Introduction

Prov 2:1-6 My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

Prov 9:10 "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

Let us pray …Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach wisdom in the inmost place (Ps 51:6). Father today we come to you with one simple request. Lead us to the knowledge of yourself - the only wise God, to you be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen. Rom 16:27

The bible has entire books on wisdom including Proverbs, a book of practical wisdom from which these words were taken, as well as Job and Ecclesiastes which wrestle with more philosophic issues such as the meaning of life and the problem of evil.

When Carmen, our programming director, asked me to speak I had no delusions that she thought me wise. Of course given her sound theological grounding I searched for a scriptural reason for her request and found it in Job 12:12: Is not wisdom found among the aged? Does not long life bring understanding?

For Carmen – Grey hair equals wisdom. Let us pray that this sermon doesn’t prove Carmen’s assumption false. You may remember the words of an old hymn:

Immortal, invisible, God only wise,
In light inaccessible hid from our eyes,

What is wisdom?

What is the wisdom of God and how is it expressed in our lives?

Can we be wise, and if so, how? … other than grey hair.

What is Wisdom?

If you Google a dictionary you will find that definitions of Wisdom center on two major ideas: ‘accumulated learning or knowledge’ and ‘good sense, a wise course of action’.

The Greek words for wisdom in the New Testament carry exactly those meanings. Sophia is knowledge or an understanding of the real nature of things. Phronesis is insight applied, doing the right thing in light of understanding. Sophia is theoretical, Phronesis is practical.

By the way, in Greek, wisdom is actually feminine. In fact, throughout Proverbs, Wisdom is referred to as ‘she’. I mentioned this new insight to my wife Twila and she just gave me one of those looks. ‘Ya, so, what is your point’ I think she knew that.

It may be easier to define Wisdom using an analogy. Imagine wisdom as being on a roadway in which there is a clear view of the way forward and you are free to drive to your destination. The lack of wisdom, or folly, lies in driving down one of two ditches, the ditch of relying solely on knowledge or solely on experience.

Think about Dean and me. Dean loves the experiential – he loves 4 wheeling down the ditch of practicality and experience, whether or not it is tied to knowledge and understanding. There was a joke during the tours of the new church as to how they were going to move Dean’s office library – both books – except he hadn’t finish colouring in one of them.

Now my problem is that I am always trying to set up camp in the ditch of study and knowledge. I am afraid I live dangerously close to the stereotype of all academics – I live in an ivory tower.

By the way, I hate to shatter you image Dean – truth is he likes reputation, but in fact, he is one of the wisest men I know. He may not read many books from cover to cover, but if you doubt he reads just check out the shape of his bible sometime.

Wisdom of God

God never drives down the ditches –his actions are a perfect balance of ‘right knowing’ and ‘right action’. I am not going to try to convince you of God’s wisdom – let’s take that as given. But we may all need a reminder of how the wisdom of God has been exercised throughout history.

You see, God is not just a loving, gentle, but somewhat demented grey haired grandfather. Google God – he is faithful and good – but he is also brilliant. Let me simply remind you of three acts of incredible wisdom which we are familiar.

Wisdom of God the Father - CREATION

Listen to these verses:

Jer 10:12 But God made the earth by his power; he founded the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.

Prov 3:19-20 By wisdom the LORD laid the earth's foundations, by understanding he set the heavens in place; by his knowledge the deeps were divided, and the clouds let drop the dew.

We modernists, and even some of younger post-modernists, suffer from the impression that science has some how taken God out of creation. This is far from the truth. I think we kind of miss the point when we see science as the enemy and try to push Intelligent Design on others. Science is not the enemy - let me take a short diversion here to explain why.

C.S. Lewis wrote a lovely little article called ‘Meditations in a Tool S hed’ in which he describes walking into a dark tool shed and seeing a shaft of light streaming through the window. He remarked as to how when you look AT the shaft of light you see dust particles, and the illumination of a bare wood floor and a few yard tools. But when you step into the shaft of light and ALONG it, everything is different. Suddenly there is blue sky, a blazing sun, and green fields. He notes how looking ‘AT’ and looking ‘ALONG’ are two different things.

