2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10,  Psalm 48, 2 Corinthians 12:2-10, Mark 6:1-13

“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.”  [2Corinthians 12:10]

The Apostle Paul speaks these words of encouragement as he inspires us to confront barriers to our faith journey as opportunities to draw more deeply into our understanding of our dependence upon God.  Barriers are another one of those paradoxical elements of our faith.  For far too many of God’s people, perceived barriers lead to a life of regret and resentment due to unmet dreams – a life of perpetual blaming of the “something” that left us unable to achieve.  We allow barriers to stand in our way to such an extent that we choose to allow that barrier to thwart our journey.  The Apostle Paul sees these barriers as the agents of Satan, strategically tearing away at our faith by constant whispering of our inadequacies into our psyches.

Yet, as Paul learns himself and teaches us, barriers are to be seen more positively; barriers are to be seen as those difficulties through which we are challenged to seek God’s guidance in overcoming, and find ourselves to be better people as the result of the struggles necessary to find our way over or under or around, or, even best of all, through the barrier – the figurative birth canal that induces a healthier newborn by virtue of successful struggle.

In our epistle lesson we read of the Apostle Paul’s labeling of an undefined barrier as a “thorn in his side.”  Was it a physical impediment, or perhaps an emotional or moral weakness?  No one knows.  And, since the “thorn” is not defined, we can all assume that that thorn applies equally to all of us as well; we all have “thorns in our sides” – physical or emotional or spiritual barriers that confound our faith journeys.

We all have barriers in our faith journey.  Paul’s words in his second letter to the people of Corinth alert us to the reality that this thorn is a messenger from Satan whose purpose is to be a barrier to the Christian mission.  But, as it was for Paul, our all-powerful, all-loving God takes these messengers of Satan and converts them to Godly purposes for the good of the Kingdom.  Paul sees the thorn in his side as a paradoxical blessing that keeps him aware of his humility – his dependence on God alone.

Sometimes barriers are God’s way of redirecting our journey to a path where God has a better plan.  We like to say that when God closes a door he opens a window.  In our walk through the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ, we learn this morning that one of the greatest barriers to his mission was the dismissal of his significance by his hometown folk. They were barred by their misconceptions and expectations for the hometown boy; they were unable to experience the healing power of the love Jesus preached.  Jesus would instruct his followers to take the Good News message of healing elsewhere to those willing and open to receive it.

In a rather similar way, David’s potential to be king was written off by his family.  Remember the prophet Samuel, directed by God to visit the house of Jesse where he was to find the intended king, but instead, grew frustrated as the handsome and competent sons of Jesse were passed over one-by-one.  David, the youngest, the keeper of the sheep, had not even been invited to this audition.  In our continued journey through the saga of David – King David – by far the most prominent King of Israel, we learn that in spite of his earthly unworthiness and his well-noted pitfalls, David is known for his faith in the Lord, to whom he returned again and again seeking forgiveness and restoration following his serious blunders.

In today’s lesson, David is guided in overcoming the barriers of separatism and establishing the Jewish people in their homeland of Jerusalem – no more to be a conglomeration of nomadic tribes, but a people grounded in community, humble in the presence of God.  With God’s help, David had risen far above the inhibiting earthly expectations of the lowly and youngest keeper of the sheep.

Our misguided earthly perceptions can create serious barriers to our faith journey.  Our misguided earthly perceptions can be exploited by Satan and converted to his messengers.  Yet it is the coming awareness of those barriers – those thorns in our sides that keep us humble in our continued awareness of God’s power to convert those painful thorny barriers for his purpose of good.

My friend Eric Motley, PhD. came into the world with many perceived barriers.  Born to an unwed African American teenage mother in rural 1970’s Alabama, abandoned by his birth mother and left in the care of his modest middle-aged adopted grandparents, we could perceive that there were plenty messengers of Satan whispering hopelessness into Eric’s life.  Forever humble, Eric learned to accept and return the nurturing of the tight-knit community that surrounded him – a community in the truest sense – a community made up of direct descendants of the newly freed slaves who had founded his beloved hometown of Madison Park in the 1880’s – a distinctive community, destined to look beyond perceived barriers.

In this environment where integrity, hard work, and responsibility were the expectations and love of God, family, and neighbor were inherent, Eric came to see barriers as mere hurdles that encouraged him to jump ever higher.  Inspired by an ever-growing troop of mentors from the time he was labeled a slow reader in first grade, Eric went on to attain degrees from Samford University and the University of St. Andrew’s, Scotland, followed by a prestigious appointment as special assistant to President George W. Bush, and currently the position of executive vice president of the Aspen Institute, a non-profit DC think tank for values-based international leadership.^[1]

For years, I knew Eric only as a humble and diligent crucifer and fellow chalice bearer with whom I shared worship and Holy Communion.  Never once did I hear him say, “Oh, that reminds me of a conversation I was having in the Oval Office last week…”

God has taken the perceived barriers of Eric’s birth and upbringing and converted them into an outpouring of hopefulness and celebration with clear emphasis on the positive impact of loving and dedicated grace-filled community.  Eric faced barriers; King David faced barriers; the Apostle Paul faced barriers; Jesus Christ faced the greatest of barriers, but God steps through the barriers and converts them to his GOOD.

Jesus says, “My grace is sufficient for you.”  The Apostle Paul admonishes us to be glad in the face of our hardships and persecutions and calamities, for it is in our humility in the face of these barriers that we most readily find our strength in Jesus Christ our Lord.

^[1]Eric Motley, Madison Park – A Place of Hope (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2017).