The Book of Suburbs
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.
Subverting Self-Creation
July 9, 2023 • Rev. Will Weir • Proverbs 24:18, Proverbs 29:25
There's a https://stpatrickpres.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ba3413bb6fa020132a4bc21a5&id=d0adc05cba&e=b77c6e6023 in my office that, to be honest, is there because we didn't really have anywhere in the house to put it. It's a bit peculiar. It's obviously hand-drawn and ancient, with vivid color and great detail. It looks kind of like a Lord of the Rings map. The labels all use our same alphabet, but the accent marks and strange words show that it's clearly in a different language. When people visit my office, the more curious of them look at the map expecting to be able to figure it out. It usually starts with them saying, "Oooh, cool map. Don't tell me where it is." "OK," I say. "Let me know if you need a hint." Then their eyes scan it, seeing somewhat familiar features but still unable to lock it in. Almost without exception people need the hint, and after I tell them, everything clicks. "North is down," I say. Cue the sigh of dawning realization and the recognition of Italy's upside-down boot and the Iberian peninsula sticking up like a flag in the Atlantic. It's called the Veltkarte Des Idrisi (the "Worldmap of Idrisi") and, as Idrisi was a Muslim scholar in the 1100’s, is centered on the Middle East but with an upside-down orientation. The fear of the Lord is the "North is down" of the Proverbs. Everything in it and in its understanding of life is centered on the fear of the Lord. We will see that, contrary to FDR's inaugural address, the real fear isn't fear itself but fear divorced from its proper target—the Lord, of whom proper fear becomes trust. North is down.
Wise Pursuits
July 2, 2023 • Rev. Greg Aydt • Proverbs 23:15–25
A new office meant blank walls in need of decoration. And that terrifies me. Not the blankness of the wall, but the infinite number of decorations from which to choose. Paralyzed by the options, I went with a quote wall that I could change as often as I’d like. My life after all, feels like a collection of quotes. Most of our dialogue around the house is a mixture of quotes from The Office, Parks and Rec, and Arrested Development. I considered filling my walls with some of the best: “His capa was detated from his body.” “Treat yo self!” “There’s always money in the banana stand.” But they were so deeply in my soul already that I didn’t need them on my walls. So I went with some meaningful quotes from some of the greats instead. Hanging behind my desk is a fitting quote for this season from John Calvin: "The whole world is a theatre for the display of the divine goodness, wisdom, justice and power, but the church is the orchestra, as it were, the most conspicuous part of it." If you’ve ever enjoyed a quality musical performance, you’ve enjoyed the pit orchestra, even when you didn’t notice it. Backing every song and underscoring every important scene, the orchestra is the piece that ties everything together and elevates the performance to the sublime. So what is Calvin getting at by calling the church the orchestra in the theater displaying God’s wisdom? Certainly God’s wisdom is evident in all of creation over (see Proverbs 8:22-31; or see https://stpatrickpres.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ba3413bb6fa020132a4bc21a5&id=e66bd95539&e=b77c6e6023). But God has blessed His covenant community, the church, with an extra special role in displaying that wisdom to the world. Are we known for our wisdom? I think Christianity is often known for its rules. But where rules end, wisdom continues. And it is this divine wisdom that we have to offer the world. Are we displaying it? By God’s grace and design, we are perfectly suited to display it. In our current series, “The Book of Suburbs,” Jim and Josh have described the wisdom of the Proverbs as a conversation between the Word, us, and our situations. Wisdom is found in the midst of that conversation. But no orchestra is made up of one instrument (unless you’re https://stpatrickpres.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ba3413bb6fa020132a4bc21a5&id=783d649b65&e=b77c6e6023). It is in the conversation of instruments with the script of the play and the scene on stage that the real beauty of the theater resides. This is how it is with the church. It is in the community of St Patrick, each with our own experience and gifts of wisdom, relating to the situations around us, and carrying the truth of Proverbs, that we can conspicuously display the beauty of God’s wisdom to the world. Worship with us this Sunday as we open Proverbs together again to figure out how our church can join together in sounding the beautiful song of God’s wisdom to the suburbs.