Science is charged with looking ‘AT’ the shaft of light. It has no bone to pick about its brilliance – they just have no mandate to look along. Yet even sceintists get caught up the brilliance of creation.

Albert Einstein wrote:

“My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illuminate superior Spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble minds. That deeply emotional conviction of the presence of a supreme reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God.”

Steven Hawkings, is the purest of scientists and the author of ‘A Brief History of Time’, a book in which the science of the Big Bang is described for the layman wrote:

‘The laws of science, as we know them at present, contain many fundamental numbers, like the size of the electric charge of the electron, or the ratio of the masses of the proton and the electron … The remarkable fact is that the values of these numbers seem to have been very finely adjusted to make possible the development of life. … One can take this either as evidence of a divine purpose in Creation and the choice of the laws of science or as support for the strong anthropic principle’

Creation is pretty impressive even when you’re just looking AT. Yet we have all experienced looking ALONG. Canmore is a favourite family ‘away’ place. We were there a couple of weeks back. One of our adventures was walking out across a frozen lake. There was nothing but blue sky overhead, the sun warming our faces as we looked out across white capped mountains, the lake ice rumbling and echoing beneath our feet as we crunched across that wonderland, ice crystals like diamonds poured out at our feet. You couldn’t wipe the smiles off our faces. It was brilliant. He is brilliant. No craftsman or engineer or architect or artist could have come close. The psalmist wrote:

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Ps 19:1-3

God the Son – CROSS

In the book of Genesis we see creation described as this amazing place where nature is whole, pure, and unblemished. Sadly, it all came to a crashing end when God did something that seems pretty stupid. He let us choose.

C.S. Lewis coined an interesting when he wrote: “ Perhaps we do not fully realize the problem, so to call it, of enabling finite free wills to co-exist with Omnipotence. It seems to involve at every moment almost a sort of divine abdication.”

God wasn’t about building a petting zoo – he wanted a ‘real’ relationship with humanity so he made a decision to abdicate. He let us have our own free will and sin entered the world and the result was that brokenness and decay entered nature and human society.

I am not a historian but if you glance across history it is amazing to see the many ways we have tried to address the brokenness in our societies. The best wisdom of humanity exercised over the ages has had society careening from one ditch to the other, never, gaining the perspective of the roadway.

We have generated thousands of philosophies, and bet the future of our society on science, education and knowledge. Yet we are in jeopardy of drowning under rising seas as a result of global warming. We live in a world which obese people drive hummers and untold thousands die of starvation.

We have founded political movements ranging from the power of the proletariat to the control of dictators - all have ended in tragedy. Even democracy, which we in North America are sure is divine, is proving increasingly ineffectual in changing the human condition.

We have created religious movements which have never stayed on the road for long, bouncing from ditches of fanaticism and emotionalism to dead, cold theology.

We live in a society of increasing brokenness, and evil, with diminishing hope that any philosophy, science, or politics, or religion has any hope of changing. We have nailed together great edifices of government, religion and society using a pile of busted, shattered, 2x4s, and then are filled with despair when the house of cards comes crashing down around us. It is all Foolishness.

Paul addressed just that kind of broken society in his letter to the Corinthian church. It was a church in which the clash of religion, philosophy, and immorality was only enhanced by immaturity. There are times when even Lakeview looks like this. A foolish people who thought they were wise. Paul pleads with them to see that the only way out of their foolish predicament, was to embrace the wisdom of God. He writes:

For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel — not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate." Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? … Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength. 1 Cor 1:17-25

The Corinthians were fighting for the right to drive in the ditches of experience (signs) or knowledge (philosophy). They were trying to build wholeness out of their own ideas or their own efforts and experiences. The wisdom of God was that there was a whole other way to gain the highway to freedom and maturity. Christ crucified.

It is a brilliant plan. It is an amazing gospel. The great 19 th century English preacher, Charles Spurgeon, wrote this about the gospel:

Allow me just to hint that to be a believer in the gospel is no dishonor to a man's intellect. While the gospel can be understood by the poorest and the most illiterate, while there are shallows in it where a lamb may wade, there are depths where leviathan may swim. The intellect of Locke found ample space in the gospel; the mind of Newton submitted to receive the truth of inspiration as a little child, and found a something in its majestic being higher than itself, unto which it could not attain. The rudest and most untaught have been enabled, by the study of the holy Scripture of God's truth to enter the kingdom; and the most erudite have said of the gospel, it surpasses thought.

