“WHAT A LOT OF FOOLISHNESS...”
It's a crazy time of year for a lot of families! It's back to school! Anyone notice any of the cartoons on my office door lately? One featured Sadness from the film, Inside Out, crying buckets of water, with the caption: When it's the first day of school but you swear the last day was yesterday...
That's how I always felt, but my sisters saw it differently. ('Beth' walks up from the cong)
Beth: Hi Don! Aren't you excited about going to school? Look at all these great school
supplies I got! I love having new notebooks and stuff!
Don: Are you kidding me? I got homework already! I can't believe it! I just got back to school
– I have to write a paragraph on what I did over the summer! A WHOLE Paragraph!
Or maybe you're in a place in life where you more relate to a couple in another strip…..
Husband: Lizzie in kindergarten?! Seems like yesterday she was a baby. Both kids in school....
It hardly seems possible. Do you know what this means, dear?
Wife: (wide-eyed...) Uh huh.... (jumping in joy) FREEDOM!!!
It's the ode to joy of an empty nester! It also captures how the same event can be viewed or experienced very differently by two or more people. It's part of what Paul is trying to impress upon his peers in Corinth, particularly when it comes to the issue of why he's been working for free, but before we get into that I just want to celebrate the humble, loving way Paul opens this new chapter.
“I hope you'll put up with a little more of my foolishness,”Paul begins, “Please bear with me” (2 Corinthians 11:1) When I read that I had to chuckle. I could hear my mom's voice in Paul's words. “Donald Andrew Pieper, I've had just about enough of your foolishness!”
Anyone's mom or teacher ever say something like that to you? I figured that if she'd had just about enough of my foolishness! - she obviously hadn't had enough..., just about enough...! So, I would make sure she'd had enough! I could drive her to tears long before I had a driver's license!
Fortunately, Paul's foolishness is something entirely different than mine. That's a relief, huh? Paul's opening words here in chapter eleven express a humble, gentle heart. He's acknowledging that his words may be hard to swallow, but that he writes, he says, out of a kind of pure jealousy, the kind scripture speaks of when talking about how God longs for his people to live in fellowship with him and in harmony with one another. He's jealous that they love God first and foremost.
“I hope you'll put up with a little more of my foolishness. Please bear with me, for I am jealous for you with the jealousy of God. I promised you as a pure bride – to one husband – Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:1-2)
Paul admits to the foolishness of boasting here as well, noting that their criticism has thrust him into a position of having to defend himself and present anew his credentials. “Don't think that I'm a fool to talk like this, but even if you do, listen to me..., while I also boast a little.” (2 Cor. 11:16)
Paul uses the word, fool, repeatedly and poignantly in light of his adversary's criticisms. They're criticizing him for not being a trained speaker, gifted in the ways of Greek argument and logic. They say his presentation of the gospel is too simple, suggesting that he is a simpleton himself and thus exposing his message as being unsophisticated and unreliable.
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Paul's saying, then, that he hopes they'll put up with more of his foolishness is a tongue in cheek statement, acknowledging both that he knows what his adversaries are saying of him, and that he isn't finished exposing them to the kind of foolishness by which he spoke of in an earlier letter: “The message of the cross is foolish to those heading for destruction, but for those of us who are being saved, it is the very power of God!” (1 Corinthians 1:18)
Paul was being identified as a fool for two main reasons. One, because, as he himself acknow-ledges, his having to present his apostolic credentials may sound like boasting and Paul is the first to admit that boasting, in general is foolish.
Two, Paul cites he's being labeled a fool because of his “jealousy” for them, describing it as a fear for their spiritual wellbeing: “I fear that somehow your pure and undivided devotion to Christ will be corrupted, just as Eve was deceived by the cunning ways of the serpent.”
(2 Corinthians 11:3)
There's yet another reference to the spiritual battleground we heard about last week, about Satan's cunning ways. Paul's jealousy, or his passion for them to remain undistracted and undeceived, looked foolish to those looking on. I remember a High School English literature teacher getting so worked up about our inability to perceive the novel in hand's great prose and contribution that he got emotional. I remember as a smart-aleck, know-at-all teenager, I thought: What a fool!
But looking back, I have to second guess myself, was he really? Or was he on to something?
Paul sure was. He saw how easily the Corinthian Christians could lose their focus, especially if they bought into or even borrowed ideas being tossed around by a group Paul identifies as 'super apostles'.
