I appreciated Dr. Monica Hart’s sermon last Sunday. If you haven’t listened to it yet, you should.
She spoke to something all of us feel from time to time. She called it spiritual hunger. So…I’d
like to continue that language of hunger this morning AND I would like for us to consider one of
the ways in which we feel our spiritual bellies growl. We are hungry for something these days;
and this “something” is a word, a theme that runs throughout our readings this morning.
Wisdom.
I used to be a night owl. For years I was a night owl. I’d stay up late. Sometimes into the wee
small hours of the morning. One reason I did that is I was just convinced that I would miss
something…a friend wanting to hang out, a conversation that needed to happen, a thought to
think, an idea to hatch…I didn’t want to miss out and I was just convinced that would
happen…so I’d stay up… Just another night owl. Not anymore!
No sirree, I am pleased to say for several years now this old night owl has transformed into a
morning bird. I can’t stand being up late. I can’t stand not getting a good night’s sleep. I am no
longer concerned if I’m missing out on anything at all. Where I once lived with FOMO (Fear of
Missing Out) I now live with JOMO (Joy of Missing Out). These days, I am happy to spend time
with a friend and just as happy when plans get canceled. And I am totally okay with that. In fact,
I really love it. A big reason I love it so much is because I enjoy my morning routine. I do!
I enjoy waking up early, before the sun rises, pouring a cup of coffee, sitting beneath a single
warm lamp in a dark house, being still, quiet, deep breaths, checking the weather, reading,
writing. I need this. I want this. It grounds me. It centers me.
But sometimes….sometimes within my morning routine my center gets thrown. Sometimes the
ground beneath me shifts…sometimes it can be difficult. Because…a part of this routine of mine
involves reading the news. And I’ll read this columnist who might be writing one thing and then
I’ll read another who’s writing something else on the same story. I’m trying to stay informed,
trying to understand what’s occurring in our world, in our community, in people’s lives. Then I
go to the gym and above all the cardio machines are these televisions, most of them tuned-in to
24-hour news channels across the political spectrum. And their images flash over-and-over-
again, their headlines scroll across the screens, and even though they’re all on mute somehow
it feels like they’re all screaming. And it gets me thinking about my wife and our children, about
their worlds, their struggles, and challenges. Our life together as a family.
And sometimes…maybe a lot of times…it’s hard and it’s confusing.
In those moments I feel the spiritual hunger pangs and one of the things I’m hungry for….
is wisdom. How about you?
“Be careful,” Paul writes…
“Be careful… how you live…not as unwise people…but as wise people.”
But see… isn’t that the very problem…
“We’re trying Paul!!” You can almost hear their response to his letter to the Ephesians way back
there in the first century – people in a Greco-Roman world living in a culture filled to the brim
with competing versions of wisdom…in some ways, similar to ours.
“We’re trying to be wise…but it’s hard. It’s a confusing world…We’re trying.”
How does a wise person live? Do you know? Think about it.
When you hear that phrase wise person…who pops into your thoughts? What visage glides
across the waters of your memory? Think about it.
I think about my grandfather. He seemed wise to me because he was so quiet. He didn’t say
much. But at times I found myself on his back porch asking his advice. Like this one time, two
weeks before Ericka and I were to be married. I was nervous. Thoughts racing. “Papaw…” I
asked him, “you and Mamaw have been married over 50 years now. Did you know all the way
back then…did you just absolutely know your marriage would make it?” He paused for a bit,
choosing his words carefully, and then he said, “Buddy, I never thought your grandma would
live this long.” Then he winked at me and shot a mischievous grin. But that’s wisdom. Because it
calmed me…brought me into his stillness. I don’t know though…you can’t copy wisdom like
that. You can’t buy wisdom in the marketplace of virtues. So how do wise people live??
“Don’t be foolish,” Paul writes “Make the most of your days.”
“Don’t waste your life in drunkenness.” That was Paul’s not so subtle nod to the various cultic
practices and ceremonies that involved drinking and doing all kinds of other activities to excess.
I believe he might even be calling their attention to their book of poetry and prayer (the
Psalms) when it says… Teach us to number our days O God….so we may gain hearts of wisdom.
This letter, though, doesn’t leave us to hang our hat just on a short (or long) list of don’ts – that
would never be enough. Paul, all through this letter he’s trying to articulate what the Christ-
filled life looks like – how it’s expressed…what resurrection looks like when we practice it,
embody it in our lives. And so, he moves us to see that…actually…a way in which we can live
wisely, a way in which we can walk with wisdom as the ancient Hebrew literature is fond of
saying – is to live lives characterized by praise and thankfulness.
“Sing psalms, and hymns and spiritual songs making melody to the Lord in your heart…”
One of the things I loved about the church growing up, is that’s where I heard people sing.
Especially the people I never heard sing anywhere else – never heard my dad sing – not in the
car, not in the kitchen, not some melody drifting across the house from their bedroom in the
morning. But I heard him sing in church.
Never heard my grandparents sing…but I would go to church with my grandparents, and I
would hear my grandmother sing in some high falsetto I didn’t hear anywhere else, and I had
an uncle when he sang – his eyes welled with tears. Some of my earliest memories in church…I
wasn’t being taught the scriptures, I wasn’t being taught some catechism, or doctrinal
statement. No! Someone was teaching me a song. Someone was teaching me to make a
“melody to the Lord in my heart.” We sing our psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs because they
train us in the art and act of praise. To live a life filled with praise.
And when we are a people well practiced in praise, I can’t help but think we become a people
who are able to “give thanks to God at all times and for everything…” Even when times are
tough, even when something in the world, or our family, our marriages, our friendships distress
us, leaves us tossing and turning at night. Even then….even then there is something within us
that can offer our thanks to God.
“Be careful,” Paul writes “Be careful to live as wise people…”
And he doesn’t give us a list of opinions, he doesn’t give us a set of beliefs, he doesn’t equate
wisdom with intellectual ascent…he says, “live wisely”
I love the words of Richard Rohr when he writes, “We do not think ourselves into new ways of
living, we live ourselves into new ways of thinking.”
That’s what wisdom does…it gives shape to our lives.
Lives not intended to remain spiritually satisfied nor stay spiritually hungry.
Lives LIVED with thankfulness and praise.
Amen.
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