1 Corinthians 1:18-31
When you read Paul’s letters to the Corinthians, you can sense the
exasperation in his words. This was a contentious Church that tried the
patience of Paul. Just before our text, Paul writes, “it has been
reported to me by Cloe’s people that there has been quarreling among
you. What I mean, each of you says, I belong to Paul or I belong to
Apollos or I belong to Cephas or I belong to Christ. Is Christ
divided? Was Paul crucified for you?” Paul then adds, “I am glad that
Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel and not with
eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.”
Corinth was in Greece and the Greeks
were attracted to Christianity because they were looking for an
intellectual panacea. Paul wastes no words when he addresses them
by saying, “we preach Christ crucified, folly to the gentiles.” Corinth was also home to a large Jewish
community, some of who associated themselves with the Christian Church.
To these Jewish believers, Paul is equally severe. He says, “ for Jews
demand signs, but we preach Christ, a stumbling block to the Jews.” That’s the message of Paul; “we
preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and folly to the
gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the
power of God and the wisdom of God.”
Now that we have seen the words of
Paul in their historical context, what do they mean to us in our day
and age? First, we must
realize that the message of the Bible, and in this instance Paul, is
both personal and political. That is, the Christian message has both a
personal and a social aspect to it. Unfortunately, some faith persuasions have
emphasized only the personal aspect of the message of Christ. They
never get beyond personal salvation. Inevitably, this ends up
with an emphasis on future rewards or punishments, and that leads to
exclusiveness: believe my way and reap God’s rewards, or refuse and
receive the punishment of hell. Some faith persuasion emphasize the social
aspect of the gospel message, to the exclusion of the personal. That
can lead to an emphasis akin to humanitarianism. Biblical scholars
understand that the biblical message is both individual and social.
Paul certainly knew that, and he addressed both emphases. He says
in verse 28, “God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.
God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are
not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might
boast in the presence of God."
Now as far as I know, Paul did not go
to theological seminary, nordid he have advanced training, but no
theologian has ever grasped the true meaning of the Christian message
better than Paul did in this letter to the Corinthian Church. Neither
has anyone attacked a conquering power more strongly than Paul attacks
the Roman Empire, rulers over Greece. It is impossible to read this
passage or to hear it without asking what is the way that the creator
intended the world to be? What is the way that the creator intended you
and I to be? It seems to me that the Bible writers
are quite clear in holding to the idea that the world has gone wrong.
We have veered away from the way that God intended all of us to be. The
result is that we are in need of salvation. The Biblical images of
salvation include: Light in our
darkness Sight to the blind Enlightenment Liberation for
captives Return from exile Healing of our
infirmities Food and drink Resurrection from
the land of the dead Being born again Knowing God Becoming “in Christ” Being made right
with God.
(Borg- "The Heart of
Christianity," page 175)
These aspects of salvation are
applicable BOTH to individuals and to society.
What Paul understood and so many have
not recognized is that dominating countries are often oppressive, and frequently clothe
themselves in the garments of religion. It began with Constantine, who
in 324 made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire,
with Constantinople as its headquarter city. The Church joined hands
with the dominating power of the era, and thus remained silent over
issues like treatment of other humans, exploitation of the populace,
and taxation of the least able to pay. This resulted in the way of
Jesus being largely forgotten.
Long before Constantine, Paul got the
message of Jesus correct. Instead of seeking power, Jesus chose to be a
servant. Instead of capturing people and incarcerating them, Jesus
chose to set captives free. Instead of becoming a King, he became of
wandering Rabbi and a critic of the powerful. Jesus took upon himself
the personification of the great stories from the Hebrew Bible. He
became the liberator, he became the sacrifice and he became the
embodiment of “the way.” Instead of siding with the rich and the
powerful, Jesus cast his lot with the poor and the powerless. The result of this way of life was
that the dominating country, in this case Rome, executed Jesus after
just 3 years of ministry. When a regime is audited to the very core of
its existence and mode of operation, it either changes or does away
with the auditor. Jesus was crucified. When individuals have their
lives examined in the light of God’s way as shown by Jesus, they either
become followers, or they reject the examiner. The people stood by as
Jesus was crucified.
It is this reality that prompted Paul
to write the passage that he wrote to the Corinthians. In essence he is
saying: We don’t follow the pattern or the methods of the empire; we
preach Christ and him crucified, because God chose what is foolish in
the world to shame the strong.
Things haven’t changed. The tension between the example of Christ and
the dominance of world powers is still with us. You and I still have to
decide whether we will side with the crucified one, or will cast our
lot with the rich and powerful against the impoverished, the exploited,
the weak and the poor.
