The Book of Wisdom: Subversion Technique

St. Patrick Presbyterian

The Book of Wisdom: Subversion Technique

June 11, 2023 • Rev. James M. Holland • Proverbs 3:1–12

This summer we are in the book of Proverbs and calling it, The Book of Suburbs. That is, how do we subvert the wisdom of the place we find ourselves. I happen to like the suburbs—I have lived there most of my life. But the problem is, there are many assumptions about living in the suburbs that will deform our souls so that we will live as lesser creatures than God intended and never know the true thriving and abundant life Jesus talks about, if we do not ruthlessly question everything.

This week we are talking about how to get wisdom or training in wisdom. As my title suggests, wisdom is like a school we attend—it is a long, slow process. Everything about gaining wisdom for living life well is counter-intuitive to what we are immersed in daily. We can’t get wisdom or power through technique. We can’t push a button, we can’t take a pill, nor can we go to a weekend seminar. The dream of our age is power without effort, influence without engagement with real people, and everything we need to know stuffed neatly in our back pocket.

When we read the Bible, we see a different path to wisdom. Yes, wisdom is called a path. It is a long obedience that starts with the opposite of expressive individualism—humility. Like being on a path, it is gained through mundane habits and practices, a community of wise friends, failure and pain. We might say, true wisdom starts with death! Are we encouraged yet? Seriously, wisdom is what the Bible says we need desperately if we are to navigate the complexities of life, when 90% of our decisions have no chapter and verse to guide our decision making. And yet we neglect this, to our own peril. So join me Sunday as we enter into the school of wisdom.

On another topic, what a week at VBS—it was magical! Talk about a case study in wisdom acquired over time—to put on such an event to bless 150 kids in our town, with 50 youth volunteers and countless adults who graciously spent a week serving our children. Thank you to all who gave time and effort to be a blessing.

Blessings,

Jim

The Feast of Wisdom

July 30, 2023 • Rev. James M. Holland • Proverbs 9

Over and over in the Bible, the idea of a great banquet or feast is used as a metaphor of the blessing, joy, and abundance of salvation. However, as we close out Proverbs, there are two feasts set before us—a feast of wisdom and a feast of folly. Both the architecture and ethos of the feasts almost immerse us in the taste, texture, and outcome of the tables we inhabit. Solomon ends his primer on wisdom with an either/or proposition: two ways, two feasts, two outcomes. It is interesting that the invitation to both is the same to the simple and unlearned. This should not surprise us—we all start out as fools and are placed in the drama of life either by the wisdom or the foolishness of others. We are needy creatures, and everyone is inviting us to a way of life that offers satisfaction. But, as Solomon points out, the paths part; and we are asked to look beyond the surface of things into the deeper meaning of reality and what it means to be human. Join us Sunday as we wrap up, The Book of Suburbs, and seek to subvert fast food values for a feast of good things!

Wise Money

July 23, 2023 • Rev. James M. Holland • Proverbs 10:22

The church culture I grew up in was of the more legalistic branch. It is not that I am ungrateful —because of that experience, there has never been a day I didn’t know the gospel. However, it had its own set of proverbs and wisdom which could be summed up like this, “We don’t drink and we don’t chew and we don’t go with girls that do.” That is representative of how we tried to defeat sin in our lives. What we did was locate evil in a thing and abstain from it. We had long lists of them. As if lists and legalism can curb desire. The logic was simple—abused things like dancing, drinking, sex, money, and certain types of dress were put on a list of things that were sinful. You can see, we had no ascetic, no view of beauty or pleasure. Heck, if it was pleasurable, it must be sinful! But that was our view of holiness. Money was on the list. If you had too much, it must be ill-gotten gain. Which brings us to our subject matter for this Sunday—wealth and all things related to wealth. There are about 150 proverbs on money in book of Proverbs. About half the time money is spoken of in the negative, which means, the other half it is spoken of as a good thing. Money in the book of Proverbs is nuanced, and thus the need for wisdom. But yes, money in the book of Proverbs is called a blessing. In fact, when wisdom is personified in chapter 8 and is speaking of her blessings, wealth is one of them. However, money is also spoken of often as a bane, filled with temptations and the ability to blind you to larger issues in life, a corrupting influence that can ruin your life. There are reasons that money is singled out as fraught with pitfalls. So how do we live in this tension? How do we give thanks for wealth and yet not worship wealth? Good question, and one we will seek to answer this Sunday. I hope to see you there.

Wise Age

July 16, 2023 • Rev. Joshua Smith • Psalm 90

As I approach my fortieth birthday at the end of this summer, I’m haunted by Moses’ observation in Psalm 90, that a man is lucky to live to eighty. In the best scenario, that calculus puts me at midlife having officially missed my opportunity to get a tattoo without people assuming I’m suffering some sort of crisis. (Which I most certainly am, but I don’t want anyone to know, so please keep that between us.) It’s really not so much the tattoo. It’s that I ran out of time to outdo John Steinbeck’s writing The Grapes of Wrath before he was this age. I’ve been asking some friends and family at the more extreme ends of the journey a few questions as I reflect on what wisdom there is for folks contemplating their mortality. “What’s the best thing about being your age?” One teen said, “freedom and no bills” and I felt the envy rise in my increasingly lactose intolerant gut. From the more seasoned, I got answers like, “Seeing my kids become adults and getting to spoil grandkids. Finally having some perspective. Financial security. Not being afraid of what people think of me.” So, those are good things to look forward to. I also asked, “What’s the hardest thing about being your age?” My own eight-year-old said, “I’m too little to be on Wheel of Fortune.” Tragic injustice, indeed: another old soul imprisoned in the third grade. The elder participants shared things like, “Losing my physical endurance and metabolism. The urgency of the finish line. Watching my parents die. Fighting cynicism. Being treated like I’m irrelevant.” A much harder set of answers for meditation. So, this Sunday we’re going on a journey together, consulting Scripture and the wise counsel of others who’ve come before us on this path. We’ll consider the ways we might experience our own age gracefully, whatever the number happens to be.