Wisdom (Part 1): The Beginning of Wisdom

So as I shared with the kids, we are starting

a new series and we are looking at wisdom in

the biblical tradition, namely three books of

the Old Testament, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and

Job, all of which come at this question of wisdom

from unique angles. And so we begin today with

the book of Proverbs. Will you pray with me?

As we hear your word, O God, help us to trust

in you with all our heart and not to rely on

our own insight. Speak to us, we pray, and make

straight our paths. Amen. Our second reading

is from the third chapter of Proverbs. Let us

listen together for God's word to us. My child,

do not forget my teaching. But let your heart

keep my commandments for length of days and years

of life and abundant welfare they will give you.

Do not let loyalty and faithfulness forsake you.

Bind them around your neck. Write them on the

tablet of your heart. Then you will find favor

and high regard in the sight of God and of people.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do

not rely on your own insight. In all your ways

acknowledge him and he will make straight your

paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear

the Lord and turn away from evil. This is the

word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. We have a

lot of walkers in our neighborhood. We have sidewalks

and broad paths and lots of people are out walking

all times of year, walking their dogs, walking

their kids, walking just for the sake of walking.

And it wasn't that long ago I was driving through

the neighborhood and I saw a man, middle -aged

man, walking, probably walking his dog, and he

was wearing a tactical vest. And I thought this

was strange. And I tried to figure out why he

might be wearing that vest, and I couldn't come

up with anything. Maybe he's a veteran, and he

is comfortable wearing that when he's going out

for a walk. I saw another one a little while

later, another one a little while later, and

then I started to see people wearing these slim

-fitting life preservers as they were taking

a walk. And I started to wonder. If walking in

my neighborhood had suddenly become so dangerous

that people needed to wear protection from who

knows what, drowning while walking? Weeks and

weeks later, after living with this confusion

for so long, I came upon an article that was

weighing the benefits of weighted vests. And

a light bulb went off. These were not tactical

vests. These were certainly not life preservers.

These were weighted vests. And people had learned

about these, probably online, maybe through social

media or fitness influencers, and the trend had

started to catch on, spreading throughout my

neighborhood. Everyone knew what was happening,

except, of course, for me. The problem is, obviously,

that I am not clued in to the latest fitness

trends. The wise sages of our time dispense wisdom

in viral snippets and we receive and adopt their

wisdom one idea at a time, one discipline or

diet or product at a time, all in our pursuit.

of a good life, a fulfilling life, a meaningful

life, a well -lived life. So if you were to sit

down and read the book of Proverbs from cover

to cover, you might think that what you are looking

at is the ancient world's version of Twitter

or maybe TikTok. What you would find there is

a compilation of often random and almost always

brief nuggets of wisdom. And reading from one

to the next is a little bit like scrolling through

the wisdom of the internet, 140 characters at

a time. And there in the book of Proverbs, you'll

find advice for work and for harvest, for investment

and companionship, for business dealings and

for big decisions. And as you read it, you scroll

and you swipe your way through and you find some

that don't resonate with you. You set those aside.

You find some you like and you click like and

you share it or retweet it or post it or whatever

it is you're going to do. You'll find some good

ones in there. Proverbs 18 verse 2, a fool takes

Proverbs 18:2

no pleasure in understanding but only in expressing

personal opinion. That one might be evergreen.

Proverbs 19, verse 21, the human mind may devise

Proverbs 19:21

many plans, but it is the purpose of the Lord

that will be established, something we would

do well to remember. Chapter 22, verse 2, the

rich and the poor have this in common, the Lord

is the maker of them all. Proverbs 16, verse

Proverbs 16:31

31, gray hair is a crown of glory. It is gained

in a righteous life. We're working on that one

as a memory verse in the Anderson house right

now. It is true, the book of Proverbs is scattered,

sometimes contradictory. It can feel a bit of

a mess. And this may be how our own quest for

wisdom feels at times. Our efforts to live well

are also fragmented. Scattered and inconsistent

as we pull wisdom and advice and advice from

this source and that source wherever we can,

trying out new plans, new programs, embracing

new ideas and attitudes. And isn't this the nature

of wisdom? That it's changing all the time? I

recently read an article in the New York Times

that was looking at changes over the course of

a long period of time in the genre of self -help

books. And the author of this article pointed

all the way back to 1936 as kind of the beginning

of this genre. The author Dale Carnegie published

a book called How to Win Friends and Influence

People. And in this book, Carnegie argues that

the key is to always be friendly. even when you

don't feel like you should be friendly. It's

to always be positive, even if you're not feeling

positive. So if you're feeling down, smile. If

you're feeling sad, whistle or hum a bright,

happy tune and that this was the key to having

a positive influence over the people around you.

