D. Moody Smith, Jr. - "The Wisdom of the World" (February 2, 1975)

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	(pious instrumental music)	0:03
-	This is the day which the Lord has made.	1:19
	Let us rejoice and be glad in it.	1:22
	(congregation singing)	1:30
	(gentle orchestral music)	2:37
	If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just,	7:06
	and will forgive our sins	7:11
	and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.	7:13
	Let us therefore join our hearts and our minds	7:17
	in a unison prayer of confession.	7:21
	Forgive us most gracious Lord,	7:24
	what we have done to increase the pain of the world.	7:28
	Pardon the unkind word, the impatient gesture,	7:32
	the hard and selfish deed,	7:37
	the failure to show sympathy and kindly help	7:40
	where we had the opportunity or fail to seek it.	7:44
	We beseech you to enable us so to live	7:49
	the rest of our lives, that we may daily endeavor	7:53
	to lessen the flood of human sorrow	7:57
	and add to the sum of blessedness,	8:01
	both in our own lives and those who come in contact with us.	8:04
	Amen.	8:10
	Let us continue to personally confess our sins.	8:12
	We have these words of Jesus Christ to rely on.	8:52
	Come to me all who labor and are heavy Laden	8:56
	and I will give you rest.	9:00
	Amen.	9:03
	(gentle instrumental music)	9:09
	(choir singing)	9:41
-	The first reading from the scripture	14:03
	is from the book of Jonah,	14:04
	chapter three verses one through five.	14:06
	Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time	14:09
	saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city,	14:12
	and proclaim to it the message that I tell you."	14:16
	So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh	14:19
	according to the word of the Lord.	14:22
	Now, Nineveh was an exceedingly great city,	14:24
	three days journey in breadth.	14:26
	Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey,	14:28
	And he cried, "Yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown."	14:32
	And the people of Nineveh believed God.	14:37
	They proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth	14:39
	from the greatest of them to the least of them.	14:42
	The congregation will stand for the reading of the gospel.	14:46
	The gospel is from John 12, verses 12 through 36.	14:58
	Now among those who went up to worship at the feast	15:03
	were some Greeks.	15:06
	So these came to Philip who was from Bethsaida in Galilee	15:07
	and said to him, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus."	15:11
	Philip went and told Andrew.	15:16
	Andrew went with Phillip and they told Jesus,	15:18
	and Jesus answered them, "The hour has come	15:21
	for the son of man to be glorified.	15:24
	Truly, truly I say to you,	15:26
	unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies,	15:29
	it remains alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit.	15:32
	He who loves his life, loses it.	15:37
	And he who hates his life in this world	15:40
	will keep it for eternal life.	15:42
	If anyone serves me, he must follow me,	15:45
	and where I am, there shall my servant be also.	15:48
	If anyone serves me, the father will honor him.	15:53
	Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say,	15:57
	father save me from this hour.	16:01
	No, for this purpose I have come to this hour.	16:04
	Father glorify thy name."	16:08
	Then a voice came from heaven,	16:11
	"I have glorified it and I will glorify it again."	16:13
	The crowd standing by heard it	16:17
	and said that it had thundered.	16:19
	Others said an angel has spoken to him.	16:21
	Jesus answered, "This voice has come for your sake	16:24
	not for mine.	16:28
	Now is the judgment of this world.	16:29
	Now shall the ruler of this world be cast out.	16:31
	And I, when I am lifted up from the earth	16:34
	will draw all men unto myself."	16:37
	He said this to show by what death he was to die.	16:40
	The crowd answered him.	16:44
	"We have heard from the law that the Christ remains forever.	16:45
	How can you say that the son of man must be lifted up?	16:48
	Who is this son of man?"	16:51
	Jesus said to them, "The light is with you	16:53
	for a little longer.	16:57
	Walk while you have the light,	16:59
	lest the darkness overtake you.	17:00
	He who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes.	17:02
	While you have the light, believe in the light	17:06
	that you may become sons of light."	17:09
