Many of you know the old tale of “Androcles and the Lion.”  My favorite version of it is George Bernard Shaw’s comic adaptation as a stage-play.  The story takes place in the days of early Christianity.  In Shaw’s hilarious rendering, a tailor named Androcles, a short, skinny man, and his wife Megaera, BIG and HEFTY, are out walking one day through the forest.  Now Androcles is a Christian, and he’s whistling a hymn as he walks.

    Suddenly he and Magaera confront something that scares them witless!  --As they round a curve in the path, they come upon a HUGE LION lying across it, ASLEEP.  To make matters worse, at this very moment the lion WAKES UP and GROANS.  Androcles SCREAMS in terror, and huge Magaera FAINTS dead away into his arms!


    But then Androcles notices tears in the lion’s eyes. The lion holds up a paw, and Androcles sees a thorn sticking in it.  And MOVED WITH PITY, he immediately FORGETS his fear.  Dropping Megaera with a thud on the forest floor, he walks up to the lion and asks, in baby-talk:  “Did um get an awful thorn into um’s tootsums wootsums?”

    And Androcles takes the lion’s paw and pulls out the thorn with one yank.  The grateful beast licks Androcles’ FACE, then grasps his hands and does a waltz with him there in the forest!  Magaera complains, “You NEVER dance with ME anymore!”

    Years pass by. The Emperor of Rome is now persecuting Christians, and Androcles and several of his fellow believers are arrested.  And guess what their SENTENCE is? --  To be thrown to hungry LIONS in the Circus Maximus!  (It is a myth, but a common one, that any Christians ever died in Rome’s Coliseum.  No, the place was the Circus Maximus.)

    By now, you’ve  GUESSED the REST of the story, haven’t you?  On the day of his scheduled execution, Androcles, resigned to his fate, trying to be brave, is marched down the ramp and into the middle of the arena.  He stands there a moment in prayer.  THOUSANDS OF EYES are upon him.  Then the ravenous lion is let in!  With a horrible ROAR the lion is about to SPRING upon Landraces and EAT HIM UP!  But suddenly the animal stops!  A look of recognition steals across his face!  You GUESSED it! –He’s the very same lion who’d suffered from the thorn in his paw!

    OVERJOYED to be reunited with his human friend, the lion grabs Androcles hands and WALTZS him around the stadium field. The people and the emperor himself cheer themselves hoarse!  Androcles’ LIFE is saved, because once, years earlier, he’d taken pity on a lion and extracted a thorn from his paw!

    But, tell me, what if Androcles had failed?  THINK about it — what if Androcles, walking up to that wounded lion in the forest, hadn’t been able to EXTRACT the thorn?  What if he’d YANKED and YANKED, but it wouldn’t come out? – HAT would’ve made matters MUCH WORSE!

    Our Second Lesson today, from the Second Letter to the Corinthians, is about a man with a thorn sticking in him — a thorn that he’s tried UNSUCCESSFULLY to extract.  A thorn that WON’T come out!  His name?—The Apostle Paul, surely the greatest Christian missionary in history.  Paul here tells us that he suffers from a “thorn… in the flesh” that  It gives him ANGUISH.  THREE TIMES, Paul says, he’s prayed and asked the Lord to TAKE THE THORN AWAY.  But it’s still there!

    Of course, Paul doesn’t mean that literally a briar is sticking in his skin, such as that in the paw of Androcles’ lion.  Actually, we don’t know what Paul’s thorn in the flesh was.  Oh, there’s been much speculation.  Some Bible scholars have suggested it was malaria, contracted on his missionary journeys through the swamps of Asia Minor — a disease, caused by mosquito bites, that would have given Paul chills and fever, causing him to be bedridden for weeks.  Our Greek Orthodox brothers and sisters contend that the apostle’s affliction was tuberculosis – a chronic rather than an acute form of the disease.  In that case, he would frequently have suffered from fever and chills and weakness, causing him to suspend his missionary endeavors from time to time, in order to recover.  Others have argued that Paul, maybe, suffered from epileptic seizures.  The ignorant ancient people looked with CONTEMPT on epilepsy and labeled it a curse from God.  If the apostle should suffer a seizer in the midst of telling the good news of Jesus, it would have made his superstitious audience, or synagogue congregation, become immediately suspicious, and to doubt his message.

