To be Foolish so we can be Wise

This Sunday I am preaching (hoping to release a copy of my sermon early next week!) so I am writing this on the Monday before, starting my preparations. At my church —using what mostly is the Revised Common Lectionary— we generally do the Psalm, the Gospel and either the Old Testament or New Testament and this week how could I decide between the Old Testament and New Testament this week.

Micah 6.1-8; Psalm 15; 1 Corinthians 1.18-31; Matthew 5.1-12.

Two weeks away from the Transfiguration, seven or so weeks after Christmas, ten weeks until Easter. We are in what is know in Ordinary time and even the sense of Ordinary this week is thrown out the window (as it always should be). We start with a calling that makes sense in Micah 6.8,

He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
    and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
    and to walk humbly with your God?

At the same time this reading is about the gifts God has given and what God expect and really it is to be in a relationship with God. I believe without some sort of relationship with God justice, kindness and humility don't make any sense. Yet the God who would save us from imprisonment even the great imprisonment of ourselves calls us to a relationship, the all powerful creator asks us for a relationship. Never forceful, never asking for more then that and given all God can in order to clear that path. Yes the path this life is narrow but at any moment the path to God has been cleared, tarmacked, made smooth for everyone; it is an indescribable freedom that lets us who are, Psalm 15:
- blameable,
- liars,
- slanders,
- evil doers,
- despicable,
- oath-breakers,
- self saviours,
- greedy.
- influenced by the world,
- easilly swayed,
continue to find the greatest gifts of God beyond this world.

Paul in 1 Corinthians ascribes foolishness to call believes that non one can boast in the presence of God. The only boasting is in the Lord and only from a status of weakness and service; not a status of strength or leadership. I recently completed a course on the Diaconate, lifting up the three-fold order of ministries and highlighting the distinctive nature of each. How often has the diaconate, a ministry defined by being and through being serving, been pushed to the side and diminished as a "minor" order. Yet we see letters after Chalcedon asking Bishops not to make a Aëtius a presbyter; it was claimed not to be a genuine work and would remove him form the good work he was doing. A change of ministry, made from power, potentially to avoid struggles of power. Aëtius didn't need a higher position to do good and powerful work in service. Today is the same, the higher the leadership, the harder it becomes to boast in the Lord for many reasons. It seems you can either feed on wisdom or humility, those who feed on humility will find wisdom but those who feed on wisdom won't find humility.

I love 1 Corinthians 1.18, I am glad that either by error or on purpose it is read last week and then this week again.

In all this the Gospel, is the Beatitudes; uplifting the poor and the start of the sermon of the mount examine the impossibility of mortals through mortal means finding a true relationship with God. How from this do I not see those who are rightfully struggling against authoritative governments and regimes, or even ways of life. I think of the many victims in America and those who are righteous finding their lives ending. I sympathise with the priests claiming they didn't sign up to be martyrs; because clergy do not sign up to give their lives in a violent death, no one should desire martyrdom and no one knows if they can; yet as a bishop once told me, "Ministry will kill you, you need to decide how you will die."

At this point (on Monday) all I know is the sermon will either be good, messy or both and I hope it is both because in the end what all these scriptures try to describe today is indescribable,

Incomparable, unchangeable
You see the depths of my heart
And You love me the same
You are amazing, God