Scripture: Romans 5:12-19

It used to be called consumption.  This is because for a lot of the infected people who were symptomatic the disease would slowly progress, consuming more and more of the person’s health and vitality until it eventually killed them.  In the 1800’s, as industrialization led to more people being  packed tightly together, the threat of consumption spread.  At its height it was responsible for a quarter of all deaths in Europe.   Special facilities called sanatoriums were built specifically to treat and house afflicted patients.  In the United States more than 1,000 of these facilities were built.  We no longer call disease consumption today, because today tuberculosis is curable.  A vaccine was created in 1906 and in 1946 antibiotics offered an effective cure.  

Despite there being a vaccine for more than a century and a cure for eighty years, tuberculosis has never been eradicated.  Worldwide, the disease continues to be an ongoing issue.  In fact, it was estimated in 2024 that there were around 10.7 million new infections, and annually tuberculosis kills more than 1.2 million people, making it the leading cause of death from an infectious disease.  It is a tragedy and an absolute failure of our global systems that a curable disease still causes so much suffering.   The world has the technology and the collective resources to get the deaths caused by tuberculosis as close to zero as possible, but so far global leaders have not made the choice to do so.  

 It is unfortunate that a disease with an established cure still causes so much harm in the world today.   Yet, for much longer the same has been true about the spiritual lives of people.   As this morning’s scripture points out, sin is a spiritual affliction with a 100% infection rate.   It is a spiritual affliction that causes untold suffering and real harm in the world.   This morning’s scripture also points out that God has provided a cure.  Jesus Christ is the remedy for that which ails us.  

 The book of Romans can sometimes be a hard book to approach, because it tends to be one the denser books in the bible.  In Romans Paul seeks to bridge the divide between Jewish and Gentile believers in Rome’s Christian community, and he seek to do so through doctrine and theology.   As such, Romans is a methodical book constructed with philosophical logic.  Each layer builds upon and then expands the layer just laid down.   This structure can make it difficult to consider in part, because whatever scripture we read from Romans it is likely deeply connected to the surrounding section and cannot be easily pulled out.   We find that dynamic in this morning’s scripture.  

 It is in this morning’s scripture we find the conclusion to one of Paul’s points and the introduction to what will be the major focus for the next several chapters.   Paul was trying to bridge the gap between two different cultures, so one of the beginning arguments in Romans is the importance of the Jewish law.   Paul makes the point that the law, found in the first five books of the bible, is helpful and necessary because it defines what is right and wrong.  It gives a clear direction to what righteousness looks like.  While this would have been old news to the Jewish believers, Paul made a meticulous case for the importance of the law for the gentile believers as well.  However, he points out there is a problem.   The law does not save.  As Paul wrote in Romans chapter 3, “There is no difference between Jew and Gentile for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”   The law of God found in our Old Testament, is helpful for knowing what is right and wrong but it is powerless to save us from the power of sin when we fall short.

 I have had the privilege to teach confirmation classes a number of times over the years.  In teaching young people, the basic beliefs of Christianity and the unique aspects of our United Methodist heritage, we will talk about sin.  I will ask them for an example of a sin, and every single time I have taught confirmation the very first answer given is murder.  It makes sense, because it is something we all know to be wrong-and it is something that we likely believe we will never do.   When it comes to sin, we try to make short cuts by creating list of sinful behaviors, and often the least tempted we are to do one of the behaviors the more likely we are to hold it up as a clear example of sin.  

Sin is more than just a list of behaviors though.  There are many ways to define sin.  Perhaps the shortest is that sin is willfully doing what we know is wrong.   A more complete definition of sin would be that sin is any thought or action that fall short of God’s will.   The greatest consequence of sin is that our sinful actions separate us from God.  So, any actions that move us further away from God is sin.   This is why this morning’s scripture begins by focusing on Adam.  The creation story found in Genesis tell us of Adam and his partner Eve.   We can read in Genesis chapter 3 how they chose to take a step away form God, and how that act of rebellion put sin into the world, polluting the relationship of people with God. 

Sin, fracturing the relationship with God, has created the spiritual reality we find ourselves in.  It is not that people are born naturally sinful, but we live in a world, corrupted by sin, and because of that we cannot escape the corruption ourselves. Theologian Randy Maddox, who sought to define John Wesley’s practical theology in his book Responsible Grace, calls this state inbeing sin.  Being separated from God distorts our nature and inclines us to sinful actions that move us further from God  Like a virus, we are all inevitably infected by sin.   In trying to summarize John Wesley’s viewpoint on this Maddox wrote, “From this spiritual corruption, spring our actual sins, which affect all . . .relationships definitive of human life.  We no longer consistently love and serve other humans; . . .our own happiness and self-acceptance drain away.” 

