Sermon on Corinthians 1:10-25
January 27th 2008
I have no clue where this message came from. But I do want you lock in your minds this particular verse of the Bible—John 10:10 because you are going to hear me refer back to this short passage quite often. Why? Because this is Gloria Dei’s mission. I pray that we may all know it like our name. “To live life abundantly through the worship of God and service to others.
You see, in the text Jesus has just opened the eyes of a blind man. He is speaking to the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the time, and they want to know what this man who heals the sick and speaks all those strange words of wisdom is all about. So in John 10:10, Jesus gives to them/gives to us his purpose—He says, “I came so that you may have life and have it abundantly.”
Therefore if the purpose of Christ is to bring abundant life, don’t you feel that our mission/our goal is to “Live Life Abundantly?” At first this mission may sound like a type of feel good philosophy or even a gospel of prosperity, but it is not.
Because if you pay close attention the words of the Bible and to the second half of our mission statement one will find that this Abundant Life comes through the Cross—worship and praise of a God will to die for you, and service and sacrifice to others—a cause outside ourselves—and this my friends is a stumbling block to the Jews, and foolishness to the Greeks.
Why in the world would God Almighty die and how in the world can I have abundant life by giving myself to others? Like I said, a stumbling block to some, and foolishness to others.
Speaking of stumbling and foolishness, about two years to the date my lovely wife Sandy had an extension ladder out and was going up in a tree to save a cat. I didn’t not want her to get hurt, so even though I’ve never seen a skeleton of a cat in a tree I proceeded to climb up the ladder for this stupid cat. Well the little critter took a swipe at my face and I stumbled some 25’ to the ground and broke both of my legs. Talk about feeling foolish.
Anyway I was laid up for a few days with this ice machine on my legs with nothing to do but read or watch TV. I don’t normally watch Oprah but like I said I was feeling a little foolish. This particular show was titled “Having Affairs With Married Men,” and Oprah had brought several people who were having these affairs.
One lady who was very positive talked about her longstanding affair with a married man and she was very happy in it. She even claimed she would have it no other way. One of the people in the audience raised the question or morality, and instantly the woman took offense. “Wait a minute,” she said. “I am a Christian, but I want everyone to know that my personal life and my religion have nothing to do with each other.” Odd uh?
She went on to say, “I believe in a God who wants me to be happy, and if this man makes me happy, then God must approve of the relationship.”
Wow! Talk about stumbling foolishness! That is an amazing approach to life, but you know what? That kind of thinking is not new at all. It has been around for a long long time. People who serious believe God desires abundant life, however, it comes with no effort on our part. We’ve even come up with all kinds of excuses to make it sound right. What used be called murder is now called “pro choice.”
Jesus encountered the same attitude in his day, and I love the approach Jesus took. He called the Pharisees and Sadducees hypocrites and whitewashed tombs—on the outside they appeared to obedient, but on the inside they were rotten.
So like the Pharisees, the Greeks, and woman on Oprah sooner or later, we bump into an old rugged cross. There we meet a God who says, “I don’t like your Sin—yes Sin—no matter what you call it. It is so horrible that it requires me to go to the cross and suffer and die to free you from the punishment you deserve.”
And the Jews stumble over the cross. The Greeks think the cross is foolishness. Where to you stand? How in the world can abundant life come through the Cross? Put another way, “Does the Cross get in the way of our abundant life?” Lot’s to think about uh?
When I read the Bible many times I try to place myself in the story. In this story I am very conflicted. Which character am I most like, or can relate? Am I/are you more like the Jews, or am I/are you more like the Greeks, or can I/can you be more like a disciple—a true Christian where my personal life and my religion have everything to do with each other?
First if I am going to say what a thing really is then I must confess I’m quite like the Jews in many aspects. I stumble over the cross because Jesus is not the kind of Messiah I expected or really wanted.
That’s strange because the Jews had been carefully picked by God, sort of like me through my baptism. God had watched over and protected them/not unlike myself, and had prepared them to be a nation/a person through whom his message would be spread.
