Year B Pentecost 16
Proverbs 1: 20-33The Call of Wisdom
20 Wisdom cries out in the street;
in the squares she raises her voice.
21 At the busiest corner she cries out;
at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:
22 “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?
How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing
and fools hate knowledge?
23 Give heed to my reproof;
I will pour out my thoughts to you;
I will make my words known to you.
24 Because I have called and you refused,
have stretched out my hand and no one heeded,
25 and because you have ignored all my counsel
and would have none of my reproof,
26 I also will laugh at your calamity;
I will mock when panic strikes you,
27 when panic strikes you like a storm,
and your calamity comes like a whirlwind,
when distress and anguish come upon you.
28 Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer;
they will seek me diligently, but will not find me.
29 Because they hated knowledge
and did not choose the fear of the LORD,
30 would have none of my counsel,
and despised all my reproof,
31 therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way
and be sated with their own devices.
32 For waywardness kills the simple,
and the complacency of fools destroys them;
33 but those who listen to me will be secure
and will live at ease, without dread of disaster.”Proverbs 1: 20-33
© The New Revised Standard Version,
(Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers) 1989In the name of God. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
A few weeks ago, as part of our Old Testament stories that we are moving through with the children, I read the passage from Genesis 11, that amazing story from another time, of the tower of Babel. It is a short story, of a time when the whole earth had one language and the same words. And the people as a whole came to a place, a plain, in the land of Shinar and there they settled. You can imagine it as a fruitful, water sourced, flat plain in which to live. The people there discover they can bake bricks in fire, and make them as hard as stone, and also use bitumen for mortar to hold the bricks together. Remember this story is nearly 3000 years old! Then, as the story goes, the people have the idea that with their bricks and mortar they will build a tower with its tops in the heavens and in doing so they will make a name for themselves; they will be known as great, even godly, as they look down from the heights of their tower in the clouds.
This is not the first story in the Bible with this theme, of the desire of humanity to move beyond their world, to do something that is great, powerful, beyond their current knowledge, and to make a name for themselves.
A few weeks ago my Uniting Church colleague in Queanbeyan, Steve, was walking down the main street and a car with two teenagers drove up next to him and wound down their window. Steve thought to himself, “oh no, here we go”. But, when they drew alongside him, the young guy in the car called out… “Hey did you hear that Neil Armstrong has just died”. Well needless to say, Steve was amazed, these two teenagers, who were not even alive when Apollo 11 landed on the moon in 1969 and Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set foot on the moon, were still so amazed by the fact that someone had been there, that the death of Armstrong meant they just had to tell someone.
Without a doubt the landing on the moon by Apollo 11 was an amazing thing. Many of us will remember where we were when we watched it on our black and white television sets. Even today it is unbelievable that they made it back alive. And yet it is a modern day account of the tower of Babel. The race between nations to make a name for themselves by reaching out beyond the heavens. To go where no one has been before, through the work of our hands, and the piecing together, brick by brick, electrical wire by wire, to achieve our dream.
Well this Babel syndrome, which is a name I just made up, this Babel syndrome, is really so deeply engrained in us as humans that we often hardly recognise its presence. We continue to believe that bigger is better, along with height, growth, volume, capacity, and along with it… the making of a name for ourselves. On any one day you will hear these things spoken of in the news and even in our social conversations. Governments believe that everything simply has to keep growing and when it doesn’t, when there is a downturn, the general population get worried and demand growth because it often affects jobs and wellbeing. Companies and shareholders are the same; there must always be growth and share prices must always be higher and higher. Church communities are a great example of the Babel Syndrome; always wanting to be bigger, attracting leaders and Pastors or Ministers who love to be Kingdom makers (which is the same as tower builders), and who love to make a name for themselves. The Babel syndrome, is really so deeply engrained in us as humans that we often hardly recognise its presence.
Whenever the Babel syndrome grips our lives, or our churches, or our societies, then we find the things that really matter are overlooked or overshadowed by our grand designs and our own selves. We become self-grandiose. We become shallow and lose wisdom and insight and discernment about the things that really matter.
