The Rev. Noah Van Niel

February 3^rd, 2019

The Chapel of the Cross

Epiphany 4: Jeremiah 1:4-10; Ps 71:1-6; 1 Corinthians 13:1-13; Luke 4:21-30

When my mother turned fifty, we threw her a big birthday party. During the festivities, I remember that she, eager to make this a meaningful occasion, claimed her prerogative as birthday girl to ask her family and friends to each say one really important thing they had learned in their many years of life. This being her birthday, everyone obliged. Now I was a passing a bit of a sullen streak at this point of life, so I don’t remember anything any of the attendees said, but I do remember that when it came time for my mom to drop her bit of wisdom on the crowd she said this: “The older I get, the more I learn how much I don’t know.” Being her sullen teenage son, my first reaction to this answer was, “laaaaame.” But as the years have passed, I have remembered those words, and come to appreciate their profound truth. The more we know, the more we know we don’t know. Continue reading →