Sermon: Shooting at the Saints

Proper 9, Year B. Sermon from 2 Cor. 12:2-10

Synopsis: Paul encountered some other “apostles” who tried to undermine his ministry citing grand spiritual visions. This reading is his response to them.

In the 1750s there was a worldwide conflict known to us as The French Indian war. The British and French battled for Quebec. Admiral Phipps, commander of the British fleet, received orders to anchor outside Quebec and wait for the British land forces. His job was simple; provide protection while the troops came ashore. 

Admiral Phipps ran a well-oiled machine, his sailors were disciplined; hence, his Navy arrived to the scene early. The longer the admiral waited, the more annoyed he became by the statues of the French saints that adorned the towers of a nearby cathedral. In his rage, he commanded his men to shoot at them with the ships’ cannons. 

No one knows how many rounds that Phipps fired or how many statues he knocked down, but what we do know is that when British ground forces arrived Phipps was of no help… He spent all his ammunition shooting at the saints.

It’s not fun to be in the crosshairs

I think Saint Paul understood what it meant to be in the crosshairs of his opponents. He was dealing with the collective firepower of various, self-proclaimed “apostles.” Their goal was to undermine Paul’s authority in the church he established. 

Paul’s letter makes it clear that he was dealing with spiritual children. They watched until Paul left and suddenly swooped in to tell everyone that Paul was not on the same spiritual height as they were. 

These rival missionaries were very convincing. They had all the canned answers. They were masters of rhetoric and boasted of revelations and visions from God. They captivated the Corinthians as they told stories of their vast spiritual experiences. 

They targeted Paul’s ministry with cannonballs of deceit. “Paul, well, ya know… he’s okay, he has met with the other apostles in Jerusalem, but we are so filled with the Spirit that God speaks personally to us. He has given us special revelations that are not accessible to Paul.”

Sometimes the Pastor has to flip the script

This is the occasion for our epistle lesson this morning; Paul couldn’t be physically present to defend himself, so he sent a letter. His language was firm, his sarcasm was apparent, and we can tell that his patience reached its natural limits. He banters with them; “I could boast of revelations that God has given me, but I won’t. I could tell you how much I’ve endured; shipwrecks, floggings, beatings, death threats and days without food, but I won’t go there either.” 

“Oh, you think visions are the measurement for spirituality? Well, I know a man God called to the third heaven; there he saw things that God forbade him to speak. Sure I can tell you about those things, but I’m not!”

Instead, Paul employed one of Jesus’ most successful tactics; he turned the argument upside down. “You want me to boast about my accomplishments? Well, let me tell you about this thorn I have, it keeps me humble!”’ 

Paul’s Thorn

I respect him even when I do not agree with him. He took the Gospel all around the Mediterranean world. He even changed the essence of the church to include non-Jews. I want to know what this thorn in his flesh was. Maybe then I can take him off a pedestal and let him be the human being he was. 

Part of me wants to know his secret struggle. This thorn has been a hotly disputed issue by scholars for centuries. Some say Paul’s struggle was his eyesight, or maybe his sexuality. Others say he suffered great shame because he formerly oppressed the church. 

What are our thorns?

Some have suggested that Saint Paul suffered from seizures. That hits close to home. I know what it’s like to stand in front of people, hoping that I don’t zone out for a few seconds. 

We want to know what this thorn was, and why it injured him so thoroughly. However, I think it’s a powerful statement that Paul’s thorn remained unknown. Had he put a name on it, perhaps all of us couldn’t identify with it. As it stands, most of us can categorize that one thing that constantly plagues us. 

Maybe you have prayed for God to fix over and over and over. But God doesn’t fix it. Thorns… are spiritually exhausting! 

Sometimes the thorn can even make us question God’s goodness or even God’s love. Living with a thorn is emotionally draining and spiritually exhausting. 

We all have thorns, even Paul. He even prayed that God would remove it. Repeatedly he sought God’s intervention. Finally, God replied, “My grace is sufficient.” 

Paul says in his letter, “Those super-apostles want to boast… I’ll boast that my thorn has taught me more about God’s grace than all their visions combined.” 

Consider that for a moment. Paul was a man of keen intellect and persuasive powers so strong he founded multiple churches around the Roman world. He was the most educated of the apostles. Paul was one of the privileged few who studied under Gamaliel. Some credit as the founder of Christianity. 

He could have “patted his own back.” Yet his bragging point, his measuring stick, was his frailty, a weakness that taught him to rely on Christ. 

Is Christ present?

Relying on Jesus assures us that God will sustain us through difficulty and distress. God’s grace will keep us resilient through pain, penalty, and personal tragedy. God’s love will support us, stand with us, and supply a peace that surpasses understanding!

The real miracle is not when God removes the thorn… but when God gives us the grace of the Holy Spirit and we grow despite the thorn.

The thorn hurts, and that pain tells us we should call on God. 

Paul told the Corinthians, “It hurts that you’re allowing these other “super apostles” to gossip, but I deal with a thorn that is much worse. As such, I know that God’s grace is sufficient in this current struggle because I’ve endured so much before this even happened.”

The petty people don’t matter anyway…

There’s something in this lesson that’s able to change our lives if we can internalize it: Just as the thorn is unnamed, so are Paul’s opponents. They, and the cannons they fired at Saint Paul, fade into the first-century obscurity. No one remembers them; parishes do not bear their names. Yet churches around the world display the name of a man who boasted of strength built in weakness. 

After all, God chose the hideous mockery of the crucifixion and turned it into an abundance of grace. Let us always be mindful that God’s grace IS sufficient. 

Amen.