Wisdom's Call
Delivered on August 16th, 2009 at the United Church of Nelson, NH
Opening Words
I'd like each of you to sit comfortably, feet on the floor, back straight. Close your eyes, and be quiet within and without, in a spirit of prayer. Listen; what do you hear? What can you feel? What can you smell?
Robert French Leavens wrote these words:
Holy and beautiful the custom which brings us together,
In the presence of the Most High:
To face our ideals,
To remember our loved ones in absence,
To give thanks, to make confession, to offer forgiveness,
To be enlightened, and to be strengthened.
Through this quiet hour breathes the worship of ages,
The cathedral music of history.
Three unseen guests attend,
Faith, hope, and love;
Let all our hearts prepare them place.
We seek out God's will for each of us. We seek from a place of wisdom deep in our souls. Our searching and yearning must emanate from within our hearts and minds, and it must be sincere and honest. In our search, let us remember that we are the creation, not the Creator. Please join me in reading the prayer of confession from your bulletin.
Prayer of Confession
Pastor: God of Creation, we are human, flawed and imperfect, and often lacking in knowledge.
People: God of Creation, forgive us. Let our minds always wander heavenward, seeking your wisdom.
Pastor: God of Wisdom, we are human, and we make mistakes, fall down, and err.
People: God of Wisdom, when we make mistakes, help us correct ourselves, and learn, and move on in your service.
Pastor: God of the Thundering Voice, we are human, and we yell at our children, snap at our spouse, and bark at co-workers in our anger and frustration.
People: God of the Thundering Voice, forgive us if we sometimes speak harsh words; let us hear in the echoing silence of our hearts your own words of grace and faith.
Pastor: God of Solomon and ourselves, we are human, and we have knee-jerk reactions and prejudices.
People: God of Solomon and ourselves, when our reactions rule us and our prejudices crowd out our sensibilities, send your gentle reminders to be calm and careful with others.
Pastor: Solomon asked God to, “. . . give to your servant an understanding heart to judge your people, that I may discern between good and evil.” (1 Kings 3:9)
People: Lord, help us learn well to discern between good and evil, as Solomon did. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon
Solomon's request for wisdom pleased the Lord. He continued to be a flawed human being, but his wisdom exceeded all others, and is what he was known for. We remember him as the wise man who led his people well and built a great temple to God. May our prayers for wisdom also be found pleasing. Our prayers are heard, and we will receive our answers. In Jesus' name, Amen.
A Time with the Children
I'd like the children, and any others who wish to, to come up to the front here and sit with me. I want to talk to you about wisdom. Wisdom is a complicated thing. Who knows what wisdom is? Wisdom is knowledge, but it's also knowing what to do with your knowledge, and what not to do, and even knowing when it's right to do it. Wisdom is all these things.
I have a wisdom story to share with you, that was written by M. R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, who is a Sufi teacher. He wrote a book called The Secret Garden, Sufi Tales of Wisdom, and this story is from his book.
Look over here at this tree. Do you see the white-breasted bird with a red throat and beautiful feathers? Observe the beauty of its head, its throat, and its legs. It is such a lovely bird, isn't it? Do you know what kind of a bird it is? Its' a woodpecker. The woodpecker uses its unusual beak to peck at the tree bark. Do you know why it does that? It is searching for insects within the wood.
Unlike other birds, the woodpecker can walk straight up a tree. It can walk up or down, to one side or the other, circling round and round the trunk, pecking away in search of its food. When people want to climb a tree, they have to put their arms around the trunk and grab hold firmly. But the woodpecker walks upright, hardly touching the bark. If the woodpecker had to hug the trunk as a man does, it wouldn't be able to peck and get its food from within the wood. No other being can do what the woodpecker does.
A wise man is like the woodpecker, and the world is like a huge tree. With faith, strength and determination, a wise man can do what no one else can do. Like the woodpecker, he can easily climb upward, pecking at each and every point. As he circles the world without grabbing hold of it, he pecks with God's qualities and gets the truth necessary for his nourishment. He extracts love, wisdom, compassion, tranquility, and God. A wise man doesn't cling to the tree of the world or attach himself to mind and desire. The world is not difficult for him, because he is free to move in any direction he wishes. Life and its relationships are not heavy for him, because he has the faith, strength and determination known as wisdom. He takes only the truth, the point, from each thing. This is natural for him. Most men, on the other hand, stick their noses into each and every business of the world and try to grab it all. Because of this they meet with many difficulties as they try to climb that tree. Do you understand?
