Harris Athanasiadis March 8, 2015 THE FOOLISHNESS & WEAKNESS OF GOD 1 Corinthians 1: 18-31; 1 Samuel 17: 1-11, 41-50 What do you want to achieve in life? What do you want to do with your life? Well, whatever it is, we want to succeed doing it, don t we. Whether it s about big things like power, wealth, influence, popularity, or recognition. Whether it s about relationships, finances, health, business, academic or artistic pursuits Whether it s fulfillment, comfort or peace. success is what we want. And to help us achieve success, there are countless resources by experts in any area of life focussed on providing us detailed how to s. Now I don t want to be critical in what I say. We all need advice and there is much we can all learn about how to. But sometimes, in our concern to learn the how to s, we never bother thinking about the goal itself. Is what we want really what we need? Will what we want to achieve really be capable of providing us all that we dream it can provide us? Are we really pursuing the right things in the end, or are we missing the mark somehow? A long time ago, the philosopher Socrates took issue with other philosophers he called sophists. Socrates was concerned to teach youth about pondering the big moral and spiritual questions of life so that they could discover what is truly good. By contrast, philosophers called sophists were drumming up business by offering to teach youth how to win friends and influence people. (Dale Carnegie) They taught the art of getting to know people so that you spotted their weaknesses or found the right ways to flatter them and get them on side. The goal was to win power, wealth and success, to beat competitors and defeat enemies. For Socrates, though, this was all wrong. Even if young people learned all the knowledge and skill there was to learn in the world and succeeded, their hearts would be corrupted because the goal was all wrong. But did people listen to Socrates? Not really. He lost the battle in his day. The powerbrokers in Athens turned the masses against him and the Sophists won the hearts of the people. People cared about defeating their enemies and getting to the top of whatever ladder they were climbing, not meditating on some elusive Good that required patient meditation to discern. They were more interested in defeating their enemies and competitors, not learning how to love them. And what about the people of Israel? What ladder did they want to climb? Were they faithful to their God because it would get them power and success in the world? Or was it something else that mattered? Such questions were played out in many of the battles Israel fought. In the early years, Israel s greatest threat came from the people called the Philistines. The Philistines were fierce warriors and technologically advanced in their warfare. They had discovered how to mine and work with iron, while Israel was still playing catch-up with older wood and copper technology. And to represent their superior power, the Philistines had warriors like Goliath.
Goliath is a giant, afraid of nothing, a killing machine. He is the symbol of Philistine might and success. They are at the top because they have earned it. They deserve it. So how is Israel supposed to match that? How can they possibly compete? Is their God as powerful as the gods of Philistia? They need to prove it. But in our story, the Israelites are in a bind. Goliath challenges any man Israel can put forth to a fight one against one; the winner take all. That s how confident the Philistines are they can win. A one on one fight is just a more efficient way to do it. Understandably, the Israelites are terrified, overwhelmed, perplexed. Who could they possibly find capable of beating Goliath size, strength and skill against size, strength and skill? Now stories in the bible are not just stories. They re spiritual openings to deeper truth and insight. They promise to reveal what is hidden from common view. The truth is, if Israel has any chance of defeating this giant, they can t do it strength against strength. They have to find another way. So think about the giants in your life. How do you defeat them? If the obvious door to doing it is closed, does that mean all doors are closed? Why would we look for other doors if the one we ve always used is open? Only when doors close are we forced to be creative in looking for alternative ones. And if we are creative and don t give up, things happen. Doors open, we discover things, we develop ourselves in new ways and live things differently. That s what this story is really all about. In a recent book called: David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants, the highly popular author: Malcolm Gladwell makes this exact point. Throughout history, he argues, the most creative and successful innovators, entrepreneurs, achievers and advocates for justice are those who are not Goliaths but Davids. They are underdogs and misfits who have to work doubly hard to find alternative ways to succeed and win whatever battle they are fighting and whatever ladder they are climbing. The overwhelming odds against them and the challenges they face only make them more creative, and their success is that much more remarkable. This had to be Israel s way, and David represents that way. They had to depend on God in ways that the Philistines or other larger nations and empires never had to. Israel knew they were a small nation, weaker than many of their neighbours. Unless they found their strength, their faith and hope in God rather than themselves, they would not find the inspiration, creativity and tenacity to defeat the giants in their midst. David refuses to fight Goliath on Goliath s terms. That s a recipe for disaster. Instead, he uses his small size, lack of cumbersome armour, sword and spear, and his skill with a sling shot. He takes note of a key vulnerable spot where Goliath is exposed. Even a giant has a weakness or two. He finds it right on his forehead. He moves quickly, takes aim and fires that stone, hitting the bull s-eye. Game over. David wins. Israel wins. The Philistines are so shocked, they can t but interpret it as divine intervention or fate. God is on Israel s side. They panic and flee.
