Pastor Thanael Certa-Werner
SCRIPTURE | PROVERBS 9:1-12 (NIV)
9 Wisdom has built her house; she has set up its seven pillars. 2 She has prepared her meat and mixed her wine; she has also set her table. 3 She has sent out her servants, and she calls from the highest point of the city, 4 “Let all who are simple come to my house!” To those who have no sense she says, 5“Come, eat my food and drink the wine I have mixed. 6 Leave your simple ways and you will live; walk in the way of insight.” 7 Whoever corrects a mocker invites insults; whoever rebukes the wicked incurs abuse. 8 Do not rebuke mockers or they will hate you; rebuke the wise and they will love you. 9 Instruct the wise and they will be wiser still; teach the righteous and they will add to their learning. 10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. 11 For through wisdom your days will be many, and years will be added to your life. 12 If you are wise, your wisdom will reward you; if you are a mocker, you alone will suffer.
Today we celebrate everyone who is heading into a new school year – especially our scholars. We’re taking extra time to celebrate those who have received a scholarship through our church because these young people have shown dedication to the values we hold dear as a church. So, I’m talking to everyone, while I more specifically speak to them. If you’re not heading back to school this fall, this isn’t an invitation to fall asleep because what we’re talking about today still applies to you.
Some of you are returning to your universities, colleges, and tech schools. Still, even more are heading out to college for the first time! Going from being a senior in high school to a freshman in college is a big change – I know because not only did I once go through it but I was a freshman RA in charge of a whole floor of freshmen. Over my tenure as an RA, I have seen and been a part of the lives of MANY freshmen.
I think one of the most exciting things is the idea that you finally get away from your parents. I know that you probably can’t admit that here while they’re sitting next to you, but in many ways, this is the first taste of independence and freedom! You get to decide when to get up, when to go to sleep, play games when you want, be on your phone when you want, do whatever you want when you want. It’s pretty exciting to have that kind of control over your life for the first time – so exciting that many freshmen overdo it.
Actually, college students of all grades and classes overdo it. For the first time, there won’t be anyone at home upset if you come home drunk. No one will know if you stay the night at your boyfriend’s or girlfriend’s place. No one cares if you stay up till four in the morning. No one comes after if you skip class because you want to sleep instead of going. Having that kind of responsibility is a lot of responsibility. And the question is, how are you going to use it?
The reality of being an adult is that no one has control over your life but you. No one gets to dictate what you do with your days but you and that means that college and school of any kind is often the start of your control over your own life which spans for most of the rest of your life.
So, to help you out here, I’m going to use a cook book. How many people under the age of 25 know how to cook? Not many. Still, any cook knows that one of the greatest helps for learning how to cook anything is a cookbook. Now we all need to be thankful we live in a time of standardization because old cookbooks use measurements like – throw in some, a handful, a pinch, a good amount. Instead of saying turn the oven to 450 degrees, it might say bake in a hot oven. But today, we have books upon books which teach us how to cook absolutely anything we could possibly ever want to with precise measurements.
After I graduated college, I decided that I wanted to learn how to cook well enough that I didn’t have to use a cookbook all the time. So, I broke out the cookbook and started cooking. I made countless different recipes of all different kinds. After you cook and bake for a while you learn the basic ingredients for things. For instance, if it has tomato, meat in it or is a soup, you’re likely going to start by putting some oil over medium heat and sautéing a medium onion for 5 minutes. Almost anything that you bake has at least some kind of flour, some kind of fat – like oil, butter, or shortening – and salt. The same idea applies to life.
When it comes to controlling your own life – when it comes to making decisions and choosing a good path – the ingredient you want is wisdom. Wisdom is the ability to look at choices and make the right ones. It’s more than knowing what is right, it is choosing what is right. In fact, wisdom is so important to living a good life that the Bible dedicates three whole books to wisdom – Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Job.
Of the three, Proverbs is easiest to understand and outlines the ways that wisdom works and how it applies to your life – actually how she is applied to your life. Our reading today gives us great insight into how wisdom interacts with us. “Wisdom has built Her house; She has set up its seven pillars. She has prepared Her meat and mixed Her wine; She has also set Her table. She has sent out Her servants, and She calls from the highest point of the city, ‘Let all who are simple come to My house!’ To those who have no sense She says, ‘Come, eat My food and drink the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways and you will live; walk in the way of insight.”’
In other words, Wisdom has made everything ready and possible for anyone to be welcomed into Her home. She’s got the food all prepared, the good drinks on the table, and She’s sent out Her helpers to invite everyone in. You don’t have to be smart, or clever – you don’t have to understand all of the ways of the world. You get to just enter her house and dwell with her.
The passage continues: “Whoever corrects a mocker invites insults; whoever rebukes the wicked incurs abuse. Do not rebuke mockers or they will hate you; rebuke the wise and they will love you. Instruct the wise and they will be wiser still; teach the righteous and they will add to their learning.” So, wisdom is making something clear here: not everyone comes into Wisdom’s house. There are people in the world who make fun of everyone and everything – they think their way is the best and only way. They choose to live their lives for themselves and what they see as important – and they insult anyone who tries to correct them.
In the same way, those who use knowledge for wrong and evil – when you try to correct those people, you’re welcoming in abuse. But how do we know that someone is wise? Because they are always open to correction. They are always seeking more knowledge and new ways of understanding.
So, the big question is, why did we talk about cookbooks? Are we ever getting back to college? Is the sermon going to last much longer? And where does one even get wisdom? Here’s the answer to all of your questions:
To start, we have to explore where wisdom comes from. This is what Proverbs says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. For through wisdom your days will be many, and years will be added to your life.” So, Wisdom comes from God. This is why some people refer to the Holy Spirit as She, because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, also known as the Spirit of Wisdom. It is through the Holy Spirit that humanity gains Wisdom. By dwelling in the Spirit, we are dwelling in the House of Wisdom. And this is where the cookbook comes in.
Just as a cookbook teaches how to cook so that someday, we can understand how the recipes work enough to not need the cookbook, so too do we have instructions which teach us how to be wise and live good lives. The Holy Bible is the cookbook for life. Between its covers is the information which teaches how to be wise and how to live a good life. If we choose to dive deep into it and study it, as we live day by day, we start to see and use God’s wisdom for ourselves.
College really is an amazing time. Those of you who have already experienced some time in it know how fun it can be – but also how challenging it is. This is what I want you to take away from today: You are starting to control your own life. You now get to start making decisions for how you run the show and now you get to choose if you will be wise or foolish. It can be a daunting task to figure out what it means to live a good life and to figure out how to be happy, but God has gifted us His Holy Word and His Spirit of Wisdom to guide us and reveal to us the wisdom of a life well lived.
So start with God. Choose this day to walk in the ways of wisdom, choose to explore what God’s wisdom looks like, and choose to be around those who help you to accomplish those goals. One of my favorite verses from the whole Bible comes from Proverbs 13:20, “Walk with the wise and be wise for the companion of fools suffers harm.”
This day, each and every one of us gets to decide how we will live – as a foolish person who ignores the sage advice of the God Who made all things, knows all things, and is present everywhere and for all time – or in the wisdom of that all powerful, all knowing, and all loving God. I pray you choose to walk with the wise, to live in the house of wisdom, and to dwell in the Spirit of God. I pray that this day, you choose wisdom. Let it be so. Amen.