God Is Trustworthy – 1 Corinthians 1 :18-31

A text – 1 Corinthians 1:18-31

¹⁸ For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ¹⁹ For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

²⁰ Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scholar? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? ²¹ For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of the proclamation, to save those who believe. ²² For Jews ask for signs and Greeks desire wisdom, ²³ but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to gentiles, ²⁴ but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵ For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

²⁶ Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. ²⁷ 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; ²⁸ God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to abolish things that are, ²⁹ so that no one might boast in the presence of God. ³⁰ In contrast, God is why you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, ³¹ in order that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

A reflection:

The Lord our God wants us to know we can trust God for all the good things in the universe. But we love to trust in the stuff we make, because it makes us feel self-sufficient and proud of ourselves. We even have made it a kind of national trait – self-sufficiency, rugged individualism. I’m a fan of westerns. Many is the time we hear the successful rancher say, “Yeah, I put this place together with my own two hands. Nobody helped me, and I fought anyone who got in my way. So don’t you get in my way…” And when that vision gets contrasted with a different vision – people banding together for the sake of water, say, or for protection, well, that’s a good plot point in the story. Whose vision will win?

A clash of what can be trusted is happening now. In an age when it’s harder and harder to know what can be believed, we grow aware that misrepresentation happens frequently, and we ask ourselves what is trustworthy, with good reason. Here’s where the Holy Spirit can help. The Holy Spirit is an eternal face of our God: Creator (Father), Savior (Son), and Inspirer-Attractor-Keeper (Holy Spirit). The Holy Spirit is close by us always, reminding us not to worry, that we have already been created by God and saved by Jesus, and none of that is our own doing but instead a gift. God has made promises that God will keep. We can trust more in God than we can in anything human-made.

Remember Joseph, the one with the amazing technicolor dream coat? Remember when he had risen in Egypt from slave to a position of power, and his brothers came to beg for food and a place to wait out the famine? Remember what Joseph said to these brothers who had sold him into slavery? (Genesis 50:20) “Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today.” God is the one who brings about lasting justice and mercy, lasting peace. God can be trusted to bring good things out of bad things. The Corinthians, to whom Paul is writing, believed in Jesus not through their own cleverness or worldly wisdom – those things caused them to split into factions. It was the Holy Spirit, accepted by the “least” of their congregation, that gave them faith in the Savior Jesus. Paul had seen it happen; he knew what he was writing about. Belief is a gift of the Spirit, often accepted first by the lowly, and it is trustworthy. Verse 28: ^”God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to abolish things that are.” Trust in the Lord above everything, and God will keep all God’s promises despite those who keep telling us how wise they are.

A prayer:

Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for bringing from the lowly the answer that baffles the wise. Thank you for being our trustworthy Creator, Savior, and Keeper. Help us to remember that you are just a whisper away and always trustworthy. Amen.