When God Says No July 9, 2006

“My Grace is sufficient for thee” 2 Corinthians 12: 1-10, Luke 6: 1-13

When Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. graduated from the Boston University School of Theology – a school from which I am also a proud graduate, though a far less notable one - he offered himself as a candidate for pastoral positions in two Baptist churches. One was a rather prestigious church in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and as I’ve heard the story told, this was the job Rev. King really hoped to get. He went to preach a trial sermon before the congregation, a vote was taken, and for whatever reason the congregation turned him down. Deeply disappointed, Dr. King went on with his fall back plan, as a candidate at a much less significant church in Montgomery, Alabama, and this church did invite him to be their pastor. Just about three months after he arrived, a black woman named Rosa Parks was arrested because she wouldn’t give up her seat on the bus for a white person. A bus boycott among the black citizens followed, and as the community looked for someone who could give leadership to their cause, they turned to this new, young pastor. He rose to the challenge, and we all know the rest of the story – of his leadership in the blessed, though unfinished work of reconciling black and white people in this country and bringing justice through non-violence. His presence in Montgomery, Alabama was so significant, but he wouldn’t have been there if he’d had his way. He’d have been in Chattanooga, but God said “No,” or at the very least, God allowed that church’s “no” to stand.

God sometimes says No, and No is not a word anyone is glad to hear. But a No from God is not necessarily God’s only word. A No from God is not a humiliating, crushing, life-sapping, dead-end-creating, culmination to all that a person has dreamed. God’s No may be part of a grace disguised, a grace that may take a long time to unfold, a grace that may never be fully understood, a grace which we must trust. As Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, God may say “No,” but God also says “My grace is sufficient for thee.”

To set the context for what we read today, Paul was in the midst of a most disheartening and troubling situation with his church in Corinth. He had founded

that church, and stayed until he thought these new Christians were ready to stand on their own, but his letters indicate that there was one problem after another – conflict and divisions among the members, back-sliding into the carousing ways that many of the members had known before their conversions, people getting drunk at the communion meal, claims of superiority for people who had obvious spiritual gifts like speaking in tongues and who looked down on others, etc....... But what Paul found especially heartbreaking, since he had a fatherly love for these believers who had come into the faith through his influence, was the appearance of some new teachers in Corinth, teachers who misled and used the people and, in the process of elevating their own status, attacked Paul, saying that he was an inferior and unworthy apostle who had taught them an inferior version of the gospel.

So, very reluctantly, Paul feels that he has to defend himself and his credentials as an apostle, and our reading today (from 2^nd Corinthians 12) is part of his defense. He actually starts back at chapter 10, reminding the Corinthians of all the time he spent with them, of the fact that he supported himself rather than expecting to be paid by his converts, re-expressing his sincere love for these people who are like his spiritual children. He lists all the sufferings he has had to undergo, as badges of honor for an apostle, and it’s quite a list, in chapter 11 - whipped five times with the 39 lashes by Jews and three times by the Romans, nearly stoned to death, shipwrecked three times and once in the water for over 24 hours, dangers in travel from floods, robbers, and wild animals, poverty and hunger, etc..... He’s answered the call time and time again, no matter how dangerous, he says, just as a true apostle should.

And then, as we get to today’s reading, Paul feels that the need to say something about supernatural, spiritual experiences, since the intruding leaders in Corinth had evidently trumpeted their spiritual experiences as a sign of their superior status. Paul finds it distasteful to boast, and using the common rhetorical style of the era he doesn’t even refer to himself, simply saying “I know a man who had some remarkable spiritual experiences.....” He trusts that his readers will know that he’s talking autobiographically, as he writes about being caught up to heaven in an ecstatic experience, and hearing from God some things that are so holy they can’t even be repeated. It’s as if he’s saying “Those ‘super-apostles’ claim they’ve had some amazing supernatural experiences – well, so have I, as holy and amazing as anything they can talk about......”

But then Paul finishes up with some comments that, from one point of view, seem to play into his detractors’ hands. Though his opponents might say “What kind of an apostle is this, since God doesn’t even answer his prayers,” Paul writes very humbly about a painful situation that no amount of faith or prayer could remedy.

The literal translation of Paul’s words is “I was given a thorn, or a stake, in the flesh,” though our Good News Bible has watered it down – unfortunately, in my opinion – by using the words “a painful physical ailment.” A thorn, or a stake, in the side makes you wince a bit, doesn’t it? Paul doesn’t specify what the trouble was – the Corinthians apparently must have known all about it – and Bible scholars have had a field day using little hints in Paul’s writings to make all kinds of guesses. Arguments have been put forth in favor of migraines, epilepsy, convulsions, near-sightenedness, malaria, a speech impediment, rheumatism, fever, and even leprosy, but no one knows for sure what it was. All we know is that it was very painful, that Paul understood it not as God’s first and best intention – since he refers to it as a “messenger from Satan,” – and that Paul prayed for relief. Three times Paul prayed to the Lord to take away this thorn in the flesh, but to no avail.

An immature Christian might say “That settles it in favor of Paul’s opponents. He doesn’t even have the spiritual strength to get healing for himself, so how can he call himself an apostle?” but a wise Christian will recognize that God’s power is often expressed in and through apparent weakness. Isn’t that what the cross is all about? Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemene prayed to be spared all that was looming ahead of him. God’s unspoken answer was no, but in the weakness of a crucified messiah God was at work to save the world.

Paul says “Three times I asked the Lord to take away my thorn in the flesh, but God’s answer was ‘My grace is all you need,’ and then he adds this explanatory note: ‘for my power is strongest when you are weak’......”

No one likes to be told “No.” Some in this room have prayed for marriages to be healed and restored, but have heard a “No,” perhaps from God, but certainly from life, and have known the pain of separation....... Many of us have prayed for healing for loved ones – and can tells stories both of blessing and of disappointment..... The quest for employment, the dream of finding a soul-mate, the need for God’s help in financial distress, etc.... such prayers are often answered with joyful results, but not always, not in the ways we may want, not in the timing we think right, and perhaps in our eyes, God’s answer has seemed to have been an irrevocable no.

But Paul says “When God says no, he doesn’t stop there. God goes on to say ‘My grace is sufficient......” And, with the eyes of faith, we are sometimes permitted to see the results of grace. We may see that the closing of one opportunity was necessary for the opening of another, and the sufficiency of grace is eventually clear to us......... Or we may see that suffering – great suffering like Jesus’ suffering on the cross, or smaller sufferings like our disappointments and setbacks – may be used by God for some good...........We may see that our failures, and our inability to pull things off with human strength, can set the stage so that others can see the gracious power of God at work in and through us. A writer named Vince Havner has made that point with these words: “God uses broken things. Broken soil to produce a crop, broken clouds to give rain, broken grain to give bread, broken bread to give strength. It is the broken alabaster box that gives forth perfume.......” Peter, the disciple broken by guilt after denying his Lord, returned with greater power than ever. Paul, unable to be healed from his thorn, is a witness to God’s strength in spite of woe............. And perhaps, when we can see no good at all, we will be blessed to discover that God’s grace is sufficient to help us endure, that it’s sufficient to help us hang in there, until the day comes when the answers are clearer and the trouble is over.

“No” is not a word we are eager to hear. How grateful I am that a No from God can be the prelude to sustaining, sufficient grace.