Threads from Henry's Web

Tag: weakness

  • Strength in Weakness

    Strength in Weakness

    But he said to me, “My grace is enough for you, for strength is made complete in weakness.

    2 Corinthians 12:9a (my translation)

    This is one of the many passages I say are easy to preach, but not easy to practice. The problem with that line is that you may be preaching it wrong if you aren’t, in some way, practicing it.

    I don’t mean that God may leave you behind or exclude you because you have failed to understand weakness. Note the “grace” in there. Often we think grace is a substitute for taking action. It’s not. It’s the only means toward effective action. I may be saved by grace, but if I go banging my head against the wall, it will still hurt.

    I may also accept that I depend on Christ for everything, and still if I go trying to fix everything myself, refusing help, it’s still going to hurt.

    I was reminded of that last week when I injured my lower back. I thought I injured my hip, but those who know say otherwise. I immediately went into fix-it-myself mode. First I waited to get medical attention because it wasn’t bad enough. Then, well, I ended up going to the hospital by ambulance.

    I posted the following on Facebook:

    I ended up taking an ambulance ride to the ER early yesterday for an injury sustained in caregiving for Jody. The injury was actually about a week ago, but kept getting worse until I was in bad shape. The EMTs couldn’t find any blood pressure at first, and when I told them I hadn’t taken my blood pressure meds they said, “Thank God! You probably would have crashed.” Then my blood pressure rebounded to very high, but they said it stayed in a range they’d expect for the situation.

    In any case, the diagnosis is a strain to the sciatic nerve for which I have more pills to take in the next week than I’ve probably taken in my life up to now. I’m fairly weak and unable to make the walk to my office safely. (The hospital put an armband on saying I was a falling risk. I wish I could argue, but they were right.) I surprised them, I think, by refusing morphine, but they had said with the meds they were giving me the problem would begin to clear up in another half hour. I said I’ve been surviving this for a few hours now, I’ll wait for the steroids, etc to do their thing.

    From my Facebook Feed.

    I got a text of sympathy from my friend (and Energion author) Dave Black. Now Dave didn’t start preaching about weakness, but he has a connection there that reminded me of it. Perhaps it’s the title of his dissertation, Paul: Apostle of Weakness.

    Now Dave didn’t say anything to me about weakness. He didn’t have to. I started thinking about it.

    Here are some things that have occurred to me about weakness over the last few days as I try to recover.

    1. We don’t like to accept or admit weakness. In my case, this was shown as I tried to avoid medical care. Yes, I told myself I didn’t have time, but what I didn’t want to do was go get some orders from a doctor that I might even have to follow. A fate to be avoided diligently!
      I was sitting in my dining room, in serious pain, after I had nearly passed out in my bathroom. Do you want to guess what I was thinking? “I wonder if I could drive myself to the hospital.”
      I’m reminded of a aphorism I first heard in a military context: “After a certain point, quantity has a quality all its own.” Let me use something similar here. “After a certain point (which is probably behind you), strength has a weakness all its own.”
    2. Even after we accept weakness, we don’t want to embrace the extent of our weakness. Having realized that driving myself to the emergency room was not an option, I immediately thought of friends. Who can give me a quiet ride to the ER? The friend I chose to call is a retired physician. After a couple of questions he said, “You need to call an ambulance and go that way.”
      Ouch! I am not old and infirm. I am not sick. I am not weak. I don’t need an ambulance.
      And then facts jump up and intrude.
    3. Once we realize a weakness, we’d rather not ask for help. I encountered this in myself as my friend was driving me home from the hospital. I also needed to get some medications at the pharmacy. I started out with the idea of going by the pharmacy on the way home. It was only a little out of the way. Then I realized, weak again, that I couldn’t contemplate that ride.
      So, not wanting to ask my friend for any more help, I suggested he take me home and I’d get someone else to make a run later than afternoon. He had, after all, done enough!
      That was not his opinion. He dropped me off, took the prescriptions, got them filled, and brought them back to me.
      Lesson? You know more helping people and they’ll help more than you think.
    4. Those of us who have leadership roles want to avoid looking weak. This can come in many ways. Sometimes we don’t want to admit we don’t know the answer to a question. Sometimes we don’t want to admit family problems. Sometimes we just don’t want to admit anything. And church congregations tend to jump on such weaknesses. Might I suggest reading 2 Corinthians 12? Paul had that problem. Paul chose to model weakness. Jesus had that problem. The disciples, and especially Judas, thought he should wield strength. He used weakness. Your ministry may be tough with admitted weakness, but it’s going to be real, by God’s grace.
    5. Those of us not in leadership look for strong leaders to lead and protect us. This reflects our own lack of faith in “strength completed through weakness.” We preach about Jesus going to the cross. We talk about loving one another, but we believe that can only work while protected by strength, accomplishment, and yes, superiority. Bottom line, we don’t actually believe what Jesus said.

    The church is, in so many ways, not a collection of the “good” or “righteous,” or of people who can claim superiority to those around them, but rather it is a group of people who are so wounded that we can’t even admit how wounded we are. We’re trying to get to the point where we realize that the great physician is there.

    But that’s OK. The weakness is there. God’s gonna get you in the end!

  • Matthew 18:1-5 – As Children

    Matthew 18:1-5 – As Children

    1 At that time the disciples approached Jesus and asked, “So who will be greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2 He called a child to him and put him in the middle of the group, 3 and said, “I tell you truly that if you don’t turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 So whoever humbles himself as this child, that is the one who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And whoever receives such a child in my name receives me.

    Matthew 18:1-5 (my translation)

    My wife set an interesting task for me in suggesting this text. The reason? It challenges just about everything about the way we tend to think, the way we do church, and the way we do community. In general, we’d prefer not to be challenged in this way.

    A standard question, a good question, is just what aspects of being a child Jesus is pointing to here. Are we to be ignorant, inexperienced, demanding, perhaps a bit spoiled? Are we not to take responsibility for ourselves? I’ve heard every negative, or supposedly negative characteristic of children brought into the conversation.

    But there is a point of context that sets the boundaries. The disciples were looking at who was greatest. They wanted a hierarchy. They assumed there would be a hierarchy. They wanted the best spots in that hierarchy. They would be able to protect themselves by having the places of leadership. They could keep other people in line by use of their positions in the hierarchy.

    At this time the disciples expected Jesus to take over as king, so these positions would be those of political power. They would rule other people, always in Jesus’ name, of course, but taking care of themselves in the process. Everything would be on their side. And each of them wanted to be the one of them that was making the calls. That’s the place of control, the place you can protect yourself.

    And Jesus says to them to become like little children. It’s not what that little child’s behavior that Jesus wants them to imitate, though there are certainly good characteristics of a child-like approach to life. What Jesus is saying is to them is this: “You’re going to have to give up the power and the control to become part of the kingdom of heaven.”

    It’s not even that Jesus is standing at the gate of the kingdom blocking people from entering because they lack a list of characteristics of a child. The problem is that as long as you want the power, as long as you want the control, you really can’t fit into the kingdom of heaven.

    The kingdom of heaven is ruled by One who has absolute control and uses that on behalf of everyone. The glory of God is not that God is powerful. That is really glorious. We worship the power and the glory and we want that for ourselves. We admire it.

    But the One with all the power and the glory went to the cross, enduring all the agony and shame because for the One who is really glorious, the glory is all there for the good of everyone and everything. And if you want to be part of the kingdom you’re going to be losing all that control as well, giving it up for everyone around you.

    You will have to be powerless for all those who are powerless.

    Why? Because the only one who ever had it put that power to work for the benefit of the powerless.

    If you or I enter the kingdom we’ll realize that we actually were “as little children,” as those children would have been in the world of the first century, without their own choice or power. We’re going to receive others who are powerless as Jesus would have.

    And what’s more, we’re going to realize that we are powerless even to do all this, because all power comes from God in the first place. We can only become those little children, and we can only receive those little children through God’s grace working in us.

    God’s strength is manifested in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9).

    So be weak today. Be dependent. Be helpless.

    Let God.

  • But Did God Approve of That?

    But Did God Approve of That?

    Last night in my Tuesday night group we were discussing the story of Hezekiah in Isaiah 36 & 37, in which King Sennacherib of Assyria attacks Judah, and things get pretty dire. Following a sneering message from the Assyrian king, Hezekiah, at the beginning of chapter 37, tears his clothes, puts on sackcloth, and goes to the house of the Lord.

    The first question we had was whether people liked this action. Here’s the king acting afraid, worried, and uncertain about this message. I found it pretty easy to discuss this from a sociological and political point of view. How is it that a king like Hezekiah, in a tiny kingdom such as Judah, manages to hold everything together when pretty much everything is in enemy hands except for three cities?