	May the Lord give his blessing	17:12
	upon this reading of his word.	17:14
	(lively instrumental music)	17:17
	(congregation singing harmoniously)	17:26
-	Let us corporately affirm our faith.	18:02
-	We are not alone.	18:06
	We live in God's world.	18:08
	We believe in God who has created and is creating,	18:11
	who has come in the true man Jesus	18:17
	to reconcile and make new,	18:20
	who works in us and others by his spirit.	18:23
	We trust him.	18:27
	He calls us to be his church, to celebrate his presence,	18:29
	to love and serve others, to seek justice and resist evil,	18:35
	to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen.	18:41
	Our judge and our hope.	18:45
	In life, in death, in life beyond death,	18:48
	God is with us, we are not alone.	18:52
	Thanks be to God.	18:56
-	The Lord be with you.	18:59
-	And with your spirit.	19:01
-	Let us pray.	19:03
	All mighty and most merciful God,	19:13
	we give thanks to you for the light of another day,	19:16
	for the work we have to do,	19:20
	for the opportunity to serve you in the various ways we can,	19:23
	and for the strength and health you give us	19:28
	that enables us to do the things you desire of us.	19:30
	We thank you for this beautiful house of worship,	19:35
	for the choir that sings your praises,	19:38
	for the preacher who proclaims your gospel,	19:42
	and for all those who make it possible	19:45
	for us to renew our spirits and our dedication	19:47
	to your service here each week.	19:51
	Guide us we pray by your truth, uphold us by your power,	19:54
	and purify us by the continual indwelling of your spirit.	20:00
	Grant that in every circumstance we may grow in wisdom,	20:06
	and knowing that you are with us,	20:11
	obtain strength to persevere in all our endeavors.	20:14
	Oh Lord who feels the pain of the world,	20:19
	look down upon all sick and suffering persons.	20:22
	Have compassion on all those	20:27
	whose hearts are touched with sorrow	20:29
	and whose bodies are beset with illness,	20:31
	and fill them with your love,	20:35
	that in the midst of their pain	20:37
	they may find your presence and comfort.	20:39
	To doctors and nurses, grant healing hands and tender hearts	20:43
	that they may treat the whole person,	20:48
	and give health again in body and in soul	20:51
	to all of us, your children.	20:55
	Almighty God the source of all wisdom,	20:58
	who knows our needs before we ask	21:01
	and our ignorance in asking for the wrong things,	21:05
	we beseech you to have compassion on our weaknesses	21:09
	and those things which for our unworthiness we dare not ask,	21:13
	and for our blindness we cannot ask, see fit to grant us	21:18
	for the sake of your son, Jesus Christ.	21:23
	Oh God who has made us messengers of peace	21:28
	in a world of strife,	21:30
	and messengers of strife in a world of false peace,	21:33
	grant us the grace to be the instruments of your love	21:38
	and its work of healing and judgment,	21:41
	and enable us to carry out your commission to us,	21:44
	to proclaim forgiveness and condemnation,	21:48
	deliverance to the captive and captivity to the proud.	21:52
	Give us the patience of those who understand	21:57
	and the impatience of those who love,	22:00
	that the might of your gentleness may work through us	22:03
	and the mercy of your wrath may speak through us.	22:07
	Make our hands strong, make our voices clear.	22:12
	Give us humility with firmness and insight with passion	22:17
	that we may fight not to conquer but to redeem	22:22
	as did your son and our Lord	22:27
	who taught us to pray together.	22:29
	Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.	22:32
	Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth	22:38
	as it is in heaven.	22:42
	Give us this day our daily bread	22:45
	and forgive us our trespasses	22:48
	as we forgive those who trespass against us.	22:50
	And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.	22:54
	For thy is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.	22:59
	Amen.	23:04
	I would like to call your attention	23:07
	to one change in our order of worship.	23:08
	After the recessional hymn, as is our practice here,	23:14
	the congregation will be seated.	23:18
	There will then be a few moments for personal meditation.	23:21
	During this period,	23:26
	you may reflect upon the message that has been proclaimed,	23:27
	you may continue your own personal prayers to God,	23:31