It's an interesting term, super apostles. Makes me wonder if we shouldn't have invited them to our recent superhero party. Do you think they'd show up in tights, mask and a cape? No capes!
Consider Paul's sarcasm - “I don't consider myself inferior to any to these 'super apostles' who preach a different gospel. I may be an unskilled speaker but I'm not lacking in knowledge. These people are full of deception who disguise themselves as apostles of Christ.” (2 Cor 11:5-6,13)
This was the point actually of his refusing pay in Corinth. He didn't want anything he did to connect him with these false apostles or to validate them in any way. Since he knew they worked for pay, and for substantial pay, Paul took the opposite approach to distinguish himself from them. He tries to help them see his motivation by asking a classical rhetorical: “Was I wrong when I humbled myself and honored you by preaching God's Good news to you without expecting anything in return?”
(2 Corinthians 11:7)
And our LCR survey says.... NO! He was not wrong. He acted in love on their behalf!
What's more, he didn't want to be a financial burden to anyone in Corinth. He wanted to give them a chance to get off to a good start and to model the selfless love of Jesus, and if in doing so he showed up the so-called super apostles, exposing their self-serving mindset, all the better!
As I considered and prayed over this rather obtuse passage from Paul's letters three things stood out to me. One, is Paul's passion. He's absolutely all in in his commitment to his brothers and sisters in Corinth. As Jamie expressed it to me in a comment about this section of Paul's Corinthian correspondence: “What a revealing window in to Paul's heart for the church!”
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It really is! Not only is that apparent in his warning about false apostles and his willingness to work for no pay it's evident in the way Paul expresses himself here. “I hope you will put up with a little more of my foolishness! Please...bear with me! Was I wrong when I humbled myself and honored you...without expecting anything in return? God knows how I love you!” (2 Cor 11:1,7,11)
What's noteworthy about this is Paul writes with such tenderness and sensitivity even though many to whom he writes had come to see things very differently than he did. It's insightful for times such as this in which many believers are having are hard time conversing with other believers about things in which they differ. One of you recently shared with me how your friends are noting that there are certain subjects noone wants to talk about, because such conversations inevitably turn ugly.
It's like two men standing on a bridge.... * Alarmed, one says to the other: “Don't jump!”
“Why not? Nobody loves me.” “God loves you. You believe in God, don't you?
“Yes, I suppose so.” “Good. So, are you Christian, Jewish, Muslim or what?”
“Christian.” “Me too! Protestant or Catholic?”
“Protestant” “Me too! What kind of Protestant?”
“Lutheran” “Me too! Which one – ELCA, Missouri Synod, LCMC...?”
“LCMC” “Me too! Are you evangelical, charismatic or traditional?”
“Traditional” “Me too! Are you a dispensationalist or premillennial?”
“Uh – premillennial?” “What? You heretic!” And with that I pushed him off the bridge!
Paul's tenderness and loving way of addressing differences here and elsewhere should inspire us to seek ways to have dialogues rather than debates, conversations in which we humbly acknowledge our own weakness for foolishness and that doesn't end with someone being pushed over the edge.
The second insight Paul offers us here is a warning about super apostles or super pastors. That seems rather timely in light of the popularity of mega churches built on the success of celebrity pastors.
Some of the most popular preachers of our day have fallen hard off their pedestals. The disillusion-ment this has caused across the church is huge, and it has hit home as close as Mars Hill Church in Seattle. We'd be wise to be cautious about ministries built around an individual.
“These people are false. They deceive by disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.”
(2 Corinthians 11:13)
Paul talks about such individuals as those who disguise themselves. The Greek word Paul uses here is the basis for the word mask or masquerade. The problem is that most will not recognize a person in disguise because by definition, a person behind a mask, cannot be identified. So how do we protect ourselves. We stay diligent in our commitment to Christ and his Kingdom cause, a kingdom that is not known for power as the world defines it, but by those who willingly serve one another...
Three, if I'm a recipient of this letter, as were those first century Corinthians, I would see here, in Paul's inspired words, that it is good sometimes put up with a little Pauline foolishness. Some times its good to be reminded of how I am being influenced by the voices around, not all of whom are Christ like in their intention and character. Sometimes it is good to put up with the foolishness of the cross, that reminds me that life is not richest when I'm being glorified, but when Christ is being glorified thru me, and that it is not by my cleverness, but by what Jesus has done and is yet to do, that I a