My Grace is Sufficient for you

Introduction

2 Corinthians 12:7–9 ESV

So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Psalm 19:14 BCP1928:P

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be alway acceptable in thy sight, * O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.

I am fascinated by apocalyptic literature. Much of that, I think, is due to the cultural interest with end times prophecies. As a young man I wasted a lot of thought on trying to puzzle out what in the news cycle might be significant to the visions and things set out in Daniel and Revelation. At the risk of a shameless plug, I am giving a talk next month on how I believe the development of certain technologies plays into the narrative we are given in Revelation about the end times.

However, the main source of my fascination about apocalyptic literature is less about the content of the visions related to the reader, but rather the experiences and impressions of the person receiving the vision. What is it like to be in the nearer presence of God, whether in the body or in the Spirit? I know many of you have stories of feeling the presence of God in daily life, which is a blessing that all Christians receive. But we all long for an experience, a taste, a moment of the intimacy that we are only promised when we are welcomed into the Presence of God after we have died and gone to be with him.

I struggled with doubt for years, not so much about the fact of God’s existence or of the things spoken of in Scripture, but of my place in the Kingdom. I had friends who talked casually about “God moments” or even dreams and sometimes visions, but I never experienced such things. I prayed and prayed to receive a vision from God, because I thought this would be the sure sign that I was accepted, that I was his child.

Paul’s Correction

This seems to be the exact attitude that Paul is trying to gently correct in the Corinthian church. The first verse of chapter 12 says: “I must go on boasting. Though there is nothing to be gained by it, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord.” That seems completely backward to me! How can Paul say that there is nothing to be gained by talking about visions and revelations of the Lord?

From clues in both first and second Corinthians, we know that Paul’s letters to the church at Corinth are in response to letters they have written to him about different matters asking for his advice or his response to criticisms from others. It seems as though there were some of Paul’s enemies who were trying to undermine his authority as an Apostle by attacking is qualifications. The reading for this week comes towards the end of Paul “boasting,” as he says, in his credentials that affirm his apostleship. Because of that, his almost reluctant talk of visions and revelations is likely part of his response to a charge that he must not be authentic because he hadn’t previously shared his visions.

At first hearing it sounds like Paul is talking about another person, but I am convinced that the best reading of this passage is that Paul is talking about himself when he says “I know a man in Christ.” He is boasting about another person in the sense that he is a different man than he was fourteen years before he wrote this letter. This is borne out when he says “So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.” He provides rhetorical distance between himself and the younger Paul as part of downplaying the importance of the visions he has experienced.

For a long time, I misread this passage purely as evidence that Christians did have visions and experience wondrous things, even being transported to Heaven. In the times when I was troubled and doubting my own place in the Kingdom, this passage was difficult because I couldn’t get past the fact that Paul had had visions and I hadn’t.

This is the peril of using Scripture as a proof-text. Yes, Paul talks about having visions, but he immediately pivots to saying that the visions are not the main thing or the core of his credibility — instead, his credibility is founded precisely on his suffering for the sake of Christ. His strength is the grace of the Lord to carry him in his weakness.

The Thorn in the Flesh

Much of this portion of the letter addresses Paul’s authenticity as an Apostle. He appeals first in chapter 11 to his identity as a Hebrew, next to his suffering for the sake of the Gospel, then his deliverance by God and the Church from the governor of Damascus. We’ve just talked about how he talks briefly about having had visions as a possible counter to an attack on his authenticity. Finally, his talk about the thorn in the flesh is the culmination of his apostolic resume.

Where someone familiar with the contemporary mystery cults in the ancient Roman world might see Paul’s transportation to heaven in body or spirit as the true mark of his authority, Paul sees it as just one among many graces he has been given in order to live as a follower of Christ and perform his ministry. Paul sees the true mark of his apostleship as his contentment with “weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.”

This should not be surprising — Our Lord says “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Paul identifies the thorn in the flesh as a messenger of Satan, allowed to torment him to keep him humble. What greater persecution is there than when the enemy himself takes notice and attacks, rather than having someone else do his dirty work?

Application

How, then, are we to take this lesson with us into our lives as 21st century Christians in East Alabama?

Two Major applications

Visions and revelations may be true means of communication from God

It is weakness and not strength that truly marks the authentic Christ follower

The fullness of Reality

After the Enlightenment, many who say they see visions or hear from God are discounted

Suspected of being fakers or taking advantage of the faithful

Assumed to be mentally unwell

A result of the overemphasis of materialism in our culture

We know the material world and spiritual world were both created good

The reality that God has created for us to inhabit is spiritual and material

Overemphasis of the spiritual or material at expense of the other fails to see the truth in either

In the first century, there was an overemphasis on the spiritual, with the material seen as dirty and unholy

Gnosticism was a false teaching that borrowed Christian ideas and twisted them in this light

After the Enlightenment, spirituality was largely dismissed

People turned to science to explain the wonders of God, giving rise to Materialism

belief that the only relevant truth is what we can experience directly with our five senses

The epistle lesson counters both by stating the truth that Paul was caught up to the third heaven

By saying “whether in the body or in the spirit” Paul leaves open the door to both possibilities

The reality we experience through our senses is just the tip of the iceberg

We should remember the fullness of this reality and understand that Christians may or may not experience that fullness in this life, as the Spirit allows

I know a man in Christ who once was allowed to see an angelic host as he confessed his prayer at the Evening Office

It was a grace given for his encouragement and testimony

Power Made Perfect in Weakness

Our authenticity in Christ is not in our own strength

This is difficult, because our culture likes winners and strong men

Strength == Winning

People who follow sports teams when they are winning

Political candidates with flexible positions based on what is “winning”

Their supporters who change their views to align with a “winner”

Cultural beliefs that must be right because they are “winning”

“right” or “wrong” side of history

Churches chasing “relevance” so that they can be right

This is not how God sees things

God shepherded newly freed Israelite slaves across the Red Sea

Drowned the Egyptian who was stronger and should have won

God raised up David, the youngest son of Jesse to defeat the Philistine champion

God was incarnate as a human being and chose a life of apparent poverty

Was not highly esteemed

Ordinary to look at

Utterly rejected by his own people

… And he overcame death and defeated Satan

Jesus’s words to Paul

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness”

Not a new saying, but a summation of the Gospel

We are powerless to save ourselves, but we compete with God to show ourselves strong enough

The power of God is fully realized when we stop competing with him and own our insufficiency, calling out to him for help

We can’t prevent God’s power from working, but God will not allow us to deceive ourselves by thinking that we can save ourselves

Our humility shows God that we have stopped trying to exalt ourselves over him

His power is therefore made perfect because there is no alloy of our own feeble attempts at gaining victory

I have personal experience of what this is like

Many of you know that a few years ago I suffered a bad bout of anxiety and stress

I was convinced the problem had to be more than “just” anxiety and stress

I thought I had something medically wrong and kept researching and thinking about what it could be

I could not accept that it was a mental health problem, because of the stigma against mental illness

Having a mental breakdown was shaming to me

It was also a problem that I didn’t see a clear way out of and that I couldn’t control

The more I fought to save myself the further I slipped into a hole of fear and dread

It took a hospitalization to open my eyes that I couldn’t save myself

Once I accepted that, I was able to truly hear what my counsellor, my doctor, and my wife were telling me

I suffered the same of a mental breakdown so I could be rebuilt and so I could minister to others

Conclusion

This week, ask the Holy Spirit to illuminate the places where you need to let go of the drive to win at all costs. In moments of doubt, frustration, and suffering, remember the Lord’s words to Paul: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

May we be a people who boast gladly in our weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon us. Amen.