My Left Foot
Sirach 24:1-12; Wisdom of Solomon 10:15-21
January 4, 2009
You’ve all heard variations on this joke: What would have happened if it had been three Wise Women instead of three Wise Men?
They would have asked directions, arrived on time, helped deliver the baby, cleaned the stable, made a casserole, and brought practical gifts.
A version of it graces the last page of this month’s newsletter. It’s an oldie but a goodie, and it’s appropriate to this Sunday just prior to Epiphany.
But it makes me wonder – not what would have happened if the wise men had been wise women – but what would have happened if I had been called to be a wise man.
Would I have had the patience to look for a star? The curiosity to wonder about it? The wisdom to follow its call? The courage to defy Herod? The persistence to travel from afar? The piety to worship? Would I have paid attention when Wisdom became “a starry flame through the night”?
The challenge of the Christmas story lies in the fact that these questions – and a host of other similarly challenging ones – are not reserved for misty memories, but instead press in on us right now, in this moment, in our lives.
Why? The readings this morning tell us.
As Michaela Bruzzese reflects in Sojourners this month, these readings from the wisdom tradition, taken along with the gospel reading from John – the word became flesh and dwelled among us – “feature God’s presence as Wisdom and word-become-flesh: Jesus.”
The wisdom tradition, with its feminine image of the divine Sophia, is both a long-standing voice in Israel’s history and also the reminder that God is deeply concerned with this moment, with the here and now and not just with that ancient and not so ancient history. Bruzzese cites Elizabeth Johnson’s reminder that “Unlike the historical and prophetic books, the wisdom tradition is interested not only in God’s mighty deeds in history but in everyday life with the give and take of its relationships.”
Wisdom is the wise woman who brings the practical gifts, and her divine presence, just as in Jesus’ life and teaching, calls us to deeper concern with the place of that life and those teachings in our own day-to-day.
Over the past couple of weeks – with perhaps a heightened awareness – most of our day-to-days have involved the exchange of stuff. That is to say, most of us have bought, and some of us have sold, and many of us have given and most of us have received various and sundry things. And every exchange, and every thing has a history and involves us in various relationships.
And Wisdom demands of us an accounting. What are these stories? What are these relationships? Where is God in the midst of the buying, selling, giving and receiving that marks not only Christmas, but literally every day of our lives?
These questions came home to me in the most mundane way just after Christmas when I went to buy a new pair of running shoes.
As I was checking the size tags on each of the shoes, I noticed happily that the left shoe was made in the U.S.A. I felt good about that knowing that the workers were probably reasonably well paid and treated decently. Then I checked the right shoe to make sure is was the same size. It was; but I also noticed that it was made in China.
One pair of shoes, bought in a store in Falls Church. One of the shoes made in one of six U.S. factories, the other somewhere in China. Welcome to the global economy.
And, welcome to the challenge of trying to bring the deepest values of our faith into the daily transactions of our lives. What are the stories of the workers who made my shoes? How am I drawn into relationship with them? What would it mean to live in right relationship with them?
Literally every step I take implicates me in this relationship.
If I am going to say of myself that I walk with Jesus, that I am trying to follow the way of Jesus, a way of right relationship of compassion and solidarity with the least of these my sisters and brothers, what of my left shoe? What of my right one?
One of the other things that came into our household this Christmas season was the DVD of Chariots of Fire. My favorite scene in that wonderful film about runners, comes when Eric Liddell, a devout Scottish missionary is confronted by his sister, who is concerned that Eric’s running is distracting him from his calling to serve God in the mission field.
Eric acknowledges his divine calling, but reminds his sister that God “also made me fast. And when I run, I can feel his pleasure.”
I love that line, because it reminds me that God does call us all into various ministries, to various types of service to the kingdom of God, to various ways of following Jesus in our daily lives. But at the same time, God delights in our play, in our joy.
It struck me, as I went for my first run in my new pair of New Balance shoes, that maintaining our balance may just be the biggest challenge we face in trying to live faithful lives, and that our efforts to do so – more or less successful, more or less compromised, more or less consistent as they may be – our efforts to do so bring God pleasure. That is enough for the day.