    I’d suggest that part of the reasoning (ignoring God’s involvement for the moment) comes from the fact that unlike his father, King Ahaz (Isaiah 7), Hezekiah goes to the prophets. The prophets were a political force. We have more evidence for this from the northern kingdom than the southern one, but it seems a reasonable assumption to me.

    Further, the priesthood of Jerusalem was another force in the nations politics, and Hezekiah was the one who centralized worship in Jerusalem. That would have endeared him to that group.

    Thus I suspect Hezekiah had his political ducks in a row as far as powerful groups in the country were concerned. Which, of course, ignores the role of the God of Israel.

    Someone in our group asked this: But was God pleased?

    The background here is one of doubt. In a sense, both Hezekiah and his father Ahaz show doubt. Ahaz does this by ignoring the prophet, assuming that he has to do the necessary work to protect himself when Isaiah says God’s word is that the alliance against Ahaz will not prosper.

    Hezekiah, rather than putting on the perfect performance of piety and trust in God, which might have involved getting up and dramatically announcing that the God of Israel was greater than all the gods of Assyria, tears his clothes.

    This is one of the interesting—perhaps the most interesting—questions we can ask in reading a Bible story. The Bible, particular in the Hebrew scriptures, tells stories in a fairly sparse fashion and doesn’t spend a great deal of time explaining the details to us. We have to read the stories carefully and ask ourselves what moral lessons may apply. Sometimes our perspective can change over time.

    In this case, I think I can answer quite definitively. I think God was very pleased with Hezekiah. I have a few reasons for that:

    • Hezekiah is honest. In the modern church we have a great deal of pretense, because we expect certain performance from our leaders. If the pastor expresses doubt, the foundations are shaken. This is an unrealistic expectation whether of a pastor or of a national leader. This is your Old Testament edition of 2 Corinthians 12:10 in two acts: Isaiah 7 has Ahaz strong, so God is, in effect, weak. In Isaiah 37 Hezekiah is weak, and God is strong!
    • God gets the glory. Because of Hezekiah’s honest, God gets the resulting glory. I back this up with the story in Isaiah 38 & 39. When Hezekiah is healed by divine action, messengers come to see him. He shows them everything. Now the story doesn’t say it directly, but it appears he shows them how strong he, Hezekiah, is, and neglects God’s glory.
    • Hezekiah seeks God immediately. While he is afraid, he nonetheless goes to God rather than seeking the answer himself.

    These two stories in Isaiah 36-39 (I think some might make it three or even four stories, but I think of it as two parts, and effectively the acts completing what happened with Ahaz) open up a great deal of room for meditation and discussion on leadership, weakness, dependence on God, and action.

    It’s said, however, that Hezekiah ends up on a very selfish note. In Isaiah 39:8 he tells himself everything is OK, because destruction and exile won’t come in his own lifetime.

    Even the best of us, like Hezekiah, can fail!

    (Featured image credit: Pixabay.)

  • Marketing Jesus

    Marketing Jesus

    Shortly after I separated from the Air Force I was chatting with a gentleman while waiting in line for something or other. On realizing that I was a veteran, and in fact had been somewhere that would qualify me as a veteran of a foreign war, he started a pitch to get me to join that fine organization (VFW).

    His initial pitch was simply that I could. I asked him why I should. At this point he was somewhat at a loss and simply told me that they had a wonderful local VFW post where I could drink and swap war stories with other veterans. On short acquaintance he couldn’t possibly have know what a poor pitch that was for me.

    Now please don’t imagine that I’m writing against the VFW, any more than I will be writing against Jesus when I talk about marketing approaches. The VFW does some fine work, which is my point. You can give a poor sales pitch for a good cause and drive people away.

    Fast forward about 12 years to a time when I was looking at church congregations. I had not been a member of any church for those years and more, but as regular readers may know, I did have my MA in Religion (with that wonderful concentration in Biblical and Cognate Languages). This made life a bit difficult for pastors who discussed their churches with me.

    In the end, I was considering two United Methodist congregations. I had attended church and some excellent studies at both, and I liked both organizations in many ways. At one of the churches pastor said: “We don’t care what you believe. If you want to enjoy our fellowship, you’re welcome.” The other discussed my beliefs and how they fit with the congregation.

