"WISE OR FOOLISH?"
Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany
February 19, 2017
Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church
Glenshaw, Pennsylvania
TEXT:
Let no one deceive himself. Ifanyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of the world is folly with God.
1 Corinthians 3:18, 19 (ESV)
How many of you are old enough to remember the comedy team of Laurel and Hardy? If that goes back a little too far, how many remember the Three Stooges? Okay, let's get a little more recent. How many of you remember the Andy Griffith Show? I enjoy all of these (even though I obviously enjoy them only in reruns). I think that the funniest characters of these bygone shows are Oliver Hardy, Moe Howard, and Barney Fife. And the reason why they are so funny, in my opinion, is that each one of these characters thought that he was the smart one, when in fact, he wasn't any smarter than anybody else. The fact that they thought they were so smart accentuated their silliness and stupidity. There is a certain poetic justice in seeing Stan Laurel outwit his partner Ollie, Curly do something to expose the limited intellect of his brother Moe, and Sherriff Andy Taylor have the wisdom to correct the buffoonery of his inept deputy Barney.
In the real world, however, thinking that you are smarter than you really are isn't always so funny. It can, in fact, get you into a lot of trouble. This is particularly true in spiritual matters. That's what the apostle Paul is warning the parishioners at Corinth about in today's Epistle. He says that we are all fools when it comes to spiritual discernment and that we are only deceiving ourselves if we think that we are spiritually wise. "Let no one deceive himself," he writes. "If anyone among you thinks he that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise." He is not encouraging anyone to deliberately aspire to be a fool; he is merely saying that the one who is truly wise is the one who realizes that he is a fool. Only that kind of person is able to learn anything. The one who thinks that he knows it all doesn't think that he has anything to learn. So that we might not fall prey to the ignorance of false wisdom, let's listen to what the apostle has to say here about the foolishness of human wisdom (which is intellectual pride) and the true wisdom that the world sees as foolishness--the wisdom that only God can give.
"The wisdom of the world is folly with God." Humans parade their wisdom, often coming to the conclusion that they are wiser than God Himself. They come up with their own ideas of what is right and what is wrong, which are often diametrically opposed to what God has revealed as right and wrong. They redefine words like love and hate, conflict and compromise, tolerance and intolerance, cruelty and compassion. Sounds a bit familiar, doesn't it? And what does God think of this proud display of human wisdom? The psalmist writes: "He who sits in the heavens laughs" (Psalm 2:4). One of the biggest problems with human wisdom or intellectual pride is that it misleads. Satan uses it to stroke the human ego as he did with his first temptation of Adam and Eve in the garden: "Your eyes will be opened," he assured them, "and you will be like God, knowing good and evil" (Genesis 3:5). It sounded good to our first parents but, like all of the devil's enticing invitations, it was a lie. They in fact became less like God, losing the perfect image of God with which they were created and become ignorant of what is right and what is wrong.
Another problem with human wisdom or intellectual pride is that it causes division. It divides people from God and it divides people from people. Intellectual pride is bound to cause division, since it leaves the one who thinks that he is wise with no other choice but to see himself as being in some way superior to his peers. It's bad enough when we see this kind of elitism in the world but it is particularly tragic when we see it in the Church, with one believer in Christ being as odds with another because he thinks that the thoughts and ideas of the other aren't worth much, since that person's wisdom is inferior. But the most tragic consequence of human wisdom or intellectual pride is that it prevents a person from seeing how needy he really is as he stands before the judgment of God. The person who is wise according to the world's standards and takes pride in it lacks the wisdom to see that he is a sinner who stands condemned in the light of God's Law and is therefore in need of God's redeeming grace.
To be truly wise is to be aware of your limitations and faults. This is no doubt what Paul has in mind when he writes that each one of us should be willing to "become a fool that he may become wise." King Solomon, who is reputed to be one of wisest men who ever lived, writes in Proverbs: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight" (Proverbs 9:10). The person who is truly wise and insightful in the eyes of God is the one who understands how foolish he really is when compared to the God of all wisdom. In Jesus' parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, the person who was wise enough to receive God's forgiveness and justification was not the Pharisee, one of the elite of Israel who bragged about how good he was; it was the humble tax collector who prayed in desperation: "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!" (Luke 18:13).
And that's the key. True wisdom is humility before God and men--a realization that human works are foolishness before the God of perfect justice because human works are never perfect. This realization comes from the Law of God, which enlightens us as to how sinful we are and how deserving we are of God's judgment and condemnation. This prepares us for the precious Gospel of Christ, which tells us what God has done in Christ to free us from the death sentence that we have earned for ourselves by our sin. It has been said (as our confirmation class students ought to be able to tell you) that the Law summed up in one word is the word "do" and the Gospel summed up in one word is the word "done." What the Law tells us that we have to do in order to be spared from condemnation and to be acceptable in the sight of God has been perfectly done for us in the life and ministry of our Savior Jesus Christ. If, by God's grace, we are able to renounce the human wisdom that tells us that we are pretty good people and have the real wisdom to realize that such thinking is foolish, then our hearts are open to the Good News of forgiveness, acceptance, and everlasting life through the perfect merits of the One who did it all for us.
Just a couple of weeks ago we heard Paul tell us in the Epistle reading for that day: "The Word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God (1 Corinthians 1:18). "Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe" (1 Corinthians 1:21). The cross of Jesus Christ, which the world sees as foolishness, has put to death our foolishness and has given us the wisdom of God. And His resurrection from the dead, also seen as foolish by the world, assures us of everlasting life and joy. This, and nothing else, is true wisdom.
Amen.
May the God who caused light to shine out of darkness cause you to increase and abound in love toward one another and toward all people, as His love abounds for us; and may the glory of His Son be manifested to you and in you, that you may be witnesses to all nations now and until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, and He will do it. Amen.