Old Mystic, March 29, 2009
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Summary
Lent is a time to remember, ponder, and seek God’s forgiveness as we reflect upon the sacrifice of Jesus at the cross. Forgiveness is a continuous opportunity of healing, renewal, and relationship that God offers in His new covenant in Christ. As it was granted to the Israelites in exile, it is a covenant where God makes himself known to the human heart; from the least to the greatest.
Sermon
It is very difficult to understand disaster until it hits home. Those of us who have been accustomed to a peaceful and more or less problem-free life, we probably need to relate to something out of our personal realm to understand the plight of the Israelites. Perhaps the heinous attacks to the World Trade Center on 9/11 can help. On that day we saw lives destroyed, families who lost loved ones, the destruction of buildings; and tears, unbearable grief, the rise of fear, and a deep sense that some part of our peaceful living was forever lost. Can you imagine if in addition to that our nation would have fallen into some sort of captivity? I believe that only those who were directly affected by the catastrophe can have a sort of a grasp of the suffering of Israel in captivity, personally and in the sense of a national disaster. Many of us, not directly affected by the bombing of the towers in New York City, we may have to resort to our imagination.
Jeremiah is powerful in words to lament the fall of Jerusalem, God’s beloved city: “How lonely is the city that once was full of people!” “She weeps bitterly in the night with tears on her cheeks… the roads of Zion mourn for no one comes to the festivals.” “The tongue of the infants sticks to the roof of their mouth for thirst; the children beg for food but no one gives them anything.” He is also aware of the sinfulness of the city and the nation: “Jerusalem has sinned grievously, so she has become a mockery; all who honored her despise her.” But God also inspired the prophet to bring words of hope: “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”
It is always difficult to explain suffering. Theologians and philosophers struggle to come to terms with the fact there are no satisfying answers. Why a loving, merciful God allows “good people” to suffer? Why me, or why us? I will not attempt to offer an explanation. I just want to say that I remain in the belief that God does not necessarily punish sin with suffering. Sin brings suffering in itself because when we are in sin we are estranged from God, far away from him, out of that loving relationship; on our own and without any spiritual resources to live our lives in peace. Beyond suffering and punishment, sin is a fact; it is a harsh reality of the lives of many who suffer but also of those who do not.
But Jeremiah had good news for those suffering in exile as well as those who were left behind in the desolated city of Jerusalem. God is making a covenant, one that is almost impossible to ignore. For us it becomes powerfully manifest in the cross where Jesus Christ made the ultimate sacrifice for our forgiveness. For the Israelites, in the words of Jeremiah, “I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.” God offers a covenant of forgiveness and great things will happen to those who want to enter into that covenant. Looking at the promise of forgiveness advanced by the prophet, I’ll point out to three aspects of the promise contained in the covenant.
I. IT IS A PROMISE OF HEALING
There is no doubt that at that stage in history they were convinced that their sin was what brought the punishment of suffering upon them. With that understanding, strongly declared by Jeremiah, forgiveness becomes really powerful. Because it means returning to the ancient promise of possessing their own and fruitful land; it entails planting their vineyards and building their houses; it opens up the possibility of a peaceful life and, above all, it restores the nation to the cherished title of God’s People. Their dignity, their self-esteem, and their self-love are renewed. In short, peace, that most precious state of life, never fully achieved but in the making, brings its unsurpassable healing power even when in this life any of us would get just a glimpse.
There is healing in forgiveness because the estrangement from God, our separation from him, that what most human beings fail to see as their most pressing problem, ends and the most precious relationship is restored. Now we are alone no more; we have a hope that does not fade; we can experience joy. And all of that is healing. Both the wounds of sin and suffering can and will in the end be healed by our Loving God.
II. IT IS A PROMISE OF RENEWAL
The promise of this new covenant is unusual for the Israelites. “I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts.” A really remarkable promise when we think that these people were children of rigor who needed something compelling to submit to and would miserably fail in their attempt to be faithful to the constrains of the law. What it is promised in this new covenant is quite different. It is as if Jeremiah is saying, “You will be able to know God on your own;” “you will be able to experience God on your own.” They might have asked then when that was going to happen; they were used to obey the law and now it seems that they are granted freedom. Freedom? Paul makes it clear when writing to the Galatians. In Christ we are free from the law! We have the freedom to know God, we have been granted God’s Spirit!
Needless to say, this is a conditional freedom. It is the ability to make responsible choices, not just what pleases us. But beyond making choices, some of which might be difficult and challenging, it is the freedom of the unlimited possibilities that come with the privilege of knowing God.
III. IT IS A PROMISE OF A NEW RELATIONSHIP
The Israelites had a distant relationship with God. They always needed a mediator, whether it was their leader like Moses, or one of the prophets like Jeremiah himself, or the priests who would offer sacrifices in their behalf. They had no direct connection with God. In the light of the promise of forgiveness offered in this new covenant, whereby they could know God personally, they are blessed with a whole new relationship. They might have not understood it then. After all, for them the promise seems to lie somewhere in the future. From our vantage point we know that individuals, groups, and peoples can have a relationship with God.
Our focus tends to be most of the time on the possibility for individuals to have a personal relationship with God. Through the Holy Spirit God makes himself known to us. This is a great promise contained in the New Testament and Pentecost is the perennial reminder of this precious gift from God. On the other hand, the covenant offered to Israel, analogous to the one of the cross, is a promise of forgiveness for a whole nation. Peoples, nations, churches, and other groups are entities that God cares for. They also need to be restored; they also need forgiveness, renewal, and healing. The possibility of knowing God is the most powerful equalizer; it is a possibility that is offered to all, from the least to the greatest.
Lent is moving toward its culmination in the solemnity of Holy Week and the jubilation of Easter Sunday. Forgiveness proved to have a high price; God did not stop at anything to grant it. Christ’s sacrifice at the cross is God’s most powerful argument to draw us near. If we just stayed with forgiveness as such it would be enough to help us continue our journeys with hope. Yet, the promise that forgiveness carries over is beyond anything that could be described in human words. It is the promise of God’s very presence in our lives and the possibility to know him.
A Saving Serpent?
Old Mystic, March 22, 2009
Numbers 21:4-9
Summary
God has spoken and continues to speak to us through symbols that point to His grace, his forgiveness, and the gift of life. As the serpent lifted up in the wilderness became the symbol of God's compassion, love, forgiveness, and salvation, it also points to God’s supreme revelation: Jesus Christ, our Savior, Redeemer, God with us.
Sermon
Symbols are such an important part of our lives because they point to many cherished things, some that are religious and therefore sacred, and others that engage customs, values, experiences. Many of the symbols that are meaningful to us are cultural. For Argentineans, for example, drinking mate, the South American green tea that is drank sipping from a metal straw out of a hollow gourd filled with the infusion, is a powerful symbol of friendship and community as the drink is passed around in a circle and everybody drinks from the same straw. My experience tells me that the simple idea of sharing the straw makes most Americans cringe!
Religious symbols are more or less clearly defined by traditions. For example, crosses, rosaries, icons, images, and statues are symbols in the Christian tradition that connect us with the Divinity in some sort of way. Needless to say, for us as Protestants and as Baptists, none of these symbols has power in itself (sacramental power); they are just finite symbols that point to ultimate reality and for that reason we must understand their limitations without diminishing the power of the truth they point to. Robert Neville, professor of Theology and Philosophy at Boston University, would refer to them as broken symbols: they effectively engage us in spite of their known limitations.
When we think of a serpent as a symbol we understand better its brokenness. Throughout history and across cultures serpents have conveyed many different meanings such as life, death, protection, danger, and even the power of healing, as in the symbol of modern medicine. In the Christian tradition, the serpent of the Garden of Eden has been a symbol of temptation, deception, and evil and clearly associated with Satan. But at the same time, as we look at today’s story of the Israelites in the wilderness, it becomes a symbol of compassion, love, grace, forgiveness, healing, and salvation. The poisonous, killer serpent has become the saving serpent.
Life in the desert was not easy for the Israelites. In spite of the fact that they had been nomadic, the struggles for survival were taking a toll on them as they kept wandering for years. It must be hard to have to continuously strive to find food and water where they are so scarce. God had provided manna (like coriander seed that tasted like wafers made with honey) and when they got tired of it, quails. God made fresh, drinking water flow from a rock. God protected them and handed them their enemies in battle like when they defeated the Canaanite king of Arad. Yet, they were tired and when people are tired they complain.
They complained in spite of the fact that they had much to be thankful for. Had they forgotten how God brought them out slavery in Egypt? How God protected them from Pharaoh’s army dividing the waters of the Red Sea or how God led them through the wilderness guiding them by pillars of cloud and fire? It seems that either they were not clear about their purpose and destiny, the promise of the land flowing milk and honey, or that they had lost their faith. Lack of faith brings about lack of vision and lack of vision, the loss of meaning, and the loss of meaning, despair and weariness. And people weary and in despair complain.
The Israelites’ complained because they had to go a long way; the text says that they “became inpatient on the way” which was God’s choice and, as usual, it was made clear through Moses, their leader. And their complaint grew to the point when they “spoke against God and against Moses.” “Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water and we detest this miserable food.” So the complaints turned to be sinful as they spoke against God and God’ chosen leader. The narrative is blatant: God punished their slandering with a plague of poisonous snakes that killed many of them.
It may be tempting to focus on the evidence suggested by the text that death and suffering are ways that God has to punish sin. But this is an ancient text for a people with a limited understanding about the nature and character of God. It is perhaps easier to admonish ourselves about the benefits of obedience, submission, and compliance to what we are commanded. That is the simple way. But that view would prevent us from seeing God’s abundant grace, His love, and compassion. We need not regard our sufferings as a punishment for our misdeeds though they may very well related to our own mistakes and failures; we must focus on a God that in his love will always have a way for us—a way to save us.
The Israelites changed their minds—that is, they repented. They decided to try a different way; after all, complaints and slandering had not worked. They recognized that they had sinned and went to Moses to ask him to pray to God so the serpents would go away from them. So Moses prayed and God instructed him to make a bronze poisonous serpent and set it on a pole. The serpents did not go away, but whoever was bit by a one of them would look at the bronze symbol and be healed and protected. The very serpent that brought so much suffering to the people became the symbol of salvation.
John the Evangelist picked up this symbol in his Gospel when he said, “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes may have eternal life.” It is indeed a broken symbol since many of us would find it to be not the most appropriate symbol to point to Jesus. But at the same time it is an indication of the many ways God has to bring us into his grace. The people of Israel had to set their eyes on the bronze serpent lifted up for their salvation, healing, and protection. We, 21st century onlookers, as many generations preceding us, can look at Jesus Christ, “the pioneer and perfecter of our faith who… endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Unfortunately, so often we need to be reminded by our own snakes, the snakes that bite us, to remember about God’s love and grace. How many times we only come to God when the desperate circumstance of our lives make us first complain, then slander or even curse, go into depression and despair, and only in the end cry for help? God will find the most diverse, creative, and surprising ways to point to Jesus Christ. God wants us to connect with Him and with His Son in whom He offers salvation and healing.
We are in the Lenten season. It is a time of the year that powerfully points to Christ. It is symbolic of the passion of our Lord, his journey to the cross, his suffering, and ultimately of his victory over sin and death. It is perhaps also a time to pray as the Israelites asked Moses in the wilderness; a good time to lift a prayer of repentance and of changing our minds. and to look in the direction where God is pointing to: Jesus Christ, our savior, our redeemer, and our healer.
Numbers 21:4-9
Summary
God has spoken and continues to speak to us through symbols that point to His grace, his forgiveness, and the gift of life. As the serpent lifted up in the wilderness became the symbol of God's compassion, love, forgiveness, and salvation, it also points to God’s supreme revelation: Jesus Christ, our Savior, Redeemer, God with us.
Sermon
Symbols are such an important part of our lives because they point to many cherished things, some that are religious and therefore sacred, and others that engage customs, values, experiences. Many of the symbols that are meaningful to us are cultural. For Argentineans, for example, drinking mate, the South American green tea that is drank sipping from a metal straw out of a hollow gourd filled with the infusion, is a powerful symbol of friendship and community as the drink is passed around in a circle and everybody drinks from the same straw. My experience tells me that the simple idea of sharing the straw makes most Americans cringe!
Religious symbols are more or less clearly defined by traditions. For example, crosses, rosaries, icons, images, and statues are symbols in the Christian tradition that connect us with the Divinity in some sort of way. Needless to say, for us as Protestants and as Baptists, none of these symbols has power in itself (sacramental power); they are just finite symbols that point to ultimate reality and for that reason we must understand their limitations without diminishing the power of the truth they point to. Robert Neville, professor of Theology and Philosophy at Boston University, would refer to them as broken symbols: they effectively engage us in spite of their known limitations.
When we think of a serpent as a symbol we understand better its brokenness. Throughout history and across cultures serpents have conveyed many different meanings such as life, death, protection, danger, and even the power of healing, as in the symbol of modern medicine. In the Christian tradition, the serpent of the Garden of Eden has been a symbol of temptation, deception, and evil and clearly associated with Satan. But at the same time, as we look at today’s story of the Israelites in the wilderness, it becomes a symbol of compassion, love, grace, forgiveness, healing, and salvation. The poisonous, killer serpent has become the saving serpent.
Life in the desert was not easy for the Israelites. In spite of the fact that they had been nomadic, the struggles for survival were taking a toll on them as they kept wandering for years. It must be hard to have to continuously strive to find food and water where they are so scarce. God had provided manna (like coriander seed that tasted like wafers made with honey) and when they got tired of it, quails. God made fresh, drinking water flow from a rock. God protected them and handed them their enemies in battle like when they defeated the Canaanite king of Arad. Yet, they were tired and when people are tired they complain.
They complained in spite of the fact that they had much to be thankful for. Had they forgotten how God brought them out slavery in Egypt? How God protected them from Pharaoh’s army dividing the waters of the Red Sea or how God led them through the wilderness guiding them by pillars of cloud and fire? It seems that either they were not clear about their purpose and destiny, the promise of the land flowing milk and honey, or that they had lost their faith. Lack of faith brings about lack of vision and lack of vision, the loss of meaning, and the loss of meaning, despair and weariness. And people weary and in despair complain.
The Israelites’ complained because they had to go a long way; the text says that they “became inpatient on the way” which was God’s choice and, as usual, it was made clear through Moses, their leader. And their complaint grew to the point when they “spoke against God and against Moses.” “Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water and we detest this miserable food.” So the complaints turned to be sinful as they spoke against God and God’ chosen leader. The narrative is blatant: God punished their slandering with a plague of poisonous snakes that killed many of them.
It may be tempting to focus on the evidence suggested by the text that death and suffering are ways that God has to punish sin. But this is an ancient text for a people with a limited understanding about the nature and character of God. It is perhaps easier to admonish ourselves about the benefits of obedience, submission, and compliance to what we are commanded. That is the simple way. But that view would prevent us from seeing God’s abundant grace, His love, and compassion. We need not regard our sufferings as a punishment for our misdeeds though they may very well related to our own mistakes and failures; we must focus on a God that in his love will always have a way for us—a way to save us.
The Israelites changed their minds—that is, they repented. They decided to try a different way; after all, complaints and slandering had not worked. They recognized that they had sinned and went to Moses to ask him to pray to God so the serpents would go away from them. So Moses prayed and God instructed him to make a bronze poisonous serpent and set it on a pole. The serpents did not go away, but whoever was bit by a one of them would look at the bronze symbol and be healed and protected. The very serpent that brought so much suffering to the people became the symbol of salvation.
John the Evangelist picked up this symbol in his Gospel when he said, “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes may have eternal life.” It is indeed a broken symbol since many of us would find it to be not the most appropriate symbol to point to Jesus. But at the same time it is an indication of the many ways God has to bring us into his grace. The people of Israel had to set their eyes on the bronze serpent lifted up for their salvation, healing, and protection. We, 21st century onlookers, as many generations preceding us, can look at Jesus Christ, “the pioneer and perfecter of our faith who… endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Unfortunately, so often we need to be reminded by our own snakes, the snakes that bite us, to remember about God’s love and grace. How many times we only come to God when the desperate circumstance of our lives make us first complain, then slander or even curse, go into depression and despair, and only in the end cry for help? God will find the most diverse, creative, and surprising ways to point to Jesus Christ. God wants us to connect with Him and with His Son in whom He offers salvation and healing.
We are in the Lenten season. It is a time of the year that powerfully points to Christ. It is symbolic of the passion of our Lord, his journey to the cross, his suffering, and ultimately of his victory over sin and death. It is perhaps also a time to pray as the Israelites asked Moses in the wilderness; a good time to lift a prayer of repentance and of changing our minds. and to look in the direction where God is pointing to: Jesus Christ, our savior, our redeemer, and our healer.
Surrendering to God's Wisdom
Old Mystic, March 15, 2009
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
Summary
By His Grace and Love God grants us the opportunity to come into his wisdom and receive, understand, and proclaim the saving power of the Cross of Jesus Christ.
Sermon
I would like to believe that not everyone in this audience was raised watching the TV series “Father knows Best.” After all, it originally aired between 1954 and 1960! At the same time I would guess that most of us are familiar with the story and must have watched a re-run of this warm family sitcom that depicts life in the 50’s. Jim Anderson, a General Insurance agent portrayed by Robert Young, lives a quiet family life in a middle class Midwestern suburb with his wife, Margaret, and his children Betty, Bud, and Kathy. Those who remember the series can probably relate to the warmth, the simplicity, and the charm of this comedy, which conveyed a sense of the presumed happy life of the times. Father always had an answer for the domestic problems that would emerge in a household like his, understood to be the typical American home. It was sentimental and it assumed a cultural sense of what is right deeply rooted in the American ethos of the 1950’s.
Some have called the comedy rosy and paternalistic, since it relied on a hierarchical understanding of family life, and tended to have an unrealistic view of it. After all, life is not easy and many of the issues we deal with are more complex and pressing than siblings’ disputes about house chores, or missing a high school football game for being out too late the night before. Yet, in its context, understanding that Jim Anderson was a son of his time, his wisdom was good. Father knew best because he had that ability to discern what was right for his family; he had common sense. His gift of human wisdom helped him to be a guide to those who listened to him. What about wisdom in this age? Or in any age? Is there any human wisdom that would lead us to understand the cross of Jesus Christ?
Paul, writing to the church in Corinth, wants to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, and he makes his case by calling his proclamation, “Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God.” It does not begin with the understanding or the mastering the body of human knowledge about the faith; the acquisition of a mass of information about the “right” Christian beliefs. It requires faith and surrendering to God’s Wisdom—which may be unfathomable—that means, as I put it, coming in submission to an encounter with the Living God. And this very often happens when we are confronted with the harsh reality of the Cross. The stumbling block of the Son of God crucified; the foolishness of Savior that cannot save himself by just walking away. Can we understand it by means of our human wisdom? Does it make any sense? I want to affirm that surrendering to God’s Wisdom, we can understand a few things about human wisdom.
HUMAN WISDOM IS FEAR OF GOD
The book of Proverbs, known as a book of human wisdom, asserts that “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” And fear here should not be understood as terror or being irrationally afraid of something unknown; it has to do with that sense of humbling ourselves in recognition of our humanity as we stand at the very presence of the Living God. I like the Message’s rendition of this verse (Proverbs 1:7) that says, “Start with God—the first step in learning is bowing down to God; only fools thumb their noses at such wisdom and learning.”
Fear of God is implicit in Paul’s teaching to the church in Corinth. He says, “Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?” The world cannot know God through the wisdom and knowledge of this present system of human affairs! What is science if not just a mechanistic description of a common perception of reality, which may very well serve technology in helping human life on this planet, but does not answer ultimate questions? God in His wisdom chose the message of Christ crucified to reveal his saving love and the hope of the kingdom. For that reason we must humble ourselves before Christ, with a sense of humiliation—healthy fear. Surrendering to the Living Christ, to God, is the beginning of wisdom and entering into a relationship where we’ll taste—just taste—the unfathomable Wisdom of God.
HUMAN WISDOM IS KNOWING THAT WE DON’T KNOW
This May sound relativistic, particularly in a world—including Christianity, that strives for the human knowledge of clean, cut, comprehensible universal truth. We love to make claims about our knowledge of universal truth but, how much can we grasp of them with our limited human understanding? We can perhaps assert that there are universal values. But we can only have a limited comprehension of the depth of their meaning. Paul himself talking about human knowledge when teaching about love said, “For now we see in a mirror dimly; but then we will see face to face.” Human wisdom means acknowledging that we know that we know nothing.
