Fifth Sunday after Pentecost II Corinthians 12"2-10 July 5, 2009

        5Pentecost2009                                    II Corinthians 12:2-10                                     July 5, 2009
7b Therefore, to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given to me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated. 8Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, 9but he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.’ So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. “  (II Corinthians 12:7b-9)

David Tiede
Professor
Augsburg College
Minneapolis, MN
David Tiede teaches now at Augsburg College.  He’s a superb scholar and preacher and tells a story on himself about another preacher who spoke at an ecumenical service he attended.  The preacher started off, “I wear a red tie for the blood of Jesus!" The message was all about him and about how they should have faith like his.  David headed for the door as soon as the service was over.  But David’s ten-year-old son went straight to the podium. He wanted to meet this guy. David called to him, "Let's go!" "No, dad,” he said. “This is the first preacher who has ever made any sense to me!"  (thanks to workingpreacher.org)

St. Paul, in today’s II Corinthians reading, is likewise battling comparisons. There were what he calls “super apostles” shaming Paul for his lack of style and Paul reacts one way and then another.  First he assures his readers that those who discredit him are way wrong.  He has every credential in the book.  But then Paul changes his tone and says it is not his experience or his power or his gifts or his lack of gifts that matter.  What Paul learned by facing his weakness – his “thorn in the flesh,” is that he weakness wasn’t a problem for God.  In fact, his weakness became an asset in God’s gracious hands.
Even though Paul attributes his “thorn in the flesh” to Satan, Paul asks God to take it away from him, assuming God and not Satan is in charge.  Three times Paul begs God to relieve him of this “thorn.”  But the thorn didn’t go away. Whatever it was, Paul had to learn to live with it.  What the thorn was – we’re not told.  All kinds of guesses have been made.  You might have heard: epilepsy, stuttering, depression, headaches, eye problems, even leprosy, but we just don’t know.  Paul never says.
What Paul does tell us has been passed down for over 2000 years in one of the most memorized verses of scripture. When Paul begged for the thorn to be removed, he says the Lord told him, “my grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness."
 Stories abound of power coming out of weakness. The most common Christian example, of course, is the crucifixion. 

Instead of defending himself, or calling down power from heaven to defend him, Jesus chose another way.  The only way Jesus could have defended himself was to have become violent with those who accused him.  He could have fought with vengeance, but instead chose the more powerful way of vulnerability.  He chose what Luther calls “The way of the cross” in contrast to “The way of glory.” 
The way of glory looks like the powerful way – the way where everything looks like we want it to look and operates without any cost to ourselves.  The way of the cross, however, is different.  It’s counter cultural.  It’s surprising.  It’s trusting in a different kind of power where one takes risks and trusts God takes risks too.  The character Clint Eastwood plays in the film Gran Torino catches on eventually to this alternative kind of power. I won’t give it away in case you haven’t seen the film yet, but there’s a “way of the cross” ending.  It’d be a great film to discuss.
Another story of strength out of weakness is the life story of guitarist/singer Julio Iglesias.  You may know his story – a goalie soccer player in Madrid, headed for professional soccer, until he is in a major accident that left him paralyzed.  The doctors feared he would never walk again.  As he lay in bed he wrote poems and sang to battle depression. 
One day one of the nurses gave him a guitar to help him strengthen his fingers.  As he learned to play he started creating tunes to go with his poems.  He obviously had a gift.  Through great effort and support he slowly recovered much of his physical abilities – not enough to play soccer, but he’s now sold over 250 million albums and received over 2500 Music Awards.  His weakness gave opportunity for other strengths to develop..   

Another example of a strength coming out of weakness was noted the other day at our Tuesday morning Celebration Bible Study.  One shared about a discussion of comedy she had heard on National Public Radio – maybe you heard it.  TV comedy writer, Norman Lear, was on it.  He reflected on the role of Edith in the TV show All in a Family.  Now I hardly ever watched All in a Family, but I heard plenty about Edith and Archie.  On the NPR discussion Norman Lear said that he saw Edith as a Jesus figure – someone who was always transforming negative comments from Archie into positive loving responses.  She appeared weak, but she was the one was full of wisdom and grace and the power to transform the moment. 

I heard another story about a man named Sam.  When he was in high school he worked the weekend night shift at McDonalds.  One of his jobs was to empty the hot oil out of the deep fryer.  One night the drain got clogged, so he used a coat hanger to get it flowing again.  Because he had kneeled down and was under the fryer when the drain opened, the hot oil gushed down his neck, shoulders and back.  Sam was rushed to the ER with second and third degree burns.  He went through all kinds of skin grafts and mostly recovered, but he never looked the same. 
Sam was helped by a lot of therapists and decided he wanted to help others as he had been helped.  He became what Father Henri Nouwen calls a “wounded healer.”  It has turned out that Sam’s weakness – his “thorn in the flesh” has given him a sense of calling and a direction for how to best serve in the world.  He now works as a physical therapist with people who have had devastating accidents.  They share their stories as they heal.
I’m sure you know stories too of how weaknesses are used for good.  Some of you will remember my cousin’s house burned down in Running Springs near Lake Arrowhead a few years ago.  Our quilters gave her one of their beautiful quilts, which touched me, and her, deeply.   As it turns out, Sandy is now having her house rebuilt by her brother who’s a contractor who would otherwise be struggling to find work these days.  And their whole family has gathered around this project giving them unexpected opportunities to be together.

St. Paul writes, “Three times I appealed to the Lord about my “thorn in the flesh” – that I would be freed of it, but the Lord said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness. So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.”
I was very tickled the other day to hear a story from among us about the people from another church planning to offer VBS.  They were fretting over how to get the props made for Crocodile Dock.  The volunteer who was going to make the scenery was unable to do so.  They didn’t know what to do, so they prayed about it first.  Someone among us heard about it and said, “Why don’t you use our scenery?  It was great!”  In no time they were in our office excited that our abundance could fill their need and witness to the sufficiency of grace.
Our VBS offering this year is going to the children whose education we have been sponsoring from the Kagitumba Parish in Rwanda.  I went around our house and collected all the loose change I could find and put it in a container to add to what the children brought.  There’s room for more because those coins have already been rolled! And I learned that the one who rolls them also adds whatever’s needed to fill each roll. There’s such playful ways for abundance to fill up another’s lack.    
A little child the other day was told her grandmother was in the hospital with heart trouble.  Hearing this, the little girl announced to her mom, “Oh, I can’t deal with this right now.  I’m going to my room to pray.  I’m asking God to give her 5 more years.”  Now she’s 9, so 5 years, more than half her life, seems like a long time.  In her weakness of  not being able to deal with it, she turned to God as her strength.
Grace is sufficient.  It doesn’t always give us all we want. It certainly doesn’t cause accidents or afflict us with weakness in order to do us good, but when accidents or weaknesses come, as they did for Paul, God meets us there as Christ crucified and risen.  The surprise of divine goodness will always and for all eternity have the last laugh!  God’s power is the power of grace and it will never cease to amaze us!                                                                                                                   

Amen

   +Pastor Peg Schultz-Akerson, to the glory of God
Faith Lutheran Church, Chico, CA