[This was shared during worship with the people of Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio, this morning.]
1 Corinthians 1:18-24
John 3:13-17
It’s an old joke. But I like it. A doctor, a physicist, a Boy Scout, and a pastor were out for a Sunday afternoon flight on a small private plane. Suddenly, the plane developed engine trouble. The pilot did his best, but the plane started to go down. The pilot grabbed a parachute, told the passengers that they'd better jump, and jumped. But there were only three parachutes left. The doctor grabbed one and said “I’m a doctor! I save lives, so I have to live,” and jumped out. The physicist said, “I’m the smartest person in the world, I deserve to live!” He grabbed a parachute and jumped, too. The pastor looked at the Boy Scout and said, “Son, I’ve lived a long and full life. You're young and have your whole life ahead of you. Take the last parachute and live in peace.” The Boy Scout handed the parachute back to the pastor and said “Not to worry, Preacher. ‘The smartest person in the world’ just jumped out with my back pack.”
The world encourages the sort of “wisdom” that “the smartest person in the world” exhibited when he picked up what he thought was a parachute, the wisdom of cunning and self-preservation. But the Bible teaches that what the world regards as foolishness can bring life and what the world sees as wise can bring death.
On the church calendar, September 14 is Holy Cross Day and has been since 355 AD. But it’s a day that doesn’t get a lot of play in the church, let alone in the world at large. We Lutherans only celebrate it, if at all, when September 14 falls on a Sunday. Maybe one reason we don’t celebrate it is that the cross as the way to eternal life seems counterintuitive, foolish, to the world and sometimes, even to us. The cross can even be offensive. But only for those who don’t get it.
A Roman Catholic parish in Myrtle Beach had a tradition of setting up lots of crosses in the churchyard during Lent and draping them in black on Good Friday. One year the priest got a call from the Chamber of Commerce. "Look, father,” the caller said, “we've been getting complaints about those crosses out in your churchyard. Now inside the church, who cares? But out in front, where everybody can see them, they are offensive. The retired people here find them depressing. The tourists don't like them either. They're bad for business. People come down here to get happy, not depressed." The cross is depressing to some people. But for the Christian, it’s a symbol of joy and hope.
In our second lesson for today, the apostle Paul says that “the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
It’s understandable that the world sees the cross as a symbol of weakness. Crucifixion is, I think, the most horrible form of execution ever devised. It was reserved by the Romans who invented it for murderers and blasphemers against their gods, the lowest low-lifes of the empire. In a world that regards things like power, wealth, prestige, and personal achievement as badges of legitimacy and worthiness, God could have hardly chosen a worse way to show His love for us or to bring us life or forgiveness.
But you see, when Jesus—God in the flesh—went to the cross, He didn’t do it to impress us. He didn’t do it to convince us of anything. He did it to accomplish a task. He did it to reconcile all who dare to trust in Him with the only source of life in the universe, God. As Jesus told Nicodemus in our Gospel lesson for today, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”
The cross is the place where the power of God to save, to revitalize, to connect, and to make new went to work on behalf of the human race, the place from which Jesus Christ calls all of us to ignore the supposed wisdom of the world and to embrace the foolishness of following Him.
Those who dare to follow Jesus Christ find their priorities in life reshuffled and because they know they have life beyond the grave, they can dare to be foolish.
One of my favorite preachers, William Willimon tells about meeting a corporation president, one of whose subordinates was a member of a congregation Willimon had once pastored. “You know, he’s quite a fool, that one,” the CEO said. “That idiot comes up with about one good idea for every ten which he proposes in our company.” “Well," Willimon asked, “why on earth do you put a guy like that in charge of your marketing division?" Replied the president, “He’s the only guy I’ve got who has one good idea!”
One day a few years ago, I was with a group of Lutheran pastors. We were talking about what a Christian looks like, what a real Christian acts like. We agreed that because God is so creative, no two Christians are exactly the same. But then one of our group said something insightful. “My experience has been,” he told us, “that anybody who is really sold out to Jesus is sort of strange. I don’t mean that they’re sociopaths or bizarre. I mean that they don’t think like everybody else.”
