D. Moody Smith, Jr. - "The Wisdom of the World" (February 2, 1975)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(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 |