Strength in Weakness

How many of you have faced tough times?  You know what I’m talking about.  Times when things got so bad that you just knew you couldn’t go on.  I had an experience like that not too long ago.  On June 16, 2006, my youngest daughter Monica died.  We don’t know why she died – the doctors were unable to find the cause.  All we know is that suddenly she was unable to breathe.  She died on the AirLife helicopter as it flew her to Methodist Children’s Hospital.

Monica was the second child that my wife Espee and I lost.  Two years earlier, our nineteen-year-old daughter Marlo died in a head-on collision on I-35.

Devastated by the loss of two children, it felt to us that there was no way we could go on.  We had a Bible Study ministry in two parishes here in San Antonio, one at Saint Monica’s and another at Santo Niño.  I still remember that first Bible Study following Monica’s death.  The people were coming into the classroom at Santo Niño.  I had my notes in front of me and I was trying to review them.  And I said to the Lord, “I can’t do this.”  But the Lord reminded of St Paul’s words in Philippians 4: 13:  “I have the strength for everything through him who empowers me.”  And I remembered what St Paul wrote in Second Corinthians 12:10:

Therefore, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong.

God kept his promise.  He gave me the strength I needed because somehow I was able to keep going.

What I want to talk to you about tonight is weakness, and how Saint Paul’s idea that God uses our weaknesses if we just let him.  Actually, it wasn’t really Saint Paul’s idea.  As we are going to see, he got it from Scripture, which for him was the Old Testament.  Specifically, I want to talk about three kinds of weakness:

• Weakness in our lack of something
• Weakness resulting from sin
• Weakness in the face of overwhelming circumstances

Weakness in Our Lack of Something

How many times have you said, “I can’t do something because I don’t have the ability, knowledge, skill, or resources?  You know, there were a lot of people in the Bible who said something like that.  One of them was Jeremiah.  Let’s take a look at Jeremiah 1:4-5.  It says:

The word of the LORD came to me thus: Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you.

Now you see that God calls Jeremiah to be a prophet.  And how did Jeremiah respond?  In verse 6, Jeremiah says:

"Ah, Lord GOD!" I said, "I know not how to speak; I am too young."

You see, right away Jeremiah says he can’t do it because he has two big problems:

• He doesn’t know how to speak
• And even if he was a good speaker, no one would listen to him because he was too young!

But look at how the Lord answers Jeremiah’s objections in verses 7-8:

But the LORD answered me, Say not, "I am too young." To whomever I send you, you shall go; whatever I command you, you shall speak. Have no fear before them, because I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD.

In effect, God says “Do you think I would call you if you couldn’t do the job?  You think you can’t do it, but I know you can…because I am going to be with you!”

Now how did Jeremiah respond to that?  Well, he must have said “Okay, Lord.  I will do it” because in the very next verse, look at what happens:

Then the LORD extended his hand and touched my mouth, saying, “See, I place my words in your mouth!”

So now think about yourself here for a moment.  Are you like Jeremiah?  Is God calling you to do something that you think you can’t do?  It could be anything:  teach a Religious Education class, lead a Bible Study, become a missionary, feed the poor, or give shelter to the homeless?  And you’ve been saying you can’t do it because, well, you can’t teach, or you don’t know enough about the Bible, or you don’t have the faith of someone like Mother Theresa.  It doesn’t matter what ability or skill or resource you think are lacking, if God is calling you to do something, you can be sure he is going to give you the strength to do it.  He will extend his hand and touch your mouth, just like he touched Jeremiah’a.  All you have to do is say “yes” to him.

And doesn’t that remind you of someone else who said “yes” to God?  Didn’t Mary set the example for us?  She didn’t give God a lot of reasons why she couldn’t be the mother of the Messiah.  She just said, “May it be done unto me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).

Weakness Resulting From Sin

There is another kind of weakness that comes not from our lack of some ability but rather comes from sin.  You can see it in someone who may have been the greatest of all the Old Testament prophets (besides John the Baptist):  Isaiah.  Turn with me to Isaiah 6:1-4:

In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, with the train of his garment filling the temple.  Seraphim were stationed above; each of them had six wings: with two they veiled their faces, with two they veiled their feet, and with two they hovered aloft.  “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts!” they cried one to the other. “All the earth is filled with his glory!”  At the sound of that cry, the frame of the door shook and the house was filled with smoke.

Now put yourself in Isaiah’s place.  Scripture doesn’t say what he was doing at the time that he had this wonderful vision.  But I can imagine that he was doing something perfectly ordinary.  If he had been a twenty-first century man, he might have been mowing his lawn or maybe working in his garage.  Suddenly, he finds himself in the middle of this vision, seeing God himself:  “I saw the Lord on a high and lofty throne!”

Now Isaiah is no fool.  He knows that God doesn’t give people visions like this for no reason.  He can see what is coming next, that God is going to call him to do something, and he is absolutely terrified.  He cries out in verse 5:

“Woe is me, I am doomed!  For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips!”

He says, “I am a sinner!  God is calling me into his service, and I am not worthy!  I can’t even stand in his presence or I will surely die!”

