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