Looking Forward to January 30, 2011 -- 4th Sunday After Epiphany

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• 1 Corinthians 1:18-31
• Matthew 5:1-12

The Sermon title is Foolish Wisdom

Early Thoughts: A crucified Messiah? Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth? Does this make any sense?

Well to be honest--no they don't.  In fact Paul says as much in his letter to the Corinthian community.  The message he shares is foolishness.  But it is also truth.  And therein lies the core of the conflict between the church and the world around us.

To be a follower of Jesus of Nazareth means to embrace foolish wisdom.  It means to acknowledge that there is a different way of assessing things.  It means to be willing to say that what the world around us calls wise may in fact be foolishness--even when the argument seems so compelling.

Once we can admit that we need to be foolish, possibilities abound.  We take the blinkers off and see the world in a different way.  We see how it could be instead of how it is.  That is when the Beatitudes become more understandable.  They describe how it could be when God's Reign has come to be real and active.  In light of current assumptions they smack of utter foolishness, but in the time-that-is-to-come they will be wise.

What foolish wisdom is God sharing with the community of faith today?
--Gord