Subversive Hope

Intro

Good morning brothers, sisters and friends. One day I was walking by the train station, and I ran into this newstand with all the magazine there. You know you have your magzines on fashion, on beauty, food. And then there is always these magazines how to be rich, and talk about rich people and influential people. Forbes is one of these magazine. It may be rooted in a sense that our hopes always hang on these people. So maybe do a test, do you know who are these? (top 5 riches) Bernard Arnault, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezons, Larry Ellison and Warren Buffet. (Top 5 most powerful) Xinjing ping, Vladimir Putin, JOe Biden, Olaf Scholz and Jeff Bezos.

I guess in a way the world looks for hope in those who are rich and powerful? But what about our faith, Christinality, where do we find hope? Today would be the last talk on the series on hope. And i just want to thank a preacher who have been a guide throughout this year with the pastors. He is Tim Keller who died a few days ago. Earlier this year, we looked at hope in personal life, hope in relationships, hope in this world. Then after the April, we go into different angles of looking at hope in resurrection, a certain hope, a future hope, a glorious hope. today, we will talk about a subversive hope. In a way, God’s kingdom is a upside down kingdom, God found hope in the lowest, in God’s world you do not find in the normal powerful people, rich people, rich country, but find in suffering, find in brokeness, find in unforunate circumstances. Paul saying the hope of God is a subversive hope. And it is probably shown the most clear in his letter to Corinthians. So before we get into the passage. Let’s pray.

The storyline of this world (v18-20)

Just as today’s world look into the rich and the powerful, so many years ago the storyline of Corinth is the same. They look for wisdom and power. This was found generally in the Hellenistic world and specifically Corinth. We see this clearly in verse 18-20:

1 Corinthians 1:18-20 “For the word of the cross is folly 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, 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?”

Paul here is looking for a point of reference. In order to communicate the shaping power of the gospel for their community, it looks for langauge that will connect with them, that will address issues of their hearts. For Paul, this letter is nothing short of wrestling for the affection and allegiance of the Corinthians. The divisions among them , the key theme of this letter indicate they were chasing after other loves and were pledging themsevles to other lovers. They had abosrbed and adpoted the reigning storyline of the culture. They were finding the purpose and value for their lives in the grand Corinthian cultural narrative.

The word here “power” and “wisdom” are used around twenty times in this reference with the Corinthians community. He is touching a nerve. Issues of wisdom and power would be at the forefront for the Corinthians Christians as they wrestled with their own affections and allegiances. Especially the bible used the word “wisdom” to describe skillful living that is algined with the things of God. So wisdom is the proficient application of Biblical principles to one’s life, resulting from a Godward heart orientation. Power is the power that also comes from God which saves, not influences to others. The Corinthians were tempted to embrace a culoture storyline that put them in direct opposition to the gospel.

The langauge of our passage reveals the cultural obberssion with wisdom and rehotric. 1 Corinthians 1:20 “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?” Here Paul makes reference to the experts who had purchaed power with rhetoric and sophistry, those who had procured status by way of education and intellectual gymanstics. This emphasis on wisdom was particularly prevalent in the Greco-Roman culture. And it is exactly this atttitude that was creating division between the Corinthains and for them to understand the gospel. They seek this wisdom because it was a means of achiving power. But here Paul is saying, God will destory this power and this wisdom,God will made this foolish. God will make them foolish. Let’s reflect upon this.

Illustrate:

And as we lookinto the storyline of Corinth, in a lot of ways, isn’t it very similar to 21st Sydney. Wisdom, knowledge, intellect, education, technology are the pirmary cultural currency in most of today’s cities. We all want to make it - to have influence, to “make a differnece”, to be somebody. What is the one word summary of our city, our suburb. I don’t know meadowbank, maybe a river, maybe asian, maybe on the memes of Eastwood. But maybe for Ryde it is “knolwedge”. A lot of people come around here because it is believed this is a place of wisdom, intellect education good life because they are in a way good schools right?

