Sermons:
-
When You Feel Helpless,
2 Corinthians 12:7-10; Mark 6:1-6
(see below)
by James Chipps
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No Home
Court Advantage, Mark 6:1-13,
by Rev. Randy Quinn
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When We
Can’t, God Can,
II
Corinthians 12:2-10,
by Rev. Dr. David Rogne
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Risky Business,
Mark 6:1-13,
by Rev. Rick Thompson
-
Fit to be King, Fit for a King,
2
Samuel 5:1-5; 9-10, by Rev.
Thomas Hall
-
Strength in Weakness, 2 Corinthians 12:2-10, by Mike
-
Getting to Know Jesus,
Mark 6:1-13, by jg in nj
-
Making Lemonade,,Mark 6:1-13,
by SueCan
Independence Day:
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When You Feel Helpless
2 Corinthians 12:7-10; Mark 6: 1-6
by James Chipps
Have you ever felt helpless? That sinking feeling that the world has gotten
too big, that events have pushed you down to snake-belly low? That you can’t
get there from here? · Journalist David Osborne certainly felt that way. He was
excited about the purchase of his new home at 58 Glebe Street in the suburbs of
Sydney, Australia.
Renovations were nearly complete, and he was due to move in
within a week. After work, he drove to his new address to check on some of the
final details. When Osborne arrived, he found a "what's wrong with this
picture" scenario beyond his ability to believe. His dream home had become
a nightmare. A huge crane with a wrecking ball towered over his property. Every
floor in the house had been removed. Thousands of dollars in renovation
materials including a valuable antique fireplace had been transformed into a
large pile of debris.
Standing in the rubble that was his home was New South
Wales Housing Minister Frank Walder. The Housing Minister offered this
explanation: "The contractor and demolition crew were told to go to 58
Glebe POINT ROAD, but instead went to 58 Glebe STREET." Oops! A minor
misunderstanding. Sorry about that.
Imagine that you are David Osborne
standing there peering at that mountain of rubble that was your home. How would
you feel? Angry, perhaps? Frustrated? Helpless? Some people have experienced
what it means to see a home destroyed--by floods, tornados, earthquake. But that
is not the only disaster that can leave us feeling desolate. A health crisis--a
tumor, or a stroke, or a heart attack, a divorce, the loss of a job, a business
failure. There are those events that happen in life which we are powerless to
avoid and with which we are helpless to contend.
St. Paul was one of the most
influential men who ever lived. He was courageous. He was brilliant. He was a
man of unparalleled faith and understanding. But he had a problem he could not
conquer. He called it his "thorn in the flesh." Some scholars believe
it was epilepsy; others, that it was a painful eye disease, and still others
that it was recurring, incapacitating migraines. Whatever it was, Paul, who had
helped so many others, was helpless to help himself, just like you and I are
helpless at times to help ourselves.
I think of my Dad now, as his health is
failing. It all started with a hip replacement that went bad. Infection set in,
unnoticed for some time, apparently, until it erupted into massive septicemia
that was life threatening. Whether he will recover is still not known.
Such
things happen to people all the time. We think we have life under control, but
adversity strikes--a disaster strikes our house, our family, our body--and
suddenly our plans are washed away. Life can change overnight. As I said last
Sunday in my sermon: Life is what happens to you when you are busy making other
plans.
Even Jesus knew what it was to feel helpless--and it occurred long
before he went to the cross. After he began his ministry, Jesus returned to
Nazareth, his home town. The next Sabbath he went to the synagogue to teach. The
people were astonished, even skeptical, that he could preach and do miracles,
because they had known him all his life: "He's no better than we are,"
they said. "He's just a carpenter, Mary's boy, and a brother of James and
Joseph, Judas and Simon. And his sisters live right here among us." And the
citizens of Nazareth were offended that Jesus presumed to teach them!
"A
prophet is honored everywhere except in his hometown and among his relatives and
by his own family," Jesus said. Now, listen to the next thing Mark tells
us: "And because of their lack of trust in God, Jesus couldn't do any
mighty miracles among them except to place his hands on a few sick people and
heal them. And he was amazed at their lack of trust."
Imagine that!
Jesus was helpless because of the people's lack of trust in God. Sometimes like
St. Paul we are unable to help ourselves. Sometimes, like Jesus, we are unable
to help others. Some of you are or were the parents of teenagers. Is there
anyone more helpless at times than the parent of a teenager? Life is filled with
so many perils at that stage of life. Hormones and mood swings, defiance of
parents and assertion of independence, maybe drugs, or promiscuity,
boyfriend/girlfriend problems that mean the end of the world; and always the
“I WANT...” What's a parent to do? It is a helpless feeling
Sometime we
are frustrated because we are unable to help ourselves. Other times we are
unable to help others. We need to recognize that helplessness usually describes
an attitude and not a situation. We are never really helpless. St. Paul had his
thorn in the flesh. He could not get rid of it, but he didn't let it defeat him.
We too need to recognize that it is in our weakness and sense of helplessness
where we most readily meet god's strength. [continue]
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