How many of us are like that?  God is calling you to do something, and you think “No!  You don’t know what a wretched sinner I am!  I am not worthy to be God’s servant!”

But look at what happens in verses 6 and 7:

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, holding an ember which he had taken with tongs from the altar.  He touched my mouth with it. “See,” he said, “now that this has touched your lips, your wickedness is removed, your sin purged.”

What you need to notice here is that Isaiah did not make himself holy.  He didn’t purify himself.  Rather, it was God who purified him.  In the same way, it is true that you and I are sinners, and that our sin left uncleansed does indeed disqualify us from serving the Lord.  And it is true that we can’t cleanse ourselves.  But God can make you clean and me clearn.  How does he do it?  The Beloved Disciple himself gives us the answer in 1 John 1:9

If we acknowledge our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from every wrongdoing.

You see, you just need to do what Isaiah did:  Confess your sins, and then God himself will make you pure.

But, you say, you don’t know what my sins are!  You don’t know the terrible things I have done in my life!

So let me take you to a passage of Scripture that most people never read – they just skip right over.  It’s Matthew 1:2-6:

Abraham became the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers. Judah became the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar. Perez became the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab. Amminadab became the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab. Boaz became the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth.  Obed became the father of Jesse, Jesse the father of David the king. David became the father of Solomon, whose mother had been the wife of Uriah.

Now you are probably thinking the fact I just read a genealogy to you is proof that I have lost my mind.  What on earth does that genealogy have to do with strength in weakness or weakness resulting from sin?

Well, did you notice those four women in the genealogy:  Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Uriah?  Let’s take a look at three of them.

In Genesis chapter 38, we learn that Tamar was Judah’s daughter-in law who became a widow when her husband, Judah’s son Er, died.  Sometime later, here is what happened:

Years passed, and Judah's wife, the daughter of Shua, died.  After Judah completed the period of mourning, he went up to Timnah for the shearing of his sheep, in company with his friend Hirah the Adullamite.

When Tamar was told that her father-in-law was on his way up to Timnah to shear his sheep, she took off her widow's garb, veiled her face by covering herself with a shawl, and sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the way to Timnah…

When Judah saw her, he mistook her for a harlot, since she had covered her face.  So he went over to her at the roadside, and not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law, he said, "Come, let me have intercourse with you." She replied, "What will you pay me for letting you have intercourse with me?"  He answered, "I will send you a kid from the flock." "Very well," she said, "provided you leave a pledge until you send it."  Judah asked, "What pledge am I to give to you?" She answered, "Your seal and cord, and the staff you carry."

So he gave them to her and had intercourse with her, and she conceived by him.  When she went away, she took off her shawl and put on her widow's garb again.

Later, Tamar was found to be pregnant and Judah was about to order her to be killed for her adultery until Tamar proved to him that he was the father.  (Remember that pledge she had demanded of him: the seal, the cord, and the staff?)  Nine-months later, Perez was born.  And Perez, it turns out was the great-great-great-great grandfather of Boaz.  So what, you ask!  Well, hold on.  We are about to find out.

Now what about Rahab?  We learn about her in Joshua 2:1:

Then Joshua, son of Nun, secretly sent out two spies from Shittim, saying, “Go, reconnoiter the land and Jericho.”  When the two reached Jericho, they went into the house of a harlot named Rahab, where they lodged.

Remember now that Rahab the harlot was the mother of Boaz – remember, Perez was his fourth-great grandfather – and Boaz was the father of Obed, the father of Jesse, the father of David the King!

Two down and one to go!  So now we have the wife of Uriah, who was the mother of David’s son Solomon.  You remember that story don’t you!  It’s in 2 Samuel 11:2-5:

One evening David rose from his siesta and strolled about on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing, who was very beautiful.  David had inquiries made about the woman and was told, “She is Bathsheba, daughter of Eliam, and wife of (Joab's armor-bearer) Uriah the Hittite.”

Then David sent messengers and took her. When she came to him, he had relations with her, at a time when she was just purified after her monthly period.  She then returned to her house.

But the woman had conceived, and sent the information to David, “I am with child.”

So this was Bathsheba, who would later become the mother of Solomon.

So look at what we have here – three big sinners.  These aren’t genteel ladies who told little white lies over tea on Bridge night.

• Tamar tricked her own father in-law into getting her pregnant.
• Rahab was a harlot and may even have been running a brothel.
• Bathsheba committed adultery with King David and then plotted with him to cover it up, leading ultimately to her husband’s murder.

Now let’s look again at that genealogy in Matthew.  Whose genealogy is it by the way?  You’ll find the answer in verse 16.  Are you surprised?  It’s the genealogy of Jesus Christ!

Now there is something else I want you to notice.  Look at verse 1 again.  It starts out by saying, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ.”  In the Greek, the word that is translated “genealogy” is actually “genesis”.  The great Catholic Bible scholar Scott Hahn thinks that Matthew probably used the word “genesis” deliberately, thinking of the book of Genesis, the first book in the Old Testament.  Now Genesis tells us about the creation of the universe, doesn’t it?  So Matthew is giving us a big hint that Jesus came to bring about a new creation!

