Feb 2, 2020          Wisdom/Foolishness                                         

This morning, I would like to tell you about a Scottish theologian named Pelagian. Pelagian believed that God had given us the church in order to perfect humankind. And Pelagian believed that by making men and women moral, that that would achieve God’s purpose. Now a group of Pelagian’s followers decided to put his theology into practice. First of all they got rid of their priests, who didn’t meet up with their standards, and then they encouraged all the parishes in their diocese to do the same. Finally, they got rid of their bishop, and found one that more lived up to their ideals. At this, the followers of Pelagian rejoiced, they announced themselves free of the Catholic church, and set about to make all the men and women in their parish more moral people.

Problem is, that within 40 years, all of the churches who had left the Catholic church at that time, had given up on Pelagianism and had returned to the Catholic church. Writing at the time, St. Augustine gave his reason why this happened, because the followers of Pelagian had replaced the crucified Christ as the head of the church, with an image of their own moral purity. Under these conditions, they no longer had any good news to preach to those who were broken, hurting, or lost. All they had was condemnation, division and death.

The reason I am bringing this up this week is because of our reading from 1 Corinthians this morning. A lot of the problem the Corinthians are having is about some members putting themselves above other members, and some members judging the worthiness of other members to participate in the life of the church. And to those members who are making these distinctions, Paul preaches Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews, and foolishness to the Gentiles. What? What does that mean?

In case I haven’t said it before, Jesus Christ is a stumbling block to the Jews because he was denounced as a blashphemer and cursed for being hung on a tree – the cross. So, how could a righteous Jew, the keeper of God’s moral law, follow such a sinner. And Jesus Christ is foolishness to the Gentiles, because he was a loser – he stood up to Rome and got crucified for it – it would be foolishness to follow someone like him. In saying these things about Jesus, Paul is trying to tell the Corinthians that in playing these moral games, in playing the games of winners and losers, that they are sowing divisions among themselves, which in the light of Jesus Christ is true sin and true foolishness.

Now I have preached many times on our gospel lesson this morning, often going through each one of the beatitudes in order to understand them better, but in light of Paul’s speech to the Corinthians this morning, this time I will take a general approach to them. In general the beatitudes speak of the blessedness of suffering the broken condition of humankind. Blessedness, because in the coming of Jesus Christ, in the coming of God’s kingdom, these people who are sinners and losers in the world, will know forgiveness and grace. They will obtain mercy, they will be comforted, they will find peace, they will be satisfied, they will see God. This is the same reversal of fortune that we find in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, for those who believe in Jesus Christ.

And there are two very important things to remember about this. First that through faith in Jesus Christ, we shall receive God’s grace and mercy, and second, we are called to offer that grace and mercy to all who are sinners and losers in this world. For in the wisdom of God, that is the path to all human salvation, and that is the Good News of Jesus Christ!