Words of Wisdom, Pastor Joshua Noah, July 19, 2015

Words of Wisdom

Pastor Joshua Noah

July 19, 2015

Ask any new parent or parent-to-be, and they will tell you that never before in their lives have they received so many “words of wisdom” than when they have their first kid. When it comes to how to raise children, suddenly everyone is an expert and more than eager to contribute their words of wisdom so that the new parents can raise their children right! Let’s admit it. We’re all guilty of it. Even I’ve done it, and being a former school teacher, I still do it. Give out parenting advice. Mostly because I’m a believer in the idea that it takes a village to raise a child. And as I’ve worked in ministry over the last few years, I’ve also come to believe that it takes a Church to raise a Christian. You just can’t be Christian on your own. It takes a community of other loving Christians, in all their imperfect brokenness, working together to share the Good News and to bring about the Kingdom of God into the here and now, in order to understand the complicated and difficult Wisdom of God.

This communal passing of wisdom has its foundations in the beginnings of human history. And during biblical times, it even became codified into what we call the Wisdom Literature of the scriptures – the books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Job. These are texts which wrestle with the daily struggles of life – the joys and sorrows that life throws at us every single day. These texts address issues of everyday life: economics, friends, family, work, sex, politics, and so forth. And yet, they are the texts that are preached on the least. Probably because these texts don’t concern themselves much with issues of salvation, but simply with how to live a good life. Their wisdom comes not from some great divine revelation from above, but from the lived out experiences and observations of humans below – all of which are seeking to understand the action and character of God in such situations. As one biblical scholar puts it, “The Proverbs are spiritual guides for ordinary people, on an ordinary day, when water does not pour forth from rocks and angels do not come to lunch.” (Ellen Davis)

We have a term for this kind of theology in seminary, it’s called “Practical Theology” – as opposed to “Systematic Theology.” Systematic Theology is where people think about theology in the abstract ether and read volumes of books by theologians, often with German names, like Barth, Schliermacher, Moltmann, and Tillich – all in the hopes of trying to create an organized system by which people can understand God – problem is, it seems as though only other systematic theologians can understand it. And it’s often an understanding of God that works in an ideal world, not the real world. Practical Theology, meanwhile, looks at what is actually happening in the world, asks why it is happening, poses the question: “Where is God in all of this?” And finally asks the most difficult question of all: “How is the Spirit calling us, as Christians, to respond to this situation?” Hence, the practical theology department houses the fields of Christian Education, Preaching, Pastoral Care, Youth Ministry, Spirituality, and Mission. (And is the department where I spent most of my time in seminary.)

The book of Proverbs grows out of such a practical situation – the Jews living under the control of the Persian government. Now the Persians are kind enough to not only grant the Jews freedom of religion, but to also allow them to return to their promised land and rebuild the temple in Jerusalem after the Babylonians destroyed it. But yet, the wise sages and other religious leaders of this time felt it was important that their unique identity as the people of God not be squashed out by the powerful influence of Persian culture. So, they devised a system of Proverbs, and attributed their authorship to Solomon – the last great king of Israel who was renowned for his wisdom – in order to teach the people how to live a good life in the face of such overwhelming cultural influence.

The opening of Proverbs – the prologue – guides the reader as to the purpose of learning wisdom. Wisdom is important to learn because it: 1) transmits a tradition, 2) helps one to understand the action and character of God, 3) provides one with skills and virtues for making proper decisions for the sake of righteousness, justice, and equity, 4) provides the youth with prudence, knowledge, and discretion, 5) helps older sages to gain the skills they need to be able to provide counsel to others and grow the tradition, 6) helps one to interpret the teachings of the wise, and 7) helps one to deepen his/her own piety and “fear of the Lord.” If you notice, it’s not just the young who are called to participate in this learning of wisdom – ALL ages are called to learn this wisdom together – young and old alike, side-by-side, growing in their fear of the Lord which – according to the teacher of Proverbs – is the beginning of knowledge – the source and goal of all wisdom. And it is this divine wisdom of God which not only created and ordered all of creation, but also shapes and regulate our own human institutions – especially the Church.

On the other hand, fools are those who despise wisdom and instruction. Don’t be deceived. Fools are NOT unintelligent. Instead the rest of Proverbs describes fools as those who are easily seduced, tend to engage in actions which disrupt the community, follow their passions instead of their reason, and as such hold contempt for instruction about God’s will because it often contradicts their own will.

          As we move forward into chapter 3 of Proverbs, we find that the proper teaching of wisdom will promote the virtues of loyalty and faithfulness. Now please note that the meaning of “loyalty” is not to be taken lightly. Because the Hebrew word used for “loyalty” in our English translation is hesed. This word hesed is found over and over again in the Old Testament because it is the word used to describe the steadfast love and commitment of God for God’s people. It’s a powerful form of loyalty that does not waver in the face of outside cultural influences. At the same time, “faithfulness” is the expectation that the God to whom you are loyal will act true and in ways that will promote your well-being.

          That all sounds wonderful – but let’s be real. Such hesed loyalty and such well-being promoting faithfulness can only be possible if we truly TRUST God. And do we? First of all, it’s difficult to trust something about which you have no knowledge. How many parents would hire a babysitter you’ve never met before, without any references, or some organization vouching for their dependability? How many people would hire a contractor just by randomly picking one out of the phone book (for those of us who still do that) and not check his/her credentials or at least look up reviews of him/her on Angie’s List or Yelp? We don’t trust things about which we have no knowledge. So how do we gain knowledge of God?

