Words and Wisdom

When you hear something alarming what is your response? When we are alarmed it can be hard to pause and to ponder. As together we hear some challenging words I hope you can find some breathing room, some space for curiosity. This Sunday is the last of us reading through Luke’s gospel in lectionary year C. It has some words that might sound frightening. I appreciate Eugene Peterson’s translation in The Message of Luke 21:5-19. Click on that link to read it. He entitles this passage “Watch Out for Doomsday Deceivers”.

In Peterson’s translation of verses ten and eleven he writes, “You’ll think the sky is falling.“  This past Wednesday during Lectio Divina someone said perhaps the title of my sermon might be, “Watch Out for Doomsday Deceivers and Chicken Little”. In sermon preparation this week I went down a rabbit hole or better yet into a fox’s den. I read  the European original folktale of Henny Penny . In subsequent retellings the hen will be called Chicken Little and it is from this tale that the expression of “the sky is falling” originates. It’s a dark story that has been sanitized for children in later versions. 

When I was telling my husband about the moral of that folktale I summarized it this way, “Bad intel and your dead”. He wondered it that would be my sermon title. The summary of Henny Penny could be that when an acorn falls it does not mean the sky is falling and when you pass on incorrect information it may result in the demise of your fellow fowl in the fox burrow.

So what is my sermon title and what do I hope you take from this reading in Luke 21? The sermon title is “Words and Wisdom for Today".  I hope you will take from this reading a pause to practice critical thinking. I hope you will take a word that will speak to your life in the right here and right now to be cautious for how fear can sell. In Luke 21:13 Jesus says these hard times will give you an opportunity to testify. What we say and what we share about our faith become opportunities to let God’s love shine through us. The cautionary tale of Henny Penny/Chicken Little can remind us how important it is pause. 

When life is tough- we pause. Too quick to think that the sky is falling can lead to being led astray by doomsday deceivers. In even the toughest of times we get to testify that God is with us. To bear witness that in every time and every place God is with us. We lean into the promise that there isn’t anything that can separate us from God-and we remind one another of this.  

When you are struggling, overwhelmed- perhaps even afraid that the sky is indeed falling seek the connection of God that comes to us in community, explore God’s word while listening for the guidance of the Spirit. When we enter into scripture we get to do so without fear. Even when the readings are challenging. We are invited to practice a holy curiosity- allowing God to speak to us in the here and now.

When we hear challenging texts with harsh prophecies from Jesus we get to explore what we will do with those words. What does God desire for us to learn from them today? 

Tomorrow we will celebrate with the last two of our eleven young adults who are affirming their faith. As part of our confirmation program we spend time helping middle school students learn how to use and also how not to use scripture to inform their faith. I let them know that confirmation class is just the beginning of what I pray for them will be a lifelong endeavor entering into scripture and deepening their own relationship with Jesus. To seek, explore, and wonder about God and God’s word are holy endeavors. What informs your faith?

To enter into God’s story and connect it with our own stories is intended to inform their faith journey during the confirmation years. It is such a gift to get to walk alongside young people as they ask questions, reflect on their experiences through a God-lens and practice their faith.  

In our creeds we place our trust in a triune. This is the God who creates, redeems and sustains us. It is God who does the saving. I treasure the time I get to spend with others in discerning what we are called to “do” with the words we hear. How will we together hear God’s wisdom and God’s words for each of us and then act on what we hear? Community is a powerful part of the Christian journey- we travel together.  

Tomorrow during our education hour I will be with the middle school students in confirmation class. It’s likely I will instruct them to watch out for doomsday deceivers. We will explore what it means to say “the sky is falling”. I will invite them to consider what and who are important to listen to and what and who not to listen to. Fear sells. Faith testifies that God is to be trusted above any and everything else. Faith is fortified as we testify, as we discern, as we wonder,  and as we seek God’s wisdom given to us as a gift of the Holy Spirit. 

Every so often I think about toward the end of 2002 I heard someone share that finally two years post- Y2K they were making their way through the hundreds of bottles of water they had stockpiled. All that fear that sold lots of stuff to lots of people was bad intel. 

Bad intel cost many people a lot of money in bottled water, generators and hundreds of pounds of dried foods. It took up a lot of time and used up storage space in homes. One of the words of wisdom I have taken from the Luke 21 text is to take to heart verse 15 “for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict”. We get to trust that when we need words and we need wisdom God will provide. 

This week those words have been a reminder to me to not let bad intel kill my spirit or fill me with fear. Instead we can let the last words of Jesus at the end of Matthews gospel be written on our hearts, we can memorize them, write them out, reflect on them. 

 And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age. Matthew 28:20b