Wisdom: the Mind of God - Pentecost XV-- Year B--September 13, 2009 - The Reverend David R. Williams

Make us glad, we pray you, gentle God, to give each other your loving care; Make us happy to receive it.  May there daily grow within each of us a generous and trusting spirit.  Amen.

Welcome Home Sunday!  There always seems to be one Sunday in the fall when folks wander back to home base – home from beaches, and home from special time in the mountains.  Home from travels.  Holy Comforter is home.  Welcome home. 

As we look around the nave we recognize those among us who have been on the beaches – those with healthy dark tans.  The mountain folk look more windblown and high brow.   

On this Sunday, we begin a new education season.  Kim Futrell and the Christian Formation leaders have been busy since last May recruiting and preparing teachers – teachers and curriculum for children and youth, and teachers and a variety of programs for adults.

Next Sunday, we shall have an official Commissioning of our teachers at the 10:30 worship service.

Speaking of teachers, did you notice what James says about teachers?  From the Epistle this morning, “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.”

What a way to begin a year of teaching and learning.  Hearing this warning, we can appreciate better the incredibly challenging job Kim and her Christian Formation leaders have had in recruiting teachers.  Anna Jefferson has been helping with the Children’s program, Larry Vellani with the youth and Kathy Hykes with the adults. 

“Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters…”

I’m curious. How many here of us here this morning currently serve or have served as educators in any of our school systems – public, private, university? Raise your hands? “We who teach will be judged with greater strictness.”  Congratulations and thank you.

How many here will be teaching one of our classes this coming year at Holy Comforter? 

Congratulations and thank you.  (We shall be judging you with greater strictness!)

To elaborate more on James’ sternness regarding the power of teachers, let’s begin with a second look at the first lesson from Proverbs. 

“Wisdom cries out in the street; in the squares she (notice the feminine ‘she’ for Wisdom) raises her voice.”  The author goes on, “For the waywardness kills the simple, and the complacency of fools destroys them; but those who listen to me will be secure and will live at ease, without dread of disaster.”   

The author of Proverbs draws a distinction between knowledge and wisdom.  They are not one and the same. 

Writer and poet T.S. Eliot once asked, “Where is the wisdom you have lost in knowledge?  Where is the knowledge you have lost in information?”

A learning progression emerges from this understanding.  First, we are flooded with information.  Compared to 2000 years ago or even 10 years ago, we are now inundated with data, information, facts, ideas, newspapers, Wikipedia, Google.

Then, we do attain knowledge through these vast amounts of information.  We attempt to cull facts, truths, opinions and evidence from the flood of data. We discern, test, discern again.

In some cases, we discover wisdom –just what this knowledge can mean in this life. How can I be more wise in my choices? What might help me through the day? What is my plan for the future? What might I change?

This past week at our funeral service for long-time Holy Comforter member Dolores “Dodi” James, I read one of Dodi’s favorite passages from nineteenth century writer Marcel Proust:

“We don’t receive wisdom, we must discover wisdom for ourselves, after a journey that no one can take for us.”

It is said that wisdom is part of God. Wisdom is an aspect of God. Wisdom is the mind of God. 

Our teachers really do not teach wisdom, but rather, through gentle, firm guidance, we discover among ourselves true wisdom beyond information.  

Walter Wink, a fine theologian and teacher, talks about maieutic teaching.  Maieutic means midwife.  The teacher becomes the midwife, enabling us, the learners toward new discoveries of life’s mysteries, great and small.

The challenge in the educational process is you and I.  Information-- to knowledge-- to wisdom makes sense. 

However, as James of the Bible says, “Not many of you should become teachers.”

Charles Shultz portrays this dilemma in his Peanuts cartoon character Snoopy.  Snoopy says, “I love humanity.  It’s people I can’t stand.”

The interchange between Jesus and his disciples crystallizes the breakdown between information/knowledge and wisdom. Jesus asks his closest and dearest friends, “Who do you say I am?”

“The Messiah,” replies Peter 

Knowledge!  In his next statement, Peter rebukes Jesus, his destiny of suffering, rejection, death and resurrection.

A story is told of another encounter between Jesus and several of the finest, brightest theologians of the twentieth century: Karl Barth, Paul Tillich, and James W. Cone.  They meet in Caesarea Philippi, the location of today’s Gospel story. 

“Jesus asks, ‘Who do you say that I am?’

Karl Barth stands up and says: “You are the totaliter, he vestigious trinitatum who speaks to us in the modality of Christo-monism.”

Not prepared for Barth’s brevity, Paul Tillich stumbles out: “You are he who heals our ambiguities and overcomes the split of angst and existential estrangement: you are he who speaks of the theonomous viewpoint of the analogia entis, the analogy of our being and the ground of all possibilities.”

Finally, James W Cone, the renowned African-American liberation theologian gets up, and raises his voice: “You are my Oppressed One, my soul’s Shalom, the One who was, who is, and who shall be, who has never left us alone in the struggle, the event of liberation in the lives of the oppressed struggling for freedom, and whose blackness is both literal and symbolic.”

And Jesus, looking glassy-eyed, shakes his head and says to all three,

“Haven’t got it yet.”

Information to knowledge to the discovery of Wisdom….teaching, a challenging, risky process, and ultimately a wonderful gift.  May we offer gracious plenty thanks for  our teachers on this Sunday of Welcome! 

Amen.