Good Theology
NL Year 2 • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Today I thought we would start this time together with a light and casual conversation about dogmatics and systematic theology. Who would like to start? And no, dogmatics has nothing to do with your little puppy or puppies at home. Well if no one wants to get us started then perhaps we can just list the 10 doctrines of systematic theology together. Ready…go…Come on we all know what they are right?
Angelology
Bibliology
Hamartiology
Christology
Ecclesiology
Eschatology
Pneumatology
Soteriology
Theological anthropology
Paterology also known as Theology proper.
You know you didn’t have to be shy, you could have joined me in at any point. Now that we’ve hammered them all out who wants to talk about one of these topics? Just raise your hand and pick whichever one you feel most comfortable talking about. All jokes aside, systematic theology is a theological attempt to put the ideas of our faith into these categories and in an orderly way that makes the most sense so that we can talk about the different doctrines of topics about our faith. While you may be able to guess what some of these topics are meant to talk about like Christology is meant to order and discuss what we believe about the Christ, who is Jesus, but that doesn’t mean that you may necessarily know all the ins and outs of what is or could be said about the topic. And trust me there is nothing really wrong with that, because, while it is important systematic theology, and all the other theologies that have been developed to explain our faith, can be very difficult and dense to get through. Yet for some people it is very helpful and even important to have these kinds of ways to understand and talk about their faith. Throughout our lives we develop ways to talk about and understand these concepts, but we don’t typically think of them in such formal ways as we just listed.
It was this kind of thinking and debating that Paul is addressing in this opening part of his letter to the church in Corinth. I don’t think it is too hard to deduce that there are some differences of opinion happening among them. As we look at our opening verse 1 Cor 1:10 we see that Paul tells them to agree with one another and not to be divided into groups. Paul elaborates on this by letting us know that some people were claiming to belong to certain leaders who must have at some point come to teach and preach when they were around. These different groups were Paul’s followers, Apollos’ followers, Cephas’ (Peter’s) followers, and those who claimed to be simply in the Christ camp. This quarreling and fighting that is going on about which leader they should follow and which of their theologies is the best, got so out of hand that Chloe’s people have reported to Paul all about it. Things have to be bad if people in the community are either sending people or writing letters to the founder of the church and telling him that people can’t get along.
And while Paul may not be the most tactful of leaders, he does do an amazing job of tackling the issue head on and with creative ways of expressing his point. He uses himself as an example, and he probably does this either as a way to only point to himself instead of dragging someone else into it, and/or he is doing it becuase he did found the church and wants to make sure that they know that even the person who brought the word to them and helped them to see Jesus as the messiah doesn’t want them thinking he is anything more than he is: a messenger of God, an apostle. What he says is that he, Paul, wasn’t crucified for them, none of them were baptized in Paul’s name…sure some of them may have been baptized by him but every single person from before then until now is baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, not by the pastor or leader does the baptism. Paul is squashing any possible arguments that one subgroup of believers are any better than the others simply by the person that baptized them. The most important part is their unity in Jesus.
Which leads to the next part of what is so important about this text. When Paul came, he came with the word of Jesus as the good news and nothing else. The good news that was given was the life of Jesus and the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, and if we try to worry too much about Paul’s leadership vs. Apollos’, vs Peter’s then we confuse and complicate the matter and we no longer give the cross the power it has, which is to forgive and redeem people that cannot do it on their own. Christ on the cross has the power to redeem humanity. No one else can fill that role.
So the Corinthians have been complicating the matter by trying to argue who is the most right about the gospel message. And don’t get me wrong, knowing about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus is important, knowing about the Trinity is important and so on. But I believe at times we get too bogged down with trying to figure out all the intricate inner workings of God that we diminish the power of the simplicity of the message: we are a broken people and Jesus is the healing we depend on through his grace and forgiveness.
When we spend our whole time trying to explain every little aspect of our faith into neat little snippets, and by snippets I mean volumes and volumes of books we attempt to explain away the message of the cross. The cross is a good enough message on its own that it doesn’t need to be calculated out and stored in those volumes of books and placed on our shelves so that w can feel good about having God’s answer sitting nicely in our home. That’s not the gospel, that’s not good news, thats a finite understanding of an infinite God.
Here are are Paul’s three key points Paul makes about this for the Corinthians: 1. In verse 10 he tells us to be united with one another and to not let our differences come in the way of being one in Christ Jesus. 2. Verses 11-16 he again reminds us that Christ is the one who lived, loved, shared, and forgave us and who we should focus on, not our leaders. 3. The good news is meant to be shared in a way that gives life to all who hear it.
So is a good theology important? Yes, absolutely, but more important than having the right book with the right answers or sitting and perfecting your theology in your own mind, is to share simply and lovingly with each other and the whole world that God loves you and that God sent Jesus, God’s son, to be here among us. In his life he fulfilled the scriptures, he loved people as they should be loved, and he gave of himself so that we might all have life and have it abundantly. That abundant life is for you and for me and the whole world and having a full and complete understanding of systematic theology and it’s 10 doctrines are not prerequisites for it. The message of the cross is power of God and life for us all. Amen.