Proverbs 9:1-10
Wisdom has built her house;
she has hewn her seven pillars.
She has slaughtered her beasts; she has mixed her wine;
she has also set her table.
She has sent out her young women to call
from the highest places in the town,
“Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!”
To him who lacks sense she says,
“Come, eat of my bread
and drink of the wine I have mixed.
Leave your simple ways, and live,
and walk in the way of insight.”
Whoever corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse,
and he who reproves a wicked man incurs injury.
Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you;
reprove a wise man, and he will love you.
Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser;
teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
Grace, mercy and peace to you, from God, our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus, Christ, Amen, our Old Testament. Reading today depicts wisdom. Wisdom has built her house. She's getting ready for a feast. She's prepared animals for eating. She's got wine all mixed and ready, and she goes out to the world and says, Come eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways and live and walk in the way of insight. This is a message that wisdom sends out into the world to invite people to partake of what she has to offer. And as we look at this, I think it is interesting to note that for the people who lack sense or the simple this is not a moral judgment. If I were to walk up to someone and say they were simple or simple minded, that person would say, stop being so mean, right? Nobody here wants to be called simple or that they lack sense. I don't think that is what the proverb is doing. The simple those who lack sense in this are just it's a condition someone who just simply hasn't been educated, like if we went to a three year old and discovered that that three year old can't read. We wouldn't say, How dare you, right? We would just say, Well, it's pretty normal for someone who hasn't been taught to read to not be able to read. Right? I think that's the condition here to those who have not been educated, who are not taught, who are not aware. Wisdom is offered to all those who want. And so we ask with the proverb, what is this wisdom that is being offered to the world? Come to the feast. Come eat and drink. Come be filled with the wisdom of God. I think this section defines it right at the end, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. We often think about wisdom or knowledge as a secular concept, something that the world has, and we come here for spiritual things. But this reminds us that wisdom begins with the fear and knowledge of God. First, Corinthians, chapter one has something similar, where Paul says Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God, for the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. And so when the Bible speaks of wisdom, the Bible is inviting all to come hear the gospel of Jesus Christ and the amazing gifts he has to offer us, because He is the wisdom of God and the power of God, and sometimes we need to take a moment to simply reflect on the power and beauty And goodness of the wisdom that we have been given. How beautiful. How powerful. How amazing is the wisdom of God in Christ? How crazy is it that our God became a human being? That's kind of nuts, isn't it? All powerful God, the Son from the beginning of creation, before creation, decided to leave his heavenly throne and become one of us, a human being, he would live through the same things we live through the pains, the hurts, the emotional turmoil, grieving, sickness, the whole thing, and then he suffered and died on a cross. For you. It was placed in a tomb. He rose from the dead, He ascended into heaven, and he promises to return to raise you from the dead, that by his death, death is no longer the end, but the doorway to eternal life in how amazing is that? How crazy is that that our God came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for you, this is the knowledge and wisdom of God that we have been given, the feast that wisdom invites all to partake of. And how amazing is that? What amazing wisdom that we have been given through our Lord and Savior, Jesus, Christ, and we have something even more on top of the gift of salvation. Through our Savior, we have been given a wisdom that means we don't have to question whether this event that happened 2000 years ago is for us or not. God has given us a way to apply this salvation from the outside to you through His Word and Sacrament. How amazing is it that you don't have to wonder whether Jesus came and died for you. The Word of God proclaims it to you right now, and you are filled with the Holy Spirit as you hear it. You don't have to wonder whether you are a part of God's family. You were chosen when the water hits your head in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and adopted into the family of God, made co heirs with our Savior, Jesus, Christ of all creation. How beautiful is it that when you come forward to eat Christ's body and drink his blood, you get the promise of life, that, because Christ is united with you, you know you will be raised up on the last day that his flesh is true food and His blood is true drink to give you life, that when you hear the words, I forgive you in the name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit, it's not a wish, it's done, And you don't have to question or worry or wonder. Am I praying hard enough? Am I doing enough? No, the amazing gifts of God come to you, freely given here. What joy, what wisdom, what power we have been given, the feast that wisdom offers to the world, what amazing wisdom there is that God uses that these means of grace to bind us together as a community. Isn't it amazing how all of these things come together to make a congregation that is like ours, this wonderful community of believers, this family of God. Because if you look around, very few of us would be here and know each other without this gospel, right, we can come in through these doors and be welcomed into the family of God for one simple reason, we believe in the same Savior who died and rose for us, and all it takes is to come in and join together with us in this common confession and your family. That's it. That's weird, right? I grew up in a small town in northern Wisconsin. It was actually kind of a big town for the area. We had 2000 whole people, huge. The town's near us, much smaller.
