{"id":658661,"date":"2024-06-01T16:04:14","date_gmt":"2024-06-01T20:04:14","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2026-07-15T07:57:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T11:57:26","slug":"strength-in-weakness-pentecost-7-b-july-7-2024","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/sermons\/strength-in-weakness-pentecost-7-b-july-7-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Strength in Weakness, Proper 9 (B) \u2013 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-green-color has-alpha-channel-opacity has-green-background-color has-background is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/playlist.megaphone.fm?e=DFMS2036104534&#038;light=true\" width=\"100%\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-green-color has-alpha-channel-opacity has-green-background-color has-background is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/lectionary\/proper-9b\/\">[RCL] Ezekiel 2:1-5; Psalm 123; 2 Corinthians 12:2-10; Mark 6:1-13<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Pr9-2024-Cover-FB-1024x536.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-308663\" style=\"width:512px\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Note: During the 2024 Season after Pentecost, Sermons That Work will use Track 2 readings for sermons and Bible studies. Please consult our archives for many additional Track 1 resources from prior years.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jesus said, \u201cMy grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Power made perfect, not in strength, but in weakness, says Jesus. \u201cWhenever I am weak, then I am strong,\u201d says St. Paul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We should have known this would be true when God chose to enter human life not as a king or a conqueror, but as a baby. Sure, the heavenly host of angels was present at the blessed event, but they were singing, \u201cPeace to God\u2019s people on earth,\u201d not, \u201cLook out people, you\u2019re in big trouble now!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">God\u2019s love took on flesh and dwelt among us as a baby\u2014vulnerable, utterly dependent, weak. Our clue that God would use weakness to show strength.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Of course, God was doing that long before Jesus was born. Take, for example, the great story of Gideon, who was told by God to fight against the Midianites. So, Gideon starts to ready the 32,000 troops in his camp for battle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cNot so fast,\u201d says God. \u201cThat\u2019s too many people. I can\u2019t let you win with that many people, because if you do, you\u2019ll all say, \u2018Look what we did! Aren\u2019t we great!\u2019 instead of giving me the credit. So, Gideon, say to the people, anyone who doesn\u2019t want to fight, you can go home.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Twenty-two thousand people said, \u201cGreat, I don\u2019t want to fight,\u201d and went home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So, Gideon said, \u201cOkay, Lord, I got it down by two-thirds, down to 10,000 people. Better?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">God said, \u201cStill too many. Here, try this. Take everyone down to the water and we\u2019ll sift some of them out there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So, Gideon took the 10,000 troops down to the water, and God said, \u201cEveryone who just bends down to the water and laps up the water like a dog, put them into one group. Everyone who kneels down and scoops up some water and drinks it from their hands, put them in another group.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Three hundred men drank water like thirsty dogs. Everyone else drank water more politely from cupped hands. Gideon must have thought, okay, we\u2019ve whittled away another 300. That leaves me 9,700, still a good-sized army.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cGreat!\u201d said God. \u201cThree hundred. Yes\u2014that is the right size. When you go into battle with just 300 men, and not the most . . . classy or impressive, shall we say, at that, and you win, everyone will know it\u2019s really me\u2014God\u2014who should get the credit. Your weakness will show my strength\u201d (See the whole story in Judges 7).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Think of David. Samuel is sent to the house of Jesse to anoint one of Jesse\u2019s sons to be king over Israel. When the first of Jesse\u2019s sons is brought before Samuel, Samuel takes one look at him and thinks, \u201cSurely this guy is the Lord\u2019s anointed. He will make a great king.\u201d But God says, \u201cDo not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.\u201d Six more of Jesse\u2019s strong, tall, strapping, accomplished sons come before Samuel. \u201cNope, not this one,\u201d the Lord says to Samuel every time. When the whole lineup has passed before Samuel, Samuel says, \u201cYou got any other sons? Maybe someone who missed the roll call?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThere is one more,\u201d says Jesse, \u201cthe youngest. But he\u2019s out watching the sheep.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cGet him,\u201d says Samuel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHe\u2019s not going to smell so good,\u201d says Jesse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Samuel says, \u201cGod\u2019s got this thing for doing great things through the youngest and smallest, and shepherds too, come to think of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sure enough, David stands before Samuel and the Lord says, \u201cHe\u2019s the one\u201d (See 1 Samuel 16).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In human weakness, God\u2019s strength is shown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The prophet Jeremiah put it this way, \u201cThus says the&nbsp;Lord: Do not let the wise boast in their wisdom; do not let the mighty boast in their might; do not let the wealthy boast in their wealth; but let those who boast boast in this, that they understand and know me, that I am the&nbsp;Lord; I act with steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight, says the&nbsp;Lord.\u201d (Jeremiah 9:23-24).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Boast in the Lord. Boast that you have understanding to know the Lord, whose power is made perfect in weakness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Take Paul. By all accounts, Paul wasn\u2019t an impressive man physically. An apocryphal book written many years after Paul lived described him as \u201cBow-legged, small in size, eyebrows that met, and with a rather large nose.