Why didn’t the Jews receive him? Why don’t I receive him? And the text lays bare the truth. Because the “Jews demand miraculous signs…in other words I demand miracles on my behalf.” Now the amazing thing here is that Jesus did perform miraculous signs…giving sight to the blind, straightening the legs of the lame, cleansing the lepers…he was reaching out to those in need.
But those weren’t the kind of miracles they wanted or I want. They wanted a Messiah who would overthrow the Romans and reestablish the Kingdom of David. I want a Messiah who will overthrow all my troubles, sell my home for the right price, make this church grow, you know, reestablish the Kingdom of David.
To the Jews self-sacrifice, dying on a cross sure doesn’t look like success or power. Sure doesn’t look like victory. Sure as shooten doesn’t sound like abundant life.
Yet not only do I stumble over a false concept of a Messiah, I also stumble like the Jews with a false concept of salvation. The Jews though the way to abundant and everlasting life was through obeying God’s law or teachings.
Even though in the back of mind, I realize I can’t and won’t be good enough, but if I pray a little more, give a little more maybe perhaps I can makeup for some of my short fallings. In the front of my mind, just like the Jews I don’t really feel the need a Savior—I’ll get it together someday—and so I continue to stumble. It’s sort of like that stupid cat stuck in the tree and when God sends help, I take a swipe at my Savior.
So yes, I must admit that I can place myself in the shoes of the Jews and see many similar character traits, but I can also see a lot of similarities with those poor foolish Greeks who desire wisdom. After all it is the Greeks who produced the great minds such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle most of which I have read and who make some reasonable observations.
Socrates is quoted as saying, “The secret to abundant life and a successful society is education. If we can give everyone a good education then it must follow the world will get better and better.”
Add to that foolishness and my reason tells me babies aren’t born to virgin girls. Reason and logic tells me God doesn’t become flesh. Reason and practical knowledge tells me Almighty God would not allow some puny men to nail Him to a cross. Reason and education tells me that when a man dies, I’m definitely not going to see that person walking down the road perfectly healthy in three days.
Sometimes/much of time this makes no sense whatsoever and so like the Greeks I look at the cross as foolishness. Even when it comes to salvation I can usually find myself using the foolishness of the Greeks reason and logic. After all the Greek’s too believe in an immortal soul. It just moves along until someday it winds up with the gods. Here again I don’t really need a Savior because in their thinking/in my thinking everybody is going to be saved eventually. After all I do sort of believe in a God of Love.
Sounds reasonably uh? So why do I still so feel foolish? I’m not opposed to education but even with my finite wisdom and logical mind, I can learn all I can on this earth, but from my perspective I not quite certain the world is getting any better. Why?
There seems to be this one fatal flaw even with all my wisdom I can’t seem to shake, and that fatal flaw is sin—and the cross is the only solution—whether I understand it or not.
Like I said, I have no clue where this message came from, but I thought maybe if I lay bare some of the stumbling foolishness of the world, and in my life then perhaps all of us may come to understand the saying found in Paul, “That while we are still sinners, Christ died for me.” We are stuck in our sins and cannot save ourselves, but Jesus climbs up that tree to offer freedom and abundant life. Don’t knock him down.
Folks when it comes right down to it, I am a conflicted character. I stumble like the Jews with the fact that Jesus is not the king of David’s wishes, and I can try all I want to keep the teachings of God.
I’m foolish like the Greeks to believe in the wisdom and logic of the world, sometimes reasoning that my sin may be irrelevant in the long run.
Yet once again, if I am to say what a thing really is at the end of the day I keep bumping into that old rugged cross, and I know deep down that God’s foolishness is wiser than my wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than my strength, and that cruel and simple emblem of suffering and shame is the only hope I have for a truly abundant life—here and everlasting.
I have been called to be a disciple—a true Christian where my personal life and my religion have everything to do with each other—so have you.
And so this simple foolish pastor who stumbles quite often will cling to that old rugged cross, and hopefully exchange it some day for a crown. Amen.
