One of the most popular websites on the internet is youtube – a place where anyone can upload amateur videos for the world to see. The most popular ones are of people caught unawares doing foolish things. The latest youtube video that went viral this past week was the one of the woman who is texting while walking in a mall and falls headfirst into a fountain. Apparently the video comes from mall security cameras and was posted by one of the security guards. You can hear the guards laughing as they watch the footage of this poor, distracted pedestrian.
You can’t tell who the woman is from the video, but the “fountain lady” publicly identified herself this week and even appeared on Good Morning America. Apparently, she doesn’t think the video is very funny at all and does not appreciate her mishap being posted all over the internet. She has hired a lawyer and has already succeeded in getting the security guard who posted the video fired. The woman does not want to be thought of as an internet fool. On one hand, we all probably need to laugh at ourselves a little more. On the other hand, I don’t really blame her for being upset. No one likes to look like a fool.
Thankfully most of our foolish moments go unrecorded and quickly forgotten. But sometimes they stick. When people make foolish decisions, they have consequences and can have an impact on their life and careers.
I can’t help but wonder if the disciples made a foolish move in our Gospel for today. Their story is recorded for us – not in video, but in the words of the evangelist Matthew. Jesus found two brothers fishing on the shores of the Sea of Galilee and said, “Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” And immediately they left their nets and followed. And then a little while later he saw two more brothers and they immediately left their father and followed Jesus. I feel like I want to interrupt the story and yell, “Hey, don’t leave your father!! Father knows best! Doesn’t the book of Proverbs say “a fool rejects his father.”
Both sets of fishermen respond “immediately.” The Gospel of Matthew does not use the word “immediately” very often. In contrast, the Gospel of Mark uses the word a lot. In Mark everything seems to happen “immediately.” But not in Matthew. So when Matthew says, ‘immediately” he’s not just moving the story along. He means they literally dropped everything and did it right away. We might even say they did it without thinking Dare we say they did it foolishly?
Didn’t they even take a minute to consider if this was a good career move? If they could still support themselves and their family by turning their back on their fishing business?
Didn’t they take a minute to ask some questions – to make sure Jesus was a legitimate leader or to determine if they were in agreement with his mission?
Didn’t they even check with their wives? Come on. That’s a given.
Even Martin Luther before he became one of God’s great fools, he took a night to think it over when he appeared before the emperor and was asked to recant what the church considered heresy. He said, “Let me sleep on it.” And then after a long night of considering what it would mean for him, THEN he stepped up and said, “Here I stand. God help me.” At least he took a step back before taking a stand. And at least he realized his foolish move would require God’s help.
But the disciples did no such deliberating. They moved on divine foolish impulse. The same kind of Spirit-driven impulse that moved John the Baptist to speak with wild abandon, “Repent. The kingdom of God is near.” He spoke boldly even to those in power. He was a fool for the sake of the mission for which he was born. And he was imprisoned and eventually lost his head. This same impulse drove Jesus into the back woods of Galilee to preach the same message that John preached. “The kingdom of God is near.” Jesus had the identical message. The same words. Is this a kingdom of fools? It seems to attract them.
Jesus himself seems to have made what by any human standard was a foolish move. He left the privilege of heaven – he dropped everything that was his by divine right. He left the security of this Father’s house – and embraced the poverty of earth. He traded in his heavenly glory for human agony and suffering. He took on a punishment he did not deserve by giving his perfect life for the life of the world. He did this without regard for himself. And people laughed at him and mocked him as a fool.
Paul says in our Second Reading for today that “the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.” The message of the cross – the good news Jesus delivered turns everything upside down. That’s why it sounds foolish. It makes fishermen disciples. It says that the righteous one is punished and declares the guilty righteous. It shows God on a cross and sinners at God’s right hand.
Paul says, in this foolish message of the cross we find the power of God to save. In fact, only by embracing the foolishness of following Jesus and trusting in his message do we find life and salvation. Paul says, “to us who are being saved (the cross) is the power of God.”
The disciples found a life in Jesus by doing something that appeared foolish. Luther and countless others have followed this same foolish path by embracing a life centered on Christ and the cross. They let go of self and took the kind of risk that only fools would take. And they couldn’t have cared less what they looked like in the world’s eyes.
So Jesus invites us today to follow him and embrace the message of the cross. What foolish thing is he calling you to do?
Making a commitment to someone or something without guarantee of a payback?
Stepping up and taking a stand – not to promote the law, but to further the Gospel?
Giving of yourself and your resources to the ongoing ministry of Jesus?
Forgiving, loving, welcoming, caring, reaching out, sharing another’s pain?
Are you willing to look like a fool in order to follow Jesus?
In the darkness of the world, the things Jesus calls us to do may cause others to laugh at us. We may even laugh at ourselves at the things we feel called towards and the impulses the Spirit gives us. There’s no doubt these foolish things will have an impact on us – they may mean that we leave something behind – we may even at times have to drop everything – and they may sometimes involve taking a plunge. But in the light of Christ all the foolish things we do in his name are revealed for what they really are: powerful ways God is saving the world.
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