This is spiritual state, infected by sin, that we find our world in.   It should not take a lot of convincing to the truth of this.  We can see the evidence all around us.   We can the systemic abuses that enrich the selfish.   We see the suffering that pride and greed create.   We see oppressive systems that target vulnerable and marginalized communities, and it seems that cruelty is the point that motivates far, far too many.   This is not the way that it should be.  This is not the way that God created the world to work.   This is the result of rebelling against God, it is a result of countless individual, selfish choices that have moved people further and further from God.  Sin might have entered the world through one man, as this morning’s scripture states, but at this point we are all guilty.  We have all chosen ourselves over our neighbor, we have our stepped further from God through our actions.   There is no difference between us and Adam and Eve, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. 

 If sinful behaviors are the result of separation from God, and sin is the cause for that separation, then Jesus is the remedy.  This is the main point that this morning’s scripture seeks to make.  The gift of Jesus, the grace poured out through him overflows and covers the sins of all.   So that all who accept him as Lord and Savior are reconciled with God, have a blessed assurance that their sins-even theirs- are forgiven.   It is Jesus who reconciles us, it is Jesus who brought about forgiveness, and it is Jesus who defeated sin and offers us the ability to be righteous, in right relationship with God our creator.   

 In Romans Paul uses doctrinal arguments to convince the Jews and Gentiles that regardless of their cultural backgrounds, they are all in need of the saving grace of Jesus Christ.   Scriptures like this morning’s have led to our doctrinal beliefs about the nature of sin and our continued need for Jesus today.   This morning, in this place we all fall into one of two groups.   For the first group, perhaps the idea of our separation from God, the infection of sin, and the need for a savior is new to you.   Perhaps it is not new, but it is only been an abstraction, it has been a theory on paper, and not your lived in experience. Perhaps, God feels distant to you and has always felt distant.  If that is you, then the truth of this morning’s scripture is that God will continue to seem distant without Jesus.   We can not know and fully experience the immense love of God that justifies us and then sanctifies us without Jesus in our lives.   Without Christ all of us are separated from the full love of God, and it is only through following Christ that we can experience the forgiveness of sins.  If you have never in your life truly committed to following Jesus and believing that he is the savior of the world, then it is my most sincere prayer that you would hear this morning’s scripture.  That you come to believe that Jesus is the remedy.  If you are in that group, and you want to take a step in faith then there is nothing in the world I would like more today than to have that conversation with you.  

 For the second group, this morning has mostly been review.  It has been review because you have made committed your life to following Jesus, you already consider him as your Lord and Savior.  You have already experienced the blessed assurance that comes from knowing that your sins are forgiven and covered by the amazing grace of Christ our Lord.   If you are in that group, then I hope this morning has helped provide clarity to what you already know or helped give you the ability to put what you believe into words.  If you are in this group, then I think the question before us is, what do we do with this morning’s scripture?  How do we let it impact and shape our lives today?  

In this morning’s scripture Paul makes the case that sin has separated us from God, but through the obedience of Jesus and the gift of grace offered though him forgiveness of sins, reconciliation with our creator, and a new life, a righteous life, is possible.   Perhaps the way that we let this scripture impact our lives is that we let our actions reflect the grace of Christ.   Because the world we live in, it is still infected with sin, it is still broken and fallen.   If grace and forgiveness through Christ is the remedy to this affliction, then we can be agents of grace and forgiveness.  Because when we model grace we ultimately point back to Christ.     

 A good example of what it means to model grace is what happened in Pennsylvania in 2006.   For reasons only known to him, Charles Roberts  burst into an Amish school house where he eventually killed five girls before shooting himself.   This was a senseless, inexplicable act of violence and the Amish community responded in the exact opposite way, with an inexplicable act of grace and forgiveness.    The family of Charles Roberts, who had no idea this was coming, were horrified and confused.  Mere hours after shooting, the family found members of the Amish community-including parents of the murdered children- at their doorstep.  They were not there for vengeance; they were there to comfort, to love, and to offer forgiveness.  In that dark hour the family of Charles Robert found the very people he had wronged the ones who were there to meet their needs.    The Amish community even set up a charitable fund to help the family of the shooter.   In the face of unspeakable evil, the Amish community of Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania modeled forgiving grace.  

 We can all choose grace.  We can all choose to forgive, and when we do we show what it looks like for sinners like us to be made righteous through Jesus the son.    The world is sick with sin, and while we cannot cure it, we do need to.  Jesus is the cure.  The good news of this morning’s scripture is that he has already won the victory.   So may we show the world what grace looks like lived out.  May we be living examples that state there is a solution to many of the problems and suffering in this world.  May how we live point to the beautiful truth that Jesus is the remedy.   May we show just how amazing grace is.  

