All Fools' Day

I hope you will have a wonderful April Fools' Day, or All Fools' Day, as some call it. Yesterday was Easter, and I spoke about the calendar confusion in which Easter is not at the same time as Resurrection Sunday, yet the church missed the boat, still celebrating an event that is not for another couple of weeks.

Did you know that some speculate that the origins of April Fools are likewise tied to a change in the calendar? In 1563, the Council of Trent ordered the transition from the Julian calendar to the new Gregorian calendar. When France switched in 1582, many people were lost in the transition.

In the Julian calendar, New Year began with the spring equinox around April 1. People who were slow to get the news or failed to recognize that the start of the new year had moved to January 1. As a result, they continued to celebrate New Year's during the last week of March through April 1 and became the butt of jokes and were called “April fools.”

The funny thing is that just as Easter is tied to fertility worship, the Julian calendar (as well as the Hindu calendar) is tied to the spring equinox. The word equinox comes from two Latin words, meaning “Equal Night.” because the length of day and night is equal on this day. At the equator, the sun is directly overhead at noon on this day, only twice a year.

All of creation cries out there is a God!

Our Creator has demonstrated His majesty, power, and beauty in all His creation. Simply looking up into the sky we see His handy work. The sun, moon, stars, indeed all of the heavens declare there is a God.

Christians often jokingly call April Fools Day the Atheist holiday, but in reality, it truly is a day when people fail to recognize there is a creator, and are foolish in their actions. They look up at the heavens and declare, “There is no God.” Check out what Paul said in Romans 1:20-23.

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Paul says that the fool rejects the apparent truth of God, demonstrated in creation, and then worships the creation itself. True foolishness is alive and well today. Yet, as Christians, we have faith in our creator, and because of the cross and resurrection of Jesus from the grave, we have God’s wisdom made perfect in us. Let me leave you with these words from Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:18-30:

For 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. For it is written:

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;

    the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”

Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.

Be Encouraged Fellow Pilgrims, we have a Risen King.