Simple Wisdom

Pentecost 12B, 8/16/15
Proverbs 9:1-6

Holy Wisdom, let us listen to your voice as you call out to us, and help us to walk in the way of insight. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve heard several people say that they don’t really know what they believe.

Some of us aren’t sure how we feel about God, or the Trinity, or the resurrection, or the virgin birth, or various other primary tenets of the Christian faith.

Guess what?

It’s OK.

You don’t have to have all the answers to be part of this community of faith.

In fact, you don’t even have to be confident about your own personal faith in order to be part of this community.    You     and your doubts     and your questions     are welcomed here.

All that we ask is that you come along for the journey, and that you share your questions – other people might learn something from the questions that you bring to the table.

About a year and a half ago, as part of a confirmation class, another pastor and I had an entire session when we answered the questions of students and their parents. Any question at all was fair game, for either of us.

Some of the questions were predictable – what made you want to become a pastor?

Some of the questions were lighthearted – have you ever gone fishing?

And some of the questions made it hard for us to keep a straight face. When did you memorize the Bible?

Seriously. I appreciate that our confirmation students thought that we had the Bible memorized, but really, I don’t. I’ve read the whole thing, and studied it, even translated some parts of it from the original language, but memorized? I don’t think so.

There are parts of the Bible that I don’t know well, or even at all, and that’s OK. I don’t have to know everything in order to be a pastor.

And you don’t have to know everything in order to be a worshipper.

Today’s first reading includes an invitation to follow in the way of Wisdom.

You that are simple, turn in here!

Lay aside immaturity, and live, and walk in the way of insight.

Wisdom makes the invitation not to people who are already wise, or to people who have lots of knowledge or life experience.

Wisdom invites the simple people to come, be part of her community.

There are no prerequisite classes for walking into Wisdom’s house.

You don’t have to know certain things about God, understand anything about church history, or have verses of the Bible memorized.

During worship every week, we speak an affirmation of faith together, confessing things about God that Christians over time have determined to be true. But you don’t even have to be confortable saying the creed or any other affirmation of faith in order to belong here.

Just take a step.

That’s all that matters.

Step out onto the path of Wisdom, and you’ll learn what you need to know as you go along.

If you worry that you’re not good enough or don’t know enough, you’ll never take that first step. So put your worries aside and simply follow. Listen to the voice of Wisdom calling out to you. 

This doesn’t mean that we should follow blindly, of course.

We’re not asked to leave reason at the door.

It is Wisdom that’s calling after all – we are still supposed to use our brains as we travel through our journey of faith.

When we listen to Wisdom’s voice, we should be learning things about ourselves and the world around us. Wisdom is what helps us make decisions in our daily lives, and also what helps us see the big picture of human history, and where we fit into that picture.

There’s a new book by a Christian author named Brian McLaren, called We Make the Road by Walking.

That’s what the life of faith is like. There’s no pre-planned route for how things are supposed to go in your relationship with God and God’s people. With each step we take, we are drawing a piece of our own map, our own path of faith.

Brian McLaren writes in the preface to his book,

“You are not finished yet. You are ‘in the making.’” (page xi)

Each one of us is a work in progress.

By listening to the voice of Wisdom, and by following where she leads, we keep taking steps toward becoming the person that God created us to be.

Brian McLaren goes on to write, “faith was never intended to be a destination, a status, a holding tank, or a warehouse. Instead, it was to be a road, a path,

a way out of old and destructive patterns into new and creative ones. As a

road or way, it is always being extended into the future.” (page xii)

Now, I’ll be honest with you. I haven’t read the whole book. I’ve only seen reviews and read the preface, because that’s available online.

But I think that Brian McLaren makes a great point when he reminds us that we have never arrived in our journey of faith.

In other words, if you are waiting until you know enough about Communion before you start to receive – if you are waiting until you know enough about Lutheranism before you join this congregation – if you are waiting until you know enough about the Bible to become a Sunday School teacher – you will be waiting for a very long time.

         You will never know enough to satisfy your own prerequisites.

But what you already know, is enough for God to work with.

Wisdom calls you into her house no matter how much previous knowledge or faith or certitude you bring with you.

And, by the way, do you know who this Wisdom is?

Wisdom is God, calling out to you.

Earlier in the book of Proverbs, we are told that God created the world through Wisdom. Wisdom is one face, one aspect of the divine.  

