Sermon: Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

The Reverend Robin Neville

This is the time of year when, for many of us, our thoughts begin to turn towards school, towards that familiar rhythm of teaching and learning. Perhaps you’ve noticed the shiny new book bags and notebooks and pens and crayons, all lined up obediently on the store shelves, as they have been for weeks. Perhaps you’ve detected the cool and slightly metallic taste of Fall weather, encroaching on the lazy humidity of the afternoon. The fireflies have all gone wherever the fireflies go when the summer is over. The school buses now make their slow crawl, like heavy yellow caterpillars, through the neighborhood.

There is something about teaching and learning in our Bible readings today. Today’s readings speak of wisdom and foolishness. They speak of insight, on the one hand, of recognition and illumination – yet on the other hand, they speak of darkness, of misunderstanding and ignorance.

Just listen to our reading from the Hebrew Bible, from the book of Proverbs. God’s Widsom – in Hebrew, hokma – is personified as an intelligent woman, and she’s ticked off. Divine Wisdom is not happy. She’s running through the streets, calling the people out: “How long,” she cries, “How long will you hate knowledge? How long will you love being ‘simple’?” Here, when Wisdom says “simple,” she really means “foolish.” In fact, she names three types of foolish people: those who are simple or foolish, those who scoff or who are scornful, and those who are just kind of silly. The words in Hebrew are very telling of what, exactly, makes Wisdom so angry.

When Wisdom says, “How long will you love being simple,” she uses the Hebrew word, peth-ee, which comes from a root meaning, “to be deceived easily” or “to be easily won over.” So Wisdom is angry because her people are not thinking critically - - they are easily won over by simple and uncomplicated and emotional discourse.

When Wisdom says, “How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing,” she uses the Hebrew word, lootz, which comes from a root meaning, “to make faces at” or “to make fun of.” So Wisdom is angry because her people are dismissing her, they are making fun of Wisdom through their disdain of her.

When Wisdom says, “How long will fools hate knowledge,” she uses the Hebrew word, keh-seel, from a root meaning, “to be soft.” So Wisdom is angry because her people have gone soft – they’ve gotten lazy, they no longer think for themselves. They let someone else do the thinking for them.

Wisdom is angry because her people have put away active learning and discovery. The people no longer want to learn about God or discover new and wonderful ways to know God. Wisdom’s people have become dull and foolish and distracted. They are like students in a classroom who have let their minds wander, but here the situation is so much more dire than that, because here the people have let their minds wander away from God. Wisdom knows that if the mind of the people wanders away from God, then ruin will be their reward. Wisdom will abandon the people to their own self-made disasters. The people will be lost and confused. They will feel as though they do not know goodness, as though they have been abandoned. Wisdom reminds us all in this reading to be careful students of God’s ways, to be attentive listeners to God’s teachings.

In our reading from James, we also hear of teachers and students. This time, the message isn’t about the foolishness of the people, but of the responsibility of teachers. Teachers especially must be wise and disciplined in what they say, for “the tongue is a fire” that can either burn down the hearts of students, as a wildfire tears through young saplings, or it can gently enkindle hope and delight in the process of learning.

But James isn’t just speaking to professional teachers here, or to Sunday School teachers – rather, he’s speaking to all of us. Each one of us functions as a teacher to someone. Maybe you’re not even aware of it, but someone, at home or at work or at play, someone in your life is learning from you. Are we teaching wisdom, are we speaking with wisdom, or are we speaking with foolishness, and thus setting in motion great destructive fires in the lives of those around us – sometimes only with a single word?

In our Gospel reading from Mark, we see Jesus functioning as a teacher. He asks his students, his disciples, a question – “Who do people say that I am?” And the students obediently answer, “Well, some people say you’re a prophet, some people say you’re even one of our special prophets, come back to save us – Elijah, maybe.” Then Jesus the teacher says, “Okay, now who do you say that I am?” And then the star pupil, Peter, raises his hand and says, “You are the Messiah!”

It seems to me that Jesus the teacher and God’s Wisdom have a lot in common. Both Jesus and divine hokma from our first reading have the same goal. They both want to open the eyes and the hearts of God’s people to encounter the living presence of God. They want God’s people to be attentive students, filled with the delight and the excitement of learning about God and knowing God. Jesus teaches through his own example; he leads by example, even pointing to his own suffering as an example of how far he will go to get us back to God. Divine Wisdom teaches through words – she teaches by speaking words of life, and she is frustrated when the people do not listen.

That’s the catch, isn’t it? It’s fine to have these amazing teachers, but if we don’t listen – if we choose to be foolish or dull or distracted – then we lose out. Because, ultimately, it is our loss if we don’t hear the voice of Wisdom. It’s our loss if we can’t learn from the example of Jesus.

I want you to take a moment and imagine with me. Just sit back, put away any distractions, and use your imagination – an important tool in learning. Imagine a church where we talk about our faith, not only in emotional terms, but also in rational terms. Imagine if people wanted to come to church with us, not just because they were impressed with our emotional attachment to church, but also because we had a deep and living knowledge of what it means to know God and love God. Imagine if we were so attentive to the voice of God and so well-versed in holy Scripture that we could easily and knowledgably give an account of our faith and our common life. Can you picture a church where the people are all close companions of divine Wisdom? Can you picture a church where the people follow the teachings and the example of Jesus, not just on Sundays, but in every moment of their lives – so much so that their lives become like lessons in goodness and charity for the people around them?

What would that look like? Holy Trinity, I want to tell you, I see what you’re doing as a community and I’m impressed. I love that you’re following Christ by reaching out to the poor, as you are indeed doing. I love that you’re reaching out into your community by being a safe place for children and young people, as you are indeed doing. I love that you are leading your community, by creating a photovoltaic panel to generate your own green energy, as you are indeed doing.

And today, I want to challenge you just a little bit. I want to challenge you to rethink the ways in which you hear and respond to the voice of divine Wisdom. I want to challenge you to think about new and exciting ways that you are teaching and reaching out with Wisdom and care to the people around you. I’m not asking you to take on one more class, or one more project, because I know that you are already doing so much here already. Instead, I’m encouraging you to listen. Listen to the voice of God. Listen to God’s Wisdom. Be open, be willing, to be taught by God. Be willing to be an attentive student of God.

May God give us all the grace to put aside our own ignorance, and to take great delight in discovering and learning about the God who loves us, the God who teaches us through the Word and the Sacraments – the God who teaches us through Wisdom and example.

Amen.