Scotch College

The getting of wisdomChaplain’s Column

Zechariah has been read this Term in Assembly. We considered the awesome visions and now there is some plain speaking.

'This is what the LORD Almighty says: "Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other".'

I was privileged in September, when state Moderator, to make a visit to Manhattan and learn more about Redeemer Presbyterian Church and its vision.

Redeemer began in 1989 when Dr Timothy J Keller left an academic teaching post to take up a role where he encouraged others to pursue; namely, to plant a church that would renew New York City; socially, spiritually and culturally.

Today the Redeemer Staff Directory lists 95 people and 20 churches in and around New York, and many others around the world which partner with Redeemer to spread the Christian message to a generation of young (average age is thirty-something), multi-ethnic, unchurched (80% no church background), upwardly mobile professional people.

I have recently finished Keller’s book, The Reason for God* and am enjoying a series of 22 downloaded podcast sermons by Keller on the Proverbs – a manual for boys on the getting of wisdom – which is available from the store at www.redeemer.com

Keller, who is bright, theologically astute and an exceptional communicator, says “wisdom is not less than being moral and good, but it is knowing the right thing to do in the multiple situations in which the rules do not apply. This ability is not instantly obtainable – there isn’t a door you pass through, rather, there is a path you walk - it takes time”.

I was reminded of the inscription in a Bible I was give in 1955 by the 139th Glasgow Cub Scouts. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and so not rely on your own insight. In all you ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths. Proverbs 3, verses 5 and 6. In a post-modern world, trust in the Lord is discounted as a personal preference. However, in Proverbs it is the foundation of wisdom and even knowledge. Keller argues this is true in post-modern New York City.

Most New Yorkers, suggests Keller, would see faith as a private and personal matter, but science is perceived as trustworthy. ‘I only believe what is scientifically provable’ is their mantra. The problem with this is that (a) it’s not scientifically provable, and (b) it is a mantra, a faith commitment, a religious position. Keller’s sermon on this topic reminded me of a 1944 address by

C S Lewis (whom Keller draws on frequently) in which Lewis debunks the possibility of a scientific cosmology premised purely on chance.

‘If I swallow the scientific cosmology as a whole, not only can I not fit in Christianity, but I cannot even fit in science. If minds are wholly dependent on brains, and brains on biochemistry, and biochemistry (in the long run) on the meaningless flux of the atoms, then I cannot understand how the thought of those minds should have any more significance than the sound of the wind in the trees. Christian theology can fit in science, art, morality, and the other religions. The scientific point of view cannot fit in any of these things, not even science itself.’

Lewis is renowned for the clarity of his Christian faith commitment. He concludes his article “I believe Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” Might that understanding guide us in the path we walk day by day.

Graham Bradbeer