Proverbs 1:20-33
Keep It Real
Look at it this way:
You'd like life to be simple, right?
Work hard, keep your nose clean,
Provide for those you love, keep up the house.
Then comes an inconvenient truth:
People begging on the medians downtown.
It happens every time.
What do you do? Why are they there?
Why do they keep showing up?
Am I my brother's keeper?
I finally realized that Proverbs' "Wisdom"
Is no obscure, esoteric thing.
She is in the person with the hand-lettered sign.
She knows life is not simple,
She stretches out her hand and begs me to see.
This is where the Biblical God is.
Without her (yes, it's complicated)
I'll have no concept of the true God
When disaster overtakes me.
Without her, I'll be kept in the dark.
Funny how we love to spiritualize,
But the Bible keeps it real.
Scott L. Barton
Wisdom cries out in the street;
in the squares she raises her voice.
At the busiest corner she cries out;
at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:
“How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?
How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing
and fools hate knowledge?
Give heed to my reproof;
I will pour out my thoughts to you;
I will make my words known to you.
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,
I also will laugh at your calamity;
I will mock when panic strikes you,
when panic strikes you like a storm,
and your calamity comes like a whirlwind,
when distress and anguish come upon you.
Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer;
they will seek me diligently, but will not find me.
Because they hated knowledge
and did not choose the fear of the Lord,
would have none of my counsel,
and despised all my reproof,
therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way
and be sated with their own devices.
For waywardness kills the simple,
and the complacency of fools destroys them;
but those who listen to me will be secure
and will live at ease, without dread of disaster.”
in the squares she raises her voice.
At the busiest corner she cries out;
at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:
“How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?
How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing
and fools hate knowledge?
Give heed to my reproof;
I will pour out my thoughts to you;
I will make my words known to you.
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,
I also will laugh at your calamity;
I will mock when panic strikes you,
when panic strikes you like a storm,
and your calamity comes like a whirlwind,
when distress and anguish come upon you.
Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer;
they will seek me diligently, but will not find me.
Because they hated knowledge
and did not choose the fear of the Lord,
would have none of my counsel,
and despised all my reproof,
therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way
and be sated with their own devices.
For waywardness kills the simple,
and the complacency of fools destroys them;
but those who listen to me will be secure
and will live at ease, without dread of disaster.”
+ + +
Mark 8:27-38
Marc Chagall: White Crucifixion (1938)
Art Institute of Chicago
I Am Not Sure I Want to Hear
I am not sure I want to hear
This word about a cross so dear
To Jesus' very heart and soul
He says that it should be my goal.
He says, behind him I should get,
Which means to follow him; and yet
I have too much to do, to give
My life, as if it's true he lives.
How can it be, when life's so brief,
And filled with heartache, pain and grief,
The Lord would still invite me where
He goes? I wish he'd not compare
His life to how I'd rather keep
All things, including those who sleep.
And yet, if I can lose my grip,
Perhaps his life might me equip.
Who do I say this Jesus is?
Can I by love show I am his?
Scott L. Barton
Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea
Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?”
And they answered him, “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others,
one of the prophets.” He asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter
answered him, “You are the Messiah.” And he sternly ordered them not to tell
anyone about him.
Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo
great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the
scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite
openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and
looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For
you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them,
“If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their
cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and
those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will
save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their
life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed
of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son
of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the
holy angels.”
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