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Sunday's
Sermon
March 2, 2008
1100
"A Grace Sufficient For You"
The Rev. Dennis Posno
There is a universal condition which all of us share ~ in one way or another.
Somewhere along the way, all of us face things
that put limits on the possibilities of our lives.
And that sense of the impossibility of things before us
and around us and within us
can often cripple us.
It can stop us dead in our tracks.
And so we come to the words of Paul which I just read.
They are a stunning testimony to the power of God in his life.
St. Paul, as you know, wrote much of our New Testament scriptures.
And Paul had his trouble, too … his limitations … his handicaps.
We don’t know exactly what it was because he never identified his problem
other than to refer to it as his “thorn in the flesh.”
That description, in itself, suggests to me that whatever it was
it was painful … and irritating … and chronic.
Did he want it? No. Did he like it? No. Did it go away? No.
Even prayer didn’t rid him of it. Paul wrote,
“Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me,”
and something tells me that he lost count after that.
But the Lord did answer his prayer. And this was the answer:
“My grace is sufficient for you
for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
“My grace is enough,” God said, “It’s all you need.
My strength comes into its own in your weakness.”
Whatever it was that limited Paul’s life …
whatever it was that cast a shadow on his horizon …
whatever it was that he wanted to be done with …
Paul was stuck with it.
And like the rest of us ~
with whatever it is that we may have to contend ~
Paul had to handle a situation he could not escape …
he had to settle down and live with it.
And handle it he did.
And after his initial struggle with it, he handled it
in the power of his Lord’s grace …
in his weakness he became strong in his Lord’s strength.
O Paul, where is the grace that was sufficient for you?
Where is the grace that can be sufficient for us.?
The grace that is sufficient for us
can be found where it has always been found:
within the great loving heart of God
and love of the Jesus.
“My grace is sufficient for you,” the Lord said to Paul.
And He says the same to us.
“My grace is enough. It’s all you need.”
Grace, in a word, is God’s presence with us in power.
A God so real that one woman, facing devastating circumstances,
could say by the grace of God that was sufficient for her ~
“For this I have Jesus.”
A God so real that a young medical school graduate,
dreams dashed by paralysis following a car accident,
confined to a wheelchair,
who willed and worked and became a surgeon despite her limitations,
could say by the grace of God that was sufficient for her ~
“I asked God for legs and he have me wings.”
A God so real that a university student,
confined to a wheelchair with infantile paralysis,
could say by the grace of God that was sufficient for him
to a fellow student who was astonished at his positive attitude ~
“The disease affected my legs; it never touched my heart.”
Where is the grace that is sufficient for us?
Where it has always been:
within the great loving heart of God
and love of Jesus.
The question is: How does it come to life?
What is the inward technique for handling
that which might otherwise defeat us?
Here are some very real and practical ways.
1. Knowing that God’s sufficient grace is with you … never quit.
Listen to this chronicle of misfortune of one poor soul.
He was born in poverty in 1809.
His family was forced out of its home
and he had to work to support them when he was 7.
When he was 9 his mother died.
When he was 22 he failed in business.
When he was 23 he ran for the legislature and lost.
He also lost his job that year and wanted to go to law school,
but he couldn’t get in.
When he was 24 he borrowed some money from a friend
to begin a business and by the end of the year he was bankrupt.
When he was 25 he ran for the legislature again, and lost.
When he was 26 he was engaged to be married, but his fiancé died,
and he was left heartbroken.
When he was 27 he had a total nervous breakdown
and was confined to bed for 6 months.
When he was 29 he sought to become speaker of the state legislature
and was defeated.
When he was 31 he sought to become elector, and was defeated.
When he was 34 he ran for Congress, and lost.
When he was 37 he ran for Congress again, and won, and went to
Washington and did a good job.
When he was 39 he ran for re-election to Congress, and lost.
When he was 40 he sought the job of land officer in his own state,
and was rejected.
When he was 45 he ran for the US Senate, and lost.
When he was 47 he sought the Vice Presidential nomination
at his party’s national convention ~ and got less than 100 votes.
When he was 49 he ran for the US Senate, and again he lost.
When he was 51 he was elected President of the United States.
He wrote one time:
“I have been driven to my knees many times
by the overwhelming conviction
that I had nowhere else to go.”
That was Abraham Lincoln. He went to the place of grace.
Never quit. On your hopes. On your dreams. On yourself.
2. And secondly, knowing that God’s sufficient grace is with you, take
the second best that life may give you and make something fine out of it.
There was a Norwegian violinist in the 19th century name Ole Bull.
Once, when he was giving a concert in Paris,
the A string on his violin snapped,
and he transposed the composition and finished it on three strings.
