Send in the Clowns: Reflections on 1 Corinthians 1.18-25

 

Holy Cross Day

15 September 2024

 

Anglican Church of the Epiphany

Surrey BC

 

            When I was growing up, I had little experience with clowns.  I went to a few circuses and there were clowns chasing each other around.  I went to a few parades and there were clowns throwing candy to the people along the street.  I went to rodeos and there were clowns whose job was to distract the bucking horses and bulls so that the cowboys they had thrown off could get to safety.  But my encounters with clowns were always from a distance.

 

            This all changed when I became a curate at Christ Episcopal Church in Denver, Colorado.  Paula and I became active adult leaders in a diocesan youth program called ‘Happening’, something like Cursillo for young people.  Among the other adult leaders was a young man who was also a clown.  His clown name was Clarence Job and he was a silent clown, a mime.  Clarence Job understood clowning to be a form of Christian ministry.  Let me tell you why.

 

            Throughout human history clowns have had a variety of roles in society.  Clowns entertain people by their physical comedy, their slap-stick antics and their magic.  But clowns also have a serious role.  Clowns have often been critics of the world as it is.  You may be familiar with the term ‘court jester’.  Court jesters served both to entertain the rich and the powerful, but they also had the dangerous work of making fun of the rich and the powerful.  Clowning has always been a socially-acceptable way to publicly ridicule those who think of themselves as superior to the rest of humanity.  Clowns turn the world upside down.  So sometimes, in order to bring balance to a world going or gone bad, we bring in the clowns.

 

            Today we are keeping the Feast of the Holy Cross.  It is thought that on this day, more than sixteen hundred years ago, the Empress Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine the Great, was present when pieces of the cross on which Jesus was crucified were found in Jerusalem.  As an act of thanksgiving, Helena and Constantine built a massive church in the centre of Jerusalem, a church that enclosed a vast amount of space.  Today only the Church of the Holy Sepulchre remains of this once vast church.  But time cannot blur our focus on what the Cross means for us.

 

            Paul writes, “For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being save it is the power of God . . . . For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.” (1 Corinthians 1.18, 25 NRSVue)

 

            Our belief that in the death of Jesus, a Jewish rabbi from a small town far away from any centre of political and cultural power, the world is turned upside down is considered by the vast majority of people as foolishness.  “Throughout the New Testament . . . 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.” [1]

 

·      In order to get our attention God comes to us in the person of Jesus who ends up suffering as we suffer.

·      Jesus is not the child of the rich and powerful but of a carpenter and a young woman in a poor country.

·      Jesus is not born into a palace but in a barn.

·      Jesus teaches us to love our enemies as well as our friends.

·      Jesus teaches us to love the stranger as much as we love our family.

·      Jesus chooses as his disciples a motley crew of illiterate fisherfolk, tax-collectors and political subversives.

·      Jesus teaches us that everything we have is a gift, a pure gift, from a generous God who is not as concerned about our worthiness as we are. [2]

            I do not need to convince any of you who are here today that our world is not the upside-down world that God in Jesus is proclaiming.  In our world, the common wisdom is that 

 

·      strength is better than weakness,

·      effectiveness is better than ineffectiveness,

·      might makes right and

·      nice guys finish last. [3]

 

            But in the Cross of Jesus we see what C. S. Lewis, the twentieth-century Christian writer, called ‘the deep magic of the universe’. [4]  Those who live their lives according to the principle that ‘might makes right’ and that ‘the one with most toys at the end wins’ are actually ‘perishing’, to use Paul’s words.  Their lives are ‘falling apart’ and the tragedy is that they either do not know this or that they know this but are afraid to change.

 

            On the other hand, the ‘deep magic’ of the Cross works differently for those whom Paul says are being ‘saved’.  Those who have fallen in love with the ‘deep magic’ of the good news of God in Jesus are actually ‘putting their lives together’.  We know that the world as it is does not work for any of us.  We have been touched by God’s wisdom, a wisdom that teaches us that “ . . . God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honour to the inferior member, that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another.  If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together with it.” (I Corinthians 12.24a-26)

 

            When I remember the Cross, I remember that God is not afraid to be a clown and to turn my world upside-down.  When I remember the Cross, I remember that Christ comes amongst us like a clown and challenges all our norms.  When I remember the Cross, I remember that the Holy Spirit dwells within each one of us and makes us clowns for God.

