The Vision Of God
Sermon
Sermons on the Second Readings
Series III, Cycle B
Object:
Chapter 10 of 2 Corinthians begins a sharp divide with the nine chapters that have preceded it, a break that continues through the rest of the letter. The first nine chapters revealed a significant struggle between Paul and the Corinthians, but it seems in those chapters that Paul felt that they were making progress. As we saw in the previous lectionary passage, Paul felt confident enough in chapter 8 to urge the Corinthians to finish taking up the offering for the church in Jerusalem. From chapter 10 on, however, Paul is ready for a fight. Chapter 10 begins with Paul using images of war as he prepares himself for battle. Those nice words about reconciliation in chapter 5 seem to be evaporating as Paul swings into attack mode.
What happened? Why the sharp break between chapters 9 and 10? There are two main alternative answers given. One is that Paul receives some disturbing news from Corinth in the midst of writing this letter, and as a result he switches into battle gear to finish the letter. A second alternative is that chapters 10-13 are a different letter or part of a different letter. Whichever is the explanation, there is quite a shift, and Paul decides that he must strongly defend himself. In chapter 11 he begins a series of credentials, a process he calls "boasting." He berates himself for doing it; he cringes as he does it; but he does it. If his rivals in Corinth will boast, then so will he:
But whatever anyone dares to boast of -- I am speaking as a fool -- I also dare to boast of that. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. Are they ministers of Christ? I am talking like a madman -- I am a better one: with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless floggings, and often near death.
-- 2 Corinthians 11:21-23
In today's reading from chapter 12, Paul brings his boasting to a climax. He comes to what he believes is the central point for the Corinthians. His opponents -- the great ones -- have placed supreme importance on the marvelous truths and details that they've seen in special revelations and visions of God. Paul wants to add his name to the list of visionaries, and he also wants to reorient the Corinthians in their view of such visions. In our modern, flattened, one-dimensional world, the ideas of such visions may seem quaint but primitive. The Bible is not ashamed of such visions, whether it is Moses at the burning bush or Mary at the annunciation or Peter on the rooftop in Joppa or Paul on the road to Damascus.
In chapter 12 of 2 Corinthians, Paul discusses a vision that he believes compares favorably with those of his rivals. In sharing his experience of this vision, he also seeks to make it clear that even the most exalted visions must be placed in the context of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The vision is not the measuring stick -- the gospel is the measuring stick. In describing his vision, Paul plays down its details and its ability to stand alone on its own authority. Even though he lists his vision as the climax of his boasting, Paul wants to announce that the rivalry is not between competing visions of God. The rivalry is between visions of the gospel of Jesus Christ and how to live them out.
He begins by talking about himself in the vision in the third person: "I know a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven" (v. 2). He uses the third person twice, and he doesn't have many details to share. No description of the third heaven, no idea of what was really going on. He doesn't even know if his body was transported to the third heaven, or if it was an out-of-the-body experience. Then he reveals that this "person" was himself, but he is not allowed to share any details. He does mention that he was taken up to "paradise," that borrowed Persian (or Iranian) word used to refer to the garden of kings, or the Garden of Eden.
Paul seems to be emphasizing as strongly as possible that he is not "special" because of his vision of God; that he didn't attain to this height. He didn't find it through prayer or fasting or meditation or drugs. It is not Paul the mystic seeking God -- it is rather God seeking Paul. In verse 4, Paul uses the passive voice: "was caught up," again indicating that he didn't accomplish this. It is not a vision that he can conjure up at will -- it is rather a gift of God. In the vision on the road to Damascus in Acts 9, Christ comes down to Paul, but in this vision in 2 Corinthians, Paul goes up to Christ. In both visions, however, it was Christ doing the initiating movement, not Paul.
Both of these visions touch on a central theme of Paul's theology and his missionary activity: the grace and power of God. Paul was not seeking Christ on the road to Damascus. Rather he was actively persecuting the followers of Christ. He was going to Damascus to arrest them, and this is precisely the question that Christ asks him on the road to Damascus after he has knocked Paul down: "Saul, why do you persecute me?" (9:4). Paul wasn't psychologically hungering for Christ on the road to Damascus -- just the opposite! In his description of the vision in 2 Corinthians, Paul notes again his own lack of initiating activity, so much so that he uses the passive voice and begins the account in the third person. And, as we know from this letter and from others, Paul was not a passive person! However, in describing both these visions, Paul uses the theme of God's grace and God's initiative to point to a central focus of his entire correspondence with the Corinthians: God's grace and God's strength in Paul's weakness.
