Back to Corinth: 1 Cor. 2: 10-16

Verses 14-15: “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.”

When I was in college, I was in the drama team of our Baptist Student Union (called the Zoo Troupe). Once we acted out a skit called “The Owl Who Was God”. (I found out just this week that the skit must’ve been based on the fable in James Thurber’s book Fables for Our Time and Famous Poems Illustrated (New York, 1940), pp. 35-36. I reread the story at the following link: https://www.k-state.edu/english/baker/english320/Thurber-The_Owl_Who_Was_God.htm). The story (condensed here) is that the other animals asked the owl to be their leader because he could see in the dark and answer any question (although his answers to most questions were “Who”, “Two”, “To wit”, and “To Woo”…mostly owl-speak!). After chasing away a few animals who wanted to ask “Can he see in the daytime?”, the other animals asked the owl to be their leader. Appearing at high noon, walking slowly with wide eyes (since he couldn’t see in the daytime), the other animals, impressed by his seeming stature, began to cry “He’s God!” They began to follow him, even when he started walking down a highway. They were still crying “He’s God”…when most of them, including the owl, were killed by a truck which ran into them. The moral was: You can fool too many of the people too much of the time.

Paul here is contrasting the natural man, using natural wisdom, with the spiritual man, who uses the wisdom given through the Holy Spirit. The spiritual man can discern and judge many things through the wisdom God gives; the natural man cannot discern those same things, because natural wisdom cannot divine the deep things of God. It would be like above, when the animals thought the owl was wise, when it reality, he was limited…just like the natural man is limited.

So for wisdom that lasts, do you want the natural sands to build your house on? Or do want your foundation to be the wisdom of the Rock?

Something to think about.

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Back to Corinth: 1 Cor. 2: 1-9

Verses 4-5: “And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”

There is no better feeling than when you are used by God, and through His power, not your own.

Our church choir recently performed our annual Christmas program. We are blessed with a very knowledgeable, talented, and experienced music minister (blessed by God), who often picks out various pieces of different styles for our choir to sing. We finished the program with a magnificent operatic arrangement of Christ is Born; the lead solos were 4 men, and the music minister had asked me to be the 2nd tenor solo in this piece. Now, without bragging, I’ve sung solos before and I believe I have a pretty good voice; but nothing in my experience had prepared me for the challenge of this solo. Our music minister (bless his heart) worked with me and drilled me a lot on operatic style of belting out this solo, from pronunciation to breathing techniques. Come performance night, I was anxious. What’s more, the Christ is Born piece was at the END of a 40-minute program. I had some water hidden under my chair and took sips when I could. Come time to walk down, I bent over to grab one last sip…and turned over the cup! (not to worry, it didn’t spill through the lid). However, I had no time to get one more swig of water.

It was at that point, that I prayed quickly, “ok, Lord, it’s all on You, because I can’t sing this with my voice this tired on my own.” It’s funny, it felt almost like God said back to me, “I’ve got this, I’m all you need.” I went out and sang with all my heart; God blessed my efforts. I had several compliments from folks and my music minister later told my wife that I did great! All glory to God! (oh, and by the way, God had me again that night when we sang a 2nd performance of this same program not more than one hour later!)

I tell you all this to remind you what Paul was doing. I have always admired Paul for his eloquence of argument and his speaking abilities, but I forgot (until I read this passage) that he was relying on the Lord to give him the power to address the Corinthian congregation here. That church was starting to slip back into relying on human wisdom, and Paul reminded them that the real power, the real wisdom, comes from the Holy Spirit!

Just remember an old adage I’ve heard before and is appropriate here: let go and let God!

Something to think about.

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Back to Corinth: 1 Cor. 1:26-30

Verse 27: “But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty;”

A car racer, Cliff Steele, has a freak accident and his brain is surgically placed in a nigh invulnerable robot body.
A test pilot, Larry Trainor, has a freak accident, requiring him to be wrapped in radiation-proof bandages to contain the alien being that has bonded with him.
A talented, athletic, beautiful actress named Rita Farr has a freak accident with strange volcanic gases, giving her size changing abilities.

All of them considered freaks; but Niles Caulder bonds them together into a team to protect the world…a team called…the Doom Patrol.

5 teenagers with various mutations are recruited to the Charles Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters. One has wings, one has optic blast vision, one can form ice, one has beast-like strength and agility, and one has telekinesis. Feared by the world, these mutants will become mankind’s protectors…the X-Men.

In both instances, DC Comics and Marvel Comics created magazines about outcasts; these outcasts became unlikely heroes and the reading public loved them. Even today, some of these heroes exist now on the big screen of movies. But if you were to pick some type of superheroes to be easily accepted and popular, would you have picked these? Even a young Stan Lee had to convince his bosses when he was first starting out to give him a chance with a teenager who wasn’t a sidekick…a teenager who would become Spider-Man!

Paul is reminding the Corinthian church that God has picked the least likely choices (by man’s standards) to spread the Gospel, to show The Way. Think about Jesus’s disciples: were they all-star teams of leaders with great talent sets? Were they the Justice League or the Avengers?

No, their occupations were:
Fishermen
Tax Collector
Zealot
Tradesmen
And some we don’t even know what they did…they were just called by Jesus.
(Found this info at https://www.allaboutjesuschrist.org/occupations-of-the-12-disciples-faq.htm)

The world would look at them and say “They’re going to help change the world?” Jesus looked at them and said, “Come, and I will make you fishers of men.”

Something to think about.

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