Weakest Link

I hate being sick. The past two weeks, I’ve been infected with a medley of lingering illnesses. More than the actual symptoms of my illnesses, I was so frustrated at the imposition of my plans. I hate being unable to complete my work and meet with people. I hate not being in control. Thinking about my own violent reaction to being sick and appearing weak and incapable made me realize how much I prize being capable and self-reliant. Words like weakness, disability, handicapped, pity, and dysfunctional stick like barbs under my skin. I equate weakness with worthlessness, and I react so violently because I am scared that I actually am those things. Unfortunately (or fortunately for me), I am not alone in my messed up thinking. Our culture holds wealth, beauty, and hard work so highly.

In most churches and especially in Asian American churches, there is a blatant stigma against those who go into counseling. Our culture prides people who are strong and capable, and the church is not much different. In fact, many churches take that same thinking one step further and press expectations of put-together, always cheerful, talented, and capable members, while disregarding or ignoring those that seem less useful. Like Pastor Kenny often says, “We mistake knowledge for godliness and talent for character.” This mindset leaves everyone feeling inadequate, shamed, and afraid to ask for help. This is NOT how God intended his church to be! Let’s look at what Paul writes about the church:

But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”  On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together, if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

I Corinthians 12:18-26

Beloved CCC, let’s change our church culture. Instead of valuing the people we think can do the most for our church, we have to recognize that we need those weaker parts more than the seemingly stronger parts. And if this doesn’t make sense to you, here are two good reasons why you should think about it again:

1.       We are saved in weakness. As the sermon and bible study this week have so pointedly explained, we need to be washed by Jesus. The only thing we bring to our salvation is our sin and brokenness. And we never leave from this spot. The Christian life is not for someone to better themselves and become stronger and independent. Instead, for the rest of eternity, we are completely and utterly dependent on Jesus for every single moment. So, when you or I look around at the people in our church, know that we are more alike than different. We can let go of thinking of people as so much worse or even so much better than us. We are all weak and pitiable but rescued and honored because of Christ.

2.       And here is an even better reason: Jesus Christ became handicapped for our sake¹. I think we often forget that Jesus is the same God as God in Isaiah 6. He is holy, holy, holy and so incomparable to anything or anyone in this world. Jesus’ “normal” is to sit on a throne and be worshipped by a fleet of angels day and night. He speaks and galaxies come out of nothing. He whistles and nations and empires rise and fall. And then, out of the ridiculous love he has for us, Jesus lays that all aside and chooses to handicap himself. He goes from God of the universe to nothing. Jesus goes from breathing life and creating planets and stars to whittling wood as a carpenter. He became a man who feels hunger and exhaustion, who can only care for so many people in a day, who got sick, who was rejected, judged, and shunned. Because Jesus knew we couldn’t do it on our own, Jesus lived this menial life, and at the end, he gets on his knees to wash our feet and dies a humiliating death to save you and me.

Since we have been given this mind-blowing, humbling love, let’s love and serve one another AND allow others to love and serve you. Whether you have a physical disability, an emotional disability, a mental disability, have anger issues, if you have a hard time caring about people or anything, come from a dysfunctional family, or if you’re just plain lost, let’s share in it together.

1. Joni Eareckson Tada, Diamonds in the Dust, March 2.