Meditation on Text of the Week

As Having Nothing, Yet Possessing All Things . . .

God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised, God has chosen, the things which are not that He might nullify the things that are, that no man should boast before God.
I Corinthians 1: 27—29

Human pride, the vaunting of self, boasting, arrogant railing, the arrogation of power—these things characterise Athens and have done so since the time of its founding upon the earth. The Kingdom of God has a radically different currency. It addresses itself to what the world regards as the foolish, the weak, and base. It comes to the nothings and the nobodies. God's Kingdom addresses the wretched of the earth. God's choice falls amongst the weak.

There is a reason for this. Pride and human boasting have no place before God. Therefore God despises the proud, but gives grace to the humble. And the humble respond by expressing amazement at God's goodness to them, acknowledging they were utterly unworthy of such mercy. So David, in II Samuel 7: 18, when reflecting on all of God's mercies to him and his family, says, “Who am I, and what is my house, that Thou has brought me thus far?”

Our sister, Mary expresses the same sentiment when she says, “For He has regard for the humble state of His bondslave; for behold, from this time on all generations will count me blessed.” Then, in the rest of the Magnificat she confesses that what has happened to her is typical of, and no different from, God's dealings with His people throughout the generations, for:

He has done mighty deeds with His arm;
He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones,
And has exalted those who were humble,
He has filled the hungry with good things;
And sent away the rich empty-handed.
He has given help to Israel His servant,
In remembrance of His mercy,
As He spoke to our fathers,
To Abraham and his offspring forever.
Luke 1: 51—55

It is a sad travesty of biblical truth that Unbelievers have sought to gloss this and other passages of Holy Writ with a marxist patina. They turn poverty and degradation into a virtue that merits or earns God's attention. They so distort the truth that they turn poverty into a cause for pride and vainglory. But Mary has it right: He rejects those who are proud in their hearts. This is why cultures and societies which have been indoctrinated with socialist concepts are amongst the coldest and hardest mission fields in the world. In such societies, even the poorest believes he has rights before which heaven and earth must bow.

If the poor and the hungry are bitter and arrogant in their degradation; if they dare to think in terms of their merits and their worthiness, that their situation is unjust, that they deserve better, and how unfair things are for them, they are every bit as arrogant as he who sits upon a gilded throne and spouts his superiority, disdaining others.

But amongst the truly poor this is not normally the case. Amongst the truly degraded their circumstances have usually made them wretched in heart. They hope for nothing, even as they long for wholeness and life. They are far beyond being concerned about their rights and their dues. Their deprivation and lowliness makes such talk ludicrous and incongruous to them. Oftentimes it is accompanied by a deep consciousness of personal sin, of personal unworthiness and guilt. They are too lowly to think good of themselves.

Our Lord expressed it this way: “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 1: 17) The wealthy, the great, the rich, and the comfortable most often have no needs; they regard themselves as healthy. Our Lord condemned all such by saying He did not come for such as these. They already have their reward in this life.

He came instead for those who, deeply conscious of their needs, would call out to Him for help. As someone once said, the doorway to the Kingdom of Heaven is very low. All who enter must do so on their hands and knees. For all others, the doorway is beneath their dignity and held in contempt. God is beneath their dignity: He too is held in contempt. Thus Michal despised her husband as he danced before the ark. He had shamed her. David, however, sought to portray his lowliness and the worthlessness of his house before God.

It is not by accident that the Gospel in our days is spreading rapidly in the poorer countries of the Southern Hemisphere: in Latin America, Africa, and South East Asia. Neither is it accidental that the post Christian West considers itself too noble and sophisticated for God. It pleases God that it should be so, and thus it is deliberate.