Although Paul goes to great lengths to indicate that his visions do not make him special, he can't help but feel just a bit of pride. After all, the discussion of his vision is the culmination of his list of boastings. As he reflects on this bit of pride, Paul states that God has knocked him down again in relation to this vision, just as God knocked him down on the road to Damascus. He calls this second knockdown "a thorn in the flesh," and the literal translation for the word "thorn" is "stake." It is as if someone is continually stabbing him.
There has been much speculation concerning the nature of this thorn. For some, it meant that Paul had epilepsy. For some like Tertullian and Jerome, it was something similar to migraine headaches. Others like Calvin and Luther noted that for Paul, "flesh" included the spirit as well as the body. Calvin interpreted the thorn as spiritual temptation; Luther saw it as the opposition and persecution that Paul had to endure.1 Paul seems to have had eyesight problems, as seen in his closing words in his letter to the Galatians: "See what large letters I make when I am writing in my own hand!" (6:11). Perhaps his being blinded on the road to Damascus did permanent damage to his eyes, and this damage was his thorn in the flesh. Whatever the thorn was, it was chronic and painful for Paul. Again, Paul shifts the ground on us -- he suggests that our focus should not be on the nature of the thorn but on its meaning for Paul, and he suggest that it has at least three levels of meaning for him -- and for us.
Paul understands first that the origin of his thorn is God. It is a way to keep him humble, as a shield to protect Paul from some of the detrimental effects of his powerful ego. Paul senses that his suffering from this thorn ultimately comes from God (even if it is administered by Satan), and that it is for his own discipline. We must be careful here not to develop too strong a connection that all of human suffering and woe come from God. Much of our suffering comes from our individual and our collective failure to live as children of God. While God intervenes on occasion to mitigate some of our suffering, most of the time we are allowed to reap the consequences of our individual and our communal captivity to sin, to the brokenness and injustice and exploitation that permeate our lives. We hurt others, we hurt ourselves, and we hurt God. That is a fact of our lives, and the consequences of our participation in injustice are painful.
Having read this disclaimer, however, we should note that Paul's focus is not his participation in the human condition. Rather it is that his chronic pain (whether physical or spiritual or both) is a tool of God's discipline for him in his own life and journey. Perhaps our best approach to these words of Paul is to hear that we should seek God's healing Spirit in the midst of our own suffering and thorns. It is certainly worthwhile to seek to discern the source of our particular thorns so that we can also seek to change some of our spiritual orientation and some of our behavior in order to lessen the pain of our thorns. Ultimately, though, much of our suffering and pain comes from our mortality and our finitude. We are in decay of some sort all of our lives, and living with the knowledge of our own mortality can itself be a thorn in the flesh. Whatever the source of our thorns, we should approach them as Paul does in these verses: seeking God's healing power.
This is the second level of meaning of this thorn for Paul -- he seeks God's healing. He persistently asks God to remove this thorn, but God does not remove it. I don't know if Paul is playing to his Corinthian audience here, or whether he is sincerely wrestling with his chronic thorn, but we can hear the Corinthians relishing this developing drama. They will be anticipating the powerful ending of this story: "God will remove the thorn. It is a miracle -- Paul is a super apostle after all!" But, the answer that Paul receives from his pleading with God is stunning -- God says, "No." God answers Paul's prayer but not in the way that Paul wanted. I believe that all of us can recognize this story in our own journeys. Jesus told us to ask God for what we want, but we don't always get it -- what's up with that?
