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Sermon - Fifth Sunday after Pentecost (B) - 5th July 2009
St Aidans' Anglican Church West Epping - 7 & 8am
Reading: 2 Samuel 5:1-10; Psalm 48; 2 Corinthians 12:2-10; Mark 6:1-13
We humans are constantly making judgements about people. Over the past week, we have heard all sorts of assessments of Michael Jackson as a performer, and as a person. We assess politicians and public figures. We assess people of different religions and nationalities. We form opinions of people we know and people we don’t know. Often those assessments or judgements are based on limited knowledge, if not fundamental ignorance.
Nothing new about that. Look at the comments made about Jesus in our Gospel. As far as the people of Nazareth were concerned, Jesus was just the carpenter’s son. He had no business big-noting himself as a preacher: as if God would choose him as a prophet!
Of course we know how wrong they were. And so were the Corinthians in their attitude to Paul, as we see in his two letters to the Corinthian church.
Paul had had an extended ministry in Corinth in the earliest days of the church, and he had kept in touch with them. He needed to, because they had many ups and downs, and were easily influenced by the wrong people, who had their own agendas. In his letters, Paul had to challenge them and even castigate them about their false ideas and ungodly behaviour. He sought to encourage them about their positive points, and to guide them away from the wrong path. He sought to use his authority as an apostle, but found that he was often undermined or ignored by the Corinthians.
In the last few chapters of 2 Corinthians, part of which we read this morning, we see part of his response to his opponents. They seemed to be saying that Paul didn’t deserve the Corinthians’ attention.
“So what if he writes strong letters,” they said. “He’s not very impressive in the flesh. He finds it easier to push his weight around from a distance. What has he really done to convince you that he’s such a great man? We can show you displays of God’s power: are his miracles any greater? We have had great spiritual experiences to tell you about: Paul seems pretty quiet about his. Doesn’t God talk to him personally? Look, he was never all that impressive a preacher. No wonder he wouldn’t even ask you for some financial support: he isn’t even a real professional. Forget about him! There’s a better way than Paul’s way.” So said Paul’s detractors.
Of course, it was not just a call to move beyond Paul himself. It was a call to move away from Paul’s message. Perhaps these people were telling the Christians of Corinth to take on the Jewish laws and traditions as an essential part of the Christian faith: there are hints of that in this part of the letter. But the main thing is that this was not just about Paul and his status: the Gospel of Jesus, the Gospel of grace, the Gospel of salvation was at stake. Paul had to call them back to their loyalty to Christ, and that was bound up with their loyalty to Paul himself.
But how can Paul assert his authority without seeming to be arrogant, or simply putting down his opponents? He picks up the accusations that seem to weaken his standing, and encourages the Corinthians to see them in a different way.
One accusation seems to be that Paul wasn’t convinced of his own authority. Otherwise he would certainly have expected the Corinthians to provide financial support. That was the normal expectation for a travelling teacher.
In reply, Paul tells them that he didn’t want to be a burden to them: he wanted to give them the good news without charge, without any personal financial expectations. He would not make such demands of them. Of course, many travelling teachers would take advantage of their followers: Paul wanted to be clear of any accusations along those lines. He was not a peddler of the Gospel: the message of God’s free grace was preached by Paul freely without charge.
Another accusation apparently made against Paul was that, if his message was valid, he would be seen as a winner, a triumphant preacher, with lots of success stories. But his successes were regarded as few and far between: he seemed to spend more time in prison than opening mega-churches.
In reply, Paul doesn’t provide a list of spectacular successes, significant awards and recognition of his greatness. Instead he provides a catalogue of faithful but difficult service. He reminds them of his Jewish background, but that is not the big issue here. He speaks about faithful ministry, of suffering for the Gospel, of imprisonments and beatings. He speaks of his commitment to Christ’s people, his prayer and concern for them. He even refers to a very embarrassing escape over the wall of Damascus. Not an impressive way to leave a city. His qualifications aren’t degrees and diplomas and certificates of appreciation: his qualifications are the faithfulness of his ministry, and his loving commitment to the family of Christ, even if suffering is involved.
And in chapter 12, where we find today’s reading, there is his reply to another apparent accusation. “If Paul were a real apostle, he would have had many stories of great spiritual experiences: there would be visions and divine visitations and revelations which would demonstrate that Paul was the real thing. Why should we take him so seriously if he’s just like anyone else?”
And so, as we heard, Paul recounts an unusual spiritual experience: being caught up to the third heaven. There were believed to be different levels of heaven, and this experience must have been pretty special. But instead of saying that he himself had experienced it, he says that this was the experience of a man in Christ whom Paul knows. And it was fourteen years ago.
And Paul’s description is extremely vague: he doesn’t know whether it was in the body or out of the body, he doesn’t mention anything that this man saw, and he says that what the man heard cannot be told. Hardly an informative report!
Now I’m sure that the readers connected that Paul was talking about himself. But it is clear that Paul doesn’t want to use it to convince the Corinthians of his authority. Personal experiences are personal experiences: they don’t really prove things to others, and they are not for the purpose of boasting - they are not a reason for ego-trips. In fact, Paul says he would prefer to boast of his weakness, not his great experiences.
Nor does he provide a catalogue of miracles, though I think he could have done that. Instead he does the opposite. He talks about his “thorn in the flesh”: some problem, some pain, some sickness or problematic condition, which made life difficult for Paul. We don’t know what it was, though lots of people have tried to guess. Perhaps it’s a good thing that we don’t know: Paul’s lesson may be seen as more relevant to us that way. He describes it also as a messenger of Satan.
But God is greater than Satan. And Paul prayed that God would remove this thorn in the flesh. In fact he asked three times, very earnestly and very purposefully. But God did not grant his request, and Paul’s thorn in the flesh remained.
However, God did not leave Paul in the dark about the reason. He knew that the problem prevented him getting too elated about his ministry: it stopped him feeling too successful, too clever. And God told him: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness”. In other words, Paul’s weakness - that thorn in the flesh - made sure that he relied on God’s power, not simply his own resources. The thorn in the flesh made him more aware of his utter dependence upon God. It saved him from pride and arrogance, and from thinking that he could do it all by himself. What mattered was not an impressive collection of miracles, but humble dependence. No wonder Paul boasted in his weakness rather than in his exploits!
What do we learn from this debate between Paul and the Corinthians? Firstly, we are reminded how easy it is to make judgements on the wrong basis, on appearances and image, instead of reality. Let us take care, lest we condemn the innocent or reject the one who tells the truth.
Secondly, let us remember that God is more interested in humble loving service than in superficial impressions or even statistical success. In our own lives, do we put first things first?
And finally, let us remember that not all our prayers will get the answers we seek: it even happened to Paul. That does not mean that God has forgotten us. Rather that God will work for our good in another way. He will be with us in those difficult places, and his grace will support us in the trials we face. Whenever we are weak, as we trust in the Lord, we are strong. Amen.
Paul Weaver