"The Gospel of the Cross" (1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5)

 

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3^rd Sunday of Lent, March 7, 2021

 

            Theologians get frustrated by the idea of “the Gospel;” at least, they should!  People all over the world have their own ideas of what the Gospel is.  With so many different viewpoints, is it possible to define it at all?  And if it can’t be defined, does it mean anything?

            Theologians are stimulated by the idea of “the Gospel;” at least, they should be!  With the different ways cultures around the world have lived out the Gospel, the depth and breadth of the Gospel’s meaning and beauty of the gospel’s expression seems inexhaustible! 

            “Time out!”  You tell me.  “I’m not a theologian,” you say.  “Why should I worry about the dozen different gospel definitions that spill out of the pointless musings of one or two theologians?”

            I see your “time-out” and acknowledge it.  The work theologians do is important for Christianity, yet I agree that you don’t have to do a theologian’s job.  However, when we claim to be Christ-followers, we accept all the to share the Gospel. Jesus does not recognize followers who refuse to bear witness to him. We understand that Jesus is not interested in believers or admirers.  Jesus seeks out disciples.  In Mark 3:11, Jesus silences demons who express their belief in him.  In John 12:23, Jesus ignores the fan-boy Greeks looking for an autograph and instead insists that his concern is his followers (v.26), disciples.  To follow him, is to share the Gospel.  To share the Gospel, we have to have some idea of what it is.

            So, what is it?  Since the first century, Christian thinkers have debated this question.  In 1 Corinthians 1 & 2, the Apostle Paul provides a foundation.  If we stand on this foundation, we will be able to live within the Gospel, we will be empowered to share the Gospel, and we will find ourselves freed by the Gospel. 

            In his work A Theology of the New Testament, the late George Eldon Ladd writes, “The Gospel is the proclamation of the historical fact and the redemptive meaning of the cross, which includes both present and future blessings.”[i]  Note, the gospel is event and meaning.  That Jesus died on a Roman cross outside of Jerusalem is an event in history.  Few historians, Christian or not, question this.  A lot of unfortunate people died on crosses under Roman oppression.

            This historical fact matters.  We believe Jesus was innocent and was God’s son, and in his death took on himself the eternal penalty all people deserve because of their sins.  So, the Gospel says this is a historical happening filled with significance.  In fact, Christians hold that the death of Jesus on the cross and the subsequent resurrection is the most important event in history.  Because of this historical fact and what it means, we can develop the mindset of disciples.  

            Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:2, “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.”  In 1 Corinthians Paul teaches on more topics than in just about any other letter.  He addresses leadership within the church.  He condemns sexual sin while affirming sexual relations between a man and a woman in the confines of marriage.  He commends singleness and celibacy, but says if you must get married be sexually active; if you must be sexually active, get married.  He gives his most detailed instructions on how to celebrate the Lord’s supper, and on spiritual gifts in this letter.  He delivers his most developed teaching on the resurrection.  It’s all in 1 Corinthians.  After chapter 2, he doesn’t really address atonement – Jesus’ death on the cross for our sins.  So why does he make this sweeping remark: “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified?”  He deals with much more than that. 

            He can touch on so many topics because he’s standing on the solid ground, the foundation of the crucified Christ.  In chapter 1, verse 23, he makes a point of saying that for Jewish people the thought that Messiah would die so shamefully, on a Roman cross, is a stumbling block. The Greek word for stumbling block is skandolon.  A crucified Messiah was a scandal for the first century Jews who had rejected Christ.  For Greeks, who generally rejected any value in the body and instead esteemed spiritual ideals, the thought of following a man who died was foolish.  And, of course, the Romans saw those they crucified as weak. 

            In different ways, Jews, Greeks, and Romans, devalued the crucifixion of Jesus, but Paul says for everyone – Jews, Greeks, everyone – it is the power of God and the wisdom of God.  God did not magically make sin disappear.  Doing so would ignore the serious offense and awful consequence of sin. God does not force us to not sin.  This would strip us of our free will and we would no longer be God’s image-bearers.  God decided to love us so deeply, our sins would be paid for with the death of God’s beloved son, God-in-human-flesh, the sinless one, Jesus. 

