"Discernment" a sermon based on Proverbs 14 and 9 preached on June 11, 2023

“Discernment” is the title of this sermon. If you look at the window to my right, you’ll see that the word “discernment” decorates our worship space, just as the word “encouragement,” which Rev. Cassie Waits preached on last Sunday, does over to my left. As we were thinking about encouragement last week, so this morning I want you to think about discernment. What does the word mean, what does it require of us, and who embodies this gift of the Spirit? We just read in Proverbs 14: 6, “A scoffer seeks wisdom in vain, but knowledge is easy for one who understands.” Who understands? For whom is knowledge easy? We read also Proverbs 14: 7: “Leave the presence of a fool, for there you do not find words of knowledge.” Has anyone ever helped you to leave the presence of a fool? Has it ever been difficult to tell whether one was a fool or a wise man? It’s not always easy to tell which professor is wise and which one is a charlatan. Who has helped you tell the difference? Who helped you learn whom to listen to? That’s discernment. This summer, as we have for the last two summers, your preachers have worked together to create a sermon series. If you remember, two summers ago we preached on the “I am” sayings of Jesus, and we asked you to think about who Jesus is and where you have seen Him, finally writing names of Christ-like people on ribbons that we tied to a structure outside the Great Hall. Do you remember that? Then, last summer, we preached through the book of Acts, and as the disciples were sent out into the world, so we were all sent out, trying new foods, just as the Disciple Peter did when he ate with Cornelius, or visiting the sick as Peter did Tabatha. This summer, we’re focused on spiritual gifts and who embodies them. By the end of the summer, each window in here will celebrate a gift of the Spirit, and each window will have a box that looks like a present. In each box, we’ll place these cards, and what I realize, now that we’re in our second week of this series, is that putting these cards in a box that looks like a present is a beautiful symbol of the way our God is at work here, for God gives us blessings in the form of people. You will write the name of a person down on this card a little later, so be thinking about the people God has blessed you with. Specifically, this morning, who, in embodying the gift of discernment, has been a gift from God to you? I’ll ask you to write his or her name down on your card at the end of this sermon. We’re not there yet. This sermon is just getting started. What is discernment? The book of Proverbs is all about discernment. I’ll explore this topic with you this morning by focusing on our two Scripture lessons and through a couple of interesting moments I’ve experienced in the last week. As is my habit, this should only take 15 minutes, so listen to me for 10 more as I talk about discernment. What is discernment? Discernment is the art of deciding which way to go. Human beings have been trying to discern the right way to go for millennia using all kinds of strange techniques. This past week, I read about a pair of mummified men. Their remains were discovered in a Danish bog, where they were laid to rest thousands of years ago. One was missing his intestines because ancient fortune tellers thought that they could discern the outcome of future events by looking at a man’s intestines spilled out on the ground. Human beings have been trying to figure out which way is the right way doing all kinds of things like that, but when it involves magic, we call it divinization. Divination is the practice of seeking knowledge of the future or the unknown by supernatural means. Think of crystal balls, runes, reading tea leaves, or your horoscope in the Marietta Daily Journal. Faced with an uncertain future, we all long to know what we should do, which way we should turn, and to whom we should listen. According to Scripture, you don’t need to disembowel anyone. All you need to do is seek out wisdom. Did you notice that, in the Bible, wisdom is a woman? Woman wisdom is calling us this morning. “You that are simple,” she says, “turn in here!” To those without sense, she says, “Come, eat my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Lay aside immaturity, and live, and walk in the way of insight.” On the other hand, the book of Proverbs also says that there is another woman, “calling to those who pass by, who are going straight on their way.” She says, “you who are simple, turn in here!” and to those without sense, she says, “Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.” Discernment is knowing to which voice to listen: woman wisdom or someone else. Who has helped you discern which voice to listen to? What we want for our sons is someone who can help them decide when on the one hand is a nice girl who does her homework and obeys her parents’ curfew, and on the other hand is the temptress who plays only by her own rules. What we want for our daughters is someone to help them tell which voice will lead her to fulfillment and success and which voice will lead to momentary pleasure and long-lasting pain. We need those who have the gift of discernment. Who has it? Who has helped you decide whom to listen to and which way you should go? Think of those who helped you in the past so you’ll know what to look for when you need help in the future. After all, “Dark times lie ahead of us, and there will be a time when we must choose between what is easy and what is right.” Have you heard that one before? It’s not in the Bible. It’s from Harry Potter. Regardless of the source, it’s true. Who has helped you know the difference between what is right and what is easy, and, when you kept avoiding