JULY 7, 2024 Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
Readings: 2nd Samuel 5:1-10; 2 Corinthians 12:2-10; Mark 6:1-13
No Brag, Just Fact
Today we’re finishing up our series of Paul’s letter to and from the church of Corinth. It is about our weaknesses and our strengths. Paul states that he begged the Lord three times to take away his weakness. Yet, Paul bragging about his weaknesses and how God would give him strength to deal with his weakness.
When I read the New Testament passage for today, one quote hit me quite quickly, No Brag just fact. That statement came to me from a TV series in 1967 starring Walter Brennan, The Guns of Wil Sonnet. Walter played an elderly gunslinger who is traveling the west with his grandson that he raised. They were searching for Walter’s son, the grandson’s father, who is also a gunslinger. It was a time in our history where only the quick and the strong survived. You did not last long if you were weak and slow. Today we can’t show any weakness either. In our grade schools all the way into adulthood, if we show any weakness, we are subjected to being bullied. In doing so allows people to know we have some type of vulnerability. Therefore, we do not want anyone to know our weaknesses.
I’m going to tell you my story in hopes that it opens your heart to look at your life in Christ. Growing up, I was not a physically or sports inclined person. Several kids in my class felt it was fun to pick on my weakness. I dreaded going to school. Then I met some wonderful friends. Rick, Jerry, Mike, Pam, Tina, Sherry and Lisa who accepted my weaknesses as me and befriended me. We could open up to each other, sharing time at everyone’s house and we were a strong group. I still stay in contact with some, and this fall is our fiftieth reunion. In High School, the only sport I was any good at was running. So, I got involved in Cross Country. Those dreams got dashed as quickly as they started. Then I got into adulthood and found that there are those who will betray your confidence and trust. They can and do use your weaknesses against you to make themselves seem stronger. I was forced to guard my feelings and did not reveal much about myself to others.
For years in the emergency field, you did not reveal your weaknesses to others, you simply sucked it up and went on. As a profession, first responders have the highest rate of suicide. As a teenager I contemplated ending my life. I was on the outside of a bridge ready to jump. Something convinced me to go back over the edge of that bridge and I walked back home. I have never forgotten that night and why I ended up on the edge, nor the realization of why I did not go through with it. I got pretty good at helping others who were deep in depression that they were considering the permanent solution to a temporary problem. I now use my experiences to help the first responders here in Bartholomew County. After a bad or serious run, the departments involved will hold a debriefing session. I get involved in these by responding to scenes to be there for the responders. We had a serious run in the county just this week. In these debriefing sessions, it is a safe zone. Everyone in attendance knows that whatever is said in that room stays in that room. People are free to share their emotions. These sessions are so important to keep those responders responding.
I have found that even pastors can betray that trust. The UMC requires its pastors to have a covenant group of pastors. But I will be honest, the only group I personally have found that I can trust, is the Hope Ministerial Association. You might be thinking, pastors have weaknesses? You bet your bazooka bubble gum we do. Sometimes, we just need to vent and have a safe person to do that with. In admitting to myself the weakness I have, I’ve learned to embrace my weaknesses thus surrounding myself with people who have strengths where I am weak. Your bulletins would not be as good as they are if I did them without the help of Lee and Carol. Yes, we but heads occasionally, and sometimes I have said that there is a reason for the way it is set up or worded. Most of the time the bulletin gets corrected.
Paul says, “So I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me more”. In this, Paul is instructing us in worship with something so simple but much harder to put into practice: open our hearts to our weakness and God’s strength which is inviting us to humility. God loves us in our weakness, not in spite of it.
Knowing what we should do is one thing, but it is quite another to put it into practice. It will take true faith. We need to love God and love others. It also falls in the line of what we discussed in Bible Study this week. Thou Shall not Murder. It is not just about taking a life. We are to treat others as we would want them to treat us or should have treated us. What makes that so hard is that for some reason we can’t, we won’t, stuff gets in the way, irritations distract us, difficulties derail us, or suffering because of what they did prevents us from opening our hearts to others and our weaknesses. We must be willing to admit our weaknesses and accept others in their weakness. We must look past their weaknesses because God does in ours.
Paul sternly tells us that he is not boasting or bragging about the things he has done or about his weakness. He is telling us that it is a matter of fact. “There is a thorn in his flesh”. Through that weakness, the Lord makes him stronger, but it is only the Lord working, not him. Theologians have speculated what Paul’s affliction was. Some say it was his eyes, others depression, and still others say it was a seizure disorder. Paul never really says what ailed him, but we do know that humility was important to Paul, and he struggled with it, because humility was important to the Lord. We tend to look at our disability as a punishment. So, when you are hurting, or when you are weakened, that is the time you should realize that you truly need the help of the Lord to learn that you can’t always do it yourself. God can use those time to help us to learn how to grow in our faith. If we pay attention, if we ask in humility what we can learn, God will answer us tenfold. That makes us a stronger Christian in the power of the Lord
You see, I use that moment of my true weakness from 1976 to help reach others. I refer to it as a living story of “what a wonderful life”. If I had gone through with the deed, how different would this world be. But God stepped in and convinced me He had bigger plans for me in the future. I also use the moments of betrayal to assure those I talk with; they can truly trust that I will keep their confidence. No brag, just fact! What weaknesses can you open your heart to, and humbly use them for the Lord and His mission for YOU to the world?
