"La Dolce Vita"
How to live the good life.
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. Dr. Andrew Stirling
Sunday, January 5, 2003
Text: Proverbs 3:1-26
A number of years ago, a friend took me by the arm and said: "Tonight, I want you to come with me to watch a movie." He proceeded to drag me through the streets of Cambridge, Massachusetts, where I was studying at the time, to a little dive of a place. I must admit that I thought I should perhaps wear a paper bag over my head for fear that anyone might recognize me. I wasn't sure what we were going to see.
He said, "I want you to see this, Andrew, because this is a movie that says a great deal about life and about faith and about the meaning of things."
I was completely confounded when I found out that it was a foreign movie and I was going to have to endure about three hours of subtitles. I thought he was out to punish me for something I had done wrong. The movie, as you can tell from the sermon title in the order of service, was Fellini's epic "La Dolce Vita," which was produced in 1960.
It is a story about life in Rome at that time, about the intelligentsia and the nouveau riche seeking the good life and living according to the principles of hedonism and pleasure. Woven throughout it all are Roman Catholic images and sentiments. It is an amazing movie. It is a movie that elevates pleasure above love, sensuality above truth, a movie that was really showing the good life according to hedonistic principles-and I loved every minute of it!
When we left, we discussed what it was about the movie that makes it so relevant - because, in many ways it is the complete antithesis, the complete contrast to the biblical view of the good life, of la dolce vita. If you look at the scriptures and you see the message that comes through in its totality, it is an entirely different view of what human life should be like and how it should be lived, if it is going to be good.
Nowhere is this more clearly seen than in the passage from Chapter Three of the Book of Proverbs. I go to this chapter because perhaps my favorite verse in all scripture is here: "Trust in the Lord in all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths."
Rabbi Ben Kappara, a very famous Jewish scholar, once said that this is the central verse upon which the whole of the Book of Proverbs is based. And when you look at it very carefully, you will see that there is a picture in this text of the good life. It is a good life, mind you, that reflects when it was written, in eighth century BC. You can tell that it is a product of its time: Its language is not as modern, its views are not as progressive as those that you would find in other places in the Bible. Nevertheless, there is a profound truth within this passage, because it connects concrete human life and illustrations with profound spiritual and biblical truths. It is without doubt one of the most profound statements of what the good life - biblically - is all about.
What the writer is trying to do is show that what God's will and intention is for humanity. That even in our sinfulness this is what God ideally wants us to be like. Of course, there are problems with this text and everyone who reads it has bells go off in their heads, because it doesn't seem to ring true to our human experience. I mean, there are implications that if you practise kindness you will have a long life. Well, I know many kind people who have not been so blessed. There is also the inference that if people are good they will be prosperous in life. Well, I know many who are prosperous who have been anything but good, and vice versa.
There is the implication - if you want to really tear this text apart - that those who are poor are reprobates and are not blessed by God. Yet, many of the poor that I have met are some of the most pious and gracious and generous people on earth. So that doesn't fly. There is also the implication, I suggest if you read this wrongly that providential things happening to you would be a motive to be good. In other words, you would be good because you would think that you would be rewarded for that goodness.
In the light of that, I can understand why there is a story told of a lady who walked the streets of Strasbourg in the 14th century with a pail of water in one hand and a torch in the other. When asked why she did this, she said: "I carry the bucket of water to put out the fires of hell, and I take the torch to burn up heaven, because I do not believe that God should be loved out of fear or a sense of reward, but simply out of grace."
You can understand why what is being said here in the Book of Proverbs could be misinterpreted. And I say misinterpreted, because people often obfuscate the truth of this wonderful text by pointing to extreme usages of it. What is implied here is very simple and straightforward. It is sort of a biblical common sense of the good: Namely that if you follow the principles that are outlined here, there is a tendency, a greater likelihood that your life will be the better for it. If the people of God would follow the justice, righteousness, equity forgiveness and holiness of God, then as a people, they would reap the rewards of that very behaviour.
I want to look at this text a little more carefully with you, because as we start a new year, as we have a new beginning, we should have the same wisdom that the wise men had when they came and visited Jesus Epiphany. Wisdom is a great gift. Wisdom is what we need for the good life.
In the marriage service of the United Church of Canada, we pray that every couple will have three things: Health, prosperity and peace. Now, if you look at the text from the Book of Proverbs, those are three of the things that God desires for humanity. The first of these is health: "Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones."
Now, it is fair enough to say that we all realize that we are made up of genes that we have inherited, and thus we have a proclivity for diseases and ailments over which we have no control. Any one of us could become sick at any moment through no fault of our own, simply because of genetics. Not because of any sin we've committed, or anything that we have done wrong, not because of a bad lifestyle - simply because of our genes. Cancer, Heart disease, Diabetes - these are things that anyone can get at any moment, and have absolutely no bearing on our values. These things know no limits and upon them, there are no constraints.
However, having said that, there are certain things within our control that do in fact lessen our days. They do in fact hurt us. And this is where the writer of Proverbs is 'way, 'way ahead of all those who give health advice today: "Fear the Lord and shun evil." In other words, push yourself away from those things that are going to harm you. This does not make us righteous in the eyes of God. This is not some kind of warped "works righteousness" or an attempt to please God, the writer is simply saying to the people of Israel that this makes practical sense.
It starts with the inner life. It starts with what you believe to be true. It actually starts with valuing your body, which the New Testament calls the temple of the Holy Spirit. Many times I've seen people wander into excess and, (I suppose, I have wandered myself) - where when you do things to your body that are not constructive, that are not holy, that are not uplifting, your health is weakened.
