"Somebody Has to Say Such Things!"

The church’s most basic moral responsibility for the world is to speak in such a way as to combat the world’s decline toward nihilism.”

The assigned lectionary passages for this coming Sunday provide a reminder that the word of God makes alive only because, in the first instance, it kills. Thus, the scriptures for the Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany meet us in our cultural moment and do their mortifying work:

“Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals.”

— Jeremiah 17

“Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked or take the path that sinners tread or sit in the seat of scoffers.”

— Psalm 1

“If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.”

— 1 Corinthians 15

“Woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets."

— Luke 6

As the preacher Nathan says to King David so these scriptures likewise indict many of us, “You are the man!”

Paul’s argument to the church at Corinth is the lynchpin in the series of passages, for if resurrection is hope, then the apostle rightly identifies sin as despair; in that, nihilism is the necessary predicate to tread boldly the path of the wicked and sit in league with scoffers.