God’s Foolishness
In this first letter to the church at Corinth, Paul has just expressed his concern about the divisions among a handful of factions of that congregation. While claiming to be Christians, they seem to disagree about the true source of wisdom—“honest” misunderstanding? self-deception?—and that threatens the cohesion of the faith community, our brothers and sisters. Perhaps that disharmony was nothing more than what has divided Christian communities for centuries—for example, theological debates and interpretation of scripture, different worship cultures, and even budget and finance disagreements.
Many of the divisions among Christians have reflected flawed interpretations of God’s Word, however sincere and enduring but impermanent. I infer that Paul would attribute this to overreliance on “schools of thought” and their creators and followers who veered off course, perhaps distracted by pride (ego?) and perhaps the prospect of fame and fortune. But Paul’s ideal is a church unified. His vision may seem idealistic and impractical: we continue to see division—and atrophy—but history tells us that settling for anything less will continue to fail.
In v. 19, Paul quotes Isaiah 29:14 about the vanishing wisdom of the wise and lost discernment from the discerning. Their choice of wisdom did not lead them to God so God revealed wisdom through preaching to the faithful (v. 21) who are perhaps only incidentally the wise, powerful, or nobly born. Just as “the stone rejected…has become the chief cornerstone” (Psalm 118:22-23), God’s irony is to choose to work through what is foolish, weak, low and despised to manifest wisdom “so that no one might boast in the presence of God” (v. 29). If that is not our focus, we shall continue to get it wrong.
Is Paul’s an anti-intellectual message? Following a family tradition of teachers, my career has been dedicated to the primacy, among institutions, of the academy as the most reliable path to truth—certainly not infallible but the most reliable among the alternatives. Paul is not dismissing the intellect but is warning against misplaced worship. For example, the core work of academic enquiry and the search for truth (“veritas”—all or part of the motto of many universities) begs the question whether enquiry can settle for mystery, but the central place of mystery in faith is a persistent theme in Paul’s letters. Scholarship can enhance and enlighten: witness the rich tradition of Christian scholarship and the benefits of growing knowledge generally, but they are a means to the prize, not the prize. They can and should complement “God’s foolishness” but not substitute for it which is often the temptation. Instead, “let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord” (v. 31b from Jer. 9:24).
Dear Lord, Source of wisdom: Decisions are choices, and choices fill our lives. The satisfaction of correct choices—if we can identify them—and the pain of poor choices urge us to look for wisdom to make better ones. So much has been invested in increasing our wisdom. Are we any closer to finding it than those from Paul’s time? Perhaps we have looked and continue to look in the wrong places for the wrong reasons. Give us the humility and discernment and dedication to take Paul’s advice and seek without ceasing or distraction the wisdom of your foolishness in the Way of Christ. In Your name we pray: Amen.
Denton Marks