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Dr. George A. Purnell
July 5, 2009
“What Do Christians Have to Brag About?”
2 Corinthians 12:2-10
“Never let them see you sweat” was the punch line of a commercial that ran a few years ago. While the ad was promoting a brand of deodorant, the subtle meaning behind the need to stay dry was because it projected the image of someone who is calm and confident, someone who is competent and in control of things; because such a person is one in whom you could place trust and look to for leadership. We find someone with a non anxious presence comforting, especially in uncertain times. (Indeed, Barack Obama’s calm demeanor…no drama Obama…was appealing to many people when he ran for president.)
We live in a competitive culture. Competition involves finding the weakness of your opponent and exploiting this weakness to gain the advantage. We are encouraged to play up our strengths and emphasize what it is about us that puts us ahead of the field.
When we apply for college or interview for a job…when we are having a conversation with a colleague at a professional meeting or even when talking with an acquaintance at a dinner party…we want to present ourselves in the best possible light. Accordingly, we don’t put our weaknesses on display. We know what they are, and we try to keep them under the radar, for fear that we will seem less worthy in the eyes of the world.
The way our scripture reading begins today is puzzling at first glance. Paul begins by recounting a story in the third person about someone he knows, “a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven”...either physically or in an out of body experience…and there “heard things that no mortal is permitted to repeat.”
Why Paul begins chapter 12 of this second letter to the church in Corinth by recounting this story is not so puzzling, however, when we consider these verses in the context of the situation that Paul faced there…
Paul had founded this church and stayed with it during its organizing days, before moving on to plant churches in Galatia, Ephesus, and other places along his journey. After leaving, Paul remained in contact with the people in Corinth through the letters we find in the New Testament. Indeed, we know a lot about the first century congregation in Corinth from the two lengthy letters (the 1st letter containing 16 chapters and the 2nd one 13) included in the New Testament.
These two letters describe a congregation that was challenging to oversee, especially from a distance. We read of leadership disputes, intense infighting, and disagreement over what constituted acceptable beliefs and behaviors. In fact, in the opening chapter to his first letter, Paul writes of his disappointment that the congregation had divided into different factions claiming different people as their leader:
“…it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you…that each of you says, ‘I belong to Paul,’ or ‘I belong to Apollos,’ or ‘I belong to Cephas’…” (1 Corinthians 1:11, 12)
In a disgusted tone, Paul concludes: “I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius.” (verse14)
In Chapters 10, 11, and 12 of Second Corinthians, we find Paul defending his authority as an apostle of Jesus. Indeed, the chapter we are in today is at the end of his second letter, and it is apparent that Paul feels his ministry is facing serious challenge.
Paul is under attack from a group of religious promoters whom he labels “super apostles.” Whereas Paul’s style could be obtuse and abrasive, and his appearance unimpressive, some of his challengers apparently possessed the polish and poise and physical vitality that he lacked. These evangelists portrayed Paul as a sickly man and a poor public speaker.
In chapter 10, Paul acknowledges what his critics say about him: “For they say, ‘His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptible’.” (v10) In his own defense, Paul counters that “it is not those who commend themselves that are approved, but those whom the Lord commends” (10:18), before adding – “I think that I am not in the least inferior to these super apostles.” (11:5)
Paul is unimpressed with the boastful claims of his opponents regarding the special revelations they had experienced. And he is not reticent to tell his readers that these super-apostles show that they are not authentic witnesses by their boasting: “For such boasters are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder! Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.” (11:13-14)
When he opened our passage today writing in the third person about someone he knew who “was caught up into Paradise and heard things that are not to be told,” it is evident that he is describing his own experience. God revealed heavenly mysteries to Paul, and the fact that he cannot reveal them indicates their profundity. By writing in the third person, Paul puts distance between himself and the experience, ostensibly so as to not boast. But he is boasting, in a sense, by arguing that he could outdo his opponents when it came to visions and heavenly revelations if he chose to play that game.
The shift from third to first person in verses 7-10 signals a turn that Paul wants to emphasize. He wants people to evaluate his authenticity as an apostle of Jesus by his life example, and not by a divine encounter 14 years earlier. So, to prevent his heavenly visions from becoming an ego trip, Paul was given a ‘thorn in the flesh.’
He gives us no details about this thorn. Scholars have debated about this handicap, whether it was deteriorating eyesight, or osteoporosis, or epilepsy, because of how he describes his physical health in various places in his letters. What is important about this thorn is how Paul understood its function in his life, not what kind of ailment it was.
And Paul does not dispute that he asked God to take this thorn from him – just as Jesus asked God to take this cup of suffering from him while praying in the Garden of Gethsemane the night of his arrest – but as Jesus concluded his prayer to God by submitting to God’s will over his own, here Paul concludes that his prayers were not answered as he had requested, but instead by God saying to him: “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.”
Jesus had revealed God’s power most fully in his weakness on the Cross. It was in his surrender – his willingness to endure abandonment, insults, ridicule, torture, and finally a death so painful that we don’t like to think about it – that Jesus showed us what it means to know complete freedom; freedom from fear, from the forces of evil, even from death itself.
So it is here that Paul writes about that which he feels Christians can boast:
“So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.”
The message of Christian triumphalism today is sweet music to a culture wanting to be first. Prophets of the prosperity gospel tell us that God wants us to be rich. We see the Hour of Power broadcast from the Crystal Cathedral in Southern California and Joel Osteen from the arena in Houston that formerly housed the NBA Houston Rockets. We read books written by pastors whose mega churches make Bloomington First look like a small group ministry. We attend our own Indiana United Methodist annual conference session last week and hear from Adam Hamilton, who pastors the largest United Methodist Church in the United States…
And it is hard not to at least occasionally wonder:
We can move beyond these questions when we realize that our limitations and life’s disappointments can serve to humble us, and remind us that God is trustworthy in all things. We grew strong by doing the hard work of overcoming obstacles in our way as we traveled life’s journey, not by having everything given to us. As we come to receive the Sacrament today, let us come expectantly, believing that it is in our weaknesses that God’s extravagant grace and power will be revealed; in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
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