Foolish talk

"For since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe" (1 Corinthians 1:21).

We Christians read this and shake our heads at the philosophers of this world. We say, they can mind-screw all they want but they will never know God through philosophy. For God has wisely (and very cleverly too!) ordained that the knowledge of his secrets and of his Person cannot be gleaned through the overeducated conceptual gymnastics of Nietzsche and Sartre.

But a disturbing possibility arises in my mind. What if Paul is addressing us! What if he means to warn Christian academics, not just pagan academics? In our schools of Christian training, we do a lot of talking about the gospel. It's as if we think that if we only fine-tune our descriptions enough, we can know God better at the end of it than if we imbibe the Word itself.

God, on the other hand, says plainly that he is not known through wisdom. He is known through "foolishness." He says His foolish Word is power (2:4-5). Tough concept: Word as power.

Maybe our heart is in the right place. We want to mount a credible defense of the gospel for our colleagues in the Ivy Leagues---something they can understand. If we package it in their categories, maybe they'll respect us. (And it feels so good when they respect us.). The way they talk over there is so fine. They have systems, they have pleasing complicatedness. I heard a lecture I didn't understand a word of! It was wonderful! Whereas the bare gospel sounds so, well . . . foolish.

Before you know it, the "foolish" message of Christ starts to wrap itself in a kind of midrash. We do more midrash talking than "foolish" talking. Paul, he spoke like a fool (1 Corinthians 4:10). We always mean to go out there and speak like a "fool" too eventually. But somehow, when we adjourn from class and all file into the café, we're still all talking midrash. We're so used to it. No one dares pipe up and say, "Guess what the Lord is doing in my life!" It would be embarrassing.

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