Being a Window to Wisdom and Redemption

Dionysus

As we near the conclusion of Ephesians the author gives us some parting words of wisdom. This portion of our text offers contrasting ways of living for the believing community and the way of living for the unbelieving community. The author contrasts these two communities as light and darkness leading into our reading for today; proclaiming that ”once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light—“ Take notice though, the audience is never asked to leave the darkness. The letter continues; contrasting the wise with the unwise, foolishness with the will of God, and being filled with drunkenness with being filled with the Spirit. 

One interpretation of today’s reading can easily lead us away from being in the world, closing off our community and shunning those who are outside of our beliefs and practices. But that was not the state of the first century church. In fact the drunkenness described is most likely a reference to the Roman cult of Dionysus. A cult that flourished in the communities where many Christians themselves lived. Dionysus was basically the god of the Delta Tau Chi fraternity of Faber College from National Lampoons Animal House. As you can imagine, even if you weren’t a devout follower that was probably a worship service a lot of people wanted to attend. But Dionysus is the god of more than just wine and parties, he is the Roman god of madness and recklessness. But at no time does the letter of Ephesians imply that we should leave the party. The author calls the church to stay at the party in the midst of the unwise, the foolish, and even the reckless living.

It’s not an easy thing to do in the first century world, it’s not an easy thing to live in the midst of today either. We most often attempt to use this particular reading as a means to justify leaving such circumstances, disassociating ourselves with those who differ from us. As my father once told me, “Be careful who you spend time with, if you sleep with dogs you’re bound to get fleas”.

But that’s not what we are hearing today. The church is being called in this letter to wade into the midst of an unbelieving world, a world that does not want their wisdom and rightfully so. Yes, you heard me right; the world doesn’t want our wisdom and it doesn’t need it, it didn’t then and it doesn’t now. 

One thing I have struggled with over these past few years is the source of wisdom. Dr Thomas Sowell once said, “It takes considerable knowledge to realize the extent of your own ignorance”.  I think Dr Sowell lays out the reason the world doesn’t want our wisdom right there; we don’t have any. The lesson for today is not drawing attention to our wisdom it is drawing attention to God’s wisdom, God’s will, God’s Spirit. Karl Barth, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Paul Tillich, and many many more great theologians had one thing in common, they all agreed that no matter how much we may think we know, we know very little because the true source of all wisdom is God through Jesus as the Christ. But that doesn’t really strike confidence in our hearts. Borrowing wisdom as we wade into a world that may in fact be hostile to us seems like borrowing someone else’s parachute while standing in front of an open airplane door thousands of feet off the ground. It doesn’t inspire confidence. We want to know we are prepared as we go out into the world with our own wisdom, our own knowledge, packing our own parachute, knowing without a doubt it will open. 

And here we find an element of trust in our lesson today, trust not in ourselves but the revelation of God through the life and ministry of Jesus the Christ. It is in the model of that life that we are filled with the Spirit and we find God’s will and wisdom. There is a catch though, it’s not the kind of wisdom that is going to get us to the final round of Jeopardy, but if you want to change the world, the broken world, the party we are called to wade into, it is the wisdom we are called to share. The problem is that this is not the kind of wisdom, will, or Spirit we really want to channel, and it’s  not just because of the persecution we could face for it. I think the biggest problem we find in this sharing is that we not only don’t want to do it, but our broken state draws us away from it. 

I remember the first time I heard the most succinct socratic method of argumentation expressed to me in my childhood years: “I’m rubber you’re glue whatever you say to me bounces off of me and sticks to you!” The first time I heard it about 30 years ago I couldn’t help but to marvel at such argumentative prose on the kindergarten playground. I used to wonder why every presidential debate wasn’t decided by the first candidate to utilize such a phrase, little did I realize thirty years later presidential debates would in fact be decided by such comebacks. In fact, how many of our own interactions, with not only the world but our own family and friends, ends with just this type of unreasonable, unwise, foolish, and yes, reckless means of communication. We have fulfilled our call to be in the world, but instead of modeling the example of Christian living that God has revealed through Jesus the Christ, we have consistently chosen to mirror the model of the world. ~

