The New Blue Church, 2.5.23, Pastor Rebecca Ellenson, Nothing but Christ
A few weeks ago, I read a fascinating book by one of my favorite authors, Barbara Brown Taylor, called The Luminous Web. It is a collection of her essays, exploring the dialogue between science and Christian faith. She considers what insights quantum physics, new biology, and chaos theory can teach a person of faith.
As those of you who have heard me preach know, I am sort of a nerd about things like that. I would just love to spend this time exploring such heady topics with you. In fact, I started a sermon on just that—the compatibility of science and religion and the changing world views through the centuries. But then, Paul’s words in our assigned reading for today put me back on track. He said, “I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified!”
Oh, Paul drifted into lofty words of wisdom here and there—it’s an occupational hazard for preachers. In the book of Acts, Chapter 17, we learn that Paul was part of the cultural elite of his time. When he was in Athens he debated with the Jewish, Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. He said: “The God who made the world and everything in it, The One who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands…God gives to all mortals life and breath and all things… and allotted the times of existence and the boundaries of the places to live so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for God and find God though indeed God is not far from each one of us.” Paul quoted Epimenides, a philosopher from the 6th Century BC, saying. “For in God we live and move and have our being.”
Paul held his own with the intellectuals of his day and wrote about the mystery of God in Christ and the Unity of Being with eloquence in several of his letters, identifying Christ as the revelation of God. But, in writing to the church in Corinth he turned away from rhetoric and debate to proclaim the gospel, plain and simple. He was continuing a theme begun in the previous chapter where he wrote, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing (a word he uses to describe unbelievers) 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 and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’ Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?…we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.”
Six years ago, on a Saturday afternoon, I got a phone call from Norman Peters, who was scheduled to read the same texts we that were read today. For those of you who don’t remember Norman, he was born in England, held two engineering degrees. He and his wife, Sylvia spent nearly 3 decades of winters here and were some of the charter members of this congregation. Each year the Christmas Eve gospel was read with his elegant elocution and proper British pronunciation, adding a sort of regal air to Luke chapter 2. Well, on that Saturday, Norman, the most exquisitely logical man, called me, absolutely beside himself over the text from Corinthians. “What in heaven’s name does this mean? How can God be opposed to wisdom?” We had a long conversation which did not fully satisfy his question. I remember feeling lost in my own lofty words during that conversation. Both Norman and I knew the gospel and did our best to live in and through it. But even we could get tied up in knots.
Recently I’ve been corresponding with another friend of mine, who is also an electrical engineer. I’ll call him Fred. He would like to believe in God but cannot reconcile what the has heard about God with what he knows of the world. His approach to life is orderly and logical. Fred approached me with a proposal- that he would write what he calls “thought experiments” to me and I would provide careful responses.
The crux of his first question was, ‘If God is all-powerful, all-loving, and responds to prayers why doesn’t God stop the senselessness of mass shootings.’ As I composed my email response I found myself turning away from lofty words. Like Paul, I decided to know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I wrote to Fred, as Paul wrote, in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, hoping my speech and my proclamation were not filled with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that his faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.
I know that if he is to come to faith again, it won’t be through any logical argument. The proof he seeks for the truth of Christian faith cannot be found in theory. It musts be encountered in spirit. Clearly he is drawn to something he glimpses in his wife’s faith and in our conversations, which have been going on for years.
I love to read about the advances in scientific thought and method. I love to consider philosophical arguments. Lofty words and hair-splitting theology can be interesting, but in themselves they do not save anyone. Doctrines divide, the love of Christ unites. As Paul wrote later in his letter to the church in Corinth: “If I speak in the tongues of mortals and angels but have not love I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge but do not have love I am nothing. …Faith hope and love abide and the greatest of these is love.”
About 10 years ago, a man came to the church that I was serving to photograph the baptism of his friend’s child. I’ll call him Mark. During the service, I made the same announcement I always make before communion. I noticed that he did not come forward. I visited with him after the service and invited him to come and join us again. I told him about our community meal and said I hoped we’d see him there too.
The next month Mark came to our community meal and asked if he could talk with me in my office. He told me that he had grown up in church, served as an acolyte in worship, was confirmed. He moved to another state and fell out of the practice of attending worship. When he moved back to Minnesota to care for his parents, the church he had grown up in refused to serve him communion because he wasn’t a member anymore. That was it for Mark. Their doctrine excluded him, and he decided to be done with church. I assured him he was welcome to participate in any way he wanted, including partaking of communion. I think it was the fellowship and sense of belonging that motivated him to begin attending on Sundays.
When Lent came that year, I encouraged the congregation to read through the gospel of John. Mark was one of those who did. Over the 5-week reading program he encountered Jesus. He understood that the good news of Jesus Christ was for him and that all he needed to know about God he could find in Jesus. It’s absolutely thrilling for a pastor to see that happen, to field the questions when someone digs into scripture, to hear the excitement and new insights that come from a thorough engagement with the gospel.
The picture of God we find in Jesus Christ is compelling. God reveals God’s own self in Christ—that is our starting and ending point. Colossians 1 tells us: “In him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.” In Hebrews 1 we read: “He is the exact imprint of God’s very being.”
All anyone needs to know about God can be found in Jesus Christ. It’s really that simple. It’s not lofty wisdom. In Jesus we can see another way- the way of self-giving love. We are invited into right relationships. We are called to justice and a life of purpose. In the powerlessness of the Christ on the cross we see the God who knows our suffering, who is in all and through all.
How long has it been since you sat down and read through one of the gospels? I know some of you are reading the scriptures regularly but there may be some of you here who, like Mark, are drawn by the sense of belonging and fellowship, without having really encountered Christ lately. Others of you may have never read the gospels in their entirety. It doesn’t take very long. If you’ve got a smart phone, then you’ve got access to a bible! Why not pick a gospel? It would make a good Lenten discipline. I would recommend Mark. It was written first and is the shortest and most straightforward of the gospels.
It has been a real pleasure to be with you today. I know I speak for Steve to when I say we miss you and we miss Mazatlan. We pray that you will grow in faith and love for God and for God’s world. We give thanks that the God who called each one of us will strengthen us to have the mind of Christ and that nothing can separate us from God’s love. Amen.