"Come and Be Fed ... with Grace," Sermon for Pentecost 6B (Lectionary 14)

“Come and Be Fed … with Grace”

Pentecost 6B (Lect. 14)

July 8, 2012

2 Corinthians 12.2-10

Paul was a wounded man, a deeply wounded man. He had asked God three times to remove the cause of his woundedness. We don’t know what his “thorn in the flesh” was, though it hasn’t prevented much speculation. It could be physical, psychological, or spiritual, but whatever it was, it must have been significant enough that Paul sought relief three times from God, only to receive the same answer. God said, “My grace is sufficient for you …” along with this curious explanation: … “for power is made perfect in weakness.” Somehow, God’s graceful presence is enough for whatever is needed in our lives

Paul saw his “thorn in the flesh” as something God allowed him to have to keep him humble. Some so-called “super apostles,” in order to establish their street cred with the various churches, were not above trotting out their spiritual experiences as proof that they were the real deal. Unfortunately, the Corinthians bought it. With this passage, Paul elegantly kills two birds with one stone. By asserting that he can match the other apostles vision-for-vision, he proves that he is the genuine article. However, by mentioning his thorn, he shows that this spiritual competition is a red herring.

The heart of the good news of Jesus Christ is not found in bragging about spiritual experiences. Nor, Paul would hasten to add, is it to be found in glorying in our afflictions. We are not to have a “holier than thou” attitude, but neither are we to be “humbler than thou,” or, as Garrison Keillor puts it, “militantly modest.” Furthermore, Paul is also not saying we should buck up, carry on, and rise above our circumstances. Rather, Paul is saying that God works in some mysterious, but powerful ways in our lives. God’s power is made perfect in those wounded and broken areas of our lives that we try to run from.

Robert Franklin tells the story about a Renaissance artist who made the world’s most prized vases. A foreign apprentice came to observe his method and the artist, after many weeks of laboring with one piece, placed it on display. It was a thing of unmistakable beauty. Even so, the artist wasn’t done. In dramatic fashion, the artist picked up the vase and smashed it to floor, breaking to pieces. Quietly, he reconnected the pieces by painting them with a paint of pure gold. Each crack reflected the invaluable gold, and this magnificent, but imperfect vase, became the most valued one in the artist’s collection.

Now, I don’t want to give you the impression that I believe God is some great artist that smashes our lives so he can do some fancy mending and look good. The fact is, our lives get smashed up without God’s help; sometimes others do it, sometimes we do it, and sometimes is just happens. However, I do know that, for some reason, those are the very places that God most often works through our lives. I suspect that one reason is that it is in those wounded and broken parts of our lives that we are open to God’s grace. Ernest Hemingway once said, “Life breaks all of us, but some of us are made strong in the broken places.” Theologically, it is God working in those broken places to make us strong. God’s power is made perfect in our weakness.

As I think about what this means, I think about Kim who was made a widow way too young but nonetheless through God’s grace was able to help others in their grieving. I think about about Nancy, made a quadriplegic through the actions of a drunk driver, who led a Girl Scout troop helping them to understand disabilities, I think about Pam, Karen, and Angie, cancer survivors who are able to walk with people in their bouts of cancer. I think about couples who have been able to put the pieces of their marriage back together following an affair, stronger than ever. I think about Rick, a pastor who has been able to minister to and with alcoholics because he has gone through the 12-step program. I think about Richard, a sufferer of mental illness who became an advocate of the mentally ill. I could go on.

 “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” Today, God invites us to come and be fed with the grace that works in, with, and through the broken and wounded parts of our lives. God also invites us to look for the ways that God is working in the world in unusual places. That’s the message of the cross, isn’t it, that God works through the worst that life throws at us? That’s why the people of Jesus’ hometown couldn’t accept him; they couldn’t see how God could work through a carpenter’s son from Nazareth. Where are those weak and broken places in your life that you tend to dismiss or try to hide? What are the weak or wounded places in our congregation that God is working as well? Come and be fed, for God’s grace is sufficient, more than enough for what we need. Amen.