Eating and Drinking Wisdom

Staunton Mennonite Church

8/16/09

 

Proverbs 9:1-18

9:1Wisdom has built her house, she has hewn her seven pillars.  2She has slaughtered her animals, she has mixed her wine, she has also set her table.  3She has sent out her servant-girls, she calls from the highest places in the town, 4“You that are simple, turn in here!”  To those without sense she says, 5“Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. 6Lay aside immaturity, and live, and walk in the way of insight.”

 

7Whoever corrects a scoffer wins abuse; whoever rebukes the wicked gets hurt. 8A scoffer who is rebuked will only hate you; the wise, when rebuked, will love you. 9Give instruction to the wise, and they will become wiser still; teach the righteous and they will gain in learning.
10The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. 11For by me your days will be multiplied, and years will be added to your life.  12If you are wise, you are wise for yourself; if you scoff, you alone will bear it.

 

13The foolish woman is loud; she is ignorant and knows nothing. 14She sits at the door of her house, on a seat at the high places of the town, 15calling to those who pass by,
who are going straight on their way, 16“You who are simple, turn in here!” And to those without sense she says, 17“Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.” 18But they do not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.

 

            Sonya and I went to the Augusta County Fair this past Friday night.  It was an interesting time with the pig races, chainsaw wood carving, rides, and animals.  One of the most interesting shows was a family that performed a number of circus-style tricks.  They roller skated on an elevated platform, performed flips and twists on a trampoline, the woman swung from some ropes about 20 feet in the air, and there was some serious juggling.

This juggling made me think about when I was a young boy and my dad wanted to connect with his children.  He decided one day that he was going to help us learn how to juggle and he came home with a book on juggling.  The book was divided into lessons and I will share with you lesson number one today.  The first lesson for learning how to juggle is to take three balls, hold them in your hands…and drop them to the floor.  Get used to that sound; get used to picking them up because you are going to be doing that often.

            That’s the kind of lesson that only an experienced juggler could give.  And this reveals an interesting aspect of learning: that wisdom is often passed on from a learned person to a less experienced person.  Whether it is through a written book, an educational program, or face to face learning, wisdom is best acquired by learning from a more experienced person.  That is why we have teachers and that is why we have schools. 

This week the doors of Staunton City Schools will be flung wide open.  The smell of chalk dust and pencil shavings will be in the air.  Sloppy Joes and chicken nuggets will be cooking in the cafeteria, and the students and teachers will reluctantly return to school.

            We go to school to learn from a more experienced person.  We have probably all at some point in our lives felt as if we knew more than our teachers, but the truth is, we are sending our children off to school to sit at the feet of those who have studied, learned, who have experienced, and in some cases mastered a subject.

            Today on this “Back to School Sunday” I would like to look at wisdom.  Perhaps the first thing that we need to do is to define wisdom.  Wisdom is essentially the ability to know what is right and what is wrong.  This could mean that you are knowledgeable in historical facts, mathematics, science, and in issues of politics and justice.  So who wouldn’t want wisdom?  Today I would like to look at four aspects of wisdom.  I would like to look at why we need wisdom, the wrong reasons to seek wisdom, the right reasons to seek wisdom, and how we are to seek wisdom.

Why we need wisdom

            It is kind of funny the way our society tends to see things in an overly simplified way.  Something is right or wrong, good or evil.  Our television shows and movies tend to draw this distinct line as well.  In the old Westerns, you always could tell the good cowboy from the bad cowboy by the color of his hat.  There are two new movies just coming out, GI Joe and Transformers, and even without seeing these movies I am sure that it is clear who the “bad guy” is and who the “good guy” is.  But life isn’t always that easy.  Not everything fits neatly into these two different categories of right or wrong, even though we may want them to.

            Take for instance the proposed healthcare reform bill.  I get more emails from people telling me why I should write a letter to my governing officials telling them why they should or should not vote for the proposed bill.  I hear it both ways from both sides.  I hear Democrats saying we should vote for the bill and Democrats saying that we should not.  I hear Republicans saying that we should vote for it and Republicans saying that we should vote against is.  I found it almost humorous to walk through the buildings Friday at the fair and find a group of democratic supporters in their both encouraging people to vote for a particular candidate to so that the healthcare reform could pass.  And immediately behind them was a booth for the Augusta County Tea Party who were encouraging people to vote for candidates so that the bill would fail.  Don’t you just love county fairs?