This past week tensions flared again in Ferguson, Missouri. During renewed protests in that city a young man was shot after he himself allegedly fired on police. In response to this shooting a group known as the Oath Keepers arrived in Ferguson armed with high powered rifles and tactical vests further antagonizing protestors. In Ferguson we have seen this cycle continue; outrage mirrors outrage. In the Central African Republic we have seen similar forms of mirroring. Christian villages have decimated Muslim villages only to be decimated themselves by Muslims in order to seek out retribution. The same has been true of the Sunni and Shiite allegiances of Iraq, the Kurds and the Turks, the Palestinians and the Israelis. Violence mirrors violence, hate mirrors hate, insults mirror insults, gossiping mirrors gossiping and all of these are expressions of the source of all negative mirroring. Retribution mirroring retribution is an endless cycle.

Oath Keepers in Ferguson 

Paul Tillich, in a sermon, spoke to this, referring to two forms of justice: retributive justice* and creative justice. Retributive justice* is a form justice that is deemed proportionate punishment to the crime committed, but the standards of what is proportionate is weighed heavily on the perception of the one rendering the judgement. When that judgement is rendered by an angry crowd or a solitary angry person can we say it is truly proportionate in the eyes of a reasonable person much less the reasonable God? The second form is creative justice which Tillich proposes is the form of justice that reunites, by love, what has been separated. But this concept is easier said than done, it is a pill easier to prescribe than to swallow one’s self. ~

A few weeks ago I received a phone call from a dear friend and Marine I fought alongside in Iraq. He had asked if I would serve as a reference for him, because at the age of 35 he has decided to leave everything behind and join the Peace Corps. Upon filling out his application he was asked to select the most desirable locations. 

#1- Indonesia

#2- North Africa

#3- Western Caribbean 

As you can imagine, the peace corps personnel who interviewed him were quite concerned when they glanced over his resume to discover he was a Marine Corps Infantry combat veteran who had served in Iraq. As the interview progressed and they discovered more about the combat operations in which we took part, they grew more concerned. Finally the question, the big white elephant in the room was brought to light when the interviewer said simply “Why were your top two choices Muslim countries?” to which my dear friend replied, “I loved the people in Iraq and I still love them. When I see what has happened all I want to do is figure out a way to work with and heal the wounds that have been inflicted between their culture and mine.”

My friend pictured on the far left

His application went from the bottom of the stack to the top and he will be leaving in March. I will miss my dear fried and brother for three long years, but I know and I am confident that he is going to not only mirror God’s creative justice in Indonesia but in his own life and his own healing as well. 

In the long run, mirroring Christ’s model for us, Christ’s wisdom, Christ’s Spirit, Christ’s will isn’t mirroring anything at all when you really think about it. Mirrors only show us what is behind us but God’s creative justice is a window. It is a window that shows us the way forward not backward like a mirror. Forward to God's redemption, God's reconciliation, God's renewal. A way forward into Christian living in God's wisdom, God's will, being filled with God's Spirit while still being in and walking in this world following the One who reveals God to us by the incarnation. It is a window into the redemption of a world that we can never heal without looking into God’s plan that God has for this broken creation. 

If you stare hard enough into that window you just might see a small hill in the distance with the sun sinking down behind it, and on the top of that hill if we look hard enough you can make out a solitary figure hanging on a cross. 

Amen. 

*Paul Tillich’s sermon is specifically centered on the difference between “Calculating Justice” and “Creative Justice" but for the sake of clarity and familiarity with terms, retributive justice is being contrasted here. If you would like to explore further regarding Tillich’s thoughts on creative, calculating, and retributive justice, he wrote about these dynamics in his work; Love, Power, and Justice. 

Sources

Landis, John. National Lampoon’s Animal House. Universal Studios, 2008.

Tillich, Paul, and Mary Ann Stenger. The New Being. Lincoln: Bison Books, 2005.