Christ the King Epiphany Church, Wilbraham

The Rev. Martha S. Sipe

September 14, 2025 / Holy Cross Day

1 Corinthians 1:18-25

Have you ever wished that you were God?  I know that sounds like a sacrilegious question.  Correction:  it doesn’t sound like a sacrilegious question – it is a s acrilegious question.  In fact, it’s the very definition of sacrilege since the first commandment is “You shall have no other gods” . . . not even in our fantasies!  But bear with me for a few minutes.  Be sacrilegious with me.  What would it be like if I were in control of the universe?

There are some days, when, if I were God, I would get pretty angry about the state of things here on earth.  I would see injustice and violence.  I would see the wealthy getting wealthier at the expense of the most poor and vulnerable.  I would see the unequal access to healthcare and the lack of compassion in much of our public discourse.  And I’d see all the little stuff, too.  The little stuff that people think they can get away with – like parking in handicapped spaces without a handicapped tag and keeping the incorrect change that the cashier gave them and talking about people behind their backs.  And all of it would all really tick me off.  Knowing what great power I had at my disposal, I would probably use it.  I would get so mad that I would pull out my zap gun, and I would zap the earth and fry the whole thing up.  That is what I would do if I were God.  And then I would create another earth.  And if the second earth turned out as bad as the first one, I would zap that one, too.  Some days, that is what I think I would do if I were God.

On the other hand, there are other days when, if I were God, I think I would handle things quite differently.  I would look down on the earth with such sentimental love for the creatures that I made that I would just give everybody what they wanted.  I would give to one person a mansion by the sea, and to another, a home without mortgage payments.  The weather would always be bright and sunny, with temperatures in the 70’s and it would only rain at night.  Consumers would have wallets bulging with money to lavish on every gadget.  The government coffers would be so replete that there was no need for taxation.  There would be no war, no famine, no drought.  I would eliminate all sickness and disease, from the big stuff like cancer and heart disease to the little but really annoying stuff like sinus headaches and skinned knees.  On the back of every car would be a bumper sticker which read, “Honk if you love Jesus,” and all of the cars in the whole world would honk together in a symphony of praise.  Some days, that is what I think I would do if I were God.

On still other days, though, if I were God, I think I might do a better job at administering justice.  Maybe I wouldn’t smite everyone for every little bending of the rules, but I would reward people when they were good.  I’d do it on a sliding scale.  You know – save someone’s life, and I’d give you an all-expense paid cruise.  Tithe your paycheck to the church, and I’d make sure your boss gave you a generous raise.  Work at the food pantry, and I’d throw in a week’s worth of free groceries.  Help a little old lady across the street, and I’d make sure you found a good parking place on a rainy day.  I would be totally fair.  That’s another way I might handle the job of being God.

Thank goodness, I’m not God.  Because, as you can see, I wouldn’t be very good at it.  On my angry days, I would be like a cruel parent, just waiting for my children to mess up so I could punish them.  Everyone would be afraid of me!  On my mellower, sentimental days, I would mess everything up by just giving everybody what they thought they needed.  And you know what happens to kids whose parents give them everything – they end up feeling entitled and ungrateful and they’re unable to cope with any adversity.  And then on my “fair” days, everyone would end up feeling like they could earn my love and approval if they just worked hard enough at it.  They’d make themselves sick wondering if they were good enough.  So I guess it’s good I’m not God.

You see, I’m just not wise enough to be God.  And although there are lots of people in the world who are wiser than I, some of them in present company, none of them would be any good at being God, either.  Because there’s no one on earth who could have come up with God’s plan to save the world.  What human being would ever have thought of giving up his or her throne in heaven and coming down to live with us?  No one.  That would just be silly.  No one would willingly choose to suffer our pain and grief and disappointment, and no one acting as God would let ourselves be nailed to a cross.  That would be utter foolishness.  What would be the point?

And yet, that’s what God chose to do.  God chose to come and find us in the last place on earth that we, in our human wisdom, would think to look for him – in the dying form of Jesus on the cross.  We look for God the almighty and all-powerful, but we find him in the complete opposite – in a weak, battered, bruised, and dying savior on the cross.  And although he died only once, it’s not the only time he’s found with the weak and battered, the bruised and the dying.  That’s where we find him still.  Clearly, this is not God created in our image of wisdom.  God is not just a bigger version of us.  God’s seeming foolishness – Jesus’ death on the cross – God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength. 

And what was the point of the cross?  Love.  A God who would just zap evildoers would inspire fear.  A God who would just give everyone whatever they wanted would inspire complacency and greed.  A God who rewarded us for good behavior would make us neurotic, wondering if we’d done enough.  But a God who would willingly die out of love for us – that God inspires love.