The woodpecker is a subtle bird, and a wise man is a subtle being. If a man does not become wise, he will continue to grasp the world and will be unable to climb or fly. It will be difficult for him to get at the truth. It will be difficult for him to have good qualities or to know love or to attain freedom of his soul. This is why he suffers and falls.
Do you understand how the wise man lives in this world without holding on to it? It is so easy for him because he has faith, strength, determination and wisdom. Think about this. If you also learn how to have faith, strength, determination and wisdom, you will gain much self-confidence. Your life will be complete, and you will have peace.
That is what a wise man is like. All others, all those without wisdom, are in pain. Even though they need God and wisdom and love, they hold onto the world, and so they suffer. The more you cling to the tree of the world, the more you will suffer.
I'd like to share a prayer with you, from a little book I have called The Gift of Faith by Jeanne Harrison Nieuwejaar. I'll read them aloud, and then you follow along with the actions.
May we have eyes that see (touch eyes)
hearts that love (touch chest)
and hands that are ready to serve (hold hands out)
for we would take our part as good neighbors in this wide world (spread arms wide)
May we enter this day with clear thoughts (touch forehead)
wise words (touch lips)
kind heart (hand over heart)
Let's hold hands quietly for a moment...
feeling love flow around us and through us,
knowing that as we give love away
there is always more within.
And that, my young friends, is a very, very wise thing to know! Thank you.
Sermon - Wisdom's Call
Pierre Abelard said, “The beginning of wisdom is found in doubting; by doubting we come to the question, and by seeking we may come upon the truth.” Solomon doubted, and thereby began a long and fruitful reign. God came to him in a dream and asked, “What is it that you want?” Think how different history might have been, had Solomon stated he wanted servants or money or sons and daughters to glorify his name! Instead, he spoke to God and said, “Right now, I'm here because you loved my father. But I'm not my father! I don't have years of experience and the confidence of the people. I have no idea what to do. Can you help me to understand how to lead the countless throngs of Israel? Can you give me wisdom?”
Solomon doubted his own ability to rule his father's people, and in admitting that doubt before God, he showed that he already held great wisdom within him. Wisdom is not “knowing everything” or “understanding everything.” Humans simply do not know or understand everything. We can't. But we do have the capacity to learn, and to grow. What is wisdom, then? It's knowing that we don't know everything.
In Alcoholics Anonymous, they use a prayer called The Serenity Prayer:
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
These words are spoken at recovery meetings across the world. They're repeated in cancer wards, funeral homes, and hospices daily. They bring comfort to people who are in desperate need of it. They are a sincere and desperate plea to God to grant us the skills that we need to be good people in the world we live in.
Serenity is perhaps the most elusive and complex of the three. It's a slippery concept, hard to pin down. It is much easier to describe a moment of serenity than to define it. My own first conscious experience of serenity was at a private religious retreat. I had been reading and writing, and had lulled my mind into a daze. As I came out of it, I glanced out the window of my room to see a hesitant group of three deer making their way slowly along a path behind the retreat house. They looked up at me and seemed to meet my eyes. The moment hung in the air for a long time before they returned to grazing and walked beyond my sight. For me, that sense of timeless, quiet awe and wonder was serenity.
Serenity is a gift from God, which results from our hard work of the mind. Courage, too, is something which seems to emanate from God, while simultaneously coming from our own bodies and minds.
The courage to affect change in ourselves, our families and friends, our neighborhoods, state or even our country, exists within each of us. Like the Cowardly Lion in the Wizard of Oz, it sometimes seems as if we are without courage, but just like the Lion, when it is necessary – really necessary – we can access it without conscious thought. The Lion was given affirmation of his courage by the Wizard, but the courage itself came from within. The same is true with us. What we can do when we feel afraid or lacking in courage, is to reach out for God.
When we ask God to grant us the courage to change the things we can, we aren't asking him to manufacture courage for us. We are asking him to help us remember just how much courage we actually hold within ourselves; we are asking for the affirmation of our own courage.
That brings us, finally, to wisdom. Wisdom is what fuels us and is the manifestation of our intelligence and thoughtfulness. Wisdom allows us to make decisions rather than to be swept along with the random results of life. In a way, we should rename the Serenity Prayer to the Wisdom Prayer, because wisdom is the determining factor in it. Serenity and courage are the actions that result from the wise decision made.
God, grant us the wisdom to know when it's appropriate to accept life's tumbles, and when it's necessary to change our world. That's the basic thought expressed in this prayer. Being present on Sunday morning isn't enough. How many people have you known in your life who've attended church every Sunday, and learned nothing? How many people go to church simply because “their parents did” or “it's just always been that way”? Coming here is a step to wisdom, but it isn't an expression of wisdom unless you've made the conscious choice to listen and learn!
