Notes from sermon I thought about preaching but never finished

“I decided to know nothing among you, but Jesus Christ and him crucified.”

I was stopped dead in my tracks the first time I really heard this passage read. I was sitting in the office of Dr. Charles Cousar, as we translated it from the Greek. And, I looked at him very seriously and asked: “What does Paul mean by that?” I asked because those words hit me deeply, as if I had heard something that was too deep for me to understand, but too full of truth for me to look away from.
Maybe hearing this passage hasn’t affected you much today. But, maybe as we think through it together this morning it will.

These words affected me so much, because first I knew that Paul knew all kinds of things: he knew the scriptures, he had revelations directly from God, he was an apostle and colleague of the other apostles, though he mostly went it alone in the gentile mission. If you read Paul’s letter to the Romans, you see that Paul had a penetrating mind, an insight into God’s truth as applied to all of life.
But, Paul had decided . . . he made a decision to KNOW NOTHING AMONG THE CORINTHIANS, BUT JESUS CHRIST AND HIM CRUCIFIED.

Now, this passage hits me just as hard and deeply as it did some 25-26 years ago, when I started seminary. And, it holds out hope for an anchor in a sea full of change. These words present to us a starting point in our quest to understand the way of God and to follow in this way of the crucified Lord.

Are you interested in that this morning? Do you want to understand the way of God in this world and follow in it? Or, did you just come to get a little manna to sustain you along the path of the world, a path you haven’t received from God, but have received from the world?

I’m asking these questions, because you might have made a better choice about where to attend this Sunday morning if you wanted to get some fuel to walk in the ways of the world. You might have done better to watch the t.v. preachers who make it all seem so simple, and, it really is simple for about all of them because they have accepted the definitions of what is good and what is true from society, and simply are providing advice about how to achieve societal goals. Their preaching, however,is nothing but psychology with some biblical language as icing on the cake.
I’m asking these questions because I’ve been on vacation and been able to get away from things a little and see a little more clearly. The way of Christ is not the way of the Church, and has never been the way of the Church. It is a way that challenges the Church as it challenges the surrounding culture. Almost all of the churches of our day don’t preach Christ and him crucified. I’m not sure I’ve preached him in truth except just now and then. Because, I’ve tried to use all the traditional, holy language of the church, to make sense of things in way that fits in with our psychology and sociology and whatever else you want to call it.
The way of Christ is something we in the Church know almost nothing about, except in those times when we sing a spiritual like “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?” And, sing it until it moves into our souls and we understand in our bones what we can’t grasp with our minds.

And, Paul knew that he had found the bedrock, and the spring of living water, and he would not stray from it again. I DECIDED TO KNOW NOTHING AMONG YOU, EXCEPT JESUS CHRIST AND HIM CRUCIFIED.

And, in a time when the churches have all sorts of different ways of preaching about Jesus and the victory of Jesus and the victorious life of those who follow Jesus, I am going back to the old, old way of Paul’s preaching – preaching Jesus Christ and him crucified. And, maybe with all the up language that is popular in the church now and the gospel songs that are supposed the take us to heaven, and all those great emotional highs, well, I will stick with not knowing any of that, but only Jesus Christ and him crucified – him executed for a crime he didn’t commit, in a world he was too good for, doing the will of a God who we have not yet started to understand even after all these years.

For those of you who feel like you just can’t ever find a solid path in life, a way out of sin in life, have you ever stopped to wonder. Have you ever wondered whether you were simply on the wrong path? For those of you who think you know all about faith, and just wish others were as wise as you were, have you ever stopped to wonder that perhaps your wisdom is that wisdom of the world that God destroyed in the cross of Christ? Have you ever wondered things like these?

WILL YOU DECIDE TODAY TO KNOW NOTHING - NOTHING BUT JESUS CHRIST AND HIM CRUCIFIED? WHICH MEANS TO REJECT EVERYTHING YOU THOUGHT YOU HAVE KNOWN IN AN EFFORT TO KNOW THE UNKNOWN – THE VERY TRUTH OF THE CRUCIFIED LORD? WILL YOU STEP INTO THIS DARKNESS OF FAITH WHERE ONLY GOD CAN SEE, WHERE ONLY GOD CAN LEAD?

*Comment: In some ways I thought this sermon had too much anger and presumption in it, and in other ways, I thought it was really going in a good direction. Sometimes our anger really has some truth in it, and if we could just sort out the true part from the junk that comes from the expression of our less honorable intentions! If you can learn to analyze your anger honestly, then you can really find some truth and you can also really find that you have a good bit of bullshit mixed in with it. If you would speak the truth, you might as well accept that you will also speak some bullshit or falsehood. Because, at those times when you really speak something deeply true, you feel it strongly and take the risk. But, it is also the case that there are times when you feel it very strongly, but "it" is bullshit and not truth. If you want to make sure you never speak passionately about bullshit, then you will have to give up on ever speaking the truth. Without taking the risk, your speech may be well-considered, but it probably won't ever open hearts or minds.

I guess this comment is a bit of a sermon to myself as I reflect on why I didn't see this sermon through to the end. It brought me to a point of complaining about church without getting me to the point of knowing whether I was simply whining or really onto some holy insight.