Sermons

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Upside Down
May 27, 2001
Series on I Corinthians
Pastor Dan Baumgartner

I Corinthians 2:6-16

It’s good to be with you this morning. I was able to spend a couple days last week on Whidbey Island on my annual study time with my “covenant group” from seminary. We get together once a year, coming from all over. Dave is doing Young Life work in Merida, Mexico. Steve is an Associate Pastor at a church in Scottsdale, Arizona. And Andy is in a Ph.D. program at Baylor University down in Texas. We get together each year, and always have a wonderful three days of studying, prayer…and a fair amount of poking fun.

I was the butt of quite a few of the jokes this year. You see, it was my turn to pick the book this year. I chose a book called “The Moral Vision of the New Testament,” by Richard Hays. It’s a marvelous book, actually. But it had one drawback for this group. It was about 500 pages long! So from the time I picked people up at the airport, they were on me about how long the book was. When I picked Andy up, who is also FROM Texas, he started right in with this “Da-a-n,” (he’s got that Texas drawl), “D-a-an, Ah really luuved that book, Ah did…Ah was just sorry Ah had to quit mah Ph.D. program in order to finish it!” I guess the moral is…don’t get in a book group with me!

This morning we continue our study of I Corinthians. I want to encourage you to put your finger in I Corinthians 2, beginning with verse 6. I’m not actually going to read the whole text here, but we’ll pick it up as we go along.

Upon his deathbed in 1972, the renowned Jewish scholar Abraham Heschel said to a friend, “Sam, never once in my life did I ask God for success or wisdom or power or fame. I asked for wonder, and He gave it to me.”

“I asked for wonder, and He gave it to me.” Do you ever ask for wonder? Do you ever long for it? Wonder. That would mean surprising. That would mean fabulous. That would mean beauty. That would mean unexpected almost beyond comprehension. What would wonder look like? What if you and I suddenly discovered that the way we THOUGHT the world worked, the world vision that we had lived out…was WRONG. What if we discovered that everything was sort of upside down?

Fred Smith was looking for a job. Fred was skilled, experienced and well-connected. He had a consultant put together a dynamite resume for him, had a top-notch headhunter seek out opportunities, did a significant amount of his own networking. Eventually, the perfect job offer came through: up and coming company, good location, nice salary and benefits package, seemed to suit Fred to a “T.” It was very satisfying, all in all. Fred had done everything right, had played by all the rules he had ever learned. And yet…Fred had this strong, nagging sense…that he shouldn’t do this. It made no logical sense at all…but should he listen to that voice? Would you listen? What was the wise thing to do?

“Wisdom,” or the lack of it…was on the Apostle Paul’s mind as he wrote his first letter to the Christians in the Greek city of Corinth. It seems that Paul had been criticized for not using lofty and persuasive words, and his inability to impress outsiders with his wisdom. The Greeks, of course, knew all about wisdom. The foundation of philosophy laid by Plato and Socrates and Aristotle. The public debates and skill of persuading others. The Greeks knew wisdom…and Paul was not speaking the language.

As we head into chapter 2 of I Corinthians, though, Paul actually begs to differ.

He says “Among the mature we DO speak wisdom…though it is not the wisdom of this age, or the rulers of this age.” Paul’s wisdom is not part of the old age, based on human ingenuity, but of a new age that began with the cross.

I began to think as I read this: What is the wisdom of OUR age? We live in an absolutely fascinating time. If you believe many social scholars, we live in the transition between modernity and post-modernity.

Modernity has been defined as the age (spanning several centuries) of human reason and accomplishment. Beginning all the way back with the Enlightenment, one scholar says modernity was “an intellectual quest to unlock the secrets of the universe, to master nature and create a better human world.” (Grenz) In our century, this has especially focused on rationality and science, and the improvement of human existence through technology. The underlying value is that knowledge is good, and if science & technology can accumulate more knowledge, then progress is inevitable.

Most of us have grown up in this umbrella of wisdom. Our lives have been shaped by basic suppositions that come out of modern thought: our material lives ought to be better than our parents. Our careers will define who we are. Education makes a person more valuable. We have a RIGHT to as many possessions as our money and smarts can accumulate. A little religion is okay, as long as it doesn’t get in the way of science…you only believe it if you can see it or measure it. And things on the whole will continue to improve. The wisdom of modernity.

Paul says “I speak with wisdom, but it’s not the wisdom of this age or the rulers of this age.” The watchword of our current time is “postmodernism.” The term is everywhere these days. Lynne Baab taught a great class last month on a book by Stanley Grenz, “A Primer on Postmodernism.” Our Spiritual Formation team wrestled with what “postmodernism” means for the church at our meeting last week.

The postmodern worldview emphatically rejects the modern, rational one. And while there are things in postmodern thought that are very disturbing, there are also some strong points. One is this: postmodern thought rejects modern rationality…on the ground that it’s not working. We KNOW more and more, but things are not getting better. Technology is making the world smaller, but it is becoming increasingly violent. Bloody coupes, public school shootings, ethnic cleansings that easily rival Nazi Germany, the increasing gap between rich and poor, our blatant disregard for the environment…all so common place that they barely grab headlines anymore. The “rulers of THIS age” seem interested mainly in the power they can wield for themselves. And so postmodern thought says, in part, “It’s not working…there must be something more.”

