| President Bush concluded last Thursday's speech to Congress and the nation with these words: "In all that lies before us, may God grant us wisdom and may [God] watch over the United States of America." Something like President Bush's prayerful request for divine wisdom is, I believe, on the lips and in the heart of just about everyone of us here this morning. It certainly was earlier that Thursday evening, before President Bush's speech, at our West Side Interfaith Prayer Service. There, not just one leader but at least six prayed words quite similar to the president's. "In all that lies before us, may God grant us wisdom." Precisely because such a prayer is so widespread among us, I believe it behooves us to spend some time this morning reflecting first on some biblical passages that speak of the wisdom of God and second on the question of just what the voice of God's wisdom is likely to sound like as it comes to us amidst the many voices competing for our attention in this time of grief and anger. What sorts of messages would a God-granted wisdom be sending to us in this, our time of trial? What types of message would be a saving wisdom? Today's First Lesson comes from the Book of Proverbs, chapter 2. This brilliant poem teaches that wisdom is a divine gift. If a person fervently desires wisdom and diligently searches for it, God will bestow divine wisdom as a gift. And such wisdom will then empower that person to live rightly toward God and neighbor. It will also save and protect that person from evildoers. In this poem, the speaker paints a stark contrast between, the paths of goodness and justice that are established and guarded by wisdom and the ways of darkness and death that are walked in by those who are evil and perverse. Yet the speaker promises to those who diligently seek divine wisdom that it will be given, so that goodness and justice may come to pass. In our Second Lesson, the portion from the letter of First Timothy teaches us to seek the knowledge-of-the-truth that constitutes wisdom by praying for it-by praying not only for its being granted to us, but also for its being granted to all others as well-and in particular, to our civic and political leaders, whether they be kings, or clerics, or generals, or in our case, a president. Yes, First Timothy teaches that we are to pray for all persons, friend and foe alike-for all persons, including our enemies-so that they, too, may come to the knowledge of the truth and to a peaceable life, led in all godliness and dignity. You see, nowadays our head of state, the president, is basically our friend, but in the first century the head of the Roman state, the emperor, was in every case the Christian community's enemy. So when First Timothy urges Christians to pray that God may grant knowledge of truth to the emperor, it is urging Christians to pray for their enemy. I observed that in President Bush's speech last Thursday night, he urged us to pray first "for the victims of terror and their families," and then "for those in uniform," and finally "for our great country." Well, with all due respect to the president, I must insist that he was urging us to pray for far too narrow a circle of people, for not only did he fail to pray that God may watch over all nations, not just our own, but he also quite noticeably omitted any request that we pray "for our enemies," so that they may be changed in heart and mind, so that they may be brought to knowledge of the truth and to a peaceable life led in all godliness and dignity. It was the fourth-century Christian thinker John Chrysostom who, in commenting on this lesson from First Timothy, first contended that praying for our enemies reduces our hatred for them, "for no one," he said, "can feel hatred towards those for whom [one] prays." It is in this spirit of seeking to reduce hatred that I would urge us all to expand our circle of prayer to include, for example, Afghanis and their rulers, the Taliban; and Al Qaeda and their leader, Osama bin Laden. So Proverbs and First Timothy teach that God grants to those who seek it the wisdom that leads to justice and that offers protection from evil, making possible peaceable lives led in godliness and dignity. And First Timothy also teaches that because of our prayers for others God may choose to grant knowledge of such truth not only to those who seek it but to our enemies as well. Now, having learned these valuable things about the wisdom of God, we must go on to ask the really important questions, namely: "What is the content of divine wisdom? What messages is the wisdom of God sending us today? And how are we to distinguish the words of God's wisdom from the words of human folly or even from the words of a wisdom that's merely human? Well, it's the last portion of our Second Lesson that offers us the key we need to answer these questions. For in Paul's First Letter to the church in Corinth he says to the Christians living there, "By God's act, you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us Wisdom from God, not only justice, but also sanctification and liberation." That's it, you see. That's the answer! The measure for gauging what is or is not wisdom from God is Christ Jesus, who is the very embodiment of divine wisdom, the wisdom that offers the only foundation there is for a justice rooted and grounded in God. If Jesus is the embodiment and measure of divine wisdom, then what will the voice of this wisdom sound like, this wisdom for which we're praying when we say, "In all that lies before us, may God grant us wisdom." Will the wisdom of God, as embodied in Jesus, urge us to oppose evil? Yes, of course it will, just as Jesus himself opposed evil in all that he said and did. The Gospel of Mark, for example, quite regularly offers us images of Jesus combating Satan and all the forces of evil. Yes, the wisdom of God will urge us to oppose evil. Will the wisdom of God, as embodied in Jesus, identify for us that it's evil to slaughter innocent men, women, and children, like those in the World Trade Center on September 11th? Yes, of course it will, as the Gospel of Matthew makes clear, for example, by narrating the story of how evil it was for King Herod to slaughter all the children under two yearsof age in and around Bethlehem, after Jesus was born. Yes, the wisdom of God will identify as evil the killing of innocent men, women, and children, but of course it will make no distinctions between the innocent Americans in the World Trade Center or ordinary Afghanis in the cities and villages of Afghanistan. Will the wisdom of God, as embodied in Jesus, urge us to establish justice? Yes, of course it will, as the Gospel of Luke makes clear through the rhetorical question that Jesus adds at the end of his parable about an unjust judge (18:2-7). Jesus says: "And will not God grant justice to [those] who cry to God day and night? Will God delay long in helping them?" Of course God will act to grant justice. But in our search for the voice of God's wisdom, it's quite important for us to take note of the preciseways in which Jesus went about opposing evil and establishing justice. For in opposing evil and