God does answer Paul's prayer in a way that is both challenging and comforting: "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness" (v. 9). Paul finds healing in a way that he did not think was possible, and this is the third level of meaning of his thorn. As the old spiritual says of God: "He may not come when you want him, but he'll be there right on time."2 Paul discovers -- and he shares with the Corinthians and with us -- that despite his chronic thorn remaining with him, he finds healing. He recovers his meaning and his purpose, and he reconnects with God. In so doing, he reiterates one of the powerful themes that he has been trying to communicate to the Corinthians from the very first chapter of his first letter to them: "God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong" (1 Corinthians 1:27). In this passage he closes with the same emphasis: "for whenever I am weak, then I am strong" (v. 10).
Paul's purpose in this passage has been to conclude his boasting about his credentials by sharing that he, too, has visions of God. He takes great care, though, to emphasize that the meaning of such visions must always be judged in the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is a reminder that having a vision of God is essential for all of us. How we "see" God, how we "see" ourselves, and how we envision life is essential. Our view of life will either move us closer to or farther from the true center of our gravity: the grace of God. Paul's discussion of his vision reminds us of the reality and the necessity of a vision, of a unifying theory and power of the story of our lives. Visions such as Paul's serve as anchors for him, but what about the rest of us who are rarely ever carried up into the third heaven?
Most of us may not get such a striking vision as Paul got, but if we slow down a bit and listen, God's voice may come through to us. Paul's insight on his own weakness is also a helpful if discomforting starting point. Ten years ago, I developed a difficult digestive disorder, and my first response was a great depression. My life changed forever, and my image of myself began to collapse -- I was no longer in control of my life. I remember going to my pastoral counselor and crying with him, expressing my great despair that my world was crumbling. It was not so much "How could God do this to me?" It was "How can I have life with this? How can I be myself?" My counselor gently reminded me over many weeks that I could let go, that I had life and indeed would find deeper life in the midst of the illness. I could let go of my image of myself as in control and still find life. To use Paul's words, in my weakness, I could find strength. My chronic illness is still with me and will be with me for the rest of my life, as far as I can tell.
It is a thorn for me, but Paul's words in chapter 12 of 2 Corinthians and my friend's wise counsel have opened new doors for me to receive God's gifts. I've never been carried up to the third heaven -- indeed I've gone down to the lower depths -- but there, too, I have found a vision of God that Paul found, that he sought to share with the Corinthians, and that he seeks to share with us. It is at once comforting and challenging, but it is powerful: "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Amen.
____________
1. For further discussion, see William Barclay, The Letters to the Corinthians (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1956), pp. 287-289.
2. From "He's An On Time God -- Yes, He Is," as sung by the Oakhurst Sanctuary Mass Choir.
What happened? Why the sharp break between chapters 9 and 10? There are two main alternative answers given. One is that Paul receives some disturbing news from Corinth in the midst of writing this letter, and as a result he switches into battle gear to finish the letter. A second alternative is that chapters 10-13 are a different letter or part of a different letter. Whichever is the explanation, there is quite a shift, and Paul decides that he must strongly defend himself. In chapter 11 he begins a series of credentials, a process he calls "boasting." He berates himself for doing it; he cringes as he does it; but he does it. If his rivals in Corinth will boast, then so will he:
But whatever anyone dares to boast of -- I am speaking as a fool -- I also dare to boast of that. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. Are they ministers of Christ? I am talking like a madman -- I am a better one: with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless floggings, and often near death.
-- 2 Corinthians 11:21-23
In today's reading from chapter 12, Paul brings his boasting to a climax. He comes to what he believes is the central point for the Corinthians. His opponents -- the great ones -- have placed supreme importance on the marvelous truths and details that they've seen in special revelations and visions of God. Paul wants to add his name to the list of visionaries, and he also wants to reorient the Corinthians in their view of such visions. In our modern, flattened, one-dimensional world, the ideas of such visions may seem quaint but primitive. The Bible is not ashamed of such visions, whether it is Moses at the burning bush or Mary at the annunciation or Peter on the rooftop in Joppa or Paul on the road to Damascus.
In chapter 12 of 2 Corinthians, Paul discusses a vision that he believes compares favorably with those of his rivals. In sharing his experience of this vision, he also seeks to make it clear that even the most exalted visions must be placed in the context of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The vision is not the measuring stick -- the gospel is the measuring stick. In describing his vision, Paul plays down its details and its ability to stand alone on its own authority. Even though he lists his vision as the climax of his boasting, Paul wants to announce that the rivalry is not between competing visions of God. The rivalry is between visions of the gospel of Jesus Christ and how to live them out.
