My child, if you accept my words
and treasure up my commandments within you,
making your ear attentive to wisdom
and inclining your heart to understanding,
if you indeed cry out for insight
and raise your voice for understanding,
if you seek it like silver
and search for it as for hidden treasures—
then you will understand the fear of the LORD
and find the knowledge of God.
For the LORD gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;
he stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
he is a shield to those who walk blamelessly,
guarding the paths of justice
and preserving the way of his faithful ones.
Then you will understand righteousness and justice
and equity, every good path,
for wisdom will come into your heart,
and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;
prudence will watch over you,
and understanding will guard you.
It will save you from the way of evil,
from those who speak perversely,
who forsake the paths of uprightness
to walk in the ways of darkness,
who rejoice in doing evil
and delight in the perverseness of evil,
those whose paths are crooked
and who are devious in their ways.
In contrast, God is why you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
I grew up a pretty big Cincinnati Reds fan back in the days of the Big Red Machine with Johnny Bench, Pete Rose, my own favorite- Tony Perez, and company. It was a fun time for those fans. No one who remembers that time can ever forget the all-out effort of “Charlie Hustle,” Pete Rose, who used to run to first base after walks (ball four), I think was the one who brought back sliding headfirst into bases with all out abandon and gave himself completely to the game on the field. One time after we watched Don Gullett beat the Braves 2-1, we stayed afterwards and watched Pete Rose take 45 minutes of batting practice. I don’t think anyone believes that as talented as Rose was, that he was the greatest talent. He still holds the record for the most hits of any player in a Major League career: 4,256.
From that natural analogy, I think of Paul and others who followed Jesus in total abandon. And for whatever else the characters of Scripture got wrong, insofar as they were right in heart and soul, it was about following hard after God, after God’s ways, after God’s will, and with others, no matter what. That is the heart we have to have in it, the rest of us following, because if we don’t, we’ll never make it, or it will hardly meet the threshold of faith. Faith is not simply mouthing or going along halfheartedly with something, then going full steam ahead in what one is really interested in. God helps us in our weak faith, and we all struggle at times with that. But the intent for us is to be fully in it: followers, learners, those impassioned to know and imitate Jesus, not just ourselves, but with others of like faith.
Jesus community 