18 For 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. 19 For it is written,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, 23 but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.
26
Consider your
own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards,
not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God
chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in
the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised
in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, 29
so that no one might boast in the presence of God. 30 He is
the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and
righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 in order that,
as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
Year A
4th Sunday after Epiphany
January 29, 2017
Title: Your Calling
Cross~Wind
1562; 6.2
Introduction to the passage
I Corinthians 1:18-2:16 has the
theme of the cross versus the wisdom of the world. He begins his discussion
with a look back to the cross. The foolish are without faith in Christ. They do
not belong to the true people of God. The foolish see in the news of the death
of Jesus only the news of a further demonstration of the meaninglessness of
human life. Some people want to see God act in miraculous ways. Then, they will
believe. Others want to believe in whatever notion of God they can develop with
their reason. They want divine truths in the same way they get scientific
truths. They want to observe and come to their conclusions. Paul is saying,
however, has God has showed up in this world in the most strange way possible –
the cross of Jesus Christ. In fact, he is willing to summarize his message and
preaching as focused on the cross. We tend to want general truths to which we
can reason. When the truth becomes specific, something disclosed in a moment or
event, it requires a response from us. Do we see this moment as a disclosure of
truth we did not discover, but rather, that God revealed. Granting that the
world will not see the cross as salvation until Christ returns, we get to
experience salvation and life today. Then, Paul turns toward those of us who
respond with faith in the wisdom of the cross. By human standards, believers of
his time were hardly wise, powerful, or noble. Throughout much of this world,
this observation remains true. Of course, the church in the history of West
became wise, powerful, and noble in the ways of this world. Many of its sins
arose in that part of its history. God chose the weak and shameful path of the
cross to bring salvation to humanity. When we embrace the Crucified One, we set
aside anything in which we could take pride. Christ alone is the source of our
life, and thus, our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
Introduction
My first question is this. Who will you become?
Early in our lives, and at critical moments throughout our
lives, we are making ourselves. We are deciding the kind of person we will be.
Some people will say that they need time to find themselves. I understand that
and I am sympathetic. The sad reality is that many people, if they are honest,
will take that long journey inward and discover an onion. They will find that
no one is home. The reason is that the soul, the self, who you are, is waiting
for you to take responsibility for forming it. We create who we are through the
commitments and decisions we make.[1]
My second question is this. What will you do with your life?
To what work will you commit yourself?
A few kids in school seem to know from first grade on just
what they wanted to be when they grew up. Do you remember? I envied them. Most
of us spend quite a bit of time shopping around before we finally find, or fall
into, a profession that seems to suit our personality. However, regardless of
the work we do the people who are to live out our lives in light of what God
has done in Christ.
Application
First, let us consider your call.
Did you know that God has called
you?
David, the youngest of many
brothers, was tending sheep when summoned by Samuel.
Abraham was minding his own
business in Ur. Jeremiah was a shy and unwilling youth.
God often calls us when we are
running errands, doing the mundane, thankless chores of life. When we least
expect it, God elects us.[2]
Here is Moses, hiding out on the
backside of Midian desert. He is running an errand when a bush started burning.
Isaiah was in the temple,
performing his regular priestly duties, when he had a heavenly vision that
commissioned him.
Amos herded sheep and tended to
sycamore trees when the Lord told him to go and preach.
Andrew and Peter were fishing when
Jesus called them to fish for people.
Paul has a simple definition of
calling. God calls each of us so that the source of our life is in Christ. In
Christ, we find our justification, sanctification, righteousness, and
redemption. God is in the habit of choosing what the world considers foolish to
confound the wise, what the world considers weak to confound the strong.
To put it simple, our calling is to
be a Christian.
26
Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: 28 God chose
what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to
nothing things that are, 29 so that no one might boast in the
presence of God. 30 He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus,
who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and
redemption. –I Corinthians 1:26, 28-30
God worked through a faithful
mother, pastor, Sunday school teacher, and other people in a little church in
Austin, MN, to issue a call to me that I might find my life in Christ. You see,
we can always find our lives in ourselves by living for ourselves. I consider
it a gift that I received that calling early in my life and have, through many
twists and turns, hills and valleys, remained on that path. For some of us, we
did not respond to that calling of who we are until much later in life. The
search was a long and difficult one.
Some places in scripture seem to
make it clear who we are to be. The question is whether we want to become that
person. A "Pontius Puddle" cartoon begins with "I wonder if God
can really hear me." The next frame shows Pontius praying, "Hey God!