When you follow the voice of Wisdom into her house, you follow the guidance of God into Christian community.

You don’t need to be whole and complete to walk through these doors.

But we do hope that as you continue to walk through these doors time and time again, and as you participate in worship and serve with outreach ministries and learn from Bible and book studies, we hope that Wisdom will keep guiding you along the path and forming you into the person that she created you to be.

One retired seminary professor puts it this way:

The slogan “God loves us unconditionally” is only half right.  God loves us with the expectation and hope that love will transform us into believing and righteous people.

(Ralph W. Klein, http://fontes.lstc.edu/~rklein/Documents/PentecostB.htm#Pent11)

According to today’s reading, you can replace “love” in that last sentence with “guidance” or “wisdom.” God guides us with the expectation and hope that Wisdom will transform us into believing and righteous people.

Because God loves us, God offers us the gift of Wisdom. Her voice calls us to be the best that we can be, and to do our best for the sake of other people and all of creation.

With each step you take in response to God’s Wisdom, you are making a decision – a decision to keep following and learning in faith, or a decision to stop and fall back into the ways of ignorance.

The next passage in the book of Proverbs, right after the one we heard today, is about the way of folly.

Folly cries out to passersby just like Wisdom does, and she also invites people into her home for a meal. But Folly’s meal is secret and stolen, and her path will lead to destruction. That’s what the next few verses go on to describe.

Unlike Folly, Wisdom is good for you. Even if you don’t have much in the way of knowledge or understanding, you can still follow the path of Wisdom.

God can still reach you, give you faith, use you for good works, and enrich your life even if you don’t understand how it works. All you have to do is listen to the voice of Wisdom calling, and ignore the voice of Folly.

Let me share a great example of what it’s like to step out in faith, even if you don’t know very much about where you’re going or why.

         How many of you have seen Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade?

Towards the end of that film, Harrison Ford – Indiana Jones – is trying to reach the Holy Grail. He can see the door that he needs to go in, but all he can see in front of him is this deep crevice in the rock, that is way too wide to jump across. So, he steps out in faith. And he finds himself supported by a bridge that was invisible until he was standing on it.

That’s sort of like what Wisdom’s path is like. You don’t always know where it is, or even what is going to meet you along your journey, but as long as you try to follow where Wisdom leads, you’ll be supported.

You don’t have to have all the answers. Just listen to Wisdom’s voice.

You that are simple, turn in here!

Lay aside immaturity, and live, and walk in the way of insight.

Amen. 

Unity

Pentecost 10B, 8/2/15
Ephesians 4:1-16

God our provider, like the crowds that followed Jesus, we do not always hear your word or know how to receive your blessings. Help us today to hear the message you have for us, and give us grace to respond. Amen.

OK, folks, time to grab a pencil.

I’m going to do something today that I hardly ever do, so you’d better write this down.

I’m going to preach on a reading from one of Paul’s letters.

For those of you who don’t know, the apostle Paul was the person to credit – or to blame – for the spread of early Christianity throughout the Roman Empire.

Paul wrote about half of the books in the New Testament, depending on how reliable you think some of the claims of authorship might be.

That is to say, it’s entirely possible that the apostle Paul didn’t actually write some of the books that are attributed to him, since the style is way different from his other writings. But, in the absence of an alternate author, for the sake of today’s message, we’re going to call the author of all of those books “Paul.”

Everything in the New Testament from Romans through Philemon was supposedly written by Paul.

Now, Paul wrote some truly wonderful things, like the words that we say as we celebrate Communion every week, and the passage from Romans about nothing being able to separate us from the love of God, and today’s reading from Ephesians.

But Paul also wrote some things that I really don’t like, such as that passage about women being subject to their husbands, and the one about slaves being content with their place, and women being silent in churches.

In my opinion, Paul was both the best and worst thing to happen to Christianity.

Without Paul, the momentum of the followers of Jesus probably would have fizzled and died. At best, they would have remained as a tiny sect in Israel that everyone else would have seen as quirky but harmless.

Because of Paul, the message of Jesus spread throughout the Roman empire, and eventually became the religion of the Roman empire, and then spread to every region of the world.

But also because of Paul, women have been treated as less than equal – that wasn’t a message that Jesus preached, that only comes from Paul.