establishing justice Jesus was no Rambo. Jesus hung out no "Wanted: Dead or Alive" signs for his enemies. Jesus did not seek to seem to be a stronger, tougher hombre than anyone else around. And Jesus launched no military crusades against those who did not choose to stand with him. In fact, we hear in the Gospel of John, when Peter, in defending Jesus on the night of his arrest, took out a sword and drew blood, Jesus said to him, "Put your sword back into its sheath." And according to the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus went on to say, "…for all who take the sword will perish by the sword." So if it was not by might or by weapons or by threats that Jesus, as the embodiment of divine wisdom, opposed evil and established justice, then how did he go about doing it? First, Jesus did it by always speaking the truth. If we are to hear and act upon this word of divine wisdom, then I believe we as a nation need first, before anything else, to lay out for all the world to see our case for who it is that's guilty of the World Trade Center attack. And we need to do this without hiding behind the claim that we can't do it "for security reasons." I regret that we as a nation have not yet spoken the truth by laying out our case. Second, Jesus acted to oppose evil and establish justice by challenging his followers to pause to examine themselves. This week, Jews will be observing their most sacred day of the year, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, a day for inward reflection and repentance and for seeking God's forgiveness. I believe that this week the wisdom of God is calling all people, not just Jews, to judge ourselves before judging others, to use these days to weigh and consider how our own actions as a nation may be contributing to the cycles of violence in our world. Have we, for example, pursued wealth and power at the expense of economic, social, and environmental justice for others? Have we in any way abetted the spread of violence through our mass distribution of movies and television programs celebrating violence? Have we as a nation cultivated a standard of living for ourselves that subjects other nations to poverty? And why is it that we experience so little pain and upset when six thousand persons a month die elsewhere in the world because they can't get access to enough food? Can we help to stop the spread of violence by changing some of our own patterns of behavior? Yes, the wisdom of God embodied in Jesus is challenging us to pause to examine ourselves. Third, Jesus, as the embodiment of divine wisdom, acted to oppose evil and establish justice by sitting at table with sinners and seeking first to be reconciled with them. So far we've made no attempt to arrange a meeting between Secretary Powell and the Taliban leadership, say in Karachi, Pakistan, a meeting at which Secretary Powell and an American Muslim advisor can present to the Taliban the evidence that implicates Osama bin Laden and invite them to participate in a solution. So far we've offered the Taliban only unconditional demands. We've not said, "Come, let's sit down and reason together." We might be tempted to say, "We can't reason with unreasonable people." But that's too self-serving and too easy a way out. Can we as a nation find the humility to ask others in the world, including the Taliban, whether some of our own actions may be fueling their anger toward us? And then, having listened to their response, can we find the humility as a nation to sit down with them at table and reason together? I believe that's what the wisdom of God is calling upon us to do. Fourth, Jesus, as the embodiment of divine wisdom, acted to oppose evil and establish justice by holding steadfastly to the principles of love and non-violence, even at the cost of his dying on the cross. In dying on the cross, Christ modeled for us how the bearing of pain and the forgiving of enemies has the power to save and redeem the world. Jesus calls us to join him in opposing evil with love and non-violence. Now this is without doubt the part of God's wisdom that has been the hardest for humankind to hear and to accept. But the path of God's wisdom is designed to reduce violence in the world, not increase it, and to honor the sacredness of life. God is calling us first to explore every possible means of non-violent conflict resolution before surrendering to that merely human wisdom called "fighting a just war." In the end, we might have to engage in a just war, but we have not yet made that full exploration toward reconciliation with Afghanistan or with any other nation. Indeed, I believe we need to ask, Why have we chosen to use the word "war" at all? Why are we not speaking of a "struggle against massive evil," of our commitment to "rooting out evil by establishing justice"? Why are we not talking more about "exploring every legal and diplomatic means at our disposal"? Why are we not speaking of "launching more effective police actions," of "isolating rogue nations," of "sealing off their borders" ? Why are we speaking so soon of invasions by ground troops? Why are we so steadfastly using the word "war"? Is it because by using that word we are better prepared to accept the taking of many innocent Afghani lives, rationalizing it either as simply "an eye for an eye" or as just so much "unavoidable collateral damage"? And even if we were to give in to a merely human wisdom and to stick with the word "war," arguing as Christians have long done that some wars are justified-even if we were to do that, "just war" requires that we find "legitimate targets"-people actually engaged in organizing, supporting or carrying out terrorist activities; and "just war" also requires that we hit those targets without killing large numbers of innocent people. Can we really say that at this time we are capable of doing that? I wonder. These past two week, many Americans, including President Bush, are quoting Jesus's beatitude, "Blessed are those who mourn." And these are wonderful words of consolation in which I, too, join, for they are so healing for us here in New York. But I would urge us as a nation, having recited that beatitude, to continue on down the list and, in faithfulness to the wisdom of God, to recite others of Jesus's beatitudes as well: "Blessed are the meek; blessed are the merciful; blessed are the peacemakers; and blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake." In this longer list of Jesus's beatitudes there lies a fuller vision of God's wisdom. It is the ways of the crucified Christ that embody the wisdom of God, a wisdom that deconstructs all human claims to wisdom. So again, what were the ways used by the historical Jesus to oppose evil and establish justice? They included these:to always speak the truth; to challenge followers to examine their own role in injustice; to sit at table with sinners and seek reconciliation; to hold steadfastly to the principles of love and non-violence. In these ways of Jesus are to be found the wisdom of God. In these ways are to be found the wisdom that can save. Let us pray: Amen |
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