Lent: Foolishness of the Cross

Psalm 111, verse 10 says, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

Psalms 111:10

All those who practice it have a good understanding.

Now, wouldn't that be nice?

To have good understanding, right?

That would be so fantastic to have good understanding with your friends or school or good understanding of what's going on in your romance or your kids or your finances or that nagging illness or good understanding of what's going on in your spouse because it feels like they're going crazy or what's going on inside of you because you feel like you're going crazy.

I think we all would agree that good understanding would be fantastic.

And this says that the beginning of good understanding is wisdom, and the beginning of wisdom is fear of the Lord.

Now, 12 years ago, I saw uh the Rocky Mountains for the first time.

Uh Christian and ever headed to a retreat.

We flew into Denver when you're flying in.

I saw him outside of uh outside the airplane window, but you know, you're up high also, so that wasn't that impressive at the moment, and then you land, get in the airport, get your car, you get outside of the airport, and you're driving west on the interstate, and that East Colorado just absolute flatness goes through Denver and then it just shoots up.

And we're not talking Kennesaw and Little Kinesaw, okay?

As glorious as they are, we love them.

There are mountains.

But that is overwhelming, right?

To stand before a mountain range that is just shooting up out of nowhere on that magnitude directly in front of you can be incredibly overwhelming, and you feel wonderfully small.

It's so freeing.

Maybe you felt that before, right?

You're standing in front of a huge roaring river, you're standing in front of a big ocean, and you feel wonderfully small.

It simply resizes you in front of that greatness.

Now back to Psalm 111.

Why should we fear God?

I mean, is not fear and anxiety the thing we're trying to work out of?

Like we're trying to avoid the panic attacks, not like welcome them in.

And does not perfect love cast out fear?

Well, probably some of this is an Old Testament writer working out his view of God.

It's very possible, but also some of this is just about healthy fear.

Right?

I mean, it's standing at the foot of these mountains or in the front of a huge ocean, and you have a little fear.

And that fear is actually wonderful for us because it resizes us, it puts us back into our right position, as not the center of the universe that controls all things.

That there is life bigger than you.

Stuff you can't control, and you will never be able to control.

And healthy fear resizes you.

So all that gets us ready for this morning's text, 1 Corinthians 1.

So we're in the third week of Lent, the season leading up to Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

1 Corinthians 1 18, 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.

So this is a huge thought.

I mean, church folks like to put it on a t-shirt for a retreat, but what does it mean?

What does it actually mean?

Well, verse 19, for it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise.

And by the way, Paul here is getting very literary, lots of literary technique going on in this passage.

He's got repetition, he's got some irony going, he has some sarcasm going.

You can kind of hear it and pick up on it.

That's why he's turning words constantly through the passage.

For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.

Where's the one who is wise?

Where's the scribe?

Where's the debater of this age?

Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

So a few points.

Point number one.

In the wisdom of the world, I am never enough.

In the wisdom of the world, you are never enough.

Right?

Verse 20, has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

Now, what's the wisdom of the world?

Well, I woke up Wednesday morning and my mind was racing.

Will this sermon come together?

Will this sermon be any good?

Will I ever get to the book idea I have?

That project?

Do we have enough money to invest in that opportunity?

All good things.

I'm never enough before any of those, not to mention my mind's racing about the garage door remote controls that I have yet to fix and I need to.

And how I let down a few people this week.

And how I said that thing to that person, and I said it to kind of impress them, but as soon as I said it, I knew I sounded arrogant.

And I did that and I walked away, and it was just, ah, why do I still do that?

Why am I still insecure in that way?

And I'm just never enough when it comes to forming my own righteousness and wholeness, and neither are you.

And the world's answer seems so wise.

Become more.

Improve yourself.

Really, really work hard.

But it turns out without grace, that just wears you out even more.

Last week's in the Old Testament, but last week, David, who was preaching, he mentioned it as sort of like this hidden gospel picture.

And it got me thinking about the story in general.

So let's just think about Jacob here.

This unbelievably insecure guy.

So the story is this: the dad's dying.

And Esau's the dad's favorite.

And Esau's this real manly guy.

He likes to be outdoors.

He smells like trees and mulch and he's hairy.

And then Jacob likes to be in the house.

He's the mama's boy.

And so the dad favors Esau.

And that's the dad's issue, right?

That's not a great thing of the dad.

And Jacob knows this.

And he's just dying for his imperfect dad's imperfect love.

And so the dad is dying, and the dad's about to bless Esau.

The mom hears that the dad is about to bless Esau, but the mom, who is like Jacob and Esau, or the little package deal, the mom wants the blessing to go to Jacob, and so the mom circles back around to Jacob and says, Hey, dad's about to bless Esau.

Hey, here's a good idea.

You dress up, let's cook the meal.

We'll present it to him.

You can trick your dad.

You can pretend to be your brother.

Then, then, if you're pretending not to be yourself, then your dad will finally favor you.

And Jacob does it.

That's the thing that's right.

He never even puts up a fight.

Now, can you imagine how sad Jacob had to be?

And for how long Jacob had to live sad in order to have no issue with this.

No issue pretending to be something he's not in order to earn his dad's favor and blessing.

Can you imagine dressing up like someone and something you're not in order to be loved?

See, this is the flesh.

This is the false self in operation.

Thomas Merton wrote this My false and private self is the one who wants to exist outside the reach of God's will and God's love, outside of reality and outside of life.

And such a self cannot help but be an illusion.

We are not very good at recognizing illusions, least of all the ones we cherish about ourselves, the ones we are born with and which feed the roots of sin.

For most of the people in the world, there is no greater subjective reality than this false self of theirs, which cannot exist.

