Ruth 1:(1-7)8-19a
Psalm 113
2 Timothy 2:(3-7)8-15
Luke 17:11-19
Do you ever like to be silly? What are some silly things that you like to do?
Have you ever felt sad? Me too... The other day I was feeling sad and I was talking to God about it and while I was talking to him, he helped me remember that if I could do something silly I might feel better - so I decided that I wanted to jump in a big pile of leaves...I always loved to jump in leaves when I was little - even if my father did say it was silly...
Only I had a problem... We don't have any big trees in our yard yet... so I didn't have any leaves to make into a pile... So I decided to go to the park close to our house and see if I could find some leaves - and boy did I find leaves! Hundreds of thousands of leaves. And I kicked them and threw them up in the air and threw them for our dog, Paddington, to catch - and well, I just had a great time... and there were some grown ups who walked by and they looked at me like I was pretty silly...but I was having so much fun I didn't care.
And then I thanked God for making all the beautiful leaves and for reminding me about being silly - and then I gathered some of the pretty leaves that I'd been playing in and I brought them home and I made leaf pictures for each one of you ... and maybe they'll help you remember that when you are feeling sad, it might help to talk to God about it and find something silly to do...
We've all know him - you know, the guy down the street who is forever planting his garden before the danger of frost is past; the one who doesn't cover his tomatoes when there's a frost warning. The guy who stops by to chat and goes on and on about the great garden he had this year, while you're thinking - "yeah, right... He had to plant it twice because he didn't have enough sense to plant it when he should have, and now he's just lost dozens of tomatoes and who knows what else because he didn't cover the plants last night. This guy's always a day late and a dollar short. What does he have to be so cheerful about anyway? When God passed out common sense, this guy was obviously in the wrong line."
His car's been rusting in his driveway all summer because when it broke down last spring, he was too busy helping some drunk get on his feet to take the time to fix it. And now he doesn't have the money to fix it because he gave all his spare money to some church or charity or something. He's been walking to work all summer... And now he's talking about adopting a foreign kid he doesn't even know on one of those "feed the children" programs or some such thing...
And he isn't even worried about the fact that his car is still gathering rust, not to mention the fact that it makes quite the eyesore for the whole neighborhood. When you ask him when he's going to get the thing fixed, he just shrugs his shoulders and starts talking about how there are so many other things he needs to do... and you're thinking, " yeah, you could give that house a coat of paint before it goes to complete ruin.." but no, he's volunteering for Habitat for Humanity instead. Go figure. Some people don't have the sense to come in out of the rain.
We've all known her too. The young woman at work who had everything going for her: looks, money, boyfriend, a brilliant career- and she just up and chucks it all to go help people in Guatemala. She writes home about living in a place with no water and dirt floors...it's so hot there that she's forgotten what it feels like to be cool - and she says she's never been happier or more satisfied in her life.
She has malaria and from the photographs, she looks like she's aged 20 years, but she's told her folks that she's fine and probably won't be back to the states for a long time... And by the way, would you be able to send some money to help support the needs of these people..?
Meanwhile your car just broke down and this foolish young woman wants you to send the money you need to fix your car to a bunch of nameless people you've never heard of. Someday she'll wish she'd been a whole lot more sensible ... but it'll be too late by then.
And then there's Ruth and Paul and, of course, Jesus ... they don't seem to have much common sense either.
Ruth is still a young woman who could have returned to her people where she would have a good chance of marrying again. Marriage was the only way for a woman to have any chance of security in that culture ...and most of the time it was the only way to even survive. And furthermore, Naomi has made it perfectly clear to Ruth that it is completely out of her power to provide any assurance of marriage in the land of Judah. In essence, she is painting a future that will be grim at best, and very possibly fatal - if Ruth persists in her foolishness.
Yet persist Ruth does. And it isn't merely a strong, but human devotion that seems to compel Ruth... she goes so far as to swear by the God of Naomi to be faithful in her decision to go with Naomi to Judah. And if she fails to follow through on this oath, she tells the Lord to punish her. Ruth is clearly responding to something much larger and more compelling - something that calls her to give up everything she's ever known - very possibly her very life - and yet she does so without even a moment of hesitation...
Paul is a wealthy, respected and devoted Pharisee who gives all that up to travel around the world telling a story about some other guy named Jesus who walked out on a good living and a decent home, got himself crucified and then was miraculously raised from the dead...
Now not that long ago Paul was out rounding up the followers of this Jesus and sending them off to prison - or worse ... and now he's in prison because he's become a leader of the very movement he was persecuting.
Who in their right mind is going to pay any attention to someone like that...much less believe him? It sounds like something you'd read in one of those tabloids they sell at the grocery store... It's just about the most outlandish story I've ever heard... a story of irresponsible and foolish people who clearly haven't got a grain of common sense.
And yet it's because of a few foolish men and women like Ruth and Paul that we are all here in this church this morning.
Ruth got married and had a child - and she became the great-grandmother of King David - from whom was to come the messiah. That foolish woman made a decision that changed the entire history of human kind.
Paul took his tent-making business on the road so that he could spread that story of outrageous foolishness, and the Christian church came into existence... Paul, like Ruth before him, made a foolish decision that changed the course of history.
So today how are we called to be foolish? What are we called to give up so that this story of foolishness will continue to spread and grow in a world weary of violence and terror - in a world that desperately needs foolishness in abundance before we destroy ourselves and one other?
In a book I've been reading, the main character (who is supposed to be a modern-day Jesus) tells his friend that , "The Church would function better if it were closed." He goes on to observe that the spirituality of the Jewish people only began to really thrive once Jerusalem was destroyed and the temple disappeared. * Maybe it is time to close the doors of all the churches in the country...maybe it's time to give them to the homeless while we go out into the streets with the Good News of Jesus Christ...
So how are we called to be foolish? What are we called to give up?
Since I've been an adult, I've worked hard so that my family and my colleagues will see me as a responsible and reliable person who makes reasoned and sensible decisions. Am I willing to give up that image by telling my family that they aren't getting much in the way of Christmas presents for a few years, - because the money is going toward a building addition for the church where I already make a pledge and donate hours of my time ...or when I tell the secretary of the Minnesota Psychological Assn. that I'm not renewing my membership because there's something more important that I plan to do with that money...?
Am I willing to pitch in and support a decision that I might not have agreed with in the first place?.. And maybe I still don't .. After all, if we look at it from pure and simple common sense, the decision to make an addition to this building is pure foolishness...
We're too small, we're too poor, we're too old, we're too controversial, we're too... (fill in the blank)... And all of that is true.
It makes me think of something a very wise woman once said to me ...
Look at your problems in the light of God's power
instead of looking at God in the shadow of your problems.
You know when I look at it like that - well, maybe it isn't so foolish after all...
Amen.
*Joshua, A Parable for Today
Joseph F. Girzone
Simon & Schuster, 1987, p. 208.
Much of this sermon is based on Eugene H. Peterson's The Message: the New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs in Contemporary Language