Paul says “Yes.” Not “Yes” to the “there is no real truth” part of post-modern thought, but “Yes there is something more.” A different kind of wisdom. God’s wisdom, “decreed before the ages for our glory.” God’s plan, His wisdom is seen in Jesus Christ, crucified. And, Paul says, most of the world just doesn’t get it. Surely if God’s wisdom was acting, it would be in power, strength, pride and decisiveness. Yet…Paul says God’s BEST SHOT to save the world, to save people, to save you and me…comes in weakness, injustice, self-sacrifice, crucifixion. No one could have guessed it, including Paul…but it happened. Here’s how The Message translates verse 9:

No one’s ever seen or heard anything like this,
Never so much as imagined anything quiet like it --
What God has arranged for those who love Him.

Paul says that in a way no one could guess…God’s totally upside down wisdom… has changed the world forever.

And if Paul is right…what wonder! A wonder “revealed to us through the Spirit.”

WE would be just like everyone else in the world except that in some surprising, inexplicable way…God’s Holy Spirit has grabbed us and made Christ visible for us. We see that God has dealt with people not on the basis of knowledge, but on the basis of love.

Everything starts to turn upside down. If the wisdom of God is made manifest in the sacrificial love of Christ, then our lives…the way we care for people…our life in community…the way we reach out to others…the way we live materially…all can operate differently. It’s a different kind of wisdom. And it’s a wisdom that comes NOT just from an intellectual assent to Christian propositions…but from being personally touched by the crucified and resurrected Jesus through the Holy Spirit.

Charles Templeton was an early friend and preaching colleague of Billy Graham’s. As a young man, Templeton had met Jesus in a very dramatic way, and later partnered with Billy Graham as a very dynamic evangelist. After a few years, however, Templeton began to have doubts about his own faith. He became a somewhat bitter agnostic, left the ministry and went to Canada as a novelist and social commentator.

By the time Lee Strobel interviewed him for his book entitled "The Case for Faith," Templeton was 83 years old, and just barely beginning to struggle with Alzheimer’s disease. In their interview, Templeton told Strobel that he quit believing in a loving and caring God because he couldn’t reconcile that picture with the pain and suffering in the world. As he told his story, Templeton was very animated and adamant about his disbelief.

But towards the end of their interview, a very interesting thing happened. Strobel asked Templeton about JESUS. Not about theology, not about philosophy, not about agnosticism…but about Jesus. Strobel writes: “Templeton’s body language softened. It was as if he suddenly felt relaxed and comfortable in talking about an old and dear friend.

“Jesus was,” Templeton said, “a moral genius. The intrinsically wisest person I’ve ever encountered in my life or readings. He was the greatest human being who ever lived.”

Strobel was a little shocked, given Templeton’s lifelong stance. But Templeton continued to talk, and said “It may sound strange…but I have to say…I adore Him…and…(slowly)…if I may put it this way…(voice beginning to crack)…I miss him. (weeping).”

That is a story that is not yet over. God is not done with Charles Templeton. He’s still wrestling with difficult issues, hard issues for any honest person. But even in the midst of doubt, or places where the wisdom of the ages says “give it up…,” the wisdom of God continues to call us personally from the cross. It doesn’t provide every answer we’d like right now. But that wisdom, Paul says, that acts selflessly on our behalf, that never quits looking for us…is a very different wisdom than all of the books on the shelf in my office. A very different wisdom than Greek philosophy or modernism OR postmodernism offers.

It is a wisdom of love. A wisdom that turns our world upside down, or ought to…that makes us care about things differently than the world, and that allows us to not care about some of the things the world sees as important. But if the Holy Spirit has not grabbed ahold of a person, has not illuminated the cross…they will not understand it. It will be foolishness to them. It may even bring anger or bitterness towards those who follow it. Christians should not be surprised at opposition to some of the stands we must take or values we must hold onto. In fact, if we encounter no opposition…we should be worried. After all…the world has been turned upside down.

My encouragement for you this morning…is to live into the wisdom of God. Every day that you wake up and head out into the day, there are voices which cry out “Be like us! See only what we see! Put one foot in front of the other and keep walking. Stick with conventional wisdom, and don’t rock the boat.” They are voices which have no idea that in Christ, God has released wonder into the world. A wonder that INCLUDES our reason (Paul, of all people, would not throw out our ability to think), but that moves beyond it as well. But we must watch for it. Watch attentively for it. Look in places and ways that are different.

Eugene Peterson once told a story of a bird-watching expedition that he and his wife embarked on. They had decided to learn to identify birds, and so invited a friend well-trained in that art to teach them. They went walking out in the wilds of Montana, and after they’d walked ¼ mile, the friend said “Okay, how many different birds did you see?” Well, they hadn’t actually seen a single bird. Their guide said “I counted nine different species.” They were astonished. They realized then that they weren’t attentive, and hadn’t been looking in the right places. They had only looked at the obvious, the places everybody would look. But over time they would learn to be more attentive, and to see flight patterns and silhouettes and brush shadows.

It seems to me that we need to be reminded of the same lesson. We look at our lives, and the temptation is to be barely attentive, to see only what others see. Look around, Paul says. When you have received the Holy Spirit, you have the mind of Christ. You receive God’s wisdom…a very different kind of wisdom, shown in the cross of Christ…the kind that turns the world upside down. Look there…And you WILL see wonder.