So what ends up happening? What happens when we achieve, we perform, we grab, we pursue. It will ultimately brings us to a point where we end up becoming rank-concious. We make distinations between “somebodies” and “nobodies”. We very well dismiss someone based onen thier social rank, maybe which school they come from, their school marks, their jobs, their car, their house. Much like Corinthians we unknowly swim in the cutlrual waters of wisdom and power. And that is the whole reason of while they are so divided. They have let the world influence their thinking more than the Lord.

Reflects:

I wonder if we have somehow also been affected by the storyline of this world.

What hope are we looking at? An author said, the holy trinity of good life, “home of your own, stable work, comfortable retirement”. Has that been our dream and our storyline? Are is still Christ our storyline?

Have we subtly become rank- conscious like the Corinthian which cause the Christ body divided?

The storyline of bible (v21-29)

The overall tenor of our text reveals that God has a different understanding of wisdom and power than one revealed in the common cultural storyline. Paul uses a polemical appraoch to the langauge of the common cultural storyline in order to flip it on its head. Let’s conitnue to look at 1 Corinthains.

1 Corinthians 1:21-25 “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”

The Corinthians or even us are tempted to abandon the message of the cross for more eloquent alternatives because we recognized something: There is nothing particular eloquent or attractive about the message of cross. In some way, the cross of Christ - the wisdom of God, is “foolisness” because it simply doesn’t make sense in our world culture, our narrative. The Greek’s preferred to use reasoning and judgemetn to attain knowledge of God. This alludes to today people see data and science can explain everything, we don’t need religion or God. No sane person is looking to embrace a wisdom that is going to land them on a cross, on death row. The Jews deamnds signs, miracles and supernatural, a lot of people these days seek the supernature, they look for horoscope, for feng siu, for horoscope, for new age, but a dead men on the cross. No way.

But the gospel stands as a divine antithesis to human judgement. No mere human would have dreaemed up that God’s cscheme for redemption - is through a cruicified and rised Messiah. It is too too humailitng to a God. It’s an upsidedown wisdom. In the ancient world, the image of somenone being crucifield was utterly and completely unaccpetable. It was the form of capitial punishment that was reserved for insurrectionist and terrible criminals. The crucified Christ? Christ is supposed to be the one who is going to come and deliver sinners from bondage. What do you mean by a Messiah on a cross? In a way, God ‘s wisdom is that we cannot reason ourselves to God. God is out of our reach. Wisdom is giving up our own wisdom, and only in this foolishness that we find wisdom. It is upside down.

But not only that, this upside wisdom, this fololishness also leads to upside down power - weakness. 1 Corinthians 1:26-29 “But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.” In a way God’s view in power is upside-down. He is more intersested in those who recognize their low estate than in those who seek to prop themselves up in a lofty, powerful position. This world tells us we could be whoever we want to be, we don’t have limitations. We’re going to think I’m achiving, I’m pursuing, and I will gain everything that I need to get. What ends up happening is that when ther’es a setback and failure, we don’t have resource to calibrate our worth. In a way, real power is giving up one’s own power and this seems ridiculous, and God repeatedly chose what is foolish to shame the wise and weak to shame the strong.

Illustrate:

