Looking Foolish

I Cor. 1:18-25

 

No one wants to look foolish, yet Paul admonishes us to be fools for Christ.  I have to admit I have both embraced and struggled with this concept my entire adult life. We celebrate logic. As coherent beings we do not easily excuse lapses of irrational judgment. But then this illusive thing we call faith pushes us to precarious conclusions that only make sense to those who claim Christ as Lord.

I fully get that, but no one likes to be seen as foolish. A few months ago I was getting ready to preach.  I was sitting in that chair, listening to the reading to the New Testament scripture, waiting to be called forward to deliver my take on the text.  The last thing I noticed before standing up was I was wearing a blue and brown sock.  Since I wash, fold and iron my own clothes I had no one to blame but myself.  Here I was, about to add wisdom to the perfect Word of the Lord in my imperfect uniform.  Why should it matter?  Certainly John the Baptist was no model for GQ.  And yet I worried my message might be marred if someone noticed my foolish sock selection.

I have a good friend who is a Baptist minister.   Ron is always very particular about his appearance.  For reasons that are beyond me his tie, belt, shoes and socks always match.  Every Friday he makes a weekly pilgrimage to his barber, a ritual I find …….. amusing.  I remember meeting him once in mid-winter for a late lunch.  My eyes were drawn to the smudges on his forehead.  I knew Ron would have died if he had known something about his appearance was out of place. I struggled, wondering if I should I point out he had inadvertently scratched his head, leaving some dirt that must have been on his fingers.  But then I had another problem. To do so would terribly embarrass him.  Ron was so kept he didn’t get his hands dirty when he played golf.  What was I to do?   Before I could speak he said, “I notice you have no ashes on your forehead. When are you having your Ash Wednesday Service?”  Imagine my embarrassment having a Baptist reminding me it was Ash Wednesday. Suddenly his imperfections perfectly complimented his impeccable faith.  As it turns out, I was the foolish one.    

How often do we to take the insignificant matters of life so serious we leave far too little time for that which really matters?  Imagine living in the time of Paul.  Much of his ministry took place on the Greek Peninsula.   In the first century of the Common Era, Greece was the center of intellectual discourse.  The writings of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle were as familiar to Greek children as text messaging is to ours.   They followed the Socratic advice that the “unexamined life is not worth living.”  They believed Aristotle’s axiom that “Nature does nothing without purpose”. They argued endlessly concerning anything and everything. Paul arrived and wanted to interject the good news of Jesus Christ into their logical discussions.  Paul stood out like someone leaving an Ash Wednesday Service wearing the wrong socks.  He appeared absolutely foolish.  The Greeks were engaged in serious discussions concerning the nature of humanity, not some fairy tale about a benevolent god.  They were attempting to discover the truth of the human soul while Paul wanted to discuss a radical formula for the forgiveness of sins.  Eventually Paul was excluded from the discussions and told his conclusions came from the overactive imaginations of hysterical women.  To talk about resurrection was sheer foolishness.  Paul not only accepted but embraced the role of fool allowing their perceptions to evolve into one of his richest analogies. 

In I Corinthians he wrote, “We proclaim Christ crucified.  It may be seen as foolishness to the Gentiles.  But I tell you God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom.”

I suspect I am like most of you. I grew up being told the cross represents love, forgiveness, mercy, grace and salvation. Two of my favorite songs as a kid were, “The Old Rugged Cross” and “In the Cross of Christ I Glory.” Every church I have ever belonged to celebrated the cross as the center piece of their sanctuary. This church is no exception. Paul did not have that luxury.  In his time the cross embodied pain, suffering, punishment, hate and death.  How can a symbol of hate be understood as a sign of God’s grace?   What Paul’s world saw as monstrous was being sold as the vehicle for life. A lot of folks refused to even try to understand the radical leap Paul was attempting. It was easier to just label him a fool. So imagine the response when Paul embraced that label.

I cannot imagine anyone wanting to look like a fool.  We like to keep our foreheads clean and wear socks that are the same color.  The problem is, how can we tell God’s story without appearing to be just a little bit nuts? Well, perhaps we can’t.

Friday I was not in a celebratory mood and  I suggested to my equally miserable wife we should go to the movies and discover what all the buzz was about concerning, “La-La Land”.  I know some of you may find this hard to believe but I love a good musical. I grew up on the lyrics of South Pacific, Camelot and Sound of Music. I have seen every remake of West Side Story. I don’t care if it Les Miz, Wicked, or Young Frankenstein, if there are tissues and popcorn I’m probably going to love it.

But this new musical based on living in Los Angeles had me a bit confused. The first dance scene in the midst of a traffic jam left me a little less than impressed. I was looking for Julie Andrews and she was nowhere to be found. Then the music of Thelonious Monk mysteriously filled the air and I was hooked. I don’t want to spoil the story but the underlining theme, a theme I might argue accompanies any great musical, is dreams appear as foolishness to anyone else, but if we don’t follow the dream we will end up being the fools.

Do you worship Jesus because he was logical?  Of course not. You worship Jesus because he was humble, caring, sacrificial, non-judgmental and because most of all he was a dreamer.  I suspect having your shirt tucked in and your socks match really aren’t all that important to Jesus. All he really cares about is how you love and how you dream, and how you go about fulfilling the dream that God has placed in your heart.

Imagine living your life the Jesus way.  Imagine letting go of all those silly things that seem so important.  Imagine if the words of our mouth and the meditations of our heart were not only acceptable, and but also compassionate and humble.  Imagine the folks who would view us as foolish.  Imagine the folks who want us to “change our tune” so we will be accepted.  Imagine the folks who want us to wipe the ashes from off our forehead because it doesn’t match our clothes.

To Paul the most foolish thing in the world was that a symbol of hate, the cross. Yet there it was, right in the midst of the Jesus story.  Paul imagined beyond the reality of death and discovered the reality of God. From the beginning God’s dream has always been life. From the beginning God’s vision always has been love. From the beginning God’s revelation has always been forgiveness. But there is no life, there is no love, there is no forgiveness to found in the cross unless you can dream. And what a foolish dream that must be.

I have to confess the idea of the cross as a vehicle of grace continues to bewilder me. How can suffering ever be redemptive? Did God prearrange the death of Jesus? Can one man die for the sins of the world? If Jesus was God, is God even capable of dying?  Those are good questions. They are questions with which I grapple daily. Those are questions for which I desire clear, concise, and logical answers. But they are also questions which began to fade from my mind in a world where sin in the form of power and fear and hate demand my ultimate attention.

Foolishly, with dirt on my forehead and socks that don’t match, step away from the questions and dare to dream.

Imagine the foolishness of believing in Christ.

Imagine the foolishness of believing Christ crucified

     because he was compassionate and humble.

Imagine the foolishness of believing Christ resurrected

for the salvation of the world.

Imagine the foolishness of believing Christ resurrected

     For the wise and powerful,

                             The poor and the forgotten,

Sinners like you and me.

Now imagine being converted to such foolishness.       

To God be the glory.     Amen.