ARE YOU... A FOOL FOR CHRIST... OR JUST A FOOL?

In the fall of 1976, Lu Ratmeyer led me in the "sinner's prayer," and in the spring of 1977, I joined a church for the first time in my life. Actually, I threw myself into as if my life depended on it. There were Sunday morning services, Sunday evening services, midweek services, adult education classes, youth events, and of course, Evangelism Explosion. Initially, everyone I knew was happy for me. They knew what I had been through, and they felt that any new version of "me" had to be better that the one they had known. However, when they saw how enthused I was about the gospel, they became concerned. Everything is better in moderation, they suggested, and they certainly didn't want me to become a "fanatic," or "a fool for Christ." It is good, they thought, to make faith part of your life, but it is foolish... to let faith direct your life. Well, as you can tell, I didn't listen to them. I couldn't listen... because I knew that my very life was at stake. If I had any hope of living a full and joyful life, or of being any good to anyone, I had to be "a fool" for Christ, which meant that I had to surrender completely to his Lordship and serve him with every fiber of my being.

So, not thinking that I had a choice, I became a "fool for Christ," but in becoming a fool- in trusting Him instead of myself- I was liberated from the second-guessing and people-pleasing that had dominated my life. I was free to take risks and to be vulnerable, and besides, I found myself in very good company! Paul noted that he was a "fool for Christ" because he preached nothing more than Christ crucified and risen. Yet, even Paul was just one more in a long list of fools... Noah was the first "fool for God." He took God at His word and built a boat on dry land. It wasn't a small boat either. It was a big boat and he led all sorts of animals into it. He was like the man we see on a street corner- the one with a sandwich board saying "the end of the world is at hand"- and he must have been mocked and ridiculed every single day... until the first raindrop fell. Abraham was the next fool in line. He was born in modern-day Iraq, and his family had worshiped the gods in that place for who knows how long. Abram, as he was known then, was neither a Christian nor a Jew, but in response to a new voice, he pulled up his stakes and wandered as an alien land for the rest of his life. He trusted in God, it seems, to the point of appearing foolish. He was willing to take his son, Isaac, up Mount Moriah, believing somehow that God would provide the sacrifice. Leaving the known for the unknown, tying your son up on a sacrificial altar- these acts are not reasonable. They are not measured, and there is no doubt that Father Abraham was a fool for God.

The prophet, Isaiah, walked naked and barefoot for more than 3 years to make a point for God. Hosea married a prostitute, and gave his children odd names, for the same reason. God told him to do these things because Israel was unfaithful. John the Baptist lived in the wilderness. he ate locusts for dinner, and he looked like a wild man. He was another fool for God, as was Peter and the others, who immediately left their jobs and followed Christ. They, and the generations who preceded them, made their living as fishermen on the Sea of Galilee... until Jesus said, "Follow me," and then, they threw down their nets and followed him. Today, we are prone to read this story as if it is reasonable... but how many of us would leave our jobs and businesses to follow Christ... with or without giving notice? Not one, I would guess, because radical, faith-based decisions are NOT reasonable. How could they be? They are based on faith. According to the world, a wise man would never leave the security of home, unless he had a nest egg hidden away and his other bases covered. Finally, let's consider our Lord. From the world's perspective, there was never a bigger fool for God than Jesus of Nazareth. He never once listened to the voices of reason; he never once diluted his message or minimized the cost of discipleship. Bonhoeffer noted that, when Jesus calls a man, he bids him, "Come and die," but what kind of church growth slogan is that? It's foolish, but no more foolish that believing that you can change the world... without money, power, or press coverage. Even Satan pointed out that Jesus could accomplish his mission by making a name for himself and by taking matters into his own hands. When we were uniting two churches in Peoria, one of our elders gave an impassioned plea against the union, telling everyone in attendance that "Pastor Kenn and the leadership board were going too much on faith!" Yes, that's what he said... and his message makes sense to many people who have come to believe that the church is mostly a "business." Start with a prayer- certainly; sing a sweet song if you must; be a little bit bold and chalk it up to faith... BUT make your decisions on the basis of facts and reason. Living on faith never makes sense, and it never will. Thus, if you pick up your cross and live by faith, you will be a "fool" for Christ. If you share what you have with the poor, if you love your enemies, if you forgive 70 times 7, and in other ways, act like someone who has been born again, you will be labeled as a "fool for Christ," but in the process, you will claim the fullness of life. Your cup will overflow and you will dwell in the house of the Lord forever!

