Rev. Molly F. James, Ph.D.
St. James’s, West Hartford, CT
July 7, 2024
2 Corinthians 12:2-10; Mark 6:1-13
May God’s Word be spoken. May God’s Word be heard. May that point us to the living Word who is Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Our Epistle from Corinthians ends with the line: “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.” Often when I read Paul’s letters, I want to start arguing with him. What do you mean content with weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities? No thank you. How could we possibly be content with that list of things? Haven’t you been around when hardships have befallen us - do the conversations around our dinner tables sound content to you? And I can well attest from my own life experience as a teenager and as a parent that:“It’s okay. The Apostle Paul says we should be content with insults.” is not an adequate response to the mean things kids say to each other.
Also, Paul, have you read the news headlines lately? There are calamities and hardships in our communities and around the world. Are we supposed to just smile and nod and say “oh well”?
Somehow passivity in the face of hardship and calamity doesn’t fit with my understanding of Jesus. This is the guy who turned over the tables in the temple courts when people were being cheated. This is the guy who went out of his way to heal people and to care for and speak up for the marginalized. It does not seem that being a follower of Jesus involves being passive in the face of hardship or injustice.
So if that’s not what Paul meant, what did he mean? What does it mean that we can be strong in our weakness? What if Paul doesn’t mean that we are meant to be weak in the sense of passive, but weak in the sense of not relying on our own power or thinking we can do it all on our own?
What if being “weak” is actually about turning it over and trusting in God more than ourselves? What if it is about realizing that divine power is far greater than any human power?
Those hardships and insults and calamities are not of ultimate consequence because they are of human origin. Nothing we humans can conjure up can ever be more powerful than God. Ah, there it is. There’s an understanding of Paul that fits far better. That actually rings true with my understanding of Jesus and the messages at the heart of our faith.
There is nothing in this world that can separate us from the Love of God in Christ. Nothing. As Paul says in the book of Romans: “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” As Good Friday and Easter show us, there is nothing humans can do to each other, even death and crucifixion that are more powerful than God’s Love. God’s Love always has the last word. Always.
I believe this applies not only in the cosmic sense, as Martin Luther King, Jr. said, the arc of history bends toward justice. I believe this fundamental truth applies for us as individuals too. And some days, I think that is the reminder we need most. That we are loved, and we are strong - even when we don’t feel that way.
One of my favorite Christian singers is Lauren Daigle, and she has a song that beautifully expresses this, entitled “You Say.”
She says: “I keep fighting voices in my mind that say I'm not enough
Every single lie that tells me I will never measure up
Am I more than just a song of every high and every low
Remind me once again just who I am because I need to know
You say I am loved when I can't feel a thing
You say I am strong when I think I am weak
And you say I am held when I am falling short
And when I don't belong, oh You say I am Yours . . .
The only thing that matters now is everything You think of me
In You I find my worth, in You I find my identity.”
So whether you are feeling weighed down by the calamities of the world or of your own personal life this week, I hope you can find solace in these truths. There will be days when we feel weak and persecuted. There will be days when we feel insulted or as though the hardships we face are insurmountable. And on those days, we can know that we do not have to face them alone. In fact, we are never alone. And we do not need to rely on our own power to get through whatever it is. We may feel weak, but God says we are strong. Our worth. Our identity comes from being beloved of God, not from the voices in our head or even those around us that tell us we are not enough. We are enough. We are God’s beloved. And God working in and through each of us, and all of us together can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine. AMEN.
