A Foolish People

Lent 3, Sunday, March 15, 2009
1 Corinthians 1.18-25

“Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?”

Let’s face it, we ARE all perishing. We see it every day—suicide bombings in Iraq, deadly drug wars on our Mexican border; new wrinkles and gray hairs, aching joints, foreclosure notices in the mail, the plummeting value of our 401Ks. Perishing is all around us, sometimes threatening to suffocate us.

Faced with these daily signs of perishing, the wisdom of the world swoops in for the rescue. For, faced with perishing, the world reacts by resisting: spend more time at the gym; buy more expensive face creams; color your hair; build deadlier weapons, preferably weapons that fire from a safe distance; build bigger prisons; strike the enemy first, before they have a chance to strike you; build a bigger wall for to keep the danger our. This is the wisdom of the world—to protect and isolate ourselves from death.

This is why we have Lent—to remind us that this is only the way of the world, not the way of new life. For God’s way, the way of life, is not worldly wisdom; to the world, God’s way is foolishness.

Surely it is foolishness to build a new school for the children of Bethlehem, when the Israeli soldiers can come any time of the day or night and surround the school with tanks (this happened in 2002). Surely it is foolishness to build a cultural center in Bethlehem, a place that encourages Palestinian artisans, houses art exhibits, holds concerts and films series. Surely that is foolishness when the huge tanks can come rolling down the narrow streets, breaking all the glass in the windows and firing mortars, making holes in the building (this also happened in 2002). Surely it is foolishness to purchase computers for the International Center and the offices of the schools and church, when the soldiers can break down the door, march in and smash the computers to bits (this also happened in 2002). Surely it is foolishness to begin again after all that destruction.

But the people of God in Bethlehem, the congregation of the Lutheran Christmas Church, take their cue from their very foolish God and flaunt their foolishness—building their institutions and rebuilding them when they are destroyed; building bridges with people of other faiths and nationalities.

Foolishly, the tiny Lutheran community in Bethlehem builds for a future that seems impossible. They follow their ancestor Abraham, believing, beyond all reason, that there is a future for them and for their children, and that God will be faithful to that promised future.

The people of the Lutheran Christmas Church and their foolish pastor, Mitri Raheb, are building a university in a community where the young people are leaving because life is so hard there. Their two-year academy offers media training and tourism, so that the world will come to Bethlehem and learn about their lives and their culture. Although the Israeli tourism industry deems Bethlehem too dangerous to visit, the people of the Lutheran Christmas Church foolishly train the young people of Bethlehem for future they can barely imagine, walled in on all four sides by a 24-foot high wall and prohibited from leaving Bethlehem by an impossible permit system. See some of their foolishness!

I travel to Bethlehem because there I can witness God’s foolishness, the hoped-for future that God promises. Walking Bethlehem’s streets, I witness God’s foolishness at work in the lives of the people, bringing hope where none seems possible. The lives of these remarkable people and their supporters like us all over the world witness that “God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.” THIS is proclamation of Christ crucified and risen!

O foolish God, we praise you for the foolishness of your glory! You have promised a bold future for us and for all your creation. As we follow in the footsteps of your son, help us find ways to build this bold future, proclaiming your good news to your wounded world, bringing hope where none seems possible. Amen.