Deep Wisdom: Pokemon, Joseph and Paul
A Sermon for Evensong
Only I could see it.
There was a Zubat in the kitchen.
Quickly I lined up my Pokeball and threw it at the creature. I caught it, and gathered it into my
Pokedex. For the uninitiated, I am
talking about the game Pokemon Go. It is
an app for phones and tablets that allows you to see the mystical Pokemon
creatures in the real world. Samuel and
I went for a walk yesterday and caught about ten different Pokemon. The Cathedral, I am sure you are aware, is a
PokeGym, and has been welcoming a range of new, younger visitors over the past
couple of days. The Church of Englandhas issued guidelines about this. More
worryingly, so has the NSPCC. Pokemon Go
works with the idea that there are things beyond the reality that we can see
and touch and smell. All it takes is the
right software and technology and a new and exciting world can be seen in the
midst of our world. There is something deeper and beyond our world. You could even find a Pokemon in your
kitchen.
Both readings this evening also speak of the deeper wisdom
of God being encountered in the middle of our ordinary material reality. First, there is Joseph. The dreamer who is able to interpret
dreams. Joseph is summoned to Pharaoh’s
aid. The prisoner is made presentable
and brought before the king. “God has
shown Pharaoh what he is to do, and God will provide the interpretation” he
says. Pharaoh, while asleep, has seen a
glimpse of what God is planning. But it
takes someone hurriedly brought out of the dungeon to provide the wisdom needed
to understand this insight.
Insight and foresight are things we rightly value in our
political leaders. From my place of
undoubted bias, I can assure you that vicarage children do posses these
qualities. But just as Pharaoh found,
political leadership needs to listen to those on the margins of society, the
poorest, the forgotten and the ignored, if true wisdom is to be attained. The story of Joseph is, amongst other things,
a story about wisdom. A story about how
the true wisdom, God’s wisdom, is obtained.
In that story Joseph learns the importance of humility; Pharaoh learns
the need to listen to those on the margins; and God’s wisdom brings security
and food to a land that would otherwise have starved, and a new home for his
people. Humility and listening to the
marginal – that would be a good starting point for all of us as we head
together into the new world of post-Brexit Britain. We might then begin to glimpse the true
wisdom of God that can bring us security and life.
St Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians, is also speaking
of a deeper reality and a true wisdom that go beyond the simple material world
that we can touch and smell and see. But
Paul is writing to those who have decided that they already know what is true
and wise. They are rich, powerful and
successful. What need have they of
bringing disreputable and shabby prisoners before them to help them
understand? Paul, unlike Joseph, refuses
to disguise his unkempt appearance.
Indeed he parades it before the Corinthians. He is foolish, weak, disreputable, hungry,
thirsty, poorly clothed, beaten, homeless, tired – the rubbish and dregs of the
world.
Paul’s point is this – in their wealth and power and
success, the Corinthians have stopped looking to Jesus, and especially to the
crucified Jesus. They look only on the
world as it can further their interests and careers and power and wealth. Paul reminds them of Jesus. Earlier he has told them that while he was
with them, “I decided to know nothing … except Jesus Christ and him crucified”
(1 Cor. 2.2). If we want to see truly,
to know what is really happening in this world, then we need to look through
the lens of the cross of Jesus. It will
radically change how we see. It will radically
change how we act. Through the lens of
the cross of Jesus our wealth and success and power is shown to be shabby and foolish. Wisdom is found in those who appear weak and
disreputable.
How then do we encounter the deep wisdom of God. Let me suggest three ways that we may put
ourselves in contact with that wisdom.
Paul and Joseph have much to say to us, but the first insight I think
comes from Pokemon. It is simply this:
slow down. You cannot play Pokemon Go
from a moving car, the game is configured so that it works best if you walk or
cycle or move at a slower pace. As
Samuel and I walked around to find Pokemon yesterday, we came across other
groups of people searching. We shared
our finds and benefitted from theirs.
Sharing and connecting with others is a fruit of slowing down. A spiritual guide once told a church leader
that he had to “ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life, for hurry is the great enemy of spiritual
life in our world today.” We need to
slow down to encounter God’s wisdom.
If the first thing to do is to slow down, then the second is
to pray and to worship. Here we open
ourselves to God, we acknowledge that God made us and everything there is. Here is Joseph’s hard-won humility, and the
fault of the Corinthians. To pray and to
worship is to admit that we are not the sum total of everything that
matters. So it is worth thanking the
choir, all gathered here this evening, for all they do to help us to worship,
to lift our hearts above ourselves, and to offer us inspiration. St Augustine reportedly said that the one who
sings, prays twice. Thank you choir, for
helping connect us with the wisdom of God, and helping us realise that we are
not what this world is about.
So, to connect with the deep wisdom of God we need to slow
down and to pray and worship. The third thing we need to do is to be in
touch with those who are on the margins.
As a Cathedral, we do this regularly with those who come here in need,
with those who sleep here in the winter.
As individuals we need to ask ourselves the question of how we can
encounter and listen to those on the edge of our society. Neither Joseph nor Paul speak the wisdom of
God from places of power and security. How do we ensure we listen to them
today?
Slow down, pray and worship, encounter those on the margins,
these are the things that will put us into contact with the wisdom of God. They are simple to grasp, but difficult to
do. I too struggle with them. But they are gifts, interruptions into our
self-contained universes. They help us
to hold the cross of Jesus before us, and to change the way we look and the way
we act to be more in tune with him. So
recharge yourself, slow down, pray and worship, encounter those on the margins,
and connect to the wisdom of God that longs to break into our lives. Amen.
First given at Derby Cathedral
17.7.18.
Comments