Isaiah Honesty

For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel–not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written:

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”

Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

Here is the passion of Paul addressing the divided Corinthian church in the first chapter of the first book that bears (bares, even?) their name. The readers would have referred to the entire Isaiah passage in context when they were reading it. So here is what the Corinthian readers would have read into Paul's reference (Is 29:14):

The Lord says:
“These people come near to me with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me
is made up only of rules taught by men.
Therefore once more I will astound these people
with wonder upon wonder;
the wisdom of the wise will perish,
the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.”
Woe to those who go to great depths
to hide their plans from the Lord,
who do their work in darkness and think,
“Who sees us? Who will know?”
You turn things upside down,
as if the potter were thought to be like the clay!
Shall what is formed say to him who formed it,
“He did not make me”?
Can the pot say of the potter,
“He knows nothing”?

Who can stand before the words of the Lord, the LORD Almighty and Holy. Righteous and powerful, omnipotent and merciful, just and the very definition of Love. Frighteningly powerful, really. No one thought can hide from Him. Even professing Christians, many of which are highly trained and skilled in the art of trickery and hypocrisy, cannot trick God.

Here is the amazing thing about this passage from I Corinthians: in the very first chapter he shuts them up. He points them to the Isaiah passage that renders them empty of any religious justification. Because if we were all Isaiah honest everybody has a propensity to formulate God and rules to live by. I would even say most of us at some point or another have attached ourselves to some leader or teacher's communication and hung on their words because of the messenger instead of the message. Said the pot to the potter, "He knows nothing."

Paul goes on. It is Christ crucified, period. That is the power. That is the wisdom. That is the theological mind job that messes everybody up and makes us want to argue about other things. That is our entire hermeneutical and exegetical task is to figure out what the power and wisdom of Christ crucified means to us theologically and then personally; and in turn, communicate that message to a world that has always been in need of Him. Our job is not to bicker about which speaker, or pastor, or which methodology of Christianity is "right". Our job is to live and preach Christ crucified.

So let's stop bickering and complaining amongst ourselves. We only do that because we are bored. But we wouldn't be bored if we lived closer to the edge of faith where life really happens. (That reminds me of Jonathan's "What if..." question that he asked David. I'll save that for another post.) Take a risk... and jump.