This afternoon I was doing the 'Wednesday Word' Thought for the Day type slot with Roy Noble on BBC Wales.
And this is what was said:
Good afternoon Roy, I wonder if anyone managed to get you with an April Fool today? After all the BBC has a reputation for impressive hoaxes at this time of year. From that famous incident when Panorama fooled the nation with its footage of Spaghetti Trees, to last year’s video clip of flying penguins … a lot of us have been taken in.
Of course no-one likes to be shown up as foolish, but sometimes there’s a hidden wisdom in what seems to make no sense. In olden times the jester of the Royal Court, the one they often called A Fool, was actually the only man who might criticise the King and live to tell the tale. When other members of the regal entourage would end up in the Tower accused of treason, The Fool could satirise the King’s decisions … mock the pomp and circumstance of his policies … he could play to the gallery for laughs, but yet bring home his stinging criticism of the Ruling Power.
This week celebrates Palm Sunday, the day when Jesus entered Jerusalem with the crowd celebrating his arrival. And like the tradition of the Royal Fool, this event is a wonderful piece of satire. Popular opinion hailed Jesus as a King and expected him to overthrow the Romans … parading into the capital like a General on a mighty war-horse. But that was not his way … power and might and wealth were not the things he valued. So while people threw palm branches on the road in celebration, they were no doubt taken aback when their hero passed by riding a humble donkey.
But foolish as it must have looked it should’ve come as no surprise. All his life he’d said things that seemed irrational to the rich and powerful: he told them that ‘the first will be last and the last shall be first.’ He’d valued the sick and the poor, people those in Power would rather have forgotten. When a wealthy young man came to talk about religion, Jesus told him to get serious with God by selling everything he had.
All that sounds like a foolish strategy for life.
but it makes sense if we value what he valued.
A life where profit isn’t more important than people
where ecology is as urgent as economy.
Where it isn’t simply money that makes the world go round.
Maybe that still sounds foolish, but tomorrow, Roy, powerful leaders of the G20 nations meet to discuss the future of global economic growth.
And it strikes me that their conversation just might be the wiser
if they invited to the table at least one fool.
And this is what was said:
Good afternoon Roy, I wonder if anyone managed to get you with an April Fool today? After all the BBC has a reputation for impressive hoaxes at this time of year. From that famous incident when Panorama fooled the nation with its footage of Spaghetti Trees, to last year’s video clip of flying penguins … a lot of us have been taken in.
Of course no-one likes to be shown up as foolish, but sometimes there’s a hidden wisdom in what seems to make no sense. In olden times the jester of the Royal Court, the one they often called A Fool, was actually the only man who might criticise the King and live to tell the tale. When other members of the regal entourage would end up in the Tower accused of treason, The Fool could satirise the King’s decisions … mock the pomp and circumstance of his policies … he could play to the gallery for laughs, but yet bring home his stinging criticism of the Ruling Power.
This week celebrates Palm Sunday, the day when Jesus entered Jerusalem with the crowd celebrating his arrival. And like the tradition of the Royal Fool, this event is a wonderful piece of satire. Popular opinion hailed Jesus as a King and expected him to overthrow the Romans … parading into the capital like a General on a mighty war-horse. But that was not his way … power and might and wealth were not the things he valued. So while people threw palm branches on the road in celebration, they were no doubt taken aback when their hero passed by riding a humble donkey.
But foolish as it must have looked it should’ve come as no surprise. All his life he’d said things that seemed irrational to the rich and powerful: he told them that ‘the first will be last and the last shall be first.’ He’d valued the sick and the poor, people those in Power would rather have forgotten. When a wealthy young man came to talk about religion, Jesus told him to get serious with God by selling everything he had.
All that sounds like a foolish strategy for life.
but it makes sense if we value what he valued.
A life where profit isn’t more important than people
where ecology is as urgent as economy.
Where it isn’t simply money that makes the world go round.
Maybe that still sounds foolish, but tomorrow, Roy, powerful leaders of the G20 nations meet to discuss the future of global economic growth.
And it strikes me that their conversation just might be the wiser
if they invited to the table at least one fool.
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