    Now I’m very interested in openness and acceptance, and I advocate the maximum freedom of belief, but I do think an organization requires some sort of center to make it functional and useful. And a mission. That too.

    Thus I joined the other congregation.

    Over the course of my life I have experienced a variety of sales pitches to get me to accept Jesus Christ as my savior, most of them after I already had. Many of these came from people who felt I hadn’t quite gotten it right. Others came from people who presented their pitch so quickly they hadn’t had time to realize I was already a Christian. One came from someone who saw me reading my Greek New Testament while waiting for tires to be installed on my car, and was convinced that my Christianity must just be a thing of the intellect. He was truly concerned that I might mistakenly think that reading Greek was a means of salvation.

    I’ll call it a means of grace. I didn’t think of saying that to him. It would doubtlessly have sent him ballistic. (Then I would have needed to repent, so perhaps it’s best I didn’t think of it.)

    I would categorize approaches to selling Christianity in a few broad camps:

    1. The desperate. These are the people who are afraid that if you don’t accept Christ while in conversation with them, you will doubtless go to hell. One short prayer, and you’ll at least avoid that. Flames are usually involved in the conversation (pun absolutely intended). Conservative and charismatic Christians are susceptible to the use of this approach. Liberals and other mainliners might be susceptible, but often they don’t believe in hell.
    2. The cultural. Christianity is a good society, sort of like Kiwanis or the Lions Clubs. Good people are Christians and attend church every so often. Come join our church and be socially acceptable to the good people. Mainline congregations are most susceptible to this, but conservatives may fall for it in the right cultural context.
    3. The upwardly mobile. This is the home of the prosperity gospel. The pitch goes that you’re in a lower economic and social class than you’d like to be, and Jesus wants you to have abundant life, so just follow Jesus to health, wealth, and satisfaction. (No, not the satisfaction theory of the atonement. Self-satisfaction.)
    4. The apologetic approach. By this I don’t mean a person who defends elements of the Christian faith, but rather the person who desires to batter down your defenses with his or her command of data.

    In fact, in all of these approaches there’s some truth. Being a part of a caring community can improve your standard of living, your sense of joy, your peace, and many other things. Not quite in the way the prosperity preachers tell it, but it can help. Being part of the church can be a good cultural and social move. Considering your eternal state is likely worthwhile, and studying the data behind your religious faith is constructive.

    There’s an effective temptation to attack every good intention or work. The desperate evangelist is driven by a desire to help. Believing that eternal hell fire is in your future if you don’t accept Jesus as your savior, he feels compelled to make you. This sense led to some theological support for the burning of heretics. What was a few moments of torment in this life compared to what God would do to them in the next? If the torturer could bring this eternal punishment to their minds forcefully enough, perhaps they’d repent and be saved. The temptation here is to take away from God the power of salvation and judgment. Most humans are susceptible to it in some way.

    Then there is the Jesus way. I was hit by it this morning as I was reading texts for next Sunday’s lesson.

    Jesus was saying to everyone: “If anyone wants to come after me, let them deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow me.” (Luke 9:23)

    Now there’s an “ouch”! No promise of prosperity. No threat of hell. No social acceptability. In fact, if you read on through the end of the chapter, it gets even worse. The facts of the situation were present in the Person.

    I wonder how a church growth program would work that called for people to lose their respectability, give up their comfort, become socially unacceptable, experience pain, and ignore ridicule. I’ve never seen one of those.

    Other than in the gospels.

    Let me look at some other texts from this week’s reading list.

    9He said to me, “My grace is enough for you, because strength is made complete in weakness.” I now gladly boast in my weaknesses because Christ’s strength is all over me. 10So I am pleased in weaknesses, when insulted, when in need, when persecuted, when in hardship, for Christ. For when I am weak, he is strong. (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)

    I guess Paul wasn’t up on the latest pitches and methods of evangelism either. And just to add to our feeling of injury and annoyance:

    If we suffer together with him, we will be glorified with him. (Romans 8:17b)

    I was somewhat surprised after reading the scriptures to find that the lesson author managed to write the whole lesson without mentioning suffering. He had some good thoughts, but somehow avoided that one.

    So just what is it we’re proclaiming (or selling)? Are we doing it right?

    (Note: All translations are my own, and are sometimes intentionally loose. Featured image downloade from Pixabay.com, which doesn’t require attribution, but I’ll give it anyhow.)