Hierarchies and systems of power have been justified by Paul’s writings, including the institution of slavery in various forms over the centuries.

         Because of Paul, some terrible things have been done in the name of Jesus.

But here we are.

Today we have a reading the letter to the church in Ephesus, written by the apostle Paul or by someone writing in his name.

This reading has a lot of good things in it.

So even though Paul makes me queasy sometimes, I’m going to preach today on the reading from his letter.

We heard from the letter to the Ephesians, “lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called.” (Eph 4:1)

As followers of Jesus, we have been called by God, just like the disciples were. The disciples did some great work with Jesus, and Christians have been doing important things ever since then.

So what is the calling to which we have been called?

Paul goes on to describe how we are supposed to act – which in essence describes our calling.

Live with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. (Eph 4:2-3)

Your pride, your ego, your schedule, your goals are not the most important things in life. What matters most is to love other people and do everything in your power to live in unity with them.

Humility, gentleness, and patience are more important than pride, arrogance, and anxiety.

This seems like common sense, right? We know that humility is better than pride, and patience is better than anxiety.

But you don’t have to look very far to find people in the world arguing about whose ideas or products or political ideals are the best.

That’s not the calling we have as Christians. Our calling is to live in unity with other people, not in contention with them.

There is one body and one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. (Eph 4:4-6)

         The word one shows up seven times in this sentence.

         I think Paul is trying to send the church a message.

In spite of everything that makes us different from each other – our age, race, sex, finances, interests, hobbies, family situation – even though we could come up with countless ways to differentiate ourselves from other people, there is only one defining feature that matters to our lives of faith.

There is one God.

One faith.

One baptism.

One body of Christ, and each one of us is a part of that body.

We have more to draw us together than to separate us.

We need to live in harmony with others, in fact, because all of us are members of the body of Christ, and Christ’s body cannot be divided.

But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift. (Eph 4:7)

We may be united as the one body of Christ, but that doesn’t mean we are identical to one another. God gives us each abilities to do different things.

The gifts God gave were that some people would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ. (Eph 4:11-12)

No matter what our particular gifts or talents are, the purpose of those gifts is the same. We are given special talents and abilities so that we can serve the broader community. Everything that we have, and everything that we do, is for the sake of the one body of Christ.

If you were here last week, you got a preview of this theme.

In the story of the feeding of the 5000, we learned that God can do amazing things with whatever we bring to the table – but God expects us to bring everything we have to the table.

The boy in that story offered up his whole lunch for the crowd to share, and Jesus multiplied the loaves and fish into a hugely abundant amount of food, with 12 baskets of leftovers!

         But the point is that the boy gave it all.

He gave everything he had for the common good, trusting that Jesus would know best what to do with it.

Today’s message is similar, but it’s a little more personal.

God doesn’t just want your lunch.

God wants your whole life.

Everything that you have, and everything that you are, everything that is important to you – give all your time, talents, possessions and abilities over to God.

That is the calling to which we have been called.

Paul’s message is a call to utter selflessness, for the sake of the common good.

Live according to your calling, Paul tells us, the calling of living in unity with all of God’s people, which is to say, with all people.

         Build up other people. Honor and respect their gifts.

Be humble about your own.

Unity is more important than divisions

The unity of Christians reflects the unity of God.

Which means that I should probably stop complaining about some of the things that Paul wrote in those other letters, the things that I disagree with.

I have a responsibility to work to be united with Paul, even when I disagree with his theology. Our shared faith binds us together more strongly than anything else can pull us apart.

Even though Paul makes me queasy sometimes, I need to recognize his gifts and the way that he tried his very best to live out the calling to which God had called him.

Paul had a lot of good things to say to the early church.

Paul even has a few good things to say to us today.

Live out your life knowing that God has called you to do specific work in this world, and has given you unique gifts with which to carry out that work.

Remember that all people were created in the image of God, and together we make up the body of Christ. Even though none of us is identical, we are all united by virtue of being children of God.

Don’t let petty divisions separate you from other Christians.

And ultimately, all divisions between Christians are petty.

Unity in Christ is more important than our own egos or agendas or denominational identities.

That’s basically what Paul is saying in his letter to the Ephesians.

That’s the take-away message today.