            The Russian iconographer Andrei Rublev created an icon of the Holy Trinity which is treasured throughout the world.  Around a round table sit the three angels who visited Abraham and Sarah.  The three angels are identical and they extend their hands towards the table.  On the table there is chalice in the centre.  Bishop Brian Cole writes that " . . . no one is grasping for control or power, but offering each other expressions of grace, mercy, love and service to each other.  Here is our power.  Here is our wisdom."

 

            So, my friends, let us give thanks that God has sent in the clowns.  May we be fools for Christ who dare to say that true wisdom is found in making room for others, that true greatness is found in washing the feet of others, that true wealth is found in loving others as Christ has loved us.

---

[1] Edward F. Marquart, ‘Here comes the Clowns!’ at www.sermonsfromseattle.com/series_a_here_come_the_clowns.htm accessed on 12 September 2024.

 

[2] Marquart 2024.

 

[3] Scott Hoezee at http://cepreaching.org/commentary/2018-02-26/1-corinthians-118-25-2 accessed on 12 September 2024.

 

[4] Hoezee 2024.

 

Be Careful How You Look at the World: Reflections on Mark 7.24-37

 

 

RCL Proper 23B

8 September 2024

 

Anglican Church of the Epiphany

Surrey BC

 

            One of the privileges I had as a member of the faculty of Vancouver School of Theology was becoming a colleague of Sallie McFague.  Sallie was a theologian of breadth, of wisdom and of clarity.  She was a pioneer in applying theological insights to the environmental crisis we face as well as a perceptive observer of how Christians can lose sight of the sacredness of the world in which we live.

 

            One of her frequent sayings was this:  “Be careful how you look at the world because that’s the way it is.”  If we look at the world as a place where the rich and the powerful have unlimited control over us, then we are likely to live into that expectation.  If we only listen to the voices that agree with us, then we are likely not to hear the voices of those experiences and wisdom might actually enrich our understanding of the world.

 

            When the Syro-Phoenician woman approaches Jesus, he only sees a foreign woman who is not a member of the people of Israel.  She is not among those to whom Jesus feels called to minister.  She has crossed the boundary of proper first-century Mediterranean etiquette by daring to speak to a Jewish teacher, to the rising star from Nazareth.  

 

            Her request is not an unusual one.  It’s a request that Jesus has heard more than once over the months of his ministry.  It’s not a request beyond his ability to act.  What offends him is the identity of the person who is asking for his compassion, for him to extend God’s healing beyond the boundaries of Israel.

 

            We have to acknowledge that what Jesus says to her is not a joke but an insult.  What he says to her is not a test of her faith but an attempt to put her in her place.  What he says to her says that she’s not a member of the ‘in-group’ but an unwelcome outsider.  In his eyes she and the rest of her community have no part in the mission he has undertaken.

 

            After such an insult most of us would have turned away in disappointment.  But not this woman.  She is having none of Jesus’ snobbery and narrow-mindedness.  She has as much a legitimate call upon his healing power as any Israelite.  The world that she sees is wider and more inclusive than the one that Jesus sees.  

 

            More importantly, she is willing to take the risk of ridicule and scandal too make that world happen.  Jesus may think that he’s very clever in comparing her to a dog, but he has met his match in this mother of a daughter in need.  She sees more clearly than Jesus does that God’s saving work extends far beyond the limits of a small Jewish enclave surrounded by peoples of many nations, many languages and many needs.  She sees the kingdom of God and she expects it to include her.

 

            At this moment in time, our Parish is looking at the world around us.  This world is shaped by the history of ministry in this place over the last fifty years and more.  It is a world that has seen moments of great hopefulness and moments of disappointments.  We have seen changes not only in the neighbourhood that surrounds us but in the people who gather in this place to hear the Word of God, to lift up our voices in prayer and to receive the bread and wine of the eucharist.

 

            Now we look to the future.  We’ve taken the first steps towards the re-development of our property, but we cannot see the entirety of the path that lies before us.  We’ve begun to craft the story we wish to tell in order to aid in calling a new rector.

 

            In the midst of all this, I still hear Sallie McFague’s voice.  How are we looking at the world around us?  Are we companions of the Syro-Phoenician woman who saw the kingdom of God opening wide before her – despite the narrower vision expressed by Jesus?  Can we be bold in challenging the limits of our fears with a vision of a renewed community rising up to be the body of Christ in this neighbourhood?

 

            Yes, I believe we can.  It hasn’t been easy thus far and it may not be easy in the months ahead. But we have another world in view and it’s one that worth the risks.