1 Corinthians 1:18-25
Paul is calling the church in Corinth to adopt a unique cultural and communal imagination that reconsiders the values that are too often seen as innate and immutable.
Pastor Adam Hearlson
I love the way Eugene Petersen paraphrases the opening and closing of this passage.
The Message that points to Christ on the Cross seems like sheer silliness to those hellbent on destruction, but for those on the way of salvation it makes perfect sense. This is the way God works, and most powerfully as it turns out. It’s written, I’ll turn conventional wisdom on its head, I’ll expose so-called experts as shams…Christ is God’s ultimate miracle and wisdom all wrapped up in one. Human wisdom is so cheap, so impotent, next to the seeming absurdity of God. Human strength can’t begin to compete with God’s “weakness.”
Rev. Eugene Petersen, The Message
Did you know that in early Christianity, believers often used the image of a donkey as a visible designation of their faith? It actually came from the heckling of those outside of this community of faith – it was very derogatory. Yet, for awhile, Christians accepted this moniker for they knew their faith seemed absurd to those on the outside. They were fully aware that, to the outside world, It was the cross that finalized this negative connotation, which was accurate, it made no sense to think death could be conquered through the tool of the most brutal manner death and complete isolation. The difference for believers, however, was that for them, while Jesus, God in the flesh, had been proof of God’s identifying with human life, the cross was the proof of God’s identification with our suffering. But, it was also the promise that human suffering is temporary, and that ultimately there is true and full life.
Order, Words, & Voices 