Lectionary 14.09                                                          Christ Church , York

Some things in life come easily and some things are much harder. Some tasks are easily accomplished while others prove more difficult. Some work calls for more constancy on our part, even while we might seek to give up part of the way through. But of all the work we do in life, some of the hardest is to pray. Prayer is hard work! Prayer is never easy. Prayer calls for us to exercise a certain discipline so that we achieve the rhythm of a regular life of prayer. Prayer is hard work, but it is important for, as we know, prayer changes things; prayer changes situations; and above all prayer changes each of us! The Apostle Paul was a man of such prayer, a man who understood the hard work of prayer. And he was a man who was always making prayer requests. In his letters to the various churches he was often asked that the people pray for him. He opens most of those same letters with a blessing and a thanksgiving, a word of prayer which we use even today in our liturgies, “Grace and peace to you from God Our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Or “The grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” And throughout his letters, Paul sprinkles words of prayer – a prayer of request, a prayer of praise, a prayer of adoration, even ending most of his letters with a prayer of blessing upon the ones who would receive this letter. Paul was a man of prayer, a man who knew how to pray, a man a felt the very power of prayer in his life and a man who knew the hard work of prayer in his life.

So when we read in our second lesson this morning that Paul prayed three times for something, we know that this was no light matter, no easy thing which concerned him, no passing fancy. Rather this was something important, critical, going to the very heart of his being. Paul writes, “There was given to me a thorn in the flesh – three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.” Here was God’s own elected apostle, given a glimpse of the sacred in a vision so powerful it knocked him to the ground. Surely such a holy man would get what he asks for! Not so! Three times he asks for this thorn to be taken away but still the answer is no. We are not told what the thorn was – whether it was opposition from those who challenged his authority; whether it was a physical ailment, perhaps depression; or whether it was the temptation to live an unchaste life. We will never know! But we can be sure that this thorn was not just a troublesome little splinter, for when Paul uses the word thorn in this lesson, it has the same connotation in Greek as the word “stake,” that same stake upon which people were impaled to be crucified. This then was no trivial matter for Paul, no simple annoying little splinter. This was a painful thing, a huge pain, a severe trial and Paul prayed to the Lord that He would take it away.

Perhaps many of us here have done the same thing – prayed for the removal of some heavy trial in our lives. We may have prayed that we would not loose our jobs, or that we would have more money, or that we could have easier people with whom to work or that we could be relieved of some pain in our lives. In short we pray for God to take this or that thorn out of our lives. But what has our answer been? For Paul it was no! This man of great faith, this giant of a Christian gets a refusal to his request in this prayer. But then, contrary to a general belief in the non-Christian world, we know that prayer cannot be seen as some sort of magic formula, as though we were asking God to wave His magic wand over our difficulties and make it all better. Instead the privilege of prayer is a gracious gift from a caring God…who sometimes says “no!” But even when that happens, even when He says no, we can be assured that He still loves us and has some larger goal in mind for us. Even Jesus got a no from God in the Garden where He prayed that, if it were possible, this cup could pass from Him. God’s answer is simple – no! No it is not possible. Either you die on the cross or the world dies without a Savior.

None of us likes to take no for an answer. In response to questions such as, “Do you love me? Will you marry me? Can I have a pay raise?” none of us wants to hear a no but rather a resounding yes! But it is not always so, even when we turn to God to ask for healing, for a smoother road to travel, for a special blessing on this or that venture. But “no’s” come into our lives regularly even as we expect yes’s! And it really is an expectancy on our part. We expect life to be easier; we expect that we will receive, if not deserve a lighter load; we expect that God will give us, even owes us, a yes! But such expectancy only reinforces the idolatrous nature of our lives which, when we always expect a yes is centered on us. And such idolatrous expectancy reaches into all aspects of our lives, even our lives in church. That’s why we hear some folks say, “I expect this church to meet my needs and if it doesn’t, I’ll go elsewhere.” Or “I expect that this sermon will not disturb me, upset me or make me feel uncomfortable. If it does I’ll find another preacher.” We humans want total control; we expect everything to be positive and we simply won’t take no for an answer.

Such self-centered behavior reminds me of a child who doesn’t like to be told no. And yet, as most of us know, sometimes children have to be told no. “No you can’t eat candy before dinner.” “No you can’t wear makeup because you are only six years old.” “No you can’t have those $110 sneakers.” When they hear such no’s children will often cry, beg, threaten, scream, throw fits, argue or have temper tantrums. And since we are all pretty much like children much of the time, we do the same things in our relationship with God. We argue with God or try to strike bargains with him. “Lord I’ve been good and therefore I deserve this.” “Lord it isn’t fair if I don’t get this.” “Lord you give it to others. Why not me?” Alternatively we threaten God. “Lord if I don’t get this I may well have to stop coming to church or stop praying or stop making my contribution.” What we are called to realize and accept however is that arguing with God or making threats to God don’t work. God has already given us everything in sending His only Son to die for us and, as a result, we have been given the assurance of eternal life…and yet still we threaten God!

So what do we do if God says no to that for which we have been praying? What if He says wait? What if He says we are not ready yet? What if He says you won’t understand any of this until you get to heaven? In short what if we don’t get our way? Paul gives us the answer in a phrase so simple yet so profound, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” If God had delivered Paul from whatever thorn it was that afflicted him, would it have made him a better preacher, a stronger missionary, a greater writer? No! Rather Paul learned in and through his affliction that his power was not in himself but rather in the Lord, for it was the Lord he preached and the Lord’s Gospel that he proclaimed. And the weaker he was, the more powerful the message. While we may not like the sufferings we endure therefore or the trials and difficulties that afflict our lives or the problems we live with, they do, like Paul make a contribution to our living because they lead us to see that when we are weak, then we are strong not by virtue of our own gifts but only because of what Christ does in and through us.

So when we ask God for something and we hear a no, perhaps we can learn to say with Paul, thy grace is sufficient. Or perhaps our model can be those three young men whose story we hear every Easter Vigil – Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Threatened with death by being thrown into the fiery furnace if they did not bow down to the idol fashioned by the king, these three young men refused. Instead they said that they wouldn’t bow and that God would deliver them. But if God said no and didn’t deliver them, they would still not bow.” Or, to echo Paul again, “My grace is sufficient for you.”  

God has every right to say no to us and we have every reason to praise and adore Him. God did not redeem you so that you would worry all the time. He did not promise to always hold you up…only to never let you down. So when you pray God may say “yes” or “I’ll surprise you” or “wait” or “ no” But whatever the answer you can be sure that His grace will be sufficient for you in any and all circumstances. Just as a loving parent will sometimes say no for the good of their child, so God may sometimes say no to us. But He still wants the best for us and always wants to show His pure love for us by pointing us to the cross so that we can see what love He has for us in Christ Jesus Our Lord. But when He does say no, remember that God is not mad at you, getting even with you, has forgotten you or will ever forsake you. Rather with His wondrous love He enlarges us every day and in every circumstance of our lives so that, no matter what the situation, we will come to proclaim, “Thy grace is sufficient for me for when I am weak then I am strong.” Thy grace is sufficient for me. It is enough. It is more than enough. It is everything. Amen