August 17, 2003
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If
we accept the definition of wisdom as knowledge combined with good judgment, who
is the wisest person you know? When she speaks, doesn’t she live up to your
high expectation of her? When he gives you advice, doesn’t it make sense? We
expect when we seek a wise person that what they say is worthwhile and that they
will help us to navigate these days. What
is the wisest thing you have ever done? Was it when you chose a mate, earned a
degree, invest money, buy a dream home, or a dream car? Was it when you gave
your life to Jesus Christ? What
does it take to be a wise person anyway? The
questions about wisdom are at the heart of the two lessons this morning. David
has died a peaceful death after living an exciting and sometimes troubled life.
The son of David and Bathsheba, Solomon has become king. He was a devout man who
worshiped God regularly and who loved God as much as his father did. As
he was at a worship place in Gibeon, God came to Solomon in a dream and asked
him a question many of us would envy. “Solomon”, God says, “what should I
give you?” How would you answer that question? “I
am mired in debt, God. Give me wealth so that I can be debt free forever. I am
sick, God. Grant me restored health and a life free of illness. My children are
so young, just starting their adult lives, please God let me live long enough to
see them grow into adulthood, and by the way, it would be really nice to see my
grandchildren grow up too. “God
surely we have all had enough of war and racism and every other kind of
discrimination. Help us build a world in which each human being is respected as
a child of yours and every person really is judged by the content of their
character.” What
would you ask God to give you? It is a tantalizing question. I would ask for a
few personal things as I suspect all of us would. And I would ask, really pray
for this: for our membership to double in the next two years, of our ministries
to flourish, our finances to be secure, and all us to be joy-filled, faithful
followers of Jesus Christ. Solomon
looked at the task before him. He considered Israel’s history and his own,
then he asked God for an understanding mind to govern and the ability to know
good and evil. “Give me that great combination of knowledge and good judgment.
Give me wisdom. Help me to know how to be the best I can be so that the nation
can be the best it can be. Let me feast on the bread of wisdom so that all of us
can be satisfied and you can be glorified. We
know that wisdom is not only about good decisions. Wisdom is also a sign of our
faithfulness to God. Proverbs tells us that “the fear of
the LORD is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom; fools despise wisdom and
instruction” (1.7), and wisdom will come into our
hearts and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul” (2.10). Wisdom
is less about what we know and much more about what we know intellectually,
though such knowledge is important, as we think about our relationship with God.
When we eat the bread of wisdom, we grow in our connection to God and to Jesus
Christ, and we can put our knowledge and our good judgment to the cause of
living new and renewed lives in Jesus Christ, we are a journey toward wisdom. If
Solomon helps us to seek wisdom, Ephesians helps us to know how to use it. The
reading from Ephesians reminds us “this new life is not only identified in
positive terms, but is also contrasted with their opposites. Christian people
are to be ‘wise’, not ‘unwise’. They are to ‘understand the will of
the Lord, and are not to be ‘foolish. They are to be sober, avoiding
‘debauchery’. These features remind us that the Christian life is always
lived as an alternative to the dominant culture, whatever that culture may be”
(Texts for Preaching – Year B.
Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press. 1993, p.265). Our
culture may say to us “do whatever makes you feel good, if people cannot
handle it, if it hurts your relationship, well they will just have to deal with
it.” Ephesians tells us such
thinking is unwise. We are encouraged to seek wisdom, understand what God wants
for you and the world, stay balanced. How do we do these things? There are three
ways. First,
understand that wisdom is a gift from God that can be nurtured and developed
over time. Over time, we discover that knowledge does not always bring good
judgment with it. The truth is, knowledgeable people aren’t always wise. Think
of all the time criminals spend plotting their illegal activities. They know a
lot, their judgment is terrible. How much better off would they be if they put
their considerable minds together with good judgment? How much better off would
we all be? Second,
I pray we will take the gift of wisdom and use it to gain some perspective.
Perspective helps us to see the broad, big picture. We can see the forest and
the trees. When we learned to drive, most of were taught to look down the road
and the to the sides of the road in order to see what’s coming. We
also live wisely when we live into enough experience and perspective to know how
to hang on and keep the values we hold dear close to us. Listening to the radio
on my way to Mansfield last week I heard the introduction of a hymn. I do not
remember the name of the hymn the singer was talking about, but I do remember
the story he told before he sang. It
seems that one day, he went to visit a hundred and three year old woman he had
known since he was a little boy. When he visited her, he discovered that her
memory had grown dim. She did not remember the name of the church in which she
had given long and faithful service. She did not remember the name of her
visitor. She could not really recall that she regularly encouraged him from the
time he first became a Christian. Her
encouragement was in the form of a question she asked him as he was growing up.