He begins by talking about himself in the vision in the third person: "I know a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven" (v. 2). He uses the third person twice, and he doesn't have many details to share. No description of the third heaven, no idea of what was really going on. He doesn't even know if his body was transported to the third heaven, or if it was an out-of-the-body experience. Then he reveals that this "person" was himself, but he is not allowed to share any details. He does mention that he was taken up to "paradise," that borrowed Persian (or Iranian) word used to refer to the garden of kings, or the Garden of Eden.
Paul seems to be emphasizing as strongly as possible that he is not "special" because of his vision of God; that he didn't attain to this height. He didn't find it through prayer or fasting or meditation or drugs. It is not Paul the mystic seeking God -- it is rather God seeking Paul. In verse 4, Paul uses the passive voice: "was caught up," again indicating that he didn't accomplish this. It is not a vision that he can conjure up at will -- it is rather a gift of God. In the vision on the road to Damascus in Acts 9, Christ comes down to Paul, but in this vision in 2 Corinthians, Paul goes up to Christ. In both visions, however, it was Christ doing the initiating movement, not Paul.
Both of these visions touch on a central theme of Paul's theology and his missionary activity: the grace and power of God. Paul was not seeking Christ on the road to Damascus. Rather he was actively persecuting the followers of Christ. He was going to Damascus to arrest them, and this is precisely the question that Christ asks him on the road to Damascus after he has knocked Paul down: "Saul, why do you persecute me?" (9:4). Paul wasn't psychologically hungering for Christ on the road to Damascus -- just the opposite! In his description of the vision in 2 Corinthians, Paul notes again his own lack of initiating activity, so much so that he uses the passive voice and begins the account in the third person. And, as we know from this letter and from others, Paul was not a passive person! However, in describing both these visions, Paul uses the theme of God's grace and God's initiative to point to a central focus of his entire correspondence with the Corinthians: God's grace and God's strength in Paul's weakness.
Although Paul goes to great lengths to indicate that his visions do not make him special, he can't help but feel just a bit of pride. After all, the discussion of his vision is the culmination of his list of boastings. As he reflects on this bit of pride, Paul states that God has knocked him down again in relation to this vision, just as God knocked him down on the road to Damascus. He calls this second knockdown "a thorn in the flesh," and the literal translation for the word "thorn" is "stake." It is as if someone is continually stabbing him.
There has been much speculation concerning the nature of this thorn. For some, it meant that Paul had epilepsy. For some like Tertullian and Jerome, it was something similar to migraine headaches. Others like Calvin and Luther noted that for Paul, "flesh" included the spirit as well as the body. Calvin interpreted the thorn as spiritual temptation; Luther saw it as the opposition and persecution that Paul had to endure.1 Paul seems to have had eyesight problems, as seen in his closing words in his letter to the Galatians: "See what large letters I make when I am writing in my own hand!" (6:11). Perhaps his being blinded on the road to Damascus did permanent damage to his eyes, and this damage was his thorn in the flesh. Whatever the thorn was, it was chronic and painful for Paul. Again, Paul shifts the ground on us -- he suggests that our focus should not be on the nature of the thorn but on its meaning for Paul, and he suggest that it has at least three levels of meaning for him -- and for us.
Paul understands first that the origin of his thorn is God. It is a way to keep him humble, as a shield to protect Paul from some of the detrimental effects of his powerful ego. Paul senses that his suffering from this thorn ultimately comes from God (even if it is administered by Satan), and that it is for his own discipline. We must be careful here not to develop too strong a connection that all of human suffering and woe come from God. Much of our suffering comes from our individual and our collective failure to live as children of God. While God intervenes on occasion to mitigate some of our suffering, most of the time we are allowed to reap the consequences of our individual and our communal captivity to sin, to the brokenness and injustice and exploitation that permeate our lives. We hurt others, we hurt ourselves, and we hurt God. That is a fact of our lives, and the consequences of our participation in injustice are painful.