What should I do with my life?" The third frame has a voice from heaven
saying, "Feed the hungry, right injustice, work for peace."
"Just testing!" Pontius replies. "Same here," God speaks
back.
Second, you express your calling in
your vocation.
Our calling may sometimes be
dramatic and scintillating work, something like firefighting, space walking,
dancing a ballet, or even scoring a touchdown. Far more often, we are office
managers, bank tellers, factory workers, and doing electrical repairs. We
perform the common labor that keeps things running relatively smoothly. Your
calling might be high and lifted up on occasion. However, you will often spend
your calling low, bent down, and serving. If we think of our life calling in light
of Christ, we ought to learn at least that.
Many of us find all of this a
difficult process. We have to discover our identity, filtering out all the
chatter that tells us to be someone we do not really want to become. Your
calling to be a Christian and your vocation in which you express it is not some
kind of destiny. We may have to test certain things, sometimes for years,
before we discover what truly brings fulfillment in our lives. We might be in a
career for years, experiencing its weariness, until we have the courage to make
a change toward transformation and significance. While some know early, the
answers do not come easily for most of us. Usually, we have some pain, risk,
adversity, and struggle. In fact, we often see the divine pattern only as we
take a retrospective look at our lives, and see how a divine purpose has woven
into our lives something beautiful and purposeful.
Conclusion
An
afternoon changed a life forever. Here is the story:
Rick
Olson stood with his son Patrick on a hill overlooking a panoramic view of
downtown Pittsburgh with its three rivers and tall buildings. As they gazed
over the railing on the Mt. Washington observation deck, Patrick pointed to the
barges floating up and down the three rivers, a blue-and-gold bridge and a host
of other scenes there laid out in front of them, all the while asking questions
— “What kind of boat is that? How do they get the sand out of the railcars and
into the barges? Which river goes south to north? Is it that one or that one?”
Rick
had been living in Pittsburgh for 22 years and had never paid attention to
things like that. For two hours, Patrick made observations, asked questions,
and Rick could only say, “Hmmmm.”
Then
Patrick asked his dad to point out the building where he had been working every
day for five years as a corporate lawyer specializing in radio station mergers.
There in that steel and glass edifice co-workers knew Rick as “The Mechanic”
for his ability to close the deal, even though he was not very good at bringing
in business. Well, at least Rick knew where his building was and pointed out
the downtown tower.
“What’s
the building next to it?” asked Patrick. Rick did not know. He had walked past
that building nearly every day for five years and he had no idea. How could he
not know?
When they returned home, Rick
made his son dinner, played with him, read him a story, put him in bed and
kissed him goodnight. Nevertheless, when Rick came downstairs and plopped down
on the couch, he had an epiphany. One thought kept gnawing at him: “I’d been
here 22 years and never noticed all those things. What else have I been
missing?”[3]
This simple question, combined with additional life experiences, led him to
change occupations and have a richer life with his family.
If you live your life calling in
light of Christ, your life calling is to keep becoming a Christian, regardless
of the specific work you do with your life. I have a few scriptures over which I
invite you to pray and reflect as you consider the most part of your life
calling.
what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love
kindness,
and to walk humbly with your
God?
–Micah 6:8
Matthew 5:
3
“Blessed are
the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4
“Blessed are
those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5
“Blessed are
the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6
“Blessed are
those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7
“Blessed are
the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
8
“Blessed are
the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9
“Blessed are
the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
10
“Blessed are
those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven.
Going deeper
I Corinthians 1:18-2:16 has the theme of the cross versus the wisdom of
the world. Barth makes note that Nietzsche, in Antichrist, has taken aim at the Christianity expressed here.[4] Barth will stress that we
find here the danger of falsification of the gospel through finding worldly
strength by presenting the gospel in an acceptable or tolerable form.[5] He will also point out
that the foolish are without faith in Christ and therefore do not belong to the
true people of God. They see in the news of the death of Jesus only the news of
a further demonstration of the meaninglessness of human life. They may see the
proclamation of the paradox as in Acts 17:32 and turn away in impatience or
alarm. He finds it a good sign that not many wise respond, for it is in keeping
with the presumed folly of the Gospel.[6]
I Corinthians 1: 18-31 begin with
the notion that to those being saved, the message about the cross is the power
of God.
18 For the
message [logoV] about the cross is foolishness to those who
are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. [Pannenberg, in a discussion of the gospel,
notes that while Paul does not speak of the gospel of reconciliation, he will
write of the word of the cross, which is describing the gospel. [7]]
19 For it is written, Isaiah 29:14 (Septuagint)
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will
thwart.”
