2 Corinthians 12 7-10 2006
Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
2 Corinthians 12:7-10
July 23, 2006
“What Happens When a Frog Opens It’s Mouth?”[i]
Introduction: In a certain pond on one of the farms in the East were two ducks and frog. Now these neighbors were the best of friends; all day long they used to play together. But as the hot summer days came, the pond began to dry up and soon there was such a little bit of water that they all realized that they would have to move. Now the ducks could easily fly to another place, but what about their friend the frog? Finally it was decided that they would put a stick in the bill of each duck, and then the frog would hang onto the stick with his mouth and they would fly him to another pond. And so they did. As they were flying, a farmer out in his field looked up and saw them and said, “Well, isn’t that a clever idea! I wonder who thought of it!” The frog said, “I diddddddddd!!!!!!” Spat…[ii]
Like that frog, people like to brag and boast. Some times they brag and boast about themselves as individuals. Sometimes they do it about the team or group of which they are a part or of which they support and root for. This boasting usually centers in a claim of superiority. It centers in pride which is most often false pride. But when the apostle Paul exclaims in today's Epistle that he is going to do some bragging and boasting, he mentions his weaknesses rather than his strengths. His purpose is to focus attention on the power and strength of Christ. Unless it was bragging about Christ, bragging for Paul was a worthless pastime. In Jesus, however, Paul had (and we have) someone to brag about. Jesus is someone to brag about.
God has some things He wants to say to us in times when we realize our own weaknesses. The verses surrounding the text depict Paul as one who faced an almost insurmountable physical affliction, his "thorn in the flesh," with which he himself was unable to cope. God's answer to Paul's repeated prayers was -"My grace is sufficient for you", and it reminded him that physical discomforts, no matter how major we think they are, are actually only a minor part of our existence. What really matters is our standing with God. For if we have God's eternal approval, gained for all of us by Jesus Christ's saving work as our Substitute. Because of this, even physical weaknesses and suffering are sure to lead to great blessings.
We also face many physical pains and afflictions with which we ourselves cannot cope. Whether or not He grants us relief from these, God does assure us that the all-important matter of our right standing with Him already has been taken care of. Jesus of Nazareth is the Savior promised in the Garden of Eden and throughout the Old Testament. Because He completed His special task of living a perfect life in our place, dying for our sin, and rising triumphantly from the dead, God declares that we are right with Him again. He will see to it that even our physical weaknesses and suffering lead to great blessings. This happens even though we don’t understand what God is doing, or how He will bring about these blessings
The Apostle Paul didn’t always understand what God was doing or how He was working in Paul’s life. Paul's early life manifested his inherent ignorance of God's work of salvation accomplished in Jesus. Paul knew by memory many passages of what we call the Old Testament. He was a member of the tribe of Benjamin. If ever anyone should have recognized Jesus as the promised Messiah, Paul was the one. Instead, he considered Jesus a blasphemer and dedicated the years of his young manhood to persecuting His followers. He may have been full of pride at all his accomplishments in the Jewish religion. He even boasted about how hard he worked to be righteous in the eyes of God. But by God’s grace he saw himself for what he was, a lost and condemned sinner, unable to help or save himself. There is a story of a minister and a woman. After the minister had preached a searching sermon on pride, a woman who had heard the sermon waited upon him and told him that she was in much distress of mind, and that she would like to confess to a great sin. The minister asked her what the sin was. She answered, “The sin of pride, for I sat for an hour before my mirror some days ago admiring my beauty.” “Oh,” responded the minister, “that was not a sin of pride—that was a sin of imagination!”[iii]
Most of his life Paul imagined that he was right with God by virtue of his own piety and good works, by his working hard at religion, because of his own diligence in following God’s laws, nevertheless, God stepped in with His grace and power as Saul journeyed to Damascus and opened his eyes to the things of salvation by grace for Christ's sake through faith.
We also have vivid imaginations. We, too, by nature have no spiritual ability to trust the true God or to decide to commit ourselves to Jesus as our Savior and Redeemer. Having an inborn animosity toward God and an inclination toward all evil, we of ourselves are spiritually incapacitated. Nevertheless, God has applied His grace to us in Baptism. He continues to confirm us in the same grace through His Gospel and the Lord's Supper. We can boast only about our merciful God, by whose work alone we have been made His sons and daughters in Christ. His strength works to its fullest at the very points of our weakness.
Certainly we understand our own physical weaknesses. But in many ways we are also spiritually weak. Today's first reading, Ezek. 2:1-5, impresses on us God's desire for us to share His Gospel message with those among whom we live and work. We can cite many of our weaknesses as reasons for not doing so. We are afraid of failing, and rightly so if people's acceptance of God's message depends on our persuasive phrases or polished presentations.
But if we trust that God's power is perfected in our weakness, we can both openly acknowledge our weakness and still do all things through Christ, who strengthens us. We can live joyfully despite physical afflictions. We can be confident of salvation despite our natural sinfulness and our many sins of thought, word, and deed. We can bear witness to the love of Christ for all despite a sense of personal inadequacy and fear.
Let us admit our weaknesses and brag about our God, brag about Him not as though we have a God whom nobody else can have but rather because He is the gracious God of all. His power is perfected in our weakness. He is, indeed, Someone to Brag About!
After all, it is not about us and what we think we can or cannot do. Instead it is about God and what God can do, and does do, even in and through us. Where does this God given strength come from? As Paul says in Philippians 4:13… “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” It is not what I cannot do. It is what Christ can do through me!
We also see this attitude in the story of Jesus walking on the water. Peter thought he could walk on water. So in the middle of the lake Peter stepped over the side of the boat and started to walk on the water toward Jesus. As he took his eyes of off Jesus, he immediately began to sink. To rise above the waters that would swallow us up we must always focus on Jesus.
As Paul says in Philippians 4:13… “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” It is not what I can do. It is what Christ can do through me. Just as our Lord said to Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9 he says to each of us… “My power is strongest when you are weak.” God’s power is strongest when we are weak. How can we understand this? Well, as long as we operate on the basis that we can go through life with out the help of God…why should God be there to help us. Often we act as if God doesn’t need to show up. Oh, He is still there, but we don’t always give hime the credit He is due. It is a pity that many of us live as if we are doing alright without the help of God, or those that falsely believe that God only helps those who help themselves. It is only when we are willing to admit we cannot do it on our own, that God clears the path to work through our weaknesses. Then we realize along with Paul… “…when I am weak, I am strong”
In all of this there is no room for pride, as the Lord said in proverbs 16, “18 Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. 19 Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud. First comes pride and then the fall. I wonder if the Lord also had that frog in mind, when He spoke these words? That gets us back to the original question, “What happens to a frog that opens its boastful mouth…and what did he say? Of course…he croaked!” /////////////////////////It would have been far better for the frog to keep his mouth closed and to point to the birds that were saving him. May we not open our mouths with prideful boasting, lest we fall to our own deaths. May we always point to Jesus that has saved us from certain death and given us new and eternal life. May the Lord guide us to say with King David, “My soul makes its boast in the LORD; let the humble hear and be glad. Oh, magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together! I sought the LORD, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them. Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! Amen.
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[i] After J. EICKMANN
[ii] Tan, P. L. (1996, c1979). Encyclopedia of 7700 illustrations : A treasury of illustrations, anecdotes, facts and quotations for pastors, teachers and Christian workers. Garland TX: Bible Communications.
[iii] —C. E. Macartney