Pastor’s Notes for 4th Sunday After Epiphany, A Date: 2/2/14
Theme: The Beatitudes
Bible Ref’s: Micah 6:1-8; Psalm 15; 1Corinthians 1:18-31; and Matthew 5:1-12.
Prayer of the Day
Holy God, you confound the world’s wisdom in giving your kingdom to the lowly and the pure in heart. Give us such a hunger and thirst for justice, and perseverance in striving for peace, that in our words and deeds the world may see the life of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord Amen.
Brief Sermon Outline: “Wiser Than Human Wisdom”
Focus Statement: Because of Jesus, all people are blessed to be a blessing to all without exceptions.
1. Humans have imagined all kinds of ways for attaining wisdom. I was reading a Harvard Business School paper this week about “servant leadership,”—apparently the cutting edge of business lead-ship is that “love, elegance, caring, and inclusivity” arethe central elements of wise management.
2. They reference the pope's annual washing/kissing of peoples’ feet on Maundy Thursday as a prime example of what servant leadership looks like—which, of course, is following Jesus’ own example.
3. I doubt the Harvard Business School has finally “got Jesus”—though it’s becoming more common-place to see businesses and corporations and institutions that strive to be successful (however you might define success) to look in obscure/unsuspecting places for the key to wisdom/success.
4. It only seems wise these days to leave no stone unturned, and eventually what you seek you will find—after all, it says in the Bible, “Ask, and it will be given you,” so says the prosperity gospel; “search, & you will find,” just don’t give up, you’ll find it; “knock, &the door will be opened for you.”
5. This is the wisdom of the world interpreting Jesus’ message & mission. It’s a wisdom that seeks to affirm its own vision, its own truth; it’s a wisdom that seeks to justify its own pursuit of happiness.
6. Some theologians want to make Jesus first & foremost a wisdom teacher, a person concerned pri-marily with teaching the mystical path of inner enlightenment/transformation—and, as such, Jesus would seem to fall nicely within that 5000 year old wisdom tradition of all the major world religions.
7. But what if we were to imagine that Jesus’ core message (& his main reason for becoming human) wasn’t to point out the ruby slippers on our feet—just click your heals & you’ll fly over the rainbow.
8. What if Jesus’ presence in the world 2000 yrs ago & in our lives today was the necessary 1st step God took to reducing conceited wisdom to nothing, opening us to the blessing of selfless wisdom —a wisdom that is not concerned w/ becoming like God, but w/ becoming a blessing to the world?
9. Because of Jesus, all people are blessed to be a blessing to the whole world w/o exceptions. So when we look at the Beatitudes, we find here not ways for us to achieve wisdom and blessing—that if you become poor in spirit, or meek, or a peacemaker, then you’ll be wise & blessed forever.
10. No, when we look at the Beatitudes, we find here ways that God blesses us in spite of ourselves; ways that God calls us to be a blessing for all people & to bless everything we touch w/ God’s love. What would it mean for us to discover/explore/revel in the wisdom of undeserved blessing?
11. God’s wisdom is not our wisdom; God’s ways are not our ways. For while we were poor in spirit, while we were in mourning, powerless & lacking in righteousness, Jesus died for us, the ungodly.
12. Human wisdom can’t comprehend this indiscriminate, careless kind of blessing—what kind of God would be so foolish to bless evildoers? What kind of a God would suffer/die for sins of the world? None but a radically selfless, humble God whose mission was not merely to love wisdom but love.
13. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.” That’s Jesus talking about us: we who are poor in spirit, God has blessed us w/ the kingdom, so go, love others who’re poor in spirit.
14.“Blessed are the meek…”That’s Jesus talking re: us: we who are lowly/meek/foolish by the world’s standards, God has blessed us w/ the kingdom, so go, bless/love others who are meek/lowly/fool-ish by the world’s standards, bless those who are hungering/thirsting for righteous just like you.
15. Worldly wisdom always sought to do justice first, to love kindness on its own terms of justice, and then (in a show of false humility) to ask God to bless its exploits. But Jesus’ wisdom proved wiser than human wisdom. Begin, Jesus said, by walking humbly w/ your God; learn humility from the way of the cross. For in the cross we find deepest revelation of God’s love for the world, & it is w/ that humility & God’s loving kindness that weembrace servant leadership, true justice & blessing.
Hymn of the Day: “Be Thou My Vision” (WOV #776)
Children’s Sermon
<Sometimes God’s love comes to us in the most unexpected ways. We explore some of those blessed surprises with the children, discovering that God’s ways are not our ways, and God’s thoughts are not our thoughts.
Pastor: Good morning, kids. We’re talking about wisdom today. Wisdom is kind of a funny word—“wiz”-“dum,” “wiz”-“dum.” Have you heard of a “wiz kid” before? A wiz-kid is a kid who is very smart. And then there’s “dum.” When someone is called dumb, they aren’t that smart.
