SCRIPTURE: 1 Corinthians 1:18-31
TEXT: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. THEME: A wise view of the cross sees love. INTRODUCTION Which is wiser; to spend our time arguing with our mother or to just do what she asks us to do (which will probably take 5 minutes, an hour tops if we do a good job)? We may complain at first, at coming home as a grown adult, and being saddled with chores to do. But once the spoil child calms down and remembers that these are things our mother is unable to do for herself and she could use our help while we are visiting with our family. After all, not only did she raise us to be the fine human being we are today, but she also paid for our seminary education and housed us for free when we came back to work for the church and gave us the down payment for our house. It only took a few minutes to complete the task and knowing we are appreciated for being the good child. Maybe the next time there won’t be a complaint but just get right to it, saving energy for chasing the kids at the beach. Maybe this sacrifice is about relationships, helping each other, doing what we can to contribute to each other’s lives. It’s a sacrifice, a giving up a part of ourselves for the benefit of someone else. It is not a payment to settle a debt. It is about loving. SCRIPTURE Yes, the people at the Corinthian Church are still at it. This is the third part of the first chapter in Paul’s letter. This time they are trying to figure out what is wise and what is foolish. It begins with the last verse of last week’s reading, “the message of the cross is Foolishness to those who are perishing…" Before we get sidetracked by the argument, of what is foolish to God is wiser than any human wisdom… Let’s remember that all of this is set in the context of relationships, and that the church in Corinth has taken sides and build divisions instead of building bridges. They are practicing dominance and power over humility and love. If it is human wisdom that has gotten them into this mess, it is going to take God’s wisdom to create the people of God out of this foolishness. The answer my friends is in a wise view of the cross. The cross is about relationships. Later, in another letter to another church (this time in Rome) the Apostle Paul will talk about nothing, (not mentioned but including sin), being able to separate us from the Love of God in Christ Jesus. (Rm. 8:39) We have taken our loving parent God and turned our perception of God into that of a Judge of humanity, who requires payment for our offenses and reparations that we will never be able to afford. We have solved this impossible equation with belief in a miraculous sacrifice. But this is not free forgiveness because it comes at the price of a violent sacrificial death. Then we apply this same formula in our graceless relationship that have fallen short in breaching reparations before forgiveness can be achieved, creating unreconcilable chasms of hurt, betrayal, and anger. Our legal court systems have foolishly thought that money can bridge this gap. Money has never been a replacement for a life that has been lost. But this is how we have cheapened our view of the cross. It has become a violent transaction of debt abatement, void of the real power of God’s love, grace and forgiveness. Richard Rohr says that Jesus takes away the sin of the world by exposing sin as ignorant violence and by refusing the usual pattern of revenge. Violence only destroys. Jesus replaced the myth of redemptive violence with the truth of redemptive suffering. He showed us on the cross how to hold pain and let it transform us, rather than pass it on to others around us. Marcus Borg adds to this discussion by stating that animals were sacrificed in the temple, but not as payment for sin. Its root meaning is “making something sacred by giving it as a gift to God,” (and is almost always involving a meal.) Sacrifices in Judaism served a number of purposes: thanksgiving, petition, purification, and reconciliation. But they were not about “payment.” Rather, a sacrifice of reconciliation was about restoring the relationship (“make up” with a gift and meal, flowers and dinner. But it was not about payment or a substitution of some sort. The cross is a way, for personal transformation and God’s passion for a transformed world. Wisdom from the cross and the sacrificial death of Christ is about relationships, helping each other, doing what we can to contribute to each other’s lives. Sacrificing, a part of ourselves for the benefit of someone else. It is not a payment to settle a debt. It is about loving. APPLICATION Jesus dying on the cross calls us to a different reality, with a different set of values and different way of understanding the power of God, through love. How do we to live differently displaying signs of foolishness and weakness? We have an unsolvable problem in the Hawaii Conference of the United Church of Christ. In 1893, during the annexation of the Hawaiian Kingdom by the United States of America, the Churches of our denomination in Hawaii were silent over this illegal act. As the spiritual descendants of these churches, there are churches today that have polarized this issue and are asking for reparation from the Hawaii Conference for their complicity. There are angry feelings about how our ancestors in faith should or should not have behaved at that time. In 1993, Paul Sherry, the President of the United Church of Christ made an apology for the role our Church played at that time. The Hawaii Conference since then has done reparations with money, land and resources. But at this last Aha Pae’aina these old wounds surface as funding for a resource person specific to the Hawaiian Congregations was not appropriated. In my opinion when we see Jesus’ violent death on the cross as a payment for our sins, it creates a pattern where reparations need to be made to settle a debt before forgiveness can take place. If we adopt this precedence, then we negated grace, and have not replaced works with faith. We are sacrificing our relationship with each other because we do not see the Power of God’s Love on the cross as Jesus holds pain and lets it transform, rather than pass it on to others around us. Without grace, love and forgiveness, the Hawaii Conference will suffer a violent death. CONCLUSION Over the last few weeks in preparing for preaching over these passages from Corinthians, I have wrestled with the sacred and sanctified, Original sin and Maturing into responsible human beings, the Lamb of God and Sacrifices, Adam and Eve in the Garden and God caring for Adam and Eve out the garden and the view of the cross. There are all kinds of details and perspectives that can take us down a variety of paths as we seek truth, but one thing is for certain, God is about relationships, and all though we may hold different thoughts of importance in what we believe, God can put up with a broad range of our theological conclusion as long as it continues to inform how we treat each other with grace, grow in love for each other, and behave with manners and respect for all and not just for a few as we have faith in God and believe in Jesus. Although we may complain, sacrificing a bit of ourselves, to do good for others is a blessing. It is not about paying a debt, but about loving. I want us to see this as the power of God on the cross as love, that holds onto pain, for our transformation, rather than to pass it on to others around us…saving our energy for chasing the kids on the beach.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Pastor robbSermons Archives
May 2024
|