Are You a Clown?

I have mentioned in the sidebar to the right that one of the books I'm reading is Introduction to Christianity by Joseph Ratzinger, aka Pope Benedict XVI. It is essentially a study of the Apostle's Creed taken from student lectures given at Tubengin in the summer of 1967. In the introduction he cites a famous story by Kierkegaard, about "the clown and the burning village," to best sum up the difficulty faced by any Christian attempting to communicate the Christian faith to those unfamiliar with church language and thought. I would imagine most Christians who have tried to communicate their faith to such a person have felt something of this frustration. He writes,

According to the story, a travelling circus in Denmark had caught fire. The manager sent the clown, who was already dressed and made-up for the performance, into the neighboring village to fetch help, especially as there was a danger that the fire would spread across the fields of dry stubble and engulf the village itself. So, the clown hurried into the village and requested the inhabitants 'come as quickly as possible' and help put the fire out.
But the villagers took the clown's shouts simply for an excellent piece of advertising, meant to attract as many people as possible to the performance; they applauded the clown and laughed till they cried. The clown felt more like weeping than laughing; he tried in vain to get people to be serious, to make clear to them he was speaking in bitter earnest, that there really WAS a fire! His supplications only increased the laughter; people thought he was playing his part splendidly -- until finally the fire DID engulf the village, and both circus and village were burned to the ground.

And so how do people react to the Christian today?

In his . . . old-fashioned clown's costume he is simply not taken seriously. Whatever he says, he is ticketed and classified, so to speak by his role. Whatever he does in his attempts to demonstrate his (seriousness) people always know in advance that he is in fact just -- a clown. They are already familiar with what he is talking about, and know he is just giving a performance which has little or nothing to do with reality. So, they can listen to him quite happily without having to worry too seriously about what he is saying.

Interesting stuff. I'll bring more of it to you over the next few days.