Love one another, serve one another, be united with each other… and rejoice, because God has chosen us to be the hands and feet of Christ in this world.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

100%

Pentecost 9B, 7/26/15
John 6:1-21; 2 Kings 4:42-44; Ephesians 3:14-21

God, we pray that you would dwell in our hearts richly. Be with us this morning as we hear, interpret, and reflect on your holy Word. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

One of the best things I did in seminary was help organize a dinner group that met once a week throughout the school year.

Jennie, who lived on the same floor as me in our apartment building, was probably the first friend I made when I moved in to on-campus housing that first year. We decided to invite several of the other people in our building to share a weekly meal together on a rotating basis, so we all took turns hosting and cooking.

There were eight of us in the group that first semester, and we grew to ten for the second semester. We each had a cooking buddy… in part because there were several non-cookers in the group, so we could share our knowledge of cooking with one another, as well as actually sharing the meal together.

None of us had any money.

Even though most of us received financial aid and had a job of some sort, we were still living on the edge of sustainability.

One student didn’t have any furniture in her apartment except what she was able to scavenge from the on-campus housing supply. Another only had enough pots and pans and utensils to cook for one.

Either Jennie or I had to bring plates from our kitchens most weeks in order for there to be enough dishes to serve everyone.

And yet, somehow, miraculously, every week the meal was enough.

Nearly every week there were leftovers.

The pair who was cooking would go shopping and buy food in bulk so it was cheaper – a bunch of single 20-somethings would never have had a reason to shop this way just for ourselves, but with the community meals it made sense.

         We could stretch our dollars further when we spent them together.

And though our grocery budget would spike up for the one week a month we were hosting, it would plummet in the other weeks when we relied on the hospitality of others in the group for that all-important shared meal.

Every week when we met for dinner group, we re-learned the lesson that is taught in today’s Gospel reading: when you offer up what you have for the sake of the community, it will be enough.

As the disciples learned from the example of the boy offering up his lunch to share, my seminary classmates and I all learned from sharing in what the group offered up every week… even if sometimes the quality of the cooking left something to be desired.

God will bless whatever you bring to the table.

Here’s the kicker, though.

Whether you’re talking about the boy with his loaves and fish, or my friends in that dinner group, everything had to be offered up in order for God to make it into a miracle.

Jennie and I couldn’t keep our plates in the cupboard just because they were the nicest we’d ever owned and we didn’t want them to get broken. We had to offer them up for the good of the community.

That boy from the crowd didn’t keep half a loaf of bread for himself and give the rest up to the group. It would have made sense – after all, how could he be sure he’d even receive a portion of his own lunch once it started to be divided up among 5000 people? But no – he gave the whole thing to Andrew who gave it all to Jesus, and the rest is history. 

When you offer up all that you have for the work of God, it will be enough.

         God will bless whatever you bring to the table.

In the church, we talk sometimes about tithing, giving a percentage of our income to the work of God.

The most common number you hear is 10% – a tithe is when you give 10% of your income for the work of God. It turns out, though, that the Bible offers a wide range of possibilities for percentage giving.

Today’s percentage is the highest.

100%

Give it all to God.

That one boy was willing to give everything he had for the sake of Jesus’ ministry.

What would it look like if you and I tried to do the same?

I know, this isn’t something we talk about in the Lutheran church very often, but humor me here…

What would it look like if every meal we cooked, every road trip we took, every conversation we had, every cup of coffee we drank, every outfit we put on, every shower we took, every single thing we did was done as an offering to God?

Imagine what the world would look like if each one of us gave 100% to God.

I’m not just talking about money here, but all our assets – time, property, relationships, physical abilities – everything that defines us as individuals can be offered to God in the way that the boy made his offering in today’s Gospel story, when the community needed food for a meal.

After that first year living on campus, those of us in the dinner group scattered to apartments throughout the neighborhood.

Jennie and I ended up moving into an intentional community house for the next two years, where we continued to share weekly meals with our housemates, and our plates continued to be used as though they were a single set.

There were eight of us living in the community house, but only six of us had cars. So really, we had six communal cars that were used by eight different drivers.

How could we not lend our car to our housemate when it was their week to go grocery shopping?

As part of the community house, we really had to learn to be selfless. Televisions, textbooks, DVDs, silverware, laundry detergent – everything was used by the whole community for the sake of the greater good.

It wasn’t always easy – in fact, sometimes it was downright frustrating – but it was the only way that we future pastors could all live together.

