The Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany
Shepherd of the Hills Ev. Lutheran Church (WELS)
What’s Church For? Boasting
1 Corinthians 1:26-31
26 Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when
you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not
many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the
foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things
of the world to shame the strong. 28 God chose the lowly things of
this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the
things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him. 30 It
is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us
wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31 Therefore,
as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”
If you’re planning to watch that football game that will be
on later today, there are likely a number of “sure-things” that you can plan on
witnessing. You’ll see plenty of
commercials, some of which people will be discussing on Monday morning for
reasons both good and bad. If you bother
to watch the half-time show, you’ll probably see something memorable, again,
either good or bad. And if you happen to
pay attention to what goes on in between the commercials and the half-time
show, you’ll also see some of the best athletes in the NFL playing a game of football.
And where that happens, there’s
something else you’re virtually guaranteed to see in some form or another:
boasting.
Though it can still lead us to roll our eyes or shake our
heads in displeasure, we’ve come to expect that bragging has really become a
routine part of the game. When a player
makes a big play, often times the display that follows indicates that he would
have us believe that he’s not just doing his job or what he’s been coached to
do, but that he’s just accomplished a feat so rare and so spectacular, that we
may never witness such a thing again. The
way some of the players celebrate, it’s as if they expect that fifty years from
now we’re going to be speaking to our grandkids and reliving that unforgettable
occasion on which an NFL player in a Super Bowl did something so fantastically
phenomenal, like… scored a touchdown, intercepted a pass, or sacked the
quarterback – and that we actually saw it with our own eyes on television! Yes, beating the chest, pointing to self,
jawing at the opponent, or choreographing a signature celebration will all be
on full display later today as players boast over their big plays.
But perhaps we shouldn’t be so hard on the players, given
that boasting is something that actually comes quite naturally to most of
us. Now it may not be reflected directly
through our words, but a boastful attitude, or the tendency to think highly of
self, is really quite common. Maybe we
find Garrison Keillor’s fictional hometown, Lake Wobegon, so humorous because
there’s a grain of truth to each of us actually feeling as if we’re from a
place “where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all
the children are above average.” In
fact, thinking so highly of ourselves is so common that it has been recognized
by psychologists as a phenomenon that shows up consistently in their research,
and has even been given a name. It’s
called illusory superiority. Studies and
surveys demonstrate that most people consider themselves to be above average,
which of course is an impossibility. Psychologists
have tried their hands at explaining the phenomenon known as illusory
superiority. “Others are too polite to
say what they really think, incompetent people lack the skills to assess their
abilities accurately, and such self-delusions can actually protect
people's mental health.”[1] While those explanations may have merit, I
think there’s a simpler one: we think highly of ourselves and are inclined to
boast because our sinful nature leads us to believe that we’re number one. My sinful nature truly believes the world
revolves around me. And if we think
that’s a harmless attitude to have, we do well to remember what happened to a
former angel who seemed to think too highly of himself shortly after he was
created.
No, we don’t lack for confidence in self. But as we continue looking at Paul’s letter
to the Corinthians, God is careful to remind us that we have no right to boast
before him. Paul wrote, “Brothers and
sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were
wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble
birth” (v.26). Ouch – so much for
illusory superiority! Paul reminded the
Corinthians in a rather blunt way that there was nothing on their résumé about
which to boast before God.
“Not many of you were wise by human standards” (v.26): Remember that Paul was addressing a
congregation that, in accordance with Greek culture, prized philosophy and
wisdom. Wisdom was highly regarded, and
the wise were widely respected. But with
these words Paul slammed the door shut on any idea that perhaps such wisdom had
any bearing on their being called to faith.
The wise scholars and academics of Corinth, in other words, were not
numbered among the members of the congregation there. Also today, those considered scholars, the
genius minds, are not typically those who belong to the Christian faith. So don’t get so put off when it is reported
that religious folk tend to be “more dumberer” than many non-religious folk;
there actually is a correlation there – it’s just not the same correlation Paul
is making here, as we’ll see shortly. So
when it came to wisdom – there wasn’t anything there about which to boast.
“Not many were influential” (v.26): “Take a look through your membership
directory at church” Paul says, “and jot down how many movers and shakers
belong to your congregation.” Paul’s
point was that there weren’t many. It
wasn’t as if his message appealed to the qualified and the capable, the people
who could get things done. So today, if
a politician, an athlete, or a celebrity is in the headlines for religion, 1)
rarely is it for Christianity, or 2) if the individual is a Christian, that
fact is not usually mentioned unless it involves some negative spin on an
aspect of Christianity. When it came to
being influential, there wasn’t anything there either about which to boast.