This whole idea of a new creation is very big in the New Testament.  You see it 2 Corinthians 5:17 where St Paul says:  “So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come.”  And again in Galatians 6:15 where he says: “For neither does circumcision mean anything, nor does uncircumcision, but only a new creation!”

So do you see what is happening here?  Just like Tamar, Rahab, and Bathsheba, you may have sinned and even done terrible things.  But God can take you just as you are, just like he took them, and make you a new creation.  You see, we are talking about the God who created the entire Universe out of nothing!  Do you think it is too hard for him to take your sins and turn them into good?  Whatever you may have done in your life – no matter how bad it is – God can use it to make something good happen.  He can use you and make you a part of his plan just like he did with Tamar, Rahab, and Bathsheba!

So now back to Isaiah chapter 6.  We left Isaiah standing in God’s presence, and the Lord had just purged him clean from his sin just like he can purify you.  What happened next is in verse 8:

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?”

And now you can respond with Isaiah, and say, “Here I am, send me!”

Weakness in the Face of Overwhelming Circumstances

So far we have talked about weakness in our lack of something, and weakness caused by sin.   But perhaps you are already trusting God to give you what you need to serve him.  And perhaps you have laid your sins at the foot of the Cross and allowed the Lord to make you holy.  And you are saying, “Here am I, Lord.  Send me!”  But still you face some overwhelming obstacle that you think makes it impossible for you to succeed.

There was a man like that in the Old Testament.  His name was Joseph.  No doubt you remember the story.  Joseph brothers planned to kill him but eventually decided to sell him into slavery instead.  Eventually he wound up in prison with no hope for escape, and you have to think that Joseph must have fallen into the blackest despair as looked around at how hopeless his situation had become.  And yet, God took Joseph’s predicament and turned out around, didn’t he?  Eventually, Joseph became the most powerful man in Egypt second only to Pharaoh himself.  Then of course a great famine came over all the land and as you know he was able to save all his family, including his brothers, from starvation.  And do you remember what Joseph said to his brothers on the day that he revealed himself to them at last?  The story is in Genesis 45:4-8:

“Come closer to me,” he told his brothers. When they had done so, he said: “I am your brother Joseph, whom you once sold into Egypt.  But now do not be distressed, and do not reproach yourselves for having sold me here…it was not really you but God who had me come here; and he has made of me a father to Pharaoh, lord of all his household, and ruler over the whole land of Egypt.”

Now notice that God did not just get Joseph through his trouble – those overwhelming circumstances that it seemed like he could never overcome.  No, God did much more than that!  He used those terrible things that happened to Joseph to make wonderful things happen.

Now this point takes me back to where I began this talk, with the death of my daughter Monica.  Remember, I said that Espee and I thought that there was no way we could get through that horrible experience and yet somehow, with God’s help, we did.  What I didn’t tell you is that God didn’t just get us through that experience – he used it to make some wonderful things happen.

I would like to tell you about two of them.

The first thing happened just a few weeks after Monica died.  My mother, who had been a Southern Baptist all her life and who has always made it quite clear that she intended to stay a Southern Baptist, just out of the blue said she wanted to become a Catholic!  Shortly after that, she enrolled in RCIA.  Then the following Spring, during the Easter Vigil, my mother was received into the Church.

The second thing has to do with one of my other daughters.  Several years ago, she rejected everything my wife and I believed in, and she charged headlong into a rebellious life of sin.  She joined the Navy, traveled around the country, and eventually landed in Florida where she married a practicing Pagan who was deep into the Occult.  Then shortly after Monica’s death, she told us that she was coming back to San Antonio.  She arrived in January, exactly one day before a Women’s ACTS retreat was set to start in our parish.  I asked my daughter if she would go to the retreat, and to my surprise she said “Yes.’

That retreat is where a miracle happened.  The way she puts it: she was the lost sheep that Jesus went looking for, and he found her at that retreat.  My daughter gave her life to the Lord that weekend, and a few weeks later she attended a Life in the Spirit seminar and experienced the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.  Then another miracle happened:  she enrolled at Saint Mary’s University where she complete a Masters degree in Theology.  Today she is a leader in Catholic education.  In fact, she is the Superintendent of Catholic schools in her diocese!

So yes, Monica died.  And I think she must have been welcomed into heaven by Saint Therese who said that she would spend her heaven doing good on earth.  Because that is what Monica has been doing.  God has used Monica through her death and through her intercession to bring my mother into the Church and my prodigal daughter back home.

Conclusion

I’ve been talking about strength in weakness, about how God uses our weaknesses.  We have focused on three kinds of weakness:

• Weakness in our lack of something, where God gives us what we need, and all we have to do is trust him.
• Weakness resulting from sin, where God cleanses us from our sin, makes us holy, and even uses our sin to bring about his purpose.
• Weakness in the face of overwhelming circumstances, where God not only gets us through the trials we face, but also uses those trials to make miracles happen.  

You see, it is God who overcomes our weaknesses.  Not that we will never fail.  But if we fail we can be sure God will use even our failures to achieve his purposes.  For as Saint Paul wrote so many centuries ago:

In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 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. (Romans 8:37-39)