Wisdom In A Proverb
Sermon
THE BEGINNING OF WISDOM
Sermons For Pentecost (Middle Third)
What is a proverb? It is a short, popular saying, usually of unknown or ancient origin, that expresses some commonplace truth or useful thought. What is a proverb? It is a pithy saying characterized by "its shortness, its sense, its salt." What is a proverb? It is an adage, easily remembered, that forms either an observation or a judgment. What is a proverb? It is a maxim that expresses simply and concretely a truth based on common sense and human experience. Many of our grandmothers had more proverbs up their sleeves than you could shake a stick at, so just for the fun of it, let's take a few moments and share favorite proverbs. Let's see how many we can name for the pleasure of it:
You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.
Birds of a feather flock together.
A stitch in time, saves nine.
Chickens come home to roost.
What goes around, comes around.
A new broom sweeps clean.
Out of sight, out of mind.
A rolling stone gathers no moss.
Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.
Don't borrow trouble.
Dead men tell no tales.
Angels go where wise men fear to tread.
From deep within the folk wisdom, we find simple truths that are stated so aptly, that they become proverbs. These are insights into human behavior, norms, rules, right values, due proportions, patterns, that become proverbs when they are spoken again and again and again to illustrate a point, clinch an argument, lend authority to some admonition or provide a warning. Proverbs also have a teaching function.They are a great way to transmit knowledge, and teaching was the intention of those who compiled and edited the collection that we know as The Book Of Proverbs.
The Book Of Proverbs is a sourcebook of instructional material meant for use in school or private study, directed at young people, a sourcebook for the cultivation of personal morality and practical wisdom. The Book Of Proverbs is an ancient "how to" book, that became a bestseller and was included in the canon. Now I do not know how many of you have ever read the Book Of Proverbs, but I will tell you (and not as a confession, but rather as a matter of fact) that I had not read Proverbs until recently, until I began to study the texts from Proverbs appointed for the next three Sundays. Someone has said, that apart from Leviticus, Proverbs is the least read portion of the scriptures. But the value of the lectionary is that it leads a preacher and a congregation to parts of the scriptures that we would not choose for ourselves. So it is with Proverbs.
Proverbs is part of the wisdom literature of the Hebrew scriptures which includes Job, Ecclesiastes, Esther, and some would say the Song Of Solomon. The wisdom literature sought to probe the human experience and attempt to make sense of it, probe the human experience in its fullness and find meaning, direction, clues to righteousness.
The wisdom movement was international. The sages sought wisdom from the surrounding civilizations. Hebrew wisdom literature has much in common with the literature of the Edomites and those from Phoenicia, the Egyptians and those from Mesopotamia.
There is respect for the religions of other civilizations, but wisdom literature is set in a distinct frame. For the Hebrew sages, "fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." As the sages gleaned human experience it is always in relation to God. The relation is defined by fear, respect, awe, understanding of Yahweh's power and presence and will. Yahweh's commandments and intention and justice is the beginning of human wisdom and knowledge and the capacity to lead a life that is righteous and good.
Proverbs itself falls into three sections. Happily, we have one text from each, though for reasons I can not determine, we begin with a text from the middle of Proverbs. Today's text is from the sayings of Solomon and the sayings of the sages. Solomon was the patron saint of the sages and the wisdom movement; Solomon, who was remembered for his intelligence and shrewdness, good sense, sound judgment, moral understanding, wisdom. The collection of proverbs under Solomon's name is the major portion of the Book Of Proverbs and gives it its distinct tone: proverbs that teach how the good life is to be achieved.
Yet there is difficulty with this collection of Proverbs in relation to our search for wisdom and understanding. Proverbs are individual sayings which really should be considered separately. Someone has said, "To read through the sayings is like trying to have a conversation with someone who always replies with one liners. The first few may serve to amuse, but after a dozen or so, it gets boring." One stops listening. One stops reading. Proverbs is not designed for continuous reading. Even our short text for today is a case in point:
A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver and gold.
The rich and the poor have this in common: the Lord is maker of them all.
Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity, and the rod of anger will fall.
Are you reaching the saturation point yet?
Those who are generous are blessed, for they share their bread with the poor.
