Have you ever done anything that was complete foolishness?
Everyone has, right?
It’s natural to do something foolish and at times almost fun to do. I remember when I was nine, I was at the park with my parents and I naturally went to the swings. I started to swing as high as I could. I was attempting to swing myself completely over but it wasn’t working and my parents called for me that it was time for us to go. I said, “Be right there.”
As I continued to swing my dad supposedly said, “He’s gonna jump.” To which my mom replied, “He’s not that stupid.” But I was. On the back swing, I moved my arms in position and while the swing was at the highest point I jumped, nah, I flew! I stuck a perfect landing, fracturing my right foot. It was wonderful childish foolery.
My parents thought it was foolish of me to do something like that. But I thought, as nine year-olds do, that they were ready to leave and the quicker I got down the quicker we could go. I was simply trying to be helpful; but I do not think jumping off swings 20 feet in the air is what Paul was referring to in his letter to the Corinthians.
Paul’s letter to the Corinthians is complicated. We have the privilege of sitting in on one side of the conversation; therefore, we get to imagine what the other side is saying, which is always fun. Paul is forced to address several issues in this letter. He addresses conflict over divided parties, issues related to sex, food, and worship. The church in Corinth had become divided into four different parties. One group claims to belong to Paul, another to Apollos (who, as Acts 18 tells us, was an eloquent man from Alexandria who was well versed in the Scriptures) another to Cephas (Peter’s Greek name), another to Christ. The church Paul has helped create has become a faction divided church. Each group proclaiming authority over the other. Each one saying they have the right version of the Gospel. Factions, like the ones Paul is addressing, are nothing new for the Church. Our Christian faith is divided beyond Conservative and Moderate. Our Christian faith is divided into spectrums of belief, each one having enough power to prove they are right.
Take those who stress the importance of church growth. If their church is growing beyond measurement, obviously their gospel is correct. Or take those who stress wealth. If their church is wealthy and established in the national spotlight, obviously their gospel is right. Or take the ones who highlight the unbroken line of tradition, giving power to impose truth. Obviously their gospel is right. If we take this example out of church walls, we can see it clearly in our world, specifically in our government. Republicans and Democrats, each proclaiming they have the answer to our economic problems. Each one having enough power to prove they are right. But, as with all the examples, none is advancing the message of Christ.
But Paul tells us that the message of Christ is foolishness specifically, the message of the crucified Christ on the cross is foolishness. To the world and to those who are perishing, the cross is for fools. To them, the cross is weak, feeble, and brings death. But to those, who are being saved, it is the power of God. To those who are being saved, they see strength and life in the cross. With the stroke of a pen, Paul turns their world upside down. With the stroke of a pen, Paul turns our world upside down. God’s foolishness is wiser than our human wisdom. God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.
Paul is arguing, quite passionately, that our message, the Christian message, is not about power or wisdom. God chose to use the cross as an opportunity to show God’s strength. Paul takes the hardest part of the Christian faith, Christ’s crucifixion and uses it to argue God’s strength. Paul proclaims Christ crucified because it is a stumbling block to those who demand signs or logically proof. Paul uses the death of Christ on the cross as testimony to the power and wisdom of God. What the world sees as foolishness, God sees as wise.
I grew up in the church and I absolutely loved it. I was always fascinated with how the church ran. I never really understood it but I remember going up to the church during the week days and being intrigued by the work the Pastor was doing or what my Youth Minister was doing. I remember once when one of my friend’s parents went up to the church to have a conversation with my youth pastor, David. I asked him what the conversation was about and he told me that he went up there to tell David get his act together and to work harder. It had appeared to my friend’s parents that David was lazy because he spent his time playing games with the youth on the computer or spent time hanging out with us.
In their defense, they understood work to be something that if you put in the hours, if you put in the effort, and worked hard, you would see the benefits at the end of the day. And in their line of work as doctors, they were right. To them, church work was foolish because there was no real outcome of any of the events we did. If none of us ever came forward after camp to make some declaration, some would think that David was not doing his job. They saw what he did foolish because there was no instance measurable growth. Some see the church as a foolish place, a weak place for frail people in need of superstition. But what they see as weak and foolish, God sees as strength and wisdom.
The struggle within our own faith begins at the cross. We struggle with what the world calls foolishness and with what God has called wise. We see the feebleness of the cross and its mortality and we see death. We see killers, thieves, criminals hung from crosses. We see the cross as the ultimate display of power by governments over their citizens. Our faith struggles within itself because we desperately want to be that power. We don’t want to be the ones who are wrong. We want to be right. But the cross shows us something different.
William Willimon writes,
“In this third week of Lent, as the church makes its way with its Lord to the cross, we pause. We stop for a moment to catch our breath and ponder the irony of it all. As the world snickers at the church, we pause with Paul to mock the world.
Along with the world, we expected to see a savior coming to take charge on our terms. Then the parade comes, and we find that we are standing in the wrong place to get a good view. Here comes the carpenter’s son, bouncing on the back of a donkey -- not coming for breakfast with Barrack and Michelle, or lunch with George and Laura, or consultations with Mitt, Rick, Newt or Ron. The smart ones, the ones who are well adjusted to the status quo, the ones in the know, neither see nor know -- so the story goes. Here is a messiah who does not make sense.
Only the very young, the very old, the women and the simpletons see him. They are standing in the right place to get a proper view. Along with the poor, the maimed, the blind, the lame, the prisoners and the poor old crazed men like Paul, these “fools” see things as they really are.”
The truth is, Christ crucified, the cross, knocks us off our pedestals. What used to be true about power and wisdom is no longer correct. None of us can claim absolute truth any longer because of the cross. The cross, Paul writes, is what God chose to shame the strong. God chose what was foolish in their eyes to shame the wise. This crucified Christ, Paul writes about, is the source of our life. This crucified Christ is the real power of God and the wisdom of God.
The world has never really seen the power of the cross. You might say some believers have never really seen the power of the cross. Our education, our stature, our logic, our idea of power doesn’t allow us to fully see the power of the cross. We don’t want to be fools. But four weeks from, we will be asked to be fools once again. We will be asked to jump out of our swings and act like fools by celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Come Easter Sunday, what is weak and foolish in the eyes of the world, will become the instrument God uses to show us what true power and wisdom looks like. May God give us the strength to be weak. May God give us the wisdom to be fools as we preach and live out the message of a Crucified and Risen Messiah.
Amen
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