A Fool for Christ

January 29, 2017
Text: 1 Corinthians 1:22-24

Some of you might remember Sophia Patrillo, the mother of Dorothy Spornaj on the TV show, Golden Girls.  She would begin a story with “picture this” and might say, “Italy, 1944” and then proceed with her story.  So, this morning -- picture this: today, 2017, you find yourself in a courtroom.  The defendant is accused of a crime for which the penalty is death.  You may or may not know the defendant, it really does not matter.  The verdict is in, the defendant is asked to rise and face the jury.  The verdict is read, “Guilty.”  In this case, the judge announces the sentence--death.  But you stand up.  You tell the judge that you will stand in the place of the defendant.  You accept the sentence of death on behalf of the defendant.  You are innocent of the crime; the defendant is, in fact, guilty.  This was not a case of circumstantial evidence; there is direct evidence of the defendant’s guilt.  Yet, you offer yourself up in place of the defendant.  A hush comes over the courtroom.  The people around you, they may or may not know you, look at you--incredulous.  What would make you do such a thing?  Why would someone who is clearly innocent of the crime accept the sentence of death for someone else?  They look at you and the question on everyone’s mind--to include the defendant--is the message this morning.

And I’d like for you to repeat it with me one word at a time.  Ready?  Are … you … a … fool?  Now put it all together “ Are you a fool?”  Now, turn to your neighbor and ask, “Are you a fool?”

Now, some people might be offended--offended to even be asked if they are a fool.  In biblical wisdom literature, the pupils of sages and mentors are the unwise; they are often called fools. It is assumed as students they don’t know anything. The word fool is often viewed negatively--to be a fool is to be viewed as lacking judgment, silly, someone with no sense, or even stupid.  However, history tells us that the fool or the clown or the court jester was often the one who could approach the king--the leader of the government and tell the king what needed to be heard without having his head handed back to him on a platter.  The fool was able to speak truth to power--to get the message across that needed to be said because he was kidding … but he wasn’t kidding.  You had to really think about what was being said in the midst of being entertained.

So, as we ponder the question, today, as we continue to journey in Epiphany--this season of “ah-ha” moments; a season in which we are called to reflect, to review our walk with Christ.  We began this season with the Epiphany of our Lord: God has shown up … taken human form … the form of a baby and is already a threat to the status quo of the world.  But that does not make sense: that is foolish ... how is a baby a threat to anyone, especially an entire government?

But, as long as God stayed up there--somewhere, spoke only to or was seen by only a few people or used human beings as messengers--those who thought they were in charge could continue to think they were in charge.  But God--this baby--shows up and upsets the apple cart.  They--those who think they are in charge--will never be the same. Life then and life now will never be the same.

And as we moved through the readings for Epiphany, we fast-forward and Jesus is an adult about to begin his ministry; he’s baptized by a strange fellow named John the Baptist.  We witnessed Jesus calling his disciples, asking them to give up everything, to turn their backs on their past lives--their families, their professions--and to follow him, not knowing where that will take them.  That is foolish.  He preaches the Sermon on the Mount: He instructs his disciples, those who will listen, and us on how to live in community with each other and God.  Through this season, we will take this journey with Christ through the three years of his ministry that will lead to the cross. 

So, as we focus on the message--the question this morning--”Are you a fool?,” we hear from Paul in his first letter to the Church at Corinth – “for the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.  … We proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles”   and if we turn to 1 Cor. 3:18-19: “Do not deceive yourselves. If you think that you are wise in this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.”  Are you a fool?

If we really think about it and leave our 20th and 21st century knowledge of the crucifixion on the table, Calvary would seem to be a disastrous failure.  People were looking for a king; they were waiting for a savior; they were seeking one who would free them from the oppression of Rome; but in the end, freedom as they wanted it, was not to be found in Christ, who was broken and crushed. It made no sense.  For some, perhaps many, their dreams were also broken and crushed. This is not what you expect of someone you look to free you, to solve your problems; to make life easier.

Politically and militarily speaking, Jesus was a failure.  He tried to go up against the greatest power in the world at that time and seems to have lost.  And so, the original Calvary experience was, for the disciples, one of failure. Remember, they don’t know what we know, don’t know what we know until Jesus comes back.  Peter denied Christ three times.  Could it be that he saw what was going to happen on Calvary as one colossal failure; a mistake that could also cost him his life.  Had he chosen to bet his life on the wrong king?  Would Rome and the religious authorities who were in cahoots, rule the day?

But what seems like failure to some, is, in reality, victory.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes that God, the creator, lets himself be pushed out of the world onto the cross.  God chooses, God permits Godself to be hanged on the cross.  And as we see in 1 Corinthians 1:18-25, the cross is seen and its proclamation is seen as an act of folly.  What kind of leader--what kind of king lets himself be crucified if he has the power to stop it?  Paul says that God has chosen what is foolish to confound the wise (1:27).  How could someone hanging on a tree be a threat to the greatest nation on earth? And yet, declares Paul, if anyone claims to be wise in the age/world, that person must become a fool in order to become wise Paul (3:18), to make sense out of Calvary and the cross.

The cross is described as insanity (1 Cor. 18ff) and as God’s foolishness.  There is no sense in the cross by human standards … and sometimes Jesus doesn’t make any sense.  When Jesus is tempted during his forty days in the wilderness, it doesn’t make sense by human standards that he does not turn stones into bread to satiate his hunger; that he does not prove whose he is by casting himself down and ordering or permitting the angels to save him; that he does not lust after/covet power and take the offer to have all he can see.  After all, how many today would make a deal with the devil for the winning lottery ticket or a chance to be president of the United States? How many would sell their souls for the power of the White House?

