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The Rev. Frank Logue Strong Weakness
This is not a sermon for wimps. This is a more muscular sermon, a strong one anyway. Perhaps not masculine, but more manly than most. After all, in church we talk a lot about having a relationship with God. Talking about relationships sounds kinda feminine. This sermon is not that sermon. As an aside, this doesn’t mean I don’t think women are tough. I’ve hiked step for step with my very feminine wife as she carried a pack weighing more than 40 pounds as far as 34 miles in a day. And my Mom and sister are strong women. So don’t take it that I think women are weak. And it’s good that they are not, for as we shall discover as we dive deeper into our reading from II Corinthians, sometimes a life of faith demands real strength. The Apostle Paul writes this letter to the Christians in Corinth, which is in modern day Greece. In it, he tells them of a thorn in his flesh. Not a literal thorn, but some issue unknown to us that Paul which Paul could never completely master. Whatever the problem was, it felt to Paul like it came straight from Satan, it kept Paul from being too elated and was connected somehow to his flesh. The problem for Paul could have been one of some chronic pain, which he just couldn’t shake and from which God did not choose to heal him. The problem could have been another sort of chronic problem, such as an ongoing battle with alcoholism or lust. Whatever the problem was, Paul prayed three times and then got the answer from God, but it wasn’t the one he wanted. God told Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” Paul goes on to rejoice in his affliction for he now understands that it is when he is weak, he is strong. This is a paradox. A paradox is when two things, which would seem to cancel out each other, turn out to both be true. Here’s a completely different paradox to show that they do exist. It is a paradox to order a servant not to serve you. For if the servant does not serve you he is in fact serving you as you asked him to serve you by not serving you. And if he does actually serve you, he will not be serving you as you asked him to serve by not serving. So once you ask the servant not to serve you, if he does not serve you, he will be serving you. That’s clear, right? Well, maybe it’s not crystal clear. It’s a paradox. Strength that comes through weakness is just such a paradox. It would seem that strength and weakness are opposites. But in fact they can go together in a way that is, well, powerful. I have found myself powerless at several key points in starting King of Peace and many of you traveled that road with me. We were powerless at times as local government agencies held up first expanding our space within the house in which we used to worship and then later in getting necessary approvals to build this building. I also have found myself powerless at many points when I really wanted to help someone. Sitting by a hospital bed, or someone’s deathbed at home, or talking with a couple whose marriage is breaking apart. There have been many times in which I deeply wanted to do something, but was in fact powerless. These times would seem to be occasions of only weakness. But Paul teaches that it is in weakness that we are strong. I think it is best to show you what strength in weakness looks like. Here is a scene from the movie Ghandi in which hundreds of men line up, offering their bodies to be beaten in protest to unfair British policy in India. They show their power in standing powerless before the might of the royal army. [show clip from the movie
Ghandi with a long line of men You can see as the men line up to be beaten that their powerlessness is not for wimps. It would have taken less strength to fight back. Real strength came in taking the blows knowing that by being willing to suffer you can show the unfairness of the system. At this point I need to take a detour to clear up one possible point of confusion. I am not saying that someone who is suffering abuse needs to stay in the abusive situation. Ghandi led his nation in non-violent protest to overthrow the British Empire’s control of India. This is not the same as staying in a home where never know if tonight will be a good night or one of the night’s where your husband hits you or the kids. In that sort of physical and emotional abuse, admitting that you are powerless to change the other person means that you need to remove yourself and your children from harm. The strength in weakness then is to be strong enough to admit you are too weak to stay. But there are some very different settings in which admitting powerlessness can lead to deep and lasting change for the better. For example, admission of being powerless is the first step of any 12-step program. It doesn’t mater whether the problem is alcohol or drug abuse, gambling or an eating disorder—the first step is to admit that you are powerless over the addiction and the second step is to turn the addiction over to a higher power. Admitting that you are powerless over an addiction takes much greater strength than continuing to let your passions rule your life. If you can’t and don’t want to imagine a day without a drink, or pornography, or gambling, or whatever it is for you, then the strongest step is the one where you admit you can not control yourself on your own. The only way to bring power back to your life is in fact to have the strength to admit that you are weak. But moving beyond addictions, another frequent area of being powerless is with chronic pain. In fact ongoing physical pain may well have been the issue the Apostle Paul faced which kept him from being elated. Certainly chronic back pain, stomach pain, headaches and other ailments can keep a person down. Even with the best medical care we can remain powerless to completely remove ourselves from pain. So you can see that there are several settings in which you may find yourself powerless. The occasions are so many that I now find the word powerless has great power for me. I know that sounds like double talk, but bear with me a moment. It is not uncommon for someone to speak to me about a situation at work, in his or her marriage, or with their family in which he or she names that they are powerless. I have found that as soon as someone mentions powerlessness, I can look harder with the person and find God’s presence. Tell me that you are powerless to change a bad situation at work and I will ask you to take a longer look. First, it is self evident that each of us works to some degree as a volunteer. We can choose to work elsewhere. That may mean gutting out a bad situation for a while as you look for other work, turn in notice and finish the job you have well so that you don’t burn any bridges. That is certainly a way to take control of your job while admitting that you are powerless to change where you are. But I also know from experience that there are times when you can’t move, such as when Victoria and I needed my insurance to have a baby and so I had to stick it out in a tough work environment I was powerless to change. But owning up to being powerless is a way to just acknowledge the way the world works. You know that there are times when you feel like you have life under control. Everything is going well and the various areas of you life are all wired. Then there are other times when things spin out of control and nothing seems to go right. The reality is that the times when everything seems under control are an illusion. You are just kidding yourself. It’s the times when things spin out of control that are real. This is because you can’t control every area of your life. You simply can’t do it. This is why scripture teaches us to put our trust in God. Paul writes that when push came to shove for him, God told him, “My grace is sufficient for you.” Grace is the free gift of God’s love. Like a good parent’s love for their child, grace is unearned and sometimes undeserved. It is that unearned love of God which Paul found to be sufficient, especially when he had to acknowledge his own weakness. God also told Paul that power is made perfect in weakness. It is only when you are strong enough to admit that you can’t do it on your own that you can actually get somewhere. Your burdens are too much and you need God to be present with you. This is not a decision for wimps. Wimps give in. Muscular faith says, “I can be strong enough to stay in a situation I am powerless to change on my own.” Try these strong statements out: I will stay in my good job with great benefits and pray for God to bless my bad boss with a promotion out of here. Or I admit that I really am addicted to alcohol. I can’t kid myself anymore. I am powerless to beat this thing on my own. Or I am powerless to change (then enter in your situation, you can say my school, my job, my marriage, my relationship with my children, in my illness). So for example, I am powerless over cancer on my own, but I can be strong enough to continue to make a stand, bearing witness to what a strong Christian is like when facing cancer. It’s a paradox and so it can sound a bit cock-eyed at first. But Paul is right, whenever I am weak, then I am strong. The real power comes from admitting that you are powerless to make a change, but you are not powerless about being faithful. Real strength is in not giving in and giving up, but being strong enough to be faithful while praying for deeper, lasting change. That change will never come if you give up and settle for less, or if you duck and run. Real change comes from living into the knowledge that it is when you are weak that you are strong as God’s grace is sufficient. Amen.
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