What Kind of Fool Am I?

What kind of fool am I? That's not just the title of a hit song from back in the 1960s, it's a question that we should probably ask ourselves on a regular basis. At least, the book of Proverbs thinks that we should. My sermon will tell you more about all the kinds of fools that there are in this world, and suggest what they might do to reform!

Nearly 60 years ago, a new musical premiered on Broadway. It was called Stop the World, I Want to Get Off. If you’ve never seen it, don’t worry; nobody else much has, either. It hasn’t stood the test of time like other musicals like South Pacific or The Phantom of the Opera. I mention it this morning only because it contains a song with a very interesting title: “What Kind of Fool Am I?” In English, that’s pretty much a rhetorical question. What kind of fool am I? There’s only one kind of fool: someone who doesn’t use the brains God gave him! It’s a great title for a song, but as a real question, it’s pointless. A fool is a fool is a fool! But in Hebrew – which is the original language of the book of Proverbs – it’s a very good question! The Hebrew language has a whole slew of words that can be translated into English as “fool.”

The gentlest word for a fool in Hebrew is “peti.” A “peti” is someone who’s gullible – you know, a simpleton. There’s hope for a “peti” if he wakes up and smells the coffee! One step below a “peti” is a “kesil.” While a “peti” is gullible, a “kesil” is stubborn. He hangs onto his old ideas like a dog hanging on to a bone, even if new and better ideas come his way. Then there’s an “eveel.” An “eveel” is just plain stupid – as dumb as a box of rocks! An “eveel” insists that she knows what she’s talking about even when it’s clear as glass that she doesn’t. An “eveel” is the one who loudly tells you how to raise your children, even though all three of hers are in the State Penitentiary. Even worse than an “eveel” is a “nabal,” who is downright evil. A “nabal” commits evil acts just because he wants to. A “nabal” can be very intelligent; but although he may have an IQ of 200, according to the Old Testament, he’s still a fool. Finally, there is a “les,” a scoffer. A “les” is not only a fool; a “les” makes fun of all the people who disagree with him. “The way to stop his quarrelling” says Proverbs (22:10), “is to get rid of him.” Did you ever imagine that are so many different kinds of fools running around?

In the passage from the book of Proverbs that I read this morning (1:20-33), wisdom takes the form of a wise woman and pleads with all these fools to get with the program! “What’s the matter with all of you?” she asks. How long will you gullible simpletons stay that way? How long will you scornful, arrogant cynics insist on laughing at people with good ideas? How long will it be before you stupid fools use the brains that God gave you? I’ve tried to tell you over and over and over again! Why, I’ve given you enough advice to float the Queen Mary, but you’ve just tuned me out! When your foolishness catches up with you, don’t say I didn’t warn you!” Wisdom claims that she isn’t hard to find, either. She isn’t hiding under a rock or playing hide and seek with us. No, wisdom walks right down the middle of the sidewalk, sits on a bench in the middle of town, and stands on the busiest street corners! She’s like the city panhandlers who approach people for handouts when they’re trapped in traffic or sitting at red lights. It’s really hard to ignore them. Wisdom claims to be just like that!

The only problem is that wisdom’s voice isn’t the only voice around. That panhandler in Dayton may have a corner on Main Street all to himself; but wisdom might as well be in the middle of a mall on Black Friday! We can hardly hear her voice over all the other ones that are clamoring for our attention. Sometimes we can hear her, but we can’t really make out what she’s saying. Other times, her voice is drowned out completely by all the other voices on social media, on television, and even from our own friends. Proverbs makes it sound like listening to wisdom is the easiest thing in the world. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think that it’s quite that simple!

So maybe we should consider for just a moment how we can listen for Wisdom?  How can we tell when we’re listening to Wisdom’s voice instead of one of the other voices in today’s world that is hollering for our attention? The bottom line is, of course, to live our lives by the teaching and example of Jesus. After all, Jesus is Wisdom in the flesh! If we follow Jesus, then we will be wise, even though Jesus’ wisdom is often at odds with the wisdom of the world. But that’s not saying anything new. We all know that already. We all work toward the same goals of charity, compassion, and love. The problem arises when we try to put those goals into practice. Then the question becomes, “How do we do that wisely?” It isn’t easy. We can’t just open a Chinese fortune cookie and follow the directions on the slip of paper that falls out! One way to begin is to take another look at some of the fools that Proverbs talks about and see if they can tell us anything about how to listen for Lady Wisdom. Bad examples can sometimes be very instructive!