Solomon asked for wisdom. Why? Why did he choose to ask God for wisdom instead of riches, or a few more wives, or vast power? Perhaps because he understood that with wisdom, he could achieve all those other things on his own. Without wisdom, without thought and meditation, without the ability to empathize and sympathize with his people, he could not keep riches or wives or power. Only through gaining, exercising, and furthering his own wisdom could he have a chance of being the leader that Israel required.
Solomon was able to ask God directly for his wisdom and in asking he showed that he already possessed that wisdom. In some ways, we're not so lucky, because it's rare nowadays for someone to be in that close contact with God. He seems a lot more reticent about displaying the pillars of fire. Then again, perhaps we have become distanced from God, and in being separated from God, we've made it more difficult for him to provide us with the flashy signs. Perhaps he expects us to use our wisdom to see the smaller signs, to hear the words of God through our friends and our family.
What would YOU ask God for, given the same question? Would you ask for the easy things, the things that you could gain on your own with work and effort? Or could you be wise as Solomon, and ask for something a bit less selfish? What gifts do you need in order to accomplish the tasks God has given to you?
Solomon was very wise, as we all know. But he was also fallible, and very human. We remember his wisdom, and his temple to God, but we forget his love of pretty women, and his lack of piety in later life. The story of Solomon provides us with an interesting lesson in wisdom. We can learn from Solomon's mistakes – we need not make those mistakes ourselves. This is a lesson in failure, and if we heed the lesson, we don't need to fail ourselves.
Our society is built on the separation of church and state, and yet we spent countless hours arguing whether or not the 10 Commandments should be displayed at a courthouse. In arguing this way, we miss the fact that outside that courthouse are men, women, and children, families who are starving, who are out of work, who have no health care, who do not have the basic necessities of life. Who are we to argue over the esoteric when good works lay there before us, just begging to be done?
I don't know whether God wants us to have the Commandments hanging in our courthouses and schools. What I do know is that he wants us to help the needy and care for the poor. He wants us to hold the dying and offer succor and care to the suffering and sick. I've yet to find a judge who has any problems with those actions!
This is wisdom in action. What's going to do most good: people in court seeing the Commandments, or helping to feed people at a soup kitchen? Wisdom tells us that the most good is probably going to happen at the soup kitchen. Anyone who could or would read the Commandments on the wall at the courthouse is perfectly capable of doing so at home. People are suffering everywhere, though, and they may have no home to go to.
Paul's words to the Ephesians are as valid now as they were 2000 years ago. “Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil.” Our society has become distracted from humble trust in Gods' ways and governance. Instead, we've gained pride and hubris, and we've become over-confident in our ability to serve each other, our county, State, country, and the world.
Today's lectionary commentary asks us, “What would the world look like if every leader exhibited integrity of heart and uprightness in their decisions? If we, as a people, exhibited integrity of heart and uprightness? Where, indeed, can we FIND wisdom?” What we need to be asking is not what others can do for us, but what we can do for others.
Are we demanding wisdom of ourselves? Are we wise enough to admit that we might be wrong, that we sometimes need help, that we don't know it all? Solomon asked for wisdom – the rest of the work he was capable of doing on his own. Are we prepared to do the leg-work? If we aren't prepared to put the work into life, then what we get out of life will be just as disappointing.
Are we making it too complex, too complicated? There are different kinds of wisdom in the world, although they're all related. Perhaps we're expecting some vaunted statement “from on high” when the common sense approach would be best.
You may have heard the old joke about the man and his faith. Seems he was in his house when a flood occurred. He had warning from the television news people, but he had strong faith in God, and knew that God would keep him safe. When the water rose, he crawled up on his roof. While there, his neighbor went by in a canoe, and offered him a ride to safety. He refused, stating that God would save him because he had faith. He waited patiently as the water rose. Later that day, a firefighter went by in a safety raft, and urged him to come into the raft and be ferried to safety. Again he declined because, as he told the fireman, God would be saving him shortly thanks. As night fell, and the water began to lap at his feet, a life flight helicopter came by, and dropped a ladder down to him. On a bull horn, they ordered him to hold onto the ladder, explaining they would fly him to dry ground. He turned his back on them, stating bluntly that his faith would save him: God would be there any moment. Soon after that, he was overcome by the water, and drowned.
Upon reaching Heaven, he came before God and started ranting. “Why didn't you save me?” he demanded rudely, stomping his foot. “I had full and complete faith and you didn't save me!” God sighed and shook his head. “My son, I sent you a canoe, a safety raft, and a helicopter. What did you expect?”
We might find this funny, and it IS funny. After all, no one in that situation would actually do what the man did. But in some ways it is very NOT funny. I'm sure each of you knows one or two people who have refused offers of help on some grounds or another... too much pride, too much faith in the wrong places... Ben Franklin said, “God helps those who help themselves.” It's important for us to do the leg-work. God doesn't work in a vacuum.
Solomon asked for help from God. We can ask, too. We also need to keep our eyes open and accept what gifts God sends our way. When that proverbial canoe goes by, we have to be prepared to say thank you and step in with grace and confidence.
The wisdom of every-day things is what we need to strive for. We can call it wisdom, or if that doesn't suit you, how about common sense? Of course, “common” sense isn't so common nowadays. With the economy in dire straits, job security being a joke, and schools falling behind in the education of our children, we need more than ever to grasp onto all straws of wisdom and hold onto them with all our might!
I want you to think for a moment. How many of you, in the last month, have exercised your wisdom? How did you use wisdom in a daily setting? For me, it was pushing myself to continue weeding the garden, even though I felt downhearted about the weeds growing there. After all, if I don't weed my garden, who will? I could have easily claimed my hands were sore, my back hurt, or it was too hot. All these things were true. I didn't, though. I made no excuses, and I went out, and I did the right thing.
At the same time, I didn't push so hard that I hurt myself. I didn't try to make it “all about me,” because that would have served no purpose. I asked my sister and my friends to come help me. I think the garden is a great analogy, if only because it is a never-ending task, very much like the continued search for self and soul and wisdom. We have to be vigilant, and pull up the weeds, make sure there's enough water and fertilizer. We have to be able to humble ourselves and ask for aid when it becomes too much for us. It's an active rather than a passive view of wisdom.
I've talked about wisdom for a while now. I've told stories and danced around it. But what, REALLY, is wisdom? We can say God is wisdom, or Jesus is God's wisdom in flesh, but that doesn't really tell us what wisdom is. Like the serenity I started out talking about at the beginning of this sermon, wisdom is kind of slippery. It's much easier to tell a story, then point at a character and say, “That's a wise person!” It's a lot less easy to define the trait, the virtue, of wisdom.
I have to admit, I like the definition I found on Wikipedia when I was browsing around online: “Wisdom is an ideal that has been celebrated since antiquity as the application of knowledge needed to live a good life. Beyond simply knowing/understanding what options are available, 'Wisdom' provides the ability to differentiate between them and choose the one that is best.”
Listening to that makes me feel like I've been wasting time up here! Wisdom is the application of knowledge needed to live a good life. It's that simple. It isn't the knowledge itself – that's not enough. It's not 'living a good life' on its own – that isn't enough either. It's the application of that knowledge that is needed to live a good life, without ever saying that the good life will be led in the end. So simple. Wisdom is a verb. It's not a thing – it's an action!
Wisdom is one of those traits that's difficult to understand unless you happen to have at least a bit of it within you. You can't explain colors to the blind, or music to the deaf, except in the broadest of ways. Similarly, you can't explain wisdom to the man who has none in his soul. One must paradoxically have already had the experience in order to understand and utilize wisdom. Does your brain hurt yet?
I'd like to challenge each of you to think about your own wisdom. We can't force the leaders of the world to act in wise ways, but we can make small changes at home. Every lasting change in the world has started as a grassroots movement, in someone's home. Now it's your time! Over the next few days, ask God to grant you wisdom, so that you can make better decisions about your family and your life. Ask sincerely, and then pay attention each day to the myriad small ways that you find your own wisdom.
Even more important, pass that wisdom along. I don't mean that you should inundate your kids with trite quotes from past rulers or anything like that. What I mean, is act with wisdom, on purpose. Don't let it be an unconscious thing for the next little while – actively seek to act in a way that fully utilizes the wisdom that you've garnered over your years on this Earth. Help your kids, or the young people that you touch as you go about your day, to find a bit of their own wisdom, too.
We're about to collect the offering for this week. As you place your envelope or money into the baskets, take the time to think about what gifts you bring to your family, and to your church. Think for these few moments about what you offer to your community, rather than what your community offers to you. If the only thing you put into the basket is love, you've still given this church a valuable thing.
Benediction
I leave you today with the words of St. Francis of Assisi. Please read aloud with me.
Where hate rules, let us bring love; where sorrow, joy.
Let us strive more to comfort others than to be comforted,
to understand others, than to be understood,
to love others more than to be loved.
For it is in giving that we receive,
and in pardoning that we are pardoned.
