Category: Year A

The Parable of the Vineyard Workers (Matthew 20:1-16)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
The Workers in the Vineyard, by Rembrandt, 1637

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.

“About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’So they went.

“He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’

“‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.

“He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’

“When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’

“The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius.When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’

“But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’

“So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” (New International Version)

Fairness

We humans have an innate sense of right and wrong, justice and injustice. We want life to be fair. It disturbs us when there is favoritism, discrimination, and preferential treatment. When things seem off, and others seem more privileged, envy can easily creep in and settle in our bones.

The envy can go even deeper. For example, is it fair that any child should struggle with health issues like cancer, epilepsy, and mental disorders? Is it fair to have healthcare disparities? Is it fair to have a spouse taken from you before their time? Is it fair to lose your job through no fault of your own? Is it ever fair to be treated like a second-class citizen?

Pat answers to people’s genuine struggles will not do, such as “You just need to work hard and hope for the best;” “We have to take what is given us and accept these things;” “Think of all those starving children in India;” or the more crass, “Suck it up buttercup; life was never meant to be a rose garden.”  Those statements are simply unhelpful.      

At the heart of envy is the belief that others are getting something that I deserve. “It isn’t fair!” we cry. Yet, God does not always operate according to our standards of fairness. God’s very nature is to be generous and full of grace. The parable which Jesus told about the vineyard workers is a story not of unfairness, but a story of generosity and grace. It’s all in how you look at it.

A normal workday in the ancient world was ten hours, not counting breaks. The workday began at 6:00am. A denarius was a typical day’s wage for laborers. The landowner went out at the third hour, 9:00am; the sixth hour, noon, etc. He kept returning to hire more workers even up to the last hour of the workday. Laborers were always paid at the end of the day.

In this parable, the last workers were paid first, which prompted the first workers hired to think they would be getting more, even though they had been promised a denarius. So, they grumbled about not getting more. They thought the landowner was not being fair.

Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard, by Johann Christian Brand, 1769

Complaining

Grumbling. Complaining. Murmuring. It is the bane of our existence. Decades ago, when gas station attendants still filled tanks for customers, I was working at a station and had a lady go berserk on me for not checking her oil and cleaning her windshield, because I did it for the car in front of her. Even though there was a sign right in front of her that said checking oil and cleaning windshields is only done upon request, the lady thought she was getting gypped. 

In truth, the landowner did not cheat nor defraud the workers in any way. He paid the agreed upon wage, just like he promised. Should he want to pay everyone the same even though the amount of work was different was his own business.

The problem was not with the owner, it was with the worker’s envy of the owner’s generosity toward the others. God distributes gifts because God is gracious, not because we have earned anything. Our standard of fairness is not the rule of the kingdom of God – grace is.

Grace

Deep down many believe we control our destiny, and that we save ourselves by what we do. We discern that if we serve God all our lives, in the end, God will reward us. We believe that our pious activities, our acts of service and our work for the Lord, will bring us salvation, or, at least a leg up in the kingdom of God over others who have not worked as hard or as long as we have. After all, we do the right thing.

So, what about those who have not figured out Christianity… those who do not have the correct or proper beliefs… or those who have not straightened out their lives? According to a worldview of human fairness, they are out of luck. They should be in church. They should work harder, faster, and better. Then, they could get their lives in order. If they would only understand fairness, we reason, then all would be well.

But there is a problem, because the parable of the workers told by Jesus seems to be saying that is not how it works at all.  Jesus seems to be saying that grace and grace alone saves, that God’s amazingly naïve and irresponsible grace is available to anyone and everybody. And that troubles the workers to no end. 

Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard, by Solomon Koninck, c.1648

What’s in it for me?

Whenever we run headlong into God’s unfair grace and see that God’s way of doing things is so far removed from our way, there is bound to be grumbling. After all, if God is going to run a vineyard like the one in the gospel lesson and give everybody the same pay regardless of their actual work hours, then what’s the use of getting up early in the morning to work? 

What is the good of sitting in church, listening to sermons from a crazy preacher who is no better than us, if these outsiders, these Johnny-and Jane-come-lately’s can waltz in at the last minute and receive the same treatment as the rest of us? For many church folks who diligently serve, it’s not fair to pay so much attention to outsiders and build ministry around people who aren’t even here, who don’t yet know Jesus.