            Paul says, in 1 Corinthians 1:21, salvation comes through the preaching of the cross to all who believe.  Note how many different actors God includes in the process of salvation.  First, there’s Jesus who willingly dies because he loves everyone.  Next, the Holy Spirit inspires disciples to believe in Jesus and follow him.  Third, there’s disciple who preaches the story and truth of Jesus.  It could be someone preaching to 1000’s in a large auditorium, or someone sharing the gospel with one other person.  Fourth, the listener receives the story, responds to the nudge of the Holy Spirit, and puts his or her faith in Christ.  Finally, the Father accepts that expression of faith and adopts that person as a son or daughter of God. 

            Just as Jesus’ death on the cross was a moment in history, so too comes a specific moment when an individual puts his or her faith in Christ.  Sometimes the new believer is baptized in that moment.  Other times, baptism comes later, as a visual expression new life.  We keep in mind that salvation is something that happens.  It is also a process that takes place over a lifetime. 

            Oxford theologian Paul Fiddes details the way salvation is a lifelong, continuous processg for a disciple in his book Past Event and Present Salvation: The Christian Idea of Atonement.  First, he explains that divine-human relationship can be repaired.[ii]  Our rebellion has severed our tie to God.  We need the connection re-established.  That repair happens in the death of Jesus on the cross. 

            Are things in your life broken?  Do you stare into a hopeless future convinced the broken things never get fixed?  The cross is all about repair.  The cross is a sign that the love of God moves us past our brokenness.  You can live life in a right relationship with God.  With the Holy Spirit in us, we can truly love each other. 

            Second, with the God-human break having been repaired, we come into human community in a new way.[iii]  Made new in Christ, we make up the church with others who have also been made new in Christ.  Thus, salvation effects not just the individual, but also the community.  “I am made new.” And, “we are made new.”

            Third, Fiddes observes that this repaired relationship and transformed community results from a complete upending of our understanding of God.  Fiddes writes, “If God has made a crucified man lord of the universe, then all the securities by which we live and all the achievements by which we justify ourselves and give ourselves esteem, are shown to be hollow.”[iv]

            What makes us feel safe?  The American army?  In other countries, our American power is a threat.  What makes us feel safe?  Our police force?  Many people in our communities feel their lives threatened by that very police force.  What makes us feel safe?  What achievements make us feel good about ourselves?  Our salvation rests on a Galilean peasant carpenter who was crucified, the most shameful of death.  God has declared that he, not some great warrior, king, or champion, but the crucified one is Lord and Savior. 

            Fourth, in Fiddes’ explanation, this salvation that upends our understanding of real power is, in addition to being an event, also an on-going reality.[v]  The Holy Spirit links our lives to what happened at Calvary 2000 years ago.  Through the daily transformation the Spirit effects in us, the love God shows on in the cross flows through us to the people we meet. 

            Paul could touch on so many topics in 1 Corinthians because he set his writing up on the foundation of the cross.  We stand on that same foundation, live our salvation, and share the good news with people who have not yet put their trust in Jesus.  We are freed by the Gospel.  Greed, racism, injustice, oppression, jealousy and so many other sinful ways of being that drive people apart do not bind us.  Freed from these godless obstacles, we are able to live in love and to give love. 

            Life will frustrate us.  That’s a given.  The Gospel, though, frees us.  Theologians can delight and struggle in the work of defining the Gospel and our faith is strengthened by their efforts.  For out part, we look to the cross and realize we are free.  We are free to live as children of God.

AMEN

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[i] G. Ladd (1974), A Theology of the New Testament, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company (Grand Rapids), p.385.

[ii] P. Fiddes (1989), Past Event and Present Salvation: The Christian Idea of Atonement, Westminster/John Knox Press (Louisville), p.4

[iii] Fiddes, p.13.

[iv] Fiddes, p.24.

[v] Fiddes, p.29-30

The Cross: Our Foundation (1 Corinthians 1:18-25; 2:1-5)

Sunday, July 14, 2019

            Each week at the end of the message I say, “Now is the time to respond to God.”  I invite us all to open our hearts to what God is saying to us and doing in our lives.  I invite any who feel the need to come to front for prayer, whether kneeling at the steps or with me or Angel, or in the back with the elder of the week. 

