6th Sunday after Pentecost
July 5, 2015
Psalm 48; 2 Corinthians 12:2-10; Mark 6:1-13
Our epistle lesson this morning always reminds me of the
end of my time in Nicaragua. Many of you
know that before seminary I served with a mission agency in Nicaragua for a
little more than a year. Towards the end
of that time I got really sick and was put on bed rest for ten days. I was really weak, and I learned this paradox
that Paul writes about in 2 Corinthians, “When I am weak, then I am
strong.” “When I am weak, then I am
strong.” It doesn’t seem to really make
sense, which is what makes it a paradox, because it’s not possible to be weak
and strong at the same time. Except that
with God, all things are possible.[1] And so somehow it is possible that weakness
can make you strong. To quote Paul’s
letter to the Philippians, “I can do all things through him
who strengthens me.”[2] And that is the key. When we ourselves are weak, whether
physically or in other ways, then there is less of us, and more space for
God. When we’re not claiming all the
credit, all the ownership, when we place less value on self-reliance and
pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps, then there’s more room for God. When I am weak, then God is strong. How does that
work?
First, because when I am weak then I am more likely to find myself within
God’s stronghold. We hear about this
place in our psalm this morning: the heavenly city of Mount Zion, where “God is
in the fortifications and reveals himself as a place of safety.” When you are weak, then God will keep you
safe. Psalm 91 says that God gives his
angels charge over you, to guard you in all your ways.[3]
We are much more likely to recognize our guardian angels when we are
weak. When we are strong, then we think
we can take care of ourselves, thank you very much. We don’t need help. We got this.
We don’t need anyone else. But
when we recognize that we can’t guarantee our own safety, then we turn to God
to provide it. When I am weak, then I am
strong because I’m relying on God’s strength and God’s protection and God’s
fortifications. “We can say with
confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to
me?’”[4]
When God is our sanctuary, our haven, our safe place, when we recognize
our weakness, then we are strong. When
we are weak, then we are strong, because then we are behind God’s ramparts. Our psalm this morning says that “God has
shown himself a sure defense.”[5]
Knowing that God is our sure defense, not just in times of trouble but
at all times, is how we’re strong
when we’re weak. God is how we have
gotten through the rough times and God will lead us home. To quote a contemporary Christian song by
Chris Tomlin, “The God of angel armies is always by my side.”[6]
When we are weak, then we are strong, because then we are more likely to
recognize that God goes before us and stands behind us and is always at our
side, keeping us safe.
So,
when I am weak, then I am strong, because
then I’m relying more on God. In our
Gospel lesson this morning Jesus sends out the disciples in a position of
vulnerability. He sends them out with no
food, no bags, no money, no extra clothes; they are to take nothing but a
walking stick, go in pairs, and with the authority that Jesus gives them. They receive no special training and don’t
take any fancy equipment. They don’t
even know where their next meal is going to come from! What they know is that they have to rely 100%
on God to provide food, shelter, and a change of clothes or water for a bath
for them. They were sent out in a
position of weakness, which made their witness and authority all the more
stronger because of their complete reliance on God to survive this
mission. They had to trust God to
provide, and because God is faithful and keeps his promises, God did
provide. God
will make sure you have the tools you need to do what God is calling you to do. There’s a saying that God doesn’t call the
equipped, he equips the called. However,
I say that sometimes God calls the equipped and sometimes he equips the called. In my previous church I was the associate
pastor and the senior pastor I worked with was a big guy, 6’5” and had a
booming voice to match; a voice that is a great preacher voice. In his case, God called the equipped. Now, you know that without a microphone you
can’t hear me, I do not naturally have a preacher’s voice and need the tool of
a microphone to do what God has called me to do. Sometimes God equips the called and sometimes
God calls the equipped. Either way, God
makes sure you have what you need to do the work he’s given you to do. And
when you don’t have the tools ahead of time, when you’re out in a situation
where you don’t know where your next meal’s coming from or how you’re going to
provide a meal for someone else; when God calls, and we answer, he will make
sure we have what we need, even if we don’t know where it’s going to come
from. That’s how when we are weak, then
we are strong, because we have to rely on God to provide and see us
through.
Finally,
when we are weak, then we are strong,
because then we learn that God is enough.
His grace, his unconditional love, is enough and is all we need. God loves you, no matter what. No exceptions. And he tells us “My grace is all you
need.” This isn’t quite the Beatles’ “All
You Need Is Love;” it’s more like God’s
unconditional love is all you need and we learn that best in the moments
when we’re down. We learn that best in
the hospital room and at the accident scene.
We learn it best when we are stripped away and left with nothing but a
walking stick and a friend and Jesus’ authority over us, like the twelve disciples. We learn it best when we know and admit that
we are weak and powerless to do anything.
When we are weak, then we are strong, because then we are relying solely
on God. When we throw up our hands, or
fall down on our knees, and cry out to God and acknowledge that God is God, and
we are not, and we have nothing that did not come from him, then God
answers. In fact, that’s what God’s been
waiting for us to do all along. He waits
for us to quit striving, to quit trying to do it ourselves, or as my daughter
says, “I do it!” He waits for us to quit
complaining and griping. He waits for us
to come home and confess that we can’t do it by ourselves, that we are not
strong enough, smart enough, rich enough, perfect enough, enough like the
popular kids in school, enough like the church down the road. He waits.
Not because he wants us to be weak, not because he wants us to suffer,
not because he wants to see us despair.
He waits for us to stop struggling on our own and turn toward him. Whether you’re struggling to get out of a
hole or struggling to get to the top of a mountain, God waits for you to be
still and know that he is God.[7] And he is a God with limitless,
exception-less, condition-less love. When
we are weak, then we are strong, whether individually or as a family or as a
church, because when we are weak, then we recognize that we wouldn’t be here if
not for God. Whether God kept you from
drowning as a kid or kept you safe in a fire or healed you when you weren’t
expect to get better or prevented you from getting in an accident, many of us
here know that we wouldn’t be here today, if not for God. God is enough. And, unfortunately, it’s something we
recognize most often in our times of weakness.
God is all you need.
For
God says, “My grace is all you need, for my power is made perfect in your weakness.”[8]
Paul writes then that, “I am most happy to be proud of my weaknesses, in order
to feel the protection of Christ's power over me. Therefore, I’m all right with weaknesses, insults, hardships,
persecutions, and difficulties for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am
strong.”[9]
So, whatever weaknesses, insults, disasters, harassments, abuse, accidents,
opposition, bad breaks, or other stressful situation you find yourself in, whatever
it is, let God’s power shines
through. His power is made perfect in
weakness, because when we are weak, then he
is strong. That’s how the paradox
works. When there’s less of our striving
and trying and doing and claiming and busy-ness, then there’s more room for
God. And when we allow more room in our
lives for God, then he gets to do all kinds of amazing things, things beyond
our wildest imagination that we can’t even dream of. We are strongest when we let God work through
us. And God works through us best in our
weakness. It’s like what Paul says about
the Holy Spirit and prayer in Romans 8, that when we don’t know what to pray,
when we can acknowledge that we don’t know what to say, then the Holy Spirit
intercedes for us with groans too deep for words. What Paul actually says in that passage is
that the Spirit helps us in our weakness, because we don’t know how we should
pray. When you don’t know what to pray,
feel less worried about it, take a deep breath, relax, and let God provide the
words through you. It may or may not
sound great to you, but let God guide your prayer, because he knows what you’re
trying to say in your heart. When you
are weak, then you are strong, because then God is strong. Thanks be to God. Amen.
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