ZEN AND
THE FOOLISHNESS OF GOD
March 19, 2006
TEXT: Corinthians 1:18-25
For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but
to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I
will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I
will thwart.”
Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this
age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom
of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness
of our proclamation, to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks
desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and
foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks,
Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is
wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.
TEXT: John 2:13-22
The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In
the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers
seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the
temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money
changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, “Take
these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” His
disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume
me.” The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing
this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days
I will raise it up.”The Jews then said, “This temple has been under
construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” But
he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead,
his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture
and the word that Jesus had spoken.
In every decade there has been a generation in search of itself. After the First
World War and the hedonistic Twenties, the so-called “Lost Generation,” typified
by the novels of F. Scott Fitzgerald, explored the meaning of existence. It was
an age of affluence, an age when youth was emerging from the oppressive morality
of the Victorian era, and pushing the envelope of acceptable social behavior.
The decade following the Second World War was similar. The “Beat Generation” followed
their own heroes, Jack Kerouac, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Alan Ginsberg in their
rebellion against the culture and morality of their parents. This is nothing
new; it has been occurring since Biblical times when youth put aside the wisdom
of their parents to go in search of their own truth, their own philosophical
principles. It seems that every generation must discover their own truth, their
own particular path to enlightenment.
In Kerouac’s autobiographical book, THE DHARMA BUMS, he tells the story
of two young men engaged in a passionate search for dharma, or truth. Their major
adventure is the pursuit of the Zen way, which takes them climbing into the high
Sierras to seek the lesson of solitude. The Beat Generation tried to study Eastern
thought from a Western perspective and in most cases it just didn’t work.
Western civilization has developed its systems of philosophy, science, and religion
based upon reason and intellect. We want our lives to make sense. We want to
understand. We want a faith that’s rational. We want explanations for the
existence of life and a plausible assurance of a life after death. We expect
our children to be taught the accumulated knowledge of the past and indoctrinated
into the precepts of our religious heritage.
The Greeks were lovers of wisdom. That’s what the word “philosophy” means.
When a stranger arrived in Athens, they wanted to know what he thought, what
new ideas he was bringing. When the Apostle Paul came to Athens, people surrounded
him and asked about this new philosophy of Christianity.
Paul wrote to the Corinthians, who like the Athenians wanted a rational theology. “For
the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to
us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will
destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will
thwart.”. . . For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and
God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.”
Paul was offering a religion that doesn’t make sense to those who seek
logical answers to life’s mysteries. The world cannot know God through
wisdom.
Zen Buddhism takes the same approach. The great Zen philosopher Yogi Berra was
coaching a young baseball player who was trying to analyze the timing of the
pitcher’s motion, the trajectory and speed of the ball, and his own body
mechanics in order to get a base hit. Yogi asked him, “How can you think
and hit at the same time?” Or to paraphrase the Jedi Master, Yoda, “Do,
or do not. There is no try.” There is no thinking.
There are some things you just do that are based on an inner wisdom. If you are
going to look for a rational answer to the classic Zen question, “What
is the sound of the one hand clapping,” you will never find it, because
the question is not intended to produce thought, but enlightenment.
It is in this sense that "Zen teaches nothing; it merely enables us to wake
up and become aware. It does not teach, it points." (Suzuki Introduction.
p. 38) The acts and gestures of a Zen Master are no more "statements" than
is the ringing of an alarm clock.
All the words and actions of the Zen Masters and of their disciples are to be
understood in this context. Usually the Master is simply presenting realities
which the disciple either sees or does not see.
Many of the Zen stories, which are almost always incomprehensible in rational
terms, are simply the ringing of a bell, and the reaction of the sleeper. Usually
the misguided sleeper makes a response which in effect turns off the alarm so
that he can go back to sleep. Sometimes he jumps out of bed with a shout of astonishment
that it is so late. Sometimes he just sleeps and does not hear the alarm at all.
Zen is not concerned with ideas, but with enlightenment that comes from awareness.
It is waking up to that which God has put inside of you.
When Jesus died on the cross and was later proclaimed to be the “Son of
God,” or the incarnation of God, the Gentiles tried to make sense of this. “How
can God be killed?” The cross is unreasonable. Paul’s answer was
that it’s not supposed to make sense according to a human way of thinking. “For
God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness
is stronger than human strength.” The love of God is irrational.
Some time ago, there was a comet due to pass by earth and the debris from its
tail was expected to cause a harmless but spectacular meteor shower. Jonny, age
8, heard about it on the evening news and he became concerned. That was about
the same time that all the meteor disaster movies were coming out and he'd seen
all the advertisements for several of those movies. So, he was very sure that
this meteor shower wasn't a good thing. His Mom explained there wasn't any danger,
and reluctantly he headed off to bed.
