The Fourth Sunday after Epiphany
February 1, 2026
Fools for Christ
(Slides)
Yesterday I began the sermon by retelling my time surrounded by widsom at the National Jewish Hospital in Denver, CO. I recounted that Allison was a British physician researching tuburculosis. I said that Pam was an MD-PHD student–that was my first time encountering someone working on both degrees at the same time. My immediate supervison also had two degrees, a DVM and PHD–a doctor of veterinary medicine and a doctorate in molecular biology. The head of the lab was Terry Potter, who had "just" a PHD but went on to be the dean of medicine science graduate studies at The Universtiy of Colorado Medical School. I explained that we were working on immunotherapy, a treatment widely used now to treat many illnesses. We were trying to figure out how to use it to stop cancer. This was the time that the Human Genome Project was unfolding daily. We were on the cutting edge of human wisdom.
Like the Human Genome Project, AI is the latest cutting edge wisdom of the world. I showed an image that had the caption indicating it was an image of Elon Musk's latest data center. The image showed upwards of twenty-five computers hooked together with big black cables in a rack–one on top of the other. This was just one data center! I reminded you that just like the Human Genome Project sparked a lot of hubris and pride, what actually happened was we realized how much we did not know. We knew the sequence of the human genome, but we were just beginning to see further down the path how it worked! We are waiting for this shoe to drop with artificial technology.
At this point I invoked the verse where Paul say's that he considers all that he knows "rubbish" in comparison to knowing Jesus (Ph 3:8). We know that Jesus died for sinners–you and me. We know that Jesus took your sin and mine into his body once and for all (He 10:14) and buried it forever in his tomb (Ro 6:4). He does this because he loves you!
This means that we live foolishly, not with the wisdom of the world but with the wisdom of the cross. The Apostle Paul writes in 1Co 1:25: "For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." Martin Luther reminds us that worldly wisdom helps us understand this world but it does not help us understand God or how he saves us. Christ the Son of God dies for you! God dies for you! This is absolutely foolish nonsense talk. Yet, it has happened for you. You and I are fools for Christ. Amen.