[He introduces the stark
contrast between the wisdom or plan of God and the wisdom of humans who view
themselves as wise. The cross discloses the folly of the wisdom and strength of
this world.]
[Then Paul offers a
series of rhetorical questions almost in the form of a taunt.]
20 Where is the one who is wise?
Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish
the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the
world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of
our proclamation, to save those who believe. [His point is that we see the wisdom of God in making sure that human
beings could not know God through wisdom. Rather, through the foolishness of
the proclamation of Paul and the other apostolic leaders, God decided to save
those who believe.] [Next, Paul also demonstrates his understanding of the
church and its mission, comprised of both Jew and Gentile.] 22 For [from his experience] Jews demand signs [The Old Testament
amply demonstrates the demand for "signs" from God.
Jews fix upon tangible demonstrations of power. Such a sign would be
dramatic intervention in the sky and the earth. The Jews demand a victorious
Messiah.] and Greeks desire wisdom, [The
Greeks wanted to weigh the pros and cons of a new system. Greeks, or Gentiles,
do not want to see, they want to know.] 23
but we proclaim [khrussomen] Christ
crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, [Both
Jews and Greeks, as Molly Marshall-Green puts it, are looking for God in all the
wrong places. They shall have neither signs nor wisdom. The difficulty in
discovering the presence of God is the preconceived expectations of who God is
and how God ought to behave. Sign-seeking Jews and wisdom-desiring
Gentiles denounce the gospel because it does not meet their norms of godliness.
Barth stresses that the prophetic work of Jesus Christ has the form of passion.
Yes, he is Jesus Christ the Victor, but through Gethsemane and Golgotha. In
this form of suffering, as the Rejected, Judged, Despised, Bound, Impotent,
Slain, and Crucified, we see the Victor who marches with us and to us through
the times, alive in the promise of the Spirit. In this form, he is at the core
of the kerygmatic theology of Paul and the kerygmatic accounts of the Gospels.
In this form, as an obstacle to Jews and foolishness to Greeks, he has
addressed his own, his community, and through this the world, from the time of
his resurrection onwards. He encounters humanity in this form, or not at all.[8]] 24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks,
Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. [The gospel claims that
Christ crucified is the ultimate revelation of God's wisdom and power. Paul
makes it clear that the cross goes against expectations of Greek and Jew, for
the cross is neither glory nor wisdom. To believe or trust in its wisdom and
power is to accept the paradoxical way of God in this world. Pannenberg says
the march of world occurrence hides the reality of divine wisdom. Only at the
end of history will the divine counsel that underlies what takes place be
knowable. The dawning of such revelatory events of the end-time in the person
of Jesus initiated the definitive revelation of God and showed the goal of the
divine counsel, leading Paul here to regard Jesus Christ as the embodiment of
the divine wisdom.[9]]
25 For God’s foolishness is
wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.
[Paul is combating an inflated view of wisdom and
knowledge. Some may have tried to measure the Christian message by
standards of human reason, so that they could defend God by reason. Paul
condemns arrogant human wisdom. He does not condemn genuine knowledge. He
suggests the deepest human need is to know God, but the quest for knowledge
could not fill the void. However, that inability was part of God's plan.
Nevertheless, one does not find here a biblical warrant for abandoning the
study of wisdom and enshrining ignorance on the altar of spirituality. Are we
to disregard the idea of philosophy as the handmaid of theology? Does Athens
have nothing to do with Jerusalem? Early theologians (Clement of Alexandria,
for one) were quick to rehabilitate Paul on this point, arguing that Paul,
influenced by the Greek philosophical setting, is not railing against
philosophy, but against bad philosophy, particularly philosophy of the
Epicurean and Stoic variety. He himself quoted the philosophers to make his own
theological point, although without much success (Acts 17).]
[In addition, here lies the heart of the distinction that
Martin Luther drew and famously expounded in the Heidelberg Disputation of 1518
between theologia crucis and theologia gloriae. Those who embrace the
wisdom of the world are linked to a theology of glory, an ontological
enterprise in which one presumes to be able to discover the transcendent,
majestic reality of God through natural signs and wonders and intellectual
pursuits. A theology of the cross, on the other hand, seeks not the glory of
sophistry but the ignominy of the cross, to recognize God where God has hidden
himself, hidden under the cloak of incarnational darkness and the scandal of
the cross.]