	you may use these few moments in whatever way you wish.	23:36
	However you choose to use them,	23:42
	we hope that these few moments before leaving the chapel	23:44
	will become a meaningful part	23:50
	of the worship experience for you.	23:52
	The preacher who is scheduled to deliver the sermon today	23:57
	is the Rev. Robert Young, minister to the university.	24:01
	Unfortunately, Mr. Young is fighting the last rounds	24:05
	of a successful battle against the flu,	24:10
	and we wish to him a speedy and complete recovery.	24:14
	We are indeed fortunate to have for the preacher today,	24:19
	a man that many of you have had in the chapel before,	24:23
	a well-known scholar, an excellent teacher,	24:29
	an able administrator, and to many of us, a good friend,	24:35
	the Director of Graduate Studies	24:41
	in the Department of Religion,	24:44
	and Professor of New Testament interpretation	24:46
	in The Divinity School.	24:49
	We are very happy to welcome to our pulpit today,	24:51
	the Reverend Dr. D. Moody Smith Jr.	24:54
	preaching on the wisdom of God.	24:58
-	Thank you friend.	25:16
	Let us pray.	25:19
	May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts	25:24
	be acceptable in thy sight,	25:27
	Oh Lord, our strength and our redeemer.	25:30
	Amen.	25:35
	The epistle lesson for this fourth Sunday in epiphany	25:43
	is taken from 1st Corinthians.	25:49
	We shall read that lesson in due course,	25:55
	but before we do, we might remind ourselves that	25:58
	when Paul wrote the words of this text,	26:01
	indeed when he wrote 1st Corinthians,	26:05
	he didn't realize that he was writing for the New Testament.	26:09
	Otherwise, he might've said to his friend Sosthenes,	26:14
	"Fetch the stylists and preparers oh boy,	26:18
	I feel another divine inspiration coming on."	26:22
	Or "Go to Sosthenes, I need to dictate some holy scripture	26:26
	before coffee this morning."	26:30
	No, Paul wrote instead,	26:34
	to straighten out a very messy situation	26:36
	at the church in Corinth, which he himself had founded.	26:39
	Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus three of his friends,	26:45
	had brought word from Corinth of chaos at love feasts,	26:49
	sexual promiscuity, personality quarrels,	26:54
	and rival claims of superior knowledge or wisdom	26:59
	among different groups in the Corinthian church.	27:03
	Cliques were apparently forming around the names	27:08
	or under the banners of such well-known people	27:11
	as Peter, the prince of the apostle, Apollos,	27:14
	the silver tongued biblical scholar from Alexandria	27:18
	and even Paul himself.	27:22
	While this was going on, some probably the more obnoxious,	27:25
	rose above the strive claiming, "We belong only to Christ."	27:29
	In astonishment that such partisanship,	27:36
	Paul asks, "Was I crucified for you.	27:39
	Were you baptized in the name of Paul?"	27:44
	And then he reflects,	27:48
	I thank God that I baptized only a few of you.	27:49
	And he goes on, "God did not send me to baptize	27:53
	but to preach the gospel.	27:57
	And not in sophisticated talk,	27:59
	lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power."	28:02
	And so we get to our text,	28:09
	Paul meditates on what God has commissioned him to do.	28:12
	And as he does so, he brings forth once again,	28:17
	the burden or central message of his preaching.	28:20
	If Paul did not actually preach in the way he writes,	28:24
	this is clearly what he thought his preaching was all about.	28:29
	And it is entirely fitting	28:32
	that this lesson should be appointed	28:34
	for the fourth Sunday of epiphany,	28:36
	the time when we celebrate the revealing,	28:39
	the manifestation of Christ,	28:42
	for this small specimen of Paul's preaching	28:46
	speaks directly to the question	28:49
	of how Christ makes himself manifest.	28:51
	Paul writes, "For the word of the cross is folly	28:56
	to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved,	29:00
	it is the power of God.	29:05
	For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise	29:08
	and the cleverness of the clever I will thwart."	29:12
	Where is the wise man?	29:16
	Where is the scribe?	29:17
	Where is the debater of this age?	29:19
	Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?	29:23
	For since in the wisdom of God,	29:27
	the world did not know God through wisdom,	29:29
	it pleased God through the folly of what we preach	29:31
	to save those who believe.	29:34
