the foolishness of the cross

Texts for the Homily and Worship Service
I Corinthians 1:10-17
I Corinthians 1: 18-24
Philippians 1:12-18

This week we continued our study of Paul's letter to the Philippians. Last week we talked a bit about how Paul could come to say what he did about those who were preaching the gospel from sinful motivations. Some apparently were preaching in such a way as to hurt him while he was in prison. To this scenario Paul responds (see text address above) What does it matter? If the gospel is preached that is what matters. See last week's recap for more on this passage. This week we turned to I Corinthians where we find Paul laying the theological foundation that enabled him to always recognize the importance of the gospel being preached regardless of the motives of the messenger. The Corinthians passage underlines that Paul's statement in Philippians - "What does it matter, as long as the gospel is preached" - goes way beyond magnanimity; what he is pointing to is that the gospel must be understood as transcending its messenger and when it is not understood in this way there may be trouble brewing.

In Corinthians Paul is speaking against a factionalism that had grown up in the church around human personalities. At least part of the reason for this factionalism had to do with a corruption of the gospel message in some quarters of the church. Some had apparently co-opted the message of the gospel into the category of human wisdom and philosophical inquiry. Paul speaks against making the gospel into a message of sophia, or Greek wisdom, consisting of eloquent rhetoric and thoughts about Christ and God based on human reason. He is saying that the gospel is supra-rational on the one hand and, on the other, does not depend on rhetorical eloquence in order to be preached or grasped.

There is much to be unpacked from this passage in Corinthians but here is what I would like us to think about.

* if we are experiencing the gospel in its power it is because we are meeting the gospel in our weakness, acknowledging our profound need for salvation

* there is a way to speak about and engage the gospel so as to rob the power of the message for oneself and others

* the gospel must be thought of as transcending its messengers and also transcending, in some sense, those theological summaries its messengers attach to it


We'll start with the third point. The gospel is the good news that Jesus has inaugurated his kingdom through his life, death, and resurrection. The blessing of the kingdom, including forgiveness of sins and newness of life, come by participating through faith in Jesus' life, death and resurrection; the image and words associated with baptism offer a useful summary: Romans 6: 3.... "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life". Different theological traditions offer differing theological explanations, or theories, for how God forgives our sins and conquers evil in the death of Christ on the cross, how and when certain aspects of newness of life become a part of our being, and how much our wills contribute or don't contribute to our new life in Christ. When these summaries and theological explanations are regarded as equally important to the gospel itself one runs the risk of robbing the gospel of its power by turning it into a putty of ideas that must be shaped in accordance with one's understanding of systematic theology. The problem is that our understanding of theological truths is not the same as God's understanding of the truth; our fallen condition effects not only our behavior but our knowledge (sometimes referred to as the Noetic effect of sin). Our minds are fallen. Our theological reasoning is imperfect. Paul's argument about the message of the cross reminds us that God has invited us to partake spiritually, by faith, first and foremost in Jesus' life, death, and resurrection - not a theory or set of doctrines about how it all works. This is NOT to say that endeavors to do systematic theology are unimportant or superfluous but they play second fiddle to the gospel itself.

Now to the first two points. The cross of Christ is where God has dealt with the cosmic problems of evil and sin. Though human efforts to deal justly and mercifully with the effects of evil and sin are important and often commendable we must not confuse these efforts as holding the same sort of redemptive promise as the gospel of the cross of Christ. To confess that the problems in the world are ultimately irremediable but for the salvation that comes through the cross of Christ is as unpopular with the wisdom of the world today as it was in Paul's day. But this is the message of the cross. We meet its power of when we acknowledge that the line between good and evil runs through each and every human heart and that the only lasting hope lies in dying with Christ and being raised to newness of life.

Questions for discussion:

1.Read the Corinthian passages listed above. Why do you think they (and we) like to identify our faith with human personalities in a way that can produce factionalism and rob the gospel of its power. What's in it for us when we do that sort of thing?
2. Why is it important to acknowledge that our theological summaries of the gospel and our broader systematic theologies are imperfect and provisional?
3. Why is it a worthwhile effort to do the work of systematic theology anyway?
4. Does acknowledging that the line between good and evil runs through each of us challenge our thinking about how we ought to respond to evil when we see it at work in others (friends or enemies)?