Amen.
January 4, 2009
You’ve all heard variations on this joke: What would have happened if it had been three Wise Women instead of three Wise Men?
They would have asked directions, arrived on time, helped deliver the baby, cleaned the stable, made a casserole, and brought practical gifts.
A version of it graces the last page of this month’s newsletter. It’s an oldie but a goodie, and it’s appropriate to this Sunday just prior to Epiphany.
But it makes me wonder – not what would have happened if the wise men had been wise women – but what would have happened if I had been called to be a wise man.
Would I have had the patience to look for a star? The curiosity to wonder about it? The wisdom to follow its call? The courage to defy Herod? The persistence to travel from afar? The piety to worship? Would I have paid attention when Wisdom became “a starry flame through the night”?
The challenge of the Christmas story lies in the fact that these questions – and a host of other similarly challenging ones – are not reserved for misty memories, but instead press in on us right now, in this moment, in our lives.
Why? The readings this morning tell us.
As Michaela Bruzzese reflects in Sojourners this month, these readings from the wisdom tradition, taken along with the gospel reading from John – the word became flesh and dwelled among us – “feature God’s presence as Wisdom and word-become-flesh: Jesus.”
The wisdom tradition, with its feminine image of the divine Sophia, is both a long-standing voice in Israel’s history and also the reminder that God is deeply concerned with this moment, with the here and now and not just with that ancient and not so ancient history. Bruzzese cites Elizabeth Johnson’s reminder that “Unlike the historical and prophetic books, the wisdom tradition is interested not only in God’s mighty deeds in history but in everyday life with the give and take of its relationships.”
Wisdom is the wise woman who brings the practical gifts, and her divine presence, just as in Jesus’ life and teaching, calls us to deeper concern with the place of that life and those teachings in our own day-to-day.
Over the past couple of weeks – with perhaps a heightened awareness – most of our day-to-days have involved the exchange of stuff. That is to say, most of us have bought, and some of us have sold, and many of us have given and most of us have received various and sundry things. And every exchange, and every thing has a history and involves us in various relationships.
And Wisdom demands of us an accounting. What are these stories? What are these relationships? Where is God in the midst of the buying, selling, giving and receiving that marks not only Christmas, but literally every day of our lives?
These questions came home to me in the most mundane way just after Christmas when I went to buy a new pair of running shoes.
As I was checking the size tags on each of the shoes, I noticed happily that the left shoe was made in the U.S.A. I felt good about that knowing that the workers were probably reasonably well paid and treated decently. Then I checked the right shoe to make sure is was the same size. It was; but I also noticed that it was made in China.
One pair of shoes, bought in a store in Falls Church. One of the shoes made in one of six U.S. factories, the other somewhere in China. Welcome to the global economy.
And, welcome to the challenge of trying to bring the deepest values of our faith into the daily transactions of our lives. What are the stories of the workers who made my shoes? How am I drawn into relationship with them? What would it mean to live in right relationship with them?
Literally every step I take implicates me in this relationship.
If I am going to say of myself that I walk with Jesus, that I am trying to follow the way of Jesus, a way of right relationship of compassion and solidarity with the least of these my sisters and brothers, what of my left shoe? What of my right one?
One of the other things that came into our household this Christmas season was the DVD of Chariots of Fire. My favorite scene in that wonderful film about runners, comes when Eric Liddell, a devout Scottish missionary is confronted by his sister, who is concerned that Eric’s running is distracting him from his calling to serve God in the mission field.
Eric acknowledges his divine calling, but reminds his sister that God “also made me fast. And when I run, I can feel his pleasure.”
I love that line, because it reminds me that God does call us all into various ministries, to various types of service to the kingdom of God, to various ways of following Jesus in our daily lives. But at the same time, God delights in our play, in our joy.
It struck me, as I went for my first run in my new pair of New Balance shoes, that maintaining our balance may just be the biggest challenge we face in trying to live faithful lives, and that our efforts to do so – more or less successful, more or less compromised, more or less consistent as they may be – our efforts to do so bring God pleasure. That is enough for the day.
Amen.
posted by David Ensign at
10:53 AM
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