Scripture:  Matthew 17:1-9

While I have never been, I understand that Iceland has some of the most beautiful landscapes in the world.  With black sand beaches, grand glaciers, and waterfall laden highlands there is a lot to see.   For this reason, there are all kinds of travel companies that will offer excursions, outings, and bus tours of the best sites to see.   In 2012 though one of these tour groups experienced a scare.  The tour bus had stopped in a wilderness area in Southern Iceland to allow the tourists to see the country’s natural beauty.  As people returned to the bus and it was getting set to leave, some of the passengers reported that a woman was missing.  The tour organizer called the local authorities to report the missing person.   Law enforcement officers were dispatched.  A search and rescue helicopter was readied, but deployment was delayed due to weather.  The local police led volunteers of tourists in search parties and fanned out to look for the missing woman.  After several hours the search was quietly called off when it was realized that the missing woman was part of the search party looking for herself. 

If you look up articles on this event, most of them will poke light fun at the woman for failing to realize it was about herself, but the description of the missing woman was incredibly vague and could fit literally any bilingual Asian woman.  If there is any fault to be assigned for this mishap it would be the American tourists who reported her missing.  At the stop the woman had changed clothes, and when she boarded the bus, she sat in a different seat.  The American tourists who reported the woman missing, were unable to recognize her because she changed clothes, and then a headcount error caused the situation to spiral into an hours long search for a woman who was not even missing.  

 People spent hours searching for a person who was right there with there in front of them.  It is a funny story, but it echoes what can be a common faith experience.  Over the years people have sought Jesus, but they often miss him when he is right in front of them.   Throughout Church history, Christians have struggled with understanding who Jesus is.   He is a historical person who we can read about, but Jesus is also the Word of God through which all things have been made. Jesus is the son of God born into the world like anyone else, yet Jesus is also fully God-united with the Father and the Spirit in perfect Trinity.

 Throughout the years biblical scholars, theologians, and individual believers  have sought to find the real Jesus.  Like the woman from the Iceland tour group, what happens is people end up missing Jesus is in their midst, because instead they are looking for a form they are comfortable with.  One of the things we should be cautious of in our faith is that we craft a savior who fits our wants instead of seeking to know Jesus for who Jesus is.  This morning’s scripture can help us guard against that pitfall, because in this morning’s scripture we get a glimpse of Jesus as he truly is, the glorified son of God. 

 This morning’s scripture captures an event commonly referred to as the transfiguration because Jesus is transformed before the disciples and it is a story that appears in three of the four gospels.    While it is not named, biblical scholars often identified the mountain this took place on as Mount Hermon.  This is the highest mountain in the region of Galilee, and the top is often capped with snow.  This is a fairly isolated placed, and Jesus did not bring all his disciples but only his three closest: Peter, James, and John.  It is in this isolated place with the people he trusts the most that the glory of Jesus is revealed.   Jesus meets with Moses, the keeper of the covenant that makes God the God of the Israelites and the Israelites the people of God. In this, Jesus is revealed as the fulfillment of the covenant.   It is through him that all people can become God’s people.   While transfigured Jesus meets with Elijah as well.  The prophet Malachi declares that Elijah will come before the day of the Lord.   It is on the mountain while transfigured that Jesus confirms and reveals what Peter had declared in the passage before this morning’s scripture: Jesus is the Messiah, the son of the living God.   

 Despite this morning’s scripture giving us a glimpse of who Jesus truly is, there are still common viewpoints that seek to see Jesus as something else.   While there are numerous examples of people looking for the real Jesus and not finding him because they are looking for something else, there are a couple of these viewpoints that are more common.   For a couple of hundred years one of the more common ones that comes up time and time again is the quest for the historical Jesus.  The historical Jesus is a vain scholarly quest to isolate Jesus as a first century Jewish man.   The notion of the historical Jesus is one that seeks to define Jesus only by his historical and cultural context.   In essence the historical Jesus uses all the tools that scholars have to completely define the humanity of Jesus. 

One of the earliest and most famous examples of this is the book The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth but it is more commonly called the Jefferson Bible.  U.S. President Thomas Jefferson was not comfortable with the supernatural aspects found in the gospels.   So, he made his own version.  He synergized the gospels into one narrative and cut out the more supernatural aspects that he disagreed with.  He literally did this; he took scissors to his bible and cobbled together his version of the story of Jesus.  Unsurpisingly, this morning’s scripture did not make the cut. 