Jesus talked about money a lot- a fact that many of us forget... because he often talked about it 1) in the sense of NOT falling in love with it and 2) in the sense of using our wealth to clothe the naked and feed the hungry. Money, as an object of our love, or as our own exclusive source of pleasure and comfort, was never condoned by our Lord (period). There was a very rich man (Luke 16:19-31) who dressed in purple and dined in luxury every day of his life. We don't know how we got his wealth, but we do know that there was  a desperately poor beggar lying beside his gate. The beggar, whose name was Lazarus, was covered with sores. He was ill, and he was starving. Indeed, he was "longing" to eat the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table. In the hierarchy of living things, Lazarus had even slipped below the dogs, who came and licked his sores whenever it pleased them. There is no evidence that the rich man (aka "Dives") gained his wealth dishonestly or used it in unsavory ways. Nor is there any evidence that Lazarus brought his troubles on himself. All we know is that there was a very rich man who drove by a very poor man day after day... without sharing what he had, or even looking him in the eyes. In a story that stands in contrast to the "good Samaritan," the man who is lying beside the road is allowed to lay there... and die! Of course we all die, and Dives does too, but the story goes on: in the afterlife, Lazarus is in heaven and Dives is in Hades. "Father Abraham," the Dives cries out, "Please warn my brothers. Tell them not to live as I lived... so that they won't have to endure this hell." "If they haven't listened to God's word," Abraham concluded, "They will not listen to me." Let those who have ears hear: if you are blessed with great wealth, share it with those who are lying by your gate!

There are two comments that I will never forget from my time in Peoria. One (about me relying too much on faith) has already been mentioned. The other came from a friend of mine who had been blessed with a very good year. He said, "Pastor, I'm going to buy another silo for one of my farms. I need the tax deduction so that the government won't get all of my money." Wow, I thought, how about the church? Or just the poor? For the record, this man is a devout man, and in many ways a generous man. My point is simply this: it's very easy for a rich man to slip into thinking that what he has is his. To illustrate the dangers of living for wealth, (Luke 12:13ff) Jesus told a young man this story: there was a certain rich man who was blessed with a bunker crop. In fact, his yield was so great that he was not able to store all of it. So, he thought to himself, "What shall I do?" Then it came to him- I will tear down all of my barns and build bigger ones. Bigger ones that will allow me to store up my excess and take life easy. "I will eat, drink and be merry," he said, but... God interrupted him with challenging words, "You fool! You poor, poor fool. You never got it. You ignored my words. You never considered your neighbor's needs, and now, tonight, as you approach your death bed, you're drawing plans for bigger barns.You poor, poor fool." Whoever told you that it was all about you? What made you think that the future was yours?

Christ crucified, Paul noted, is foolishness to the Greeks, and we still marvel at those who let go of what they have for Christ's sake. We want to admire them, but there's part of us that considers them fools. When Christ hung on his cross, they laughed at him. "Look at the fool hanging there," they might have said. "His back his shredded, his head is bleeding and bruised, we can hardly understand a word that he says... and he thinks that He's some sort of Savior." What a fool! And what fools we are to believe that... by trusting in this man ourselves... our own sins are forgiven! What could be more foolish than to trust in a crucified man for eternal life? Unless of course, it's true. Then it's not foolish at all, is it? CS Lewis noted that, given who Jesus claimed to be, we cannot call him an enlightened man or a good teacher... but must either embrace Him as Lord and Savior, or dismiss him as a fool. There are only so many Biblical passages we can ignore... without admitting that we really aren't taking Christ seriously... and after hearing all of this, some of us will continue to put our trust in bigger barns. Some of us will always be bigger fans of the Bears than we'll ever be of Christ's, and this is foolish indeed. Friends, we can be a fool for the world and trust in gold, or we can be a fool for Christ and trust in His Word. We can be a fool for Jesus, or just a fool-I really don't think there's any in-between. Amen.