Pink Floyd: “One Slip” Recording
Lyrics: Pink Floyd’s “One Slip”
Phil Vassar: “This is God” Recording
Lyrics: Phil Vassar’s “This is God”
To provide the youth with: a) an understanding of Proverbial wisdom’s understanding of cause – effect: the act-consequence nature of reality; b) the value of wisdom as guidance for life.
To engaging the proverbial understanding of cause and effect: The Act-Consequence Nature of Reality (and its limits)
Here are some resources the leader may choose to review while preparing the lesson. In some circumstances, you may choose to share parts of them with your youth:
A. Definitions
From The American Heritage Dictionary:
con·se·quence (kŏnsĭ-kwĕns′, -kwəns): n.
1. a. Something that logically or naturally follows from an action or condition. See Synonyms at effect. b. A punishment or negative repercussion: “Sometimes a cousin’s first child was born six months after the wedding; aside from a moment’s tsk-tsk, there were no consequences” (Donald Hall).
2. A logical conclusion or inference. . .
From Mirriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary:
consequence noun
con·se·quence | \ ˈkän(t)-sə-ˌkwen(t)s , -kwən(t)s \
Definition of consequence
1: a conclusion derived through logic : INFERENCE… we can deduce … many consequences each of which can be tested by experiment.— James Bryant Conant
2: something produced by a cause or necessarily following from a set of conditions the economic consequences of the war.This refined taste is the consequence of education and habit.— Joshua Reynolds
B. Scholarly Reflections
From Gerhard von Rad, Wisdom in Israel, at 124:
In both cases we are dealing with one of the main tasks which the wise men, in their search for knowledge, took upon themselves, namely with the mastering of the ‘contingent’. By the term ‘contingent’ we mean here simply all those events which cannot be understood by man purely on the basis of a necessity with which he is familiar. Daily, incessantly, man encounters contingent events (chance events) whose meaning and inner necessity are at first hidden from him. Only occasionally does he succeed in recognizing behind the contingent event a clear, inner necessity. Then the experience loses its contingent character, and its place is taken by the awareness of an order which is at work behind the experiences. To a greater extent than modern man, ancient man was disturbed by the awareness of a superior force of contingent events. To the extent that he regarded himself as in the power of these contingent events, so there grew the feeling of general insecurity. To him it was a threat to be ceaselessly determined and driven by events which defied all interpretation. Thus it is one of man’s basic urges to limit as far as possible, with all the powers of the keenest observation, the sphere of contingency and, wherever possible, to wrest from the inscrutable, contingent event some kind of meaning, albeit a deeply hidden one.
Israel, too, took the trouble to discern in events and occurrences a recognizable set of “inherent laws”. The next most obvious thing to do was to inquire as to what may have preceded any given event which had to be explained. Was it perhaps possible to understand the event as something which had been caused? It is on the basis of this question that one must understand those sentences which determine what usually preceded an
experience.
Gather (10 minutes)
In everything we do, O Lord, give us a desire to seek out the truth;
give us a willingness to heed the advice of others;
give us wisdom in reaching decisions;
give us faith to believe in our conclusions;
give us courage to put our ideas to the test;
and, if we prove ourselves wrong, give us the grace to admit it. Amen.
Introduction to Today’s Session (5 minutes)
Engage (25 minutes)
Activity I: Acts and Consequences in Music (10 minutes)
The notion that we live in an act-consequence universe is often reflected in music and the arts. Pass out the lyrics to the following two songs and let the youth read the lyrics as the artists perform their songs in these videos. After each song, ask the youth to reflect on what the artist understands to be the act and what the artist understands to be the consequence.
Pink Floyd: “One Slip” Recording
Lyrics: Pink Floyd’s “One Slip”
Phil Vassar: “This is God” Recording
Lyrics: Phil Vassar’s “This is God”
Activity II: Acts and Consequences in Proverbial Wisdom (15 minutes)
Group 1
Proverbs 16:18
“Before destruction, pride; and before a fall, a haughty spirit.”
Proverbs 6:6-11
Go to the ant, you lazybones; consider its ways, and be wise.
Without having any chief or officer or ruler, it prepares its food in summer,
How long will you lie there, O lazybones? When will you rise from your sleep?
A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want, like an armed warrior.
Proverbs 13:20
Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools suffers harm.
Proverbs 15:1
A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.
Group 2
Proverbs 10:4
A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.
Proverbs 20:21
An estate quickly acquired in the beginning will not be blessed in the end.
Proverbs 21:5-7
The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to want. The getting of treasures by a lying tongue is a fleeting vapor and a snare of death. The violence of the wicked will sweep them away,
because they refuse to do what is just.
Proverbs 17:9
One who forgives an affront fosters friendship, but one who dwells on disputes will alienate a friend.
Proverbs 26:27
Whoever digs a pit will fall into it, and a stone will come back on the one who starts it rolling.
Group 3
Proverbs 13:11-13
Wealth hastily gotten will dwindle, but those who gather little by little will increase it. Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life. Those who despise the word bring destruction on themselves, but those who respect the commandment will be rewarded.
Proverbs 20:17
Bread gained by deceit is sweet, but afterward the mouth will be full of gravel.
Proverbs 13:4
The appetite of the lazy craves, and gets nothing, while the appetite of the diligent is richly supplied.
Proverbs 12:18
Rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.
Reflect (15 minutes)
Send Forth (5 minutes)
Invite the youth to join you in prayer. Let them know before you begin that there will be an opportunity for those who wish to lift up requests for God’s help with specific elements of wisdom during the prayer. Give a few possible examples. Note that every time a “petition” is lifted up, the group will respond with, “Lord, hear our prayer.”
Begin the prayer by thanking God for the blessings of creation, the God-given capacities we have to learn from experience, and the lessons learned by those who have gone before that they have passed along to us as “mother wit.” Invite the students to voice petitions asking God to help us embrace particular pieces of wisdom in our lives, communities, and our world. After any student offers a petition (e.g., “Lord, help us to be mindful of the need to think through the consequences of what we say before we speak”) lead the group in responding “Lord, hear our prayer.”
This resource includes supplementary materials: