Strength and Weakness

Pentecost 3 year B Sermon Who are we? part 5

Title slide

For the past few weeks…in a five part preaching series
called ‘Who are we?’…

List slide

We’ve seen how the story of our own lives can distort our understanding of God’s story…
and get in the road
of embracing the unconditional love of God… revealed in Jesus

we saw how a misleading view of love could lead us
into emotional bondage…and asked ourselves…
whether we lived out of  gratitude for God’s love
or emotional bondage to get love from less gracious sources.  

and we learned how conditional love from childhood…
can not only cripple us spiritually…but wreak havoc with our bodies and our minds. And how keeping
God’s commandment for Sabbath rest… is essential for our wellbeing and our service to others.

And last week… we explored how relationship… parenting and leadership patterns we learn in childhood…can sabotage our interaction with others when we’re older. How Jesus modelled an empowering style
of leadership…
for the new Christian family he was creating
and how different that was from fear based domination and control people were used to.

We learned that here among those gathered around Jesus…
we can break all our old patterns and habits…tear up our old maps from less gracious environments.
And root our identities in Christ. How we can practise on each other…Jesus new commandment to love one another…
and how practising this with each other equips us…to take the gospel of grace into the world.

Today in the last of the series…we’ll see why running
from the reality of our own weakness
can hinder our efforts… to serve Christ in the world.

You see there’s another lie that creeps into our thinking…
just like the lie we have to earn God’s love…and it’s likely to stop you in your tracks…
from service in Christ’s new family…

it’s the lie you have to have it all together…
have your life completely sorted…
to qualify as Christian… or be of any use…to the mission of God

So you hang back in the shadows…believing your weaknesses …the failures…rule you out…
from serving God and others. My friends that is a diabolical lie.

But the truth is far more interesting and empowering.
Sometimes the messier your life ‘s been…the weaker you are …the greater support you can be…
for other people. And the truth is…no one… absolutely no one…in any Christian community…has their life completely together. Our acting Session Clerk, Barbara Lee puts it like this…we are a broken and wounded people… gathered around Jesus.

Eleven years ago…while I was still a student for ministry…
Reg and I felt a call to serve God in this place. But Catherine was still here.

We waited.

Catherine retired and Jim Symons came as interim minister for a whole year. I graduated…we waited.

The introductory work group arrived at the front door…to hand us the profile of the Upper Clutha Parish.
We knelt down and prayed for God’s will to be done. Then we waited.
Graciously the local settlement board asked me to meet with them. When I did I fell in love with the people.
But they wanted a young man with a young family…we waited…another three months.

And during that time by the grace of God… one by one…
each member of the board began to believe I was the one to call.

That was the easy part…I was a woman with a past.
One parish leader said they’d resign if I came.
Suddenly everyone was interested in my past!

Now being a sinner, there were many things in my past that could have come to light…
Yes I’d grown up in the church…
but took a holiday to be a wild young thing…a hippy even …
but that wasn’t it…I’d had cancer when I was eighteen and could be a health risk…but that wasn’t it…

I’d worked in that cauldron of heathen… known as TVNZ…
but no… that wasn’t a problem…I’d had great challenges as a single parent of a young daughter…
but that didn’t seem to bother anyone…I’d experienced depression…
but that wasn’t it either

What do you think it was? Talk to your neighbour…

Take guesses

I’d been married before. I’d had a failed relationship.
I’d been divorced…and remarried. And my new husband
had been married before as well. So I knew I’d face tough questions when I came to meet the Session
and preach to a congregation who largely knew nothing about me except that I’d been married before…

The decision to offer myself…
for service here in the Upper Clutha…
was made from the conviction that God was calling me for my strengths and my weaknesses.
If I’d thought I needed to hide the weakness and failures in my life I’d never have taken the risk.

Fortunately, by that time in my life…
God’s forgiveness and grace was the basis of my identity.
What I couldn’t have predicted…as a new minister…
is just how much God could use the imperfections of my life
to bring hope and strength to others. People know…
that I know… about vulnerability and failure.

Because of distorted ideas…
of what it means to live the Christian life…
some of you think you have to run from weakness at all costs
that you must pursue strength… at all times. Somewhere along the line… you’ve been convinced
a person’s either strong or weak. Either…or…But the truth about being human
is that it’s both and…isn’t it?

The truth is…admitting our weakness and our suffering…
can be the very thing God uses… to build us up…to equip us
for service in the Kingdom. The truth is…
a suffering world can’t possibly… see us as authentic…
if what we offer…doesn’t come from a heart… wounded by the very pain we’re speaking into.

In a broken community trying to widen the circle of grace around Jesus… we must never put
each other on pedestals of perfection because they simply don’t exist.

Now some people struggle to admit their weakness more than others. For older generations in particular
this goes against the keep things private mentality they grew up with.

And sometimes our emotional and physical health breaks down… just from refusing to admit their
vulnerability and pain to themselves and to God and to even one other human being who can be trusted.

Just as God knows Sabbath rest…is essential to sustaining our working life… God knew that…honesty…
particularly honesty with ourselves… is the cornerstone of our mental and emotional health.

In the new family gathered around Jesus…the truth is we’re all weak and strong…
we all broken and forgiven…
and in the process of healing.

The apostle Paul took great pains to explain

how his service to the gospel of grace
was rooted in weakness…
just as his identity had become rooted in Christ.

Note the blending of strength and weakness in Paul’s writing… as a prerequisite… for living life… in Christ.

In his second letter to the very messy church in Corinth…

Paul writes…

Slide words

All this happens that we might rely
not on ourselves,
but on God, who raises the dead.

…we have this treasure in jars of clay to show this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.

And Paul remembers the risen Jesus’ words to him…[pause]

Slide words

My grace is sufficient for you,
for my power is made perfect in weakness.

Now just dwell in those words for a moment
and let God address you though them…

[pause]

The great founder of the Methodist Church…John Wesley
called these words… ‘Christ’s tender repulse to us in pain!’

He says in Jesus words ‘We see there may be grace where there is the deepest sense of pain. And that Jesus’ strength…
is more illustriously displayed by our weakness.

‘How Paul could glory in his weaknesses
rather than his strengths because it was in weakness…
so could Paul experienced the strength of Christ resting on him.

The Greek word Paul uses for resting on him…
is like being covered all over like a tent.

Oh how we strain to be strong when the truth is…
the strength of Christ is made perfect in our weakness. [pause]

And so as we discovered in this preaching series…
it’s the intent of the gospels to reveal our true identity
…rooted in Christ…in a new covenant family…with new patterns of relating to God and to one another…
in strength and in weakness… for better or worse…
in sickness and in health… we are called to be his church
…one body…made strong by the grace of God.

Together in weakness God can use us…
to bring good news to the poor in pocket and in spirit…
release for those captive to distorted messages of love…

and restoration of sight to the blind to the unconditional love of God…

Together in weakness…
with  the strength of Christ covering us like a tent…
we can bring the good news of God’s shalom…of wellbeing… peace justice and compassion with our
very bodies…
to a world lost in pain. [pause]

Our community in Wanaka is hurting at the moment and severely stressed. Is it just possible God might
be calling you…
to minister to each other and to our community…
precisely because of your weakness?

Calling you to share… your experience with those who need to hear. For this is one way we widen the circle
of those gathered around Jesus. Because we are one Body who share the one bread…broken for us.