God’s Foolishness
1 Corinthians 1:18-31[1]
I think most of us go a long way to avoid looking foolish to
others. It is humbling to say the least; more than that, it’s embarrassing and
humiliating. When we feel foolish, it can seem like we’re standing right in the
middle of a giant spotlight and the whole world is staring right through us,
laughing at us. I think all of us would rather do just about anything than
appear foolish. Unfortunately, this natural tendency can be magnified by a
personality that is insecure. When that happens, looking foolish becomes more
than just an embarrassment. It can seem like one’s value as a human being has
been stripped. It doesn’t take much to imagine what some people will do to
avoid that. And when they do, it’s not going to be a pretty picture.
The truth of the matter, though, whether we want to hear it or
not, is that we are all going to look foolish at some time in our lives. It’s
the nature of being human. We are flawed and fallible. We make mistakes. And
some of them are real “doozies”; so much so that they leave us feeling foolish.
Rather than reacting in a way that is inherently self-protective (and possibly
threatening to others), it seems that laughter truly is the best medicine for
this. Learning to be able to chuckle at our own foibles and quirks may be one
of the most important lessons we can learn in life. It certainly takes the
sting out of looking foolish.
In our lesson from St. Paul for today, we find something that
might seem surprising to us. It would appear that the Apostle knew the
experience of being humiliated and looking foolish. Except that in his case it
was a direct result of his service to Christ! I’m not sure that’s something we
would expect, especially from someone as important as St. Paul, the Apostle to
the nations! I think it might be like someone making fun of Billy Graham for
his preaching of the gospel. It just doesn’t compute for those of us who have
been raised in the Christian faith.
And yet, as we heard in our reading on Ash Wednesday, St. Paul
himself could say that he carried out his service to Christ
“in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good
repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet are
well known; as dying, and see—we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; as
sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having
nothing, and yet possessing everything” (2 Cor. 6:8-10).
All you have to do to
confirm this is to read over the book of Acts. I would say Paul knew the
experience of looking foolish to others quite well.
The interesting thing is that the very reason why St. Paul
looked foolish was because of the message he preached. He says plainly that “the
message about the cross is foolishness” to those who don’t understand it (1
Cor. 1:18). The word he uses here is the one from which we get our word
“moronic.” In a Jewish context, that message was a scandal, the worst kind of
blasphemy, because one who had been crucified was considered to be under God’s
curse. In a Greek context the very idea that one would want to be “resurrected”
in the body after having one’s eternal soul freed by death simply didn’t make
sense. When Paul said he looked foolish preaching the gospel of salvation by a
crucified man who was raised to new life, he meant it!
But while St. Paul recognizes that he looks foolish to many
because of the gospel, he does not accept that what he proclaims truly is
foolish. In fact, he insists that this so-called “foolish” message was in fact
a demonstration of God’s ultimate wisdom in providing for our salvation. That’s
why he could say that “the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and
the weakness of God is stronger than human strength” (1 Cor. 1:25). Even though
the gospel message looks foolish to those who don’t understand it, Paul insists
that is it the means by which God grants us all new life.
Part of Paul’s motivation for this passage is that the church at
Corinth was badly divided over disputes about who had the true “wisdom” and
“knowledge” of God. There were some who were looking down their spiritual noses
at the others. But Paul reminded them that none of them had any grounds for
boasting—certainly not in themselves. He reminded them that God’s gracious act
of salvation has rendered all human grounds for boasting null and void.
We live in a world where following Christ—really following Christ and not just “playing” at church—means that
we will inevitably share St. Paul’s experience of appearing foolish.[2] We
should expect ridicule and humiliation, opposition and anger, in response to
the faith that we find new life through the resurrection of a crucified man. It flies in the face of what our culture
values and sets us at odds with those who cling to those values.[3] But I think we can take comfort in the
knowledge that the “foolishness” with which others may paint us is not our own,
but rather it is “God’s foolishness” for the salvation of the world.
[1]
©2018 Alan Brehm. A sermon
delivered by Rev. Dr. Alan Brehm on 3/4/2018 at Hickman Presbyterian Church,
Hickman, NE.
[2] Cf. Jürgen Moltmann, A Broad Place: An Autobiography, 103-4:
“hope for an alternative future brings us into contradiction with the existing
present. ...If we had before our eyes only what we see, then we should come to
terms with things as they simply are ... . The fact that we don't come to terms
with them ... is the unquenchable spark of hope for the fullness of life, for
righteousness and justice on the new earth, and for the kingdom of God
[3]
Cf. Walter Wink, The Powers that Be,
39, where he calls this “The Domination
System” which he says “is characterized by unjust economic relations,
oppressive political relations, biased race relations, patriarchal gender
relations, hierarchical power relations, and the use of violence to maintain
them all.”
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