Lady Wisdom

In Proverbs 8:1-4 and 22-31 a most unusual character steps to the front of our biblical stage this week, so unusual that no one seems to be able to explain exactly who (or even what) she is--except that she's definitely a "she" - "Woman Wisdom," "Lady Wisdom," or, as Eugene Peterson translates it, "Madame Insight."  While we modern day Christians are not as familiar with her, the early disciples would have known her well.  They had no "New" Testament yet, so the Old Testament was the Bible that nourished the first Christians. Proverbs in particular would have been a common and practical resource for them.

But what does "Lady Wisdom" have to say to us in our modern day context?  First I want to highlight to "whom" she addresses herself.  She stands right in the most public of places--at the crossroads, at the city gate, in the doorways--and not in some secluded place where secret teachings are shared with a select few. No, this teaching is clearly for everyone, for her cry "is to all that live" (v. 4). Eugene Peterson's translation in The Message brings this image to life: "She's taken her stand at First and Main, at the busiest intersection. Right in the city square where the traffic is thickest, she shouts, 'You--I'm talking to all of you, everyone out here on the streets!'"  We forget that the God we serve makes wisdom accessible to all by surrounding us with it every day, everywhere.

Case in point, the source of wisdom in our passage today is found in the order of God's creation.  Our passage is filled with the sense that God's Wisdom established the way things are, not blind chance, or random events, or the outcome of some primeval conflict, or a detached god. The problem is that in the midst of our very over stimulated, technological culture, we have lost the art of simply paying attention! "When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?" (Psalm 8)

"Lady Wisdom" also points out that the source of wisdom can also be found in everyday life, in the act of everyday living.  J. Phillip Newell writes: "God is to be found not by stepping aside from the flow of daily life into religious moments and environments, or by looking away from creation to a spiritual realm beyond, but rather by entering attentively the depths of the present moment. There we will find God, wherever we may be and whatever we may be doing."  And Barbara Brown Taylor writes; "Wisdom, is not gained by knowing what is right. Wisdom is gained by practicing what is right, and noticing what happens when that practice succeeds and when it fails. Wise people do not have to be certain what they believe before they act. They are free to act, trusting that the practice itself will teach them what they need to know.”

In the midst of tornadoes that ravage people's lives, wars that still are being fought, violence that pervades our headlines and complications of simply being; Lady Wisdom invites humanity to engage in a joyful search for God's dynamic presence through and in the world. God willing, the process of seeking the divine in the world and in each other just might drive out some of the darkness.

----Pastor Suzanne

Paradox of Pentecost

Acts 2:1-21

 

Honestly, I suspect that we've all heard the story of the wind and the tongues-of-flame and the dove and the crowds-hearing-the-sermon-in-their-own-languages just enough to believe that the promise of Pentecost is deliverance, celebration, victory, and strength. The signs of Pentecost, after all, are mighty. And what is the Holy Spirit if it is not God's own agent -- the very Spirit of the resurrected Jesus -- now on earth to accompany us with signs of wonder and power.

Except that precisely because the promised Holy Spirit is the presence of the crucified and resurrected Christ, we should never expect things to be so easy. In the cross of Christ, we see God's strength mediated through suffering, God's victory achieved through defeat, and new life pledged and provided through death. The crucified and resurrected God we meet in Jesus is a God of paradox, and so we should look for no less in God's Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit doesn't prevent failure but invites it. Or, to put it slightly differently, the Holy Spirit invites us to find fulfillment and victory in and through our setbacks and failures.  "I tell my kids to make a mistake every day -- just not the same mistake!" Each mistake, each set back, each false start, each failure is not to be lamented by learned from.

This perspective grants a measure of freedom to throw ourselves into lost causes, to take risks for the sake of the mission, and to take great risks and dare great ventures. Why? Because we trust that whatever the immediate results of our efforts, both our hopes and our future are secured not by our abilities but by God's good promise. Resurrection, we need to remember, only and always follows crucifixion.

