Rev. Eugene N. Nelson, Jr.
The Community Church of Sebastopol
September 14, 2003 Launch Sunday
Proverbs 1: 29-33
Humorist, Dave Barry, writes about many subjects, but one of his favorites has to be service agreements. In one column he had this to say: “Stores LOVE service agreements, for the same reason you’d love to have money fall on you from the sky. As a result, when you buy a product today, you get this bizarre multiple-personality sales approach, because at the same time that the salesperson is telling you how swell the product is, he is also suggesting it will need a LOT of service:
Salesperson: …’so this is an excellent product. Totally reliable.’
You: ‘I’ll take it!”
Salesperson: ‘It’s going to break.’
You: ‘What?’
Salesperson: ‘There’s this thing inside – the confabulator. You’re lucky if that baby lasts you a week.’
You: “So, you’re saying it’s NOT a good product?’
Salesperson: ‘No! It’s top of the line! Totally dependable!’
Ever had a conversation like that while you have making a purchase? I know I have. Once a car salesman spent an hour convincing me how reliable a certain car would be. He convinced me. I agreed to buy it. But then the guy who handled the paperwork took another hour trying to convince me to buy a service agreement, because, “You know Gene, there are ten computers in that engine and you never know when one might decide not to work. And Gene, it is not cheap to replace one of those babies.” It’s a great car, a wonderful car, but it will probably break down and leave you stranded in the middle of the Mojave Desert. Sometimes it is so hard to separate the path of wisdom from the path of folly.
Today many Rohnert Park residents are outraged that an Indian casino might actually be built literally next door to them. I suspect I would be outraged too. Many are so angry that they want to recall the entire city council – I wonder how much of that is going to be going on now -- because that council has had the gall to actually sit down and discuss the casino project with representatives of the tribe that wants to build it. Of course, a review of precinct records reveals that up to 75% of those angry residents in the precincts most directly affected by the proposed casino voted in favor of expanded Indian “gaming.” (we don’t call it gambling anymore, it is “gaming”) They voted for more casinos, they wanted lots of casinos, that is, until they discovered one could be built right next door. Sometimes it is so hard to separate the path of wisdom from the path of folly.
Once I decided to pour Coleman fuel over a pile of trash I wanted to burn. I lit the match and threw it on the fuel-soaked pile. After the explosion, as I pulled myself up off the ground and discovered that all my body parts were still with me, I understood that yes, it is often difficult to separate the path of wisdom from the path of folly.
“Wisdom cries out in the street; in the square she raises her voice. At the busiest corner she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks: ‘How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge? Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, would have none of my counsel…therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way and be sated with their own devices.” Yes, sometimes casinos get built right next door.
The Book of Proverbs took shape during a time of transition in the life of Israel, a time of turmoil. It was a time, around 535 B.C., when the “best and the brightest” were returning to Israel following their bitter exile in Babylon. But home had changed. There was economic uncertainty, there were now foreigners in the land, and many Jews who had remained behind had married non-Jews. Questions of identity were huge. Who are we? How can we define ourselves in this new situation? It was a disorienting time – a time when the old rules no longer seemed to apply.
I think of the days following 9/11…when so many questions were being asked, when many were suggesting and we were feeling that things would never be the same again. Old certainties, old securities, old assumptions no longer seemed valid. Two years later, I think we are still groping to find our way. Many hoped war with Iraq would answer questions. Now it seems clear that it has raised even more questions about who we are and what path we should take – the same kind of questions the returning exiles were asking in Israel. The Book of Proverbs came out of this searching, questioning time. It’s purpose was to provide a voice of wisdom in an uncertain world, to help shape a scattered people into a cohesive, moral community. On this Launch Sunday and for the remainder of September Sundays, I want to think with you about what this ancient book of wisdom might have to say to us in our own disorienting, uncertain, searching time.
