First Presbyterian Church
When we cross a threshold
Sermon for June 6, 2004
by Pastor Susan Barnes

Our unison reading is on page 492 of your pew Bibles. Despite what it says in the bulletin, we'll begin with reading Psalm 8, and then you'll hear Proverbs and John. Psalm 8 begins and ends with a doxology. A doxology is a short verse of praise to God. In the middle of the psalm are verses that show that human beings are not just recipients of God's creation, but crucial in governing that creation. Humans stand in the middle of God's good order. As we read together, listen for the word of God as it is found in Psalm 8.

1 To the leader: according to The Gittith. A Psalm of David. O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.
2 Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established;
4 what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?
5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.
6 You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet,
7 all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
9 O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

This ends our reading from the psalms.

In the book of Proverbs, wisdom and folly are personified as women; wisdom is a beautiful woman, ready to welcome all to her nourishing table. Folly is a prostitute, ready to lure men to her bed to quickly fulfill their superficial desires. These two women stand in the streets, at the crossroads, and at the city gates. People in a city would come to the gates, usually early in the morning, to transact business, settle disputes, and arrange marriages.

In our reading from Proverbs on page 492, Wisdom is giving her listeners her résumé, so they will know to come to her. Listen for the word of God as it is found in the book of Proverbs 8:1-5, and 22-31.

1 Doesn't wisdom call, and doesn't understanding raise her voice?
2 On the heights, beside the way, at the crossroads she takes her stand;
3 beside the gates in front of the town, at the entrance of the portals she cries out:
4 "To you, O people, I call, and my cry is to all that live.
5 O simple ones, learn prudence; acquire intelligence, you who lack it.
22 The LORD created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of long ago.
23 Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth.
24 When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water.
25 Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth--
26 when he had not yet made earth and fields, or the world's first bits of soil.
27 When he established the heavens, I was there, when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
28 when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep,
29 when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
30 then I was beside him, like a master worker; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always,
31 rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race.

This ends our reading from Proverbs. The Hebrew word our Bibles translate as ‘master worker' can also mean architect, expert, counselor, adviser, or scribe. (1)

Last week we learned that the Greek word ‘paraclete' means someone who exhorts, encourages, comforts, consoles, helps, advocates, and defends. In our gospel lesson, Jesus has told the disciples that the paraclete is coming. The disciples have asked him questions that reveal their worries about their future; they are dismayed to learn that they will be without him. He reassures them by saying they can't anticipate the problems they will have in the future; he can't teach them anything else about what will come. He expects them to face the future in faith. (2) He won't tell them exactly what's coming; he just equips them to be able to face whatever it is. You may follow along on page 110, but we'll be reading from my translation of John. Again, I use the southern you-all to translate second person plural. Listen for the word of God as it is found in John 16:12-15.

Still, I have many things to say to you-all, but you-all can't endure them now.
When the spirit of truth comes, it will guide you-all into all the truth;
it will not speak for itself, but whatever it will hear, it will preach, and it will proclaim the things to come. All those the Father has is mine, because of this, I said that it will receive (3) what is mine and proclaim it to you-all.

This ends our reading from God's word.

Those four verses mean that the spirit will proclaim Christ's words to them after they are gone. Jesus doesn't answer the disciples' questions as much as he redirects their concerns. An important theological crisis for the early church was the question: Was God's revelation in Christ limited to just a few people who met Jesus in the few years he was on earth? John uses Jesus' words to answer their concerns. Jesus' words allude to the wisdom tradition.

The apocryphal book Wisdom of Solomon, which first century Jews would have known, speaks about Lady Wisdom, saying, ( 9:10 -11):

“Send [Wisdom] forth from the holy heavens, and from the throne of your glory send her, that she may labor at my side, and that I may learn what is pleasing to you. For she knows and understands all things, and she will guide me wisely in my actions and guard me with her glory.”

So both the holy spirit and Jesus come in that wisdom tradition. John speaks of the holy spirit as the one who will continue to guide the disciples and proclaim Christ's truth to them, even after Christ is gone.

A long time ago, when I was in driver's training, I was taught that most collisions happen in intersections, because so much can happen with vehicles converging in four directions. Most of the time. There's that one place in LaGrande where six directions of traffic meet, where three different streets intersect. I lived in a small town with an eight direction intersection, where a divided highway, a regular highway, and two different streets converged. We called that the hub. It had many traffic lights, and took awhile to cross.

