The Beginning of Wisdom - January 29, 2006

Psalm 111
Mark 1:21-28

Do you remember how old you were when you figured it out? I do. I was embarrassingly old. In fact, I was so old, I'm not going to tell you how old I was - that's how old I was. It's nobody's fault, really - everyone just assumed I knew, and nobody really wanted to sit down and enlighten me. So I was blissfully ignorant for the longest time.

Of course the "it" I'm talking about is that thing we euphemistically call "The Birds and the Bees - the Facts of Life." But I'll bet you knew that, didn't you?

I grew up in farm country. I had seen pigs litter, and cows calve, and chickens lay eggs. I had some basic knowledge that babies - both the animal variety and the human variety - did not come from storks. I knew that it took a mom and a dad to create a baby, but I didn't have all the pertinent details as to how that happens - and lets face it, that's the really interesting part, isn't it? But it's also, unfortunately, the part we leave out.

So I was in school, in a class that - again with euphemisms - was called Family Life, that I finally figured out exactly how it happens. And it turns out that those few details I was missing made all the difference in the world. All of a sudden, there were all kinds of things that made a whole lot of sense.

Now, right about now you might be wondering, "Where is she possibly going from here that will get her to the gospel?" And I admit, opening with the facts of life is a pretty risky preaching strategy. But where I'm going with this is really not an anatomy lesson, but that "Aha!" moment.

Aha! The last piece of the puzzle is in place and suddenly things make sense. Aha! Things take on new meaning. Someone taught me a trick when I was in the fourth grade for how to remember the multiplication tables for 9's. The trick involves using the ten fingers of both hands. Suddenly I didn't have to panic about the 9's because it all made sense. An Aha moment is happening in the gospel lesson for today.

If you remember from last week's gospel lesson, Jesus is still in the recruitment stage of his ministry. He has a team of four so far--Simon, Andrew, James and John. Things are still a little tenuous because nobody knows exactly how this thing is going to turn out. The participants don't even know exactly who Jesus is, all they know is that they were called away from their old lives by something and someone who was so compelling that they couldn't say no. And in Mark's Gospel, he hasn't even done anything yet, but preach repentance and ask the disciples to follow him. He hasn't built much of a legacy yet. There's no reputation for him to rest on, or for the others to rely on.

So on that day, the beginning of his teaching in the synagogue, we can't help but imagine that they are there, waiting to see what will happen, because this is something brand new. Jesus is not a scribe, he's not someone who had any kind of authority in Capernaum; he's just someone who walked in and started teaching in the most holy of places for the Jews. He's kind of an interloper, isn't he?

Think back to the first time you heard me preach. When I was just a name you had heard from somebody else at church. Perhaps you knew that I had come from California, and had a family with me. Perhaps you didn't even know that. Maybe you showed up that first time to see me purely out of curiosity - that would be perfectly understandable. I'm sure it was kind of anxiety producing, seeing the new preacher for the first time. Think about that anxiety. Remember how that felt.

Now imagine that the first time I preached in this pulpit, somebody came crashing through the back doors of the sanctuary and started shouting like an insane person, completely disrupting the worship service, flustering the musician, frightening the children, confusing those who were already trying to figure out what this new preacher was saying. That is the kind of chaos that is happening on Jesus' first day on the job.

But Jesus does not miss a beat. A crazy person walks in and disrupts the sermon, and Jesus makes him the illustration! Now that is some good preaching! They can't teach that in seminary. And when he does this, when he takes this moment of utter chaos and makes it into a teaching moment, suddenly the last piece of the puzzle for those standing around clicks into place. They are beginning to understand who this Jesus is. All of a sudden he is not some ordinary scribe, but is the Messiah. Things are starting to make sense.

Now, we know how this story is going to turn out. We know that there are those who are going to use this moment to understand who Jesus is, and that understanding is going to lead them to following him and hanging on his every word. But we also know that there are those who are going to use this beginning of wisdom to build a case against Jesus, in order to try to stop him. We know that those who are building a case are going to be successful, at least that's how it is going to appear at first.

Wisdom is a tricky thing. It's something that we spend our whole lives trying to acquire, and it seems as though we don't achieve real wisdom until we get nearly to the end of our lives. Don't you wish you knew then what you know now? I love the old joke that is attributed to Mark Twain - you know the one - it goes something like this: "When I was fourteen I was amazed at how stupid my father was. When I was twenty-one I was amazed at how much he had figured out in just seven years."

I wonder what it is like for God, looking at what God's creation has and has not figured out. What are the lessons we are given - the lessons that we get distracted from because we are so busy turning our heads looking at the crazy person who has just come into our midst? I wonder what it's like for God, if God ever feels like teaching humanity is like teaching a brick wall. Over and over again, we get it wrong - we misunderstand, we focus our attention at the distractions of life, we distrust what God has promised us through God's Word. We rely on our own understanding, not quite realizing that like that 14 year old in that old joke, we are at the very beginning of wisdom, that its' not God who doesn't get, it's us.

So... how do we start to get it? Well, it might start with admitting that we don't understand everything. It might start with setting aside those things we think we know, and opening ourselves up to what God wants us to know. That's a scary proposition. It's scary for churches, and it is certainly scary for individuals. In recovery groups, one of those first things a person who is trying to live into their sobriety must admit is defeat. Step One is admitting that the substance has gained the upper hand, that the addict is powerless, and that for recovery there must be some reliance on a Higher Power.

I would submit that we Christians have become addicted to our own ignorance. We don't care as much as we should about changing the things we can, or enduring the things that we can't change, or having the wisdom to know the difference. Because let face it: sometimes ignorance really is bliss. Sometimes going through the motions feels good enough.

But God desires for us to know God. God longs for the puzzle pieces to click into place. God came to earth in Jesus Christ, that we might understand, that we might continue to seek out the truth of the gospel lovingly taught to us in Scripture in the stories of Jesus. God shows up here, week after week, in the Holy Spirit. Even in the weeks that one might not think the preaching was very inspired - the Spirit is still here prodding. God gave us the church that we might not feel as if we have to become wise on our own, but that we can learn and grow together.

There are some things I want to do differently this year. Yes, even though I pray and read the Bible for a living, you might say, I am trying this year to be more intentional about how I am growing in my understanding of what God wants for me, for us as a church, for the whole world. I'm confessing to you that I have kind of coasted, spiritually speaking, for the past year, while I got my footing in this new role. For the past year, I have let the momentum of my calling to this place substitute for spiritual growth. But I'm trying to change that. I'm inviting you to join me in this - not to humor the pastor, but in order that we might be the reality of the Kingdom together. We can do this. With God's help, we can do this.


Thanks be to God!