How do you get wise? … Through lots of experience, right? OK, how do you get experience? … I heard that we get experience by making mistakes. So the beginning of wisdom is trying something new, experiencing something new, and a changing world. The Bible tells us something maybe a little different, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom”. Fear? Yikes, we have had it up to here, (up to our neck) with fear. So we should just be more afraid of God than we are of MAGA, of Christian Nationalism, of ICE, or of the direction our country is headed? In looking into this Jewish word “yir·’aṯ”, fear is the surface level. It can be and has been used as awe. We can be in awe/fear of a tornado and we can be in awe/wonder of a rainbow after a storm. It can also be used as reverence. We can not fear dictators while we are revering them. We can fear the harm they can do to us and others, or we can revere/worship them with respect, love, and trust. I was brought up to love God and believe that God is love, so I choose to revere God and stand in awe of the world that God has created. Maybe this gives me wisdom to see that we are all connected not just to other human beings, but the all other living beings and all things, seen and unseen. Amen?
We talked a little about an “eye for an eye” last week, but I included it in this week’s reading so we could hear it again and in a different reading. Also wanted to connect this to “love your enemy” that Jesus tells us. Not just our neighbors who look like us, or live by us, or agree with us, or just leave us alone, we are to love our enemies. "WOW!” I have been accused more than once from inside and outside our church that I have not been showing enough love and even showing hate to those I deem on the “other side.” I can tell you that I have not hated them and I have tried to rebuke (a good Christian word) the actions like voting and policies and injustices committed. I have skated close the line, I thought, but others have called foul. Can I learn from this experience and be wiser? I think so.
In the Letter of 1 John, it tells us that only God’s perfect love can cast our fear. Paul in Romans tells us that we shouldn’t fear those who do us bodily harm, but fear the one who holds our bodies and souls. So, to love our enemy is to work through our anxiety, to let fear go (don’t just stuff it down), and fill ourselves with love. I have also said in weddings when 1 Corinthians 13 is used, too much for a couple, and not enough for our community and world, we don’t have to like our in-laws and at times maybe even our spouse, but we have to love them. As we mature, we can find the love that is patient, kind, not envious, boastful, arrogant, or rude. Love does not insist on its own way, but rejoices in the truth. This is the way Jesus is wanting us to love.
Rev. Dr. Karen Georgia Thompson, our General Minister and President, gave the state of the church at the General Synod meeting. She reminded us that we are a “united and uniting” church. We have done a lot of work to come together, and still have a ways to go. We, as a denomination, have a lot of work yet to do to define who we are, even in the midst of struggle and disagreements in our nation that also in are churches and conferences.
Dr. Nina McCune and I lead four workshops on how to have compassionate community conversations through Cook County Higher Education and now we are teaming up with Pat Campanaro and inviting leaders from the other side in our county to have Purple Picnics. A time when we can sit down together, break bread together, and talk with those who voted differently. If we can get this off the ground, a grand way to practice and gaining wisdom to love our neighbor.
If we are filled with continued fear, anxiety, and even hatred for the other, who our other may be, then we cannot love. In our bulletin on the back, I have a spirituality practice that we can use to fill ourselves with love.
Pray this Passage:
Thus says the Lord, … who created you, O ________, …Who formed you, O _______,
Do not fear, for I have redeemed you: I have called you by name _________ you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they
shall not overwhelm you; When you walk through the fire you shall not be burned,
And the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, The Holy One of
Israel, your Savior…
You are precious in my sight, And honored, and I love you…
Can a woman forget her nursing child, Or show no compassion for the child of her
womb?
Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. See I have inscribed your name
_________ on the palms of my hand.
We can also use this as a start to loving our enemies by naming them as groups and/or as individuals. The goal of loving them is so that we don’t give into hate, violence, apathy and lose our humanity, compassion, and relationship with all things. The goal is peace, shalom, where there is liberty and justice for all.
We may have not been through a rising autocracy and oligarchy, but God has. Jesus and his country and religion lived under one. We are to remember who God is, who God created us to be, and where Jesus is leading us: the kingdom, where there is good news for the poor, there is healing, and the captives and oppressed are set free. Amen? Amen!