Sexagesima
Bishop Ray Sutton

A recent Reader’s Digest had this story. The man was running late. He was worried that he was going to miss his plane so he ran out of the hotel, flagged down the first cab he saw and got in. He told the driver to get to the airport as fast as possible. Evidently, that was the wrong thing to say. The driver took off racing through the streets, came to a red light and didn’t even slow down. The man in the backseat became quite nervous and said, "Isn’t that a little dangerous."
The taxi driver answered, "My 5 brothers and I have been driving taxicabs for years and this system has worked pretty good. ‘Red means Go.’" Sure enough the next light was red as well and he flew right through. The passenger was relieved when they finally came to a green light. However, this time the driver slowed the cab down until he almost came to a complete stop. “I don’t understand. You fly through the red lights, but you nearly stopped at that green light. That doesn’t make sense." The taxi driver then slowly explained, “Well, you never know . . . one of my brother’s might be coming the other way."

It is easy at times to reverse a common understanding of a basic concept, ideal. Today in our Epistle reading from 2 Corinthians 11:19-31, the Apostle Paul defends his own perceived weakness and foolishness. He does so because the Church at Corinth had fallen into the trap of adopting the world’s definition of these concepts. They had actually reversed the understanding. So St. Paul spends considerable time trying to correct this unfortunate reversal of understanding. The Church must do this you know, not only within its own community but with the world. It must attempt to reverse twisted thinking.

In the Church of Corinth, what God and the Apostle speak of as wise, they thought of as foolish. What the Lord and His leaders taught as true strength, they perceived as weakness. In the J.B. Phillips’ translation of the New Testament, I like how Phillips translates this passage.  It becomes clear what St. Paul is doing. According to this translation, St. Paul writes with a bit of sarcasm, “From your heights of wisdom I am sure you can smile tolerantly on a fool. Oh, you’re tolerant all right! You don’t mind, do you, if a man takes away your liberty, spends your money, takes advantage of you, puts on airs or even smacks you in the face” (11:18-20). In other words, they were not very wise at all. They were foolish. They allowed people who put on airs as being wise take advantage of them. The reason was that they had adopted the wrong definition and standard of wisdom and success.

St. Paul then proceeds to tell them that if they based wisdom and success on credentials and achievements alone, then he had all of those things. He was a Hebrew of Hebrews, he was an Israelite, he was a pure descendant of Abraham, he was a minister of Christ, an Apostle Bishop. He adds, “This is a silly game” (11:23). He explains. He could and did list an amazing list of achievements, hardships and successes for the Gospel. But in the end, he writes, “Oh, if I am going to boast, let me boast of the things which have shown up my weakness! . . . I don’t think it’s really a good thing for me to boast at all” (11:30-12:1). You see, St. Paul had come to the realization that in the presence of Jesus Christ, no one can boast. We’re all silly and weak. But then, it’s when we realize that we are weak that we become strong. It’s then that we turn to God and His strength. This is the kind of reversal that the Church must make clear, what is wise and foolish, and what is truly weak and strong.

It is also easy at base times in history for the world to reverse the common understanding of such a basic reality as life and death. This past week, millions of Christians walked in protest to the slaughter of innocent, unborn children. They do so with the perception of many as “weak” or “foolish,” to use the words from our Epistle lesson today. But I think we’ve lost sight in our society of what is right and wrong. And when it comes to humanity, who is weak and who is strong, who needs to be protected. Certainly the mother does. But so does the child. Scripture makes it very plain that the child in the womb is a life. John the Baptist leaped in his mother’s womb when Elizabeth came in contact with Mary, the mother of Jesus. The future prophet, John, was responding already to Jesus. How did He know who it was? We don’t know. But then we now know that unborn children in the womb respond to music, affection and even speech outside the womb. How do they know? Again, we don’t know.

As Christians, we must be very clear about upholding what is right and what is wrong in our society. We also must be the defender of those who suffer and those who are weak. We must be willing to remind the society who really are the weak, and yes who are the ones who are the truly strong. If we get confused on the weak and the strong, we can make some serious mistakes.

For example, L.R. Agnew, a professor at UCLA Medical School, recently gave his students this scenario:
"Consider this family history:
 
The father has a venereal disease
The mother has tuberculosis
They have had 4 children: The first of whom was blind
The second died as an infant
The third is deaf
The fourth has tuberculosis
The mother is pregnant
The parents are willing to have an abortion IF YOU,
and their physician, recommend it.
WHAT DO YOU SUGGEST?

Overwhelmingly, the class said they would strongly encourage the mother to have an abortion.
Professor Agnew then said, "Congratulations, You just murdered Beethoven."
Today, we’re reminded of the need for the Church to teach correctly what is true wisdom and foolishness, and what is true strength and weakness. If we don’t then the weak are not protected. They are hurt and even killed. And it is to these that we are called to protect. Besides, if an innocent child can’t be protected in a society, no one is safe. In the end, the correct understanding of who the weak really are benefits everyone. All are weak in God’s eyes. All need His help, including you and me, as well as our children, yes, all God’s children. Amen.