Let's...make...a deal!

I have spent the last three years as a member of the Luther Seminary community. And I have found that my colleagues are constantly caught in the throws of decision making, except we use a much fancier word and call it “discernment” (its holier that way). I do not think there is more decision-making happening at seminary than other places of the world, but perhaps the BIG decisions are a bit more concentrated. About every semester there is a major interview to endure, an essay to write, a form of preference to fill out...we cannot go too long with out some major “discernment”.

With all this holy discernment going on, I found myself in conversation with a very wise professor, and from his teaching a wrote a sermon for a preaching class which compares God to Monte Hall. Problamatic? Yep.

This sermon was based on two biblical notion of wisdom, first woman wisdom (Sophia) who can be found in Proverbs 1:22-23, 2:1-6. And some of Paul's teaching on the wisdom of God found in 1 Corinthians 2:1-12 (read them, Sophia is a rockstar!). Below are excerpts from that sermon (its a little choppy, I just grabbed some highlights) as I find myself at another time of discernment, right along with most of my classmates I thought this might be a nice time to look at it again. So, say it with me: “Lets...make...a deal!” (cue music)

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Monty Hall was the charming and beloved host of the famous game show, Let's Make a Deal. Monty always knows where the real prize is, or what's inside the envelope, what you, as the contestant, must consider is what kind of Monty Hall are you getting. Is he the “Monty from hell” who knows that the car is behind door #1 and is tempting and distracting you? Or the “Angelic Monty” who is trying to persuade you in the direction for the right choice and the grand prize? And there is really no way of knowing...you, the poor contestant must make a choice based on nothing else than your gut.

The premise that lies underneath Let's Make a Deal and the “Monty Hall Problem” is one that we often operate on. When faced with the choices of life—the right house, right job, right person, right city, right internship...we play Let's Make a Deal, and so relegate God to...none other than Monty Hall! In this game then, God has the answer in the envelope, the prize hidden away in a secret location...so we watch and analyze, looking for signs or any little hint that might help us to make that perfect decision, the proper discernment, we hope we will be able to read God's body language so we might subconsciously be led in the right direction.

The wisdom Paul speaks of is a gift of God's alone. Through the Spirit we move to deeper understanding, through the Spirit, we move closer to God. Sophia and Paul both invite us to wisdom...they tell us about the ways of God's knowing and understanding, and they tell us about the ways we just do not know and cannot understand. What Sophia and Paul do not tell us that God is like Monty Hall...God is NOT like Monty Hall! God is not holding the secret to our life's correct path or true love behind door #2 and then playing with us to see how we will choose. The ways of God's wisdom are much more loving than that and lead to much more than making the right choice or winning a game. The ways of God's wisdom is the way of life!

God is not playing games with us, or holding the prize behind the Divine back...God invites us into relationship so that we can get to know one another. We spend time in the Word, which unfolds and reveals the ways God works and how God moves in our lives and in the lives of all people. We spend time in communication, listening, pleading with our God, our Maker, our Savior, our Spirit.

Of course, in all of our time together with God, through the Word, prayer and the gifts of the Spirit the thing Paul reminds us of is that we will never fully know God. This reminder could be frustrating, paralyzing even...but then God offers the ultimate deal. In the Divine Wisdom of God, in this beautiful and full relationship we are in with God, it is God who will always know us.

The promise of this relationship is not that we fully know,

but that we are fully known.

We are known by the loving God, not as a cunning game-show host who hold answers and prizes at bay, God knows us fully and in complete Divine Wisdom stays with us, works with us as we discern, decide and move in the direction of Wisdom, of life, of God.