Wisdom Versus Folly or The Stupidity of God (March 3, 2024) 1 Cor. 1.18-25

In 1867, the U.S. Secretary of State, William H. Seward, signed a treaty with Russia for the purchase of 586,412 sq. miles of real estate for $7 million. Despite the bargain price of roughly two cents an acre, the purchase was ridiculed by some in Congress and in the press as “Seward’s folly,” “Seward’s icebox,” and President Andrew Johnson’s “polar bear garden.”

Today we know that the “folly” as Alaska. Known for its beauty and natural resources, the purchase seems, in retrospect, to be a really good deal. But at the time of the purchase, well, those were unknown. To many then it was a barren wasteland.

Folly was the word used to describe the purchase of Alaska. It is defined as a “lack of good sense or normal prudence or foresight; a foolish act or idea”. Is this something of which we can accuse God? Does God lack good sense or have foolish ideas? Seems a bit improper when we think about God. And yet that is precisely what the apostle Paul says God has done in his first letter to the church at Corinth.

Reading the letter to the Corinthians, or for that matter any letter of Paul, is reading someone else’s mail. Or to make things a bit more current, it is reading an email to which someone accidentally hit Reply All or a group text that was intended for only one person. We have a letter that was intended to be read by a certain group, in a certain time, and dealing with certain situations. However, when we read this letter, we can see our own lives and situations reflected to us. This is why it speaks so clearly to us.

In the very first part of the letter, Paul is writing to contend with a situation where there is quite a good deal of one-upmanship going on in Corinth. The church is divided over several leaders and speakers. Now I know this would never happen in the Church today, but there you have it. And after stating the body is not to be divided in less than diplomatic language, Paul lays out the “sheer folly” of God to show them why their trust should only be in God.

Paul begins by declaring that the message of the cross, a Messiah crucified is foolishness to those who are perishing. Mark the word foolishness or foolish because it occurs several times in this passage of scripture. The word in Greek means foolish or stupid or can be rendered as “vulgar joke”. In fact, the word is from where we get our word moron. Paul is saying that the message of the cross is stupidity or moronic to proclaim. The reason for this is because the cross was not something to proclaim. It was a form of execution that involved a person taking a long time to die. It was used to proclaim to those watching “Don’t mess with Rome.” And those who were listening to this letter being read knew this. They may even be thinking that the cross is indeed foolishness. How could something good come from something so bad?

It is interesting that we see the cross as something good. We have crosses everywhere: on our steeples, on the wall, on the table, even on chains around our necks. And many of them are very ornate, lovely pieces that were crafted with great care and thought. But again, this is a device of capital punishment. It would be akin to us in modern times wearing and proclaiming that the electric chair or the hypodermic that administers lethal injection is what God used to redeem humanity.

And to those who are not members of the church this is sheer folly, foolishness, or stupidity. What good did crucifixion ever do to anyone in the empire? To these people Paul states that they are perishing. But to those being saved the cross is the power of God. Notice that the statements of perishing and saved are in the present tense, especially the being saved. Many believe that once one is saved that there is nothing more to be done, it is accomplished, and one is to go on with one’s life. But here we see that God is not done with the saving, that it is an ongoing process. Day by day God is working to make the members of the Church a little more like Jesus through the power of the cross.

Paul then quotes the prophet Isaiah saying, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”[1]“Destroy the wisdom of the wise.” Now, what does that mean? In the Greek world wisdom was something that the high born and even those not of high birth eagerly sought. It was seen as the highest calling. Gaining wisdom meant studying philosophy and rhetoric. Philosophy was not something one took to fulfill a humanities requirement, but something one studied diligently if one was to have a quality education. Rhetoric, or the study of the art of persuasion, was also a requirement for a solid education. These are important things to know as Paul continues his letter.

Paul takes on those who are “wise” and educated. This is not to be taken as Paul was against education. Paul knew his philosophy and one only need read his letters to know that he was a good rhetorician. Rather, it is to take on those who have an exalted sense of themselves because they believe that they possess wisdom and are willing to “share” that knowledge with those who are not so fortunate. Richard B Hays says this about the gospel and wisdom: “The gospel is not an esoteric body of religious knowledge, not a slickly packaged philosophy, not a scheme for living a better life; instead, it is an announcement about God’s apocalyptic intervention in the world, for the sake of the world.”[2]Wisdom is not what it appears to be.

In Corinth there were many “wisdom” seekers who were glad to share that wisdom. There were also trained orators who could and did speak with power and persuasion. Think of Mark Antony’s speech in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar where after he speaks the crowd is turned against the rhetoric of Brutus. Antony was the better speaker, and the crowd was swayed. Today we are the same. One who will speak to our prejudices will persuade many more than those who try to state the truth. In Corinth it was the same. There were many famous orators in Corinth much like movie or TV stars today. They were followed because they had what is called a golden tongue. In fact, this was one of the factors dividing the church in Corinth because some were saying that they were the followers of a man names Apollos who could speak very well. To these people Paul states: “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.”[3]Again, we see the word moria or stupidity.

Since the wisdom of the world did not discern the message of the cross for what it was, God decided to use the “foolishness of our proclamation” to save those who are becoming believers. To proclaim is to preach. Not necessarily preach like I do, in calm and subdued tones. Rather, it is to yell the message at the top of one’s lungs, to make people turn and wonder who is shouting and what they are shouting.

And this message is a staggering one. It is a message that many could not swallow then and indeed, many find it hard to swallow today. Jews demand a sign and Greeks demand wisdom. Hays states it this way: “Jews, who have suffered long under the burden of foreign oppression, quite reasonably look for manifestations of God’s power: signs like those done by Moses at the time of the exodus, perhaps portending at last God’s powerful deliverance of his people again from bondage. The Messiah should be a man of power, manifesting supernatural proofs of God’s favor. Greeks, with their proverbial love of learning, quite reasonably look for wisdom: reasonable accounts of the order of things presented in a logically compelling and aesthetically pleasing manner. The Christ should be a wise teacher of philosophical truths. But no! God has blown away all apparently reasonable criteria: the Christ is a crucified criminal.”[4]

But God’s foolishness is a call to those who believe. It is the wisdom of God. It is wiser than the wisdom of humans and is stronger than the strength of humans. The stupidity of God will always win again human wisdom.

Do you see our world in the world of the Corinthians? We seek wisdom and look for signs. We look at the cross as something that can look pretty on the table here, but is something that would be foolish, or stupid, to proclaim. We have our own orators whom we hold up as stars, who make us feel good with their words that make us seem wise. But the truth of the matter is that God uses foolishness to bring believers to God. God still chooses persons that the world and, quite frankly many in the church, see as folly. It is documented and well known that in the developing world Christianity is growing and thriving, while here in the United States, in Europe and other developed nations it is shrinking. Could this be because we have become too wise, too intelligent to really look at the foolishness of the cross? When we seek the foolishness of God, we become different people. We become ones who will go out and shout to the those who are not believers that there is something big going on. It may seem stupid, but it is wise beyond anything we can offer. And when we do this, we come together and see each other as brothers and sisters. In other words, we have communion with God and with each other. We can come to the table and share the meal with Jesus and each other knowing that it was not through anything that we did that has brought us here, just the stupidity of God. Let us remember who and what brought and keeps us here. Amen.

[1] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989. Print. [2]Hays, Richard B. First Corinthians: Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching (pp. 27-28). Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition. [3] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989. Print. [4]Hays, Richard B. First Corinthians: Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching (p. 31). Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition.