Churches often observe special occasions: a missions conference, a revival, or a homecoming service (a Southern thing). These services often include a tradition of inviting a former pastor, missionary, or guest speaker. Pastors consider it a high honor, a token of respect and appreciation, to be invited back to a church you have once ministered to.
If the church in Corinth were to have a special event, a homecoming, they were unlikely to invite Paul. Reading through First and Second Corinthians, one quickly picks up hints that the people have been reflecting on Paul’s time with them and are now challenging (1 Corinthians 4:3) Paul’s theology, speech, and even his apostleship.1 They have developed their understanding of “spirituality,” and Paul no longer measures up.2
Now Paul, by his own admission, wrote, I arrived in Corinth, to you, in weakness and fear and much trembling (1 Corinthians 2:3). It had been a tough road to Corinth. Nonetheless, lives were changed, and people turned to the Creator God and his son Jesus (1 Corinthians 4:15). Yet, Paul’s preaching, apparently in hindsight, failed to impress or distinguish him from the eloquent speech of others (2 Corinthians 10:10; 11), neither was his preaching meaty enough (1 Corinthians 3:1-3), wise enough (1 Corinthians 1:17), or persuasive enough (1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5).
The connoisseur or the art critic found Paul’s preaching barbaric (the cross)(1:18), the Jew (1:22) would have lamented the lack of miracles performed (signs and wonders), and the scholar (philosopher)(1:20,22) objected to his lack of logical and convincing arguments.3
Even if the church in Corinth were to invite Paul back, they don’t seem eager to hear him.
NOTE: Paul was educated and wrote letters of considerable rhetorical power, including the present passage. He is not glorifying ignorance or crudeness but reminding his readers that his missionary preaching was not an “explanation” of how God’s plan fits into rational human intellectual systems but was the shattering of all such systems, including “common sense.”4