16 May 2005

Bear with me for this ongoing journey into 1 Corinthians.

For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved it is the power of God. (1 Cor. 1:18)

The good news - is foolishness...Jesus dying on the cross as a sign of the beginning of life eternal - is foolish...the love of God for us before we know to ask for it or do anything to earn it - is foolish. It is foolish to the perishing because, from what I can see and know within myself, the perishing will do anything not to perish. We will hold onto any message, any power, any promise of life, that will stop us from perishing. We do not want to perish. We do not want our ideas to fall apart. I do not want the things I find so precious in life to be taken from me or me from them. The "perishing" ones, like me, will fight like hell to stay away from the vulnerability of the cross because the cross is death...the cross is out of our control...the cross doesn't let me win...the cross means i will perish - and that is a forbidden concept. We are so sold on victory that we do not know how to hear the word of the cross. Just listen to the way Christians are talking these days. We sound more like the powers of Rome and the Religious elite of Jesus' day than like followers of the one who gets nailed by those powers. The gracious love of God that takes us through the ugliness of our death no matter what the cause will always be considered foolish. The martyrs of the faith, remember, are those who walk out into the open living within the full expression of God's grace and as they are out there at play in the Reign of God, there are those who are perishing and fear resurrection live brought out of the power of death, and those powers - those perishing will do just about anything to silence the play of martyrs.

Connection: Help me with this! I'm not sure I am able to stand within the glory of such a gracious word without trying to turn it into something else...which would be anything less than an unconditional and unbounded love for all. I know it's foolish...but how do we, together, endure the rejection of others and ourselves when the Spirit of God grabs hold of us for the living of these days?

You promise us life, O God, well we need to be empowered for that life because we are too easily moved by those powers that claim that we are fools who do not understand the how we must live to be your beloved. Remind us that, already we are beloved, already we are yours, and already we can be free with you. Amen.