Sermon - 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 – “Signs, Wisdom and Cross”

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Sermon - 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 – “Signs, Wisdom and Cross”
Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Presbyterian Churches
January 30, 2011

I am continuing today with our look at the book of First Corinthians. The Apostle Paul has heard disturbing news about things that are happening in the Corinthian churches. Factions have developed and now people are arguing with each other. These conflicts have developed to a point that a delegation from Corinth has been dispatches to Ephesus for a meeting with Paul to see what to do. Paul has decided to write a letter to the churches in response. And we are now looking at that letter. Two weeks ago we heard Paul reminding them and us how richly we have been blessed by God in our faith. Last week we heard how the Corinthian church was divided and this reminded us of the historic and contemporary divisions within in the Presbyterian Church USA. Today Paul will talk about the root cause of divisions within the church. According to Paul divisions and controversies in the church are caused by the differing expectations we have of how God interacts with humankind. We will get to all of this, but first, let's pray.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy Heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)
First Corinthians 1:18 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. 19 For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate." 20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22 Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength. 26 Brothers, 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 He 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 him who boasts boast in the Lord."

Everyone who comes to church has an expectation of how God interacts with humans. This expectation is shaped by our parents, schools, friends and of course churches. If everyone has the same expectation then there will be no conflict in the church. But if people in the church have different expectations for God's interaction with humanity then conflict abounds. We see this clearly in the Corinthian church.

The Corinthian church was very diverse. It had both Greeks and Jews as members. There were rich members and poor members. Members have come from many nations of the world. And they have come with different expectations for the interaction between God and us.

For example, there were Greeks in the church who believed that the world was a rational place. The sun rises and sets at regular interval. We are born, grow up, get old and die. If you put ice over a fire it melts into water and then turns to steam. The world is a logical place. As so it would be expected that God would reveal himself in this rational world. People with this world view would be attracted to a god who was incarnate as a man, Jesus. And these people would want to know about Jesus' life, what he did and especially what he taught. Jesus was God's way of giving us a rational order for our lives through his teaching on ethics. So these people would come to church to hear the moral teachings of Jesus and apply those teachings to their lives.

Other Greeks in the congregation had a slightly different world view. They agreed that
the world was rational, but this rational order of this was imposed upon the world by our minds. In other words we use reason to understand the world around us. By reason, we realize that the world we perceive with our senses in limited, finite, changeable and imperfect. It must therefore be just a representation of the actual world which is unlimited, infinite, unchanging and perfect. We perceive the world around us with our senses and understand with our minds the perfect reality it represents. God would interact with humankind on the level of human reason. These people would be looking for a god who would provide us with the organizing principle of the world. They were looking for someone who existed with God before the creation of the world, and was the source of the rational order we now perceive. So they would be attracted to a church that proclaims the Lord Jesus Christ as the Word of God made flesh, with God's Word being the organizing principle of the world.

Also in the Corinthian congregation were converted Jews, and they too came to the church with their expectations of how God would interact with humankind. Some the the Jewish converts would be looking for signs and miracles because that was the way God had appeared to their ancestors. God appeared to Moses in a burning bush that fire could not consume. God appeared in a tornado and chariot of fire. God appeared in the raising of a widow's son from the dead. So they would be attracted to a church that proclaimed Jesus as a miracle worker who fed five thousand people with just a few loaves of bread and a coupleof fish, who restored the blind to sight, and who raised Lazarus from the dead.

Other Jews were looking for a god who would interact with humanity through prophets proclaiming God's word. In centuries past prophets had proclaimed the destruction of Israel, the exile to Babylon, and the restoration of God's people to the holy land. In the turbulent times of the first century they were looking for a prophet who tell them how God would act to end the present age and bring about a glorious future. So they would be attracted to a church that proclaimed Jesus' teachings on God's ultimate judgment and restoration of the world.

All of these groups came together for Sunday worship in the Corinthian churches. They heard stories of Jesus the man, Jesus Christ the Word of God, Jesus the worker of miracles, and Jesus the prophet. And of course they argued with each other over doctrine, and formed factions that threatened to divide the church, something Christians have been doing ever since.

But the Apostle Paul has some good news for them and for us. You see, God's interaction with humanity came in a way that no one expected. No one, neither Greek nor Jew, saw this one coming. God came into the world in a surprising way. God came to us with Jesus' death on a cross. How can it be in a rational world that God would interact with humans in suffering and death? How can a perfect, unchanging, unlimited, infinite God suffer and die? How can a person who raised Lazarus from the dead not prevent his own death with a miracle? The prophet Elijah never died, but was taken up to heaven in a whirlwind; so why did Jesus have to die? No one expected the cross. And yet that is exactly what happened. God came to earth to interact with us and suffered and died on a cross. Those who expected God to come in the rational world saw no rational order in his death. Those who expected God to come as the organizing principle of the world never expected a physical, humiliating death. Those who expected a miracle worker never expected that miracle worker would die. Those who expected a prophet never expected his voice to be silenced by death. Everyone was surprised by what really happened.

And so God demonstrate the limitations of human wisdom and miraculous signs. God showed us that we have at best a feeble understanding of the world around us. Our expectations of how God interacts with humanity were too small, and too human oriented. So we must humbly remember that we don't know enough about God to expect anything. And only then we can receive what God offers us.

This is the source of unity in the church. We are united only when we realize that our expectations about God and how God interacts with humanity are flawed, and that these flawed expectations of God have led to our disagreement and divisions. Then we can humbly approach one another reconciled by a cross which unites all of us in our salvation in Jesus Christ.

So the next time you are preparing for a meeting with fellow Christians to discuss a controversial topic, and you are preparing the scriptural references and theological arguments that support your side remember that you might be relying on your own flawed expectation of how God interacts with humanity. Reconsider what you believe in the context of the sacrifice that Jesus made for you on the cross. Remember the grace and forgiveness that you have received from God. And humbly offer that grace to those who disagree with you thus reconciling with one another in the light of God's love.

Heavenly Father, we humbly come before you in gratitude for your son's sacrifice on the cross. We never expected you to come to us in suffering and death. But now we are so thankful for the love you showed us though this act. And we pledge to love others as well. Amen.