The third president of the United States was not the only one to do this.  Back in the 1980’s and 1990’s a group of biblical scholars gained some prominence and essentially attempted to do the same thing.  Calling themselves the Jesus Seminar, this group of scholars also sought to create their own version of the gospels that they believed contained the scriptures that represented only the historical Jesus.  Again, it is not surprising that this morning’s scripture did not make the cut.  Even to this day every couple of years a new book or TV special will come out seeking to define the historical Jesus.  For people who take this perspective the historical Jesus was a man who greatly changed the course of history but little else.  

 It does have to be acknowledged that Jesus was a man who lived in first century Israel under Roman rule.   The context of the land, the political climate, and the culture of the time are significant aspects to study to more fully understanding the gospels.  The fatal flaw with the quest for the historical Jesus is that it emphasizes the humanity of Jesus but completely loses the divinity of Jesus.   It is Jesus without the Christ.   Jesus was a man who occupied a certain place in history, but Jesus is also much more than that.  The historical Jesus is a form of Jesus, but it is not the full picture.  A strictly historical Jesus is not the real Jesus. 

The historical Jesus is a version of Jesus mostly encountered in academic or non-church settings, but there is another incomplete representation of Jesus that is common today.  This form of Jesus is humorously brought to light by Will Farrell when he plays NASCAR driver Ricky Bobby in the movie Talladega Nights.  Towards the beginning of this movie there is a scene where Ricky Bobby leads a prayer with his family, and he stars it by saying, “Dear Tiny infant Jesus.”  Throughout his prayer he elaborates on this, “Dear Tiny Jesus, with your golden fleece diapers” and he ask for a blessing of “baby Jesus powers”.   In the scene his wife interrupts his prayer to point out Jesus did not stay a baby but grew up.   To this Ricky Bobby responds, “I like Christmas Jesus the best.”

While very few people address prayers to “tiny infant Jesus”, there are a lot of people based on how they express their faith like Christmas Jesus the best.  A Christmas Jesus is an adorable version of Jesus that does not challenge us.  A Christmas Jesus is a version of Jesus that is one that is all about giving us stuff to make us happy.   It is a savior that exist solely for our personal pleasure.   This version of Jesus ignores the teachings of Jesus that might make us uncomfortable like loving the least of these, forgiving our enemies, or going and sinning no more.  Christmas Jesus is a heretical view of the Christ that keeps the supernatural power of Jesus but removes everything else. 

These are just a couple of ways that people have sought to find Jesus but missed the real Jesus in front of them.   In this morning’s scripture the three disciples got to see Jesus is in his truest, transfigured form.   However, they also received some instruction on how to ensure they did not lose sight of the real Jesus.   In verse five of this morning’s scripture from a bright cloud the disciples heard the voice of God the Father tell them “This is my Son, whom I love, with him I am well pleased.  Listen to him!”  

We are best equipped to find Jesus when we listen to him, because Jesus tells us who he is.   In the gospels he states that he is the bread of life, that he is the living water, that he is the light of the world.   Jesus says he is the good the shepherd, the is the resurrection and the life.  He is the way, the truth, and the life.   When we look beyond the gospels we find descriptions of Jesus that capture as he appeared in all his glory in this morning’s scripture.  He is the prince of peace.   He is the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings.   He is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end.  He is the Christ, the Messiah, and the son of the one true God.   He is the author and perfecter of our faith.  He is the head of the one true church.   He is the lamb of God, the canceler of sins, and the one who paid our debt.   He is the savior who was and is and is yet to come.   He sits at the right hand of the Father in all honor, glory, and power forever and ever.

The gospels and all the bible tells us who Jesus, the real Jesus is.   If we want to be sure we are following the real Jesus, then, again, the way we do that is to listen to him.   We do what Jesus told us to do.   We love our neighbors as ourselves, we seek first the kingdom of God, we stand up to oppressive power, we reach out to those who have been pushed to the margins, we grant grace and mercy, we forgive, we put others first, and we sacrificially give to meet the needs of the least of these.   We follow Jesus not just on paper, not just in theory, but in daily lives-lived out through our actions.   When we do this then there is no doubt we will find and know the real Jesus, because we will be following in his footsteps.  

  Years ago, a pastor was traveling India and visited the Missionaries of Charity headquarters in Calcutta.  It just so happened that the timing was right and he got to meet the legendary Mother Teresa in person.  This was early in the man’s career, so he asked her “what advice might you have to offer a young preacher?”  She replied, “Preach Jesus, the true Jesus, the real Jesus, the resurrected Jesus, and not the Jesus of people’s imagination.”   May we seek to be followers of Jesus, the real Jesus, the resurrected Jesus.   May we align our hearts not with a version of Jesus that makes a comfortable, but with the son of God, with whom the father is well pleased.   May we listen to him.   May we serve others the way that he served, and may we love others the way that he loves us.   Just like Jesus was transfigured into his full glory in this morning’s scripture, may following Christ transform us so that we can be a shining beacon that shares Jesus, the real Jesus, with our world.  

