August 19, 2012
Living Wisely
- Proverbs 9:1-6
- Dr. Teri Thomas
Can you remember a time when you behaved foolishly?
Can you recall a time when you did something wise?
We seem to be better at remembering foolishness than wisdom.
We can tell you about foolish people we know more easily than wise ones.
Foolishness and wisdom are not about intelligence.
They are about behaviors.
I heard someone telling about his teenage son,
a bright kid, an honors student, and he began wondering what would happen
if you shifted a car into reverse while traveling forward at 25 miles per hour.
The question was an indication of his intellectual curiosity.
The behavior was an indication of his foolishness and cost his dad $1500.
We all see foolishness around us.
As we begin a new school year we see the foolish students.
They do just enough to squeak by not worried about really learning anything.
The bright student, capable of doing good work who cheats, just because it is easier.
We saw it in the Olympics.
Competing alongside the dedicated athletes
we saw badminton players throw matches for better odds,
others risk using performance enhancing drugs.
All around us we witness intelligent and personable people making foolish decisions and acting badly. At the heart of our modern foolishness is an inability to see consequences for particular behavior. We become so caught up in the moment that we forget everything we know and blind ourselves to the future consequences of our behavior.
Now here is the hard part.
It is easy to talk about fools in the third person.
"they" or "them", "she or him"
We could even go with the second person, "you".
The difficulty is admitting there is a part of each one of us
that has a tendency toward foolishness.
Sometimes it is arrogance or denial.
We might be thinking we are justified with whatever we can get away with or cover up.
I know that there are Sundays when I stand here and believe a sermon is for you-
but not me.
When I think like that… I am fool.
Scripture doesn’t say much about people who are smart, or good athletes, smart business people or astute rulers. Instead the scriptures values wisdom. And wisdom is inseparable from behavior.
Ephesians 5-
17So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
And Ephesians makes it pretty clearwhat the will of the Lord might be.
- The wise person knows how to use time.
We live in a culture that makes many competing demands on our time.
According to a recent American Time Use Survey,
people in the United States spend an average
of almost three hours per day watching television,
but only 8 minutes per day engaged in spiritual activities,
8 minutes a day volunteering,
20 minutes of exercise or recreation,
just over one hour eating and drinking.
The readings this week remind us that God calls us to be mindful
of the ways in which we spend our time.
Time is a precious gift and resource to be managed wisely.
The epidemic of busyness we are all exposed to is inhibiting our relationships with God. Being too busy for God also hinders one's ability as a spouse, parent, son, daughter, grandparent, friend, neighbor, church member, or volunteer. An over-extended life leads to less God in one's life, and that leads to less love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control and well, you get the drift.
God does not call us to a life of hurry, fatigue, and distraction. God calls us to relationship. If there's not enough God in your life, you know what to do about that.
Ephesians tells us
- The wise person is full of the spirit
Being a Christian is a total way of being.
This Christian faith, this Jesus way of life, is rooted in a relationship and not a rule. This relationship with a living God must be given a time and a place of its own to grow and spread.
According to Paul, that place is worship. It is taking the time and finding the place to offer praise and thanksgivings, to experience wonder and awe, to sink into the fullness of God’s grace, to allow the Spirit to nurture us and grow us in God’s image.
Worship is when we intentionally remove ourselves from the pace and rhythm of the world and let God’s spirit fill us.
So we must not fill ourselves with wine,
or Starbucks, or Dunkin Donuts,
Or whatever else we could be doing instead of worship.
Be filled with the Spirit.
And in that Spirit- Ephesians says
- The wise person gives thanks.
We know that is not always easy to do.
We are often discontent with what we have been given.
We grouse about our jobs ignoring the pain of the unemployed.
We gripe about our friends while many people are desperately lonely.
We bicker with family members because they will not or cannot fulfill all our expectations.
Our thankfulness for the good things we have received
can be soured by the sins and violence and horrors of existence.
Bad things happen. Appalling events occur.
Gratitude to God does not require that we rejoice in tragedy or celebrate a terrible misfortune. It simply means affirming the whole of life in all its sorrow and pain in all its blessing and joy as a great gift.
There is an old tale from the Hasidic Jewish tradition about a man who goes to his rabbi and complains that life is unbearable. "There are nine of us living in one room, what can I do?" The rabbi answers, "Take your goat into the room with you." The man cannot believe that his spiritual leader has said such a thing, but the rabbi insists, "Do as I say and come back in a week." A week later the man comes back looking more distraught than ever.
"We cannot stand it," he tells the rabbi. "The goat is filthy, and our life is even more intolerable in that small room." The rabbi then tells him, "Go home and let the goat out. And come back in a week." The man returns radiant a week later, exclaiming, "Life is beautiful, rabbi. We enjoy every minute now that there’s no goat—only nine of us after all."
Give thanks.
Paul wrote- 15Be careful then how you live,
not as unwise people but as wise,
16making the most of the time, …
be filled with the Spirit,19as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves,… 20give thanks to God the Father at all times
and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.