Cross Preaching

Cross Preaching

(1 Corinthians 2:1-12)  J G White

United Baptist Church Digby,11 am, Sun, Feb 9, 2014

Cross preaching; cross preaching.  No, this is not about an angry pastor.  It is about the heart of our whole message; and is it like Paul’s, about Christ crucified?  Can the story of Jesus dying be the root of our whole message - in speech and action?

How can a small church in Nova Scotia compete with the preaching and teaching available now - in books, on TV and the internet?  Ours is an information age.  Some religious believers idolize wisdom and learning, great preachers and right thinkers.  So it has always been.

In December I read Umberto Eco’s novel, The Name of the Rose.  And I watched the film again.  It is an in-depth historical novel - and a murder mystery - about monks in an abbey in the 13 hundreds.  It was a fascinating read.  The author paints a picture of this Medieval place of great learning, with an incredible library that draws religious pilgrims and scholars from all over Europe.  The monks who live there venerate knowledge and intellectual pursuits.  One day, a particular monk said he would be prepared to sin in order to procure a rare book.  He was not lying and not joking.  A monk should surely love his books with humility, wishing their good and not the glory of his own curiosity; but what the temptation of adultery is for laymen and the yearning for riches is for secular ecclesiastics, the seduction of knowledge is for monks.  

That is a very different religious world than the one I live in, within a Baptist congregation in rural Nova Scotia.  But today, more and more Christians are going after the wonderful wisdom that is available.  All the preachers on TV, and even more on the internet.  All the books written that can be ordered, or downloaded.  So we believers often subdivide into the groups of those who are followers of the many teachers out there… Charles Stanley, Frances Chan, Dallas Willard, John Piper, Jack Van Impe, and so on.  The greatest, and worst, and everything in between is available to us.  

So I could repeat Paul’s words as my own to Windsor Baptist, or Digby Baptist:  I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. Who am I, to speak!?

I’ve not been a person nervous in the pulpit.  I’m calm about public speaking.  But I seldom have felt successful in the pulpit.  Yet I have certainly seen our God doing good work around me.

On my desk I have, typed up, a Prayer for Sermon Preparation.  Most weeks at some point I read through it and am guided in my conversation with the Lord, as I prepare for preaching.  Part of the prayer says this:

I confess I am seeking to be so innovative and attractive, rather than allowing for the attractiveness of Your word and cooperating with Your Spirit.

It is quite tempting, on a day like this one, for the guest preacher to try and show off in his sermon, without being too flashy.  Tempting for a congregation to present itself as so friendly, and enthusiastic, and ready for changes.  It’s like the courtship between and guy and a gal: impressing one another.

The Apostle Paul claimed he had spoken to people in Corinth with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that their faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.  Faith is not a response to human persuasion, it is a gift from God. Faith does not depend on how talented we are in selling our Church, it comes when the Spirit urges a human soul.  

We keep struggling with the tension between persuading people to become Christians - like us - and leaving the convincing work to God the Holy Spirit.  We live in an Age of Persuasion, after all.  That was the name of a weekly CBC radio program, which is now called Under the Influence.  A little radio show that tells stories about marketing, advertising, persuading people.  

Any of you watch the Superbowl last Sunday?  I did: the one football game I will likely see all year.  And it seems part of the draw to watch is the high-end commercials during the game.  Commercials for Pepsi, for pistachio nuts, for various fancy cars, even a commercial for a religion: Scientology.  

I believe our Faith cannot depend on how we market it, sell it, advertise it.  Our best ‘marketing’, so to speak, will be your life and my life.  Our speaking and listening.  Our actions as the hands and feet of Jesus.  It is His power in us that will be convincing.  It will be the Holy Spirit He sent who will speak to the hearts of others, through our simple witness, our basic compassion.  We preach the cross in our day-to-day lives: this is the best preaching of the cross.  Lives that point to the Lord.

A kindergarten teacher gave her class a "show and tell" assignment of bringing something to represent their religion.  The first boy got in front of the class and said, "My name is Benjamin and I am Jewish and this is the Star of David."

