Ross Erb: Where Wisdom and Foolishness Meet

June 1, 2008
Matthew 7: 21-29

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Have you noticed how much we as a society seem to revel in the foolishness of others? Think about it. How many of us watch America’s Funniest Home Videos and laugh at the misguided things that people try. In fact, I’m always a little bit bothered by my own reactions if I watch this program. Am I the only person who feels like I’m doing something wrong when I laugh uproariously when I see someone fall off a bicycle, horse, trampoline, boat, or whatever? The harder the person smacks themselves - or gets smacked by someone else - the funnier it is. Why do we laugh? Perhaps we think to ourselves, “Wow, what was that person thinking?” OR, is it because we are thinking, “Wow, I remember being in that same position. I’m glad it is someone else in the video, not me!” Maybe it is a “There but for the grace of God go I?” kind of reaction.

It gets worse. Some people have come to recognize foolishness with a special award – the Darwin Award. This is not your run-of-the- mill mistake that is being recognized. It is extreme foolishness, a gross lack of judgment– foolishness which results in the person not just getting seriously harmed, but being killed. It’s called the Darwin Award because the theory is the person worked to improve the human gene pool by removing themselves from that pool. Foolishness can obviously have some very serious consequences!

Looking at some of the Darwin Awards, I quickly realized that most of these were NOT sermon illustration material. These are stories of actions so misguided that the person dies, but they are presented in a way that sounds funny. Now, I said that these are not sermon illustration material, but I am going to give you one example, mostly because this story is not true. It has been deemed an urban legend. The story goes that a man strapped a rocket booster onto his car. He’s on a straight stretch of road in the Arizona desert. He gets the car going at a high rate of speed and ignites the rocket. The car takes off going between 250 and 300 miles per hour for about 2.5 miles. At this point the man applies the brakes and promptly melts them down, blows out the tires, and leaves thick rubber strips on the road. The car then becomes airborne, and crashes into a cliff face another 1.3 miles down the road. The car hits the cliff at a height of 125 feet above the ground. Police find the smoldering wreckage at the foot of the cliff.

So, what makes an action foolish? On America’s Funniest Home Videos and with the Darwin Awards, it seems that the foolishness often lies in not thinking through the possible consequences of ones actions. In the myth about the car with the rocket booster, the person had obviously not thought about the end of the ride. In fact, Webster defines foolish as being “devoid of good sense or judgment”, and foolishness is “the trait of acting stupidly or rashly.”

Contrast this with wisdom. One definition of wisdom is the ability, developed through experience, insight and reflection, to discern truth and exercise good judgment. Wisdom is sometimes conceptualized as an especially well developed form of common sense. In other words, you can be really smart, but not be very wise if you have not learned to apply your knowledge. Wisdom often comes with age, and if a young person is wise they may demonstrate “wisdom beyond their years.” Unlike foolishness, when someone acts wisely we don’t laugh. We may sit up and take notice or we may honor someone for their wisdom, but we certainly don’t poke fun or make a joke about it. We value advice from the person who is wise. We may seek out a wise person to become our mentor, and help us to develop our own wisdom.

In our gospel text for today, we also learn something of wisdom and foolishness. The text comes after a series of stories that Jesus tells which lay out contrasting ways of living. We can choose to live to look for the speck in the eye of someone else rather than deal with the log in our own eye. We can choose to respond to the hunger of another by giving bread, or we can trick them by giving a stone which does nothing to meet their need. We can take the easy way through life and pass through the wide gate, or we can live a life of discipline and pass through the narrow gate that leads to a much better place. We can be like trees that bear good fruit and bless those who pass by, or we can be like trees that bear bad fruit and do no one any good. And finally, Jesus comes to the wise builder and the foolish builder. Wisdom and foolishness are contrasted – we can choose to be wise like the builder who builds on the rock, or we can be foolish like the builder who builds on the sand.

We like this story, we tell it to our children, we sing about it. But as we focus on the story, it’s easy to miss the main point, which is that we need to not only listen to the words of Jesus, but we need to act on them as well. We are foolish if we think that we can listen to the gospel message, make a decision to accept Jesus as our Savior, and stop there. We are foolish if we think that arguing over right theology, or belonging to the right church is going to save us. We are foolish if we think that having the right style of worship, or singing only hymns or only praise and worship music, or praying long enough or often enough is going to ensure our salvation.

Verses 21 – 23 of Matthew 7 are difficult verses. The thought that some will claim to have known the Lord but be rejected in the final judgment is stunning. Claiming to know Jesus as “Lord, Lord” is not enough. Stopping there can still result in Jesus saying “I never knew you; go away from me.” But Jesus follows it up with the phrase “Everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man…” And so wisdom comes to be defined as the commitment to put into action the words of Jesus, to let our actions be rooted in our understanding of God’s will.

