Be still and know…
There is a bit of a theme happening in the readings today, and that theme is ‘knowing’ or knowledge
In the Psalm, we are told
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;
all who follow his precepts have good understanding
In the second lesson, St. Paul also has a bit to say about knowing.
‘We know that “We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up, while love builds up. Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know. But whoever loves God is known by God.’
And in the gospel, in that crazy, upside-down way that often confronts and disturbs us, it is actually the impure spirit who knows who Jesus really is while everyone else seems to be oblivious to the Messiah that stands amongst them.
An impure spirit cried out, “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”
This is not the only time we see this paradox. You will remember that while The Master is pinned to the cross one of the criminals who were being crucified understood precisely who it was that was dying beside him. At the same event, the Roman centurion proclaims. ‘Truly this was the son of God.’
We ought not to be surprised then that others from outside our Church community and from different faith backgrounds can see the things that are hidden from us. They seem to glimpse The Master when we are oblivious. The lens of familiarity and our pattern of faithfulness can smudge the image of the obvious.
So there are different sorts of knowing and knowledge.
There is of course academic knowledge. We know that the colour for Lent and Advent is purple, the colour for Easter and Christmass is white and the colour for Pentecost is red.
But what of this quote from the psalm
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;
‘The word ‘fear’ I think is more accurately translated as respect or reverence. I do not think that we should read the ‘terror’ of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom for that is not the sort of relationship we are called to enjoy with God.
We approach God with honour, admiration, awe, devotion and homage. When we come to Him from a place of veneration and high esteem, not of intimidation, we are best placed to learn about Him and in so doing we learn about ourselves. Knowing God and knowing ourselves is an altogether different sort of knowledge than say Lent goes for 40 days and 40 nights and begins in a couple of weeks. The things we learn about God and ourselves are the things we learn about relationships and this is a slippery, muddle puddle, exciting and ever-evolving set of circumstances and facts.
The best parable that I can come up with is the parable of a marriage that changes, evolves, and transforms over the years. Sometimes distant, sometimes tedious, sometimes closer than breathing.
And to push the parable just a little further perhaps beyond breaking point, God is often like our spouse in that He sees our every foible and flaw. He knows our every mistake and wart and yet somehow, He loves us even more. And when you realise that you are loved in that very powerful, dynamic and thrilling way by God and/or your spouse, you are slowly transfigured into the person you were always called to be.
As someone other than Fr. David put it. ‘You take us as we are, and make us all that we should be’.
And perhaps that is what Paul is getting at in the 2nd lesson today.
‘We know that “We all possess knowledge. But knowledge puffs up while love builds up. Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know. But whoever loves God is known by God.’
You see how he is contrasting the academic knowledge with the knowledge of love or rather the living of love. We knowing God and God knowing us.
So while the academic stuff is great and there is always plenty more to learn, it’s not the most important knowledge to acquire. Our understanding of who we are, who God is and how the two interact, intertwine and relish each other is also important.
How do we acquire this other sort of knowledge? By reading our Bibles, coming to the altar and doing a lot of listening.
The psalmist had it right when they wrote “Be still and know that I am God”. In one of those splendid, almost unexplainable quirks we learn best when we don’t say anything. When we slip into a place of stillness, stay there and simply wait for Him to teach us. It's an attitude not just of physically being still, but also of being still in our souls and hearts. That’s the classroom. That’s the place where we learn the most and it's the place where we learn the vital, enjoyable stuff.
So what might happen if when we came into the church we simply said…