Sermon
Sunday, August 17,
2008
“SMART
BRICKS!”
The Reverend Dr. E. Neil Hunt
The United Church of Marco Island
“SMART
BRICKS!”
The Reverend Dr. E. Neil Hunt
Sunday, August 17, 2008
PROVERBS 8:1-4
Does not wisdom call,
and does not understanding raise her voice?
On
the heights, beside the way,
at the crossroads she takes her stand;
beside
the gates in front of the town,
at the entrance of the portals she cries out:
“To
you, O people, I call,
and my cry is to all that live.
LET
US PRAY: May the words of my mouth and
the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to You O God, our rock and our
redeemer. Amen.
In
case you haven’t taken the opportunity to drive past the parsonage on Romano
lately,
You
might not have noticed that there has been a lot of work going on because of
the effort of Bob Gaffney and others.
Ceiling
fans have been installed in the family room and out on the lanai.
New
windows have been installed.
The
lanai has been painted, thanks to Dick
Hearn, with support from Karen.
The
outside is in the process of being painted, but isn’t quite finished yet.
I
don’t understand what the delay is Bob! I mean you have been at it by yourself
for about a week and a half Bob! (Just kidding Bob) We really think it is great
that you are doing it now so we get to enjoy some of the benefits! Normally
major renovations’ aren’t done until the new minister arrives.
So
we really do appreciate getting to see the work as it is underway and as I
said, enjoying the benefits, of course, we also have to put up with the mess!
When
the work gets a little farther down the road and more of it gets finished, I am
proposing that some Sunday we move coffee hour from the narthex to the house.
So let’s see how that all goes.
One
of the last improvements that is almost finished is the installation of paver
bricks out in the lanai. A paver brick, for those of you who don’t know, looks
like this..
A
paver brick would be called a dumb brick. I’m sure that we have all heard the
term, Dumb as a brick!
That
expression has been applied to television personalities, rock stars,
ministries, certain types of dogs, and any number of people who tumbled out of
the “stupid tree” and hit every branch on the way down.
But
what these words don’t necessarily describe any longer is…..ALL BRICKS!
The
brick is being redesigned by a Professor at the
He
is messing with a technology that is over 6,400 year old.
But
the new bricks that are being created are filled with electronic sensors that
can continuously monitor the structural health of a building. Such a smart brick can be a real asset in
terms of routine maintenance and safety in emergencies.
Think
about the
You
can just imagine how differently firefighters would have responded if they had
been able to pull up to the site and immediately get a reading of the buildings
structural integrity. If they had known
a little more about vibrations and temperatures inside the buildings, they
might have changed their tactics and saved additional lives, including some of
their own.
A
smart brick can be laid into a wall just like any other, but inside the brick
are devices to track temperature changes and measure vibration and movement.
Data
from the brick is transmitted to a computer and the reading can be accessed by
engineers or emergency personnel by telephone line or computer network.
A
set of these smart bricks, deployed throughout a building, could easily provide
a holistic, real time picture of the strength of a building.
This
21st. century is becoming the “smart” century.
We
have smart cars, smart houses, smart bricks and even smart dust, small wireless
devices not only for smart buildings, but for aircraft, inventory tracking, laboratories
and military hardware.
Smart
bricks are a good image for us to keep in mind as we ponder our role as the
people of God in the world today.
We
already know that we are called to be “living stones,” built into a spiritual
house, but we may not have considered just what brand of building blocks we are
supposed to be.
The
choice is ours: We can either be stupid
stones or smart bricks.
Our
scripture reading for this morning from Proverbs describes wisdom as a woman, a
female figure who takes her stand in the middle of human society and cries out,
“To
you, O people, I call, and my cry is to all that live.”
We
hear in the text that Wisdom offers her insights to everyone who is willing to
listen, and she promises wonderful gifts to anyone who will embrace her,
gifts
of intelligence,
truth,
instruction,
knowledge,
justice,
righteousness
and wealth.
You
will notice that Wisdom doesn’t give her gifts only to undergrads at Harvard,
or technogeeks at Microsoft, or think tankers in
No,
Wisdom is generous to all who are willing to open their hearts and minds to
what she offers, and she pours her gifts into:
The auto mechanic who analyzes car problems with
uncommon intelligence
The grandmother who knows the truth about what makes
people tick
The elementary school teacher and church school
teacher who can both instruct and inspire their students
The counselor who shows real knowledge about the
workings of human relationships
The attorney who has a passion for justice, above a concern
for billable hours
The high school student who resists peer pressure and
practices righteousness
The entrepreneur who finds that she or he can do well
by doing good.
When
we look at ourselves, and at people around us, we realize that wisdom is reserved
not only for people with the most distinguished diplomas and powerful
professions, in fact, the nightly news reveals that there is plenty of folly
and foolishness to be found at the highest levels of academics, business,
government and YES, even in the clergy and the church.
True
insight is available to all people everywhere who are willing to open their
hearts and minds to the wisdom of God.
Such
people are smart bricks, solid citizens who are tuned into God and are
sensitive to changes and vibrations and movements in the created order.
Smart
bricks understand how the world is put together, because they are in touch with
Wisdom, who stood beside God “like a master worker” in the original ordering of
creation.”
Smart
bricks are committed to building up, not breaking down.
They
are constructive, not destructive.
They
stand together and work together, instead of splitting apart and shattering the
efforts of others.
They
join the wisdom of God in rejoicing in God’s inhabited world and delighting in
the human race.
Rejoicing
and delighting.
That’s
not the approach that we expect the world to take, but it’s the response of
people of wisdom who are in the world.
Just look at the Olympics in
Each
of us, in our own way, can dedicate ourselves to building up, instead of
breaking down.
We
can be constructive, not destructive.
We
can stand together and work together, instead of splitting apart and shattering
each other’s efforts.
We
can be sensitive to changes and vibrations and movements in our communities,
and take action to maintain the well-being of the world around us.
It
all begins with the realization that God loves us and delights in us and
desires that we all be wise. “The good
news about God’s wisdom is this,” writes Charles Stanley in his book Walking
Wisely:
“Every
person can become wise.”
Not
everyone can become famous or wealthy or powerful, but everyone can develop
wisdom about how to walk wisely with God and with one another. Every single one of us can grow in our
relationship with God, and build relationships with others that are deep,
lasting and purposeful.
It
is in these relationships that we develop wisdom, and function as smart bricks
in a strong and solid spiritual house.
Together
we gather together in worship to praise God and when we come, we gain wisdom.
With
Wisdom, listening to God then following God’s lead, we can build a better world
together one brick at a time! Amen.