We don’t think like everybody else. We’re sort of out of sync with the rest of the world, as a friend of mine observed this past week. Maybe that’s to be expected. After all, we follow a Savior Who says that the most blessed people in the world are peacemakers…Who says that it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for people of wealth to get into His Kingdom…Who says that when we grieve with those who grieve, we’re more blessed than when we laugh…Who says that, if we want life, real life with God, the maker of life, we turn to Him on the cross and surrender our lives to Him. Only fools would follow a Savior like that.
But I’ve noticed, foolish though following Christ seems, that there are people who want what Christ’s death on the cross gives to believers in Jesus.
Three decades ago, Ann and I had a wonderful friend. He and his wife were enjoying what our world calls the good life—successful careers, nice home, glamorous vacations. He knew that our relationship with Christ had become important to us, but they always kept God at arm’s length. I think that we were just going through a phase of strangeness, not knowing that we’d remain strange—foolish--the rest of our lives.
Then, our friend’s marriage went bust. He called us up and asked if he could come over. “I would give anything to have what you have,” he told us. We didn’t have two pennies to rub together and some days, maybe both of our cars started. We were and are everyday sinners who make mistakes all the time. But what we had was the God-granted ability to face life each day, even when we felt defeated. We had Christ and His cross, foolishness to a world that’s dying, but wisdom to people who know that through Christ and that cross, God is with us always and we are with God for eternity. You can face anything when you have the Christ of the cross as your God, king, and friend.
Jesus Christ calls us to follow Him on the way of the cross. When we say yes to Christ and His cross, we aren’t promised success or an easy life. But we are promised a life here sustained by God and an eternity lived in His presence. And those are free gifts to all who turn from sin and trustingly surrender to Jesus.
From my cockeyed perspective, it strikes me as pure foolishness not to follow Jesus.
And it strikes me too, that no matter what the world says, those who follow Christ are the smartest people in the world.
Showing posts with label 1 Corinthians 1:18-24. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1 Corinthians 1:18-24. Show all posts
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Monday, September 08, 2008
The Cross: God's Wisdom and God's Power (Looking at the Bible Lessons for Sunday, September 14, 2008)
[Most weeks, I try to publish at least one post dealing with the appointed Bible lessons for the upcoming Sunday. My hope is that I can at least help the people of the parish I serve as pastor, Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio, to prepare for worship. Others may find these explorations helpful because we use the same Bible lessons used by most other North American Christians each Sunday. For information on the Church Year and the plan of lessons called the lectionary, see here.]
The Bible Lessons:
Numbers 21:4b-9
Psalm 98:1-4
1 Corinthians 1:18-24
John 3:13-17
The Prayer of the Day:
Almighty God, your Son Jesus Christ was lifted high upon the cross so that he might draw the whole world to himself. To those who look upon the cross, grant your wisdom, healing, and eternal life, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen
Comments:
1. We take a detour from the Bible lessons we would ordinarily use this coming Sunday--the Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost in Year A of the three year lectionary cycle--in order to commemorate Holy Cross Day. Holy Cross Day is one of the Lesser Festivals of the Church Year. When such a festival falls on a Sunday, the appointed texts are frequently set aside.
2. Holy Cross Day happens on September 14 of each year and can be traced back to that same date in 355AD. It was then that the Basilica of the Resurrection in Jerusalem was dedicated. It was constructed under the direction of Saint Helena, mother of the Roman emperor, Constantine the Great. Helena found what was thought to be the true cross near the site shortly thereafter.
In the ensuing centuries, Holy Cross Day has been a day on which, in contrast to Good Friday, which emphasizes the sacrificial elements of Christ's crucifixion, other aspects of Christ's cross are featured. The Bible lessons emphasize the cross as the way to salvation for all who look to Christ in faith and the cross, as the ultimate disclosure of the power and wisdom of God, marshaled in our favor. Whereas the mood of Good Friday is somber and penitential, the mood of Holy Cross Day is celebratory and joyful.
There is only one set of lessons appointed for the day, the same ones designated for use each year.
