Deuteronomy 30: 9-14 NPMC
Psalm 25 7
Pentecost
Colossians 1: 1-14
July 11, 2010
Luke 10: 25-37
Anita Retzlaff
Spiritual Wisdom
Grace to you and peace from God the Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus the
Christ. In our moment of silent prayer this morning we pray for the many
farmers, homeowners and business people who have watched their livelihood and
security drowned out and shaken by the over abundance of rain. Let us pray for
their strength and ability to overcome these very devastating times…. God, you
provide our daily bread. Help those whose daily work and necessities are now in
jeopardy. Hear our prayers. AMEN
I attended the Mennonite Church Canada Assembly in Calgary returning just over a
week ago. The three days of sessions were packed from 8:30 in the morning until
9:00 in the evening. I was exhausted and have to admit, very tired, from meeting
people and having to interact all day every day for four days without
interruption. Now, this is just me and my introverted tendencies. However, I
wondered throughout the days of meetings what we actually accomplished in our
table discussions, workshops and worship. Is this really mission and ministry in
Christ’s name? We definitely have a complex structure of officers and committees
and programs. Is the Mennonite Church being faithful or are we merely channeling
our energies into a top heavy make work project allowing us to feel like we are
doing a lot?
Well the bottom line is that I do not think we are wasting our time or our
energies when we are committed to the changes and adaptations needed to meet the
challenges that the world is throwing our way. And that does not just apply to
Mennonite Church Canada but also to our Saskatchewan organization and to us here
at Nutana Park Mennonite Church as well. We are a witness to those around us
even as we meet unto ourselves as a conference in worship and discernment. The
world is watching us today just as the world watched the newly forming church in
Colossae 2000 years ago. Paul, the Apostle writes a letter of encouragement to
this fledgling church as it begins a new way of life.
If we as friends of Jesus gathered here this morning and if the people whom we
elect to oversee the mission of our national church – if we attend to the spirit
of these writings from Paul to the Colossians the word will go out! For
something wonderful has happened in Colossae! A small cohort of people have
formed a Christian community and they are making a name for themselves. As Paul
says, “we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have
for all the saints.” Just being the church together has an impact on the world.
This small group of Christians has love for others and it is making the news, so
to speak. Paul writes that because of their hope in the gospel they are bearing
fruit and growing in the community and he commends them for their faithfulness,
praying for them and offering Christ’s peace and grace.
If that is what we accomplish by meeting together in our conferences and in our
congregations that is a faithful step in the right direction. If we make a name
for ourselves for what we are doing when we gather; that is testimony. But, it
must never stop there. As we attend conferences and worship we can take heart
that God is pleased with our meeting, however, this is merely a springboard to
our life of faithfulness in our neigbourhoods, work places and in our
friendships.
Paul tells the story, simply, as to how the Colossians live life together. They
heard of the hope of the gospel as it came to them and they embraced it. We can
say the same. We love God and the promises given to us. The Colossian church is
bearing fruit and growing in the whole world; that whole world being the Roman
society in which they live – a real down home challenge! In other words their
testimony is causing the good news of Jesus to spread in the midst of Roman
tyranny and oppression. Our testimony continues to spread in the midst of
affluence, individualism and fear of terrorism. And all of this is made possible
for the Colossian Christians because they have truly comprehended the grace of
God.
And all is possible in our work and ministry too because we truly comprehend the
grace of God! Now this is where I choose to pause and consider whether we do
indeed truly comprehend the grace that is ours or as in verse 9 Paul asks
through prayer that Christians “be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in
all spiritual wisdom and understanding.”
Sounds good, sounds easy! It’s not! If we truly comprehend the grace of God and
if we have a firm “knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and
understanding” (v.9), we will set aside the temptations of worldly ways. In
other words we will have lived into a mature faith. And I do not mean by mature
faith that by our good works we have somehow transcended the dung heap of sin.
That is not what I am saying at all. What I believe Paul to be illustrating is
that the world in which we live, be that the Empire of Rome or our present
circumstances, that world is filled with common temptations that threaten to
undo us.
