A painting by the Old Master

1 Corinthians 2:1-13

           It is not unheard of that every so often someone will buy a rather hideous painting at a yard sale or antique shop and their intention is to buy it solely for the ornate beautiful frame. Little thought is given to the painting which seems unremarkable until it is determined that there is actually a painting beneath it. The painting beneath is determined to be the long lost work of a master of this or that style.  The story appears on the front page of a paper because a man buys a painting at yard sale for fifty bucks and the hidden painting is worth 2.3 million.  

          I suppose a similar story is the worker at a thrift store who was cleaning out the (ratty) donated clothes and came across a huge wad of money in a pocket. By the way, true story and the volunteer worker returned the money to it's rightful owner. And once again I digress.

          The world at large is very similar. Whether by design or not, people often explain details of a story, or clutter their very lives so as to obfuscate the beauty of a principle of God or their very own nature.

           In this passage Paul says that he did not come proclaiming in lofty words or wisdom. We seem to have a penchant for embellishment on many levels. There are simple truths that need little explanation, many truths of faith and love that churches make blurry and hard to follow with ornate explanations, rhetoric, circular logic and rules. Paul was having none of that. He said My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God. How much more in depth need we go if Jesus himself said the two great commandments were all that was necessary.

         Another Lenten lesson, although good for anytime really, is how we try to embellish ourselves. We dress, drive, own, boast and it all simply covers up the masterpiece of God hidden beneath.  Our true nature is a masterpiece of God. Not just our bodies but our very nature, who we are, our talents, our perspective.

         Like so many things, we need to look beyond the surface appearance to get to the true and beautiful nature of things. Perhaps a good Lenten exercise would be to try to appreciate ourselves as God made us and also to try hard appreciating others and not judging them by their appearance, their title or their label.

          Th true nature of God is love, it is that simple. Love is what we are created from, what we are called to do and called to live. That language seems simple enough. Now simplify your beauty within. Who is the true you deep within? What masterpiece is hidden in you?

      

When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.

Yet among the mature we do speak wisdom, though it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to perish. But we speak God’s wisdom, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written,
‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
   nor the human heart conceived,
what God has prepared for those who love him’—
these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For what human being knows what is truly human except the human spirit that is within? So also no one comprehends what is truly God’s except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. And we speak of these things in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things to those who are spiritual.