We’ll start with the “peti,” the simpleton – the gullible person who believes whatever he is told. He never uses his brain because he lets everybody else do his thinking for him. He accepts anything if it sounds good, whether it’s an advertising claim, a political opinion, or a book that some expert wrote. These folks need to put their brains in gear and do some critical thinking. The Bible is clear that the loudest voices aren’t always the ones who know best. Next, let’s look at the “kesil,” the one who is always sure that the ideas he’s held for years are right. He wouldn’t change his mind if a good idea ran over him! Now, it’s tempting to be a “kesil,” because it’s comfortable to just believe what you’ve always believed. But remember that God’s Spirit is still speaking, revealing new wisdom to those who are listening for it! If we are serious about following Jesus, we need to listen to what the Spirit is telling us, even if it means buying into some new ideas. Finally, we have the “les” – the scoffer who laughs at anybody who disagrees with him. There seem to be a lot of these folks around today! Turn on most any radio or television talk show and you’ll hear them. Democrats sneer at Republicans and Republicans ridicule Democrats. Catholics mock Pentecostals, Baptists jeer at Mormons, and atheists scorn all of us! In the end, all this does is to stir up anger, encourage quarreling, and cause bad feelings.

Lady Wisdom tells us to avoid all of them! Her advice is to put our brains in gear with every single idea that we encounter. Evaluate old, comfortable opinions; and carefully consider new suggestions. And Lady Wisdom says something else, as well. She reminds us, none too gently, that if we refuse her advice – if we don’t seek her out in the middle of all the foolishness of the world – then we will reap the consequences. Today more than ever, the world needs thinking Christians – Christians who are not only as innocent as doves but also as wise as serpents! The questions that we face today will affect the whole world! And they’re hard questions; questions like: How do we respond as faithful Christians to people who believe differently that we do – not just other Christians, but Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, and Muslims? How can we use the natural resources that God gave us in such abundance without abusing that gift? And probably the most difficult of all: how should we respond to hate so profound that it ends in terrorism? Can we show the love of Jesus in situations like that? The very existence of human life on earth may depend on our discerning God’s wisdom in the middle of the ocean of foolishness that surrounds us! Wisdom calls us to replace blind acceptance with critical thinking, to be open to the leading of the Spirit, and to work towards reconciliation and peace everywhere.

And the good news, friends, is that God will never forsake anyone who honestly seeks to live wisely. Lady Wisdom is always walking down the sidewalk, sitting on a park bench, or standing on a street corner proclaiming her advice and waiting patiently for us to listen to her. If you look for her, she’ll be there – ready to offer her wisdom to all of us fools. Thanks be to God that she is!

The Fragrance of Life

We are usually tuned in to images in Bible stories, and sometimes even tastes. But smells? The Gospel of John uses even smells to contrast the grace of Jesus with the ways of the world. If you're interested, this sermon will explain what I mean.

I am fascinated by magicians. I am astonished at how they can make an illusion appear to be real. I know that after the magician’s lovely assistant lies down in a long, covered box and has a sword slice through her middle, she will get up whole and healthy after the trick is over; but I’m always surprised anyway. Don’t you wonder how they do that? I will probably never know how magicians perform their tricks, because they guard those secrets jealously! I do know, though, that magicians are often successful because they mis-direct our attention. While the magician is showing us a perfectly ordinary black silk top hat over here, we aren’t noticing what he’s doing over here. When he pulls a rabbit out of that hat, it looks like magic; but in fact, we just weren’t paying attention to what he was doing.

Sometimes we read the Bible the same way that we watch magicians – we don’t pay attention to everything that’s going on. We get so interested in one part of the text that we don’t notice what’s going on somewhere else! So, while we see some things in the text very clearly, we overlook other things that are just as important. The gospel of John, in particular, has lots more to tell us than we usually notice when we read it. This morning's scripture reading, for example, is a story that we tend to overlook (John 12:1-8). It’s just a few verses long; and it’s sandwiched in between two of our favorite gospel stories: the raising of Lazarus (which takes up most of chapter 11) and Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem (which is in the middle of chapter 12). So this little story gets lost in the middle.

It’s about a dinner party that Lazarus gave for Jesus when he came to Jerusalem for the last time. John has put this story right after Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. In many ways, the two stories are contrasts. In both stories, the house of Lazarus is filled with his friends! But while in the first story, they are mourning his untimely death; in the second one, they are celebrating his return to life. In the first story, no one was eating or drinking a thing. They were fasting while they mourned for their dead friend. But in the second story, the whole town was eating and drinking in happy celebration.

The stories also contain contrasts in the smells they contain. In the story of the raising of Lazarus, the smell is the stench of death. By the time Jesus arrives in Bethany, Lazarus has already been dead four days; and when Jesus asks that his tomb be opened, Martha rightly notes that there will be an odor surrounding it. After four days in his tomb, the body of Lazarus would already have begun to decay. The King James Version is very direct in its translation: Martha says, “He will stink!” We can imagine Lazarus’ friends wrinkling their noses in disgust as the stone is rolled away and the stench of death fills the air. But in the story of the dinner party, that odor of death has disappeared. Instead, a beautiful fragrance surrounds us! Right in the middle of the party, Mary breaks open a bottle of expensive perfume and anoints Jesus’ feet with it. John tells us that the whole house was filled with its fragrance! Jesus comments that the ointment was to prepare him for his burial after his death – the death that will offer all of us eternal life. There is no stench of death surrounding Jesus, even in the tomb. We smell only the fragrance of life!

