delivered on Sunday 20 September 2009
by Rev Dr John Evans
Proverbs 31:10-31
Psalm 1
James 3:13 – 4:3, 7-8a
Mark 9:30-37
I was a great fan of the television series West Wing – all about those who inhabited the West Wing of the White House - those at the centre of the world’s political power. Leo Megarry was the Presdent’s Chief of staff. In one episode he said there are two things in the world you don’t really want to know about: one is how they make sausages, and the other was how laws are made. And perhaps there is a third - how I have gone about preparing this sermon!
You see this sermon has some fine quality meat, a bit of dubious input and of course it is packaged looking like any other sermon. All of which of course makes it not unlike a half decent sausage.
This sermon will be messy because I am going to assert that what I initially say may not be right – or put more subtly, perhaps not always right, all the time. The problem is that our three readings, and indeed the one from Proverbs which although set for today, we did not read, demands a choice, a response –in a black or white sort of way. They assume there is a right and there is wrong – there is no middle ground, no shade of grey - no chance for doubting or grappling with the text. So for example from Psalm 1 – it is clear. The righteous will be happy and prosperous. The wicked will suffer. Simple enough! But as one of the more famous popular religious titles of last century suggested – bad things, however, do happen to good people. . . and we have to be able to grapple with that too.
When I last preached on these readings, I observed simple, black and white answers where not helpful. The simple answer in a complex world was not helpful. And I would want to say that again today. The answers we offer relate to how we understand the Bible and in particular understand the wisdom, the wise sayings, that is contained within scripture. As you know the bible is a wonderful storehouse of such sayings: sayings which can provide answers to so many situations today. So Psalm 1, sets the scene for what follows in the book of psalms. A classic psalm of advice – of clear answers.
“Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked or take the path that sinners tread or sit in the seat of scoffers; but their delight is in the law of the Lord.”
Live in accordance with God’s law – and you will be like a tree beside streams of water. Elsewhere in the psalms it says “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”.
Within the Old Testament this wisdom actually got written down – and was gathered together in the book of Proverbs – a great collection of answers for every life. These proverbs were attributed to Solomon – David’s son. You may recall the story of Solomon who had a choice as to what he could do as king – was it to have power, prestige, a mighty army? He chose however, wisdom; he sought to have an understanding mind so that he could choose between good and evil. In other words he wanted to be able to provide answers to his people.
Indeed there is much wisdom in the book. There are answers about how we are to bring up our children, how husband and wives are to relate to each other, our approach to work, to our diligence in religious duties and so on. The lectionary today actually sets Proverbs 31 as what a good wife should be like – and if you are wondering, she is to be wise, diligent and strong. There are however, other sources of wisdom. The law of Israel also provides answers – what one can do – and not do: what one can eat, what one can do in relationships and life generally. The New Testament book of James is regarded as a book of wisdom. It is about the answers we may use, or the choices we make in our life: Who is wise among you James asks? – certainly not the boastful, the envious and the ambitious. Such wisdom is not from above – it is worldly wisdom. True wisdom comes from above; it is
“Pure, peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy; peaceable without partiality or hypocrisy.”
However, to all of this there is then a loud but! A qualification. An introduction of grey.
There are problems, if proverbs, or isolated passages of the bible generally , are just quoted as the answer, the definitive answer, the black and white solution to a problem. The verse may not in fact be the whole answer to a particular situation and the particular questions we face today. Another way expressing of expressing this is to say that when it comes to giving answers to questions with quotes directly from the bible – even the bible itself has real qualifications on how it can be used in such a way. As I have already mentioned from Psalm 1 itself, it is clear that if one is righteous and religious, one will have a good life. The righteous are happy, the wicked will perish. Therefore, if tragedy befalls –you are not righteous or religious. Now that for the most part that can be true from one’s experience; certainly psalm 1 is an encouragement to live in a righteous way: but you know and I know “bad things can happen to good people” – to quote the Jewish Rabbi Harold Kushner. There is innocent suffering in the world.