-----Pastor Suzanne

Crossing the River

The sermon this week focused on the courage that Paul and the disciples showed, fearlessly going somewhere they probably didn’t really want to go, and how our church is also being called in a different direction.  Each one of us is challenged every day and offered opportunities to change direction, to be brave.  (I have a great story about that but it doesn’t fit here.  I’ll save it for another day.)  But as I tried and tried to think this through, nothing intelligent or even coherent came to my mind for this post, so I went back to the scripture: Acts 16:9-15.

This section is titled Lydia's Conversion in Phillipi, but to my untrained, unschooled eye that title is a disservice to Lydia.  In verse 14 it clearly says "She was a worshipper of God."  Now, why would she need converting if she was already a worshipper?  That title influences how we read and understand this passage, focusing us on the product - Lydia's conversion - rather than the process.  The disciples' journey leading up to and in this passage is all about process, not product.

So now some thoughts are coming to me.  I think it is important to acknowledge that the process by which we make disciples may change, depending on what river we have to cross and what unknown, scary territory into which we are called, but some parts will remain the same.  So, what did Paul do “right?”  What might be the process lessons for me?

He was willing to wander aimlessly, without direction, and take no for an answer more times than he could count.  When he finally got a call, a vision, he paid attention and did what he understood he was supposed to do.  He acted, he crossed the river.  He went to a new, unexpected and hostile place.  (This made me remember how Noah ran away when God called him to go someplace difficult.)  Then, on the Sabbath did he take the disciples to the synagogue?  No, they went outside the city, where they expected to find a place of prayer, and they worshipped where they were.  They went out to meet people where they were, and then had the patience to step back and wait.  They didn’t know or have any indication what the outcome would be, they just spoke to the people there, shared the gospel with the faith that it would make disciples.

I don’t know about you, but I am always impatient to see results.  It seems that everything we do today is about accountability, about concrete, measurable, quantifiable outcomes.  But over many years, and thanks to many two-by-fours up side my head, I have learned to accept that most of the time I just need to do what I think I am supposed to do.  Period.  Every once in a while I will get to see the fruits, just as Paul and the disciples did when Lydia and her entire household were baptized.  And sometimes I need to look in the mirror for the results.  Sometimes we are changed by the opportunities and challenges we accept

The Invitation of New Opportunity

Reflecting back on the sermon each week (sometimes) opens my mind up to considering structural elements that I normally wouldn't notice.  Like how the pastor can take a passage that I identify with in a very negative way and turn it into a positive and uplifting message, even in the title.  The Invitation of a New Opportunity sounds so great.  When I read Acts 11:1-18, though,I see the wagging finger of shame.  Probably because I would really like to be Peter, but most strongly identify with the "circumcised believers." 

I think you can read this passage from two points of view.  First, what did Peter do wrong, in the opinion offered here by his peers?  He went to people who were outside their circle; he didn't first convert them to Judaism; he ate with them and became unclean; he acted unilaterally; he didn't follow "the rules."  What did Peter do right?  He went to people outside his circle; he didn't require them to be like him before he shared God's word and love; he shared the intimacy of a meal with them; he didn't wait for permission, or for the conditions to be perfect; he disregarded the rules as they existed at that time in order to follow the call to make disciples.  Funny, but either way I feel indicted.

The only agenda of the early church was to make disciples.  There was no institutional integrity to protect, no division upon division over hundreds of years to create denominations.  They were united in a way that we cannot be because of the intervening history, and yet the early believers still had difficulty dealing with change.  The rules they were clinging to gave structure and grounding to a world that was changing more quickly than they could imagine.  Maybe that is a normal, human response.  That lets me off the hook... a little bit.  

It is safe, and easy, and comfortable to continue to do things the way I have always done them.  I can do it on autopilot, without thinking and without sacrificing.  It is frightening to let go, to trust blindly.    My learning for this week: Maybe I need to let go of my structure, let go of "my" vision and try to see God's vision, God's Invitation to a New Opportunity.  Those circumcised believers were able to do it after they heard Peter out, so maybe I can.  I like how The Message puts it:

¹⁸ Hearing it all laid out like that, they quieted down. And then, as it sank in, they started praising God. “It’s really happened! God has broken through to the other nations, opened them up to Life!”