Sermon July 8, 2012

FPC - Willmar

Sermon

July 8, 2012

“Strong at the Broken Places”

One of the unifying themes between Paul and Jesus this morning seems to be that things aren’t always going well for them.  Jesus is not shown much respect by the people of his home town, and Paul is fighting an uphill battle against a variety of forces in Corinth that seem determined to undermine his ministry and the faith of the people.  He’s also fighting an unnamed personal affliction.

Even as Jesus commissions his apostles to go out into the world, he warns them of opposition as well as apathy and even suggests some pretty definitive response to it:  “[6:11] If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them."  There certainly is no evidence that proclaiming the Gospel would make their lives any easier.

You might have thought that God would have treated Paul specially.  God equipped Paul with all the talents and gifts needed to carry out his ministry, but at the same time Paul tells us that he was burdened with some affliction, a thorn in his side, something that allowed Satan to tempt Paul repeatedly.

Whether it was a physical affliction or an emotional one – or both – we don’t know.  What we do know is that Paul was constantly aware of this affliction.  He was so sharply aware of it that three times he asked God to take it away from him, to relieve him of his suffering, to heal him, and he was repeatedly denied this relief for which he begged God. 

The Greek word which Paul used is quite graphic.  Modern English translations use “thorn,” but the Greek word actually means a stake.  Not just any stake.  It’s the kind of stake that might be used to trap and kill an animal at the bottom of a pit.  The kind of stake that might be used to impale someone as a form of torture. 

If anyone ever had the right to ask “Why me?” it is certainly Paul.

But Paul doesn’t blame God for this affliction.  Paul sees the world as a battleground between good and evil, between the redemption offered us by Jesus and the destruction often attractively packaged and offered to us by Satan.  Whether it was the constant presence of a self-destructive temptation or the persistent pain of a wound or an illness, Paul doesn’t tell us. 

Paul believes that Satan has in some way tried to hamper his efforts on behalf of the Gospel of Jesus and the glory of God.  He has prayed to God that it be removed from his life, and it isn’t.  Paul never – in all his writings – says that God causes all things to happen.  What Paul says, in Romans 8, and which very well describes the faith that Paul is witnessing to here is:  “[Romans 8:28 (NJB)] ²⁸ We are well aware that God works with those who love him, those who have been called in accordance with his purpose, and turns everything to their good.”

Despite the affliction, whatever it was, Paul is convinced that God uses it to make Paul a better and stronger witness to the message of the Gospel.  Whatever the affliction meant in Paul’s life, the grace which God had already given him was sufficient for Paul to carry out his mission and spread the Gospel throughout the world.  In fact, somehow, in the face of that affliction, Paul’s abilities, Paul’s strength, Paul’s commitment to carrying out the will of God was made stronger, perfected, through that affliction.  Ernest Hemmingway wrote: “The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.”  Paul knew that strength was the grace of God.

In the Gospel lesson we find Jesus and his followers facing rejection.  He tells them that it will happen.  There is a line in the Gospel lesson which returns us to the human face of Jesus:  “[Mark 6:6] And he was amazed at their unbelief.”

Jesus himself was surprised at the reaction of his childhood neighbors.  There were probably even family members among those villagers.  His neighbors and his relatives rejected his message.  It happens. 

Perhaps this scene should always be remembered when you read the passages about the need to hate our family in order to follow Christ.  It doesn’t mean that you’re a good Christian if you hate your family.  That won’t fly.  What it means is what some refer to as a spirit of indifference to all earthly attachments, including your family and friends who may reject you at any time for following God’s will. 

Jesus didn’t hang around to argue, even with his friends and family.  The task is too great; the need is too urgent.  He moved on from there.  He told the Twelve that they too would meet with rejection and opposition.  Don’t be surprised by it.  Just do your best to proclaim the message of grace and repentance, heal whom you can, and move on.

But why wasn’t Paul healed?  What was this mysterious stake that had pierced his body and perhaps his soul? Did it interfere with his ability to proclaim the Gospel?  Did it somehow enhance his own appreciation for God’s grace and the message that must be preached? 

The English poet Philip Larkin has written: 

…. In everyone there sleeps

A sense of life lived according to love.

To some it means the difference they could make

By loving others, but across most it sweeps

As all they might have done had they been loved.

That nothing cures.

We are not victims.  Who we are is not the result of some notion that “if only we had been better loved” then the world would be a different place.  So much in society, in politics and even in the church these days tries to convince us that we are victims.  We are not victims.  We have the power to love even as God loves us.

We are all loved.  We are all God’s beloved.  We may suffer rejection, we may suffer pain, we may suffer temptations engineered by Satan himself to prevent us from the proclamation of the Gospel, but we are all loved.

The grace of God, the gift of Jesus, the freedom of forgiveness all come together to give us the necessary strength to proclaim God’s message.  We have no excuse for what we might have done or might have been had we only been loved.  That agony, that distress, that suffering may be the greatest source of despair in the modern world.  That sense that we are not loved.

The message of the Gospel is clear.  We are loved.  We are God’s beloved.  We may encounter physical pain, emotional anguish, personal rejection as we proclaim the message of God’s healing and restorative love, but we are loved. 

The greatest message that we have to take to a world that suffers in despair and pleads with God to remove this thorn in its side is that we are loved, we are free.  We have all that we require to spread the message of God’s liberating grace to all the world. 

God answered Paul with neither a “yes” or a “no.”  God answered Paul by telling him:  “My grace is sufficient for you…” 

We have the cure for that massive despair.  We can no longer hide behind “all that [we] might have done had [we] been loved.”  We have strength from those broken places of our hearts.  We pray, Lord, take this thorn from my side, and God replies:  “You are loved.”  “You are loved.”  “You are loved…. My grace is sufficient for you…” 

Amen.