Praying to be blessed with Wisdom
Thirteenth Sunday after Pentectost
August 19, 2018
Readings: 1 Kings 2:10-12, 3:3-14, Psalm 111, Ephesians 5:15-20, & John 6:51-58
You have probably heard me speak of Austen Williams before. He was a retired clergyman who was on the staff of the church when I was a curate – that is when I was a newly ordained clergywoman. When Austen Williams entered the church or a room, the room fell silent and filled up with love and awe. Austen was a humble man, and he was a wise man. I remember sincerely hoping that someday I could be as wise as he. But wisdom, of course, does not come from wishful thinking. In Austen’s case he earned that wisdom through serving the church as a clergyman for 60 years, by serving in World War II, by being a prisoner of war, by serving the poor, the homeless and the helpless, and by being a man of deep faith and dedicated religious devotion. He did not so much become wise, he earned his wisdom through a life of service and faith. And his wisdom was a gift. If you had a problem to solve – there was no better person to talk it over with than with Austen.
One of the greatest challenges of life is certainly decision making – whether it’s as simple as choosing something off a menu or what to watch on Netflix, or to the momentous decisions – what should you do about a health care decision, or how to help your child make good decisions for him or herself, or with your job or education.
And we see this need for understanding playing out in our readings for this morning. Solomon is worried about how he can faithfully lead the Israelites as king, so when God asks Solomon what he wants, he says “Give your servant [Solomon] an understanding mind.” The author of Ephesians is worried about the Ephesians making good decisions in their walk in faith. He wants them to make good decisions so he says, “Be careful how you live, don’t be foolish.” “Do not get drunk.” (Words that are being quoted across the United States this morning as parents begin to drop off their first years at college). “Be filled with the spirit” he says, “sing hymns, and sing worship songs”. And turning to our Gospel, Jesus is worried about his disciples when he will no longer be physically with them and instructs them to stay close to him and remember him – and especially in the wine and the bread, his body and his blood.
Gaining wisdom is hard. Understanding is hard. Confucius once said, that there were three ways to gain wisdom. The first by reflection which is the noblest. The second by imitation, which is the easiest, and third, by experience which is the bitterest.
But why is wisdom, why is understanding, so hard to gain? Two books that shed light on this question, that I read years ago, are firstly, Blink by Malcolm Gladwell, and the other Bozo Sapiens, To Err is Human, by Ellen and Michael Kaplan. And what these books both say is that the human mind is so efficient and complex that it takes the surfeit of information around us and assesses it quickly and files it away. However, in the course of that process we can make errors of judgment and understanding. In some ways it might be seen as lazy, but in other ways it is the only way we can survive without being overwhelmed. It is the cost of mental efficiency.
I was reminded of these books a couple of weeks ago when I read the following story that had been run on Morning Edition on NPR back in July. It’s not quite the same, but demonstrates that we can jump to assumptions without really asking vital questions like, “did I understand what I saw correctly or did I jump to conclusions without having all the information?”
So, what happened was this: a video hit the internet and the news media outlets and spread like wild fire. It showed a boy at a St Louis Cardinals – Chicago Cubs game back in July, and the game was in the fourth inning. The first base coach tossed a foul ball to a little boy in the stands. The boy bobbled the ball. And what people saw next in the video clip was a man who sat just behind the boy, scoop up the baseball and give it to the woman next to him. Tweets and social media posts were instantly flying out into the universe all about the horrible man that sat behind the lovely sweet boy who lost out on a foul ball.
Apparently the Cubs front office sent some staffers to the boy immediately and handed him an autographed ball of his own. And right after the boy received the signed ball he held up for the world to see not one, but two baseballs. That second part of the story was not so widely shared.
So wait, two baseballs? What happened? Well apparently the man, who has not been identified by name, was in the prime location for catching foul balls that day. That man caught many foul balls and was handing them out like Life Savers to all and sundry including the boy in the story earlier in the game. That bobbled ball– that the man gave to the woman sitting next to him, was just one of many – and he gave the young woman the ball because she was his wife, and they were celebrating their wedding anniversary.
The story ended with this salient question[1]:
“How many of us today would rather be outraged than informed?”
Which is a great question of course, but for us, I think it helps illustrate what we already know, it is a reminder of much of what we see and hear is only part of the truth. So that is one of the many reasons that decision making is hard – we do not usually have all the information, and we do not know what the outcome of those decisions with be.
Well there are all sorts of ways that people make decisions. And I am sure there is no shortage of advice and books written on the subject. So I am not going to go down that route except to say two things: one a piece of advice, the second an incident that happened to me last week. So first the advice: one of my favorite pieces of advice is that if you can’t decide between two things – flip a coin. If you flip the coin – and you are happy with the outcome – then go with that. If you flip a coin, and all of a sudden your heart sinks and you are filled with dread, choose the other option. The point is the process of flipping a coin allows you to see what you really want to do – even when at the outset, before you flip the coin, the options seemed to have equal appeal.
So now the story, and, where I want to take us to this morning, to close: It took place in a hotel breakfast room near Raleigh, North Carolina. That’s where I was yesterday morning. My daughter and I were touring colleges in North Carolina. A wise woman named Ms. Ann was on breakfast duty in the Holiday Inn Express yesterday morning. And she asked whether I found everything I wanted. And I said yes, thank you, except for an ending for my sermon. And she shared with me that she had preached her first sermon, coincidentally on this very Ephesians reading we had this morning (Praise Jesus), just a few months ago on April 2nd. When I told her what I was struggling with, she said “you know what I tell people they need to do, they need to stop mess’n and ask for a bless’n”. So I of course said, “please, say more”. And she said that what this means is that we need to get our lives in order and walk in the way of Christ, and when we come to a hard place in life, we need to stop right where we are and pray for a blessing. Pray to God to give you that blessing. Give you that answer.
Which was sort of interesting, because I had just prayed moments before, “please God help me find the words about finding wisdom that make some sense and does not take me 45 minutes to preach.” And then seconds later, an angel appeared in the form of Ms. Ann right there in that breakfast room. I guess be careful what you pray for.
So, the point is, that although we will never know the whole truth about a decision we have to make, and although we will not know for sure if the outcome will be what we desired, we do know that we need to pray – that somehow God speaks to our hearts, or a Ms. Ann comes to us with just the right solution to our problem, or a book we are reading gives us just the right message at the right time. But pray we must, and we will be blessed. Stop mess’n and ask for a bless’n.
[1] NPR’s weekend edition, Scott Simon, author, July 22, 2018
0 Comments