Finding Wisdom Everywhere

Proverbs 1:20-33

Wisdom is found everywhere!

Over hill and dale, and all around the town:

A busy street.

A crowded intersection.

At the city gates.

Available to all …

Without price.

Without chage.

Wisdom cries out:

Be smart.

Be wise.

Don’t be a simpleton.

With a sharp reproof to scoffers …

Naysayers and complainers …

And to the fool who refuses to learn!

And a warning …

Ya’ better do it now, because there will come a crisis, and then it’ll be too late …

Simpletons and fools will suffer.

Scoffers will find no solace.

But the wise will be secure!

So we might well ask this morning, “What’s wisdom?”

There’s a ton of stuff out there that claims to be wisdom.

Talk radio and TV evangelists … pundits and politicians …

Far-right, far-left, and just plain far out …

How in the world do we sort it all out?

How do we decide?

What’s wisdom, and what’s foolishness?

The truth be told:

Not all that glitters is gold.

Not everything that purports to be wisdom is wise.

But sorting it out isn’t easy.

Proverbs reminds us:

Scoffers and fools are influential.

Their words carry weight.

Folks are taken in by the silver-tongued every day.

Paul the Apostle confronts this matter in 2 Corinthians … Paul speaks of the “super-apostle” – slick words and good shows impressed the Corinthians with a false gospel.

P.T. Barnum said it well: a sucker is born every minute.

And sometimes I get the feeling that American Christians can really be suckers … we fail to be discerning …

Too often the dross, and not the gold.

Too often the chaff, and not the wheat.

Sometimes I get the feeling that American Christianity lacks maturity – the capacity to think clearly and critically …

Dr. Harley Swiggum recognized this in the late fifties when he was called to Bethel Lutheran Church in Madison, Wisconsin for adult education.

Bethel Lutheran was a huge congregation – full of influential people, good people, strong people, who loved the LORD.

But “they were defenseless,” said Swiggum.

“Defenseless against the slick talker and the good show. Like sheep, they could easily be led astray.”

Swiggum said, “There’s only one sure way to sort it all out – know the Bible … know it through and through, how it works and what it says, and to study it well for one’s entire life.”

And so Dr. Swiggum developed the Bethel Bible Series, to help folks get wisdom … so they can sort it all out; sit in a pew on Sunday morning and listen responsibly to the reading of Scripture and to the preacher – so they can say the prayers and sing the hymns knowingly, intelligently … and listen to a TV preacher or a History Channel special about finding Noah’s Ark, and be able discern the tawdry from the truth; the real from the unreal; fact from fiction.

I’ve been paying attention to sermons for a long time.

In seminary, I worked in the library – I reshelved books returned by students and pastors … I decided to look at what pastors were reading, and even as a first-year student, I was shocked and disturbed – so much of it was just plain schlock … syrupy spirituality, mediocre moralisms, simpleton ideas and shallow commitments.

The writer to the Hebrews touches upon this very thing – simpleton thinking, always a danger for God’s people – to settle for the simple rather than the sublime … to shy away from the big stuff and go for the small ideas …

In the image of Hebrews, too many Christians are still drinking infant’s milk instead of eating solid food.

Get on with it, says the writer to the Hebrews.

Quit laying the same foundation over and over again – there’s more to this Christian life than conversion and theological ideas.

I get the uneasy feeling that the larger a congregation grows, the more likely it is to feed on milk rather than solid food.

Folks want to hear about heaven, but they don’t want to hear about earth.

I get the uneasy feeling, because I’ve been there, that in the larger congregations, there’s tremendous pressure on pastors to offer milk, and even that watered down, rather than solid food.

This is a problem for God’s people.

In the second letter to Timothy, the apostle writes:

In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you: proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching. For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths [2 Timothy 4:1-4].

Maybe even in smaller congregations.

Maybe ever here at Covenant on the Corner.

Reluctance to tackle the big stuff and go for the small ideas.

Talk about Christ, but keep it spiritual.

Talk about faith, but keep it personal.

Talk about God, but keep it private.

The Southern Presbyterian Church formed in the heat of the days leading up to the Civil War – in the course of time, our Southern brothers and sisters developed an interesting doctrine: the spirituality of the church – that pastors should only preach spiritual things, whatever that really means?

In fact, what it means: leave me alone. Talk about heaven, but don’t talk about earth!

Can you see why the Southern Presbyterians developed such a doctrine?

Because their reality was so painful.

They lived in a world of slavery – life was good because life was bad for thousands of slaves working the in the hot cotton fields, lugging heavy bales onto paddle boats, and if you were a young slave girl, beckoned to the master’s bedroom.

It took the Southern Presbyterian Church a hundred years to work it all out … and to this very day, though North and South are now one church again, the doctrine of the spirituality of the church still holds sway in parts of our denomination, and for many conservatives, they want to keep it that way … preach doctrine, preach conversion, preach heaven, but don’t preach the world to us, don’t challenge the way we live, because life is good for us, and we don’t want to hear how bad it is for millions working in sweat shops around the world and just around the corner … the shirts we wear and the skirts we buy and the food we eat are cheap because someone, somewhere, pays the price with sweat, blood and tears.

Don’t preach the world to us preacher.

Just preach heaven.

How do we sort it all out?

The accurate from the inaccurate; the false from the true … the fabricated from the factual?

Here’s where Proverbs is helpful … more than helpful … vital …

To us who claim the name of Christ … we’re Christians … followers of the way …

It’s vital for us, don’t ya’ think, that we deal with truth?

Jesus said, I’m the way, the truth and the life …

Remember the courtroom scene when Jesus stands before Pilate?

Pilate asks: “What’s truth?” and Jesus remains silent.

