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T3
2 Corinthians 12:2-10
July 6, 2003
St. John United Methodist Church
David Beckett, D.Min.
"I ’ll be back." That’s what Arnold promised to a desk clerk in the first Terminator movie back in 1984. True to his word, he returned in 1991’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day. And now, this month, he’s back again, in one of the blockbusters of the summer, T3: Rise of the Machines.
Grab your greasy popcorn and find a good seat. You’ll be treated to scenes of a speeding motorcycle roaring down a deserted highway at night, Arnold climbing out of a wrecked truck, massive machine gun-armed robots, a full body shot of a Terminator endoskeleton and a torn-up robot who is half-Arnold and half-Terminator — one who looks at the camera and says, "Desire is irrelevant. I am a machine."
In case you’ve lost track of the story line, Arnold started off as a Bad Terminator — a killer robot sent from the future to the year 1984 to terminate the mother of a boy who was destined to be the savior of the world. Arnold fails, the mother lives, and then in 1991 he returns — this time as a Good Terminator.
In T2: Judgment Day, Arnold is one of two Terminator robots. The first is ordered to kill the savior-boy, and the second — played by Arnold — is assigned to protect him. If the boy lives, he will grow up to become a leader of the human battle against machines. If he dies, humanity itself may be doomed. Arnold engages in some spectacular battles with the more sophisticated Bad Terminator, and his muscle-flexing exploits turn out to be deeply meaningful, because in every fight the future of humankind hangs in the balance.
The boy survives and grows up, bringing us to T3: Rise of the Machines. This film tells the tale of the first battles between humans and the artificial intelligences of the SkyNet network. This time, Terminator Arnold goes up against an advanced female android with several new powers, such as the ability to disappear, mold into someone else and even turn into an energy form.
Now you may be wondering if this is a sermon or a movie review. Bear with me. According to today’s lesson from Second Corinthians, the apostle Paul felt like anything but a Terminator. He had seen an amazing vision of Paradise, hearing "things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat" (12:4), but then to help him maintain perspective, he was given "a thorn" in the flesh (v. 7). Fearing that this thorn might terminate him, he asked God to terminate the thorn. Didn’t happen. God said, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness" (v. 9).
We don’t know what Paul’s thorn was. It could have been bad eyesight, malaria, hysteria, depression, leprosy or epilepsy. We just don’t know. The important thing is that Paul came to accept the problem, and then even be grateful for it: "I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ," he insists; "for whenever I am weak, then I am strong" (v. 10).
In general we don’t like weakness. We like to be terminators. At least that’s the way we walk and talk. But it isn’t God-talk. Whenever I am weak, Paul says, I am strong. In the movie, weakness leads quickly to defeat, while victory belongs only to the strongest and the smartest of humans and machines.
So often it seems as though we live in a T3 world as well, where the battle is won by the biggest guns and the smartest bombs. Strength equals power. But Paul terminates this particular approach to life, and replaces it with a whole new attitude: Weakness equals power. This is one of the many paradoxes of the Christian faith: • That in lifting others up, we are lifted up. • That when experiencing sorrow, we discover joy. • That when we are last, we are first. • That when we die, we live.
Whenever I am weak, he says, then I am strong. Whenever he is weak, he remembers that the greatest of all powers belong to God, not to human beings. The power to heal, the power to forgive, the power to inspire, the power to create, the power to love — all of these things come from God. They don’t come from humans, and they certainly don’t come from machines.
This power comes from a T3 God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Paul explains this power in terms of grace: "My grace is sufficient for you" (v. 8). And it’s not just grace: it’s sufficient grace. It is enough. You wouldn’t want or need any more. Bottom line: Sufficient grace is more than enough to transform weakness into strength, impotence into power. A number of years ago, a beautiful float in the Tournament of Roses parade suddenly sputtered and quit. Frantic technicians scurried about to see what was the matter. No one could be sure, until one fellow suggested the float might be out of gas. It was. The whole parade came to a halt while someone fetched a can of gas. It was somewhat embarrassing because it was the Standard Oil Company float. With its vast oil resources, its truck was out of gas.
Even though it may be embarrassing for you and me to be "out of gas," especially while others are watching, nevertheless, this is where we need to be spiritually for God to use us. God’s power doesn’t work in people full of themselves; it works only in those who have emptied themselves, or in whom suffering has emptied them of all pretense to personal strength. Then, only then, can we plug into perfect power. Now you may be thinking that you don’t have the inner strength to empty yourself of your pretenses and weaknesses. Perhaps you feel you are doomed to be a second class citizen in the kingdom of God. Consider the human condition of these Biblical people.
• Moses stuttered.
• John Mark was rejected by Paul.
• Timothy had ulcers.
• Hosea’s wife was a prostitute.
• Amos’ only training was in the school of fig-tree pruning.
• Jacob was a liar.
• David had an affair.
• Solomon was too rich … Jesus was too poor.
• Abraham was too old … David was too young.
• Peter was afraid of death … Lazarus was dead.
• John was self-righteous.
• Naomi was a widow.
• Paul was a murderer … So was Moses.
• Jonah ran from God. Despite all of these weaknesses and sin, God used them in mighty ways. Despite your sin, your failings, God can use you. Yes, suffering hurts. If someone like the apostle Paul suffered so much that he repeatedly asked God to give him a break, we can be sure it was serious. But God said, "No, I’m not going to give you a Hollywood ending. There is no rise of the machines." Instead God says, "Although I will not give you the victory by lifting you out of suffering, I will give you victory by giving you sufficient grace and perfect power in your suffering." That’s why we can say
• With David, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea (Psalm 46:1-2).
• With Job, "For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has been thus destroyed, [yet] in my flesh I shall see God (Job 19:25-26).
• With Paul, "Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Corinthians 12:10). So, as you face your difficulties this week…as you ponder the thorns that keep sticking in your side, remember that you are not called to live a T3 life. You are called to live the paradox. Confessing that weakness is precisely the beginning point of the God-power you need for living! |
07.06.03 - T3 (2 Corinthians 12:2-10)
