"Fools For Christ" - I Cor. 1:18-25 - January 31, 1999

Recently I heard about a company that helps new churches get started. They called their program "The Portable Church." Apparently for $60,000 you can purchase a semi-trailer load of all the equipment you need to hold a worship service. The van includes furnishings, sound system, instruments, toys for the nursery, even a coffee pot for the fellowship hour. The hardware even includes signs, both inside and outside. Sounds a bit outrageous, but this actually exists.

This is quite a contrast to the handful of German immigrants who started St. Paul’s over 130 years ago. They had few resources if any, just some folks who didn’t feel welcome in the other churches in town and decided to start their own congregation. They met in homes, basements, even on the second floor of the firehouse. It was a long time before they actually built a sanctuary, almost 40 years.

To those of you who are fiscally conservative the idea of investing that amount of money at the outset sounds crazy. Nevertheless, there is a group of dedicated folks in a rapidly growing area of Cincinnati who are considering that very option. We live in a "build it and they will come" world and in a society that is accustomed to buying whatever it takes to get what we want. Those folks in Cincinnati believe that the portable church is the best option they have to begin their church.

Are they insane? Doesn’t it seem a bit foolish to take such a risky first step? Most of the people I marry these days have already purchased their house. And the majority of them have filled it with furniture. They already have two automobiles. And there is no way they would consider taking up housekeeping without a television, VCR, stereo system and computer. Yet when it comes to spending money on a church the majority of church folks are far more cautious.

Paul told the Corinthians that to be people of faith is to be foolish. He says in this letter that "God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom. God’s weakness is stronger than human strength." In other words, we can’t compare normal business practices to the way we build the faith. The Church can only grow when we are willing to let our hair down and take some risks.

God’s ways are simply not our ways. When God wanted the Israelites to escape the Egyptians he didn’t build a ferry boat, he parted the Red Sea. When God wanted to communicate to the faith community God didn’t make announcements over the Emergency Broadcast System, God sent prophets who acted in some very bazaar ways to rally the troops. God used a fisherman as the leader of the Church. And God had Jesus walk on the earth whose life was an endless series of absurd and extraordinary events.

God’s ways are not our ways. When God calls us to be faithful it defies logic. Just as Paul was calling his people to the faith God calls each of us. Our participation in the faith may not make sense to the people around us. It may not even make sense to us. When I was given my first assignment in ministry I served as pastor of three country churches. I moved into a parsonage that was in the middle of nowhere from the city of Columbus. I shall never forget the transition. On a Friday I was general manager of a medical supply company. Saturday was moving day. On Sunday I was a preaching to complete strangers, most all of whom were farmers. I had always lived in large metropolitan cities. The whole beginning seemed absurd.

What’s even more absurd is that during the next two weeks I officiated at two funerals. My career up until then had been focused on marketing, inventory control, supply management and accounting. Now all of the sudden I was a "The parson."

All of us have been called. Your role may not be as a pastor but each of you is called to some form of ministry. Paul is saying that what we do as believers may seem foolish to others. It may seem illogical, or perceived by your friends as a waste of time. But life is a paradox. On the one hand the cross is a symbol of death and the epitome of the ignorance and fear on the part of humanity. On the other hand the cross is a symbol of hope and faith.

The cross only makes sense to those who are willing to be "fools for Christ." It is for those who are willing to be faithful although it defies logic. It is for those who are driven to do "crazy" things which disrupts the status quo. It is for those who are committed to be clowns in the midst of a society which would rather have robots.

Because we live in a "capitalistic" society we tend to manage our churches like we do corporations. We value time as production. We value property as assets. Worship is a performance. All our activities resemble secular activities complete with committees, officers and bookkeeping. There is nothing really "foolish" about anything we do. We take our faith seriously and methodically. In that sense the cross is a symbol which stands for rules, policies and duties. It is brass, it is beautiful, but rigid and inflexible, sometimes immovable.

To be fools for Christ doesn’t mean we are just clowning around, getting attention. It doesn’t mean we have to wear labels or display certain identifiable trademarks. Our faith is not something we wear on a "t" shirt or attach to our bumper. To be fools for Christ means that we see and therefore apply some unique characteristics which the world calls "foolish."

The first of these is the willingness to sacrifice. We are willing to put others first. We are willing to rearrange our lives to help others who have need. The second is the ability to be ridiculous. We are free to worship in a building that is used only one hour a week. We sing hymns because they are sacred and these sacred tunes inspire us. There is nothing to buy here, we are not going away from this place with shopping carts filled with packages. We are not here to compete or go away winners. We come bruised and broken and leave healed and forgiven.

The most distinguishing feature of our faith, however does indeed involve the cross. We don’t see death as the last word. We see "dying" as the road to resurrection. We see "letting go" as the way to freedom and peace. We are fools because we are assured that God is with us wherever life may take us.

As I look back over my life I have been trying to think of the most foolish thing I did in the name of the faith. At first I thought of the trip to Denver, Colorado that my wife and I made in a van with 10 teenagers. Then there was the time the men of our church held a style show where we all dressed up in women’s clothing. Or perhaps it was the Christmas Day I spent helping the homeless in downtown Columbus, Ohio. But, it really wasn’t any of these.

I know exactly when it was. It was the day a friend in the church I attended asked me to help with the youth program. I was a young father, just beginning a new career. I was trying to buy a house and adjust to a new neighborhood and community. My free time was virtually nonexistent. To accept his invitation to be help with youth couldn’t have come at a more inopportune time. But I did a foolish thing. I accepted and I have been on a journey of faith ever since.

Dr. Keith Wagner, St. Paul’s United Church of Christ, Sidney, Ohio