Above and Beyond

09/30/18

“Above and Beyond”

Psalm 1; James 3: 14 – 4:3, 7-8a

Pearl: Look and think beyond yourself

Function: To champion godly wisdom and to present ways of soaking it up and living it out.

We are sometimes wise and we are sometimes foolish. Think for a minute about what some of your wisest decisions were and then about what some of your dumbest decisions were.

1. I am not seeking brownie points here, but I think my wisest lifetime decision was to join my life together with Nancy!
2. Not trying for brownie points here either, but another one was deciding to come to Highland Presbyterian Church!
3. I’ve made my share of foolish decisions as well.
   1. I was a month away from graduating from Princeton Seminary and moving from New Jersey to Pittsburgh to serve in my first church. I ran a painting business in which I employed several other seminarians. One day I needed to make a quick stop at the paint store to pick up some paint. I parked in front of the store and ran in. I didn’t realize that I had parked illegally.
   2. After no more than 10 minutes I returned to find a ticket on my window. My friends said, “Throw it away. You’re moving out of state in a couple of weeks. It made sense. I threw it away. Nothing ever came of it.
   3. Until 20 years later when I went to get a permit to learn to drive a school bus. Upon arriving at the motor vehicle department when I applied for the permit I was told that there was a problem and that I was on the “national problem drivers list.” I was shocked. I didn’t understand. I asked why. They looked at their computer and said that I had a parking ticket in Princeton New Jersey that I never paid. BUSTED!!! Your sins will find you out!
4. We have all made some very wise decisions and we have also made some very foolish decisions! Thankfully with the Lord there is plenteous grace!

Wisdom is always needed! History bears this out. Our day is no exception. More than ever our nation needs a heavy dose of wisdom at every level.

The Letter of James devotes itself to prescribing godly wisdom. I would boil it down to “look and think beyond yourself.”

The Epistle of James wrote about the difference between godly wisdom and worldly wisdom.

•  He described “worldly wisdom” as follows:

1. 1. Bitter envy
   2. Selfish ambition
   3. Boastfulness and carelessness with the truth
      1. He said that “such wisdom is earthly, unspiritual, and devilish” (3:15).
      2. And further, “…where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind” (3:16).

• This kind of wisdom does “work.” It may lead to some success in some ways but it is worldly…unspiritual, and it can even be devilish.

2. “Boastfulness and carelessness with the truth”…lately our nation struggles with the concept of truth.
   1. Rudy Giuliani shocked us all when he said, “Truth is not the truth.” What did he mean?
   2. Long before Rudy there was Pontius Pilate who said directly to Jesus, “What is truth?”
   3. For one thing, “truthfulness” is “carefulness with facts.”
      1. The ancient philosopher and moralist Aristotle said, “Truth is best which is told to the right person, at the right time, for the right reasons.”
      2. So discernment and prudence is needed.

• This is why the founders of the church made “prudence” one of the most noble of the ethical virtues, a gift that is at the heart of all virtue.

1. Will Willimon reflected upon a seminary course that he took in ethics. In that course he realized that ethics was a great deal more than simply thinking clearly about something.
   1. He wrote, “The ability to be truly ethical requires a host of other virtues that are more complicated than simple reason. For instance, you’ve got to know yourself. You’ve got to be able to be self-critical and honest about yourself. And you’ve got to know other people. You’ve got to know when to push in certain situations and when to hold back, when to move, and when to stand still. In other words, you have to be wise” (“Pulpit Resource,” Vol. 37, No. 3, pp. 46-47).
2. James proposed some of the human dynamics of “godly wisdom” saying “…wisdom from above is:”
   1. Pure
   2. Peaceable
   3. Gentle
   4. Willing to yield
   5. Full of mercy and good fruits
   6. Without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy
      1. How refreshing are all of these qualities and how short the supply of them is in our current day in the public sphere!
      2. Wouldn’t’ large doses of these qualities so beautifully raise the level of civility in our country today?!

At the base of wisdom involves “looking and thinking above and beyond yourself.”

Being wise in a godly way comes from being aware of how much humility you really need to have.

1. It is said of Thomas Aquinas, one of the world’s most brilliant theologians, that he suddenly stopped writing.
   1. When his secretary complained that his work was unfinished, Thomas replied, “Brother Reginald, some months ago I experienced something of the Absolute, so all I have ever written about God seems to me now to be like straw.”
   2. In regard to that story of Aquinas, Anthony de Mello commented, “How could it be otherwise when the scholar becomes a seer?” (Song of the Bird, de Mello, p. 34).
2. This is where I get this notion of “looking and thinking above and beyond yourself” in order to gain godly wisdom.
   1. It signifies a huge awareness that we are individually so limited. It understands that we are so dependent upon so many things that are so far above and beyond us.
3. When we are truly humble we can approach the qualities described in James.

People who possess godly wisdom are so much needed now in every sector and at every level of our society.

1. Purity, peacefulness, gentleness, kindness, compassionate mercy: these qualities and many others like them are the polar opposite of what we are seeing displayed in the public sphere.
2. Desperately needed in our day is an elevation of the most noble of qualities.
   1. Our current seminar on “civil discourse” is reflecting upon these noble virtues.
   2. It is an evangelistic task for the church to model these virtues.
3. For a master’s thesis someone did a study of the mission statements of various American colleges and universities over the past 100 years.
   1. Noteworthy was that in the late 19^th century, colleges often used the word “wisdom” in their motto or statement of purpose. They were saying to young people, “come here and we will do those things necessary to make you a wise person.”
   2. By the mid-20^th century colleges and universities said that they dealt with “knowledge.” Colleges had moved from saying that they would make you into a certain kind of person—a wise person—to say that they would simply give you a lot of information!

It is recorded in James: “Submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and God will draw near to you” (4: 7, 8a).

Wisdom comes as a gift from God. It comes through a living relationship with God.

Look and think above and beyond yourself…to the example of Jesus. Do it for the sake of our world today! The church, as always, has a mission!