May peace dwell in your hearts!
Opening Words
I'd like each of you to sit comfortably, feet on the floor, back straight. Close your eyes, and be quiet within and without, in a spirit of prayer. Listen; what do you hear? What can you feel? What can you smell?
Robert French Leavens wrote these words:
Holy and beautiful the custom which brings us together,
In the presence of the Most High:
To face our ideals,
To remember our loved ones in absence,
To give thanks, to make confession, to offer forgiveness,
To be enlightened, and to be strengthened.
Through this quiet hour breathes the worship of ages,
The cathedral music of history.
Three unseen guests attend,
Faith, hope, and love;
Let all our hearts prepare them place.
We seek out God's will for each of us. We seek from a place of wisdom deep in our souls. Our searching and yearning must emanate from within our hearts and minds, and it must be sincere and honest. In our search, let us remember that we are the creation, not the Creator. Please join me in reading the prayer of confession from your bulletin.
Prayer of Confession
Pastor: God of Creation, we are human, flawed and imperfect, and often lacking in knowledge.
People: God of Creation, forgive us. Let our minds always wander heavenward, seeking your wisdom.
Pastor: God of Wisdom, we are human, and we make mistakes, fall down, and err.
People: God of Wisdom, when we make mistakes, help us correct ourselves, and learn, and move on in your service.
Pastor: God of the Thundering Voice, we are human, and we yell at our children, snap at our spouse, and bark at co-workers in our anger and frustration.
People: God of the Thundering Voice, forgive us if we sometimes speak harsh words; let us hear in the echoing silence of our hearts your own words of grace and faith.
Pastor: God of Solomon and ourselves, we are human, and we have knee-jerk reactions and prejudices.
People: God of Solomon and ourselves, when our reactions rule us and our prejudices crowd out our sensibilities, send your gentle reminders to be calm and careful with others.
Pastor: Solomon asked God to, “. . . give to your servant an understanding heart to judge your people, that I may discern between good and evil.” (1 Kings 3:9)
People: Lord, help us learn well to discern between good and evil, as Solomon did. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon
Solomon's request for wisdom pleased the Lord. He continued to be a flawed human being, but his wisdom exceeded all others, and is what he was known for. We remember him as the wise man who led his people well and built a great temple to God. May our prayers for wisdom also be found pleasing. Our prayers are heard, and we will receive our answers. In Jesus' name, Amen.
A Time with the Children
I'd like the children, and any others who wish to, to come up to the front here and sit with me. I want to talk to you about wisdom. Wisdom is a complicated thing. Who knows what wisdom is? Wisdom is knowledge, but it's also knowing what to do with your knowledge, and what not to do, and even knowing when it's right to do it. Wisdom is all these things.
I have a wisdom story to share with you, that was written by M. R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, who is a Sufi teacher. He wrote a book called The Secret Garden, Sufi Tales of Wisdom, and this story is from his book.
Look over here at this tree. Do you see the white-breasted bird with a red throat and beautiful feathers? Observe the beauty of its head, its throat, and its legs. It is such a lovely bird, isn't it? Do you know what kind of a bird it is? Its' a woodpecker. The woodpecker uses its unusual beak to peck at the tree bark. Do you know why it does that? It is searching for insects within the wood.
Unlike other birds, the woodpecker can walk straight up a tree. It can walk up or down, to one side or the other, circling round and round the trunk, pecking away in search of its food. When people want to climb a tree, they have to put their arms around the trunk and grab hold firmly. But the woodpecker walks upright, hardly touching the bark. If the woodpecker had to hug the trunk as a man does, it wouldn't be able to peck and get its food from within the wood. No other being can do what the woodpecker does.
A wise man is like the woodpecker, and the world is like a huge tree. With faith, strength and determination, a wise man can do what no one else can do. Like the woodpecker, he can easily climb upward, pecking at each and every point. As he circles the world without grabbing hold of it, he pecks with God's qualities and gets the truth necessary for his nourishment. He extracts love, wisdom, compassion, tranquility, and God. A wise man doesn't cling to the tree of the world or attach himself to mind and desire. The world is not difficult for him, because he is free to move in any direction he wishes. Life and its relationships are not heavy for him, because he has the faith, strength and determination known as wisdom. He takes only the truth, the point, from each thing. This is natural for him. Most men, on the other hand, stick their noses into each and every business of the world and try to grab it all. Because of this they meet with many difficulties as they try to climb that tree. Do you understand?
