Word to the Wise
Thursday, September 4, 2014 - Thursday in the 22th Week in Ordinary Time
[1 Cor 3:18-23 and Luke 5:1-11]"So let no one boast about human beings, for everything belongs to you, Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or the present or the future: all belong to you, and you to Christ, and Christ to God. [1 Cor.]
Western civilization owes a great deal to the ancient Greeks and Romans. We are taught that from our earliest days in grade school. For a long time that debt would seem to be mostly architectural! Teachers could point out public buildings like courthouses or private homes that resembled temples or public buildings from Rome or Athens or even Corinth and the Middle East! Theaters and sports arenas seem to have survived in the form of ruins in many places. It wasn't until I started studying philosophy that I learned how profound the influence truly was, however. The formidable modern philosopher, Alfred North Whitehead once wrote: "All philosophy is a footnote to Plato!" My seminary philosophy teachers would have added Aristotle to that statement. If one understands how far-reaching Greco-Roman ideas are insofar as we live more than two thousand years later, then perhaps one can understand what St. Paul was up against in Corinth, or when he preached in Athens.[Acts 17:16-32] He had not only the wild variety of religious expressions, and the lifestyle of a port city, to contend with, he had some very powerful philosophical currents to battle. Plato and Aristotle and the Stoics have shaped our culture in ways that we take for granted until someone points out their implications for our faith in Jesus!
How does one keep a community united in faith without "groupie" loyalties forming and individual interpretations from straying too far from the central truth to be preached: "Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles." [1 Cor. 1:22-25]? There have been times both in my many years of campus ministry as well as in itinerant preaching that I have felt as if I were up against tremendous cultural and intellectual forces that influence not only the way people hear what I say, but the very way in which I say it! In our own times, "science" takes on the aspect of a religion and many statements begin, "Scientists tell us....." Students would come into my office with the latest ideas they have heard in the classroom or in a dormitory bull session which disturbed their fundamental faith in Christ. The internet now makes ideas "go viral" and spread like wildfire! [If only we Christians made better use of it!] St. Paul's assurance today is good for us to read and ponder and not lose our perspective. AMEN
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