I've been reading a book by Edwin Friedman recently. Some of you may be familiar with his work: he wrote a book about Family Systems Theory that is well-known in some circles called Generation to Generation. The book I've been reading is called A Failure of Nerve, and it is about leadership. When Friedman talks about leaders throughout his book, he often refers to “parents and presidents,” which means that a leader, for Friedman, could be anything from a person in a family to the president of a country. So all of us, in one way or another, are leaders.

 

One of the things that Friedman states is that having information does not necessarily lead someone to making good decisions. Friedman isn't opposed to information per se, but he is aware that there is more to good decision-making, and good leadership, than just information. I think that we can put a name on what that is, and I think that it is Wisdom.

 

Wisdom is more than having a lot of information. Wisdom is more even than being able to digest a lot of information or understand it and present it in a coherent way. Wisdom is, in a phrase so often used that Google was unable to help me figure out who coined it: “keeping the main thing the main thing.”

 

The apostle Paul, in writing to the Ephesians, advises them to live as wise people. He tells them to “understand what the will of the Lord is,” and then goes on to tell them not to get drunk with wine.

 

So, in addition to making note of that last point as far as our fellowship events are concerned, what do we do?

 

Look at Solomon's example. God said to him: “Ask what I should give you,” and Solomon has pretty much free rein here. He could have asked for anything: riches, harems, long and healthy life, whatever his heart desired. But he keeps the main thing the main thing. He sees that he has been entrusted with the rule of the people of God, and asks God for an understanding mind, able to discern between good and evil, so that he will be able to govern wisely.

 

To use Paul's language, Solomon understands what the will of the Lord is, that is, that he should govern the people well, and asks for what he needs to do that. God is so pleased with the fact that Solomon is focusing on doing God's will that God decides to reward him with riches and honor as well, and, as long as Solomon keeps walking in God's ways and keeping the commandments, God promises to give Solomon a long life. It's kind of an Old Testament version of the moral of the story: the moral is, it's good to try to do what God wants. Good stuff happens to you when you keep the main thing the main thing.

 

The Psalmist says: “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” That may be a phrase you've heard often enough to allow your eyes to glaze over, or it may be one that makes you wonder: what does that mean? The fear of the Lord? What is that? Well, it's one of those translation things. The Hebrew word here, and also earlier in the psalm when it says “He gives food to those who fear him,” is the word YARE, which translates better here as “reverence” or “piety.” In fact, there are many places in the Old Testament when we hear the word “fear” and we should probably mentally replace it with “reverence” or “piety”--I'm not sure why the translators didn't do that work for us, but maybe it's just so that preachers have something to talk about.

 

Anyway: “Reverence for the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Somehow that starts to make a lot more sense than before. Note, of course, that reverence for the Lord is not the entirety of wisdom, or all that is necessary for wisdom, but the beginning of wisdom.

 

Looking back at that information/wisdom dichotomy I mentioned earlier, you can see that reverence for the Lord doesn't have anything to do with gathering data. But it does have a lot to do with setting yourself up to, as Paul puts it, “understand what the will of the Lord is.” It is keeping the main thing the main thing, which is to say keeping God at the center of your life. That's not the kind of advice you hear in most professional- development seminars or career-counseling appointments, but hey, this is church.

 

This is church, and one of the big things we do in church is worship. That's presumably why we're all here this morning, at least at some level. And that is what Jesus was talking about in the Gospel that we read. Jesus says that he is the living bread, and that whoever eats this bread will live forever. The author of the gospel uses the characters he calls “the Jews” as a sort of stupid-guy foil--this isn't the only time that this particular author does this--and has them ask each other: “how can this man give us his flesh to eat?” That, of course, gives Jesus the opportunity to expand on his thesis about eating his flesh and drinking his blood and having eternal life, abiding in Jesus as he abides in them, and so on.

 

Remember this: at the time the gospel of John was written, the earliest gatherings of the Christian community already included a meal of bread and wine, just as our gathering does. Jesus, in the words that the author of the gospel puts into his mouth, is telling those who understand that it is important for them to gather and to partake of the sacred meal. It is important for them to come together and worship.

 

That's what Paul says, too. After the line about not getting drunk with wine, Paul commends being filled with the Spirit, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, and giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything. In other words, worship. Paul isn't specific about coming together necessarily, but in my experience singing often goes better in a group than all alone. So Paul is commending worship as well.

 

Great, huh? so congratulations for being in church today--you're already on the right path as far as the preacher is concerned. But of course, it can't just stop when you walk out the door. Worship is not just a Sunday morning thing. God can’t be compartmentalized and checked off each week. “Reverence for the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” but only the beginning. Keep it going, throughout the week and through all your activities.

 

Be wise. Keep God the main thing. Your family, your church, your community, and your world will benefit from your wisdom.

 

How would you answer the question that God put to Solomon?