When you are driving around the DC area, it is good to do a lot of praying. It is also advisable, while you are praying, to keep your eyes open.

I know a man who works downtown, and who prays as he commutes. He doesn’t pray for safe travels, or for deliverance from detours and accidents. He prays for an open parking spot, right front of his destination.

He claims it works. At least some of the time.

Well, guess what? The day is coming when he won’t have to pray for a parking spot. He’ll be able to find one with his cell phone.

According to Kevin Maney in USA TODAY (February 10, 2006), we will soon see smart, networked parking meters — meters that can talk to each other and report information to a website. If you drive into an area and want to know where an open space is, you simply use your cell phone to access the website and find an unused spot.

Even better, you will soon be able to punch a button and make a reservation. The parking meter will flash a reserved sign and hold the space for you for five minutes.

Smart stuff.

Of course, there’s no guarantee that these high-tech meters will make people any smarter. I heard about a meter maid who was walking up the block writing tickets when she noticed a student staring at a parking meter.

“Young man, is there something I can help you with?”

“No,” he said, “I’m just waiting for my gumball. I’ve still got 5 minutes left.”

In a variety of ways, everyday gadgets are now wising up, talking to one another, and making life a little easier for us. Sewing machines can now download images and embroider them on your clothes. Shipping crates are calling their owners for help if they get lost. And some gas pumps are running Microsoft Windows, allowing you to order coffee, download music, and check traffic while you fill your tank.

These advances all come from improved communication and networking. A system called Home Heartbeat connects sensors on appliances, doors, and other fixtures. You can program the system to tell you — by text message — every time the front door opens and the TV turns on.

My kids would not be happy at all if they were being monitored by Home Heartbeat.

God has always wanted us to be a part of his network, so he sends us a message in today’s lesson from Proverbs about staying connected to wisdom. What’s so innovative about this passage is that Wisdom is portrayed as a woman, a flesh-and-blood character who walks into the middle of human life and delivers a powerful message from the Lord.

Wisdom “cries out in the street; in the squares she raises her voice,” says the writer of Proverbs (1:20). At the busiest corner she calls out, speaking her message at the chaotic entrance to the city. Wisdom does not hide in the safety of a church sanctuary, or in the calm and quiet of a Bible study classroom, but moves confidently into the raucous world of high-tech parking meters and Windows-running gas pumps.

“How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?” Wisdom speaks directly to us today, criticizing our tendency to grab hold of easy answers and simple solutions. “How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing,” she asks, “and fools hate knowledge?” (v. 22).

Lady Wisdom challenges us to embrace the full complexity of this world that God has created. She pushes us to plug into a network of Christians who are exploring what it means to be people of faith in fast-paced, high-tech, multicultural community. Our problem with becoming wise is not due to a lack of knowledge — we can find all the information we want on the Internet. Instead, our failure to gain wisdom has more to do with our being unwilling to follow the guidance of wise people — mentors, friends, parents, teachers. It is so important that we remain connected to a church community in which people are sharing their wisdom with one another.

God wants us to be wise and connected, like the Home Heartbeat system that links home appliances and clearly communicates what each one is doing. The Lord desires that we each be knowledgeable about his will and his way, which is why he says through Lady Wisdom, “I will pour out my thoughts to you; I will make my words known to you” (v. 23). Notice that there is nothing secret about God’s wisdom, nothing cryptic or mysterious. Instead, it is as clear as the words of the Bible, and as obvious as the life of Jesus Christ.

- There are the commandments, you know. Ten of them.
- The Beatitudes. Nine of them.
- The greatest commandment. One of them, with two parts — love God, love neighbor.
- The death and resurrection of Jesus. One time … for all time.
- “One Lord, one faith, one baptism,” according to the apostle Paul, “one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:5-6).

This is the wisdom of God. It is really rather clear, based on the words of the Bible and the life of Jesus. There’s no mystery or mumbo-jumbo. But what we need here at FPC is a network of teachers who are willing to deliver this wisdom to our children. It takes a whole community to raise a child in the faith — not just a parent or two. It is so critically important that we expand our network of teachers, so that our children are formed in the faith by a wide range of men and women, grandparents and young adults, lifelong Presbyterians and members who are new to the Christian faith.