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 2:1-12

Science fiction writers love the concept of a paradox.  A paradox is when two things that should not exist or happen simultaneously do so.  A paradox is something that by its very nature is contradictory.   Exploring paradoxes is the basis for all kinds of works of science fiction, but paradoxes have an oddly specific use in science fiction.  It is one that gets used time and time again and gets used so frequently that it has a dedicated page on the website tvtropes.org that track when it is used.  The TV trope is called the logic bomb, and this is when a contradiction in logic or a paradox is used to confuse a computer or an A.I.  

 One of the earliest and clearest examples of this trope can be seen in Star Trek.  In the original series episode, The Ultimate Computer.  In this episode an advanced computer with artificial intelligence is installed on the Enterprise.   However, things go off the rails when the computer determines to fulfill its program to make safe travel spacer it must keep complete control of the ship.  When a poor crew member wearing a red shirt tries to unplug the computer, the computer kills the person due to its self-preservation programming.  Captain Kirk eventually saves the day by pointing out that killing the crew member violated the computer’s ethics programming so that by carrying out its programming it was violating it’s programming.  This paradox causes the computer to short circuit and shut down.  The original series of Star Trek especially loves this trope, because it was used multiple times.  Over the course of only three seasons, Captain Kirk talks a computer to death four times. 

 Paradoxes are not just a trope that sci-fi writers rely on.  In science there are a variety of observed paradoxes.  Often these scientific paradoxes are questions that do not yet have answers.   Often seeking answers to these questions lead to new discoveries.   Our faith also has paradoxes, but like this morning’s scripture, we often use the word mystery.  These mysteries of faith often are questions without answers, and one of the paradoxes of faith is embracing the mystery often lead not to more doubt but to deeper faith.  

This morning’s scripture is a continuation of the scriptures we have read for the past two weeks.  To briefly recap, 1 Corinthians was written to a church that Paul helped found and one that he spent a year and a half at.  Because this faith community was among the first in the world to navigate what it means to be a Christian church, there were some hiccups, there was some conflict, and division.   Paul largely wrote the letter to address these sources of conflict, but one of the points Paul makes in the beginning of the letter is that the step of faith they have made to follow Christ sets them apart from the world around them.   The faith they now cling to is the wisdom of God, even though the world will see their new viewpoint as foolishness.   This is the part of the point that is being made in this morning’s scripture reading.  

Corinth was a Greek city, and as such was a hub of Greek culture.   This was a traditional culture that valued the philosophy, logic, and wisdom of the Greek philosophers like Aristotle, Socrates, and Plato.   It was a culture that highly valued skill in rhetoric.   In this morning’s scripture Paul points out that he did not come to the Corinthians as a strong speaker with an incredibly delivered speech to sway them.   He also did not come with a robust presentation based on logic and philosophical wisdom.   Instead, he brought them a simple message:  Jesus Christ-crucified.  He brought this simple message in an straightforward for a specific purpose.  As Paul wrote in verse 5 “so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom but on God’s power.”  The paradox the Corinthians quickly experiences is that such a simple message is profoundly life changing.  

Paul points this out.  Even though the message was simple, and even though it was not in line with the philosophical wisdom of the age, it is a message of Godly wisdom.  Paul specifically points out that this wisdom is a mystery, that even though God had planned for from the beginning, had only now been revealed.  This mystery that the rulers of the age could not understand was that of a crucified messiah.  The idea that through condemnation of one, salvation was won for all; that only through death, did eternal life become possible; through undergoing the ultimate humiliation of death on a cross, Jesus has been exalted to the ultimate glory and sits at the right hand of the Father.       

  This life-changing wisdom of a crucified savior is one that continued to be viewed as foolishness hundreds of years after Paul.  In fact, one of the first major heresies that threatened to tear the church apart in the first couple of hundred years was Docetism.  This heresy rose because the mystery of the crucified messiah was still a step too far.  They believed Jesus was the savior, but they did not like the idea of Jesus suffering on the cross.   The thought process was that if Jesus was truly perfect then physical pain would corrupt that perfection.  Thus, the Docetists believed that Jesus did not have a physical body.  He existed perfectly in the spiritual realm, and he only appeared to suffer on the cross, the crucifixion was essentially a magical illusion so that the perfection of the messiah would not be corrupted.  In the first couple of hundred years the Christian community rallied around declaring this belief false.  However, the fact that even 200 years after Paul wrote this morning’s scripture, the idea of a crucified messiah still tripping people up shows just how revolutionary and against the wisdom of the age the wisdom of God was.  

