A patient goes
to see their doctor; ‘I’m worried that I’m mad. I keep thinking
that I am a
packet of biscuits’. ‘A packet of biscuits?’, asked the doctor, ‘you
mean those
little square ones with lots of holes in them?’.
‘That’s right’,
said the patient. ‘You’re not mad’, relied the doctor, ‘you’re
crackers!’
There is a
saying; ‘Mad as a March hare’, which may be unfair to hares as
they are only
doing what comes naturally. But the month of March also ends
with April
Fool’s day (well almost) and so I want to consider the Christian call
to madness and
foolishness. Last month I quoted St Paul;
they said (Acts
26:24).
The writer CS
Lewis in his book Mere Christianity says that the claims, which
Jesus made,
lead us to three possible conclusions – he was either mad, bad
or God.
Madness, foolishness, naivety, sentimentalism are all words which
people often
use to describe Christian belief. These days there is a new insult
–
fundamentalism, which to most outside the faith means an irrational belief
that the bible
means what it says.
The church
often strives to avoid these labels, seeking instead to be seen as
reasonable and
accommodating. Confrontation with the secular world it seems
is not
permitted - it's bad for publicity. But for the first Christians
confrontation
and opposition
to the ways of the world were part and parcel of living in
obedience to
Jesus. St Peter writes:
They think it
strange that you do not plunge with them into the same
dissipation
(debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and idolatry),
and they heap
abuse on you (1 Peter 4:4)
Rejoice that
you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be
overjoyed when
his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name
of Christ, you
are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rest on you (1
Peter 4:13-14)
So as we
approach 1st April, Maundy Thursday for Christians but April Fools
Day for our
society, are you ready to stand up and be counted as a fool for
Christ. Not to
accommodate yourself to the idolatry of our multimedia, free
market age but
to risk being seen as a fundamentalist because you believe
that Jesus was
the Son of God.
God so loved
the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in
him should not
perish but have everlasting life.
Madness or truth?
Yours in Christ
Revd Simon Drew
