God’s Strength in Our Weakness
Year B - Proper 9 (14)
2 Corinthians 12:2-10 •
Psalm 123 •
Mark 6:1-13
Who here loves their weakness? Who here would love to tell people about all of their struggles and sickness and ignorance? Weakness and pain are not things that we like. They are not things that society lift up, but God is telling us today that our weakness can actually be really good. Our weakness can be the place where God enters it, it can be the place where his strength shows itself, it can be the place where we find healing, life, and purpose. In contrast, our strengths can be the things that stand in the way, becoming hurdles and stumbling blocks. As Paul says, “I will boast all the more in my weaknesses, so the power of Christ may dwell in me”.
First, let's approach how we look at and approach our strengths and others - Paul calls it boasting. The one time that Paul is willing to boast about strength is not in himself but in a friend. But Paul is not willing to boast about just anything. He gives a very specific example of a friend who was brought up into heaven to see and hear great unrepeatable mysteries. In this strange example what is Paul boasting about? We can surmise a few things. First, this friend is still alive or else Paul wouldn’t know. Second, if God is revealing something so grand and secret it likely comes through a faithful and trusted relationship. So, Paul is boasting about someone who has an amazing relationship with God and has been given heavenly gifts for it. Someone who has a strong and dedicated prayer life, who works diligently in acts of service and devotion to worship and reading. Paul is boasting in someone that God finds trustworthy through faith. This is the only strength Paul is willing to boast in because it is the only strength that truly points to a good - because it points people to God. All other boasting ultimately points to the person, or an object, or a particular skill. All of these things without God at their centre are not actually good. The skill to play basketball without God will lead someone astray and even those watching. The willingness to give without God will mean that someone will likely do it out of self-interest, only targetted giving, they will give with strings attached, or to lead someone astray, or will take only a few moments later. I could go on, but I think we have all seen where strength has even obviously led someone astray.
One of the biggest problems about boasting or praising a strength - ours or someone else’s - is that we almost always puff it up. We make a strength into something more than it is - and at that point, it is no longer good, because it is a lie. We too often look at a skilled athlete or actor and expect that this strength means they will also be a great icon for us or even an idol. We too often can align ourselves with a person or community’s set of ideas because we have agreed with a few things. We praise someone’s work or effort, while not praising what is truly good and right. When I was an actor I always struggled with praise. When I finished a show people would say great job etc. but people were often so willing to throw around praise that it felt disingenuous pretty quick and I didn’t know what was true. I started to look for the people that I knew would be honest, and who were willing to speak to both sides. The same happened when speaking to actors, they all wanted to boast about what they were up to, which made those who didn’t have an active role feel worse. Boasting in the wrong way that isn’t God centred has a way of lying both by puffing up and by tearing down.
The worst part about boasting our strengths or the strengths of others is that it can actually get in the way of God. I should be clear, our skills are gifts from God, but that doesn’t mean that they are used as gifts to God. When we trust in ourselves, our own capacity to such an extent that we feel like we don’t need God, or we even ignore him for moments, our gifts are now standing in his way. Too often we say, “We can do it on our own”. Sometimes things go alright, but just as often we can’t. This is just another version of a puffed-up boast - it is a lie about ourselves.
We get a strange example of this strength getting in the way of God in our gospel today. Here is Jesus - the Son of God, the worker of miracles. He goes back to his hometown and people are genuinely impressed with his wisdom and understanding. This is something true. Yet, almost at the same moment, they are trying to reconcile this with what they know about Jesus’ family. They take offence, they don’t believe in him, because they feel like they know more than what is right in front of them. The wisdom they can literally hear and understand is disregarded because of a puffed-up pride. They lift themselves and they lower Jesus. It was true that Jesus was born of Mary and this might have been a low place to start, but God was speaking through him. What is the result of their pride and lacking belief? God’s miracles and wonders didn’t manifest in their midst. Jesus was only able to heal a few people, why, because those sick people were the people that saw their own weakness and were willing to lean on God.
Paul says, that he won’t boast about himself, even though what he would say would be true. Why? Because he wanted everyone to experience what was true. Paul wanted people to experience the wisdom and wonders that God had been working in his life - not just to hear it second hand. He wanted people to know, see and experience that he had a strong relationship with God. Why? For a lot of reasons. So that they couldn’t understand what a relationship with God looks like. So they could know that God walks with and works with people. So they could build their relationship with God - and more. You see Paul doesn’t just want to boast in what is true, he wants to share the truth that is the greatest good. In this, Paul has to trust that God will keep working through him and with him.
We are, often, called to lean on our lack, as an act of faith. Stepping out in faith is acting when we don’t know what will happen. When we don’t have control, when we don’t have or aren’t enough, faith is following God and trusting that he will do what we can’t. Sometimes we are forced into these moments and we have to decide will we take a step of faith and trust God, or sometimes we are called to these steps of faith. Will we trust you God enough to show up and work? The first disciples of Jesus were called to do this. They left their homes and families without any supplies and were told to go to towns and find strangers to stay with, to speak of God’s Kingdom and to work miracles. Think about this. They would be walking for miles, hours between towns, in the heat of day, just expecting that God would provide them with someone that they could stay with. And almost always God would provide and this would lead to greater faith and the disciples working wonders and miracles that are beyond our understanding. They stepped out in faith and God would meet them. How might God be calling you to step out in faith - to do his work or to share is Kingdom?
Now we come to the hardest part of this topic, when we have a weakness that is hard to bear. Many of us will be able to name something that we are struggling with. Maybe it is grief or distance. Maybe it is something mental and emotional like a trauma, anger or depression. Maybe it is something physical like a sickness or limitation. Maybe it is not having enough of something - a job, money, time, energy. When we come face to face with these weaknesses, these struggles that are forced upon is it can be very hard. We don’t want them. Paul speaks about a thorn in his side sent by the devil - it is a big ambiguous, if this is something physical, spiritual, mental or other - but Paul doesn’t want it. He prays to God again and again to take it away and God doesn’t. We have been there. We have struggled with things and God doesn’t just take them away. We have to trust God in our weakness.
God tells Paul something interesting - “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness”. This is difficult but helpful. God is calling Paul to trust God in what he is already giving. Even if God doesn’t do what Paul is asking God is still acting graciously for Paul and giving him good things. In fact, God is saying far more, he is saying that this thorn in your side will actually work for your good - as power will be perfected in you. This is hard to see in a moment, but we can trust that God is working through all of our suffering to turn it into something good - the hard part is trusting him enough to follow him to that good. We can understand God’s power being manifested in our weakness in many ways, and the bible is full of these situations, but I can’t go into them.
The important thing for us now is to recognize what we lean on. We are probably used to leaning on our strengths and depending on ourselves, but this should only be the second, third or fourth place we lean. Instead, we should be leaning on God and his strength - even leaning on our weakness as an act of trust in God. We need to lean on him so that when our strength falls short, which it will, we will see and know a far greater strength that is perfected in our weakness. AMEN
Boasting in another’s relationship with God
False boasting - Puffed up
Thinking too highly of ourselves can get in the way of God’s work - and our faith - the sick were the only ones who were healed
Even true boasting can get in the way of God - judge by the words and acts
Purposeful leaning on weakness can be an act of faith
God’s strength will come through
Those weaknesses that are laid upon us