Wow! Awesome! Amazing! But is that it? No it s not. It s not because even though we discover there are different ways to succeed in life, we have not found the answer to our deeper question, the question Socrates was after. Is the goal we are after worthy of our struggle for success? Is this what God made us for? David and Israel win the battle this time. And David is a fairly successful king. But Israel is always going to be a small player in a field of giants. Is there something else they re missing as people called by God to be a light to the nations? Israel struggles for centuries to find the light. For us Christians, that light finds bright illumination in Jesus. He shows the way and lives it out. But is Jesus victory a defeat of the giant, or an alternative way of engaging the giant? In our New Testament lesson, the apostle Paul focusses on the cross of Christ as the revelation and living out of the victory of God. But why the cross? Isn t the cross an obvious symbol of humiliating defeat? The best wisdom in the world thinks of a crucified messiah as foolishness and failure. The strongest power in the world thinks of a crucified messiah as the epitome of weakness. But what if the greatest power is not power but love? What if the deepest wisdom is not intelligence to get ahead, but the knowledge of things that comes from loving them? What if the cross, far from being a symbol of defeat is the victory of the kind of love that can forgive, embrace and resurrect life much more spectacular and true to our humanity than all the power, wealth and success in the world combined? As human beings, we can use help on how to succeed, but that s not what we need most. As human beings, we can use creativity to defeat giants, especially when we are underdogs, but that s not what we need most. As human beings we need to learn the way of love in every conflict, every obstacle, every circumstance and situation, every limitation we cannot change and every opportunity to fight for change for a better world and a better outcome. We need to learn the way of love. But love, if it is love, also fights a certain way, engages a certain way, accepts things a certain way, and changes things a certain way. Love doesn t alienate, humiliate, dismiss, put down or crush people. Love opens doors and builds bridges not shuts them and burn them down. Love makes space for others and love gets creative in overcoming obstacles rather than offended or judgemental. Jesus has to reveal and embody all this. Jesus preaches and teaches love and he heals through love. But it is when all the evil, injustice and sin against him is magnified most overwhelmingly by his terrible crucifixion that the kind of love he reveals shines most powerfully. Think about it. Paul points to the cross as the centre of our faith. And he points to it because the Corinthians, like the Israelites and like all of us here and now, need to internalize it better than they do. Paul reminds the Corinthians that most of them are not the power-brokers of society. Most of them are nobodies on the social status pole. And we know, don t we, that often the people who crave power and success most intensely are those who have less of it and envy those who do. This is the situation of the Corinthians. They re competing with one another as to who is more spiritual, who is closer to God, who has greater authority in the church. Paul is challenging them to think in an opposite way if
they are really to internalize the truth of the cross. The more they love one another the more spiritual they will become. The more they cherish one another the more God will fill them with abundance. They don t need to succeed in worldly terms. They need to succeed on God s terms. So what s the difference? Let me end with a very practical illustration the ministry of our church in the inner city we call Evangel Hall. In a recent article in the Toronto Sun, Evangel Hall was featured and especially its very unique ministry of a dental clinic for anyone who doesn t have the means. Typically, the people who come are people who haven t had dental work done for years. The condition of their teeth is awful. Dentists volunteer their time and donations serve to provide the material necessary for the clinic to function. The reason I bring up Evangel Hall is because it is a church-based ministry. It is a ministry that has been created not simply to succeed, but to bear witness to the kind of love revealed and embodied on the cross. What makes such love distinctive? Well, many people volunteer and donate to charities. But it doesn t change the focus of their understanding of success in the world. Giving is simply something you do because you ve been successful or prosperous enough and you can do it. But what the cross teaches us is that God is experienced and received in the loving, not in the success. The people ministered to are not charity cases, but Christ hidden among us, inviting us to experience the fullness that comes from loving others by seeing ourselves in them. We don t just help people, we are creating friendship and community with them as fellow human beings made in the image of God. The only thing that separates us are tragic circumstances and chance misfortune. Getting to the top of the worldly ladder of power and success is not only secondary in the gospel, it can actually blind us to the real Good we should be after, just like Socrates was trying to teach youth hundreds of years before Christ. Until we can see all human beings as children of God, as infinitely precious, whether they ve succeeded or failed in life. Until we can do that and the more we can do that, the more we can embrace the kind of fullness of life revealed in the cross. True power is hidden in a young shepherd boy battling a fierce giant. True power is hidden in a crucified saviour the rest of the world sees as foolishness, weakness and humiliation. Until we reshape our life s goals around genuine love, the love of the cross, we will never find the abundance and peace we are after. We may succeed with all our intelligence and all our privilege and power, but we will never understand the foolishness of God: For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those of us who are being saved, it is the power of God. Are you being saved by the power of God s love coursing through your spiritual veins?... Let us pray: Save us, O God Save us from the false passions that drive us Save us for the fullness of love to which you call us Amen.