18 March 2008

Wisdom. Wisdom. Who doesn’t search for wisdom?
For knowledge, for understanding.
Who doesn’t desire to be wise, to be knowing to be
the person others seek for advise, to understand?

And as many seek to understand God, to understand the world
and analyze it, and make sense of it,
it all simply doesn’t seem to – work.

We see suffering and pain
and can feel an inability to do anything about it.
World Religions 101 and Sunday school teach us that
the God is omniscient, and loving, and benevolent,
yet, so much pain and horror are done in the name of God.
And we go through life, and when we sometimes see something good
we jump up and praise God.
It can make it hard to like him.

In tonight’s reading from the Gospel of Mark
God, in the form of Jesus proclaims that
[his] house shall be a house of prayer for all the nations.”
Doesn’t that sound so foolish –
that any house could be a house of prayer for all people-
that god, knowing how differently all the groups
would interpret his messengers,
knowing how much pain trying to serve him would cause
that all the nations will pray in one house –
doesn’t that seem foolish?

foolish…

Doesn’t it seem foolish
that a man would be willing to die in pain and shame
without immediate results
for an eternity of people he didn’t know.
Doesn’t it seem foolish…

God in the form of a man, Jesus,
died on a cross for our eternal life.
Take a moment to think about that.

PPPAAAUUUSSSEEEE (30+ seconds)

Last night Amy spoke about the woman
Who anointed Christ’s feet with expensive ointment
how she gave all she had
That woman was accused of being foolish –
but not by God.

But what of Christ, who was fully God
and fully human.
Who gave up his life
Truly everything he had
For an uncertain future.

Doesn’t that seem foolish… foolish.
Paul writes: For God’s foolishness is wiser than
human wisdom
that, on a bad day, God is wiser than we could
hope to be on the best day –
that we could hope to be ever.

We don’t have to “get it” or understand it,
or even like it,
and that’s okay.
And Thanks be to God

For because of God’s wisdom
in the face of our attempts towards wisdom

because of God’s wisdom and foolishness
we have eternal life.