First and Main

 FIRST AND MAIN – SUNDAY JUNE 15, 2025

 


Proverbs 8:1-4: Does not wisdom call
    and understanding raise her voice?
2 On the heights, beside the way,
    at the crossroads she takes her stand;
3 beside the gates in front of the town,
    at the entrance of the portals she cries out:
4 “To you, O people, I call,
    and my cry is to all who live.
     
I actually prefer the way this passage reads in Eugene Peterson’s The Message:

 

8:1 Do you hear Lady Wisdom calling?
    Can you hear Madame Insight raising her voice?
2 She’s taken her stand at First and Main,
    at the busiest intersection.
3 Right in the city square
     where the traffic is thickest, she shouts,
 4 “You—I’m talking to all of you,
    everyone out here on the streets!
     
➖

This Sunday is a Major Festival of the Church – the Sunday of the Holy Trinity. I kind of shot my wad on that one a few weeks back when I talked about the Nicene Creed. So, let’s not do that again. If you’re interested in that, though, you can read what I was thinking at https://davebrauerrieke.blogspot.com/2025/05/coin-of-realm.html

Instead, let’s take a peak at just the first four verses of this Sunday’s First Reading, Proverbs 8:1-4. “Ya! Hey you. I’m talkin’ to YOU!!”

"Wisdom" is thought of as that agent of God through whom the creation came into being. She is viewed as feminine - as made clear in both versions of the text above - and, many theologians associate Her with “The Word” as in John chapter 1. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God ... and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us …" (The “Word,” of course, would be Jesus, but Wisdom as the precursor for John here suggests that none of this Trinitarian business is actually about genitalia. So, let's not get rigidly "Father and Sonish," okay?!)

Anyway, last week was Pentecost Sunday and we celebrated the Spirit’s confusing intrusion into our lives, and then Peter’s clarification about what all this means. Does the Spirit have your attention yet? Does Trump’s ongoing debauchery? Did you march for “No King’s Day” this weekend?

"Wisdom has taken her stand at First and Main, at the busiest intersection.
 Right in the city square where the traffic is thickest, she shouts,
 “You—I’m talking to all of you, everyone out here on the streets!""

Yes. That’s the point. Spirit led Christians, a Spirit led Church, has something to say about the persecution of the marginalized, lawlessness and “kings.” We will not be silenced and we will not stop from speaking truth!

Get out your megaphone!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Prayers of the Church

Image
These are the Prayers of the Church from  Sundays and Seasons  that many ELCA congregations will be using this Sunday, February 9, 2025. (The First Lesson is the call of Isaiah and the Gospel a call to discipleship.) We  are  supposed to amend the prayers to our setting, right? I'm just a guest preacher this Sunday so sort of out of the loop, but is anybody else doing this - I hope? *   *   * "With the Spirit of Christ shining upon us, let us boldly pray for the church, the world, and all of creation. A brief silence. God of surprising abundance, you call your people to enter deeply into the world. Equip us to respond to your call, gather up what we have, and offer it to all.  We lift up especially today the ministries of Lutheran Global Refuge and Lutheran Community Service NW, defunded and told to cease their ministries by our Federal Government.  Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer. God of creation, provide protection from the element...
Read more

Now We Start!

Image
 NOW WE START – SUNDAY APRIL 27, 2025 John 20:19-31 “When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors were locked where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”  20  After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.  21  Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”  22  When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.  23  If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” 24  But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.  25  So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger in the mark of the nails and...
Read more

Fragrance

Image
  FRAGRANCE – SUNDAY APRIL 6, 2025 John 12:1-8: “Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.  2  There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him.  3  Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’s feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.  4  But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said,  5  “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?”  6  (He said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.)  7  Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial.  8  You always have the poor with you, but you do not al...
Read more