As it turns out, the whole of the book of Job addresses that very question. The glib quoting by Job’s comforters of pat answers from scripture did not provide any answer whatsoever to Job. It just was not true – for Job there was a more profound understanding of God than some trite assertion his tragedy was all his fault. The very page before psalm, your bible provides a different aspect to the answer we might give. In chapter 42 of Job, Job, after all the disasters that befell him, comes to realise that the answer or is it meaning for him, is in his relationship with God, a God who is just too wondrous to contemplate. He then says “I had heard of you by hearing of the ear” – look I had heard those glib formula answers on my problems , however, after his deep struggle in the darkest moments of tragedy, I can now say “but now, my eyes see you”!
The Book of Ecclesiastes – or the Preacher – written around 300 BC is the same. The context of religious life at that time was then stale and legalistic. If you like: all answers to the big questions of life were pat and trite; black and white. As one commentator has said, in the fourth century BC the soul stirring encounters between sinful humanity and a holy God had been sentimentalised into a soap opera melodrama. Yes there was plenty of wisdom around: plenty of short sharp black and white answers; but really, did the questioner actually understand the fullness of life, and know the living God? And so Ecclesiastes speaks about all of life being vanity, and even wisdom is chasing after wind.
Here, even in other passages of scripture, it is vanity for us to assume we can easily and pithily give an answer to our questions: a yes or a no will necessarily suffice; and that all decisions are “either – or”. These passages, like from Job or Ecclesiastes, indicate that what is the helpful answer or course of action, is being in relationship with God – in a relationship with a God who loves us, who has suffered with us on the cross of Christ, and who calls us to follow. We should never satisfied with just simple; or is it simplistic, answers. Only the spirit of Christ will guide us in that quest. Ultimately it is not the knowledge of words we need for answers to questions; it is a personal relationship with the Word.
And so you have the picture. I can wheel in biblical scholarship, theological – indeed Christological reflection on what is primary is our relationship – and in the process provide a qualification, or attempt to puzzle through how we handle the baldness, the bluntness of a yes and a no, an “either – or” choice. And that is what we do today – because life is complex and often profoundly ambiguous. A nuanced, a sophisticated, answer is needed.
But then, and this is the “sausage part” of the sermon, I catch myself asking, is such a nuanced answer always helpful today? I know a qualified answer does not go over well as a sound bite. It sounds “too clever”. The media would much prefer the black and white. The consequence – our well reasoned answer or understanding doesn’t get heard? At the end of the day, I think, does our brand of Christianity actually miss something when we too readily jump to qualifications and greyness.
One commentary on the lectionary which I frequently refer to, and which by the way actually screamed, why was the passage about good wives from Proverbs actually included in the lectionary at all, provocatively asked:
“Could it be that ours is the time and place when sharp choices need to be made? Could the uneasiness we feel with such clear cut demands and the eagerness to explore the murky ambiguities in fact expose an unwillingness to heed the call of God? “
Mmm . . . just sit with that for a while.
I have just finished reading two novels, now both films. Both are about the Nazis and the holocaust: The Boy in Stripped Pyjamas and The Reader. Both deal with the innocence and the ease in which one can become complicit in and a willing participator with unspeakable wickedness and evil. How could that happen? Why? Because people, good people, did not say yes or no; they were not true to their convictions; there was not a line beyond which one did not go. Rationalisations and justifications – excuses; only focusing on the achievements, and not the underlying wickedness of Nazism – this lead people and ultimately a nation into horror, tragedy and evil.
Choice. Decision. Letting your yes be yes, and your no be no. I am tempted to say – is unfashionable. . . . but it does have its place.
The environment
Who benefits out of a global financial crisis
Jesus, when he was walking with his disciples encountered a very human – totally understandable – discussion about greatness within that community of his followers. They just got it wrong – if you are worrying about your own position, you are not being concerned for the least of God’s children. We perhaps think the disciples just did not understand the nature of Jesus’ talk about having to die on the cross. The other view could be they just chose not to follow, not to take up their own cross, not to lead a life of love and grace. You follow or your don’t.
So what do we make of this sausage like sermon.
There is place for murky ambiguity, for the “yes but” answer, for the qualification. . . and indeed that can be the courageous thing to say.
However, increasingly there is also a call for a decision – a yes or no reply. When would that be? Carry with you the image of Jesus, always placing before you the child, the weak, the least of all people – that may help you make your choice.
