1 Corinthians 1:18-31    NT p. or

[18] For the message about the cross is foolishness 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, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe.

[22] For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom,

[23] but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,

[24] but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

[25] For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength.

[26] Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human 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, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are,

[29] so that no one might boast in the presence of God.

[30] He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,

[31] in order that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."

[NRSV]

INTRODUCTION:

A man went on a ski trip and before he could ski down the mountain even one time, he was knocked unconscious by the chair lift. He called his insurance company from the hospital but they refused to cover his injury.

"Why in the in the world won't you cover my injury?" he asked.

The insurance rep told him: "Well, you got hit in the head by a chair lift. Only an idiot would do that. So, that makes you an idiot. And we consider that a pre-existing condition!" (1)

If that's the case and that's the criteria, then I can think of a lot of people who could be uninsurable, can't you?

As we look at this passage from Paul, we can see that a lot of the people around him thought he was a bit of an idiot, too. And if you stop to think about it, you can see why.

What if someone came up to you today and started telling you about a religion based upon the life and teachings of some guy who died in the electric chair? Or how about a religion based upon the teachings of someone who had died in the gas chamber. Someone whose followers were even sent to the gas chamber. Someone who expected us to embrace the gas chamber, too.

You would think they were certifiable. You would think they were candidates for the rubber room and that wrap around, cross your arms, house coat they wear in those rooms. You would think they were a few bricks shy of a load or a McNugget or two short of a Happy Meal.

And then to hear these same people talking about how this leader had been buried and three days later came back from the dead to walk with His disciples and teach for another 40 days, you would start backing up. You would be thinking about how fast you could get away OR who you could call to get this person deprogrammed. Because obviously they had been brainwashed by some sort of weird cult or something. Either that or aliens had gotten hold of them.

That has to be how it sounded to the people listening to Paul as he preached. Paul's message stirred up the crowd and especially stirred up the religious establishment. And here in his first letter to the Corinthian Church, he addresses the issue. Those who have heard the message but not believed say the message is foolish,

And Paul agrees. The story IS ludicrous. But Paul turns it around and redeems it. He spins it to be about faith, God's wisdom and the power of God to save us from our sin.

He says: [18] "For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."

And though it seems foolish, that power is only accessible through faith. Faith in Christ Jesus, the Son of the Living God.

Let's look at both FOLLY and FAITH this morning.

I. FOLLY:

Have you ever done something that everyone thought was foolish but in the end turned out great? We all have. History is filled with people who made fools of themselves but eventually were redeemed. They stepped out and were willing to make a fool of themselves for what they believed.

Nearly everyone thought Edison was foolish for spending so many hours and days and months trying to make the first incandescent light bulb. They urged him, time and time again, to give up and quit. What if he had quit just one try early? Luckily he didn't.

What about Robert Fulton and Fulton's Folly? Remember that? Everybody but a few thought he was foolish and certifiable for trying to create a steam powered boat. Yet the Claremont proved that steam power was faster than the sail when it traveled from New York to Albany in one third of the time as a sailing vessel. As a consequence, Fulton was able to create the first commercially successful steamboat.

Then there was Seward's Folly. Or Seward's Icebox as some people called it. His Folly became our 49th state, Alaska, which was admitted to the Union on January 3, 1959. Seward's Folly turned out to be extreme wisdom. Who could have guessed then of the oil and gold and other natural resources that would be found in this so called Folly.

In 1870 the Methodists in Indiana were having their Annual Conference. At one point, the president of the college where they were meeting said, "I think we live in a very exciting age." The presiding bishop said "What do you see in our future?"

The college president responded, "I believe we are coming into a time of great inventions. I believe, for example, that men will fly through the air like birds."

The Bishop said, "This is heresy! The Bible says that flight is reserved for the angels. We will have no such talk here."

After the Conference, the bishop, whose name just happened to be Wright, went home to his two small sons, Wilbur and Orville. Who was the most foolish? Today we think nothing of getting on a plane.

And that particular foolishness lead to the foolishness of a President declaring on National Television that we would put a man on the moon. People thought Kennedy was nuts. But just a few short years later, NASA and the American people succeeded. No one will ever forget those immortal words which Neil Armstrong spoke: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

How about the foolishness of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream of equality. The country was divided on that issue. A large part thought it was foolish. And yet now, we honor him for his vision and his leadership. And though we are still trying to make that dream a complete reality for all people, it IS happening. Slowly maybe. But it IS happening.

