Posted by 9jabook.com on December 10, 2009 at 4:36am
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
What a hoot.
I usually begin the actual writing of my sermon by sitting down at the computer and typing in a blank document. Normally, I choose which of the scriptures I feel led to preach from early in the week (usually Monday) and then let it “simmer” for a few days and then sit down on Thursday to put whatever God has put in my heart to writing. I still continue to think about it, mull over it and modify it right up until and even during the process of sharing the message on Sunday morning. Sometimes I put a graphic right next to the title, “Bold, Centered, either Verdana or Times New Roman text, 12 CPI. Sometimes I put the graphic after I’m done with my writing and playing around with the formatting. But, sometimes, (less often) I put the graphic in before I actually start writing. It can help to focus my message.
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” I Cor 1:18“The Foolishness of the Gospel” – foolish to those who are perishing, wisdom and power to those who believe it.
I clicked “Insert/Clip Art” right next to the Sermon Title.
The Clip Art Insert box came up on the right side of my computer screen.
I clicked in the “Search For” box I typed in “fool”.
About 5 or 6 different images for fools, jesters, or dunce caps came up. Humm….
I went back to the “Search For” text box and typed in “Wisdom”.
About 30 images came up.
An owl at night,
words on a wall,
a pencil, came up.
Two nurses with masks on,
an owl and a chaldboard came up.
A stack of books with an apple on it came up.
an apple next to a stack a books came up.
A hand with a pencil in it came up.
A girl in a short blue mini skirt waling next a row of red lockers (presumably a high school highway) students at a desk studying came up.
A room that looked to be a library and another stack of books came up.
A teacher in front of a chalk board, a girl in front of a library stack came up.
Another 6 or 7 owl images came up.
Finally two signs, black and white with the head of a man and the head of a woman in each one above a row of buildings (go figure – I have no idea what they were suggesting) came up, followed by another owl.
If I were from another planet (some think that’s not too far a stretch) and I was guessing I would think that at least according to Microsoft wisdom has everything to do with knowledge, birds, books, school, words, and whatever the head of a man and a woman on a sign above a row of buildings means. Wisdom: at least according to Microsoft nothing to do with religion, faith, belief in God, images of faith or any suggestion of anything spiritual.
My, my, my, 2000 years removed from Paul and Corinthians and not much has changed.
In short, church, faith, religion, especially Christianity are foolish and things of the world are wise.
I. Biblical Reference
A word about the context of Corinthians might serve us well.
* The letters to the Corinthians were written about 50 to 60 A.D.
* It was written by Paul, probably from Ephesus.
* It was written to a church that Paul had founded on an earlier trip to Corinth.
I have been to Corinth.
I have stood on the Bema where Paul preached to the Corinthians.
It was a awesome feeling to stand in this ancient city, with all of history, it’s beauty, it’s education and place in world history and think about Paul must have felt in this very spot.
Ancient Corinth.
* Corinth was a large, important metropolis in the ancient world.
* It was a city of great wealth, expansive, rich homes, busy, thriving business districts and great centers of education and learning.
* Corinth was a city made for greatness. It was in a prime location between the Corinthian Gulf and the Saronic Gulf.
* Corinth was also a wicked city. At the great temple of Aphrodite, the goddess of love there were over 1000 priestesses who were sacred prostitutes.
* It was a wealthy city.
Corinth was a synonym for wealth, luxury, drunkenness, debauchery and filth.
Paul stayed in Corinth longer than other city, with the exception of Ephesus. He preached in the synagogue with great success. He lived in the home of Aquila and Priscilla.
After completing his work in Corinth Paul moved on to Syria.
Both to the cultured Greeks and to the pious Jews, the story that Christianity had to tell was sheer folly. It was ridiculous, foolish, absurd, out of sync with what the cultured wisdom of the day.
The Greeks believed that God was unfeeling. To any thinking Greek the idea of God coming in the form of man was a total impossibility. The Greeks loved and sought wisdom They prized silver tongued and deep resonance speaking.
Paul wanted the cultured, wise, successful, wealthy people of Corinth to understand that no matter what they knew to be true and wise mere human wisdom was bound to fail. It would never be enough. It would never satisfy, it would never answer the deep and lasting longings of the heart.
It looked as if the Christian message had little chance of success with either Greek or Jew in Corinth but as Paul said, “What looks like God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom; what looks like God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.
II. Christianity is still seemingly foolish in an age and culture such as our own, in today’s world.How remarkably similar it is for us today. We too live in a world where conventional wisdom is rooted in all sorts of places and ways that scoff at and dismiss the religion of Christ as foolish, irrelevant, and mostly the purview of small minded and slower people.
There are so many ways we resemble Corinthian culture.
We are busy and boisterous culture ourselves.
We are sophisticated culture.
We are a culture that values and pursues education and higher learning, sometimes without thinking or keeping our heart and our soul and our head in balance.
We are a culture that is centered around entertainment, Hollywood movie stars, television sit coms, and media stars.
We are a culture that is increasingly filled with and accepting of moral depravity and wickedness.
Christianity is often portrayed in the media in the jester’s hat and costume.
