A Dying Life, Part 2: Called to Wisdom and Flourishing [Lent 3]

Proverbs 9:1-6, 10-18

Proverbs 31:10-31

My first two sermons for this Lenten season were titled, “A Dying Life.”  That phrase may not sound inspiring or encouraging to you.  I meant for that phrase to provide some tension and to raise some questions.  To say that the life that God offers to us is a dying life can be a sobering realization.  And to welcome the reality of our dying lives as a good gift from God may require some effort.  Put differently, “dying” is part of the gift God gives to us.

 

I hope you don’t think that just because I can talk about death in public means that there is no tension or anxiety in my own life.  I have to talk about things that matter, whether I’m comfortable with it or not.  And Lent is a season that begins with ashes, with honesty and humility not only about the many ways we have failed to love God and our neighbors, but also about how we are creatures made from dust with limited life spans.

I dread flying on planes, both because I’m afraid of heights and because I get motion sickness easily.  I still fly, because it’s the quickest way to get from A to B.  But I don’t like it.  So as my family and I were preparing to fly to Boston last week, it did not help that there had been not one, but two tragic crashes of commercial flights – one in Indonesia and one in Ethiopia.  It turns out that both those plane crashes involved a new Boeing plane, the 737 Max 8.  Leading up to my flight, I avoided asking myself the question, “I wonder what kind of plane I’m flying on?”.  I settled into my seat, put in my headphones and started listening to a podcast.  I almost never listen to the spiel from the flight attendants about emergency exits and how to put on your mask, but I happened to glance up as the flight attendant opened the information brochure that read in great big letters: “Boeing 737 Max 8.” 

For the first 20 minutes or so of that flight, I was an anxious mess.  My mind circled through every worst-case scenario imaginable.  So while I do believe that God has given me the gift of a dying and limited life, welcoming that gift creates as much anxiety and tension for me as it does for anyone else.

We’re reading today from Proverbs – that’s “wisdom literature” from the Bible.  Wisdom literature is unique within the collection of writings we refer to as Scripture.  There is almost no interest at all in God’s decisive acts within history to save and deliver a people.  All the energy in wisdom literature aims at reflection on how to live skilled and fruitful life before the God who sustains and nurtures all of creation.  Phillip Larkin’s poem, The Mower, is a pretty good summary of the wise life that Proverbs recommends . . .

The mower stalled, twice; kneeling, I found

A hedgehog jammed up against the blades,

Killed. It had been in the long grass.

I had seen it before, and even fed it, once.

Now I had mauled its unobtrusive world

Unmendably. Burial was no help:

Next morning I got up and it did not.

The first day after a death, the new absence

Is always the same; we should be careful

Of each other, we should be kind

While there is still time.

First, we note that Larkin is engaged in the act of mowing the yard.  That is, he is tending to his little corner of earth to keep it useful and attractive.  Second, in going about his work he happens to harm another creature, a hedgehog.  And he grieves about the harm he has done.  Third, he is able to reflect on that experience, and to invite all of us to pursue a life that is fundamentally kind.

You may have noticed that both of our readings from Proverbs today involve women.  One possible reading would be that women are wise and men are idiots.  I will not ask for a show of hands on support for this interpretation.  But that’s probably not a very helpful way to read Proverbs.  I’m convinced that these “women” are ancient metaphors for exploring what God wants for all of us as God’s creatures.

In Proverbs 9 we meet “Woman Wisdom.”  She represents the way God sets us into our lives as creatures and calls us to lives that are characterized by wisdom.  She prepares a feast, sets a table, and then calls to all who will listen to come to the feast and to get wisdom.  Those who answer this call will learn to live with insight and skill, with kindness and care.  Not only will they flourish and find deep satisfaction in life, their surroundings will flourish as well.  But there is also the call from the Woman of “Folly” or “Foolishness.”  Her way sounds appealing too, but it leads to regret and death.

Now if we take these metaphors seriously, it means that God is at work in our everyday, ordinary lives to call us to wisdom and flourishing.  God is at work in our own experience, in our relationships, in our work, in our struggles, in our routines, and in our natural human development to call us towards wisdom and flourishing.  This is really quite profound if you believe it.  It means that every single creature wakes every single day into a life where God calls us, God addresses us; in the language of Proverbs you can even say that God seduces us into the way of wisdom.  That is, we live our lives under the pull or persuasion of God’s goodness. 

