How Do We Know?

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

September 16, 2012

How Do We Know?

Proverbs 1:20-33

Drive east on State Route 100A in central Vermont

and you’ll see a sign for Coolidge Memorial Road.

Turn left onto the Road and head north

and in just a few minutes you’ll find yourself

in the tiny hamlet of Plymouth Vermont.

It’s the birthplace of Calvin Coolidge,

our 30^th president, who served from 1924 to 1929.

Plymouth is a classic Vermont village,

and just as you’d expect,

right in the center of town

is the Plymouth General Store.

It is a white clapboard building with green shutters

and a single gas pump out front,

just to the right of the steps

that take you up to the store’s front porch,

with its benches and a table ready for a checkerboard.

Pull the door open and step over the worn threshold

and you’ll likely be greeted by the store’s proprietor,

Homer Biggs.

        

Homer has run the store for the past 32 years,

keeping the same schedule six days a week,

Monday through Saturday:

opening the store at 7:00 am

and closing up at 7:00 pm.

At age 77, he still has all his hair,

white as Vermont snow.

His faced has been etched by years of Vermont winter winds,

and summer sunshine.

He dresses each day in a flannel shirt –

cotton in the summer, wool in the winter- 

and khaki trousers

held up by both belt and suspenders.  

His store carries all the things you’d expect:

Milk and bread;

Vermont maple syrup,

cheese from nearby Grafton,

red longjohns -- the old-fashioned scratchy ones,

jumper cables, anti-freeze,

those sorts of things.

After Homer closes up the store each evening,

he stays for about an hour

cleaning and straightening up his merchandise.

And while he goes about his work,

he usually sings,

softly,

as though he was singing to his dustcloth and broom.

He won’t sing if he thinks anyone is nearby listening,

but if you sneak up quietly

and stand by the window on the east side of the store,

you can hear him.

His voice is a rich tenor,

perfect for ballads like,

“Love Me Tender,”

“Are You Lonesome Tonight,”

and “Can’t Help Falling in Love.”

As you listen to Homer sing those ballads

from 40, 50, even 60 years ago,

you are likely to think that he sounds a lot like Elvis Presley.

Well, there is reason for that:

it isn’t because Homer is fan of Elvis,

practiced in singing Presley’s songs.

It is because Homer is Elvis.      

Homer Biggs is Elvis Presley.

All that business back in 1977 about Elvis dying?

Not true.

It was all staged, 

staged by Elvis

so he could escape the life he had grown to despise,

the life that had exhausted him.

He staged it all so he could escape to a simpler life.

Much like Tom Sawyer, he witnessed his own funeral,

and then vanished.

He spent three years in a remote village in Switzerland

where he underwent cosmetic surgery

to alter his appearance.

Then, in 1980 he returned to this country as Homer Biggs.

He settled in Vermont as the proprietor

of the Plymouth General Store,

and he’s never left Plymouth since.

He sings for himself now,

sings for the sheer joy of it,

sings all the old ballads.

And every now and then,

when he’s feeling particularly energetic,

you can even hear him sing,

“you can do anything,

but lay off of my blue suede shoes..”

Now some of you look like you don’t believe me.

Others may be wondering,

“Is it true;

Is Elvis really alive?

Is what we just heard for real?”

Have I told you fact,

or fiction?

When I was in law school

I was taught: never assume anything;

always check.

Check the facts, check the information.

Do the work – do the digging;

know your facts.

We hear something that sounds plausible;

It comes from a reliable source:

from a pulpit,

from someone on television,

a writer for a newspaper,

even a tweet or a blog

and there is an aura of credibility

so we accept what we hear as truth.

But Elvis alive, the proprietor of a store in Vermont?

Most would scoff.

But there are some who would say I am right,

at least in part:

Elvis is alive, but he’s not in Vermont.

One website documents his post-1977 career

as an undercover agent for the federal

Drug Enforcement Agency.

It is up to us, each of us, to discern,

to learn,

to dig out facts,

to separate fact from fiction,

truth from lies.

And the sad reality is that

it gets more and more difficult to do that.                     

The Book of Proverbs calls us to a life of knowledge,

a life of learning,

a life of wisdom so that we can discern truth,

so we can grow in faith,

confident that we are firmly grounded in God’s will,

rather than the will of someone

who has enticed us with lies.

In our lesson from the first chapter of Proverbs,

we heard Wisdom, personified as Woman Wisdom,

calling us in a prophetical voice,

speaking to us sternly, even harshly:

“You’d better listen to me.

You’d better listen or otherwise your life

will be one calamity after another,

because you won’t know how to live.

You won’t know how to tell right from wrong,

good from evil,

fact from fiction.”

Wisdom demands to know from you and me:

“How long will you love being simple?”

She laments,

“I have called and you ignored me;

I have stretched out my hand and no one heeded.”

Certainly we are reminded every year in the fall

that politicians of all persuasions

have a difficult relationship with the truth.

Businesspeople,

Celebrities,

news reporters,

sports stars,

yes, even clergy –

there is no group immune

from dissembling, distorting.

“Spinning” is the preferred term these days;

it sounds so harmless,

almost like a game.

“Beware that no one leads you astray”

warns our Lord Jesus Christ

(Mark 13:5)

reminding us that even the most persuasive voices,

the most appealing voice,

may not be telling us the truth.

Many of my Bible Study classes have been entitled,

“What the Bible really says about…”

this topic or that.

What we do in those classes is dig into the Bible

to separate the myths we’ve learned,

that we’ve thought were biblical,

from what the Bible actually teaches us.

This is the first step to wisdom.

Given the current debate about marriage that is raging

in churches of every denomination,

it is clear it is time for class entitled,

“What Does the Bible Really Teach Us About Marriage.”

Watch for that class later in the Fall.

John Calvin spoke of his faith

as imbuing him with a “teachable spirit,”

a spirit open to God’s guidance,

a spirit that helped him

to understand the Psalmist’s words,

“Teach me your way, O Lord,

that I may walk in your truth.”

(Psalm 86.11)

We all have teachable spirits,

but the very term reminds us

that we have to nurture and nourish our spirits constantly

through study and learning.

Find your place in our Education program;

find your place to nurture and nourish your teachable spirit

so that you can grow in knowledge,

that you can grow in wisdom,

so that you can grow in discipleship

following our Teacher, our Master,

and not being led astray

by compelling voices that do not speak the truth.

Stand outside the General Store in Plymouth Vermont

some evening and listen,

listen for that familiar voice,

that voice that is still so distinctive

even after all these years.

But don’t be surprised if some night

you hear a slight change in the words:

“Well you can knock me down,

Step in my face,

Slander my name all over the place.

Do anything that you want to do,

but uh uh honey

don’t listen if it ain’t true.”

Words of wisdom
from the sage of Plymouth Vermont.

AMEN