Now I’m not going to tell you who to vote for, that isn’t my style.  The point that I am trying to make is that what is right and what is wrong is not always that easy to discern.  We need wisdom.  And I will be honest with you, I don’t have enough wisdom to even have an opinion on the proposed healthcare reform.  But I do have enough wisdom to know that I can’t believe everything that I hear about it.  But my ignorance is no excuse.  Wise decisions by you and by me will affect the lives of thousands of others.

            When Jesus sent out the twelve disciples (Matthew 10:16) he instructed them to be as wise as serpents and as innocent as doves.  He is instructing them to know right from wrong, and to make the right decision.  And by making the right decision, they will be innocent.  That means that it is not enough to simply know what is right, but to do what is right.

            So we need wisdom and we all have at least a little bit of room left in our noggins for a bit more.  We should seek wisdom and we should seek knowledge.  And not only in matters of healthcare, but in all matters so that we might be informed well enough to know God’s will.

The wrong reasons

Philippians 2:3 tells us that we are to do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.  Unfortunately I believe that is a big reason why people seek wisdom.  They want something out of it.  Wisdom is often seen as the gate through which one must walk in order to gain access to bigger and better things.  When people seek wisdom, whether that be through higher education or personal study, it seems like many are doing so to try to get more respect from society or greater social status, more money, more power, more respect, better jobs, titles or even just more letters after their name.

Last Sunday Loren Horst shared the story of Richard Keeler, who has been serving in Trinidad for a long time in a number of capacities.  Richard, a medical doctor by trade, went to Trinidad in order to work at eradicating Hanson’s Disease, a modern form of leprosy.  Today Richard serves a pastor of the Sangre Grande church in Trinidad.  Loren said that when someone introduces Richard as the Reverend Doctor Richard Keeler, he replies, “It’s just Richard.”  That’s a wise and humble man.

Our motivation for doing things is very important.  This makes me think about the parents of young children that I see day in and day out at the park.  We live just two blocks away from Gypsy Hill Park and Sonya and I walk there frequently.  Often times throughout the summer we will take in a Little League baseball game or two during our walks.

I am a big supporter of youth sports.  It gets them out to exercise, make friends, builds self confidence, etc.  But we have all seen that parent.  That parent, usually a dad, is out there yelling at their kid, coaching from the bleachers, yelling at the umpire, complaining about the calls.  There have even been fights (not at our park, I hope) that have broken out when a parent charges on to the field because their child gets called out.

I see a parent like this and I tend to assume that they are trying to live their lives through their children.  Or maybe they want to walk into the neighborhood diner and have someone give them praise for what their children have done.  Fathers, you don’t need to taunt the 10-year-old opposing pitcher.  We can take a good thing like little league baseball and make it a bad thing because of our bad motives.  And when we take the quest for wisdom and seek wisdom for the wrong reasons, greed, wealth, social status, tiles, then we are taking a good thing and doing it for the wrong reasons.  Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.

The right reasons

            In 1 Kings Chapter three we find perhaps the most familiar story about wisdom in all of the Bible, that is the story of King Solomon receiving the gift of wisdom from God.  Solomon is the son of King David and Solomon assumes responsibility over the kingdom after his father’s death.

            One day as Solomon is making an offering the LORD speaks to him and tells Solomon that anything that he asks of God will be given to him.  Well Solomon recognizes that the biggest obstacle he is facing right now is that he is a king and he doesn’t know too much about his new job.  Solomon says in verses 7-9, “Now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David.  But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties.  Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people.  So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong.  For who is able to govern this great people of yours.”

            And if you know the story, you know that God is well pleased with Solomon because he didn’t ask for anything for himself.  He didn’t ask for riches or a long life or even death of an enemy.  No, he asked for wisdom, and he didn’t ask for wisdom so that he could gain respect, make money, or anything that would help him out individually.  Solomon asked for a discerning heart to govern the people.

            That seems pretty unselfish to me.  Solomon asked for wisdom so that he could help others.  I like that; I like that a lot.  When I was in college I knew a lot of people that were going to school because they wanted to get a job that required the least amount of work and made the most amount of money.  “What’s in it for me?” they seemed to be asking.  I want to be a lawyer so I can take off every Friday to play golf.  I want to be an engineer so I can travel to exotic places and get ideas from great architecture.  I want to be a Dr. because they make a lot of money and society looks up to doctors.

