Father Peter F. Hansen
Sermon for the Sexagesima
February 19, 2006
I Speak as a Fool
“ Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. ”
If there is a greater fool than I in this church, or anywhere for that matter, I challenge them to a duel of foolishness, a duel for fools. For I not only speak as a fool, but I speak “Foolish” fluently.
I have said it more than once, but truly, if I may not be of any other use in the pursuit of truth, righteousness, wisdom and godliness, at the very least I may always serve as a bad example : an example of what not to do. At this I excel. I am the veritable crash dummy of ministry, the Evil Knieval of leadership, a Hindenburg of personal achievement.
I started out as a child, thinking I would be… I don't really remember. Nothing really gave form to my fantasy of me. An engineer? I had the math skills, but not the discipline. An artist? Maybe, but I had no idea what to paint or sculpt. An actor? My dad was an actor, but the intensity of the lights and pressure of fame daunted me. A priest? Come on. Nobody becomes a priest. I saw myself in romantic terms, but without occupation. Never a policeman, not a fireman, nor a pilot, nor a politician. Without knowing it, I was already well on my way to becoming a fool.
That is to say, architecture school at UC Berkeley. Of course, I showed up right at the time for the hippy revolution, the anti-war movement, the extinction of professional architecture, and the end of the Episcopal Church as a viable Christian faith, at least for me. Five years later, three things I knew for sure: I was a pretty good musician; I didn't ever want to be an architect; and I was in love with a Persian girl. I went to work supervising mentally retarded adults in a work-training program. That was the best training I ever got. They taught me just what a fool I was.
Stumbling through a failed attempt to settle in the United Arab Emirates, I wound up back in the States, father of a family of three and unable to find work as an architect, or even as a draftsman, I ended up in industrial painting and special coatings contracting as an estimator. I was actually pretty good at that, and spent 16 years being unhappy in my job. As for most people, my work was what I did while wishing I were something else. Trying New Age religion, a career as a songwriter, a school of psychic phenomena, and the new morality: I ended up totally unhappy and alienated. It was then that Christ found me.
To be consistent as a fool, one must resist good things more than bad things. I resisted being a full-on Christian for years, even into seminary, even into my priesthood. While I remained an estimator, I had two worlds and two selves. I could preach a good sermon, bid an intelligent contract, teach Bible and talk trash. I was torn in two, and in the midst of all this, my family didn't come first or second in my life. Neither did God. It took a long, long time for me to rediscover my heart, let God fill it with love, and settle in on one life to live, and to live it happily.
All this to tell you, I am an expert on foolishness. Solomon wrote more about fools than any other biblical author, but he was the wisest man that ever lived, so what did he know about being a fool? He had to grow into the part, and only in his later life did he learn the real foolishness that would break his kingdom. I have it all over him as a fool. While still a wise man, Solomon observed that there really is no ultimate difference between a wise man and a fool: “ As is the fate of the fool, it will also befall me. Why then have I been extremely wise? So I said to myself, This too is vanity. For there is no lasting remembrance of the wise man as with the fool, inasmuch as in the coming days all will be forgotten. And how the wise man and the fool alike die! So I hated life… because everything is futility and striving after wind. Thus I hated all the fruit of my labor for which I had labored under the sun, for I must leave it to the man who will come after me. And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the fruit of my labor for which I have labored by acting wisely under the sun. This too is vanity.” Eccles. 2:15-19
Jesus spoke of fools in negative terms, and rightly so. But it took Paul to spot, enlarge and proclaim the true value of a fool. I find great comfort in this, and hope to be an even better fool in the future. Paul wrote the Corinthians two letters in which he trumpeted the cause of foolishness. He said Christ sent him to preach, but not with wise words: “that the cross of Christ should not be made void. For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.' Where is the wise man? …Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed Jews ask for signs, and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness, …Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men… God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, …that no man should boast before God.” 1 Cor. 1:17-29
I can't boast, because I am a fool. I come then, not by my own wisdom, but as one through whom God thrust a sword and dubbed as a priest. It was not my idea, nor my will to be what I am, but the grace of God. And with all of that, my foolishness remains my greatest gift. It keeps me humble. It keeps me real. I know what my true gifts are. People may praise my achievements, my eloquence, my artistry, my labor, my face or strength or character. I know the truth. I am the donkey that Christ rode into town. If I happen to show up at the same time, it was by His doing, not the donkey's. My strength is only in knowing that.
Paul wrote again to the Corinthians about foolishness, and it became our Epistle reading for today. He begins by saying: “I wish that you would bear with me in a little foolishness; but indeed you are bearing with me. For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. But I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.” 2 Cor. 11:1-3 Paul is upset that his church is following other doctrines, flashy preachers, new ideas that overturn the pure and simple faith. They think they're wise and that Paul was too simplistic. So, speaking as a fool, he shows them that foolishness is better than all their wisdom. He condemns those who pervert the Gospel: “For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their deeds.” v. 13-15. And figuring that foolish speaking plays better on their ears, Paul plays the fool to win them back: “Let no one think me foolish; but if you do, receive me even as foolish, that I also may boast a little… I am not speaking as the Lord would, but as in foolishness, in this confidence of boasting. Since many boast according to the flesh, I will boast also. For you, being so wise, bear with the foolish gladly... But in whatever respect anyone else is bold (I speak in foolishness), I am just as bold myself.” v. 16-21
Jesus preached in parables, proclaiming the most piercing truths in simple stories a child could understand, but which the wise dismissed as childish. A man sowed his seed, and four kinds of ground were thus given the Word of God. Only good ground produced fruit, while the hard-bitten world-wise, the shallow and the selfish couldn't get it and keep it. St. Luke 8:4ff His words had depth, but were seen as foolish, offensive and ill mannered by the elite. When He told His fair-weather followers they had to eat His flesh and drink His blood, they left disgusted. Only the simple, the fishermen, the foolish remained to find out what He meant.
There are times when all the knowledge, all the wisdom, all the achievements, all the money in the world will not get you where foolishness already live. Albert Einstein was touted as the smartest man of the last century. In his brilliance, he almost grasped what a kid knows by merely looking up. In his own words, “We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.” “Whoever undertakes to set himself up as judge in the field of truth and knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the Gods.” “The finest emotion of which we are capable is the mystic emotion. Herein lies the germ of all art and all true science. Anyone to whom this feeling is alien, who is no longer capable of wonderment and lives in a state of fear is a dead man. To know that what is impenetrable for us really exists and manifests itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, whose gross forms alone are intelligible to our poor faculties - this knowledge, this feeling ... that is the core of the true religious sentiment.” It is unfortunate, and perhaps our own fault, that Dr. Einstein never found a home in Christianity.
Deacon Tony Sands has been accepted for ordination as a priest, God willing sometime before Easter. Perhaps among his many capacities, the future Father Sands has been found a big enough fool to join the ranks of us blackbirds, proclaiming the vastness of God from the pulpit of foolishness. Our hope and greatest blessing and wish are that his words, the example of his life, and the work of his hands and heart ever portray the simplicity of God from the lofty pedestal of a fool.
PFH+