More Wisdom and Foolishness

1 Corinthians 1:27-31 (NRSV)

But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

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But what a fool believes he sees
No wise man has the power to reason away
What seems to be
Is always better than nothing
There's nothing at all
But what a fool believes he sees

"What a Fool Believes" written by Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins and recorded by The Doobie Brothers from "Minute by Minute"

What a fool believes no wise man has the power to reason away. The wisdom of this world is rooted in what we see. "I'll believe it when I see it" has become the cry of a new generation. So much is this so that many won't believe the most obvious of truth without seeing it through the wisdom of their own eyes.

If the mysteries of our own world, like if the light goes off when you close the fridge, if these are questioned constantly, the mysteries of the eternal are well beyond our understanding. Yet, we seek to understand, we seek to see it with our own eyes.

Paul writes, "Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles." There is no human sense to be made, no earthly wisdom to come from the wisdom of Christ crucified. Yet, "God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe."

"What a Fool Believes" is that love is real if only in the mind of the fool. The sentimental fool don't see, tryin' hard to recreate, what had yet to be created. Yes, maybe the man is delusional, but what if he is not? What if this is a love that may be real one day?

Casey, mighty Casey at the bat struck out. But he swung at the pitch. He went down swinging.

The fool for Christ has hope, not optimism. Optimism is based on what is possible for people. True hope is based on what God does with people. The hope of transformation, the hope of redemption. This is the foolishness of Christ crucified. Frankly, it's better than all the wisdom found on earth.

Wisdom-It's not What We Know It's Who God Is

Thanks to Walt for the tune suggestion.


1Corinthians 1:21b-22, 27-29 (NRSV)

Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For 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.

But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no onec might boast in the presence of God.

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But he knew, he knew more than me or you
No one could see his view
Oh, where was he going to

And he tried
But before he could tell us he died
When he left us the people cried

Oh, where was he going to?

Portrait (He Knew), by Kerry Livgren, from "Point of Know Return" by Kansas

I am a Presbyterian and traditionally Presbyterians are known for learned clergy. If it were up to my seminary professors alone, this would never change. Seminary teaches scripture, language-Hebrew and Greek, history, liturgy, theology, ministry, mission, evangelism, worship, and a litany of things that would take 2,000 years to learn.

Yet, there is one thing we all leave knowing in one way or another. We really don't know much. When asked how I was feeling, I used to answer, "young and stupid." Now I am almost 30 years older than when I started saying that. Seminary minded new depths of my ignorance. Parish ministry has taught me that I may have every good ministerial tool in my toolbox, but parish ministry can be like trying to being a jet mechanic trying to keep a plane in the air...at 38,000 feet-moving into a thunderstorm.

I long for the days when I thought I was young and stupid.

The joy is I get to remember that I don't need to know all of the answers as long as I know where to seek the answers. He knew, he knew more than me or you, no one could see his view. His wisdom is our folly--and right back at you.

Jesus shared his widsom, the wisdom of God with a creation that could not understand it. He knew we would not be able to get it. Yet he tried, but before he could tell us he died. When he left us the people cried. Do I understand now? Oh no.

Then if we understood, we wouldn't need the Holy Spirit. The Lord knew we would need the Spirit to be with us and show us what we did not understand. Whether it takes one time, seventy-seven times, or seventy-seven plus one times, God is patient and loving and kind.

God knows, and by God's wisdom we can remember it's not what we know, it's who God is.

What Appears to Be Insane

Acts 26:24-25

While he was making this defense, Festus exclaimed, “You are out of your mind, Paul! Too much learning is driving you insane!” But Paul said, “I am not out of my mind, most excellent Festus, but I am speaking the sober truth.

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Welcome to my breakdown.
I hope I didn't scare you.
That's just the way we are when we come down.

"Welcome to My Nightmare" by Alice Cooper

One of the most difficult things about being a Christian is that to the world we're all kind of crazy. We believe in love. We believe in redemption. We believe no one is beyond the reach of God's redemptive work. Where this gets crazy is that if we believe no one is beyond redemption we had better believe that no one is beyond redemption. The moment we put limits on God's redeeming work, we put limits on God.

Sharing this truth has put Christians in a pickle since the beginning of Christ's ministry. Men left the family business. Men left their homes and families. Followers suffered scorn, ridicule, pain and even death. What's crazy is that they continued their mission!

We can always depend on the Holy Spirit to give us the words we need to share the Good News, but we can't guarantee people will be ready to hear it, or at least to accept it. Festus heard the word, but he was not ready to hear it. He declared Paul out of his mind. "Too much learning is driving you insane!" Festus was scared, frightened by the words Paul spoke and he could not fathom them. Instead he declared the Apostle coo-coo for Cocoa Puffs.

Friends, share the good news with your neighbors and you will risk the same rejection. Jesus tells us that we will be rejected by some, but he will never reject us. When people call us crazy we need to welcome them to our breakdown. It's just the way people often hear the word of God when it first comes down to them.

That's fine too, we aren't alone. Many have been called that sort of crazy before the Apostle. Many have been called that sort of crazy for speaking the sober truth. In Christ there is no nightmare, there is no breakdown--it'll just look that way to some people.

Strange Proverbs

Proverbs 26:4-5 (NRSV)

Do not answer fools according to their folly,
or you will be a fool yourself.

Answer fools according to their folly,
or they will be wise in their own eyes.

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Substitution mass confusion
Clouds inside your head
Well foggin' all my energies
Until you visited
With your eyes of porcelain and of blue
They shock me into sense
You think you're so illustrious
You call yourself intense

"Bye Bye Love" by The Cars from The Cars, 1978

These two couplets from the Proverbs are facinating. In identical situations, it gives conflicting advice for different reasons. The biggest difference between the two is that to answer the fool is a pain to the person who answers and not answering the fool is to bolster the fool in their own mind. So here's the choice, is it better to allow the fool to be high in their own mind or is it better to get a scarred forehead after beating your own into a brick wall?

Seemingly, any answer is going to be laden with downside.

When people call scripture "God's Owner's Manual" I like to think of these two verses and wonder what to do with these instructions. Both of these lessons can be found in other places in scripture, but finding these one after the other makes me think Solomon was messing with us.

Often, we want to solve the riddles of scripture. Where did Cain's wife come from? How did it take 40 years to cross the Siani? What did Jesus mean when he said "Hate your parents?" If a women can't instruct men in church then why is this female pastor teaching me so much? How can we both answer and not answer fools?

On this side of glory, there are far more questions than there are answers. Still, we like to solve puzzles. As the song goes, "Substitution mass confusion, Clouds inside your head" But as the new-wave boys from Boston remind us, this happened "until you visited." In Christ there is peace that puts mass confusion to rest.

Put Christ first--In Christ the law is fulfilled; not replaced but fulfilled. Christ is found in scripture. Christ is found still in life through the power of the Holy Spirit. Christ is found all around us. Anything else is kind of foolish.

That's intense.

The End of Childish Ways

1 Corinthians 13:11

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.

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Fifteen there's still time for you
Time to buy and time to lose
Fifteen, there's never a wish better than this
When you only got hundred years to live

"100 Years" by Five for Fighting

There's a genre of songs that take the listener over the course of a life in a song. Frank Sinatra won a Grammy for Best Male Vocal Performance in 1966 with a song called, "It Was a Very Good Year." Harry Chapin had a huge hit with his contribution to the genre, "Cat's in the Cradle." This version is from Five for Fighting.

"100 Years" tells the story of a young boy (the singer/songwriter is a boy so I going with the subject of the song being a boy) who is fifteen years old, "stuck between ten and twenty." The story continues throughout the years and benchmarks of life as the boy becomes a man, and a father, and continues until the age of ninety-nine, just a moment from dying.

Then again, it may be the boy, age fifteen, imagining all of this. Imagining how life will unfold. That's what's great about art, I can imagine both and not worry about being right or wrong. The song writer can tell me what he intended, where the "truth" lies, but in the meantime, I can have both views.

In any case, as the boy grows up, he increases in responsibilities. He increases in wisdom, and not so coincidentally, the time lapse of the song increases. It takes four verses to go from fifteen to forty-five, but from there it speeds up the next verse takes us from forty-five to ninety-nine. Ninety-nine gets its own verse though, examining life and awaiting death.

Paul tells this young boy that when he is young, he will be young. He'll speak like a child, think like a child, and reason like a child. When it comes time to be an adult it's time to put away childish ways. In the verses where the boy becomes a man, when he has a wife and a family, he must be a man and take care of his family like only a man can.

