This sermon was preached on Sunday 7th July 2024 at St Peter and St Paul Church, Langham.
2 Corinthians 12:2-10
I had a job interview this week. Before you get excited, I’ll let you know that I didn’t get the job.
One of the things that you must do in an interview is to talk about your strengths and your weaknesses. A true classic of an interview question. Perhaps not surprising to some, and definitely not to Cecily, I felt comfortable talking about my strengths. No problem. But then it comes the point that where you have to talk about your weaknesses. I did fine at this, but I do find that it is easier to talk about your strengths rather than your weaknesses. (Though I do acknowledge that Brits, as a people, default to talking about weaknesses and struggle to talk about strengths). Talking about your weaknesses can feel vulnerable and embarrassing. You are letting your guard down. We struggle sharing our weaknesses because we worry what others might think, or whether we will be treated differently as a result. These are normal and reasonable responses to the fearful exposure of your weaknesses. So when you see Paul saying that he will only boast about his weaknesses, it is quite dumbfounding.
Paul says, ‘I will not boast about myself. Except about my weaknesses.’ Why is that the only thing that Paul would boast about himself, his weaknesses. If Paul did that in a job interview, he wouldn’t make it past the initial orientation, let alone the interview. Why boast in what you would consider your weaknesses? Do you boast in your bad maths, or your bad driving, or being bad at work or a bad parent? No, obviously you don’t. Why would you boast about the stuff which is negative about you. It’s the stuff that you try to bury down and forget about. Yet Paul on the other hand wants to get his weaknesses out front and centre. A blinking madman. But is Paul mad? Or has he got a point to all of this.
If you look with me at 2 Corinthians 12:9 where God says to Paul, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’[1] In our weakness, God’s power is made perfect. This sounds good but what does it mean? How is God’s power made perfect in our weakness?
In this passage Paul talks about how God gave him a thorn in his flesh to prevent him from becoming conceited. Paul admits that had this thorn not come along in his life, he was all set to live in pride and arrogance. But the thorn in his flesh took that away from him. It forced Paul to refocus how he viewed himself. He wasn’t this perfect superstar apostle. He couldn’t just depend on himself to do what he did. Paul’s thorn led to him pleading with God to take it away. Paul’s thorn, his weakness, led him to come before God and seek his mercy and grace. Because in Paul’s weakness, he knew that he could not become conceited and that he needed the power of God in his life. He could do this on his own. Paul boasts in his weaknesses because his weaknesses lead him to God.
This is the same for us. Our weaknesses, our thorns in the flesh, help us to realise that we cannot do life on own, we are dependent on God. Our weaknesses lead us to plead with God, to cry out and ask that he comes into our lives. God’s power is made perfect in weakness because in weakness we let down our defences and barriers to God and let him in to our lives to fully work out his love and power. God is able to work his perfect love and saving power in us because we have allowed him. We are made perfect by God through admitting our imperfection.
When we boast in our weaknesses, that is not saying that we celebrate the wrongdoing or sin we commit. But we boast that in knowing that we are weak and imperfect, that we recognise our need for a saviour and open our lives to Jesus. This is what life is all about. More of Jesus in our lives, more of God’s love, redemption, joy and transformation. That is why Paul says, ‘I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.’[2] Acknowledging our weaknesses becomes a breaking down of the walls we put up between us and God, thus allowing God’s grace to come and rest upon us and do his work in our lives.
Perhaps that is partly why God still allows bad things to happen in this world, why he still gives us thorns in our flesh. God gives us opportunities to experience weakness so that it may lead us to find strength in God. The truth is that none of us are perfect. All of us are in need in God’s salvation, but our human strengths and achievements can make us lose sight of this. It is our weaknesses and inabilities that lead us to recognise that we need help. It is why Paul boasts in being weak. It is why Paul says, ‘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.’[3] In acknowledging his weaknesses and having life remind him that he is weak, Paul can turn more to God, in whom real strength and power is found. Our imperfections remind us of the need for a perfector, and we find the perfector of our faith in God. In God’s perfect love we find his saving power and grace working in our lives so that our weaknesses seem incomparable to us now. Because now we have the mighty power of God in us. With God we are strong.
I was gutted when I was told that I didn’t get the job. But I thank God that this moment of disappointment, weakness, and uncertainty about the future is a reminder and opportunity to lean into God. To open my life more to his love and power. To recognise that I cannot do things in my own strength. It is through accepting my weaknesses, powerlessness and shortcomings that I open myself up to God’s working power in me. I find strength and certainty for my future because I am turning to God as my strength rather than myself. In God my weaknesses mean more of his strength.
What are your weaknesses? What are the things in your life that you feel shy or embarrassed out? What are the things that make you feel vulnerable. Don’t hide from them and pretend that they are not there. Instead be honest with yourself about them. Feel okay to admit to yourself that you are weak and that you need help. Say to God that you are weak and need his help because in him you will find grace that sufficient and all that you need. In him you will find that you are given strength and support to get you through the hard things. In him you need never worry, because his plan for us is sure, and true and good. Always good.
This is what we remember in Holy Communion. We come before God accepting and recognising that we are sinful, that we cannot cope on our own. We come and turn to God asking him to come into our lives. We eat his body and drink his blood as a testament and witness that we are dependent on God for our lives. So let’s do that together today as we come to Communion. We come not boasting in our strengths but in our weaknesses, knowing that in boasting in our weaknesses we are declaring our need for God, and God will always come to us when we call upon him. In Communion, we go out in the power of the Spirit which gives us the strength, peace and joy for lives. For when we are weak, then we are strong.
Amen.
[1] 2 Corinthians 12:9 [NIV].
[2] 2 Corinthians 12:9 [NIV].
[3] 2 Corinthians 12:10 [NIV].
Shakeel Nurmahi 