Year B Proper 19 16 September 2012
Proverbs 1: 20-33 Psalm 19 James 3: 1-12 Mark 8: 27-38
I’ve been thinking about writing a book about how to teach children to sing. It would be called “HOW TO TEACH CHILDREN TO SING – what the kids have taught me!” It is amazing how you can never know some things until you come face to face with real live problems…. Sometimes these just leave you stumped, other times something awesome will happen and you’ll realize a simple solution.
Teaching and learning, and teachers learning from the learners, brings to mind an advertisement on television for a documentary about child protégés and geniuses. I know that there are stand out brilliances, but often it will be in one area and I worry that the labeling of the geniuses doesn’t really reflect the full spectrum of intelligence.
When studying teaching we touched on the idea of multiple intelligences, meaning that while one is intelligent in mathematics, another might be intelligent in social ways (and there are many other intelligence types). All intelligence types are important, but our society tends to highlight some more than others. The reason I mention this is because the theme running through our readings is wisdom.
Is wisdom something that we hear much of in our society? Many elements are grouped together that make up what we perceive to be intelligence. These include knowledge, skill and talent and when these are found in people they are recognized and appreciated, and often thought to be something for the select few. Our scripture readings indicate something different about wisdom.
Our readings begin with the book of Proverbs. A Proverb is a wise saying, and the book of Proverbs begins with the call of wisdom. In this, Wisdom is personified and declares her will to be known to all;
Proverbs 1:20-23 “Out in the open wisdom calls aloud, she raises her voice in the public square; on top of the wall she cries out, at the city gate she makes her speech: “How long will you who are simple love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge? Repent at my rebuke! Then I will pour out my thoughts to you, I will make known to you my teachings.”
My singing students are going to have a concert on the 2nd of December at Holy Trinity. They will be performing their country Gospel songs. I am encouraging the students to introduce the song themselves and talk a little about their song. My student yesterday had a practice and said, “The song is about how fools don’t follow God”. Her song is a perfect summary of this week’s readings. The chorus lyrics are; “’Cause when the man said, “this way to heaven, fools knew a better way to go. ‘Cause when the man said, “this way to heaven”, this mad crazy world said, “NO”!”
This tells us the key to wisdom. Although wisdom takes into account knowledge and intelligence, skill and talent, it is unique. You don’t need to have an incredible I.Q. to have wisdom, and you don’t need to know everything or have great skill or talent, but you do need to trust in God.
From Proverbs 1: 29-31 “since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the LORD. Since they would not accept my advice and spurned my rebuke, they will eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes.”
King David speaks with wisdom when he composes his Psalm. In Psalm 19 he tells us that creation declares the glory of God. The majesty of creation is a testimony and witness that God is God – and all that it means to be God. The more that we know about creation, the more incredibly intricate we realize it to be. Surely this “screams” that it was created by a being of more intelligence than we can imagine and is not a mere accident or coincidence of an astronomical event.
King David also speaks with wisdom when he admits that no one can discern their own error, thus admitting human frailty and humility before a perfect God. To turn to God means to admit that God is sovereign and that we are not in control, we can’t save ourselves, we are not perfect and we need a saviour.
Right, so we’ve arrived at this point where we acknowledge that we need God, we want to follow God and all is good …….. Laugh out loud! Being human, we continue to have “Peter” moments.
Our Gospel reading tells us about the discourse between Jesus and his disciples. They’ve heard people talking about who Jesus is. Eventually we find out who the disciples, especially Peter, think that Jesus is. “You are the Messiah”!
Messiah or Christ – the anointed one, is the answer that Peter gives on behalf of the disciples, but we discover that there is more to this. Before we continue, ask yourself who you think that Jesus is, because it is vitally important.
Recently on television’s “Can of worms” a celebrity guest was asked to choose a preference out of three impossible experiences. The celebrity declared choice number one, to go back in time to talk with Jesus. She prefaced the choice with the words, “If there was a Jesus, if he ever existed……”
She revealed an error that many people believe to be true, and that is that Jesus’ existence is a matter of faith. There are so many documents that refer to Jesus of Nazareth that we can pretty much know as a fact that Jesus was an historical figure. (and by the way – you don’t need to go back in time to talk to him).
Jesus was a man who existed in time. From ancient documents both non-Christian and Christian reports we can discern some facts about the person of Jesus….. he was reported to have performed miracles, did good works and was crucified, his followers claimed he rose from the dead. BUT, who is he really? Was he a prophet? Was he a good man but deluded? Was he a deceiver?
According to our scriptures Jesus was crucified because he claimed to be God.
Now this is where Peter got into strife. Peter and the disciples believe Jesus to be the Messiah – which is true, but they didn’t realize that he was the visible expression of God…. at least not until after. From the Gospel of John 8:58 Jesus declares, “I tell you the truth, before Abraham was, I am!”
Peter, after declaring that Jesus was the Messiah, took Jesus aside to tell him that he was wrong in saying that he would have to suffer. Peter failed to grasp the full identity of Jesus. No wonder that Jesus told his disciple not to tell anyone who he was. These disciples were both learners and followers of Jesus. This meant that they would pass on his teachings to others. It was important that they “got it right”.
Our reading from James has a warning for those of us who teach…. More specifically, for those of us who teach about Jesus. James 3:1-2 “Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.”
The reading echoes the sentiments of our Psalmist, none of us are perfect, and we need to be constantly aware of this and diligent in watching the words that we say. Something that is a pet hate with me is this; I go to a shop to buy something, after having done some research on the item, but still having more questions, only to have the assistant fake their way through inadequately answering questions. Because I’ve researched I can tell that they are faking it and know nothing. I would much prefer to have someone say, “I’m sorry, I don’t know the answer. Let me find someone else who can help you.”
Over the years there have been theological heresies that have come into being because we wanted an answer that fitted with our lifestyle. I will not name any, but I’m sure that you can think of some…. But think again and check that these are not just those that suit you.
When I’m teaching and stuck, I usually research on the net, but I’m now thinking I really need to communicate with other teachers to find out what they do with these cases. Likewise, we in the church need to be in conversation with other Christians. This is the reason for our “multiple intelligences”…. We need to lean on each other and empower the gifts in each other. These gifts are for all our good and to benefit all of society. None of us needs to know everything, but we do need the wisdom to acknowledge that we are not perfect, our knowledge is imperfect and that we need each other.
The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord, but who is the Lord? And yes, the proverb does say “fear” and I won’t soften this, because although God is love we need to have a healthy respect for His being and do not dare to speak for him unless we are sure of his will.
No comments:
Post a Comment