Where Do We Find Wisdom?

On January 13th, we began a new sermon series:

with thanks to Sue Kravits for this meme

This blog post is based on the first sermon in this new series, and serves mostly as a brief introduction.

A colleague of mine recently declared that she's going to stop her habit of reading the news on her phone when she first wakes up in the morning. "It hypes me up too much, she said, "and the answers I seek aren't there."

We have so much information at our fingertips, so much information that is instantly accessible--everything it seems, except the answers we are really seeking.

We yearn for wisdom. We yearn for a still, small voice in the midst of all the clamor. We yearn to have a wise mind that will help us make wise decisions and avoid painful mistakes. Or could it be that making painful mistakes is a necessary step along the road to wisdom? And the constant back and forth, the ongoing on-the-one-hand-on-the-other-hand debates in our minds makes us yearn for wisdom even more.

Where do we go to look for wisdom?

Some of us go to the past. We believe that wisdom can be found in ancient voices. Perhaps the Bhagavad Gita has a certain appeal because it is so old. The Buddha lived five hundred years before Christ. Those of us who are here in worship listen to ancient scriptures read aloud each week.

Perhaps part of the appeal of John the Baptist was that he evoked the past. The Gospel writer Matthew says that he was clothed in camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist. We might be tempted to shrug our shoulders and say, "Well, isn't that how most biblical characters were dressed?" But that's not true. John's clothing was already ancient by first century standards. He was dressed essentially as the Prophet Elijah, who had lived more than eight hundred years before and whose return was supposed to signal the arrival of the Messiah, God's long-awaited promised deliverer.

John the Baptist, Juan de Juanes, c. 1560

The people flocked to see John the Baptist. Matthew says that the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were making the trek out into the wilderness to hear John preach. Can you imagine everyone in New York City and Westchester trekking up to some remote place in the Catskills simply to hear a street preacher? If you want to hear a street preacher, all you have to do is go to Times Square! Why trek out of the city and into the wilderness?

The Preaching of John the Baptist, by Peter Bruegel the Elder, 1566

Perhaps some people were curious. Perhaps some hoped to find fault with his sermons. Yet I suspect that many went because they were yearning for wisdom.

And then John the Baptist, this fiery preacher and wise teacher, points to a figure of even deeper wisdom. He proclaims, "I baptize you with water, but there is one coming after me who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire."

John's water baptism symbolizes a cleansing or a washing. Jesus' baptism of fire symbolizes an even deeper transformation, like the smelting of metals.

Over the next several weeks, we will seek together the wisdom that Jesus offers us.

But please know this at the outset: The road to wisdom is through the fire and not around it.

The wisdom we seek is through the fire of deep transformation.

And whether or not it sounds like it at first, that really is good news.

Questions:

Where have you typically looked for wisdom?

Who have been the wise mentors in your life?

In your own experience, can you think of wisdom that you've gained after going through a period of deep transformation?