Clay & Thorns

SERMON TEXT 2 Corinthians 12:6–10

2 Corinthians 12:6–10 NIV

6 Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, 7 or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 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 about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Situation • Over these last several weeks, we have been taking a deep dive into the grace of God and how God works by His grace to bring us into right relationship with Him. We have been studying Dr. Busic’s book together “Way, Truth, Life: discipleship as a journey of grace” and have been reminded that discipleship - the process of becoming Christ like, is a journey of faith that begins with God’s grace pulling us in and drawing us into relationship as He pursues us. It continues with the grace of God that brings forgiveness from sin and brings us into new life in Christ. This new life in Christ changes us at the core of our being, and brings our spirit to life, whereas we were dead in sin, we are alive in Christ! God’s grace continues to work in us as we grow in Christ and we are called to relinquish our selves to God in complete consecration that brings sanctification. His grace continues to work in us enabling us to be sustained in the faith - it is by His grace that we remain in Christ. This journey is all about God’s grace from beginning to end! It is by His grace that we are saved through faith - not of our own works of righteousness - it is ALL about His grace!

Discipleship is a journey that leads us into close relationship with Jesus - It’s an invitation to get close to Jesus, to walk with him, grow, be transformed, and be commissioned to serve him in this world.

We’ve talked about the grace that goes before us, drawing us in and making a way for us - we call this Prevenient Grace - the grace that goes before.

We’ve talked about the saving grace of God that holistically changes us and makes us alive in Him

We’ve talked about the sanctifying grace of God that empowers us to live faithfully, even when our best efforts and good intentions seemingly fail us. The grace of God does more than overlook our sin - He not only forgives, He empowers and makes it possible for us to live the life of love to which He has called us.

Last week, we talked about sustaining grace, the grace that keeps us moving forward on the path we’ve been called to so that our life of faith isn’t a sprint but a marathon. Having been saved by grace, we do not continue in the faith by works. Our relationship with Christ continues by His grace, and He continues to sustain us in that relationship.

• And we’ve celebrated His grace. And we should! Grace gives us much to celebrate.

It’s the gift of God’s favor toward us. It’s the gift that changes everything. Paul suggests in Philippians that we shine like stars and in Romans that we are more than conquerors. Paul has a lot to say about how grace enables us to overcome, to rise above sin, to transform us into the new creation. Grace makes all things new.

Complication Except when it doesn’t. Wait!—I know what you’re thinking: I thought we were celebrating? Yes. That is true - we celebrate all that God has done in our lives in the past - we celebrate the things that He is doing in our lives right now - and we celebrate that He is not finished molding and making us into the disciples that He desires us to be. By His grace, He continues to work in us - there is a song, often thought of as a kid’s song, but really is for adults as well that says:

He's still working on me To make me what I need to be It took him just a week to make the moon and stars The sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars How loving and patient He must be 'Cause He's still workin' on me

All of that is true - but what about the things that seem to be persistent - the things that would seem to defeat us and keep us from being all that God would have us be? What about the suffering and the trials that come in this life. Many a believer has faltered at just this point because they think, or perhaps they have been taught, that God will make their lives full of roses without any thorns. Yet, what we find in life is that suffering is real - and despite what you may have heard from some pop-theologians, suffering still occurs in the life of believers. If we aren’t careful, we can translate grace into a form of spiritual invincibility, or turn suffering in this world into something trivial—or, worse yet, start to assume that if we’re living in grace then whatever suffering we encounter, we can just pray it away - that God will always take our weaknesses away from us.

It doesn’t take too long of living as a Christ follower to realize that that is not how it works! It happened for me when I was 5 years old and my grandma died. I knew she was sick - she was only in her late 50’s, but had been diagnosed with cancer. A surgery was scheduled, but when they opened her up, they found that the cancer was pretty much everywhere, and there was nothing - the Dr. said, that they could do. As a child, I had been taught that God was able to heal. I knew that God healed, and so I began to pray - & I had the faith of a child - I was only 5 after all. I was positive that God was going to answer my prayer and heal my grandma. And so I kept praying and believing until the night she died. I remember that night pretty vividly. I awoke in the middle of the night to people talking in the living room - even the pastor was there. I knew what had happened when I saw the anguish on my mom’s face, and I was angry and my anger was aimed at God! After all, I had prayed, and I was confident that God was going to heal my grandma!

What happens when prayer doesn’t work like we think it should work? Every life includes times of rough and tumble. Every life is complicated. Just yesterday, I saw a commercial that started out by saying something like, life is supposed to easy - Lisa and I both laughed out loud. Yeah - right - we all know that life is NOT always easy! Sometimes life leaves a mark. Sometimes that jar of clay that Paul suggests holds glory, gets cracked. It’s fragile.

Sometimes we end up like Paul, with a thorn that we can’t pray away. There has been all kinds of speculation about what the thorn was that Paul mentions in our text. Some have thought that it was some temptation that he wanted to go away, but it continued to happen. We can all probably relate to that type of thing. Some have said that it was perhaps some person or group of people that kept undermining his ministry. Some have suggested that it was some physical ailment - perhaps his stature, or epilepsy, or maybe his eyesight. There is evidence that Paul’s eyes weren’t so good - in Galatians 4:15, he said… “I can testify that, if you could have done so, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me.”, and then in Galatians 6:11 “11 See what large letters I make when I am writing in my own hand!” But the truth is, we don’t know for sure what the “thorn in his flesh” was. Anybody who offers an answer for that question is offering a guess.

Paul seemed to beg God for the removal of the thorn. But what happens when the thorn doesn’t go away? When the mental health crisis persists? When the person we prayed for dies? When we still lose our job? What happens then?

Resolution What happens then is grace that isn’t merely a fix-it for every issue. Instead, grace is found—discovered amid the fragile, cracked jars and persistent thorns. “The Lord answered Paul, but not in the way he expected. No, God says: Paul, you are going to keep the thorn, but know this: ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness. You are stronger in your weakness moments when I am with you than you are in your strongest moments without me. My strength is made perfect in your weakness.” Dr. Busic says: “Something happens in the life of a fully consecrated disciple of Jesus who, along the journey of grace, goes through difficult circumstances and demanding situations. They experience God’s sufficient grace in their weakness to sustain them and provide what is needed in their greatest struggles.”

I would add that 50 years into this journey of grace, I can testify that this has been true in my life. If you know Christ as savior, you have experienced it as well. I sometimes forget, though - so I need to be reminded that God’s grace is sufficient for my weaknesses.

Paul discusses the strength of God made perfect in our weakness. What does grace do and not do? Grace doesn’t remove the memories. Grace doesn’t exempt us from the damage. Grace doesn’t take away the sorrow. Grace doesn’t resolve our fragility. [Deep breath!] Grace does reframe our stories. Grace does work in the cracks. Grace does deepen intimacy. Grace does reveal its source.

Celebration

So trials, struggles and challenges are going to come into our lives.

Layoffs will come - pandemics will come. We will experience difficult times and difficult people. In fact, you probably know that I work part-time for Choice books, Two of our best selling little books are called “How do I deal with difficult times” and “How do I deal with difficult people.”

We are going to experience diagnoses that will rock our world.

Friends and loved ones are going to go through struggles - and sometimes that is harder than going through them ourselves. We struggle particularly when innocent children experience diagnoses that will likely bring early death.

We are going to experience loss - and when we truly and deeply love people, we are going to experience the pain of death and loss.

Everybody here has experienced some of these things. Let me say it as clearly as I know how. Experiencing painful and difficult times in no way reflects on our faithfulness to God. After my grandma died, my mom was told by somebody at our church that if she had only had more faith that my grandma wouldn’t have died. I didn’t find out about that until about 20 years later. I was in seminary, and while talking on the phone to my mom, she asked me what I thought about that. It had been 20 years, and that painful comment stil haunted my mom. Let me say it again: Experiencing painful and difficult times in no way reflects on our faithfulness to God! I am eternally grateful, however, that when we do experience these things, when we struggle - when we are weak - we have a God that is always faithful to us! His grace, we find, is sufficient no matter what the world may throw at us.

Conclude the sermon with a time of quiet reflection and prayer.

Closing: Goodness of God