Today’s Scripture Reading (March 28,
2013): Proverbs 4
In 399
B.C.E. Socrates was put on trial in Athens, Greece. The charge against him was
that of heresy. In particular, he was charged with encouraging his students to
challenge the accepted way that things were – he encouraged his students to
understand the height of learning was found in their ability for them to think
for themselves. One of his students was Plato, and Plato in his writings has
characterized Socrates as the gadfly of Athens. Gadfly is not a word we use
often in modern culture, but it simply means someone who poses novel or
upsetting questions. And that tended to be the way that Socrates taught. At his
trial and in his own defense Socrates said that “the unexamined life was not
worth living.” If there was one thing that Socrates wanted his students to do,
it was to examine who it was that they were and what it was that they did or
were expected to do. To simply go with the flow was to waste a life.
The author
of Proverbs gives us a similar message. There the author tells us that we
should “guard our hearts.” Socrates would probably tell us that one way to
guard our hearts is to know our hearts. For the biblical writers, the heart was
the center of our intelligence, our emotions and our will. Proverbs wants us to
understand that because it is all of that it is also the moral compass for our
lives. All of our action (and the proof of our morality is always revealed in
the things that we do – it is founded in orthopraxy [right action] and not
orthodoxy [right belief]) comes out of the things that we believe and think.
Socrates would say that there are two ways that we can arrive at what it is
that we believe or think, but only one is a worthwhile path. The lesser way is
to just allow the culture around us to tell us what it is that we believe. But
the second option is the more profitable course of action. We can ask ourselves
the upsetting questions and examine and actively form what it is that we really
believe – and let that belief guide our actions.
Christianity
is not always on the edge of the movement toward self examination of the heart
– but it should be. It is never enough for the Christian community to lean on
its traditions and let the past inform the present. Every follower of Christ
has the responsibility to examine their hearts in the light of Christ and
decide what it is that they believe. The Christian traditions can be a great
help in this practice, but we also need to recognize that sometime the
Christian traditions are simply wrong. Our task is not to accept what has gone
before, but rather to build on it as we examine the core of our own beings.
When it
comes to the examination and formation of the heart – the guarding of the heart
- the Apostle Paul adds these words. “Finally, brothers, whatever is true,
whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely,
whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about
such things” (Philippians 4:8). In 399, Socrates was executed. He could have
opted for a lesser punishment, but he was afraid that that would only water
down what is was that he had taught. The examination and guarding of the heart
was an important enough issue for Socrates, the gadfly of Athens, to die for.
Our question becomes is it an important enough ideal for us to live for?
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading:
Proverbs 5
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