My wife grew up in a town of 500 and when you're in a place. Place like that, everyone knows everyone, and nobody leaves. So that means you get things like the mayor met the chief of police in kindergarten, and they have been playing with each other ever since, and there is no way the guy who moves into this town and has lived there for only 15 years is going to be able to get in right when the principal and the teacher grew up next to each other, you'll be an outsider, even if you've lived in that town for decades. But not so here, right when you walk in and join our congregation, you're part of the family, and we've seen this as our congregation has grown over this year, as more and more people come and take the vows of membership, they are just one of us, as if they always have been. There aren't many communities like this. And how amazing is it that God does that through his means of grace to gather us together? How powerful. How beautiful. How glorious this wisdom of God that then, after gathering us into this community and filling us with His grace, He sends us out to live like Christ. Because the weird thing about us is that we believe that our life is not about personal fulfillment, but about serving as Christ served us. Our goal is not to be out there gathering things in, but to live a purposeful life of love and care, and sometimes that means that the rules of God, His law, push at our boundaries and make us do things we'd rather not, but it's part of God's purpose for us. He gives us this clear vision of wisdom that is good for us and for the world. How beautiful, how powerful, how amazing, this wisdom of God given to us in Christ. This is the thing that wisdom calls. She invites the whole world to gather together, hear and partake of this feast and then wisdom says something interesting in verse seven, it says, Whoever corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse, and he who reproves a wicked man incurs injury. Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you, reprove a wise man, and he will love you. Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser. Teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning. Kind of an odd thing, right? What is this saying? When you correct a scoffer, you get abuse. When you give instruction to a wise man, you get love. You've heard it another way, haters gonna hate. You've heard that. I'm sure it is. It is just old enough so that uncool people like me can say it, but it's true. Haters gonna hate, scoffers gonna scoff. There are those who will hear the wisdom and power of God and respond to it with anger or hostility or indifference, right? That has always been a fact of life. There are people who will hear this amazing thing that is the center of our lives, this beauty, this power, and simply say, No, thank you. And that has always happened ever since this gospel message first went out, and we have this amazing thing that all should hear, and yen some will hear this amazing. Amazing and beautiful message and respond with joy, as if scales have fallen from their eyes, and all the sudden they understand what this proverb says, that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight, and they will welcome and become wise and saved by the gospel message of Jesus Christ. And we know that. Why? Because you're here. I don't know if you know how weird it is that you come back every Sunday, because it's really weird, and you want to know why, because you come here and this guy dressed in green tells you that you are a sinner and deserve nothing but punishment. And then you come back the next week. It's weird. Who else would do that? And yet, you hear it every week, over and over and over again and keep coming. Why? Because you know you need it, just as I do, that is through this, this proclamation of this wisdom of our sin and the grace of Christ that calls us to eternal life. Correct a wise man, and you will get wisdom and love. He will love you teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning. You're not just gluttons for punishment or people who like to whip whip themselves. What you are is people who know you need Christ. We do it with the full wisdom of God, all of his counsel. And what this proverb is encouraging us to do is very simple. Let us not be ashamed of this power and beauty and wisdom. Let us proclaim it to the whole world. Sure scoffers going to scoff people might hear it and turn away, but some will not. Some will see the beauty and power of what we have and love it, and their eyes will be opened. They will hear and learn and come to love our community because of it and their savior, Jesus Christ, no apologies. We don't need to water it down. People are hungry for the truth. Let's be proud of it. We have the wisdom and power of God here in this community. Why not share it? It actually reminds me a little bit of what was going on with Jesus, because Jesus said something kind of crazy in this Gospel reading, right? He says, My flesh is true food and my blood is true drink, and if you do not eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you. And that's weird, right? Especially before he begins the Last Supper. Nobody knew about Holy Communion, how his body and blood would be here as true food and true drink for us, that's why it says the disciples turned away and left and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the 12. He said, Do you want to go away as well? Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and as the wisdom and power of the gospel message goes out, some will scoff and turn away, some will hear and become wise. Let's simply be proud of the wisdom we have, proclaim
it everywhere, not water it down, because we want them to share what we have, this amazing feast of wisdom that is the power of God for your salvation and for the world you. In Jesus name amen, amen.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
Find us on Youtube, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.