Wisdom for the Living of These Days
Sermon
Renewal of the New
Sermons For Sundays After Pentecost
Four men were in a plane: the president of the United States, a college professor, a preacher, and a youth with a backpack. Engine trouble developed. The pilot announced that the motors flamed out. He further announced that there were only three parachutes for the passengers. A discussion was held among the four over who should get the parachutes. The president said that he should get one because the nation depended on his leadership. The professor argued that since she was the brightest, she should get a parachute. This left two in the plane. The youth began to laugh. The preacher asked why she was laughing at such a serious time. The youth explained, "The professor left with my backpack!" Obviously, in this case at least, intelligence was not the same as wisdom.
The words of our text were written by a wise man. Traditionally, Solomon is considered the author of Proverbs. Wisdom and Solomon are practically synonymous. He will always be remembered for his wise decision concerning the two women who claimed the same living child as their own. Solomon ordered the baby to be cut in two with each mother receiving one half. The one woman begged Solomon not to do it, to give the living child to the other woman. Wisely Solomon recognized the one who did not want the child killed as the true mother.
As Solomon needed wisdom in that difficult case, we, too, are in desperate need of wisdom for the living of these days. Who has the wisdom to determine a person's right to die, as in the case of thirty-two-year-old Nancy Crugan who has been comatose for seven years? Her parents asked the United States Supreme Court for permission to let her die. Or, who has the wisdom to know how to handle America's Number One Health problem -- drugs -- which cost us 300 billion dollars a year and cause 600,000 deaths annually? Or, who is wise enough to decide the controversial issue of abortion, which is based on the essential question of when life begins? Indeed, we need Solomon to tell us what wisdom is and how to get it.
Want Wisdom?
"If" is a big word in our text. "If you receive my words," "If you cry out," "If you seek." Then we will get wisdom. It will not come to us unless we want it. It cannot be imposed upon us. It does not come as a natural part of being human.
A person is known by his or her wants. What do you want out of life -- money, pleasure, or power? What do you want God to do for you? Be careful! What you want you may get! One time Jesus asked blind Bartimaeus, "What do you want me to do for you?" Do you want wisdom? If so, how badly do you want it? More than anything else? A story is told about a disciple's coming to Buddha and asking him for enlightenment. Without saying a word, Buddha plunged the man under the water of a nearby river and held him there for a long time. When he pulled him up, the man was coughing and choking, trying to get water out of his lungs. Buddha said to him, "Just as you now wanted air more than anything else, you must want wisdom to get it."
Why do we today need wisdom? It is because we are so utterly foolish! We are foolish to think that life consists of things possessed. To get material possessions, we work, work, work. In doing so, we miss out on the finer things of life. We do not take time to see or smell the roses along the way. Moreover, soon life comes to an end and we cannot take our possessions with us, for shrouds have no pockets. Jesus once told about a man who built great barns and then decided to retire and take it easy, but Jesus called him a fool because that very night he died and lost his soul.
Consider another case of foolishness. Some of us seek guidance from distant, silent and dead stars. We call it "astrology." When President Reagan was in office, the media informed us of Nancy Reagan's consulting an astrologer to learn when it was a good time for the President to take a trip or hold a meeting. A popular heresy of our time is the New Age movement which consults crystals for counsel. This is plainly foolish because the fault or destiny is not in our stars or crystal rocks but in ourselves that we are underlings. Our times and our lives are in God's hands. Wisdom would have us go to God for guidance.
We should want wisdom, moreover, because we are stupid to waste our lives on narcotics. We are destroying our lives by the excessive use of alcohol, non-prescription drugs, and tobacco. How foolish it is, for example, to waste one's life on smoking -- which causes 1000 deaths daily! It is reported that each cigarette takes ten minutes off an average life-span. The wise person recognizes that life is God's gift. The human body is the temple of the Lord. As such, we are responsible for keeping it healthy and strong. In his wisdom, God will end our lives according to his purpose and plan for us.
What is Wisdom?
Do we know what we want? We may want to be smart, but do we know exactly what wisdom is? In our Scripture lesson, wisdom is referred to as something very precious: "silver," "hidden treasures." We read about "understanding," "insight," "fear," and "knowledge." Do these constitute wisdom?
One way of finding out what wisdom is, is to understand what it is not. Wisdom is not knowledge. We can have all the knowledge in the world and still not necessarily have wisdom. We may know all that is housed in the world's largest library, the Library of Congress, which has 535 miles of shelves holding 95 million items. Each day 31,000 are added. If it were possible to master all in these books, we would not necessarily be wise. It is easy to know what is right, but we do not do it. It is easy to know the truth, it is not easy to live by it.
