I Corinthians 1:18

1 Corinthians 1:18

For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

If you remember nothing else today, remember this.

That foolish cross is the power of God that saves.

When you look at the cross, remember it is God's folly.

And God's folly is more powerful and hopeful than any of our wisdom.

Human wisdom would say "what kind of people worship a guy who gets himself killed by a world superpower in a horrible, torturous way?"

Human wisdom says: that guy's not a winner. That guy's a loser.

Human wisdom says: worship a criminal? No way.

Human wisdom sees the cross as the ultimate sign of weakness.

But it is that very folly that saves us.

Saves us from our own egos.

Saves us with humility and patience and love.

Saves us by service and hope.

Human power does not side with the weak or the criminal or the marginalized or the "losers" of the world.

But God's power does.

God's power meets us in our most broken, foolish moments and saves us from ourselves.

One of my favorite recent quotes on the cross comes from "Science" Mike McHargue, a Christian writer, blogger, and speaker on Science and Faith. He says:

"The cross was not God's invention, it was ours. In all our need for an eye for an eye, I have to wonder sometimes if God listened to our cry for blood and offered his own - if Jesus' sacrifice on the cross was not to sate God's wrath, but to show God's response to ours."

For humans, the cross is foolish.

But God takes foolishness and turns it into life.

God of folly, save me from my own certainty. Amen.