1 Cor 1:17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the Gospel, not with the wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect

1 Cor 1:18 For the message of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

I have seldom been to a GLBT church that preached the Gospel which is surprising since people need the Lord. We need the power of the Cross and not religion for our sufferings and woundings are great.

The Gospel is a foolish message because it contradicts human nature and demands a miracle. Like Paul, the church is called to preach the Gospel and not only to build inclusive church by baptising people.

Inclusive churches we called “faith communities” instead of a Christian Community. Has Christ become a word of indignation? Because of the condemnation we had suffered!

In religion, there is an outward religiosity that demands for religious laws and gays the sacrificial lamb. We fear the strong anecdotal evidence that they were born as such contradicts the bible integrity.

There is no glory in becoming moral defenders of Singapore (eg Love Singapore), but only glory in what Christ has done, His righteousness in us. Instead of preaching the Good News, we find glory in condemning gays as vile sinners (and we the righteous ones), or to become prosperous in the market place.

Why do we condemn others since our righteousness is not by good works but in Christ. In John 3:18, there is only one condemnation, that is unbelief in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour.

We baptise people into a faith community, to the following of a wise emergent leader but often without much power. For the church is powerless without the power of the Cross to save. The church can be made of no effect by our attempt to explain away creation, the miraculous birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus. In our post-modern wisdom, Heaven becomes earthbound.

We give glory to the wise - theologians such as Marcus Borg, and Rob Bell.  For the wise, there is only heaven on earth, and no heaven above or hell beneath. We hide behind by applauding these theologians who called the Blood of Christ foolishness, questioning why Jesus have had to die, and denying the resurrection of Jesus Christ as myths. We then call this progressive and being thinking Christians.

Being wise with a Bachelor of Divinity means little if we are perishing. For the message of the Cross, the message of eternal redemption is foolishness to those who are perishing, but power to save for those who believed.

For we think we are wise, yet God have chosen the uneducated people who believed by faith in the Good News. The “foolish” simply believed by faith, and this is accounted for them as righteousness.

In 1 Cor 1:22, since the beginning of time, faith communities did not manage to know God through her religious wisdom. It is those who humbled themselves of their intellect and religion, who humbled themselves of their pride who would see God in Jesus Christ.

There are three types of faith communities and Christians:-

·         The Wise Christian

the Greeks, the thinking people of faith sought after the wisdom of the world and for them the message of the Cross is foolishness. The progressives called it a mystery and assigned it to the closet not to be mentioned. The Cross was just too much a stumbling stone of a seemingly masochistic God needing the blood sacrifice of His Son to be appeased! The wise have forgotten their own sins in the pride of their worldly wisdom.  

·         The Law Minded Christian

The Jews, the religious bible abiding people of faith so keen on compliance to the letter of the law kept asking for a sign. In their self-righteousness through religion, they could not see the miracles performed by Jesus. Sure they worshipped “the same God”, but they didn’t see God and indeed crucified the Messiah. We have many bible thumping Christians who would put Jesus on the Cross again because they are Law minded instead of seeing the grace of God.  

 ·         The Foolish Christian –

Foolish by the world standards and even by religious standards.   For the foolish, his righteousness is in Christ. He is slow to condemn, but quick to give grace and mercy.

He does not focus on being good – abstaining from sin, or doing good works of love, for these comes naturally out of a heart changed by God’s grace.  

He believes by faith the story of creation, Jesus being God incarnate, and Jesus Christ birth, death and resurrection for the redemption of sins, and an eternity in heaven, Jesus being the Truth and the way to heaven.

The Cross appearing weak with Christ being crucified rather than the picture of a conquering Messiah is far more profound than the wisdom of religion.

God calls us to be simple and weak who see that our righteousness is of Christ, and our wisdom through the Holy Spirit of God. It is not our inward glory or strength, nor the exaltation of our religious good works of love, self-denial and abstaining from sin. For all glory goes to Jesus Christ.  Ie our glory is in the wisdom of God, righteousness, and sanctification and redemption. (1 Cor 1:30)

What kind of a GLBT churches do we want to be in? Do we do church with many wise and rich people, or a church with the simple and foolish people where all glory and honour goes to Jesus Christ.

Do we desire a Faith Community that accepts us, or a Christ centred church where all glory points to Jesus Christ? Whose acceptance is based on God’s redemption at the Cross and where the Gospel is preached where Jesus is the Life, the Way and the Truth.

Can't we have both? A Church that is redemption focused, and yet a place of refuge for the GLBT Community. We can't minister but Christ to a wounded people. They don't need humanistic wisdom, human religion and universal spirituality. They need Jesus and His resurrection power and presence of the Holy Spirit.

For the foolish Christian may after all be wiser and more holy than the Greeks and the Jews amongst us. For at the end, our own wisdom and religion can never redeem us. We need Jesus not only for eternal redemption, but to redeem us on earth for our sufferings and woundings are great.

1 Cor 1: 29 that no flesh should glory in His presence.

1 Cor 1:30 But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption