As I was reflecting this week on today's scripture texts (John 1:43-51; 1 Corinthians 6:11-20; 1 Samuel 3:1-20; Psalm 139), and how I understood them, and what, of value, I might be able to say about them... I had a vague sense that there was an important problem..., running through all of the texts... that needed to be addressed... but I couldn't quite identify what that problem was...

And just then, the phone rang. It was a friend of mine calling to see if I could possibly pick up her two daughters that day from day care... in about 15 minutes... because she was tied up in a meeting. So I said “yes,” of course, and I consciously turned away from the scriptures that I had been reflecting on.. and I went to pick up the girls at daycare.

But, as you know, when you have an unsolved problem on your mind, even when you consciously turn away from attending to it... your mind continues to inquire and to explore and wonder... often without your even realizing it...

So I arrived at the day care... I entered, and there was a very long, narrow hallway that I had seen many times before and never thought twice about. The walls were made of concrete block, but they were lined on both sides with a thick wood molding, and into this molding were screwed a number of sturdy metal “hooks,” in a straight row, with about a one foot gap in between each hook and the next one. It is not an unusual thing to see in a daycare. It's a place where the children can hang up their coats on their way in... and pick them up on their way out. And it was clear why the carpenter left a good foot of space between the hooks, because... not only were the kids Winter coats very bulky... but they also had backpacks and hats and mittens and leggings – and even stuffed animals and story books – attached to their hooks. And so, clearly, if it wasn't for those hooks.... things would have gotten pretty disorganized and chaotic in there pretty quickly. And I thought to myself.... “Eureka!” These hooks were the perfect illustration of the problem that I was perceiving at some level in today's biblical texts... but that I had not been able to put into words.

Preaching a sermon or a homily can be fairly straightforward when the persons who are listening – have already formed, in the privacy of their own minds, the kinds of “hooks” that are necessary to “catch” the meaning of what the speaker is trying to communicate. If the speaker just assumes that those “hooks” are there in the minds of the listeners, and begins tossing out scripture sentences, interpretations, illustrations and so on.... he or she may discover that those lovely words often just, in effect, fall to the ground – not really being understood. Because the inner “hooks” just aren't there, in the mind, for the message to really latch onto. And if the message is not really being understood, then it can't really be either agreed with or disagreed with. Some (like Alasdair MacIntyre) would say that the modern mind has virtually become like that long hallway in the daycare, but without those crucial hooks for hanging all of the coats, and the mittens, and the stuffed animals on. And so the potentially important things that it listens to just start to pile up, so that its inner world becomes a place that is not well organized, not clear and coherent, and this can be quite stressful.

This kind of communication problem has always been with us in the church. It comes with the territory when we undertake to understand and transmit something as ancient and mysterious as biblical spirituality. But it has become an especially difficult problem in the modern era, because now we can no longer take for granted that the critical hooks which are necessary to comprehend this kind of spiritual message have ever been formed in the minds of listeners in the first place. For sure, even without these critical “hooks”, people will hear something. They will understand something. But it may in fact be something quite different from what the speaker and/or the text is attempting to communicate.

The main solution to this problem is, of course, that the messengers (whether lay or ordained) need to embody in their own lives the spiritual message that their words are conveying to listeners. Their lives then serve as living contemporary illustrations of the ancient message. They don't have to be perfect illustrations, of course, but they have to be good enough to be credible.

Another important part of the solution to this problem lies in the church very consciously taking up its responsibility for the formation of these crucial hooks in the minds of its people. This formation is essential to learning an ancient wisdom tradition. Thousands of years of spiritual practice and reflection have gone into the development of these crucial themes that become “hooks” for meaning in our minds.

A few of these hooks for meaning that draw from our wisdom tradition are named on this little tract inside of today's bulletin (see below). Over the course of our lives, we need to come to understand, not just a quick dictionary definition of these words..... we need to really grasp the heart of what our tradition has to say about each one.... and how each one is actually cultivated within us over time.

When we have such understandings of core virtues securely in place in our minds, we are in a very good position to benefit from the ministries of Word and Sacrament and Pastoral Care. When such understandings, such hooks, are not in place in our minds, then their formation is what ministry needs to focus on. These virtues – or inner strengths – are not unique to the Christian wisdom tradition, but each one has countless volumes and exercises written about it within our tradition, for at least a couple of reasons:

• firstly, because we understand these virtues to be manifestations of the character of Christ

• and secondly, because we understand these virtues to be the pathways through which Christ continues to be made present in the world... through our lives..

What biblical spirituality is 'all about' is how these various virtues mysteriously come to be embodied within us in our everyday lives. That is what following this ancient spiritual path of biblical spirituality does to us.

And so, we can't really fully engage in following this path in our lives until we have an adequate understanding of what these virtues actually are and how they are cultivated within our daily lives.

In today's gospel, when Jesus points to the purity that he sees in Nathaniel – his absence of “guile” or deceit; he is pointing to the virtue of truthfulness. In truthfulness, our communications are genuine. Truthfulness also depends on the supporting virtues of justice, sobriety, and prudence ('prudence' is often now called 'discernment'... because no one wants to sound like a “prude.” ) The better we come to understand our tradition's teachings on what the virtue of truthfulness is and how it develops.... that understanding becomes like a sturdy hook in our minds, one that can hold and organize a number of perplexing life experiences. And the more we will be able to glean from readings like today's in John's gospel.

In today's epistle, when Paul points to only using our sexuality in ways that bring dignity to others and to ourselves, he is pointing to the virtue of chastity (which is not the same thing as celibacy). A traditional Christian definition of chastity is “having the body in the soul's care.” In the virtue of chastity, the expression of our sexuality gets regulated by the virtues of justice, sobriety, and love. Chastity involves what, in contemporary society, is often described as “emotional intelligence.” (We might get funny looks if we tell people that we're trying to become more chaste... whereas they'll probably be quite impressed if we tell them were trying to increase our “emotional intelligence”!) But whatever we may call it, the better we understand what our tradition teaches about this beautiful virtue of chastity, and the other virtues that underlie and support it, the more we will be able to glean from readings like today's in 1st Corinthians.

So that, I think, is a key problem with today's texts. Unless we have the “hooks” in place in our minds, it's very hard to catch the spiritual meaning of such texts.

We may sometimes listen to a message again & again & again, but somehow its sacred truth just doesn't reveal itself in a way that enables us to really understand and act on it. Much like in this morning's reading from 1st Samuel, when old Eli was listening – over & over again – to young Samuel's experiences... but not really understanding what was going on in the life of this young boy.

This can happen for a variety of reasons, but the one possible reason that I am offering today for you to take home and consider is that our understanding of the virtues & how they are formed may need to be reviewed, and tightened up, in our minds, so that like good sturdy “hooks,” they can really catch and hold onto the life wisdom that God is always revealing to those who are prepared to hear it.