{"id":10105,"date":"2024-07-01T04:28:03","date_gmt":"2024-07-01T11:28:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=10105"},"modified":"2024-07-01T04:28:03","modified_gmt":"2024-07-01T11:28:03","slug":"a-thorn-in-the-flesh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=10105","title":{"rendered":"A thorn in the flesh"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Click here for a pdf version.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2 Corinthians 12:2-10<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Sermon for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here we are on a hot Sunday in July, and many others are off vacationing in the shade. Why are we here? Perhaps you wish you were on vacation in the shade, but it\u2019s good you are here because life and death issues are at stake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The assigned Epistle lesson for today is about the \u201cthorn in the flesh.\u201d People have heard that phrase, that metaphor. It\u2019s familiar in our language. Most people, however, don\u2019t know where it is, and what it\u2019s about. Is it like a painful sliver or hangnail? No, that\u2019s not what it\u2019s about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather, the \u201cthorn in the flesh\u201d is important for what it means for being here. Why are we here on a hot July Sunday morning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We ask ourselves: What is this thorn in the flesh about? It says in 2 Corinthians 12 that Paul had had a vision. In this chapter he talks about it (paraphrase): \u201cI\u2019ve had religious experiences, visions and revelations. I don\u2019t know if I was in the third or fourth heaven. I\u2019ve had these experiences, so I am not denying that I have had revelations.\u201d He mentions them also in Galatians 1:16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But just before our text for today, he writes in 2 Corinthians 11:14 that he knows that religious visions can deceive, as he says: \u201cEven Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.\u201d That is right there so he\u2019s aware of the problem of appealing to visions and revelations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then he goes on and talks about the thorn in the flesh. We don\u2019t know what it was, but it probably meant that he had epilepsy, as we know from other things, or that he had had really poor eyesight, or that he had problem stuttering. Or it could have been several of these things. In any case, he had a real problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it says he prayed three times, not just once, not just casually. \u201cThree\u201d in Scripture is that number of completeness. It means he really, continually prayed. But nothing happened. This is Paul, not somebody else, Paul, the great Christian leader, and the answer was \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He asked for a miracle, this one who had had revelations. And the answer was \u201cNo.\u201d It didn\u2019t happen. But rather the answer came: \u201cMy grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness\u201d (2 Corinthians 12:9). Paul then responds: \u201cI will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities; for when I am weak, then I am strong.\u201d That\u2019s a great promise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trouble with it is that for most people it\u2019s flipped over. It turns out to be: \u201cWell, whatever happens is God\u2019s will, and everything is good finally, finally everything is relative, and finally, so what?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prevailing religion of our day and our culture is a religion of Mosch (German for rubbish, junk). That is: You kind of just work your way through because finally everything just works out, but we don\u2019t know how. Just get along. That\u2019s what it\u2019s about. Everything is the same. Everything is grace. It\u2019s like that old book, I\u2019m O.K. You\u2019re O.K.<\/em> We\u2019re all O.K. Just go along. It\u2019s really the same religion as Hinduism, Buddhism, and a lot of other religions. Everything is fine finally. Just don\u2019t think about it. Just keep busy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s nothing new. It is not even unique to today. If you go back to the time of Christ, the first century, and if you were in Rome or Jerusalem, you\u2019d find a different temple on every corner for a different god. People thought: \u201cWell, I better do something for this one, and I better attend to something for that one.\u201d In the seventeenth chapter of Acts, there is an account of Paul in Athens, Greece, and there he found a temple to the unknown god (Acts 17:23). They even had a temple to an unknown god because, well, they didn\u2019t want to miss one. They had temples that covered all the bases, and finally, it\u2019s all god and all the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have that same universalism today. This idea, the religion of Mosch. And those who hold that are caught in the problem of justice and meaninglessness. If that were the case, then there is no justice finally and no meaning finally. You better just coast, and finally everything is Mosch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over against that is: What happens when there is a crisis? As in the Psalm for today, Psalm 123, which is a prayer for help. This person begs the Lord on behalf of his people: \u201cOur eyes look to the Lord our God, till he have mercy upon us\u201d (Psalm 123:2). \u201cHave mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us\u201d (vs 3). It\u2019s like Paul (paraphrase): I have a thorn in the flesh! Answer me! Enter not into judgment with me! Remember your promises! I stretch out my hands for you. Answer me quickly, O Lord. My spirit fails. Hide not your face from me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is really the same as the Twenty-Third Psalm, especially that famous fourth verse: \u201cEven though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.\u201d As you may know, if you look at the footnote to that verse, it points out deep darkness isn\u2019t only about death, but about all the thorns in the flesh. It\u2019s about meaninglessness and general whatever. It\u2019s about that loneliness and desperation. Whatever the deep darkness is that comes, the Psalmist says: \u201cI will fear no evil, none whatsoever.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We try. Yet we live lives of quiet desperation. We try to make things nice, to do something, but finally of course, there is that deep darkness, and that\u2019s why it\u2019s important to go back to the text in 2 Cor 12:10. It isn\u2019t about general grace. It isn\u2019t about some kind of Mosch: Everything is fine. We\u2019re fine. God is fine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather, it says: \u201cMy power\u201d (vs. 9). \u201cMy grace is sufficient for you\u201d (vs. 9), and what the Lord is saying is because of what he has done. The only answer is that he died and rose again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul goes on in 2 Corinthians 12:11: \u201cI have been a fool!\u201d That\u2019s a key word pointing out, over against all of the Mosch religion of the world, stands the folly of the cross. He writes in 1 Corinthians 1:22 that Jews seek miracles, Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, which is a scandal to those seeking miracles, and foolishness to those seeking wisdom, but to those who are being saved, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the text says: \u201cMy power\u201d (2 Corinthians 12:9), it\u2019s referring to the power of the cross and resurrection, which is what makes all the difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul goes on in the next verse to say: \u201cHey, I can do miracles, but that\u2019s not what it\u2019s about.\u201d He points out, using three different Greek words so he covers all the bases (paraphrase): I\u2019ve done signs and miracles, but that\u2019s not what it\u2019s about. Our only hope, our final hope, our living hope in life and in death is what God has done in Jesus Christ through the cross and resurrection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it is something that is then ours here and now. Luther writes in his Small Catechism in the Third Commandment: \u201cRemember this day to keep it holy.\u201d Why? \u201cWe should fear and love God, and so we should not despise his Word or the hearing of it, but deem it holy and gladly hear and learn it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why are we here? Because this is where it happens. The promises come in the Word alone. It\u2019s grace alone, through Christ alone, in the cross alone, but it\u2019s also in the Word alone, and the Word is that which is proclaimed and the Word is that which is received in Baptism and the Lord\u2019s Supper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not some sort of Mosch. This is where it happens. This is the promise. This is our hope, our living hope in life and in death. Amen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2 Corinthians 12:2-10<\/p>\n

A Sermon for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost<\/p>\n

Here we are on a hot Sunday in July, and many others are off vacationing in the shade. Why are we here? Perhaps you wish you were on vacation in the shade, but it\u2019s good you are here because life and death issues are at stake. <\/p>\n

The assigned Epistle lesson for today is about the \u201cthorn in the flesh.\u201d People have heard that phrase, that metaphor. It\u2019s familiar in our language. Most people, however, don\u2019t know where it is, and what it\u2019s about. Is it like a painful sliver or hangnail? No, that\u2019s not what it\u2019s about. <\/p>\n

Select here<\/a> to read more or here <\/a>for a pdf document.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10105"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10110,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10105\/revisions\/10110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}