September 22, 2024 ~ 18th Sunday after Pentecost
Rev. Beckie Sweet
Tim Chesterton, retired Anglican priest says,
I don’t remember thinking very much about ‘wisdom’ when I was a young Christian, back in my teens. I was interested in ‘joy’ and ‘love’ and ‘power’ and ‘peace’, but I don’t remember wisdom figuring on my radar screen very much at all. I do remember very clearly, however, the first time I really paid attention as wisdom was demonstrated in a church context.
I was working in the three-point parish of Arborfield, Red Earth, and Shoal Lake, Saskatchewan; Ken Burningham was the rector and I was his assistant. It was time for the Annual General Meeting of the church in Arborfield, and for reasons that would take too long to explain, Ken was at the meeting, but I was chairing it. There was an elderly lady in the congregation, Mrs. Lindsay, who had been the envelope secretary for years, but we all felt that the job was getting to be too much for her. I should add that she herself was not at the meeting. So the question was, what should we do?
Some people felt that we should appoint someone else to the position even though Mrs. Lindsay was not present to discuss it. Others were afraid she’d feel like we were casting her aside. There was a long discussion, which didn’t really seem to be going anywhere, and eventually I looked across at Ken, who had been very quiet, and asked him, “What do you think we should do?” He replied, “I think we should appoint an assistant to help her out”.
Immediately it was as if the fog cleared. There was a man present who was quite willing to become Mrs. Lindsay’s assistant, and so we voted unanimously to establish the position and appoint him to it. And the long-term outcome was good; as we had suspected, she was beginning to find the job too much, and within a few months she asked if she could step down and hand over her responsibilities to the assistant. No one’s feelings were hurt, and yet the work got done to everyone’s satisfaction.
That, Tim concludes, I think, was the first time I consciously thought to myself, “Now that was wisdom in action!” Ever since then I’ve tried to take note when I’ve seen demonstrations of practical wisdom, and I’ve also noticed how very highly wisdom is valued in the Bible.
James is not the first person in the Bible to think and write about wisdom. The Old Testament has a whole genre of books that scholars call ‘wisdom literature’; it includes books like Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, that gather together wise sayings to guide people in the art of practical godly living. In this wisdom literature there’s general agreement about where wisdom starts: Proverbs 1:7 says ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom’ – in other words, we need to remember that the relationship between us and God is not an equal one. God is infinitely good and holy and powerful, but we are not; we are God’s creation, and our understanding and wisdom are limited. True wisdom comes from God, and we need to go to God in humility to learn the best path through life.
Wisdom in the Old Testament isn’t an abstract intellectual concept; it’s not something we learn in endless coffee shop conversations about ‘the meaning of life’. It’s intensely practical; it’s about discovering the kind of life God designed us human beings for, and we need to learn to live it out in the midst of our ordinary daily occupations. Not surprisingly, Jesus agrees with this approach. At the end of the Sermon on the Mount he gives us the well-known parable of the wise and foolish builders. He tells us that the wise man, who built his house on the rock, represents the one ‘who hears these words of mine and acts on them’ (Matthew 7:24), but the foolish man, who built his house on the sand, represents the one ‘who hears these words of mine and does not act on them’ (v.26). Wisdom, then, is to hear the words of Jesus and put them into practice in our daily lives.
This letter from James addresses teachings to Christians. To this audience, James still feels that he needs to identify and distinguish between “worldly wisdom” and “godly wisdom” or “wisdom that comes from above.” Worldly Wisdom is the wisdom that knows how to look out for one’s self and ignores everyone else. The essential characteristics of this so-called wisdom are selfishness and self-centeredness, someone who is entirely absorbed in their own interests and cares.
Having humble wisdom which comes from above, is to develop a genuine concern for the well-being of others, developing peace. James uses these verses to bind together claims to be wise with the stipulation that wisdom reveals itself in action, just as faith does. James binds true wisdom to peaceable behavior and willingness to yield. Worldly Wisdom necessitates a winner and a loser, as opposed to godly wisdom which maintains faithful determination to build up harmony with gentleness, and mercy.
True wisdom starts with a recognition that God is God and I am not. My knowledge is limited, but God knows everything. I’ve seen only a tiny corner of God’s universe, but God has seen all of it. I’ve only seen sixty-four years, but the whole of time and eternity is spread out before God. And as C.S. Lewis once pointed out, when I argue with God, I’m arguing with the very person who gives me the ability to argue in the first place! Rather strange, don’t you think?
‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom’. A proper awe and respect and reverence for God will lead to a desire to learn God’s ways and put them into practice in our daily lives. And this will mean recognizing that I’m not the lead character in God’s play; there are seven billion others on the planet as well, and every one of them is important to God. So rather than being concerned that everyone notices what an admirable person I am, I need to be shining the spotlight on others, so that everyone gets their share of the light.
Let me close by reading you the last two verses of chapter 3 from the ‘New Living Translation’:
But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace-loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere. And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness.