Small Things Like These and the need for foolish hearts.

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

There is a short-story by Irish writer Claire Keegan called Small Things Like These. The local coal merchant, Bill Furlong, delivers coal to the Convent on the hill above town. When he opens the shed to deliver the coal for the nuns, he finds a girl who had been locked in the shed overnight. It is December and cold. The Convent houses teenage girls who were abandoned by their families because they had gotten pregnant. The girls were forced into physical labor, and their babies were taken from them against their will. The conditions were brutal. The shed was punishment.

The story traces Furlong’s struggle with his conscience. We are given a window into his thoughts. The whole town is aware that something is not right at the Convent. But nobody is willing to do anything about it. In a conversation with Furlong’s wife, Eileeen, she tells him, “If you want to get on in life, there’s things you have to ignore, so you can keep on.” The question is will Furlong act on what he knows is right or will he ignore it like everyone else?

I won’t give away the whole story, you should read the book but for the purpose of this letter, I will tell you Furlong chooses to act. He knows his actions will have consequences, not all of them good. In the final line of the story, the narrator tells us, “his fear more than outweighed every other feeling but in his foolish heart he not only hoped but legitimately believed that they would manage.”  I was struck by the phrase “in his foolish heart.” Furlong’s wife thinks he’s foolish because he gives spare change to a local boy whose father is a drunk. She thinks he’s foolish for worrying about the girls at the Convent when he has five daughters of his own to take care of. He is warned by others in town that it would be foolish to cross the Sisters of the Convent because of the power they have over the community. But his foolish heart hopes. His hope leads to action.

When I reread the story last week for our book club gathering, it reminded me of the passage from 1 Corinthians 1:18 that says that “the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” What looks foolish and weak to some (Jesus’ humiliating execution on a Roman cross) is at the same time the very power through which God rescues the world.

 In this passage, Paul plays on the question of what is foolish and what is wise and what is weak and what is strong. The difference is one of perspective. From a purely practical vantage point the crucifixion seems like foolishness and weakness. How could the brokenness and evil and pain and suffering and dysfunction that is all around us - death and its long dark shadow - be overcome by a man laying down his life? There is, seemingly, no power in that. Paul says, from a different perspective, however, for those who have eyes to see, the message of the cross is salvation.

In the movie, The Mask of Zorro, the famous swordsman, Zorro, is played by Anthony Hopkins. Zorro is aging. He knows he can no longer be the hero the people need. So, he begins to train a new protege to take his place - played by the young, handsome, and muscular Antonio Banderas. Banderas’ character is filled with anger and passion for revenge. He has no patience for the slow, methodical, seemingly outdated training methods of the older man. At one point he gets fed up, draws his sword, and challenges Zorro to a duel. Instead of grabbing a sword, the old man picks up a stick. He is physically and, in terms of weaponry, completely outmatched. But with a few flicks of his wrist, he disarms the younger man and has him on the ground. 

On a weekly basis, as I prepare my sermons, I feel the weight of this dichotomy between where the world finds its power and where God says true power lies. The invitation to trust Jesus and his ways looks foolish. Like bringing a stick to a sword fight. In his book The Imperfect Pastor, Zach Eswine asks, “Are we willing to forgo what works in the world for what Jesus teaches us to trust?” Too often, the church’s answer to that question is “no.” In a world governed by the iron rule of power, what good is a cross? The answer is: all the good in the world if the eyes of our hearts have been opened.      

From a practical vantage point, Eileen Furlong believes it is foolish for her husband to give away money to a kid whose father will likely take that money and just spend it on more alcohol. From a practical vantage point, the Nuns run the best preparatory school in town. If Bill and Eileen want their daughters to get ahead, they can’t risk stirring up trouble with the Convent. From a practical vantage point it would be wise to let things be and mind his own business. Instead, Furlong chooses foolishness. What might our witness be, if we all had hearts as foolish as his?