Moreover, wisdom is not education. We Americans are really into education. Twenty-five percent of Americans, totaling 57.4 million, are in the nation's schools and colleges. Each year 1,000,000 people graduate with a bachelor's degree, 300,000 with a master's degree, and 33,000 receive a Ph.D. Are all of these people wise because they are "educated"? Theodore Roosevelt once said that if you take a boy who broke into a railroad car and sent him off to college, one day he would steal the whole railroad! Education does not make one wise in character. When Gary Hart was seeking the Democratic nomination for president, he had an affair with Donna Rice, an affair that caused him to drop out of the race. Barbara Walters, on ABC television, revealed that Donna had graduated magna cum laude from the University of South Carolina.
Nor is wisdom the same as scientific technology, which produces today's miracle machines. It is said that the Devil has a Ph.D.! German Nazi Joseph Mengele, accused of killing 400,000 at Auschwitz had both Ph.D. and M.D. degrees. A survivor of one of the concentration camps tells of gas chambers built by learned engineers, children poisoned by educated physicians, infants killed by trained nurses, and babies burned by college graduates. The question is, Are we getting too smart for our own good? Are we in danger of destroying ourselves by knowing too much?
What, then, is wisdom? Our text refers to knowledge, understanding, integrity, and insight. These are component parts of wisdom. It is especially true of understanding. A wise person has an understanding of God, life, and the present situation. A young disciple was very devoted to his rabbi. One day he exclaimed, "My master, I love you!" The rabbi looked up from his books and asked, "Do you know what hurts me, my son?" Puzzled, the student said, "I don't understand your question, rabbi. I am trying to tell you how much you mean to me, and you confuse me by your irrelevant question." The rabbi replied, "My question is neither confusing nor irrelevant, for if you do not understand what hurts me, how can you truly love me?"
Also, wisdom is having insight -- internal vision. The wise person can see the meaning of things and the right course of action. In the Old Testament story, Balaam's donkey had more insight than had Balaam. He did not see the angel with a sword blocking the passageway. Balaam was not wise enough to see that to go against God was prohibitive. Some months ago, while on a teaching-preaching mission in Kentucky, a member of the congregation and also president of a coal company, took me a mile into a coal mine in which there were no lights. When at the end of the mine, he suggested that we turn off the lights on our hardhats. We did, and never before had I experienced the blackness of total darkness. There was no difference between having your eyes open or having them closed. Insight is seeing when your eyes are shut. A foolish person has only visual sight, but a wise one sees things not visible to the naked eye. Wisdom is insight into eternal values and truths.
Wisdom Won
Now that we know what wisdom is, we ask, "How do we get it?" One thing is sure: we cannot buy it, earn it, or inherit it. It does not come from experience, for we can repeat the same foolish experience. Someone has said "Wisdom comes from good judgment. Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from poor judgment!"
Our text tells us how to become wise: "The Lord gives wisdom." (v. 6) Wisdom comes from God, for God is wisdom, just as God is truth and love. A Psalmist concurs, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." It is fear in terms of respect and reverence for God. This kind of fear results in knowledge, obedience, and commitment to God. To fear God calls for knowledge of him, his nature, and will. Sorry to say, many have no knowledge of God. A Gallup poll indicates that twenty-seven percent of adults say they received no religious education as children. Here is at least one good reason why we should emphasize attendance at our church schools. To have wisdom is to know God, to have God in us.
Wisdom comes also with God the Son, Jesus. The men who came seeking Jesus at the time of his birth are known as the Wise Men. As the babe grew up, "he increased in wisdom." His words of teaching were so wise that even his enemies said, "No man ever spoke like this man." His wisdom came through in his parables. His answers to tricky questions, like "Shall we pay tax to Caesar?" were products of wisdom to the point that toward the end of his ministry no one dared ask him any more questions. He expected his followers to be wise: "Be wise as serpents." To follow him, to accept his teachings was to exercise wisdom, for, as the Son of God, he was wisdom personified. To have Jesus is to have wisdom. In the Advent hymn, "O Come, Emmanuel," we pray, "O come, thou Wisdom from on high."
Wisdom is also a gift of the Holy Spirit. It is one of the nine gifts Paul lists in 1 Corinthians. To have the Holy Spirit is to have wisdom, for the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit is God in us, and God is wisdom. The Holy Spirit gives wisdom, for the Holy Spirit enlightens and guides us into the truth of God and life. A wise person will always seek the Holy Spirit for wise direction.
