Our inability to think in terms of other cultures, and our abysmal ignorance of other cultures, is illustrated in the inaugura

Sermon: Holy Wisdom Batman!

September 13, 2009 &= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp;

Proverbs 1:20-33, Mark 8:27-38

by the Reverend Steve Clunn=

This is a picture of Burt War= d, who at the age of 19, was given the role of playing Dick

Grayson; or,= as he was better known (change slide), Robin, in the 1966 debut of

the TV show: Batman.

In every episode we could cou= nt on him, in a moment of anxiety and fear, or sudden

excitement and understanding; to state the obvious in holy terms. And yes, in the

first season, in a smoke filled room, he did blurt out, “Holy smokes, Batman!”

Holy wisdom, on the other han= d, is not something “the Boy Wonder,” ever uttered.

Yet holy wisdom is what today’s passages are all about. In a day and age where people

seek certainty in an uncertain world and times; where people often use religious=

beliefs in twisted and even unholy ways to somehow give themselves a false

sense of safety and superiority; Holy wisdom must come off as Proverbs suggests, =

like some sort of crazy lady, shouting in the streets.

<= /o:p>

If wisdom as a whole, is prof= ound understanding born out of life’s experiences; then

Holy wisdom = must be the place where our experiences of the Divine, of God, lead

us to a deep and meaningful understanding of how the Holy impacts our lives.

Jesus seems to recognize this= kind of Holy aha taking place for Peter, in his response to

the question, “who do you say that I am?” Peter has come to underst= and that Jesus

is the Messiah, the one whom God has sent to save the people and lead them int= o

a deeper relationship with God in life.

While most recite back to Jes= us what others are saying about him, Peter is the first

among the Jesus’ closest companions to put what he understands about

messianic tradition and w= hat he has experienced with Jesus, together.

<= /o:p>

It is our Christian tradition= that because of Peter’s wisdom at this moment, that he is

given the task to be “the Rock,” the first leader of the new movement= of

Christianity after Jesus’ death and resurrection.

I am so deeply appreciative t= hat the very next thing that Peter does, in today’s Gospel

passage, is get things so= wrong when he tries to rebuke Jesus about what he’s telling them will happe= n to him.

For me, the wise lesson is th= at Holy wisdom, from our perspective, needs to be tempered

with a great deal of humility and continued openness.

I know that I have often ment= ioned that the two most important questions we Christians

need to ask ourselves in life is: “Who is Jesus?” and “Who am = I in light of who I

understand Jesus to be?”

However, sense Holy wisdom, I believe, has lead us all to a place where we realize that

we cannot live life to its fullest potential alone, there is a third essential question

we need to ask: “Who are we, the church?”<= /p>

Some will say that the church= is a place where we experience the presence of the Holy

through study, reflection and understanding. While that is true, wisdom reminds

us that “you cannot plough a field by turning it over in your mind (unkn= own

author).”

“Aha,” say others! Church is a place where we get to express our experiences of the Holy

through service, missions, and acts of compassion. While that is equally true,

wisdom reminds us again that “Drea= ms pass into the reality of action. From the

actions stems the dream again; and this interdependence produces the highest=

form of living (Anais Nin).” So = it would appear that thoughtful reflection and

bold compassionate acts go hand-in-hand.

<= /o:p>

But isn’t there more? W= hat about the poetic interplay of inspiration and expression – like

what we experience in music? What about church being a place where we

experience healing amidst the sufferings of the world; a place of hope for us all

when we are wounded? And, what about the bold prophetic tradition that holds

others accountable for the harm they do in the world; to each other? Isn’t t= he

church meant to be expressions of all of these?

<= /o:p>

In working with Robbie throug= h the confirmation material this summer, we came to the

chapter on Spirituality. I asked him what he thought a spiritual person looks like.=

He said, = 220;someone who prays a lot and tries really hard to live = like they think God

would want them to in life.” Don’t worry, Robbie told me it was o.k. = to share this

stuff with you.

Then I asked him if he was a spiritual person. “Oh, no,” came his response. “Well then,” I

asked, “who do you think of as a spiritual person?” Without hesitation= he

responded, “Mother Teresa.” “A great example,” I said.

Then I told him something abo= ut Mother Teresa that we all seem to conveniently forget.

She was fill= ed with doubt in her life. You see, very early on, she had an

experience that she believed was a moment when she absolutely felt the presence

of God in her life.

To her dismay and anguish, it= was something she never experienced again. It caused her a

tremendous amount of self-doubt and questioning about her faith and abilities as a

person of faith. And yet she remains for many, a great example of a person of

faith.

In explaining this to Robbie, I began to have my own aha moment. I recalled a

conversation I had with Kendra about prayer. You see, I’ve come to believe that

if a faithful life is about striving to live in relati= onship with God and others, a God

who is always present, whether I feel it at that moment or not; then all of lif= e is a

prayer… not just the moments when we take the time to acknowledge and

vocalize our needs and thanksgivings.

What if we began to redefine “Spiritual” in the same light? I asked Robbie to consider

this, “if all of life is a prayer, and a spiritual person is someone who prayerfully

considers how God wants them to live, then aren’t we all called to be spiritual= ,

together?’

Rather than spirituality bein= g something that is hijacked by some to mean simply

personal piety, doesn’t holy wisdom seem to cry out for something more

unpredictable and messy; something that can only be completely experienced

when the personal comes into the fullness of community - togetherness?

<= /o:p>

So who are we? Who will we be= come, together? On this “Homecoming Sunday,” as we

come back together to explore those possibilities, I’d like to tell you wh= at I have

experienced here.

We are intensely spiritual, n= ot in some prescribed or dogmatic form, but with our whole

mind, heart, hands and feet. We aren’t afraid to wrestle with the hard ques= tions of

life or challenge the often accepted injustices of our day. We are committed to =

study, to service, and to the artistic expressions of our faith.

We are a people and a communi= ty in progress; drawing on tradition, but not bound by it.

Building for= the future generations to come, but not at the expense of foregoing

living the fullness of life and faith now. And, we are seeking to live with an

openness to possibilities of God – ready for the serendipity of Holy wisdom, t= o

shout outside in the streets and/ or dance before us in the aisles.

One February several years ag= o, something amazing seemed to be happening here at First

UMC every week.

We celebrated the 10^{th
anniversary of being a Reconciling Congregation, reaffirming our}

commitment to a prophetic witness that God’s love is big enough for everyone

and so it should be with the love of Christian community.

The next week, we celebrated = the faithful life of a dying self-proclaimed agnostic, when

we gathered with Joe Summerville’s family to celebrate Joe’s life while he was still living. The laughter and joy poured instead of the tears we all expected.

The following Sunday, church = was already over, or so we thought. When two young

women came to the kitchen door looking for a pastor and wanting to be baptized. <= /p>

They had been asking at different churches for several weeks and kept running

into the same stumbling blocks of active participation and/ or classes.

In talking with them about th= eir want to be baptized and how we did baptism at First

UMC, I reali= zed that I had pretty much done my class with them already. The

only problem was that I don’t like to do baptisms outside the context of t= he

community gathered. That promise that we make about trying= to be a collective

example of God’s love, is just to important in th= is day and age.

That’s when a moment of= Holy wisdom hit me over the head, It was a third Sunday, 40 of

you were eating lunch together in the next room, the community was gathered;

and you faithfully consented to allow God’s serendipity to dance among us that

day.

I have no idea what is in sto= re for us this year. There are lots of things to worry over and

work even harder towards; but no matter what we do or face my hope is that we

will do it with an openne= ss to God’s presence, God’s possibilities, and the spirit of beloved community. Amen.