            Yes, that is true.  Doctors do make a lot of money and society does seem to look up to doctors.  But how about being a doctor so that you can, I don’t know, HELP PEOPLE?!  Wisdom is great.  I don’t want to deter anyone from seeking to learn more every day of your life.  But if the wisdom that you are seeking is for no purpose other than to make yourself rich or to make people like you, then you are missing the point.  God was pleased with Solomon when he sought after wisdom so that he could help others.  And I don’t think that has changed over the last three thousand years.

How to seek wisdom

            Wisdom isn’t hard to find.  We all have it, perhaps some at different levels than others, but we are all wise.  We have learned things from the day that we were born and I hope that we continue to learn until the day that we die.

            When you were born, you didn’t know how to tie your shoes or even speak.  You didn’t know how to drive a car and do long division (I still don’t know how to do long division).  But we learn to do these things by receiving instruction from others and by repetition.  The hardest thing about acquiring wisdom is making the decision to do it.

            Our scripture for this morning from Proverbs describes two different women.  One of them is called wisdom and the other is called Folly.  Wisdom has prepared a wonderful meal, the table is set, and she has even sent out her servants so that those who are “simple” will know that this is the place to come and gain knowledge.  Wisdom invites passers by to “Leave your simple ways and you will live; walk in the way of the understanding.”

            But Folly sits at her house and yells out an invitation as well.  She sends out an invitation for “stolen water” and “food eaten in secret”.  The phrase “stolen water” is a reference to Proverbs 5:15 when the metaphor of drinking from another’s cistern is used to describe adultery.  The food eaten in secret could be a reference to eating non-kosher foods where nobody could see you.  The point is that Folly is inviting those that don’t know any better to enter into a life of sexual immorality and breaking the Torah. 

            Wisdom is out there, my friends.  It is out there like a meal that has been prepared and is ready for us.  We just have to go after it.  We have to enter into wisdom’s home rather than entering into folly’s home.  The problem is that folly is so much more enticing.  The pleasures of the flesh always seem more appealing than the fruit of the spirit do from the outside.  But as verse 18 tells us, death resides with these things.  We have a choice, choose to be wise, to know right from wrong, to be a true follower of God, or choose to turn a blind eye to the truth and enjoy the pleasures that this world has to offer.

            Verse ten tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.  What in the world does that mean?  Well, when the Bible talks about fearing the Lord, it isn’t like fearing the boogey man or being afraid of heights.  It is more like reverence or respect.  To fear the Lord is to recognize that God is God and that we are not.  We are less than God: less powerful, less knowledgeable…just less.  Fearing the Lord means knowing your place as a created being.  You were made by God and even if only for that reason, we should have a sense of respect and reverence for God that we give no created being.  That is what it means to fear the Lord.

            Once we fear the Lord and know our place within the created order, that is humbling.  Recognizing that God is God and we are not will allow us to approach God with humility to learn at the feet of the master.

            So I come back to these tennis balls that my father tried to teach us to juggle as little kids.  It would be great if I could pick them up and juggle for you right now.  That would be an illustration that you wouldn’t soon forget.  But gaining knowledge is a lot like learning to juggle.  The first step is to drop the balls on the floor, recognizing that you don’t know it all, recognizing that you still have a lot to learn.  The next step is to seize the opportunity before you to eat and drink the wisdom set before you like a meal.  All the wisdom in the world will not help you unless you eat and drink it, internalize it.  Food will not fuel your body from the outside, wisdom will not guide you unless you gain it.  You will never juggle until you throw that first ball in the air.  And this reveals another important aspect of wisdom.  All of the knowledge and wisdom in the world is pretty useless unless you put it into action.  What good is it to know how to juggle if you never take the opportunity to throw those balls in the air?

            We know that Solomon had the opportunity to put his new-found wisdom to the test in 1 Kings 3.  After Solomon receives his wisdom from God two women approach him, both claiming to be the mother of a child.  Solomon says, “Cut the baby in half so that both can have a portion of the child.”  And the true mother says no, let the other woman have him.  I would rather he have a chance to live, even if it is not with me, thus revealing to Solomon that this woman is the true mother.

            As we go back to school, whether that be as a teacher, a student, a parent, or students in the school of life, let us remember that wisdom is a gift that God gives to us so that we might be a blessing to others.  Wisdom is given to us so that we can know right from wrong; wisdom is given to us so that we might be able to help others.  The table of wisdom is set before us.  I invite you to eat and drink deeply.  And remember that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom.