In this morning’s scripture Paul writes about the mysteries of faith, and he points out that mystery is an inevitable part of faith.  Paul wrote, “In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.”  We are finite beings seeking to live in relationship with the infinite creator of the universe.  So, of course there are going to be paradoxes, there are going to be questions without answers, there is to going to be mystery.  It does not seem we are always a big fan of that though.   I remember 23 years ago when I started in youth ministry, In the youth minister’s office I inherited there was a meager collection of books and resources.  One of them was a book of answers.  It put worth that had it had the biblical answer for everything.  It had a wide range of topics and for each of these topics it would list scripture that supposably addressed this topic.  A lot of this involved proof-texting, taking a single verse of scripture out of context, and jamming it into a completely different context. The bible after all, does not have a single scripture about television or video games for example.  

I did not use that book much in youth ministry, but the idea that the bible is a book of answer, or an instruction manual of sorts is one that I continue to encounter from time to time.   This is a popular notion, because we like the idea of being able to take any question and then getting an easy answer that can be quoted chapter, and verse.  But I do not think that is how the bible works.  The bible was never meant to be an instruction book or some sort of answer key to life.  The bible is a book full of truth and mystery.  When we read the scripture we can find all kinds of potential paradoxes and questions without answers. For example, from the scripture we can learn that Jesus, as the messiah is fully God yet Jesus is also fully human.  We can learn that God is a God of unwavering justice, yet God is also a forgiving God of endless mercy.   We can learn that there is only one God, yet this one God is three distinct persons of Father, Son, and Spirit-united in perfect Trinity.  All of these are mysteries that do not have easy answers.  Studying the bible has been one of the primary focuses of my entire adult life, and I am convinced it is not a book that is meant to give us easy answers, it is a book that God uses to help us ask better questions.   

Research has shown that the older we get the less likely we are to ask questions and the less curious we become.   However, this research has also shown that maintaining curiosity in age promotes a higher level of mental, emotional and physical wellbeing in older adults.  This research has also shown a correlation that the more curious an adult is the less likely they are to have signs of dementia.  Curiosity is important factor for our overall health, and this is true for our spiritual health as well.   Our faith grows when we ask questions.  Often for a potted plant to be able to grow, it will have to be repotted into a bigger vessel so that it has space to grow.   When we stay curious and ask questions, we give our faith room to grow and space to get deeper.  In verses 9 and 10 this morning’s scripture puts forth that it is the Holy Spirit that helps us gain wisdom and understanding in the mysteries of faith.   When we are willing to ask questions and stay curious, then we give the Holy Spirit space in our lives to work and to grow our faith. 

 It is true, sometimes the questions we ask do not have good answers. In explaining his approach teaching science theoretical physicist Richard Feynman said, “I Would rather have questions that cannot be answered than answers that cannot be questioned.” I think that a similar approach is helpful in our faith.  Because there are some questions that do not have an easy, straight forward answer.    Sometimes we need to be willing to accept a little mystery.  However, that should not stop us from questioning.  If God is big enough to create the universe, then God is big enough to stand up to our questions, and again it is through staying curious and contemplating the questions without answers that our faith grows the most.  

This morning’s scripture puts forth that God had revealed in their age one of the great mysteries, which is the singular message that Paul brought to the Corinthians: Jesus Christ crucified.    Christian tradition has long found the essence of this great truth best captured in John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  Even this straight forward statement is full of mystery, full of big questions.   What compels God to love the world enough to make that big of a sacrifice?   Why does God love me enough have to include me in that?   What does it mean for me to truly and fully believe in Jesus?  And what does it look like  to live an eternal life?    These are questions that we contemplate every single days of earthly lives.  I believe doing so will give he Holy Spirit room to work, it will grow our faith, but we will also discover that the answer always goes a little deeper.  There is a always a little more to discover because we are asking curious questions of the infinite love of a forever God.  

This morning’s scripture is an invitation to explore the questions that do not have easy answers, the mysteries, and paradoxes of faith.  It is an invitation to grow in faith, but we have to be willing to stay curious.  In The Big Book of Christian Mysticism Carl McColman wrote, “Paradox is not always warmly received by those who want their faith to be watertight and easy to control.  If you have invested your heart and soul in the idea that God makes everything neat and tidy and your job is simply to obey the rules, then you will have no room  for paradoxical statements in your spirituality. . .But for those who regard faith as a relationship, paradox is not nearly so threatening. . .A spiritual paradox may provide evidence that God is bigger than our limited human capacity for reason and logic.” 