That’s life ~ to have the A string snap and finish on three strings.
And a man who writes about this moment writes further,
“Some of the finest things in human life have been done that way.
Indeed, so much of the thrilling part of the human story
lies in such capacity to victoriously rise above troubles
that, as much as I would like to hear Ole Bull
with all of the resources of that perfect instrument at his command,
if I could have heard him once
I should like to have heard him when the A string snapped,
and, without rebellion, or self-pity, or surrender,
when he finished on three strings.”
I love the music of Beethoven.
I particularly love his piano sonatas.
Bur for much of his adult life he was deaf.
Beethoven did not want his deafness.
I’m sure he longed to hear, after the silence came,
the sweet sound of a violin – even 3 strings –
or the rich beauty of a piano.
But he faced that second best
and composed some of the most glorious music the world has ever known.
He finished on three strings.
Terry Fox did not want his cancer.
I’m sure he longed for a normal teenage life.
I’m sure he world have liked to run on two legs.
But he faced that second best
and ran his Marathon of Hope ~
the equivalent of 26 miles, 385 yards a day ~ for months ~
after he had lost a leg to cancer.
And more than a quarter of a century after his death
people still run in a marathon named after him
to raise money for cancer research.
He finished on three strings.
There was a grace sufficient for them ~
to take a second best and make something fine out of it.
And there is a sufficient grace for us:
found in the great loving heart of God … and in the love of Jesus.
Whatever second best life has given you, take it,
and make something fine out of it.
3. And here’s a third thing you can do,
whatever limitations life may have place on you ~
knowing that God’s sufficient grace is with you ~
with a positive and hopeful attitude,
make a contribution to the world …
make a positive difference.
I have often spoken about Helen Keller,
the woman who was been called the woman of the 20th century
who rose above her limitations of blindness and deafness
to become a radiant soul, despite the limitations.
But the woman who brought Helen Keller out of her dark and silent world
and who offered her that chance
was a woman equally as remarkable and radiant ~
we know her as The Miracle Worker.
Her name was Anne Sullivan … later Mrs. Anne Macey.
She was Helen Keller’s lifelong friend and teacher.
She died in the 1930’s when Helen Keller was 57 years old.
Nearly 50 years before Anne Sullivan’s death
a little girl, Helen Keller, barely 7 years of age ~
imprisoned behind doors so firmly shut that they could not be unlocked
and walls do high it seemed they could not be scaled ~
was given to the care of Anne Sullivan.
It has been said that
“many people owe the grandeur of their lives
to their tremendous difficulties.”
This seems to have been so with Anne Sullivan.
For Anne Sullivan herself had met blindness
and having partially surmounted it,
devotedly gave herself to the blind.
She herself had passed through locked doors
and scaled insurmountable walls, and because of it
became to that imprisoned blind and deaf child the great emancipator.
In the background of Helen Keller’s life was this miracle worker …
this self-effacing teacher …
putting her life into another’s and liberating it.
And so powerful was Anne Sullivan’s contribution …
so powerful was this example of what could be done …
new hopes came, new methods, new doors opened for the deaf and blind.
Where many might have cursed God, and hoped to die,
Helen Keller, emancipated from her prison by her friend, would write:
“I believe life is given us so we may grow in love,
and I believe that God is in me
as the sun is in the colour and fragrance of a flower ~
the Light in my darkness,
the Voice in my silence.”
And she would go on to write:
“Without this faith there would be little meaning in my life.
I should be a mere pillar of darkness in the dark.’”
A miracle worker, with her own limitations, by God’s grace,
wrought a miracle …
and made a remarkable contribution to the world.
And if we were to ask
with all that may limit our living
with all of the broken A strings of our lives ~
“Where is the grace sufficient for us?” ~
the answer still rings out.
The grace that is sufficient for us
can be found where it has always been found:
within the great loving heart of God
and love of Jesus,
for grace is God’s presence with us in power.
It is true that it takes a great faith to live like this:
to deal positively with all of the negatives …
to go on when going on seems more than we can do …
to take a second best and make something fine out of it …
to make a contribution to the world
whatever limitations life has placed on us.
But it is equally true that such a faith ~
with its promise of sufficient grace to see us through ~
is ours in Jesus Christ.
May that grace ~
God’s strength made perfect in weakness ~
be your courage when confronted by fear …
be your hope when tempted to give up or give in …
be your vision on the horizon before you.
It is yours in Jesus Christ. And it is sufficient. It is enough. Claim it.
Let it work a miracle in you.
Let it work its miracle through you.
SOLI DEO GLORIA
Footnotes
2 Corinthians 12:8 NIV
2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV
2 Corinthians 12:8,9 The Message
