sleeping in past our alarm November 19, 2010

more thoughts on 1 Corinthians 1:18-31

notes from a Mark Driscoll sermon. ya know, listening to this man is really, easy. Not like, basics, but like, pleasing to follow. I LIKE listening to an hour of him talk. It makes sense. Its a bit funny and a bit edgy, but its the Bible. I related alot to this sermon and it gave me some more good perspectives on the whole weak and lowly theology that i’m trying to wrap my brain/heart around.

If you’re thinking about being a Christian there’s a lot of people going, “Man, that’s just crazy.” Once you become a Christian there’s even a little pressure to not really talk about it too much, or to sort of sand the edges off it so that you don’t sound so nuts. The result is you still want to be hip and cool and respectable and not have anybody think bad of you and have everybody still think you’re smart and cool. And the Corinthian church was struggling with this same thing. They’re a young, hip, urban, cool church filled with a lot of cool people. And they were struggling between being cool and being with Christ, and they were struggling between what other people thought and what God thought.

The other he says is a theology of the cross where you say, “You know what? Jesus wasn’t hip. Jesus wasn’t cool. Jesus wasn’t rich. Jesus wasn’t powerful. Jesus was simple, humble; he got executed, he died; he suffered.” God didn’t come to us in the way that any of us would’ve expected, and God doesn’t look like the person that we all want to be. And so we’re left with a choice: do we go with the real Jesus, or the one that we really want? And so Paul starts answering all of these kinds of questions in 1 Corinthians 1:18

The Christians in Corinth are struggling to come to this place. They still want to be cool. They want to be powerful. They want to be rich. They want to be beautiful. They want to be famous. So Paul says to them in verse 26: “Brothers, think of what you were when you were called.”

What he’s saying is this: when you become a Christian God does wonderful things to fix you and change you and to mature you. The result is you feel like you’re doing better. You feel like, “You know, I’m not the same person that I used to be. Life’s going better. I’m doing better. I feel good.” But then you could get all arrogant and fool yourself and say, “Well, it’s no wonder God chose me to be on his team! I’m a first-round draft choice – look at me! I’m hot. I’m smart. I’m rich. I’m famous. I’m powerful.”

He’s saying you weren’t. You were jack squat nobody – that’s who you were. You were nobody. You were just a regular common person. Now, when God does something the question is should we get really proud about that, or should we maintain humility? Because here’s the problem – the problem is always this: that sometimes Christians – because they think they’re on the winning team, right? “Our God beat Satan. We’re going to Heaven. We’re the winners.” They think that makes them a winner.

There’s a lot of Christians that are losers. They just happen to be on the winning team, but they themselves are not personally brilliant. Just because you’re a Christian doesn’t mean you’re smart. Just because you’re a Christian doesn’t mean you’re cool, doesn’t mean you’re hip, doesn’t mean you’re beautiful, doesn’t mean you’re insightful. It just means you’re loved by God, that’s all. And you think back on it, right, most of us – and what he’s not saying is that all Christians are poor and dumb. Just most, right – just most.

Occasionally we get a cool person, like, “Hey, Bono’s on our team!” Like, “Great – we have one.” You know, and sometimes a rich person will love Jesus. And sometimes a hot person will love Jesus. And sometimes an insightful person will love Jesus. But like they could have a convention in a phone booth – there’s not a ton of them, right? Most of us are just driving beater cars, eating hamburgers and sleeping in past our alarm. We’re really not that profoundly impressive human beings.

And we always used to play football, me and all the other kids. We’d go out in the street because we didn’t have big yards, and we’d play football. And I was a quarterback and there was another kid who was a quarterback. And then you know how it would be: all the kids would line up and they’d all want to get picked for the team, and nobody wanted to get picked when? Last – never want to get picked last.

Well, the same kid was always picked last. This kid – he came from a troubled home. He only had two pair of pants, and even though he was like ten years old he’d wet them all the time. So his mom wouldn’t let him change his pants, so he always smelled like urine. Always wore a dirty white T-shirt – he only had a couple. I mean it’s a sad story. The kid one day was playing with a lighter in the house. Lit himself on fire and his mom was afraid he’d burn the house down, so she kicked him out. I mean the kid ended up in the hospital with burns all over his body.
I mean the kid really had some significant troubles in his life. He was underprivileged. He just had a hard time. And he always wanted to play football with us, but man, he was not the kid you’d pick for your team, because you would never throw the ball to him and then he would yell at you. And if you threw it to him it would always hit him in the face, and then he’d really yell at you for hitting him in the face with a ball. And then you’d try to tell him, “Look, when I throw it to you catch it. Don’t let it hit you. Or open your mouth, you know. Just get it to stick to your person somehow. That’s the goal of the game.” He’d be like, “Throw it! Throw it! Throw it! What’d you do that for?”

This guy on my team is just – we’re not gonna win. So we actually never picked this guy. We’d pick both teams, and then we’d break and he’d still be standing there. Never got – and then he’d sort of just wander over and join in on one of the teams, and nobody would ever throw the ball to him. Well, there was one day I went to pick the teams and he got right up in the front of all the other kids. And he was yelling, “Pick me! Pick me! Pick me!” And I was like, “Oh man!” I’m trying not to make eye contact with him, so I’m looking over here and I’m looking at the ground and I’m looking over here trying not to make eye contact.

And I finally decided I’m gonna pick him. I’m gonna pick him first. So I said, “Okay, I’ll take so-and-so,” and I picked him. And he just was so happy he almost wet himself. The kid was just freaking out, he was so happy. And so he was first-round draft choice, and the whole day was spent me throwing the ball and it bouncing off his head. But what Paul is saying is that when God picks his team this is kind of what it’s like for him, and we’re the kid that smells like urine.

And isn’t it weird that if that – let’s say that day the team that I was quarterbacking – I don’t know – if that team won. Wouldn’t it be unbelievable if this kid was running around saying, “I crushed you! I defeated you! I’m better than you! I’m a first-round draft choice!” Wouldn’t Terrell Owens and all the other kids in the neighborhood – wouldn’t that seem peculiar? Like that kid – reality is in the distant mirror for this kid, you know? “He really thinks that he’s a winner. He really thinks that he won. He really thinks that he’s the best.”

And the truth is that when God looks down in human history to pick his team, as it were – to elect and predesinate, choose, call, all these words – he’s looking down going, “You know, there’s really not any first-round draft choices here. And I know oo, you have a blog, whoo, and oo, look at you, you have a job, and oo, and look at you! Your person, your shoes totally match – wow!” God is not impressed with us. Now, we’re impressed with ourselves, and there’s some other people maybe we’re a little impressed with them. But God’s not impressed.

Paul says look back at where you were when God chose you and the work that God has done since then. And then he goes on to talk about this a little further in verse 29 – “so that no one may boast before him.” See, when we’re boasting God hears that, and isn’t it a sick thing to boast in the presence of God? “God, look what I did! Look at who I am!” God’s like, “Wait a second. If you’re smart, it’s because I gave you that mind. If you’re hot, it’s because I gave you that body. If you’re loved, it’s because I gave you those people. If you’re employed, it’s because I gave you that job.”