Exodus 20: 1 – 17 / Psalm 19 / I Corinthians 1: 18 – 25 / John 2: 13 – 22
This
is the homily prepared for St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, by Fr. Gene
Tucker, for Sunday, March 7, 2021.
“GOD’S WAY:
STRENGTH-OR- WEAKNESS?”
(Homily texts:
Exodus 20: 1 – 17, I Corinthians 1: 18 – 25 & John 2: 13 – 22)
Does
strength or raw power always prevail when it comes to an encounter of one thing
and another? Does the strongest person always win in an athletic contest? Does
the heaviest object always remain in place when a weaker force acts against it?
Does the larger army always win the battle or the war over the smaller and
weaker one?
Obviously,
the answer to each of these scenarios is “No”: The stronger person doesn’t
always win in an athletic contest, for a smaller and weaker person might outwit
or might outmaneuver the other one. Likewise, the heavy rock moves when a
single person uses an appropriate lever to budge it. And, of course, there are
many examples of larger armies having been defeated by a smaller force that
might have been better trained, better equipped, better led or better
motivated.
It’s a
given fact that oftentimes the seemingly weaker or the lesser comes out best.
That’s a
reality that, in spiritual terms, St. Paul articulates in our epistle reading
this morning. He quotes Isaiah 29:14 when he says to the early Christians in
Corinth, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the
discerning, I will thwart.” Of course, Paul is talking about God’s wisdom, a
sort of wisdom that – by the world’s standards – is foolishness. Paul will go
on to say that the message that God’s way of offering salvation to the world is
through the death of His only-begotten Son, Jesus, on the cross. Paul says the
message of the cross is “a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to
Gentiles”.
Our three
appointed readings all point in one way or another to a simple truth of God:
Our walk with God often seems like foolishness, like weakness, like surrender. We’ve
just cited an example of it from First Corinthians. The way of God seems to be foolishness,
weakness and surrender when we think about the ways in which the everyday world
operates.
As an
example, our Old Testament reading is from Exodus, chapter twenty. We have
before us this morning the Ten Commandments. To the world’s way of thinking,
trying to live by those commandments means giving up one’s own freedoms, one’s
own ability to choose what to do and what not to do. But to live by those
commandments enables us to relate to God properly (for that is the focus of the
first four commandments), and they enable us to live with one another in
harmony (the focus of the last six commandments). The Ten Commandments then,
set boundaries within which freedom, true freedom, can thrive. There is always
a certain strength in freedom.
In our
appointed Gospel reading from John, chapter two, our Lord Jesus points to an
example of weakness overcoming power in His comments made in the Temple in
Jerusalem. There, having overturned the tables of the money changers, He is
asked for a sign which would indicate His authority for having upset the usual
practices that were going on in the Temple. His response is a response of
seeming weakness, a weakness speaking truth to power. He says, “Destroy this
temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” Of course, His opponents don’t
understand the comment. They think He is referring to the destruction of the
Temple, which represented God’s presence and God’s power to the people. However,
our Lord’s death is what He is referring to, and, in the fullness of time, His
death on Good Friday will seem to be weakness and surrender. But His rising on
Easter Sunday morning will demonstrate His power, even over death. Our Lord’s
seeming weakness overcomes the strength, the power of evil.
There’s a
spiritual truth at work here: It is the truth that our walk with God begins
with our adoption of a zero-sum beginning of our walk with God. As we adopt
this zero-sum attitude, we empty ourselves of any confidence in our own
strengths, our own wisdom, our own willfulness. Only then can we truly and
fully live in the strength of God’s way.
As I think
about this truth, I am prompted to say it’s a perfect message and theme for
this Lenten season.
AMEN.