We need a wider network in our Christian Education program. It is the job of the entire church — not just parents — to raise our children in the faith. If you can join this effort, please speak to Michelle Fincher or one of our education elders.

The words of the Bible are clear, able to be understood by adults and children alike. But the interpretation and application of these words — that’s what takes time and effort, dialogue and debate. For instance, how does the commandment “You shall not murder” (Exodus 20:13) apply to abortion, the death penalty, and the war in Iraq? How does the beatitude “Blessed are the meek” (Matthew 5:5) play out in a high school sports team or a hyper-competitive business environment? How does the line from the greatest commandment “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39) balance love of neighbor with love of one’s own self? How does the death and resurrection of Jesus remove the sins of our past … as well as the sins we have not yet committed? And how can we embrace “one faith” in a church so shattered and separated by denominational differences?

God’s wisdom is clear, but it requires interpretation and application. And that is why we need to be not only wise, but also connected.

Lady Wisdom wants us to listen to her, and to each other. “Because I have called and you refused, have stretched out my hand and no one heeded, and because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof” — well then, says Wisdom, I will simply laugh at your calamity, mock you in your time of panic, and allow distress and anguish to come upon you (vv. 24-27).

- If you break the Ten Commandments, you will hurt yourself.
- If you ignore the Beatitudes, you will never know the kingdom of God.
- If you fail to love God and neighbor, you will miss out on the comfort and challenge of Christian life.
- If you turn away from Jesus, and from the church that is his body, you will fail to make the connection that promises you your deepest joy and satisfaction, in this life and the next.

Ignore Lady Wisdom, and you’ll be like an old-style parking meter, stuck in concrete and standing alone. Fail to take advantage of Wisdom in a timely manner, and you’ll find yourself reaping what you sow, what Proverbs describes as eating “the fruit of [your] way” (v. 31) — living with consequences while cleaning up your act! But pay attention to Wisdom, and to your fellow Christians, and you’ll become a high-tech meter — connected to God and neighbor, and part of a wide-ranging network.

You’ll be smart stuff.

The pursuit of wisdom in the Christian community is critically important today, in this era of sound-bite commentary and black-and-white approaches to complex issues. It is going to take real God-given wisdom to figure out how best to turn back the tide of terrorism, assess the benefit or menace of stem cell research, protect the environment, and figure out the role of gays and lesbians in the life of the church.

On this last topic, I hope you’ll come to tonight’s education program, based on the film “Turning Points: Stories of Life and Change in the Church.” It will be held from 5 to 7 in Room 244, led by Cathy Diaz and myself. The program includes the stories of four Presbyterians struggling with the issue of homosexuality and the church, and comments by scholars such as Walter Brueggemann, Shirley Guthrie and Beverly Gaventa. This is such an important issue for us to figure out, as we try to hold onto our identity as “a house of prayer for all peoples” (Isaiah 56:7).

Will we all agree on this issue? Probably not. But one problem we have today is that we tend to refuse to be in conversation with our opponents. My friend Gerry Creeden, the pastor of a Catholic Church in Arlington, believes that the process of dialogue and conversation is so important to gaining wisdom and making peace. He reminds me that Abraham Lincoln took the bold step of including political rivals in his cabinet, and Nelson Mandela maintained a connection with his opponents in South Africa — even those who had imprisoned him. These are the actions that can help to heal a nation … and a church.

The quest for divine wisdom is difficult, but it offers many benefits. “Those who listen to me will be secure,” promises Lady Wisdom, “and will live at ease, without dread of disaster” (v. 33). Natural law, moral law, the wisdom of teachers, the guidance of Scripture — all this is for our own good. When we listen and act wisely, we’ll be better off. The great medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas made the point that of all the pursuits open to us, “the search for wisdom is most perfect, more sublime, more profitable, and more full of joy.”

So being wise and connected is not just good for us, it can fill us with joy. God wants us to be happy, which is why he invites us to this new way of living. If we search for wisdom as a connected community, we will be smart stuff — something that the world so desperately needs today. Amen.


Sources:
Maney, Kevin. “Everyday gadgets go ‘smarting’ off.” USA TODAY. February 10, 2006. 1B-2B.