Foolish Wisdom

"FOOLISH WISDOM"

a message by Rev. Dr. Bruce Havens

Coral Isles Church, U.C.C.

August 3, 2025

1 Corinthians 1:18-25    NRSV

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.

We could spend a lot of time discussing foolishness and wisdom, couldn’t we?  And in the end which do we know more about?  Foolishness or wisdom?  When it comes down to it, is humanity any less foolish now than 2000 years ago, or 5,000?  Are we any wiser?  Would our discussion make us wiser or just prove our foolishness?

The Apostle Paul wrote to a group of Christians living in Corinth, Greece somewhere around 2,000 years ago.  He begins with some observations about the foolishness of God and human wisdom. He says the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but “to those who are saved it is the power of God.”  The part of that statement about foolishness is obvious.  The message of the cross is self-sacrifice, it is suffering for others, it is death so that others may live.  Utter foolishness to anyone with an ounce of sense.  Who would call that path a path of “wisdom?”  Yet, Paul proclaims it “the power of God.”

So what is this “power of God?”  Humans have fought countless wars killing one another while each side claimed to have the power of God on their side.  NFL football players kneel down and pray before games hoping to claim the “power of God” to defeat the other team.  Is that foolishness or wisdom?  Members of Congress pass legislation that takes food out of the mouths of starving children, and takes medical care away from the most at-risk, the elderly, and the poor.  Then they gather and pray a victory prayer invoking God’s name.  Foolishness!  Let others nod and demand we bow down and call it wisdom. Is that “the power of God?”  I want no part of the God whose power does such things.  I reject such a god as false, as idolatry, as blasphemy. 

The cross has always demanded that we humans rethink our wisdom and our power and our understanding of God.  But even those first disciples didn’t get this message very clearly.  Peter, when Jesus says he must go to the cross, cries out, “Never.”  Not long after a couple of the boys are asking if they can sit at the right and left hands of Jesus in glory.  He points them to a different throne than they expect: a cross shaped throne.  A throne of suffering, self-sacrifice and … Foolishness!  Who would choose to call this wisdom?  Jesus.  That’s who.  And it makes us squirm, even if we know that humans have abused power in the name of God since the beginning of time and called themselves wise.  This is the challenge of our faith.  Not just to see wisdom in the way of the cross but also calling the things humans call power foolishness.

In a few minutes we will celebrate a meal.  I will say some words from our faith history.  We will gather around this table.  We will have a morsel of bread and a drop of wine or grape juice and we will say it is a reminder.  What are we remembering?  Is it foolishness or wisdom we remember?  What images come to our minds, our imaginations when we remember the meal that Jesus shared with his disciples?

Let me take you back in history a minute to talk about wisdom and foolishness.  Throughout its early history, Christians used images and art to teach truth about the faith. Some of these images were called “icons.”  In Christianity, an icon is a stylized, symbolic representation of holy figures or events.  Mostly used in the Orthodox Church, these images were often painted on wood panels.  They were intended to serve as windows into the divine realm, reminding believers of spiritual realities and inspiring them in their faith. 

In the early 1400’s a Russian monk and painter named Andrei Rublev was considered a master of the icon form.  His most famous icon, [ up there on our screen ], was called “The Hospitality of Abraham.”   It depicts the story of 3 visitors who come to Abraham and Sarah, told in Genesis 18.  In the story Abraham is sitting at the entry to his tent in the heat of the day and sees these 3 visitors in the distance.   Because it is the custom of his people to show hospitality to strangers, when he saw them, Abraham ran to meet them and bowed himself to the earth. He ordered a servant-boy to prepare a choice calf, and set curds, milk and the calf before them.  And Abraham waited on them, under a tree, as they ate.  You may remember that Abraham and Sarah were a couple of old people, long past child-bearing age.  But these visitors share that Sarah is going to have a baby.  And hearing that, Sarah laughs.  What foolishness.  Yet she does.  And I suspect God laughed with joy.

In the icon you see these foolish messengers gathered at a table.  Rublev invites us to dwell with the story, to catch a glimpse of the God who is Three and One, the God who comes to us when we believe our life is at an end, only to hear from God that new life is emerging.  In this image of the Trinity, we see a community around a table, with a chalice in the center.  No one is grasping for control or power.  Instead, they offer expressions of grace, mercy, love and service to each other.  Here is our power.  Here is our wisdom.  Those who worship power and control over others may call it foolishness. But the wisdom of God and the power of God will never be defeated by human power and foolishness.

At the table we come as community.  We do not grasp for power or control, but offer grace, mercy, love and service to each other.  We welcome anyone to join us at this table: food for the spirit and drink for the soul and hope.  We offer community with others not because they are like us, but because we are all different in some ways and alike in others.  Instead of making our differences a reason for hate, fear, or killing we see them as a sign of God’s glorious creativity and love.  In welcoming each other we offer God’s wisdom to a world that is desperate for hope.  This table is a sign of hope.

So we must ask ourselves: Do we depend on God?  This table is also a sign of our dependence on God.  It is God who provides all that we need to live: food and drink and community.  All are necessary.  All come from the grace and glory of God’s wisdom and power.

Paul declared that the cross was the sign of God’s power and wisdom.  When we sing of God’s powerful grace and God’s true glory all creation will join us.  Angels will sing and dance.  The heavens will rejoice that finally, finally, we understand the difference between our foolishness and God’s grace and glory.  May God grant us the power of that grace and that glory for the living of these days!  AMEN.