Sermon Archive

Wisdom Piped, and Wisdom Mourned

Fr. Spurlock | Choral Evensong
Sunday, December 04, 2016 @ 4:00 pm
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The Second Sunday Of Advent

The Second Sunday Of Advent

Merciful God, who sent thy messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation: Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the HolySpirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.


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Choral Evensong
4:00 pm
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Scripture citation(s): Amos 6:1-14; Luke 7:28-35

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Jesus, though he is truly God, is also truly human, and as such, during his earthly life, belonged to a human family. One of his kinfolk, a cousin, was named John; this is the same John that we call John the Baptist. Though not on the same level as Jesus, John’s conception and birth were spectacular in their own way. John’s birth had been foretold by the message of an angel, and he was miraculously born to a father and his barren wife both of advanced years.

John’s mother, Elizabeth, saw her sorrow at being childless turned to joy at the conception of her son John. When he was born, John’s father Zechariah, pronounced a divine purpose for John’s life to be the forerunner of the messiah—he was the person who would prepare the people for the coming of the Lord. Exercising this vocation by preaching repentance and baptism for the remission of sins, John developed a large following, but he also attracted fierce opposition.

The seventh chapter of the gospel of Saint Luke, from which our second lesson was taken, begins with John’s young cousin, Jesus, entering the region of Capernaum and healing the servant of a Roman centurion. After he did that, Jesus moved to a nearby city where he raised a boy from the dead. Because of these works, fear fell on all the people, they glorified God, and declared that Jesus was a great prophet.

This rumor about Jesus spread throughout all Judea until it reached the ears of John, prompting him to send messengers to Jesus to ask him if he was the messiah or not. In the presence of these messengers, Jesus healed the sick, cast out demons, and gave sight to the blind. Then he told the messengers to go back and tell John what they saw with their own eyes. Jesus trusted that an account of these works would be enough to answer John’s question. The miracles that Jesus worked are enough of an explanation because they fulfilled the prophecies that foretold that the messiah would heal the sick, cast out demons, and restore sight to the blind. Jesus was meeting all the criteria, proving to them by word and deed that he was the messiah.

After John’s disciples left to deliver Jesus’ message, our Lord began to praise John to the crowd, and this pleased many people because they liked John and were pleased that Jesus would speak well of him. But some people, especially the Pharisees and the lawyers complained because they did not like John any more than they liked Jesus.

In our lesson from the gospel of Saint Luke, Jesus compared these naysayers to children sitting in a marketplace calling to one another. Some of these children are trying to get a game started. Some want to play funeral, but the Pharisees and lawyers don’t want to play funeral—that game is too solemn and bitter. Others try to get them to play a game of wedding, but the Pharisees and lawyers think that’s too frivolous and sweet. So, they just sit and complain about everybody and everything. That’s what they did about John—they complained he had a demon inside of him that made him too severe. And though Jesus seemed to be just the opposite, they accused him of being a drunkard who kept bad company.

After Jesus made this comparison to children playing in the marketplace, he said this: But wisdom is justified by all her children. Or as another translation puts it: God’s wisdom is shown to be true by all who accept it.

Wisdom’s children are those who hear and heed the voice of God. In this instance they are the children who respond to the preaching of John the Baptist to repent and be baptized, and to Jesus’ ministry of healing and mercy. They are blessed because they do not make a stumbling block out of the severity or the mercy but accept both as the wisdom of God.

And God’s wisdom is shown to be true by all who accept it. Who in the crowd are turning from lives of sin to lives of righteousness? Whose sins are being washed away in the waters of baptism? Those who hear and heed the Baptist’s cry and repent and submit to baptism. Who in the crowd are being forgiven, and healed, and saved? Those who hear the voice of the son of God, draw near by faith, and assent to be made well and whole again.

The Pharisees and lawyers, who persist in their sinfulness, neither hear nor heed the call to repent and be washed, and they reject the health and salvation offered them by Jesus. They do not want to play those games, and seek to justify themselves by their own counsel. They are not wisdom’s children because they do not hear nor do they heed the word of God.

That’s no less true today than it was then. Those who insist on being deaf, blind and obstinate to the desire of God for them risk perishing. Those who do not take offense at Jesus are blessed. The wisdom of Christ is shown to be true by the lives of those who still dare to listen for his voice, and to heed his call to draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. Heb 10.22

As wise King Solomon once wrote, the soul full of itself loathes the sweetness of a honeycomb, but to the hungry soul longing for God, even his bitter words fill the hungry with good things. Prov 27.7