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Fools Rush in (Proverbs 14:1)
As we walked into church this morning we were
informed that the committee of the Community Centre in which we meet
had found serious problems with the floor, that it had to be resurfaced,
and that we were requested meanwhile to take off our shoes to enter
the main hall. A notice on the overhead screen told us the same thing
and, frankly, it was only because of my especially stiff joints that
morning that I checked first to see if there was any way around the
problem. Sure enough some were in their stocking feet but some were
fully shod so I decided, "what's sauce for the goose…" Only as we were
sat down and waiting for the service to start did John stand and, with
a glint in his eye, say, "April Fool!" How we with shoes laughed at
those without.
April Fool's Day may have started when our calendars were quite different
to the way they are today. March 25th used to be New Years Day and April
1st marked its octave when New Year's celebrations officially ended.
A time for fooling around?
According to Brewer's Phrase and Fable it may be a relic of the Roman
Cerelia, a festival held at this time in honour of Ceres,
or Mother Earth, the corn goddess. The story goes that Proserpina
was sporting in the Elysian meadows, and had just filled her lap with
daffodils, when Pluto carried her off to the lower world. He
mother, Ceres, heard the echo of her screams and went in search
of the voice; but her search was a fool's errand, it was 'hunting the
gowk', or looking for 'the echo of a scream'. In Scotland an April Fool
is known as a gowk, a person fooled or tricked on All Fool's Day.
The media have applied their genius to creating tricks to fool us today,
from plans to put double yellow lines on the M6 motorway, through a
Bill of Rights for robots, to a plan by Tony Blair to pursue an acting
career in his retirement. There seems no end to the Tomfoolery
we enjoy on this day (A Tom Fool is someone a little too fond of stupid
practical jokes).
The Bible has a lot to say about fools and tomfoolery. In his first
letter to believers in Corinth Paul issues a remarkable challenge:
Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where
is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of
the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom
did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was
preached to save those who believe (1 Cor.1:20-21)
Now there are some that read the first chapter of Paul's letter and
take it to mean that we are to be foolish for Christ. Their faith is
unthinking, their conversation simplistic, their lives ingenuous, and
their attitude anti-intellectual. Their apologetic for this they declare
is:
God chose the foolish things of the world
to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of this world to shame
the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised
things - and the things that are not - to nullify the things that are,
so that no one may boast before him (vv 27-28)
However, this passage isn't comparing wisdom with foolishness, rather
the world's 'wisdom' with the wisdom of God which, to the world, appears
foolish. Earlier Paul had declared that he was sent to preach the gospel,
"not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied
of its power" (1:17) This 'human wisdom' Paul challenges not with simplistic
foolishness but God's wisdom.
There is a way that the world looks at things and a way that those who
are Christ's look at things. To the world it is the Christian who is
a fool. This is because the world looks through dead eyes:
For the message of the Cross is foolishness
to those who are perishing
The Christian, however, sees things through eyes lit by the life of
God and he perceives with the wisdom that comes from God:
To us who are being saved it is the power
of God (v.8)
What God calls foolish is the world's wisdom:
For the foolishness of God is wiser than
man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength
(v.25)
That is not to say that anything about God is either foolish or weak
but that the wise man, the scholar, the philosopher of this world is
made foolish by the wisdom of God.
The proverb is right that declares:
Fools despise wisdom and discipline
As Christians on the other hand we should embrace and cherish wisdom
and discipline and the same proverb declares:
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of
wisdom (Prov.1:7)
By all means don't be surprised when you appear foolish to the world
for trusting in Christ but don't be a gowk, don't mistake tomfoolery
for heaven's wisdom. We should never fail to be wise with the wisdom
of God and should always strive to show that God's wisdom is wisdom
indeed.