Foolish Decisions

Scripture

 1 Corinthians 1:18-25

¹⁸For 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.  (NRSV)

Devotion

 Have you ever been told that what you are doing on behalf of Christ is foolish?  Perhaps the person said that your tiny plans won't make much of a difference in the grand scheme of things.  Perhaps someone scoffed at your actions and said that all you were really doing was hurting yourself. Maybe said someone laughed at your God-inspired ideas and said they didn't make good business sense.  Being told that the way we live into our faith is foolish can eat at us--especially if the critique comes from someone we love or respect.

Frankly, the things that from a strictly human perspective, Christianity itself is foolish.  In Jesus Christ, we worship a nobody--a poor son of a carpenter with no money but a big mouth who managed to amass a ragtag group of followers and get his name put up in bright lights for challenging the way the world worked and teaching that God's Kin-dom had drown near.  Sure he healed some people and performed some miracles, but the followers of any messianic charlatan would have claimed that their leader had done the same.  What couldn't be disputed was that just when Jesus had reached the height of his fame, the people had turned on him, and the Roman empire had executed him in the most painful and demeaning way it had to offer. 

 And this man, we say, is the Son of God?  From an earthy perspective to say that the Messiah too weak to save himself from death would indeed have been enough to trip up the faith of even the most devout Jewish follower.  Similarly, Gentiles would have found it beyond foolish to give up their own powerful deities to worship a crucified god.  And yet, for Christians, the true power of God's love, mercy, and justice was displayed in this seemingly foolish story.  As he suffered and died cross, Jesus showed us the foolish depths that God is plunge to in order to save us from ourselves.   When he rose again and tasked his disciples with continuing his work until he returns, Jesus proved that God's foolish, sacrificial love for us is stronger than the "wisdom" of all our self-serving plotting and scheming to get ahead.  He even tasked us with the work of spreading that love around.

Jesus calls those who follow him to live in ways that share the Good News of God's foolish love with the world.  Early converts made the "foolish" decision to sell everything they owned and then give the proceeds to the Church to be used where it was needed.  In times of persecution, Jesus's followers  made the foolish decision that it was better to suffer and die then to stop sharing Christ's amazing love.  Down through the ages, Christ's followers have taken up hopeless causes, kept foolish promises, and made huge sacrifices.  Such actions often looked foolish from an earthly perspective; but they reflect God's foolishness.  And though it may take a while for the results of "foolish" work to unfold, their effects can be more amazing than anyone expected.  Through Christians' foolish actions, people are fed and clothed and housed.  Hearts are changed.  Oppressive systems have toppled.  And this world has come to look a little more like the Kin-dom of Heaven.

As we draw ever-closer to the cross this Lenten season, I challenge you to look within yourself and ask what "foolish" action Christ is calling you to take on behalf of him.  I hope that you have the courage to do the work that Christ has placed in your heart  (even if the world will call you foolish).  And if you are already doing that work, then take heart.  Though the supposed sages of our current time may scoff, your commitment to the foolishness of the cross...the foolishness of the Gospel is greater than all the combined wisdom those bound by self-interest.  Through the power of the Holy Spirit, Christ's foolishness at work in you will prevail.  People may chuckle at you now, you and Jesus will eventually have the last laugh.  And that heart-felt laughter will be glorious.

 

Prayer

Jesus, thank you for giving up the wisdom of the world in order to die for my sake.  May I be a faithful witness to your resurrection by being foolish for you.  Amen.