	For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom,	29:37
	but we preach Christ crucified,	29:40
	a stumbling block to Greeks and folly to Gentiles,	29:43
	but to those who are called both Jews and Greeks,	29:47
	Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.	29:50
	For the foolishness of God is wiser than man,	29:54
	and the weakness of God is stronger than man.	29:58
	For consider your call brethren,	30:03
	not many of you were wise according to worldly standards,	30:05
	not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth,	30:09
	but God chose what is foolish in the world	30:13
	to shame the wise,	30:16
	God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong,	30:18
	God chose what is low and despised in the world	30:22
	even things that are not,	30:25
	to bring to nothing things that are	30:27
	so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.	30:30
	He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus	30:35
	whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness,	30:39
	and sanctification and redemption.	30:43
	Therefore, as it is written,	30:46
	let him who boasts boast of the Lord.	30:49
	Now there are a couple, several easy ways	30:54
	to explain this text and in doing so	30:57
	really discount what Paul writes.	31:00
	One can observe that Paul was only so right	31:04
	in pointing to the lowly state of the Corinthian Christians	31:06
	in order to claim that God, as he says,	31:10
	chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise,	31:13
	what is weak in the world to shame the strong.	31:17
	As a group, the earliest Christians	31:21
	did not represent the highest levels	31:23
	of cultural or political achievement in the ancient world.	31:25
	Paul knew their weaknesses, their inadequacies,	31:30
	and their moral laxity only too well	31:32
	as this very letter reveals.	31:35
	What is more of the Christ he proclaimed	31:38
	fits rather well into this picture.	31:40
	Since he was crucified as a criminal, a subversive,	31:43
	a potential menace.	31:47
	It took a colossal faith or a colossal effrontery	31:49
	to believe that through the death	31:54
	of a young Jewish rabbi and prophet,	31:55
	and for the sake of the likes of the Corinthian Christians,	31:58
	God was making salvation known.	32:02
	One could say cynically that in order to make such claims,	32:05
	Paul found it expedient to imply that	32:09
	all ordinary human standards of judgment	32:12
	had been stood on their head.	32:15
	They would have to be.	32:18
	And yet another level, one might raillery agree	32:22
	that Paul's preaching, if not itself folly,	32:25
	has certainly resulted in a good bit of foolishness.	32:29
	If you read the church page on Saturdays	32:33
	or watch television on Sunday morning,	32:37
	you may find some good reason to believe	32:41
	that the preaching of Jesus Christ was and is foolishness.	32:43
	In fact, Paul's characterization	32:50
	of his preaching as foolishness	32:53
	has been taken to justify sheer fatuousness and crudity	32:56
	in the proclamation of the gospel,	33:01
	and to such an extent that the word gospel itself	33:04
	jars the sensibilities of many people.	33:08
	Paul's flat assertion that the word of the cross	33:12
	is folly to those who are perishing has led some Christians	33:15
	to take the cheap route of denouncing as lost	33:19
	anyone who criticizes them for just being plain silly.	33:23
	Paul does not however,	33:30
	think that his preaching really is sheer nonsense.	33:33
	It is foolishness only by the standards	33:38
	of this world's wisdom.	33:41
	To the man who is proud of his religion or his intelligence,	33:43
	that is to the Jew and to the Greek,	33:48
	to you and me in our everyday pursuits,	33:51
	the preaching of the cross is a stumbling block and folly.	33:55
	To the church as a well-established religious organization	34:00
	of respectable morally self-sufficient people,	34:03
	the cross is a scandal.	34:06
	To the intellectual communities of men and women who know,	34:09
	and in their knowledge and wisdom	34:13
	possess power to determine their own destinies	34:15
	and the destinies of others, the cross is folly.	34:17
	It seems to be the negation or denial	34:24
	of the power that this world's wisdom brings.	34:27
	To the world, that is to the totality of human enterprises	34:32
	and ambitions organized as ends in themselves,	34:36
	the cross of Christ is judgment.	34:40