The Gift of Wisdom

Kevin Gasser

Staunton Mennonite Church

7/27/08

 

1 Kings 3:5-28

 

3:1 Solomon made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt; he took Pharaoh’s daughter and brought her into the city of David, until he had finished building his own house and the house of the Lord and the wall around Jerusalem. 2The people were sacrificing at the high places, however, because no house had yet been built for the name of the Lord. 3Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of his father David; only, he sacrificed and offered incense at the high places. 4The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the principal high place; Solomon used to offer a thousand burnt offerings on that altar.

5At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, “Ask what I should give you.” 6And Solomon said, “You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant my father David, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you; and you have kept for him this great and steadfast love, and have given him a son to sit on his throne today. 7And now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David, although I am only a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. 8And your servant is in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a great people, so numerous they cannot be numbered or counted. 9Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people?” 10It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. 11God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches, or for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, 12I now do according to your word. Indeed I give you a wise and discerning mind; no one like you has been before you and no one like you shall arise after you. 13I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor all your life; no other king shall compare with you. 14If you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your life.” 15Then Solomon awoke; it had been a dream. He came to Jerusalem where he stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. He offered up burnt offerings and offerings of well-being, and provided a feast for all his servants.

 

            A man was walking his dog on a hot summer day when he came to the local ice cream store.  And since it was so hot, he decided to go in and have himself a cone.  But when he got inside, the worker behind the counter said, “I’m sorry, but you can’t bring your dog in here.”

            The man replied, “It’s okay, he is my seeing-eye dog.”

            So as the man is sitting there enjoying his chocolate ice cream cone, another man walks in with his dog.  So the first man says to him, “Hey buddy, they don’t allow dogs in here, so tell the worker it is a seeing-eye dog.” 

            Sure enough, the worker told him he couldn’t bring in his dog, and the second man told him, “But he is my seeing-eye dog.”  The worker replied, “That’s a lie, they don’t use Chihuahuas for seeing-eye dogs.”  And the second man replied, “They gave me a Chihuahua?!!” (Plato and a Platapus walk into a Bar: understanding Philosophy through humor)

            This joke illustrates that we come to know things through certain ways.  The worker in the ice cream store knew that the man had a Chihuahua because he had seen a Chihuahua before.  He also knew that they don’t train Chihuahuas as seeing-eye dogs because he had never seen a Chihuahua seeing-eye dog.  But for a blind man, how might he know that his dog was indeed a Chihuahua if he had never seen a Chihuahua, or any other kind of dog before?

            How do we come to know the things we know?  How do we gain wisdom and knowledge?  I think these are important questions, especially for Christians because we must be continually seeking wisdom and knowledge, in particular wisdom and knowledge about God.  So today we are going to look at the story of Solomon to see how we come to know the things we know, and I hope to show you how we can continue to gain wisdom and knowledge.

            Leading up to today’s scripture we find king David passing on the throne to his son Solomon.  Then our scripture for today picks up with the new king, Solomon, doing a little bit of foreign relations work by marrying the daughter of the Egyptian Pharaoh.  Solomon then takes his new bride and he moves her to the city of David, Jerusalem, where Solomon is in the process of building the Jewish temple and a house for himself.

            So since the temple had not yet been complete, many of the Israelites were searching for somewhere else to make sacrifices to God.  Many of them were going to the pagan places of worship, which the Old Testament often calls the high places, and making sacrifices to the God of Israel.  They were claiming that place as a place of worship for Yahweh, the God of Israel.

            Solomon is said to have been a person who loved the Lord, walking with God just as his father, David, had done before him.  Our text tells us that Solomon sacrificed incense at Gibeon and that he had been known to sacrifice a thousand burnt offerings to God on that altar, which was the most popular of the high places.  Essentially by making all of these sacrifices, Solomon is saying, “This altar was at one time an altar to the pagan gods.  But now I claim it in the name of the Lord.”

            So because of his diligence in following the Lord, God appears to Solomon in a dream and offers Solomon whatever it is that he wants.  And Solomon replies to God by thanking him for his place of privilege.  He thanks God for the blessings that his father had received, and he thanks God for the blessings that he has received in being the heir of the throne.

            But Solomon has been through a lot in the recent history.  He became king, got married, and he started ruling over the nation of Israel.  And Solomon recognizes that he is not as prepared for his new responsibilities as he might be.  Solomon refers to himself as a child.  Some scholars estimate that he was a teenager, but it seems more likely that he was in his early 20’s when he inherited the throne.  Regardless of just how old he was, he was young and inexperienced.  He knew that he was not prepared for the responsibility he had inherited, and he knew that he needed help.

