Think that you might be wrong
August 16, 2009
Pastor Paul
Sermon for August 16, 2009 Pentecost 11B
Texts:
Proverbs 9:1-6
Ephesians 5:15-20
John 6:51-58
Sermon Title: “Think That You Might Be Wrong”
Friends in Christ, grace to you and peace, from the God who made you, the Christ who loves you, the Holy Spirit, who lives in you. Amen.
I’m kind of surprised that you are all here today. I was wondering how the sign on the corner might affect attendance today. Did you notice it? It’s been there since midweek, inviting all of the simple people to turn in here. You likely figured out by now that it is from the Proverbs first lesson for today from chapter 9. “You that are simple, turn in here.”
I had a few responses to it during the week, a little bit of offense, some intrigue, some uncertainty. Are you referring to the simple-minded, Pastor Paul? Or, do you mean those who live simply, casting off the baggage of life to be with God? It depends on what you mean by simple?
Nevertheless, you turned in…you even parked, walked into the building and sat down. You opened the bulletin, sang a couple of hymns, heard the lessons and prepared for the sermon.
You turned in…what do you seek? What are you looking for?
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” shouts the author of Proverbs. This Old Testament book is a collection of sayings, over a thousand in number, some from the period of King Solomon and the United Kingdom of Israel, some 900+ years before Jesus.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and again, like the word simple, the word fear is one I tend to shy away from. What do you mean, ‘afraid of God.’ I’m not afraid of God, nor do I want to be afraid of God, so if the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, what does this mean?
You that are simple, turn in here!
There once was a garden and God planted everything in it that would be needed for humankind. There were plants of great vegetation, animals of the ground and birds of the air. There were the sun and moon in their patterns and stars as endless as the sands of the seashore. And in the center of the Garden, God planted a tree, it was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and of it’s fruit God said, “you must not eat, for if you do, you will surely die.
Along came a snake, who told the man and the woman that they would not die, and that they could eat from the tree, and when they did, their eyes would be opened and they would be like God, knowing good and evil.
And they ate, because they wanted to be like God, but they weren’t God and they died.
You that are simple, turn in here.
The fear of the Lord, is the beginning of wisdom. The author of Proverbs is not speaking of fear, like I’m afraid of the dark, or afraid of someone who might hurt me, or afraid that disaster is around the corner. The fear of which Proverbs speaks is the recognition that we are not God and the clear awe and wonder we feel at that truth. Biblical fear of the Lord is not panic or fright, but rather sheer awe and humility in the face of the Holy. It is in that spine-tingling encounter with God, where our humanity and God’s divinity are clearly defined, it is there that wisdom begins.
You are not God…you that are simple, turn in here.
I received an email this week from a mother whose 5 year-old daughter is beginning to wrestle with the reality of Jesus being crucified. This 5 year-old has seen the cross in worship and other places and is wondering who did this to Jesus and why. Something in her is stirring about the world’s suffering, that all is not right with the way things are, that Jesus should not have been killed, and she wants to know why.
So, her Mom, did what every good parent does in these times of the unanswerable, she asked the pastor. And I, in good rabbi form, returned her questions with questions and encouraged her to live with her five year-old in the not knowing, in the mystery of what we do not and cannot understand, because there is great truth in the words of Proverbs…
The fear of the Lord, is the beginning of wisdom. In all that we do not understand, in all that we will never understand, trust that there is a God who does understand.
You that are simple, turn in here.
In an age when knowledge is more abundant and easily accessed than at any other time in human history, I would also suggest that maybe wisdom is lacking or even absent. While we pluck away at keyboards and find out the mating habits of the aardvark, we rarely sit and watch the sun rise in the morning above the trees. We can access up to the second information on Wall Street, but can we sit long enough to feel awe in the presence of a mountain. We know the rate of blood flow from the human heart to the little toe, but can we sit in wonder at the little toe’s ability to give balance.
To take a step toward wisdom is to know that we are not God, that we are simple creature designed for awe and wonder, to embrace what we do not know, not in fear an panic, but in a deep seated trust that God is God, that God reigns, God is in charge, This is My Father’s World…we are creature…and humility is the path we seek…
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
A couple of weeks ago our high school youth and their leaders returned from the National Youth Gathering in New Orleans. While there, they celebrated Jesus with 37,000 other Lutherans. They sang and danced and were inspired by speakers from all over the world. They also learned about a forgotten city, a place where nameless, faceless people were devastated by the damage resulting from Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Our group spent a day serving a Grandmother and her family, planting a garden in the front yard of her restored home. She was wisdom to them, offering the truth about the disparities caused by skin color, the lack of attention and help that was given and the reality of poverty in their community.
While touring the lower 9th Ward of New Orleans, the area most-affected by the damage, my wife Lisa, who was along for the trip, saw a this sign posted above a street sign. She isn’t sure why it was there, nor does she know who put it there or why. She only knows that it’s truth is both offensive and intriguing. It both draws me in and repels me at the same time.
Think that you might be wrong.
And so I speculate…did the author of this sign want to make a statement about how the people of New Orleans were treated? Do they want us to imagine that we may not really understand their lives, their culture, their struggle? Do they want to break down our stereotypes, our assumptions, our prejudices?
Think that you might be wrong. And then I read again from Proverbs…the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
You are not God. You do not, cannot and will not know what God knows. Accepting that truth is the beginning of relationship with God. Faith is not certainty of what we know, but rather certainty in what we do not see, what we cannot know and what we never can grasp.
Think that you might be wrong…about why people are the way they are, about what is right and what is wrong, about why something happened to someone, about who is at fault for whatever you want to blame, about what God is doing in the world.
Think that you might be wrong is about having humility in the face of life’s complexity…God reigns, God is in charge, God will be God.
I intentionally didn’t read the Gospel lesson for today, because it is equally or more offensive than the other thoughts I’ve shared. It is from the 6th chapter of John’s Gospel, our journey through the bread of life texts.
Let me read it for you, Jesus said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, they will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I them.”
(Where might the story of Timmy Nunn fit into this)
I struggle with this text, because of it’s cannibalistic sound, but what I hear Jesus saying is “ingest me…take me into yourself and live.”
I can’t tell you all of what that means, because it is beyond my ability to know, but what I do trust is this…to eat the flesh and drink the blood of Jesus is to enter suffering, to ingest suffering…willingly, without knowing or understanding the why…enter the suffering of another, think that you might be wrong, sit silently with another, without answers, without platitudes, without reason…just sit in silence at the foot of the cross and trust…God will be God…and Jesus will show us the way!
The feast is prepared…wisdom has set her table…Jesus is the bread and the wine…you that are simple, turn in here, come to the table to the table of the Lord! AMEN
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