Prepared and foolish
Matthew 25: 1-13
New Ark United Church of Christ, Newark, DE
November 8, 2026
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| Photo of a piece of cardboard with sticky notes on it and the words "If I knew I couldn't fail, I would...". A person with dark brown skin and short black hair is writing on a table covered with a red tablecloth and scattered notecards. |
Every night Julio Diaz, a 31-year-old social worker, would end his hour-long subway commute to the Bronx one stop early, just so he could eat at his favorite diner. One chilly night, as Diaz stepped off the train and onto a nearly empty platform, he was walking toward the stairs when a teenage boy came up to him and pulled out a knife.
The kid wanted his wallet, so Diaz just handed it over. As the boy began to walk away, Diaz said to him, “Hey, wait a minute. You forgot something. If you're going to be robbing people for the rest of the night, you might as well take my coat to keep you warm.”
The kid looked at Diaz like what's going on here. He asked Diaz, “Why are you doing this?”
Diaz replied, “If you're willing to risk your freedom for a few dollars, then I guess you must really need the money. I mean, all I wanted to do was get dinner and if you really want to join me ... hey, you're more than welcome.” Being a social worker, Diaz thought he could help the guy. They went to the diner and sat in a booth.
Since Diaz is a regular, pretty soon the manager, the dishwashers, the waiters all come by to say hi. The kid said to Diaz, “You know everybody here. Do you own this place?”
“No, I just eat here a lot,” Diaz told him. The kid replied, “But you're even nice to the dishwasher.” Diaz replied, “Yeah, well, haven't you been taught you should be nice to everybody?” “Yeah, but I didn't think people actually behaved that way,” the boy said.
Diaz asked him what he wanted out of life. The kid sat there with almost a sad face. He couldn't answer Diaz — or he didn't want to.
When the bill arrived, Diaz said to his would-be robber, “Look, I guess you're going to have to pay for this bill 'cause you have my money and I can't pay for this. So if you give me my wallet back, I'll gladly treat you.”
The kid didn’t think twice and returned the wallet to Diaz and he gave the boy $20, figuring who knows? Maybe it would help. Diaz then asked for something in return — the young man’s knife —and he gave it to Diaz.
Afterward, when Diaz told his mother what happened, she said, “You're the type of kid that if someone asked you for the time, you gave them your watch.” The way Diaz figures it, “if you treat people right, you can only hope that they treat you right. It's as simple as it gets in this complicated world.”
Even though this took place in 2008, there are still people like Julio Diaz in our cities and towns, in other countries around the world. People who are prepared. People who are kind and generous. People who some would say are also foolish.
In his parable, Jesus is illustrating that the kindom of God is not for the Sunday drivers or for the faint of heart or for those who are unprepared for what God needs from us. But I think God needs us to be both prepared AND to be foolish like Julio.
You’ve probably heard the sayings “Luck favors those who are prepared” or “Fortune favors the brave” or “the bold”. And yet Admiral James T. Kirk, before he and his crew were about to attempt time travel by slingshotting around the sun aboard a beat-up, battle-scarred Klingon vessel, said, “May fortune favor the foolish.” Which describes just about every plotline throughout the Star Trek franchise. As well as every time and place where faithful ordinary human beings have put it all on the line for justice, compassion, repair, solidarity, and liberation.
Luck does indeed favor the prepared, the bold, the brave, but the kindom of God requires the courage to take risks, to be fools. Suckers for Jesus. To do the right thing even if we lose. To hand over our wallet and our coat and invite the robber to dinner.
God calls us to be foolish just as this earth is foolish. To steward and work with what is profligate. Wasteful. Extravagant. Chaotic. Irrational. And yet it has its own kind of order which human beings have tried to change and control to suit our own sensibilities. God calls us to be foolish just as love is foolish. As I saw a friend of mine post on social media, I’d rather explain to God why I loved people too much rather than not enough.
And so we need to be prepared to be foolish, like building affordable housing on our site. Or making it possible for someone to move to a more inexpensive place to live with Change for Change funds. Or giving some cash in our Thanksgiving baskets because someone was very generous. Or donating hundreds of pairs of socks. Or keeping some fast-food gift cards or bus passes on hand for our street neighbors.
At times passing a church budget can sometimes feel foolish, especially if it’s a deficit budget. Anything can happen in the next year. So we give, we pledge in good faith. Faith may be the most foolish thing of all, when being prepared feels more like certainty. It’s the solidarity of a church budget, the mutual support, the beloved community of it all that makes us prepared to be foolish. Foolish for Jesus. Foolish for those who need help. Foolish for each other. Foolish for the kindom.
By the way, when I told the story of Julio Diaz and the kid who tried to rob him, what did we think was the skin color of the kid? We’re actually very foolish if we don’t ask ourselves that question. Because we can’t enter the kindom with racial bias. Jesus would not know us because we do not know him. Something to think about as we prepare to be foolish for the kindom of God. Amen.
When the bill arrived, Diaz said to his would-be robber, “Look, I guess you're going to have to pay for this bill 'cause you have my money and I can't pay for this. So if you give me my wallet back, I'll gladly treat you.”
The kid didn’t think twice and returned the wallet to Diaz and he gave the boy $20, figuring who knows? Maybe it would help. Diaz then asked for something in return — the young man’s knife —and he gave it to Diaz.
Afterward, when Diaz told his mother what happened, she said, “You're the type of kid that if someone asked you for the time, you gave them your watch.” The way Diaz figures it, “if you treat people right, you can only hope that they treat you right. It's as simple as it gets in this complicated world.”
Even though this took place in 2008, there are still people like Julio Diaz in our cities and towns, in other countries around the world. People who are prepared. People who are kind and generous. People who some would say are also foolish.
In his parable, Jesus is illustrating that the kindom of God is not for the Sunday drivers or for the faint of heart or for those who are unprepared for what God needs from us. But I think God needs us to be both prepared AND to be foolish like Julio.
You’ve probably heard the sayings “Luck favors those who are prepared” or “Fortune favors the brave” or “the bold”. And yet Admiral James T. Kirk, before he and his crew were about to attempt time travel by slingshotting around the sun aboard a beat-up, battle-scarred Klingon vessel, said, “May fortune favor the foolish.” Which describes just about every plotline throughout the Star Trek franchise. As well as every time and place where faithful ordinary human beings have put it all on the line for justice, compassion, repair, solidarity, and liberation.
Luck does indeed favor the prepared, the bold, the brave, but the kindom of God requires the courage to take risks, to be fools. Suckers for Jesus. To do the right thing even if we lose. To hand over our wallet and our coat and invite the robber to dinner.
God calls us to be foolish just as this earth is foolish. To steward and work with what is profligate. Wasteful. Extravagant. Chaotic. Irrational. And yet it has its own kind of order which human beings have tried to change and control to suit our own sensibilities. God calls us to be foolish just as love is foolish. As I saw a friend of mine post on social media, I’d rather explain to God why I loved people too much rather than not enough.
And so we need to be prepared to be foolish, like building affordable housing on our site. Or making it possible for someone to move to a more inexpensive place to live with Change for Change funds. Or giving some cash in our Thanksgiving baskets because someone was very generous. Or donating hundreds of pairs of socks. Or keeping some fast-food gift cards or bus passes on hand for our street neighbors.
At times passing a church budget can sometimes feel foolish, especially if it’s a deficit budget. Anything can happen in the next year. So we give, we pledge in good faith. Faith may be the most foolish thing of all, when being prepared feels more like certainty. It’s the solidarity of a church budget, the mutual support, the beloved community of it all that makes us prepared to be foolish. Foolish for Jesus. Foolish for those who need help. Foolish for each other. Foolish for the kindom.
By the way, when I told the story of Julio Diaz and the kid who tried to rob him, what did we think was the skin color of the kid? We’re actually very foolish if we don’t ask ourselves that question. Because we can’t enter the kindom with racial bias. Jesus would not know us because we do not know him. Something to think about as we prepare to be foolish for the kindom of God. Amen.
Benediction – Susan Werner
I got plenty and then some, what do I do?
I got plenty and then some, what do I do?
I got plenty and then some, what do I do now?
I go out and help somebody
Get plenty and then some too.
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