Faithfully Foolish - Sermon for the Fourth Sunday After Epiphany (February 1, 2026)

Scripture Readings: Micah 6:1–8 | Psalm 15 | 1 Corinthians 1:18–31 | Matthew 5:1–12

“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.” (1 Corinthians 1:18).
 
Nobody likes to feel foolish… to feel completely out of step and out of sync with those around us… standing out as odd and being looked down on because of something that we’ve said, or something we’ve done.   
 
I can remember more than a few times that I’ve felt foolish in my life. And maybe you can too. Some of those memories are no big deal… just a simple mistake and a subtle reminder to stay humble. And then there are those memories I’d much rather forget… of times that I’ve really put my foot in my mouth, or did something reckless or embarrassing that takes a little bit longer to get over.
 
Like the time when I broke my first bone. There I was, the ‘good Christian kid’ forced to wear a cast in Grade 12 and explain to everyone who asked that I broke my hand punching my best friend while we were horsing around… not exactly the image and reputation I wanted for myself at the time.

But you know, there are times when looking foolish… standing out as out of sync with everyone else is actually a blessing… when it’s actually the best thing for ourselves, and for those around us. Especially when what’s been taken for granted as wisdom is actually on the wrong track.
 
I mean, think of all those who are willing to stand up against oppression… those who endure all kinds of insults and harassment… or even worse because they are not willing to stay silent while others suffer, or to simply go along with injustice and evil.
 
To a great many people, brave folks like these might seem truly foolish... making wrongheaded choices. And yet, despite things like popular opinion, or familiar conventions, these so-called fools might actually be much closer to the truth of the matter and real wisdom than meets the eye.
 
And in a world that so often seems to be running off the rails, and where those who fuel injustice, fear, and confusion seem to be calling the shots… maybe we need a lot more of the right kind of foolishness to go around. Maybe we need more of us to be willing to seem a bit odd and even out of place… but who are willing to embody and invite others to share in the wisdom and ways of the Living God.
 
Because as we know, God’s answer to a world gone wrong is not to abandon it… to toss it aside and start again from scratch. And it’s also not to just give up and give in and go along with the flow either.
 
No, all throughout the Scriptures, we see God at work calling us to seek His holy wisdom and help to stand out… to do what is right in the midst of all the wrongness. To be people of the light in the midst of the darkness. To practice His love even when we’re surrounded by hate. To seek above all to be in sync with Him, and to share in His blessed life… even if the rest of the world chooses to walk another way. 
 
We heard this tension highlighted in our first reading today from the book of the Prophet Micah, where the Living God confronts His covenant people who had turned away from Him in their hearts and lives… and as He calls them to set aside their misguided ways and return to Him.
 
And what does God say to them? What is the good way He calls them to follow… the heart of the matter when it comes to what we must do?
 
Micah 6:8, “He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?”
 
Do justice. Love kindness. Walk humbly with your God.
It sounds incredibly simple. Yet think about it for a moment. What does it take to do justice when no one else wants to? When those in charge are bent on obstructing it instead? And how will a harsh and violent world treat us when we embrace the way of kindness and mercy? And when success is equated with celebrity status, masses of followers, and global influence, it must seem totally backwards to prioritize spending our days humbly drawing near to God.
 
And yet, this is what the LORD says is what He wants from us. This is the kind of life that our Almighty Creator calls us His people to pursue… and would have us see as blessed.

Act justly. Love kindness. Walk humbly with the Living God.

And Micah’s words point us forward to our Gospel reading from Matthew Chapter 5, where we hear the words of Jesus Christ our Lord. As both the eternal Son of God, and a human like us all at once, Jesus perfectly embodied God’s holy ways here on earth… not to show off, but in order to save us and our messed up world, and to bring us into the fullness of God’s own blessed life.
 
And while we know there are all sorts of ideas out there about what it looks like to live in line with the ways of the Living God, as Christians we look first of all to Jesus Himself, and what He proclaims. And here, in these opening verses of a much larger body of teachings often called the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus presents us with a surprising vision of how we come to take part in the blessings of God’s good Kingdom. Matthew 5:1-12,
 
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
 
Now then, if you were to come up with a list of the kinds of people you would consider blessed… would it look like this list? The poor in spirit? Those who mourn? The meek? Those craving righteousness? The merciful? The pure in heart? The peacemakers? The persecuted? Probably not!
 
I mean, some of those sound pious enough I suppose… but others just seem so out of place… so disconnected from any of the ideas our world tends to associate with blessings.
 
But that’s precisely the point! Christ’s words here are so surprising to us… and seem so counter-intuitive precisely because our familiar ways of looking at life is so off course.

We tend to see blessedness as a statement about our present circumstances… our current experience of life. And from this point of view, it makes no sense to us to speak of those who mourn, and those who are meek, and those who are poor in spirit or persecuted as blessed. I mean, they’re suffering… they’re in pain… and powerless… we might pity them, but would we call them blessed?
 
And even when we find ourselves in their shoes… when we are the ones suffering, in pain, and powerless… more often than not, we’re eager to find a fast way to escape from these circumstances… not settle in, confident that we’re actually on the right track.
 
But God sees things very differently then we do. His ways are not our ways… and His thoughts are not our thoughts. What looks to us like complete foolishness and a terrible disaster might in fact be the beginnings of God’s blessed redemption and saving love coming to light… defying all our grand expectations, and yet from His perspective, things are falling perfectly into place.   
 
This is not to say that God is the cause or instigator of evil. Far from it! The LORD is not some terrible puppet-master, toying with or torturing us for some cruel and unknowable reason. No, He is the LORD of life, the One who created the world to be cared for with justice, and who loves kindness, and who desires close fellowship and communion with His humble creatures.
 
But what it does mean is that in a world where so much is still working against God’s good ways and His good Kingdom, the right and good and blessed thing to be and to do might often seem completely out of place… it might seem completely foolish to the world… and even at times to ourselves… and it might even mean facing times of real suffering… grief… pain… powerlessness and persecution. Living the right way in the midst of the wrong is bound to bring us into conflict. Living God’s way will not always be easy… but that does not mean that it will not be blessed. 
 
But to recognize that blessing requires real faith… it asks us to trust in God… to trust in His justice, and mercy, and holy love for us and our world… to trust that He will help us through the times of suffering… and help us stay true to His good ways, especially when it’s hard… and to trust that Jesus His Son and our Saviour King is leading us into, and sharing with us, God’s own blessed life.
 
We know of course that Jesus Christ Himself faced all this for us already… the King of all Creation was Himself considered a fool by the world He had made: He stood out from the crowd for God’s sake, and this led to Him facing all kinds of insults, slander, and humiliation. He endured the hypocrisy and abuse at the hands of those in power. He experienced grief and heartbreak, and betrayal, and suffered incredible pain and agony. At the cross, Jesus was persecuted and put to death, and considered by all a cursed criminal or a failed Messiah. A complete fool, either way.                                                                            
And yet… in the end God’s wisdom shined bright through the darkness, and Christ’s meekness, powerlessness and suffering led straight to His glory, as God raised His beloved Son again from the dead as the beginning of His blessed New Creation… putting to shame all the forces of evil that had done their worst to destroy Him, and proving right all those ‘foolish enough’ in all the right ways to place their faith in Jesus.  

And now, this Good News of Jesus the Risen Lord lies at the heart of our faith… how God transformed what seemed like complete defeat into the gift of New Life and salvation for His beloved world… and calling us now to entrust ourselves and our world to this same Saviour, no matter what others might say. As St. Paul said in our second reading today: “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.” (1 Corinthians 1:18).
 
Nobody likes to feel foolish. But the Good News of Jesus Christ the Risen Lord invites us to trust in God’s wisdom and seek to follow His holy ways… even if it means standing out from the crowd, or taking a stand for what is right.  
 
And with God’s help, we really can be Christ’s blessed people today: eagerly awaiting His return…praying for His Kingdom to come, and putting His Kingdom ways into practice… striving to truly do justice, and love kindness, and walk humbly with our God always… clinging to Christ Jesus our blessed Saviour King as He leads us into life. Amen.