2 Corinthians 12:2-10, Mark 6:1-13
Don’t you hate it when God doesn’t answer your prayer the way you want him to? I know I do. It’s hard to pray for something - especially when you believe you are praying for something that really lines up with what you think is God’s will for healing and wholeness and goodness for all - and God’s answer isn’t the one you want. The apostle Paul shares his own experience of this in our reading from 2 Corinthians. We don’t know what, but something is going on in Paul’s life that he labels as a torment. So being Paul, he naturally prays about it. Three times he asks God to take it away, this “thorn in his flesh.” But God doesn’t do it. Instead God answers with this, My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness. Which is a fancy way of saying “No. You’re not going to get the answer you want. You’re going to have to live with the situation. But you are going to be ok. And not just ok, but better than ok because your weakness opens you up to my strength.”
That’s difficult to hear. For one thing, who likes to hear the word “No”? But even more than that, what’s particularly challenging is how God’s message contradicts our culture. I mean today is Independence Day. A day we celebrate the anniversary of our country’s Declaration of Independence from England. But along with that we also celebrate the value and virtue we put into being independent as people. People of strength and power and self-sufficiency. Yet if we only go through life in that type of mode, feeling that we can pretty well handle anything life throws at us, then that doesn’t leave much room for God.
We see this very dynamic at play in our reading from the gospel of Mark. The people of Nazareth believe that they’ve got things pretty well figured out. Jesus returns to his hometown and preaches, and the people think, “Wait a minute. We know Jesus. He’s the local carpenter. And we know his family. Who does he think he is? Where does he get off thinking that he’s better than us?” The people of Nazareth are so full of themselves that they leave no room for God. They are so confident of their own strength that they can’t turn to God’s strength. So, the gospel says, Jesus is not able to do any deeds of power there - except for healing a few sick people who are sick enough to recognize their need for God’s healing power. Only those who are able to admit their weakness are able to share in Jesus’ gift of God’s strength.
It’s quite a paradox. It’s not our strength, successes, and accomplishments that bring us close to God. Instead, it’s our weakness, our failures, and our brokenness that opens up space in our lives for God’s grace and power to flow. The apostle Paul puts it this way, “...for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.” One way this truth is poetically manifested is in a Japanese mending process known as Kintsugi. Kintsugi is the art of fixing broken pottery with a lacquer resin mixed with powdered gold. A Kintsugi artisan takes, let’s say, a broken bowl and glues the pieces back together, but instead of hiding the chips and cracks they are highlighted in gold. The result is stunning. The bowl is not simply returned back to its original condition. Rather, it is transformed into something that is stronger and more beautiful than before.
And this is not just possible for pottery ware. “Our wounds are our trophies!” reflects the 14th century mystic Julian of Norwich. And those wounds are “holes in our souls” - the very places where [God’s] Light and Life can break through. I’m sure we’ve all seen it. A recovering alcoholic supports another alcoholic in their healing process. Someone who experiences loss is present to another in their pain. Upon experiencing injustice, a person’s life becomes devoted to social change that impacts many. Lives that had been weak and broken are transformed into something even more beautiful by God’s strength.
Just recently, one of my colleagues, the Rev. Randy Haycock, rector at St. Luke’s Simeon (which is on route 53 as you are heading out toward Monticello), died after a year or so of living with pancreatic cancer. Now even before his diagnosis, Randy had a gentle spirit about him. But the hole in his soul that cancer created enabled even more of God’s light and life to shine through. It was last month, on June 6th, that Randy preached his last sermon. It was recorded for his parish and on the video there was no hiding how physically weak and thin Randy had become. Yet, with every reason to despair, he preached the good news. While acknowledging his own experience of crying “out of the depths,” he tenderly witnessed with his words, yes, but even more powerfully with his whole being, to God’s great hope and love. Three days later Randy died in that hope and love. God’s grace was sufficient. And power was made perfect in weakness.
We may not always get the answer that we are praying for, but whatever answer God does give us it is filled with grace. A grace that can and will carry us through. For no matter who we are nor how we present ourselves to the outside world, all of us are dealing with some kind of “thorn in our flesh,” parts of us that are weak, vulnerable or broken in one way or another. One aspect of the journey of following Christ involves the lifetime process of recognizing those parts in us and then surrendering them to God. And as we do grace will abound. For it is through our weakness that we open up space for God’s strength in our lives - and that is how we become truly strong. My grace is sufficient for you for power is made perfect in weakness.
No comments:
Post a Comment