Getting Cross-Ways with Conventinal Wisdom

Conventional Wisdom (CW) is a term coined by the economist John Kenneth Galbraith. He meant the phrase to describe certain ideas or explanations that are generally accepted as true. So-called Conventional Wisdom may be either true or false. Many urban legends are accepted as true based on CW. Often, urban legends are little more than rumors. For example, that the USPS is halting production of African Heritage stamps, or KFC no longer uses chicken and now fries up genetically altered life form.

Conventional Wisdom can be a barrier to new ideas and explanations. Meaning, despite new and different information CW gets “set in concrete.” In the end, CW can make us closed-minded. What we already know is convenient, appealing. CW often creates energy, an opposite force, which hangs onto the old belief, sometimes to the point of absurd denial of the new information. We’ll hang onto CW at all costs, often doing silly things to do that.

Last week I fell victim to a bit of CW. You know what a fan I am of politics. When I heard that both New York Congressman Charlie Rangel and California Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi criticized Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez for calling George Bush the devil himself, I refused to believe it. I was sure these two rabid partisans would be jumping for joy that an outsider had done their dirty work for them. It wasn’t until I went on-line and read their criticism myself in the Washington Post that I could trust the report. Wait. It gets better.

Charlie Rangel was a perfect gentleman. He said, “No one comes to my country, in my district, from another country and criticizes my president.” I was shocked. However, my faith in CW was restored when I read what Ms. Pelosi said, “She said, Chavez thinks he’s a new Simon Bolivar, but he’s just a thug.” To me it looked like an Italian thing – maybe we’ll have to send her to charm school!

This text from Mark’s Gospel (Mark 9:34-37) is riddled with CW the Holy Spirit wants us to see. Some of it Mark put there because of his own experience. Some is based on testimony of Jesus’ early followers. A little is there, likely, because Mark needed to address issues going on his own church community. But much of the CW that still operates here does so because we keep bringing it. We need to sort all that out. If we don’t, we’ll miss the wisdom, the new and contrary ideas, that Jesus intends we hear and bring to bear in our own church and in our own worlds today.

Notice that the disciples ignore Jesus’ second prediction of his passion and death. Earlier we heard Peter challenge this very same prediction (Mk 8:27-38). We also heard Jesus call Peter out in front of a whole crowd and the other disciples, for arguing his CW against Jesus’ new wisdom. So we shouldn’t be surprised to hear the disciples ignore Jesus’ second prediction and change the subject.

Their new subject - which of us will sit in what high and mighty places - operated out of their CW. If Jesus is messiah, when he rules, they rule. They have created an opposing force, an alternative story, which ends differently than Jesus’ sees it.

To get them to let go of their old CW and adopt his new
vision, Jesus tells them, as plain as possible, a new rule. He says, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” He has their attention, but he must have seen a whole lot of blank stares. Maybe stares that betrayed a feeling like, “Yeah, Riiiight.”

Not flinching, Jesus meets force with force. He grabs up the lowest life form he can find - a child - and says, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”

I didn’t misspeak. I said Jesus scooped up the lowest life form he could find. That’s our CW that’s keeping us from seeing Jesus’ new vision. Our culture values children. This early Middle Eastern society did not. Children were lower in this honor / shame culture than either shepherds or lepers.

Oh, their bible said children are a blessing, but their CW said children were a burden. Kids couldn’t work. When you had them, you worked harder to feed them. You knew your investment might never pay off since they couldn’t be counted on to stay healthy, or alive. If you had a girl-child, you needed to make sure you had money for a dowry. If you had a boy-child, just about the time he became productive he got his own wife, made more babies. You needed to work harder and get a bigger house. You also had to pray that they would not turn you out when you got too old to take care of yourself.

Jesus is launching extremely innovative wisdom, Kingdom vision. If we’re willing to give up our CW, we might just see it.

We’ve been trained to see, hear, read and believe the Bible as
a “how to” manual. It’s really a “why for” manual. Before the Bible is about anything at all, it’s about God. It’s only about us as we are objects of God’s love. It’s God’s love and regard for us that makes us subjects, otherwise we’re no different than any other creature, loved but not aware of it. We’re made in God’s image. The Triune God, Father, Son, and Spirit living and loving in its own holy community has made us in God’s image.

Let’s face up to our CW that keeps us misunderstanding a why for book for a how to book, in the order Mark gives it to us.

Look at Jesus’ new rule, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” Let’s admit that, at best, we turn this life orientation into a proverb, sometimes. Since it’s spoken to the apostles, some folks think it only refers to church leaders. Often, when we get passed that, we hear it as referring only to individuals. But it’s clearly spoken to Jesus’ first gathered community. We’ll do this personally, alone, only to the extent that we do this together. And if Jesus thought we could pull this off, individually and alone, he wouldn’t have spoken it to the group.

Let me show how our CW is operating here. When was the last time you heard this verse quoted, and the speaker meant it to be anything but a joke? Have you ever been to a church meeting and heard a member say, “I’d like to add an item to the agenda: how can this congregation be last of all and a servant of all”?

Jesus' embrace is another jolt to our CW. What Jesus is doing, by embracing a lowly child, is what God has been doing since God stooped to meet us in the mud. What Jesus is doing is the rest of God’s story, suffering for us, staying with us, embracing us, even when we stray, fall into sin, miss the mark. Stooping to us; suffering for us; staying with us, it’s the servanthood of the God who chooses to be the servant of us all.

The only thing that can keep you from seeing, hearing and accepting Jesus’ Kingdom vision is your CW. Claim your shame. Let go of your conventions. Lay hold to your lowliness. Let go of your wisdom. Then Jesus has you right where he wants you, deep in the arms of his redeeming embrace.

Be so welcomed there that you can not only say Jesus’ name, but also speak in Jesus’ name. Speak to someone a welcome in Jesus’ name and let them meet the God who stoops to you, suffers for you, stays with you.

That’s what becomes the “how to,” the identity and relationship we have as image of God, children of God. That’s when the text describes the reality, the vision, the true wisdom that God’s desire prescribes for all God’s people. It’s a life orientation that will always put us crossways with the world’s CW and it’s God’s best way - our only way - into the only greatness that matters.