Words and Wisdom

A sermon preached in St. Peter's Church Carrigrohane on Sunday 14th September 2018 

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be now and always acceptable in thy sight O lord our strength and our redeemer.

Our world is full of words … many many words … I was doing a bit of thinking about this sermon on the way up to a meeting in Dublin in the Train … I was literally surrounded by words

people chittering behind and in front of me … the tannoy system… the light display telling me where we were heading to … I had papers to read and emails to send … lots and lots of words

You might have lots and lots of words around you to … letters, advertisements, TV, Radio

Many words simply as a mother might say … ‘go in one ear and out another’ … we ignore them and their meaning

but other words stick … either for good or Ill and its these words I want to talk about this morning, these remaining words ... the ones that have power

The ones that have have stuck in our minds

Perhaps with the power that they were said, perhaps the heart behind them (again for good or ill)

• The school bully whose words have lasted years and decades longer than the milliseconds that the vibrations took to fly from their mouth to our ear
• The critical friend who said something we were willing to hear which had a hint of truth which enabled change
• The preacher who spoke a word in the right season which prompted us to think differnently
• The encouragement of a friend at the right time allowed us to assess our situation differently and built us up.
• The comfortable words from loved ones in difficult days.

This morning I would love to use my words to help you think about your words … James tells us that they have the power to change generations. I wonder if you have thought of your words like this?

As I speak about words today …
I wonder what words have inspired you?
what words have built you up?
What words spoken by someone have given you reassurance
What words from music or poetry, from public speech have you heard that you hold on to?

It is worth every so often pondering upon our personal vocabulary, our thoughts about individuals and about situations and thinking about how we can use our words differently.

Words are important

The prayer at the end of the psalm today is really important to me … Its the prayer that appears at the top of all my sermon scripts

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be now and always acceptable in thy sight O lord our strength and our redeemer.

I would love you to join with me as we ponder for a few moments …

As I ponder this poetic prayer from the psalms I wonder what words are acceptable in the Lords Sight? … and what words aren’t ?

what meditations of my heart are acceptable in the Lords sight? … and what meditations aren’t?

In other words

What needs to change in our thought patterns, what situations do we just need to hand over to God to deal with …
There are no easy ways to do this … we know this through life and work … through anyone we have a relationship …whether it be family, friendship, work or community there are a whole host of  issues which pop up from time to time.

We are not responsible for other people’s actions or thought patterns … but we are responsible for our own

We are not responsible for other peoples words … but we are responsible for our own … we are responsible to ourselves yes … but also we are responsible for our stewardship of our words.

In the kingdom of God … we are called to be encouragers, to build each other up, to look out for the best in one another.


In our Gospel reading today … we are reminded of a few things ... that words spoken as questions can be used to challenge, to teach and to promote understanding


And that within the Kingdom of God words, Jesus’ words are important … particularly for life.


So what are we going to do about these words? 

In a world where there are millions of words spoken, typed, written … we need to be discerning what words we are listening to and also what words we are going to use

We also need to not only look at the words we produce but the thought patterns behind those words.

If words can stay with a person for life we need to be very wary of those words we say, those words that we let utter from our mouth.

• In our life … in this our community… in our work
• How do we love our neighbour as ourself …
• This is our discipleship … in our ordinary everyday lives
• What words do you need to retract
• What words do you need to speak to build up to encourage
• What forest fires of words do you need to extinguish

what do you need to return to to say sorry for … to God, to others where you know your words have been unwise, foolish, hurtful

Lets be mindful of how our words have the potential to build up and also to tear down.

Wisdom

A sermon preached at Holy Communion in Blarney Church on Sunday 9th September 2018 

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be now and always acceptable O Lord my strength and my redeemer. Amen

This morning I want to talk about something that is more precious than rubies, better than gold, better than weapons of war and - is the principal thing

What is it? Wisdom

Wisdom … this morning I would like to talk about something that is so important that King Solomon said  (Proverbs 4:7), "Wisdom is the principal thing." That means it is the number one priority.

He also  said (Ecclesiastes 9:Z8), "Wisdom is better than weapons of war.”