The second boy said, "My name is Joey. I'm a Catholic and this is the Crucifix."

The third boy said, "My name is Tommy and I am Baptist and this is a casserole."

That story may not be true, but, is it true?  It can be easier for us to invite someone to a church supper than to invite them to meet Jesus Christ, the crucified One.

The apostle Paul was determined to be focused on Jesus, Jesus executed.  He said this to his friends in the Church of Corinth, Greece.  A new little congregation in a big, old city of the ancient world.  He writes these words we’ve heard today in the midst of his opening chapters about the divisions among the believers there.  They seem to have split into groups, each hailing a different leader or founder.  Paul. Appollos!  Peter!!  Christ!!!

So in the midst of this, Paul speaks here about his own ministry, when he was one of their founding pastors, just a few years before.  He writes about not having spoken with eloquence, lofty words, wisdom, and the like.  He did not want the message of God - Jesus dying on the cross - to be overshadowed.  Paul did not want to be so showy that people would follow him; he wanted people to trust and follow Jesus.  

This material at the beginning of First Corinthians really speaks to me now.  We are, at Windsor UBC, facing a leadership conflict: between another pastor who is there with me, and most of the deacons.  Just this past week we each met with two mediators who came from our Baptist Convention staff.  I’m hopeful for these first good steps towards some reconciliation.  But I am quite concerned for the leadership team of my church, and the whole congregation who now knows something has been going wrong.  And I am concerned for their well-being amid the possibility of my leaving them in the not-too-distant future.

Ours is a different leadership conflict from that in Corinth 2000 years ago, but the solution will be similar. We will all need to be humble before the cross of Christ, and face up to our own sins to find forgiveness and understanding.  

We can avoid the competition that divides a fellowship by remaining weak before the power of God, remaining simple before the Divine wisdom.  As Isaiah 55 says, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. Whether we are trying to reach people for Jesus, and bring them into the fellowship, or we are simply trying to get along together in the work of the Lord, we can stay on track with humble submission to God’s way.  His way, in Jesus, was actually to become weaker Himself, and even get killed.  This is our story, our preaching of the cross.  

Walking with the Lord could be described as a journey into weakness.  I’d like to quote Jean Vanier, known best as a founder of the L'arche communities.  This is from an interview titled, “Become Weaker.”  

He speaks of a friend… who [worked] in palliative care.... He was asked to help one of the head of the Mafia who was in prison in the States, who had a cancer of the [esophagus].  And this guy obviously had a story of abuse when he was a [child]: verbal, physical, sexual abuse. So, [as] adults, you just had to get rid of [that]. Weakness was a horror, so you had to be powerful.  You enter the Mafia or you enter gangs to have a consciousness of power; and all weakness was horror.

But my friend was saying, as [the man’s] sickness continued, he became weaker, and my friend said: we became... best friends.  He said weakness was not a horror, but it was a moment of communion, of peace, and so on.  

Our message is rooted in the story of the cross of Jesus, where we see God at His weakest, eh?  If the Cross of Christ is at the centre of our message, in all the ways we preach it - by word and deed - then we have a truly counter-cultural message.  And counter-cultural methods too.  

A person puts his or her personal faith in God from a position weakness and not knowing everything.  From the place of a real need for forgiveness, for healing, for purpose, for love.  God does the planting and growing of that faith in a person.

Then, as a believer, one serves the Master, Jesus, from a similar position: humbly, not strong enough, not a know-it-all.  God’s wisdom and greatness is so good and available to us, in Jesus Christ. Our message to the neighbourhood does not need to depend upon us.  We can depend thoroughly upon our Lord, and be used by God.  As Paul teaches us, the message of the Cross of Jesus starts off as foolishness in people’s eyes.  Then God moves in, and the story of the cross becomes the greatest power of God.  

And we Christians join together in like manner, as those who rely on Christ to unite us, on the Holy Spirit to guide us, on God the Father to give common purpose.  

Paul once said: My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.  May it be so for us, today.