Loving God, quicken our hearts again, that we may receive Your Word afresh and anew. Send the refreshing wind of your Spirit upon us Lord that your voice may be heard in our hearts and your loving presence seen in all that we say and do, bless indeed your Word to us - oh though our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen
Today Wisdom calls us, she calls to all living to hear her voice and live. She has built her house; she has made her bread and mixed her wine; she has set her table.
She calls us to come and to eat and drink, to lay aside immaturity and live and walk in the way of insight.
This is the image of the Book of Proverbs concerning the Wisdom of God.
Wisdom calls us - God calls us. The Spirit calls us Christ calls us.
And today in a public manner, in a sacramental manner, in a holy and sacred manner, we celebrate as a community the answering of that call.
From little Ruth and her mother young in years to Annie wise with experience, faith in God is being expressed and from Ming and Edward - to you and me and the rest of the people of this congregation a desire is being made manifest:
- the desire to indeed eat and drink at the table of wisdom
- the desire to be filled with the Spirit and to be at one with the God who made us all,
- and to be at one with his people in a specific way and in a specific place - at a specific table.
Today, however, we celebrate more than the sacraments of belonging - we celebrate more than baptism in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit - we celebrate more than the meal that signifies the forgiveness of God and our union with God and with one another, today we celebrate the truth of our faith, today we celebrate the wisdom of our God. A wisdom that is beyond our wisdom - a truth that is beyond our truth. A wisdom that is saving. A truth that is healing.
We celebrate how Wisdom became incarnate in Christ Jesus. We celebrate how truth took on substance in him, how the word of God took on flesh and dwelt among us - calling us towards salvation and becoming salvation to us; taking us by the hand to bring us to the gates of heaven and with his love opening those gates - offering himself for us - his body - and his blood - so that we might eat and live forever, so that we might be filled with light, so that we might be made whole, so that we might be instruments of grace and of love.
So how do we do this how do we actually eat and drink and live? How are we made whole? How are we saved?
It is a matter of faith and belief. Of confession and of commitment.
Paul writes that is:
the righteousness that comes from faith says, "Do not say in your heart, 'who will ascend into heaven' (that is to bring Christ down), or 'who will descend into the abyss' (that is to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say?
It says that "the word is near you - on your lips and in your hearts" - that is the word of faith we proclaim - because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Confess with your lips Jesus is Lord - that he is the one promised of God, the one of wisdom and of gentleness, the one who is one with God and has the keys to heaven in his hand, the one to obey and believe in your heart that God in fact uses him to do what we cannot do for ourselves, that in him God's power is made manifest, God's power to give bring life out of death - hope out of despair, joy out of sorrow, order out of chaos....
The essence of Wisdom is the essence of God, and it is God we celebrate today, the love of God, the mercy of God, the forgiveness of God, the healing power of God, day by day, one day at a time, forever and ever.
Wisdom has set her table, she has sent out her servants, she calls us to come and eat her bread and drink her wine, she calls us to accept Christ as our wisdom and our life - our Lord and our companion, and to believe that God as God raised him from the dead, so he will raise us to new life through him.
We celebrate the truth and the wisdom of God today.
Paul write in the 12th chapter of the Letter to the Hebrews concerning those who confess Jesus is Lord and believe in their hearts that God raised him from the dead:
You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the Living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn, who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
My dear sisters and brothers-in-Christ, each of us here today is an a spiritual pilgrimage and by the grace of God we have found, or are in the process of finding, our way to the table that wisdom has spread for us. We are making our way to Mount Zion and to the city of the Living God.
From those of you who have found that there is a higher power that can help you with your problems, to those of you have looked upon the heavens above and the world below and sensed there is one whose glory is above the heavens and whose majesty is greater than the world that he has made, there is a recognition of the call that Wisdom has made and the truth that she reveals at the table she has spread.
We celebrate here today in the sacraments we observe, and the songs that we sing, and the prayers that we make, something that is truly great - something that is truly marvellous, something that speaks more eloquently than the blood of Abel, something that is not only beyond us in mystery but which is beyond us in love, and yet in love comes to us and calls us and - when we accept it in our hearts and begin making it real on our lips - makes us, and indeed our world - whole.
Blessed be God, day by day. Amen.
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