Grace and peace be yours from God our Sovereign and from our Lord and savior, Jesus the
Christ, and from the Holy Spirit. Amen.
It is so good to be back with you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for the sick leave
and time to recuperate from my hip replacement surgery. Over the next four weeks I will
need to make room in my schedule for physical therapy to continue the healing process.
Thank you for your best wishes, your prayers, and the many cards that came my way.
Your concern, underscored one of the chief characteristics of what it means to be a small
congregation. We are relational. As such we care for one another, we encourage one
another, we support one another not only in our journey of life, but in our faith journey as
well.
During my absence I have attempted to stay in touch through our presidents Peggy and Glenn.
I have hear reports that our pulpit su8pply pastor Jason Neimi served you well. And I know
that while I was out the task forces for Small Congregation Ministries, and Domestic
Violence Awareness have continued their work. During my absence our Bishop Mark made a
call on me and we discussed at length the work of this congregation. He sends his deep
appreciation for the work that we are doing.
In a report that I made to the Small Membership Congregation study group in July prior to my
surgery, I shared with them much of the work that we have done together. Primarily I shared
the characteristics of small congregations and affirmed that small and older are not causes for
lament but signs of hope for the future. I believe that because of our resiliency, or relational
characteristics, that we are well equipped to be a remnant church that will serve this nation
well when the current order implodes upon itself.
In a book called “Suffering” Dorothee Soelle writes: “Far and wide, contemporary Christianity is
the suffering-free religion for a world perceived as without suffering. It is the religion of the rich,
the white, the industrial nations.” This is contrasted to a church that could embrace the cross
and understands that the invitation of Christ is for his disciples to follow him in embracing the
pain of the forgotten ones, the downtrodden ones, the ones whom our rich white culture would
chooses to ignore.
I don’t usually give my sermons titles, but if I were todays sermon would be called, The
Wisdom of God vs, the wisdom of this world”. In his letter to the church at Corinth St. Paul
writes, we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,…
“Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards,
not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.27But God chose what is foolish in the
world to shame the wise; …”
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And to the Church at Rome he writes: I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the
mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which
is your spiritual worship.2Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God — what is good and
acceptable and perfect.
What we fail to see is that faith in God offers an alternative view to the wisdom of this world.
When we were called by God through Holy Baptism, we were called to forsake the wisdom of
this world and embrace the wisdom of God. Much like Peter, James and John, who left behind
their boats and their nets to follow Jesus, so we are called to leave behind the wisdom of this
world and to embrace and follow the way of Jesus.
While we may understand this in theory all too often we fail to perceive it or follow it in
reality. This morning let us look at a few examples.
Let’s begin with the whole issue of property, how it is secured and legitimated, how it is kept
or lost, to what ends it may be used and enjoyed. The prominent wisdom of this world sees
property, both in ancient times and in our own time, through a model we might call the
“royal/urban” model. This view affirms that “haves” are entitled to have, whether the haves
are king, the nobles, the wealthy landowners, or the managers of legitimated bureaucracy.
Possession give legitimacy, and it is legitimate to so construct social values and social
procedures as well as law so that haves may have and legitimately seek more. The right of the
have-nots, citizens, peasants, slaves, all the powerless ones – is nil. They are entitled to
nothing and must rely upon a generosity and charity upon which they have no claim.
The Bible articulates and alternative view of property, a model that we might call the
“covenantal/prophetic” model. This model holds that haves and have-nots are bound in
community to each other, that viable life depends upon the legitimate respect, care, and
maintenance of the have-nots and upon the restraint of the haves so that the needs and rights
of the disadvantaged take priority over the yearnings of the advantaged. Thus the stress is upon
the respect (for the have-nots) and restraint (for the haves). In this view the rights of the haves
are defined in relation to the rights of the have-nots. And property, is viewed as a resource for
the common good.
Clearly the covenantal/prophetic model of scripture, offers an alternative to the royal/urban
model of this world.
Another area we might explore is that of violence. The wisdom of this world insists upon the
redemptive value of violence. That is we believe and trust that we can solve our problems by
using superior force and violence over our perceived enemies.
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The wisdom of the world is built upon domination systems, enforced through power and
wealth, whereas the wisdom of God insists upon an egalitarian view that rejects domination
by the few over the many. In fact the foundational stories of scripture are the exodus and the
return from exile. In both cases God is on the side of the poor and powerless.
Prophetic texts assert the liberating power of God over against domination systems:
Consider the following:
I will have pity on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the LORD their God; I will not
save them by bow, or by sword, or by war, or by horses, or by horsemen." Hos 1:7
Or
Alas for those who go down to Egypt for help and who rely on horses, who trust in chariots
because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong, but do not look to the
Holy One of Israel or consult the LORD! Isa 31:1
Or
In that day, says the LORD, I will cut off your horses from among you and will destroy your
chariots; Mic 5:10
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and Finally from the Psalms:
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A king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.
The war horse is a vain hope for victory, and by its great might it cannot save. PS 33:16-17
17
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His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the speed of a runner;
but the LORD takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love.
Ps 147:10-11
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Clearly the wisdom of God rejects reliance upon worldly power and might and weapons and
promotes an alternative of trusting in the power of God to redeem. Once again we see the
alternative wisdom of God.
And before we dismiss these radicle alternative points of view as being impractical and
unworkable in the modern world, consider where the wisdom of the world is leading us.
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The unrestrained appetites of the wealthy lead to increasing discrepancies between rich and
poor. Throughout history the haves get richer while the misery and suffering of the poor get
greater and greater until the whole system crashes and change is brought about through
violent revolution. This seems to be a cycle that the wisdom of the world has not been able to
solve.
And the trust in the redemptive value of violence has resulted in a militarism that increases at
such a rate that more and more of our resources that could be used for caring for and building
up of the community are forced into the service of protecting the haves from the have-nots
and the powerful from the powerless. You have to ask yourself, where will this end? And
presidential candidates fall overreach other to see which one of them can claim the most
testosterone.
Christians are not called to force their views upon the rest of the world. But we are called to
leave behind the way of the world and to embrace and live out God’s alternative way. In this
way we will become a witness to the world. Our mission, if we will accept it is to live out God’s
alternative.
We are to learn to live with restraint and to use God’s blessings not only for self, but for the
care and redemption of all that God has made. We are to reject violence and work for a
world where God’s distributive justice is meted out for all people and replaces the
retributional justice system that seeks to justify and maintain the status quo.
As children of God we need to see clearly that we are called to live out God’s alternative ways
in this world. This is why St. Paul urges us to not be conformed to this world but to be
transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you may discern what is the will of God.
May you discover the rich alternatives of the way of God, and come to know contentment and
inner peace. May you heed the words of lady wisdom and live.
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“Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed.
Lay aside immaturity, and live, and walk in the way of insight.”
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Amen
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