Transcript
Continuing the lectio continua of 1st Corinthians, hear the Word of God as it is read from the second chapter beginning at the first verse. When I came to you, fellow believers, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God in lofty words or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in much fear and trembling. And my speech and my
message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. That your faith might not rest in the wisdom of humans, but in the power of God. The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let us pray. Let the good news come now, our Father, not only in word but in power, in the Holy Spirit, and with full assurance through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. In this text, Paul picks up and develops his
earlier statement that Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel. And not with eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. Paul was a man in mission, apostolos, because he had been sent on a mission apostolane. His calling was his sending. In the course of fulfilling that calling and accomplishing that sending, Paul had come to Corinth. Even in ruins today, the sight of this ancient city is exceedingly impressive.
One can easily imagine not only its architectural splendor, but also its cosmopolitan culture. Destroyed by the Romans in 146 B.C., Corinth was rebuilt by Julius Caesar in 44 B.C., and served as the Roman capital of the province of Achaea. Although its constitution and its official language was Latin, it was in Paul's day a paradigm of the Hellenistic city. Located on narrow Isthmus, which unites the Peloponnese and the Greek mainland, Corinth was militarily strategic. Its
ready access to both the Aegean and the Adriatic seas made it an important center of shipping and commerce. International trade brought to Corinth not only the goods of the West and the East, but their religious ideas and the movements of the time as well. The remains of the temple of Apollo representing traditional Greek religion are evident still in the city proper, and atop the Acrocorinth was located the Temple of Aphrodite, or Isis as she was
known, the Egyptian goddess. We only talk about religious pluralism. The ancient Corinthians breathed it. Corinth was also an interracial city, drawing its population from the far reaches of the Roman world. Its political and social stratification represented fully the realities of the time, which makes Corinth a gold mind of data for the kind of sociological interpretation of religion that Gerd Theissen offers in the social setting of Pauline Christianity. And it is not accidental that this important volume
is subtitled Essays on Corinth. Corinth typified, in other words, the home of those whom Wayne Meeks identifies as the first urban Christians. Corinth represented what Ralph Martin aptly describes as the Vanity Fair or Las Vegas of the Roman Empire. And to this city, to this city came the Apostle Paul, the Christian who was called, the Christian who was sent by Christ Jesus to preach the gospel. And in our text he reminds the Corinthian Church of that
initial missionary visit. He acknowledges freely that which no self-respecting graduate of Princeton of the theological seminary would ever concede that his or her preaching of the testimony of God was not in lofty words of wisdom. He calls attention not to the strength, but to the weakness of his public appearance. He emphasizes not his self-confidence, but his fear and trembling in their midst. Clearly he had arrived in Corinth without the benefit of either SP01 and 02
or PRO1 and 02, for he confesses that my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom. One cannot help wondering how, under these conditions, a church in Corinth ever came into being. The answer is both clear and instructive for all of us who in God's providence have been called and are being sent to proclaim that same gospel which Paul proclaimed in ancient Corinth. First, Paul was focused on, if not myopic, about the
center of his message. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. His preaching, in other words, was Christ-centered, or if you are more sophisticated than that, Christocentric. Paul's statement is implicitly Christological, of course, but do not be deceived into thinking that he came to Corinth preaching Christology. Paul proclaimed Jesus, the risen and living Christ, who as such remains the crucified. Paul proclaimed Jesus in the fullness of His redemptive meaning
for human life. Christology enables us to say who Jesus is, and soteriology allows us to say what He does for us that we cannot do for ourselves or for each other. But the reality proclaimed is not Christology or soteriology. The reality proclaimed is Jesus. Let me emphasize the word reality in that phase. Paul proclaimed not Christology, not soteriology, but Jesus in the reality of His identity as God's agent of redemption. And it is that reality which
makes the Christian message good news. And without it, the Christian messenger has nothing to say to people who live in the modern Corinth of our own day. Notice that Paul's focus is the result of a decision. I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Nothing less is required of us who would proclaim the gospel in the modern world. We too must make a decision, and decisions are being made on this campus
every day by the future preachers of the Church who must decide important issues that will form their gospel. We must make a personal decision, yes, even a theological decision, about the center of the message that we dare to proclaim. What will be that center for us who go forth from this place as women and men called and sent by the same Jesus Christ? What will that center be for you? Second, Paul was confident that the preaching
of the gospel is not dependent upon the preacher for its effectiveness. Imagine that. He could concede that his speech and his message were not implausible words of wisdom because he knew that they were in demonstration of the Spirit and power. Christian preachers who proclaim Jesus Christ and Him crucified proclaim not an argument to be followed and not an idea to be accepted. Christian preachers proclaim the reality of the one who as such meets people in the
proclamation in his redeeming love. When we preach Jesus, meet Jesus through the power and the presence of His Spirit. Christian preaching is more sacramental than the sacraments. And when faith is their response to that encounter, it is clear that it rests not in the wisdom of humans, not in your wisdom, not in my wisdom, not in the wisdom of the theologians or of the philosophers, but in the power of God. You and I can have the
same confidence as men and women who are called and sent by Jesus Christ to preach the gospel. We are the media of the message for better or for worse, but we are not the source of its effective power. I covet that confidence for myself as a minister of the gospel and I covet that confidence for you. Because Paul enjoyed it, his preaching in Corinth was effective. A church was created in that vanity fair of the Roman
Empire by the proclamation of the gospel. The subsequent Corinthian correspondence of the Apostle makes it evident that effective evangelism does not solve or resolve all problems. Oh, no. No, the evidence is that it creates new problems as the community of faith seeks to live out the gospel in faithful obedience and in obedient faith. But remember, even faith has a beginning, and that beginning should not be belittled. That beginning occurs in the centered proclamation of Jesus Christ
and him crucified in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. Let us pray. We give you thanks, O God, for the power of your Spirit that has called each of us to faith in your Son Jesus. We are grateful for the privilege of believing, for the joy of believing for the challenge of believing, for the opportunity of living our belief. We thank you also that in the call to Christ we have heard the call to ministry
and for that mysterious self-understanding by which we know that we are men and women who are in the process of being sent, that within a very short time, those who bow and sit before you this day as students here will be scattered and sent to places yet unknown to bear witness to the testimony of God. Enable us during these years to learn to focus our message upon the one who is the message and to make
the decisions theologically that are so important for the activity of ministry. And when we go forth, may it be in the assurance that we go not alone, that your Spirit continues to empower the preachers of the Good News, that men and women still meet the Christ in the proclamation of the Word, and that men and women become believers through the mystery of that Spirit and the presence of that power. These things we pray in the name
of the Christ who taught us to pray together saying, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, and lead us not in the temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.