Lady Wisdom Calls

 1 Listen as wisdom calls out! Hear as understanding raises her voice! 2 She stands on the hilltop and at the crossroads. 3 At the entrance to the city, at the city gates, she cries aloud, 4 "I call to you, to all of you! I am raising my voice to all people. 5 How naive you are! Let me give you common sense. O foolish ones, let me give you understanding. 6 Listen to me! For I have excellent things to tell you.

Wisdom is an ever-present quality, of the larger -- unlimited -- universe that somehow seems to elude our intelligence.  From the beginning this quality has instructed Creator and creation.  

It was not found in The Garden’s tree of good and evil. 

It is not something gained by reading, nor study, of human thoughts and ideas.  

Rather, it is something given through the listening heart, and mind,  to the motion and movement of God’s third-self.  

A Wind -- Spirit -- that blows in and out of our thoughts to correct and instruct.

It is in the air we breathe that fills us with an understanding beyond all knowing.  A knowing that cannot be assessed by proof, nor measured by experimental result.  

Jesus lived and taught by this powerful quality of wisdom.  It was his one and only source of information.  It was what instructed his every word, his every action, his very nature.  

And when it was time to leave this earth it was his source of strength in the terrible leaving.  

The best news, for we human being, is that when Jesus left the earthly body he didn’t take that quality with him.  He left it for all to experience in a very personal way.  Within our skin!  

16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.(John 14:16-17)

1 Listen as wisdom calls out! Hear as understanding raises her voice! 2 She stands on the hilltop and at the crossroads. 3 At the entrance to the city, at the city gates, she cries aloud, 4 "I call to you, to all of you! I am raising my voice to all people. 5 How naive you are! Let me give you common sense. O foolish ones, let me give you understanding. 6 Listen to me! For I have excellent things to tell you. Everything I say is right, 7 for I speak the truth and hate every kind of deception. 8 My advice is wholesome and good. There is nothing crooked or twisted in it. 9 My words are plain to anyone with understanding, clear to those who want to learn." 10 "Choose my instruction rather than silver, and knowledge over pure gold. 11 For wisdom is far more valuable than rubies. Nothing you desire can be compared with it." 12 "I, Wisdom, live together with good judgment. I know where to discover knowledge and discernment. 13 All who fear the LORD will hate evil. That is why I hate pride, arrogance, corruption, and perverted speech. 14 Good advice and success belong to me. Insight and strength are mine. 15 Because of me, kings reign, and rulers make just laws. 16 Rulers lead with my help, and nobles make righteous judgments." 17 "I love all who love me. Those who search for me will surely find me. 18 Unending riches, honor, wealth, and justice are mine to distribute. 19 My gifts are better than the purest gold, my wages better than sterling silver! 20 I walk in righteousness, in paths of justice. 21 Those who love me inherit wealth, for I fill their treasuries." 22 "The LORD formed me from the beginning, before he created anything else. 23 I was appointed in ages past, at the very first, before the earth began. 24 I was born before the oceans were created, before the springs bubbled forth their waters. 25 Before the mountains and the hills were formed, I was born -- 26 before he had made the earth and fields and the first handfuls of soil." 27 "I was there when he established the heavens, when he drew the horizon on the oceans. 28 I was there when he set the clouds above, when he established the deep fountains of the earth. 29 I was there when he set the limits of the seas, so they would not spread beyond their boundaries. And when he marked off the earth's foundations, 30 I was the architect at his side. I was his constant delight, rejoicing always in his presence. 31 And how happy I was with what he created -- his wide world and all the human family!" 32 "And so, my children, listen to me, for happy are all who follow my ways. 33 Listen to my counsel and be wise. Don't ignore it." 34 "Happy are those who listen to me, watching for me daily at my gates, waiting for me outside my home! 35 For whoever finds me finds life and wins approval from the LORD. 36 But those who miss me have injured themselves. All who hate me love death." (Proverbs 8: 1-36 New Living Translation)

What Do People See/precieve about Christians?

