Psalm 53:1-6
Ah, it is April Fool’s Day. The time when pranks, practical jokes, and good humor abound. Mark Twain said of April Fool’s Day, "The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year." April fool’s day originated with the introduction of the Gregorian Calendar which moved New Year’s Day to from April 1st to January 1st. However, communication being by foot in the 16th century, many did not receive the news for several years. Many obstinantly refused to accept the new calendar and continued celebrating the New Year on April 1. These backward folks were labeled as fools by everyone and were made the butt of practical jokes. Now 4 1/2 centuries later, you must be careful what you believe and what you do on All Fool’s Day.
Far more serious than the folly of opposing inevitable and harmless change, is the foolishness that can pervade one’s life and cause you to engage in behavior that brings destruction to you or to others. Take for example, Larry.
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Larry’s boyhood dream was to fly. But fates conspired to keep him from his dream. He joined the Air Force, but his poor eyesight disqualified him from the job of pilot. After he was discharged from the military, he sat in his backyard watching jets fly overhead.
He hatched his weather balloon scheme while sitting outside in his "extremely comfortable" Sears lawnchair. He purchased 45 weather balloons from an Army-Navy surplus store, tied them to his tethered lawnchair dubbed the Inspiration I, and filled the 4’ diameter balloons with helium. Then he strapped himself into his lawnchair with some sandwiches, drinks, and a pellet gun. He figured he would pop a few of the many balloons when it was time to descend.
Larry’s plan was to sever the anchor and lazily float up to a height of about 30 feet above his back yard, where he would enjoy a few hours of flight before coming back down. But things didn’t work out quite as Larry planned.
When his friends cut the cord anchoring the lawnchair to his Jeep, he did not float lazily up to 30 feet. Instead, he streaked into the LA sky as if shot from a cannon, pulled by the lift of 42 helium balloons holding 33 cubic feet of helium each. He didn’t level off at 100 feet, nor did he level off at 1000 feet. After climbing and climbing, he leveled off at 16,000 feet.
At that height he felt he couldn’t risk shooting any of the balloons, lest he unbalance the load and really find himself in trouble. So he stayed there, drifting cold and frightened with his beer and sandwiches, for more than 14 hours. He crossed the primary approach corridor of LAX, where Trans World Airlines and Delta Airlines pilots radioed in reports of the strange sight.
Eventually he gathered the nerve to shoot a few balloons, and slowly descended. The hanging tethers tangled and caught in a power line, blacking out a Long Beach neighborhood for 20 minutes. Larry climbed to safety, where he was arrested by waiting members of the LAPD. As he was led away in handcuffs, a reporter dispatched to cover the daring rescue asked him why he had done it. Larry replied nonchalantly, "A man can’t just sit around."
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Or the danger of folly we can learn from Robert. Bowling Green, Ohio student Robert Ricketts, 19, had his head bloodied when he was struck by a Conrail train. He told police he was trying to see how close to the moving train he could place his head without getting hit.
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Criminal activity, especially when violating the eighth commandment. In Seattle, When a man attempted to siphon gasoline from a motor home parked on a Seattle street, he got much more than he bargained for. Police arrived at the scene to find an ill man curled up next to a motor home near spilled sewage. A police spokesman said that the man admitted to trying to steal gasoline and plugged his hose into the motor home’s sewage tank by mistake.
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Wisdom needs to even be exercised when doing household chores. For more than half a century, TV and radio commercials have offered clever suggestions on how to tackle tough cleaning jobs. However, one domestic innovator managed to demolish more than just stubborn stains when he decided to wash with gasoline. Robert, 29, filled the bathtub in his small West St Paul apartment with gasoline, but was understandably bothered by the fumes. That’s when he had his second bad idea of the day. He tried to cover the smell with a selection of lit candles and incense.
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Yet the epitome of foolishness is not seen in any of these stories or in a holiday prank, but rather in the pages of scripture.
Prv 12:15 The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise.
Prv 14:16 A wise man feareth, and departeth from evil: but the fool rageth, and is confident.
Prv 14:29 He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding: but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly.
Prv 15:5 A fool despiseth his father’s instruction: but he that regardeth reproof is prudent.
Prv 16:22 Understanding is a wellspring of life unto him that hath it: but the instruction of fools is folly.
Prv 17:27-28 He that hath knowledge spareth his words: and a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit. Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.
Prv 18:13 He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him.
Prv 20:3 It is an honour for a man to cease from strife: but every fool will be meddling.
Prv 29:11 A fool uttereth all his mind: but a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards.
However, the nadir depths of foolishness are plummetted to with the behavior described by David. Let us examine more carefully the statement of the sweet-singer and shepherd of Israel. How can a man, with our limited knowledge, limited years of life experience, inability to be more than one place at any given moment, make an authoritative declaration "There is NO God." The magnitude of foolishness is not seen in just lack of understanding, but it is coupled with a presumption of feigned expertise and knowledge. Can a man even make a statement, that there is no living creature that weight 20,000 pounds?
To do so would mean that you had swam the depths of the oceans, scaled the highest mountains, drilled through the crust of the earth, even soared to inspect other planets and nebula and verified that no creature of such magnitude existed. Even further, it would mean you had the ability to determine what was living and what was not, and that you definition of life were the absolute, unquestionable definition of life that was inerrant in all the universe. Add to that, you must be able to ensure your journeys, studies, and examinations were not obsolete. You must have the ability to ensure that you had immediate access to all information, in every location, instantaneously. To be sure that there was not a 20,000 pound living creature you would need to be omnipresent (everywhere) and have all knowledge (omniscient).
Thus, to declare that there is no God with any absolute authority, one would need to be God. To our good fortune, God has made such a declaration. He stated, there is no God before me or after me, there is no God beside me or like me. Hear O Israel, the Lord your God is One.
The depths of the valley of man’s foolishness that is described in Scripture can be contrasted to apex heights of another foolishness described by Paul. In contrast to the instability of the sinking sand of human folly, Paul describes a foolishness which transcends the heights of man’s greatest wisdom.
James concurs when he compares human wisdom with heavenly wisdom:
This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.
But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
In fact Paul refers to the height of wisdom we can attain to in this life, the unveiling of God’s salvation in Christ, as the foolishness of God.
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
The greatest accomplishment we can attain in this world -- with our limitations imposed by a depraved mind, soul, spirit, and body -- is to grasp the very base, lowly elements of God’s foolishness. Not the foolishness of the world, but in our humility we understand we can now only attain heavenly folly. But in when our redemption is fulfilled -- the chains of sin have been loosed from our mind, imagination, emotions, creativity, and intellect -- then we can see the unveiling of God’s wisdom which Paul described as:
O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counselor? Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.
