Matthew 5: 43,44: I Corinthians 3: 11, 18,19

Foolish faith

I am telling you today that foolishness can be good, because that is what our lectionary readings tell us. But there is a problem with this.  We really don’t believe that.  We generally don’t think foolishness is good.  We do whatever we can to keep our kids from doing foolish things, without curtailing their freedom of course.  There is no good side to foolishness.  Once in a while we accept it when we see movies. It’s kind of a cliché: There is always someone who is averse to risk taking and then someone else encourages them to do some wild or rather…foolish things. In the movies those things always work out and never result in tragedy.

I finally went to see the movie La la land. It was turning into a cultural icon and I needed to see what it was about, partly because it takes place in our state. The freeway signs directing us to it are just a block away.  The characters in the movie are caught between common sense and foolishness.  The foolishness lies in believing you can accomplish something everyone wants to accomplish: stardom.  Common sense tells you this is not possible. In days gone by we believed more that all of us could accomplish what we wanted if we have talent and we try hard enough.  That’s never been true of everyone and it is less so today.  We can do a lot of things with technology that we couldn’t do before, but that is a different issue. What makes the movie work on the level it does is that isn’t about sappy love only or about foolishness only. It is about both. You see, what it comes down to it the only time foolishness really makes sense is when it is put in service of love.

In his first letter to the Corinthians Paul writes that “the wisdom of the world is foolishness to God.” What he means by the “world” are the things that people care about most: power, sexual opportunity, money, fame.  These often lead to abuse, promiscuity, greed and lies.  Some of the attitudes of the world are mentioned in our call to worship.  Jesus says: “If someone strikes you on the cheek, turn the other cheek. If someone asks for your coat, give them your cloak.  Give to anyone who begs from you and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.“ And then the zinger: “Love your enemies.”  Now I don’t know about you, but I am feeling pretty inadequate up here.   Our response at best is : “yes, but…. What if the person asking for a coat is severely mentally ill and has three coats in his shopping cart under the cotton wood tree in Discovery Park? What if the coat he wants is the one your grandmother bought for you at Christmas at full price from her fixed income?  What if thirty people in a row in a five minute span ask for money on K Street?  How will I have money for gas to get home?” Believe me, that’s not a stretch. “What if your enemy killed your most beloved relative?”  Jesus calls for an ideal world where the common sense of the times is turned on its head.  Transformation is what Jesus is after.  Now there is one thing that probably needs to be mentioned and that is the Jesus’ followers saw the coming of the kingdom of heaven as something that could happen at any time.  Nevertheless we cannot reason away Jesus’ call to extreme compassion. Yet in terms of the “world” as I just described it, what Jesus saying is total foolishness.  But it works because the foolishness is put into the service of love of God and of other people.

Friends, for those who think Jesus was just a wise teacher with deep insight or who think God is a figment of the imagination, a church such as this is foolishness.  For can you imagine every week, with clockwork, for a hundred years, organizing a party where the guest if honor would never physically show up? There are songs, there are speeches, there are prayers, there is food, rain (mostly not) or shine, in cold or hot weather. Of course we believe otherwise.   Could it be friends that Paul does not just acknowledge that the life of the Church is foolishness to the “world,” but that he actively encourages us to embrace foolishness?

Friends, it may be hard to hear this, but it is not irrational to say that our faith in Christ is foolish. In fact it is the opposite. I am never shocked when someone says they are an agnostic or an atheist.  That is a rational point of view. It is also a sad and dark point of view.  For what then do you base your life on?  To put our life in the service of faith is a huge risk of turning us into fools.  It is a risk I have been willing to take. I trust you will continue to do so also.  For what better foolishness is there than to put our foolishness in the service of a love that will never die.   “Go ahead,” Paul says: “Be foolish. Have faith. Believe.” Thanks be to God.