The Wise Choice

[This was shared during worship with the people of Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio, this morning.]

Proverbs 9:1-6
There's a story* about a man who had developed a test to compare how smart the children in his small town were. Each day he would offer different children a choice between a nickel and a dime. He thought that a "simple" child would take the nickel because a nickel is bigger than a dime. A wise child, he thought, would know that a dime is worth more.

When the man gave his test, every kid in town chose the dime, except one, a little boy. The man saw this child as foolish. So each day, whenever he saw that boy, he would offer him the same choice, and each day the boy chose the nickel. Soon, everyone in town was in on the joke and, knowing about the foolish little boy, they would offer him the same deal. And sure enough, the boy always chose the nickel.

One day the boy’s older cousin visited him from out of town. A man walked up to the two boys and offered them both a choice between a dime and a nickel. The cousin took a dime and the younger boy took a nickel. After the man had walked away, snickering, the cousin asked, “Don’t you know that a dime is worth more than a nickel?” The young boy looked at his older cousin and said, “Sure, I know that a dime is worth more than a nickel. But if I’d take the dime just once, people would stop offering me the choice. Most of the kids in town have gotten a dollar or two in dimes. I’ve made over $200 in nickels!”

There are two paths that we can take in this life—two paths, in fact, through eternity: the wise or the foolish.

Do we know the difference? Some people think they know. But the Bible says that we may not. “Sometimes,” Proverbs 16:25 says, “there is a way that seems to be right, but in the end it is the way to death.”

The choice between a wise life and a foolish one is no nickel and dime game. It’s a matter of life and death.

It’s too bad that our first lesson ends where it does. That’s because by reading just a few verses further on, we see that Proverbs 9, from which the lesson comes, presents us with these two alternative ways of life. And sandwiched in between Proverbs’ portraits of the two contrasting choices which you and I make every single day, is one verse that underscores which choice makes sense for us for today and all our tomorrows through eternity.

Just a little background: Proverbs is a book attributed to King Solomon, Israel’s third king. On becoming king, the Bible tells us elsewhere, Solomon asked God for the wisdom he needed to govern. It’s long been believed that the book of Proverbs, a book of practical wisdom, was written by Solomon near the beginning of his reign in 970 BC. The usual pattern of this book is to present one wisdom saying after another, each succeeding one having little or no reference to the one before it.

But our lesson, Proverbs 9:1-6, does something different. It presents a kind of story. As is often true in the Old Testament, Wisdom is personified, made into a character. Usually, I should point out, Wisdom--in fact, I know of no exceptions--is portrayed as a woman. (Men, this should give us pause the next time we feel the impulse to get into an argument with a wife, sister, girlfriend, or mom; we could be wrong!)

Be that as it may, here too, Wisdom is portrayed as a woman. And we’re told that she has built her house on seven pillars. This may be significant in several ways. One is that for God’s Old Testament people, seven was the number of completion or perfection. Secondly, in the everyday ancient world, archeology has shown us, the homes of the wealthiest and most careful people were constructed on foundations of seven pillars. Wisdom then, as portrayed in our lesson, is a careful builder.

Our lesson goes on to say that Wisdom has prepared meat and bread and wine, the meal of wealthy people in ancient times, and she has set her table. But she hasn’t set it for the rich, powerful, or influential. That’s clear from what happens next.

Wisdom perches herself on a high place where people can see and hear her so that everyone can get the invitation to her table. To make doubly sure that everyone knows, she sends out servant girls with the same invitation: “Come, those who are simple, eat of my table, and lay aside your immaturity. Let me feed you on wisdom so that you can grow up and have the insight you need to live life.”

Now, just a few verses beyond our lesson, in Proverbs 9:13-18, you can read about another woman, with another invitation. She’s foolish, ignorant. She offers water she claims to be sweet because it’s stolen and bread she says is pleasant because it’s shared in secret. The guests who go to her table don’t realize that death is there. She offers quick and easy pleasures that don't last.

Wisdom is the way of following the God we know in Jesus Christ. Foolishness is following all those other voices that prompt us to look out for ourselves and get what we want when we can. There are lots of times when foolishness can seem like the wisest course.

The businessman who cuts corners, using inferior materials in order to make the lowest bid thinks he’s being wise.