There is no sense in Jesus’ teachings by worldly conventional standards – his solidarity with outcasts.  He hangs out with the riff raff, the dregs of society; what can they do for him?  Who wants to be Mother Theresa other than Mother Theresa?  Who wants to be around people who smell or are sick or always asking for food or money all the time?  Who can stomach Jesus’ diatribes against the rich … what’s wrong with being rich?  Who would not want to be one of the one percent?  What’s wrong with being Bill Gates or Oprah or Donald Trump?  Who would dare chastise those who come to church every Sunday, who give, who serve the church, yet step over the homeless on the church’s steps?  After all, those who are homeless have only themselves to blame. 

That’s what the world tells us.

Scripture tells us to do foolish things.  Do not resist the evildoer, turn the other cheek.  Turn the other cheek; you must be a fool: that will get you hurt.

If someone sues you for your coat, give them your cloak.  That’s like if you are sued for your house, give them your car, too. You gotta be a fool to do that!

“Go the second mile, if forced to go the first.”  Not on your life. I’m not giving an inch.

“Give to anyone who begs.”  I’d be broke.  That’s foolish.

“Lend to those who ask.”  You know folks don’t pay you back.  I’d be broke and a fool.

“Love your enemies, pray for them.”  Yeah, right, while they nuke me into non-existence.

“Don’t worry about what you will eat, what you will drink, and what you will wear.”  Right, in addition to being broke and homeless, I’ll be hungry, thirsty, and naked.  If I don’t provide for me, who will?

Yet if we follow Jesus, that is exactly what we will do.  We will exhibit a self-sacrificing love.  Jesus railed against the focus on self and it resulted in his death, nailed to a tree as a criminal, an enemy of the state.  What kind of God would permit this?  It makes no sense. It’s just foolish.

And there is something else about this cross.  Anglican bishop N.T. Wright[i] reminds us that death did not have the last word that day on Calvary.  As the followers of Jesus looked back on that day, they came up with the shocking, scandalous, nonsensical, foolish claim that his death had launched a revolution, that by 6 pm on that dark Friday evening, the world was different place.  They believed that with this, even the one true God had suddenly and dramatically put into operation His plan for the rescue of the world.  These followers saw the crucifixion as the date the revolution began.  The revolution that would not be televised.  Paul says we preach Christ crucified because the revolution began with the crucifixion and the resurrection was the first visible sign that the revolution was already under way and that more signs were on the way. 

The crucifixion was not about God saving us from sin so we can go to heaven; that is not the revolution the early Christians are talking about.  It was something bigger--much bigger--something more explosive.  Revelation tells us that Jesus died not so we could flutter around as globs of non-matter with wings, but he died, he died that day on the cross, so we could become restored human beings, enfleshed human beings, new human beings with a mandate to play a vital role in God’s purposes for the world. 

The cross is not a sign of death, but a sign of the end of death--a sign of hope, of possibility for every human being.  We are rescued from death, rescued from sin and are set free to be what we were created to be in the first place, to reflect the divine image, to reflect God’s image, to stand between heaven and earth and bring God’s purposes into reality here on earth, right here, right now, ahead of the time when God completes the task and makes all things new.  We are called to work God’s kingdom here on earth, right now.  To break down every barrier that keeps God’s people from being who God is calling them to be.  The revolution of the cross sets us free to be in-between people, between his birth and his coming again.   

But to be part of this revolution, we have to believe that God took human form--Jesus.  God incarnate came to reveal a different kingdom, a different kind of world; one defined not by human power and might, one not judged by who has the largest and strongest military or the most nuclear weapons, but one defined by humility and servanthood.  We don’t live in a country marked by humility and servanthood.  Too many who call themselves public servants have forgotten the meaning of the word “servant.”  Yes, there are many who are humble; there are many who serve; yet the prizes, the awards go to those who make a name for themselves. Look at all the reality shows, to include the ones about preachers.  They are not about being humble; they are all narcissistic, hedonistic. Serving others is not a goal; people look down on servants.

Jesus’ mission was not about gaining earthly glory; it was to show us how our lives and how the world could have been and how it will be when he comes again with glory to judge both the living and the dead.

Think about it.  We call them miracles; yet both Jesus and John the Baptist preached that the kingdom of God was at hand, that it was here, right now, not completed, but here!  And if God’s people had just gotten with the program; if they had just seen what those of the early church saw.

Jesus raised the dead; he healed the sick; he gave sight to the blind, he cured those with disabilities; he cast out demons; he cured mental illness; he fed the hungry.

After the crucifixion and resurrection, we find that the apostles were able to do signs and wonders.  Peter healed the crippled beggar.  A paralyzed man name Aenea who had been bedridden for eight years (Acts 9:33) he raised Dorcas from the dead (Acts 9:40); also in Acts, it reads -”a great number of people would also gather from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those tormented by unclean spirits and they were all cured” (Acts. 5:16).  All in the name of Jesus!  If folks had just gotten with the program!  If they had joined the revolution, the world would have been different.

But perhaps it is not too late, but to get there, we have to follow Jesus’ example, we have to obey his word.  We have to believe in what seems foolish. 

The Kingdom of God is foolish to those who cast their lot with and take their identity from the world, the world that sentenced God’s son to death on the cross.  But Erica Wood offers that it is in that crushed and broken body that we come to know him.  In the crucifixion and resurrection, God took the worst thing human beings ever did and turned it into the best thing God ever did.

We are all called to be fools for Christ’s sake and that the world of the cross will not make sense apart from this willingness to take the form of a fool.

So, are you are fool?  A fool for Christ?  Amen.