Foolishness

Psalm 27:1; I Cor. 1:10-18

 

        “The Lord is my light and salvation.” When the breeze is at your back and the temperature is in the mid 70’s, this is an easy statement to make. When our world is good, God is good. But what if the winds turn and the temperature drops? What happens when darkness invades our soul? Where do we turn for light?

        The Apostle Paul was a great evangelist. He brought an amazing message to a people living in darkness. Paul started churches in Philippi, Thessalonica, Ephesus, Galatia, and Corinth. Unfortunately, to start a church, Paul had to leave a church.  Paul had a huge personality. When he moved to a new place, the folks left behind had a problem filling this void. A classic example was the church in Corinth.  With Paul gone, they quickly turned to a flood of other voices. And with the thundering rain came chaos.

        Hearing of the dilemma, Paul wrote not one but five letters to the church in Corinth. His message was always the same, “Be of one mind and one purpose.” Easy for Paul. He only listened to one voice, his own. The church was equally divided between folks who pledged their allegiance to a particular personality. I can imagine the prevailing argument went like this, “My guy makes sense to me. Your guy is nuttier than a Baby Ruth.” The citizens of Corinth valued the judgment of a good argument and did not suffer fools. Paul’s response was received with great suspicion. He replied, “I will not try to persuade you with eloquent wisdom. All I have to offer is the foolishness of the cross.”

        Who in their right mind is going to be persuaded by foolishness? We weigh the evidence over against its historical and cultural values and based on good judgment, we make a clear and decisive decision.

Paul’s based his logic on stories found in the Jewish Bible. Let me give you a few examples of some of the fools that fill those pages:

Moses, a slave, stood toe to toe with Pharaoh, a god. Gideon, one of seventy, took on an army of thousands.

David, a boy, challenged Goliath, a giant.

Amos, a prophet, called the women of Bashan fat cows.  Well maybe that was taking foolishness a bit too far.

But most of all, Paul based his life on the example of Jesus, an uneducated, unemployed, unknown vagrant who debated Pilate, a Roman Governor, on the definition of truth.

        Paul understood the foolishness of Jesus’ words. But Paul also believed conventional wisdom is too often based on the loudest voice and the easiest path. The rally cry of conventional wisdom often ends up being, “If it’s not broke, why fix it.” Sometimes it takes a fool to recognize the brokenness of our world.   

        Jim Wallis wrote, “As Christians we stand before the world as fools. We are foolish enough to believe the way of Jesus is stronger and truer than the way of the world. We rest secure in the knowledge that Jesus has and will overcome. We are called to be fools for Christ, a people saved by his cross and converted by his resurrection.”

        I was watching a documentary last week on the execution of nine folks during a Bible Study at Mother Emmanuel AME church in Charleston SC. They were killed by a 21 year old boy who had been raised to hate African-Americans. In the mind of Dylan Roof, his actions were justified because he was defending his heritage. 

        The city of Charleston has always been a city on the edge of violence. Everyone knew there was going to be a horrific response to those murders. Then something foolish happened.    Dylan Roof, bound and guarded, stood before a TV camera. The folks in the courtroom could see Dylan and he could see them. The judge asked nine relatives of the people killed if they had anything to say to the murderer. None of this was rehearsed because no one knew the judge was going to make such a request. One after another a mother, a son, two husbands, two wives, two daughters, and a niece turned to the boy responsible for their grief and said, “We don’t know why you did this, but we offer our forgiveness. We hope you find peace in your soul.”

        I believe Dylan Roof wanted to initiate a race war in Charleston.  In response to his actions more than one person admitted they were planning to set the city on fire to expose the 400 year old crimes of Charleston. But nine foolish people spoke of forgiveness. Instantly, talk of revenge disappeared. One community organizer said, “I could find very few folks who agreed with what those folks said. But neither could I find anyone willing to desecrate their statements of faith.”

        May God convert all of us to such foolishness.      Amen.