[Propertalk] Proper 19 b 2018 - part 1

[Robert P Morrison]

In case the power goes out - for those of you on the East Coast!
This was typed out last night from notes taken in a couple of separate
days' "free time".
Happy hurricaning - or whatever!
Bob

	THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY  THE SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY
AFTER PENTECOST 

	PROVERBS 1:20-33         PROPER 19 b 

	JAMES 3:1-12    16th SEPTEMBER, 2018 

	MARK 8:27-38    CANTICLE: A SONG IN PRAISE OF WISDOM (WISDOM 7:26 –
8:1) 

	 You’d think that God would have been a little more astute at
creation. I mean, did you see that first line of the collect?
“Without you we are not able to please you.”  

	 Give me a break! Our discipline in life is to please God, to offer
worship, to make joyful, to express our delight in God’s glory. But
we can’t do it. According to the prayer with which we opened, we
CAN’T please God till God tells us and gives us the means to do what
we need to do.  

	 It sounds as if we’re in a terrible bind. 

	 Think about that, though. If it’s God who helps and leads us to
praise, then chances are if were half alert, then we’ll see how
we’re to do this. It’s not up to us to set the standards. Thank
God, this is so, otherwise we’d be all over the place in how we
think we’re expected to praise. God gives us a wonderful break,
then. We’re just to listen with hearts and minds as well as ears,
and we’ll find out how we’re supposed to live. 

	 Of course, our perception apparatus may not be fully functional. We
have to get rid of all the things which interfere with our reception
of God’s communication with us. Nevertheless, we’re not totally
bereft of hope because God, in both Hebrew and Christian Scriptures,
talks to us in the past through our ancestors, through the people who
are sensitive and attuned to spiritual messages. 

	 So the good news right from the start is that God loves everyone and
everything in creation so much that we’re all given the tools we
need, and the opportunities, and the sense to be able to ask for help
and company in life. It’s this latter gift which the first reading
and the canticle address. 

	 Wisdom has always been seen as one of the ways in which God makes
expression. Wisdom is this act of God to draw us to our senses, to
make us aware of how amazing and how fulfilling life can be. First,
though, se have to be open to the fact that God’s Wisdom IS present
and active. 

	 The first reading describes such a tragic and, unfortunately,
relatively common situation. Wisdom IS right here, present with us and
all of creation. Wisdom, representing to us the ability to grow and to
be transformed; Wisdom comes, stands, flows round us; will uphold us.
Yet Wisdom waits, never forcing Herself – and, yes, Wisdom is and
always HAS been expressed as having and being feminine. Wisdom never
forces Herself on us. Even in such seemingly vital matters of finding
what to do this morning to please God; even here and now, Wisdom gives
us a choice. Become aware of what God wishes, and invite God to
transform us so that we become more and more aware of this; or we can
tell God to take a hike; we have all that we need; we can take care of
ourselves. For the most part,, we’re rational and intelligent, so we
think we can go it alone. We don’t see a need to pay attention to
whoever is talking, or seeking our attention, and we take sides in
more and more verbally and physically abusive ways when someone
suggests a new way, a different way of approaching life. 

	 That description of Wisdom in the busiest streets of the city fits
our society so well, and the unfortunate aspect of it is that
religious figures are buying in, more and more, to isolationism and
beliefs that they know everything there is to know, and that they have
a lock on the truth. The tragedy is that there are religious figures
who should be the ones to lead us to explore how God is present and ho
God calls for changing and expansion of our societies until absolutely
everyone is included; the tragedy is that it is often the religious
figures who fail to appreciate God’s Wisdom calling us to
transformation of our lives and attitudes. 

	 In the preface to a book written by a friend, the series editor
wrote, “Perhaps no term fits the work and circumstances of the
church in the twenty-first century better than ‘transformation’.
We are increasingly aware of the need for change as we become ever
more mission-focused in the life of the church, both internationally
and domestically. But society as a whole is rapidly moving in new
directions, and mission cannot be embraced in an unexamined way,
relying on old cultural and ecclesiastical stereotypes and
assumptions.” 1 

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