* that realm belonging to…
* Old people who supposedly are out of touch with cool.
* Children who haven’t acquired critical thinking skills yet.
* Closed minded people who are judgmental and overly opinionated.
* Ignorant people who are know nothings.
* Nice, sweet little old ladies who while kind are out of touch.
* Silly, unsophisticated people who look a little square.
* Poor people who have no alternatives.
All in all, the cross and faith are still seen as foolish in a world that so prizes,
Sophistication,
Cool,
Knowledge,
Science, medicine,
Technology,
Entertainment,
And things of the body and mind that soul is often left out.
It’s not that things of the body and things of the mind aren’t good or that they somehow preclude or exclude things of the soul – it’s that when out of balance and harmony true wisdom is absent.
III. The message of the cross is still foolish in the times in which we live in but it’s still the message of power and life for those who believe in and follow Christ.
The foolishness of the cross tells me that giving and living for others is a better and more satisfying way of life than getting and just living for myself and what’s good for me.
In a week in which Bernard Madoff was sent to jail in handcuffs to the applause of his furious victims. Madoff has become the very symbol of greed amid that played a huge role in the economic meltdown of wall street and our economy. Madoff pulled off a 65 billion dollar meltdown that has cost untold numbers of people to lose their jobs, their homes, their lifetime retirement savings and worse of all their faith in others.
The foolishness of the cross reminds me that when let greed, lie and deception take over our lives we bring devastatin down upon ourselves and everyone else around us.
The foolishness of the cross tells me that in spite of how badly he cheated people and how hurt they are somehow new life is found in forgiveness.
The foolishness of the cross tells us that as important as knowledge and training are they are not the equivalent of wisdom. Wisdom comes above teaches the Bible and I know plenty of highly educated and trained men and women who are devoid of the wisdom I know in some people who never went to college but who have hearts of gold and a wisdom for living that transcends any level of earned degrees.
The foolishness of the cross tells us that knowledge and science without ethic and morality are empty and even harmful.
The foolishness of the cross tells us that the rules and laws of God’s kingdom are much more important and lasting than the rules and laws of man’s kingdom.
The foolishness of the cross tells us that life as we know is not in fact the ultimate sense and being of life and that with faith in God and acceptance of Jesus Christ eternal life in God’s kingdom will far outweigh this world.
The foolishness of the cross tells us that hope and faith and belief in the goodness of mankind far outweighs cynicism and fear and hopelessness which otherwise consumes us in life.
The foolishness of the cross tells us that love, not hate, forgiveness not revenge, healing not hurt are what are most important and what give us life.
The foolishness of the cross tells us that spiritual wealth and well being are more important than material wealth and well being and that the world’s definition of being rich falls far short from God’s definition of being rich.
The foolishness of the cross tells us that life and meaning and purpose and happiness and satisfaction and impact in not defined in the things that are material or of this world but in things that are of God and of his world.
The foolishness of the cross tells me that the things of this world, including all kingdoms of man will eventually fall away and only the things of God’s world will last forever.
Closing…
In Nickle Mines, Pa. a milk truck-driver carrying two guns, a stack of wood and an old grudge entered a one-room Amish schoolhouse, let boys and several adults go, then barricaded himself inside with a dozen young girls before opening fire on them, killing three girls and then himself.
Seven others were taken to hospitals and most of the victims were shot at point-blank range, authorities said.
The gunman, Charles Carl Roberts IV, is not Amish, wasn’t targeting the Amish and apparently chose the school because he was bent on killing young girls as a way of “acting out in revenge for something that happened 20 years ago. Roberts dropped his children off at their school bus stop, then pulled up at the West Nickel Mines Amish School - which had about 25 to 30 students, ages six to 13 - at around 10 a.m.
Roberts brought with him supplies necessary for a lengthy siege, including three guns, a stun gun, two knives, a pile of wood and a bag with 600 rounds of ammunition. He also had a change of clothing, toilet paper, bolts and hardware and rolls of clear tape.
He released about 15 boys, a pregnant woman and three women with infants, Miller said.
He barred the doors with desks, two-by-fours and two-by-sixes and used nails, bolts and flexible plastic ties to help secure them, and then he murdered them.
The ultimate response of the Amish community and parents was to pray for the family of the killer and to move on to forgiveness and new life with all the faith and strength they could muster. Amish Grace and their grasp of the foolishness of the cross transcended the horrible tragedy that befell their community.
There is something inherently paradoxical about the cross and the message of Christianity. There is something absurd about the Gospel.
* To lose your life is to save it.
* Unless a grain of wheat dies, it can not bring life.
* They who are last will be first and they who are first will be last.
To take up the cross is to embrace the power of God. It doesn’t make sense. Never has. It is very foolish – unless you see it from the perspective of faith in Christ. For believers it is the very power that transforms lives.
Shortly after describing the foolishness of the cross in verse 18 of 1 Corinthians, Paul went on to quote the end of Isaiah 29:14.
The Lord God said: Because these people draw near to me with their mouths and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their worship of me is a human commandment learned by rote; so I will again do amazing things with this people, shocking and amazing. The wisdom of their wise shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning shall be hidden.
Amen
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