Let’s take some time to think about the Old Tesetament we read. There are two laws in the culture. One is the law of primogeniture, giving the oldest son nearly all the estate and wealth of the family. But in the pages of Genesis, you see God overturning the world’s value. A lot of time God works out his plan with the younger song. Abel over Cain, Issac over Ishmael, Jacob over Esau, JOseph and Judah over the other sons. Later Moses over Aaron and David over his other brothers. These men are also in some way flawed. Jacob dishonest schema, Moses speech impediment, Samson foolish decisions, but God continue his power to transform the most unpromising lives. And then, the other law is beautiful and fertile women receive favor, power, attention, even in someway today. But we see God again turn the world’s table upside down, we see GOd using aged Sarah rather than young Hagar, with plain Leah over beautiful Rachel, with Hannah the barren women. God also worked through Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathesheba who were morally, racially and socially marginal. Yet each of these women are in the genealogy of Jesus. The salvation of the world came through them. Not only men and women God choose the weak to shame the strong, even the country. God puts speical emphasis on honouring and using people and countries outside of wordly hierachies of power. Just think about Israel, they were surrounded by Assyrians, Babyloninans, Persxians, Greeks and the romans who all ascend to military and economic and cultural power over the world. In this remarkable passage God tells the Siarelites that he chose them not in spite of their powerlessness but because of it. This country is so weak that eventually it was sacked. They were exiles, they ask “how can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land”. But it is exactly at this point they grow as a religious ministorty , and the synagogue became the main modesl fo Christian church. God has a plan and walks with us the midst of our suffering, fragility, and helplessness. And in the bible, we see agin and again, story of life through death or of triumpth through weakness that reveals how God works in hsitory and in our lives. The story of Naaman, the story of Joesph, the story of Ruth, the story of David, all of them from weakness turned into strength. `

This is the bible storyline. But you might ask, how can those who are immersed in the common cultural storyline find themselves in this new story line.

Rewriting the storyline

1 Corinthians 1:30-31 “And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.””

But the greatest reversal still lie in the cross and resurrection. True wisdom comes from Jesus Christ and the cross he has been hung. The cross is true wisdom because it is a call of intellectual humility and the admittance of human limitatiions from a God who chose to humble himself and experience human limitations. The cross is also true power because it is a call to share the weakness of a God who subjected himself in roder he might share himself with others. To this rewrite of the story takes somebody outside of the world. Here it says, only he becamse to us wisdom, righteousness, santification, redemption. Our whole spiritual journey is Jesus. Jesus is the one from the outside who is the power of God and the wisdom of God. Here is the ultimate scandel; in Christ the God of the unverse submits himself to our history in all of its brokeness. We sought to snuff him out, to wirte him out of his own story.. But only it this ultimate foolish wisdom and weak power that he is to rise again, in the resurrection. It is the great reversal. The power of God was shown through wekaness. The triumph of God was shown n Loss. Jesus was the true Wisdom and power of God.

Our hope is in the great reversal. We are to go through that reversasl as well. When JEsus calls us to take up our cross and folow him, t means that to be saved and changed by his Great Reversal iwe must also go through our own reversal. Just as he did not accomplish our salavation through the exertion of power but through voluntary loss, so we receive this salvation not by summoning up our strength to achieve moral perfection but by admitting our utter weakness, helplessness and need. And just as his weakenss and shame was only way to real strength and glory, so our repetenance and acknoweldge of guilt and sin is the only way to the highest confidence and honour, the knowledge that nin Christ we are accepted and delighte din by the Lord of all.

And that’s why our hope is never in money, in security, in education, in others, influencers, poltiical leaders. Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord. I was just reading a story that probably capture this. hey movingly describe the shock at having a baby with Down’s Syndrome and how God and their church helped through. Heidi had many serious health conditions in addition to Down’s but God miraculously preserved her life on more than one occasion – true answers to prayer. Heidi is living life to the full and loving it. She covers her work in a hair salon, her family, and her testimony of coming to faith in Jesus. We are treated to her favourite Bible passages and hymns (including one of her own). The high point is her marriage to James in 2020, an inspirational ray of light in a dark year. James then tells his story. When he met Heidi, it was love at first sight. Steve agreed to James’ request for Heidi’s hand at the fourth attempt! Who could think that people with Down’s can’t live fulfilling lives after reading this. And that is the message of the book, expressed in campaigning for disability rights. Victories include the Down Syndrome Act 2022. There have also been setbacks such as when the High Court ruled that abortion up to term is legal for disabled babies.

Let us today find hope in taking up our crosses, give up our glory. Let’s pray.