There’s No Fool Like and Old Fool

 Sunday, I preached at the Nairn Mennonite Church on the subject, From Scarcity to Abundance.  Here is an excerpt of that sermon which deals with being an old fool as I now qualify in both my age and my status as an April Fool. 

Let’s take a trip – let’s get into the way back machine to channel an old cartoon -- and go back – not far - just a few days.  Friday was April 1^st – April Fools’ Day.  I will tell you something about myself.  I am an April Fool.  I was born on April 1^st, 1949.  I have secretly – or not so secretly - enjoyed being an April Fool.  The day of my birth is significant in Canadian history – or almost was.  It is a little-known fact that NFLD was going to join Confederation on my birthday – April 1, 1949. 

But then Joey Smallwood – who led the country of NFLD into Confederation and became its first premier, realized that NFLD would become a perpetual April Fool’s joke and moved the day back to March 31^st. 

Now you might be asking what this has to do with today’s subject of scarcity and abundance.  Well, don’t worry I will get to that.  Because of my birthright of being and April Fool, I have always been fascinated with the concept of the fool.  Being a fool or foolish has generally had a bad reputation.  There is the parable of the wise and foolish virgins.  The foolish ones did not have oil in their lamps when the bridegroom arrived and missed out while they were away buying oil.  However, there is another way of looking at a fool.  One of my favourite bible passages is 1 Corinthians 4:10, “We are fools for the sake of Christ.”  I actually have a blog with the title, Another Fool for Christ.  The full passage gives a more complete picture of what Paul is saying:

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 honour, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we are hungry and thirsty, we are poorly clothed and beaten and homeless, and we grow weary from the work of our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we speak kindly. We have become like the rubbish of the world, the dregs of all things, to this very day.

To be followers of Jesus we are going to do things that are foolish in the sight of the world.  We are going to live in ways that are counter intuitive – we are going to bless those that revile us, we are going to speak kindly to those who slander us.  We are in effect going to love our neighbours and even our enemies.

Richard Rohr wrote about this way of being recently:

For Paul, the code words for nondual thinking, or true wisdom, are “foolishness” and “folly.” He says, in effect, “My thinking is foolishness to you, isn’t it?” Admittedly, it does not make sense unless we have confronted the mystery of the cross. Suffering, the “folly of the cross,” breaks down the dualistic mind. Why? Because on the cross, God took the worst thing, the killing of the God-human, and made it into the best thing, the very redemption of the world. The compassionate holding of essential meaninglessness or tragedy, as Jesus does on the cross, is the final and triumphant resolution of all the dualisms and dichotomies that we face in our own lives. We are thus “saved by the cross”! Does that now make ultimate sense?

The fool is someone who can give us a different perspective on the world. The fool is the one who is going to show us the world as the way it should be.  The fool is the one who will tell us the truth.  In ancient times the king’s court had a fool who would tell the king the truth.  He would whisper in the king’s ear – figuratively - that he was mortal and would one day meet his maker. 

He has a secular version of Ash Wednesday – remember you are dust and dust you shall return.  In Shakespeare’s King Lear, the fool was the only wise man left with King Lear on the heath.  Carl Jung identified the archetype of the Fool who Jung describes as being a “potential future,” meaning that, through various attempts and failures, the Fool gains experience. As the Fool gains experience, he builds his character and eventually develops into the archetype of the Sage or Savior.

So, what can the fool or the Fool bring to our understanding of scarcity and abundance?   The fool is the one who speaks the truth.  So. What is the truth about abundance and scarcity.  Let me explore another part of psychology to see the truth of this.  The ego is that part of us that enables us to get on in the world.  It is the I that is who we are in the world for better or worse.  I consider the ego to be the greatest gift of God but it is also the greatest curse or perhaps challenge would be a better way of putting it.  The ego wants to be in charge, to be in control – the great danger to the ego is change.  It believes that if it has possession, material things that make it feel in control, then more possession are even better.  One of the symbols of the ego is the dragon who sits at the mouth of its cave and hoards its wealth – the precious jewels it has acquired by hook or by crook throughout its life.  It will breathe fire and burn up anything that threatens to take any of its wealth.  The ego is the basis for the prosperity Gospel which believes if you are successful in terms of money and material goods and power it is a sign God is on your side or God is pleased with you.  The Fool on the other hand can show us a different truth – the truth of being a Fool for Christ.

