One of the things I like to do up here in the Angel Court is sit an read — the Bible, of course. Unless the lying, destroying evil one (satan) comes to torment me, it is generally calm, quiet and relaxing. More often than not, I am soon immersed, deep in thought about what I am reading. With the first entry about “Proclaiming the word” that I did as background, I ran into these verses — 1 Corinthians 2:3-5. I have included the text below, from the Interlinear by Alfred Marshall, copyright by Zondervan. What kind of preacher, really proclaimer was the apostle Paul, by his own admission? More importantly, why was Paul like this, why did Paul proclaim like he did?
“And I, in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, was with you, and my speech and my proclamation (kerugma from Kerusso) was not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of spirit and of power, in order that your faith may not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.”
This is scary to me. As a pastor, as a preacher, where do we want our sheep to base their faith? Maybe on our internet treasures, our wisdom, our rapier wit? Even such a possibility is horrifying to me. If we get out of the way by doing our exegetical homework, and proclaiming the truth of God in the verses, then faith in God’s power is the only possible outcome for our hearers. How could we want anything else?
ACR — c2017
Angel Court Recorder 