Do not rob the poor because they are poor, or crush the afflicted at the gate; for the Lord pleads their cause and despoils the lives of those who despoil them.
So how are we to approach a text from the sayings of Solomon, the middle section of Proverbs? We approach Proverbs carefully, with open minds but also with our eyebrows raised in suspicion, with our hearts eager but also with a grain of salt. As we search for wisdom in our experience, as we seek to discover ourselves what it means to be human, we recognize:
that life is filled with contradictions, and so is Proverbs;
that life is filled with ambiguity and so is Proverbs;
that life is sometimes exaggerated, and so is Proverbs;
that life is neither simple or simplistic and when Proverbs appear to be, it's best to remain flexible, for the proverb will soon be deepened or be qualified or discounted.
There are moments of almost slapstick humor in Proverbs and there are moments of holiness and it's important to understand which is which.
So I suggest that we approach Proverbs one at a time: dwell on one proverb, consider it, think about it, expand it in your view, relate it to your experience, to those who you know, argue with the proverb, find its loophole, probe it to see if there is truth or wisdom to be found.
For instance, let's consider "those who are generous are blessed, for they share their bread with the poor." Take a moment now to think of people you know who are generous. Think of particular acts of generosity; (add your own here) I am thinking about a time when a friend came with a bunch of sweet peas just when I needed them and about a gift to the Student Volunteers Council that surprised us completely. Imagine the pleasure it gives people to be able to be generous, to have the freedom and the time to be generous. Think also of the strength it sometimes takes, and the discipline. Take a moment to think of someone in your life who is generous while I tell you about a colleague whose family includes a 51-year-old brother-in-law who lives with cerebral palsy and is wheelchair-bound. All that my colleague does at home is defined by this family member, whether they can go out to dinner or to a movie or where or when they might take some time away. It doesn't seem extraordinary to her or to her children. "Those who are generous are blessed."
Another example is a neighbor I know who always spends her birthday and Christmas in a soup kitchen distributing food. This is a small sign of her generosity which includes sweeps of generosity to godchildren, constant commitment to a Lutheran church on the lower East Side of New York, to Palestinian refugees who need financial as well as emotional help. As I consider those who are generous that I know, I recognize that generosity is a way of being, not an occasional gesture and the way of being means sacrifice and it means blessing. "Those who are generous are blessed," for they share what they have - their selves and their souls. So read the Book Of Proverbs as you would a cookbook. Dwell with one proverb, as we have done, as you would one recipe. Spend time with it, study it, "bake it" and see how it comes out. Amen.
You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.
Birds of a feather flock together.
A stitch in time, saves nine.
Chickens come home to roost.
What goes around, comes around.
A new broom sweeps clean.
Out of sight, out of mind.
A rolling stone gathers no moss.
Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.
Don't borrow trouble.
Dead men tell no tales.
Angels go where wise men fear to tread.
From deep within the folk wisdom, we find simple truths that are stated so aptly, that they become proverbs. These are insights into human behavior, norms, rules, right values, due proportions, patterns, that become proverbs when they are spoken again and again and again to illustrate a point, clinch an argument, lend authority to some admonition or provide a warning. Proverbs also have a teaching function.They are a great way to transmit knowledge, and teaching was the intention of those who compiled and edited the collection that we know as The Book Of Proverbs.
The Book Of Proverbs is a sourcebook of instructional material meant for use in school or private study, directed at young people, a sourcebook for the cultivation of personal morality and practical wisdom. The Book Of Proverbs is an ancient "how to" book, that became a bestseller and was included in the canon. Now I do not know how many of you have ever read the Book Of Proverbs, but I will tell you (and not as a confession, but rather as a matter of fact) that I had not read Proverbs until recently, until I began to study the texts from Proverbs appointed for the next three Sundays. Someone has said, that apart from Leviticus, Proverbs is the least read portion of the scriptures. But the value of the lectionary is that it leads a preacher and a congregation to parts of the scriptures that we would not choose for ourselves. So it is with Proverbs.
Proverbs is part of the wisdom literature of the Hebrew scriptures which includes Job, Ecclesiastes, Esther, and some would say the Song Of Solomon. The wisdom literature sought to probe the human experience and attempt to make sense of it, probe the human experience in its fullness and find meaning, direction, clues to righteousness.
The wisdom movement was international. The sages sought wisdom from the surrounding civilizations. Hebrew wisdom literature has much in common with the literature of the Edomites and those from Phoenicia, the Egyptians and those from Mesopotamia.
There is respect for the religions of other civilizations, but wisdom literature is set in a distinct frame. For the Hebrew sages, "fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." As the sages gleaned human experience it is always in relation to God. The relation is defined by fear, respect, awe, understanding of Yahweh's power and presence and will. Yahweh's commandments and intention and justice is the beginning of human wisdom and knowledge and the capacity to lead a life that is righteous and good.
Proverbs itself falls into three sections. Happily, we have one text from each, though for reasons I can not determine, we begin with a text from the middle of Proverbs. Today's text is from the sayings of Solomon and the sayings of the sages. Solomon was the patron saint of the sages and the wisdom movement; Solomon, who was remembered for his intelligence and shrewdness, good sense, sound judgment, moral understanding, wisdom. The collection of proverbs under Solomon's name is the major portion of the Book Of Proverbs and gives it its distinct tone: proverbs that teach how the good life is to be achieved.
Yet there is difficulty with this collection of Proverbs in relation to our search for wisdom and understanding. Proverbs are individual sayings which really should be considered separately. Someone has said, "To read through the sayings is like trying to have a conversation with someone who always replies with one liners. The first few may serve to amuse, but after a dozen or so, it gets boring." One stops listening. One stops reading. Proverbs is not designed for continuous reading. Even our short text for today is a case in point:
A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver and gold.
The rich and the poor have this in common: the Lord is maker of them all.
Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity, and the rod of anger will fall.
Are you reaching the saturation point yet?
Those who are generous are blessed, for they share their bread with the poor.
Do not rob the poor because they are poor, or crush the afflicted at the gate; for the Lord pleads their cause and despoils the lives of those who despoil them.
So how are we to approach a text from the sayings of Solomon, the middle section of Proverbs? We approach Proverbs carefully, with open minds but also with our eyebrows raised in suspicion, with our hearts eager but also with a grain of salt. As we search for wisdom in our experience, as we seek to discover ourselves what it means to be human, we recognize:
that life is filled with contradictions, and so is Proverbs;
that life is filled with ambiguity and so is Proverbs;
that life is sometimes exaggerated, and so is Proverbs;
that life is neither simple or simplistic and when Proverbs appear to be, it's best to remain flexible, for the proverb will soon be deepened or be qualified or discounted.
There are moments of almost slapstick humor in Proverbs and there are moments of holiness and it's important to understand which is which.
So I suggest that we approach Proverbs one at a time: dwell on one proverb, consider it, think about it, expand it in your view, relate it to your experience, to those who you know, argue with the proverb, find its loophole, probe it to see if there is truth or wisdom to be found.
For instance, let's consider "those who are generous are blessed, for they share their bread with the poor." Take a moment now to think of people you know who are generous. Think of particular acts of generosity; (add your own here) I am thinking about a time when a friend came with a bunch of sweet peas just when I needed them and about a gift to the Student Volunteers Council that surprised us completely. Imagine the pleasure it gives people to be able to be generous, to have the freedom and the time to be generous. Think also of the strength it sometimes takes, and the discipline. Take a moment to think of someone in your life who is generous while I tell you about a colleague whose family includes a 51-year-old brother-in-law who lives with cerebral palsy and is wheelchair-bound. All that my colleague does at home is defined by this family member, whether they can go out to dinner or to a movie or where or when they might take some time away. It doesn't seem extraordinary to her or to her children. "Those who are generous are blessed."
Another example is a neighbor I know who always spends her birthday and Christmas in a soup kitchen distributing food. This is a small sign of her generosity which includes sweeps of generosity to godchildren, constant commitment to a Lutheran church on the lower East Side of New York, to Palestinian refugees who need financial as well as emotional help. As I consider those who are generous that I know, I recognize that generosity is a way of being, not an occasional gesture and the way of being means sacrifice and it means blessing. "Those who are generous are blessed," for they share what they have - their selves and their souls. So read the Book Of Proverbs as you would a cookbook. Dwell with one proverb, as we have done, as you would one recipe. Spend time with it, study it, "bake it" and see how it comes out. Amen.