The atheist who thinks that by denying the transformed lives seen in those who genuinely follow Jesus Christ, he’s asserting control over his own destiny and being wise.

The young person who ignores God’s will that sexual intimacy is reserved for marriage between a man and a woman thinks that he or she is beating the system and being wise.

The girl who copies from the test of the smart kid at the next desk thinks she’s being wise.

And it’s possible that many, even most, of the people who heed the invitation of foolishness instead of wisdom will get away with their choices. The businessman may become wealthy. The atheist may have a long life in which he achieves all his aspirations. The young person may avoid pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, or the obligations that go with bringing a child into the world. The girl who swipes the test answers may get her cheat-cheapened diploma.

But that doesn’t alter the fact that foolishness, for all its short-term gains, is the way of death. Foolishness pays no dividends beyond the grave.

The way of wisdom, of following Jesus Christ, isn’t easy. Let’s be clear about that. "When Christ calls a man," the martyred Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said, "he bids him come and die." The world sees that as foolishness. In 1 Corinthians in the New Testament, the first-century preacher Paul writes, “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” It’s hard to follow a Savior Who wants to crucify our old selves, with all their arrogance and self-service, so that our new selves can rise and live with God forever. Wisdom entails admitting our selfishness, admitting our need of a Savior, admitting our need of help.

But over the long haul, in a life of God-given peace and in life forever with God, wisdom has it all over foolishness. When we choose the wise path in life, the path of following Christ, we don’t have to have long memories. We don’t have to remember what lies we told to whom. We need to create no cover-ups for following the course of wisdom.

One great thing about the wisdom that comes from God is that we never get too old or hardened by sin to hear or heed it. I once met an elderly man who had done one rotten thing after another in his life. He had no use for God. Fortunately for him, he came into contact with a young man who was on fire for Jesus Christ. Little more than a year before that elderly man died, he made a public confession of his faith in a Lutheran congregation. He’d realized how foolish he had been. His life was changed forever.

Another great thing about God’s wisdom is that we’re never too young to need it or to benefit from it. A young man was brought to my former parish in Cincinnati by his wife. She thought it was time that they get with a church. He was a nice fellow, but he wasn’t that interested in Christ or the Church. But, as is often the case, something happened within the fellowship of the congregation. He became intrigued by Christ, interested in the ways in which he saw Christ affecting people’s lives. He got involved with a Bible study. He became a leader of the church. I was sad when I learned that he had gotten a job in another city. We both choked up the day he said goodbye. But today, that young man is both a successful businessperson and a deeply committed follower of Christ, involved with his new church. What if he had waited to get serious about Christ? He would have, at the least, gone through years without the wisdom, grace, and goodness of God guiding him and sustaining him through his life.

Remember earlier, when I said that in between the stories of Wisdom and Foolishness in Proverbs 9, there is a verse that underscores the wise choice for us to make for ourselves? It's Proverbs 9:10, which says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight."

Back when I was in seminary, an eighty-something year old man used to come and give guest lectures. He had been a professor of systematic theology and years before, while he served an interim pastorate in Springfield, Ohio, had baptized my father. T.A. Kantonen was an eminent theologian who, by the time I met him, had spent his life following Christ. But I was struck by how he often answered questions, "I think this is what God is teaching me..." "This is what I believe right now..." He realized that even for all his years, he was only beginning to understand God, only starting to be steeped in the wisdom of God. "The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom..."

And how about you and me? How can we begin to be steeped in the wise way of life God offers to us? There is only one way and that's to draw close to God in the flesh, Jesus Christ!

If we really want to live wisely, we need to draw close to Christ every day: through prayer, study of Scripture, fellowship with other believers, and service in Jesus' Name. We need to soak up God's Word and receive the body and blood of our Lord every time they're offered.

God has invited us to feast on His wisdom. Heed that call! Follow Christ today. Eat at His table and walk each day with Him.

That’s the wise choice for all eternity. Amen

*This story was told in a sermon by Pastor Leslie Judge of Our Savior Lutheran Church in Pagosa Springs, Colorado.

Considering This Coming Sunday's Bible Lessons

Most weeks, I try to present some background and thoughts on the upcoming Sunday's Bible lessons being used at Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio, where I serve as pastor. Since we use the lectionary, or lesson plan, associated with the Church Year, like many other churches throughout the world, I hope that these brief looks will help others get ready for Sunday worship, too.

The Bible Lessons: 11th. Sunday after Pentecost
Proverbs 9:1-6
Psalm 34:9-14
Ephesians 5:15-20
John 6:51-58

Prayer of the Day:
Ever-loving God, your Son gives himself as living bread for the life of the world. Fill us with such a knowledge of his presence that we may be strengthened and sustained by his risen life to serve you continually, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.

General Comments:
1. This day, the focus of the lessons is wisdom as opposed to foolishness. Wisdom is the way of following the God ultimately revealed to us in Jesus. Foolishness is self-will, self-aggrandizement, and self-congratulation. Wisdom is the way of life. Foolishness is the way of death. Wisdom relies on God for discernment; foolishness is self-reliant.

2. Three passages of Scripture that may help to understand the themes for this day:
¹²

There is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the way to death. (Proverbs 14:12)

Sometimes there is a way that seems to be right, but in the end it is the way to death. (Proverbs 16:25)

For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ¹⁹For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” ²⁰Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? ²¹For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. ²²For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, ²³but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, ²⁴but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength. (1 Corinthians 1:18-25)

A Few Comments on the Lessons
Proverbs 9:1-6:
Proverbs, we're told, is composed of wisdom given to Israel's third king, Solomon. (You'll remember that on becoming king, Solomon asked God not for wealth or power, but for wisdom. God was impressed. Solomon was known as the wisest person in the world. He also became the most powerful king in the world. Sadly, Solomon became confused about the source his wisdom and power and countenanced idol-worship and the abuse of his people. After his reign, Israel divided.)

Most of Proverbs is composed of short, seemingly unrelated proverbs or pithy statements of wisdom. Here, though, the verses are connected into a kind of wisdom narrative.

v.1: Wisdom is often personified as a woman. In Greek, the language of the New Testament, the word for wisdom, sophia, is also a woman's name.

I haven't checked it out, but the house built on seven pillars would seem to suggest completion or perfection. The rabbis and the Old Testament saw seven in this way because God's creation was complete by the seventh day. (Of course, the ancient rabbis also thought that humanity fell into sin on the seventh day, meaning that a new day, a first of a new week, was needed.

We see how seven was seen as the number of perfection when Jesus told the disciples that His followers were bound to forgive those who had harmed them not just seven times, but seven times seven (or, some ancient manuscripts have it, seventy times seventy times). The idea: There should be no end to our willingness to forgive; we're to forgive as we've been forgiven by God.

v.2: Wisdom has set a table for all who are willing to eat. The meal, of course, is God's wisdom.

v.3: Wisdom has seen to it that the invitations have gone out.

Calling out from "the highest places in town" would be a good way of ensuring that everyone gets a chance to hear the invitation. (Jesus, you'll recall, was "lifted up" onto the cross and He says that all who look to Him, like ancient Israel was once told to look upon a bronze serpent for the cure of poisonous bites, will be saved from sin and death forever.)

v.4: Here and in verses 5 and 6, we see that wisdom can erase simple-mindedness, being without sense, and immaturity, all of it to be replaced with "the way of insight."

Wisdom is calling all to be enlightened by the wisdom that comes from God.

v.5: Interesting that bread and wine are mentioned. It would be pushing too hard to see the Sacrament of Holy Communion foreshadowed here, I think. But certainly, bread and wine were staples of ancient diet, not so different from us, pointing to the fact that God makes Himself present in the plain, ordinary places of life.

v.6: Wisdom's invitation says that what she offers is more than mere information or head-knowledge. Knowing the ways of God is of the utmost practicality, affecting the way we "live" and how we "walk" through life.

Psalm 34:9-14
v.9: If we reverence God, nothing that need will be lacking. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."

v.10: Lions, the kings of jungle, can be in want, but not those who trust in the Lord.

v.11: Certainly, God is infinitely bigger and better than we are. We should have an understanding of what I've often called the basic facts of life: "God is God and we're not."