The woodpecker is a subtle bird, and a wise man is a subtle being. If a man does not become wise, he will continue to grasp the world and will be unable to climb or fly. It will be difficult for him to get at the truth. It will be difficult for him to have good qualities or to know love or to attain freedom of his soul. This is why he suffers and falls.
Do you understand how the wise man lives in this world without holding on to it? It is so easy for him because he has faith, strength, determination and wisdom. Think about this. If you also learn how to have faith, strength, determination and wisdom, you will gain much self-confidence. Your life will be complete, and you will have peace.
That is what a wise man is like. All others, all those without wisdom, are in pain. Even though they need God and wisdom and love, they hold onto the world, and so they suffer. The more you cling to the tree of the world, the more you will suffer.
I'd like to share a prayer with you, from a little book I have called The Gift of Faith by Jeanne Harrison Nieuwejaar. I'll read them aloud, and then you follow along with the actions.
May we have eyes that see (touch eyes)
hearts that love (touch chest)
and hands that are ready to serve (hold hands out)
for we would take our part as good neighbors in this wide world (spread arms wide)
May we enter this day with clear thoughts (touch forehead)
wise words (touch lips)
kind heart (hand over heart)
Let's hold hands quietly for a moment...
feeling love flow around us and through us,
knowing that as we give love away
there is always more within.
And that, my young friends, is a very, very wise thing to know! Thank you.
Sermon - Wisdom's Call
Pierre Abelard said, “The beginning of wisdom is found in doubting; by doubting we come to the question, and by seeking we may come upon the truth.” Solomon doubted, and thereby began a long and fruitful reign. God came to him in a dream and asked, “What is it that you want?” Think how different history might have been, had Solomon stated he wanted servants or money or sons and daughters to glorify his name! Instead, he spoke to God and said, “Right now, I'm here because you loved my father. But I'm not my father! I don't have years of experience and the confidence of the people. I have no idea what to do. Can you help me to understand how to lead the countless throngs of Israel? Can you give me wisdom?”
Solomon doubted his own ability to rule his father's people, and in admitting that doubt before God, he showed that he already held great wisdom within him. Wisdom is not “knowing everything” or “understanding everything.” Humans simply do not know or understand everything. We can't. But we do have the capacity to learn, and to grow. What is wisdom, then? It's knowing that we don't know everything.
In Alcoholics Anonymous, they use a prayer called The Serenity Prayer:
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
These words are spoken at recovery meetings across the world. They're repeated in cancer wards, funeral homes, and hospices daily. They bring comfort to people who are in desperate need of it. They are a sincere and desperate plea to God to grant us the skills that we need to be good people in the world we live in.
Serenity is perhaps the most elusive and complex of the three. It's a slippery concept, hard to pin down. It is much easier to describe a moment of serenity than to define it. My own first conscious experience of serenity was at a private religious retreat. I had been reading and writing, and had lulled my mind into a daze. As I came out of it, I glanced out the window of my room to see a hesitant group of three deer making their way slowly along a path behind the retreat house. They looked up at me and seemed to meet my eyes. The moment hung in the air for a long time before they returned to grazing and walked beyond my sight. For me, that sense of timeless, quiet awe and wonder was serenity.
Serenity is a gift from God, which results from our hard work of the mind. Courage, too, is something which seems to emanate from God, while simultaneously coming from our own bodies and minds.
The courage to affect change in ourselves, our families and friends, our neighborhoods, state or even our country, exists within each of us. Like the Cowardly Lion in the Wizard of Oz, it sometimes seems as if we are without courage, but just like the Lion, when it is necessary – really necessary – we can access it without conscious thought. The Lion was given affirmation of his courage by the Wizard, but the courage itself came from within. The same is true with us. What we can do when we feel afraid or lacking in courage, is to reach out for God.
When we ask God to grant us the courage to change the things we can, we aren't asking him to manufacture courage for us. We are asking him to help us remember just how much courage we actually hold within ourselves; we are asking for the affirmation of our own courage.
That brings us, finally, to wisdom. Wisdom is what fuels us and is the manifestation of our intelligence and thoughtfulness. Wisdom allows us to make decisions rather than to be swept along with the random results of life. In a way, we should rename the Serenity Prayer to the Wisdom Prayer, because wisdom is the determining factor in it. Serenity and courage are the actions that result from the wise decision made.
God, grant us the wisdom to know when it's appropriate to accept life's tumbles, and when it's necessary to change our world. That's the basic thought expressed in this prayer. Being present on Sunday morning isn't enough. How many people have you known in your life who've attended church every Sunday, and learned nothing? How many people go to church simply because “their parents did” or “it's just always been that way”? Coming here is a step to wisdom, but it isn't an expression of wisdom unless you've made the conscious choice to listen and learn!
