"When God says 'No'!" - a sermon on 2 Corinthians 12:1-10

How do we feel when we pray and pray and pray about something and we only sense silence? Well perhaps there wasn’t silence, just an answer we didn’t like! How do we cope when we pray and pray and pray about something and hear the word “No”? This is the situation that the apostle Paul had to face up to. We don’t know exactly how long it took for him to get past the disappointment and make his great discovery, but we do read how Paul had a complete change in his understanding and perspective on a particular weakness he was enduring.

Let’s have a look at a bit of the background to this, which we see in the first part of our text. In Paul’s own mind, there were many things he could boast about. Paul had experienced a magnificent revelation of God’s presence on the Damascus Road, which had led to his sensational conversion. Paul had also gained knowledge about the things of God, not from his education or books, but directly from God. For indeed, if he was going to succeed in his various mission enterprises, Paul would need some crash courses in Christian doctrine – given that he had previously been a committed opponent of the Jesus way. Paul had indeed experienced much success in planting new churches across the known world of the day.

Yet we see Paul’s uneasiness about boasting about such things played out in verses 1-5. Paul in one way seems quite tempted to boast away, but has enough reserve to do so in quite moderate terms. He talks about his own personal experiences in the third person, as if it was someone else. Paul wants to boast about these things, but seemingly becomes nervous about doing so. In the sense of earthly success he could boast, yet he had come to understand that this would not be appropriate. So ultimately Paul did not want to boast about his deep experiences of God and various successes! Why not?? Because Paul knew very well about his weaknesses!! (And he grew to know something else too that was very important about his weaknesses ... a great discovery ... which we will come to later.)

If one ‘pushes their own barrow’ very hard, and puts themselves in the spotlight for egotistical reasons, then be sure that their weaknesses will find them out. Case in point: the morals campaigner who eventually falls (very publicly) to their own sexual addiction. This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t stand up against wrong, but it does mean that we need to have a rational understanding of our own fallibility, and not set ourselves up in such virtuous terms (refer verse 6b-7a). It is only the admittedly weak that can help the weak become strong in God. Paul understood that he would be exposed from time to time in his weakness, and therefore should not see himself nor promote himself as anything special in simply his own strength; for blessed are the humble.

We sometimes hear Paul defending his credentials, but this was always in terms of what his Lord Jesus Christ was doing through him. Like all of us, Paul would have had various points of vulnerability that he had to be careful with. Now we read in verse 7b about Paul’s famous “thorn in the flesh”. Much discussed and debated this has been, with no clear consensus on what this particular issue was. Most often it is thought that Paul had significant problems with his eyesight, debilitating him in many ways, upsetting his travel plans, and meaning that he needed scribes to write his letters for him. Others have suggested that Paul had a speech impediment, or a persistent illness like epilepsy or malaria, or a propensity toward anxiety and depression, or he experienced persistent temptation. Because Paul was so concerned about this “thorn”, it was likely something noticeable by others (that might tend to attract scorn or in Paul’s mind detract from his ability to communicate the gospel).

The fact that Paul didn’t specifically identity his “thorn”, allows the reader to factor in their own particular “thorn”, and thus find Paul’s discovery personally relevant for them. Whatever the problem, Paul clearly wanted to be rid of it. Paul thought that he would be way better off in his mission work (and much more effective) without this “thorn” continually afflicting him. So naturally he asked, and he asked, and he asked God to take this away or fix this ... for no result! Paul was seriously afflicted, and therefore was rightfully really hopeful of a positive response. Put yourself in Paul’s shoes ... and think of something you may have prayed for ... with seemingly no result! There are feelings of frustration I imagine; even perhaps real challenges to our faith. Doubts arise as to whether God really loves us as much as we had always thought was the case.

So then, what can we say to this? Is God less than we have said God is?? Or can we accept the proposition that God actually knows better than we even do about our own lives (and work from there)??? This is the God that was so totally at peace within, that he gave humankind freewill through which to decide for themselves what path to follow (despite what chaos this would result in). This was so that relationship with God would be voluntary, and thereby real and authentic. This is the God who is so totally at peace within, that can enter into our pain and suffering, dwell there with us, and bring us through.

A Creator who has the wisdom and power to design the wonders of nature is great enough to be trusted with pain and suffering that are beyond our ability to understand (Matt De Haan, Our Daily Bread, 16/9/10).

This is the God who is so totally at peace within, that can provide perfect big-picture decision-making which wisely manages human need – and this is the God that I contend for and we worship today. This is the God who calls us into partnership in alleviating worldwide human need – that has to in some way touch us if we are to respond authentically.

