Waves of the Sea
June 5, 2005
Wisdom of Solomon 7:24-30
James 1:5-8
Let’s do a little review. This summer we are in the midst of a morality war. So it seems fitting to spend the rest of our Pentecost Season studying and discussing Christian Morals. What are Christian Morals? How might we live out our Christian Morals? James is a small book in the New Testament. It’s not considered the most important book, but it is considered a book of Moral exhortation. We’re reading and studying the entire book of James and every single passage between now and the end of Pentecost. The book begins with a series of Proverb-like sayings. Little sayings that everyone understands as the way things are right now. Last week’s first moral was? Anyone remember? Yes, Stand with the Persecuted for it will bring deep joy.
Today we have another proverb-like understanding, “If we’re lacking in wisdom, ask God in faith. But, never doubt, for doubt is double-minded and leads to instability.” Knowing most of you, I would guess this makes us really uncomfortable today. Never doubt. It rings of never question. But, I assure you that is not the moral teaching. The teaching is really about intention. We must always go to God with our questions. We should ask God about what troubles us and we must use our wisdom, the guidance of the Spirit, our studying through the Scripture, the historical understandings of the time periods regarding when it was written, why and for whom. We are asking God with intention to grow our faith. Whatever we must ask, go ahead, and grow our faith.
Doubt is not actually related to questioning. Instead it is wavering of beliefs, lack of conviction, uncertainty, lack of trust or confidence. If we’re lacking in wisdom, ask God with conviction. Ask God so that our words might match our actions in living out the gospel with trust and confidence. If we have trust in other gods - money, power, manipulation - how does that change our intention of asking. What are our motives in questioning? How is it we believe? Do we believe when it’s convenient? Do we believe on a certain day of the week? Why and to whom do we say we believe and what is it we say? These questions all attempt to get at the root of this proverb.
I’ve met a few people in my life who have a penchant to argue. If someone takes a stand on an issue, they will take the opposite stand for a good brain workout. And, they may even change their tactic entirely during the discussion, to approach the topic from a third way. As the dialogue ends and you drift away, you wonder where that person stands. You feel you can’t pin them down even though you had quite the intense dialogue. Can you picture these folks in your own life? They do it to honor higher level thinking, they do it to prove their knowledge, they do it under the pretense of dialogue. And, even if you say, we always seem to end up on opposite sides of the issue. They’ll say, well I disagree. I think we’ve oftentimes come up in agreement. And will work their way into making that statement to be true. The passage from James today names this effect as being a wave of the sea, unstable. For just as one wave crests another has already begun. Some have more force than others, but they’re always just coming along. You cannot capture or stop or train a wave. They run on their own power. As people of faith, the moral intention today is to question to grow our faith. We are to root ourselves in the truths of the gospel of love. We are to walk this talk of morality, and argument for the sake of argument gets us nowhere. Our goal is to realize when we are engaged with this type of questioning, we must still claim our place as people of faith.
Since we are talking today about wisdom, certainty, trust and confidence I paired the reading of James with a reading from the Wisdom of Solomon. This book is found in the section of the Bible known as the apocrypha. This is not included in every Bible, but if it is, it will say on the spine of the book and will be found in between the Old and New Testaments. Why another section of book, isn’t the Bible enough? A question, buried in the sermon on Wisdom and certainty. We can get so overconfident and so forgetful of questioning that we slip into not being living examples of faith. But rather, morality police who profess to have all answers from the beginning. And that’s when the apocrypha is a beautiful reminder. These books that we have that currently make up this book known as the Bible have never been the only books people in the Christian tradition have studied. The Apocrypha is a bit of a reminder that as the Word grew so did the communities of faith. And as people are determined to engage this faith different communities cherished and grew different leaders of the faith. The desert fathers enjoyed one writer, the Messianic Rabbis another and not all of those letters, sources were included in what is known today as the Bible. As archeologists have discovered lost texts, scholars have begun to encourage use of the books of the Apocrypha expressing a wider tradition and acknowledging more questions and theories of how to understand our faith. And as people who are in the midst of a morality war, even statements that proclaim, it’s always been that way, are not statements made that reflect the movement of the gospel and the growth of the Word.
The Wisdom of Solomon is about a group loyal to the faith that’s questioning its own identity and direction. This book was most widely used among the early Christian community out of all of the books of the apocrypha. One of the reasons is it matches the philosophical structure of Philo, so it read well for the learned class. And, it contains the image of lady wisdom which mimics the imagery of the Egyptian Goddess Isis which was common in their cultural understanding. Wisdom reminds us today, that she is the breath of the power of God. That she is in all things. That she is something that comes from God. That she is a reflection of eternal light. Wisdom transforms us. And she reminds, to abandon our God for higher wisdom is nothing but sheer folly.
Which brings us to the movie clip for today. Leap of Faith is an excellent film. It is the kind of story telling that gets a grip on you and hangs around. Christianity is full of scam artists. People tossed about on the sea questioning faith for power, control, more television time, a bigger sanctuary, more money. Steve Martin plays the traveling Revival Reverend. But, it’s completely a scam for him. He’s putting on a show. And, he admits, people leave generally feeling better. However, he attributes nothing to the divine. Until Boyd begins to walk. Boyd, we learn earlier in the movie was hit by a drunk truck driver. He was in his family’s car and both his parents died. And, he hasn’t walked without crutches since. Boyd spends the film questioning faith. Wondering how to serve God and get healed by God. And, we learn he’s tried to be healed by a preacher before who told him, he just didn’t have enough faith. When Boyd begins to walk at the end of the service one night dropping his crutches to the floor. We meet Martin in today’s scene. He’s yelling out the way of the world, “You say love one another…I say love never starts.” “You say, the meek will inherit the earth, I say, the meek will always get the short end of the stick.” “You say, is there not one among you that’s pure of heart? And I say, NOT ONE!” And Boyd comes back into the tent seeking the Reverend. Boyd comes in, an example of the purest of hearts. Someone who had been through great and tragic loss. Someone who believed with his whole being. And he needs to ask a question. He’s no longer looking for answers but he wants to continue to live in that healing place. His question to join the revival circuit out of obligation for his healing brings confession from the Reverend. His show is smoke and mirrors, but this kid’s experience, the real deal. The real deal always outshines the smoke and mirrors. You can never get around it. Even when you are a fake. What difference does it make if you’re a fake if the job gets done? All the difference in the world.