The conclusion and point of the parable: The last will be first, and the first will be last. In Luke’s prodigal story, the elder brother grumbles and gripes: “All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders.  But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fatted calf!”  It is the firstborn son that complains. (Luke 15:11-32)

In both the parable of the prodigal son and the parable in today’s lesson, “good” people are the ones who fail to see the heart of the Father and of the landowner. The “firsts” got off track because, over time, they forgot the kingdom hinges on grace, not effort, on not simply doing the right things over a long period of time.

Who’s in control?

God controls the flow of mercy, not us. 

We might be surprised in heaven with those already sitting at God’s banquet table, and equally surprised with who is not there. Resentment can move us away from the table of mercy God is preparing. The problem comes whenever we think we are above other people.  We might be sinners, but we are not as bad as some other people are!  We commit ordinary sins, not mass murder!

Here is the unvarnished truth: God does not owe you nor I a thing, and God cares about all kinds of people, not just us and people who think and live like we do. Our hearts need to be big enough to center ministry around other people who are different than us.

If our hearts are small, we easily get jealous when God pays attention to prodigals and profligates. Grace becomes too repugnant a doctrine for us.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is about grace. Life is not all about being decent or even moral; and it is certainly not about our own goodness. The gospel is about being steeped in and surrounded by the grace of God in Christ, so that we, in turn, can show others grace. Grace is the way God deals with us beyond what we deserve or feel we have earned. 

Grace is unfair; we get what we do not deserve. 

May we allow God’s grace to so permeate our hearts and lives so that we will give it to others as freely as we have received.

Praise be to you, almighty and everlasting Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Christ, you have given us every spiritual blessing in heaven – you chose us before the world was made, and in love, to be your holy people. It pleased you to make us your own children through Jesus Christ. 

So we praise you because of your wonderful grace, given to us freely, in Christ, the one you love. We have forgiveness of sins because of this lavishly rich grace. Amen.

Jesus Intervenes (Matthew 19:23-30)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year A1 Comment
Orthodox depiction of Jesus and the rich young ruler

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I assure you that it will be very hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. In fact, it’s easier for a camel to squeeze through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter God’s kingdom.”

When his disciples heard this, they were stunned. “Then who can be saved?” they asked.

Jesus looked at them carefully and said, “It’s impossible for human beings. But all things are possible for God.”

Then Peter replied, “Look, we’ve left everything and followed you. What will we have?”

Jesus said to them, “I assure you who have followed me that, when everything is made new, when the Human One sits on his magnificent throne, you also will sit on twelve thrones overseeing the twelve tribes of Israel. And all who have left houses, brothers, sisters, father, mother, children, or farms because of my name will receive one hundred times more and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last. And many who are last will be first. (Common English Bible)

We all have a chronic struggle and relapse with some besetting shortcomings. And we compulsively do them even though they harm us.

Whether it’s an addiction (alcohol, illicit drugs, etc.) or things we don’t readily notice as addictive (gossip, food, shopping) we need to be weaned off our damaging obsessions. In Holy Scripture, the most pervasive and compulsive vice is the addiction to wealth and money.

Everyone has their own unique tussle with money. If our initial knee-jerk reactions to money issues is to think of someone else (“I don’t have as much money as…” or, “So-and-so really has a problem with this…”) then this is what we call denial. Truth be told, all of us offer some disclaimer about how our trust is not in paychecks, bank accounts, and material stuff. For me, money buys books, of which my voracious appetite is never satiated.

Even people who truly have little money and scant resources can have an addiction to money. They think about money and wish for it to an unhealthy degree, as if wealth is the thing that will make them happy. Folks in denial rarely have any idea how much they harm others, themselves, and even God. In fact, the consistent witness of the early church fathers is that the sheer accumulation of stuff is the same as stealing from the poor.

Sometimes, because of denial, people need an intervention – and to be jolted back to their senses. Intervention is a gift. Someone cares enough to intervene. Yet, many interventions don’t work because the person can walk away and refuse to change.

Jesus performed an intervention with a rich young man (literally, a twenty-something). The young man was obsessed with wealth and money, but didn’t see it. He thought of himself as godly and spiritual. It’s really a sad story because the rich man walked away unchanged by his encounter with Jesus. He failed to see himself as desperately needing to change. He held to his denial. (Matthew 19:16-22)

Jesus and the Rich Young Man by Chinese artist, 1879

Jesus exposed the rich young man’s divided loyalties of trying to serve both God and money. He would have to choose between the two masters. And this is our choice, as well.

God wants an undivided heart and loyal allegiance. Jesus is looking for those who are poor in spirit and recognize their great need for God, rather than believing they are okay and just need to add a little Jesus to their lives. God wants spiritual beggars who understand their desperate situation and do not practice denial by sugar-coating their actual spiritual state.