And one of its main themes, as you may have already guessed, is the need for careful discernment; be careful out there, say the sages of Proverbs, because it is often difficult to separate the path of wisdom from the path of folly. Proverbs sees the world as a place of conflicting discourse where certainty is hard to come by, a world where basically everything is called into question. Wisdom and folly are both in the street, they inhabit the same space, and they can appear equally alluring. And so wisdom raises her voice at the busiest corner, she cries out at the entrance of the city gates. She is right there for all to hear…or for none to hear. Because waywardness, complacency and foolishness are also there and they speak their own compelling, alluring word.
The world of Proverbs is a gritty, messy place, where things are not clear cut, where right and wrong, wisdom and foolishness, are not always easy to discern. But, Proverbs insists, discern we must. Choose we must. Which path will we take?
Words of that well-known theologian, Woody Allen, come to mind. Reflecting on choices he said: “Humanity stands poised at a crossroads. On the one hand there is the way to terrible difficulty, trial and heartache. On the other hand is the way to total oblivion.” That’s one way to view our choices. But perhaps closer to the spirit of Proverbs are these familiar words of Robert Frost: “Two roads diverged in a wood and I – I took the one less travelled by. And that has made all the difference.”
Following one of his concerts, the renowned violinist, Fritz Kreisler, was approached backstage by an enthusiastic admirer who said to him, “Oh Mr. Kreisler, I would give my life to play as you do!” “Madam,” he quietly replied, “I did!”
And to what will you give your life, asks Proverbs. What choices will you make? Which path will you follow? Will it be folly or wisdom? I suppose the same could be asked of our church on this Launch Sunday. As we look forward to a new program year, which path will we choose to follow, which direction will we take?
And at this point, Proverbs has another word to say. As you make your decision, as you seek to navigate the often bewildering passages of a messy, everyday life, remember this: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge…”
Henry Ward Beecher, perhaps the most influential preacher of the Civil War period, wrote of a childhood that we would likely call “deprived.” The family was often mired in poverty, close to starvation, with too few prospects. In one particularly dark time, young Henry overheard his parents in an intense discussion. His mother was in deep despair, wondering how they could possibly get by. His father finally said this: “My dear, I have trusted God now for forty years. I have never regretted that trust. And I am not, however fearsome the future, going to begin to distrust God now.” Later Beecher wrote of that memory: “My father taught me the catechism; he read from the Bible. But none of that ever became for me the truth that my father became that night. It sank into me. Later in my life I went through perils of sickness and poverty myself, and all forms of limitation and trouble; but I never forgot that single scene: there was the truth of faith – not something to believe, but someone in whom I had seen real trust of God. That truth taught me to trust.”
Where is God going to be in your life, asks Proverbs, for that will ultimately determine the path you will take. Wisdom and folly are both in the street, they share the same space and both look pretty good, but “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;” fear in the sense of reverence, awe; fear in the sense of obedience, of placing God at the center and then seeking to shape our lives in such a way that we might be the people God calls us to be.”
An astounding percentage of Americans continue to say that they believe in God. It is amazing heaven on earth hasn’t already come. But, insist Proverbs, saying you believe isn’t quite enough. It’s not that the question of belief or non-belief in God is unimportant. The trouble is, it so often obscures the larger question: will you trust God, will you place God at the center? For this is real life, this is the path of wisdom – what you are fashioning in your souls, the kind of person you are becoming, the values you cherish, the reach of your mind, the way in which you touch the lives of others and along the way help to shape a world.
It’s an old Jewish story. A boy was playing hide and seek with his friends. They stopped playing while he was hiding and went off to do something else, leaving him by himself. He began to cry. His old grandfather found him and tried to comfort him. “Do not weep because the boys did not come to find you.” he said, “Perhaps you can learn from this disappointment. God, too, is waiting to be found, and too many of us have gone off in search of other things.”
“Wisdom cries out in the street; in the squares she raises her voice. At the busiest corner she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks: “How long?….” The choice is ours.