So that was the beginning of the genre, but the

author titled this article Is today's self -help

teaching everyone to be a jerk? And she points

to some recent books, books that have been at

the top of the bestseller list, at least in this

genre, for weeks and weeks on end. Here's one

title, The Courage to be Disliked. And another

title, which I will paraphrase slightly, The

Subtle Art of Not Caring. The author writes this,

the self -help genre has determined that the

answer to the present moment is to be unapologetically

self -interested and broadly unapologetic. And

as it often does, social media has taken these

ideas and sort of distilled them down to their

essence, to their core, in a phrase that is often

repeated online among influencers, I guess, and

that is this. Protect your peace. Protect your

peace. I'm not sure how that relates to love

your neighbor, but they'll have to save that

one for another sermon. Protect your peace. This

apparently is the prevailing wisdom of the present

moment. Though I have my doubts about self -help

books, and I certainly have my doubts about social

media influencers. The quest for wisdom, our

effort to live A good life in a complex world

is not easy or straightforward. And maybe that's

why the book of Proverbs is all over the place.

But even though the book of Proverbs is all over

the place, there are deep currents running beneath

the fragments on the surface. And one of those

has to do with this question, where do we begin?

Where do we start this quest? Where does this

effort begin? Where does wisdom? begin. Now,

often we default to looking to ourselves for

wisdom or to figure out what constitutes wisdom.

After all, who else can decide what is meaningful

to me? Who else can choose the best path for

me? So, we tend to rely on our own instincts,

our own gut. our own inner voice or insight,

and we seek out what feels right to me. In her

2006 book, Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert

writes, God dwells within you as yourself, exactly

the way you are. God dwells within you as yourself,

exactly the way you are. Now, all of my kids

at a certain point in their development got to

a place where as we would drive around town,

they'd start to recognize our surroundings, start

to feel like they knew where they were, and then,

of course, felt like they knew how to get where

we were going. And so from the back seat, they

would say, when I'm stopped at a red light, Daddy,

go this way. And do you know, sometimes they

were right. But of course, sometimes they were

wrong. And they might say, Daddy, go this way,

and I would say, oh, is that the way we should

go as I turn this way? Now, I didn't ignore them.

I knew that what they were doing was giving voice

to an important developmental stage. Their little

brains are growing, and they're working, and

that's good, and I want to encourage it. I won't

ignore it, but I certainly won't let them tell

me how to get where we're going. Now, this is

the nature of my relationship. with my own inner

voice. I do not think my inner voice is God within

me as me, exactly as I am. My inner voice is

more like the kid in the back seat telling me

which way to turn at a red light. It's not to

be ignored. Self -knowledge is important. And

it can reveal things to me about myself, maybe

some good things, maybe some weak things, but

if I let it get behind the wheel, there's no

telling what kind of trouble I'm going to end

up in. And if the quest for wisdom begins with

the self, then it also ends with the self. And

we have set the boundaries for this quest from

the very beginning. We have predetermined how

far we will go and no farther. Proverbs 1, 7

says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of

knowledge. Later on, chapter 9, verse 10, the

fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

The quest for wisdom is not easy. It is not straightforward.

But here is where it begins. It begins with the

fear of the Lord. Now, fear can mean a whole

lot of things, so we need to be careful. We're

not talking about fear the way a child fears

the monster under their bed. We're not talking

about fear the way a parent fears that something

terrible might happen to their child. We're not

talking about the fear of spiders or heights

or small spaces or anything like that. What we're

talking about is facing something that is more

than the self. something that is outside of us,

above us, something that has the power, power

over us, the power to expand the self, the power

to transform the self. We're talking about what

it means to acknowledge that in this life, there

is purpose that goes beyond my own goals, that

there is meaning that runs deeper than my own

fulfillment. that there is reality more profound

than my own experience or my own possessions.

There is more to this life than what I happen

to make of it. And it may very well be that a

weighted vest is a really great way to build

strength in your legs as you go for a walk. And

it may very well be that in this tumultuous world

that we live in, that sometimes it's going to

be more important for us to protect our peace

than it is to care for the neighbor in front

of us. I'm willing to grant that there is good

advice out there in self -help books and social

media and all of it, but wisdom and good advice

are not the same thing. Proverbs says, trust

in the Lord with all your heart and do not rely.

on your own insight, i .e. the kid in the back

seat. Do not be wise in your own eyes. The world

today, and perhaps the world always and forever,

is full of advice, but often lacking in wisdom.

Good advice places all things in the service

of a greater self, but wisdom places the self

in the service of greater things. The beginning

of wisdom is having the humility to open ourselves

to the One who can really transform us, the One

who made us, and the One who can do surprising

things through us. We can protect our peace,

or we can open our lives. And opening our lives,

we can find courage, We can find clarity and

we can find the conviction to be faithful, to

be fruitful, to be wise. Let us pray. God, grant

us wisdom, but more than that, grant us the humility

to continually be searching for the wisdom that

you provide. to always be opening ourselves to

you and your work of transformation in us and

in this world. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.