Just like an addict who either cannot or will not give up the addiction, the rich young man would not give up his disordered love for money and possessions. So, Jesus intervened. Christ doesn’t ask everybody to do exactly as he called the rich young man to do. For example, Jesus asked neither the wealthy Zacchaeus to do it, nor the disciple Peter to sell his fishing business.

However, Jesus does ask all of us to do what seems impossible and let God meet our needs.

Christ had the original come-to-Jesus-meeting with his disciples in debriefing about his conversation with the rich man. If it is so impossible and so difficult for a rich person to be saved because his wealth gets in the way, who then can be saved, the disciples wondered? We cannot save or redeem ourselves. We need grace. We need help.

So serious is Jesus about this business of genuine discipleship, about what it really takes to follow God, that he repeated himself using a colorful illustration: It’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. 

Jesus wants us, who have lots of stuff, bank accounts, and money to see ourselves in the illustration. Only the discouraged, the hopeless, and the helpless will see their absolute need for grace and will seek the miracle of salvation Jesus offers.

Peter, always the big mouthpiece for the disciples, blurts out that they have left everything to follow Jesus. So, what then will there be for the disciples? What’s in it for me?

We may avoid the idol of money only to find ourselves with the idol of pride. Twentieth-century theologian, Reinhold Niebuhr, once said that a person had to achieve a great deal of good to be able to commit the sin of pride.

Yet, grace always has the last word. Jesus gives grace and assures us of reward even when we are stinkers by asking prideful questions. 

“The promise of a hundredfold recompense does not seem to square with experience. Usually those who for the testimony of Christ are deprived of parents or children and other relatives, or their marriage partners, or have lost all their money, do not recover but struggle out their life in lonely and deserted exile and in poverty. But I reply that if anyone rightly assesses God’s grace by which he alleviates the miseries of His children he will confess that is to be preferred to all the riches of this world.”

John Calvin

The first step in facing any harmful compulsion is to be honest about it – without telling our story in a way that makes us look surprisingly good so that others are pleased with us.

Life is about following Jesus. To follow Jesus, we must not be in denial. Perhaps the best way to express our faith is to tell someone about our obsessions to compulsively work in order to feel better and pad our savings; or that we are afraid to charitably give because we worry about the future; or that we love to buy things we don’t really need, so that we’ll feel better.

An honest awareness of our compulsions sometimes causes us to feel awful about ourselves. We may disparage ourselves for always screwing up, never saying “no” to others, or feeling unable to stop the anxiety.

Yet, grace abundantly overwhelms any and all addictions, shortcomings, and pride when it comes money or anything else. God has unlimited patience with people; Jesus never tires of inviting us to follow him. God’s love and acceptance is not based on our screw-ups, but on Christ’s forgiveness through the cross.

Allow the words of Jesus to sink deep into your life so that you ooze the grace of God in your life.

Camels cannot pass through the needle’s eye by means of dieting, positive thoughts, or luck. It happens not because the camel can squeeze through the narrowness of the needle’s eye but because there is a wideness in God’s mercy.

God’s grace will pull you through. Unlike the rich young man, once you hear and understand that piece of delightful news, you do not walk away sad but with boundless joy.

God of wisdom, help me in the mess of my finances; in my fear of taking charge of the resources entrusted to my care; in my preference for ignorance  over honest acknowledgment of the ways I use and fail to use my wealth; in my anxiety over debt, and in all the pressures of my financial life.  

Help me to take one step at a time toward honoring you through my use of money and honoring others from whom I buy and borrow. Make me humble to seek counsel, grateful for my abundance, prudent with my limited means, and patient with myself as I seek to be a better steward of all you have given me. Amen.

A Spiritual Check-Up (2 Corinthians 13:5-10)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test yourselves. Surely you know that Jesus Christ is among you; if not, you have failed the test of genuine faith. As you test yourselves, I hope you will recognize that we have not failed the test of apostolic authority.

We pray to God that you will not do what is wrong by refusing our correction. I hope we won’t need to demonstrate our authority when we arrive. Do the right thing before we come—even if that makes it look like we have failed to demonstrate our authority. For we cannot oppose the truth, but must always stand for the truth. We are glad to seem weak if it helps show that you are actually strong. We pray that you will become mature.

I am writing this to you before I come, hoping that I won’t need to deal severely with you when I do come. For I want to use the authority the Lord has given me to strengthen you, not to tear you down. (New Living Translation)

God is concerned about our spiritual health and vitality. And so, it’s important that we have regular spiritual check-ups and tests to evaluate the vitality of our faith. If we are spiritually sick or debilitated, the Lord seeks to restore us back to health.