Offer up everything you have for the sake of the community, hold back nothing for yourself, and then not only will God bless the community through you, but you will receive back a portion of that blessing – and the portion you receive back will be even greater than the small amount with which you started.

That boy in the Gospel story didn’t receive back his five loaves and two fish… instead he was left with 12 baskets of leftover food!

OK, the Gospel story doesn’t actually say what is done with the leftovers, but if he had wanted to claim ownership, the boy could have done so – after all, those were the leftovers from his lunch!

God’s power is unexpected.

God takes what seems to be a small offering and turns it in to something miraculous.

Through Jesus, the people experience community and grace and hospitality, but Jesus’ blessings are not just spiritual. He literally feeds them. Their most basic needs are fulfilled thanks to Jesus’ miraculous power and the generosity of one boy from the crowd. 

What might even be more amazing is the fact that this isn’t the first time God has done something like this!

In the reading from Second Kings, we hear about the prophet Elisha presiding over a similar miracle.

A man came with enough food for maybe a dozen people, and Elisha commanded him to feed it to a crowd of a hundred.

This is a little bit easier for us to grasp. We can understand what a crowd of a dozen and a crowd of a hundred looks like. I’m guessing that no one in this room has ever had to feed 5000 people in one seating!

Most of us have probably been at a meal – a family dinner or a church potluck – where it seemed at first that there wouldn’t be enough food for everyone. Nearly always, it works out… as it did in the miracle with Elisha.

As God promised, the people all got to eat, and there was food leftover.

What does it mean that our God can perform miracles like this?

We believe in a God who has the power to feed the world with almost nothing. So why is there hunger and poverty in our society? Why are there still people in the world with chronic, desperate needs?

Every week – nearly every day, honestly – people come in to this church building looking for help getting food, or gas for their cars, or assistance with rent or their electric bill.

When there are funds in the pastoral emergency account, we can help them… with some discretion, of course, trying to help a range of people and not just the same few folks every week.

When that fund is empty, as has been the case for the past several weeks, there’s nothing we can do.

But how is that possible?

Our God can feed a crowd of 5000 or more with nothing but five loaves and two fish.

How can we have nothing to offer a person in need?

In the children's sermon, we heard about how big God's love is. Well, God’s power is just as huge as God’s love. It is deeper, broader, higher and longer than we can ever imagine.

         And God’s power can make miracles out of even the smallest offering.

That’s the good news in today’s readings – that God has the power to feed hundreds or thousands of people with minimal resources.

         But that’s also the challenge in today’s readings.

         God performs those actions using the resources that we bring to the table.

God expects us to give 100%.

That is not an easy thing for any of us to do.

We like to have our personal time and our hobbies and vacations, and our emergency savings account, if we’re blessed enough to have that much money to our name.

We don’t like to come to church and hear the pastor say, “Give it all up.”

         But that is precisely the point of today’s Gospel reading.

It is intended to make us uncomfortable.

Jesus teaches us today that miracles can happen if only we trust in God to provide for us.

When we are willing to give everything we have to God – when all people can give all that they have – then we are giving God permission to change the world with that wide, deep, unimaginable power and love.

Two Sundays ago, Pastor Stephen preached a sermon with the title, “Imagine all the people.” Today’s readings lend themselves to a different line from that same John Lennon song.

         Imagine no possessions. I wonder if you can.

         No need for greed or hunger. A brotherhood of man.  

Well, I’d replace the male-dominant language there with gender-inclusive alternatives, but that wouldn’t rhyme as well, which is why John Lennon was a brilliant songwriter and I am not.

But regardless of quibbles over language, the point remains.

All that you have is not your own.

Let me say that again.

All that you have is not your own.

Whatever you have is a gift from God, and God wants you to use it to help others.

God asks us to use everything that we have for the good of the community, trusting that somehow, we will also be cared for in the great miracles that Jesus or some other prophet will perform with our time, our money, our abilities and our possessions.

Somehow, someday, by the unimaginable love and power of God, all people will be fed and all need will be erased from society.

Until then, God asks us to follow the example of the boy in today’s Gospel story.

Bring what we have to the table. Bring all that we have to the table, and freely offer it to be shared with others.

It’s not easy, but then, miracles rarely are.

May God, who has given us faith to believe these things, give us the will to follow through on them.

Amen.