Sermons

Twenty First Sunday after Trinity
Sunday 16 October at 6.30pm

Lesley Ashton

Readings: Proverbs 4:1-18 I John 3:16-4:6

The book of Proverbs is attributed to Solomon who was legendary for his wisdom and insight; therefore it is not surprising that recent Sunday evening readings from Proverbs have had the key message that one should gain wisdom. In fact the first nine chapters are long wisdom poems that both personify wisdom and gather the traditions of the elders so that the youth might both learn about and seek after righteousness.

Our under standing of wisdom is different between cultures and generations. The wisdom in the days of the Old Testament moved to a new and different understanding during and after the time of Christ. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians challenges them to reassess their understanding of wisdom in the light of what God had revealed through the cross of Christ.

He is talking to a mixed group of converts, some who are Jews steeped in their understanding of the Hebrew scriptures and others who are Greeks, straining to attain wisdom through scholarship and debate. Paul, seeks to help the early church engage in a new way of thinking that is not based on human wisdom and which challenges their expectations of how God would act to redeem his world.

The Jews were expecting miraculous signs, a glorious Messiah not a crucified Christ The Cross was a stumbling block to their belief, it defied their expectations and made mockery of their Law.

The Cross was foolishness to the Greeks, they sought understanding of God through knowledge, Gnostic wisdom centred on self love. It sought to have religious thought without putting a faith into practice.

The crucified Christ thwarted the Jews search for a glorified Messiah and the Greeks need for rationalism. But Paul proclaims that for both Jew and Greek, the Cross is the climax and definition of the wisdom through which God orders his world. . Christ has become our wisdom, our mediator between God and man and so we can boast in nothing of ourselves only in Christ crucified.

Now we live in a different time and culture we have 2000 years of Christian faith in our history, so how do we identify wisdom in our time and culture? Paul told the Corinthians that the wisdom of God is folly to the world and maybe this must be our starting place.

Perhaps to find wisdom we must be foolish enough to look in the places and to the people whom the world often ignores or patronises.

Perhaps we need to listen to the wisdom in the simple, honest questions that come from children and young people, forget glib answers and engage in honest debate about how the Christian faith can make sense to them in their world.

Engage in conversations with older people who have the time to reflect on their lifetime of experiences and can see God's patterns and ways of working in their lives.
People whose faith has been deepened and tested in their troubles, tribulations and times of joy.

Wisdom that comes when we visit those who are experiencing long term ill health or sickness, when we go with the aim of giving comfort or support and surprisingly come away feeling that we have been given far more than we have taken.

We need to be foolish enough to communicate with people on whom the world and sometimes the Church turns its back, for God makes known his wisdom to those whom the world despises.

We also need to have the courage and faith to believe that the seeds of God's wisdom are within each of us, waiting to be discovered, often in the places that the world has mocked, silenced or abused. In these places we can come to understand for ourselves the death and resurrection of the Cross, they can become sacred spaces, filled with the wisdom of God.

How do we find wisdom?

Wisdom comes when we make time for God, to learn about Him we need to spend time with Him.. This may seem foolish to the world , for much emphasis is given in the present day to spending time at work or in leisure, rushing from one thing to another, filling our days with activity and occupation. We need to have the courage to stop and be with God, to tithe our time and to listen.

Wisdom greets us when we are prepared to let go of our certainties that can so easily become dogma and think afresh about what we believe. When we are willing to put aside the beliefs that keep us safe and secure and take the risk of walking alongside and hearing the views of those who think or worship differently. Being open to finding the presence of God in any situation and meeting Him in the strangest of places.

God's wisdom can only be sought with a humble heart. Discernment is only given to those who fear God. We cannot seek wisdom without seeking justice, compassion and mercy, for these are the hallmarks of God, manifest in his Son.

So how do we test wisdom? How do we know that what we have found is God's wisdom?

Sometimes it is when we offer our stumbling blocks up to God and we experience the peace and liberation that comes from letting go. For example, many of us hold on to our wealth and material possessions, for the world has taught us to acquire and attain, they can become a stumbling block until we know the peace of putting them at God's disposal. God's wisdom brings peace and freedom.

We can test wisdom through reading God's word, through prayer, sometimes simply by getting on with what we believe to be right, always prepared to think again in the light of what we discover about God.

We can find the benchmarks of God's wisdom in the life and ministry of Christ, always going back to how he responded to people and situations, thinking about how he might respond to the issues and concerns of today.

But ultimately for Paul it was the Cross of Christ that pointed to God's wisdom, utter foolishness to the world then and now. And so ultimately we too need to look to the Cross for the definitive hallmarks of God's wisdom, and what do we find

We come upon Christ's example of humility and obedience, we see surrender and sacrifice, we encounter Christ becoming that curse for others so that we might be redeemed from the curse of the law, we encounter love beyond measure. The Cross, the place where God made peace, reconciling himself to all things, the place where hope was and still is born. The Cross, this is God's wisdom and may it be our touching place as we seek wisdom today.

Amen

© St Edmund's Church, Roundhay