PALESTINE SEEKS STATEHOOD AT UN

This blog provides a meditation of the Episcopal daily readings along with a headline from world news:

1 Corinthians 1:20-31

20Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. 22For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, 23but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

26 Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, 29so that no one might boast in the presence of God. 30He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31in order that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.’

My own translation, produced for my novel, “Paul: An Unauthorised Autobiography” (Kindle) is reproduced here for comparison. It uses the Scots word “daft” meaning stupid to translate the Greek word “moron”(stupid).

“Show me the wise; show me the scholar; show me the intellectual of our times-God has turned their worldly wisdom into daftness; for since, in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not know him, it delighted God through the daftness of the Announcement, to rescue those who trust in him.

Now Jews demand miracles and Greeks seek wisdom, but we announce a crucified Messiah, offensive for Jews and daft for Gentiles, but for those whom God has called, Jews and Greeks alike, a Messiah who is God’s power and God’s wisdom.

The daftness of God is wiser than human wisdom and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

many of the first Christians were slaves

Look at your calling, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by worldly standards, not many powerful, not many well-born; but God favoured the daft people of the world to shame the wise, and the weak people of the world to shame the strong. The low-born and disreputable people of the world, yes, people who barely exist, God has favoured, to bring to nothing the powers that be, so that no flesh and blood might boast in God’s presence.

By God’s action, you are in Messiah Jesus, who has, through God, become our wisdom, justice, holiness and liberation; so as scripture says, Boaster, boast in the Lord!”

Paul is sure that worldly wisdom however sophisticated neither provides knowledge of God nor can rescue people from evil. God is not an abstraction nor is he the greatest power that can be conceived, for God has made Himself available to humanity in the vulnerability of a crucified messiah; and continues to do so through the announcement of his story by people who have no status in the eyes of empire or wealth. This announcement seems offensive to Jews and daft to Greeks but it offers real benefit to those who trust the Messiah: wisdom, justice, holiness and liberation. If we want to find these qualities we are directed to Jesus.

Matthew 4:12-17

12 Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. 13He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the lake, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, 14so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:

15 ‘Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali,

on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—

16 the people who sat in darkness

have seen a great light,

and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death

light has dawned.’

17From that time Jesus began to proclaim, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’

Galilee of the gentiles

Jesus’ ministry took place in Galilee, regarded by Judaeans as a very mixed area, polluted by a large proportion of Gentiles. The quotation from Isaiah is present partly for polemical purposes. It may seem a strange place for a Messiah to minister, but it was prophesied. What Paul says discursively about the Messiah Jesus, Matthew says narratively: Jesus Messiah belongs to the disregarded.

The translation, “repent” for the Greek “metanoiein” is a mistake: it means, “change your ways/ turn round” signalling a profound reorientation of life rather than sorrow for past deeds. To be a disciple of Jesus Messiah requires a revaluation of all one’s values. Disciples see things differently as those who sat in darkness when they see a great light. Today the Church remembers St John Chrysostom, St John the golden-mouthed, a great scholar, preacher, theologian and Archbishop of the Eastern Church. He was particularly passionate in his care of the poor and criticism of the rich: “What good is there in the Eucharistic table being loaded with gold chalices when your brother is dying of hunger?” He was eventually exiled from Constantinople for his outspokenness. He transmitted to his own time some of passionate contradiction of worldly values demonstrated by Jesus and the first Christians.