(Ecclesiastes 9:16), "Wisdom is better than strength." Proverbs 16:16 ... "Wisdom is better than gold.”

Job said (28:28), "The price of wisdom is above rubies." (Solomon said the same thing.)

James begins his letter  by dealing with wisdom  raising this question, Do you lack wisdom … then ask

He then goes on to explain how to use this wisdom
v 19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

James at the end of the letter v3:13  says, "Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.”

I wonder how your growth in wisdom is going … have you become wiser this year than you were this time last year?





Dictionary Definition : wisdom: the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgement;

Within the Bible there is the wisdom literature that can be found in Proverbs like we read this morning

but running through scripture is the wisdom of God - we see it in James and we see it in Jesus’ words in the gospel today - carefully chosen words and action together - taking information and knowledge about people and events but choosing the response most productive.

The Interaction in the gospel today is one of those that we dont know the intonation with which Jesus made it or the tongue in cheek the banter was happening but there is wise words from both the woman and Jesus.

It has been remarkable in my own journey of faith of the women and men who have had most impact upon me personally and pastorally have been people who looking back have had the wisdom to listen both to what I was saying and not saying as well as to God and then more than that of speaking out few words but the words that they did say had greater impact.

The wise and the unwise is a theme that runs throughout scripture and comes down to the decisions we make - it can be easily illustrated by this game all of which as adults we could do with our eyes closed…

Situation List
1. Your friend dares you to jump out of the loft of a barn. You refuse to do it.
2. Your parents told you not to cross the busy highway at the end of your neighborhood. When your friends call  you a baby for not coming across with
them, you turn your bike around and go home.
3. You are jumping on your trampoline. You see lightning. You keep jumping
thinking that God will protect you.
4. Your friend asks to copy your homework.  You let him since he is your best  friend and you should help friends in need.
5. You love chocolate chip cookies. You eat 10 cookies since you love them so
much.
6. You are at a friend’s house. The friend shows you his father’s gun. You
immediately find his parents and tell them.
7. You see your two-year-old brother  playing with a knife. You don’t say  anything, he’ll learn if he gets cut.
8. Your Mom tells you to wear a jacket to the bus stop because it is cold. You
ignore her since you know that it will get warm later in the day.
9. You are in the store and nobody is looking. You really want a pack of gum
but don’t have enough money. Your friend tells you to take it. You walk
away.
10. You spill red juice on the new carpet in your sister’s room. When your Dad
finds it, your sister gets in trouble. You stay quiet.

You get the idea - its quite easy to be wise in these circumstances  but what about in dealing with close family or work colleagues in ethical dilemmas, in life circumstances where there is risk, where our decisions might need a good dose of wisdom.

This framework for decision making, for our ethical compass is here in the pages of scripture - people may argue over some of the finer points of it but which it comes to wisdom or foolishness we know that we sometime waver between the two - when we do make foolish decisions we know that there is time to come back, to make amends and to approach the situation again with renewed wisdom

During the Summer - I had the opportunity to go to a Planetarium in Schull … it was an ‘interesting experience’ with both of my nieces Penny and Lilly … I dont know if you’ve ever been to a place that is sooo dark you can’t see anything at all.

When Lilly played up I couldn’t see her at all but I knew where the door was and knew we had to take her out. I knew the way out.

I remembered the direction I needed to travel and knew it wasn’t far .

I think there is something in this  - that wisdom knows the direction of travel - It is the one exit in the dark room, its the north star when there are many directions,

Solomon says ‘the fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom’ this is important  - without an ethical framework - everyone will do what is right in their own eyes - and that’s not good.

Within the Christian Gospel is much diversity and much work to do to apply the principles of ethics to the situations we find in our day but we do have the direction of travel.

Lets look at the situations we find in our readings today topics such as

• Rich and Poor
• Good and Bad
• Attitudes of our heart
• Actions of the church
• Attitudes towards those on the outside
• Treatment of the poor and the vulnerable

In 5,000 years these issues haven’t gone away!