That ointment of Mary’s was an extravagant offering! Judas was so scandalized by the cost that he complained about it, right in front of all the other party guests! “Three hundred denarii,” he said, “it cost three hundred denarii! Why, that’s a whole year’s wages! Why didn’t you sell this perfume and give the money to the poor? That would have been a better use of it!” How rude to criticize the host’s sister in front of all the dinner guests! But if Judas was quick to criticize, Jesus was just as quick to respond; and he didn’t mince any words. “Leave her alone!” Can’t you see the other dinner guests looking up in surprise at the tone of Jesus’ voice? “Leave her alone! She has kept this perfume for my burial. You can always help the poor. But I’m here now!” Judas just didn’t get it. Of course the perfume was extravagant! But so is the love for us that God shows us in Jesus! Of course the perfume was expensive! But so is the price of our salvation – the death of Jesus on Good Friday and his resurrection on Easter morning! The fragrance of life is as extravagant as God’s grace and as expensive as Jesus’ sacrifice!

Judas never did get it; and neither do some people today. Like Judas, they are bean-counters; and there is no room for grace in their faith. Their Jesus insists that we follow the rules, criticizes our efforts, and condemns us when our best isn’t good enough. They aren’t very different from the Pharisees who stood outside the home of Lazarus and plotted how to get rid of Jesus. Do you smell the stench of death that surrounds them? Jesus’ ways are very different from their ways. Jesus doesn’t criticize us and condemn us; he loves us and encourages us. He rescues us from all the ways of the world that lead to the stench of death, and offers us the fragrance of life instead!

What do you think that fragrance is like? Jesus offers us love and acceptance. I think that smells like freshly-baked bread, just out of the oven, a smell that welcomes us home. He offers us forgiveness and the possibility to begin again. Maybe that smells like lilacs in the spring and new-mown grass: the scent of growing things and new beginnings. And he offers us hope: the certainty that God’s ways will triumph in the end. Surely that must be the smell of the sea as its powerful waves roll eternally onto the shore.

You know, it’s so easy to become caught up in the ways of the world that we never notice the stench of death swirling around us. We’re so used to hate and fear and judgment and greed that we can’t even smell that it’s garbage. As the air freshener commercial says, we’ve gone “nose-blind” to it. But Jesus knows exactly how it smells; and he also knows how to help us get rid of it. And all we have to do is to ask. He is always ready to replace that stench with the fragrance of the costly perfume of grace. It’s an offer that’s good today, tomorrow, and forever; in this life and in the life to come. So this morning, I invite you to welcome the presence of Jesus into your life, and enjoy all the beauty that comes with it. I guarantee that once you have tasted his grace and smelled the fragrance of the life that he offers us, you’ll never be satisfied with anything else!

Whose Armor Are You Wearing?

We all want to be forces for good in the world. How can we do that? It is tempting to use the same methods that the "big guys" use, but those methods are ultimately counterproductive! So what methods should we use? The story of David and Goliath gives us a clue, while the book of Ephesians spells it out for us.

Imagine a forest, a forest that spreads over two hills with a valley between. The forest is large and dense, the trees heavy with fruit, swaying in the wind that blows through it. But as you come closer to this forest, you realize that it isn’t a forest at all; it’s an army! What looked like trees bearing fruit are in reality men holding weapons! They bristle with swords, shields, and javelins. These aren’t trees swaying in the wind; they are men fidgeting restlessly in anticipation of battle. In the valley between stands one lone warrior. He looks like a tree himself, because he is almost ten feet tall and towers over everyone who surrounds him. He is an impressive sight, covered with state-of-the-art armor, and carrying a javelin as big as a tent pole! If you listen, you can hear him calling out in arrogance: “This day I defy the ranks of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight together!” But nobody dares to come close to him, because this is Goliath the giant. In the end, the only one brave enough to confront him is a shepherd boy: David. But the idea of sending a boy against such a warrior is laughable! Why, you might as well send out a puppy dog to kill a wolf! That was pretty much what King Saul said when David offered to fight Goliath. Can’t you can just imagine the tone of Saul’s voice? “You’re just a kid! You don’t have any chance against this guy!” But David insisted that he could do the job. He said that God was on his side, and God could take care of any giant, even one as big and strong as Goliath. So Saul agreed to let David have a try.