For Holy Cross Day, as for other lesser festivals of the Church Year, as well as for Pentecost Sunday and for the ordination of pastors, the color is red.
3. Numbers 21:4b-9: God's people, the Hebrews, have been in the wilderness for about forty years when we meet them in our first lesson. God sends poisonous serpents to bite and take the lives of His people who have "murmured" over their limited diets and their nostalgia for the food they had--along with the enslavement from which God set them free--back in Egypt.
This isn't the first time while they were in the wilderness that the people complained about how God was performing His job as God. Earlier, their complaining resulted in water, quail, and manna. But this time, God reacts very differently. God punishes them. What accounts for the difference?
Very simply, those other incidents happened before God gave the commandments and made His covenant with the people at Mount Sinai. God has revealed His will and character, along with His commitment, to the people. They are called to trust and obey. Instead, though they should know better, they become whiny.
4. Moses intercedes for the people, who come to regret their ingratitude. (You would too, probably, if you and your neighbors were getting bitten by poisonous snakes, right and left.) God tells Moses to create a bronze serpent and to put it on a pole. Those bitten by the poisonous snakes will look at it and be healed.
This, of course, can seem read like a story of superstition. But it isn't.
God could have chosen any means to bring about the healing of the people. Why a bronze serpent?
Here's what I think. The serpent on the pole symbolized the means by which God was punishing His people. In their bodies, they bore the consequences of their sin, consequences which followed from their rejection of and separation from God, the source of life.
But, in the midst of this "cross experience," God called His people to own the reality of their rebellion--the bronze serpent reminded them of this--and look to Him for restoration and healing. It was as though at that moment God was saying, "Meet me in the bronze serpent. Look to Me and be restored."
In a similar way, centuries later, the New Testament says of Jesus on the cross, "For our sake [God] made [Jesus Christ] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21). God makes it possible for all people to be restored to relationship with God and life forever when they turn to Christ. (You can find more information on this passage here.)
5. Psalm 98:1-4: There are two elements of this brief passage from the Old Testament song book I want to mention: (1) The reality of God and God's goodness aren't apprehended by analysis or intellect. God reveals Himself. God does this, vindicating Himself--and the faith of those who believe--by acting in accordance with the steadfast love He bears for those who trust in Him. God's actions are discerned not by those who demand that God prove Himself and aren't seen by those who expect God to do our selfish bidding, but by those who humbly trust and look to God. God is seen by those who are willing to see God on God's terms, not their own. (2) The "right hand" refers to God's power. God uses His power on our behalf.
6. 1 Corinthians 1:18-24: The cross was probably the worst form of execution ever devised. Yet, Paul says that God, Who has always shown a penchant for doing the unexpected, used the cross of Jesus as a way of displaying His wisdom and power. Paul's fellow Jews demanded signs of Jesus' Lordship and Greeks (Gentiles...non-Jews) wanted Jesus to earn His Lordship on debating points. Instead, God established Jesus' cross as the sign of His love to which we, like the Hebrews in the wilderness, must turn to acknowledge our sin and receive the restoration that comes to all who trust in Christ.
7. John 3:13-17: Christ goes to the cross and bears the burden which He, the sinless Savior of humanity, doesn't deserve. He does so that we can turn to Him and live. Jesus underscores this in the last verse of our lesson:
The Bible Lessons:
Numbers 21:4b-9
Psalm 98:1-4
1 Corinthians 1:18-24
John 3:13-17
The Prayer of the Day:
Almighty God, your Son Jesus Christ was lifted high upon the cross so that he might draw the whole world to himself. To those who look upon the cross, grant your wisdom, healing, and eternal life, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen
Comments:
1. We take a detour from the Bible lessons we would ordinarily use this coming Sunday--the Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost in Year A of the three year lectionary cycle--in order to commemorate Holy Cross Day. Holy Cross Day is one of the Lesser Festivals of the Church Year. When such a festival falls on a Sunday, the appointed texts are frequently set aside.
2. Holy Cross Day happens on September 14 of each year and can be traced back to that same date in 355AD. It was then that the Basilica of the Resurrection in Jerusalem was dedicated. It was constructed under the direction of Saint Helena, mother of the Roman emperor, Constantine the Great. Helena found what was thought to be the true cross near the site shortly thereafter.
