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Fourth Sunday after Epiphany

1 Corinthians 1
26 Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him. 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”


Some people collect baseball cards, I collect vocational quotes.

Like this one that my son picked up in art school: “If you can’t make a good painting, make a big painting, and if you can’t make a big painting, make a red painting.” Just now you’re trying to picture all the artwork on your walls.

Or this quote that has popped up more than a few times over the last couple of weeks: “If the facts are against you, argue the law. If the law is against you, argue the facts. If the law and the facts are against you, pound the table…” I guess I would say ‘if you can’t pound the table, argue that something clearly inappropriate doesn’t rise to the level of impeachment.’

I’ve been struggling to come up with a parallel quote for preachers, and best I can find is the old St. Francis quote “Preach the Gospel at all times—use words if necessary.” There is considerable debate about whether he actually said it, but he certainly came close when he wrote in his Rule “friars...should preach by their deeds.”

See me later if you have a pithy vocational quote to share.

In the meantime, St. Paul seems to be engaged in pithy quote-making when he sits down to write to the church at Corinth:

God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.
God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are.

All of the quotes I’ve shared so far seem to rest on the same approach: using reversals and a touch of the unexpected to help people ponder something they might not otherwise see. So, in a world that seeks power and admires power and obeys power, God makes another choice. In a world that seeks wisdom and strength as a way of being, God chooses foolishness and weakness, and questions the very idea of “being” itself.

I feel like we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Maybe better if we go back to the beginning of the chapter to see how Paul’s homily on foolishness and weakness fits into the overall letter. What led him to make this argument? What was happening in the congregation to prompt these words?

First, we know there was conflict. Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians fought about food offered to idols. The majority of poorer believers fought with the small group of wealthier believers. And there was obviously some conflict over the role of women: between some strong female leaders and the men foolish enough to try to take them on.

So Paul has his hands full. He needs to fight down the impulse to knock heads and make a case for harmony, and he’s going to use every tool in his toolkit to do it. Political nerds like me who remember the 1984 election—and specifically Ed Broadbent’s appeal to “ordinary people”—will immediately see what St. Paul is doing here:

Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.

But God chose the ordinary people of the world—the foolish, the weak, the lowly, even the despised—to shame the rest. Do you think you are the author of your own power? That’s not how it works. Do you think you have some internal source of wisdom? Aren’t you cute. Do you think some worldly position you have makes you better than everyone else? Think again, Mr. President.

For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

All this points to the real message that Paul hopes to send: writing to the church, Paul “urges them to foster a sense of being at odds with the world.”* It’s really that simple. In the world, but not of the world. Deeply in love with the world God made, but always aware that there’s more. Or enacting God’s seemingly foolish desire to save us from ourselves.

In many ways, it’s at the heart of our DNA as a church. From the beginning we were evangelists with a social conscience. The religion that became stale and philosophical was rejected in favour of a religion for the masses, preached in the open air, deeply concerned about the state of our souls, and equally committed to the betterment of the human condition. Slavery, child labour, poverty, working conditions: all of these became problems for the church to help solve.

And for a time we were extremely successful. Nineteenth century reforms ended the most egregious forms of oppression, and twentieth century cooperation helped create the modern welfare state. Everything the “social gospel” movement promoted came to pass: pensions, labour reform, medicine—even temperance for a time. And in one of the great ironies of the past, the more problems we helped solve, the more our influence—and our role—declined. We were at odds with the world once more, and once more we were aligned with the original vision.

God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.

Paul the master letter-writer inspires with daring reversals and clever insights, and sometimes he does it to the extent that we miss the program he sets out. Hiding in plain sight is a three-fold movement toward being in the world but not of the world. He gives us three words to describe how we can remain at odds with the world while drawing the world closer to Christ: righteousness, holiness, and redemption.

Righteousness means living in a manner that pleases God. It means demonstrating another way to live, a way that might surprise or delight people who are weary of the way the world lives. Holiness builds in this. Holiness means living within the sacred, honouring God with humility, gentleness, and a sense that everything belongs to God. And redemption, that means that all things can return to God. No one is beyond redemption, everything can be forgiven, and all can be saved, even from themselves.

Three words to describe how we can remain at odds with the world while drawing the world closer to Christ: righteousness, holiness, and redemption. Three words to cut through meaninglessness and despair. Three words to lead people home.

May God make us agents of righteousness, holiness, and redemption, and may we always dwell in the wisdom of God. Amen.



*https://www.bibleodyssey.org/en/places/related-articles/church-at-corinth

posted by michael jacob kooiman @ 6:00 AM