Monday, June 20, 2022

 

Monday, June 20, 2022

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.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road with Jesus; have a blessed day!  

[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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