            I’ll close with this same invitation today.  I’ll say, “Look at the cross and think about what it means.” God in human skin, Jesus who was innocent of crime and had not sinned.  God accepted his sacrifice as atonement for the sins of all people.

            Think about the implications.  God will sacrifice for our benefit.  He didn’t need to die on the cross in order to be God, wholly sufficient and wholly loving and good.  But we need that because our sin separates from God and we all sin.  We make choices, speak words, and commit actions that indicate we have, in small and large ways, chosen ourselves over God. That sin separates us and we cannot wash the sin away with good deeds or with endless repentance. 

The sin is covered by Jesus’ death on the cross.  We are made right by Jesus’ death on the cross.  And Jesus was fully human.  It hurt his body as much as it would yours to be flogged and then crucified.  It hurt his pride and dignity as much as it would mine to be stripped, mocked, and paraded through Jerusalem carrying the beam on which I was to be nailed.  It hurt his heart as much at it would hurt mine or yours to be abandoned by friends, and then seemingly ignored by Heaven when he prayed for another way.  The cross is an indication of how much Jesus sacrificed to help us be right with God. 

So, I will say, “Look to the cross.” 

Then, I will say, “Be fully open, honest, and receptive with God.”  Open – don’t hold anything back, not before He who sees all. He knows your story, but God wants to hear you tell it.  Honest – don’t try to impress God; you can’t.  Don’t try to be tough with God; he knows the weakness in Chuck Norris, and even he has them; and God knows the weakness in you and me.  Don’t try to act like you don’t need God.  There are longings in our lives only God can satisfy, hungers only God can feed, holes in our lives only God can fill. 

Look to the cross.  Be open and honest before God.  Then I will say, “Come and receive what God has for you.”  You might need God to give you a nudge because you’ve hesitated when God said “Go.”  You might need forgiveness because you’re weighed down with guilt.  You might need courage because you’re facing great obstacles or threats in your life.  I don’t know what you need, but God does.  Look to the cross.  Be honest with God.  And come and receive from Him. 

Studying 1 Corinthians 1 & 2 this week, I became aware of just how important it is that we begin by looking at the cross.  Paul, writes in 1 Corinthians 2:2 “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”  In this letter, he touched on marriage, spiritual gifts, the proper way to observe the Lord’s Supper, sexual immorality, the supreme value of love, and the resurrection.  In fact 1 Corinthians is the core scripture text for many of our most cherished Christians beliefs. 

With much to say on so many topics, why does Paul write, “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified”?  His Corinthians ministry takes place in a city that’s awash in competing ideas.  The Corinthian contenders jockeying to dictate the spirit of age includes Greek philosophers whose ideas determined the history of ideological development into our present age. 

However, Greek intellectuals weren’t the only ones trying to dictate the way people thought about the world.  Jewish theologians were as committed to monotheism as Greeks were to philosophy.  Jewish scriptures, more historically durable than any other writings in history, and their approach to wrestling with their scriptures – the idea of Midrash – continue to influence human thought today, nearly 2000 years after the writing of 1 Corinthians.  

One more contestant fought on this battlefield of ideas and ideals: the Romans with their power and organization.  They could not match Greek intellectualism or Jewish theology, but they held the power.  Whatever practice of living that would come out of Greek philosophy or Hebrew religion would have had to exist within a Roman system. 

Then Paul comes along and says, “I am not going to try to be smarter than the Greeks or better at religion than my fellow Jews or stronger than the Romans.”  In different ways – intellectual, religious and faithful, and political and militarily – the Greeks, Jews, and Romans, all vied for power.  Paul refuses to play this power game because He knew where real power was found.

Today we live in a swirling torrent of ideas where forces from all sides try to tell us what to think, how to think, what to believe, and how to practice our beliefs.  We have the American concept of freedom.  We are so indoctrinated into the American notion of liberty we believe it is the only way one can be free.

But hold your horses because along with American notions of freedom, we are lured to material wealth.  Capitalistic forces convince us the key to happiness and a life of meaning is found in stuff that we buy or experiences that we buy.  When we consider how relentlessly advertisers bombard us in the attempt to get us to buy what they’re selling, how could we deny that materialism is a force that’s attempting to define the spirit of the age in America, 2019?

