Listen here.
Welcome to
Devotions for Worship where we meditate on the appointed Scripture readings for
the upcoming Sunday. I am Pastor Eric Tritten from Gloria Dei Lutheran Church
in Hudson, OH.
Thank you for
being with me today.
Okay, to recap what we’ve read so far: The
Gospel recorded Jesus driving out the money changers. The Old Testament Lesson
was the Ten Commandments. Today we’ll read our Epistle lesson which will deal
with wisdom and folly. It will confront us with a strange but common
phenomenon: that is that God’s wisdom often seems foolish to the world, while
worldly wisdom is folly where God reigns.
Let’s read the
lesson.
The Epistle
lesson for the 3rd Sunday of Lent is 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, and I
will be reading from the English Standard Version translation.
The Reading:
1 Corinthians 1:18-31
For the word of the cross is folly 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 destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the
discernment of the discerning I will thwart." 20 Where is the
one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not
God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 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. 22
For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach
Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24
but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and
the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men,
and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
26 For consider your calling,
brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many
were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what
is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world
to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the
world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29
so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 And
because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God,
righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it
is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."
Comments
It seemed like a
wise decision. People had to travel from all over the world to come to
Jerusalem for Passover. The temple had its own currency. Why wouldn’t you have
money changers conveniently located in the temple to take the coins from other
lands and convert them, and, of course it would be necessary to cover the
overhead of paying a person, materials, supplies, etc., so there would
definitely need to be a service charge of sorts on that exchange. Isn’t it
wisdom to make a little money on the transaction. After all, it would support
the ministry of the priests … or at least support their lavish lifestyle.
It seemed like a
wise decision also to have animals at hand, certified as suitable for the
Passover sacrifice. I mean, yes, the purchase would need to be made with the
temple’s currency, and animals do make noise and they have a certain … aroma …
that could be distracting – never mind the sound of haggling over the cost –
but it made good business sense to put that market in the temple … for the
convenience of those who are on pilgrimage.
Except that both
of these exchanges took place in the Court of the Gentiles at the temple. It
was in a place where non-Jewish people were to gather to pray, to worship, to
come into God’s presence. The purpose of the place makes the pragmatism of
program problematic.
And the Ten
Commandments: many of these do not match with our worldly wisdom. In our world
if you want it you do what you need to do to get it, and, yes, that can include
various forms of stealing. We ourselves might not murder someone physically,
but our anger often clouds our relationship with others … and the death of
another to avoid overburdening another is seen as good sense in our society in
the cases of abortion and euthanasia … even among Christians. And we don’t have
to scratch too deeply on, “You shall not commit adultery,” and the issue of sexual
purity to see that we have a problem with this commandment. The current wisdom
in the world is that it is better to live together before marriage, to try a
partner out, to indulge your sexual appetites beyond the bounds of marriage,
and even to use sex as entertainment as in the case of pornography.
But listen again to what God says
through the Apostle Paul, 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. 22 For Jews
demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ
crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but
to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the
wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and
the weakness of God is stronger than men.
The wisdom of God is the cross of
Christ. It is the strong suffering for the weak. It is sacrifice over
self-indulgence. It is trusting God when the world says to take matters into
your own hands. It is doing right when it would be more profitable (financially,
politically, pragmatically) to do wrong. It is humility, mercy, resolute love,
endless hope, and relentless joy in the face of sorrow, defeat, suffering, and
even death.
It is okay to be foolish in the
world’s eyes. I know that is hard on our pride. I know that it is difficult to
bear ridicule. But remember that God
chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in
the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised
in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29
so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
Meditate on this
today: God’s greatness is not the same as the world’s greatness. When we live
faithfully, there will be a sense of foolishness in what we do as far as the
world is concerned. Where does your life reflect that foolishness? How can you
give thanks for the impact of the foolishness of the cross in your life?
Prayers
O God, the word
of the cross is folly to this world, but for us it is the display of Your power
and wisdom to bring us salvation. Thank you for giving us Your Spirit and
revealing Your wisdom to us, even though it seems like folly to our world.
Forgive us for the times that we have preferred the world’s wisdom, over Yours.
Forgive us for choosing foolishness over faith. Please let your Spirit
enlighten our minds and strengthen our faith so that we will willingly be
considered fools for Christ’s sake and thereby show Your wisdom to our
neighbors so they may take hold of the cross of Christ and believe in Him, too.
In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Memory Verse:
Joel 2:13 - Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious
and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents
over disaster. (Joel 2:13 ESV)
Thank you so much
for using Devotions for Worship, I pray that our time together has blessed you
and given you something to meditate on – some reminder of God’s grace to rattle
around in your brain – for the rest of the day.
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God bless you!
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