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Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Text today, looking at St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians that was the epistle lesson today. I don’t think anybody likes to be weak. Nobody boasts about their weaknesses. Nobody goes around saying, “I’m the weakest player on the team. Woot!” Or, “I’m the weakest employee at the office.” And in our society, people like strength. They like a strong economy, a strong stock market, strong military, strong technology, and information and education. People like strong relationships. And of course, people like strong sports teams. The University of Texas, we’re sure hoping this year. Coach Strong, make us strong, everybody says. Thank you.
People like to work for a strong business. And they like to have a strong resume. It’s interesting, when people are interviewed for a job, they’re quick to boast about their strengths. But their weaknesses, they’ll call them areas to improve or develop. Nobody calls them weaknesses, because nobody likes to be weak. Nobody likes to be reminded of their weaknesses. Right? And certainly nobody boasts about their weaknesses. But here in the second lesson today, it talks about weaknesses, and even boasting about them.
St. Paul mentions his weaknesses, but he also reminds us of our weaknesses. One of those weaknesses is sin. Just getting right to it. Your sin, my sin, your weakness, my weakness. Things that we disobey God with, things that we’re not able to resist or keep from doing sometimes. Now, I’m sure you’re all too aware of your weaknesses. You’re aware of your sins and things that you’re not strong enough to resist sometimes. Pride, self-centeredness, lying, cheating, wandering eyes, thinking or speaking ill of someone. Hmm. Posting things on the internet that you probably shouldn’t. No, none of those things are anything to boast about. Nobody goes “woot” over them.
But to make things even worse, our weakness is even worse than that because our weakness isn’t just sin, it’s more than that. In an episode of The Simpsons, Homer Simpson, the father of the family, he once took a bribe and he got busted for it. And he tries to explain it. He says, “They knew my one weakness.” Yes. See, our weakness isn’t just sinning. Our weakness is that we’re weak. We’re sinful. Sin isn’t just what we do, it’s what we are. We say this in the confession of sins, when we confess that we are by nature sinful and unclean. It’s our nature. It’s who we are that is sinful. And we sin in thought, word, and deed. Everything that we can do, we commit sins in it. And we cannot free ourselves from that sinful, weak condition. We’re weak.
Again, that’s nothing to boast about. You’re not going to get a “woot” from me out of that. But even though you may not like weakness and don’t like to be reminded of your weakness, God knows it. He knows you’re weak. He knows that you have nothing to boast about. Paul had a thorn in his flesh, and we’re weak. But God doesn’t leave you there. God doesn’t just leave you weak. God doesn’t want to marginalize, ostracize, or villainize you because you’re a weak sinner. No, God comes to you to strengthen you, to forgive you, to forgive you of your sinful, weak condition. Amen.
God did this by taking on human weakness, by sending Jesus into this human weak world as a human to be weak, to suffer, and eventually die by being crucified on a cross to give his life as a sacrifice for your weak, sinful condition. His death on the cross paid for that, paid for the consequences of you being weak, and forgives you for it. This is something called grace. And Paul mentioned that in his letter to the Corinthians. Grace is basically getting something you don’t deserve. Weak people on the team don’t deserve to win. Grace. Weak people at the office don’t deserve promotions. Weak, sinful people don’t deserve forgiveness, but God gives it anyway. And that’s called grace.
And that grace is strong and powerful in us. Like Jesus said to Paul in the reading, “My grace is sufficient for you. It’s my power for you in your weakness.” And that’s something to boast about. And Paul did. In his letter, he says, “And so we can boast, too.” No, we can’t boast by saying, “But no.” Instead, we can boast by saying, “Yes, I’m a sinner. But yes, I’m forgiven. And the power of Christ in his grace is in me.” Woot.
No, we don’t like weaknesses. But that’s where God works the best. It’s then where he is strong. Where he is strong for you. Where he is strong in his love for you. He’s strong in the weakness of Jesus dying, but strong in his resurrection from the dead. And it’s all for you because you’re weak. It’s in weakness where we have to rely on God and rely on the Holy Spirit to work in us. That’s the strength in being weak, that he still works in us despite our weakness. In spite of our weakness, he still loves and forgives.