 “An old man leaned on his cane and with tears in his eyes said, ‘I have seen too much pain in my life between people who call themselves people of faith.  Jacob taught me that people of all faiths are of one faith if their religion is kindness.’” (We Are All Jacob’s Children, p.174)

Jesus left his disciples with this powerful prayer (John 17) before his trial.  He offers them a vision — a vision of how ministry works.  

Live in unity with the Creator so other my see and believe.  A unity that needs just one crucial ingredients for changing the world view  

The only ingredient is 'belief' in Jesus — God came, in the flesh of Jesus',  to model a love that surpasses all divisive suggestions.

Stay together in this one truth: Jesus' way of living, speaking and acceptance  for all people regardless of their Biblical interpretation.

The theme of this great prayer is for something, seemingly, impossible — unity/cohesiveness -- a oneness of mind.

E. Belton Yoyner Jr.  writes:

“The importance of unity among believer is that such oneness leads the world to believe (v. 23).  The counterpoint of that truth is that the world sees partitions among the followers of Jesus….there is to be no second-class citizenship among the people of faith…...Ecumenism — the economy of God by which God organizes the whole world — becomes the single effort to express the unity to which Christians are called.  The ultimate unity of the church is not in human maneuvering but in the oneness of God (v. 21). We find our unity in our common acceptance of Christ. (Feasting son the Word, vol. 2 p.543 )

So, what exactly is Jesus asking for here?

The simple answer would be: Unity of belief.  

Recognizing that Jesus has been created by God.  That Jesus and God are one in being.

This one thing is — the main thing — connects all who call themselves followers of Jesus.

Jesus, who came to change human egocentric attitudes.

However that message, of oneness of mind, gets all messed up by all the other human rules — interpretations  — that have created many divisions among Jesus believers over the years.

Think about this: if the witness of all people, who claim to follow Jesus, adhered to the command to love; there would be much less infighting and confusion.

So what people would see would be a group of people who truly witnessed Jesus kind of being. 

They would witness a way of living that was all encompassing acceptance and harmony.  A welcoming people who actually wanted to know you for who you are.  Not some fake set of values created by society.

Imagine the world filled with the offering of a peaceful existence for all.

I know, I know, a totally unrealistic notion. Right?

How ever, it is what Jesus was/is asking of those who believed in him. 

20 ‘I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, ²¹that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²²The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, ²³I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. ²⁴Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

25 ‘Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. ²⁶I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.’ (Jn. 17)

Have We Forgotten?

This past Sunday we heard again a portion of, the Maundy Thursday Gospel, John 13 — The commandment to love on another.

31 When he had gone out, Jesus said, ‘Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. ³²If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. ³³Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, “Where I am going, you cannot come.” ³⁴I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. ³⁵By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’ (John 13)

It tellsl of the moments just after Judas had left the Upper Room.  The last moment for Jesus to be with his disciples.

He uses these moments to reveal the most important, of his teachings, that he wanted  them to know and remember.

The only thing that would be crucial in their ministry to the world around them: 

“Love”

That’s all. 

                        Just love. 

Forget about all the treasured orthodoxy of the past teachings and conditioning.

None of that really matters in the long run.

Gary D. Jones in his commentary writes:

“Jesus does not talk about the importance of the Bible or a careful constructed creed.  The New Testament would not even be written until two generations after Jesus’ death, and the Nicene Creed would be hammered out by combative theologians over the next 350 years.  The Bible and the Creed would become terribly important to human beings over the years, while the one thing most important to Jesus would get lost as Christians wrestle with power and orthodoxy…

“The commandment is not about what you believe; it is about how you live."(p.470)

…..not about a belief system, but a process……After all, Jesus did not say.  ‘They will know you are my disciple if you believe the right thing.” (p724)  ( Feasting on the Word, year C, volume. 2)

Somehow, through the years, Christians have gotten the message, to love, all confused with institutional religion.  We have forgotten to remember the one thing Jesus asked — to love.

So this morning I invite you to reflect on the simpleness of this last request Jesus makes.

“Love” --  simple yet profoundly complicated.

I am thinking that is why he addresses them, that last night, as “little children.”

³³Little children, I am with you only a little longer.

Little children understand the simpleness of Jesus’ request.