Rev. Dr. Paul Tellström                                                  Irvine United Congregational Church

Trinity Sunday C        “Lady Wisdom”                                                                       June 3, 2007

                                               

Hebrew Testament Reading: Proverbs 8: 1 - 4, 22 - 31                                       word count 1,563

Gospel: John 16: 12 – 15

 

            There is more spin than truth in the recitation of facts.  Facts are presented in sentences laden with scientific overtones.  They often contain percentages, such as, “60% of all people polled do not like the way the president is parting his hair.”  Sometimes the statement of fact includes comparisons, such as, “Not since Herbert Hoover has there been so much hair loss during a single administration.”

            I am conditioned to believe facts—the scarier and the more filled with statistics and comparisons they are, the more believable they become.  Three years ago on the radio, I heard that we were about to come into a national depression.  Our currency was going to be devalued, and nations would no longer do business with us.  I went with it.  I listened with a knot in my stomach.  But then, later in the interview, I heard that 87% of all Christians wanted our nation to become a theocracy.  I was duped!  I realized that I was listening to people who were disconnected from reality.

            There are so many truths out there, and it is hard to try and find the truth among all the truths that present themselves to us.  It is very hard these days to know who to believe.  Everyone is trying to lead us to their version of truth.

            In 1997, there was a 14-year old student named Nathan Zohner, who attended the Eagle Rock Junior High School in Idaho Falls.  Nathan won the first prize at the Greater Idaho Falls Science Fair by showing how conditioned we have become to alarmists spreading fear, in his project called, “How Gullible Are We?” 

            In his project, he urged people to sign a petition demanding strict control or total elimination of the chemical “Dihydrogen monoxide” because:

            1. It can cause excessive sweating and vomiting.

            2. It is the major component in acid rain.

            3. It can cause severe burns in its gaseous state.

            4. Accidental inhalation can kill you.

            5. It contributes to the erosion of our natural landscape.

            6. It may cause electrical failures and decreased effectiveness of

                automobile brakes.            

            7. It is found in tumors of terminal cancer patients.

           

            After unmasking the dangers, he asked 50 people if they would sign a petition and support a ban.  43 said yes.  Six were undecided.  And only one knew that the chemical Dihydrogen Monoxide, known as H2O, is water.  Zohner’s analysis of the results he obtained won him first prize in the science fair; garnered him a lot of attention from newspapers, magazines, radio and TV stations, universities, and congress people; and prompted the usual round of outcries about how our ignorant citizenry doesn’t read critically and can be easily misled.

            Thrust any information at someone with a suggestion about what the “correct” response to it should be, and peer pressure pretty much assures you’ll get the answer you’re looking for.  Often we say, “This issue is obviously important to people who think like I do, and if they believe it, so do I.”

            You can go on the web and find another hoax, in a complete and terrifying website about the dangers of Dihydrogen Monoxide at DHMO.org.  You can even buy the T-shirt.  The page reads: You can help us to continue spreading the word about Dihydrogen Monoxide by purchasing one or more of these high-quality, 100% Cotton T-shirts.  Then it assures the customer: “Our T-Shirts are DHMO FREE,” which must be true as T-Shirts are not made of water.

            Three years ago, the California municipality of Aliso Viejo came within a whisker of falling for this hoax after a paralegal there convinced city officials of the danger posed by this chemical.  The leg-pull got so far as a scheduling a vote in the City Council on a proposed law that would have banned the use of foam containers at city-sponsored events because (among other things) they were made with DHMO, a substance that could “threaten human health and safety.”

            Truth.  Pontius Pilate asked his wife: What is Truth?  It is a question that plagues everyone who tries to do the right thing, who tries to live above board, who struggles with all the complexities of life.  “I have much more to say to you,” Jesus said to his disciples.  “More than I can possibly say to you now under the circumstances.  But when the Holy Spirit comes he will guide you into all truth.”  How do you ever find firm ground to stand on an issue?  How do you know that it is the Spirit that is guiding you and not your own prejudices or self-concern?

            This is something that the scriptures from many different traditions try to tell us—that we will be guided, and in the guiding, we should attain wisdom for discernment.

            Jesus telling us about the coming of the Holy Spirit, who would guide us in truth, is very much like Wisdom, who is a feminine personification, being with the Creator since the beginning of time.

            The Book of Proverbs is a collection of pithy sayings intended to bring wisdom to its hearers.  “A penny saved is a penny earned” is often quoted as being from Proverbs.  The currency issue alone should be a tip-off that it isn’t, but the essence of Ben Franklin’s saying is very much like what we get from Proverbs. 

            More than that, Proverbs is a collection of sayings that were recorded in various ways in the religions of other cultures.  Some of our proverbs come from Ancient Egypt.  Others, including the story of Wisdom’s relation to creation, come from the Canaanite myths.  If you ever want to pick up the Bible and get some instant wisdom, look at the Book of Proverbs.

            In our reading today, Lady Wisdom tells of her relationship to creation. God “created” her as “the first of God’s acts” – before God created, “the beginning of the earth” and before the “depths.”  She was “brought forth”: the Hebrew word presents an image of birth, as in begot or formed.   The Canaanite mythological motifs (“depths”, “springs”, shaping of “mountains”) are used to say that wisdom existed before creation began.  Again, Wisdom tells us that she pre-existed the world: she was present at creation, as a witness.  She came to know God’s secrets in creating the heavens and the earth.  The story says that she was “beside God” at that time. (Later authors, those of Sirach and Wisdom, show that she had an active role in creation.)  She was God’s “delight” and she delighted in the creation of humankind; she rejoiced both in God and in those created.  When later trans-culturated into the Greek world, Wisdom becomes logos, the pre-existent divine Word: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  In the Gospel of John, this unique understanding of a being, or an aspect of God that existed with God, becomes Jesus—that he “became flesh and lived among us,” is an understanding that can be bridged by a culture that personified Wisdom as a pre-existing entity.1

            The idea that is being presented today in both the Gospel of John and in Proverbs, is that knowledge and wisdom can be attained.  Truth exists, and you may not be able to understand it.  Our traditions tell us though, that when you call out from within you for guidance, you will be guided in the truth, however unknowable that truth may be to us here and now.

            Since today is Trinity Sunday, I can use the Trinity as an example.  St. Augustine, while puzzling over the doctrine of the Trinity, was walking along the beach one day when he observed a young boy with a bucket, running back and forth to pour water into a little hole.  Augustine asked, “What are you doing?”  The boy replied, “I'm trying to put the ocean into this hole.”

            Then Augustine realized that he had been trying to put an infinite God into

his finite mind.2 

            We do not have the power to understand the infinite.  But we can be guided in the Truth with a capital “T” from the deepest part of our being by calling upon and recognizing a higher power, and by seeking to attain wisdom when we batter up against all of the small “truths” that are defined for us in our finite senses, colored by ignorance, prejudice and the very human need to find a niche to fit into. 

            The 14-year old boy’s science project was called, “How Gullible Are We?”  The truth is, very.  Both our Hebrew and our Christian scriptures today want to tell us that the truth is out there.  It is not in black and white, at least in a way that we would understand, but the Spirit of the truth will guide us, and the attaining of wisdom is in feeling what is right and true and just from the core of your being when it is motivated by the search for the Truth.

            This is something that sacred scriptures from many different traditions try to tell us—that we will be guided, and in the guiding, we should attain wisdom for discernment.  And the power of discernment must be active in our faith life, as it is in our every day living.  If I am wrong, tell me to go stick my head in a bucket of Dihydrogen Monoxide.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sermon Resources:

Dihydrogen Monoxide:  Go to www.snopes.com  and www.DHMO.org

1)  Revised Common Lectionary Commentary, at http://montreal.anglican.org/comments/

      for Trinity Sunday, Year “C”

2)   Augustine quote: Michael Green, Illustrations for Biblical Preaching, Baker Book House,

      1993, p. 389.

 

Scriptures for Sunday, June 6, 2004

Trinity Sunday, Year “C”

 

Proverbs 8: 1 - 4, 22 - 31 

 

          Does not wisdom call, and does not understanding raise her voice?  On the heights, beside the way, at the crossroads she takes her stand; beside the gates in front of the town, at the entrance of the portals she cries out: “To you, O people, I call, and my cry is to all that live.

          “The LORD created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of long ago.  Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water.  Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth—when he had not yet made earth and fields, or the world’s first bits of soil.  When he established the heavens, I was there, when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him, like a master worker; and I was daily his delight,

rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race.

 

John 16: 12 – 15

 

          But now I am going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me, “Where are you going?”  But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts.  Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.  And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because they do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.

          “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.  He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you.  All that the Father has is mine.  For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.