Another day on this – is this an April Fool in itself?! Thankfully not: I thought this brilliant passage was worth a second day. And today it gets more personal. Yesterday we looked at the power of a foolish message; today St Paul switches to a foolish audience. After all, who else would respond to a foolish message?
‘Think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise… influential… of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise… the weak to shame the strong.’
The Christian message has always appealed to normal people, and even more so to those who are on the margins. People who don’t carry airs and graces, privileges and pride; people who have nothing to defend and little to lose. People, in other words, who are humble enough to receive God’s marvellous gift of grace. People like you and me.
Don’t get me wrong: Paul is not articulating an anti-intellectual gospel, that never reflects deeply on life and faith. Rather he is inviting us to seek divine wisdom in unexpected places: in service not in status, in humility not in pride or power, in a king who carries his cross and gives himself wholly for the lives of others.
This kind of foolish king appeals to foolish people – people like you and me. But today let us hear God’s affirmation of each of us in foolishness and weakness. God isn’t interested in human privilege, only in hearts that are open and willing to seek him and let him in. ‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock…’
Praise God that he chooses people like us. And may God grant us grace to ‘boast’ humbly, joyfully and only in the Lord today.