Eloquent

 

Weekly reflection for the Third Sunday in Epiphany, the 22^nd of January 2023.  Written by Philip Harvey for the pew notes of St Peter’s Church, Eastern Hill, Melbourne. 

The Corinthians were a relaxed and comfortable lot, more than partial on occasion to a spot of eloquent wisdom. Aren’t we all? Scripture in sundry places moves us to look for wisdom where it may be found, so why is Paul so down on eloquent wisdom? One reason is that Corinthians prized impressive rhetoric, to the degree that what sounded best had to be the truest. Many of them were Sophists, lovers of complex argument and drop-dead conclusions, where the meaning and the message got lost in the eloquence. Paul makes light-hearted fun of this mode of discourse, but his purpose is to draw attention to the only message worth knowing about: the cross of Christ. As he then famously adds, the cross is foolishness to the Greeks, but “to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”     

The cross can be described as an epiphany of Christ, once we appreciate the meaning of the Greek word ‘epiphany’ as a manifestation or revelation of God. Christ shows forth God not only in words but in actions, signs, and wonders. His humbling, his pleas for meaning, his thirst, his forgiveness of others; at a certain moment, words fail. Verbal spectaculars and arresting arguments may win friends and influence people, while being no more than edifications of self. But what to make of the cross? As Paul puts it, not without rhetorical impact, “Has God not made foolish the wisdom of the world?” 

This coming out of darkness into light is how Matthew describes the very start of Christ’s ministry, using the powerful words of the prophet Isaiah. It is a succession of epiphanies, whether in his primary call to repent, the simplest language of Christ calling disciples to follow him, or the proclamations and healings that occur wherever he goes. All of this walking its way up to a form of eloquent wisdom that would have baffled the Sophists, the language of the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount, confronting, seemingly contradictory, consoling – the language of the good news. “The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light.” And as the song known as Psalm 27 begins with such wonder and certitude: “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?” 

Isaiah 9: 1-4. Psalm 27:1-10. 1 Corinthians 1: 10-18. Matthew 4: 12-25.