Week 4 – Weekend
“We proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.”
Reading
1 Corinthians 1.18-31
Christ the Power and Wisdom of God
For 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. For it is written,
‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’
Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, 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 Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.
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.’
Reflection
Paul’s words are stark: the cross makes no sense to the way humans normally think, within a culture of inequality, competition for resources and fear. The cross is foolish, because grace is illogical. Grace is patently un-just, completely underserved, it does not try to guarantee the future, it is freely offered with no ties, and cannot be imposed. If God loves justice and God’s revelation of himself in Jesus focuses on grace, then justice and grace must belong together.
Grace goes against our deepest human instincts to protect ourselves and reach for retribution. ‘An eye for an eye’ had curbed revenge and established proportionality. In Jesus, the logic of escalating revenge is not merely restrained, but turned into escalating forgiveness, as Jesus tells his disciples to forgive seventy times seven times. Grace transforms the justice of scarcity, anxiety and fear, which only considers what one deserves or is entitled to, into generosity, gift, and hope.
Prayer
Merciful God, help us share the good news of forgiveness, grace and new beginnings in our words and relationships, and follow in your way of grace. Amen.
Today’s family challenge
Listen to – or sing – ‘Amazing Grace’
Performed around 10 million times every year, this muchloved song celebrates God’s free gift of love to us – God’s amazing grace.