The message of the
cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being
saved know it is the very power of God. As the Scriptures
say, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and discard the intelligence of the
intelligent.” So where does
this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters? God has made the wisdom of this world look
foolish. Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world
would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to
save those who believe. It is foolish to the Jews, who
ask for signs from heaven. And it is
foolish to the Greeks, who seek human wisdom. So when we
preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say
it’s all nonsense. But to
those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the
power of God and the wisdom of God. This foolish plan of
God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger
than the greatest of human strength. 1
Corinthians 1:18-25
Dr. Luther Dorr, my preaching professor in seminary,
used to like saying that preaching is foolish enough; it’s the
preacher’s goal to not make it any more foolish than God intended.
Perhaps Dr. Dorr hoped to save us from making the
mistake of taking the “power of salvation” out of the preaching event. Whatever
Dr. Dorr’s thinking, the statement underlines this fact: the powerful message of the Gospel, whether
presented with words or deed, is central to God’s plan for our lives, and the
best thing a preacher can do is present it, while trying not to get in the way.
The late comedian, George Burns, is quoted as saying, “The
secret of a good sermon is having a good beginning and a good ending. And
having them as close together as possible.”
A quick check of John Wesley’s sermons from the late 18th century
reveals that he wrote sermons that were, typically, 5500 words in length.
Those sermons took a good bit more than an hour to preach. Today’s
attention-deprived minds prefer shorter; MUCH shorter. My average sermon
is about 4 typed pages, or 1500 words (less than 1/3 of Wesley’s), taking 20-30
minutes to preach. Even this is long-ish by some
standards.
It gives one pause…
If the foolish/powerful/very long messages of the 18th century
propelled the Wesleyan movement in America, spreading scriptural holiness
across the land like a grassfire, what is the Scriptural A.D.D. 10
minute sermon-ette doing to our culture?
Many churches today are being led to embrace the
thinking of 21st century culture, rather than pointing the world’s culture to
Christ. Considering Scripture obsolete
and the so-called wisdom of the modern mind superior to
what God gave as holy, it is no surprise to see the dumbing-down of faith to
believe whatever is shiney and new, rather than, as Jude wrote: the faith once-delivered to the saints.
For You Today
The choice between
foolish wisdom and popular culture’s empty choices is always on the table. If you’ve tried the latter and found it to be
a dry well, perhaps it’s time to find living water in the foolishness of the Gospel.
[1] Images: Pixabay.com Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
Much of this devotion is updated from a post previously published (July 11, 2013) See HERE
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