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1 Corinthians 4:7 For who sees anything
different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you
received it, why do you boast as if it were not a gift? 8 Already
you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Quite apart from us you
have become kings! Indeed, I wish that you had become kings, so that we might
be kings with you! 9 For I think that God has exhibited us apostles
as last of all, as though sentenced to death, because we have become a
spectacle to the world, to angels and to mortals. 10 We are fools
for the sake of Christ, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are
strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute.
Today we
honor our veterans. Those that returned and those that did not. War is
foolishness. One country greedy for what another country has and before we
know, nation after nation is sucked into the fight. We could say our cause is
noble but that is not always true. What is noble is the individuals who give
their all for the cause because they believe in their country and what their
country stands for. So today at least, we hold in honor, not the war that they
fought in, but their individual service in that war. Some may think me wrong
for making this distinction, but I believe in the people who serve, who have
served and who gave their all. So today we celebrate them, each and every one
who has given of their time. We also celebrate today the first responders who
stay out there every day putting their lives on the line to protect us, save us
and assist us in an emergency. So let us take a moment and thank those among
us. Today, tomorrow or the next day take a moment to thank those in uniform.
Buy them lunch or at least shake their hand and say thanks.
What does
it mean to be foolish for Christ? I remember staying awake many years ago and
watching late night TV. On late night TV there are more infomercials than any
other time of the day. For 9.95 down, 9.95 a month for 9.95 years you can own
just about anything the foolish heart could be talked into. I have watched
people over the years get sucked into one good scam after another. Estimates
ranging in the billions of dollars are what experts believe people are scammed
into every year. I know of a woman in this community who got scammed out of her
entire fortune and lived her last years in near poverty because of it. There is
foolishness all around us every day of every year. But what does it mean to be
foolish for Christ?
Well we
can start with Saul who we know as Paul. Paul was a great zealot for the court
of the Jewish faith around the first century. That is until he encountered
Jesus on the road to Damascus. After that he gave up all that wealth and
prestige and all that went with it to live the life of an Apostle in a world
that hated him for what he was teaching. His foolishness kept him almost
constantly under the watchful eye of the Roman soldiers and he was imprisoned.
Five times he was beaten with a breath of his life and once he was stoned and
left for dead. I am sure his peers among the Sanhedrin were saying, what a
waste, what a fool he has become.
I
remember watching a movie about a coast guard swimmer. A new person had joined
the team and he was all about breaking all the records. At this point, he has
come up against the person who owns all the records and the young man keeps
asking, what is the number. The number he is looking for is how many saves;
undoubtedly wanting to know what the mark is that he is to shoot after to
become the greatest. The older man keeps putting him off as he trains him for
the grueling job they have, to save those who are in trouble no matter the
weather, the conditions or the danger. Finally, near the end the old man tells
him the number is 22. The young man was surprised thinking the number was so
much higher. At that moment the older man said, it is the number of people that
he lost and could not save, that that number is the only one that counts. What
does it mean to be foolish for the life that you live? What does it mean that
the only number that counts is not those you saved, but those you lost? I
believe that what we are about is difficult and challenging. Jesus does not
care that we shepherd the masses if we ignore the lost.
Some of
you may not believe this but I truly grieve over those that I have not been
able to keep happy, keep in the churches I serve or help into relationship with
God. There have been a few along the way. When I accepted that my call was to
this ministry I learned very early that the ones who are struggling, the ones
who have disregarded the truth of the Gospel and especially the ones that I had
a hand in causing them to leave are the most important to Jesus. So that makes
them the most important to me. That is the foolishness of the Gospel, the
foolishness of the cross. That we would spend out lives for the few rather than
the masses. Yet, that is the place the battle is fought, is it not. Satan steps
up when one of the few begins to explore God. So, yes, I am a fool for Christ
and I will grieve the loss of one person.
Jesus turned
our world upside down when He preached the beatitudes on the side of the
mountain. He teaches that those who are picked last can in fact be the winners.
That those who are understand that what we need to seek in the Kingdom of God
is very different than what people seek in the world around us. Woody Allen
said, "I've been poor and I've been rich, and, believe me, rich is
better." That is how we think in life today especially in the Western
world. But it is not how God wants us to think.
What is
it that God wants us to know? It is that we are blessed when we take the gifts
that God has given us and use them for the glory of God in the world. That may
very well mean that we find success by earthly standards, but that is not what
we are about. Foolishness is proclaimed by those who do not understand the
power of the Empty tomb. Foolishness is what they call us who worship a man who
went to the cross as a criminal and died there. If you think about it, it is a
little foolish to walk around telling people that Jesus died on a cross and
because of that you need to believe in Him.
Paul
proclaims that the truth is in the cross which is foolishness to the rest of
the world. The truth is that God is calling us to do foolish things in the
world to shame those who claim to have all the answers while people beneath
them starve to death. The truth is that God is calling us to change the world
through the ordinary, the marginalized and the poor. We are called to be
foolish so that the world can come to understand what God’s love looks and
feels like.
There are
missionaries out there in the world today that are being foolish for God. One
of them is Randy Marshall and you met his family a number of years ago when
they came here. Randy is a missionary and he and his family are currently in
the Ukraine bringing this message of foolishness to the young people around
them. They send me an update almost weekly that chronicles the successes and
yes, even the struggles that they have. He told me once that he was in Russia
and lost everything he owned when they decided to kick him out of the country.
And there are hundreds just like him all over the world. They are people who
would take their talents and skills and bring the message of foolishness, the
message of love to the world. Some of these brave men and women gladly put
their lives on the line every day to do that work.
By the
way, as the world tells Boston that they are wonderful and the Dodgers that
they are losers, as the world of baseball goes through its annual upheaval of
coaches being fired and players being moved, those who are foolish for God are
winning. Micah the prophet has told us what we supposed to do in the world in
verse 6:8, NRS Micah 6:8 He has told you, O mortal, what
is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love
kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
There is
a small cathedral outside Bethlehem that marks the supposed birthplace of
Jesus. Behind a high altar in the church
is a cave, a little cavern lit by silver lamps.
You can enter the main edifice and admire the ancient church. You can also enter the quiet cave where a
star embedded in the floor recognizes the birth of the King. There is one stipulation, however. You have to stoop. The door is so low you can't go in standing
up.
Are you
foolish enough to trust God to lead you where God would want you go? Are you
foolish enough to begin to be different in the world around you? Are you ready
to part of the world of fools?
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