“Divine Foolishness”by Rev. Sharon Lee MacArthur

for Berkeley Chinese Community Church11 am worship • March 4, 2018

1 Corinthians 1:18-2518 For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19For it is written,‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,   and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’ 20Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. 22For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, 23but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

One of the most memorable quotes for me was from the mouth of a professor in my first year in seminary. I loved this professor – he taught Worship and the Arts, a required course for every Master of Divinity student. He did unexpected things like – distributing class assignments by throwing the papers in the air as he walked around the classroom saying, “there is no law that says we have to pass them around carefully.”

Once he stayed in character for an entire 2-1/2 hour class as he talked about the life and times of Martin Luther dressed as Martin Luther!

One day, he came out from behind his desk to reveal big floppy shoes and silly looking clown pants and stuck on a red ball on his nose and very seriously declared, “We are called to be fools for Christ!”

Then he proceeded to read the same passage that we just read - and he kept reading - more of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians!

He reminded me that day of clown acts that are a part of every circus! You remember, right? Like the one where the clowns ride out into the spotlight in a tiny car – a whole bunch of them squished together with their feet hanging out the windows. The horn is beeping and the car is hissing… It suddenly stops and the clowns climb out of the car and run around in all directions – bumping into each other and falling down while the audience howls.

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Then you can see one clown wearing a large pastic flower walking over to another clown who leans over to smell the flower and we all know what happens, right? The one who is doing the smelling gets squirted in the face with a spray of water coming out of the flower and starts to chase the trickster around the arena!

Children and adults alike get a kick out of this and laugh! In the meantime another clown has just kicked a fellow clown in the rear to get him out of the car more quickly. And the kicker is now being chased by the kickee – the kickee waving a gynormous bat! We know what’s going to happen when he catches up to the clown kicker.

Clowns – fools!Such foolishness – the clown who got wet should have known better than to smell a fake flower worn by a clown! Foolishness - the clown who will get bopped should have known better than to kick a clown holding a bat!

Other scenes of foolishness entertain us and then a siren goes off and the clowns stumble back into the car and away it goes, beeping out of sight as the next circus act makes its entrance.

Remember these images of clowns each making a fool of themselves…and think about having the appearance of foolishness, stupidity and ridiculousness, as we talk about the passage for today…

where the Apostle Paul says that we are “fools for Christ.” We are clowns for Christ.

Throughout Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, we hear this theme about divine foolishness. -“The word of the cross is foolishness to those whose lives are falling apart, but to those who are being saved, the cross is the very power of God.”

There are other words, too – listen up…“Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? Has God not destroyed the wisdom of the wise?” Or how about, “God chose what is foolish in this world to shame the wise. Or God chose what is weak in this world to shame the strong. Or God chose what is low and despised to accomplish his will.” Bottom line? We are called to be fools for Christ…just like my professor said.

Think about the New Testament…it’s all about a divine madness about God. God does kind of act like a clown…the Lord of the Universe does kind of act like a fool – Unreasonable – irresponsible - Not sensible - Not practical …in fact - downright foolish.

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Think about it…Take the Incarnation. Do you know any other God who actually comes down to earth as a human being? In other religions, God is more reasonable and comes as a mighty religious prophet…God does not come as a lowly human being who suffers the way we humans do.

How illogical! Some would say, “how dumb” of God to suffer like we human beings. It would have been much easier to stay up in the painless security of heaven.

And how about the parents of this Jesus of Nazareth. Was there any other god whose father was a wood-working carpenter and his mother a teenage girl?

That’s rather unbecoming of God. Wouldn’t it be more logical or appropriate for God’s father to be a ruler – like Alexander the Great or a wise person like Socrates or Plato.

And for a mother – really? a teenage girl? Shouldn’t God’s mom be the Queen of Sheba, or Queen Nefertiti of Egypt, or Cleopatra?

If God were a classy God, God would have chosen better parents for Jesus. How foolish! How unbecoming!

And how about God’s birthplace? God could have been born in a respectable place like the Taj Mahal or a grand palace or beautiful place like Sedona Arizona! But God gets himself born in a

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stable where animals live! A dirty old common stable. How foolish! How dumb! How ridiculous!

Then he begins talking and teaching like an idiotic fool. Who would ever take his teachings seriously? Remember what God said when he walked the earth as Jesus? “Someone hits you on one cheek, offer the other cheek for them to hit.” Foolish! Dumb!Or, “Someone takes your coat, give them all your clothing as well.” Not smart! Or, “Someone asks you to do a favor and go a mile for them, go the second mile for that person.” Ridiculous! Or, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Really?!? Or, “Your enemy spits in your eye, love them back.” Impossible! You have to be a fool to take that stuff seriously. His teachings are not practical, not reasonable, not sensible. Foolish!

Not only the teachings but the stories about Jesus again reveal this same divine madness…the same divine foolishness.A woman gets caught in the very act of adultery and Jesus says to her, without her even confessing her sins, “I do not condemn you.”  What? Another woman has five husbands and the man she was living with wasn’t her husband and Jesus again did not condemn her. What?

Jesus was getting killed on the cross and he called out, “Father forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” What? Forgiveness for someone who is killing him and not even saying that they are sorry? Divine madness…divine foolishness.