\u201d Paul himself says that some people say about him, \u201cHis letters are weighty and forceful but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing.\u201d But Paul didn\u2019t let this get him down. And he knew a thing or two about boasting. When he was still known as Saul, he could boast that he did really well in Pharisee school\u2014straight A\u2019s, top of his class, headed for great things. He had already brought down several of those Christian heretics and was on his way to Damascus to round up several more\u2014add that to his list of accomplishments\u2014when the risen Lord knocks him flat on his back, blinds him, and gives him a right talking-to about persecuting him\u2014the Lord\u2014when he hurts his brothers and sisters. Saul, totally disoriented, blind, and incapacitated has to be cared for like a baby for three days by the Christians he had planned to haul off to prison. \u201cOkay,\u201d says the Lord, \u201cnow you\u2019re ready.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ready for what?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">More suffering. Shipwrecks, imprisonments, beatings, insults, hardships, persecutions, calamities, sicknesses, weaknesses. But all for Christ. So, Paul is one of the most joy-filled and confident people on the planet. He has the power of Christ\u2014not his own power, but God\u2019s power, to do God\u2019s will, to know and accept God\u2019s gift of grace. He got it and wanted everyone else to know that God\u2019s gift of salvation is free\u2014<em>gratis<\/em>\u2014grace. There\u2019s nothing you can do to earn God\u2019s love. You can\u2019t earn it, buy it, deserve it. You can only accept it. That\u2019s it. Crazy. Ridiculous. Who can love with such wild abandon as not to require a certain amount of accomplishment to get into God\u2019s kingdom, self-earned worthiness, deservingness?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cGod\u2019s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God\u2019s weakness is stronger than human strength,\u201d Paul wrote (See 1 Corinthians 1:18-25).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And God\u2019s weakness is stronger than anything else, visible or invisible. \u201cWho will separate us from the love of Christ?\u201d Paul wrote, \u201cWill affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword?\u201d (Romans 8:35)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Add your own: \u201cShall cancer or divorce or unemployment or heartache?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cNo!\u201d is the answer. Paul continued, \u201cIn all these things we are more than victorious through him who loved us.&nbsp;For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,&nbsp;nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord\u201d (Romans 8:37-39).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When we are weak, when we rely on the strength of God, we are strong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What does this mean for us? It means if God asks you to do something, God won\u2019t take \u2018I can\u2019t do it\u2019 for an answer. God already knows you can\u2019t do it. But God\u2019s not asking you to do anything on your own. In fact, if you try to do it on your own, you will fail. But \u201cI can do all things through [God] who strengthens me,\u201d as Paul writes in Philippians (4:13).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It means we may not get what we want. We may not even get the kind of strength we want, even to do things we think God wants us to do. Paul prays three times that whatever it was he was suffering with might be taken away from him. God told him no. It was more important to learn the deep and abiding truth: lean on God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sometimes it takes an experience of great weakness to remember we can throw ourselves on the mercy, love, forgiveness, grace, and strength of God, and find that this holds\u2014that we are held in everlasting arms, the strongest arms, the only strength we need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>This sermon was written by <strong>Dr. Amy Richter.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-file\"><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-83f5b92c-3148-4028-95cf-1d756dcd0412\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Sermon-Proper-9-B-English.docx\">Word \u2013 Pentecost 7 (B) Sermon<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Sermon-Proper-9-B-English.docx\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-83f5b92c-3148-4028-95cf-1d756dcd0412\">Download<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-file\"><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-5c5c90f9-5c4c-4eb8-bfc5-139648ff199b\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Sermon-Proper-9-B-English.pdf\">PDF \u2013 Pentecost 7 (B) Sermon<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Sermon-Proper-9-B-English.pdf\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-5c5c90f9-5c4c-4eb8-bfc5-139648ff199b\">Download<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[RCL] Ezekiel 2:1-5; Psalm 123; 2 Corinthians 12:2-10; Mark 6:1-13 Note: During the 2024 Season after Pentecost, Sermons That Work will use Track 2 readings for sermons and Bible studies. Please consult our archives for many additional Track 1 resources from prior years. Jesus said, \u201cMy grace is sufficient for you, for power is made&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":201212,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[43,52,33,3],"tags":[375],"class_list":["post-658661","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sermons","category-sermons-that-work","category-the-season-after-pentecost","category-worship-and-prayer-menu","tag-proper-9b"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":43,"label":"Sermons"},{"value":52,"label":"Sermons That Work"},{"value":33,"label":"The Season After Pentecost"},{"value":3,"label":"worship_and_prayer_menu"}],"post_tag":[{"value":375,"label":"Proper 9B"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":[],"comment_info":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/658661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/sermon"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/658661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3473301,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/658661\/revisions\/3473301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}