Then, right in the middle of the story, there’s a scene that most of us overlook (I Samuel 17:38-39). Saul assumed that David will fight the way that every other soldier fought; and so he dressed David in his own armor: tunic, breastplate, helmet, and sword.  But Saul’s armor didn’t fit David! He looked like a four-year-old trying on Daddy’s clothes: tunic dragging on the ground, helmet falling down over his face, breastplate extending to his knees, and the sword whacking his shins whenever he took a step. So David told Saul, “Thanks, but no thanks!” and he took off Saul’s armor. Instead, he used his own armor: his shepherd’s staff, his slingshot, five smooth stones from the creek out back, and his faith in God. We all know the end of the story! One well-placed stone from David’s slingshot, and Goliath crashed to the ground like a felled tree. David didn’t need to wear Saul’s armor to get rid of Goliath.

I wonder if we might learn something from David. He is showing us a way to deal with the powers that we all have to confront at one time or another. There are still a lot of Goliaths around: big, arrogant bullies who insist on having their own way. They just look a little bit different than they did in David’s day. Our Goliaths are big, impersonal systems who trap us. They’re economic policies that keep whole segments of society in poverty; powerful corporations that exploit their workers and our environment; and a political system that rewards big donors and special interest groups. These are the Goliaths of today. And it’s so tempting to try to beat them at their own game, so we put on their armor and adopt their methods! We try to beat power with more power; we try to use violence to defeat violence; and then we wonder why we never come out ahead! But that wasn’t David’s approach. David killed Goliath not by trusting the most high-tech armor, but by trusting in God! Maybe we should rethink the armor that we put on when we go out to fight our Goliaths. Maybe we should consider wearing God’s armor instead of Saul’s. God’s armor is very different, you know! God’s armor is a deep confidence in God: a trust that God will take care of things if we will just do things God’s way! The book of Ephesians 6:10-18) describes that armor; and it even explains how to put it on.

First, we buckle the belt of truth around your waist. Now, although today’s belts are put on last, this type of belt was put on first, underneath all the rest of the armor. It held your long tunic secure so that you wouldn’t get tangled up in it. You had to have on a belt if you wanted to make any quick movements in close combat! It makes sense that the belt of God’s armor would be truth. You can’t move quickly if you’re caught in a web of lies. The belt of truth is the foundation of all the rest of the armor.

Then, we put on the breastplate of righteousness. The breastplate was the largest piece of the armor, and it protected all the vital organs in the chest. What else than a righteous life would offer us the most protection? After all, if we don’t lead righteous lives, something that we’ve done may turn around and bite us in the backside when we least expect it! Right living is the biggest single piece of God’s armor.

After we have donned our belt and our breastplate, then we need appropriate footwear. Soldiers of that day would have worn heavy sandals or even boots to protect their feet. But what we want to wear is the gospel of peace. We want to stand firmly in the good news of the gospel!  Strange, isn’t it? We get ready to fight by putting on peace.

But we’re not ready yet! Now we need a shield; and it’s a big one! The Greek word that Ephesians uses here indicates a large wooden shield about 4 feet high and 2 ½ feet wide, all covered with heavy leather. Soldiers would soak their shields in water before battle to protect from flaming arrows shot by enemy soldiers. Our shield is faith, and it turns aside the arrows of doubt, pain, despair, and grief when they fly at us. They’re scary arrows, that’s for sure; but our faith will keep us safe.

God will help us with the rest of the preparation. Our helmet is salvation, and only God can give it to us. It protects our head while we do battle, and it comes with a lifetime warranty! No matter how severe our injuries, our helmet of salvation guarantees that we will never be destroyed. Finally, our sword is God’s word. The Spirit gives our sword its sharp edge that lets it cut right to the heart of things, through all the fraud and deception that its enemies can throw at it. But this sword is not a word of judgment; it is God’s word of peace and reconciliation, helping us to fight hate, prejudice, and alienation.

God’s idea of fighting is certainly different from the world’s idea of warfare, isn’t it? We go to battle through peace; we fight by loving; we conquer through God’s good news of salvation! The Goliaths of the world can’t fight against this type of warfare! They are doomed to lose in the end, no matter how powerful they appear to be. Someone once said that fighting against God by using Goliath’s tactics of bullying and arrogance is like trying to nail Jell-O to the wall. You can pound away at it all you like, but it won’t do you a bit of good in the end!

So, in the end, we have a choice to make. We can clank around in Saul’s armor and try to fight use the Goliaths in the world with their own methods of bullying and violence; or we can put on God’s armor and fight the way that God wants us to fight: with truth, righteousness, faith, and peace. Maybe what David said to Goliath will help us to make that decision: “It is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves,” he said, “for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give you into our hands.” May we, like David, be wise enough and brave enough to reject Saul’s armor and put on God’s.