In this morning’s scripture Paul reiterates that the message he brought to the Corinthians was an invitation to a relationship with Jesus Christ-crucified.   Paul invited the Corinthians to contemplate the holy mystery that a crucified messiah grants the forgiveness of sins and eternal life to those who believe in him.   This is an open invitation that stands today.  So, friends, may we stay curious.   May we be willing to ask questions without easy answers, may we contemplate spiritual paradoxes, and may we explore holy mysteries.  In doing so may we give the Holy Spirit room to grow our faith as we learn a little bit more each day just how deep the love of God truly is.   

Scripture: 1 Corinthians: 1:18-31

Every now and then, real life plays out with the kind of timing and drama that feels like it comes from a movie. One of the clearest examples for me happened years ago at a youth ministry dodgeball tournament. For whatever reason, this event had a lot energy and hype.   There was a large turnout.  Teams showed up in matching outfits, with chants and strategies ready.  Early in the tournament, one team dropped into the losers’ bracket. The team consisted of a student from the youth group, two of his friends, and his girlfriend. It was obvious to everyone that one member of that team didn’t quite match the others in athletic ability. Still, they clawed their way through the bracket, refusing to get eliminated. Against all odds, they reached the finals.

Because it was double elimination, they had to beat the undefeated team twice. Incredibly, they won the first match. The anticipation grew as the second match started. The final game was electric. Every throw, dodge, and hit drew cheers. Eventually it came down to one player on each side—and they knocked each other out at the same time. We had planned for this rare scenario: a sudden‑death knockout. One player from each team would stand in a marked triangle, each with one ball. Step out or get hit, and you’re out. First team to two points wins.

Their opponents were a team of football players. Our underdog team saved their lone girl for last. The score was tied 1–1 when she stepped into the triangle. The whistle blew. The football player threw high. She ducked, fired low, and hit him clean.  The room exploded. Students rushed the floor and lifted her up. For a moment, it felt like living inside a movie.

This event sticks out because it is honestly the anomaly. Because it is so rare, we love it when the underdog wins, and when the player with more heart than skill carries the day.     Normally the kids picked last get relegated to being present and that is about it.  They never get passed the ball, they get put at the end of the batting order, and they rarely are given the opportunity to shine.   The reality is that the people who tend to be picked last just stop playing the game.  However, those who stick with a sport because they enjoy it, even if they are not the best of the best, get to play on the B-Team.   This morning’s scripture is encouraging, because it is a reminder that God will often use the people that the world relegates the B-Team, to transform the world. 

The church of Corinth is one that Paul knew well.   In Acts chapter 18 we read about how Paul established the church, and it states that Paul spent a year and a half with the Corinthians.  Paul wrote the letter of 1 Corinthians because the church had some friction, there was some division, and we get the impression that things were a little rocky.  However, I think some of that is understandable and maybe a little unavoidable.  I am not sure we always appreciate how much the early churches like the one in Corinth were charting new territory.   As followers of Jesus, they were taking steps into a new way to live.  They were striving to live as a community of believers in a way that was a radical departure from their culture.    

Paul acknowledges this in the beginning of this morning’s scripture.   The congregation of Corinth was a mixture of Jews and Greco-Romans.  Paul points out that the cultures they were immersed in find greater meaning in wisdom or signs, but that they should look to Jesus.   Paul points out that following Christ is going to set the Corinthians apart from their neighbors, because the kingdom of God works differently than the Empire of Rome.  To illustrate this, Paul points to the Corinthians themselves. 

Roman society was highly stratified, and there was no middle class.  A select few were in the upper group, and everyone else was not.   Yet it was a society with a strict social hierarchy and everyone had a good idea of who their superiors were, as well as who they could claim was under them.  For the most part the church of Corinth was not made up of the rich and powerful of the city.    This is a point that Eugene Peterson’s Message paraphrase helps bring out.   Petersen paraphrases verses 26-31 of this morning’s scripture like this: “Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don’t see many of “the brightest and the best” among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these “nobodies” to expose the hollow pretensions of the “somebodies”? That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. That’s why we have the saying, “If you’re going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God.”

Petersen’s paraphrase might be a little harsh in calling the Corinthian church a bunch of nobodies, but he does a decent job at capturing Paul’s points in modern language.   The ways of the cross are foolishness to the world, and the fact that the believers of Corinth were not the wealthiest, most influential, highest prestige, citizens of the city is an example of that.  The wisdom of the age would have been in order to grow a movement and to make real change, then those with influence and power would be the prime people to recruit and rely upon.   Paul points out that was not God’s plan.  It was not God’s plan to use the somebodies of Corinth to bring about transformation, it was God’s plan to use the nobodies, the underdogs, the B-Team to be the start of a world changing movement.  Paul’s point in this morning’s scripture is that to a world that believes it knows better, God’s wisdom and God’s plans can appear like foolishness. 

