I can still hear my Mother say, as I prepared to mow the lawn in my flip-flops, “Don’t come running to ME when you cut your foot off!” Scriptures to be heard this weekend are meant to remind the worshipper of the Wisdom of GOD, as opposed to the Smart Money here on earth. Through each of them, we’ll hear that God is ‘way more mighty than the incomplete knowledge presented by The System.
The Book of PROVERBS gives itself over to wise sayings, and a presentation of Wisdom in all Holiness. Verses 1:20-33 speak of God’s willingness to enlighten the People; and of a petulant parent-figure who says, “I told you so!” “I will make my words known to you….[but] because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof, I also will laugh at your calamity…” Bishop Kenneth Carter opines, “The church is but one voice among many, clamoring for the attention of the marketplace.” (FEASTING on the WORD, B 4:50) The neglect of Wisdom is ultimately the neglect of God.
JAMES 3:1-12 has no Christology, only the author’s observations. He compares the tongue to a ship’s rudder, a small piece controlling the entire boat. The words we say can cause a great conflagration: “It only takes a spark to start a fire going”. If we’re followers of the Holy, we’ll watch our tongues! Inherent in the reading is the idea that as we believe, so should we speak.
The Gospel according to MARK, 8:27-38, has Jesus asking the disciples, “Who do you say I am?” Peter speaks of the Christ, and almost immediately denies the humanity of Jesus. Jesus rebukes all who would set Incarnation on the shelf, identifying them with the Tempter. Then he calls EVERYbody to hear that God wants to be God, that the followers of Jesus have to do away with their egos and accept whatever “cross” is laid on them… Denial is more than giving up peanut butter in Lent: it’s adopting a new priority, a new perspective on who we are and who Jesus is.
Charles Wesley: “Sinners turn, why will you die? God, your Maker, asks you why….Noblest of {God’s} creatures, why, why will you forever die?” What makes us “sinners” is that we’ve been lured into the wisdom of the System instead of hearing what GOD has to say!
In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King
Every Tuesday we explore scriptural texts which are designed to carry the worship of the upcoming weekend. Come join us at horacebrownking.com
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