As we saw with the suffering servant Jesus and what he went through in the cause of righteousness, suffering will be part of the life of any Jesus follower and the church – sometimes we will be spared such suffering through prayer, and at other times we will just have to work our way through it in God’s strength. In this way we will also be able to understand and empathise with the plight of people around us. If we were completely devoid of suffering, then how could we help others in any sort of a heartfelt way!

Certainly being prepared to work through certain troubling circumstances in God’s strength can develop our faith (not to mention our usefulness to others). Sometimes I think we look at our troubles all too individually. For our God of triune community (Father, Son & Spirit) will always look at things in relational ways. God, unlike us, sees how the big jigsaw puzzle of earthly life fits together. Then life, even (or maybe especially) the life of faith, has to be lived out in the reality in which it finds itself.

Sometimes we pray (or others pray) and the answer is magnificent and healing and transformative, and that it so great! Other times we pray (or others pray) and there is deathly silence. Yet perhaps it is not really silence – it only appears that way because we haven’t got the answer we want. Really there has been an answer – and that answer, like in Paul’s case here, was ‘no’! Yet this would not be an unloving or an uncaring ‘no’; but this would be a ‘broad best interests no’! This would be an, ‘I love you with all my heart no’! This would be a ‘please bear with me – for it will be okay’ type ‘no’! Kurt’s family prayed fervently that his Aunty Lyn would be healed, but this did not happen. We can’t underestimate the sorrow and loss experienced here in any way. Even to draw on the encouragement that Lyn was ready to go and had the praise of God on her lips doesn’t necessarily help that much.

I can only suggest that we draw on all the wonderful things that we know about our loving God, and accept that God knows what He is doing. We cannot in this life escape the fact of the “fall” – that human beings have rebelled from the ways of God, and that has brought all sorts of despair and pain into our lives. And sometimes our prayers will be answered in different ways to what we would personally want.

Paul, as we read in 2 Corinthians 12, came to accept his particular ‘no’. In Paul’s case, he saw and understood the need for everything he accomplished to point, rather than to himself, clearly to God. In Paul’s own lack of strength and clear weakness, it could only be God working through him ... that so much was being achieved.

This of course is not to say that we should be unconcerned about our weaknesses, and thereby be apathetic about our personal growth. Quite the opposite! We should take every opportunity available to develop our gifts, improve our abilities, and work purposefully on our weakness toward our betterment. But this does say that we shouldn’t be discouraged by any persistent weakness from pressing on in life! Why?? Because ... let’s read verses 9-10 to find out!!

God’s grace will empower the willing servant in their weakness such that God will be revealed. Accepting one’s unresolved weakness in submission to God, offers a place in which God can work; this one can truly sense God working through their lives. Whereas the strong often go it alone, and often only draw attention to themselves, those who allow God to work with their weakness become a revelation of God’s strength.

The full realisation of this spiritual dynamic offers each of us great reassurance as we face opposition and hardships of various kinds. This is the great discovery Paul made ... that God’s strength can be found entering into our weakness! I have let my weaknesses in the past disrupt my life and ministry, but I’m hoping that that becomes less and less the case as I continue forward. As we understand God’s strength effectively working into and through our human weaknesses, we gain a great freedom in our efforts to serve others. This is serving with the level of humility and trust that allows God to work!!

It seems (from verse 7b) that Paul even considered, that given the situation he would find himself in, that this so-called “thorn in the flesh” was actually deliberately placed within him [maybe even at conception], and that this “situation” was so dark for Paul that it could be described in “satanic” terms. This just shows how dangerous it would be for Paul, or any of us, to begin to take the credit that really belongs to God, and what lengths God may have to go to ... to stop this happening. And this also shows us how God can bring good out of the worst evil, for in the midst of such oppression Paul spread the gospel (in person and through letters) right across the known world. Two thousand years later we still gather around Paul’s letters to discover what it means to follow Jesus in daily living under the various pressures that arise.

And so it seems that in the end (and in hindsight) Paul actually felt favoured by receiving God’s “no” to his prayers for this “thorn” to be removed. For this allowed Paul to really experience and fully appreciate God’s presence in his life (much more so than if this “thorn” had been removed). Now, it is not that Paul’s weaknesses and our weaknesses have merit in themselves, or that they should be celebrated, but rather, that seen in the right light, they allow for the general recognition of God working through our lives, and this we celebrate!

God’s grace is sufficient for us, even in our weakness, as the power of Christ Jesus dwells within us.

God’s grace is sufficient for me, even in my weakness, as the power of Christ Jesus dwells within me.

On a daily basis the resurrected Jesus brings hope to each of God’s children. Amen!