I need wisdom ointment, but so much ointment contains flies. Wisdom that comes from above, wisdom that is pure and holy.
I was visiting a friend the other day, and she noticed I had some eczema on my hand. It had been there a few days and was slightly irritated and red. She offered to rub some ointment into the skin. I gladly accepted.
Touch is a wonderful thing, especially when it regards a skin disease. She gently worked in the ointment and I could feel the pain ease away. I almost teared up because someone had noticed, cared and offered ointment and love.
I checked out the tube of ointment she had taken a small dab of ointment from. Looking over the ingredients, I noticed that there were no dead flies in the mix.
There were no ‘flies in the ointment’ as such.
It’s a funny little saying, but I think it comes from the wisdom writings of Ecclesiastes.
Dead flies make the perfumer’s ointment give off a foul odour;
so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honour. Ecclesiastes 10:1
The eczema is no longer there, but maybe the touch and the offering of wisdom to pain remains.
So I wrote a poem!
Wisdom Ointment is Free
She noticed some eczema
On my tired hand
She offered an ointment
Gentle love on sun beaten land
Rubbing and caressing
The ointment worked in
Wisdom flowed over the pain
Healing something within
I checked out the tube
The ointment contained
No dead flies within
No pollutants to stain
Wisdom from above
Is pure and good
No strings attached
No demands to be good
Wisdom from above
Is gentle and pure
There’s no invoice attached
No trap or dollar charged cure
The young prophet comes
And turns over the tables
It’s free access he demands
To God’s wisdom place
There is no elitism
At God’s mercy seat
All are welcome
Wisdom ointment is free
Barry Pearman
Wisdom that comes from above
I need wisdom. Lots of it and I suspect you do too.
But much of the wisdom I receive, I later find has a dead fly in fit.
Something smells bad about the offering. It all seems pure, full of love and truth, but then you find out later that there are strings attached and expectations to be met.
One of Jesus’ disciples, James, was an ‘ointment tester’ as such. He could sniff dead flies from a mile away.
He hated elitism in the church and anything that would limit the poor.
If a man comes into your church dressed in expensive clothes and with valuable gold rings on his fingers, and at the same moment another man comes in who is poor and dressed in threadbare clothes, and you make a lot of fuss over the rich man and give him the best seat in the house and say to the poor man, “You can stand over there if you like or else sit on the floor”—well, judging a man by his wealth shows that you are guided by wrong motives. James 2:2-4
Pure, then peaceful
Later in his brief letter he writes about qualities of wisdom ointment.
The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. James 3:17
Wisdom is qualified as ointment if it meets these criteria.
- Pure – free from defilement (dead flies), holy, sacred
- Peaceable – It brings a sense of God’s gift of wholeness.
- Gentle – gentle, mild, forbearing, fair, reasonable, and moderate.
- Willing to yield – compliant, ready to obey, willing to bend and submit
- Full of mercy – pity, mercy, compassion.
- Full of good fruits – full of what God brings out as the fruit of Spirit led life – love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).
- No trace of partiality – there is no unfair bias or preference.
- No trace of hypocrisy – sincere behavior free from hidden agendas (selfish motives)
That’s the wisdom from above I want for myself and others.
Will someone apply this ointment to the pains of my heart?
This ointment is free
I was recently with someone who was writing some books. It was an interesting topic they were writing about and I’m sure that the content would be of help to many people.
Then they mentioned that hopefully they would sell lots of books.
I smelt a fly in the ointment. A deeper motivation was the money from turning ‘wisdom’ into cash.
I then thought of probably the most profoundly impactful thing I have ever done in ministry.
When I was pastoring a small church of people where most had significant mental illnesses, I opened up a preaching opportunity for them to create some sermons.
The series was around The beatitudes.
I would meet with each person who wanted to be involved and discuss the verse they chose and help them create a brief message.
So we had a woman struggling with psychotic voices talking about how she gets control over her racing thoughts. Then a gambling addict talked about making peace with his wife after binge gambling.
Then there was someone with extreme PTSD and multiple personality disorder talk about suffering and trial.
A man who had been sexually abused as a child and was now struggling with sexual addictions shared his struggle with where to find comfort.
They shared their ointment. Others received their ointment. There were no dead flies. It was pure and holy.
I felt angels dancing in the pews. I think James, the apostle, would have been in the back holding up a scorecard reading 10/10.
Everyone went away changed. Wisdom from above does that.
Everything here on Turning the Page is free or ‘give what you can’. It’s a faith-based economy. No dead flies in God’s ointment.
There is a lot of ointment here.
My favourite ointment is a book called Broken to Built: 31 days of Rebuilding with Nehemiah
Questions?
Comments?
Email me 🙂📨
barry@turningthepage.co.nz
Give a little gift to keep the pages turning
Quotes to consider
- Only those willing to stand close enough to listen will ever hear those closest to the problem. Jim Wallis
- There was a little city, and few men within it; and a great king came against it, besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it. Now a poor wise man was found in it, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man. Then I said, “Wisdom is better than strength.” Nevertheless the poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard. The words of the wise heard in quiet are better than the cry of him who rules among fools. Ecclesiastes 9:14-17
- Riches are deceitful precisely because they lead us to trust in them. Richard Foster
- My experience was that the less I spent on myself and the more I gave to others, the fuller of happiness and blessing did my soul become. Hudson Taylor
Questions to answer
- Have you ever seen the ‘rich’ being given preferential treatment over the ‘poor’ in church settings? Don’t think just rich in financial terms, but think about rich in terms of education level, communication skills, mental wellness.
- What experiences have you had where you discovered a ‘fly in the ointment’ of some healing being offered?
- James lists out eight qualities of wisdom from above. What would be a ninth quality in your opinion?
Formation exercise
- In your faith community, look for the ways the poor are being excluded or included in the activities of the church. Is someone struggling with voices being encouraged to preach?
Further reading
Barry Pearman