Remember Kevin Costner in his movie Field of Dreams: We have our own field of dreams. We broke ground there last Sunday. Seventeen years ago, 10 years ago, three years ago, and even a month ago, there were some who said we were foolish to think we could ever get that building built. Yet here we are on the verge of construction.

So, in one respect, Foolishness is in the eye of the beholder. Or as Forest Gump said: "Foolish is as foolish does."

II. FAITH:

In the case of the cross, what some see as foolishness is really God's wisdom. But then, those who believe, those who are followers of Jesus, those who have faith in Christ and have experienced the Grace of God's Foolish act of Forgiveness, understand. We practice and live in that kind of Foolishness everyday.

Just look at the Foolishness of worship. You come here every Sunday to listen to my dronings and meanderings, expecting to find some Word from God, some Word of redemption, some Word of hope, some Word of inspiration.

Then there's is my foolishness and audacity and the foolishness and audacity of every other preacher in the world standing before people like you claiming to have that Word. And yet somehow it happens. Through our expectations, our faithfulness, our openness and preparation; through the power and presence of God's Holy Spirit, we meet God.

Sometimes face to face. Sometimes in the strain of a hymn. Or the voice of a special. Maybe it's in the giggle of a child or the smile of a grandparent. We never know.

Granted, sometimes it's only a whisper in the ear reminding us that we're loved. Sometimes it's in the sounds of joy as we feel the brush of angels wings. And Sometimes it's a hard jab in the ribs telling us to get off our . . . pews and do something. But however we experience God's presence, God is here. In the midst of our Worship, God is here.

And then, there's what we do today. Today may be the most foolish thing we do. We take the cross and the cruelty of the cross and overlay it on the very substance and basic sustenance of life, bread. How foolish is that? To remember life and eternal life through an instrument of death; to feast on the bread and wine of this sacrament and remember how the body of Jesus was broken for us; how His blood was spilled out for us. And then to call it a celebration.

To the unbelieving eye and heart every one of these things shouts death, death, death. They might as well have a skull and cross bones painted on then.

And yet, these very things: the cross, the bread, the cup; as foolish as it seems, they have all become symbols of life and eternal life. They've all become symbols of forgiveness. They've all become symbols of hope and unending joy. They've all become symbols of love, mercy and grace.

And so we celebrate that event because it draws us all together; this event that somehow changes everything; this event that somehow changed us.

With a little bread and a little wine, we are once again washed clean from the road grime that has accumulated in our journey of faith down life's highway.

With a little bread and a little juice we become consecrated once more for the work of Christ.

With a little bread and wine, our hungry, sometimes starving souls are fed and nourished in a way no worldly food could ever feed us.

With a little bread and a little wine, we are taken back to that moment on the Cross of Calvary when Christ breathed those final words; "Father forgive them . . ."

And we know we are forever in His debt because he took upon His shoulders and His life, the debt of sin which we owed. He took it upon Himself so we wouldn't have to. The sinless Son of God took our sin upon Himself, so that we could be freed from the burden and be forgiven.

If that's foolishness; if that's Folly, then put me right up there with Fulton and Seward and Edison and the Wright Brothers and all the other great fools of the world because for me: "Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God." (24) The power of God to cancel sin. And the wisdom of God to offer new life and second chances.

And if that's foolish, then I'd rather be a fool in the court of the King of kings, than to be the richest or wisest person in the world.

CONCLUSION:

It may seem foolish to the world but it IS God's wisdom. From the world's point of view what happened there on the trash heap in Jerusalem on a cruel instrument of death ended any wisdom God might have.

But from God's point of view, there on the trash heap in Jerusalem, from a cruel instrument of death, God offered the lowly, the fools, the idiots, the clowns, the buffoons, the schmos, the nitwits, the morons, the clodhoppers, the dingbats, the dumbbells, the blockheads, the dummies, the dimwits, the has beens, the wannabes and never-will-be's of the world the greatest wisdom of all. The wisdom of God's grace through the Cross.

And the thing is that you can't understand God's Grace until you've experienced it. And in order to experience it you have to be willing to become a fool by believing the foolishness of the cross.

But once you believe and have faith in the wisdom and work of the cross, that foolishness leads to the Grace that offers forgiveness and new life.

So this morning I ask you to celebrate. Rejoice and let your hair down. Let the fool inside you show through a little. Step out on faith. Be a fool for Christ. Go ahead, BOAST OF YOUR FOLLY. You may not be insurable but you will be assured of your salvation.

Come on, be a little foolish.

1. Parables, Etc. (Saratoga Press, P.O. Box 8, Platteville, CO, 80651; 970-785-2990), February 2002

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