[In an article that examines Jewish perceptions of the cross as a
Christian symbol, Mary C. Boys wonders whether or not the symbol has been
tainted by hundreds of years of Christian anti-Semitism. She considers other
symbols as potential replacements but ultimately discards them because:
"Like
all symbols, the cross evokes more than one can explain. It condenses death and
life into one symbol. It enfolds some of the deepest fears of humanity -
vulnerability, betrayal, pain, forsakenness - and transfigures them into
expressions of hope. When Christians proclaim the power of the cross, they are
voicing their confidence that death is not the end, that the grip of evil has
been broken, and that the powers and principalities who seem to control this
world will be banished. When Christians proclaim the power of the cross, they
are declaring, albeit often with tremulous voice, that at times one must simply
endure suffering, that certain things in life must be borne. And they are
declaring that in the passion of Jesus we find a model for our fidelity."[10]]
26 Consider your own call,
brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many
were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what
is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world
to shame the strong; [In
this, Barth says, the calling of God in Jesus Christ cuts across the various spheres
of human life. Jesus Christ, as true Son of God is true humanity as well, who
is all things human quite different from all other human beings, but to whom
nothing human is alien. The object of the work of Christ is as people are. If
so, who human beings are matters to God. Christ finds humanity as it is, in
various vocations. The shaking of the divine calling occurs in the context of
human beings as they are.[11] Pannenberg notes that
election involves the improbably exception becoming the intimation of a new
norm, a new creation. He draws an analogy with the notion of evolution.[12]]
28 God chose [Pannenberg
says that when the elect in the plural here Paul specifically as the Christian
community in mind, while we immediately learn that belonging to Christ is the
basis for the selection.[13]]
what is low and despised in the world,
things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, 29 so
that no one might boast in the presence of God. [The world's nobodies become
God's somebodies; the world's somebodies are nobodies. The point of Paul
in all this is that given all this, no one can boast in the presence of God.
Such reflections make rather silly the divisions that Paul described in the
previous section.] 30 He is
the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and
righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 in order that,
as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” [There can
be no excuse for co-opting God to advance our own particular theological
agenda. All claims to a sectarian loyalty that places allegiance to a human
agent of proclamation above allegiance to the message of the cross itself is
the ultimate folly. Barth will stress that the reality of divine revelation is
here, as the New Testament, in this constant reiteration of the name of Christ.
Every part of the Scripture has significance only as it relates to this Word.[14] Barth says that Jesus
Christ is our justification, meaning that as those who are of like humanity
with Christ in him as Head and Representative, we are righteous, acceptable,
and pleasing to God even as we are. As our Brother and with the forgiveness of
sin, God accepts, loves, and blesses the children of God. Of course, Christ is
also our sanctification, meaning that as those like him in humanity, God claims
us as those who are regenerate, converted and already engaged in turning to
God, and therefore as Christians. Because we are in Jesus Christ before God, we
are righteous and holy before God. Such sanctification has its roots in the
life of the community and in love.[15] Barth says of
sanctification that it is a necessary consequence of justification as the
subjection of humanity to the divine direction. Sanctification is the presupposition
of all Christian ethics. Sanctification is the claiming of all human life,
being, and activity by the will of God for the active fulfillment of that will.
As such, sanctification is a form of the atonement, of the conversion of
humanity to God, and an element the divine activity of human reconciliation
with God. Sanctification is by and in Jesus Christ.[16]]
[1] --Tony
Campolo, "Lose Yourself," on the Red Letter Christians blog, April 7,
2011.www.redletterchristians.org/lose-yourself/ Retrieved August 12, 2013.
[2] Walter
Earl Fluker("Valley Calls," Pulpit 1.3 [Summer 1998], 36-37).
[3] Po
Bonson, What Should I do with my life?
[4]
Church Dogmatics III.2 [45.2] 242
[5]
Church Dogmatics IV.3 [71.5] 632.
[6]
Church Dogmatics II.1 [30.3] 435-6.
[7]
Systematic Theology Volume 2, 455.
[8]
Church Dogmatics IV.3 [70.1] 390-1.
[9]
Systematic Theology 1, 441.
[10] -Mary C. Boys, "The
cross: Should a symbol betrayed be reclaimed?" Cross Currents, Spring
1994.
[11]
Church Dogmatics III.4 [56.2] 603.
[12]
Systematic Theology Volume 2, 113.
[13]
Systematic Theology 3, 457.
[14]
Church Dogmatics I.2 [13.1] 10.
[15]
Church Dogmatics IV.2 [64.4] 273-4.
[16]
Church Dogmatics IV.1 [58.2] 101.
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