Wisdom
Listens and Learns
If you had responded to my rebuke, I would have
poured out my heart to you and made my thoughts known to you.
But since you rejected
me when I called...I in turn will laugh at your disaster; I will mock when
calamity overtakes you— when calamity overtakes you like a storm.
Proverbs 1:24,24,27
I know that most of us think that television has not been a total blessing
in every way. I think I am one of the last of a generation who remembers
childhood before T.V. We got one in the mid 1950's but I had several
years of early childhood in which the neighborhood children gathered outside
on warm evenings to play neighborhood games like "run sheep run", "kick the
can" and others.
I also remember the first time I saw a T.V. set in the hardware store
window down the street from the church where I went to an early evening
kids program. We would head over to the hardware store and stand on the
street where we could watch this new marvel for a few minutes before we
headed home together. And no, our parents did not come to pick us up, even
though it was over half an hour walk. We went as a group and no one ever
even considered we might be in danger.
Now kids do not play outside together as a group unless someone organizes
the activity and parents join together to drive our children both to and
from. Otherwise they watch T.V. and play video games.
Sure, they will tell their children of the good old days when the games
they played were just imaginary and real people did not actually get
shot at. What a prospect!
But in the mid 1960's a phenomenon hit the television screen. It was,
and is, called Sesame Street, and is arguably one of the best influences
on the tube. Sesame street is peopled by Bert and Ernie and Big Bird, and
Cookie Monster, Elmo and of course adorable Kermit the Frog and his
heart-throb, Miss Piggy.
Sesame street uses everyday symbols and knowledge to teach numbers, the
alphabet and general wisdom for living. Sesame Street is a very good friend
to parents. Sesame Street is a city street where the lessons of life are learned.
In the same way, the Book of Proverbs is the "street smarts" of the Bible.
It's lessons for life are the marketplace and the weights and measures
of the merchant. They are the interaction between naive young men and worldly
wise women of the street. It is the wisdom of learning when to speak and
when to keep silent. It is the wisdom of the hard worker who minds
his "P's and Q's" and the lazy oaf who sleeps all day and then wonders why
he has no money for daily expenses. It is also the wisdom of the person who
has learned that God is still bigger and smarter than any of us.
Proverbs is thoroughly theological as all wisdom comes from God, and
humility before God is the beginning of wisdom.
The language and subject matter of Proverbs is down to earth, and its
lessons, which if followed, lead to a well lived life.
Follow Proverbs and you will learn what you need to know to get along in
the real world.
Written about thirty centuries ago, it is just as applicable today as it
was when people walked from place, and a home would be a one or two room
adobe shelter.
Since I am in a mood for nostalgia, I think that the apprentice system
of years back had much to commend it.
Typically, a young man would be apprenticed to a craftsman of some sort.
Perhaps the craftsman would be his own father.
A girl would learn from her mother.
Those who had no mother or father had a real handicap, but might be fortunate
to have a relative take them in tow.
The person so apprenticed would learn not just the skills of the trade,
but wisdom for life. At least that would be so if you got a good teacher.
Now the parent has to hope that somewhere along the way, a good teacher
or two or perhaps a youth leader will help them with the task of teaching
and modeling wisdom for living.
I can tell you about a real case situation from our own experience.
I have permission to relate this story in case you are wondering.
I attended the burial of Sharon_____recently. Sharon's life is one of pathos
but ultimately of God's triumph.
The story begins at the doorstep of Rob and Betsy _____.
One day the doorbell rang and on their doorstep was ______, Sharon's daughter,
who was about thirteen or fourteen.
In those days, Sharon had bad addiction to heroine and cocaine. She and
her boyfriend were both using and dealing.
Consequently, ______'s life had become chaotic.
Kimberly, Rob and Betsy's daughter said, "I remember the day you turned
up on our doorstep looking for food."
_______ said, "It was more than food I was after. I asked your parents,
'will you be my family'?"
Rob and Betsy took ______in and treated her as one of their own.
They also began relating to Sharon.
Over the course of time, Sharon left her boyfriend and got off drugs.
Eventually she showed up in our church, at the invitation of Rob and Betsy
and ______, who by now was an informal part of the family.
All the time I knew Sharon, she was maintained daily by methadone treatment.
Her lungs were badly compromised due to her heavy cigarette habit and she
died of emphysema's complications.
I was asked to take part in the grave-side service.
______ told me her step father would be there. I winced wondering how that
would be. Sharon had told me it was he who got her addicted and was her supplier.
He broke her physically and financially. He almost totally ruined her life
and could have ruined _____'s life too.
______must have seen me flinch as she said, "I am glad he is going to be
there."
I guess I looked a bit incredulous at her. She is only abut 27 years old
remember.
She said, "I have forgiven them both. I loved my mom in spite of how she
was during those years. She died because she wrecked her body and that was
her choice, but I love her."
And she said about the man who introduced this hell into her life, "I have
forgiven ______ too. He says he is off drugs and I believe him. I am glad
he is coming to mom's burial."
The day of the graveside service came and there were maybe a dozen of us
all including the funeral home staff. I conducted a brief service and stood
aside as people began speaking to one another and embracing as they do at
graveside services.
_______ walked over to her step dad and put her arms around him and embraced
him. I could tell it was authentic as she then stood there beside him talking
to him and his natural daughter for a long time. In fact she was still with
him when Georgina and I decided it was a good time for us to exit.
Last Sunday as I spoke to Rob and Betsy they said to me, "Sharon had a bucket
list you know."
I guess I did know at one point but had forgotten and Rob told me, "She
was able to check off two things from her list. She always wanted to attend
a church service, which she did, and she wanted to go to a picnic with regular
people."
I remember the first Sunday School picnic she attended with us three or
four years ago.
Rob said, "that was the first real picnic she had ever been to. Up to then
parties were always about substance abuse and trouble."
What a thought--she experienced for the first time what we take for granted.
But the thing that so stood out for me was ______ and her amazing ability
to forgive and let go of the pain.
I just stand in awe of that and wondered to myself, "where did someone so
young get such wisdom?"
And I think of how her life could have gone, rather than how it has gone.
She lives in _______ and manages a very high end beauty salon with 30 employees
at age 27.
She and her soon to be husband have two little boys and as we talked she
is setting out to get the boys into church and her fiancé too.
She will succeed, I have no doubt.
So where does a person gain such wisdom?
Of course it was mediated through a very humble couple named Rob and Betsy
who took in a waif who rang their doorbell one day.
But it came from God and from a life that was lived simply upholding the
principles of God.
They had their struggles, but through them all, God's wisdom was always
acknowledged.
The Proverbs we read this morning lays out a choice---follow God's wisdom
and life will be fruitful.
Turning your back on God is laughably foolish.
Did they accomplish this wisdom all at once? No, but they kept at it.
Do we succeed immediately in gaining the wisdom of God?
No, we have to work at it, but what's important is that we keep at it.
Keep at it and your life will bear fruit.
Not necessarily wealth or fame or any of those things, but the kind of fruit
that lets you look back and say, "Look at what God did in my life. Who would
ever have guessed?
Preached September 13, 2009
Dr. Harold McNabb
West Shore Presbyterian
Church
Victoria, British Columbia
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