Wise Neighbors
June 25, 2023 • Rev. Joshua Smith • 2 Kings 4:1–7
The house next to mine stands empty. The family who dwelt there for the past four or so years – with whom we shared meals and celebrations, tools and toys – will be replaced by another very soon. For us, neighbors are not easily interchangeable units, but a special relationship. Yet before we allow ourselves to hope or fear who may next reside at our east, we take stock: Were we good neighbors? Did we represent Christ well to them? Treat them with dignity and honor beyond what simple good manners and the HOA covenant might demand? I hope so. At least I believe their assessment of us would be generous, were we to hand them an exit survey. Still, I wish I’d loved them better. Scripture’s command to love our neighbors does, of course, mean more than just the people you share fences and streets with – but it certainly doesn’t mean less than that! The way we treat the people whose properties touch our own is actually a pretty reliable indicator of the way we treat all other people. Not that we have to become friends, but that we’re intentional stewards of this great gift we have. I say gift, because to be a neighbor is to have almost endless opportunities to be dependable, useful, and kind to strangers over a sustained period of time, in such a way that a more intimate relationship is possible or even likely. Behavior like that will give you a reputation, for better or worse. Some neighbors know you’re the “friendly type” and avoid you at all costs. Sometimes a neighbor will even despise your kindness to someone they wish would just move away! This week, I’ve spent every waking moment with 40 of our middle schoolers and leaders, surrounded by another few hundred similar such youth groups, on Lookout Mountain, TN. This new environment and its different rhythms have made me hyper aware of the way I interface with people I don’t have an intimate relationship with. I typically only interact with people I have a somewhat intimate relationship with – family, friends (even most of my neighbors end up in that category before too long). A few of those folks are here, but mostly I’m surrounded by strangers. For this brief week, I’ve had a far greater number of opportunities to love my neighbor than usual, and I’ve been learning that it doesn’t come very easily to me. I tend only to invest where I see the potential for lasting fruit. Wise in my own eyes, I’m afraid. Still, I trust that Jesus is teaching me in my weakness and that his grace is everything. I hope you’ll join us this weekend as we talk about wise neighboring and how hard that can be in a world where it’s easier to drive into the garage and pull down the blinds. - js
Wise Friendships
June 18, 2023 • Rev. Joshua Smith • 1 Kings 12:1–8
Earlier today our new youth pastor Greg quipped, “12 years ago I went from being a dog trainer to a youth pastor and honestly… not much changed.” That was just the reminder I needed as I’ve been preparing to join over forty of our middle schoolers and leaders in Chattanooga next week for a conference called The Edge. Before we head out, you’ll hear me talk on Sunday about a dear friend I made while learning the ropes of youth ministry 20 years ago, and the profound impact he made on my spiritual journey. Shepherding teens may be a frenetic firestorm, but there was something about that foxhole that forged a fast and formative friendship between otherwise night-and-day personalities. That has me thinking about how things have changed since I was making friends in my teens and early twenties. We did have the internet, but it was still an amendment to our analog lives, not the all-encompassing platform it has become. Phones didn’t do much of anything but call, or sometimes text very slowly at a rate per character. Facebook arrived my senior year of college and was incredibly limited. If you wanted to make a friend, you still had to be somewhere, doing something. Now, most kids spend an average of eight hours on screens per day. They regularly disclose their hearts to people they’ve never seen in person and may not even be who they present themselves to be. Pundits sometimes refer to the newer generations as the most “connected” in history, yet the psychological data shows quite the opposite. This is why it comes as no surprise to me that the featured seminars for our teens this week are on navigating social media and making good friends. But that’s not at all to say that loneliness and isolation are just an issue for the young. The problem is as prominent among the older generations who pride themselves on self-sufficiency as they are among these very online young people. I regularly have pastoral conversations with middle aged and more seasoned folks whose woes can basically be boiled down to a lack of quality community. We all struggle with what it means to walk in the wisdom of a God who imagined rich companionship at the core of what it means to be human in His image. So, let’s talk about that this Sunday. - js
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 Value of Wisdom
June 4, 2023 • Rev. James M. Holland • Proverbs 1:1–7
This summer we are considering the book of Proverbs. Why are we doing that, you might ask. Fair question. The title of our sermon series is called, The Book of Suburbs, as in: Because this is the place we find ourselves, how do we pull back the veil and really see what it is about our place that de-forms us. Proverbs is the true book of how to live and thrive in the suburbs by actually subverting the status quo and telling a better story of human thriving. Strangely, in order to live well and love God, love people, and love life in our context (or any context, for that matter), we need more than Bible knowledge because the truth is that 90% of the decisions we make on a daily basis are not covered with a chapter and verse in the Bible. Think about it—the things that have vexed my soul throughout my life are questions for which there is no clear direction from the Bible. Things like: What is the best ministry context to use my gifts so that there is mutual thriving between pastor and people? What do I do when I have a wayward child in the far country? What school is best for my children? Should I say something to someone or let it pass? On and on, it goes. What are we to do then? The answer from the Bible is to get wisdom. In fact, when Solomon is about to be crowned king and God asks him what he wants, he asks for wisdom. Keep in mind, Solomon is instructed and immersed in the Scripture; he has a man after God’s own heart for a father; he has knowledge and principles galore. Yet when he looks at the task in front of him, he says: I am a like a child; the immensity and complexity of life is so overwhelming, I feel foolish. And so, what he asks for is wisdom. Wonder why? Well on Sunday, we start an important pilgrimage through the book of Proverbs. I am so excited about this and also other things going on. We introduce Greg Aydt, our new Youth Pastor, and I can’t wait for you to meet him. Plan to come early. as we have a brunch at 9:30 so you can meet him in person and introduce yourself. Also, what is more glorious than baptizing an infant—yes, that is all happening this Sunday. And last, but certainly not least, after worship we are having a Congregational Meeting where we will present and vote on our Operating Budget for our new fiscal year that starts July 1. In between all of this, you might want to just wander through our facility, as it has been transformed into something magical for VBS. Hope to see you Sunday!