This is hugely challenging to a church which needs a huge dose of wisdom to deal with contemporary Ireland.  how do we deal with Rich and Poor, how do we deal with those who either self identify with the labels of good or bad, or who we class as good or bad, what about our own lives, our attitudes, how we treat people within and without. And then after the summer services when we’ve been thinking about breaking dividing walls what are our attitudes towards those who would not set foot inside our churches due to identity issues of all kinds and the barriers that have been erected for generations.

How we treat the poor and the vulnerable is going to take a huge dose of wisdom - whatever label we give people how do we tear off that label and see them as a beloved child of God - loved and accepted by him and welcome.

This wisdom need to flow from the love of God - without it - it has the potential of simply going round in circles but with it - it points, as an exit sign of the dark room, its the Northern Star from where direction can be sourced.

This coming term is going to see our community engaging more and more with this church - It is my prayer that this would be a place where deep wisdom is shared, where people encounter the source of all wisdom there will be great fruit of the kingdom produced

My hope for us as individuals is that we would grow in all wisdom, that our discipleship would be deepened and that there would be a renewal of both our strength and our mind.

As I conclude I would like to remind us of the words of Dietrich Bonnhoffer - ‘ Christianity preaches the infinite worth of that which seems seemingly worthless and the infinite worthlessness of that which is seemingly so valued.

That which is seemingly worthless in our era is wisdom … we’ve got lots of knowledge … heck we’re living in the centre of the knowledge economy, information at our fingertips but wisdom - that’s more elusive lets search for that! … lets provide godly wisdom to our friends and our family, in tune with the Holy Spirit … not for the sake of simple answers and quips here and there but to help people live life to the full

‘ Christianity preaches the infinite worth of that which seems seemingly worthless and the infinite worthlessness of that which is seemingly so valued.’


Our task as disciples is then to discern the difference.

Here is a bit of wisdom posted on Mother Theresa's wall  :

Amen.

Sermon preached at the Insitution of Revd Victor Fitzpatrick, Mountrath

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be now and always acceptable in thy sight O Lord our strength and our redeemer. Amen 

I want to say thank you to Victor and the Bishop for their invitation to preach at this institution service. An important milestone in the life and witness of the parish and of the new Rector. 

It is a service of comings and goings - of transition and looking forward to the years to come with optimism and hope. My role here is to remind us tonight of what God’s word is saying to us - as the congregation gathered here. I would like to look at the Gospel, the good news which has been appointed to have been read on this the Feast of St. Bartholomew. 

Tradition has it that Bartholmew is identifed with Nathanael, a man of Cana in Galilee who was summoned to Jesus by Philip. Jesus paid him a great compliment: “Here is a true Israelite. 

The only mention of Bartholomew is in the lists of disciples in the Gospels which for me is interesting in itself in terms of names - people who have experienced much and contributed much in their lifetimes … they may be remembered - in lists, on plaques maybe …  but they are to do what they can and what God has called them to do. 

But what are we called to? let's take a moment to think. about the gospel reading today which is a reminder of Christian Leadership, a reminder of the inside out, back to front radical nature of discipleship which Christ exemplified and which we are called to make ours for today. 

Two of the major images that surround us whether we’re on the road or at home are these 

The first is That of the pause button - on our DVD’s , music apps, live TV 

I would love tonight to press the pause button and to think about what is happening in this service 

A community, a church that has a long history in this community has come to this point, a community of disciples who have needs, desires, questions, hopes, a community of all different ages and stages. A community which has been shaped by wider society, by events from within and without. The Church, as with any parish anywhere, in this community is a unique body, a unique set of people with all the quirks, personalities, gifts and skills which make you you. 

As we pause here, this evening we are reminded that each member of the church is an essential part of the identity of this body.

This service yes is about Victor Fitzpatrick coming to you as a pastor, priest and leader but its also an opportunity to re-group and remind ourselves what life together as a parish family is about. 

We’ll have the symbols of 

Baptism, Word, Holy Communion, Place, Prayer presented by parishioners to Victor … but each one of us needs to take our responsibility to be part of the community of mission and outreach into our community, to take responsibility for our growth, to get involved in the furthering of Christ’s Kingdom here in this place

Which Brings me to the Gospel today … We see in the disciples there is conflict which Jesus uses as a teaching moment. A moment where instead of Lording it over the twelve … Jesus reminds them that even though all authority has been given to him … he’s there as one who serves. 