For the living of these days we urgently need wisdom. The good news is that wisdom is within reach of everyone of us. There is no reason to be stupid! Each of us can be wise even if we are not educated, even if we do not have a high IQ, and even if we are not cultured and refined. We can be as plain as an old shoe and still be wise. Wisdom comes to the simple, humble person who looks to Christ for wisdom, who prays for the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, and who lives in the fear of the Lord. You may be too soon old, but you need not be too late smart!
The words of our text were written by a wise man. Traditionally, Solomon is considered the author of Proverbs. Wisdom and Solomon are practically synonymous. He will always be remembered for his wise decision concerning the two women who claimed the same living child as their own. Solomon ordered the baby to be cut in two with each mother receiving one half. The one woman begged Solomon not to do it, to give the living child to the other woman. Wisely Solomon recognized the one who did not want the child killed as the true mother.
As Solomon needed wisdom in that difficult case, we, too, are in desperate need of wisdom for the living of these days. Who has the wisdom to determine a person's right to die, as in the case of thirty-two-year-old Nancy Crugan who has been comatose for seven years? Her parents asked the United States Supreme Court for permission to let her die. Or, who has the wisdom to know how to handle America's Number One Health problem -- drugs -- which cost us 300 billion dollars a year and cause 600,000 deaths annually? Or, who is wise enough to decide the controversial issue of abortion, which is based on the essential question of when life begins? Indeed, we need Solomon to tell us what wisdom is and how to get it.
Want Wisdom?
"If" is a big word in our text. "If you receive my words," "If you cry out," "If you seek." Then we will get wisdom. It will not come to us unless we want it. It cannot be imposed upon us. It does not come as a natural part of being human.
A person is known by his or her wants. What do you want out of life -- money, pleasure, or power? What do you want God to do for you? Be careful! What you want you may get! One time Jesus asked blind Bartimaeus, "What do you want me to do for you?" Do you want wisdom? If so, how badly do you want it? More than anything else? A story is told about a disciple's coming to Buddha and asking him for enlightenment. Without saying a word, Buddha plunged the man under the water of a nearby river and held him there for a long time. When he pulled him up, the man was coughing and choking, trying to get water out of his lungs. Buddha said to him, "Just as you now wanted air more than anything else, you must want wisdom to get it."
Why do we today need wisdom? It is because we are so utterly foolish! We are foolish to think that life consists of things possessed. To get material possessions, we work, work, work. In doing so, we miss out on the finer things of life. We do not take time to see or smell the roses along the way. Moreover, soon life comes to an end and we cannot take our possessions with us, for shrouds have no pockets. Jesus once told about a man who built great barns and then decided to retire and take it easy, but Jesus called him a fool because that very night he died and lost his soul.
Consider another case of foolishness. Some of us seek guidance from distant, silent and dead stars. We call it "astrology." When President Reagan was in office, the media informed us of Nancy Reagan's consulting an astrologer to learn when it was a good time for the President to take a trip or hold a meeting. A popular heresy of our time is the New Age movement which consults crystals for counsel. This is plainly foolish because the fault or destiny is not in our stars or crystal rocks but in ourselves that we are underlings. Our times and our lives are in God's hands. Wisdom would have us go to God for guidance.
We should want wisdom, moreover, because we are stupid to waste our lives on narcotics. We are destroying our lives by the excessive use of alcohol, non-prescription drugs, and tobacco. How foolish it is, for example, to waste one's life on smoking -- which causes 1000 deaths daily! It is reported that each cigarette takes ten minutes off an average life-span. The wise person recognizes that life is God's gift. The human body is the temple of the Lord. As such, we are responsible for keeping it healthy and strong. In his wisdom, God will end our lives according to his purpose and plan for us.
What is Wisdom?
Do we know what we want? We may want to be smart, but do we know exactly what wisdom is? In our Scripture lesson, wisdom is referred to as something very precious: "silver," "hidden treasures." We read about "understanding," "insight," "fear," and "knowledge." Do these constitute wisdom?
One way of finding out what wisdom is, is to understand what it is not. Wisdom is not knowledge. We can have all the knowledge in the world and still not necessarily have wisdom. We may know all that is housed in the world's largest library, the Library of Congress, which has 535 miles of shelves holding 95 million items. Each day 31,000 are added. If it were possible to master all in these books, we would not necessarily be wise. It is easy to know what is right, but we do not do it. It is easy to know the truth, it is not easy to live by it.
