The lectionary gives us a choice
of
three Old Testament lessons for today.
But they are all about wisdom.
You just heard Isaiah: “the Lord has
given me the tongue
of
a teacher that I may help the weary with a word.”
Proverbs says,
“Wisdom cries out in
the street;
In
the squares she raises her voice.
At
the busiest corner she cries out . . .
‘How
long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? . . .
I
will pour out my thoughts to you.
I
will make my words known to you.”
The Wisdom of Solomon, says,
“.
. . wisdom is a reflection of eternal light,
a
spotless mirror of the working of God . . . .”
The Jewish folk idea of Wisdom, hachma, in the Hebrew,
at
first meant knowing how to do your craft well.
There was a wisdom of the farmer,
a wisdom of the
basket weaver,
a
wisdom of the camel trader.
We might say there is a wisdom of the
gambler,
that
is “to know when to hold ‘em,
know
when to fold ‘em,
know
when to walk away,
know
when to run.”
The writers of Scripture eventually
realized
what
Wisdom teacher Kenny Rogers makes so clear.
The ways of a craft can be expanded
into a way of life.
Just as a basket can be woven well or
badly,
a
life can be lived well or badly.
Just as you must know certain things
to
be a good farmer, camel trader, or gambler,
you
must know certain things in order
to
be a good human being.
A fully human life is lived in
community.
It happens in the context of
relationships.
When the relationships go well, life is
pretty good.
When the relationships go sour, not so
much.
So wisdom is first and foremost
about playing well
with others.
When Christianity encountered
Greco-Roman culture,
our
religious brand of wisdom came out of left field.
Greek and Roman philosophers had
written about
human
relationships, but it wasn’t a big part of their religion.
Their temples were not even places
where
people gathered for worship.
The temples just housed the gods.
Goats were slaughtered on outside
altars.
But there was nothing like our communal
worship.
Forget about coffee hour or an outreach
committee
or
adult and children’s education.
Then along came Christianity
where
the sacrifice to God led directly
into
a meal shared by the people.
We gathered not only for worship
but
for prayers, study, and fellowship.
This was not just burning a goat to get
a good crop.
It was about God happening in our
relationships.
It was more about power, domination,
and exploitation.
Parties were drunken bacchanals, not
celebrations of friendship.
So Paul, James, and other authors
wrote
most of the New Testament
as
a guide to relationships.
Christians find our way to God
through how we treat
each other.
An anthropologist might say our
relational religions
are
the flower of evolution.
Darwin said, groups of people who
cooperate,
who
trust each other,
who
treat each other with kindness and respect
are
more successful than groups
divided
by suspicion, self-seeking, and crankiness.
Good teams win. Bad teams lose.
So treating each other with courtesy,
patience,
and
respect is not only nice --
It
is wise.
Before congregations can attract new
members,
raise
money for its mission,
or
work together on any project,
they
first have to humanize and personalize
their
network of internal relationships.
From a marketing standpoint,
we
have to be the kind of community
someone
might want to join.
From a theological standpoint,
we
are the Body of Christ.
We need to look like Jesus.
Today’s Epistle lesson is right at the
heart
of
how to be Christian.
It isn’t so much about the opinions in
our heads
as
the words coming out of our mouths.
James writes:
“With
(the tongue) we bless the Lord and Father,
and
we curse those who are made in the likeness of God.
From
the same mouth come both blessing and cursing.
Brothers
and sisters, this ought not to be so.
Does
a spring pour forth from the same opening
both
fresh and brackish water?”
Just monitoring our speech is a giant
step
toward holiness of
life.
“Let
your words be for the improvement of others.
.
. . . Do good for your listeners.
Do
not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.”
This wisdom goes back to the Proverbs:
“Pleasant
words are like a honeycomb.
Sweetness
to the soul and health to the bones.”
So what are our habits of speech?
What kind of words pop out of our
mouths
when
we speak without thinking?
What kind of talk swirls about sucking
people in?
There are all sorts of spiritual
disciplines.
We can fast, pray, meditate, and go on
pilgrimages.
But the most powerful thing we can do
to change our own
hearts
and to bless the world around us
is with the spiritual
discipline of Christian speech.