I am not thinking about the usual evils we conjure up as temptation like
drinking, drug use, inappropriate sexual encounters and pornography though these
are surely a part of the program. What I imagine to be our temptations are
these: to let fear rule our lives, the temptation of being ever anxious about
the future, the temptation of self-centeredness, of hoarding things and the
temptation of sullen resignation or lapses into victimhood in the face of our
present challenges. These are signs of spiritual immaturity and evidence that we
do not yet fully grasp the grace of God and the opportunity of life in the
Spirit.
Spiritual wisdom, comprehending the grace of God takes a lifetime to bloom in
us. Reaching spiritual maturity in this regard is hard won. Too often life has
to knock us around a bit before we get it. We are not in charge. God’s grace, a
gift, is given to us and we do not control the giving of that gift. We can
refuse it and we can refuse to see the powers of darkness all around us and
pretend that they do not exist. Spiritual wisdom, a humble understanding of the
breadth of God’s mercy, comes when we recognize that God forgives us and lights
up the darkness where evil is inclined to hang out and produce fear. We can
spend a lot of energy refusing divine forgiveness by deeming ourselves unworthy.
That too is spiritual immaturity. God is pleased to forgive those who request it
and is happy to see us move on and bear fruit. God’s intent for us is to be
wholesome, healthy and free of self-loathing and other such negative
restrictions.
When we refuse God’s forgiveness we cast off the tools we need to forgive in
return. God hopes for us that we acquire wisdom that comes filled with strength,
as Paul outlines in verses 11 and 12, endurance, patience, joy and gratitude.
Spiritual wisdom is shot through with these ways of living: strength in tough
times, endurance when there seems to be no end in sight, patience in the midst
of unmanageable schedules, joy in an environment that plays on our fears and
gratitude that counters our anxiety about never having enough. Spiritual wisdom
is evidence of a way of life that trusts in God’s goodness. We are reminded that
God has “rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the
kingdom of his beloved Son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
(vv.13-14) Living as though we believe this is spiritual maturity, spiritual
wisdom.
Spiritual wisdom reflects a way of life. As an Anabaptist Mennonite I would
offer to you that this life, the way of wisdom, is the way of peace. This peace
is by no means passive. It really is a way of life. It’s what we do everyday. I
have a little flip calendar that has a quotation and a verse of scripture for
every day of the year that in one way or another calls this out. Here is the
quotation for July 6 by Gray Cox, an American philosopher and writer on peace.
“Instead of thinking of peace as a state in which hostile conflict is absent or
in which tranquil concord is present, the third way of understanding peace views
it as an activity: the activity of cultivating agreements.” Or another quote by
Simone Weil, “The love of our neighbour in all its fullness simply means being
able to say…What are you going through?” This is spiritual wisdom, God’s desire
for us in the day to day.
Here is another expression of the way in which peace is a way of life, a
reflection of spiritual health and maturity. From an issue of MEDA’s magazine,
The Marketplace, James Brenneman, president of Goshen College is quoted, “A
businessperson making a profit, hiring people, is in itself an act of peace. He
or she need not be seen as a second-class peacemaker over against a voluntary
service worker in some far away country. An engineer is no less called to making
peace than a preacher. A basketball coach who works miracles of heart and
motivation, discipline and teamwork may in fact, outpace a bookish theologian in
creating a more peaceful world. The social policy expert in Washington is no
less a potential peacemaker than the social worker in Elkhart, the politician no
less than the mediator, the wonky green economist no less a peacemaker than the
radical prophet among us.” (Vol. 39, Issue 6, Nov/Dec 2009, p. 21)
Peace is a way of life, a way of behaving or acting, an understanding of the
grace of God expressed through our attitudes and actions. When we intentionally
set aside fear and become aware of our anxiety, which is in the end a focus on
the self, we can behave as people of peace. That is spiritual wisdom. When we
believe that we have been delivered from the power of death and negativity we
don’t have to be resentful and petty. When we live as though we are sharing in
the inheritance of God we don’t fear the stranger and openly engage people in
conversation and hospitality who we earlier kept at a distance. Knowing the ways
of God set us free.
I would like to conclude with a prayer by Ted Loder. May this prayer put our
lives into perspective, make God’s grace palpable and help to make of us people
of peace.