The Choices is Yours

Wisdom 1: 16-2:1, 12-22; Mark 9: 30-37

I have been reading a book titled, A Beautiful Anarchy. The author reflects on the creativity of people and that through choices, with various degrees of risk, the creative becomes a life created. David Du Chemin considers that all people are creative with the power to create, not the specific outcomes of individual choices, but, the overall way one’s life will be. As any artist knows, when the spirit creates -not to make money, or satisfy the world- but, when the artist works from the heart, it is risky and sometimes it is anarchy, meaning it doesn’t follow prescribed rules. The art created – or in this case the life created- is one that is different.  Risky choices and following the heart, have opened a person to experiences which then, depending on the creativity applied, have become integrated into the depths of a person’s being. It is from these depths that life is created, where life becomes art. The artist’s life is full of a joy that comes from lived experiences of all kinds.

I have been reading this book in tandem with the Wisdom and Gospel reading we heard earlier. Simply described, my mind drew a comparison, between two kinds of people, and an either/or choice of which a person wants to be. We are presented with the argument and left to decide what life we create.

First, Wisdom introduces us to a group of people referred to as ungodly, a better term might be secular.

The book of Wisdom was written to them: them being, Jews living in the diaspora, likely in Hellenized Egypt, in the milieu of the culture of Alexandria. The author makes an appeal for Jews to be faithful to the Law and apply it to their contemporary lives. The author does this by appropriating the best of Greek philosophy and culture, adds doses of Jewish sacred text and story to make the argument.  The argument does not shy from the fact that such a choice and creating such a life is difficult.  It is risky and hard to remain faithful, however, the author stresses, through the use of wisdom and interpreting Bible stories, God’s concern for people. The author presents a view that Wisdom is the divine power that emanates through the world, and that God can be met and understood through Wisdom in the act prayer. In the end, immorality is expressed as a gift from God.

The secular persons, to whom this text is written, are not convinced. The text we read today describes them and their attitude to life.  Each lives for the moment with no thought of consequences, or life to come.  Their life is created by a set of choices- word, deeds, and an attitude- that life is short and sorrowful, and the life to come is no better. There is fleeting pleasure, but, no contentment. What really annoys them is the professed faith of others around them; and this annoyance is translated to feeling themselves judged as less than, of being burdened by the Laws, both religious and civil, which are enforced by the faithful. The secular feel inconvenienced by those creating a life boasting hope and lasting joy.  Quite frankly, the author describes this ‘ungodly’ group, as a group that gets so put-out and disturbed by the manner of life and the strange ways of the faithful, that they focus their creative power into devious schemes and manipulating circumstances to force signs and wonders and miracles – if they really do exist. “If God is God, let’s put it to the test,” they say; torturing the faithful, the patient, the gentle, the kind, to see IF, God will manifest God’s self. If the Messiah will really materialize.  The choices made, the lives lived, illustrate a people who lack hope, who fail to discern options, who are so blinded by the ways of the world, so much so that creativity to create true life is squandered and diminished.

In a few moments, our service will continue with the hymn, Children of the Heavenly Father. The writer of this hymn lived a different life compared to that of the persons described in the book of Wisdom.

Lina Sandell, daughter of a Lutheran pastor, was an accomplished Swedish poet and composer of over 600 hymns.  She used creative Wisdom to create life.

At the age of 12 Lina was paralyzed, confined to bed, and given no hope to ever walk again. When her family went to church, she chose to read the Bible; one Sunday she came across the story of Jairus’ daughter. If you remember the little girl was on her death bed, when Jesus healed her, and she rose and walked.  Lina believed the truth of the story, rose, and walked to church.

At the age of 26 Lina encountered ‘the event’ that shaped her life and work.  While crossing a Swedish lake the boat she and her father, a Lutheran pastor, where travelling on, tipped.  Her father fell overboard and drowned before her eyes.  Two years later her mom died. Her only child died at birth.  Later in life Lina was sick with typhoid.  She died in 1903 at the age of 71.

