Have you ever been guilty by
association?
I think we live in a culture
that mass-produces judges and judgments.
We consume opinions like we
consume entertainment and food.
Our market-saturated culture
invites us to build an image,
construct an identity that is
“in control,” rich, and sexy.
The problem isn’t just that
power, wealth, and sex appeal
will not ultimately fulfill
us.
The problem is that the
market runs on competition.
And so we are sifted into
different niche markets.
We become consumers of
competing fashions,
Even competing opinions.
And this is encouraged by the
way that our culture runs.
And so we become guilty by
association because we’ve consumed the wrong goods, or fashioned this identity
rather than that identity.
This group over here judges
that group over there, because their news channel gives them opinions that are
lampooned and condemned by my news channel.
I’m indulging in a bit of exaggeration
and satire here.
We are more intelligent and
independently minded than this gives us credit for.
But there’s some truth in all
of this.
We are an image-conscious
people.
People were image conscious
too.
They didn’t have the internet
and mass media and market capitalism to exacerbate this tendency.
But they still had human
nature.
And human nature is
competitive and factious.
And so just before the
passage in 1 Corinthians we read this morning
we read Paul addressing
people in the community
who were divided by opinions
of different leaders.
In chapter 1, verse 12 we
read that
Some were saying “I’m of
Apollo” and others “I’m of Paul”
And those who were
associating with the wrong apostle, who were in that other group
Were cut off and judged. (Town
politics?)
And those who agreed were
accepted and enlisted in the enterprise of identity Olympics.
And Paul gives a resounding:
“Listen to yourselves!”
What was wrong?
One of the things we find out
is that this community was very proud of its Greek cultural heritage.
And the Greek cultural
heritage meant that you belong to competing schools centered around a great
teacher and you promoted your school, your wisdom against other schools, other
claims to philosophical truth.
And Paul says, “cut that out.
There’s one school and
there’s one teacher.
You’ve been deceived by human
wisdom which divides up and privileges ego and collective ego over the things
of God.
Your school is the cross, and
your teacher is Christ.”
Wisdom was a source of pride
in that culture.
Just like for us, who we
associate with and what lifestyles we consume are sources of pride.
We claim that we are of this
lifestyle group and only consume these things.
And they are of that
lifestyle group and consume inferior things.
And Paul might come on the
scene and suggest that we consider that however good or beautiful or desirable
the things we are choosing to do, the lifestyle we are choosing to take part
in,
Are we not forgetting that in
Christ we have one lifestyle, and one supreme good?
In 1 John 3:1, we read “See
what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God;
and that is what we are.”
We remember last week when we
read how Peter rebuked Jesus for suggesting that he would be humiliated,
suffer, and die. And Jesus turned around
and said to him “you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human
things.” (Mark 8:33)
Was there a pride in Peter
that rejected the idea of being associated with that kind of vulnerable faith?
We have a propensity for
defensiveness, for judgment
But Christ offers the way of
humility, of seeking to serve,
of caring for the glory of
God and the healing of humanity over ambition or security.
The cross is at the center of
this altar up here
and the cross is at the
center of our faith.
And this is no accident.
Because the cross is, in
Paul’s words, the wisdom and power of God. (1 Corinthians 1:24)
It is the school of true
wisdom – showing us that “greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay
down his life for his friends.”
This is the God revealed in
the cross,
The God who comes to God’s
creation,
And humbly offers
relationship.
And becomes subject to the
violence and pride of human civilization.
The preaching of Christ
crucified went against the Greek culture that valued glory and honor and
sophistication.
And it went against
expectations of some in the Jewish community for a conquering and victorious
messiah-king.
“a stumbling block to Jews
and foolishness to Gentiles.”
But Paul said, this is the
wisdom of God – the God who knows our propensities to seek status, to pride
ourselves in appearing on the right side of various judgments.
The wisdom of God is to
become servant of all
Jesus said to his disciples,
“Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” (Mark 9:35)
This is the wisdom of the
cross.
But Paul is a brilliant
rhetorician – and he uses the language of the cultured despisers.
Those who would look at the
cross and say, “foolishness.
It is folly to follow the
crucified one.
That is not only folly but
dishonorable – how can you worship someone who was so shamefully executed?”
But this foolishness, Paul
says, is the power of God – it confounds our sensibilities.
But we need to be confounded
Because we’ve learned all too
well the grammar of pride, the aesthetics of judgment and divisive politicking.
But the “foolishness of God”
shows another way,
The foolishness of God is
wiser than the wisdom of humans.
It is the way of radical love
for all people,
of refusing to divide what
God made for togetherness,
God becomes associated with
the lowest of all human experiences,
So that we can see that our
hope does not lie in the avoidance of suffering or disassociating ourselves
from those who have fallen into disgrace or been condemned by society.
But Christ shows us the
radical truth that the one who seeks to save their life will lose it.
That it is in letting go of
our lives,
in giving ourselves to God
and others,
That we find ourselves and
can begin to truly live.
This is foolishness to a
culture of competition,
But I think, with Paul,
that this foolishness of
Christ is wiser than the wisdom of our culture.
Borrowing Emily Dickinson’s
words, we might say,
“Much Madness is divinest
Sense -
To a discerning Eye –”
And so gazing upon the
foolishness of God,
That radical love of Christ,
we sing with Isaac Watts,
Love so amazing, so divine,
demands my soul, my life, my all.
In a world of competition and
me-first wisdom,
Where anxiety concerning the
future
leads us to retreat and build
walls,
And call this isolation and
security, “prudence.”
Will we reconsider what the
cross might mean for us?
If the way of Christ is
foolishness, I want be a fool.
Let’s become fools together.
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