Do not be foolish but understand what the will of the Lord is.

This is a very wise and “moooving” saying, from St. Paul’s in his letter to the church in Ephesus. It is very “moooving” when we see others doing the will of God, rather than being foolish. God has given us a wise and discerning mind, but who woke this morning hoping to be foolish? Who said today, “I want to move away from God’s will?” The problem lies in the challenges we face, and we wonder how will we ever cross over them. Who can show us the way?

In order to illustrate, we need to pick one of God’s creatures that is most apt with the gift of wisdom. No not man, but rather the wise and wily…Cow. That’s right. Do not suspect that they are out in the field thinking of nothing, discerning only what grass to eat.

Once there were three cows: a Red cow, a Blue Cow, and a Yellow Cow, all of them, on one side of a fence chewing their cud. On the other side of the fence was a very busy highway. One day, they were just grazing along, and they realized there was less grass to eat. They were thinking to themselves that if they could get to the other side of this highway, they could eat the fertile grass over on the other side. The Blue cow comes up with an idea. He walks over to the telephone pole, climbs up it, walks across the line, climbs down the other side, and starts eating the grass. The Red cow is thinking to himself that if the Blue cow could do it, so could he. He comes up with an idea and backs up away from the highway, runs, jumps, leaps over all lanes, lands on the other side, and he starts eating the grass. The Yellow cow, left all alone, is thinking to himself that if the Blue cow could do it and the Red cow could do it, then so could he but they went about it the hard way. His idea is less complicated, easier. He decides just to walk out, and across into traffic. Surely, they will stop, he thought. Instead, he gets run over by an 18-wheeler. Glancing upon the tragedy, with grave discernment, the Red cow turns to the Blue cow and says, "Mooooo."
Oh, how foolish it is to think that God cannot use us to do miraculous things by moooving upon our hearts and guiding our minds. So often we see the busy highway of life as an obstacle we cannot cross, so we take shortcuts. Jesus was sent to us, it says in our Collect, “not only to be a sacrifice to sin, but also an example of godly life.” What is the way to lead a godly life? Is it as hard as scaling a telephone pole or taking a giant leap?

There is something else about cows you may not know. They spend a lot of their day, “ruminating,” that is chewing. They have several stomachs that digest all that grass only after it has been physically broken down by this chewing. Two pounds of grass every hour is the rate of food and they chew 8-10 hours a day. That’s a lot to digest. They’re not in a hurry. The good milk cows are given little stress, a lot of water and a good amount of time to rest. How much time do we take to chew on God’s word, but taking just one verse in the morning and discerning what it means? If you do not have time for that, then there is a good chance that you are acting foolishly.

Who did God call before, who crossed over some busy traffic? There was King David, his son Solomon, and later, the apostle Paul. These were not perfect men, but God turned their foolish decisions into lessons learned. David, who turned to adultery was eventually forgiven. Solomon, his son, was into materialism but set it all aside. Paul, who called himself the ‘Chief of all sinners’ turned to Christ. They all acted foolishly yet turned to Jesus for help. If they are watching us from heaven and when they see us take the shortcuts, walking out into the busy street and at risk of getting hit, maybe they have nothing better to say than, “moooo.”

What is the grass that we need to ruminate on this day? Jesus said we are to take and eat his flesh and drink his blood. This was such a violation of the laws of purity. This was a direct violation of the Torah; so cannibalistic. You could not eat any animal that had blood in its flesh, yet Jesus was saying to “eat me.” This seems extraordinary, farfetched as a cow that can cross a telephone line or make a giant leap across the road. The flesh and blood of Christ in this sacrificial language lies at the root of our faith in the Messiah. We chew on the word of God as revealed in the Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth (the BIBLE) and digest the flesh and blood of Jesus at the Holy Eucharist. We can’t get enough, so we return to the Altar each week. Through routine chewing of this cud, we learn the true meaning of God’s love and avoid all foolishness.

Do not be foolish but understand God’s will is for you to cross some very busy streets and He is here to help. Will you trust in the Lord to provide the way? Will you dare to climb great heights and take long leaps? The greater risk is doing nothing or doing what is easy. For those, all I can say is, “moooo.”