At Ease, Without Dread
A sermon by Brent J. Eelman
September 17, 2006
Abington Presbyterian Church

Proverbs 1: 20-33
²⁰Wisdom cries out in the street;
   in the squares she raises her voice.
²¹At the busiest corner she cries out;
   at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:
²²‘How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?
How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing
   and fools hate knowledge?
²³Give heed to my reproof;
I will pour out my thoughts to you;
   I will make my words known to you.
²⁴Because I have called and you refused,
   have stretched out my hand and no one heeded,
²⁵and because you have ignored all my counsel
   and would have none of my reproof,
²⁶I also will laugh at your calamity;
   I will mock when panic strikes you,
²⁷when panic strikes you like a storm,
   and your calamity comes like a whirlwind,
   when distress and anguish come upon you.
²⁸Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer;
   they will seek me diligently, but will not find me.
²⁹Because they hated knowledge
   and did not choose the fear of the Lord,
³⁰would have none of my counsel,
   and despised all my reproof,
³¹therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way
   and be sated with their own devices.
³²For waywardness kills the simple,
   and the complacency of fools destroys them;
³³but those who listen to me will be secure
   and will live at ease, without dread of disaster.’*

Listen again to the last verse of the Old Testament reading: “But those who listen to me will be secure and will live at ease, without dread of disaster.” The question today is quite simple: “To whom do we listen?” We all know the story about the “Henny Penny”, the story-book chicken who was out picking up corn in the barnyard, when something hit her on the head. She was convinced that the sky was falling down and went to tell the king. On the way she told a number of others, and soon the whole barnyard was in a panic. They were also convinced that the sky was about to fall down. The little fable is quite descriptive because it tells the very human story of fear, panic, lack of security and the willingness to believe the worse about others and the world. The fable might indeed be descriptive of the age in which we live. To whom do we listen? The modern day “Henny Penny’s” ?

I think that there is a part of all of us that confronts a deep seated fear or dread. We worry and we stew about things, and we have a way of taking relatively small things and blowing them all out of proportion. Early in my ministry, I had a mother of grown son come into my office and she was visibly upset. Her son was “ruining his life and throwing it away.” She did not know how she could ever face her friends again and her life was filled with despair and ruin. I innocently asked, “what did you son do?” I expected to hear something like a major crime, at least flunking out of college. But it was none of those things. He bought a house in a neighborhood that was redeveloping. She wondered how her son could do such a thing. We take relatively small things and blow them out of proportion and then our anxiety and fear has a way of taking over our lives. Who was she listening to? More importantly, to whom do you listen?

The Danish word for dread is angst. It is a word that we throw around a lot, because in the 19^th century, the Danish philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard used it to describe the human condition. We live in a great age of anxiety, and dread seems to haunt us.

One of the things that concerns me the time we live in is that anxiety and fear become multiplied during an election year. Modern politics, regardless of party or ideology, often plays upon our fears. It attempts to raise the level of fear so that we will respond to that fear, and they continue to do it, because it works. Seldom are we exposed to a vision. Seldom is there an appeal to our hopes but we listen to them anyway. And we wonder why we don’t feel at ease; why we have this deep sense of dread.

And then we hear the words of proverbs. “But those who listen to me will be secure and will live at ease, without dread of disaster.” Who is saying those words? WISDOM.

We have a great deal of knowledge in our world today. Our knowledge can do a host of wonderful, even awesome things. Every time I go into our hospital, I am awed by the things that we now know and are able to do in the area of medicine. But with all our knowledge and ability, we have very little wisdom.. and we seldom listen to the wisdom that speaks to us in this world.

The book of Proverbs is “Wisdom Literature”. It is some of the hardest material to understand in the Bible, and it is often very troubling. In the text today, wisdom is personified as a woman. Her language contains both rebuke and assurance. She wonders out loud why people insist on their stupidity. Why do they continue to act and believe the way that they do? She cries out, in pain at the folly that characterizes humanity. I believe wisdom still cries out in pain. But do we listen to Wisdom? If we listen… will we know the peace and assurance that she promises? Will we live at ease and without dread?

Wisdom has three things that it can teach us.

1. Life is not fair. A number of years ago, I taught a bible class on Ecclesiastes. In the course description I put a warning: “Only for the brave.” Why? Ecclesiastes is filled with truth.. some of the hard truths about life, and the primary reality is that life is not fair. I think that one of the popular features about Eastern religions is the idea of kharma. Kharma is a spiritual way of saying: “You will get yours.” Kharma is a religious “fairness doctrine”. Christian faith is more realistic. Jesus said: “the rain falls on the just and the unjust.” In other words, bad things happen to very good people and vice versa. He himself was the victim of injustice. Wisdom also declares grace and grace is the antithesis of fairness.

2. The next one is similar to the first… There are no guarantees. Both of these combined give us a sense of realism about life. In a world where there are no guarantees, every day is a gift… every moment is precious, and the next person you see is the most important in the world. In a world where there are no guarantees, we are called to be more present in the moment; in the little things of life. When we know that life is not fair, we live with freedom from false expectations from others and ourselves. How many people live with bitterness and pain, because of false expectations of fairness or guarantees?

3. The third lesson of wisdom is that one thing is sure…. God is with us. God has not abandoned us. God loves us. I wish I could point to tangible evidence: pictures, perhaps a “power point” presentation that God is here. I can’t. At the root of wisdom is a faith that accepts the realities of life and believes in the goodness and love of God….

In the 90’s there was a series of movies about “Ghostbusters”. The song that went with the movie was, “Who you gonna call?” Our problem is not ghosts. It is dread, that deep seated fear that knows no cause, but seems to be universal to the human condition. Wisdom is the “fear buster”. Proverbs ask: “Who you gonna listen to?”

One of the things that strikes me about the Gospels is the number of times people are told “do not fear.” Fear, dread, angst… this is the opposite of faith and if the truth be known, the origin of destruction and death. All of us live with fear and dread…. But we also live with the assurance and the hope, that in the midst of this world, God is with us for eternity. Will we listen to our fears and respond to them? Or will we listen to the Divine wisdom and respond to our hopes in Jesus Christ, living at ease and without dread? This is the challenge and good news of the Gospel. Amen.

*The New Revised Standard Version Bible, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers) 1989.

Abington Presbyterian Church, Abington, Pennsylvania,  www.apcusa.org