The wisdom tradition tells us that knowledge of God comes not just from reading the bible, not just from reading complicated theological textbooks, not just from hearing the best preachers, not just from reading the latest feel-good Facebook post. True knowledge of God comes from life experience. From experiencing the joy and sorrow, the pain and euphoria of life. From waiting out the never-ending parade of medical tests, needle-sticks, chemo treatments, vomiting, hair-loss, and frustrating follow-ups that come from fighting a disease like cancer. To the moment of sheer resurrection you experience when the doctor tells you, “You are cancer free!” From the fear that comes when you realize that you’re going to have a kid and you’re just a kid yourself! To the overwhelming sense of love you experience when you hold your child for the first time. From the meaninglessness of watching a loved one slowly disappear due to a debilitating disease like Alzheimer’s. To the strange relief you feel when they have finally passed on and broken free of the disease’s grip. All of these moments, and many more like them, all contribute to our knowledge and understanding of God, God’s actions, and God’s character.

But through such trials and tribulations we have to ask ourselves: “Can we trust God long enough to gain that knowledge? Or do we grow inpatient too quickly and “lean on our own understanding?” The thing that Proverbs specifically tells us NOT to do.

And living a long life does not mean that you have gained such knowledge. Because if you’ve never taken the time to stop and ask, “What’s God doing right now?” or if you’ve only “leaned on your own understanding” then you will simply attribute such successes to your own abilities or such losses to bad luck, and will never understand the work of God in these moments.

Byron and Marshal were twins that I worked with at my home church. These twins were dedicated members of my youth group. But Byron and Marshal lived in a constant state of fear. They were afraid because everything in their life was going so well! I know it doesn’t make sense, and frankly I didn’t understand at first either. But one of them illustrated it for me – he drew a roller coaster ascending a steep hill. He said, “I feel like that things just keep going up and up for me. I’ve never experienced anything bad or difficult. I’ve never known anyone who died. I’ve always had everything I’ve ever wanted or needed. But at some point, I’m going to hit the top of the hill, and it’s going to be all downhill from there. And I’m terrified that when it starts to go downhill, it’s going to go down fast! And I don’t know how my faith is going to handle that.”

Most people would reply with, “No! It’s going to be fine! You’re young and you’ve got your whole life ahead of you! Jesus loves you!” But instead, I was blessed that the Spirit moved me to say, “Your right. And that would scare the hell out of me too! But I tell you what, when things do crash and burn, you have a group of people here in this church who love you, who are here for you, and who will pick you back up once you hit the ground.” Remember, it takes a Church to raise a Christian.

Only few months later, these young men would tragically lose their grandmother. And when they did, the other young people gathered around them, hugged them, prayed for them, listened to their mourning, and shared their own experiences of loss and coping – shared their own wisdom. They didn’t offer shallow platitudes of “She’s in a better place.” Or “It was God’s will.” These young people offered themselves. And those young men soon realized that God was present with them throughout that great loss – through the hugs, tears, presence, and prayers of their fellow youth group members. They saw what God was doing in that moment. And they gained great wisdom in the process. Wisdom that would help them to grow in their faith and in their faithfulness.

And that, my friends, is the wisdom tradition at its best. Wisdom that is passed down not just through words but through actions. Wisdom shared not because of our faith, but by our faithfulness. Wisdom sharing isn’t just an intellectual exercise, it is the acting out of our faithfulness. It’s re-enacting what God has already done and continues to do. God, who spoke the world into being by his Word of Wisdom, also put his Word of Wisdom into action in the world through the incarnate Word of Wisdom, Jesus Christ – who taught us not only by his words but by his actions. And in turn calls us to perform the same actions in the world – actions which lead to righteousness, justice, and equity for ALL people.

I’ve spent the last few weeks touring this town. Meeting people. Speaking to them. Listening to their stories. Trying to get a grasp on the ethos, the spirit, of this community. What I found was a community whose young people are struggling, suffering, and in pain. You don’t notice it at first sight because they are rather adept at making everything appear okay. But if you take a moment just to listen, to hear their stories, you will learn about loss, sorrow, and need. The need is the most painful of all because it’s not just a need for material things, it’s a need to be heard, to be taken seriously, to be feel like they matter in this world. The need to feel as though they have a place where they belong.

Many of us may respond, “Then come to the church! You belong here!” The problem is, the image that the church universal has created for young people is that they are not heard, that they are not taken seriously, and that their opinions don’t matter. And the only way we can undue that negative stereotype is not to sit back and wait for them to come to us, but to go out to them. To truly listen to them. To share the wisdom of our experiences of God with them, and even more importantly, to listen and learn from the wisdom of their life experiences. There is a lot that they can teach us, probably even more than we can teach them.

The prologue of Proverbs teaches us that wisdom is not just for the young and inexperienced, but for the old and experienced as well. So that the older sages can learn to give counsel and add to the wisdom tradition. How can you give counsel to a young person if you’ve never taken the time to listen to a young person’s life?

We ALL have a lot of growing to do. We all have a lot more wisdom we can gain from one another. We simply need to be willing to open ourselves to the movement of the Spirit among us – among both young and old alike. And we can only do that if we wish to seek wisdom and discipline. Otherwise, we become fools. And as the Proverbs 1:7 teach us – only “fools despise wisdom and instruction.” So do we wish to become foolish? Or do we wish to become wise? AMEN.