"Our Weakness: God's Strength": Sermon for July 8, 2012

Rev. Patti Money

Cheriton/Travis Chapel UMC

2 Corinthians 12:2-10

July 8, 2012

"Our Weakness: God's Strength"

In less than three weeks, athletes from all over the world will gather in London for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games. They represent the best of the best of their countries, and will literally “go for the gold”. For two weeks, we will be glued to our televisions to watch the competitions and the drama associated with them. 

One of my favorite aspects of each Olympiad is hearing the human interest stories of some of the athletes. It helps me see them as ordinary people with ordinary lives who simply have extraordinary abilities. And there are always the stories of athletes who have overcome incredible adversity to arrive at the Olympics. 

This week, Oscar Pistorius, a South African runner, became the first amputee to be named as a competitor in the Olympic Games. Pistorius, who has spent most of his 25 years without lower legs, will compete in London in the 400 meters (his favorite event) and the 1,600-meter relay. Born without both fibulas, the bone that runs from behind the knee to the ankle, Pistorius was 11 months old when his legs were amputated at mid-calf. He runs on two prosthetic legs, and has already won the Paralympic Games. In a few weeks, he’ll go for the gold in the regular Olympics, with all of his fellow athletes running on non-prosthetic limbs. Despite the obstacles he’s faced, he’s managed to rise above them and win...by focusing on his strengths, his athletic ability, and not on the fact that his legs are prosthetic. It’s amazing what he’s accomplished by doing that. 

       

The apostle Paul was also a person known to be extraordinary. His letters to various churches compose almost half of the New Testament. He was the most incredible and fruitful missionary in Christian history. His wisdom, his faith, and his witness were an incredible inspiration to his contemporaries, and he still inspires us today. However, Paul had his own struggle, his own weakness. We don’t know what it was; he only refers to it as “a thorn in the flesh”, a “messenger of Satan”. Maybe it was a physical ailment, maybe it was a temptation, maybe it was a tendency towards depression...whatever it was, it was apparently something that limited him in some major ways. Paul was using a figure of speech, but maybe some of you have had a literal thorn in your skin once...it hurts and it’s annoying and you really don’t feel comfortable until you get it out. That’s the sort of feeling that Paul was experiencing...he prayed for God to make his ailment disappear so it wouldn’t hamper him anymore, but that didn’t happen. He could have focused on that limitation and used it as a reason, as an excuse, to feel sorry for himself, to wallow in self-pity. 

It’s easy for us to focus on our limitations; our weaknesses, our handicaps. It’s easy for us to use them as excuses to not fulfill our potential, to not become who God has created us to be. But when we do that...we limit God and the power God has to work through us, work in spite of us, and do amazing things through us. 

That’s what Paul is talking about in this passage...that’s what God is saying to us in this passage. These characters in the Bible, even Paul, the greatest missionary of all time, were merely ordinary people who allowed God to do amazing things through them. They had their own weaknesses and sins that they struggled with. They were imperfect humans in need of God’s grace, just like us. It’s not them that we should be marveling at...it’s God. And what God can do through an ordinary person who is willing to surrender themselves and their weaknesses and let God work through them and work in spite of them. 

God’s strength is made perfect in our weakness. When we are at our weakest, when we realize that we can’t do it on our own, that is when God can do the most amazing things through us. When we stop focusing on what we CAN’T do and focus on what God can do and is doing through us...that is when God can shine His brightest through us. But, it takes a change of focus...from us and our humanity to God and God’s power. A change of focus from the weaknesses we deal with as a result of being human to the gifts God gives us and the ways that God can use those gifts to work through us to transform the world.

What is your thorn in the flesh? What are your weaknesses? What are your limitations?

Think about your church...what are the limitations, the thorns in the flesh, of our church? Of this community? 

Albert Einstein, a world-renowned physicist, is known for saying the following: “Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life feeling like a failure.” Of course. Because God hasn’t gifted and called a fish to climb a tree. A fish doesn’t have arms or legs and can’t survive for long outside the water. However, if we focus on the fish’s ability to swim, then we are amazed at the graceful way it glides through the water. 

Everyone is a genius. God has given each of us incredible gifts through which God can work through us to transform our lives and the lives of others. But if we focus on what we can’t do...if we focus on our human nature...then we will feel like a failure. However, if we focus on God and what we can do when we partner with God, when we allow God to work in us and through us...then amazing things begin to happen.  

Let’s go back to the questions I asked earlier...and put them in a different light. 

The weaknesses you thought of earlier...how have you seen God working through those? What are some ways that your struggles have made you see God clearer and allowed God to work through you? Think about your strengths. What gifts has God given you? If you’re not sure what those are, what do other people say that you’re good at? What brings you the most joy and fulfillment? How does God work through you to transform lives? 

What about this church...about this community? How can God work through or in spite of our limitations? And then think of the gifts, the specific strengths we have. If we focus more on the strengths God has given us and less on our limitations, then how could God work through us to transform lives?

When we acknowledge our own weakness and our need for God’s strength, that is when God shines the brightest through us. God calls us give our weak selves over to God, and allow Him to work through us, and work in spite of us, and transform us into the people God has called us to be, so that we can partner with God to transform the lives of others. 

God tells us “my grace is sufficient for you.” That means that the God who created us, loves us, redeemed us, and called us can work through our weaknesses, in spite of our weaknesses, and as a result show us and the world God’s strength, God’s love, and God’s perfection. The biggest question is, are we going to get out of the way and let God do it?