In the ensuing centuries, Holy Cross Day has been a day on which, in contrast to Good Friday, which emphasizes the sacrificial elements of Christ's crucifixion, other aspects of Christ's cross are featured. The Bible lessons emphasize the cross as the way to salvation for all who look to Christ in faith and the cross, as the ultimate disclosure of the power and wisdom of God, marshaled in our favor. Whereas the mood of Good Friday is somber and penitential, the mood of Holy Cross Day is celebratory and joyful.
There is only one set of lessons appointed for the day, the same ones designated for use each year.
For Holy Cross Day, as for other lesser festivals of the Church Year, as well as for Pentecost Sunday and for the ordination of pastors, the color is red.
3. Numbers 21:4b-9: God's people, the Hebrews, have been in the wilderness for about forty years when we meet them in our first lesson. God sends poisonous serpents to bite and take the lives of His people who have "murmured" over their limited diets and their nostalgia for the food they had--along with the enslavement from which God set them free--back in Egypt.
This isn't the first time while they were in the wilderness that the people complained about how God was performing His job as God. Earlier, their complaining resulted in water, quail, and manna. But this time, God reacts very differently. God punishes them. What accounts for the difference?
Very simply, those other incidents happened before God gave the commandments and made His covenant with the people at Mount Sinai. God has revealed His will and character, along with His commitment, to the people. They are called to trust and obey. Instead, though they should know better, they become whiny.
4. Moses intercedes for the people, who come to regret their ingratitude. (You would too, probably, if you and your neighbors were getting bitten by poisonous snakes, right and left.) God tells Moses to create a bronze serpent and to put it on a pole. Those bitten by the poisonous snakes will look at it and be healed.
This, of course, can seem read like a story of superstition. But it isn't.
God could have chosen any means to bring about the healing of the people. Why a bronze serpent?
Here's what I think. The serpent on the pole symbolized the means by which God was punishing His people. In their bodies, they bore the consequences of their sin, consequences which followed from their rejection of and separation from God, the source of life.
But, in the midst of this "cross experience," God called His people to own the reality of their rebellion--the bronze serpent reminded them of this--and look to Him for restoration and healing. It was as though at that moment God was saying, "Meet me in the bronze serpent. Look to Me and be restored."
In a similar way, centuries later, the New Testament says of Jesus on the cross, "For our sake [God] made [Jesus Christ] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21). God makes it possible for all people to be restored to relationship with God and life forever when they turn to Christ. (You can find more information on this passage here.)
5. Psalm 98:1-4: There are two elements of this brief passage from the Old Testament song book I want to mention: (1) The reality of God and God's goodness aren't apprehended by analysis or intellect. God reveals Himself. God does this, vindicating Himself--and the faith of those who believe--by acting in accordance with the steadfast love He bears for those who trust in Him. God's actions are discerned not by those who demand that God prove Himself and aren't seen by those who expect God to do our selfish bidding, but by those who humbly trust and look to God. God is seen by those who are willing to see God on God's terms, not their own. (2) The "right hand" refers to God's power. God uses His power on our behalf.
6. 1 Corinthians 1:18-24: The cross was probably the worst form of execution ever devised. Yet, Paul says that God, Who has always shown a penchant for doing the unexpected, used the cross of Jesus as a way of displaying His wisdom and power. Paul's fellow Jews demanded signs of Jesus' Lordship and Greeks (Gentiles...non-Jews) wanted Jesus to earn His Lordship on debating points. Instead, God established Jesus' cross as the sign of His love to which we, like the Hebrews in the wilderness, must turn to acknowledge our sin and receive the restoration that comes to all who trust in Christ.
7. John 3:13-17: Christ goes to the cross and bears the burden which He, the sinless Savior of humanity, doesn't deserve. He does so that we can turn to Him and live. Jesus underscores this in the last verse of our lesson:
“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him."Not a part of our lesson is the next verse, also words said by Jesus to Nicodemus:
"Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God."Thank God for Christ's cross!
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