Besides American Liberty and Western Materialism, on this spiritual/intellectual battlefield, Personal autonomy wants its say.  You are your own master and your own moral standard.  Do what’s right for you.  In the Marvel Avengers movie Infinity War, the character Star Lord is asked, “What master do you serve?”  Angrily he responds, “What do you expect me to say, ‘Jesus?’”  He goes on to vehemently declare that he serves no master except himself.  Of course, his name is Star Lord. 

Paul’s response to Greek wisdom, Jewish Theology, and Roman power is our response to the attempts made to dominate our souls by American Liberty, Capitalistic Materialism, and Personal Autonomy.  Paul said, “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing”; those without Christ.  “But to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”  He doesn’t claim to have earned it.  Paul does not save.  He counts himself among those being saved. 

We are in that number.  We also need to be saved.  The good news is on the cross, Jesus began the work of our salvation.  How, the wise Greek asks, can this one who died so shamefully save the world?  It’s scandalous, the faithful Hebrew declares, to glorify one who dies as a common criminal.  It’s weakness, the mighty Roman roars, to hang there, defeated.  But Paul writes, “God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe.  For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1:21-24).

Note, even as Paul refutes the different ways we humans define power, he invites all of us into the salvation of Jesus Christ.  In his day, there were Jews who accepted that Jesus was the Messiah and the fulfillment of all their religious hopes.  There were Greeks who came to see that Jesus was the epitome of superior knowledge.  There were Romans who left behind their notions of might and power as they, born again in Christ, surrendered – think about a Roman surrendering – to the power of God.  Paul himself was a child of a Roman-Jewish union, and his right hand man Timothy, the child of a Jewish-Greek union. 

Ethnicity doesn’t matter.  Mixed-race families are fine.  All are saved when we give up our hold on power and surrender our hearts fully to God, confess faith in Jesus and receive the Holy Spirit.  This hodgepodge of people was the New Testament church, and it is the church today.

American Liberty says our country’s story is the definition of freedom for all people.  In Christ, we claim that our greatest freedom is found when we give our hearts to God and become God’s possessions.  As jolting as it is to say it this way, we believe we discover our greatest freedom when we are enslaved to God. 

Capitalistic Materialism has completely bought into the idea that whatever we hope for in life can be purchased.  If I just get that house …; when I have enough for that car I really want; I just need to be able to retire in luxury and ease.  In Christ, we find joy in being extravagantly generous, giving away as much as we can to help others flourish.  In Christ, we claim that our money, possessions, relationships, time, and our very selves – belong to God.  Our greatest happiness is found when we are used by God for His purposes. 

Personal Autonomy insists that we are each endowed with inalienable rights that include the right to determine our own personal destinies.  It doesn’t say anything about inalienable rights in the Bible.  In Christ, we don’t determine who we are.  God tells us who we are.  We come with a story, tell that story to God, and then He is takes our story and invites us into His.  We don’t write our own stories.  We step into the story God is writing. 

Paul “decided to know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified” because that’s the foundation.  Life is built when we die on the cross and are raised by God to new life in Christ.  Standing on that foundation, Paul can talk about current issues, theology, households and relationships, worship practices, and creation care.  Paul’s worldview develops after he sets the foundation, his encounter with Jesus at the cross. 

The 21^st century has already seen explosive growth in communication, technology, and scientific understanding.  We engage this complicated world after we have met Jesus at the cross.  Whatever new modes of relationships, sexuality, and our understanding of human gender arise in our time, our engagement with the world as it is happens after we meet Jesus at the cross. 

Whatever changes come to the world in the next 100 years – it does not matter.  We meet every new idea or new way of living as followers of Jesus – the crucified, resurrected one.  On the foundation of the cross, disciples are built.  I earlier mentioned the swirling torrent of ideas and change in which we live. The way to stand in swirling winds is to be anchored to a firm foundation and we are when we are anchored to Christ.  

So, look to the cross.  Open yourself completely to God’s love and forgiveness.  In honesty, come, tell God your story and then give it to Him and receive the new story He has for you.  In Christ, you are His beloved child.  Come to Him.

AMEN