Again, our society likes strength. It doesn’t like weakness. So it’s hard for us to boast about weakness in our society. But yet, as paradoxical as that is, and as dual that is, with faith in God’s grace, we’re strongest when we’re weak. And if you’re feeling weak in your sin, if you’re feeling weak in your sinful condition, and don’t feel strong enough to deal with it, I say, great grace. You’re in the perfect place then for God to be strongest in you. That if you admit that sin, confess it, and then receive from God that strength and forgiveness he wants to give to you. You know, really the strongest person is the one who knows how weak they are and then realizes how strong God is in love for them.
So that’s one weakness we have. One weakness is our sin, our sinful condition. But another weakness for God’s people today… Paul talked about them in the letter. He called them insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. And the scriptures warn that these things will happen to followers of Jesus. Maybe they’re happening now. We see a seeming decline in membership in churches, loss of cultural influence of Christianity. These seem like some weak times for Christians in America right now. I think it’s going to probably get weaker. And we may have to get used to that. This world may seek to marginalize, ostracize, and even villainize Christians. We may need to get used to that. Getting used to being a minority in society. And it may get rough. And we may feel and seem weaker than ever.
But in all that, I think there’s great reason for great hope. I think there’s reason to boast in our weakness. Because again, it’s in weakness where God works best. Because when we’re weak, then he can be strong through us. And it’s in weakness where we rely on God and rely on his grace. And let that be sufficient for us when we’re weak. When we’re weak in the eyes of society and weak in cultural power, we can be strong in Christ. And he’ll be strong in us.
One of the criticisms I hear sometimes about religion, especially Christianity, people will say that it’s for weak people and they don’t need it. Especially, maybe you’ve heard people say, faith in Jesus, that’s just a crutch for weak people to get through life on. And on one hand, I agree with them. I’ll say, “Yeah, faith in Jesus is a crutch.” You know what? It’s a darn good one. Because we all lean on something in life. Right? We all need something to get us through. And I’ll say faith, if it’s a crutch, it’s a darn good one to lean on.
So I’ll agree with them, but I’ll also disagree with them. I’ll say, “No, faith is not a crutch. It’s a stretcher.” It’s a stretcher. Because nobody can even limp into heaven. Faith in Jesus carries us there. We’re too weak to limp. Jesus carries us there. So yeah, this may seem like a season of weakness for Christians in America, but take heart in another thing. Christianity is strong in other places. In places where it’s never been strong before. Christianity is growing in China, in Africa, in South America. It’s growing in immigrants coming here, escaping from the problems of the Middle East. It’s growing in America. It’s growing in international students who come here from other countries to study at our universities. That is something to root about, where Christianity is growing. It is strong, even though it seems weak in some places.
So take heart in those things, and take heart in God’s strength in you and for you. And I encourage you to take advantage of the opportunities for him strengthening you. One way is to be active in hearing God. A reading God’s word. Or gathering together to hear it and read it and even sing it. Remember your baptism. Recall the promises that God made for you there. Made today for Anna Sophia that he made for you too. And for sure, take advantage of the Lord’s Supper. Where we receive food for our strength. Where we receive Christ’s body and blood for the forgiveness of our sins.
But don’t come to the Lord’s Supper because you’re strong. Don’t come here because you’ve got it all together. Come here because you’re weak, because you’re a sinner, because you can’t carry the weight of all that guilt and shame on you anymore. Come here because you’ve got nothing to boast about. There’s a great hymn, a communion hymn, you’re going to get to sing it during the Lord’s Supper, that goes, “I come, O Savior, to thy table, for weak and weary is my soul. Here, thou bread of life, alone art able to satisfy and make me whole.” Here at the Lord’s Supper, we boast about, a Lutheran Christian sermon. But that’s where God is strongest in us. It’s where God loves us in our weakness. Even in our weakness. Especially in our weakness, he loves us and strengthens us.
Yeah, we’re weak. We got weaknesses. But God still loves us anyway. Maybe you thought it in your head here. And we’re going to sing it. We’re going to sing a hymn here. It’s number 588 if you want to look at it. But most of you probably know it. It’s “Jesus Loves Me, This I Know.” And Kathy, we’re going to do it a cappella. So you’re off the hook up there. Same pay, don’t worry. Talks about little ones to him belong. Not just Anna Sophia being baptized, but all of us. Little ones who are weak, but he is strong. Amen. Let’s sing it.
“Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones too, they are weak. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. But he is strong.”
That’s something to boast and “woot” about. Amen.