In the Gospels, whenever Jesus miraculously healed a person, it was for far more than taking away a disease or correcting a disability. The Lord sought to make them well in order to restore a person’s life by including them in the community. For example:

  • Leprosy put a person on the outside, both literally and relationally. Ceasing to be a leper meant that a person now had no obstacles to full participation in communal life.
  • Blindness reduced a person to being a beggar in order to survive. Having sight restored meant that the person can now work with others, make a living, and contribute to the needs of others.
  • Incarceration was (and still is) a complete removal of a person from society. Being in prison severs many human connections. Release from jail opens the way to reconnection and an opportunity to have a different way of being with others.
  • Poverty encumbers a person and weighs them down so heavily that it limits their ability to function socially and relationally. Without poverty, a person is able to establish healthy patterns of giving and receiving within the community.

Those who are physically whole, mentally sharp, emotionally satisfied, and spiritually redeemed are free of obstacles and impediments to communal life.

So, it is a travesty whenever the people who enjoy full inclusion in the community, turn around and separate themselves, keeping relational distance from certain persons, and do not participate in the common good of all. They makes themselves sick and weaken their faith because of their lifestyle.

The type of spiritual examination of faith the Apostle Paul was talking about was not to obsess over whether one is a true believer, or not. He was referring to the person who claims faith yet maintains separation from others. In other words, to exclude others is the kind of behavior that unbelievers do, not Christians.

Yet, there are many sections of Christianity and entire Protestant denominations who pride themselves on such separation. They believe they’re being holy and keeping themselves from impurity. However, far too many of them are really putting a sanctified spin on their own sinful predilections to avoid people they don’t like.

Paul has no tolerance for calling exclusion of others “holiness” and naming the maintenance of an insider/outsider status as “sanctification.” The Apostle knew this was all poppycock and wanted nothing to do with it.

Christ didn’t die on a cruel cross, take away the obstacles to faith, open the way to know God, and create peace through his blood for a pack of so-called “Christians” to then erect imaginary concrete border walls to keep others out of Christian community and fellowship.

In God’s upside-down kingdom, the privileged insiders are really the outsiders; and the underprivileged outsiders are actually the insiders.

The privileged believers are just as sick as the leper, the blind, the poor, and the prisoner; and just as much in need of restoration. The path to their inclusion is solidarity with the entire community of the redeemed – rather than picking and choosing who is in and who is out.

All this, of course, is another way of stating that Christianity is as beset with cliques as anywhere else – with individual believers, local churches, and particular traditions following their pet theologians and pastors and not associating with others who follow a different set of folks.

The ancient Corinthian church was a train wreck of opposing groups and cliques. The Apostle Paul had had enough of it and called the people to do some serious self-examination. And he was careful not to degrade or discourage them but to try and encourage the church to tap into the Christ which dwells within them.

Spiritual health and restoration, for Paul, meant specific behaviors which intentionally include people. To be inclusive means we actively work toward grafting people into community, as well as discourage behaviors that create division, and thus, spiritual illness. Here are three ways of including others:

  • Practice hospitality. The word hospitality literally means, “love of stranger.” A hospitable believer goes out of their way to invite another into their life, to give them the gift of relationship and fellowship.

Take care of God’s needy people and welcome strangers into your home. (Romans 12:13, CEV)

Above all, show sincere love to each other, because love brings about the forgiveness of many sins. Open your homes to each other without complaining. And serve each other according to the gift each person has received, as good managers of God’s diverse gifts. (1 Peter 4:8-10, CEB)

  • Nip bitterness in the bud. In an ideal world, everyone holds hands and sings kumbaya together. We live, however, in a fallen world. Harmony, unity, and peace take copious amounts of energy. Like an attentive gardener, we must do the work of identifying weeds and uprooting them, so they don’t take over the garden.

Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. (Hebrews 12:14-15, NIV)

  • Seek to encourage others, and learn how to do it. Encouragement is both a gift and a skill to be developed. To encourage another is to come alongside and help someone with both affirming words and willing hands. It’s what Jesus did (and does) for us.

Christ died for us so that, whether we are dead or alive when he returns, we can live with him forever. So, encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing. (1 Thessalonians 5:10-11, NLT)

Hospitality, harmony, and help are all forms of love. And love is to be the guiding principle and practice of church and community. Love is always the prescription for a healthy spiritual life and a restored community of faith. It prevents truth decay.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.