But like I said, we’re talking about wisdom today because we just heard God say in the Bible “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” What do you think God meant by saying he would destroy the wisdom of the wise?<take their guesses, but direct the conversation to affirm that God was tired of know-it-alls>
Have you all ever met a know-it-all? <take the kids’ answers> Know-it-alls are people who think they know everything. They don’t need anyone to tell them anything, they know it all! Have you met a know-it-all before? They’re not easy people to be around.
God was tired of know-it-alls in Israel. The prophet Isaiah spoke God’s words to the Israelites, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth,so are my ways higher than your waysand my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isa. 58:8-9)
But then God surprised the world by sending Jesus. God made foolish the wisdom of the wise by having Jesus born a little baby in a manger in Bethlehem, and then Jesus was crucified and died for the sins of the world, and Jesus rose from the dead—after all that, the Apostle Paul said that God had made foolish the wisdom of the wise.
God continues to surprise us with his blessings—in the water of baptism, in the bread and wine of communion, through the words of the Bible, in many unexpected ways God gives us God’s blessings and love.
Let’s pray: Loving God, we pray that you would keep us wise to your unexpected ways of blessing the world with your love. We pray in the name of Jesus, the Wisdom of God. Amen
The Word
(Micah 6:1-8)
Hear what the LORD says: Rise, plead your case before the mountains,
and let the hills hear your voice.
2 Hear, you mountains, the controversy of the LORD,and you enduring foundations of the earth;
for the LORD has a controversy with his people,and he will contend with Israel.
3“O my people, what have I done to you? In what have I wearied you? Answer me!
4 For I brought you up from the land of Egypt,and redeemed you from the house of slavery;
and I sent before you Moses,Aaron, and Miriam.
5 O my people, remember now what King Balak of Moab devised,
what Balaam son of Beor answered him,and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal,
that you may know the saving acts of the LORD.”
6“With what shall I come before the LORD,and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,with calves a year old?
7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams,with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
8 He has told you, O mortal, what is good;and what does the LORD require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,and to walk humbly with your God?
(Psalm 15) A Psalm of David.
1 O LORD, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy hill?
2Those who walk blamelessly, and do what is right,and speak the truth from their heart;
3 who do not slander with their tongue,and do no evil to their friends,
nor take up a reproach against their neighbors;
4 in whose eyes the wicked are despised,but who honor those who fear the LORD;
who stand by their oath even to their hurt;
5 who do not lend money at interest,and do not take a bribe against the innocent.
Those who do these things shall never be moved.
(1Corinthians 1:18-31)
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. 19 For it is written,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
20 Where 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? 21 For 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. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, 23 but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.
26 Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, 29 so that no one might boast in the presence of God. 30 He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 in order that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
(Matthew 5:1-12)
When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5 “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Sermon Notes
Wisdom in Eastern Orthodoxy
In the mystical theology of the Eastern Orthodox Church, Holy Wisdom is understood as the Divine Logos who became incarnate as Jesus Christ; this belief being sometimes also expressed in some Eastern Orthodox icons. InEastern Orthodoxy, humility is the highestwisdomand is to be sought more than any othervirtue. Not only does humility cultivate the Holy Wisdom, but it (in contrast toknowledge) is the defining quality that grants peoplesalvation and entrance intoHeaven.TheHagia Sophia or Holy Wisdom church inConstantinople was the religious center of theEastern Orthodox Church for nearly a thousand years.
Wisdom Tradition
Wisdom Traditionis a synonym for Perennialism, the idea that there is a perennial ormystic inner core to all religious or spiritual traditions, without the trappings, doctrinal literalism, sectarianism, and power structures that are associated with institutionalized religion. The Wisdom Tradition provides a conceptual framework for the development of the inner self, living a spiritual life, and the realization of Enlightenment or of Union with God.
InChristianity and in the Hebrew Bible, the term is used to describe female images of the divine in theBook of Wisdom. It is one of the seven wisdom books of the Septuagint [Greek] Old Testament, which includes Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon (Song of Songs), and Sirach.
Wisdom in Pauline Christology
Paul names Christ as "the wisdom of God" (1Cor. 1:24) whom God "made our wisdom" (1Cor. 1:30; cf. 1:21). A later letter softens the claim a little: in Christ "all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge lie hidden" (Col. 2:3). Beyond question, the clearest form of the equation "the divine wisdom=Christ" comes in1Cor. 1:17-2:13. Yet, even there Paul's impulse is to explain "God's hidden wisdom" not so much as the person of Christ himself, but rather as God's "wise and hidden purpose from the very beginning to bring us to our destined glory" (1Cor. 2:7). In other words, when Paul calls Christ "the wisdom of God", even more than in the case of other titles, God's eternal plan of salvation overshadows everything.
Online source: excerpts from various articles on Wikipedia