Readings
Amos 5:6-7,10-15
Psalm 90: 12-17
Hebrews 4: 12–16
Mark 10: 17–31
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be now and always be acceptable in thy Sight O Lord our strength and our redeemer. Amen
The Psalmist wites
So teach us to count our days
that we may gain a wise heart.
The New Living Version translates it as
“Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom.”
This captures the meaning of the original Hebrew, though not its poetically
Today I would love us to do a bit of thinking … maybe a bit deeper thinking than I would usually do in a sermon - perhaps its life stage I’m at at the moment and thinking of the future - I’m wondering quite a bit about wisdom and people I see as wise - people who are living as I would like to live. People who are running the race a bit further ahead than I am … people who are an example of faith and life … I want to know how they have become wise and have kept running in the life of faith … despite all their difficulties, despite illness, grief - They haven’t let go of God’s promises.
I wonder who that is for you?
I have been very impacted recently by the emphasis upon wisdom in Scripture … as defined as
The quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgement;
What makes people wise ?
- Experience Good and Bad
knowledge … they know stuff
but beyond that … they have good judgement … they are able to make good decisions
As I look around … in politics national and international, in media, … there are lots of people with experience and knowledge but sometimes I question whether or not the good judgement is there.
As a member of the clergy I go to many funerals of family members and friends, of people I know well and those not so but each funeral … somewhere in the service speaks of the persons relationships, their achievements and their personality.
Each of these experiences I’m reminded very much of these verses … the brevity of life … but also the gift of the days we’ve been given and how we’re called to live each day with wisdom … growing in experience, knowledge and good judgement.
Of course this is practical stuff …
right from we were kids we’ve been growing in this wisdom stuff
Those of you who are parents … saw how your kids grew up … with wisdom
Those of you who think back 10, 15, 20 years can see things that you used to do that you’ve now left behind … as you have grown in wisdom.
This growth might have been caused by someone challenging you on something, it may have been you realising the consequences of your actions, or it may have been a moment of revelation that you knew you had to change.
In all of this I just wonder about certain things to help our growth in wisdom
Who do we have to speak wise words into our hearts? - to challenge us
Where do we have time in our schedules to allow the ancient words of scripture into our routine ?
How do we respond when wise words are indeed spoken ?
In the Gospel reading today we hear sharp words from Jesus, challenging words
The rich young man … heard God’s word directly from him and went away sad … for he had great wealth
The disciples heard the same words and they were encouraged.
We’re reminded that we were created to love one another, but also to Love God
In doing this there is a question of priorities … and on the whole we’re not too keen on having our priorities re-ordered but sometimes we just need to be stopped in our tracks say actually what is the most important thing.
The only thing that does last is our relationship with God … and other things come in under that
Our finances
Our Families
Our work commitments
Our friendships
Our values
Our political views
This is not a popular thing to say - but it is the one thing that will last
As we count our days … as we are reminded in today's readings … thats the challenge of Scripture
How do we respond to this … we can walk away sad and think of all of the things we might loose or we could see how amazing an adventure, freeing and wise this decision could be.
Sometimes we need to be prompted to do the things we might know we need to do - to have the loving conversation.
Yesterday, I just watched the latest movie to hit the cinema screens, First Man, the back story to the moon landings, where the story followed the Family of Neil Armstrong. In the scene the night before blast of Apollo 11 … Neil is busily filling his time packing his bags and his brief case and his wife challenges him that he needs to sit down with his kids and talk - he might not be coming back … there is risk, incredible risk to his own life … he needs to be there for them … he doesn’t know how to do it, but we know from previous scenes in the film that he is a loving dad & husband but he’s dealing a lot with grief from the death of a previous child.
As I reflected upon this scene last night … there was an important thing that combined with the theme of this sermon today …
I don’t think any of us today are going to be going to moon or to Mars today, going to be doing anything overly risky - but we do know that there might be things we are putting off either because we know they are difficult but they are right and we know we need to
say sorry,
say how much we love,
say that we forgive,
say that we set the person free
write the note
Give grace to the person who doesn’t deserve it.
May we have the wisdom to do that life giving action … why … because we recognise that we have to count our days
I want to pick up these questions again
Where do we welcome wise words spoken? … from whom? … have we spent time with that person?
What priorities do we need to change in our lives? … have we taken time to think about those priorities in the past while?
How do we respond to when words are indeed spoken ? … whats our attitude
May we enjoy life … kingdom centred life.
Amen.
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