Do you know any other God who gets himself killed on a cross? Do you know any other God who gets himself killed as a common and ordinary criminal? I mean, other gods come with their lightning bolts and laser beams. But killed on a cross? How foolish!

You see?!?! there is a streak of divine foolishness that runs throughout all of Christianity. And then Jesus goes and chooses his disciples. What a joke. More foolishness!Jesus wanted to change the world. Now, to change the world, wouldn’t you go and find effective leaders? Maybe warriors? Maybe strategists?

People like Alexander the Great, or Napoleon? Or Genghis Khan

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But Jesus chooses fishermen! Simon Peter and Andrew, James, John? They probably couldn’t read and write. They probably never left their boats or villages much less make any changes anywhere.Didn’t God want to change the world?And soon they were thrown to the lions, they wouldn’t bow to Caesar as Lord, and they died as martyrs. Foolishness!

And then there is this theology of God’s grace which is so inexplicable. A foolish love from God that’s a gift to all of us. What did we do to deserve the rain the last few days? Nothing! Or the sunshine? Nothing! Or the hail? Nothing! How about the sunrise? Nothing! Or The sunset? Nothing! Or To be born? Nothing! Or To be born again? Nothing! God’s love is a gift, a pure gift, like the rain, like the sunshine, like the forgiving love given to the crowd who crucified him on Good Friday. Pure gift. Pure grace.

Hmmmmm - it seems to me that at the very heart of the Gospel is a divine foolishness, a divine madness, a cross foolishness, a cross craziness! This divine foolishness was inside of God from the beginning, This divine foolishness was totally inside of Jesus, and This divine foolishness came into his followers by means of the Holy Spirit.

Remember what we heard/read this morning?“The way of the cross is foolishness to those whose lives are falling apart, but the way of the cross is power to those who believe.”This divine foolishness of God gets into his followers and his followers start to act like clowns…like fools!There is a power to this way of living and loving.

You may have heard of some samples of this divine foolishness that infects people who are followers of the way of Jesus and who know the power of the way of the cross and have become fools for Christ and part of this divine foolishness.

There is the story about Pastor Andre during World War II in southern France. The Nazis were rounding up the Jews to exterminate them and so the pastor called a secret meeting of his congregation. “I have an idea,” he said. “Let’s hide the Jews so they won’t be found or killed or sent off in railroad cars.” You can hear the responses at that congregational secret meeting. “You’ve got to be kidding. We could be killed. Our families could be killed. That is foolish. Outlandish. Preposterous.”  But the congregation went ahead and did it anyhow. Time passed.

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One day, a Nazi truck pulled into town to round up all the Jews, and the soldiers asked, “Where are all the Jews?” “None around here,” was the reply. “They all skipped town.” The Nazi soldiers searched the town until they found one lone Jewish boy who was walking the streets. He made a mistake by being out in the open. The Nazis threw this boy into the back of their truck. The towns people gathered around that truck, without saying a word, without giving a hint of recognition. The Nazis asked, “Now which of you are a friend of this Jew here?” No one said a word. Silence. A long silence. Finally, a little thirteen year old boy reached down into his pocket of his jacket and pulled out a piece of chocolate. Chocolate was scare during World War II. He looked carefully at that piece of chocolate, looked at the Jewish young man in the truck, and gave it to him. His parents responded with a look that said, “Don’t be stupid, son. Don’t be crazy, boy. Keep your distance. Do you want to get us all killed?”

Silence. Shuffling of feet on the pavement. Then slowly, you could see the towns people put their hands into their pockets and they too found pieces of chocolate. One by one, they stretched out their hands into that truck and gave the Jewish lad a sweet. Sweets for his ride to the railroad cars and then to death. Fools. Real fools. Yes, they were fools for Christ and there was a power in their living and there was a power in their loving.

Then there is the story of Kurtis and Brenda. They met in a grocery story; he was the stock boy and she was the check out lady. He was twenty-two and she was twenty-six. Kurtis was attracted to Brenda and asked her out. She refused, saying she was divorced and had two children. She had “baggage”, she said. Kurtis persisted anyway. A date was arranged and Kurtis arrived at the door. Brenda met him and again cancelled the date; the sitter had gotten sick. But she did let Kurtis into her apartment to meet her two children. The little girl was as cute as can be. The little boy was in a wheel chair, a paraplegic and blind. Kurtis assessed the situation and said, “There is no reason that all four of us can’t go out tonight.”

Time went by and Kurtis became a good friend of the family…he learned to lift the little boy out of the wheelchair and include him in conversation and activities. Eventually, Kurtis and Brenda fell in love, married and their family grew.

Kurtis is Kurt Warner, reknown quarterback, Super Bowl Star, Football Hall of Fame Inductee, and devout Christian… Kurt knows the foolishness of the cross, the way of the cross, the way of living and the way of loving.

I believe there is this divine foolishness in God, in Jesus, and in the people of Jesus who do these foolish things. And I believe there is power to their living and power to their loving.

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Here come the clowns! Here come the fools! Here comes the power of God. Here comes the power of God’s love.  Here come the people of love. Here come the clowns…here come the fools.In the words of Professor Adams – We are called to be fools for God…infected by divine foolishness!O God, Give us the courage to be fools for you…Amen.

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