            So in response to God’s offer of whatever Solomon wanted, Solomon replied that he desired an understanding mind so that he might be able to best fulfill his new-found duties.  Or as we commonly understand Solomon’s request, he asked God for wisdom.  And this is my first point for how we acquire wisdom.  We first need to humble ourselves and admit that we don’t know it all.

            This past Thursday, I was ordering carpet for our old place in Harrisonburg, which we will be renting out to some grad students this fall.  We are planning to carpet a couple of rooms and a stairway.  So as we were working on the square footage for the estimate, the carpet salesman asked me if there were ballasts on the stairway.  “Ballasts?” I thought to myself.  I didn’t know what he was referring to.  The only ballasts that I knew of are on a ship or plane to balance the load.  So since I didn’t know what he was referring to, I said, “yes.”  He asked if the ballasts went the entire way up the staircase, and if they were on both sides.  Again, I answered yes, not knowing what a ballast was in this case.  I assumed it had to do with the two boards that run the length of the stairway on the angle of the stairway.

            Well, when it came to the final step of the estimate, the price was quite a bit higher than I had expected.  I was a little caught off guard and I think that the salesman noticed my disappointment.  Then the salesman said that it was in part because of the higher cost of installation, because they had to install the carpet around all of the ballasts.  I had to swallow my pride and ask him, “Just what are you referring to when you are talking about the ballasts?”

            The ballasts in this case are the spindles that hold up a banister.  The installation cost is much higher when they have to install carpet around the spindles.  I guess they also call the spindles ballasts because they help to distribute the load one puts on the banister by leaning on it. 

            But this just goes to show that in order to learn, sometimes you have to admit what you do not know.  I almost made a costly mistake by paying for a service that I did not need.  I would like to think that they would have not charged me so much for labor when they realized I indeed did not have ballasts on this stairway.  But the point is, I didn’t know what a ballast was on the stairs, and I didn’t want the carpet salesman to know that I didn’t know what he was talking about.  I was afraid to ask because I didn’t want to look stupid.  And what happened?  I ended up looking even more foolish.  But as the old saying goes, ask a silly question and you look silly once.  Don’t ask the silly question and you look silly for the rest of your life.

            But Solomon was humble, wasn’t he?  He knew that he did not know what he needed to know, so he asked God for wisdom.  And God blessed him with more wisdom than any who came before or after Solomon.  And Solomon was blessed with even more than he had asked for.  So one of the first steps to acquiring knowledge is humbling yourself and admitting that you don’t know everything.

            Now I think that it is safe to say that most of us will never have God offer us whatever we want in a dream the way he did for Solomon.  It hasn’t happened to me, and I would bet it hasn’t happened to you either.  Perhaps that is because God knows that we would ask for something a little more selfish than for a discerning heart and mind.

            So how do we come to learn the things we know, should know, or need to know?  We as human beings learn through a number of different ways.  And probably the best way for us to learn is through our personal experiences.

            The last few days I have been at the Virginia Mennonite Conference annual meeting in Harrisonburg.  And there are a lot of things that take place at VMC each year.  I spent a lot of time in the delegate sessions, there are workshops and worship sessions.  In the last few years they have begun having youth activities the entire time as well.

            So on Friday, I was standing in a long line for our evening meal, and I watched as the first few people came through the line.  The first ones through, as is often the case, were the teenagers.  And it was interesting for me to watch as they went through the line and began to eat their meal.  I believe that the first thing that came out of the kitchen that evening was Indian food.  If you have never eaten Indian food, you don’t use forks, knives, or spoons.  You are given a piece of flat bread called roti, and you use it to scoop up the rest of the food, which is often made up of some rice, curried meat, and potatoes.

            So it was fun to watch these teenagers experiment with their roti and other foods.  They made a lot of mistakes as they fumbled around the food, and as is often the case, much of it went on their faces instead of in them.  They dropped food, made messes, got dirty, and eventually were able to eat a good meal.  Through their experiments, they were able to figure out how to eat with roti.  They learned through their personal experiences.

            Unfortunately for Solomon, he didn’t have the opportunity to learn how to be king through his experiences.  He didn’t have the luxury of learning by trial and error like the youth learning to eat Indian food.  He was thrown into a situation that did not allow him to make mistakes.  And unfortunately for Solomon, he also didn’t have his father around to go to for advice as he learned how to be king.