May you have the blessing of the Fool on your journey.   

 

A Maundy Thursday Fool

 

Last Thursday was the Beginning of Easter – Maundy Thursday.  I had the joy of presiding at the Maundy Thursday worship service at St. James Anglican Church in Parkhill.  We are back in the Pandemic Shut Down – I am not sure what the colour is – you could say I am pandemic colour blind – I just know we are back to not having in-person worship and need to limit gatherings to our immediate family and above all keep wearing our masks and social distance when we need to go out for essentials – not the faux essentials but actual ones – o yes and wash those hand thoroughly and often.  We are gathering together on social media – Facebook in this case.  I have not been preaching very often recently so I thought I would share with you my sermon for the Maundy Thursday worship service.

Today we are celebrating Maundy Thursday in which our Saviour Jesus Christ put service ahead of being served by washing the feet of his disciples.  However, today is a double occasion – we are also marking a very important secular occasion – April Fools Day.  This is a very important day for many reasons but not the least because it is my birthday. 

As a result, I have a special place in my heart for fools.  There is a long tradition of fools having a special place in our world.  Sometimes this is a place of honour as in the fool in medieval times who was in the court of the king and whose job it was to remind the king that he should not get above himself – reminding the king that he is only human and is going to die – reminiscent of Ash Wednesday – you are dust and to dust you shall return.

However, fools have not had very good press historically or in our culture today.  Perhaps you are old enough to remember that forgettable TV show from the 1980’s – The A Team.  The unforgettable character Mr. T had the catch phrase “pity the fool” – not very complementary.  Then there is the saying there is no fool like an old fool – and as I am 72 years old today that is applicable to me on both counts.  Another note of interest is that being 72, I was born on April 1, 1949.  A Canadian Heritage moment associated with that date is that this was the day that Newfoundland was originally going to join Confederation and become the 10^th province.  However, the premier of the day – the redoubtable Joey Smallwood – no fool he - decided he didn’t want Newfoundland to become a perpetual April Fools joke so he moved the day to March 31^st.  Canada would certainly not be the same if NFLD and Labrador had not become part of our Confederation. 

Being an April Fool all my life - in a good way of course – I have been assured by St. Paul that this is a good thing.  He makes a bold statement in 1 Corinthians, "We are fools for Christ's sake.”  Indeed, my blog is named after this passage – it is called Another Fool for Christ.  So, if we believe Paul, I am in good company - we Christians are all fools – fools for Christ.

Now you might be asking what this has to do with Maundy Thursday - the reason we have gathered today -albeit by social media.  Jesus is modelling for us exactly what it means to be a fool in St. Paul’s sense.  In Jesus’s act of washing the disciples’ feet he was making a fool of himself.  This after all was doing something which in some circles would have been unthinkable.  Washing the feet of a guest was the job of a slave or servant.  Peter showed how outrageous this act was. 

He blurts out in his usual way of saying what he is feeling, “You will never wash my feet.”  Jesus’s response says it all, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” 

That is the reality for us.  If we are to follow Jesus we will be viewed as fools in the eyes of the world.  St. Paul sums this reality for us:

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 honour, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we are hungry and thirsty, we are poorly clothed and beaten and homeless, and we grow weary from the work of our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we speak kindly. We have become like the rubbish of the world, the dregs of all things, to this very day.

This is not an attractive picture, to be what no one in their right minds would choose to be and do.  But then again to be fools for Christ has rewards that are beyond the imagination of this world.  We are called to serve and not be served.  We are called to love and not hate; we are called to love one another and Jesus loves us.  I will close with yesterday’s word of the day from Br. James Koester of the Society of St. John the Evangelist an Anglican monastic community in the United States:  The word is Way

The way we are invited to walk is not an easy one. It involves towel, basin, and water. It requires us to bend, to stoop, and to kneel. It involves cross and nails, thorns and spear. It requires us to die.

It involves tomb, and grave clothes. It requires us to lay everything aside, even our own lives. But for those who follow, it is life, and peace, and joy.

As Jesus said to the lawyer who asks, "who is my neighbour."  In response, Jesus shares with him the parable of the Good Samaritan and asks him which person was a neighbour to the man who was robbed and beaten.  The lawyer answered “the Samaritan”, Jesus says to him and to you and to me – “go and do likewise”.  Let us do just that - let us go and do likewise.  Blessings on your journey of service.