Fools for Christ

1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23
According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it. Each builder must choose with care how to build on it. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ. Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple. 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. For it is written, ‘He catches the wise in their craftiness’, and again, ‘The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.’ So let no one boast about human leaders. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all belong to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.

Fools for Christ

Some people say we already live in a world of fools, so why do we need any more? There are those fools of the opposite political party, whichever side you fall on, who we say lack judgment; those fools who think differently than ourselves about....well, pick your issue; those fools who act unwisely that we see on America's Funniest Videos each week trying to catapult themselves over some homemade structure. Yes, many of us might agree that there are already too many fools in the world.

But before we make this our final answer, let's consider Paul's understanding of what it means to be a fool. The fool was both an insider and an outsider. As an insider, he or she understands what motivates those in positions of power and authority—well, power and authority are what motivate them. The insider knows all the traditions, conventions, and social expectations in which they live. As an outsider, he or she sees those who have been excluded, dehumanized, and weakened. The fool is then able to speak the dangerous truth, saying, “do you see what is happening here?” And “where have you made room for God in all of this?”

The Corinthian community was full of people who considered themselves wiser than others, perhaps more eloquent than others, maybe more righteous or spiritually evolved than others. Human wisdom had taken hold and became the gold standard for the community. We learn throughout the letter to the Corinthians that they seemed focused on what divides or separates, rather than what unites. Paul points out that their desire to mirror the church after human standards came up empty—empty of God.

When I served in a small town in West Virginia, everyone literally knew everyone else's business, their family history, and any youthful indiscretions made. If you've ever lived in a small town, you will understand this phenomena. What we might call “holy hypocrisy” found its way into the perceptions of the community benevolence fund, which was distributed by local pastors through a room in the back of the thrift shop. A week rarely went by when word came from a church person—a church person—who  worked at the thrift shop that the pastors had been bamboozled again by someone. Didn't we know how that person spent their income? Didn't we know that they had a reputation in town that was not so good? Surely we didn't give that person any money when there were so many other deserving people?  You can imagine what kind of fools they thought the pastors were! The pastors, on the other hand, asked, “then where is God in all of this?”

Paul says that wisdom is found in the foolishness of the cross, which speaks to the human heart.... affects our minds....  makes plain what is right and wrong....  and establishes our basis for hope and life itself. For those who seek power, privilege, or position, it is foolishness. What they see as weakness, those of faith see as vulnerability. We see a God who would willingly bear our pain, touch the human heart, and lift up the lowly and weak. The proclamation of the cross reveals the foolishness of the world. In his sermon on the mount, Jesus gave the disciples a preview of what following him to the cross would mean. “You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Be perfect therefore as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Jesus turns around commonly held morals. Instead of “love your neighbor,” he says to “love your enemies.” Apparently, Jesus was not going to let anyone off the hook with something easy, like “hate your enemies.” I can only imagine the perplexed looks of the disciples as they realized not only the nearly impossible task, but how foolish they were going to look as they showed love to love those who thought differently than themselves, and even pray for those who persecuted them. No matter how others might perceive them. What Jesus was compelling them to do was to make that love real. A tough challenge for a hardened world, then and today.
Each day as I work as a hospital chaplain, I encounter a wide variety of people, in a wide variety of spiritual places in their lives. They mix and mingle, pass each other in the hallways, and often reside on opposite sides of a thin curtain. Their responses to crises are as varied as lives of their loved ones. As a chaplain, I am called to meet them where they are spiritually and to anticipate the mystery of God at work. Often this means meeting them in their spiritual distress. But not always. 
One day I was welcomed into the circle of a family as they gathered around the bed of their loved one, who was obviously struggling between life and death. I saw a family lovingly looking upon him, stroking his arm, speaking soft words in his ear. Sometimes I am often hesitant to break this moment, but my curiosity compelled me. I asked about the patient. He was their father. The story that followed was not what I expected.
They only were reunited with him recently. He chose a hard life apart from his family for over 20 years. It was a life that led him to the street and all the consequences one would expect. For his children, all those memories of him ended by the time the oldest child was ten. And then 20 years of nothing. But for some reason, he recently reached out to them, these children that he had abandoned years before; to his grandchildren he had never seen; and even to his former wife. They shared their stories with me of laughter and disappointment, joy and pain, that had been a part of their childhood.
I couldn't imagine how they could love him after all he had done to them, with never an apology or request for forgiveness on his part. But where they were spiritually was not in a place of sadness as to what had been lost, but in a place of joy as to what had been found. Here they were loving him wholly, completely, perfectly, foolishly. Between two thin curtains, God's presence was made real.
If we think that we are wise in this age, we should become fools so that we may become wise. The foolishness of the cross tells us this: We have been given the ability to be vulnerable and weak so that our hardened hearts can be softened. We have been given the ability to be the least so someone else can be strong. We have been given the ability to bear the pain of others, so they do not have to travel the journey alone. We have been given the ability to lift up others as Christ has lifted us up.

And the beauty of it all......is that we get to look like fools the whole time.