Wisdom Is Shown To Be Right By Its Results ...

Reading of the Word: Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

Sermon: The Freedom of Following Jesus - Wisdom is shown to be right by its results

When I first looked at this passage I actually only intended to preach on the last couple of verses here on Independence Day Weekend. I actually verbalized it to several people as “Freedom is not the same as license – it carries responsibility with it,” because of the idea of being yoked with Jesus.

But the more I studied it, the more the words “Wisdom is shown to be right by its results” jumped out at me.

Putting this verse into context – John the Baptist has been arrested and has sent a message to Jesus asking, “Are you the one we have been waiting for.” And Jesus comes back with the response we all know, “ “Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5 the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers[c] are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. 6 And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.” In other words: “Wisdom is shown to be right by its results”

Then he begins to preach to them about John the Baptist and asks why they went to find him in the desert. He then explains that John’s purpose was to pave the way, in other words, their ministry is one. Their methods differ, but their wisdom was the same. That is where our passage begins.

And so he asks, “To what can I compare this generation?” And he uses the image of children quibbling in the marketplace while playing a game, complaining that the other children aren’t playing the game correctly.

This passage is not intended to show differences between him and John, but the fact that no matter what he and John did, they were rejected by the people, much like the quibbling children. Whether they were austere or exuberant, the crowd only noticed little unimportant things. They weren’t listening to the message; they were worried about what they ate and who they ate with.

He emphasized it with these words: “Wisdom is shown to be right by its results.”

Why does this matter to us? Because it happens in the church. I do not know if it is true, but I heard when I was in seminary that more churches split over the color of the carpet when it is replaced than any other reason. Well, except maybe the cushions in the pews. When Range Line needed to replace the outdoor carpet on their front steps a couple of years ago, I actually trembled. Fortunately, it wasn’t an issue.

However, I served as Elder over the Prayer Committee at my sending church. They created a team that would pray for the pastor and congregation during the service every single Sunday.

But there was a problem! They chose to use the Bride’s room to pray, not only because it was next to the sanctuary where the actions they were praying for were happening, but because it had a speaker where they could also hear the service as they prayed. When the pastor would preach, we would pray about the message he was preaching.

The Wedding Guild was outraged that it was being used by anyone who wasn’t conducting a wedding, even though they simply sat on the couches and prayed. They had fought long and hard when the building was constructed to reserve this area and felt like it had been stolen from them. To my knowledge, no one left the church over the issue, but it was a very big church. I could be wrong.

I found a list of 25 things churches had arguments over online. I don’t want to read the whole list, but here are a few that resonated because I know churches have fought over them.

A 45 minute argument over the size and color of a filing cabinet for the church office.

A fight over which picture of Jesus should represent him on the walls of the church.

A dispute over whether boots should be worn inside of the church, particularly if a pastor should preach wearing them. Similarly, a disagreement whether teens should be allowed to come to church wearing something other than a suit.

A heated dispute over how to handle a 10 cent discrepancy in the church financials. (Someone finally gave a dime to fix it)

An actual argument over using cran/grape juice instead of pure grape juice for communion. That, of course, doesn’t even touch on huge disagreements in a church when someone is gluten intolerant, something we have had to address in our Presbytery. Do you use a single loaf that is gluten free? Do you have a separate communion for those who can’t participate otherwise?