Send In the Clowns
By the Rev. Paul Zacharias -- Sunday, January 23, 2000

Letter From Your Editor, January 2000

Bible Reading

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.

Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world--things that are not--to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one may boast before him. (1 Corinthians 1:18 -29)

Reading from Swedenborg

The perspective on kindness, a philosophy about life, was the central concept in the ancient religions. This perspective united all the religions: though there were many of them, they all worked together, since they considered all people who spent their lives doing good things through kindness to be religious people. They called them brothers even if they disagreed about what was true--what we call "faith" today. (The Heavenly City #9)

Sermon

Many years ago on King Street, this graffiti caught my eye: "All of life should be a carnival." I've often thought of the many ways this is true: that life is like a circus. In a circus there is a great deal of pretending and role playing. Magicians try to fool the people; the mirrors in the fun house give us a very distorted picture of ourselves; we play the games of chance, knowing there isn't much chance involved; and always there are the clowns, usually with very sad painted faces, trying to make the people laugh.

And what do we do at the circus? For the most part we are spectators . . . onlookers. We watch the parade going by; we get caught up in the color, the music, the excitement. When you think about it, doesn't it sound vaguely familiar? The playing of games, the wearing of masks; the merry go round atmosphere; following the crowds from thrill to thrill; people trying so hard to enjoy themselves! Come to the circus! Send in the clowns!

In one sense, we are the circus!

Let's think a bit more about the clowns, who are perhaps the single most important feature of any circus. Every year I come downtown to watch the Thanksgiving and Christmas parades, and I've noticed that the small children enjoy the clowns more than the floats and the marching bands. There is something very appealing about clowns; something inside of us responds to the naive, childlike antics of a clown. Perhaps at one time we even thought about running away and joining the circus?

One of my favorite songs is "Send In the Clowns," by Judy Collins. Sometimes our lives are so out of joint, so foolish and mixed up that it's all like a big three ringed circus. There are times when it all seems so uncertain, so confusing, so out of control--our life, our loves, our work, our future. And Judy Collins sings: "But where are the clowns? There ought to be clowns." And she is right. Sometimes it is only the clowns who see and portray life as it really is.

Consider some of the major characters in the Bible. It makes for quite a list of surprising, clownish people. If you were to read of these folks outside of the Bible, you would think of them as being very strange, off the wall--clowns indeed. There is Noah, building an ark in the middle of the desert, which, when you stop and think about it, is an odd thing to do. There is Moses, a murderer, very unsure of himself, confronting Pharaoh, saying: "Let my people go!" There are Abraham and Sarah, having a child in old age. There is Job, arguing and bargaining with God. There is Jacob wrestling all night with a shadow--an angel or something--and getting a broken hip out of it as well as a changed name. And in the Gospels we have men like Peter who one day said, "You are the Christ, the son of the living God," and the next day denied the Lord. Yet Jesus said: "It is upon people like you, Peter, that I will build my church" (Matthew 16:18).

I find all of this very paradoxical. These people and events do not fall into our neat little categories. And there is a lot of subtle irony and humor in some of these situations. It is a fact that the Lord drew some strange, different people around him: tax collectors, street walkers, winebibbers, the lonely and downtrodden. Their sad clown faces were for real.

And then the Lord talked about the citizens of the kingdom of God: the pure in heart, the merciful, the peacemakers, the dreamers, the poor in spirit, the lame and blind and deaf. Quite a bunch of clowns. And yet these are the people that Jesus chose to build his church, his kingdom in the world. Not the confident, strong, secure people who know exactly where they're going--no, the Lord chose the ordinary, grass roots, mixed up folks, very much like ourselves.

And the Christian Church over these two thousand years has had its share of clowns. Think of St. Francis, who was a very wealthy person. One day he felt God's hand on his shoulder and he took off his fine velvet clothes, gave them to a passing beggar, and from that day on lived a life of total poverty. He was a man who talked with the birds and animals--and changed the course of the Christian church. And Joan of Arc in her field of dreams talked with angelic messengers.

