"The Folly of What We Preach"

​3rd Sunday in Lent – B                                                                                   LSB #’s 451, 587, 427
Text – 1 Corinthians 1:21
 
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.
 
THE FOLLY OF WHAT WE PREACH
 
 
Benjamin Franklin has been quoted as saying, “A learned fool writes his nonsense in better language than the unlearned, but still – ‘tis nonsense.’”   From God’s perspective there are a lot of learned fools on earth.  Some people recognize that & others do not. 
Many of our most educated people today believe that all life on earth evolved through random chance.  From this they conclude that either, there is no God, or, if there is a god, he’s not all he’s cracked up to be.   The wisdom of the world has been unable, even unwilling, to know the Triune God.  Therefore, He breaks completely with the wisdom of the world. 
The world’s wisdom always goes off into its own proud, self-sufficient, self-glorifying paths & blinds itself to God’s wisdom which is spread around it throughout creation.  Not even in one slight point does God accommodate Himself to the world’s wisdom.   In fact, He runs directly counter to it, & it pleased God through the folly of the cross to save those who believe. 
God recognizes the need for mankind to completely surrender; to submit to His wisdom & to His will.   As draconian as that sounds, keep in mind it is God’s desire that all people be saved from eternal death & come to the knowledge of the truth.  (1 Timothy 2:4)  He sent His only Son to take the punishment we deserve & to live the perfect life that we could not. 
It’s the perfect plan to save people who cannot help themselves.    We do nothing.  Jesus does everything.   We get the credit.    That people reject this plan shows the depth of man’s depravity & arrogance.  People feel compelled to argue against the love our Lord demonstrated in His suffering & death for our sins.  However, the good news of our reconciliation to God is not an argument.  It is simply an announcement of great joy that is for all the people.  What is astounding is the fact that it meets our hearts square on, in a direct clash.  This good news aims to reverse man’s heart completely – to set it going in the very opposite direction.   The Gospel proclamation fully intends to convert, to turn completely around; nothing less. 
That call to die to myself is what my sinful heart finds so repulsive.   Every man, woman & child on this earth must come to grips with that revulsion to surrendering & submitting.   We have no excuse.  As St. Paul wrote in Romans 1:
“For since the creation of the world  God’s invisible qualities – His eternal power & divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made,  so that people are without excuse.”  (1:20 NIV)  Yahweh’s power & godhead are on full display in every cell of the human body.  There is no way that even one of us just occurred by random accident. 
In fact, God created every single human being for the express purpose of bringing us to eternal paradise.  All that you & I have to do is to stop resisting & the Holy Spirit will gather us there.  In light of the church leaders’ resistance, Stephen quoted God speaking of His creation:
“Did not my hand make all these things?”  (Acts 7:50 ESV)   Then, due to the unfaithful response of the church leaders, Stephen said, “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart & ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit.”  (Acts 7:51a ESV)    A few words later, those leaders covered their ears, dragged Stephen out of the city & stoned him to death. 
That is a perfect example of how God’s plan of salvation often works.  We do not preach a prosperity gospel here on earth; rather a theology of the cross.  As Jesus said, “In the world you will have tribulation.    But take heart; I have overcome the world.”  (John 16:33b-c ESV)      Our ‘prosperity gospel’ begins with the resurrection of the dead on the Last Day. 
Now, that doesn’t mean God will not bless us in this life, but it is in heaven that we
will be our best selves because sin & its corruption will be no more.   The prosperity gospel on earth is simply an attempt to make the cross pleasant to our day & age.   It’s an attempt to accommodate the Gospel to men & to their wisdom – their ways of thinking.  God knows what happens if He allows us to remain on our own throne.  We die for eternity. 
Out of love, our Creator designed a plan of salvation that calls us   & empowers us to surrender our throne to His Son.  Our sinful nature would never give up its throne on its own. 
First, our sinful nature must be revealed to us for what it is – pure evil,   & be careful if that judgment strikes you as too extreme.   Our sinful nature does not lead us to hell for nothing.  God’s Word tells us that even our righteousness deeds are like a filthy garment.  (Isaiah 64:6a NASB)   Apart from Christ, we are certainly poor & miserable sinners. 
The good news then, is that God recognizes our helpless & evil condition,   & He does not leave us there.   Since none of us could know Him through human wisdom, “…it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.”  (1 Corinthians 1:21 ESV)  Once we recognize the evil of our sin, then God’s love empowers us to step off of our throne. 
God’s foolish love gives us a reason to put our trust in Him.   In the crucifixion of His own Son, for our evil, we see a love that is unconditional & will stop at nothing in order to draw us back into the world of the living.  It is a drastic process that is necessary for the inconceivable change that the Father, Son & Holy Spirit desire to work in you & in me. 
We do not get to God, or find the key to knowing God, through our efforts.  Rather, God comes to us & establishes the terms of the encounter in the proclamation of the cross.  Christ & Him crucified is good news whether a person likes it or not. 
Christianity is not principally about ethics, about how we live or the choices & decisions we make.  It was the Cross at Golgotha rather than the Sermon on the Mount which produced the impact of Christianity on the world.  The crucifixion is not only THE act of redemption, it is also the greatest moment of God’s revelation.   This is Christianity... & this is Lutheranism.  What Luther taught was not that God is somehow there, despite defeat, sorrow, humiliation, pain, anguish, failure, sin & death.  
Instead, Luther’s reformation taught that God Himself confronts us in person & makes His presence near, in & through defeat, sorrow, humiliation, pain, anguish, failure, sin & death.  The contrary things of failure, sin & death constitute the raw materials which God personally transforms in the human heart.  
God reveals Himself through a contrary form.  That form is Christ on the Cross, not glory as the world defines it.  That is reality on this side of Heaven, because sin has turned God’s creation utterly upside down.  St. Paul’s driving point is Christ & Him crucified for our sins.  Christ & Him crucified is the victory of God over sin, death & the devil.
If we do not have that good news, then the reading from Exodus gives us simply a treadmill religion of works: You shall have no other gods.  You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.  Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.  You shall not murder, commit adultery, steal, or bear false witness against your neighbor.  (20:3-17 ESV) 
In Satan’s realm that treadmill never stops, no matter how exhausted you are.   Jesus said, “Come to me, all who labor & are heavy laden, & I will give you rest.”  (Matthew 11:28 ESV)  Jesus’ death on the cross alone secures our pardon from the crucifixion we deserve individually & collectively.  The cross is that graphic, that frightening, that glorious & good! 
The very existence of the Cross, & of the crucified Christ, forces us to make a crucial turn: Will we look for God somewhere else, or will we own what God Himself has presented as His self-disclosure?  The crucified Christ, is the basis of our knowledge of God & how we live before Him.  In the crucifixion & resurrection of Jesus, something is “given” over which we have no control.  We may accept it, attempting to work out its implications for our understanding of God & the world.  We may reject it & base our understanding on something else.   But there it stands as a monument the world over.  Christ, crucified for our sins, that we might truly live. 
The Christian faith is not primarily about ideas or concepts, a philosophy of ethics, or a way of life, though it may give rise to them.  At its heart lies not an idea or concept, but an event in human history.  It is an occurrence in which God was engaged in the most intimate endeavor between the Creator & the creature; a battle between life & death. 
From its very beginning to its end, the NT points us to the crucified Christ who is now risen & reigning from the power of the Cross.  This is why He was crowned with thorns, restrained, & uttering those life-giving words: “Father, forgive them.”  That is how God reigns, in forgiveness, & it is His present glory.  We know of His love for us because of the crucifix. 
In 1 Corinthians 1, death & life, weakness & strength, suffering & glory, wisdom & folly, sorrow & joy  are all interwoven in the fact of the crucifix.  There, condemnation leads to justification, treason & betrayal effect vindication & friendship, alienation & violence bring about adoption & peace.  There, the world was turned upside-down.  
The absurdity of the Cross epitomizes the remarkable & paradoxical way in which God works out the salvation of those He loves.  That is the folly of what we preach!  Amen. 
 
 
I know my faith is founded on Jesus Christ, my God & Lord; & this my faith confessing,   unmoved I stand on His sure Word.   Our reason cannot fathom the truth of God profound;   who trusts in human wisdom relies on shifting ground.   God’s Word is all sufficient, it makes divinely sure;   & trusting in its wisdom, my faith shall rest secure.  Amen.  LSB 587:1.