God the Spirit – Church

The final example of God’s amazing wisdom may surprise you. Listen to these words from Ephesians:

His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. Eph 3:9-11

The church has a nasty track record of returning to the ditches – whether they are dogma or dead theology, or the fanaticism and fundamentalism of experience based faith. But when it works, the greatest changes in society have been through the church, whether it is the Methodist revival that saved England from the bloodshed of the French Revolution, the end of slavery or apartheid, the end of communism, the freedom of our own society, and the list goes on.

But how is this the wisdom of God? Let’s return to Corinthians:

We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden…— but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.

… We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. … The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. …"For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ. (I Cor 2:6-16)

Church is not about religion or philosophy, denominations or politics. It is God’s plan to have his Spirit recreate the very presence of Christ in this world through us, his body, as his spirit dwells within us. He gives each member of his body Spiritual gifts, he calls each of us into spiritual service in a way that through out history has been demonstrated to transform societies – not by politics or war or religion – but through the pure love of God.

It is a brilliant plan.

Wisdom of God ….in us

Creation, the Cross, and the Church. I can’t imagine any other wisdom, divine or human, that has changed our world as much as these. They are brilliant, amazing wisdom, the wisdom of God.

But I want to return briefly to a key point. Why did God exercise this wisdom? Why fill empty space and time with creation? Why try to restore wholeness to a broken humanity? Why create his incarnate presence within the world through the church?

If you return to each of those examples and look a little closer you will see something inside the amazing vistas of Creation, Cross and Church. Look closely. You may have to return and read the details in scripture. Do you see it there? Do you see your own face?

Return to Genesis and read how after creating water and light and plants and animals God says:

"Let us make man in our image … So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Gen 1:26-27

You were the reason for creation. The whole purpose of creation was so that the image of God could be formed in you.

Look at the Cross – the singular event that marks history more than any other. Look closely and you will see the why behind the wisdom.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

It is not just about ‘the world’, it is about ‘whoever’ – you.

1 Cor 1:30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God — that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption."

Spend time reading about how the Spirit of God is at work within those who are in Christ. Read Christ’s personal prayer for us in John 14 and 16, through Paul’s description of the spirit in Romans and see how personal it is meant to be:

Rom 8:15-16 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship…. The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.

Rom 8:26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.

Read these passages and see the promises of how the Spirit will be Cousellor, reminder, testifier, guide, speaker, teacher, giver, leader, parent, intereceder, lover, helper, groaner, knower, …all for you.

You see my point here is simply this. God is wise and his wisdom is clearly seen through Creation, the Cross and the Church. And with apologies to all of you who have read the ‘Purpose Driven Life’ - the whole reason God’s wisdom initiated acts of creation, and sacrifice, and indwelling – was you.

You are the most brilliant thing God ever made, you are the genius for the most valuable gift he ever bought; you are the smartest relationship he ever formed.

In his autobiography, ‘Surprised by Joy’, C.S. Lewis described moments in which he would sense something so beyond his own understanding and experience that it would fill him with inexpressible joy. Take a moment and think about moments of joy in your life – moments when you couldn’t contain the joy of creation, when you finally understood that you are loved by God and bought with a price, moments when you experienced his strength and power. In those moments you have touched the Wisdom of God – for you.

Wisdom in our Live

So God is wise … but can we be wise as well? Well yes, and no. We had a pastor once who used to say ‘Who God is, he desires his people to be’. Any of the attributes of God we have been Googling, Faith, Goodness, and Wisdom – God intends for us to be. We are made in his image – we were redeemed to restore that image, and his spirit is at work in us now and throughout eternity to make us like himself.

Ya right you say. Do you feel wise? Maybe not. Maybe you haven’t seen the road for sometime as you careen from foolishness to foolishness, ditch to ditch. What does it take to leave the ditches and head for the top of the road?

In Tolstoy’s classic, War and Peace, we follow the story of Pierre, a socially awkward illegitimate son of a rich count. Spoiled, pampered, lost, agnostic and confused. He meets a man of spiritual wisdom, a mason, who speaks to him about God and his wisdom.

