My grace is sufficient – 2 July 2021

 

Another affectingly simple little Psalm is part of the lectionary next Sunday.  It is Psalm 123…

To you I lift up my eyes, to you enthroned in the heavens.

As the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters, and the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, until he show us his mercy.

Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy, for we have had more than enough of contempt, too much of the scorn of the indolent rich, and of the derision of the proud.

This is linked with the epistle reading for next Sunday --  Paul speaks movingly of his personal, evidently chronic illness or handicap… whatever that was… and how God said to him, My grace is sufficient for you, my power is made perfect in weakness.[1]

But first, the Psalm.  Servants (or slaves… the word is the same in both Greek and Hebrew) are completely reliant on the will and protection of their master, and serving maids on the hand of their mistress… the Psalmist similarly is totally reliant on God… he is lifting up his eyes to God enthroned in the heavens.   It is not about servility, so much as need, even desperation.  He repeats: Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy…  And he says why… we have had more than enough of contempt, too much of the scorn of the indolent rich, and of the derision of the proud.  Contempt, scorn, derision. 

It leads me to think of the plight of many in our culture, powerless or defeated by life, or by bureaucratic indifference or delay or incompetence, or by ritual public humiliation… the ever popular compulsion to name, blame and shame.  This treatment of already wounded, sad, beaten, needy people gets dignified with righteous words such as seeing justice done, public right to know, achieving closure, holding accountable.  Our enlightened culture can be blind and cruel -- there is no healing in what the Psalmist calls contempt… the scorn of the indolent… the derision of the proud.  God’s solution is mercy and care, understanding, restoration. 

Turning now to Paul… he reminds us how proud he is of his status as a Roman citizen, his reputation as a pharisee[2], his considerable learning.  But nothing alters the fact, that he is struck down by some persistent disorder… epilepsy perhaps, or recurrent malaria, even alcoholism has been suggested.  He tells us how he is treated with contempt by some.^[3] But there is what the Hebrew prophet called balm in Gilead[4].  He encounters grace.  My grace is sufficient for you, my power is made perfect in weakness.  That word sufficient is the interesting one.  Grace is sufficient.  Paul is not overwhelmed by remedies or solutions… or answers[5]; he is given what he needs for this day, and the next…  That is the walk of faith.  We don’t live from one miracle to the next – we live from one day to the next, enabled by grace, inspired by mercy and love, guided by the Spirit of the Risen Christ.

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[1] II Corinthians 12:9  Ἀρκεῖ σοι ἡ χάρις μου· ἡ γὰρ ⸀δύναμις ἐν ἀσθενείᾳ ⸀τελεῖται.

[2] Acts 23:6; 26:5; Philippians 3:5

[3] See II Corinthians, chs 11-12

[4] Jeremiah 8:22

[5] Notice outside a church in Warkworth: “Google doesn’t have all the answers – God does”.  This is the kind of shallow, trite claim that simply drives thinking people further away.