I was struck by a quote Paul gives from Soren Kierkegaard the Danish philosopher:

“The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand we are obliged to act accordingly. Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. ‘My God,’ you will say, ‘if I do that my whole life will be ruined. How would I ever get on in the world?’"

We're currently working through 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5 and noticing how the church at Corinth is impressed by the rhetoric and wisdom of the Sophists (the megastar windbags (orators) of the 1st century). Oratory was highly prized in Corinth and the Sophists were the superstar gasbags who impressed the crowds with their good looks and their ability to tickle people's ears with the skills of rhetoric (to read a little more about the Sophists of the 1st century go and have a snoop around Bruce Winter's webpage here). To be someone special and powerful in Corinthian society you had to display all the skills of rhetoric (like the celebrity Sophists). But Paul says that's the ways of the scheming swindlers and it's not how God works. God chooses the foolish things of the world to shame the wise so that no one can boast before God (holding our trophies and achievements before God). No doubt in Corinthian society Paul's message of Christ crucified seemed foolishness and moronic (the Greek word for foolishness is moria and we get our English word moron for its root). This is moronic to Corinthian society who love their power, wisdom and abilities, but Paul says Christ crucified is the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the Christian faith is centred on the crucified one, we find that wisdom is found in humility, strength is found in weakness and power is found through love. In the light of who God is, Corinthian society, with its love of power and rhetorical wisdom, is what is exposed as moronic, not God.

There is no other 'Christ' than the crucified Christ. But we, and I especially include myself here, are scheming swindlers who like to trade up from the crucified Chrsit to follow something less scandalous and less moronic and follow something more acceptable to us and our ways. Martin Luther King said of the church of his day: "The contemporary church is often a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. It is so often the arch supporter of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church’s silent and often vocal sanction of things as they are." Check it the full quote at William Willimon's blog here.

There's some things I don't agree with John Howard about but I admire his stance on the Australian Cricket team touring Zimbabwe. He has taken a strong stand against what I see as an evil and oppressive dictatorship. Read about it here.

Last week I attended a pastor's meeting where Larry Baldock came to speak to us about his petition in regards to the current legislation to repeal section 59 of the crimes act. Whilst many people may be frustrated at what seems to be the govt legislating how people should parent, I was very confused when I was told that churches should be "leading the way" in getting this petition signed. Apparently we should be getting our people to go out into shopping malls etc on weekends and get signatures for this petition. I left the meeting a little troubled. Why should churches be leading the way on this petition (getting people to oppose the bill that would repeal section 59)? As I write this post I have just received another e-mail from people attached to this petition demanding that our church should be arranging people to take to the streets to get signatures for this petition! I can understand our people signing this petition as concerned citizens, but what is so gospel about petitioning the govt to allow us to smack our children that churches should "lead the way"? I left the meeting wondering why should churches be "leading the way" on this petition? Jesus NEVER spoke about smacking. In fact it didn't even register on his Richter scale. Jesus' self definition was the Prince of Peace. Jesus ALWAYS sided with the poor, the outcast, the oppressed and the least. What is so gospel about this petition that churches should "lead the way" as if the very gospel itself is being threatened by this bill? I can understand people in our church signing this petition as concerned citizens but for us as a church to "lead the way" it has to be a specific threat to the gospel Jesus proclaimed and I just don't think it is. Why do we want to "lead the way" on this petition about smacking (something Jesus NEVER spoke about) instead of leading the way on petitioning our govt to be more involved and concerned about global poverty and injustice (something that Jesus spoke about A LOT)?

To be sure, my issue isn't with concerned citizens in our church signing the petition (and I am not opposing Christians signing this petition as concerned citizens) my issue is that I have been told that our church should "lead the way" on this petition and recruit our people to get signatures but I just don't see it as a gospel imperative (compared to issues like poverty and injustice). We seem to be picky and choosy about what we protest about. For example, churches were at the forefront of protesting against the Civil Unions Bill, which is fine (even though homosexuality is something Jesus never spoke about in a culture where it was rampant). But, at exactly the same time our NZ cricket team were leaving to tour Zimbabwe, a country being oppressed by an evil leader and suffering chronic injustices (something Jesus spoke a lot about) and churches never battered an eyelid or considered protesting! I don't oppose anyone being involved in signing petitions or protesting, nor am I suggesting Christians shouldn't be involved in the debate about homosexuality. My cry is that our churches "lead the way" on the things that were priorities for Jesus Christ.

If I have missed something here can someone please help me out...

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