"He exists, but to understand Him is hard," the Mason began … Thou dreamest that thou art wise … "And thou art more foolish and unreasonable than a little child, who, playing with the parts of a skillfully made watch, dares to say that, as he does not understand its use, he does not believe in the master who made it. To know Him is hard.... For ages, from our forefather Adam to our own day, we labor to attain that knowledge and are still infinitely far from our aim; but in our lack of understanding we see only our weakness and His greatness...."…

"He is not to be apprehended by reason, but by life," said the Mason.

"I do not understand," said Pierre, …"how it is that the mind of man cannot attain the knowledge of which you speak."

The Mason smiled with his gentle fatherly smile. "The highest wisdom and truth are like the purest liquid we may wish to imbibe," he said. "Can I receive that pure liquid into an impure vessel and judge of its purity? Only by the inner purification of myself can I retain in some degree of purity the liquid I receive."

"Yes, yes, that is so," said Pierre joyfully.

"The highest wisdom is not founded on reason alone, not on those worldly sciences of physics, history, chemistry, and the like, into which intellectual knowledge is divided. The highest wisdom is one. The highest wisdom has but one science- the science of the whole- the science explaining the whole creation and man's place in it. To receive that science it is necessary to purify and renew one's inner self, and so before one can know, it is necessary to believe and to perfect one's self. And to attain this end, we have the light called conscience that God has implanted in our souls." …

"Look then at thy inner self with the eyes of the spirit, and ask thyself whether thou art content with thyself. What hast thouattained relying on reason only? What art thou? You are young, you are rich, you are clever, you are well educated. And what have you done with all these good gifts? Are you content with yourself and with your life?"

"No, I hate my life," Pierre muttered, wincing.

"Thou hatest it. Then change it, purify thyself; and as thou art purified, thou wilt gain wisdom.

No – you cannot be wise. But God’s wisdom can live through you. We can actually embrace the amazing, brilliant, plan of God who created us, redeemed us and transformed us. It will take the purifying work of Christ and the indwelling work of the Spirit.

But let me be Dean for a minute. Enough theory – what do you actually do?

First – there is no wisdom apart from God. The brother of Jesus wrote: If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, James 1:4-5

Next, Smarten up. Use the tools God has given you to be wise. Read and study. Try setting aside about 20 minutes, 3 to 4 times per week to read God’s word. Start by inviting the Spirit to do what he promised, to teach you and lead you into all truth. The psalmist promises us:

The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple. Ps 19:7

Finally, experience God. Ask God for one thing each week you can do in obedience to his Spirit. James writes: Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. James 3:13

And a promise from Christ himself: everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock Matt 7:24

Step out of the ditches of ignorance and apathy to the clear long view of the road ahead.

Does this all sound a bit foolish? Giving up precious time to read the bible – you kidding me? Spend time in prayer? Do stuff that I think I hear ‘God’ tell me to do? That’s crazy. Yes, it is the foolishness of God. But it beats the wisdom of man.

For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength. 1 Cor 1:25

Imagine you met the most brilliant woman in the world and she told you that she wanted to be your friend and lover forever. To prove that love she used her genius as an architect to build you the most amazing home you could imagine. Then she employed her genius as a surgeon and psychologist to bring you to physical and emotional wholeness. Then she asks if you would like to partner with her to build homes and bring healing and wholeness to thousands of others. You wouldn’t be a fool if you said yes.

The time for Lakeview to build buildings is coming to a close – now it is time to take Lakeview to the city. All our dreams for Chapter 7, our dreams of seeing the lives of thousands of people recreated and redeemed and restored, hang on whether we as a people will ‘smarten’ up. In the coming weeks and months we are going to be calling people to step to a new level of covenant community. To take seriously to become, as Christ said to his disciples, ‘wise as serpents, and gentle as doves’.

It is likely not particularly wise to share your life verse with 1200 people. But maybe it will challenge some of you to step into knowledge and experience, study and obedience. Ps 51:6 Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.

I pray that this desire has started to grow in you. Would you stand as we close:

Benediction: Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! "Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?" "Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?" For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen. Rom 11:33-36