Monday, May 29, 2017
550 - The Truth of Wisdom
Spirituality
Column No. 550
May 30, 2017
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
Package deal; one or the other. Not both. Which would you pick?
Let’s admit that we might be so caught up in worry, guilt, shame, pain and misery that either choice would be a quantum improvement. Many of us would simply say: “Forget truth and wisdom, just give me a big bank account and I’ll handle it from there.”
My friend Dick Wolfsie, the Indianapolis TV personality, humorist, writer and late-in-life Hoosier original, is a self-described “secular Jew” (he argues for “Jew” over “Jewish person”) and this summer will be an artist in residence of sorts at the downtown IndyFringe Theatre, the edgy and culturally uber forward MassAve performance center.
What does “uber forward” mean? It means that most of my Christian friends probably won’t have IndyFringe on their summer entertainment schedule. It’s not a venue I’d likely frequent, either, but no harm, no foul. I’m invited; just like anybody there is invited to church. We all gravitate toward where we believe we will find the truth.
And I’d say that is an observable truth of human life.
What got me going on this is Dick’s performance subject: “Wisdom and Jewish Humor.” Dick arrived in Indianapolis in 1983 from New York City where he was a TV talk show host (WABC predecessor to Regis Philbin) and had grown up the son of observant immigrant Jews. Dick spoke at a luncheon last week at our church and in a test-run of his presentation he made us laugh and think, made us smarter, and made us worry about his salvation. But that’s what we Christians do; worry about salvation.
Jews, as Dick very eruditely pointed out, tend to worry about wisdom. And when you consider the Old Testament, it obviously speaks of truth as the words of the Lord God, and it is weighted toward wisdom as the application of God’s truth. Read about King Solomon in 1 Kings, or read the Book of Proverbs. Solomon asked for wisdom to rule God’s people and God generously granted that gift: “the wisdom of God was in him to do justice.” (1 Kings 3:28). Truly, not everyone “gets it” when they read the Bible but almost everyone understands the Book of Proverbs. It speaks wisdom for all mankind.
The New Testament includes plenty of wisdom but is heavily weighted toward truth, because the person of Jesus Christ is repeatedly, specifically described as God’s Truth, nowhere more definitively than John 14:6 where Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
That’s the story, the fact and the purpose of Jesus: He is the way, the only way and there is no other way into the Kingdom of heaven. Critics say that makes me (and any Christian) a bigot, but I say that makes me share truth, freedom, joy and love.
It may not be funny, but it’s the God’s honest truth.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) prays for wisdom and is thankful for friends like Dick.
May 30, 2017
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
The Truth of Wisdom
By
Bob Walters
“… you will know the truth, and the
truth will set you free.” – Jesus, John 8:32
Suppose you could have worldly wisdom, achievement, prosperity and acclaim, or you could have truth, freedom, joy and love.
Suppose you could have worldly wisdom, achievement, prosperity and acclaim, or you could have truth, freedom, joy and love.
Package deal; one or the other. Not both. Which would you pick?
Let’s admit that we might be so caught up in worry, guilt, shame, pain and misery that either choice would be a quantum improvement. Many of us would simply say: “Forget truth and wisdom, just give me a big bank account and I’ll handle it from there.”
My friend Dick Wolfsie, the Indianapolis TV personality, humorist, writer and late-in-life Hoosier original, is a self-described “secular Jew” (he argues for “Jew” over “Jewish person”) and this summer will be an artist in residence of sorts at the downtown IndyFringe Theatre, the edgy and culturally uber forward MassAve performance center.
What does “uber forward” mean? It means that most of my Christian friends probably won’t have IndyFringe on their summer entertainment schedule. It’s not a venue I’d likely frequent, either, but no harm, no foul. I’m invited; just like anybody there is invited to church. We all gravitate toward where we believe we will find the truth.
And I’d say that is an observable truth of human life.
What got me going on this is Dick’s performance subject: “Wisdom and Jewish Humor.” Dick arrived in Indianapolis in 1983 from New York City where he was a TV talk show host (WABC predecessor to Regis Philbin) and had grown up the son of observant immigrant Jews. Dick spoke at a luncheon last week at our church and in a test-run of his presentation he made us laugh and think, made us smarter, and made us worry about his salvation. But that’s what we Christians do; worry about salvation.
Jews, as Dick very eruditely pointed out, tend to worry about wisdom. And when you consider the Old Testament, it obviously speaks of truth as the words of the Lord God, and it is weighted toward wisdom as the application of God’s truth. Read about King Solomon in 1 Kings, or read the Book of Proverbs. Solomon asked for wisdom to rule God’s people and God generously granted that gift: “the wisdom of God was in him to do justice.” (1 Kings 3:28). Truly, not everyone “gets it” when they read the Bible but almost everyone understands the Book of Proverbs. It speaks wisdom for all mankind.
The New Testament includes plenty of wisdom but is heavily weighted toward truth, because the person of Jesus Christ is repeatedly, specifically described as God’s Truth, nowhere more definitively than John 14:6 where Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
That’s the story, the fact and the purpose of Jesus: He is the way, the only way and there is no other way into the Kingdom of heaven. Critics say that makes me (and any Christian) a bigot, but I say that makes me share truth, freedom, joy and love.
It may not be funny, but it’s the God’s honest truth.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) prays for wisdom and is thankful for friends like Dick.
0 comments:
Post a Comment