The story of Jesus's rejection in his own town is a classic one - it is a story that most of us can identify with because it is a story that has happened to most of us:
Often our families, our childhood companions, our husbands, or our wives, fail to listen to the wisdom and accept the words of grace and love and encouragement we offer - because they are too familiar with us.
The people of our home town know us too well, and therefore they simply can not accept, at times anyway, - that the boy who used to leave his dirty socks sitting on the kitchen table, - or the girl who used to skip school and go hanging around the mall can be for them God's appointed instrument, the agent of God's healing and saving grace for them.
It is partly for this reason that the royal family of England strives very hard to prevent too much detail about the private lives of the royals from becoming public.
They fear that the more that is known about them, the less effective they will be able to be as the representatives of the nations of the Commonwealth.
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth calls the royal quest for privacy "not letting too much sunlight into the magic".
Consider the grumbling of the people in Jesus' home town when he spoke to them
"what is this wisdom that has been given him, that he even does miracles! Isn't this Mary's son and the brother of James, Joseph Judas and Simon? Aren't his sisters here with us?"
And the scriptures go on to say that they took offense at him, and that as result Jesus was not able to do any miracles there.
Yes, Jesus was rejected by his own and all because his own thought that they knew him, and it is often for the same reason that we are rejected, - too much sunlight has been let into the magic.
But there is more to this story of rejection, for the story of Jesus' rejection by his villagers, is also a story about how we ignore and reject God.
It is a story about our unwillingness to be helped by God, or by anybody else; an unwillingness which comes out of our own certainties, our own knowledge, our own strength.
For the people who lived in Jesus' home town, their knowledge of him as a youth prevented them from seeing God's power in him as an adult.
But for most others the grace of God is shut out, not because they know Christ so well, but because they think they know what is best for themselves, and because they refuse to accept that perhaps they need help, that perhaps their understanding, and their own strength is getting in their way.
The road to spiritual wholeness is not travelled by exercising our own human powers,
but rather by acknowledging our human weaknesses, and then, in that weakness, allowing God to exercise his power in us.
Members of Alcoholics Anonymous probably understand the gospel better than most theologians - and indeed than most regular church goers.
They will tell you that the key to turning their lives around was admitting their weakness, admitting that they were, are, and always will be powerless, powerless over alcohol.
Listen to the first three of the twelve steps of the AA program.
-1 - We admitted that we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had
become unmanageable.
-2 - We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore
us to sanity,
-3 - We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of
God as we understood him.
What we have here is:
ONE - An acknowledgment of weakness, of need.
TWO - A belief that God, and only God, can help
and THREE - the willingness to turn the whole matter, indeed ones's
whole life, over to God and let God take control of the
problem.
As it is with Alcohol, so it is with all the rest of life.
Until we admit our weakness, until we stop being afraid of it, until we stop denying it, we can't find the help we need.
There was a seminary student by the name of Mark. Mark had great ability, but he could not get along with other people.
Mark always wanted to control our discussions in class. He always was ready with an answer to the questions asked by the teachers and the rest of the class.
When there was silence - he felt he had to fill it. When there was confusion - he tried to bring order, and not just any order, but the order that he thought was best.
He never showed any hesitation or weakness to his classmates. He never shared his personal problems, and rarely left room for anyone to share, and so as a result the whole class hard a hard time liking him.
One day Mark was confronted with this behaviour by a group of students who, with a professor, were supposed to give Mark his final marks for the school year.
They asked Mark why he behaved like he did.
He went away and a week later returned with a paper that explained it all: he claimed his father had never accepted him, that he had come from a broken home, that other people refused to look deeper into him, and that, yes, he was a little careless about sharing time with others and listening to them, but that he could get a grip on it if they gave him a chance.
The group of students recognized the sincerity of his paper but they refused to accept it and they rejected his answers, calling them inadequate and self-deceiving.
At first he was dumbfounded - he thought he had done a good piece of work - that he had come up with the reasons why he behaved like he did, and then, when He saw that the group wasn't buying it, he grew frantic and began to break down in front of them - he began to cry and to say "I don't know what to do..I'm scared! I am confused! What do you want? What can I do? Please help me. I feel so out of control."
