Renewal of Ordination Vows (Tuesday in Holy Week )(Isaiah 49:1-7, Psalm 71:1-14, 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, John 12:20-36)

What do we proclaim to the world as ordained? How do we live our lives as ordained? I’m not going to ask us to go to pages 518, 531, or 543 in the BCP. The answers to these two questions are the same. We as ordained are called to live what we proclaim. We are ordained to live Christlike, preach and teach Christ crucified and risen.

In his letters to the Corinthians, Saint Paul goes a little further to point us to see how the world will perceive Christians. He urges, “the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing…” and “...we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.” So, according to Saint Paul, we preach and proclaim the foolishness. If we are what we proclaim, we are then called to be fools in the eyes of the world. Yet, we as “fools for Christ” know that Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

In today’s gospel reading, Jesus says his farewell to the world, the world that considers him foolish. The world would pray to God, “Father, save me from this hour.” But Jesus the Divine Fool prays, “Father, glorify your name.” The world would say, “Love your life, yours and your family’s only.” But Jesus the Divine Fool says, “Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this will keep it for eternal life.” The world would tell us to be “a single grain” without having to fall into the earth and die. Jesus the Divine Fool tells us to “bear much fruit” by falling into the earth and dying.

I have been ordained a priest just a month shy from a year. In other words, I have been a fool for Christ just a month shy from a year. I ask myself, “Have I been a faithful fool for Christ?” I confess to you my fellow clergy, that there are many times I pray, “Father, save me from this hour” and there are countless times I desire to be “a single grain.” I have not been so successful at becoming a fool, but rather an idiot whose original meaning in Greek idiotes is a private person. Being a fool for Christ and in Christ is countercultural.

In today’s service as being a part of this gathering of clergy, I’m once again encouraged and empowered to be a fool for Christ. Jesus in today’s gospel reading says, “Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also.”  Where Jesus is, there will his servant be also. Not a single grain, but lots of grains who desire to fall into the earth and die to bear much fruit. Not a private person, not an idiot, but fools for Christ in communion. Perhaps this communion of fools is what Saint John Chrysostom means when he says, “A priest must be sober and clear-sighted and possess a thousand eyes looking in every direction, for he lives, not for himself alone, but for a great multitude.” (Six Books On the Priesthood, p. 82) I can be a fool with a thousand eyes as long as I am in communion with other fools for Christ! (The best way not to be an idiot!)

In this Holy week, we as communion of fools are entering into the darkness as Jesus in today’s gospel reading departed from the crowd and hid from them. In a way, we are hiding ourselves from all the noises and gossips of the world and delve deep into the darkness of suffering that Jesus has taken upon himself. We don’t escape from the world, but hide ourselves deeper in the suffering of the world to suffer with those who are suffering, sometimes physically and always spiritually. We as fools for Christ dare to hide ourselves into this darkness, not because we simply like to be safe and secure, but because we believe this darkness can never overcome the light of God the Christ.

I pray we as called to be fools for Christ dare to be fools to proclaim and live out that foolishness of Christ our wisdom and power. And also I pray that we see God reigning from the wood of the cross in Jesus Christ the Divine Fool in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.