Holy Wisdom, let us listen to your voice as you call out to us, and help us to walk in the way of insight. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Many of us don’t really know what we believe.
Some of us aren’t sure how we feel about God, or the Trinity, or the resurrection, or the virgin birth, or various other primary tenets of the Christian faith.
Guess what?
It’s OK.
You don’t have to have all the answers to be part of a community of faith.
In fact, you don’t even have to be confident about your own personal faith in order to be part of the Christian community. You – and your doubts – and your questions – are welcomed here.
All that’s required is for you to come along for the journey, and to share your questions – other people might learn something from the questions that you bring to the table.As part of a confirmation class, another pastor and I once had an entire session when we answered the questions of students and their parents. Any question at all was fair game, for either of us.
Some of the questions were predictable – what made you want to become a pastor?
Some of the questions were lighthearted – have you ever gone fishing?
And some of the questions made it hard for us to keep a straight face. When did you memorize the Bible?
Seriously. I appreciate that our confirmation students thought that we had the Bible memorized, but really, I don’t. I’ve read the whole thing, and studied it, even translated parts of it from the original language, but memorized? I don’t think so.
There are parts of the Bible that I don’t know well, or even at all, and that’s OK. I don’t have to know everything in order to be a pastor.
And you don’t have to know everything in order to be a worshipper.
Proverbs 9 includes an invitation to follow in the way of Wisdom.
You that are simple, turn in here!
Lay aside immaturity, and live, and walk in the way of insight.
Wisdom makes the invitation not to people who are already wise, or to people who have lots of knowledge or life experience.
Wisdom invites the simple people to come, be part of her community.
There are no prerequisite classes for walking into Wisdom’s house.
You don’t have to know certain things about God, understand anything about church history, or have verses of the Bible memorized.
During worship every week, we speak an affirmation of faith together, confessing things about God that Christians over time have determined to be true. But you don’t even have to be comfortable saying the creed or any other affirmation of faith in order to belong here.
Just take a step.
That’s all that matters.
Step out onto the path of Wisdom, and you’ll learn what you need to know as you go along.
If you worry that you’re not good enough or don’t know enough, you’ll never take that first step. So put your worries aside and simply follow. Listen to the voice of Wisdom calling out to you.
This doesn’t mean that we should follow blindly, of course.
We’re not asked to leave reason at the door.
It is Wisdom that’s calling after all – we are still supposed to use our brains as we travel through our journey of faith.
When we listen to Wisdom’s voice, learn things about ourselves and the world around us. Wisdom helps us make decisions in our daily lives, and also helps us see the big picture of human history, and where we fit into that picture.
There’s a new book by a Christian author named Brian McLaren, called We Make the Road by Walking.
That’s what the life of faith is like. There’s no pre-planned route for how things are supposed to go in your relationship with God and God’s people. With each step we take, we are drawing a piece of our own map, our own path of faith.
Brian McLaren writes in the preface to his book,
“You are not finished yet. You are ‘in the making.’” (page xi)
Each one of us is a work in progress.
By listening to the voice of Wisdom, and by following where she leads, we keep taking steps toward becoming the person that God created us to be.
Brian McLaren goes on to write, “faith was never intended to be a destination, a status, a holding tank, or a warehouse. Instead, it was to be a road, a path, a way out of old and destructive patterns into new and creative ones. As a road or way, it is always being extended into the future.” (page xii)
McLaren makes a great point when he reminds us that we have never arrived in our journey of faith.
In other words, if you are waiting until you know enough about Communion before you start to receive – if you are waiting until you know enough about Lutheranism before you join this congregation – if you are waiting until you know enough about the Bible to become a Sunday School teacher – you will be waiting for a very long time.
You will never know enough to satisfy your own prerequisites.
But what you already know, is enough for God to work with.
Wisdom calls you into her house no matter how much previous knowledge or faith or certitude you bring with you.
And, by the way, do you know who this Wisdom is?
Wisdom is God, calling out to you.
Earlier in the book of Proverbs, we are told that God created the world through Wisdom. Wisdom is one face, one aspect of the divine.
When you follow the voice of Wisdom into her house, you follow the guidance of God into Christian community. You don’t need to be whole and complete to walk through these doors.
But hopefully, as you continue to walk through these doors time and time again, and as you participate in worship and serve and learn, Wisdom will keep guiding you along the path and forming you into the person that she created you to be.
One retired seminary professor puts it this way:
The slogan “God loves us unconditionally” is only half right. God loves us with the expectation and hope that love will transform us into believing and righteous people.
(Ralph W. Klein, http://fontes.lstc.edu/~rklein/Documents/PentecostB.htm#Pent11)
According to today’s reading, you can replace “love” in that last sentence with “guidance” or “wisdom.” God guides us with the expectation and hope that Wisdom will transform us into believing and righteous people.
Because God loves us, God offers us the gift of Wisdom. Her voice calls us to be the best that we can be, and to do our best for the sake of other people and all of creation.
With each step you take in response to God’s Wisdom, you are making a decision – a decision to keep following and learning in faith, or a decision to stop and fall back into the ways of ignorance.
The next passage in the book of Proverbs, right after the one we heard today, is about the way of folly.
Folly cries out to passersby just like Wisdom does, and she also invites people into her home for a meal. But Folly’s meal is secret and stolen, and her path will lead to destruction. That’s what the next few verses go on to describe.
Unlike Folly, Wisdom is good for you. Even if you don’t have much in the way of knowledge or understanding, you can still follow the path of Wisdom.
God can still reach you, give you faith, use you for good works, and enrich your life even if you don’t understand how it works. All you have to do is listen to the voice of Wisdom calling, and ignore the voice of Folly.
Let me share a great example of what it’s like to step out in faith, even if you don’t know very much about where you’re going or why.
How many of you have seen Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade?
Towards the end of that film, Harrison Ford – Indiana Jones – is trying to reach the Holy Grail. He can see the door that he needs to go in, but all he can see in front of him is this deep crevice in the rock, that is way too wide to jump across. So, he steps out in faith. And he finds himself supported by a bridge that was invisible until he was standing on it.
That’s sort of like what Wisdom’s path is like. You don’t always know where it is, or even what is going to meet you along your journey, but as long as you try to follow where Wisdom leads, you’ll be supported.
You don’t have to have all the answers. Just listen to Wisdom’s voice.
You that are simple, turn in here!
Lay aside immaturity, and live, and walk in the way of insight.
Amen.
This sermon was first preached on the 12th Sunday after Pentecost/Proper 15B, August 16, 2015
Proverbs 9:1-6
Proverbs 9:1-6