Sunita
flew to Bosnia last night with her work. She will be meeting some of her
colleagues from Cyprus. Sunita is crazy about serving Christ. She inspires me
to press on. One of our friends just returned back from a short term mission
in India. She came blessed and changed. I had a lunch with one of my
colleagues yesterday. I prepared an Indian dish. He loved chicken curry. I
said the hotter the better. In my book those who love hot curry are a breed
apart. He shared about ministry of compassion and ministry dealing with justice
issues.
Praise
the Lord that the the ministry of Jesus deals with life in high places and in
low places. To the watching world that has gone insane and is spinning out of
control, the ministry of Jesus does appear foolish. We read in 1 Corinthians 1,
“The word
of the cross is foolishness to those whose lives are falling apart, but to those
who are being saved, the cross is the very power of God.” Other statements echo
the same refrain: “Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? Has God
not destroyed the wisdom of the wise?” “God chose what is foolish in this world
to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in this world to shame the strong.
God chose what is low and despised to accomplish his will.” To sum up this
theme, we are called to be fools for Christ.
Throughout the New Testament, we discover this divine madness
about God. One of my pastor colleague says, "We discover that God acts like a
clown, that the Lord of the Universe acts like a fool. Unreasonable. Not
responsible. Not sensible. Not practical but downright foolish. "
Our
Lord declared “If someone hits you on one cheek, offer the other cheek for them
to hit.” Dumb. Or, “If someone takes your coat, give them all your clothing as
well.” Not smart. Or, “If someone asks you to do a favor and go a mile for
them, go the second mile for that person.” Ridiculous. Or, “Love your enemies
and pray for those who persecute you.” This divine madness of God gets into his
followers and his followers start to act like clowns. In fact, to the world
followers of Christ act crazy; they are wild and mad for Jesus.
There is a power to this way of living and loving.
I read
about Ray and
Lillian, committed Christians who have raised 26 foster children. They must
have been out of their mind to raise 26 foster kids. I also read about another
childless couple that raised 84 foster children. They must have been nuts to
do that. We see that there is this divine madness in
God, in Jesus, and in the people of Jesus who do these foolish things. There is
power to their living and power to their loving.
Here come
the clowns! Here come the clowns! Are we part of them? Are we part of their
parade? Let us join the
parade.
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