Proverbs 8:22-31; June 15, 2025; Trinity Sunday
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At our staff planning retreat this past week— which was great by the way; thank you McFarlands! — Kevin at one point looked at me and joked, “well don’t you just have a story for everything…” to which Valerie piped up and said, “He’s a pastor, what’d you expect!” 🙂
And to their point: In 1985, across the pond in the United Kingdom, a man who performed as an accomplished conductor, pianist, and tenor, had his entire life pulled out from underneath him when he contracted viral encephalitis. As a result, this man, Clive Wearing, suffered severe damage to his hippocampus, and was soon diagnosed with Anterograde Amnesia, which meant he was unable to create new memories – which sounds like torture — though just as horrifically, he also developed Retrograde Amnesia, meaning that he had trouble connecting past events and people.
Every day then was pure frustration, for in every moment there was almost complete confusion. Clive couldn’t remember the names of his children, nor his past achievements. For Clive couldn’t even remember when he had just eaten a meal, nor when he had moments before brushed his teeth, for you see, all things were subject to deletion just seven seconds after experiencing them. If you’ve ever watched the movie “Memento” you’ve seen a creative yet awful window into this, but even if you haven’t, you can imagine, I think, what must have been this poor man’s anger, fear, and disorientation.
And yet, somehow, despite it all, he could still play the piano! He could write in a journal. He could even dance and dress himself presentably, that is, if he was able to do so quickly. Heck, he even retained a sense of humor, for one time his wife asked him if he knew how old he was, and he quipped, “I’m 93,000, dear.”
Every day that his bride Deborah visited him – and she visited nearly every day — he miraculously responded with a momentary flicker of recognition. With a smile on his face as he deep down recalled her as the love of his life from ages ago. And in those fleeting moments before he might soon forget, he would remember both who he was, and whose he’s always been. And isn’t that just an amazing testimony to the power of love and its lasting imprint?
Even though that recognition wouldn’t last as long as either of them would have wanted, it was nonetheless there. In the background. Underneath. At work. And it remained with both Deborah and Clive, intact, even amidst their shared nightmare of his disease.
We heard in our text from Proverbs 8 this morning about God also being there in the background. In the backdrop of everything. And, as attested to by the verses that mark the beginning of this chapter, we learn that Lady Wisdom has accompanied God through all of the twists and turns, stops and starts of creation itself.
And that through it all God and Wisdom stayed married, intertwined and recognizing the gift of working together, taking delight not only in each other, but also in their handiwork, specifically in creating their offspring: the human race.
Which is amazing, especially when acknowledging that it is this same human race which has grown increasingly angry, afraid, and disoriented within this world it has been brought into; as we wake each day increasingly at odds with the planet, showing little to no memory of our world’s history, nor interest in its lessons, seemingly doomed to repeat mistake after mistake as if we never experienced them just seven seconds or years earlier, nor learned anything from them a moment or election after.
In a truly nightmarish week when a plane dropped out of the sky killing 290 people; when Israel bombed Iran and Iran stuck Israel; when the Marines and National Guard descended upon the City of Angels; and when two Democratic lawmakers and their spouses were shot and one assassinated, it’s hard to feel like there is much here for God to take delight in anymore. Especially in us, God’s broken and fearful children.
I mean, I can only imagine what God must be thinking as this goldilocks planet built upon love and wisdom seems endeavored to be destroyed by its own creatures’ dumb-dumb; it’s stupidity and hate.
And yet, our text here reminds us that even so… that even from ages long ago God has foreseen it all and yet somehow went through with it anyway! Designing plans with Wisdom by His side, such that even after volcanic blasts and tectonic shifts, in ice ages and the seas breaching their limits, in everything and following, God divined to see it through and create human beings. Humans, who in His likeness would yet rebel against Him, forgetting God’s work as we fight against each other and Wisdom.
But even still, despite it all, God’s Spirit miraculously abides. Visiting us every day 93,000 plus years later in the hope that we might recall that we are still the Son’s bride!
In divine totems that spin with music; in nature’s movements that dance with style; in joyful interactions that spark with hilarity, the Trinity is active and reminding us daily that there in the background and here in the backdrop, even within the worst nightmare of all, God is yet here, above and in all.
Now, poetry aside, I will admit that it’s not always easy to see or believe this. Nor has it been easy to write in a journal, take photographs, or even joke decently, recently. Especially not these days when I also feel consumed by fear and frustration, which often gives way to confusion and exhaustion. And I am exhausted. Aren’t you?
The other day for instance, if I’m being candid, I openly wondered if I should possess extra protections for me and my family at home… And as I said those words – that three-letter word — this little voice within me kept screaming “how we have gotten here!?” that I, as a Minister, could even consider asking that question. Talk about disorientation!
It’s crazy though, right? And at times I feel like I’m fading, losing recognition of who I was and want to be, as each passing minute spent with the world’s news causes deeper agitation, frustration, and anger.
And compounding it all, at least for me, is the reality that I am also a father. Of a young and defenseless child, who, I consciously helped bring into this nation so riddled with nightmares. I mean, this Father’s Day, honestly, has been one of the hardest. Maybe not for you. But truthfully for me.
Earlier this week, on Monday, when Seth was off at school, my phone reminded me of a time when he was a toddler, this video popping up where I was making funny sounds like a fish underwater; and where Seth was laughing manically and mimicking me in kind. It was beautiful and humorous. And a great mental health vacation. But while it made me smile, it also made me frown, because it was juxtaposed next to him coming home and asking me, “Dad, why are so many people so mean and angry?”
It just broke my heart.
Moreover, and I’ve noticed this recently, I don’t think I’m as critical anymore for my son’s happiness. I mean, sure we have great times and all, but now he also has these friends and hobbies, and books and screens, which are all appropriate and important… but as he’s gotten older, I also feel like I’ve been nudged further, there into the background. In the backdrop. Underneath it all. And I can’t help but sometimes fear that it won’t ever slow down, and that like 93,000 hours from now when he’s 19 and out of the house, our memories from ages ago will be somewhere lost in retrograde.
And yeah, I’m being sentimental, and poetic again. But it’s hard sometimes, isn’t it, my friends?
You know what though? My love for my son hasn’t changed at all. Nor my delight. And I’m not jealous or anything. For in my heart, I know I’ll be okay, because I trust he’s going to be okay. For he has been set up. For ages ago, I was privileged to create him. To bring him home and love him. And to put him on a good path to who he might become, and who he already is. And I didn’t do it alone, bumbling around, but alongside Lady Wisdom, my beautiful bride, without whom, there would be no him.
But of course, that’s not all. For there was also a third… for in the beginning was the Word and Word was with God and Word was God.
And that Word came to live and dwell among us (Brian, Anya, you, whoever), so that we all might know God, and that God might know us; such that no matter how far we might drift, or how confused may become, God will always be there to remind us of who we are, and whose we’ve always been.
And isn’t that just an amazing testimony to the power of love and its lasting imprint?
Thanks be to God.
Amen.
