“Wisdom and Understanding”

Job 28:20-28

Psalm 27:1-6

A Sermon preached by the Rev. Douglas M. Donley

World Communion Sunday

October 1, 2006

University Baptist Church

Minneapolis, MN

 

When I think of the dual concepts of wisdom and understanding, I am reminded of two people this morning.  I thank my new friend Shadrack Kiunga for his incisive words today.  He has given us a brief snapshot of what church life looks like in Kenya.  I thank you for gracing us with your presence.  I seek to learn from your wisdom and come to an understanding not only of how a faithful life is lived in your country, but how I can be a faithful person now that I have heard your story.

The other person I want to lift up is the unsinkable Adele Fadden.  In her 95 years she has graced all of us with her presence and her steadfastness and her matter-of-fact hospitality and commitment to being a great friend and confidant.  She has mothered and grandmothered many of us.  We are who we are because of people like her.  When I was interviewing at UBC six years ago, one of you asked me how I thought we should address the senior citizens among us.  I remember saying that they are our sages.  They have lived long enough to know what is right and what is wrong with the world.  They grant us insight that comes with seeing many years come and go.  They are not to be discarded, but cherished.  I relish in the wisdom and the understanding that you bring to the world and to our own lives, Adele.

We need to seek out wisdom and understanding today.  There is a whole lot of information these days.  We are bombarded with TV and print and radio and blogs that purport to give us the facts.  But do they give us knowledge? 

Job was a man who was awash in information from his so-called friends.  They contradicted each other and they contradicted what Job knew in his heart.  So which is right?

Today’s scripture opens with the words: “Where does wisdom come from and where is the place of understanding?”  Where indeed?

From a lawn sign?

From a strategically placed TV ad? 

From our elected officials?

From Campaign promises?

From a TV show?

From the latest book or Guru?

From a preacher?  If so, which one?

From the Bible?  If so, whose interpretation?

From me?

From you?

Who decides what’s best for our city, our state, for the whole world?

Wouldn’t we want to seek out the ones with wisdom and understanding?

Of course we would. 

So why don’t we?

When we were in Rochester, NY last weekend, we heard from missionaries serving in the Congo.  They rattled off statistic after statistic of violence and bloodshed, most of which we have never heard in our media.  If a child dies in the Congo or in Kenya, or in Darfur, or in El Salvador, or in Iraq and the media doesn’t report it, is that child any less dead?  You see, getting the information out does not make it into wisdom or understanding.  It just gets more information out. 

Theologically, we look at the world and we make sense of it by using Scripture, reason, tradition and experience.  The interplay of all four of these bring us close to the truth.

We are in the shadow of this great university—an institution based upon wisdom and understanding.  We need minds and hearts that are wise and that understand and that care.  That’s what makes our lives worthwhile to people other than simply ourselves.

I find myself sometimes wishing my eyes hadn’t been opened.  For it can make seeing a bit harder.  It may mean no longer taking things for granted.  It may mean taking my faith seriously enough to make a change in the way I live my life.

             A lot of what we know as conventional wisdom does not entail understanding all sides of an issue.  As I look at the world today, I see competing views and conflicting opinions that each pass for truth.  I find myself asking Job’s question: “Where does wisdom come from?  And where is the place of understanding?”  I find myself looking for wisdom and understanding.  Where do we find our truth?  Where do we find the wisdom we need to address the needs of God’s world?  When will the power-brokers accept responsibility and culpability?  Once we understand, how do we change our ways based up on that understanding?

            This evening, many of us will gather to watch the film An Inconvenient Truth.  The film is about the inconvenient truth about global warming.  Interfaith Power and Light has partnered with Congregations Caring for Creation to show this film in places of worship across the country.  If our eyes are opened to this inconvenient truth, and we gain wisdom and understanding, how will we need to change our actions?

            Job answers his own question in verse 28: “Truly the fear of God.  That is wisdom.  And to depart from evil.  That is understanding.”  Fear of God is wisdom.  Ceasing to do evil is understanding.

Paul Tillich must have been quoting Job when he said that fear of God is the beginning of faith. Fear of God is wisdom.  This is the knowledge that what we are doing is looked upon by a greater authority than ourselves.  We are accountable not only to ourselves and our sisters and our brothers, but also to God.  

            If we don’t fear God, then we have license of do any fool thing we want.  We have no sense of boundaries.  We think that no one is looking over our shoulders.  We have lost that regulatory impulse to do what is right. 

            The Psalmist says that when we fear God, we don’t have to fear people as much.

“God is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear?”

            But are the wisest ones the ones who fear God the most?  I don’t think it’s always that way.  There are plenty of people who fear God and therefore do unspeakable acts because they fear that God will be mad at them if they don’t do it just so.  This is what might just be going through terrorists’ minds.  I don’t think that God is ever pleased when people are killed and is especially upset when they do it in God’s name.

            I have told you before that Machiavelli said that in order to make people go to war, you have to convince them they are doing God’s work, but you must never be accountable to God.”

            But many people don’t fear God

            There are plenty of people who ought to fear God more and if they did, they might be closer to wisdom. 

            Fear of God is not only cowering in a corner for fear of the cosmic boogey-man.  Fear of God is better defined as respect for God’s authority: respect that God is a higher power that can restore us to sanity—that can put our crazy-making actions into perspective.

            So, what about that understanding part?  Well, it seems to be pretty closely linked with wisdom.  Understanding, says Job, is the ceasing to do evil.  This is the Biblical Hippocratic oath.  Don’t do evil.  What God requires of us, says Micah, is to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God.    Wisdom is the theory.  Understanding is the practice.

            If you are looking for the wise one and the one who understands, ask this question: Are they sufficiently beholden to God and do they cease to do evil in the world?  If we could simply use this as a litmus test, then we could make a whole lot easier judgments on election day, sure, but more than that, we could decide which person to listen to. We could know which way to turn.

            When faced with a difficult decision, maybe we need to ask ourselves, “How would God react to our actions and does this do any evil.”

            I attended a precinct primary election meeting a few months ago.   One of the candidates used a litmus test which I found intriguing: “will this or that legislation help or hurt our children?”  He said that if a policy is not good for the next generation then it is not good policy.  I think he was on to something.  It was so simple and clear.  He was saying that we must cease to do evil and we must begin to do good. 

            It’s times like these when I look to the sages amongst us.  I look to Adele and Thor and Faye and Mel and Shirley and Doug and Betty and Char and Don and Tony and Greta and Hal and Tai Harriet and Cork and Lillian and Ruby and Bea and Doty and Judy and so many others.  We look to you for wisdom and understanding because you have been there and done that.  But we need not only look to you.  Each one of us can attain wisdom and understanding if we look at the evidence before us with gracious humility toward God almighty and a commitment to never do evil.       

            So let us seek wisdom and understanding as we celebrate World Communion Sunday.  Let us try to look at our world from a God’s-eye-view. 

            Let us, like God, be slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. 

            Let us flee from our propensity to do evil either by our overt actions or even by our complicit acceptance of “the way things are.”

            Let us listen to the sages among us, young and not-so-young who can open our eyes to yet another perspective which may just bring us closer to wisdom and understanding.

            Through it all, may we be faithful, humble and open to the new revelation that might even set us free.  In our wisdom and understanding may we not only cease to do evil, but continue to do good.