I wonder in what areas of our lives, in the homes we come from, in the forums we move and in the churches we worship in … are there areas where it could be that we need more of a servant attitude rather than an authoritarian mindset. Where can you and I serve or have a servant attitude

Victor, I know comes among you as one who serves, who loves and who is concerned in his pastoral and his caring attitudes … do take time to get to know him, chat to him, he has got a great sense of humour. 

As Clergy, none of us are the same as those who have gone before, each of us have our own personalities and gifts - we serve in different ways but we’re called to serve the Lord in our own way whilst fulfilling our vows to God. 

Victor is someone who is wise, caring, pastorally sensitive, serving as he has in various ways in various places. As he fulfils his calling in this place It’s my prayer for him that he will take time to get to know the individual stories of this place and be able to speak God’s peace, his love and his freedom into the places he finds himself. 

Priest and parish together is the model of ministry we’ve inherited and its one in which we work across this island. 

I’ve pressed pause as we’ve focused upon Jesus’ example 

But Now I would love to press play and see what we’ve got to learn from our acts reading … That is getting outside the doors and proclaiming in word and deed the good news of Jesus 

All of the symbols in our service today could be seen as internal 

Baptism, the font is in the church 

The Bible is on the lectern 

Bread and wine are consumed at the rails 

The keys open the doors of the church 

Prayer is said in the pews 

But this is not so … when we go through any of our liturgies in church there is a compulsion outwards, to take what we learn and experience in our buildings out to the communities that we live and work. 

My second image is that of an L Plate … When I am driving around, i’m very wary of people with these beacause they are a risk, they might not know what they are doing, nor do they always know all of the rules, they might stop suddenly, they might do something silly, they break suddenly, they might need a wee bit of help to know what to do. 

In the acts of the apostles reading today we meet some of the disciples out on the street and they are doing some amazing things - they are learning about the power that is amongst them. 

Any leader … any baptised follower of Jesus … no matter how much experience we have is called to a life of a life long learner … no matter our age, no matter what degrees, life experience we’re called his disciples which means life long L Plates up… its an attitude of learning. 

I wonder what you were doing 20 years ago … or 5 years ago if you are slightly younger than me. 

Are you the same as you were 20 years ago … no … well I wonder how your spiritual life has changed? what have you learned?

Now I wonder how you can put yourself in a place where you are learning more, developing into a mature Christian. Your community needs learners, needs people who are ready to help and assist with developing an outward looking community of faith. The church of Ireland, across this island needs people who are willing to put themselves in places that might be scary, might be putting their heads above the parapet. But the people of this community need to know that there is hope, there is a place of unconditional love available 

We need to be known as people to are learning together, and living out our learning - we’re not called to simply help the church survive in this generation but we’re called to be a living body pointing to what Jesus described as life in all its fullness. 

No person can do this by themselves - but what does this look like in our schools, in isolated farms, in small villages, in towns, with young mums, with teenagers, with our seniors, with those in debt, with those in hospitals and nursing homes, in shops, with those suffering from mental illness … This is a huge task but with our L plates up … every single one of us. 

We know that God has called Victor to be here as Parish Priest but what about you … every single one of us … what areas of ministry might God be placing on your heart?

In conclusion 

The church is the body and my prayer is that you may Pause and reflect on who God is and who he has created you to be 

And remember that you are his disciples … life long L plates up ready to learn, to take risks and to learn both from successes and failures… Remembering that you are chosen, sons and daughters of the King of Kings and he has plans for you. 

Luke 22: 24-30

24 A dispute also arose among them as to which one of them was to be regarded as the greatest. ²⁵But he said to them, ‘The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those in authority over them are called benefactors. ²⁶But not so with you; rather the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like one who serves. ²⁷For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.

28 ‘You are those who have stood by me in my trials; ²⁹and I confer on you, just as my Father has conferred on me, a kingdom, ³⁰so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.