	It is the foolishness and weakness of God,	34:43
	but it is stronger than men.	34:47
	It overcomes the world, or so the New Testament claims.	34:51
	If Nietzsche resented and rejected Christianity,	35:00
	he perhaps understood it better	35:06
	than many who give it nominal allegiance.	35:09
	He saw that the faith Paul preached	35:13
	represents a radical overturning of values and ambitions	35:16
	which we so naturally embrace.	35:20
	Christ the crucified is according to the Christian faith,	35:27
	the judgment of this world.	35:32
	And as the church year moves from epiphany to land,	35:36
	we take note of the fact that the Christ who is revealed	35:40
	is the Christ who suffered and died.	35:44
	His death at the hands of those who dominated	35:48
	and ruled the world he knew, was the judgment of that world.	35:51
	But it was not the outright denial	35:56
	or rejection of the world.	35:59
	Paul balances his message of judgment with one of hope.	36:02
	He that is God, writes Paul,	36:09
	is the source of your life in Christ Jesus	36:11
	whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness,	36:15
	and sanctification and redemption.	36:19
	The cross of Jesus is judgment	36:23
	but at the same time salvation,	36:26
	that is the source of life which God gives.	36:28
	Christ died not merely to show	36:32
	the foolishness of presumption, pride,	36:33
	and self-centered ambition, he did that,	36:36
	but his cross of pain and suffering	36:39
	is not the condemnation of the world,	36:41
	which is God's creation.	36:43
	His end and our end is resurrection,	36:45
	the opening of new life,	36:50
	unanticipated God given possibilities.	36:53
	But these new things do not arise	36:59
	out of the old and tiresome world of selfish ambition,	37:01
	fear, pain, and death, but rather out of the new day,	37:06
	the new day that Springs from God given life.	37:12
	Whether we know it or not,	37:17
	we are judged by the cross of Christ.	37:19
	Our pretensions, prerogatives, and claims for ourselves	37:23
	are brought to nothing.	37:28
	But we are invited to see in this judgment,	37:30
	the end of a way of life that was bounded by death anyhow.	37:33
	We are invited to enter into the possibility	37:39
	of new and boundless life.	37:41
	But this may happen only when we acknowledge that our lives,	37:45
	that is our lives in so far as we have created them	37:50
	for ourselves and intend to manage them for ourselves	37:54
	and for our own good, embrace and manifest the human wisdom	37:58
	of which Paul speaks.	38:03
	The opposite of that wisdom, or the wisdom of the world	38:06
	for which the gospel is folly,	38:10
	the opposite of that wisdom is not human foolishness,	38:13
	but the foolishness of God.	38:17
	That is, the giving up of the kind of claim on life	38:21
	which will ultimately prove false anyhow.	38:25
	It is the giving up of a faith and trust	38:29
	which in the long run is much less promising	38:32
	than it appears to be.	38:34
	Of giving it up for a faith and trust	38:36
	which from that old perspective, looks like foolishness.	38:39
	To those of us who are religious, Christian,	38:44
	it is the giving up even of the expectation that	38:48
	God ought to reward and protect us	38:51
	for our piety and good works.	38:53
	Many years ago, I saw an early production	38:58
	of Arthur Miller's, After the Fall.	39:03
	I still remember it quite vividly,	39:08
	although perhaps not accurately and I must ask your pardon,	39:11
	but I remember quite vividly,	39:15
	or as I remember quite vividly,	39:18
	there was a scene where Miller describes a dream	39:21
	in which life is viewed as a long upward slope	39:26
	with a bench for the judge at the top.	39:30
	And after that slope is climbed with much effort,	39:35
	the bench is found to be empty.	39:39
	That is, the whole view of life	39:43
	in which everything depends on earning or gaining	39:45
	a definitive positive approval of what we have accomplished	39:48
	is called into question,	39:53
	and this is a devastating experience.	39:56
	You may experience it or you may have experienced it	40:00
	when a parent, one who always granted approval	40:04
	or judgment died.	40:07
	It may even happen after years of school	40:11
	when one gets out and discovers there's then no longer	40:14
	a sure source of possible approval.	40:18
	When for one reason or another, the sense of being approved,	40:23
	the possibility of it disappears,	40:29
	life's very meaning and purpose may be endangered.	40:33
	It so happens that I saw this performance of After the Fall	40:39
	with two friends.	40:46
	One is now dead, suicide.	40:49
	I don't really know why, but I've always imagined	40:55
	that it might have had something to do	41:00
	with the shattering of that morally sensitive view of life.	41:03
	But I don't really want to speculate about that	41:08
	or invite you to, the point is that we, most of us,	41:11
	have grown up with certain assumptions or belief	41:14
	about the value of our own achievements and potentialities	41:17
	which are to a greater or lesser degree,	41:21
	determined by what Paul calls, the wisdom of the world.	41:23
	Our lives are judged, and we judge ourselves by that wisdom.	41:28
	We tend to value our lives, plus or minus,	41:35
	according to how well we measure up to the standards set	41:39
	by the wisdom of the world,	41:43
	Functionally, that wisdom becomes God	41:46
	and Paul can even speak of it elsewhere	41:48
	as the God of this world.	41:51
	Those of us who style ourselves Christians	41:55
	may think that we can see such worldly standards,	41:59
	such manifestations of the wisdom of the world	42:02
	when they appear in inconspicuous forms,	42:06
	when people are gluttonous or indulge in outlandish	42:11
	or conspicuous consumption.	42:15
	We can see it for example, in summer homes, swimming pools,	42:18
	expensive new automobiles, trips to Las Vegas	42:23
	or other well-known centers of iniquity and bad taste.	42:28
	We are less likely however,	42:36
	to acknowledge the existence of the wisdom of that world	42:38
	when it appears in our own drive	42:42
	for professional or academic success.	42:44
	Still less when it appears in our ambition	42:48
	for the success of our children.	42:51
	But high grades, big books, professional esteem,	42:54
	sabbaticals in far away places,	42:59
	sons or daughters at Yale or Stanford or Duke.	43:01
	these too maybe for us, tokens of the wisdom of this world.	43:07
	Not that such things are bad.	43:13
	In fact, I'm persuaded that they're better	43:16
	than summer houses and social status,	43:18
	although they may not be unrelated to them.	43:21
	And if we pursue the one,	43:25
	we may even have our eye on the other as well.	43:26
	But, even in our better and more worthwhile accomplishments	43:31
	and the noble goals we strive to attain,	43:39
	even in those things,	43:42
	we may also stand under the aegis	43:45
	of what Paul calls the wisdom of the world.	43:48
	Now, this is a hard word indeed, but it is the gospel.	43:54
	And this is why the gospel looks like foolishness,	44:02
	as Paul rightly perceived.	44:06
	For the gospel is not grounded	44:09
	upon what we can attain for ourselves	44:11
	or what we make for ourselves.	44:14
	It's certainty and assurance are not based upon success	44:17
	and the stability and the approval of society.	44:20
	We must also be wary about any easy identification	44:25
	of institutional Christianity, even this chapel and service,	44:28
	this university, generally approved social institutions,	44:33
	with the gospel.	44:39
	In their time and place, they are good things.	44:42
	We need them.	44:47
	We could do much worse than cast our lot with them.	44:49
	But even they are not the good news of God,	44:54
	and our participation in them	44:59
	is not necessarily faith in the gospel.	45:01
	To hear and to take to ourselves that good news,	45:06
	we must apply Paul's words to ourselves.	45:11
	Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards,	45:17
	not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth,	45:22
	but God chose what is foolish in the world	45:29
	to shame the wise,	45:31
	God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong,	45:34
	God chose what is low and despised,	45:39
	even the things that are not,	45:43
	to bring to nothing the things that are,	45:45
	so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.	45:49
	Do these words apply?	45:55
	Can they apply to us?	45:56
	Paul wrote to people who's lowly status in life	46:00
	was obvious enough.	46:03
	He wrote descriptively about how they actually had been,	46:05
	but not only descriptively,	46:08
	for what he says of the Corinthians	46:11
	is not just a bit of extraneous historical information,	46:14
	his assessment of their lot in life	46:19
	enables him to make clear their stake in the gospel,	46:21
	in the good news.	46:25
