Reflections

Our Savior Lutheran Church Bartlesville, OK 74006

Where Are We?

IMAGES OF THE SEASON: Summer

In the Eastern Orthodox liturgy, there is a point following the kiss of peace when the priest says in a loud voice, "The doors! The doors!" to which the people respond, "Wisdom! Let us at­tend." This image of doors opening to reveal wisdom might serve us well in this summer season.

We have now completed the festival portion of the church year, when the focus is on the great events of the life of Christ, from his annunciation and birth through his passion, death, and resurrection. After the excitement and intensity of those obser­vances, the long green season of the church year can seem anticli­mactic. Attention may languish along with attendance, and sometimes the church seems to go into a dormant mode.

Nothing is wrong with enjoying a lower-key season when the sometimes frenetic pace takes a breather.  Rest and recreation too, are gifts from God. Even as we enjoy a little more time to appre­ciate the world around us, though, we need to remember the con­tinuing importance of our mission in that world.

The festival seasons, with their larger turnouts, more intricate liturgies, and long-practiced movements, can be as daunting to the newcomer as observing a cricket match can be to the average American. Everyone else seems to be caught up in something ob­viously important, historic, and highly valued. It is hoped that congregations will welcome such uninitiated people even in the highest of holy days, yet newcomers might be too intimidated to do more than sit on the fringes and observe. During the summer, though, people might feel more comfortable approaching and opening the doors that lead into the church.

Many external factors may be at work to encourage this ap­proach, but at the heart of it, perhaps they seek the very thing the gospels serve up so richly during this season, the very thing we all seek: the wisdom, the saving wisdom, so lacking in our soci­ety.

Ours is a culture, after all, that does a number of things well, but providing time and place for wisdom is not prominent among them. The church, though, possesses and opens the doors to just the sort of wisdom so badly needed: not simply an ethical wis­dom that enables us to put matters into a pleasing and helpful order, but a spiritual wisdom. This wisdom is not an occasional delicacy but daily, nourishing food. This wisdom is not attained by intellectual exercise or acrobatics of the soul, but is received as a gift from God. This wisdom leads to a transformation based not on our meager resources, but on the immeasurable goodness of God, revealed through the grace of Jesus Christ.

The scripture readings during summer open the doors to this wisdom. The prophets, the apostles, and above all, Christ Jesus begin with what is essentially human (doubt, pride, rebellion, in­justice, and violence, as well as fledgling trust, love, and gentle­ness) and show us how God redeems our humanity. Beginning with common human experience, we are drawn through the doors toward God's gracious wisdom. We can see through those doors a world not so different from the one we know so well, yet one subtly transformed by the forgiving love of God, a new creation into which we are welcomed.

Even during summertime, with its often simpler pace, it is im­portant to remember that the wisdom of God is never a light commodity that we simply acquire. One cannot simply stroll through the doors, order it "to go," and leave. The wisdom of God is not like a book to be checked out, read on the beach, and returned. It is inextricably woven in with the judgment and grace of God. Di­vine wisdom invites and woos us into a long-term relationship with the source of that wisdom. In an era when such lasting asso­ciations are not the norm, the church's challenge is to open wide the doors yet resist the temptation to understate the depth and the implications of an encounter with the wisdom of God. Here is food as sweet as strawberries but as enduring in its nourishment as daily bread. Here is beauty fair as flowers, yet these blossoms grow from the tree of the cross. These doors lead not merely to an hour's diversion on a summer day but to a life transformed today and forever.

With King Solomon of old, may we stand at the doors of God's house and pray: Give us wisdom. This summer, may these same wide-open doors welcome every seeking soul into the embrace of holy wisdom.

300 NE Madison Blvd.  -   Bartlesville, OK  -   (918) 335-0560 -  oslc9924@sbcglobal.net