Sent with Wisdom
Ephesians 1:15-23
July 16, 2006
Rev. Nancy Pfaltzgraf
There are some weeks when sermons just seem to flow. I do some basic research into the passage of scripture, I meditate, asking for guidance about what to say, I do some free-form writing, just letting my thoughts flow until I reach a point where ideas begin to coalesce and a sermon happens. This is not one of those weeks. When I read the passage from Paul's letter to the Ephesians, I was captured by his prayer that God would fill the church with a spirit of wisdom... so that with the eyes of their hearts opened they would know the hope to which God called them and the immeasurable power of God's Love. I was intrigued with the thought that we are sent to be in the world with wisdom -God's wisdom; wisdom that the author of James says is "first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy." [James 3:17 NRSV]
I have pages and pages of notes about wisdom but nothing seemed to come together. More than that, I could get no clear sense of what God might want us to hear about wisdom. So on Friday afternoon, as I was heading out to get the oil changed in my car, I decided I needed a to clear my mind and let some fresh spiritual air into my soul. So, I picked up a book I thought was completely unrelated to trying to make this sermon happen, so I'd have something to do while we waited. Now it so happens that on the drive Tom wanted to listen to National Public Radio, so for the entire twenty-five minutes it took us to drive to Joliet, we heard about the escalating situation between Israel and Lebanon. As I listened from deep within my soul there welled up a sense of the absolute ludicrousness of bombing innocent men, women and children because someone kidnaps two of your soldiers; and the equally absurd reaction of sending rockets into the middle of cities where equally innocent men, women and children live, to prove that you are just as strong and just as powerful as the other guys. It's insane, I thought and isn't insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results? Then as we sat down to wait for the oil change, I opened the book, Urgent Message from Mother: Gather the Women, Save the World, and I happened to read, "The psychology of unequal relationships, where one person has power over the other and can harass, humiliate, rape, control or intimidate the other can be applied to conflicts between nations. War is on a large scale, similar to domestic violence..." Following that were some statistics, like "at least one in every three women worldwide has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime," and some descriptions of the devastating effects living with fear -whether from domestic violence or war- has on children and their growth and development. I closed the book and said to Tom, "How in God's name am I supposed have anything to say about wisdom or hope in the face of such insanity?" And I thought, "Isn't wisdom learning to do things differently if you don't like the results you're getting? Do we really like the results this violent way of handling our differences produces?"
Then about 2am on Saturday morning, I woke up aware that I had been dreaming a lot, but none of it seemingly related to the sermon. So, as I got up to make a trip to the bathroom, I sent up an offhand little prayer that went something like, "Well if you're going to trouble my sleep with dreams at least you could send some insights into what it is you want me to preach about on Sunday."
The almost immediate response was: "You are sent with wisdom to bring hope. Where there is no hope, the people perish. There must be hope that the way things are doesn't have to be the way things will be." Not wanting to lose the thought, I quickly wrote it down. But not yet ready to get up yet, I went back to bed. When my alarm went off, at 4:30am, I got up, read the note I had written and thought, "OK, but I still don't know what to say or how make that into a sermon." Never-the-less, I fixed my tea, sat down at the computer and picked up the book, Reflections of a Peacemaker: A Portrait Through Heartsongs by Mattie J.T. Stepanek, edited by Jennifer Smith Stepanek. I had been led to this book earlier in the day on Friday and had a sense that Mattie's poem About Matters -written just six months before Mattie's death at age 16- had something important to say about being sent with wisdom. In it Mattie says:
What really matters
Is choosing
What really matters,
Not merely
Being aware or
Knowing about or
Considering attentively.
What really matters
Is choosing
What really matters,
With a clear and
Gentle heart
In all matters.
As I flipped through the book, two more poems caught my attention and the spirit of wisdom spoke in my heart, saying, "Your sermon this week will be telling the story of how you came to these poems and then letting the wisdom of this angel of peace and hope carry my message." So here are the other two poems that I read, in the order that I read them.
Recipe for Peace,
Written May 12, 2002 when Mattie was not quiet 12 years old:
Peace is possible
Make peace an attitude
Want it.
Make peace a habit
Live it
Make peace a reality share it.
Peace is possible.
Make peace matter,
Our matter.
Make peace a priority,
Our priority.
Make peace a choice,
Our choice.
Peace is possible
We must
Think gently
Speak gently
Live gently
Peace is possible.
Be happy with who you are
Be happy with who others are
Be happy that we Are.
Peace is possible.
Role model acceptance
Love others
Role model forgiveness
Encourage others
Role model tolerance
Treasure others
Peace is possible
Peace is possible
Peace is possible
And the final poem I read - Innocent Thoughts, Innocent Hopes- was written April 21, 1995, when Mattie was not yet 5 years old:
Do you know
What is one of the saddest things
Someone can say to someone else?
"You will never see
The light of another day!"
That's what Scar says in The Lion King.
That meant that he wanted The Mouse to die.
If you're a good listener, and
If you have God in your heart
While you're alive
You go to heaven when you die
And that is wonderful.
But you're not supposed to die
Just because someone else is mean,
Or because someone else
Wants you to die.
You're only supposed to die
When the muscles-and-bones
That God gave you
Really don't work anymore
Even though you loved them
And took good care of them
Because they were a gift from God.
So, isn't it sad about what Scar said?
Isn't it so sad that someone
Would want someone else to die?
Isn't it so sad that lots of
Little children and other people
Get killed when people
Shoot them or hurt them?
Isn't it so sad that Hitler
Killed all those people
Because they prayed to God
With different words and
In a different church?
Isn't it so sad that
Martin Luther King got killed
Because someone didn't like
The color skin God gave him?
Isn't it so sad that Jesus got killed
Because he tried to teach us
About God and about how
To be good listeners?
I know Easter is fun to celebrate
Because now we have Heaven
But I still think it's sad that some people
Cut down a dogwood tree
And nailed such a good person to it.
I think Jesus maybe wanted to
Stay here with his friends longer.
I want to see the light of another day
And so do lots and lots
Of other children and people.
The little Mouse got away from Scar,
And that is very good.
But how can we get people to
Stop being so nasty to each other?
Maybe everyone needs to learn to meditate
And combine their mind and body and spirit.
Then maybe
People would start to think
About what they say and what they do
And then, maybe nobody else would get killed
They would only die when their bodies don't work
And it's time for their spirits to go to Heaven
Just like God wants it to be.
Today, I join Paul in praying that God will awaken in us such a spirit of wisdom that with the eyes of our hearts opened we can know the hope to which we are called and the immeasurable power of God's Love to bring that hope into reality. May God also give us the wisdom to meditate combining our mind and body and spirit so that we can choose what really matters, with a clear and gentle heart in all matters and then be happy with who we are, with who others are and that we Are. May we role model acceptance; love others; role model forgiveness; encourage others; role model tolerance; treasure others; and proclaim with every breath we take, every deed we do and every word we speak that peace is possible; yes PEACE IS POSSIBLE! Amen.
