I think I am at the point where I will stop making jokes about the fact that I keep preaching from 2nd Corinthians. I have moved from shock to denial and have now settled into acceptance – maybe sermon series are a long dormant part of me from my Presbyterian past that I just cannot escape (something like how the dinosaurs keep coming back to make new Jurassic Park movies). Or it might just be that Paul keeps talking about things that I would like to spend a little more time contemplating. Whatever the case, 2nd Corinthians is once again on tap, so belly up to the bar- its time for some Pauline theology of suffering.
This morning Paul states, “Therefore, to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.’ So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 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.”
The quick summary of it is this: Paul has some sort of physical ailment and because of this ailment he is thankful because he believes that it has made him weak, which makes him more able to be filled with Christ. Which is all well and good but it does leave a question sort of dangling out there which is: How did the ailment get there in the first place? That is, if the result is that Paul is more filled with Christ and filled with his grace because of the thorn did God, being omniscient, intentionally give Paul this ailment? Well…lets think about it. God is the giver of good gifts, but this is an ailment and so would seem not to fall into that “good gifts” category. So if that is the case does that mean the ailment came from Satan or at least one of his subordinates? Well…unless it is clearer in the original Greek, I would have to say that Paul does not quite answer that question. If you remember he says, “Therefore, to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated.” On one hand the ailment is described as being a messenger from Satan, while on the other hand it is described as having been given him with a specific purpose in mind, which is to keep him from being too elated, giving it a sort of divine plan like vibe. You could reasonably argue either side, or no side for that matter. And on one hand it’s disappointing to not know the answer, because we humans like to know the answers to stuff. But that impulse to know everything was also what got us in trouble in the Garden of Eden, so we do need to be a little careful. That being said I do think that this vagueness is closer to the right answer, partly because it guards against two very bad answers.
The first bad answer to why less than pleasant things happen to us is the God model, which posits that God is instigating each and every thing that goes on to teach us something. This answer is a sort of Christian take on fatalism positing that everything that happens, happens because God wanted it to happen in that exact way. The obvious problem with this is that at some point it makes God the author of evil. Because if God is creating bad situations for us to have to endure, it means he is creating the badness (and I mean bad in the not good sense, not in the Michael Jackson sense). The other incorrect school of thought that Paul’s answer guards against switches the blame from God and rather makes Satan responsible for everything. But we must be careful when we give Satan too much power. As C.S Lewis stated, “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.” Lewis’ warning is not to give the devil too little power but also not to give him too much. In other words every time our shoelace breaks or we get caught in traffic it may not be a satanic attack.
And so now that we have guarded against the two extremes where does that leave us in terms of explanations about bad things happening to us? Well the brief answer is that it is complicated and that we may often be unable to discern who is responsible. But in many ways, I am not even sure that this is the most important question to ask. The more important question may not be who did it, but rather what do I do now that it has been done.
Back in my corporate finance days I worked for a large poultry company. The guy who was the head of our Turkey division for part of the time I was there had a rather curious style of management and by curious I mean bad (and again not in the Michael Jackson sense). Whenever something would go wrong he would call a meeting and demand to know whose fault it was. Most times it was not really one person’s fault but the meetings would drag on until someone at long last would volunteer a name. This manager then armed with the identity of the perpetrator would go find this individual and berate them. Afterward he would retire to his office proud of a job well done. Obviously, it did not work because he never fixed the problem, but rather made the problem the possession of one person, who now had very low self-esteem. He was content to find out whose fault it was and stop there, forgetting that fixing the problem was the more important pursuit. And I bring this up because I think we can also fall into this trap when things go wrong in our lives. We want to find out whose fault it is and then stop. But the important thing is not that, but is rather asking how we can use whatever the event may be to grow closer to God. And I realize when I say things like this that it is extremely easy for me to prattle on about such platitudes, but much more difficult in reality to do this. When we lose a loved one, suffer a financial crisis or discover one of our children has a disability, it is a little harder to immediately want to grow closer to God. Our reaction is often one of anger or depression, feeling that it is all just too much. And I certainly understand such sympathies. Things that are easy to say are often the most difficult to do, but that does not make them any less true.
Paul today tells us that power is made perfect in weakness. And it is usually at our lowest points when we are the most weak. It is those times when everything has gone wrong that we finally turn fully to God. It is when we realize that we are not in control of everything that we can ask God to fill us with his power. In the book I have been reading about Greek Orthodox monks on the island of Cyprus, the elder Fr. Maximos says this, “When your mind and heart get stuck on the objects of this world, whether these objects are called money or pleasure or the body, or egotism or opinions or ideologies or whatever else, then you are committing a sin. You become enslaved by these distractions that keep your heart and mind away from God.”
Paul today felt that the thorn he received kept him from being too elated. What he meant by elated is a little mysterious. The original Greek uses the “uperairOmai” which translates literally as over-lifted. Which would seem that perhaps Paul ran the danger of seeing himself as a bit too wonderful. I think whatever the case, it is fair to believe that Paul is saying that without the thorn he might have taken his eyes off of God, but this thorn kept him humble and focused. Making him realize that he was most strong when he was most weak because that was the point where he could be filled with God. So while less than pleasant things may enter our life, the important thing to remember and do is to use those times and events to become more reliant on God and his power so that we may be his both now and forevermore.