Today’s passage from the book of Proverbs chapter 1 is the very outset of this ancient book in which Wisdom is personified, as a woman, calling out to the people. Calling out at the city gates, where all the leaders met and sat, where the business was transacted, and the decisions made. The city gates; the place where the people met for conversation and discussion.
20 Wisdom cries out in the street;
in the squares she raises her voice.
21 At the busiest corner she cries out;
at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:
22 “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?
How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing
and fools hate knowledge?
In some ways it’s a sharp passage, because it has the calling out of wisdom, and the announcement that without wisdom, there are consequences that impact on society and the wellbeing of life. It sounds as if Wisdom is delighting in the downfall, the struggle, because no one is listening, but certainly Wisdom is saying that the forgetting of wisdom, the inability to listen, has consequences and struggles.
In fact much of the book of Proverbs, is made up of the statements of wisdom, and the consequences of not being able to reflect on the wisdom of faith and life.
It is good for us to ask, as a church, as individuals, as we sit at our own “city gates”, amongst our busyness and business, our conversations and decisions…. It is good for us to ask … How are we able to listen to wisdom? Amongst our own Babel syndromes, our own plans, our own satisfactions… it is good for us to ask, how are we able to listen to wisdom?… In our work, in our family life and relationships, in our social attitudes, in our outlooks.
But first of course you have to desire wisdom, want it, and seek it, just as Proverbs 4 says…
The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom,
and whatever else you get, get insight.
8 Prize her highly, and she will exalt you;
she will honor you if you embrace her.
9 She will place on your head a fair garland;
she will bestow on you a beautiful crown.”
[Proverbs 4: 7 ff.]
We also have to ponder… what is wisdom?
Wisdom is like that wonderful prayer of Solomon… Lord give your servant an understanding mind… to discern between good and evil [1 Kings 3:9].
Wisdom is to discern what is good, Godly, and what is otherwise.
Wisdom is to discern what is authentic and valuable.
Wisdom is to see the heart, through illusions, beyond the immediate.
Wisdom is to have insight, and in the Christian life, to discern the way of God.
Wisdom is also counter to what is often expected, often desired, often talked about as the greatest, the best… like the tower of Babel. As it says in 1 Corinthians 1:25
For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.
So how are we able to listen to wisdom… here are some thoughts…
Firstly – Recognise the presence of God…
In Proverbs 9 we read…
10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,
and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
To fear the Lord, is of course to recognise the presence of God, but more than that, to be in awe, in reverence, in relationship with God. This is the beginning of wisdom. For Christians it is to see that beyond ourselves, beyond our Babel syndromes, beyond what we even understand, there is God.
Secondly – Listen and see…
You might recall the Old Testament account of Elijah who stood at the entrance to the cave, and felt the earth shake in a great earthquake, and the sky flash in a great lighting storm, but it was in the sheer silence that followed in which he heard God’s voice.
In Proverbs 23 we read….
19 Hear, my child, and be wise,
and direct your mind in the way.
It can be difficult, with all the noise and light that fills our lives, to be people who can see, and hear, the voice of wisdom. To hear, and direct our minds in the way…. Remember Jesus often talked about … ‘‘The way”. “I am the way, the truth and the life…”
Listen, and see, what God would say to you, and show to you… about the way of Wisdom.
Thirdly – Seek the wise in Spirit.
In our world, there are the wise, and there are the foolish. In our discernment and seeking of wisdom, it can be good to seek the advice of someone who you perceive as wise.
A wise person is someone who recognises how much they do not know and how there are many things too wonderful to understand.
A wise person is someone who also honours the things you have to say.
A wise person is someone who also fears the Lord; has relationship with God.
We are going to spend some time in silence now, for us to think, to finish our experience of God’s word to us, to pray.
And I’ll begin with some words from Proverbs. 2
My child, … [make] your ear attentive to wisdom
and [incline] your heart to understanding;
3 if you indeed cry out for insight,
and raise your voice for understanding;
4 if you seek it like silver,
and search for it as for hidden treasures—
5 then you will understand the fear of the LORD
and find the knowledge of God.6 For the LORD gives wisdom;
Amen.