Moreover, wisdom is not education. We Americans are really into education. Twenty-five percent of Americans, totaling 57.4 million, are in the nation's schools and colleges. Each year 1,000,000 people graduate with a bachelor's degree, 300,000 with a master's degree, and 33,000 receive a Ph.D. Are all of these people wise because they are "educated"? Theodore Roosevelt once said that if you take a boy who broke into a railroad car and sent him off to college, one day he would steal the whole railroad! Education does not make one wise in character. When Gary Hart was seeking the Democratic nomination for president, he had an affair with Donna Rice, an affair that caused him to drop out of the race. Barbara Walters, on ABC television, revealed that Donna had graduated magna cum laude from the University of South Carolina.
Nor is wisdom the same as scientific technology, which produces today's miracle machines. It is said that the Devil has a Ph.D.! German Nazi Joseph Mengele, accused of killing 400,000 at Auschwitz had both Ph.D. and M.D. degrees. A survivor of one of the concentration camps tells of gas chambers built by learned engineers, children poisoned by educated physicians, infants killed by trained nurses, and babies burned by college graduates. The question is, Are we getting too smart for our own good? Are we in danger of destroying ourselves by knowing too much?
What, then, is wisdom? Our text refers to knowledge, understanding, integrity, and insight. These are component parts of wisdom. It is especially true of understanding. A wise person has an understanding of God, life, and the present situation. A young disciple was very devoted to his rabbi. One day he exclaimed, "My master, I love you!" The rabbi looked up from his books and asked, "Do you know what hurts me, my son?" Puzzled, the student said, "I don't understand your question, rabbi. I am trying to tell you how much you mean to me, and you confuse me by your irrelevant question." The rabbi replied, "My question is neither confusing nor irrelevant, for if you do not understand what hurts me, how can you truly love me?"
Also, wisdom is having insight -- internal vision. The wise person can see the meaning of things and the right course of action. In the Old Testament story, Balaam's donkey had more insight than had Balaam. He did not see the angel with a sword blocking the passageway. Balaam was not wise enough to see that to go against God was prohibitive. Some months ago, while on a teaching-preaching mission in Kentucky, a member of the congregation and also president of a coal company, took me a mile into a coal mine in which there were no lights. When at the end of the mine, he suggested that we turn off the lights on our hardhats. We did, and never before had I experienced the blackness of total darkness. There was no difference between having your eyes open or having them closed. Insight is seeing when your eyes are shut. A foolish person has only visual sight, but a wise one sees things not visible to the naked eye. Wisdom is insight into eternal values and truths.
Wisdom Won
Now that we know what wisdom is, we ask, "How do we get it?" One thing is sure: we cannot buy it, earn it, or inherit it. It does not come from experience, for we can repeat the same foolish experience. Someone has said "Wisdom comes from good judgment. Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from poor judgment!"
Our text tells us how to become wise: "The Lord gives wisdom." (v. 6) Wisdom comes from God, for God is wisdom, just as God is truth and love. A Psalmist concurs, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." It is fear in terms of respect and reverence for God. This kind of fear results in knowledge, obedience, and commitment to God. To fear God calls for knowledge of him, his nature, and will. Sorry to say, many have no knowledge of God. A Gallup poll indicates that twenty-seven percent of adults say they received no religious education as children. Here is at least one good reason why we should emphasize attendance at our church schools. To have wisdom is to know God, to have God in us.
Wisdom comes also with God the Son, Jesus. The men who came seeking Jesus at the time of his birth are known as the Wise Men. As the babe grew up, "he increased in wisdom." His words of teaching were so wise that even his enemies said, "No man ever spoke like this man." His wisdom came through in his parables. His answers to tricky questions, like "Shall we pay tax to Caesar?" were products of wisdom to the point that toward the end of his ministry no one dared ask him any more questions. He expected his followers to be wise: "Be wise as serpents." To follow him, to accept his teachings was to exercise wisdom, for, as the Son of God, he was wisdom personified. To have Jesus is to have wisdom. In the Advent hymn, "O Come, Emmanuel," we pray, "O come, thou Wisdom from on high."
Wisdom is also a gift of the Holy Spirit. It is one of the nine gifts Paul lists in 1 Corinthians. To have the Holy Spirit is to have wisdom, for the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit is God in us, and God is wisdom. The Holy Spirit gives wisdom, for the Holy Spirit enlightens and guides us into the truth of God and life. A wise person will always seek the Holy Spirit for wise direction.
For the living of these days we urgently need wisdom. The good news is that wisdom is within reach of everyone of us. There is no reason to be stupid! Each of us can be wise even if we are not educated, even if we do not have a high IQ, and even if we are not cultured and refined. We can be as plain as an old shoe and still be wise. Wisdom comes to the simple, humble person who looks to Christ for wisdom, who prays for the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, and who lives in the fear of the Lord. You may be too soon old, but you need not be too late smart!