the hard thing that must be done, who pushed you to do what was right? Last weekend, your church staff went on a retreat. “Retreat” is an interesting word to call this kind of thing. You don’t want a regiment of soldiers nor a church staff who is always retreating. Yet, we retreated to consider more how we might advance, and advancing takes courage. I asked the staff to consider building better relationships with more people. I asked them to think about from whom they’ve been retreating and how the people they’ve been retreating from may be the same people they need to build a relationship with, for sometimes in the cave we fear to enter lies the treasure that we seek. That’s not in the Bible, either. I read it on a billboard on the way home from Tennessee. Still, it’s true. When you think about discernment, think about how often it is that the wrong path is the easy one. Think about how frequently it is that by going with the flow, we lose ourselves and our integrity. Think about being in Germany during World War II. How many went along with the rising tide of antisemitism without questioning it, and how few did not what was easy but what was right? Who pushed you to go after the treasure that lay in the cave you were afraid to enter? Who helped you tell the difference between what was easy and what was right? I was honored this week to receive an email from Denise Lobodinski. Denise is an elder on the session. She’s a leader in our church, and her father served in the signal corps during World War II. On the 50th anniversary of D-Day, this event that changed the course of history as we know it, he wrote down for Denise and her sisters his memories of D-Day, the invasion of Europe by the Allied Forces on June 6, 1944. He was in England on his way to the mess hall for breakfast. It was about 7:00 AM, and as he approached the mess hall, he saw the sky above him fill with airplanes flying in formation and knew that the world would never be the same, for the invasion had begun. Now, he didn’t leave England until after the invasion had been going on for weeks, as his job was to radio back intelligence. That’s what he did as a part of the signal corps, and why had he chosen the signal corps? When he told his mother that he wanted to enlist in the army because he wanted to see action with the infantry, his mother insisted that her baby boy tell them he wanted to serve in the signal corps, where he would be of service to his country, but not directly in harm’s way. Surely everything in him, and in the friends who enlisted with him, would have chosen the infantry. Surely the infantry was the right decision for so many others, but in listening to his mother, he made a different choice, and because of the choice that his mother helped him make, he served his country, survived World War II, and lived to be a father to Denise and her sisters. Who helped you decide? Who was there to help you make those decisions that changed your life course? Who embodied to you the spiritual gift of discernment? It doesn’t have to be some huge thing. I start each morning with a short reading from a daily devotional. The reading from last Thursday was titled, “Small Changes,” and in it I read a story about the great author, journalist, and explorer Earnest Hemingway, whose son Patrick asked him to edit a short story the young man had written. His father, the elder Hemingway, poured over his son’s work like it was one of his own. In due time, he handed it back to Patrick, who reviewed his father’s edits and cried, “But Papa, you’ve only changed one word!” Hemingway said in response, “If it’s the right word, that’s a lot,” which is true; small adjustments can make a world of difference. Just letting go of one anxious thought can bring greater peace into our lives. Is there someone who has encouraged you to let go? Is there someone who helped you change one small but important thing? About once a month, I go see Dr. Janet Lewis, my chiropractor. She told me, ultimately, the only thing you control is your breath, and that’s what you need to work on. She wasn’t talking about halitosis, or at least I don’t think she was. When she felt the tension in my back, she could tell that I’d been trying to control too much, and that I need to let go and breathe, but just because someone tells you that you’re moving in the wrong direction, that doesn’t guarantee that you’re going to listen. Discernment. God places people in our lives who would help us find our way, but we must listen. Remember that. There have been people who have been given the gift of discernment all around us, but what is required of us to receive that gift? The problem with discernment is not that his wife doesn’t know the way, it’s that he’s too proud to ask and too stubborn to listen. The problem with finding our way is not just identifying someone who knows the pitfalls to avoid, but that we are afraid to admit that we’re lost. Who has been there to help you find the way? To whose voice did you listen? Write that person’s name on your card. If she is a part of this church, wonderful. If you’re new to this church, write the name down of the person who gave you directions so that you found your way into this sanctuary, or just think back to that person who was there when you needed help deciding. Whom did you ask for help? Who helped you find your way? Discernment. To receive this gift, you must ask for help. Remember how that position of vulnerability created the space for God to work in your life. Every gift of God requires something of us. We must be willing to receive it. We may be lost, but to find our way, we must be ready to listen. Who has embodied God’s gift of discernment to you? To whom have you listened? Give thanks to God for them. Halleluiah. Amen.