What makes her story special is that Lina’s pain and suffering manifested in deep faith. Her creative energy digested the suffering and created -it came out- in the texts of hymns put to simple tunes.  Her writing took on a depth that can only come from experiences of great emotion, that are reflected upon, and integrated into one’s being. The hymns, like Children of the Heavenly Father - circa 1850, and another of our favourites, Day by Day, whisper to the hearts of those who have experienced similar suffering. Lina’s use of Wisdom, the creative, created joy rooted in the depths of suffering and pain, not a happy-clappy silliness, rather, a quiet trust in Wisdom, in God’s faithfulness.

The disciples have been on the road and Jesus draws aside them to ask what they were arguing about.  The disciples were not fighting, rather, the disciples were in debate, a back and forth robust conversation, where points, ideas, and learning were shared. A very natural and cultural activity to engage in. While the premise of the debate, the philosophical dilemma of who is greatest, is a good one; the disciples veer into secular ideals when applying the reasoning to themselves. I am better. No I am, because…

Once again, we see the Gospel of Mark portraying the disciples as those who don’t get it; they fail to understand Jesus’ teachings, they are afraid to ask questions, they don’t really want to know more about this suffering servant, and they avoid being rebuked as Peter was weeks ago.  The disciples opt for not creating, taking less risk.  In doing so the disciples remain in a state of confusion. Their choices do not live or create, or even begin to understand that the reign of God reverses the ideals of the world. God’s ideals are a Beautiful anarchy.

I wonder where the conversation would have gone if the examples of those described in Wisdom, were set beside the life of Lina Sandell.  If the conversation went to a deeper level and the disciples talked from a place of suffering and pain.  The disciples had both kinds of people in their company, and each had a little bit of the ‘ungodly’ and a little bit of Lina, in themselves.  Judas, as a Zealot, decided to test the righteous; he pushes Jesus into proving he was the awaited Messiah, betraying him into the hands that will have him crucified.  Later other disciples take suffering and pain, Jesus’ death and their own persecution, and turn it to a quiet trust in Wisdom, that manifested in working to spread the Gospel.

This morning we are given a simplistic presentation of two ways to approach life. The presentation acknowledges that life is full of suffering and pain.  The texts are directive with the author presenting THE choice to create. One is not to live as the secular, the ‘ungodly,’ where life is short, sorrowful, and lacking hope.

The writers are convincing you of a truth they have experienced for themselves; that Wisdom is present in suffering and pain, and in the ashes of experience -when nothing is left but God’s faithfulness to never leave or depart- it is from here that Wisdom emanates through the creative, sprouting hope grown in the soil of substance.

The writers of these ancient texts are writing to impress upon the secular tendency of the people of their time – and ours, that the experiences of life are full of hope and promise. It is what present-day teachers are calling lifestyle design.  Lifestyle design embraces an understanding that it is within your creative power to decide and create the life you want, in the midst of suffering, pain, and a bombardment of secular understanding – create a beautiful anarchy.

The Scared texts take lifestyle design further, implying it is not just about you and your greatness. Lifestyle design is living a life created from the richness of Wisdom found in the depths of life’s struggles; God’s faithfulness to remain present when everything and everyone else washes away. It is taking this life created and expressing it in word, and deed, and attitude, for benefit of the common good.

David Du Chemin, the author of the book I’ve been reading, is also a photographer, he says:

It’s the difference between your wife’s passport photograph and the portraits you took when you got
engaged. Both may have been created with similar technology, but what stands in that great gulf between them are the passion you have for your wife, the knowledge you have of her personality, and your willingness to use your craft, time, and energy to express that. One says, “She looks like this.” The other says, “This is who she is to me. It’s how I feel about her. See how amazing she is?”

This is the difference in the life we choose to create. Do we live our passport picture- the life expected of us, demanded of us, less creative, not asking questions, staying confused, and living from moment to moment, with little hope, little risk? Or do we choose to live the picture of ourselves as those who love us see us – a created life that shines from a depth of Wisdom and understanding, power and might, fear of the Lord and joy in God’s presence.

The choice is yours.