The Church
Season of Trinity
The Fifth
Sunday after Trinity
Our Savior
Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (July 8, 2012)
Readings: Psalm
16
1
Kings 18:11-211 Cor 1:18-25
Luke 5:1-11
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Grace, mercy and peace be to you from the Father
and the Son
and the Holy Spirit, Amen
The text for today is as recorded in the Epistle Lesson
from 1st Corinthians the 1st chapter.
1 Corinthians 1:18–25, ESV
“For the word of the cross is folly to those
who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it
is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the
discerning I will thwart.” Where 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? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through
wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who
believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ
crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who
are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is
stronger than men.”
In the Name of the Father, and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit
The
city of Corinth is a place which St. Paul visited at least twice, once during
his 2nd missionary journey, and once on his third journey. Corinth is a city in Greece about 100 miles
west of Athens.
Verse
1: “Paul,
called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother
Sosthenes,”
Of
great importance here is St. Paul’s greeting, Paul was called by the “will of God.” What an awesome
confession of Paul’s calling, a direct call from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself
into the Holy Ministry. And Paul further
states, “To be an Apostle”, that is a
sent one, “of Jesus Christ.” Clear enough, Paul is no longer speaking, it
is the will of God proclaimed through the lips of Paul. And Paul also adds the name of Sosthenes,
maybe a scribe or an acquaintance. Of
importance here is that Jesus Christ appointed Paul, Paul spoke of Christ, and
Paul spoke the Words which Jesus Christ gave Paul to speak.
To
understand how important it is to speak the Word of Christ, and not to speak
that which is logical in our minds or our surrounding society is
paramount. But this is not what many
people believe and not what some Christian denominations believe. They think, openly teach, that St. Paul,
chosen by Jesus Christ, was preaching doctrine to the people of his day. They teach that Paul was stuck in a former
time, not ours, Paul spoke to the time of 60 AD +/- and none of what he said
applies to us in our time. People,
believe, teach, and confess, that we should take Paul’s word with a grain of
salt, believe what we want to believe, make up scripture as we go and
everything will be okay.
Okay
there is an oops, and that would be the “everything will be okay” method of
biblical interpretation called the historical critical method. This doesn’t quite work, sorry about what I
said to you Corinthians in verse 2, but just keep your eyes pealed for verse
18.
Verse
1& 2: “To the church of God that is
in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints TOGETHER with all those who IN EVERY PLACE
call upon the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours;”
And
just for good measure see Philippians 2:9-10 (ESV) “Therefore God has highly exalted Him(Jesus) and bestowed on Him the
Name that is above every Name, so that at the Name of Jesus every knee should
bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth.”
But,
our good minded society says, Paul was just a man, way back when, stuck in
time, preaching doctrine. Did I mention
about the Corinthians and most in Greece, believed that some gods died and
returned (usually they were vegetation deities who returned annually), but they
relegated this belief to their ancient myths and sometimes even allegorized the
myths? Allegorize, meaning made up
stories, not neccesarily true, but said to make a point to a given
audience. So, for instance, a man dying
on the cross for Greeks, would be like a plant dieing and coming back again in
the Spring, not in reality, but “like that kind of thing.”
And
with those vegetation gods, remember the Romans were still ruling. And the Romans regarded crucifixion as a
death appropriate for slaves. Jews saw
crucifixion as shameful (Deut. 21:23).
And all “saviors” were normally gods, kings, wealthy benefactors, or
miracle workers. Roman society in
general was built around power and status, power concentrated in the male of
the household, in wealth and aristocratic families, and so associating power
with a crucified man, the epitome of weakness, really made no more sense to
these ancient people than it does to the modern people of today who are outside
of Jesus Christ. Now 1 Corinthians 1:18.
Verse
18: “For
the Word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who being
saved it is the power of God.”(1 Cor. 1:18
ESV)
The
“Word of the cross is folly.” Everybody
knows you can’t believe in follies. Like Fulton’s folly, you know that crazy
guy who talked about powering ships, with steam? People with modern wisdom, brains, and
intelligence do not believe in the follies of old. Also the word, “Word” here in Greek is “logos” meaning capital “W” word.
Now
for a second turn to John Chapter 1 and you’ll see that Christ is the capital “W”
word. So verse 18 in Corinthians says, “Christ
of the cross is folly” and we are the ones who are perishing. There is an interesting dynamic here in the
Greek, as “those who are perishing” and “the ones being delivered.” Perishing
is by folly, being delivered is by power.
Man’s thoughts and machinations are folly and we are saved by power, the
power of God’s Word on the cross.
And
we are saved from what? We are saved
from ourselves, our sin, we are saved from an eternal separation from God. The people of Corinth connected with this
warning. It was a community known for
immaturity, instability, divisions, jealousy and envy, lawsuits, marital
difficulties, sexual immorality, and misuse of spiritual gifts. All topics which we can relate to today.
Repent,
It is foolishness to think God’s Word, Jesus Christ is not timeless, and is not
personal, for you. God’s Word IS for
you. It for you who have sinned by
disbelief, by misbelief, and misplace belief.
God’s Word is that Jesus Christ died for you, and He knows your pain, He
knows your agony, He knows your loss, He knows your grief, and He came here to
die on the cross for you.
Our
attempts to achieve our salvation do not get very far, in fact, they always
fail. We are powerless to achieve our
salvation. But rejoice, Christ has
overcome the world by His weakness, you are saved by the power of God, you are
saved by Jesus Christ, and yes all that is written not just in a book, it is
written in the book of life, for your eternal salvation. Amen.
In the Name of the Father, and of
the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
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