The world’s wisdom and God’s foolishness

Sermon for Midweek of Judica

Genesis 12:1-3  +  1 Corinthians 1:18-31

Genesis 12:1-3

¹ Now the LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country and your relatives and your father’s house for a land that I will show you. ² I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great; and you will be a blessing: ³ I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. And in you all families of the earth will be blessed.”

1 Corinthians 1:18-31

¹⁸ For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ¹⁹ For it is written, “I will cause the wisdom of the wise to perish, and I will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.” ²⁰ Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? ²¹ For since by the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know God, it pleased God by the foolishness of the preaching to save those who believe. ²² For the Jews ask for a sign, and the Greeks seek wisdom: ²³ But we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness. ²⁴ But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, we preach Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵ Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. ²⁶

Consider your calling, brothers: not many wise men according to the flesh are called, not many mighty, not many noble. ²⁷ But God has chosen the foolish things of the world in order to shame the wise. God has chosen the weak things of the world in order to shame the mighty, ²⁸ and the dishonorable things of the world, and things which are despised—yes, even the things that are not—God has chosen in order to bring to nothing the things that are, ²⁹ that no flesh should boast in His presence. ³⁰ And it is from Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption,³¹ so that, as it is written, “Whoever boasts, let him boast in the Lord.”

On Sunday we looked at reason and rationality from two perspectives: from that of the world, and from that of God. From a worldly perspective, it made sense for the Jews to hate Jesus, but according to the wisdom of God, rejecting Him was the most foolish thing in the world they could have done.

Our readings this evening continue that line of thought. From a worldly perspective, Abram was doing just fine in Ur of the Chaldeans. He had a home. He had relatives there. He knew the land and belonged where he was. So when God came along and called him to leave it all and go to an unknown place, to do unknown things, with promises of great things, including Abram’s impact on “all the families of the earth,” it didn’t make any earthly sense. Such was the call of God to Abram.

The call created faith. And then faith acted upon the call and promise of God. Abram went and became a “sojourner,” a temporary resident of the land of Canaan. He owned no property—except for, eventually, the burial plot for his wife. He had no friends at the beginning, although he eventually made some allies. He eventually saw some of God’s promises begin to be fulfilled, but most of them wouldn’t happen in his lifetime at all. As the writer to the Hebrews says, By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents, along with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he was waiting for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

St. Paul was a physical descendant of Abraham. He saw how God had fulfilled many of His promises to Abraham, especially the growth of the people of Israel and the coming of the Christ. That didn’t make the “word of the cross” any easier to swallow, though. Most of the Jews, the descendants of Abraham, still mocked Jesus and His people. Most of them thought the Gospel didn’t make sense—this preaching that the man Jesus was the eternal Son of God, that He was the true sacrifice for sins, that justification is by faith alone in Him. Paul himself didn’t believe it, at first, until God called him in a special way, first on the road to Damascus and then by the mouth of His servant Ananias. Paul was a persecutor of Christians when he was called.

But even Paul was just barely beginning to see what it would mean that “all families of the earth” would be blessed in Abraham, as he preached the Gospel to the Gentiles and saw the Gentiles beginning to come into the Christian Church and so become spiritual children of Abraham. He reminded the Corinthians who had been called by his Gospel, who had been brought to faith, that their faith was not and had never been based on human reason. The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Most of the “smart” people in the world, most of the wise, most of the prudent insist that God didn’t make this universe in six days or in the order recorded in Scripture. All the same people insist that Jesus wasn’t born of a virgin, and that, if any of the so-called “miracles” of the Bible happened, that there’s a rational explanation for it. All the same people deny that Jesus by His death on the cross, made atonement for all sins. All the same people deny that He rose from the dead.

Most of the same people insist that abortion is good and necessary, and that there are dozens of genders. And it’s the same people who are telling Christians right now that it’s irresponsible for you to gather around the preaching of Christ. Why isn’t it clear to you that there is a slightly increased risk at the moment that you could catch or pass on a disease to the people you gather with? Why doesn’t the science convince you? If you must worship God, then worship at home is good enough. It’s good enough for the Jews. It’s even good enough for the Roman Catholics. Why isn’t it good enough for you? It doesn’t make sense. Listen to our wisdom!

The truth is, we Christians, we who have been called by God through the Gospel to believe all those unbelievable, irrational things about Jesus, have a different source of wisdom than the world has. That doesn’t mean everything secular science or secular wisdom says is wrong. It means that we learn wisdom from God, and then we judge worldly wisdom by God’s wisdom, not the other way around. We judge human reason by God’s reason, not the other way around. And it means we trust in God’s wisdom, even when it goes against everything that the wisdom of the world declares.

In the end, we will see for certain the wisdom of God’s wisdom and the foolishness of the world’s wisdom. But right now, it doesn’t look that way. Right now, God’s wisdom looks foolish, the wisdom that says that the prayers of God’s people have the power to preserve a community from harm. Right now, God’s wisdom, calling His people to gather around Word and Sacrament, seems foolish and harmful to the world. Right now, the world, and the experts, and the scientists, and the scholars seem to be the wise ones, while the Bible appears foolish. Right now, it’s hard to see or hear beyond the din of society’s, “You’re safer at home than you are at church!” It seems wise. It appears safe. And God’s command to assemble around His Word seems foolish. But in the end, we will see that God’s foolishness really is wiser than men, and God’s weakness really is stronger than men.

For now, and for as long as we have life and breath, We preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness. But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, we preach Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Amen.