            I believe that we can learn a lot through our personal experiences, but we can learn more through the experiences of others.   It was Mark Twain that said, “When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around, but when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.”  And as the old saying goes, “Those that don’t learn from history are bound to repeat it.”  We can learn from the mistakes of our elders, or we can make the same mistakes ourselves.  We can repeat the successes of our elders, or we can miss the opportunity to be successful.

            So what if these youths at conference would have had the opportunity to learn how to eat Indian food from a more experienced Indian food aficionado?  They would have been able to avoid a lot of troubles and messes.  They would have wasted a lot less food.

            So as I was standing there in line, watching the teenagers eat and waiting on my own meal, I was talking with Jason Gerlach, the conference youth pastor.  And Jason and I started talking about the youth and how they could benefit from learning from another person.  And Jason started telling me about the mentoring program that they have a Community Mennonite Church.  Jason said that when the youth enter into the 6^th grade that they are paired with an older, more mature person in the church who then becomes their mentor, walking with them through junior high and high school.  He said that essentially it is like Big Brothers, Big Sisters, only in a Christian setting.  He told me that they have 50 pairs of mentors and mentees; 50 Pauls and 50 Timothys.

            But it isn’t just teenagers that need someone to learn from and someone to teach.  It has been said that every Christian needs a Paul and every Christian needs a Timothy.  We all need someone to learn from and we all need someone that we can disciple or teach.  Some of you may be familiar with the Jericho and Damascus Road Outreach program here in Staunton.  Essentially, this outreach is a mentoring program that recognizes that children are not the only ones in need of a mentor.  The Jericho and Damascus Road Outreach is a program set up to provide education, job skills, life skills, social skills, and employment experience for ex-offenders.  The Jericho and Damascus Road Outreach seeks to continue the rehabilitation of people that have been released from prison.

            Those behind this outreach have recognized that there is a problem with the way our punitive systems work, or don’t work, in the United States.  We lock someone up for a period of time, then when their time is served, turn them back to the streets where they cannot find a job, have difficulties developing relationships, and often times end up back in jail.

            So instead of continuing to allow young adults to continue in this cycle, the Jericho and Damascus Road Outreach seeks to teach them from their own experiences how to contribute to one’s community financially, socially, and spiritually.  And I bet that if you are interested in being a mentor to one of these trouble youths or young adults, that the Jericho and Damascus Road Outreach would have a place for you.

http://www.newsleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200880623009

http://jerichoanddamascus.com/default.aspx

            As I was going into one of the events at the Virginia Mennonite Conference this Friday, I came across my old Hebrew professor, Jim Engle.  We exchanged pleasantries and he asked about the church.  So I told him that I had just come from working on my sermon for this Sunday, and I was preaching from an Old Testament passage, his area of expertise.  I told him I was speaking about Solomon and how he gained his wisdom by humbling himself to ask for the knowledge he knew he didn’t have.  I told Jim how I was looking at different ways that we as human beings come to know the things we know, through our own experiences, and through the experiences of others.  And Jim kind of caught me by surprise.  Jim said “Thank-you for teaching me over the last three years.”  I thought maybe he forgot that he was the teacher and that I was the student.  But he told me, “The only difference between your side of the desk and my side of the desk is that they pay me to sit on my side.”

            That was obviously an oversimplification, but what Jim was telling me was something that I figured out a while back, though I don’t always put it into use.  You can learn something from everyone; there isn’t a person alive that I or you can’t gain some knowledge from.  This retirement aged, grey bearded seminary professor with a PhD that has been on archeological digs in the Middle East and spent time serving as a missionary in Ethiopia just told me that he had learned something from a student.  In fact, he would probably say that he learns a little something from every student.  Because he realizes that everyone has something to offer in the way of knowledge and wisdom, and he has committed himself to a lifetime of learning.

            Solomon was blessed by God with wisdom.  The rest of us have to work for it.  The first step is to humble ourselves to come to the realization that we don’t know it all.  When we think we know it all, we will not and cannot learn anything new.  Then we come to learn things through at least two different avenues: through our experiences and through the experiences of others.  It is my prayer that we will humble ourselves to learn from not only the PhD’s, the credentialed, and the professionals, but that we would look to learn from all people; young and old, male or female, it does not matter.  Because we gain wisdom from our experiences and the experiences of others.  Let us not limit our education to a few sources, but let us learn from all we come in contact with, and may we be willing to teach all those we come in contact with, using words when necessary.