Having read this disclaimer, however, we should note that Paul's focus is not his participation in the human condition. Rather it is that his chronic pain (whether physical or spiritual or both) is a tool of God's discipline for him in his own life and journey. Perhaps our best approach to these words of Paul is to hear that we should seek God's healing Spirit in the midst of our own suffering and thorns. It is certainly worthwhile to seek to discern the source of our particular thorns so that we can also seek to change some of our spiritual orientation and some of our behavior in order to lessen the pain of our thorns. Ultimately, though, much of our suffering and pain comes from our mortality and our finitude. We are in decay of some sort all of our lives, and living with the knowledge of our own mortality can itself be a thorn in the flesh. Whatever the source of our thorns, we should approach them as Paul does in these verses: seeking God's healing power.
This is the second level of meaning of this thorn for Paul -- he seeks God's healing. He persistently asks God to remove this thorn, but God does not remove it. I don't know if Paul is playing to his Corinthian audience here, or whether he is sincerely wrestling with his chronic thorn, but we can hear the Corinthians relishing this developing drama. They will be anticipating the powerful ending of this story: "God will remove the thorn. It is a miracle -- Paul is a super apostle after all!" But, the answer that Paul receives from his pleading with God is stunning -- God says, "No." God answers Paul's prayer but not in the way that Paul wanted. I believe that all of us can recognize this story in our own journeys. Jesus told us to ask God for what we want, but we don't always get it -- what's up with that?
God does answer Paul's prayer in a way that is both challenging and comforting: "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness" (v. 9). Paul finds healing in a way that he did not think was possible, and this is the third level of meaning of his thorn. As the old spiritual says of God: "He may not come when you want him, but he'll be there right on time."2 Paul discovers -- and he shares with the Corinthians and with us -- that despite his chronic thorn remaining with him, he finds healing. He recovers his meaning and his purpose, and he reconnects with God. In so doing, he reiterates one of the powerful themes that he has been trying to communicate to the Corinthians from the very first chapter of his first letter to them: "God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong" (1 Corinthians 1:27). In this passage he closes with the same emphasis: "for whenever I am weak, then I am strong" (v. 10).
Paul's purpose in this passage has been to conclude his boasting about his credentials by sharing that he, too, has visions of God. He takes great care, though, to emphasize that the meaning of such visions must always be judged in the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is a reminder that having a vision of God is essential for all of us. How we "see" God, how we "see" ourselves, and how we envision life is essential. Our view of life will either move us closer to or farther from the true center of our gravity: the grace of God. Paul's discussion of his vision reminds us of the reality and the necessity of a vision, of a unifying theory and power of the story of our lives. Visions such as Paul's serve as anchors for him, but what about the rest of us who are rarely ever carried up into the third heaven?
Most of us may not get such a striking vision as Paul got, but if we slow down a bit and listen, God's voice may come through to us. Paul's insight on his own weakness is also a helpful if discomforting starting point. Ten years ago, I developed a difficult digestive disorder, and my first response was a great depression. My life changed forever, and my image of myself began to collapse -- I was no longer in control of my life. I remember going to my pastoral counselor and crying with him, expressing my great despair that my world was crumbling. It was not so much "How could God do this to me?" It was "How can I have life with this? How can I be myself?" My counselor gently reminded me over many weeks that I could let go, that I had life and indeed would find deeper life in the midst of the illness. I could let go of my image of myself as in control and still find life. To use Paul's words, in my weakness, I could find strength. My chronic illness is still with me and will be with me for the rest of my life, as far as I can tell.
It is a thorn for me, but Paul's words in chapter 12 of 2 Corinthians and my friend's wise counsel have opened new doors for me to receive God's gifts. I've never been carried up to the third heaven -- indeed I've gone down to the lower depths -- but there, too, I have found a vision of God that Paul found, that he sought to share with the Corinthians, and that he seeks to share with us. It is at once comforting and challenging, but it is powerful: "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Amen.
____________
1. For further discussion, see William Barclay, The Letters to the Corinthians (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1956), pp. 287-289.
2. From "He's An On Time God -- Yes, He Is," as sung by the Oakhurst Sanctuary Mass Choir.
