Devotional 3-26-13

Lectionary - 1 Corinthians 1:18-31

“Call Me A Stumbling Fool”

In the first chapter of his first letter to the early Church at Corinth, St. Paul finds himself in a bit of a bind. The faithful, it seems, are dividing into factions within the congregation and Paul, to use the current euphemism, is preaching to the choir. His self-proclaimed mission since his Damascus Road experience had been to proclaim salvation through Jesus Christ to non-believers. Here, however, and just a scant 55 years post crucifixion according to some biblical scholars, he is in the middle of competing contentions among those who already believe. It is fair to characterize the context of this scripture as a stage well set for Paul to designate a priority of believers or to select one group of followers in a hierarchy over another and to do some “stem-winding pontification” in the process. However, he opts not to indulge such a fancy, and instead delivers a piece of hard hitting, straightforward Christian theology.

The point of the above cited scripture, it seems to me, is made in verses 22 – 24. The division which Paul is addressing within the Corinthian congregation is the tension between those who believe they possess certain spiritual gifts, such as ecstatic speech, and those who claim special religious knowledge and wisdom. He likens the spiritual gifts crowd to the Jews, who at the very mention of Jesus’ name during His life among them demanded to see signs, symbols and tangible proof that God’s King had, indeed, arrived. To the knowledge and wisdom group he assigned the moniker of the Greeks who, after observing the substance of Jesus’ ministry, responded that incarnation, if indeed possible, must be established analytically. And, just as Jesus did at the cross when He showed us all that the path to redemption and reconciliation with God comes through divine love and sacrifice rather than human power and wealth, Paul leveled the Corinthian banality which was extant with these terse words: WE PREACH CHRIST CRUCIFIED. This thought, he says, since the moment of Jesus’ resurrection has been hard for mere humans to understand. These words are counterintuitive. They were a stumbling block for the Jews. They were foolishness to the Gentiles. Yet they are the essence of faith and the keys to the Kingdom. They are words beyond all other words and they transport those who believe in them to a place beyond all other places.

It is the Tuesday of Holy week. WE followers of Jesus, having hailed our King with palms and coats upon the ground just two days ago, are beginning to grow faint of heart. Why is he acting this way? Where is this all going? Why is He not do the things we think He should do? And why, 2000 years later, are we still living our lives as stumbling fools?

Tom Craig