Today’s Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:26-31
Daily Lectionary: Ezekiel 37:15-28; Romans 6:1-23
But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. (1 Corinthians 1:27-29)
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. There’s a typically American trend among Christians that we’re an outgoing, upbeat, nice group of folks. But the Christian Church doesn’t do “nice,” not if it’s about preaching Christ. In the Church, when we speak of Christ we inevitably speak about affliction, the yoke of grief, of God’s goodness and compassion which are new every morning. But this isn’t a message people can call “nice.” And why would they? The message of the cross is about affliction, grief, disgrace, compassion, and God’s goodness, which is only revealed to us in the midst of suffering and conflict. It’s a word of death and resurrection. It announces that to be raised up into the new creation, we don’t need to be nice, good, holy, smart, accountable or even faithful. We need only to be dead. How could it not meet with resistance outside and inside a church who can count the cost of being “nice,” but for whom God suffering, dead, and then raised from death has no value?
The message of the cross—death and resurrection—meets resistance from both inside and outside the Church (not to mention within each and every one of us) because God’s message isn’t a nice message, it’s a foolish message, through and through. It’s foolishness because God isn’t for first place finishers, winners, heroes, or living legends—He’s for suffering and conflicted people. He meets us in our suffering and conflicts not with the promise to take them away. He’s simply always with us, in death and in life.
Therefore, “be patient and hope for the salvation of the LORD. For the LORD will not reject you forever, but first He afflicts you, then He has compassion according to His abundant goodness” (Lamentations 3:22-33). In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
Thou hast suffered men to bruise Thee, That from pain I might be free; Falsely did Thy foes accuse Thee: Thence I gain security; Comfortless Thy soul did languish Me to comfort in my anguish. Thousand, thousand thanks shall be, Dearest Jesus, unto Thee (Christ, the Life of All the Living, LSB 420:5)
Tuesday after the Baptism of Our Lord by Higher Things. Copyright Higher Things®, Higher Things - Dare to be Lutheran.
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