2023.01.29 | Fools for Christ
“Fools for Christ”
Rev. Dr. Arlene K. Nehring
Eden United Church of Christ, Hayward, CA
Fourth Sunday after Epiphany
January 29, 2023
I wonder, what is one foolish thing you’ve ever done?
I promise not to come down the stairs and ask anyone directly to share their answer--at least not while we are livestreaming the service today. But humor me for a moment by pondering these questions:
What is one foolish thing you’ve ever done?
Did you have a co-conspirator?
Did your actions involve a libation or two?
Was your stunt part of an initiation rite for a fraternity, sorority, or club?
What would the neighbors think about what you did?
Moreover, what would they think about you if they knew?
If some examples of your foolishness come to mind, they may surface some feelings of discomfort or embarrassment--or both. If you are feeling uncomfortable or embarrassed, you may be able to empathize with the Corinthian Christians who were uncomfortable with how they were perceived by people outside of their church community.
II
Paul addressed these concerns in the first chapter of his first letter to the Corinthians, which he wrote from Ephesus after having established the church in Corinth. In his message, Paul strove to shore up the faith of the members and offer encouragement in the midst of their struggle about being different and misunderstood by members of the larger society.
Given the increasing secularization of our modern culture, and the struggles between good and evil that fill our news headlines every day, the Corinthians’ struggle is familiar to us modern Christians who also strive to hold fast to the faith, speak truth to power, and live Christ-like lives.
I’ll share a bit about Paul’s context, so you can draw your own conclusions about some similarities between first century Corinth and twenty-first century East Bay and propose how the Apostle’s message may be instructive and inspirational for us today.
Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians was written a generation after Jesus walked the earth. The Apostle wrote while he was in Ephesus to the congregation that he had just founded in Corinth.
Paul’s topic in chapter one addressed parishioners’ concerns about how they were perceived by members of the larger society, who were comprised of two groups: 1) members of the Jewish diaspora who had settled in Corinth after they were expelled from Rome, and 2) Gentiles from throughout the known world, who were primarily merchants and traders who worshipped pagan gods.
In 1 Corinthians 1:19-31, Paul readily acknowledged that Christians were considered fools by their neighbors. Paul only hints at the reasons why, so I turned to the Rev. Dr. Carl Holladay’s commentary, The First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians for a deeper understanding of the issues. (Dr. Holladay is New Testament Professor Emeritus at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology.)
Holladay says that the differences between Jews and Christians in first century Corinth were primarily philosophical. Specifically, the Jews found fallacious the Christians’ premise that Jesus was the Messiah.
In the minds of Corinthian Jews, Jesus could not be both THE Messiah and the crucified Jesus. He was, in their view, one or the other. He was either a divine conquorer who was not crucified, or he was the crucified Jesus and not divine. No God could or would be defeated.
Holladay explains further that these early Christians pushed back against the Corinthian Jews “either/or” argument by quoting Isaiah 53, which describes the Messiah as “the suffering servant,” and asserts that Jesus’ crucifixion was in accordance with scripture, rather than in opposition to it (Ibid.)
III
Like the Corinthian Jews, the pagan Gentiles also described the early Christains as fools, but for a different reason. The pagan Gentiles saw the early Christians as fools because their theological ideas had social and practical implications that disrupted the Corinthian class system, which was highly stratified.
Paul’s theological ideas--which he got from watching and listening to Jesus--had a leveling and unifying effect in the congregation that confounded the pagan Gentiles, and made them uncomfortable. Consider two notable examples which Paul expressed in Chapter 12, where he wrote about the diversity and value of a wide range of spiritual gifts, and how these gifts were and are intended for the common good and to unify the church:
I Corinthians 12:4-7 Now there are varieties of gifts but the same Spirit, and there are varieties of services but the same Lord, and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
I Corinthians 12:12-13 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
Can you hear how counter-culture Paul’s ideas were in his early first-century Corinthian context? Can you hear how counter-culture Paul’s message was to a people ruled by a foreign Emperor, and living a culture in which human slavery, indentured servitude, patriarchal family structures, and a highly stratified economic system were normative?
Jews and Christians didn’t mingle. Slaves and servants, women and men, rich and poor and in between did not sit together in worship. They did not drink from a common cup. They did not dip in the same pool. They did not fellowship at the same table. Not in Corinth. Well, not except at Church when the Christians gathered. Shocking and true. And so the Gentiles labeled the Christians “fools.”
IV
No doubt the way that Christians were viewed by their fellow citizens was a source of anxiety and discomfort for them. Like most people they just wanted to fit in. So Paul wrote this letter, in part, to dial down the Corinthians’ concerns about social rejection, and to encourage them to persevere in faith.
In verses 26-31, Paul explained that their experience was to be expected, and he appealed to a higher authority than the status quo and encouraged them to persist.
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. 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; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord” (I Cor. 1:26-31).
The Corinthians’ experience of being perceived as foolish was not unique. Jesus was also considered a fool, because he spoke truth to power, and he said and did things that others lacked the courage to say and do. As a consequence, he paid a price for telling the truth, and acting with integrity, and so did his first followers.
In a similar manner, Christians in every time and place who have adhered to Jesus’ teachings and followed his example have been considered fools. Maybe we even think of ourselves as fools, because we don’t have the smarts, the tools, or the money to take on the profound challenges in our day.
It’s hard not to think of ourselves as foolish for trying to overcome the health disparities experienced by black, indigenous, and people of color by providing culturally competent, accessible, and affordable healthcare to everyone. Because healthcare is a human right for all, not a luxury item for some.
It’s hard not to think of ourselves as fools for taking on the US Immigration system which has been broken down from the start, and hasn’t improved much under the current administration despite numerous campaign promises.
It’s hard not to think of ourselves as fools for seeking tenant protections for Unincorporated Alameda County, and promoting affordable housing in the Bay Area, especially when the votes of two--maybe three--county supervisors have been bought and paid for by large commercial real estate owners.
V
These problems are so stubborn. They are so deeply embedded in our culture. And, they are so widely accepted as intractable that it is no wonder we feel foolish trying to address them.
Yet, Paul implores Christians in every generation--including us--that we need not, we dare not, and we cannot sit around feeling sorry for ourselves. Because it’s not about us. It’s about what God can and will do through us.
We must remember that Christ didn’t call the equipped; he equipped the called.
God can and God will work in and through us to carry on the ministry of the Suffering Servant, and shake up the social structures that have barred the least, the last, and the lost from enjoying the more abundant life that Christ envisions for all. Amen.