A life devoted to the cult of this shadow is what is called a life of sin.

So Merton is saying the false self or your flesh, Paul calls it the flesh, it senses its emptiness.

That's what it does.

And instead of confessing this over to God, instead of that, and living in that lack of control that that demands and in that nothingness, where if we did that, we would find life in the spirit.

We would find our true identity of the beloved children of God.

But instead of that, we let the flesh operate and we dress up like our brother.

And we find a million ways to do this.

And how is that going?

How does that ever go?

But it's the wisdom of the world.

The wisdom of the world is pretend and perform for love and righteousness, but it is foolishness in the end, is what Paul is saying.

See, the law of God calls you to perfectly have perfect purity in your heart, to perfectly love God, to perfectly love your neighbor.

That's the law of God.

It's the call for the Christian.

It's what we should do.

And to do that with no selfishness, and no greed, and no lust, and no anger.

And how is that going?

Now, the law of the world would say, you know, build your wholeness on your status and your achievement and that perfect body that you're maintaining and forming.

But see, grace is salvation apart from all of this law.

Not that none of it's good, a lot of it's good.

But grace is foolishness in this way.

Because grace absolves and accepts and deems by its own power, which is the cross, that work was done outside of you and deems upon you the very thing you're working for in the law, and that is your acceptance.

Paul keeps going, verse 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.

Because it's so crazy, right?

I mean, this idea of grace, that you do nothing and you get everything, it's insane.

Verse 22, for Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified.

See, there's the work and the power outside of you.

There it is.

A stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God.

For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

Here's what Paul's saying, point number two in the wisdom of God, I'm always enough.

In the wisdom of God, you are always enough.

So that Wednesday morning, I wake up, I have all my mind is racing, I got all these thoughts, I'm not quite living up to all this different stuff.

Some of it's really good, some of it's neutral, some of it's bad, but I'm not living up to it.

And then I hear the song my wealth is in the cross, there's nothing more I want than just to know his love.

My heart is set on Christ, and I will count all else as lost.

The greatest of my crowns means nothing to me now, for I counted up the cost, and all my wealth is in the cross.

See, grace, the cross, resizes us in all those needed ways.

It's like standing in front of the Rocky Mountains, standing in front of that cross, and we are made really small.

We're actually made nothing.

And it's incredibly freeing.

And then we can face all the things in our life.

All the stuff doesn't go away.

We can face all the things in our life, and we can even move into following the Lord and obedience, but because none of it is based on earning our acceptance, earning that favor of the Father.

It's all because it's already been given as we accepted our nothingness.

And in that confession.

That's the gospel.

The gospel is you are absolved of all you have done and all you do and what you will do, absolved of it all, because God is gracious to you in the work of Jesus.

Your sin is cast upon him on the cross, as righteousness is given to you, and that is foolishness to anybody who loves merit.

If you love merit religiously or secularly, this is foolish to you.

Because grace lets people let you off the hook.

Grace opens up the possibility for gross negligence.

Grace is messy, as it trusts and love and not in reward and punishment.

In grace, God and Jesus as fully sufficient is absurd to everyone until you're exhausted and you're broken.

Priest and author, Richard Rohr, he writes this in his book, Falling Upward.

The bottom line of the gospel is that most of us have to hit some kind of bottom before we even start the real spiritual journey.

Up to that point, it's mostly religion.

At the bottom, there's little time or interest in being totally practical, efficient, or revenue generating.

You just want to breathe fresh air.

The true gospel is always fresh air.

And spacious breathing room.

What Roar is saying, quite poetically, is saying everything is fine while everything is fine.

But everything is not fine.

And one day you'll realize it.

And then if you're like me, all your coping mechanisms no longer work, and your shame is a little bit louder than your escapes, and your religion doesn't work anymore.

Your disciplines just don't quite give you that hit like they did.

Your false self, your flesh is letting you down.

The status doesn't hold you, the morality just doesn't quite hold you up as much, your anxiety is growing, and then what?

What?

What now?

What now?

Self-improvement?

Do a little more?

Be a little better.

A list of how to be better at something.

No, I love a list.

Because I love control.

I mean, I I love getting my men's journal or money magazine.

I mean, give me a list.

I love a list.

And a list is helpful, right?

That advice is helpful.

It helps me, often exhausts me, but it never heals me, right?

Never heals me.

See, the wisdom of the world eventually falls apart on us when it comes to issues of the heart and the soul.

But now, now, as we see this, as we see that what the world calls wisdom is actually foolish, now we're actually ready for the wisdom that brings salvation.

And this is point number three, last point.

We are fools and God loves fools.

I am a fool, and God loves fools.

You are a fool and God loves fools.

The collect prayer in the lectionary that's paired with this text in the Book of Common Prayer, it reads this Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves.

Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.

Amen.

So, my brothers and sisters, it may be foolishness in the world, yet may you live in the wisdom of God, Christ crucified and risen for you, the power of God in the cross, the grace, the acceptance given to you from outside of you, deemed upon you, that you are his beloved.

Let's pray together.

God, thank you for the message of the cross that is absolute in grace and truth.

That we are not as we have been called to be before your law, and we are not as we would even like to be, and we fail miserably when it comes to forming our own salvation, wholeness, righteousness, and value.

And we keep doing it, and for that we confess and we repent of this pride and of this exhaustion.

Help us to see that we are at the bottom, and that the bottom is a beautiful spot, for it's there that you rescue as our eyes are open to see that you are sufficient for us, that your grace is always enough, and always bigger than our sin, always bigger than our issues.

God, thank you that while the world may call it foolish, and the world may want to put us to work, that your work has always been enough for us to help us to live at the foot of the cross.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.