Every time she saw him, weekly when he was a boy, monthly when he would come
home from college, and even now in the waning days of her long life, she asked
the same question. She would look him in the eye, and ask, “are you yet
holding on?” Are we still holding
on? Is our faith in God still
valuable to us? Are we still believers in the goodness and salvation of Jesus
Christ? Some
of us will answer, yes, absolutely, completely yes. Others of us will say, no, I
am not holding on. I wanted to, but life got hard and painful and I just had to
let go. How can I hold on? However you answer that question, know that wisdom
can keep us cool in the heat of the moment, it will give us the long view when
everyone around us is shortsighted. It will keep us calm when a good panic is
rising up in us, and it will give us faith and hope in the dry desert places of
our soul. Wisdom will teach us that neither soaring heights nor plunging depths
are permanent, and that life is lived mostly in the middle, between the two.
All of do well to remember in our turbulent times that Jesus told his
disciples how to hold on no matter what. Know that if we hold on or if we are
forced by circumstances to let go, God never lets go of us. The
Ephesians are encouraged and we are encouraged to use our wisdom to hold on
because the times are difficult, evil is how
Ephesians describes them. Evil
disregards what is good, what is right, what is caring, and what is faithful.
Too many people know too well. They know emotional and physical violence
as the first choice, not their last choice. They know an uncertain economy that
puts their family’s well-being at risk. They know the devastation of drugs and
crime and hopelessness. They know mockery when their acts of genuine compassion
are ridiculed as naďve weakness. But it is not. Like many of you I watched
coverage of the east coast/northern Ohio blackout Thursday afternoon and
evening. I watched the analysis Friday morning. I was stuck by the images of
millions of people making their way up and down the streets and at surprise of
the news people who found it amazing that for the most part, people behaved.
They did not riot, they did not loot, they checked on their neighbors, they
offered strangers water, food, and shelter.
“How amazing”, they said. But wasn’t that the wise and generous
thing to do? Wasn’t it the wise thing to do? There
they were with all that distance to walk, simply making the most of a time that
was, if not evil, certainly not good. After
all, the term “make the most of the times” translates to redeem the times,
buy back the times, rescue the times from the evil, cynical pessimists who see
no good in anyone, including themselves. Claim God’s presence by treating each
other with respect, by honoring God as we open ourselves to the closest possible
connection with God, and by showing how secure and strong and wise we are when
we show compassion to each other and to those we encounter along the way. Wisdom
comes when we live lives tilted toward God. The instruction is to stay sober,
avoid debauchery, resist utter self-indulgence. We are wise when we treat our
bodies as great gifts of God, not as receptacles for over indulgence. The
Ephesians are encouraged to examine themselves. The verse says, stay sober. We
all know people for whom sobriety is a daily challenge. Let’s support them as
they do all that they can to control their drinking so that their drinking does
not control them. As
we do, remember that the verse does not say become a teetotaler. The reason for
the advice was not to discourage every believer from ever taking a drink. Even
in those days, to drink or not was a personal choice for adults to make. The
advice was written in a day when “some religious traditions did understand
alcohol to be an aid to ecstatic experiences. [The
writer of Ephesians wants the church to be clear, that “for Christians, only
the Spirit produces real ecstasy” (Texts for Preaching, p.471).]
Make room for the spirit. The
third and final point is this, with wisdom comes a
sense of continuous gratitude. All the time and for every thing? Really? Should
we be grateful to God for the painful, difficult, and unbearable things? How is
that possible? It is not easy but it is possible when we remember and thank God
that God will go through those times with us and will in time bring us to a
place of wholeness. We
can live thankfully knowing that faithful wisdom understands that God is good
and wants good things for us, even when the times are bad. Solomon did not
always get it right. In fact, like his father he often squandered the gifts God
had given him, but the gift was always in him, just as the gift is always in us,
for good decision making and for the glory of God. Then, faithful wisdom
received with high
expectations and deep gratitude as a gift from God will keep us focused and
prayerful and eager to serve God in every way we can. Dr.
LaTaunya M. Bynum |
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Broad
Street Christian Church
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