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The Seventh Sunday After The Epiphany
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Scripture citation(s): Proverbs 1:20-33
A Sermon by
Fr. Spurlock
on
Proverbs 1:20-33
✛
Wisdom or Folly?
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Recently, I was passing the subway entrance on my home from the grocery store. There is a street preacher named Pat who is a fixture in my neighborhood. He was standing at the subway entrance, as he often is, holding signs that proclaimed Jesus saves, and he was preaching to the passersby.
Because I tend to see him when I’m wearing my clerical collar, Pat usually stops whatever sermon he is preaching at that moment to shout at me that the Virgin Mary isn’t going to save me. Because of my collar he thinks I’m a Roman Catholic, and Pat has the notion that Roman Catholics are fixated on Mary more than Jesus. Despite my assurances over the years to the contrary, Pat is still taking the time to bring me into a relationship with the truth that Jesus saves.
But on this most recent occasion I was in civvies and Pat just held one of his signs to my face and continued his sermon uninterrupted. He was preaching against idolatry, but as far as I could tell, no one was paying him any attention.
This is one of the qualities that I respect in that man. Lacking a comfortable Fifth Avenue pulpit, Pat has the conviction and courage to stand in the public places and proclaim the truth about the folly of sin, and the saving power of Jesus. And he endures disdain, abuse, and much worse, just being ignored.
Pat is a bit like Wisdom herself as she speaks to us from the Proverbs. In the book of Proverbs, Wisdom is personified, and she is personified as a highly favored and honorable woman who desires to have many children. She’s also a street preacher, and she has something to say to each and every one of us that may help lead us to become one of her children. She has the courage of her convictions and she stands in the street calling out, she preaches at the gates of the city crying,
I keep calling to you, but you refuse to listen.
I hold out my hand to you, but you walk by and ignore me.
You do not follow my advice.
You do not want me to correct you.
When you ignore good counsel, doesn’t trouble follow close behind?
It strikes you like a whirlwind and it overwhelms you.
Yet, when trouble is sore upon you that is when you think to call to me for help?
But after the trouble has come, it’s too late for me to do anything for you.
I cannot help you in that hour.
The seeds of your punishment were already sown by your evil deeds when you were ignoring me and following your own will.
You did not accept my advice. You rejected my correction.
So you will get what you deserve. And you will reap the trouble that you hoped to cause for others.
This is always how fools are destroyed, by their own pride and complacency. They do not seek and follow wisdom while she can still do them good.
In the midst of her preaching, Wisdom says one of the hardest words for us to hear: When the panic strikes you like a storm, and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you, I will laugh at your calamity, and I will mock you when the panic strikes.
But she concludes with one of the most blessed things she has to say: It does not have to be this way.
Those who seek wisdom and cherish her with dedication and devotion dwell in perfect safety. They have no need to fear trouble or harm. They are her children, and she is like a mother lioness protecting her young. Hers is not the easiest voice to hear, hers is not the easiest way to follow, but nothing good and holy is ever the easiest is it? It’s just the best and most desirable voice and way.
But hers is not the only voice calling. Wisdom’s call must be discerned amid the myriad of voices and shouts that issue from the street. These voices make appeals to pleasure and easy success. Every appetite will be fed, every desire fulfilled, every whim indulged. But this is the way of folly. And the way of folly is the way of death. Thus says wisdom.
There are two such speeches by her found in the book of Proverbs, this in the first chapter and another in the eighth, but appeals to seek wisdom and to respond to her words run throughout the book of Proverbs, and throughout the whole Bible. Though personified as a woman greatly to be desired, she is no idol. She is simply the mind and voice of God, and if you have a robust view of the trinity, whether found in Old or New Testament, she is the voice of our Lord Jesus Christ, God personified.
Jesus walked the streets of town after town, he preached in their marketplaces, he cried out in their streets, he sat teaching in their gates, and he said,
You people, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!
I’ve piped to you and you won’t dance. I’ve cried out to you and you won’t mourn. I’ve come fasting and you say I’m too severe, I’ve come feasting and you call me a glutton.
What more can I say than to you I have said.
Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:
let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts:
and let him return unto the Lord,
and he will have mercy upon him;
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
Once wisdom is found she will be faithful to her children building up their houses with peace and prosperity. But rejection of her means death.
Remember Lazarus! When Jesus was faced with the death of one of his friends, as he stood outside Lazarus’ tomb praying to his Father in heaven, was Jesus laughing because calamity had come upon his friend, was he mocking Mary and Martha because they were struck by panic? By no means. You see, God does not desire the death of a sinner, but rather that he may turn from the way of folly and death and live. When confronted with the consequence of sin, Jesus wept.
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Therefore, I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing, folly and wisdom: therefore choose wisely, that you may live.
