Monday, January 3, 2022

Looking Ahead to January 9, 2022

 The Scripture Readings this week are:

  • Psalm 36:5-10
  • 1 Corinthians 1:26-31
  • Luke 2:41-51

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The Sermon title is Trust in God, Grow in Wisdom

Early Thoughts: What do you do to feed your thirst for wisdom? 

I think it could be argued that Christianity, like many other faith traditions, is a wisdom tradition.  Certainly it is more than that, but a particular form of wisdom underlies much of what it means to follow Jesus.

As Paul tells us, it is a wisdom unlike that of the rest of the world. After all, a tradition that includes the instruction to love your enemies certainly wanders from the common sense of every day wisdom.

A classic way to feed our thirst for wisdom is to seek instruction. In this week's Gospel story that is what Jesus does. Not the place most of us would expect to find a child who had wandered off is it?

Often people have tried to spin this story as saying that Jesus was astounding the elders in Jerusalem as he taught them. That is not what the text says (and is really growing out of an anti-Semitic understanding that Jesus has all the wisdom and the Jewish people are in error). The text clearly says that Jesus is sitting  there and learning from them. Jesus is growing in wisdom because Jesus is willing and ready to sit and listen and engage in conversation.

[I have always loved this story for a whole other reason. The image of Mary and Joseph losing track of their son, and just assuming he is traveling with the neighbours is absolutely delightful. I suspect many a parent can share the anxiety felt and expressed (possibly as anger) when they finally find the young man.]

As Luke tells us this story we see Jesus at 12. In contemporary Judaism the traditional age of a bar mitzvah is 13. Jesus is about to come of age. As he approaches this milestone he seeks out instruction and engagement with his tradition. He seeks wisdom.  

Wisdom is not the same as rote learning, though memorizing key ideas and tenets is a part of gaining wisdom. Rote learning passes on knowledge. Wisdom comes when we put that knowledge into use, when we engage with it and our world.

AS followers of Christ we follow a particular brand of wisdom. Sometimes this particular wisdom goes against the current of the world around us. Sometimes it appears to be foolishness. But always it is founded on trusting God's presence in our lives, always predicated on listening for God's voice. That voice may come through the teachings of old. It may come in a new question or challenge that pushes us to see things differently. Where will we seek out wisdom?
--Gord

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