jesus the Christ is this: "My grace is sufficient for you.” And so, as we respond with our work, by doing what it is that we’re good at, you and I don’t have to be so compulsive. You and I don’t have to be so overbearing. Richard Rohr says that we should pray for one good humiliation each day! Then you and I wouldn’t have to be so harsh. You and I are given the freedom to be grace-full – to others, but most especially towards ourselves! Because anything that you and I accomplish is completed through God’s power. It is not our own strength that does it. It is all from God.

Paul writes, So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.

Is Paul being overly dramatic with all this? Or could this actually be the gospel of grace, which is impossible to understand and to believe unless we fully realize our weaknesses, and understand that God works through our failings?

This is what Paul heard from God: "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness." It’s a matter of believing that grace is sufficient.

In the name of God, who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia