2/28/18
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.
Our Epistle reading for this week, from 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, speaks about foolishness. Somehow it isn’t surprising that Christians are characterized as foolish. Especially over the last few hundred years, since the Enlightenment began breaking out, Christians have been accused of being a credulous lot. After all, we openly confess that there are realities which aren’t included in the physical and natural world. We confess the existence of a supernatural creator who was able to make things, and make them in a very intelligent and intricate way, not using any natural forces or, for that matter, any pre-existing matter. Christians will confess a number of other supernatural events, including, especially, the resurrection, which serves as the capstone of the Christian’s hope in eternity.
What do we do with this? The apostle Paul says that all these things which our world considers foolishness are actually the wisdom of God. The real, supernatural God, insists on acting in a way that we don’t entirely understand. He creates things, declares them good, condemns failure that is very specifically defined by him, assesses penalties including death, and finally steps aside from his immortality to receive death, declaring that his death will allow you and me to have life.
These ideas may be foolishness to the world. Specifically, they are to be considered miraculous. And miracles, by definition, aren’t normal things. They are unusual. We confess that as well.
Is this Christian life foolishness? Then so be it. But it if is foolishness to understand the world in the same terms that countless others have done so, I am willing to settle for a little foolishness. If it is foolishness to understand the world in the same way that the most brilliant philosophers and scientists of the last couple of thousand years have done it, I am willing to settle for a little foolishness.
Let God be God.
If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.
Our Epistle reading for this week, from 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, speaks about foolishness. Somehow it isn’t surprising that Christians are characterized as foolish. Especially over the last few hundred years, since the Enlightenment began breaking out, Christians have been accused of being a credulous lot. After all, we openly confess that there are realities which aren’t included in the physical and natural world. We confess the existence of a supernatural creator who was able to make things, and make them in a very intelligent and intricate way, not using any natural forces or, for that matter, any pre-existing matter. Christians will confess a number of other supernatural events, including, especially, the resurrection, which serves as the capstone of the Christian’s hope in eternity.
What do we do with this? The apostle Paul says that all these things which our world considers foolishness are actually the wisdom of God. The real, supernatural God, insists on acting in a way that we don’t entirely understand. He creates things, declares them good, condemns failure that is very specifically defined by him, assesses penalties including death, and finally steps aside from his immortality to receive death, declaring that his death will allow you and me to have life.
These ideas may be foolishness to the world. Specifically, they are to be considered miraculous. And miracles, by definition, aren’t normal things. They are unusual. We confess that as well.
Is this Christian life foolishness? Then so be it. But it if is foolishness to understand the world in the same terms that countless others have done so, I am willing to settle for a little foolishness. If it is foolishness to understand the world in the same way that the most brilliant philosophers and scientists of the last couple of thousand years have done it, I am willing to settle for a little foolishness.
Let God be God.
If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.
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