A Sermon for the Sunday after Pentecost (RCL B) 8-19-2012
Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry
Texts: 1 Kings 2:10-12,3:3-14; Psalm 111;
John 6:51-58
Themes: wisdom, fear of the Lord, discernment
Title: The Value of Fear and Love
“The fear of
the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Psalm 111:10).
My dear
friends: What does it mean to be wise?
Think of
someone you know whom you consider to be a wise person. Then consider what
exactly it is about that person which earns them that title in your mind.
What does it
mean to be wise? For most people in today’s world, I’ll bet that a wise person
is someone with good common sense, maybe even someone who is street wise.
Someone who knows how to survive, how to get by and maybe how to work a deal.
Perhaps a wise person today is someone who understands money and how to
maneuver it, how to manipulate it, how to multiply it.
But what does
it mean to be wise in a biblical sense?
You know that Solomon
is famously described in the Bible as being the wisest man who ever lived.
To be honest,
that’s mostly royal propaganda! Yes, when he was young, Solomon was known to be
wise. Here in this famous story, Solomon asks not for wealth nor long life nor for
the demise of his enemies. Instead, Solomon asks for wisdom and discernment.
This is a nice
tale, and it may have reflected some truth about Solomon when he was young.
But as a grown
man, fully in touch with his royal power, he was known to all the Israelites as
a tyrant, a ruthless ruler who taxed them without mercy and subjected the
people to forced labor for grandiose building projects. In addition, the Bible
clearly states that he paid homage to foreign gods and that he most certainly
did NOT walk in the ways of his father’s God!
In fact, as
soon as Solomon died, there was a revolt and the northern tribes declared their
independence from the corrupt royal government based in Jerusalem.
Whatever
wisdom Solomon did possess in his early years rapidly turned into narcissism – into
an over-inflated sense of his own importance.
But the
essence of what it means to be wise in the biblical sense is found in our Psalm
appointed for today: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Psalm
111:10).
Now I ask you:
how do we square this up with the clear calling that we receive in the New
Testament to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind and
strength? (cf. Matthew 22:37)
How can you
simultaneously fear the Lord and love the Lord at the same time?
Is that even possible?
Yes, I say! In fact, let me suggest to you that it is not only
possible to fear and love God at the same time, but that in the Bible’s vision
of a full and healthy life – these two are in fact the very same thing.
We fear God
and we love God when we make God the highest value in our life.
It is all
about values and priorities and focus.
Some of you
know that my family was blessed this summer with a new puppy. We found this
puppy during our summer vacation up north.
Her name is
Clare and she is a mutt – a mixed breed dog, with her mother being a pure Saint
Bernard. So we can figure out pretty clearly that she is destined to be BIG!
Now, having a
big puppy requires a lot of work!
You may then forgive
me if my thoughts have invariably been taken up lately by thoughts of puppy
training. And if any of you have ever trained a new puppy – especially a large
dog, then you know the amount of work and vigilance that is required – that is,
if, in fact, you intend to end up with a well-behaved and disciplined dog!
It is
especially a challenge right now to walk this big puppy. She is so easily
distracted!
Clare is not a
good walker. Not yet! But we are taking her to puppy training classes
One of the
things that we are learning about is to teach the puppy to watch us – to look
at us, to pay attention to us as her owners.
Right now, she
is so distracted that walking her is a major challenge!
Yesterday on a
walk, she even started to chase after a few leaves that were blowing in the
wind! Every car that goes by. Every dog or cat or squirrel close by. Every
person. Everything distracts her and then she pulls, because she wants to check
it out!
And all the
while, she is not even looking at me! Not paying attention at all to what I am
doing, where I am going, what my plans might be! This is a real challenge.
The goal in
this training is that I will no longer have to hold her so tightly on the leash,
and no longer fight with her to go for a walk.
More than that:
the goal is that eventually I may even be able to walk her without any leash at
all! You see, the goal is that Clare will be so attuned to me, be so in touch
with me, so conscious of me as her owner and as the most important thing in her
life, that a leash will no longer even be necessary!
I am sure that
any serious theologian would be utterly disgusted by my attempt to draw an
analogy between puppy training and our relationship with God, but it makes
sense to me!
Remember: we
fear God and we love God when we make God the highest value in our life.
The analogy
with puppy training breaks down at some point, of course, but consider that the
goal of our training in Christ – our apprenticeship, our internship with the
Master – is that we can learn to be so attuned to God, so in touch with God, so
conscious of God as our leader and as the most important relationship in our
life, that we can move with God in a synergy of motion, as a conjoined flow of
energy working – and walking! – toward a common goal!
To understand
how fear and love relate to value, consider this example. I love my wife, Erin. And because I
love her, I also fear her. (But no, not the way that you are thinking! Ha!)
What I mean is
that if I truly love her, then I treasure her. In fact, my love for her means
that I place immense value upon our relationship.
Outside of my
relationship with God, my relationship with Erin is the most important of my
life! And that means that she has tremendous value to me.
And how do we
treat those things in our lives that have the highest value?
We are afraid
to lose them, aren’t we! We humans create all kinds of security systems to
protect those things which we value the most, because we are determined not to
lose them!
We love those
things, and so we fear what might happen if they are damaged or lost.
I love my wife
Erin, and so I fear what might happen if I damage her through my words or
actions, or if I lose her because of my own stupidity.
Remember what
Jesus taught us: “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Because we
become personally invested in our treasure.
We love it; we
value it; we fear the loss of it.
This is how it
goes with us: we fear God and we love God when we make God the highest value
in our life.
“The fear of
the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”, because we allow God to become the center
of our lives, the center of our hearts, the conscious focus of our energy.
We do this
because we love God, and we know that there is nothing more precious and
valuable than this connection with the living God, the Creator of all!
And we are
afraid to do anything that might damage this relationship, severe this
connection. We are afraid
to do anything that might cut us off from God!
We fear the
loss of God’s presence, because we know the power of God’s love.
Make sure that
you do this, my friends, because there is nothing more valuable than this! Make
sure that you place the highest possible value in your heart upon your relationship
– your connection - with God.
This is the beginning
of wisdom, because this is the beginning of living fully into our new life in Christ.
Amen.
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