Why? Why the silence?

Because truth IS Jesus.

Jesus standing there in front of Pilate.

Truth is not a maxim, a principle, or an idea.

Truth is flesh and blood, and love.

Truth takes up a cross.

Truth challenge the powers and the principalities.

Truth refuses to answer Pilate, because Pilate already has his own version of the truth – and for Pilate, it’s all about power and prestige … for Pilate, it’s the golden rule … those with all the gold make all the rules!

Get the picture?

Here’s Pilate, wearing expensive clothing, hair well-done, in a well-appointed palace, surrounded by Imperial Guards with shiny weapons, servants attending to Pilate’s every need, fine food and drink … the lap of luxury … and then Jesus, hands bound with tough leather straps, blood seeping through his tattered robe, hair tangled with spit and sweat … already half-way to death …

You’re standing there, in a shadowy corner – you’re a witness to this encounter – there you are, ten feet away: watching a Jewish prophet from Galilee hours away from death, and mighty Pilate in his palace … and you ask yourself, “Who’s telling the truth?”

How might you answer?

Come one now, tell yourself the truth.

Might you not be inclined to go with Pilate?

Rather than this beaten and tattered man swaying unsteadily on his bloody feet.

Pilate questions him with an imperious voice.

Jesus is horse from thirst, his mouth swollen from the fists that easily found their mark.

Who might you choose?

I posted this to Facebook the other day, and got some interesting replies …

One friend suggested that since we’re now on this side of it all, we can easily choose Jesus.

But I wonder …

I wonder if it’s all so easy.

Think of it as metaphor … Pilate’s pomp on the one hand … the scruffy figure in tattered robe on the other …

In the book of James, the question surfaces about church visitors – those who show up in fine dress are given the best pews in the church, and the man who shows up in shabby dress is told to stand in the lobby or take the folding chair off to the side.

The metaphor still functions ... to whom are we inclined to give the greater weight: a well-dressed CEO or a line-worker?

Perhaps if we were blind, it would be easier, but, then, I suppose, we'd go with the sound of the voice, or something like that.

I think the juxtaposition of Jesus and Pilate, and the well-dressed and the shabby in James 2, suggest that I'm still easily fooled by appearances ... or to put it more personally, to which pastor am I likely to give the greater credence - the pastor of a 15,000 member megachurch or the pastor of a rural parish in Oklahoma?

We’re easily seduced by the very things that mean so little to God …

Size never matters to God.

Listen to what God says to the people of Israel in the wilderness:

It was not because you were more numerous than any other people that the LORD set his heart on you and chose you—for you were the fewest of all peoples. It was because the LORD loved you [Deuteronomy 7:7].

Power and prestige are of no consequences to God.

Here’s what Paul writes to the Corinthians:

Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” [1 Corinthians 1:26-33].

Gold is nothing more to God than street gravel.

Have you ever wondered why the streets of heaven are paved with gold?

What do we use here to pave our streets, but the cheapest materials we can find? Sand and gravel, because they’re plentiful – they’re everywhere, and that makes sand and gravel cheap.

Heaven’s streets are paved with gold because in God’s kingdom gold is as cheap as sand and gravel. What we use to decorate bathroom fixtures or wear upon our bodies will be nothing more than street material in God’s heaven.

When was the last time any of us wore a piece of gravel as a pendant? Or stored up sand for ourselves?

In heaven, gold will be nothing more than gravel and sand!

How do we sort it all out?

Look to Jesus.

Study the beatitudes.

Ponder the Book of Proverbs.

Feed your soul on good things.

Things that build you up and encourage you to a noble life.

Things that tell the truth and commend you to a life of service and sacrifice.

Pay attention:

Fear-mongers are working over time these days.

Fear mongers warning us about gays and lesbians who “want to destroy our nation and dismantle the family.”

“Muslims are going to take over the world and make us all bow the knee to Allah.”

Jesus Camps and fundamentalist churches harp upon a consistent theme: “nefarious plans are underway to take away our rights, take away our guns, tell us what to eat, and turn us into a socialist state.”

Peddling boogiemen and monsters under the bed and in the closet.

Turn on TV and pay attention to the fear-ads.

Illness is a big fear, “But don’t be afraid, we’ll sell you drugs; and if we have to read the fine print to you about side-effects, we’ll read real fast, even as we play beautiful music and show beautiful people prancing around with health and vigor.”

Home security is a big fear, “But don’t be afraid, we’ll sell you a home alarm system … and you’ll always be safe with us.”

Fear, fear, fear!

Dear Christian friends; pay attention to fear … when fears start to rise, hell draws near.

Fear is Satan’s chief weapon against us … fear is Satan’s medicine to make us sick … sick with trepidation and sick with anxiety.

Ward it off and walk away!

Because Jesus says: “Fear not!”

Don’t be afraid, says Jesus, because it is your Father’s will to give you the kingdom [Luke 12:32].

John writes to his little church:

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love [1 John 4:18].

How do we sort it all out?

Trust your own spirit, your own instincts.

What builds up is likely of God!

Even though God will challenge us to the core and push us to the limit, it will feel right.

God always feels right.

When something doesn’t feel right.

That’s a good sign that something is wrong.

That it’s not God, but Satan.

When something agitates without purpose.

When anxiety rises and suspicion grows.

When everyone who’s different begins to look like a threat … when other religions are condemned, when chasms grow deeper and fences grow taller,

A clear sign that we’re dealing with a script from hell.

I close with words from Proverbs:

How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?

How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing

and fools hate knowledge?

Give heed to my reproof;

I will pour out my thoughts to you;

I will make my words known to you [Proverbs 1:22-23].

Amen and Amen!