When Mom went in to tuck him in for the night, she found he had made his own
preparations, just in case Mom was wrong about all those meteors. Those meteors
didn't stand a chance! Eight year-old Jonny was sound asleep wearing his bicycle
helmet. He had his wooden toy rifle in one hand and a loaded water gun in the
other. (Grace Witwer Hhousholder, The Funny Kids Project).
We would say that this is a foolish reaction to an unlikely event. Yet, as the
apostle Paul points out, there are those for whom the cross is an irrational
act. The crucifixion does not make sense. Yet it is pivotal to our faith. It
represents the love of the Creator for God’s children.
The trouble with trying to fully comprehend the mystery of the cross is that
we always look at it with limited vision. We try to see the cross through our
own human wisdom and not God's wisdom.
We're not likely to admit it, but the age of reason and the scientific method
have boosted wisdom and knowledge to a higher level than it ever was, even in
Paul's day and the Golden Age of Greek philosophy that almost worshiped wisdom.
Maybe the Internet is God's way of dealing with that by making knowledge so easily
accessible to all, instead of just a limited few. It puts us all on a level playing
field again and puts knowledge and wisdom back where they belong, as a tool and
not an idol. Pablo Picasso once said, “Computers are useless. They can
only give you answers.”
And if we're honest, there are times when it's obvious that we're not the smartest
creatures in the universe. Let me give you an example of a few decisions that
weren't the wisest.
In 1899 Charles H. Duell, Director of the U. S. Patent Office said, "Everything
that can be invented has been invented."
In 1905 Grover Cleveland said, "Sensible and responsible women do not want
to vote."
In 1927, Tris Speaker said, "Babe Ruth made a big mistake when he gave up
pitching."
Thomas Watson, the founder of IBM, said he could not foresee that the world would
use any more than five computers at best.
No matter how much we learn, no matter how wise we seem, in the face of the wisdom
of God, it's all foolishness. That's why Paul says, God's foolishness is actually
wisdom. Things happen in life that just don’t make sense.
When Paul brought the teachings of Jesus to the Corinthians, they wanted to regard
it as just another philosophy, a system of ideas that could be debated in their
schools and market places. They approached God through reason and because of
this they rejected the cross of Jesus because it presented a God of love who
felt the suffering of his creatures. To the Greeks, the first characteristic
of God was apatheia, the inability to feel. They reasoned that if God was subject
to human emotions, he could be influenced by someone, and therefore that person
would be able to have power over God. A God who was incapable of feeling could
not be influenced. Therefore, a God who suffers was to the Greeks a contradiction
in terms. (William Barclay, The Letter to the Corinthians).
Paul tried to convince the Greeks that what appears as the foolishness of God
is actually wiser than human wisdom. The prophet Isaiah had written: “For
my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your
ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9). There is a wisdom
that lies beyond human reason and Aristotelian “cause and effect” logic.
There is a way of knowing that Peter Ouspensky calls the tertium organum, an
intuitive means of tapping into a higher consciousness that our brains are not
entirely wired for, but to which our spirits resonate. This is the God who comes
to us in dreams and visions and does things which we cannot understand, like
giving sight to the blind and raising the dead, and putting such a fragile thing
like hope within our hearts that causes us to do and be that which reason can
never imagine.
There is so much more for us to learn and discover. God is still revealing his
wisdom to us. It comes to us through scientists and artists, through teachers
and poets, through Popes and pastors, and occasionally even through politicians.
All that is to be known is already held in the mind of God and we but think our
thoughts after God.
The proverbial writer of the Old Testament said:
Make your ear attentive to wisdom and incline your heart to understanding;
if you indeed cry out for insight, and raise your voice for understanding;
if you seek it like silver, and search for it as for hidden treasures—
then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.
For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;
he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk blamelessly,
guarding the paths of justice and preserving the way of his faithful ones.
Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path;
for wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your
soul...
—Proverbs 2:2-10
Do you see what is happening? We are gaining knowledge at incredible speeds,
but the question is, Is wisdom keeping pace with it? Wisdom is the ability to
use knowledge.
We are on a roller-coaster ride to the future. There is much that we will learn
and discover. We should not be fearful of it, for it is all in the mind of God.
However, we should not be enamored of it. The longest and most fulfilling journey
is not to the stars, but to the depths of one’s soul. The material world
of science and technology will entice us and we will find it helpful and alluring
as we explore cyberspace and all the other realms of science, but it is nothing
compared to the world of the spirit that is so much larger and so much more encompassing.
Let us always be mindful that the human journey is always a voyage to God.
Harry Serio |