For that reason Paul challenges the wisdom of the Jews and the Greeks. The wisdom of God, the wisdom of the cross, of the crucified Christ, was a stumbling block for the Jews. They wanted a liberator from the oppression of the Romans; a king for eternity—the reappearance of David; they wanted a victorious Messiah, not a pale, suffering, weak, Galilean carpenter who claimed to be a Rabi. And for the Romans? The cross was simply foolishness. Who could believe in a king who did not have an army but just a bunch of fishermen and outcasts from a lost province of their vast empire? But for those who surrender by faith to the message of the cross, it is the power of God. It doesn’t seem to be wisdom; but if we humble ourselves and we admit that we know nothing, we begin to walk in the wisdom of God.
HUMAN WISDOM IS KNOWING HOW TO APPLY THE LITTLE WE KNOW
If the cross sounds foolish, or if it is a stumbling block, we must perhaps ponder what a great love God has for humanity to offer His son to death and death on a cross. Are we beginning to grasp the importance of Love? Love is central to God’s Being and therefore to his wisdom. From our human perspective, loving, in many cases, will seem to be very foolish. And it will often put us in a moral dilemma. Can anyone love a rapist, or a child abuser? Really, I couldn’t possibly see any wisdom in loving such people if love means trusting them; believing them. Only God has wisdom to love all human beings! In fact, God took upon himself all the sin of the world, of all the sinners of the world because he loved the world and wouldn’t withhold any effort to redeem all the people of the world. Is there any other way but surrendering to this incomprehensible wisdom?
We may not know how to love, and be merciful, and how to help those around us in every case. Again, there are many situations in which applying those Christian virtues may be a little difficult. Not everyone “qualifies for the benefits” according to our human book. But if we do love those that we can love, and help those who we can help, and serve those who are within our reach, are we not somehow beginning to apply a little wisdom? Saint Augustine said, “love and do what you like;” quite a risky statement since doing what we like may not always be the right thing. But in the wisdom of love, if in any way that love comprehends the deepest Love of God, then we will have more understanding; more wisdom to do the right thing.
It is about surrendering. It is about faith. God wants us to look at the cross because it is a profound expression of His love as crude, and as horrendous as it may seem. “God did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us…” From our human wisdom’s angle it sounds foolish. That is why the whole message of the gospel and of belief is about, faith, about believing God; it is about coming into His loving arms; it is to experience an encounter with the Living God and surrendering to his Wisdom; to Him.
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
Summary
By His Grace and Love God grants us the opportunity to come into his wisdom and receive, understand, and proclaim the saving power of the Cross of Jesus Christ.
Sermon
I would like to believe that not everyone in this audience was raised watching the TV series “Father knows Best.” After all, it originally aired between 1954 and 1960! At the same time I would guess that most of us are familiar with the story and must have watched a re-run of this warm family sitcom that depicts life in the 50’s. Jim Anderson, a General Insurance agent portrayed by Robert Young, lives a quiet family life in a middle class Midwestern suburb with his wife, Margaret, and his children Betty, Bud, and Kathy. Those who remember the series can probably relate to the warmth, the simplicity, and the charm of this comedy, which conveyed a sense of the presumed happy life of the times. Father always had an answer for the domestic problems that would emerge in a household like his, understood to be the typical American home. It was sentimental and it assumed a cultural sense of what is right deeply rooted in the American ethos of the 1950’s.
Some have called the comedy rosy and paternalistic, since it relied on a hierarchical understanding of family life, and tended to have an unrealistic view of it. After all, life is not easy and many of the issues we deal with are more complex and pressing than siblings’ disputes about house chores, or missing a high school football game for being out too late the night before. Yet, in its context, understanding that Jim Anderson was a son of his time, his wisdom was good. Father knew best because he had that ability to discern what was right for his family; he had common sense. His gift of human wisdom helped him to be a guide to those who listened to him. What about wisdom in this age? Or in any age? Is there any human wisdom that would lead us to understand the cross of Jesus Christ?
Paul, writing to the church in Corinth, wants to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, and he makes his case by calling his proclamation, “Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God.” It does not begin with the understanding or the mastering the body of human knowledge about the faith; the acquisition of a mass of information about the “right” Christian beliefs. It requires faith and surrendering to God’s Wisdom—which may be unfathomable—that means, as I put it, coming in submission to an encounter with the Living God. And this very often happens when we are confronted with the harsh reality of the Cross. The stumbling block of the Son of God crucified; the foolishness of Savior that cannot save himself by just walking away. Can we understand it by means of our human wisdom? Does it make any sense? I want to affirm that surrendering to God’s Wisdom, we can understand a few things about human wisdom.
