Jan 23, 2017
Focus readings I Cor 1:18-31, Matt 5:1-12 A Direct audio download link can be found at the bottom of this post.
In Paul’s wisdom of the cross and in the Sermon on the Mount the Bible is telling us that the way the world thinks about fame and power is wrong. If we are honest most of us think the way the would does. When we hear that the poor in Spirit are blessed or that the meek shall inherit the earth we think “Really???!?...” Surely it is the proud, popular, rich and pushy who inherit the earth. By contrast the central figure of our faith, is a wandering, homeless, carpenter turned Rabbi, who ends up dead, on a Roman cross for being a trouble maker. For most of the people of Paul’s time and for many people in our time, this stuff about the cross is offensive nonsense. Yet no figure and no symbol has had a more powerful effect on how the world is than Jesus and his cross. Why is that?
Questions for thought or
discussion:
In what ways if any is Jesus right,
are the meek, the peace makers, those who mourn and those who are
persecuted really blessed? What do you make of the cross and it’s
meaning? How can we present such an upside down message to the
world? Paul was right, this wisdom is confounding
foolishness.