Holy fools and religious fruitcakes
21 July 2004 – Steve Tomkins preached at a special service on the Feast Day of St Simeon the Holy Fool: "Saint? Absolutely. Nut? Quite possibly." The service included readings from the Life of St Simeon.
Here's some biblical literalism for you. "If any want to become my followers," said Jesus, "let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me."
So in the 1650s, a couple in the Gloucestershire village of Tewksbury had themselves crucified in the garden. You have to admire their commitment. No, it's all right, you don't really.
"The word of the cross is folly" said St Paul. But there's a thin line between a holy fool... and a religious fruitcake.
Take Ludowicke Muggleton, London tailor and prophet. He said anyone who rejected his message was damned, but those who never heard it would be OK. So his followers, the kind bunch, refused to tell it to anyone.
Mother Sarah of Egypt expressed her devotion by living next to a river for 60 years, without ever looking at it.
Wholly folly? Holy wally? How do you tell?
And our own St Simeon of course. Dragger of dead dogs. Thrower of peanuts in church. Healer. Kind man. Saint? Absolutely. Nut? Quite possibly.
What about Paul himself?
Laughed at by philosophers, called a fool by his own churches, falling out with almost everyone – the other apostles, his own converts. Chased round the Middle East by enraged opponents – Jews and Christians. Claimed to do miracles and have the one, true gospel.
Driven, fanatical... all because of an encounter with Jesus that no one present saw. And because the imminent return of Christ put all else in the shade. Ended his life in a Roman prison, abandoned by the Christians, beheaded outside the city.
And yet, contrary to what anyone would have predicted (other than Paul), his surviving writings have brought comfort, strength and even wisdom into people's lives for 2,000 years.
"The word of the cross is folly to the dying, but the power of God to those being saved."
Perhaps, then, this is one difference between the foolishness of God and the stupidity of some of his friends.
The one has power, an impact, the other just gets a laugh. The one you know by its fruit, the other you know by its fruitcakes.
Dr Steve Tomkins is a writer and church historian.
