March 8, 2015
Obstacles on the Journey: The Cross
- 1 Corinthians 1:18-25
- Dr. Teri Thomas
March 8, 2015
Obstacles on the Journey: The Cross
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
I have never been much of a collector,(unless you count books)and I never set out to collect crosses.
But after about 45 years as a practicing Christian and 37 years in ministry
I find I have a nice collection of crosses.
Jerusalem Cross
The symbolism of the five-fold cross - the Five Wounds of Christ, Christ and the four quarters of the world.
Celtic Cross
It has often been claimed that St. Patrick combined the symbol of Christianity with the sun
to give pagan followers an idea of the importance of the cross by linking it with the idea of the life-giving properties of the sun.
Ethiopian Cross (Lalibela Cross)
The Cross is based on two elongated circles intertwined with each other, symbolizing the temporal and the eternal, or Heaven and Earth, or the Spiritual and the Physical aspects of Creation. The Trinity is represented by the three crosses on the vertical axis. The thirteen triangles on top represent Christ and his Twelve Disciples.
Milagro Cross
milagros attached as a reminder of a petitioner's particular need, or in gratitude for a prayer answered.
These and others hang in my office in my meditation corner.
They serve as a centering point to focus on and get rid of visual distractions.
I will confess that I don’t always think about Jesus when I look at them.
May think of where it came from- which trip I was on.
I may think of what was happening in my life and why I was drawn to it.
On my cynical days I find myself wondering
how this became such a beloved symbol of our faith.
We use them as decorations.
We wear them as jewelry.
It is actually a symbol of torture and death.
The cross was a lousy marketing tool in the first century world.
It was the enactment of capital punishment by the forces of the Roman Empire.
It was reserved for those disreputable individuals
who had threatened the divinely sanctioned social order of the Empire.
As a public spectacle,
crucifixion was an act geared to shame its victims
through degradation, humiliation, and torture.
At the same time, it was a political statement
which declared that all who threatened the imperial social order
would find themselves on the next cross.
The cross represented shame, guilt, weakness, and failure.
So how does a cross that represented defeat –
turn into a symbol of victory?
So how does a cross that represented guilt –
turn into the symbol for grace?
So how does a cross that represented condemnation –
turn into a symbol of freedom?
So how does a cross that represented pain and suffering –
turn into symbol of healing and hope?
So how does a cross that represented death –
turn into a symbol of life?
Even the Apostle Paul knew it didn’t make much sense.
Paul told the Corinthians-
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.
In thirteen verses, Paul uses the Greek word for "foolishness" six times.
The church in Corinth was fighting amongst itself.
Different leaders thought they had the corner on the truth
and were all speaking out against other church leaders.
Folks argued over who had the right gospel,
about whose interpretation of the cross was flawed.
Then Paul comes along and says, "No no, you’ve got it all wrong.
This is not about you and your petty arguments.
You’re too focused on human wisdom.
The true gospel is about the power of Christ and the wisdom of God."
Paul says the cross is foolishness.
Foolishness?
Don’t most of us fear foolishness?
We like things decent and in order.
we color inside the lines;
we enjoy a well-organized program;
we value balanced budgets, logic, and tradition.
Let’s be honest, none of us likes to be thought of as foolish.
But Paul writes of a wisdom of God that is inherently un-comfortable,
up-setting,
improper.
God’s wisdom, turns upside-down everything we thought we knew about the world.
Paul said it is all foolishness.
Foolishness: God came to willingly accept torture and execution.
Foolishness: God showed love not by beating humanity, but by showing us the peaceful way to live.
Foolishness: God takes the human understandings of what is godly —
strength, power, supposed superiority—
and replaces them with love and grace.
Such foolishness is shocking.
And so Kierkegaard could say, “Christianity has taken a giant stride into the absurd,”
and, “Remove from Christianity its ability to shock and it is altogether destroyed.
It then becomes a tiny superficial thing,
capable neither of inflicting deep wounds nor of healing them.”
If God were smart, then God would have understood
that people would be much more open to the divine plan
if it unfolded through rational, sensible, expected means.
But God foolishly incorporates weakness and humility and suffering and a cross
into the way of salvation and new life.
Claiming weakness as a strength and imperfections as possibilities?
New life through suffering and salvation through a cross?
Who is ever going to believe that?
Yet Scripture is full of examples of people who learned the truth.
• Abraham was old
• Jacob was insecure
• Moses stuttered
• Samson was proud
• Rahab was immoral
• Elijah was suicidal
• Jeremiah was depressed
• Jonah was disobedient
- Mary was pregnant out of wedlock
• John the Baptist was eccentric
• Peter was impulsive
• Martha was a worrier
• Zacchaeus was unpopular
• Thomas had doubts
• Paul had poor health
• Timothy was timid.
We can go on and on with people
who discovered that weakness is strength.
Demonstrating that God can do for us, what God in Christ did for the cross.
From the foolishness of the cross there radiates power.
The true test of the cross is what the cross has done.
It has been said that the cross is not a symbol, it is an act –
it is God's conquering presence in the world that God has made.
Think of the power generated by that act on Calvary!
Think of what it has done for so many lives, in so many different places.
It has accomplished things that no human being could ever accomplish alone.
It has brought people who were as good as dead back to life –
no, not even back to life, but to a real life such as they had never known.
It has broken down prejudice.
It has brought forgiveness where there had been grudges cherished for years and years.
It has brought spirit back into the most weary
and hope to the most hopeless
and comfort to the most grieving.
That is the power that the foolishness of the cross radiates.
If that is foolishness, then please God, let us be fools!
Do in our hearts what you did for the cross-
contrary to the world’s wisdom, God takes
• the human words of the Gospel and give people new life.
• some ordinary tap water poured on someone’s head and works salvation
• a poor excuse for a piece of bread and generic grape juice and actually delivers the gifts of Christ.
In God’s foolishness- the cross can
• take followers who are hanging by a thread and bolsters their spirits.
• take followers who are at their weakest moment and use it for enormous good.
• take followers who are all but defeated and turn their testimonies
into life-giving messages of truth and hope.
Would you pray this prayer with me?
Foolish God, do for us what you did for the Cross.
Help us to own our weakness and allow you to work through them.
Do for me, do for this congregation, do for this city, do for this nation,
do for this world what you did for the cross.
Do for us what you did for the Cross.
Amen
Resources:
Gospel Foolishness, a sermon by Adam J. Copeland
THE COMFORTABLE CROSS, a sermon by Dr. Kenneth Pell , Potsdam, New York
For Fools Only, a sermon by Alexandra Coe of the Blooming Grove United Church of Christ,
A Sermon Preached by the Rev. Ron Hodel at the Installation of Pastor Jeremy Rhode on Sunday June 23, 2007.
The Foolishness of God, a sermon by Rev. Ginger Gaines-Cirelli at St. Matthew’s UMC March 4, 2012.