Past Sermon

Sermon Title: "How Long Will You Love Being Simple? "
Date: September 17, 2006
Minister: Rev. Charles E. Ensley, Jr.

Lesson:  Proverbs 1:20-33

I received one of the most enthusiastic responses I’ve ever heard in one of my Bible studies last Wednesday when I introduced our study of today’s passage from Proverbs by saying that God’s Wisdom is personified as a woman!  One of the women’s responses was, “Well, it’s about time!”

To further illustrate why women are often regarded as the wise ones, I went to one of my doctors last week with a spasm in my neck muscles.  She asked how long it had been going on.  I told her about a week, and that my wife said I should have called and gone in sooner.  “Why are women always right?” the doctor asked.

The Hebrew word for “wisdom” is hokmah, a feminine noun, as is the equivalent New Testament Greek word for wisdom, sophia.  Yet one commentator urges us preachers not to make overly much of this.  A prominent Hebrew word for “womb” (rehem) is grammatically masculine, even though “womb” in its meaning is certainly feminine.  However, in Proverbs it is certainly legitimate to question why the frequently male-oriented writers and editors of Proverbs highlight Woman Wisdom and female human wisdom so strongly in places.  Wisdom is so highly regarded in Proverbs that she is identified as an attribute or characteristic of the Lord, as well as one who gives voice to what the Lord says.

God has always wanted us to be connected to him and able to draw on what he offers, so God sends us a message in today’s lesson about staying connected to wisdom.  What’s so innovative about this passage is that Wisdom is portrayed as a woman, a flesh-and-blood character who strides into the middle of human life and delivers a powerful message from the Lord.

Wisdom “cries out in the street; in the squares she raises her voice,” says the writer of Proverbs (1:20).  At the busiest corner she calls out, speaking her message at the chaotic entrance to the city.  Wisdom does not hide here in the safety of a church sanctuary, or in the calm and quiet of a Bible study classroom, but moves confidently into the raucous world of our office buildings, hospital hallways, schools and colleges, and every place we are called to use what God has given us to make wise decisions.

“How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?” I just couldn’t pass up that passage for a sermon title!  (That's probably what my doctor was asking me last week!)  Because sometimes we seem to prefer being ignorant, not figuring out the options open to us, not gathering all the readily-available information to make an informed decision.  Wisdom goes straight for the jugular, criticizing our tendency to grab hold of easy answers and simple solutions.  “How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing,” she asks, “and fools hate knowledge?” (v. 22).

While written some six centuries before Christ, Lady Wisdom still challenges us in the 21st century to embrace the full complexity of this world that God has created, and to plug into a network of Christians who are exploring what it means to be people of faith in this fast-paced, high-tech, multicultural community.  Our problem with becoming wise is not due to the unavailability of knowledge — after all, Wisdom “cries out in the street,” and through the information superhighway.

Instead, our failure to gain wisdom has more to do with our being unwilling to follow the guidance of mentors, friends, parents and teachers in a process of lifelong learning.  So many of us pursue advanced degrees in the technical fields of our Monday-through-Friday lives, but we graduate from Sunday school as children and never move beyond an elementary understanding of the Christian faith.

For me, one of the most sacred times in our hour of worship together is when I offer the pastoral prayer.  Except for writing prayers on Christmas and Easter, which are busy and carefully-timed worship services, most every other Sunday my prayers are extemporaneous.  That means I open myself to God and let the Holy Spirit speak through and inspire me.  Sometimes in those prayers I hear myself praying for God to grant us the wisdom to make the proper decisions in life.  I believe God knows which way we should go, and our job is to use our good brains, and our faith in God, to discern it.

Perhaps the use of divinely-inspired wisdom is best expressed in Reinhold Niebuhr’s prayer that has been the mainstay of twelve-step groups since he wrote it in the early 1940s.  It goes:

God grant me the serenity to accept the thing I cannot change,

the courage to change the things I can,

and the wisdom to know the difference.

It implies we have within us the wisdom to know what to do; we just have to calm ourselves down and use it!

God wants us to be wise.  God desires that we each be knowledgeable about his will and his way, which is why he says through Lady Wisdom, “I will pour out my thoughts to you; I will make my words known to you.” (v. 23)  Notice that there is nothing secret about God’s wisdom, nothing cryptic or mysterious.  Instead, it is as clear as the words of the Bible, and as obvious as the life of Jesus Christ.

The founder of the Sojourners Community in Washington, D.C., Jim Wallis, who spoke recently to a convocation of progressive Christians in Pasadena, gives one of the best examples of how to use wisdom even under pressure.

Wallis tells of being mugged right outside his home by four kids.  They rushed him, slashed his face, and then yelled “Keep him down!  Get his wallet!”

“I popped up quickly,” Wallis writes, “which seemed to surprise them.  Seeing no weapons flashed, I squared to face my attackers.  This was the first chance we had to really see each other face to face.  I saw that my assailants were just children -- three about 15, and one little one who couldn’t have been more than 13.... The boys backed up a little when they saw I was bigger than they had expected.  I’m a strong believer in nonviolence, but have learned that being a weight lifter often helps in these potential conflict situations!  The one who had hit me moved into a boxing stance while the others circled.  The little guy began attempting some ineffectual karate kicks, which I assumed he had seen on television.

“I decided to confront them, not intending to hurt them, but only to fend them off.  Instinctively, I began to scold these lost young souls.  I told them just to stop it, to stop terrorizing people, to stop such violent behavior in our neighborhood.  Finally, I shouted at them, ‘I’m a pastor!’  And I told them if they wanted to try to beat up and rob a pastor, they should come ahead and take their best shot. ... I knew that invoking the authority of the church in the street is hardly a sure thing these days, when our churches often have such little involvement there.

“Whatever it was that changed their minds, the youthful muggers turned and ran.  ‘Get back here,’ I shouted after them -- then instantly realized it probably wasn’t a good thing to say at that moment.  But then something unusual happened.

“The littlest kid, who couldn’t have been more than 4½ feet tall, turned back and looked at me as he ran away.  With a sad face and voice the young karate kicker said, ‘Pastor, ask God for a blessing for me.’

“He and his friends had just assaulted me.  The little one had tried so hard to be one of the big tough guys.  Yet he knew he needed a blessing.  The young boy knew he was in trouble.  I think they all did.”  (Jim Wallis, Who Speaks for God? [New York:  Delacorte Press, 1996], 67-69)

While Wallis’ response might be regarded as foolhardy to some, it likely had a more positive effect on the outcome of those boys’ lives than to retaliate physically against them.  The quest for divine insight in a situation —whether Wallis’ or the youngest boy’s request for God’s blessing—promises to be a true advantage to us.  “Those who listen to me will be secure,” promises Lady Wisdom, “and will live at ease, without dread of disaster.” (v. 33) 

Natural law, moral law, the wisdom of parents, the guidance of Scripture—all these are for our own good.  When we listen and act wisely, we’ll be better off.  The great medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas made the point that of all the pursuits open to us, “The search for wisdom is most perfect, more sublime, more profitable, and more full of joy.”