This was true in the first century and it has been true throughout Christian history.  The people that God chooses to use rarely lines up with the people who would look like sure bets on paper.   There is a story from our Indiana United Methodist history that illustrates this.   To best understand this story, we need some historical background.  The Methodist movement came to what would become the United States when John Wesley sent two of his preachers Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke across the Atlantic.   This led to the founding of the Methodist Episcopal church.  Methodist preachers quickly left the established cities of the East Coast and pushed out with the pioneers into the frontiers.  The Methodist preachers led camp meetings, founded new churches, and preached in circuits.  During this time one the most inspiring and best Methodist preachers was a man named Harry Hoosier.  Thomas Coke once wrote in his journal about Harry: “I really believe he is one of the best preachers in the world. There is such an amazing power attends his preaching.”   Despite being such a gifted preacher, many people immediately discounted the man because of the color of his skin. 

Harry was a freedman who ended up working as the coach driver for Francis Asbury.  Even though he could not read and write, Harry showed a propensity for memorizing scripture.  Asbury began reading the bible to him aloud during their travels.  Over time, Harry began to preach but he was not allowed to preach to everyone.  As they traveled the south to tent meetings, Asbury would preach for the white people and then only afterwards Harry Hoosier was permitted to preach to the enslaved black people.  However, Harry’s preaching was so good and so compelling that many of the white people began sticking around.  As Asbury moved more to the frontier, Harry began to preach more regularly, and his message of grace moved the hearts and saved the souls of unknown number of rustic frontier folks.  

Despite the clear empowering of the Holy Spirit in the life of Harry Hoosier, because of the deeply rooted racism in America he never was fully treated as an equal.   Despite clearly showing fruit, he was never ordained as a Methodist minister.  Despite telling people about the love of God, he found himself ridiculed.  This was especially true of those on the East Coast.  At this time in established costal places like Virginia, the respectable elites of society did not have a high view of the rugged pioneers on the frontier.  They saw them as backwards, uncivilized, and unintelligent.  These mean hearted social elites believed that the pioneer’s willingness to listen to a black preacher was proof of their uncultured ways, so as a way to insult those on the frontier they were dismissed as Disciples of Harry Hoosier or Hoosiers for short.  Harry Hoosier passed away in 1806, but as the frontier pushed West into places like the Ohio River valley referring to rural pioneers as Hoosiers stuck at least in the territory that eventually became the state of Indiana. 

The primary sources are just not there to definitively say where the name Hoosiers originated, but the scholarship is strong that it originated with Harry Hoosier, a black man called by God to be a Methodist preacher.   It was the wisdom of the era that a person like Harry Hoosier could not be an effective preacher.  He was ridiculed, and so were those who responded to his message of grace.   The elites of 18th century saw Harry Hoosier preaching as foolishness, but he was exactly the person God intended to use as one of the best preachers in the world of his time.  

God calls and uses the people that the world might consider to only be worthy of the B-Team, and God uses them to make a real difference.  Harry Hoosier is just one of a great cloud of witnesses that testify to this truth.  Again, it was the wisdom of the age that someone like Harry Hoosier could not be an effective preacher.  What would have happened if Harry had listened to that wisdom?  How many people would have never come to know the saving love of Jesus Christ?   If he had listened to the wisdom of his age, then the good news would not have been shared.   

Similarly, the wisdom of this age is that bigger is always better.   I have to wonder how many people have held back from what God is calling them to do, because they have listened to the wrong wisdom?   How many people have assumed because they do not think they can get the biggest crowd, fill the largest building, or be #1 at something meaningful that it is not worth doing?  How many people are not following God to the best of their ability because they assume they are only B-Team material?    I fear, that the number, whatever it is, is too many. 

 We should take courage and comfort in the statements of this morning’s scripture.  We do not have to be all-star material to play the game, because God chooses the weak, God chooses the lowly-at least those deemed as such by the standards of the world.  Yet this scripture reminds us that “the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.” 

If you feel that when it comes to your faith and how you live it out, you have been sitting on the sidelines, then perhaps it is time to get in the game.   Perhaps, the dream that you have, the way that you think you might be able to make a difference, the idea you have to bring about real transformation, or the way that you can stand up for justice is the way that God is calling you.    You do not have to be the best at whatever that is, and it is OK if you feel like you are just B-team material, because God has consistently used the B-Team for the transformation of the world again and again.  Not for our own glory, but for the glory of Christ-crucified.  As it is written, let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.

 So may you not follow the wisdom of this world but make you seek to follow the wisdom of God.  may you trust that God does not call the equipped, but God equips the called.   Where ever God is leading you, may you be willing to take that step in faith.  Brothers and sisters in Christ, welcome to the B-team, let’s go make disciple and transform the world.