If we have only one problem it is that we have too many children having children. A child can't raise a child. Only an adult can raise a child. Some kids in their tweens have become borne children, and some forty year old's with kids haven't left childish ways behind.

Stay young at heart, laughter is essential! Seeing wonder in life everyday is important to growing in wisdom. Childishness is different, and it's dangerous past a certain age, and destructive once you have children of your own.

Paul put away his childish ways. He accepted responsibility. He did what he had to do instead of what he wanted to do. He acted with wisdom instead of impulse. At fifteen there's still time, but time marches on.

The Ties that Bind

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Matthew 19:16-22 (NRSV)

Then someone came to him and said, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; Honor your father and mother; also, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The young man said to him, “I have kept all these; what do I still lack?” Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” When the young man heard this word, he went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

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I realize I don't want to be a miser
Confide wisely you'll be the wiser
Young blood is the lovin' upriser
How come everybody wanna keep it like the kaiser?

"Give It Away," written by John Frusciante and Flea, recorded by The Red Hot Chili Peppers, from Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magik


The horror of the story of the rich, young ruler is that he is torn between two lovers. He wants to be faithful to the Lord our God and he wants to keep his stuff. He wants both things so very badly that when confronted by both the wealth of the future and the wealth of the present he really doesn't make a decision.

Matthew's gospel tells us that the rich young ruler went away grieving. It doesn't say he told Jesus to buzz off, got into his big fancy car and went home to his hot tub and servants. He went away grieving. He wanted to go with the Lord, but at that moment he couldn't bring himself to leave his stuff. And scripture doesn't tell us whether or not he returned to his stuff satisfied that he made the right decision. Scripture says he grieved as he went away.

While scripture says he went away, it doesn't say the Lord left him. The Lord is steadfast.

To paraphrase the Peppers, the young man knew he didn't to be a miser. He confided wisely, but unfortunately he did not choose to be the wiser; at least not at that moment. He wanted to follow Jesus, but he couldn't pull the trigger and give it away.

But there is an open door, the rich young ruler may not have done as Jesus asked at that moment, but maybe--just maybe--later--he did.

He was drawn to the Lord, and he grieved when he faced the ties that bound him to his wealth, but I wonder if he didn't choose to do as the Lord demanded later. It is written that on that day, the rich young ruler did not have the faith to move mountains and trade current wealth for the treasure of heaven. But let us not lose faith that he did not give it away later.

Everyday we are faced with choices just like the ones the rich young ruler faced; in some of them we choose well, in others, not so much. Sure, like the rich young ruler we do the right things on the whole, but we aren't doing everything our Lord wants us to do.

Beware of the things that tie us to our current lives because these are the ties that bind us in ways that are neither to our advantage nor what God wants for our lives. Whether they be wealth or attitudes.

We can always hope the rich young man became wiser, chose better, and cut the ties that bound him. And we can always hope the same for us.

The Source of Wisdom

Ephesians 1:17-19

I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power.

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I sailed an ocean, unsettled ocean
Through restful waters and deep commotion
Often frightened, unenlightened
Sail on, sail on sailor

"Sail on Sailor" recorded originally by The Beach Boys. This version features Brian Wilson with Matthew Sweet and Darius Rucker.

Paul has a well developed theology of wisdom. This is extended in his greeting to the Ephesians praying that they may be given a spirit of wisdom from the Father of glory, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul doesn't want them to be wiser in the ways of the world, he wants them to receive only the good gifts of God.

Paul's hope has never changed either, that we all increase in wisdom, but there's a lot more of the earthly variety of smarts out there today than there was 2,000 years ago. Paul would be amazed that the wealth of human wisdom is now doubling at a rate of every ten years, and soon will be down to doubling every two. He would be amazed at things like the internet to store and share human knowledge. Amazed, but not impressed.

So much stuff and so little of it wrapped around wisdom that matters. As the old song goes, we ride the unsettled ocean of intelligence, not wisdom. Sometimes it's restful, more often it's frightened, unenlightened deep commotion. There is so much commotion that our choices are to sail through or get swamped. Both Brian Wilson and the Apostle Paul knew about this from their many journeys.

So we are to seek God's wisdom, not the wisdom of the world. Facts are the junk food of wisdom, God's word is bread for our life's journey. We seek this gift so that our hearts may be enlightened knowing the hope of God's glorious wisdom; these riches Paul calls the inheritance of the saints. This is the gift for all who receive God's wisdom.