At that point one of the students listening to him got up and went over to him and hugged him and said:
"Its OK - just cry. There is nothing wrong with being out of control - as a matter of fact it is good - for now there is room for God to control you - room for God to help you - and room for us to show you that we love you too."
After that time a change came over Mark. He did not become perfect. But he did become a little more sensitive to the needs of others. He didn't try to run every situation, and you could see him actually listening to the viewpoints being expressed by others.
We in turn began to come to know him as a feeling and caring human being, as a person like us - with joys and with pain, with hopes and with fears.
Mark's confession of weakness became the occasion where God's grace, God's strength, finally could get a grip on his life.
The Apostle Paul, like us all, knew weakness. He had what he called a thorn in the flesh - some believe that he had severe migraine headaches, and three times, as he tells us, he prayed that this weakness, this affliction might be removed, that he might be cured.
On the third occasion when Paul prayed God answered him and said -"My grace is sufficient for you - for my power is made perfect in weakness."
Paul's response to this statement is a most beautiful one. He said:
"Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses that Christ's power may rest on me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."
WHEN I AM WEAK - THEN I AM STRONG
To the world this is nonsense. Power and strength are worshipped by most people, and weakness is despised above all things.
The world teaches us to conceal our vulnerability, lest we be hurt, and it teaches us to hide our weakness, lest we be taken advantage of.
The world teaches us to camouflage our inadequacies with self-confidence, self reliance and self assurance, so that we can build a heaven for ourselves here on earth.
The world teaches us that we can help ourselves, that we can do what we need to do on our own, and that all the answers we need we can find in ourselves.
This my friends is simply not true. It is the wisdom of the serpent who tempted Adam and Eve, it is not the wisdom of God.
Every alcoholic still hitting the bottle tells us he can quit, and every dysfunctional person caught behaving in a way that is offensive to others tells us that they know better and that they are on the way to licking the situation.
My friends - our weaknesses, our hardships, and our tribulations are not of themselves a blessing, they are real problems for us, and they can create problems for how we get along with others - BUT - when we acknowledge our weaknesses and our needs, and turn to God and ask for his help, instead of relying on our own skill & wisdom & strength to save us, then something profound happens - we discover that God's grace is sufficient for us, and that his power is made perfect in our weakness, and almost always in ways we do not expect.
When I am weak, then I am strong.
If the truth be known, we are weak in many many ways, ways that all too often we are afraid to admit, because we fear that we will be scorned, rejected, or taken advantage of somehow.
But that is not what need happen, nor normally is it what happens.
Rather what happens is that God's power comes to us and helps us in the way that we need help.
Our weakness may remain, as Paul's thorn remained, but God's power inhabits it and turns it to strength for us; strength for us to do what we as human beings and as followers of Christ are meant to do and in fact need to do, if we are to inherit the joy, the love, and indeed the very life, that God wants to bestow upon us.
The story is told about how one day a small boy was trying to lift a stone much too heavy for him.
His father walked by and seeing his struggles said "Are you using all your strength?" The boy said that indeed he was. But the father replied "No son, you aren't, for you haven't asked me."
How much haven't we asked God about?
How much of our weakness do we keep locked up inside us, because we think that there is no help for us, or because we think that other things are more important?
A part of our strength, the greater part, comes from our relationship to God - the God who is able and willing to help us.
But first we realize our need for him, and then we must ask him to take control.
Doing our best as Christians always includes asking God to help us do what we are striving to do.
God makes his power perfect in weakness, for it is there that he is able to do for us what we, in our strength, do not let him do.
I would like to conclude with a poem that sums up what I have being trying to say - it was written over a hundred years ago by a soldier:
I asked for health that I might do greater things, I was given infirmity that I do might do better things...I asked for riches that I might be happy, I was given poverty that I might be wise...I asked for power that I might have the praise of men, I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God....I asked for all things that I might enjoy life, I was given life that I might enjoy all things...I got nothing that I asked for but everything that I hoped for. Almost despite myself my unspoken prayers were answered. I am among all men most richly blessed. May His name be praised day by day. Amen
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