Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The Word of the Lord which engages us this morning comes from our Epistle lesson (1 Corinthians 1: 18-31). ����������������

I'm a fool. I'm not joking you, I'm a fool. It is foolishness to get up here in this pulpit week after week and tell all of you that a Jewish manual laborer from Galilee 2000 years ago died a criminal's death, hung on a cross by his hands and his feet, and that this death makes a difference in your life and my life and in the history of the world. When thought of from an earthly perspective, it is foolishness to do what I do. ����������������

But I'm not the only fool here. So are you. You come and listen to this type of preaching, this Word, this message of foolishness week after week after week. I once heard a non-Christian assert that the world would be better off if we Christians took all the time and money we spent on church buildings and activities and worship services and devoted them instead to practical things like helping the poor and treating the sick. I remember thinking for a few seconds that his assertion sounded wise. I thought "maybe we should stop spending money on buildings or be more practical and spend less time worshiping. Perhaps our Lord does want us to re-evaluate our priorities. ����������������

I think it safe to say that our Lord does want us to be constantly re-evaluating our priorities. That is what confession is all about. That is why we confessed our sin, received his forgiveness, and pledged ourselves to new hope to do better. Why did we confess our sins? Why did we receive that forgiveness? Because we have heard the foolish preaching and teaching of the cross. We have heard that this Jewish manual laborer 2000 years ago was not just a man, but was God come hidden in human flesh. His resurrection confirms this. This sounds like foolishness, but he himself taught us that is who he is. When He was here his own family thought he was foolish. Mark 3: 21 His family "went to take charge of him, for they said, "He is out of his mind."" His Jewish opponents thought he was insane "raving mad" (John 10:20). Paul, the very preacher who wrote the words of our text, told the Roman governor Festus about this suffering Messiah (Acts 26: 23-25), then hears Festus shout at him: "You are out of your mind, Paul!" �."Your great learning is driving you insane." Paul responded "I am not insane, most excellent Festus," �. "What I am saying is true and reasonable." ��

True and reasonable to some, YES, but foolishness to many, those who have resisted the call of the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 1: 18: "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." ����������������

So, I'm foolish, you're foolish, we're all foolish and that is a good thing. You youth who are filling out a "Sermon Outline Form" for Catechism class, it will be tempting to you to put down foolishness as a sin, as something that separates us from God. But if you do that you've missed the point Paul is striving to make and so am I. Foolishness here is not wrong. The foolishness of the cross is wisdom from God. Our human problem, our sin, is not that we are foolish, it's that we're not foolish enough.

Now if you're like me, you don't like being termed "foolish", even if you do it to yourself. Our nature is to seek after success, to optimistically expect that next year will be better than last year, that our children will have better lives than we do, that medical science will cure every disease, to be disappointed, even blaming God if we don't succeed in health and wealth. We live in the most successful country of all time, blessed by God in ways we will probably never understand until heaven. But yet our success can be our undoing. When Jesus pointed to success, he pointed to his upcoming death and resurrection. But the only people who witnessed his resurrection were the unsuccessful, unwise, ignoble followers who misunderstood his coming from the beginning.

The early Christian church was not populated by many learned, influential or "noble" people. The pagan philosopher Celsus, about 100 years after Paul wrote that a glance at the membership of Christian congregations shows "that they want and are able to convince only the foolish, dishonorable, and stupid, only slaves, women, and little children." (from CPH commentary on 1st Corinthians by Rev. Carleton Toppe). ��

The history of the Christian church shows that the message of the cross has usually first been accepted among less "developed" peoples, then spreads throughout the society over several generations. ����������������

But that spread of this "foolish message" is never complete. There are always many, especially among the elite of the society, who resist it. You youth who are planning to attend college, you will very likely hear some professors put down the Christian faith. Those who are held in high esteem by society for their learning and wisdom and Ph.D.'s often think it their duty to put down Christian students and their "foolish" faith. That is why it is so important for you to strengthen you're faith during high school, to prepare for the assaults from the wisdom of the world, and to be able to do so with "gentleness and respect" (1 Peter 3: 15). A pastor friend of mine recently told me that he had been scheduled to debate with a college professor once about the truthfulness of the Bible and Christ. The pastor thought it wise to at least go and meet with his learned opponent ahead of time to prepare. He asked the professor if he had read the Bible lately. "No, I haven't actually." "Have you ever read very much of it?" the pastor asked. Again the answer was "No." By the end of the conversation, the worldly wise professor decided NOT to participate in the debate, realizing that what he thought he was wise in he really knew little about. ����������������

I'm foolish. You're foolish. It's foolishness to think that a little water spoken with God's name attaches us to Him forever. It's foolishness to believe that bread and wine connected with God's Word brings forgiveness of sins. It's foolishness to think that words spoken into our ears of this message strengthen us and prepare us for eternal life. It's foolishness, yes. But it is the Godly foolishness revealed to us by Jesus Christ. Are we foolish enough?

Pastor Eyer was seeing a hospital patient named Mr. Witti. Mr. Witti required kidney dialysis and was in intensive care following open-heart surgery. Whenever Pastor Eyer would pray with him � asking God's will would be done � Mr. Witti, would make the sign of the cross over his heart. When Mr. Witti's daughter visited him, however, she would be all smiles, bubbling over with reassurances, telling her father not to worry, that God would heal him. "But somehow her father doesn't seem comforted by this," Pastor Eyer recalled, "and turns to me to make the sign of the cross." The daughter believes that having enough faith will lead to healing. There was no place for weakness and suffering in her understanding of the will of God. But while she is busy trying to get God to surrender to her will, her father has surrendered to the will of God (modified from Pastoral Care Under the Cross by Richard Eyer). Does he hope to be healed? Sure. He trusts in a Lord who can work miracles. But touched by the powerful foolishness of the cross, he understands that there will be human suffering in this world still decaying from sin. He understands that this human suffering, even his own, will not all be relieved in this present age. Even when he was in his earthly ministry, Jesus didn't heal everyone in the world. His miracles only pointed to who He was and the power He was going to show on the cross. On that cross Jesus took upon himself all of our infirmities and sorrows (Isaiah 53). Because of that foolish cross he has rescued us from eternal suffering and death. ����������������

Tens of millions of people have now seen the "foolish" message of the cross portrayed in The Passion Movie. The crowds I saw it with and every crowd I've read about has left the theatre in a stunned silence. Critics have denigrated the movie for a variety of reasons, but one criticism has been that it didn't focus on Jesus' amazing life and ministry, that it focused too much on his brutal death. For them they wanted to walk out "feeling better", to focus on human happiness and wisdom. But those critics miss the point that Paul is making here. 1 Corinthians 1: 22-23 "Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles." ����������������

So, I'm foolish and you're foolish. But God has made foolish the wisdom of this world. Thanks be to God that He was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save us who trust in that foolish cross.

And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4: 7)