A Meditation and Collect for Epiphany 3
1 Corinthians 1: 10-18
Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you should be in agreement and that there should be no divisions among you, but that you should be united in the same mind and the same purpose. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. What I mean is that each of you says, ‘I belong to Paul’, or ‘I belong to Apollos’, or ‘I belong to Cephas’, or ‘I belong to Christ.’ Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God* that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name. (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power.
For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
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It seems that every week we hear about people being defrauded by gamblers or ‘professional’ con artists – often highly-educated people, who fall for the simplest and oldest tricks to part them from their money, typically by investing in get-rich-quick schemes based on non-existent hi-gain investment opportunities. As well as losing their savings, one common aspect reported by victims is the shame and humiliation of being fooled by the plausibility of the scammers. It is so easy to continue to be taken in when you desperately want to believe, even though the evidence of deception is increasingly clear.
It’s not a new phenomenon. Confidence tricksters have been around for thousands of years, and no doubt will continue to play on the naïveté of people in the future.
One of the most audacious was an American conman, George C. Parker, who in the early 1900s, sold Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty – another conman, Michael Corrigan (from Cork actually) sold the Tower of London and London Bridge (twice) and 145 Piccadilly, the home of the Duke and Duchess of York (many times), mostly to Tourists. ‘Let the buyer beware’ is the simple remedy, but it seems that the greater the con, believing unbelievable things is part of the human condition.
It is not just the secular world in which scams are to be found – they happen in religious environments too. Huge numbers of false healings, charity appeals, ‘prosperity’ gospels – and perhaps the most dangerous, false Messiahs – abound.
Jesus Himself warns against this, several times. Matthew 24:23 (‘Impostors will come claiming to be messiahs or prophets’); Mark 13:6 (‘Many will come claiming my name’); and Luke 21:8 (take care you are not misled)’ among others all warn against false Messiahs, and Christians are clearly encouraged to be wary of mega-rich ‘prophets’ who wish to manipulate them – not always successfully, unfortunately. We all know modern-day examples.
John the Baptist is himself aware of the charlatans, and sends his own disciples to confirm that Jesus is the promised one – and our Lord’s answer is definitive, demonstrating by His miracles that He is for real, and posing the future test for those who will claim true faith – ‘It is by their deeds shall you know them’. (Matthew 7:16).
When the followers of Jesus are invited to trust and believe in the conversion of Saul, their fanatical pursuer, their understandable (and probably sensible) response is ‘you must be joking’. (Acts 9:13-14, 26). It will take him a long time until he is accepted as Paul, the one called by Jesus, and it will only be by his self-denying actions and words that he will become credible.
They called him foolish. He didn’t care. He knew what he believed, and lived that belief, proclaiming nothing of himself but Jesus as Lord. Perhaps that is the test we should apply to all who would claim discipleship – including ourselves?
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