Choosing How We Shall Live

Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23, NRSVue

1 A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold. 2 The rich and the poor have this in common:  the Lord is the maker of them all.

8 Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity, and the rod of anger will fail. 9 Those who are generous are blessed, for they share their bread with the poor.

22 Do not rob the poor because they are poor or crush the afflicted at the gate, 23 for the Lord pleads their cause and despoils of life those who despoil them.

INTRO

This week we continue our “uncommon wisdom” sermon series. The scripture lessons over the these weeks invite us to less popular and under-appreciated passages of scripture to inform the ways we look at the world around us. So often, individuals desire to live a good life. While the world has different expectations, these verses of uncommon wisdom will show us a different path to a good life. Last week we named that the goal of wisdom literature is to look at the world differently, it does not view God through articulate doctrines and, moralistic codes, nor does it offer the dos and don’t of spiritual growth but rather it gives us a lens through which to view God in embodied, relational and humanistic way.

We are a people who are fond of offering little bits of wisdom. Such as “Honesty is the best policy,” “A penny saved is a penny earned,” “Do onto others as you would have then do unto you.” These sayings become mini lessons along the way on how to go about doing life well. Perhaps, that is how we should view our text today, mini-lessons or sayings, that speak to us about the “best approach” on how to live a life of honesty and integrity. Yet, like all mini-lessons, the easy to memorize phrases have much broader implications when put into practice. In order to understand the uncommon wisdom offered in our text for this morning we must take a deeper look at what exactly is wisdom.

The Oxford Dictionary defines wisdom as "the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment.” Yet, according to bible dictionaries wisdom is “the practical skill of coping with life and the pursuit of a lifestyle of proper ethical conduct.” or put another way “Wisdom is having the ability to make right use of knowledge, being learned, discreet, skillful, preceptive and judging rightly.” Another, bible dictionary notes that the root of wisdom’s linguistic make-up means insight, counsel, prudence and discernment.

With this understanding of wisdom in mind, we turn back to mini-lessons. Growing up one of the mini-lessons I often heard was that homework had to be done before I could play. It is certainly of good judgement to complete one’s homework before bedtime and this practice often leads to success academically and hopefully a high paying job. Yet, it doesn’t necessarily lead to a good life. It means that wisdom can be used for one’s own self gain. One commentary notes “the fact that skill in wisdom may be used for evil ends should sound a caution. One must continually beware of wisdom’s abuse, for “wisdom as a means of achieving goals has rarely been able to evaluate the goal itself.” To have knowledge or even experience is not enough to live fully into who God calls us to be.

Today’s wisdom literature offers wisdom on the matters of relationships, generosity, justice. So often in life, we ground our relationships in ourselves. We seek out experience and knowledge and good judgement. And when we do this, we begin to promote ourselves. We push ourselves forward. We do what is best for us as individuals. Yet Biblical wisdom is not concerned with the individual and the betterment of the individual. Rather, Biblical wisdom is rooted in a wise community that grounds itself in justice and peace. It is about discernment and coming together. It is about putting oneself on the back burner for the sake of others.

But it isn’t just in our every day life. It isn’t just about discerning what is good for others on a surface level. Our text this morning begins with the proclamation: “A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold.” At first, this may seem like something trivial. It’s just a name, right? Yet in the Hebrew Bible a name had significant meaning. A name represents the legacy one would leave for his or herself. In other words, how someone remembers you after your death is more important than riches or favor. As the next verse reminds us, whether we are rich or poor, we all belong to God. To take it a step further, not only do we all belong to God, but no matter our wealth or status, we all meet the same fate: we will all die. The goal of the text, then, is to remind us that our focus should be on more permanent things. Our focus should be on the community.

In Africa, they have a concept called Ubuntu (Un-bun-to). Roughly translated, it means “I am because you are.” It means that our existence is tied to the existence of others. We cannot live without each other. This is what our biblical wisdom is getting at this morning. We are called to exist with and for others. We are called to re-examine the ways that we look at the world. We are to shift from looking out for ourselves, and to truly embrace God’s wisdom, which care for others.