So how do we know if we’re responding to God’s call to become wise?  Proverbs suggests that the key factor is whether our lives contribute to the flourishing of all others in our places. Wise people care about how their lives, their work, their habits, and their decisions affect their surroundings.  Wise people see themselves as a small part of a vast network of creatures in a physical landscape that God loves and sustains.  So wise people care about the health of soil, streams, crops, and animals.  Wise people care whether their local community and their local economy is flourishing.  Wise people care about the well-being of all others with whom they share space.  They care enough to make disciplined choices so that all of God’s creatures can flourish together, along with the earth that sustains us all.

To be called to wisdom in Proverbs means to be called to a particular kind of insight.  And it’s a very practical kind of insight.  Those who are learning to become wise are learning how all the concrete situations of our lives are related to God.  There is a kind of wholeness to wisdom.  Wise people don’t compartmentalize their lives – as if there are slivers of your life that matter and others that don’t.  So in every different sphere of our lives, we are called to practice wisdom: in the way we bathe and care for our bodies; in the way we eat; in the way we farm; in the way we learn and take in information; in the way we vote; in the way we express our intimacy and affection; in the ways we share with and help others; in the way we do our work; and in the way we use our words.

Moving from Proverbs 9 to Proverbs 31, we are again in the presence of a woman of wisdom.  But again, this is a metaphor.  It’s not about wives.  It’s about all of us, married or not, male or female, old or young.  It’s a picture of what a wise life looks like.  It’s a picture of a life that aims at flourishing – not in a selfish or individualistic way – but at the flourishing of others, of the place, of the community, the land, and the economy.  This is the life to which God calls all of us.  This is a disciplined life, a responsible life, a productive, fruitful life; a life that plans for the future; a life that collaborates with lots of others; a life that takes risks and makes investments; a life that others can depend on.  I hope that you notice how ordinary this life looks.  This wise figure is no superhero.  This is just a person who welcomes the life she’s received from God.  She understands herself as an active, creative, powerful person within her local place.  And she gets to work caring not just for her own family but for the well-being of that place. 

The Bible’s wisdom literature includes Proverbs, but also the Song of Songs, Job, and Ecclesiastes.  Now it’s true that Proverbs and the Song of Songs tend to feel more optimistic than Job and Ecclesiastes.  But Proverbs is simply trying to remind us that, despite all the terrible things that happen, life often works.  God nurtures and sustains a world full of all kinds of different creatures.  And while it’s not a perfect world, it is often a world in which these creatures work together and share what they have and care for one another in ways that enable growth and satisfaction and health.

We Protestant Christians have traditionally been known for our emphasis on sin.  We talk a lot about our sinfulness because we want to make sure that we are confessing that God is graceful and kind and merciful to us.  This is a good thing – confessing our sins each week is a way for us to admit that our lives are often bent away from God’s new kingdom of love.  But it’s also important that we confess that God’s creation is fundamentally good.  God loves all that God has made, and all of creation brings God delight and pleasure.  And we too can live in wonder, curiosity, and joy as we welcome from God our dying, limited lives.  

We might want to be careful that our practice of confessing our sins does not lead us to downgrade the beauty and goodness of our own lives or of the rest of creation.  Yale scientist Nicholas Christakis, in his new book, Blueprint, makes “an argument that we’re transcendently and inherently good — that we’re genetically wired for it, thanks to a process of natural selection that has favored people prone to constructive friendships, to cooperation, to teaching, to love” (Frank Bruni, NYT).

“For too long,” he writes in the preface, “the scientific community has been overly focused on the dark side of our biological heritage: our capacity for tribalism, violence, selfishness and cruelty. The bright side has been denied the attention it deserves.”  Christakis refuses to believe that human persons are fundamentally mean or violent or selfish.  He is making a scientific case for basic human kindness and cooperation.  He isn’t making an appeal to Scripture.  He’s simply trying to pay attention to our shared experience.  And in that way, he is reinforcing the wisdom of Proverbs.

 So no, God has not offered us unlimited lives.  And no, God has not offered us all the time in the world.  God has given enough bread for today.  And God has called us to deeply satisfying lives that aim at the flourishing of our surroundings.  So friends, let’s not waste any time.  And if some of our habits and attitudes have been foolish, then let us take advantage of this Lenten season of repentance and growth.