They will all be taught by God.

Proverbs 1:20-33, Mark 8:31-38

In the Gospel of John chapter 6:45, Jesus states: It is written in the prophets, “And they shall all be taught by God,” and I realised that it had a connection to the readings we’ve heard today. Next to his role as saviour, Jesus’ purpose on earth was to give us knowledge; in effect, God took on human form to be our teacher.

Today’s reading was from Proverbs 1:20-33. This book of the Bible is ascribed to Solomon. Solomon wasn’t born wise, but when God told him that he could ask for anything he wanted, Solomon asked God for wisdom. God bestowed it happily, God loved it that Solomon asked for wisdom instead of power or wealth. Solomon didn’t keep this wisdom to himself, he used it to teach and guide others, to serve his people and be a good king. This is what the book of Proverbs is all about.

Wisdom is essential, and the reading today expresses sadness and also great frustration that the people are choosing ignorance over knowledge of God. Solomon says:

Wisdom cries out in the street,

in the squares she raises her voice.

At the busiest corner she cries out;

at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:

‘How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?

How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing

and fools hate knowledge?

The end result of this deliberate ignorance is, in Solomon’s words, calamity. He sees distress and anguish. And we too see these consequences in the world today, when society actively scoffs at the notion of God, and deliberately ignores God’s teachings. We see hatred, discord, suffering, emotional turmoil, wars, poverty, and so many calamities that beset the world. The effect on society of this rejection of wisdom is that many people, especially the young, are simply unaware of God’s word. Whether they want to or not, they remain closed off from this reality.

Much of modern youth, doesn’t have a clue about what the Bible contains, and they have very little knowledge, if any, of the teachings of Jesus and the wisdom of Solomon and the prophets. A few weeks ago I was having a chat with a young documentary film maker. I guess he was in his mid twenties. And during the conversation, it came out that I was an occasional preacher in my church. He was curious about the Bible and wanted to know what kind of stories were in it. I told him about Solomon and king David, and Moses.

It was surprising to me how this intelligent, compassionate and bright young person, through no fault of his own, was unaware of what was in the Bible. Admittedly he didn’t know a lot about Shakespeare either, but that’s a whole other story that revolves around the state of the education system. But anyway, luckily, this young man soaked up all the information like a sponge, and I thank God that I had this opportunity to tell him about the Bible.

Now one would think in this modern age that with all the advances in communication, especially the internet, that all people would be aware of God and Jesus and the Bible. There’s truckloads of information out there. But here’s the thing, each internet user is surrounded by what is called a filter bubble.

Once you have an account on the net, you’re instantly profiled, every time you Google something, Google’s algorithms will keep feeding you the information you appear to be interested in. Everything else is filtered out and what’s let in is the stuff that you like. That’s probably why I get presented with a lot of media content about Jesus, and also funny cat videos. That’s just me, Google has me all figured out. So if you don’t Google up “Jesus” on the net then you definitely won’t be fed any information about the Lord. That’s how the filter bubble works.

Regrettably the way that media is delivered leaves people disconnected from the knowledge of God, from Jesus, and from the Christian faith. So that’s why these breakthrough moments, like the one I had with the young filmmaker, are so important. Even in small ways, we can be channels through which God’s word can reach minds that are normally enclosed in their own particular filter bubble.

It could be said that we’re just pushing our own agenda as Christians, well yeah, of course that’s true. But we have to ask ourselves, what’s at stake here? Jesus tells us in Mark, “what good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” To lose one’s soul is a terrible thing, it’s a separation from God, the source of all love. Think about our faith and what we’ve learned, and how lucky and utterly blessed we’ve been to be handed down a spiritual education. How does a person learn to love God if they haven’t been informed about God’s goodness?

I grew up in the Catholic faith, and went to Catholic schools. In big ways and small ways, the faith and doctrine permeated my school life. We had big things like the Catechism that we learned off by heart, the Mass each Sunday and holy days, and we even had little things, a little heads up now and then, so that we would be reminded of our relationship to God. There were statues of Jesus, Mary and Joseph on the staircase landings and holy pictures on the classroom walls. In high school we wrote the letters SHJ on the top of our page before starting any writing. The letters stood for Sacred Heart of Jesus.

I had a solid religious education. Some people today loudly criticise this kind of education as indoctrination of the very young, or “brainwashing.” Admittedly, it was pretty strict, but it didn’t take away my ability to think for myself. And I’m so grateful that I was educated about God and Jesus, Mary and the saints. I feel very lucky that from the very beginning, God was a conscious reality in my life.

This kind of upbringing is considered by many in this secular time to be too conforming, but I think, seriously, that in this day and age, the opposite is true. It’s society that is forcing people to conform to what are called the “norms” of a secular state, a society in which God does not figure, and one that actively squeezes out the spiritual, the Christian element of human experience.

St Paul writing to the Romans in chapter 12 says:

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

The pattern of this world is a pattern that excludes God and religion. Religion these days is like a dirty word. The pattern of the world is one that tells you to acquire things, to be beautiful, to earn lots of money, to have a big house or a new car. The world tells us that it’s okay to despoil nature and exploit the world’s resources for profit, and that it’s okay to take away the rights of the unborn.

It’s a given that not all the things that society wants us to conform to are bad, traffic rules are good, the parliamentary system gets a thumbs up, so does democracy. But the culture of the world expects us to conform to everything, not just the things that are useful or beneficial.

Paul tells us not to conform to the pattern of the world, we’re not to accept everything holus bolus, we don’t have to conform to society’s views on abortion, or the restriction on the freedom of religious expression, we don’t have to agree to keep our mouths shut about God because it may “offend” other people. We’re not to agree with everything that a secular society trots out to us… because some of it is just not right, it goes against what it means to be Christian, and to be followers of Jesus.

Instead Paul want us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. And by this he means that our minds should be always open to receiving the word of God. And it’s a continuous renewal, it’s not just about what you learned in Sunday school or, for me, memorising the Catechism all those years ago, it’s about every Sunday when we hear the word of God read out, or at Home Group, or even a simple chat with like minded people, or simply opening the Bible and reading a passage or two.

Secular society teaches us a lot of things, but it won’t teach us about the one fundamental guiding principle in a Christian life, the meaning of the life, death and resurrection of our Lord.

In today’s reading from Mark Jesus tells us:

‘Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.’

This is why it was so serious when Peter denied Jesus. I can imagine that Peter must have felt so much remorse over this. Here’s Jesus, going through incredible suffering and the person who is his best friend, denies that he even knows him, not once, but three times. Jesus forgives, he forgave Peter, no question. But Jesus needs us to not be ashamed of him or his words. Do we want Jesus to feel hurt and let down? No. Will we try to avoid it at all costs? Absolutely. If someone asks, are you a Christian, we answer, you bet! And if they want to know why? All we need to do is let the Holy Spirit speak through us… in this way, they will all be taught by God.

Before the word of God is written in our hearts, it’s written in our heads, and it’s God himself who teaches us. We need to keep the living word present in the world and to always be aware of the great loving connection that we share with almighty God, because that’s what our faith is all about. God has been in a relationship with us, from the moment we were formed, and this bond is eternal, for God is eternal, and we too have been promised life everlasting.

It’s up to us to keep the knowledge of God and of Jesus’ saving grace alive in a world that is so desperately in need of truth and light. Let’s pray that through the action of the Holy Spirit and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we may always be ready to communicate through word and through actions what our Christian faith means and what it teaches us, not just for our own sake as followers of Jesus, but for the sake of all human kind.

Amen