HOMILY; 2 FEB 2020
GOD’S FOOLISHNESS
For our communion service today, I thought to take note of the American Film star, George Burns who once said that the secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending and to have the two as close together as possible!
C.S. Lewis, a British Author and lay theologian [who wrote “the Chronicles of Narnia”] was once criticized for not caring for the Sermon on the Mount which included the Be-attitudes. He replied, “if ‘caring for’ here means ‘liking’ or enjoying, I suppose no one ‘cares for’ it. Who can like being knocked flat by a sledgehammer? I can hardly imagine a more deadly spiritual condition than that of a person who can read that passage with tranquil pleasure.”
The Sermon could be called the Christian’s job description, being a helpful guide and a convicting challenge. The beatitudes describe the qualities Jesus desires in each of his disciples. It is only human to wish to be strong and successful, to be wise, to have qualifications, a good reputation, even a successful family and a good job. We admire for example our young tennis champions, and our Australian cricket team members. The poor, the ugly and the defeated are less appealing although it is in our culture, maybe stemming from our convict days, to have some feelings for the underdog.
The promotion of power, status and wealth as good things to be encouraged, especially for people who might be disadvantaged tends to reinforce the negative view of the poor and the meek. Those who don’t make it or miss out, are not blessed.
I deliberately sought the Gospel to be the New International version because it uses the word “Blessed” rather than happy. Blessed here refers to the ultimate well-being and spiritual joy of those who share in the salvation of the kingdom of God.
When chance goes our way, we may be happy but not necessarily be blessed. To be blessed is a gift which God bestows on his own, a state of inward joy and peace, independent of what is or is not going on in our lives. Those Jesus described as the blessed ones is that of humility.
It is the nature of God to seek and save the lost: salvation depends on knowing our own vulnerability sufficiently to be open to his reaching out to us. We need to “seek first the kingdom of God” then we might recall that all these other things may be yours and mine as well. What really counts; what is worth the great price? What is the value of the field in which the treasure is hidden or the pearl of great price?
To be poor in spirit does not mean to be lacking in spirit, rather it is to be bereft of a proud or haughty spirit. Poverty of spirit is roughly equivalent to the word humility. A humble person is one who knows not to soar in the heavens but is of the earth. That person realizes a dependency on God, the ground of all being. If his or her life is to be fruitful.
The greatest example for us of someone being humble was Christ, an innocent man, dying on the cross for the sins of the world. To the world, this may seem to be a weak and foolish idea, but as Paul points out God chose not the strong but the weak and in this there is great power. We are chosen by God, even though by human standards we are not thought to be much. We celebrate that we a chosen to be representatives of God’s wisdom and righteousness in and to the world. What an honour!
Eddie Askew from Leprosy Mission wrote up a paragraph or two based on our Corinthian letter. He said that things go wrong in our lives and it seems there are problems everywhere. Facing them without resentment leaves us free to deal with them rather than getting hung up with frustration. Most of our problems have you noticed are caused by people. Computers make mistakes, but they don’t have hysterics over the way another computer behaves, not the way we do.
Looking back on my life in hospital administration, it was a mostly happy and fulfilling time. But there were times of tension and disagreement. Times when I said or at least thought: -“How can God possibly work through people like these!” I am sure that others said the same about me. The amazing and encouraging fact is that He did and does.
Remember Paul’s words “My brothers [and sisters] , think what sort of people you [we] are, whom God has called…few…are people of wisdom…Yet God has chosen the weak and ..the foolish..” [1 Corinth1:25-30] God works through us. It may not seem a very bright idea for God to do things that way, but He’s chosen it! Fortunately, the Lord doesn’t wait for perfection. Look at the early disciples-Thomas with his doubts, Peter, impulsive and naïve, James and John looking for the best places in the Kingdom. I won’t mention Judas.
God chooses me in my weakness, not through any virtue I possess but because He loves me. And that goes for you too. If God can put up with our faults then maybe we should make a better attempt to accept others, and to work with them as they are. Sometimes I think we demand from our friends a perfection which even the Lord doesn’t ask.
Finally, it’s significant that Christ says: If I can love you enough to choose you for my work, then you can learn to love each other: Not just mutual tolerance but loving, as Christ loved you.
Very finally, the Be-attitudes describe what we are to be, tell what God requires of us. For those who sadly have lost almost everything in the bushfires throughout Australia, the beatitudes are a powerful message which offers blessings to those in need of them. These words have been an inspiration down through the centuries for people such as Tolstoy, Martin Luther King, Gandhi and Tutu.
A word of prayer: –
Lord, when I’m tempted to criticise other people, like the one in the pew in front of me, when I’m tempted to question their credentials and doubt their ability, remind me that I’m no more than average anyway.
And Lord, if you can accept me, and use me, then maybe I can accept the people I have to work with. And acknowledge that if you choose to work through me, then you can work through them too.
Lord, teach me to respect them more and help that respect to grow into love throughout this year.
Geoff Serpell
