1 Corinthians 1:18-25
Christians who believe in and try to live by the gospel are considered by many people to be gullible or naive. Like kids who never outgrew their belief in Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. I remember the day when I told my former employer that I would be leaving my job to finish my seminary education on a full-time schedule and then pursue a call to ministry. “You’ll never make any money doing that”, he told me. As far as he was concerned, my decision made about as much sense as if I said I was going to Disneyworld to dress up like Mickey Mouse and entertain children.
The fact is that many people consider the faith-based life to be a kind of “fool’s gold proposition.” Fool’s gold is a nickname for iron pyrite, which is commonly mistaken for real gold but possesses no actual value. Fool’s gold is also a label used for any kind of worthless investment.
The Apostle Paul would be the first to agree that, from a purely worldly perspective, there is a certain “fool’s gold” element to Christianity. He called it, “the foolishness of the cross.” In his first letter to Christ followers in Corinth Paul lays out the obstacles that the cross would raise for people. He wrote, “Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block for Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.”
The message of the cross was a stumbling block for Jews because for them a crucified Messiah was an oxymoron. A Messiah who was helpless when it came to saving himself was in no position to deliver anybody else.
Gentiles (or Greeks), on the other hand, had their own reasons for rejecting the message of the cross. Greek culture valued philosophy as the highest form of truth. For them, it was illogical to claim the power of God was most fully revealed in something like the humiliating execution of a condemned criminal.
Any sensible person would conclude that the cross would have been the last place where anybody would expect to find a reason to follow Christ. So, it may come as a surprise that Paul called the cross “the power of God and the wisdom of God.” But, even for those who do see the power and wisdom of God in Jesus’ sacrifice for us, our faith can still be tarnished with that “fool’s gold” dust.
In his book Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller writes, “The goofy thing about Christian faith is that you believe it and don’t believe it at the same time. It isn’t unlike having an imaginary friend. I believe in Jesus; I believe He is the Son of God, but every time I sit down to explain this to somebody, I feel like a palm reader, like somebody who works at a circus or a kid who is always making things up or somebody at a Star Trek convention who hasn’t figured out the show isn’t real.”
Paul wrote, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” Except that… sometimes it isn’t. Sometimes we who fall in the category of those who are being saved, still have our own doubts about how fully invested we should be in what we claim to believe. And whether we should hedge our bets a little, instead of putting all our eggs in the Jesus basket. Deep down, we wonder what is fool’s gold and what is the real McCoy. One way of interpreting Paul’s words might be that there is a profound difference between those who invest their lives in that which is perishable, and those who save themselves for that which is of eternal significance.
In the movie “The Departed”, Jack Nicholson plays a sociopathic Boston gangster. In one scene, he asks a guy seated at the counter in a diner how is mother is doing. “Not too good,” the man answers. “I think she’s on the way out.” Nicholson pats the man on the shoulder and says, “We all are. Act accordingly.” I think that line sums up the attitude of the ones who Paul refers to as those who are perishing. If you believe that we are all “on the way out,” and reject the notion of a God, or any existence beyond this one as fool’s gold, then to “act accordingly” might mean approaching life with an “Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die” attitude.
But if you believe God’s foolish wisdom of the cross, which tells us that we are not always on the way out, but instead are constantly on the way in–in to a relationship with God that transforms us and recreates our assumptions about life and death–if you believe that we are not perishing but being saved, then “acting accordingly” means something very different. God’s wisdom of the cross tells us that serving is better than being served, being weak in God is better than being strong in and of ourselves. The wisdom of the cross tells us that it is more blessed to give than to accumulate and hoard. That it is more satisfying to make peace than to nurture resentment and seek retribution.
These are all foolish ideas in a world that sees itself as perishing. But they represent the very power of God to transform lives for those who see themselves as saved from the power of death through Christ’s costly love displayed on the cross. It is not through human wisdom that God is understood, but in what God has taken the initiative to reveal to us about God’s self in Jesus Christ crucified. A message that the world perceives as fool’s gold. But a message which overturns our understanding of what is fool’s gold and what is of genuine value.
At this time of year, many families sit down, perhaps with a financial advisor, to reappraise how their material blessings are invested, and whether any changes in their portfolio are advisable. Lent invites us to do something similar, on a spiritual level. To reappraise whether our lives are invested in what is of lasting value; where we may be putting too much stock in perishable fool’s gold; and to make whatever corrections will help us to be more fully enriched by the wisdom and power of God.
© 2021 Raymond Medeiros
Preached March 7, 2021 at FCCW