Our own Swedenborg made some extravagant claims: that he was chosen by God to give to the world a whole new system of theology. And in this thirty year process he wrote matter-of-factly about talking with angels, conversing with giants from the past like Plato and Socrates, which, at first blush, may sound rather strange! And think about Johnny Appleseed, who walked around winter and summer in bare feet, with a cooking pot on his head, planting apple trees throughout the Midwest, beloved by the natives and white settlers alike--but something of a clown as he passed out his Swedenborg books.

These were all people who dared to be different; dared to be themselves--and they were thought of as being rather strange by their peers. They were not always sure of themselves or what they were doing; they had no guarantees about the final outcome of their activities. Yet they forged ahead and did what they had to do. Paul uses the term "fools for Christ." Clowns! Perhaps they weren't always successful from the world's point of view, but we are greatly indebted to these gallant, winsome spirits--people who followed the stars. And there is something inside of us that would like to be this way.

To some people, we may seem like fools, clowns. For example I believe that the Lord's Divine Providence is with us every step of the way; I believe in a real spiritual world in which my parents and hundreds of relatives and friends are presently living rich, complete, growing lives, and that we all go on living forever as ourselves; I believe that God's spirit is as much alive and real in the world now as it ever was; I believe that there is mystery in life, that we can't have answers for everything; I believe in the grace and goodness of God, that God does forgive sins and cares deeply about every one of us.

There are people around us in the world today who would raise their eyebrows and ask, "Do you really believe all that stuff ?" And sometimes it appears that they may be right! Sometimes the best living people seem to have the most heartache and trouble. And our prayers aren't always answered as we think they should be answered. These people may ask: "What good does it do, going to church and hearing sermons?" I can't give totally logical answers to these challenges. But deep down I know that all these gifts of the spirit--divine providence, the spiritual world, grace, God's presence--are true. There have been times when I have experienced these spiritual realities, and for me they are more substantial than anything in this physical world.

I'm aware that some people don't see things this way, and for them much of this will seem like foolishness. Strictly speaking, we are all more or less clowns anyway. We are all more or less on the merry-go-round of life, bobbing up and down. No one has all the final, correct answers--and there is nothing to be gained by pointing fingers of judgment or condemnation at those who think differently. The Christian, the Jew, the Moslem, the atheist, all think they are right. Each person believes he or she has chosen the best possible answers. And I suppose the truth is that all of us are partly right in some things and partly wrong in others. Only God is right all of the time. This is how it is and should be.

We should thank God that there is always room for change, for improvement, for more light and truth in our lives. Swedenborg gives us this marvelous passage where he says that people are going to have different views and beliefs on just about everything, and this is perfectly all right; this is the way life is. The far more important part is to grow in mutual respect and acceptance and affection as brothers and sisters in one worldwide family.

Often I think back over my forty years in the ministry, and of my colleagues. There are about forty of us, serving about two thousand people in North America. In many places the groups are down to fifteen or twenty members. Most ministers work reasonably hard year after year, and not much apparently happens. And at times, I must confess, it all seems just a little bit weird: people dressed in long flowing robes urging other people to be good . . . and this image of being a clown becomes quite real.

Ultimately, the only thing that keeps us going is the profound conviction that at a deeper level, something important and wonderful is going on because the New Gospel is being proclaimed. A new spiritual age is coming, and we have been called to be part of it. God has laid upon us certain challenges and responsibilities and we cannot, must not fail him. St. Francis, John Wesley, Emanuel Swedenborg, Johnny Appleseed, Helen Keller, Mother Teresa--add your own names--dared to be fools for Christ. I believe the world needs more clowns right now. Yes indeed, life is a carnival, and there really ought to be clowns.

Paul Zacharias is a retired minister living with his wife Pat in Kitchener, Ontario, where both are active in The Church of the Good Shepherd. This is his 137th appearance in Our Daily Bread.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, we thank you that you were not afraid or ashamed to look like a fool and a clown to those who are wise in their own eyes. Give us the courage to follow your divine example, shining forth your truth and beauty through our lives no matter what those around us may think. Send us into the world as fools for your kingdom, for your foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and your weakness is stronger than human strength. Amen.