Who is the Fool….Who is the Lover?

Who is the Fool….Who is the Lover?

Good Morning Friends,

Shirley Temple Black died yesterday and I wonder why she survived Hollywood when so many of other child stars have been consumed one sparkle at a time by the demons of the world. Surely it is not for lack of the media trying even 82 years ago when she got her start in a series of sexually suggestive short films that even in today’s environment would raise eyebrows. So, it is not appropriate to be nostalgic about the way she was used by Fox to bring them out of bankruptcy. Still she was a gift of hope for people during the depression that might just have reflected back on her with a double helping of grace for a family life and a new profession as a diplomat. I really do not know about her faith, she gave up believing in Santa Claus when he asked for an autograph, but this I think is instructive. The business she was in perceived her ways as foolishness not unlike the underlying perception of the world for those engaged in advancing God’s Kingdom on earth. But really, Who is the Fool…Who is the Lover?

Scripture: The Message that points to Christ on the Cross seems like sheer silliness to those hell-bent on destruction, but for those on the way of salvation it makes perfect sense. This is the way God works, and most powerfully as it turns out. It’s written,

I’ll turn conventional wisdom on its head,
I’ll expose so-called experts as crackpots.

So where can you find someone truly wise, truly educated, truly intelligent in this day and age? Hasn’t God exposed it all as pretentious nonsense? Since the world in all its fancy wisdom never had a clue when it came to knowing God, God in his wisdom took delight in using what the world considered dumb—preaching, of all things!—to bring those who trust him into the way of salvation.

1 Corinthians 1:18-21 (MSG)

A fool gives full vent to anger, but the wise quietly holds it back.

Proverbs 29:11 (NRSV)

Message: Alexander Pope is credited with saying that, “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.” And Mae West said, “He who hesitates is a damned fool.” The reality is that the truth cannot be reasoned between them only discovered in the experience of love in the midst of them. So too it was for Shirley Temple. Indeed without a leap of love as the reason we are either slaves or fools to a behavior of death. She seems to have done the sane thing in her life. Likewise, the only sane thing for us is to be a fool for love. The politics for Jesus faced a similar perception of consumptive success and he responded in a way counter to those in power. Many of the Sanhedrin considered Jesus a failed attempt at a Messiah, a charlatan who professed to be the Messiah but couldn’t deliver on the expected holy war. Many thought Him a fool and criticized and condemned and complained about him. His culture initially saw His death as an act of weakness…they wanted a Messiah to operate in strength. In their eyes he was as weak as a Shirley Temple. Even today we live in a culture that uplifts the accomplishments of people…just look at the Olympics. But Jesus turns it all around. The amazing thing is that this foolishness of God…of Christ on the Cross brings us the opportunity to be victorious over sin. Jesus defeated sin and this radical love frees us to love day by day. Friends, each day I awake and find a new way of being foolish and learn. I would think we are all fools…just more so when we think we are wise in our strength. And of course love makes fools of us all in the eyes of the world. Our only salvation then is to be clever fools for Christ but never just a fool. Oh to delight in understanding it…Oh to have a heart for such wisdom. Oh to not become drunk with the world’s ways.

Pray we realize that might is not always right. Pray people become free of the evil which encumbers them and live under the love and in the light of the God who created them. Pray we trust in the foolishness of God…in the radical love of our Savior. Pray we not fear to love. Pray we be a sign of hope for those who despair. Pray our strength is in the Lord.

Blessings,

John Lawson