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Sermon for 14 Pentecost – September 14, 2003St. Luke’s Church, Jamestown, NYEric M. Williams
The Wisdom of the Cross
The Book of Proverbs is a fascinating book. It is a collection of sayings that are all attributed to King Solomon, but which probably come from centuries of Jewish life and thought. In the book, Wisdom is not merely something people gain over time, but is also personified as Lady Wisdom, who originated with God and was present at creation. According to the Bible, she sent the Law to Moses and instructed the prophets. And in our lesson today, she is angry. We might paraphrase today’s lesson as: “When Momma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.” She has been ignored, scorned by her people. They have not listened to her. Without wisdom, they are doomed. It all seems so simple on paper, so crystal clear in theory. Live by wisdom and you will prosper. The problem is, Wisdom is not so easy to discern. It is always much clearer in hindsight. History is littered with those who guessed wrongly. Listen to a few quotes.
In 1977 the president of Digital Equipment Corporation, a computer expert and pioneer, said, "There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." Closer to home, the oil pioneer Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist workers to drill for oil in Pennsylvania in 1859. They said, "Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy." A Professor of Economics at Yale University said once, "Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau." The year was 1929.[1] These quotes seem silly now, ridiculous in fact. But they were the prevailing wisdom of their day.
On Thursday Susan and I watched a marvelous documentary on PBS. Part of a series about New York, this episode chronicled the life of the World Trade Center, from its birth in the 60’s to its tragic demise two years ago. It was interesting to learn that the buildings were mercilessly panned by architecture critics who called them "a standing monument to architectural boredom," & "the largest aluminum siding job in the history of the world." [2] They were bitterly opposed by New Yorkers who felt they would drastically reduce the value of office space in New York. In fact the buildings added ten million square feet of office space that was simply not needed, not wanted. “By the early 1970s, the World Trade Center, whose final price tag had soared past a billion dollars, was losing ten to fifteen million dollars a year, with no end in sight.”[3] It may not have caused, but it certainly did not help New York’s worst financial crisis which hit during that same time period. It was not until the mid 1980’s that the buildings actually began to fill up and it was not until the 1990’s that they began to turn a profit. In fact it was the 90’s that made the whole gamble pay off. Because in the 1990’s with the incredible economic boom there was now a need for all of that enormous office space. By September 11, 2001 the World Trade Center had finally fulfilled the promise of its grandiose name. It housed the engine of true globalization and world trade. Those who died on that terrible day came from hundreds of countries, and represented a myriad of languages and cultures. Back in the 1960’s amid all the scorn and criticism who could have foreseen the growth of these buildings into the thriving engines of globalization? And who could have foreseen their eternal place in the hearts and minds of all Americans? Wisdom, in the biblical understanding, does not come from great intelligence, great education, or great experience. Wisdom comes as the gift, the messenger, of the God “whose thoughts are higher than our thoughts.” It is a wisdom that often seems like foolishness to the world because it follows a different calculus, different rules, different laws. And its greatest symbol and illustration is found in the cross of Jesus Christ. St. Paul says that the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it is the power and wisdom of God. It makes no earthly sense that a carpenter’s son who died a criminal’s death should be the eternal Son of God. It makes no earthly sense. But that is precisely the wisdom we teach and learn here. “If any want to be my followers, let them deny themselves, and take up their cross and follow me.” Today we are commissioning our Church School, and I want to be clear about the wisdom your children will be learning. They will not learn how to be smarter, richer, stronger, or faster. There are other places to learn those things. The wisdom they will learn, I hope and I pray, is the wisdom of the cross. They will learn that to save their life, they must lose it. They will learn, I hope and pray, that when the call comes they are prepared to answer it. They will learn the lesson of Rescue Two in Brooklyn, a little fire house set in the middle of the Brooklyn borough. Even though they were in the middle of Brooklyn, they were at the World Trade Center when the second plane hit. That's only sixteen minutes, and when you take a minute or two for the alarm to go out, and another minute to get your shoes on and to get on the truck. And then to go through Brooklyn at rush hour, in the morning, and go through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel and be at the World Trade Center in twelve minutes, is an incredible story, an incredible feat. It’s made all the more incredible when you learn that they all died.[4] They rushed to get to those burning buildings and then incredibly rushed into those burning buildings trying to save people they had never met. That’s the wisdom of the cross. And they will learn the lesson of Phillippe Petit, a young Frenchman who left his indelible mark on those buildings as well. On August 7, 1974, after months of planning, he walked 130 feet across a one-inch steel cable more than 1300 feet in the air between towers one and two.
Whenever other worlds invite us, whenever we are balancing on the boundaries of our limited human condition that's where life starts. That's where you start feeling yourself living….After a few steps, I knew I was in my element. And then, very slowly as I walked, I was overwhelmed by a sense of easiness, a sense of simplicity. And actually I can be seen on the first pictures smiling, smiling probably out of disbelief. It's so easy, after all those years and months of ups and down and detours, victories and disasters. Finally I was carrying my life on a path that was the simplest, the most beautiful, and the easiest.[5]
To the disbelief of thousands of onlookers and the policemen who stood ready to apprehend him he spent forty-five minutes walking and even dancing on that wire suspended a quarter mile above the earth. The wisdom of the cross may not lead us to become high wire artists. But it does lead us to step out in faith, in situations which may seem just as impossible, just as absurd. And when we step out in faith, against all odds, we too find the joy that Phillippe Petit found, the joy of simplicity. That’s where life starts. That’s where life becomes the simplest, the most beautiful, the easiest, because that’s when we are in union with God. The wisdom of the cross will not give us the next set of lottery numbers, or help us sell our house, but it will give us what we need, the vision to see where Christ is leading us, the courage to follow in faith |
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