Excerpt from sermon on 03/08/2015:
We are in the world but not of the world, so the wisdom and power of the world is not the wisdom and power we worship. Instead, we worship the wisdom and power of God, who chooses “the foolish things of the world to shame the wise,” and “the weak things of the world to shame the strong” (1 Cor. 1:27). A number of years ago, Joan Osborne, a singer, sang a song titled, “One of Us.” The song asks, “What if God was one of us/Just a slob like one of us/Just a stranger on a bus/Trying to make His way home?” It’s a simple song, but brilliant, because it points out the fact that God was one of us in Jesus, and Jesus told us that whatever we do to the least of these we do to him so, in essence, that slob and stranger on the bus are Jesus and so are God. At least, we are to treat them as if they are, because whatever we do to the least of these we do to Jesus and, thus, to God. In his wisdom and power, God made it so that we find Him most when we are in solidarity with the least. We are more likely to find God in the tenement than in the palace, in the ghetto than in the resort. “God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things . . . so that no one may boast before him” (1 Cor. 1:28-29). If we boast, we are to boast only in the crucified Christ, who is Lord (1 Cor. 1:31).
We are in the world but not of the world, so the wisdom and power of the world is not the wisdom and power we worship. Instead, we worship the wisdom and power of God, who chooses “the foolish things of the world to shame the wise,” and “the weak things of the world to shame the strong” (1 Cor. 1:27). A number of years ago, Joan Osborne, a singer, sang a song titled, “One of Us.” The song asks, “What if God was one of us/Just a slob like one of us/Just a stranger on a bus/Trying to make His way home?” It’s a simple song, but brilliant, because it points out the fact that God was one of us in Jesus, and Jesus told us that whatever we do to the least of these we do to him so, in essence, that slob and stranger on the bus are Jesus and so are God. At least, we are to treat them as if they are, because whatever we do to the least of these we do to Jesus and, thus, to God. In his wisdom and power, God made it so that we find Him most when we are in solidarity with the least. We are more likely to find God in the tenement than in the palace, in the ghetto than in the resort. “God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things . . . so that no one may boast before him” (1 Cor. 1:28-29). If we boast, we are to boast only in the crucified Christ, who is Lord (1 Cor. 1:31).
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