Just in case you and I need reminding, we have right before us as the
focal point of our worship experience the cross. It is the single most
universal symbol of Christianity, and in this Church it is large and
dominant. What does it mean to us?
I was reared in a tradition where the
major concept was evangelism; not just general evangelism, but specific
persuasive, decision-forcing evangelism. I spent summers at camps
where sawdust trails were a real happening. The formula was always the
same; we would sing for about a half an hour- not the rich hymns of the
church with their theological insights, but the choruses that were easy
to sing, pleasant to hear, and filled with promises of relief from sin
and guilt. This was
followed by an evangelist rising to preach. Almost always a list of
behaviours that God frowns upon was systematically proclaimed until we
were quivering with fear, like a tower of jello. What if the Lord was
to come right that moment and find me in my state of terrible, vile
sin? I was a candidate; over and over again I walked that trail to the
front of the tabernacle to get myself clean and right with God. The problem was, I never felt guilty
except when the evangelists were preaching. Later, I felt guilty
because I had succumbed again to their message, when all the while I
was confident in the fact that God loved me just as I was, and was
accepting of my best efforts. Perhaps you do not react to that concept of
evangelism as I do, but it conjures up for me where I think our
Christian emphasis has gone wrong. What truly does that cross mean to
you and me? Let me share what it means to me.
When I look at that cross, I do not
think for a moment that Christ came into this world with the sole
purpose to die for your sins and mine. That’s too easy a cop out.
Jesus, the fairest one, the beloved of God was executed by a dominating
empire because he taught and lived a different way of life than the
world had opted to believe.
That cross stands for oppressive authority. It stands for the evil of
squelching an alternate life style: one of devotion to God, and love
and service to other humans- even those who live lives we find
difficult to accept. But
that cross also stands for liberation and reconnection to God in the
manner of Jesus. It is empty, because it stands for “the way” and “the
way” is still very much with us, because Jesus is alive. That cross
stands for a new self; a self that is new because we have died to the
past and have been resurrected to a new concept, a new idea; the way of
Jesus. That’s what it means to be born again.
That cross stands for death and
resurrection: death to the old me, resurrection to the new me.
And that process has to happen every single day of our lives. The Christian life is not about what
you eat, or what you drink, or what you say. It’s about embracing the
way of Jesus, so that we can be involved in dying to self-centeredness,
dying to labelling people so that the world is divided between those on
the winning side and those on the losing side. The Christian life is
about dying to my prejudice and the shunning of non-Christians or gay
people or alcoholics or drug addicts or native people. The Christian life is about rising
to eat with sinners and prostitutes, evil money managers, and power
brokering developers who exploit anything in their way on the road to
huge profits. Living the Christian life is about leaving a comfortable
home to come and make coffee, soup and sandwiches for some people who
haven’t learned to live very well. It’s about making a meal for someone
who is injured or ill, writing a card to say "I care," talking to a
person with whom you have had a fight and saying "forgive me." It’s
about knitting shawls or toques, it’s about giving what we can and its
about letting those in leadership know that we think they are wrong in
many instances. It's about studying, thinking and praying, so
that the spirit of God becomes increasingly part of our everyday
living.
There are thousands of ways to
evangelize, most of them quite different from the interpretation that
the television evangelists have claimed as essential and necessary.
Perhaps the most powerful method of evangelism we can accept is simply
living the way of Jesus, and allowing the spirit to work quietly and
yet profoundly through our actions.
Like Adam and Eve, we have all made
bad choices, and we have lived much of our lives east of Eden- cast out
of the garden. Like the Hebrews, we have lived in exile in Egypt or
Babylon, and have longed to be delivered. Like the religiously pious
and arrogant, we’ve lived near the temple, but haven’t really gone in
to sacrifice anything. But now we understand; Christ became a sacrifice
for us, and we don’t have to do that anymore. We are redeemed from that
role, and it had nothing to do with us, only with a gracious and loving
God. That’s what I need to be born to! Paul got it right. We demand signs,
or seek wisdom, but God chose a different way; a way that seems foolish
to many. It’s foolish to those who are perishing, so before it makes
any sense to them we have to make sure that those who are perishing are
out of harm's way. We have to help them so that they are fed, clothed
and accepted, and then the word of the cross is the power of God.
So, dear friends, I urge you, live
your life led by the Spirit. And what is that? Paul spells it out for
the Galatians- “ The fruit of the Spirit is, love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self
control; against such there is no law. (Gal.5:22) The world has gone wrong because
most of us seek more and more as the road to success. But our
master has showed us that successful living is daily dying to
ourselves, so that the way of Christ can be resurrected within us. May
that be our aim as we seek to follow
Jesus. Amen.