Solomon asked for wisdom. Why? Why did he choose to ask God for wisdom instead of riches, or a few more wives, or vast power? Perhaps because he understood that with wisdom, he could achieve all those other things on his own. Without wisdom, without thought and meditation, without the ability to empathize and sympathize with his people, he could not keep riches or wives or power. Only through gaining, exercising, and furthering his own wisdom could he have a chance of being the leader that Israel required.
Solomon was able to ask God directly for his wisdom and in asking he showed that he already possessed that wisdom. In some ways, we're not so lucky, because it's rare nowadays for someone to be in that close contact with God. He seems a lot more reticent about displaying the pillars of fire. Then again, perhaps we have become distanced from God, and in being separated from God, we've made it more difficult for him to provide us with the flashy signs. Perhaps he expects us to use our wisdom to see the smaller signs, to hear the words of God through our friends and our family.
What would YOU ask God for, given the same question? Would you ask for the easy things, the things that you could gain on your own with work and effort? Or could you be wise as Solomon, and ask for something a bit less selfish? What gifts do you need in order to accomplish the tasks God has given to you?
Solomon was very wise, as we all know. But he was also fallible, and very human. We remember his wisdom, and his temple to God, but we forget his love of pretty women, and his lack of piety in later life. The story of Solomon provides us with an interesting lesson in wisdom. We can learn from Solomon's mistakes – we need not make those mistakes ourselves. This is a lesson in failure, and if we heed the lesson, we don't need to fail ourselves.
Our society is built on the separation of church and state, and yet we spent countless hours arguing whether or not the 10 Commandments should be displayed at a courthouse. In arguing this way, we miss the fact that outside that courthouse are men, women, and children, families who are starving, who are out of work, who have no health care, who do not have the basic necessities of life. Who are we to argue over the esoteric when good works lay there before us, just begging to be done?
I don't know whether God wants us to have the Commandments hanging in our courthouses and schools. What I do know is that he wants us to help the needy and care for the poor. He wants us to hold the dying and offer succor and care to the suffering and sick. I've yet to find a judge who has any problems with those actions!
This is wisdom in action. What's going to do most good: people in court seeing the Commandments, or helping to feed people at a soup kitchen? Wisdom tells us that the most good is probably going to happen at the soup kitchen. Anyone who could or would read the Commandments on the wall at the courthouse is perfectly capable of doing so at home. People are suffering everywhere, though, and they may have no home to go to.
Paul's words to the Ephesians are as valid now as they were 2000 years ago. “Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil.” Our society has become distracted from humble trust in Gods' ways and governance. Instead, we've gained pride and hubris, and we've become over-confident in our ability to serve each other, our county, State, country, and the world.
Today's lectionary commentary asks us, “What would the world look like if every leader exhibited integrity of heart and uprightness in their decisions? If we, as a people, exhibited integrity of heart and uprightness? Where, indeed, can we FIND wisdom?” What we need to be asking is not what others can do for us, but what we can do for others.
Are we demanding wisdom of ourselves? Are we wise enough to admit that we might be wrong, that we sometimes need help, that we don't know it all? Solomon asked for wisdom – the rest of the work he was capable of doing on his own. Are we prepared to do the leg-work? If we aren't prepared to put the work into life, then what we get out of life will be just as disappointing.
Are we making it too complex, too complicated? There are different kinds of wisdom in the world, although they're all related. Perhaps we're expecting some vaunted statement “from on high” when the common sense approach would be best.
You may have heard the old joke about the man and his faith. Seems he was in his house when a flood occurred. He had warning from the television news people, but he had strong faith in God, and knew that God would keep him safe. When the water rose, he crawled up on his roof. While there, his neighbor went by in a canoe, and offered him a ride to safety. He refused, stating that God would save him because he had faith. He waited patiently as the water rose. Later that day, a firefighter went by in a safety raft, and urged him to come into the raft and be ferried to safety. Again he declined because, as he told the fireman, God would be saving him shortly thanks. As night fell, and the water began to lap at his feet, a life flight helicopter came by, and dropped a ladder down to him. On a bull horn, they ordered him to hold onto the ladder, explaining they would fly him to dry ground. He turned his back on them, stating bluntly that his faith would save him: God would be there any moment. Soon after that, he was overcome by the water, and drowned.
Upon reaching Heaven, he came before God and started ranting. “Why didn't you save me?” he demanded rudely, stomping his foot. “I had full and complete faith and you didn't save me!” God sighed and shook his head. “My son, I sent you a canoe, a safety raft, and a helicopter. What did you expect?”
