1 Corinthians 1:20-31
Throughout the season of Lent we are moving relentlessly toward the cross where God reveals Godself to humanity; but who would think to look to the cross for a revelation of God? The cross was a political statement of warning and punishment by the Roman Empire to all who were perceived as threatening the social order imposed by the Empire. Yet the cross is at the centre of St. Paul's teaching and preaching even though he says to the Corinthian church that the message about the cross is foolishness and an affront both to the religion of the Jews who are looking for signs of miraculous power and the wisdom of the Greeks who are looking for skilled presentations of knowledge.
It seems that some of the people in the Corinthian church were putting on airs and claiming superiority and this was creating divisions and arguments in the community. To paraphrase St. Paul, he tells them to "get over yourself." In some ways St. Paul's world is not much different from our own. Power and knowledge are still valued commodities; we still reward and even revere the elite and successful. But St. Paul insists that God, in the cross, reveals Godself in weakness and even shame. Its not about us approaching God based on our strengths and cleverness; God approaches us in love and embraces, heals, and transforms our brokenness, pettiness, and delusions.
How does the foolishness of the cross speak into your life?
Marilyn Malton
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