	It is all they have, and they must not make it subject	46:27
	to the wisdom of the world.	46:31
	But at the same time, the gospel is mediated to and through	46:35
	those whom the world despises.	46:43
	Now in conclusion, I do not suggest that Paul or God	46:48
	wants us to make ourselves self-consciously despised	46:56
	before the world.	47:03
	We have to live in the world,	47:06
	and that fact is to be taken seriously.	47:08
	Paul takes it seriously.	47:12
	It's taken seriously throughout the New Testament	47:15
	and the church historically has attempted to do so as well.	47:19
	But the word of the cross invites us	47:25
	to put our faith and hope in another reality,	47:28
	a reality that lies beyond the world, but a reality	47:34
	that impinges itself upon this world	47:43
	in such a way that it always stands in judgment	47:50
	upon those hopes and aspirations and goals	47:56
	which we project for ourselves,	48:02
	or which we allow society to project for us.	48:06
	If we accept the message of the cross	48:14
	as judgment upon ourselves,	48:17
	we do indeed have to face up to the hard	48:19
	and practical question of how to live in this world,	48:22
	which for the moment at least, is the only world we have.	48:25
	This is an important question, an unavoidable question,	48:31
	but the question which Paul puts to us in this text	48:35
	is of another order although fundamentally related.	48:40
	It is the same question he put to the Corinthian Christians.	48:46
	It is the prior question.	48:51
	For he asks, "On what basis will you order your life?	48:55
	Will God's grace and judgment be your new life continually,	49:02
	ever anew, or will you again fall prey	49:09
	to the wisdom of the world?"	49:14
	Against such a danger, whether in current or here,	49:17
	Paul has written, "For since, in the wisdom of God,	49:23
	the world did not know God through wisdom,	49:31
	it pleased God through the folly of what we preach	49:35
	to save those who believe."	49:39
	For the foolishness of God is wiser than men,	49:42
	and the weakness of God is stronger than men.	49:48
	Amen.	49:54
	(harmonious instrumental music)	50:00
	(graceful orchestral music)	50:31
	(soft instrumental music)	53:00
	(choir singing harmoniously)	54:12
	(lively orchestral music)	57:01
-	If anyone has the world's goods	58:18
	and sees his brother in need	58:21
	yet closes his heart against him,	58:23
	how does God's love abide in him?	58:26
	Let us not love in word or speech, but in deed and in truth.	58:29
	Accept our Lord, these humble tokens of our effort	58:35
	truly to love as you love,	58:39
	giving freely and willingly of ourselves.	58:42
	Amen.	58:45
	(lively instrumental music)	58:48
	(enthusiastic orchestral music)	59:33
	Go forth in peace and be of good courage.	1:03:27
	Hold fast that which is good,	1:03:32
	rejoicing in the wisdom of God	1:03:34
	and the power of the Holy Spirit.	1:03:36
	And the blessing of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit	1:03:39
	be with you now and remain with you forever.	1:03:43
	♪ Amen ♪	1:03:49
	♪ Amen ♪	1:03:54
	♪ Amen ♪	1:03:59
	♪ Amen ♪	1:04:05
	♪ Amen ♪	1:04:13
	♪ Amen ♪	1:04:20
	♪ Amen ♪	1:04:32
	(bell chiming)	1:04:48
	(gentle instrumental music)	1:05:05

Item Info

Title:

D. Moody Smith, Jr. - "The Wisdom of the World" (February 2, 1975)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4gf0rx8z

Date:

February 2, 1975

Speaker:

Smith, D. Moody, Jr.

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0746
ref6693_nof
uachapelsermaud
duke:628393
dcrau002717
ark:/87924/r4gf0rx8z
0b026eb0-afd6-4684-b2df-d57e785742ef

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

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Duke University Chapel recordings

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Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

Format:

Provenance:

The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

Rights:

Limited Re-Use

CC BY-NC 4.0

Rights Note:

This recording may contain 3rd party materials, such as music or readings that are therefore not covered by the Creative Commons license indicated here. For more information see https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions.

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D. Moody Smith, Jr. - "The Wisdom of the World" (February 2, 1975)

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Duke University Archives