We might find this funny, and it IS funny. After all, no one in that situation would actually do what the man did. But in some ways it is very NOT funny. I'm sure each of you knows one or two people who have refused offers of help on some grounds or another... too much pride, too much faith in the wrong places... Ben Franklin said, “God helps those who help themselves.” It's important for us to do the leg-work. God doesn't work in a vacuum.
Solomon asked for help from God. We can ask, too. We also need to keep our eyes open and accept what gifts God sends our way. When that proverbial canoe goes by, we have to be prepared to say thank you and step in with grace and confidence.
The wisdom of every-day things is what we need to strive for. We can call it wisdom, or if that doesn't suit you, how about common sense? Of course, “common” sense isn't so common nowadays. With the economy in dire straits, job security being a joke, and schools falling behind in the education of our children, we need more than ever to grasp onto all straws of wisdom and hold onto them with all our might!
I want you to think for a moment. How many of you, in the last month, have exercised your wisdom? How did you use wisdom in a daily setting? For me, it was pushing myself to continue weeding the garden, even though I felt downhearted about the weeds growing there. After all, if I don't weed my garden, who will? I could have easily claimed my hands were sore, my back hurt, or it was too hot. All these things were true. I didn't, though. I made no excuses, and I went out, and I did the right thing.
At the same time, I didn't push so hard that I hurt myself. I didn't try to make it “all about me,” because that would have served no purpose. I asked my sister and my friends to come help me. I think the garden is a great analogy, if only because it is a never-ending task, very much like the continued search for self and soul and wisdom. We have to be vigilant, and pull up the weeds, make sure there's enough water and fertilizer. We have to be able to humble ourselves and ask for aid when it becomes too much for us. It's an active rather than a passive view of wisdom.
I've talked about wisdom for a while now. I've told stories and danced around it. But what, REALLY, is wisdom? We can say God is wisdom, or Jesus is God's wisdom in flesh, but that doesn't really tell us what wisdom is. Like the serenity I started out talking about at the beginning of this sermon, wisdom is kind of slippery. It's much easier to tell a story, then point at a character and say, “That's a wise person!” It's a lot less easy to define the trait, the virtue, of wisdom.
I have to admit, I like the definition I found on Wikipedia when I was browsing around online: “Wisdom is an ideal that has been celebrated since antiquity as the application of knowledge needed to live a good life. Beyond simply knowing/understanding what options are available, 'Wisdom' provides the ability to differentiate between them and choose the one that is best.”
Listening to that makes me feel like I've been wasting time up here! Wisdom is the application of knowledge needed to live a good life. It's that simple. It isn't the knowledge itself – that's not enough. It's not 'living a good life' on its own – that isn't enough either. It's the application of that knowledge that is needed to live a good life, without ever saying that the good life will be led in the end. So simple. Wisdom is a verb. It's not a thing – it's an action!
Wisdom is one of those traits that's difficult to understand unless you happen to have at least a bit of it within you. You can't explain colors to the blind, or music to the deaf, except in the broadest of ways. Similarly, you can't explain wisdom to the man who has none in his soul. One must paradoxically have already had the experience in order to understand and utilize wisdom. Does your brain hurt yet?
I'd like to challenge each of you to think about your own wisdom. We can't force the leaders of the world to act in wise ways, but we can make small changes at home. Every lasting change in the world has started as a grassroots movement, in someone's home. Now it's your time! Over the next few days, ask God to grant you wisdom, so that you can make better decisions about your family and your life. Ask sincerely, and then pay attention each day to the myriad small ways that you find your own wisdom.
Even more important, pass that wisdom along. I don't mean that you should inundate your kids with trite quotes from past rulers or anything like that. What I mean, is act with wisdom, on purpose. Don't let it be an unconscious thing for the next little while – actively seek to act in a way that fully utilizes the wisdom that you've garnered over your years on this Earth. Help your kids, or the young people that you touch as you go about your day, to find a bit of their own wisdom, too.
We're about to collect the offering for this week. As you place your envelope or money into the baskets, take the time to think about what gifts you bring to your family, and to your church. Think for these few moments about what you offer to your community, rather than what your community offers to you. If the only thing you put into the basket is love, you've still given this church a valuable thing.
Benediction
I leave you today with the words of St. Francis of Assisi. Please read aloud with me.
Where hate rules, let us bring love; where sorrow, joy.
Let us strive more to comfort others than to be comforted,
to understand others, than to be understood,
to love others more than to be loved.
For it is in giving that we receive,
and in pardoning that we are pardoned.
May peace dwell in your hearts!
