Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31

Proverbs is a book that contains just what the title implies, a bunch of short bits of wisdom. It uses lots of metaphor and stuff. It is attributed to the time of Solomon and to Solomon himself, whose historicity I have not examined. Some of the phrases have similarities to writings of the same time from Egypt.

The passage chosen here is inserted in the midst of that to connect this wisdom to God. You can flip through the rest of the book yourself and see how useful you find it. Some of it is okay. I don't remember pastors or Christians in general quoting from it. Some of it is just “righteousness is good, not listening to God is bad.” I'm paraphrasing of course.

I'm not going to disparage the text further, as I said, decide for yourself. I will however point out that many people take on this idea that wisdom comes from God and evil comes from the flesh. They take this on early in life and aren't able to shake it when they are older and they pass it on to the next generation. It's why devoutly Christian families don't like sending their children off to college, they know they will find wisdom comes from sources other than their home church. They phrase it, and probably believe it, that their children will be corrupted by worldliness. The effect is the same no matter how you view it.

Stories of people in their twenties going through painful anguish as they deal with new knowledge are now easily found. Some of them can be found in 50 Voices of Disbelief, which is now available free online.

This passage doesn't say you shouldn't think for yourself, but it doesn't say you should. There are very few verses in the Bible that do say so. This one is claiming the source of wisdom came long before people, it came with creation, it was “brought forth”. So if you want wisdom, the path to it is the creator.

Romans 5:1-5

Romans is one of my favorites books. But my favorite verse won't come around until next year. This one is something some of you might recognize as theodicy. The central question of theodicy is, if God exists, why is there evil? Human evils can be explained by human shortcomings, explaining volcanoes can get a little more dicey. Complaints like this are sometimes addressed by saying people want a better world than the one they got. It goes on like this. It's not what I want this website to be about, but I needed to introduce the concept.

Here, Paul is telling us that suffering produces something. It builds character. It leads to hope and love. It gets hard to argue with people who keep getting back to God pouring love into our hearts. I do not mean that sarcastically. I will explain by telling you a little about my history with religion.

I was sent off to Sunday School as a kid, but religion was not central to my early life. I didn't join a church until age 33. At that time I wanted to explore the idea of building community. I found a church, Walker United Methodist in Minneapolis, that had “build caring community” in its mission statement. Most people will claim that is what their church does, and they will cite the childrens' program, or a support group, or the friendships they have there.

Walker Church has all of that. It also has someone who was once just another member, but is now a representative in the Minnesota House and worked to improve the health care systems long before you ever heard of Obama. There is a multimillion dollar community puppet theater down the street from it that works with families in the neighborhood, bringing their participation into community events, that started in the Sunday School. Churches are often used as venues for speeches and workshops and Walker is the place to go if your group is one that might not be welcomed by others, like an LGBT organization or an alternative radio station. You can look to any of the programs that have helped to revitalize the surrounding neighborhoods and there is a good chance you'll find a Walker member involved.

If you want to research more about Walker being a strong and supportive organization in the community, I've given you a good start. There is a line they draw for membership that includes some loyalty to the creeds of the United Methodists, but I have continued to be welcomed by their members and included in their events with hardly a mention of my change in beliefs. I'm not unique there either. If I had not moved out of the area and found just how unique the Walker experience was, I would probably not have made the changes I did.

I'm telling you all this to say I think it is time to move on from these philosophical proofs of a supernatural being that pours love, or anything, in our hearts. I pushed a little at the leadership to move even further away from the rules but they are already embroiled in a world wide fight over the rules about including gays and lesbians. At some point, it didn't make sense for me to continue my particular battle.

There are of course a myriad of other churches that need to consider their place in the community. Some seminaries still train people in the kind of arguments Paul engaged in. Walker is not exclusively unique in the world, but there are far too few churches like that. I hope to see more movement in their direction in the future and even further movement to faith organizations working with secular organizations.

John 16:12-15

This is “Trinity Sunday”, a difficult concept in Christianity. There have been major schisms in the history of the church over this. I read once that some say if you talk about the Trinity for more than a few minutes you will commit blasphemy. There is no way you can get it right. Saint Augustine, one of the most important church fathers, wrote extensively on it and in the end said it is beyond our understanding. I guess it's why this passage was included today, This is the only place the three appear together. I don't think I will attempt to best Saint Augustine in interpreting it.

In the canon, the book of John was written late. Probably a full generation after Jesus had passed before it was written. The author of John was most certainly not an apostle who lived with Christ. The Trinity was an idea formed later, well after the dates of the crucifixion. We are seeing the early formations of it here in this passage.

Former Bishop John Shelby Spong gives a much more generous place to the book of John. He says he sees a liturgy being formed in the earlier gospels and through the letters of Paul. By time we get to the book of John, the church has begun to form and we see the love of Christ being expressed in ritual form. John Shelby Spong was also an early crusader in that fight for inclusion of gays and lesbians I mentioned above, and he has written whole books describing how Moses and Abraham and miracles of Jesus couldn't possibly be real. He's complicated.