Sermon Notes 3/11 I Cor. 1:18-25

When people are engaged in criticism, a decisive slam seems to be, they have no common sense. Sometimes that means a sense of the practical as opposed to the theoretical.
Sometimes, it means something we assume people agree with reflexively, without much thought, common opinion. II am learning here that some folks have a real antipathy toward Paul’s work, in part due to stereotypes without reading him, or in reading him, they find him difficult. Perhaps, Paul has no religious common sense. With that thought, I jump right into the thicket of his work on cross. Part of me admires the relentless optimism and promise of a lot of contemporary American religion. People need to be lifted up. I oppose its relentless feel good command, however. It does not reflect human experience. It adds to our positive thinking refusal to admit to the hardships of dealing with the tragedies that afflict every human life, no matter how well lived, no matter how good we are. We need a religious way of expressing times and situations that threaten to crush, those hard times when religious pick me ups sound like platitudes or cliches.

The Presbyterian God is rightfully big, capacious, and powerful. That is part of the biblical witness, but we are in a sanctuary that has the Celtic cross dominating our central sight line. The cross is the gospel of admitting suffering in life and into the very life of god. Luther spoke of a theology of the cross.In Christ, God demonstrates power and wisdom in a cross, in an instrument of capital punishment. Who in their right mind would do this? Paul answers, god, proof positive that it is beyond human claims on it.

Paul first wants to emphasize the cross of Christ as a gift no one would think of as an instrument of salvation. He calls it utterly moronic, to our way of thinking. Second, it wants to make sure that we do not see that cross as a personal possession; it is god’s gift to humanity. Let’s go at it this way. men and women sometimes differ on appropriate gifts. Women see them as symbols of someone taking time and effort to find a suitable gift. Men see them as utilitarian, as something needed and useful. So men are right that a blender for a birthday is useful, but they are wrong that a woman will see it as a proper symbol of respect, care, and romance, of true love. so then it becomes a useful weapon for the woman when they brain the husband with it. In other words, Paul says that God demonstrates no common sense. It’s obvious god should clean hose, well maybe except ours. God should eliminate opposition to the Way of God. The Mighty One shoulfd continue to demonstrate mighty acts like the Parting of the Red Sea. (Hall quotes here)

The deep wisdom here is in the nature of love. Love is not coerced. Love empowers, but love is not power over someone in an attempt to control them. Love seeks to bring the best out of people. Love seeks to bring the best out of a bad situation.the cross enters right into the hells we all face of abandoning the way of God or feeling as if God has abandoned us in our plight.

The way of the cross is for us too. We forfeit the grand game of power plays. We walk away from self-promotion, and look out for others.We do not apply the standards of business models to the work of the church. we so blithely say god is everywhere. The cross shows us God at God’s most divine there at the nadir, the deepest darkest valley of life.