HUMAN WISDOM IS FEAR OF GOD
The book of Proverbs, known as a book of human wisdom, asserts that “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” And fear here should not be understood as terror or being irrationally afraid of something unknown; it has to do with that sense of humbling ourselves in recognition of our humanity as we stand at the very presence of the Living God. I like the Message’s rendition of this verse (Proverbs 1:7) that says, “Start with God—the first step in learning is bowing down to God; only fools thumb their noses at such wisdom and learning.”
Fear of God is implicit in Paul’s teaching to the church in Corinth. He says, “Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?” The world cannot know God through the wisdom and knowledge of this present system of human affairs! What is science if not just a mechanistic description of a common perception of reality, which may very well serve technology in helping human life on this planet, but does not answer ultimate questions? God in His wisdom chose the message of Christ crucified to reveal his saving love and the hope of the kingdom. For that reason we must humble ourselves before Christ, with a sense of humiliation—healthy fear. Surrendering to the Living Christ, to God, is the beginning of wisdom and entering into a relationship where we’ll taste—just taste—the unfathomable Wisdom of God.
HUMAN WISDOM IS KNOWING THAT WE DON’T KNOW
This May sound relativistic, particularly in a world—including Christianity, that strives for the human knowledge of clean, cut, comprehensible universal truth. We love to make claims about our knowledge of universal truth but, how much can we grasp of them with our limited human understanding? We can perhaps assert that there are universal values. But we can only have a limited comprehension of the depth of their meaning. Paul himself talking about human knowledge when teaching about love said, “For now we see in a mirror dimly; but then we will see face to face.” Human wisdom means acknowledging that we know that we know nothing.
For that reason Paul challenges the wisdom of the Jews and the Greeks. The wisdom of God, the wisdom of the cross, of the crucified Christ, was a stumbling block for the Jews. They wanted a liberator from the oppression of the Romans; a king for eternity—the reappearance of David; they wanted a victorious Messiah, not a pale, suffering, weak, Galilean carpenter who claimed to be a Rabi. And for the Romans? The cross was simply foolishness. Who could believe in a king who did not have an army but just a bunch of fishermen and outcasts from a lost province of their vast empire? But for those who surrender by faith to the message of the cross, it is the power of God. It doesn’t seem to be wisdom; but if we humble ourselves and we admit that we know nothing, we begin to walk in the wisdom of God.
HUMAN WISDOM IS KNOWING HOW TO APPLY THE LITTLE WE KNOW
If the cross sounds foolish, or if it is a stumbling block, we must perhaps ponder what a great love God has for humanity to offer His son to death and death on a cross. Are we beginning to grasp the importance of Love? Love is central to God’s Being and therefore to his wisdom. From our human perspective, loving, in many cases, will seem to be very foolish. And it will often put us in a moral dilemma. Can anyone love a rapist, or a child abuser? Really, I couldn’t possibly see any wisdom in loving such people if love means trusting them; believing them. Only God has wisdom to love all human beings! In fact, God took upon himself all the sin of the world, of all the sinners of the world because he loved the world and wouldn’t withhold any effort to redeem all the people of the world. Is there any other way but surrendering to this incomprehensible wisdom?
We may not know how to love, and be merciful, and how to help those around us in every case. Again, there are many situations in which applying those Christian virtues may be a little difficult. Not everyone “qualifies for the benefits” according to our human book. But if we do love those that we can love, and help those who we can help, and serve those who are within our reach, are we not somehow beginning to apply a little wisdom? Saint Augustine said, “love and do what you like;” quite a risky statement since doing what we like may not always be the right thing. But in the wisdom of love, if in any way that love comprehends the deepest Love of God, then we will have more understanding; more wisdom to do the right thing.
It is about surrendering. It is about faith. God wants us to look at the cross because it is a profound expression of His love as crude, and as horrendous as it may seem. “God did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us…” From our human wisdom’s angle it sounds foolish. That is why the whole message of the gospel and of belief is about, faith, about believing God; it is about coming into His loving arms; it is to experience an encounter with the Living God and surrendering to his Wisdom; to Him.
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