18 August 2024 - Proper 15, Year B

 

Theme

This week’s readings invite us to choose a life of wisdom and life over foolishness and evil. In John, Jesus teaches that those who stay connected to him are wise. Paul tells the Ephesian church to be wise and live lives filled by the Holy Spirit, avoiding evil. Proverbs speaks of Wisdom who invites the simple to dine at Her table. The Psalmist describes how the wise who fear the Lord will lack nothing.

Scripture Readings

  • John 6:51-58 - Jesus reiterates how he is the bread from heaven. This bread is his flesh and whoever eats it will live forever. The Jews argued how Jesus could give them flesh to eat. Jesus declares that whoever eats his flesh and drinks his blood remains in him, and he in them. Just as the Father sent Jesus and Jesus lived in him; Jesus sends us and we live in him.
  • Ephesians 5:15-20 - Paul encourages the Church to live as wise people, making the most of every opportunity. Do not be foolish and get drunk on wine that leads to debauchery but instead be filled with the Spirit and speak to each other in song. Always give thanks to God for everything.
  • Proverbs 9:1-6 - Speaks about Wisdom who has built her house and prepared her table. She invites “all who are simple” to come to her house to eat the food and drink the wine that she has mixed. She invites the simple to come and walk in the way of insight and wisdom.
  • Psalm 34:9-14 - Those who fear the Lord lack nothing. Whoever loves life should keep their tongues from evil and instead, do good and seek peace.

Personal Application

Many people have taken verses such as the one in Ephesians to make blanket statements to all people about what is right and wrong. The argument goes that because Paul said that it is not good to get drunk on wine, all people should abstain from drinking any sort of alcohol. The same arguments have been made by using certain verses of the bible to “forbid” people from doing certain “bad” things such as having sex before marriage and having abortions.

As many of us know, forbidding something does not ensure that it never happens again. In fact, in most cases, it peeks people’s interest even more, and merely makes the forbidden things more dangerous. For example, research has shown that abortions do not happen less frequently in places where it is illegal, but more women die because the abortions they are having are unsafe. In another example, during the prohibition, alcohol did not disappear. Rather, the black market boomed and criminals took advantage and thrived.

But this is besides the point. Interpreting Paul’s passage in this way misses the point of his teaching entirely. Paul's instructions in this passage come in the middle of a teaching on wisdom. Paul tells the church to live in wise ways. He then says not to get drunk on wine because this leads to debauchery. Paul isn’t necessarily forbidding something all together, but encouraging people to fill their lives with things that lead to an abundant life.

Rather than asking whether something is abstractly right or wrong, perhaps we could ask ourselves whether what we are doing is leading to more abundant life or towards brokenness, division and death? This is not always an easy question to answer and will take a certain level of maturity and wisdom to answer honestly, but I believe it is an essential question to ask if we want to truly experience the wise and abundant life that Paul and Jesus spoke and taught about.

Communal Application

This week’s readings invite the reader to pursue a life of wisdom. Proverbs offers a beautiful image of Wisdom (often interpreted as a feminine portrayal of God) inviting people to gather at Her table and to feast on the food and wine She provides.

What are we, as the Church of Christ, doing to help people pursue a life of wisdom? Are we providing an appropriate space for people to stay connected with Jesus and be immersed in a life of wisdom or are we copying the foolish, simple ways of the world that Paul and Jesus warned us about? The foolishness of hoarding our possessions at the expense of others, of seeking power and status over the serving of others, of seeking pleasure in things that do not last but quickly fade as opposed to the joy that comes with the eternal promises of God?

How can we best pursue a life of wisdom and abundance as we live in community with others?

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