For me, this sets up a remarkable contrast today. Surely to base our actions on the words of Jesus is going to put us in conflict with the world at large, with our society’s expectations. Following Jesus is going to mean that we go against conventional wisdom sometimes - and perhaps frequently. And so we as Christians often do our best to explain away the teachings of Jesus. We spiritualize them and say things like, “Jesus didn’t really mean for us to turn the other cheek, he just wants us to have that attitude in our hearts.” We rationalize and say that to literally follow Jesus’ teachings is too hard, the expectations are unrealistic, it won’t work in this world.

If we buy into this line of reasoning, we are saying that it is foolish to try to be doers of the Word. And there you have it. The wisdom to which God calls us may very well appear to be foolishness in the eyes of the world. Eugene Peterson paraphrases 1 Corinthians 1:18-19 this way in The Message: The Message that points to Christ on the Cross seems like sheer silliness to those hellbent 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 what does it mean for us to follow divine wisdom, and perhaps embrace earthly foolishness? In business, to be fair and honest puts you at a disadvantage and cuts into your profit margin. Why pay a living wage to a worker to produce a quality product when you can pay far less and skimp on materials to produce “cheap” goods? Why should you be concerned for anything but your bottom line?

As a consumer, why would you pay more for something just because you know it has been manufactured in a way that respects the world God created, or that has helped the local economy? Why would you deny yourself something when you can easily afford it, or can easily borrow the money or use your credit card to buy it? Don’t you deserve what you want, when you want it, and as cheaply as you can get it?

As an individual, why would you give away a portion of your money or your time to help others experience the love of God? Taking time to engage in service or evangelism would impede your professional advancement, or limit your earning power. Don’t you need to look out for you and yours?

As a young person, why would you choose to spend time picking up garbage along Black’s Run or reading to an older person who doesn’t see so well. It would be more fun to be hanging out with your friends.

As an older person, why stay involved in church activities or give leadership when you have done your time already? Isn’t it time to let the next generation take over?

In relationships why would we consider the needs of others, forgive when we have been wronged, or seek to love our enemies? Shouldn’t we be seeking to protect ourselves, our homes, our country?

The list could go on and on. As we read the Bible and seek to put into practice the things that God calls us to do, we may increasingly find ourselves doing foolish things – foolish in the eyes of the world. When I was a teen, the music group Daybreak had a song called “Whose Fool are You?” Some of the lyrics are, “I’m a fool, and I don’t mind. I’m a happy fool and that’s just fine. I’m a fool and I know it’s true, but I’m a fool for Christ’s sake, whose fool are you?”

The hard work of this passage really lies in discerning what it means to do God’s will. What exactly are we hearing as we read the Bible? God calls us to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. We are to place God’s word in our hearts and follow God’s commands. In the complexity of this world, we need grace to hear and to do God’s will. As you live your life, where are you being a doer of the Word? Are you caring for creation and teaching your children to respect the world that God created? Or perhaps you are ministering to the sick, the lonely, the down-trodden. Do you care for your neighbor?

I know that I struggle in the decisions I make each day, to balance what I know to be the right thing to do as a Christian with what seems like the wise or practical thing to do as someone living in our society. I would even confess that I don’t really like to be considered a fool by society. I would rather compromise and fit in with what the people around me expect. And I’m afraid that I cannot give you answers about what you should be doing either. I do think that as persons of faith who have covenanted to be a faith community, we need to talk with each other in some manner to discern what God’s Word is saying and how we will act on it. I’d like to challenge you about how you are being a doer, and I’d like you to challenge me. In the end, I come back to the Anabaptist belief that we work out the path to wisdom in the context of our community. It is not easy to discern the correct course of action in many cases. We need each others counsel, and we need to sit prayerfully in God’s word to work out the truly wise thing to do.

I’d like to end by re-reading the passage from Matthew 7: 21-27, this time from Eugene Petersons’ paraphrase “The Message”.

‘Knowing the correct password – saying ‘Master, Master,’ for instance – isn’t going to get you anywhere with me. What is required is serious obedience – doing what my father wills. I can see it now – at the Final Judgment thousands strutting up to me and saying, ‘Master, we preached the Message, we bashed the demons, our God-sponsored projects had everyone talking.’ And do you know what I am going to say? ‘You missed the boat. All you did was use me to make yourselves important. You don’t impress me one bit. You’re out of here.’

These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit – but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock.

But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards.’

May we work the words of Jesus into the very core of our lives, and then live them into being everyday. May the wisdom of these actions convince others to join us as happy fools for Christ’s sake. Amen.


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