Oak Chapel United Methodist Church

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I love Joan Webb's one-sentence description of her early faith experience. She says, "Years ago, after I asked God to fill my cup, it seemed, instead, that he ate my lunch."

She goes on to tell how, after her conversion, everything went wrong. Long-cherished hopes and ambitions came crashing down around her. She lost friends. She no longer had appetite for things she once enjoyed. "Looking back on it," she says, "I see that God had to empty my cup before he could fill it -- there were a lot of things in my life that blocked faith, that were either wrong or that were so preoccupying they left no room for God."  

Emptying Ourselves -

Jesus talks about how we have to give up so much, and empty ourselves, if we would follow him. And Paul tells us he has made a conscious decision to let everything else go. In this wonderful preaching text from I Corinthians, Paul writes to his friends in Corinth, "I have decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified." John Wesley paraphrases Paul's words, "I am determined to waive all other knowledge, and not to preach anything save Jesus Christ, and him crucified." "…to waive all other knowledge." That's going to be hard for us! This is the information age. Knowledge is power.  

Modern Impediments to Emptying Ourselves -

We now receive some 50 channels on our television set, and for 24 hours every day they all spew out knowledge (of one kind or another --good, bad, right, wrong -- it doesn't seem to matter): how to decorate a room, how to have a boy friend, how to dance,
how to act when you're in college, how to plant a vegetable garden, and, of course, how to understand the news. All that knowledge, all that wisdom -- it's overwhelming! (The White House scandal has generated enough media information to fill ten libraries. I never saw so
many talking heads! I never realized how many people are former federal prosecutors!) And then, if we need more knowledge, more wisdom, there is always the internet with its amazing reach.  

Learning to Know Nothing but Jesus -

Paul didn't have these things, of course, but there was a lot of knowledge and wisdom floating around in his day, and we can tell from his
writings that he was amazingly familiar with much of it (from the best of the rabbis, to the Greek philosophers, to the ancient mystery religions). But he says he's going to let all that go, waive all that, and "know nothing among you except Jesus Christ…."

He doesn't want the Corinthians to think that the Gospel is just one more bit of wisdom, one like all the others, one more intellectual fad, that would enjoy favor for a while and then be forgotten. So he would focus not on wisdom, but on facts. He doesn't want to build the Gospel on his own personality, or on the wisdom of the world. Neither is a good foundation, neither will hold when the storms of life are raging. Ask ye what great thing I know, That delights and stirs me so? What the high reward I win? Whose the name I glory in? Jesus Christ, the crucified. On Christ, the solid rock, I stand, All other ground is sinking sand.  

The Herald is Not Important -

The Gospel doesn't need Paul, and he knows it. It doesn't need his eloquence or his learning. The Gospel inspires by its own wonderful truth. The herald is not important, the proclamation is. Paul always sees himself as an agent of God, and when God is through with
him God will lay him aside -- but the Gospel will go on. He would not want to show off his knowledge or boast in it, for that would distract attention from the message itself, causing listeners to focus on the temporal instead of the eternal. Let's talk simple facts, he says. Let's talk about Christ crucified.

Taking Hold of Jesus -

In his letter to Philippi, Paul is speaking of how a Christian should live, and he says, "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have
already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me." All through his writings and his life, Paul would subordinate himself to the Gospel.  

Communion Requires Self-Emptying-

When we receive holy communion, and think about our Lord's last days and hours, we understand all too well that our faith calls for
subordination, for submission, for self-emptying. And that is meet and proper. We brought nothing into this world, can boast about nothing, and surely can take nothing out. There can be no reservation about that, no sweetening of that message. For, when all is said and done, and the last ding-dong rings, we must know nothing…except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. He is our salvation, and without him we have none. Receiving the bread and wine is our pledge to remember our exiled king, and to remain loyal to him until he returns and is restored to his rightful throne. In the meantime, we live according to his rules, as best we can. We press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of us. And eat the bread and drink the cup (and trust only in him -- not in the wisdom of the world, nor in the things of the world), until he comes.