Preach the Gospel With Weakness

A sermon preached with the people of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Oakland, California.

So, what is Paul going on about in his letter this morning? There is a reason people say Paul needed an editor.

So as a refresher, here is what’s going on. Some religious leaders that Paul refers to sarcastically as “Super-Apostles” have been hanging around Corinth. They’re saying things that contradict Paul’s Gospel message, and they are claiming authority for themselves. And some of the Corinthians are apparently subscribing to these guys’ podcasts, so to speak. They’re finding something attractive about them.

And it seems that these false prophets presented themselves as powerful, in their attempts to gain followers and, one might speculate, money. We can take from Paul’s quip that these guys were showy. They boasted of their own power; they told their cool stories; they told about their successes and maybe their wealth.

On the other hand, Paul was criticized for his weakness. Why would you go with that guy? Sure, he’s forceful in his letters, but when he’s here in-person, he “is weak and his speech contemptible.”

We have a description of what Paul looked like, from an early Christian document. He was “a man of middling size, and his hair was scanty, and his legs were a little crooked, and his knees were far apart; he had large eyes, and his eyebrows met, and his nose was somewhat long.”

I too, as some of you have noticed, am often guilty of being a little unkind toward Paul. But this is the time – mark it down — that I say: it is remarkable that God chose Paul. It is beautiful that God chose this man. This one-time persecutor of Christians. Capable of producing some of the most beautiful prose ever written, yet also exhaustingly loquacious; sometimes boring and ill-tempered, and awkward. Not someone you would notice on the street. Definitely not a movie star or a superhero. Not a “super-apostle.” Just deeply, deeply human.

Paul knew that people said things about him. Paul knew that people thought he was weak. And so today, he is saying “Yes, I am weak … and proud of it.”

And this is part of why the wording in this passage is so twisty and complicated. Because on the one hand he wants to say, “okay you think I’m weak, but it’s good to be weak! That’s what followers of Christ do!” But he’s self-conscious about sounding like he wants to make himself look strong in saying so. Like I said, so deeply human.

So he tells us about an experience he had when he was pulled into God’s presence, whether in a dream or a vision or some other dimension. And God said some things that Paul isn’t even allowed to repeat. And this made him feel pretty powerful. But then he experienced what he refers to as “a thorn given me in the flesh.” There are countless theories as to what the thorn was; everything from physical ailments, to psychological challenges, spiritual woes, or even just a metaphor for these troublesome church members.

Whatever the thorn may have been, Paul interprets it as God’s way of saying, don’t go out there preaching the Gospel with bombast. Preach the Gospel with the humility of Jesus of Nazareth, who came into this world as a vulnerable infant, and died helpless on the cross. Who told us to take nothing for the journey; to heal and comfort, relying entirely on the hospitality of others, and simply shake the dust off whenever there’s trouble.

To preach the Gospel with weakness. “Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ,” Paul concludes.“For whenever I am weak, then I am strong.”

The Gospel value that strength is found in weakness was as counterintuitive and countercultural then as it is now.

I imagine those showy “Super-Apostles” didn’t think much of this nascent thing called the church. Scattered, small communities. Itinerant raggedy missionaries subject to stoning, imprisonment, and executions. Members of all backgrounds, many considered undesirable. Associated with the poor, taking up collections for relief from the earliest days of the movement. No buildings. No fine vestments. Gold crosses, towering cathedrals, and proximity to political power were all still years down the road.    

I wonder what Paul would write to us now? The Church in the United States. In 2024. We might have to clear our schedules to read it all. But really, would anyone read it? Would anyone listen to a man like Paul? Would anyone listen to a weak man? We are taught over and over not to. Patriarchy and toxic masculinity are strong drugs.

But if we would listen, I have no doubt Paul’s experience and wisdom could provide us with ideas, and, even a deeper sense hope. Paul and the apostles built this thing that was so enduring; a direct line leads from those early gathering to this room. On this morning. And they did this work under the same empire, same justice system and threats of the same methods of execution that loomed over Good Friday.

And Paul tells us this morning that those calamities, those hardships? They weren’t easy, but he could find resurrection hope in and through them. “For whenever I am weak, then I am strong.” That hope strengthened the early church in their context and friends, it can strengthen us in ours.

If we remember the kind of strength we’re talking about. Paul’s contemporary epistle might have something to say about the vestiges of and proximities to earthly power we, church (we Episcopal Church), are holding onto. The ways this might distract us from our true mission; and the ways we might let go.

In the reign of God, the poor will be made rich, the hungry will be fed, and the powerful will fall from their thrones. We can think of this as a grand revolution of sorts – a dramatic whirlwind of the world turning upside down.

Or, we can think of it as simply revealing what has always been true. That the weak are strong, and the strong are weak. That awkward, boring, quiet; caring, vulnerable, in need of help; these are signs of strength. They have been all along.

Paul, who I warn you I will continue to tease now and then, lived that truth (as well as he could!) and taught it. Paul, who God chose. Convert. Gifted writer. Church planter.

Scripture doesn’t tell us how Paul died, but at the end of the Acts of the Apostles he is awaiting trial in Rome. It is widely believed the result of that trial was death by beheading; execution by the state. Holy weakness to the very end.

Our Paul. Blustery, awkward, tiresome, in-need-of-editing, weak Saint Paul. Apostle and Martyr.