I was thinking, as I seem to every January, about something that happened to a very good friend of mine about 28 years ago. She was a delightful girl. She had been a beauty pageant winner in Bermuda, she was an excellent scholar, and an outstanding member of the field hockey team; this was a young woman who had her whole life in front of her. After a New Year's Eve party, she was heading out of the town of St. George's towards the airport with some friends. When they were coming down one of the hills and negotiating a bend, their car crashed and she was killed. I have remembered the third of January for all these years.
The young man driving the car had been drinking and smoking marijuana. When they finally pulled him out of the wreck, he was so loose that he was the only one who wasn't injured. And I couldn't help but think that one of the things we don't talk about is the responsibility we all have to our bodies: To treat them wisely, to shun evil, to not do those things that limit our days.
But it isn't just an outward thing. It isn't just the pushing away, but the taking on. That is why the writing of Proverbs is so clear.
At the beginning of all this you start with what the Bible calls the fear of the Lord - that is to say, you honour the Lord and his commandments, you are not terrorized by him. You realize that the life you've been given and the responsibility that you have to yourself and to others suggests that you treat your life wisely and carefully. And out of that commitment to God, you shun evil, and you have the full length of your days.
Certainly, there is truth to this. It's a truth that's very often pooh-poohed as just some sort of stuffy old rhetoric of very judgmental religious people, but it is the contrary. It is life-giving, life-affirming and uplifting.
There is a second thing that we are called to do and that is to have prosperity. Whenever I tread on this ground I get really worried, because I know that there are those who abuse these texts terribly. In their desire for prosperity they preach a Gospel that is, I think, absolutely antithetical to everything that the Bible and particularly, Jesus teaches.
But if you go back to the root of it, listen to what the writer of Proverbs says: "Honour the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine."
Here, then is a vision that comes originally from the Book of Exodus, Chapter 22, a vision that you give the first things you have, the first fruits, to God. And in the Book of Exodus, which I'm sure the writer of Proverbs is thinking back to, this refers to supporting people socially. It's not just the acquisition of wealth for yourself, it is the acquisition of wealth for the benefit of the community. It is the actual giving to God and also, in so doing, the giving to others for their well being, that is required.
This is what is at the heart of Proverbs: That our barns are full, our vats of wine are full. God rewards those who give first rather than seize for themselves first. The false Prosperity Gospel thinks first of accumulating for yourself and being prosperous yourself first, rather than giving first. Giving first is what the writer of Proverbs is talking about. It is through that gift of giving that good things come. But more than that, if you look at this chapter from the Book of Proverbs carefully, there is a sense in which good business practices - helping your neighbours, not coveting what they have - and being generous to those who ask for your help are the things that actually build prosperity. These are the things that have their values in the right place. In a world that is often driven by this sense of profit, by this sense of accumulating for yourself, these words are revolutionary: Give first and you will receive - not the other way around.
Let me tell you a delightful story about a man who came to this country via Pier 21 in Halifax. He arrived with nothing, but managed to set up his own business. He kept his accounts payable in a cigar box, his accounts receivable on a spindle and his cash in a till. One day, his son came up to him and asked: "Dad, when you do this kind of accounting, how do you know whether you're making a profit?"
The old man said to his son: "When I came to this country I was wearing the one pair of pants I owned. Now, my daughter is an accountant, I have another son who is a doctor, and I have you, another accountant. I have a house that is paid for, I have a car that is paid for and your mother and I have been able to feed ourselves over the years. As far as I'm concerned, all I need to do is add up those things, deduct the price of the pants that I wore when I arrived, and that is my profit."
Sometimes we do not give thanks for the things that God gives us! We often overlook the great glory, the full barns, the vats of wine, the wealth of our society. Yes, the wealth of our society - there is overwhelming wealth in our society. Does it not then mean that we should first concentrate on our respect for the Lord? Should it not mean that if we are going to put God first, we do so out of a response to the generosity God has already shown us?
God desires one last thing for us, and that is peace. I can't think how these words could be more profound then at the beginning of this new year. Verse 25 says: "Have no fear of sudden disaster or of the ruin that overtakes the wicked, for the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being snared."
In the difficult world of Israel in the eighth century, there was a sense of God's divine protection. This was not a guarantee, this was not an insurance policy, this was not a complete and avowed stamp and seal that everything was always going to be all right. This was a call to what I said earlier: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths."
There is a wonderful passage that follows: "Do not envy a violent man or choose any of his ways, for the Lord detests a perverse man but takes the upright into His confidence." In other words, do not mimic the violent, do not follow or envy the pursuit of the violent. Rather place your trust in God first. This, I believe, is a profound call for each and every one of us in our daily lives. As we go into the new year that lies before us, none of us knows what will prevail, none of us knows what we are going to face. But we go with the certain and sure knowledge that we are not alone. Because we are not alone we must honor God first, by not mimicking those who practise evil, but following God who really is the good.
There is a delightful story about a boy who went to work for his father at a lumberyard that was unheated, even in the middle of the winter. The boy had been given the precious gift of his grandfather's gold watch, and he cherished it. He took it wherever he went. One day while he was working, the watch slipped out of his pocket and became lost under the ice and sawdust. He searched desperately, but finding the watch in this great mass of ice and sawdust was proving impossible. He realized that there was only one way to detect where the watch was: to be silent and wait to hear it ticking.
My friends, as we begin this New Year, we need to wait and be silent and hear the word of God ticking. In the rush and clamour of our lives, peace is only found by listening to the wisdom and the word of God. If we do those things there are no guarantees; I cannot say you will have a prosperous year, a peaceful year or a healthy year. This I will tell you, however: That if you put God first in your life, the chances of those things happening are greater and, regardless of what you go through, God goes with you. "Trust in the Lord in all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths." That is La Dolce Vita! Amen.
This is a verbatim transcription of the original sermon.