Power in Weakness (2 Corinthians 13:1-4)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Exploring Church Ministry Blog, Year ALeave a comment
Way of the Cross, by Jyoti Sahi, 2009

This will be my third visit to you. “Every matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.” I already gave you a warning when I was with you the second time. I now repeat it while absent: On my return I will not spare those who sinned earlier or any of the others, since you are demanding proof that Christ is speaking through me. He is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful among you. For to be sure, he was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by God’s power. Likewise, we are weak in him, yet by God’s power we will live with him in our dealing with you. (New International Version)

One witness is not enough to convict anyone accused of any crime or offense they may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. (Deuteronomy 19:15, NIV)

The missionary Apostle Paul had already visited Corinth twice. Citing his upcoming third visit in the context of establishing a crime, this was a warning to the Corinthian Christians: When I get there, it won’t be a pleasure cruise. Paul would flex his apostolic muscles toward the church.

The Apostle was accustomed to people opposing his ministry and generally making a stink of things against him. The Corinthians were being rather stubborn and unrepentant. They were unwilling to change their ways nor their attitudes.

In order to discredit Paul, his opponents labeled him as weak and ineffective. They challenged him as to whether Christ was actually animating his words, or not. But Paul was no weakling, nor was he a simpleton. He used their own language against them by pointing out that Jesus was accused of the very same things – Christ was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God.

Christianity is an inherently paradoxical religion. It’s not going to make sense to the ungodly and the unbeliever. The cross – the place of submission, torture, death, and apparent weakness – was actually the supreme demonstration of God’s power. This was proven by the resurrection of Christ from death.

In the same way, although Paul seemed weak, unimposing, always engaged in suffering service, these very things were the ultimate sign that God’s power was at work in his ministry. The Apostle shared in the sufferings of Christ and gloried in the reality that he was weak.

And since Paul also shares in Christ’s resurrection, he therefore shares in the power of Christ. He will use this power, given to him by Christ in the form of apostolic authority, and deal with the recalcitrant Corinthians forthwith.

The Corinthian Church, not knowing who they were really dealing with, had a tiger by the tail. There is a time for gentle and compassionate pastoral care, and then there is the time for using the shepherd’s crook for some tough loving discipline.

If the sin-busting strength of the cross, and the spiritual power of the resurrection, are truly fueling Christian ministry, then it is a fool’s errand to oppose it. Chastisement and a lesson in humility are in store for the haughty opponent working against authentic Christian service.

We really have to get this wrongheaded notion out of our noggins, that power and strength are all about an aggressive exercise of authority. If I see one more church put out an advertisement for a pastor who has “strong leadership” I think I’m going to puke. Because what they typically mean by strength is a command-and-control sort of stereotypical military Sargent type of person.

That’s diametrically opposed to the leadership and authority Jesus exercised, and the kind of values which characterize the kingdom of God. In God’s economy, humility and meekness are the true demonstrations of power. Real power in this world is the power of self-control – and not the control of manipulating others to get and keep power that won’t last.

Little wonder that pastors of churches these days can be some of the worst immoral and unsavory characters around. Congregations hungry for “strong leadership” inevitably hire narcissistic persons. And then when things go sideways, the church wonders what the heck happened.

But the signs were continually there, all along. When the church leaders pray, they’re not addressing God, but publicly telling those listening what they should be doing. In speaking, they tend to preface their comments with “The Bible says…” which is really a clue that they’re about to spout a bunch of opinionated nonsense cloaked in religious garb.

Until we embrace the mystery of the faith, expressed in paradoxical ways, with the weak displaying the real strength and power of the gospel, then we can expect Jesus to show up with a whip and give people what they’ve really wanted all along – and they won’t like it one bit.

Paul, a mentor to many first generation Christian pastors, encouraged them this way:

I solemnly call on you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus, who is going to judge those who are living and those who are dead. I do this because Christ Jesus will come to rule the world. Be ready to spread the word whether or not the time is right. Point out errors, warn people, and encourage them. Be very patient when you teach.

A time will come when people will not listen to accurate teachings. Instead, they will follow their own desires and surround themselves with teachers who tell them what they want to hear. People will refuse to listen to the truth and turn to myths.

But you must keep a clear head in everything. Endure suffering. Do the work of a missionary. Devote yourself completely to your work. (2 Timothy 4:1-5, GW)

Weakness, hardship, suffering, and opposition are part of the work of Christian ministry. In this, there is eternal power, which shall never be overcome.

Almighty God, may your grace be sufficient for me, and my power made perfect in weakness. Help me to rely upon and use my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. For Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong, through Jesus Christ my Lord, in the enablement of the Holy Spirit. Amen.