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
no pleasure in understanding but only in expressing
personal opinion. That one might be evergreen.
Proverbs 19, verse 21, the human mind may devise
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
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.