Chapel Sermon: Strange Comfort[1]
By Kurt Nelson
Rollins Chapel Dartmouth College, 11/15/07
1 Corinthians 1:20-21 and 3:18-23 NRSV
Without a doubt, during my time at Yale Divinity School
I heard more student sermons about 1 Corinthians and Wisdom
than any other single topic.
There is a strange comfort,
for the struggling Seminarian
in the words:
“the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God”
Somehow the prospect of failing a biblical exegesis paper,
or philosophical theology course,
seemed okay.
Because it was, after all, mere foolishness in the eyes of God.
So this passage was a popular pick.
And for some reason student preachers
seeking this comfort more often than not
combined 1 Corinthians “wisdom literature” with Festus’ wild exhortation of Acts 26:
“You are out of your mind, Paul! Too much learning is driving you insane!”
Indeed I could often see where they were coming from.
This seems a set of texts that speaks directly to those
struggling with the with the foolish worldly wisdom of the academic world.
and they needed Paul to comfort them.
To tell them God still loved them,
even though they struggled with worldly wisdom.
But I must admit that I got very little from these numerous sermons.
I don’t remember a single conclusion,
amidst all of the pithy statements
about academic foolishness, and book-learning insanity.
Partly this is surely due to the fact that I always enjoyed my studies
But I think more often my concern was more deeply rooted
and had to do with this with this whole foolishness motif.
I’m not at all times convinced that what Christianity needs is a greater dose of foolishness.
In fact, when I think of Christian foolishness
my mind immediate jumps to the kind of Christian foolishness
that suggests that Hurricane Katrina was
punishment for the collective sexual sins of New Orleans.
Or the kind of foolishness that suggested that those who opt to continue
teaching evolution in the public schools have ‘voted God out of their city’
Or even the kind of foolishness that suggests to the struggling seminarian
that Paul’s words mean we need not study biblical criticism
or philosophical theology,
and that we can turn fully and faithfully away from worldly wisdom and learning.
For in the end, it is only the foolishness of Christ’s message that matters
The kind of Christian foolishness,
that does not allow us to see the needs of this world,
for want of the next one.
To be frank,
I often find such foolishness embarrassing.
The sort of Christian foolishness that closes us off entirely to
not only the wisdom of this world,
but also to its common sense.
I cannot easily sign on for this sort of Christian foolishness.
And as I read Paul’s words in 1st Corinthians,
I find myself immediately worried that this sort of foolishness is the only way to go.
After all, “Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?” 1 Cor. 20.
In the midst of this,
I find myself wanting to cry out:
“Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age?”
for motivations altogether different from Paul’s.
And I will admit that I have
at times,
worshipped at the altar of worldly knowledge.
I have spent many hours pouring over scholarly resources
as if nothing else mattered in the world.
I have set the learning and growth of my mind
in dead conflict with my life of heart and spirit
or of work and justice.
I have made the opposite mistake of these foolish, unworldly Christians.
Because I do not want to appear foolish.
I have so often tried to make the Christian message
one of simple logic.
Of peace and neighborly love,
and warm-hearted worship.
Fearing being named among the foolish and unpleasant Christians of the world,
I have wanted make faith something logical, easy, and warm.
Which it certainly is,
but it must be more too.
And in so doing, I have often lost the foolishness of Christ’s message.
That Christ could show us something of God on earth,
in a human body.
That Jesus preached a radical message
of dependence on God.
On care for the sick and outcast,
and of love of not only neighbor, but enemy.
and that Jesus was willing to die for the sake of ordinary sinners
Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
Let us never forget the shocking and foolish nature of this message
of the human God and the crucified messiah.
That the wisdom of this world
can never reach that thing that we call faith.
Faith, which is not always logical or wise.
But exists on another plane.
Indeed we must all be foolish Christians from time to time.
But Paul doesn’t end there.
And neither should we.
At least not always.
For it is too easy to take this foolish faith of ours
as opposed to the wisdom of the world.
And claim that God speaks through hurricanes
and not through sound scholarship.
That God will cease to protect us if we don’t teach intelligent design in our science classes.
Not only is this simply bad theology,
it’s also a poor understanding of Paul
and this foolishness motif.
“Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future – all belong to you and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.”
All belongs to you.
to us.
That ‘All’ includes worldly wisdom,
That ‘All’ includes scientific discovery,
and includes artistic beauty,
That ‘All’ includes embodied knowledge and pleasures.
technological advances and wonder.
So often this message seems to offer comfort
by its exclusion of things we don’t need to worry about.
But it truly doesn’t exclude anything.
All things are ours.
And there can be comfort in that message too.
This is not a message meant to exclude worldly wisdom.
Indeed, wisdom of the world can help us learn and grow in faith,
it can inform our ethics and our theologies.
Our concerns for justice and peace.
Worldly wisdom can teach and mold
and shape and expand our worldviews.
and help open us up to the great mystery of God
and of Faith.
All things are yours.
And you are Gods’.
This is the extension of Paul’s message.
But,
(and as Paul Tillich reminds us, in one of his many wonderful sermons,
this is not one of those buts in which everything is taken back that was given before)
But this worldly knowledge is not God.
This worldly knowledge cannot claim to know God,
lest it become itself an idol.
This is a broken wisdom,
again quoting from Tillich,
Not broken as in “reduced or emaciated or controlled”
but broken as in undercut in its claim to ultimacy.
But still,
All things are ours, and we are Christ’s and God’s.
This claim disrupts all those who claim the knowledge and wisdom of the world
stand utterly opposed to God.
Stands opposed to those who say that there is nothing of value in worldly wisdom.
who in order to become
“fools so that you may become wise”
simply become fools.
But it also undercuts those strong impulses
of intellectual Christians around the world,
such as those deep within me.
to set worldly knowledge perfectly inline with the foolishness of faith.
Who want to claim that faith just makes good sense.
1 Corinthians 3 offers us two messages.
Two critiques.
And when taken together, they can offer us strange comfort indeed.
Worldly wisdom is,
if we are to believe my interpretation of Paul,
neither fully opposed,
nor fully congruent with the wisdom and the foolishness of God’s message in Christ.
And this leaves us with much work left to do.
This is a strange and disruptive comfort,
in this courageous message of Paul’s.
That this world’s wisdom is foolishness to God,
but it is still ours,
as are all things are ours.
And together, we all belong to God.