    Still others have said that Paul’s thorn was an infection of the eyes that causes them to grow RED and SWOLLEN and UGLY.  In that case Paul’s face would have FRIGHTENED LITTLE CHILDREN.  And even adults would have LAUGHED at him, and thus maybe at his proclamation of SALVATION.
     
    Now WHATEVER Paul’s particular trouble was, it gave him great agony — as though a thorn were continually being driven into his flesh.  It crippled his enjoyment of life and hindered his work as a missionary.

    But, friends, don’t ALL of us here this morning, LIKE Paul, suffer from thorns in the flesh?  I’m convinced that we DO.  This month Presbyterians will observe  “Disability Inclusion Sunday, when we emphasize the need for our churches to give full welcome and accessibility to people with various disabilities.  That’s TREMENDOUSLY important! It’s good to see that your buildings here at Community Church, including your Sanctuary and Chapel and Fellowship Hall, have ramps that enable the physically challenged fairly easily to enter.  (It’s true that the Chancel areas of Sanctuary and Chapel have no ramps; thus you have unconsciously prevented your Pastor Nominating Committee from considering a potential pastor who may be wheelchair bound or who must walk with the aid of a walker.  And no such challenged person can sing in the choir, either.  If someone feels philanthropic today, you might consider making the church a gift that would make possible lifts for the chancels and for the Sanctuary pulpit and choir loft!

    But, friends when I say today that ALL of us, more or less, suffer from “thorns in the flesh,” I DON’T mean physical or mental challenges.  You or I can enjoy nearly perfect physical or emotional health but STILL suffer from such.  Our “thorns in the flesh” are LEGION.  Shakespeare’s Hamlet  bewails “the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to . . .  .”

    For example, YOUR thorn MAY be that major source of irritation between you and your spouse, if you’re married —a point of dissension that has vexed you for years.  Or PERHAPS your thorn is those parents — or those children, or those parents-in-law, or those nearby neighbors — who totally misunderstand you, who seem to be so impossible.
 
    Or maybe you’re plagued with a particularly strong temptation – one that WON’T GO AWAY, that always rearing its UGLY HEAD.  Or perhaps yours is a psychological problem:  fear of going out in a crowd.  Or shyness, pathological timidity that makes you feel deeply lonely, isolated.

    WHATEVER your thorn in the flesh may be, it’s very REAL to you.  Perhaps you, like Paul, have prayed about it, have come in anguish to the Lord about it.  But the thorn’s still there, like a festering sore, taking some—or even MOST—of the JOY out of your life.  What does God have to say about these things?  What can give us courage and hope—us human beings  who suffer from thorns in the flesh?

    Well, FIRST, BE ASSURED THERE’S A REASON FOR EVERY THORN IN THE FLESH!  Here Paul recognizes this.  He realizes why he himself is suffering his physical ailment.  Listen:  “To keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh . . . .”

        You see, PRIDE’s a big temptation for Paul.  HUMILITY isn’t an easy virtue for him. Paul has been privileged to see the risen Christ!  He’s received visions and revelations that MOST folks only dream about!  So he’s tempted to be arrogant, to boast.  But, Paul says, his thorn in the flesh—whatever it may have been—keeps him from the sin of conceit.  That’s its purpose.  And MAYBE that’s one purpose of many the thorns in the flesh that you, I, ALL men and women, have to suffer.

        O don’t get me wrong!  I’m NOT saying that sickness and disease and psychological hang-ups and temptations and other problems are part of God’s design for life! NO! -- God doesn’t will that we suffer.  Paul himself, here in our lesson, brands his own thorn “a messenger of SATAN….”

        In other words, suffering comes from the devil, from the evil, fallen side of flawed creation, NOT from God!   NEVERTHELESS, sickness and trouble can’t arise without our loving God’s permission, can they?  Our Lord may not directly cause them, but God doesn’t prevent these thorns from entering our lives at times.  Why? –I can’t BEGIN to say!  That’s the age-old question of the problem of pain.  Maybe, as I said before, the reason for your particular thorn in the flesh, be it small or large, is to keep you from pride.  Perhaps our thorns serve the purpose of deflating our bloated egos and casting us back on the mercy of God.
 
    When I was a small boy, someone gave me for Christmas a toy sailboat — one with a tall mast and a great, big sail.  It delighted me, except for one thing:  underneath it was a long metal piece that stuck straight down.  Now I wanted to push my boat along the floor and pretend that it was sailing.  But I couldn’t.  The boat wouldn’t stand up straight on the floor.  It’s designer intended the toy vessel to be placed in water — pretty deep water.

    I’m sure ALL of you know the reason for that long metal piece:  it was to keep the boat from toppling over when I put it in the pond or lake or bayou.  You see, the mast was so high and the sail so heavy that without that metal piece, the vessel would have turned completely over.

    Perhaps our thorns in the flesh, be they large or small, are the necessary ballast in our lives.  You and I tend to be so egocentric; we elevate ourselves so HIGHLY, that without them we’d topple over in total RUIN!

    But, friends, does this mean that we must STUMBLE through life — GROANING under these thorns, unable to EXTRACT them—DEFEATED, DEPRESSED, BROKEN?  NO!  There’s FAR MORE to the story!  Though God doesn’t promise to TAKE AWAY those vexing thorns when we ask, God DOES promise us GRACE and STRENGTH to LIVE ABOVE them!  Here in our lesson Paul, having asked God three times for deliverance, and having been turned down, NEVERTHELESS receives this comforting word: “MY GRACE IS SUFFICIENT for you, for POWER is made perfect in WEAKNESS!”

    In other words, God in Christ promises each of us, his children, that we need not be DEFEATED by our thorns.  By God’s Spirit we can go from STRENGTH TO STRENGTH DESPITE THEM!  Certainly Paul did.  His vexing thorn didn’t keep him from carrying on the Master’s work.  On the contrary, Paul went on to conquer whole ancient Mediterranean world for Christ!

    And just THINK for a moment of the great things OTHER people with thorns have accomplished in history!  -- MOSES, a man with a stammering tongue, whom God nevertheless chose to FREE GOD’S PEOPLE FROM SLAVERY!  JEREMIAH, overwhelmed by a sense of inferiority, who became one of God’s GREATEST PROPHETS!  DEMOSTHENES, with a crippling SPEECH impediment, who put pebbles into his mouth and practiced, practiced, until he became ancient Greece’s greatest ORATOR!  HELEN KELLER — deaf, mute, blind from infancy -- who went on to worldwide fame!  FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT -- crippled with polio in his prime, plagued with a domineering mother, who overcame all to become PRESIDENT!

    I could go on and on.  so could you.  God promises EACH of us:  “MY GRACE IS SUFFICIENT FOR YOU, FOR POWER IS MADE PERFECT IN WEAKNESS!” -- ”No, I don’t promise to take away your thorn.  But, in the love and mercy of Jesus Christ, I WILL give you VICTORY IN SPITE OF IT!”

Prayers:
O God, all of us have experienced unanswered prayer.  We admit that sometimes we thought you didn’t hear us; sometimes we thought you were rejecting us; sometimes we thought you didn’t want to be bothered.
Cause us, loving Lord, to remember that the purpose of all seemingly unanswered prayer is that we may learn something:  that we may learn persistence, in order not to take your for granted; that we may learn humility, in order not to treat you as Celestial Errand Boy and clutter our prayers with selfish commands; that we may learn the meaning of true faith, in order not to cling to an unworthy image of you.
Merciful God, teach us to feel that you are always nigh; teach us the struggles of the soul to bear; to check the rising doubt, the rebel sigh, teach us the patience of unanswered prayer.
Today we bring before your Throne all for whom we should pray — especially those who are physically and mentally challenged, that we may make them welcome.   We lift before you the leaders of our nation, and those who rule the lands of this world.  Uphold your holy Church on earth and particularly this congregation of your people and those parishes and congregations represented here.  Guide the Pastor Nominating Committee as they seek a permanent shepherd for this flock.
Heal, O Lord, all your children who are sick in body, mind, or spirit—especially any in this holy place who are burdened and those who mourn.   Deliver those imperiled by war, strife, and genocide, those for whom the great oil spill are threatened with loss of livelihood and well-being, as well as endangered wildlife and shorelines.
Finally, accept our thanks for all who have gone before us in the faith.  Keep us ever aware of the tie that binds us to our brothers and sisters in heaven, until, in your time, we join them there; for we make these and every one of our prayers in Christ’s strong name.  AMEN.