Foolishness

 

Sunday, March 15^th, 2009

Lent 3B

Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA

1 Corinthians 1:18-31

 

“¹⁸For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ¹⁹For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” ²⁰Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? ²¹For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. ²²For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, ²³but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, ²⁴but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength. ²⁶Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. ²⁷But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; ²⁸God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, ²⁹so that no one might boast in the presence of God. ³⁰He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, ³¹in order that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

 

I don’t think anyone would accuse Bill Gates, the founder of the Microsoft Corporation, of being less than intelligent.  In fact, it would probably be the contrary that would be said of him: that he is one of the most intelligent men in the world, to say nothing of being one of the richest.  He was in on the very beginning of the computer revolution and he recognized the potential in providing a computer to every home in the country.  He had the ability – or at least the foresight – to envision a reality that was not yet apparent when he and his partner Paul Allen decided to work to create miniature computers that would be accessible to the home user, not massive, room-sized behemoths available only to large institutions and government agencies.  At the time, there must have been a solid number of critics who laughed at the possibility that that would become a reality.  Ken Olsen, President, Chairman, and Founder of Digital Equipment Corporation, that built minicomputers, stated flatly in 1977 that “there is no reason anyone would WANT a minicomputer in their home.”  To put this into perspective, DEC’s minicomputers were miniatures compared with the standard of the day – those room-sized machines that required specialized cooling systems and massive amounts of electricity.  The DEC minicomputers were comparable in size to two and a half refrigerators – truly a space-saving idea.  In his defense, it’s not that Olsen was not aware of personal computers; he just didn’t seem to LIKE them.  He could not, for the life of him, picture one in his OWN home.  So his statement may have had more to do with marketing and building up the demand for HIS product than anything else.    

 

There is an element of foolishness that is inherent in any new and unproven venture.  It comes with the territory.  That is why we so often see inventors portrayed as just a little crazy, just a little off plumb.  People who create something new have to fight the prevailing current CONSTANTLY.  They have to stand against all those around them who say “it’ll never work”, or “it’s never been done that way before.” 

 

It is really not that different when it comes to faith, to living it out and applying it to the way we live our lives.  William Willimon, a United Methodist Bishop and former Dean of the Chapel at Duke University, wrote in an article in ‘The Christian Century’ in 1982 that the point at which we should begin to worry as Christians is when the absurd starts to sound reasonable.  He goes on,

 

“Blessed are the meek. . . .”  “Thou shalt not kill.” “Love your enemies.” “Go, sell all you have and give to the poor.” Be honest now. Blessed are the meek? Try being meek tomorrow at work and see how far you get. Meekness is fine for church, but in the real world the meek get to go home early with a pink slip and a pat on the back. Blessed are those who are peacemakers; they shall get done to them what they are loath to do to others. Blessed are the merciful; they shall get it done to them a second time. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake; they shall be called fanatics.”          

Willimon makes the point that people get away with saying things on Sunday mornings that wouldn’t be entertained for a moment in the real world of Monday morning.  He asks the question “Is the world more like Sunday morning or Monday morning?” 

 

In other words, is what goes on here on Sunday mornings applicable to life as it IS on Mondays (or Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays … the rest of the week) as well? 

 

A friend of ours from Seminary began his faith journey as a Baptist, and as he has walked on his own pilgrimage, he is now a priest in the Eastern Orthodox Church.  I reconnected with him a few weeks ago, and browsed his church’s website, and as would seem necessary, especially here in the United States, there is a good bit of material there introducing and explaining just what the Eastern Orthodox Church IS.  The way it BEGINS to do that is by stating most emphatically what it is NOT.  I won’t quote directly from the text that is there, but the gist of the message is that it is not ‘the latest’, ‘the newest’, ‘the most popular’ … in short, it is not in the business of attracting the world on the world’s terms, but it IS in the business of presenting a vision of Christ to the world that the world would, by default, find anachronistic – out of place, literally, out of its chronological order. 

 

I was struck by that.  In today’s world, especially so in today’s American Christianity, it is the norm, it is the expectation that we worry about being relevant.  We debate over how best to present the message of Christ in a way that the world will understand it.  That has resulted in a not-entirely American phenomenon, though I would venture to say that the initial concept did come from here:  the mega church.  In an age of mass-marketing and size-matters mentality (bigger is obviously better), we have not only here but in fact around the world churches that are made up of thousands and thousands of members.  Lakewood Church in Dallas is one, Saddleback Community Church is another, Willow Creek Community Church outside Chicago is another.  But five of the ten largest mega churches are not in the United States, they are in South Korea.  The largest, Yoido Full Gospel Church, has, as of a couple of years ago, 830,000 members, and was growing at a rate of around 3,000 members a week.  At that rate, it’s current membership may well be over a million members.  It is truly hard to fit that into my brain.  We have friends who served as Missionaries and as Journeymen in Korea, and the stories they tell us of the faithfulness, the devotion and the fervor of the Christians of South Korea would put us to shame.  

 

The point of our friend’s church’s website and explanation was this:  if that is what you are looking for, don’t expect to find it here.  If you are looking for tradition that can be traced back to the earliest churches in Palestine and throughout the Middle East, if you are looking for an expression of the Gospel that intentionally lives a counter-cultural life based on BEING indifferent to the prevailing culture, then we may be what you are looking for.           

 

That actually sounded very appealing to me.  That clarity of being able to say “if you are looking for something in here that you can observe for a couple of weeks and then plug into because you’ve seen how it is done ‘OUT THERE’, you’re not going to find it – the boldness of that statement, the way they unapologetically stated that they are about NOT conforming to the world struck a deep chord in me.  Don’t worry; I don’t plan on becoming an Eastern Orthodox priest anytime soon.  I like the robe, but I like it simple.  And incense gives me a headache.  (Just kidding.) 

 

But that is the same point that Paul is making in his letter to the Corinthians.  What we preach, what we believe, what we live in the hope of and in wait of is a reality that is foolishness to the world.  Love your enemies?  Pray for those who persecute you?  If a man hits you on one cheek, offer him the other?  That is not, and I will be bold enough to say, nor will it ever be, the way to get ahead in the world – on the world’s terms. 

 

The nice thing about this is, we don’t live by the world’s rules any more, once we choose to follow Christ.  That decision to become a Christ-follower begins a process of renewal, of replacing the old with the new, of re-learning what life is all about. 

 

What does this mean for Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton? 

 

It means that we remind ourselves that it is a conscious decision, a deliberate choice made to turn our backs on what the world would have us do and say, while at the same time remain face-to-face WITH that same world, always keeping the door open, keeping the conversations going, always sharing the love, the kindness, the generosity, of the life of Christ, that calls to the world THROUGH us to draw people to him. 

Let’s pray.