“Not many were of noble birth” (v.26): The Corinthian congregation was not made up
of those born in palaces or into families of means. No genuflecting was needed when certain
members walked by. They weren’t princes,
but paupers; not royalty, but regulars.
The average member of the congregation in Corinth was just that –
average. Try as one might to find one,
there were no Kennedys or Kardashians among the Corinthians. Those kinds of families simply didn’t belong
to the congregation there, so again, in that regard, there was nothing about
which to boast.
Talk about a verbal beat down! Not very flattering words from Paul to the
Corinthians, were they? He had an answer
for anyone who may have thought he was something for some reason or another,
and that answer was that the church in Corinth was made up of a bunch of people
who were average at best, if that. They
couldn’t hang their hats on their intellect, their influence, or their
identity, because they didn’t have any of those things! They were a congregation of nobodies.
And that was exactly what God wanted. “But God chose the foolish things
of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame
the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the
despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so
that no one may boast before him” (v.27-29).
Paul was not belittling the believers in Corinth to defame them or
slander their reputation; rather, he was highlighting that God’s grace was not
conditional. His grace is not dependent
on the measure of an the individual, and in order to demonstrate that, God has
gone out of his way to display his grace in those of lowly stature in
society. In doing so, God has made it
clear that his grace is for everyone. If
he has not rejected the foolish, the weak, the lowly, the despised, and the
things that are not, then each member of the church in Corinth could rightly
conclude, “then he has not rejected me.”
God’s design not only gives hope to the otherwise hopeless
in society, but it serves as a warning to those who think they are
somebody. God’s not interested in the
somebodies, but the nobodies. Those who
think they’re somebody have no need for grace and free gifts because they think
they have all of that coming to them.
Only when they realize that truly before God they are nobodies will they
come to know that they are completely dependent on grace. And when that’s the case, there’s no room for
boasting in self. Paul is stating here
what he wrote to the Ephesians later in his life, that we’re saved by grace so
that no one can boast (Eph. 2). Only after God takes each one of us, turns us
upside down and shakes us until our pockets are empty of any sense of
intelligence, influence, or identity of our own, only then do we recognize that
we’ve got nothing about which to boast, and only then are we ready for grace.
But that doesn’t mean we can’t boast – we just realize that
the basis of our boast is not in ourselves.
Paul continues, “you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us
wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore,
as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord” (v.30,31). Remember that Paul told the Corinthians that
for their part, on their own, they were nobodies. They had no intellect, no influence, no
identity. But now he reminds them of the
glorious truth that in Christ they have all of those things.
Intellect? Christ is
their wisdom! Though foolishness to the
wise of the world, Christ and his cross are the wisdom of God. Christ reveals the omniscient wisdom of God’s
marvelous plan of salvation: that man cannot attain or atone on his own, but that
this comes only through Christ. The
Christ who lived and died for the Corinthians and for the world – he is wisdom;
he is intellect.
Influence? How should
fallen man ever hope to stand before the God of the universe and somehow
influence him, somehow convince him to let us into his holy heaven? Again, Christ is their influence, for he
comes to offer believers his righteousness and holiness, and that is all the
influence that is needed for entrance into heaven. Christ’s righteousness makes us right with
God, as his holiness makes us holy before God, and no more influence than that
is needed. Christ lived perfectly for me
– he is the influence that I lack on my own.
Identity? No one in
Corinth or any other place on earth could be born into a noble enough family so
as to claim a name for himself deserving of a reservation in the presence of
God Almighty. No one on his own has such
an identity. Ah, but in Christ Jesus we
have been redeemed – purchased, won – to his family. His blood paid all the expenses necessary to
adopt us into God’s family, so that truly we are members of God’s
household. Christ redeemed me and gave
me the identity necessary to be numbered among God’s family.
Here we are, you and me, a congregation of nobodies who
gather week in and week out in God’s house, as his church, because in Jesus
Christ we have been made somebody. And
so we gather here to boast in word and song, to boast in body and blood, to
boast in baptism. It’s what church is
for – boasting… in the Lord. Amen.
“For the freer confidence is from one’s own works, and the
more exclusively it is directed toward Christ alone, so much better is the
Christian it makes.” (Luther)
[1] David Dunning, quoted in “Everyone thinks they are above average.” http://www.cbsnews.com/news/everyone-thinks-they-are-above-average/.
Accessed 1/31/13.
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