At intersections, drivers have to make a lot of decisions at once: whose turn is it next? Is that my traffic light or the other lane's? Is that pedestrian crossing in front of me or opposite me? Is the sign for this street or that one? We have to make a lot of decisions when we drive; even before we drive. What sort of vehicle do we need? How many people will drive it? Where should we buy it? How much can we spend? When we have to make decisions, it's wise to call on an expert. Here's a letter from a car advice column:

Dear Tom and Ray:
Here's a question I call "dueling grandmas": My wife's mother has given us a '92 Toyota Camry sedan with 55,000 miles on it. My mother has given us a '95 Volvo 850 sedan with 54,000 miles on it. We have to sell one of them to buy a Subaru Outback, because we need all-wheel drive where we live. It's very complex. We don't want to offend a grandmother AND make the wrong choice. I always assumed the Volvo was the better car, but it has lousy visibility (the headrests take up the whole rear window!) and drives a bit like a truck. What should we do? – Marc

TOM: Well, they're both good cars, Marc. And they both should have many miles left on them. But the first thing to do is have both of them carefully inspected by your mechanic, to see if any major components on either car are in danger of failing soon.

RAY: Those inspections might make your decision a lot easier. But if both cars are in equally good condition, I think I'd keep the Camry.

TOM: Me, too. And the reason is repair costs. At 54,000 miles, the Volvo is going to need quite a bit of mechanical attention during the next 50,000 miles -- starting, most likely, with one of Volvo's famous $800 timing belts. We often have to revive customers after they see those bills. The Camry, by comparison, should give you relatively little trouble.

RAY: So the issue is, how do you break it to your mother, Marc? …

TOM: Address the same letter to both of them. Tell them both how truly grateful you are for their generosity. Tell them how they've both made your lives immeasurably better.

RAY: Explain to them that in the interest of the safety of their grandchildren, you need to trade one of the cars for an all-wheel-drive model, but you can't decide which one to part with. Tell them it's even harder to let one go because they're both treasured gifts from a grandma.

TOM: Tell them you've asked for advice from several mechanics, and they've told you that both cars are good vehicles -- making the choice even harder.

RAY: Then tell them that after considerable thought, you've decided that the only way to make the call is to pick a name out of a hat and randomly choose a car to sell. And unless they object, you're going to hold a drawing next week and abide by however it turns out. I'm sure they'll both agree.

TOM: Then rig the drawing so the Volvo goes. It's a great car, and a safe car. But if you're relying on donated cars these days, you probably don't have the budget to care for an aging Volvo yet. (4)

Proverbs says that the expert we rely on is Wisdom. Wisdom calls to us from the city gates, where business deals are made. Wisdom calls to us from the crossroads, where important matters are decided. She calls from the portals, or doorways. At every threshold, wisdom is there, urging us to make a wise choice, not a foolish one. We all have decisions to make in our lives; at intersections and doorways and streets and hallways. We Christians have the wisdom of Christ available to us. Do we think of the cross whenever we make a decision? Do we ask is this something Jesus would encourage? Will God help us see this through? Do we feel the spirit working in us here? I thought of the crosses over the doors in the fellowship hall. Imagine putting a cross over every threshold we cross. Imagine crossing every threshold when we go across.

The paraclete will let us hear Jesus' words and learn what they mean for us now, 2000 years after Jesus uttered them. Whenever we learn something new about ourselves by hearing Jesus' words again, we learn it through the work of the holy spirit. The spirit of the Lord who has inspired prophets, priests, and kings, is working in the new testament and here in Baker City.

Our verses from Proverbs describe how wisdom originated with God, how God created the world with wisdom; and how the world delights God. This tradition of wisdom as a beautiful woman, calling us in, offering us delight, is an old one. New testament writers spoke of Jesus as the word of God. ‘Logos,' ‘word' is masculine in Greek. The writers, unconcerned about the gender change, used that wisdom tradition but applied it to the Logos, the word.

In the new testament, the holy spirit is the presence and activity of God and the continuing presence of Jesus.

Today is Trinity Sunday. Trinity means three, specifically the Christian doctrine that God is a unity of three persons: Father, Son and Holy Ghost; God, Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit. Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer.

The idea of the trinity was supposed to help us give words for our faith, to describe what we believe. God the creator, who made all things in joy. Jesus, the incarnation of God on earth. The spirit, who offers us the power of God and the wisdom and word of Christ. Believing in the trinity is not about understanding how God can be three in one; believing in the trinity means we know that God was incarnate in Jesus, and the revelation in Christ isn't complete. The witness of the cross continues to have power for us, calling to us at every threshold, each gate, and all the crossroads.

The cross declares that God descends with us to the depths of life: “There is no pain that you can bear that I have not embraced. There is no darkness that can overtake you that I have not seen; there is no fear that might grip you that I have not known. I have passed through it, and when you pass through it, I am with you.” (5) Amen.

(1) ‘Amon, New Interpreter's Bible, V, p. 94. , BDB Hebrew-Aramaic lexicon, p. 54c

(2) Bultmann, The Gospel of John, p. 573, quoted in New Interpreter's Bible vol. IX, p. 773.

(3) Take from

(4) “Dear Tom and Ray,” Tom and Ray Magliozzi, June 1, 2004; http://www.cartalk.com/content/columns

(5) Lindvall, Michael, “living by the Word,” Christian Century, June 1, 2004, p 18.