Sometimes in our culture, we can get caught up with how to execute on this. In our consumer mindset, it can be easy to chalk up caring for the poor to cutting checks for certain causes. Or maybe we ask ourselves questions about the stocks we buy or the kinds of clothes we wear. Were my clothes made with ethical trade and labor practices? We can get bogged down into the nitty gritty. If we were to live pure lives this way, it would be quite complicated. We don’t have the resources to look at everything we buy, everything we eat, everything we do and know whether or not we are hurting somebody somewhere. In fact, there is really no such things as ethical consumerism. But, that should not stop us from examining ourselves and looking for ways in which we can make a difference.

You see the uncommon wisdom in our text this morning, helps us understand more of who God is. In the call to not rob the poor, we are told that, “the Lord pleads their cause and despoils of life those who despoil them.” If God cares so deeply for the poor, we must examine what it means for us to move in-sync with God. What does it mean for us to live and work in such a way that our desires are God’s desires? What does it mean, as one theologian puts it, “to have our hearts beat in sync with the heart of God”?

It means that we move beyond the polarization in our society. It means we put our things to the side. It means that we look at how we vote. It means we look at our church budget. It means that we we examine who we are putting in leadership. It means we put our personal desires and power to the side to truly put others before ourselves.

Every time we come to the table we ask for this. Did you know that? It’s in the prayer after receiving. We pray, “Eternal God, we give you thanks for this holy mystery in which you have given yourself to us. Grant that we may go into the world in the strength of your Spirit, to give ourselves for others, in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” Now there are two things I want you to notice about the prayer. First, this is a risky ask. When we ask God to allow us to give ourselves for others, we are turning our backs on the ways of the world. We are truly saying power and money and status don’t matter.We are turning away from favoritism is all of its forms. Heck, we are even offering our whole church up to the living God. We are saying this building doesn’t matter God, send us out to give everything we have for others.

But the other thing I want you to notice is that we don’t do this on our own. We don’t pray send us out, Lord. We pray, send us out in the strength of the Holy Spirit. Y’all we can’t do this without the Holy Spirit. But we can’t just casually ask for this. We must truly open ourselves up to the life changing work of the Holy Spirit that we might find God’s power and strength to give ourselves for others. It’s how we assure that we aren’t using wisdom for evil. When wisdom is truly found from the Holy Spirit and discerned in community, we are sent forth to love and serve others for God’s purposes.

You see living a good life isn’t about me. It’s not about the house and the car. It’s not about having the perfect family for all to see. Living the good life is about being so in love with God that you fall in love with all of God’s children. It’s about stepping out in faith trusting that God’s Spirit will guide you to true wisdom, to ubuntu, to truly caring for others. Like we find in the book of Joshua, “Choose this day whom you will serve…” we are called to make that decision today. How are we going to live? How are we going to live our lives as individuals and how are we going to live together as SLUMC?

Are we going to sit around and do what we have always done? Or are we going to step out in faith and take holy risks? Are we willing to move forth in mission and ministry? Are we going to look at our budgets and our missions? Are we going to step out and try new things? Are we going to care for all who God places in our paths? This matters. Today. How are we going to live?

Because the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not a gospel of self-preservation. The gospel of Jesus Christ is not about taking careful calculated risks. The gospel of Jesus Christ is about leaving behind your lives and livelihoods and putting it all on the line to follow a carpenter’s son. It’s about trusting that God’s dreams are bigger than we could ever imagine. It’s about truly believing that God’s ways are better than ours. It’s about allowing our hearts to beat in-sync with God’s so that God’s plans come to fruition through us. That’s the good life. It’s better than any life we could imagine on our own?

So today. Right now. I ask you. Who are we going to serve? How shall we live? Let’s live for God. Let’s take holy risks. Let’s trust God’s plans and God’s ways as we follow the calling of God who welcomes us into a life-giving, life sustaining network of relationships as we pursue wisdom not out of self preservation but as the means by which we join God in caring for ALL of God’s people. I firmly believe that if we trust God, if we give our all to God, God WILL change our lives too.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.