But I believe more than simple fear is referenced here. An incomplete equation for this passage might be: REVERENCE=FEAR. But it is incomplete, because if your knees don't knock a bit at the prospect of facing almighty God, you're none too wise!

vv.12-14: If you desire a pleasant life with God, then you should be all means, refrain from behaviors that disrupt the peace of families, churches, communities, and nations, following these proscriptions:

• No gossip or derision
• No false witness
• Renounce evil; embrace good
• Make peace with others your aim

Think how elevated the lives of our families, churches, communities, and nations would be if we accepted these four guidelines for wise and godly living! (In political debates, especially, we could disagree without being disagreeable, something I'd love to see more of on the cable news networks and from the media chattering heads of all political persuasions!)

Ephesians 5:15-20
v.15: As in the first two passages, we see wisdom not as head-knowledge, but as a way of life commended and commanded by God. "Be wise!" we're told.

v.16: The "days are evil," with people looking out for number one. Because that's the way the world lives, that's the path of least resistence for all of us. But the writer of Ephesians says that God has called us to live subversively, embracing God's wisdom, not that of the evil days in which we live.

v.17: This entails having a clear understanding of God's will for all humanity. This is not so obscure as we, often in a play for eluding God's authority over our lives, tend to make it. God calls us to believe in His Son, Jesus; to love God and our neighbor; to live in love with our Christian family, the Church; to tell others about Christ; to serve our neighbors in Christ's Name.

v.18: The writer moves onto a specific issue, drunkenness, which he memorably sets in opposition to life guided by God's Holy Spirit. It's Holy Spirit versus spirits here. Instead of being filled with alcohol, be filled with God.

It's worth mentioning that the selection of passages taken together here indicate that God certainly doesn't condemn drinking wine or alcohol, but condemns it to excess. Sin happens when we misuse God's gifts or use them more than they should be used. Of course, if a person is an alcoholic, they should totally refrain from the use of alcohol.

vv.19-20: The Ephesians (and we) are told to replace our drinking songs with hymns, spiritual songs, and praises to God sung from our hearts. In all circumstances, we're to thank God in the Name of Jesus for the blessings we've received.

John 6:51-58
We're now in the third of five straight weeks when the Gospel lessons are drawn from John 6. Here, Jesus feeds 5000 with a few fish and scraps of bread. The crowd He has fed hunt Jesus down because, as He tells them, they see in this miracle not a sign of Who He is or of the new, eternal life He can give to them, but as an end in itself. They want Jesus to be a king they can manipulate for their own ends. In this, they reflect the foolishness of this world, which the world takes to be wisdom. Jesus instead, calls them to see the sign in His miracle and to embrace the long-term wisdom of living for God, rather than short-term gains that, at their best, can only sustain us to our graves.

v.51: This verse came at the end of our Gospel for this past Sunday. Jesus is "the living bread...from heaven."

Partaking of this bread, which means not just receive Holy Communion, but also embracing Jesus as Lord and king over our lives, will bring life.

v.52: Jesus' fellow Jews are scandalized. Whether, at this point, they understand Jesus to be claiming deity for Himself or not, they do perceive that He is claiming, at least, to be the way of life sent down from heaven.

It's totally wrong for this or other passages in John or Acts to be used as justification for antisemitism, as it often has been in history. For one thing, the word translated from the original Greek of the text, is more aptly rendered as Judeans, more a geographic and national reference than a strictly religious one. Judea was what was left of the former southern kingdom that came about as a result of the split of Israel following Solomon's reign. (The northern kingdom was Israel or Samaria.)

For another, Jesus was a Jew or Judean. Those who claim to love Christ and disdain the humanity of Jews or try to blame "them" for the death of Christ on the cross, can't be taken seriously as Christians. The New Testament makes clear that it was the sin of the world, Jewish and non-Jewish, that put Christ on the cross.

vv.53-56: Those who receive Christ, abide in Christ and Christ abides in them. This, clearly, refers to the Sacrament of Holy Communion. We Lutherans take Jesus quite seriously when He says in institution of the Sacrament, "This is my body...This is my blood..." Quite literally, in mysterious ways we cannot understand, we take in the very body, blog, and person of Jesus, when we receive the Sacrament. His life, the one that embraced our death and that rose to give us eternity, lives in us.

God enters the person who receives the bread and the wine. What could be of more practical benefit in facing life's daily realities than that?

v.57: Father and Son pulse with eternal, perfect life. Partaking of them by faith gives us life. Failing to do so brings death.

v.58: Jesus, the living bread from heaven, is superior to the manna that God gave to His people in their wilderness wanderings.