April Fools? by Colin Such
Posted 4/5/2018 4:59:33 PM
April begins with the feast of Easter falling on April (or “All”) Fool’s Day.
It’s unclear how the tradition on April Fool’s Day began (although it is known that it originated in France), one claim – not true however – is that the sending of someone (the fool) on fruitless journeys represented the sending of Christ between the Sanhedrin, Pilate and Herod in the lead up to his crucifixion, the pinning of a paper fish on the fool’s back being the Christian symbol. However it is generally believed that the fish represents a herring that becomes abundant at this time of year.
But what could be more of a fool’s errand than to stand in a church on an April morning singing hymns of a dead Galilean proclaiming that he had in fact come back from the dead and was the Son of God?
What we do week by week makes no sense to many people in the world today – and yet we know the joy and the peace that comes from our worshipping together.
St. Paul wrote to the church in Corinth “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” and again, “Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?” and “For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.”
Paul goes on to say “We are fools for the sake of Christ.”
Towards the end of the month we shall hold our annual meeting and elect churchwardens and members of the church council. We will give thanks for all that those who have served in these and many other ways have done over the last year and pray for those who will volunteer to become fools for Christ for the coming year, giving of their time and energy, their enthusiasm, commitment and devotion.
In short we shall celebrate each other, fools for Christ, we shall look back and see that a great many things were done last year, many unnoticed and unsung and yet done with faith and love.
My hope is that we shall continue to have a church full of April fools!
Colin